Fang Zhou was still feeling rather excited, but suddenly remembering how he had struggled through two or three months of grueling cultivation just thinking it would be great to finally cast a spell, only to see his little childhood sweetheart effortlessly connect a Stardust the day before yesterday, his mouth couldn't help but twitch.
Ding Yumian had never needed to meditate to control star-seeds; it was purely a matter of natural talent. With her level of mental energy, the progress she would make if she actually started cultivating was simply unimaginable.
Of course, until she untied the knot in her heart, she would not willingly cultivate.
And that was for the best. Otherwise, the more she cultivated, the faster her mental energy would grow, and once it slipped out of control, the devastation would be immense. All Fang Zhou had to do was raise his own cultivation to a level where he could properly protect this girl.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, the annual admissions season at Pearl Institute arrived.
Fang Zhou had spent this period living a very fulfilling life, deeply immersed in the practice of magic and unable to pull himself away.
"Are we leaving?"
Right as the time came to depart, Ding Yumian actually felt a lingering reluctance.
She was an exceptionally clever girl, but the trauma she had endured made her extremely sensitive. Having finally grown accustomed to one environment, being told to pack up and move somewhere else easily stirred up a deep-seated resistance within her heart.
"We can still come back. Dean Fu said this villa will be kept for us. When I make a big fortune in the future, I'll buy it and give it to you," Fang Zhou said with a grin.
Ding Yumian wrinkled her dainty nose, raised her slightly dark-blue eyes to look straight at him, glared with her large eyes, and said, "Don't go wasting money!"
She belonged to the petite and exquisite type, not very tall at all.
"How can you call that wasting money?" Fang Zhou took the luggage from Ding Yumian's hands and briskly loaded it into the car.
Then he turned back, grabbed Ding Yumian's soft little hand, and pulled her out of the courtyard.
This was the first time in several months that she had truly stepped outside this villa.
As for Fang Zhou himself, he was doing fine—every day he lost himself entirely in cultivation, unable to stop. But Ding Yumian had no desire to practice any magic; she would simply sit quietly reading books occasionally left behind by the two deans, some being popular fiction, others academic texts on magic.
Fortunately, she had a tranquil personality, and under Fang Zhou's constant soothing, she managed to keep her patience without causing any trouble, which was why she was finally able to leave now. Otherwise, they would have had to stay behind for observation for at least a while longer.
"Let's go," Fang Zhou said.
"Mm."
Ding Yumian didn't dare look back, afraid that her emotions would fluctuate, so she kept her head down and softly replied.
"Lad, sit up in the front," Dean Fu said.
"No way, I'm sitting in the back!" Fang Zhou curled his lip, happily leaning against his childhood sweetheart.
You old codger, what's better than the sweet and lovely presence of my Yumian?
Of course, Fang Zhou didn't go overboard; at most, he would stroke Ding Yumian's delicate little hand, which had almost become a little habit of his.
Over the past few months, apart from successfully cultivating to the Initial Level, his greatest achievement had been the leaps and bounds in his relationship with Ding Yumian—ranging from casual shifts in speech to casual physical contact. In any case, Ding Yumian's tolerance toward him was growing greater day by day.
Dean Fu twitched the corner of his mouth and chose to ignore the two youngsters in the rearview mirror.
Thank goodness he taught at a university. If he were a magic high school teacher, wouldn't he break Fang Zhou's dog legs on the spot?
Young people, teenage romance is a no-go!
The young driver was a student of Dean Fu's. He drove quite steadily, but his face expressionless—being hauled out by his advisor to act as a free chauffeur clearly didn't fill him with joy.
Moreover, he probably assumed Fang Zhou and Ding Yumian were some kind of connected insiders... which didn't seem entirely wrong, come to think of it.
They were called specially recruited students, but a special recruitment shouldn't require a dean to personally step in and "invite" them, right?
If there weren't some serious connections involved, the young driver wouldn't have believed it for a second.
...
The start of the semester at Pearl Institute fell on September first, the standard beginning of the school year.
However, Fang Zhou and Ding Yumian had arrived a week early.
"This is your Senior Brother Xie Han, an Advanced Mage of the Ice Element. His strength is just so-so, but you can get to know each other," Dean Fu said as they walked through Pearl Institute, briefly introducing the two parties to one another.
Xie Han was the young driver, wearing a pair of glasses and looking rather unremarkable.
Students who reached the rank of Advanced Mage yet still remained at the institute were mostly pursuing further studies under their advisors, researching specific magic topics. Many of them were academic talents targeted by various research councils.
As for the backgrounds of Fang Zhou and Ding Yumian, Dean Fu didn't elaborate; the single label of specially recruited students was enough.
"You'll live here for now. This is the professors' building; it was originally assigned to me, but I have a house in the city. Not far from there is Dean Xiao's residence, and he sometimes rests here too. If you need anything, you can look for him," Dean Fu said.
Fang Zhou looked ahead. It was a two-story building equipped with all necessary living utensils, ready for them to move in right away.
"Everything has been prepared for you. Take a few days to settle in first," Dean Fu instructed Fang Zhou separately. "You must stay by her side at all times. Nothing must go wrong, understand?"
Fang Zhou nodded and led Ding Yumian inside to tidy up the place.
"Looks like they're still in the observation period."
Within Pearl Institute, Fang Zhou and Ding Yumian weren't the only ones harbored for possessing unusual abilities.
In truth, by taking in such special students, Dean Fu was constantly bearing pressure from higher-ups, which gave his position as dean an extra layer of meaning.
It was just that Fang Zhou and Ding Yumian were far too exceptional—one was a Calamity Bearer possessing mental manipulation, while the other could immune and dispel mental control. Being able to protect Ding Yumian was already no small feat, which was why he had asked Dean Xiao to share the burden; otherwise, who could handle two such explosive cases at once?
Fortunately, with Fang Zhou around, Ding Yumian hadn't suffered any major issues, her emotions had stabilized significantly, and everything was moving in a positive direction.
Before the official start of the semester, Fang Zhou had already figured out the situation at Pearl Institute.
Just as described in the novels, Pearl Institute was actually divided into two campuses: one was the Pearl Green Campus, which accommodated freshmen and Initial Level seniors, and the other was the Pearl Main Campus, which only Intermediate Mages were qualified to enter.
Naturally, Fang Zhou and Ding Yumian didn't enter the Green Campus; they went straight into the Main Campus. Do you even know what a special recruitment means?
Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, a year had gone by.
Fang Zhou pushed open the quiet chamber on the second floor, tilted his head up at a forty-five-degree angle, and couldn't help sighing that he truly was a genius!
"The one-year term has arrived, and I've finally broken through to become an Intermediate Mage!"
An Intermediate Mage under the age of seventeen, how about that?
Was this speed fast? Fang Zhou didn't think so.
Although his innate mental energy couldn't compare to Yumian's, it was still far beyond an ordinary person's. Plus, with the acceleration of the dreamscape and the tempering of the Five-Thunder Shock Drum, this speed could even be considered a bit slow!