Chapter 35: “Acting like a Hooligan” – “Just like earlier.”
Even at the premier Imperial Star Academy, the courses for the newly enrolled first-year freshmen wouldn’t be too difficult. After a week of classes, Yu Xia roughly had an idea of things in his heart.
Among all the courses, currently, only Mental Power Guidance required him to spend extra energy practicing. The other courses were all foundational theories, and some of the content had even been covered when Qin Yizheng helped him review together in the virtual world. Spending time on these courses wasn’t as productive as setting time aside to focus on physical exercise.
Yu Xia had also received the new phase’s workout schedule from Professor Wen. Compared to the devilish training of the past month, this phase could be described as very mild. Until the C+ stage, it would consistently maintain workouts that were highly intense for Yu Xia but still within his capabilities.
According to Professor Wen, training like the previous regimen was only effective for D-rank constitutions and below. What Yu Xia needed to do now was to stabilize and get accustomed to his C-rank constitution.
However, flipping to the back, the last page of the workout schedule specifically left a reminder for Yu Xia: Do not miss the once-a-month physical checkup.
Yu Xia silently closed the schedule.
Saturday. No classes.
Yu Xia had just finished his workout task for the day and was lying down to rest. Thinking back to what the professor from the Mental Power Guidance class had mentioned, he simply called over Xiao Yin, who was bustling about the dorm. “Xiao Yin, come here. Monitor my mental power status. If anything goes wrong, immediately take medical measures.”
Xiao Yin was an S-model robot produced by the Qin family, which included household components as well as medical components. It was more than capable of supervising the release and retraction of Yu Xia’s mental power. Moreover, its materials were top-notch—at the very least, much better than the materials of Xiao Jin at the hospital—so its body wouldn’t be scratched by his mental power.
Hearing Yu Xia’s command, Xiao Yin immediately dropped what it was doing and walked over to Yu Xia’s side.
Perhaps because it was running its medical components for the first time, countless characters rapidly scrolled across Xiao Yin’s light screen. Yu Xia could only decipher a small portion of the framework. This state lasted for a full five minutes before Xiao Yin’s light screen flashed twice and returned to normal. “Yu Xia, I’m ready. We can start anytime!”
Since Xiao Yin was ready, Yu Xia lay back on the bed and released his mental power.
Before taking that first Mental Power Guidance class, Yu Xia didn’t have any similar experience. He had only read about similar theories in textbooks and on the Star Network. But theory and practical application were completely different things. No matter how good Yu Xia’s memory was or how firmly he memorized the theories, he would still run into all sorts of problems during actual practice.
For example, right now, without anyone guiding him, he found that he couldn’t retract his mental power.
Yu Xia: …
How could this be? When I released my mental power, it was clearly very easy. Why can’t I figure out how to pull it back now? Furthermore, during class, he had retracted his mental power very smoothly.
Yu Xia tried very hard to recall: During that first Mental Power Guidance class, how exactly did the professor guide his mental power, allowing him to smoothly extend it to every corner of the classroom? And what exactly was the sensation when he finally had to retract his mental power?
But facts proved that this was a very difficult task. His mental power simply wouldn’t retract.
Yu Xia began to let his thoughts wander. Was the night his mental power manifested very similar to this? How did they resolve it back then?
It seemed the on-duty doctor had given Xiao Jin a vial of mental power pacifying agent, forcing the mental power down…
While trying hard to control his released mental power, Yu Xia spoke to the all-purpose robot: “Xiao Yin, do we have any mental power pacifying agents in the dorm?”
Xiao Yin tilted its head, expressing confusion. “Yu Xia’s current condition is good, there is no need for a mental power pacifying agent! This kind of potion has tremendous side effects on a person’s consciousness. It’s not time to use it yet. Yu Xia shouldn’t try it casually!”
Yu Xia sniffled aggrievedly. “But the situation right now is that my mental power isn’t listening to me, and I can’t retract it!”
Xiao Yin’s light screen lit up. “Yu Xia, don’t panic. Xiao Yin will search for some materials for your reference…”
Then, Xiao Yin began to broadcast the theoretical knowledge he had already memorized by heart.
Yu Xia: …
With all due respect, this robot was of no use and was only adding to the mess.
Just as Yu Xia was wondering if there was any way to consume the mental power lingering outside that refused to return, another stream of mental power suddenly collided with his.
The other party’s mental power was incredibly surging, giving off a somewhat sharp and aggressive feeling. However, when faced with his slightly out-of-control mental power, it was exceptionally gentle. It even seemed to deliberately nuzzle against his mental power, though he didn’t know what it was trying to do.
But the other party’s confusing behavior that left Yu Xia at a loss only lasted for an instant. It quickly returned to normal and began guiding him to perform micro-level control over his mental power.
Yu Xia wasn’t stupid. Following the other party’s guidance, he slowly grasped the trick and finally managed to smoothly retract his mental power.
It was just that the other party’s mental power seemed to notice his was about to be retracted, and at the very last moment, rushed over to nuzzle against it again, before scattering away with a “whoosh,” leaving not even a shadow behind.
