Since Ling Lan now knew her father's strength, she did not hesitate to unleash her Domain. The attribute of Ling Lan's Domain was ice — as soon as her Domain was activated, the temperature in the combat room plummeted, and a white layer of frost even appeared to cover the ground.

"The innate talent you awakened is Ice Affinity, so your Domain also inherited this energy potential and manifested with the element of ice?" Ling Xiao silently probed the energy of Ling Lan's Domain — without a doubt, the ice element inside it was very rich. The more powerful her Domain became, the lower the temperature within her Domain would become. When it dropped to a certain degree, her Domain may even be able to freeze any opponent within it, allowing her to win without having to fight the opponent directly.

Although the ice series was rather cold, it was still a variation of the water series. As a girl, it was undoubtedly extremely appropriate that Ling Lan had awakened a water-type innate talent.

Ling Xiao had just begun to relax when his brow immediately furrowed once more. Following the activation of the Domain, Ling Lan's force of presence had also begun to spread out from her body. The force of presence compatible with the ice element should be a calm and stable one, but Ling Lan's force of presence seemed rather berserk, and there was an overbearing dominance behind it. This was completely opposite to the cool calmness of the ice element ...

Ling Xiao finally understood what was wrong with Ling Lan's force of presence — thrown together with a Domain whose power it was incompatible with, how could the two coexist in one body ...? This discovery made Ling Xiao break out in cold sweat. If they could not solve this problem, Ling Lan would one day be torn apart by these two mutually incompatible forces.

"Domain, activate!" Ling Xiao did not hesitate to activate his own Domain and wrapped Ling Lan within it, including her Domain and her somewhat rioting force of presence. He could not allow Ling Lan's force of presence to burst out, otherwise they would really have a problem on their hands.

Ling Xiao's Domain had unfurled without a sound — one could almost overlook its presence. However, the combat room which had become extremely cold due to Ling Lan's Domain was now slowly seeing an increase in temperature. Soon, the air was enveloped in warmth so comfortable that it gave people the urge to give up on all resistance and made them rather drowsy.

As soon as Ling Xiao activated his Domain, Ling Lan had sensed a warmth coming right at her. Like a spring breeze, it started to weaken her will to fight and she found herself becoming lethargic. Ling Lan knew that something was not right, but her heart just could not summon up the will to resist.

With a soft crack, Ling Lan's Domain crumbled. This outcome stunned Ling Lan — she had not expected her Domain to be so fragile, only managing to hold out for several seconds under Ling Xiao's Domain.

This discovery made Ling Lan feel a little discouraged. She lost all thoughts of fighting back and was just about to admit defeat when her suppressed force of presence suddenly erupted. The raging force of presence was unyielding and forceful — under the influence of this force of presence, Ling Lan's desolate mood was successfully chased away, and she was abruptly jolted to awareness.

She had actually fallen under the influence of Ling Xiao's Domain unknowingly, losing her usual indomitable spirit and choosing to give up and surrender ... Ling Lan was shocked by Ling Xiao's Domain — what exactly was the power behind her dad's Domain? Why was it so strange?

However, Ling Lan did not have time to ponder this question, because she found that a true crisis had appeared!

Strictly speaking, Ling Lan's force of presence was Ling Lan's Dao. Her Dao was the Dominance Dao, so she was destined to be domineering and unyielding. Ling Xiao's Domain had just so happened to possess the ability to dispel one's willpower — this had definitely violated the very roots of Ling Lan's Dominance Dao. It felt that it had been provoked, and so it overpowered the control of its master Ling Lan to begin striking back on its own initiative.

Thus, even though Ling Lan was now sober again, she found that she had lost control over her own force of presence. She could only pa.s.sively feel as her force of presence erupted uncontrollably, surging forwards madly to meet the pressure exerted by Ling Xiao's Domain.

Meanwhile, on Ling Xiao's end, when he had activated his Domain, Ling Lan's initially still somewhat obscured force of presence was completely revealed, so Ling Xiao could finally experience the source of Ling Lan's force of presence. 'This force of presence is so unyielding and is shot through with toughness and dominance ... strange, how in the world did Lan-er cultivate such a force of presence?'

A girl's body was inherently weaker physically — even if they became strong, their force of presences would still lean towards being steady and calm. It should be impossible for a girl to develop such an overbearing and aggressive force of presence. Mind you, among all the force of presences possible, a dominant one was the hardest to control — even Ling Xiao himself did not dare to walk this path. Ling Xiao was astonished at Ling Lan's daring, but was also deeply worried. The path of dominance was not easy.

Ling Xiao's thoughts went by in a flash and under the pressure of his Domain, Ling Lan's Domain did not manage to hold out for more than a few seconds before crumbling completely.

Without the resistance of Ling Lan's Domain in the way, Ling Xiao could better feel the violent fluctuations in Ling Lan's force of presence. He immediately sensed something wrong and chose to press down on Ling Lan's extremely unstable and volatile force of presence. He did not want to hurt his daughter, merely hoping that Ling Lan's unstable force of presence would settle down under his pressuring and stop threatening to explode. At the very least, he was hoping that nothing bad would happen before he could think of a way to help his daughter solve this issue once and for all.

Ling Xiao's decision was undoubtedly sound, a product of proper deliberation. However, Ling Xiao had still underestimated Ling Lan's force of presence. Despite the care he took when applying pressure, Ling Lan's force of presence had still sensed the act and had felt offended enough to go on a rampage.

