The old man nodded respectfully and greeted Ye Fan and Zuo Qing.
"This must be Liu Mingxi."
Liu Mingxi nodded.
"Professor Li, Director of the Forbidden Ruins Research Institute, is here today to examine your Forbidden Ruins. After reviewing your actual combat footage last night, I have some initial thoughts, and today we can all work together to reach a conclusion."
Professor Li nodded, gesturing for them to follow him. "This place is not suitable for large-scale displays of Forbidden Ruins. Let's head to the laboratory."
They followed him to a gigantic space. The floor area alone was comparable to three football fields, and the vertical clearance was as vast as a shopping mall.
*Did they hollow out the underground?* Liu Mingxi thought, her eyes widening in shock.
The four of them took a glass elevator downward, arriving at the floor of this vast space.
After giving instructions to the researchers at the control console, Professor Li turned and nodded to Ye Fan to indicate they were ready.
"Liu Mingxi, you can begin. Step to the middle of the area and display your Forbidden Ruins. Zuo Qing and I will wait here just in case, while Professor Li and the researchers observe your condition from the control console. Oh, and keep your power in check—hq is right upstairs."
Ye Fan gave Liu Mingxi a subtle hint not to accidentally collapse the place.
Liu Mingxi rolled her eyes and walked straight to the center of the field. Looking back, she estimated the distance to the two figures in the distance and the researcher in the white lab coat behind the glass console to be about four hundred meters.
She pulled out her cloth-bound sketchbook and brush. Since this wasn't actual combat, she didn't summon the Wind.
Speaking of the "Wind," a year ago, after feeling as though she had finally walked out of her psychological trauma, her strength had experienced a massive leap forward, allowing her to paint the colorless and formless Wind into existence.
The Wind was everywhere between heaven and earth, unrestrained and free. Sometimes fierce and wild, sometimes gentle and graceful, it was a lively messenger of nature, bringing vibrant vitality to all life.
Filled with a surge of inspiration, Liu Mingxi had painted the "Wind," infusing it with a massive amount of spiritual power to shape its spirit and soul. This allowed the "Wind" to possess self-awareness and permanent existence. No longer just something Liu Mingxi drew, the "Wind" was a living entity, free from her control and capable of acting on its own.
As for why the "Wind" still listened to Liu Mingxi, she used a single word to explain their relationship: family.
Surpassing close friends who had weathered storms together, surpassing relatives bound by blood, the "Wind" was the family member with whom Liu Mingxi depended on for mutual survival through thick and thin.
Liu Mingxi unhurriedly opened her sketchbook, casually turned to a blank page, picked up an unstained dry brush, and began to draw.
In the distance.
Watching Liu Mingxi begin to draw, Ye Fan frowned deeply.
"It seems I wasn't mistaken last night. There isn't the slightest bit of Forbidden Ruins fluctuation while she draws."
Zuo Qing also nodded with a serious expression.
Liu Mingxi was completely immersed in the act of drawing. Just like last night, she remained utterly indifferent to all external movements, lost in a trance of self-forgetfulness. It was as if she were the only person left in this massive space, everything around her gradually fading away as the area was forgotten by time and plunged into a quiet stillness.
Her focused and burning gaze shut out all the noise. Her thoughts wandered freely through the fantasy world on the paper, and the brush in her hand danced and swept freely, outlining blank lines with colorless strokes.
If anyone were standing right beside her, they would discover that the paper in her hand was entirely blank, and the unstained brush was painting suspended in mid-air above the empty page.
Had she drawn nothing at all?
No—what others saw was not necessarily what Liu Mingxi saw.
In this self-absorbed state, Liu Mingxi was both the center of the world and the one forgotten by it. Every sway of the brush in her hand poured out the emotions and thoughts deep within her heart.
Lasting about five minutes in total, she finally stopped her brush.
Immediately afterward, a dark gleam flashed across Liu Mingxi's eyes. Her expression returned to calm, and she flicked her brush, leaving it suspended in the empty air beside her.
Then, with a sharp *rip*, the blank paper was torn straight out of Liu Mingxi's sketchbook, and the book itself hovered in place beside the floating brush.
In the distance, Ye Fan and Zuo Qing both started visibly.
"The Forbidden Ruins fluctuation has appeared! Just like last night, it only manifests when the drawing paper is torn off—wait, no!"
Ye Fan furrowed his brow tightly.
The sheet of paper in Liu Mingxi's hand instantly caught fire and spontaneously combusted. Golden flames licked at the blank paper, yet there was not a trace of scorching heat. Just like the colorless brush and the blank paper, it silently burned the white paper to ash, scattering a handful of cinders.
In an instant, the space around Liu Mingxi began to warp, rippling like a calm lake. Amidst the silent abruptness of the noise, a clumsy, hazy figure gradually took shape through the distortion.
Its movements were halting and jerky as it struggled to maintain its suspension in the air.
Once the distorted air and water vapor dissipated, everyone could finally see it clearly.
It was an indescribable machine that moved in stuttering starts and stops, its entire body glowing with a dim blue light as it hovered mid-air. Visually estimated to be only one meter tall, the powerful energy fluctuations vibrating from the mechanical body made it impossible to underestimate.
It was a mechanical jellyfish suspended in mid-air, its body draped with silver-gray long whiskers and tentacles that swam and swayed silently, gracefully, and flexibly through the air, its blue luster flickering intermittently.
The cold, rigorous mechanical umbrella-shaped body seemed to have adapted to the environment of this world, losing its previous hesitation and clumsiness to become even more agile and ethereal.
Every contraction and expansion of the mechanical jellyfish carried a chilling aesthetic, resembling an art piece from future technology.
"Ling," Liu Mingxi said calmly.
The blue light on the mechanical jellyfish flashed brightly. Space warped once more, and it vanished instantly, reappearing beside Liu Mingxi in the blink of an eye. Its tentacles bowed slightly and gracefully toward her, floating as if taking a bow in greeting.
With a smile in her eyes, Liu Mingxi looked at the mechanical jellyfish before her and nodded gently.
Then, she walked toward Ye Fan and the others.
"[Ling], the mechanical jellyfish I drew."
Liu Mingxi chuckled, watching the astonished and vivid expressions on the faces of the two people in front of her.
Meanwhile, Professor Li hurried over, brimming with energy and looking radiant, excitement written all over his wrinkled face.
"Goodness, did you all see that?! Liu Mingxi drew a Wuliang Mystery—it's a Mystery, right?"
Liu Mingxi wore a faint smile. "He isn't a Mystery. This wasn't actual combat, so I didn't use a lot of spiritual power when drawing."
Ye Fan calmed down and fell into thought.
"Judging from yesterday and today, it seems that the stronger the entity you draw, the more creativity and imagination it requires. Moreover, it appears to have its own consciousness as well."
Liu Mingxi nodded in agreement.
"Your Forbidden Ruins fluctuation appeared when the drawing paper was burned, and then vanished once [Ling] materialized. Therefore, your willpower dictates the reality of your drawings."
Liu Mingxi nodded once more.
Indeed, as long as she intended for her drawing to become real, it would invariably become real.
"What does Professor Li think?" Ye Fan turned to look at the excited old man.
"Her Forbidden Ruins domain indeed expanded at that exact moment. Likewise, it disappeared as soon as [Ling] appeared. Of course, our instruments also detected some rather unreasonable data anomalies while she was drawing, which I tentatively consider to be the preparatory phase before the expansion of her Forbidden Ruins."