Liu Mingxi was noncommittal.
"So, have you figured out what my Forbidden Ruins is?"
Professor Li nodded, taking the documents from a researcher standing nearby.
"From a preliminary look, your Forbidden Ruins domain is permitted and deployed by your affirmative will. When painting, you enter a state of total immersion, ignoring everything around you. We tentatively consider this part of the Forbidden Ruins.
Then, your paintings manifest into reality. The burning of the paintings appears to be the method of manifestation, depending primarily on how you wish to present it.
The level of spiritual power you invest determines the strength of the painted creation. The stronger the creation, the closer it becomes to reality. Furthermore, your original, standalone creations can realistically develop self-awareness and emotions, capable of altering the changes of the world and shifting between truth and illusion.
However, they obey solely your will—not because you are their creator, but because there is an emotional-like spiritual bond between you, making your relationship deeply intimate and trusting. This is likely tied to the emotions you feel when painting them.
You love painting deeply, and similarly, you love every creation you paint. To describe your relationship with a single word—family," Professor Li said with a kindly expression.
"Your Forbidden Ruins domain does not exist simply because of painting; it is more rooted in your inner self, your soul. Therefore, the creations that can exist embody your will.
Your Forbidden Ruins is not something you acquired, but something your heart desired. Your relationship with the Forbidden Ruins is not one of attachment, but of coexistence—much like you and your Forbidden Ruins influencing one another, mutual aid, living in harmony, communicating and merging with each other.
The Forbidden Ruins grows deep within your heart, glowing by your will. 'Heaven and earth are born together with me, and all things are one with me.' Your selflessness and coexistent soul—I call it 【Indulgence】, Forbidden Ruins Sequence 411.
Because the extent of your connection with the Forbidden Ruins is only useful to yourself, the danger is minimal, if any at all.
The function of 【Indulgence】 is simply to help elevate your personal capabilities—for instance, vastly boosting your learning capacity and talent, making you several times more formidable at learning. However, 【Indulgence】 itself has extremely high requirements and will only choose someone whose soul is highly compatible with it.
Yet your soul achieved a flawless match with the Forbidden Ruins, unleashing extraordinary abilities to the point where you used 【Indulgence】 to paint things into reality."
Liu Mingxi experienced a sudden enlightenment. Although she felt the Forbidden Ruins sequence number was a bit low, she actually quite liked it. It was ordinary, posed no harm to society, and was pretty nice.
After hearing Professor Li's explanation from the expert, Ye Fan and Zuo Qing wore expressions of utter astonishment and dumbfounded shock.
"Um, that seems even lower than Zhou Ping's Forbidden Ruins," Zuo Qing leaned close to Ye Fan, tilting her head to whisper.
Ye Fan nodded without changing expression.
Unaware of their whispering, Liu Mingxi was looking at her Forbidden Ruins report sheet with wide-eyed curiosity.
Only to find a dense mass of unfamiliar data, prompting her to put the documents back with a sheepish expression.
Damn it, she was a humanities student, a pure humanities student—the extremely rare kind who studied politics, history, and geography.
Forgive her for not understanding a single bit of it. After all, in Guangshen No. 1 High School where everyone's grades could get them into 985 or 211 universities, the Guangshen university she got into was a notch lower, merely a non-"Double First-Class" institution. Her admission was entirely thanks to her abysmal math scores being balanced out by her near-perfect art scores.
"【Indulgence】 sounds quite literary!" Liu Mingxi blinked.
"Yes. The character 'yin' takes its archaic meaning of sinking into obsession; when a person indulges in something, they often become completely absorbed and forget themselves. The implication of 'he' encompasses coexistence and symbiosis—intoxicated by rhythm and harmony, how beautiful it is."
Blinking his wise and sharp eyes, Professor Li spoke in scholarly jargon to Liu Mingxi.
Liu Mingxi nodded blankly. *Wow, a professor really is a professor; this artistic conception is just different.*
"Do you have any other questions about 【Indulgence】? If not, I'll finalize it and submit it for archiving."
Liu Mingxi shook her head. She couldn't understand any of this data anyway, so it could be said to be thoroughly comprehensive.
Nodding, Professor Li bid farewell to Ye Fan and left with the stack of documents, looking as though he were off to the archives department to submit them.
Liu Mingxi turned her head to look at Ye Fan, exchanging a blank stare. "What's next? Do I participate in my painting competition?"
Ye Fan smiled helplessly and shook his head. "Your painting competition is already over. Behold, excellent results—first place."
He pointed to 【Spirit】, which was floating quietly nearby.
Sensing that Ye Fan was pointing at it, 【Spirit】 turned to face him—though perhaps not a direct gaze, since it had no eyes.
Crossing her arms, Liu Mingxi cheerfully picked up where he left off. "And then, Professor Ye, are you going to present me with an award?"
Ye Fan's brow ticked upward, amused. "No award, but how about a medal? A Night Watchers Meritorious Medal. Given that you killed a Klein-level entity twice and prevented crises from occurring, you qualify for two 'Starlight' medals."
Liu Mingxi deeply analyzed the subtext of Ye Fan's words. "I'm not a Night Watcher, and you needn't bother trying to earnestly persuade me otherwise. I'm someone who still prefers wandering about in the outside world. However, the 'Starlight' medal you mentioned does spark my interest. What is it?"
Helplessly, Ye Fan stopped trying to persuade her. She truly had the exact same personality as the other Human Ceiling figures, or were all independent Human Ceiling figures cut from the same cloth?
He began to explain, "If you aren't going to be a Night Watcher, then you don't get one. Still, I can explain them.
Night Watchers medals are divided into four tiers, ranked from easiest to hardest: The 'Spark' medal, which is relatively simple to obtain and is awarded after wiping out significant Mysteries and protecting the safety of a large mass of citizens.
The 'Starlight' medal, which is much harder to obtain and is awarded upon slaying an ultra-high-risk Mystery or subduing a large-scale disaster.
The 'Starlight' medal—the one I just mentioned—is awarded for slaying a Wuliang-level Mystery or above, or for quelling a large-scale event that caused social turmoil. The number of recipients is extremely sparse.
The 'Star Sea' medal is the highest honor; winning it depends entirely on the specific circumstances."
Liu Mingxi nodded, somewhat tempted, but remained steadfast in her inner resolve. Once you get tangled up in politics, things become infinitely more troublesome. Liu Mingxi feared trouble most of all, especially human trouble. Internal human conflicts were everywhere, and the Night Watchers probably had plenty too. She'd rather pass.
She could do without a Night Watchers medal; she had already accumulated a mountain of awards from her painting competitions, and she didn't care much about a Night Watcher medal anyway.
"Alright, if there's nothing else, I'll be heading off then. Remember to still issue that first-place prize from my painting competition to me, otherwise it'll be hard to explain to my mom and dad."
With that, Liu Mingxi made a motion to leave.
Zuo Qing hurriedly grabbed her sleeve, pointing at 【Spirit】, which was hovering behind Liu Mingxi.
"What about *it*? Is it coming out with you too? It certainly doesn't look like yesterday's disposable 【Heaven's Eye】!"
Liu Mingxi looked at 【Spirit】, which was drifting leisurely in the air, and lowered her head in thought.
"Hmm... indeed. I rarely paint this kind; usually they're one-off creations," Liu Mingxi racked her brains. "【Wind】 can conceal itself and wander everywhere, but 【Spirit】 can't go strutting about in broad daylight. How about this: let 【Spirit】 stay with you Night Watchers. Since I'm not joining, 【Spirit】 can!"
Striking a chord of mutual agreement, Liu Mingxi thoroughly approved of her own idea.