Even after retracting his mental power, Yu Xia still felt it was strange. He knew that mental power streams could touch each other, but this kind of meaningless contact left him puzzled. The teaching professor hadn’t pulled a stunt like this either.
The doorbell rang.
Robot Xiao Yin seemed to hesitate for a moment, but ultimately decided to check on Yu Xia’s status first: “Mental power fluctuation stable. Testing passed. Yu Xia learned how to retract his mental power! Yu Xia, rest well. Xiao Yin is going to open the door!”
Yu Xia covered his face. “I didn’t learn it by myself.”
A moment later, Robot Xiao Yin appeared beside Yu Xia with a person, and this person was none other than Qin Yizheng.
Yu Xia looked up at Qin Yizheng. “Qin-ge, it’s you. Did you come looking for me for something?”
Qin Yizheng sat down beside Yu Xia. “Nothing really. I just noticed you released your mental power, so I came over to check on you.”
Yu Xia realized. “That mental power just now was yours!”
Qin Yizheng smiled and nodded. “It was mine. I originally wanted to come over and see if you were exercising according to the schedule. Since this is a new phase, and I also have classes to attend normally, I can’t keep an eye on you all the time. Who would have thought I’d come over and run into someone releasing their mental power and then being unable to pull it back.”
Yu Xia felt a bit awkward. “Ah, let’s not talk about that. I’ve been exercising very seriously normally. If you don’t believe me, look at the workout records inside Xiao Yin’s system. I’ve been having Xiao Yin record them.”
Qin Yizheng chuckled. “Alright, alright. Of course I believe you. But why did you suddenly think of practicing your mental power?”
Yu Xia shifted his posture and sat up from the bed. “I just learned about it in class. Everything else isn’t a big deal—they are currently just theoretical foundations. But I’m not very good at Mental Power Guidance, and the professor said my mental power control isn’t very good, so I need to practice more in my daily life. Current Mental Power Guidance is just the foundation; there will be more precise mental power to control in the future!”
Qin Yizheng understood, but still disapproved of Yu Xia’s actions. “Even so, you can’t just practice by yourself. What if something happens? Your mental power is inherently higher than ordinary people. If you lose control…”
Yu Xia blinked curiously. “If I don’t control my mental power very well, what exactly will happen in the end?”
Qin Yizheng was left momentarily speechless.
Actually, nothing much would happen. If Yu Xia’s mental power constantly couldn’t be retracted, then at most, it would just let the mental power consume itself outside. Once it was depleted, he would be fine. The most severe scenario would be Yu Xia releasing his mental power and then losing control over it.
If that really happened, a robot could just feed him a vial of mental power soothing agent. Since Yu Xia’s mental power was relatively vast, maybe he’d need a vial of mental power pacifying agent?
But with a robot watching over Yu Xia, nothing would go wrong during this kind of mental power practice. The medical robot had recordings of all the treatment methods.
Qin Yizheng gave a light cough and told the truth: “Nothing really happens. If you lose control, you’d need to drink a vial of mental power pacifying agent. If your mental power hasn’t lost control, letting your mental power wander around outside is fine too. It won’t have any impact on you. Mental power cannot exist in the environment for long; it will dissipate quickly.”
Yu Xia got the answer he wanted. “In other words, if I really can’t manage my mental power, it actually isn’t a huge problem to just leave it be?”
Qin Yizheng nodded. “Right. It’s best not to use potions like mental power pacifying agents. They have quite large side effects on humans.”
Yu Xia flashed an “OK” hand sign at Qin Yizheng. “Don’t worry, I understand. But Qin-ge, that mental power from earlier was released by you, right? Did it have some weird movements, and were you controlling them?”
Qin Yizheng looked up at Yu Xia with a guilty conscience, but it seemed Yu Xia was just curious because he was encountering this situation for the first time.
Qin Yizheng: …
How was he supposed to explain this?
Was he supposed to tell Yu Xia that it was because he had feelings for Yu Xia, so his mental power also upheld its master’s will, possessing a sense of intimacy when facing Yu Xia’s mental power, and thus subconsciously wanted to be intimate?
In short, it was the master’s mental power spontaneously acting like a hooligan.
But for the master of the hooligan mental power to tell Yu Xia this directly seemed somewhat inappropriate, and Qin Yizheng found it a bit hard to say out loud.
His mental power had just expressed intimacy toward Yu Xia.
Qin Yizheng thought for a moment and phrased it differently. “Yu Xia, do you know what mental power blending is?”
Yu Xia didn’t quite understand why Qin Yizheng suddenly brought up a different topic, but he still answered honestly. “I know about this. Wen Luo mentioned it before, but supposedly it’s a behavior between couples…”
Qin Yizheng gave a light cough. “It’s an intimate behavior spontaneously initiated by the mental power when two people who harbor feelings for each other face each other’s mental power.”
“Just like earlier.”
Yu Xia widened his eyes, finally understanding what Qin Yizheng meant. “…”
The author has something to say: Update~~
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