The s.h.i.+ft in Ling Lan's force of presence made Ling Xiao's face change drastically. He could feel the rioting of this force — it was rampaging around within his Domain with several times its original strength, causing Ling Xiao's initially rock-solid Domain to begin shaking in an instant.

"Hng!" The outburst of her force of presence made Ling Lan emit a m.u.f.fled sound of pain, and a trickle of blood instantly flowed out from the corner of her lips. The abrupt growth in the output of her force of presence had also exceeded the capacity Ling Lan's body was able to withstand. She was suffering the reaction force of her force of presence, incurring severe internal damage from it. Besides that, under her clothes, the skin all over Ling Lan's body was beginning to crack. Blood began to ooze from these cracks, and Ling Lan's white uniform was soon stained red.

Seeing Ling Lan's condition getting worse and worse, Ling Xiao was frantic. Right then, he no longer had any of the calm composure General Ling Xiao should have — sweat poured from his forehead like rain, quickly making his hair wet, and then soaking through his collar. If there had been someone else there, they would even see that Ling Xiao's body which was initially as steady as a mountain was currently trembling uncontrollably.

Ling Lan was naturally also very anxious in this kind of situation. She had just begun circulating the power in her body, thinking to use that to suppress her force of presence when her already untamed force of presence pulled an unexpected move in its disobedience. It bucked Ling Lan's consciousness straight into the learning s.p.a.ce, making her lose all control over her physical body.

********

"Boss, what do we do now?" Little Four could clearly see Ling Lan's strange state. When he saw Ling Lan's consciousness appear in the learning s.p.a.ce, Little Four knew things had escalated beyond their control. He was so frantic that he was running around in circles — if Ling Lan could not control her body, she would not be able to rein in this berserk and rampaging force of presence. In the end, Ling Lan's body would definitely break down and she would die.

His main body, the learning s.p.a.ce, would not lose anything from Ling Lan's death. At most, the explosion of the force of presence would just wipe out all of the learning s.p.a.ce's power, so the worst case scenario would be that the learning s.p.a.ce would fall into hibernation. As long as he was given time, he would eventually revive and then move on to seek his next host.

However, Little Four did not want that. He was already deeply bonded to Ling Lan. He wanted to become Ling Lan's most beloved follower — he could not accept Ling Lan's disappearance; just the thought of it made Little Four crazy. This was the first time he was feeling this way ... was this fear?

Ling Lan did not respond to Little Four's words. She tried desperately to connect with her body again, to no avail. It was like her physical body on the outside had no connection with her at all — this made Ling Lan both shocked and afraid. As she watched her body deteriorating, she could not help but feel despair rising up within her. Was her second life about to end after only a short 17 years?

"Hmph!" Suddenly, an icy harrumph sounded out by Ling Lan's ear. This cold sound pierced right to Ling Lan's heart, scattering all thoughts of despair. With a jolt, Ling Lan's initially lost and helpless eyes instantly became strong again. Before the final outcome was decided, how could she despair?

Ling Lan could not resist turning back to look at the door the sound had come from, feeling immensely grateful. How could she not know that that cold huff had come from Instructor Number One? Just when she was about to give up out of despair, Instructor Number One had acted to spur her on.

********

Meanwhile, at this time, in one of the s.p.a.ces in the learning s.p.a.ce, the instructors who were initially scattered in around in different s.p.a.ces had already gathered together in Instructor Number One's s.p.a.ce. All of them were exuding various degrees of worry — Ling Lan was their collective disciple. She was the disciple whom they were the proudest of over all the others they had taught before; thus, they did not wish to see their beloved disciple die as her body broke down ...

Number Nine was the first to break under the pressure and speak up. Anxiety writ all over her brow, she asked Instructor Number One, "Big Brother, will Ling Lan be alright?" So consumed with worry, she accidentally reverted to her old way of addressing Instructor Number One.

Number One cast a cold glance at Number Nine. Number Nine's initially incomparably ice-cold face was already cracking right now. He sighed softly — this younger sister of his was only cold on the surface. In reality, her heart was softer than anyone else's and when it came to Ling Lan, Number Nine was the most concerned and most sincere among all the instructors.

When Number One, who had originally planned to stay silent, saw Number Nine being like this, he could only speak up to say, "This will depend on how Ling Lan chooses. This is her crisis, but it is also her chance. If she grasps it well, the problem that has been plaguing Ling Lan all this time will be resolved easily."

At this point, Instructor Number One's gaze turned distant and vacant. It was as if he was looking at the situation outside, but he could also be looking at nothing at all.

"Ling Lan has lost control of her body. No matter what she's thinking, it won't help." Number Five had lost his usual smile at this moment. His eyebrows drew close together, locking a strand of worry between them. "Also, Ling Lan's force of presence has completely erupted. Even if Ling Lan regains control of her body, she won't be able to fully suppress it."

It was nice to say that humans would always beat the odds, but this needed to be established on the premise that the odds were not beyond one's limitations. Ling Lan's current situation had long exceeded the bounds of what she could endure. Instructor Number Five had always been an ardent proponent of excavating the limits of the human body, but right now, even he was not optimistic about the situation.迎刃而解: I really like the original phrasing here, but it doesn't carry over very well. Literally, 'part smoothly before the blade', describing how a problem is solved easily in due course.