# 223
**Chapter 223: The Only Correct Answer**
"An Qingyu… how could it be you?" Lin Qiye frowned as he saw that familiar face.
Even during their brief clash moments ago, he had already used his mental perception to glimpse that face. Honestly, this outcome had shocked him.
In his memory, after the Nanda Snake Demon incident, An Qingyu—the genius—should’ve had all memories related to the “mysterious” erased and returned to a normal campus life.
How had he evaded memory erasure, and step by step become the ghost of Cangnan City?
An Qingyu smiled. “Surprised?”
He turned and walked deeper into the sewer. “Come with me. You’re the first visitor here in over a year.”
Lin Qiye hesitated, dismissed Mumu, and followed.
“What happened after the Nanda Snake Demon incident?” he couldn’t help asking.
An Qingyu sighed, eyes clouding with memory. Calmly, he began, “That day, after you all left, I secretly carried the snake demon’s head and hid in the sewers, then…”
Briefly, he recounted how he’d awakened, avoided Night Watch searches, and built his own underground lab within the sewer system.
“Your Forbidden Ruins can copy mysterious abilities?” Lin Qiye asked, astonished.
“Not exactly.” An Qingyu shook his head. “My Forbidden Ruins is fundamentally about analysis. Through extensive dissection and experimentation, I decipher the principles behind certain traits of the mysterious—like the Nanda Snake Demon’s snake seeds, the lizard’s regeneration, the murder ghost’s combat instinct and mental attacks, the frost vine’s freezing power…
It’s fundamentally different from traditional copying. From acquiring a corpse to extracting an ability takes huge amounts of time; the rarer the ability, the longer it takes. But the upside is, once I fully grasp the principles, I can improve and enhance them myself.
Besides dissecting the mysterious, I can analyze other things too. Show me a precision instrument and I can master its structure at a glance; I can perceive the human body’s condition clearly, and so on.”
He turned to Lin Qiye; a gray glint flickered in his eyes.
“For example, you… compared to an ordinary human, your current physical state is a miracle. Yet a strange power shrouds you; I still can’t analyze it.”
Lin Qiye raised a brow but said nothing.
He was still under the buff of [Starry Night Dancer]; with the power of the Goddess of Night, the current An Qingyu naturally couldn’t parse it.
“So, have you looked into what your Forbidden Ruins is?” Lin Qiye asked.
A Ruins capable of analyzing everything—even duplicating abilities—would rank as ultra-high-risk in the Forbidden Ruins sequence and should be famous.
“I checked, but… the existing sequence doesn’t list my Ruins. The closest is Sequence 315, [Eye of True Sight], yet that’s only superficial; the functions are completely different.”
Lin Qiye blinked. “Meaning it’s a brand-new Ruins that’s never appeared?”
“Seems so.” An Qingyu nodded. “My Ruins isn’t in the Forbidden Ruins sequence; no one’s had it before. I call it… [The Only Correct Answer]!”
“…Why does that name sound so odd?”
“It’s a science guy’s pursuit of truth.”
“Fine.” Lin Qiye exhaled. At least he was no longer the worst at naming things.
“Then these rats?”
“All under my control.” An Qingyu nodded. “From the Nanda Snake Demon I parsed something akin to snake seeds. The ability’s complex; analysis still isn’t complete. At first it only worked on rats, now it works on any non-human creature. But considering rats’ stealth, I haven’t bothered with other species.
I call this ability Fish Seed.”
“…Great name.” Lin Qiye’s mouth twitched.
As they spoke, they reached an underground cavern. Specimens, equipment, and benches filled the space; shock flashed in Lin Qiye’s eyes.
“You’ve built a full-scale lab down here?”
“Yep. All gear was discarded by surface hospitals and labs, but the structures aren’t complicated. I tweaked them a bit and they work fine—sometimes even outperform top-tier tech.”
Excitement lit An Qingyu’s eyes whenever experiments came up.
Lin Qiye stopped before four formalin jars, gazing at the “mysterious” corpses inside.
“These… are the bodies you stole?”
“First, I object to the word ‘stole.’ Let’s say borrowed—necessary steps toward truth.” An Qingyu said earnestly.
“Second, only three were borrowed; the last murder ghost I killed myself. Initially, besides Fish Seed, I had zero combat power, so I could only borrow the lizard’s corpse—though I left half for Night Watch.
After gaining hyper-regeneration, I could only survive, still no attack power, so I borrowed the frost vine corpse the same way. Only after acquiring freezing power did I truly gain combat strength.
Then I personally killed the murder ghost.
In a sense, I risked my life for Night Watch, then let them take the credit and reward while I kept half a corpse.
True mutual benefit.”
Lin Qiye studied him and sighed.
“Logical as that sounds, you must know any civilian super outside Night Watch risks social stability. Night Watch won’t let you keep operating.
Once caught, you’ll face two choices: forced recruitment… or the Purification Chamber.”
An Qingyu adjusted his glasses, looked straight into Lin Qiye’s eyes, and said slowly:
“Right now, you’ve caught me… Even knowing I’m no threat, you still plan to hand me over, don’t you?”
Lin Qiye froze, hesitated, then asked, “I just don’t get it. With such a unique Forbidden Ruins, why refuse to join Night Watch?”