An Qingyu opened his mouth as if he wanted to ask something, but after hesitating for a moment, he wisely remained silent.
He was very interested in Lin Qiye and Lin Xi Chen's identity and their extraordinary combat power, but if he asked in front of everyone, he figured the twin wouldn't tell him, and it would only make him feel disgusted.
Lin Qiye appeared to be a discreet and cautious person, whereas his sister seemed the exact opposite. She made no effort to conceal her appearance—with her hair floating and her eyes glowing—implying that the students' memories would likely be wiped once they escaped.
"Hm? Are there blood on my face?" Noticing An Qingyu staring intently at her face, Lin Xi Chen instinctively wiped it with her sleeve, but An Qingyu shook his head.
However, An Qingyu did not rule out the possibility that Lin Xi Chen was actually discreet and sharp, given that her eyes had been constantly tracking An Qingyu's every move since they first met.
"Qi Ye, this is a genius that only appears once every ten years in our Cangnan City, the darling of No. 2 Middle School, have you heard of his name?" Li Yifei introduced.
"Nope."
"Never heard of it."
"..."
"Now is not the time to discuss these things," Lin Qiye said calmly. "Let's send all these students to the auditorium first; it's safer there."
Li Yifei was taken aback. "But we can't get down there at all. There are so many monsters on the first floor..."
Halfway through his sentence, Li Yifei realized he had asked a foolish question.
"They're all dead. Otherwise, how do you think I got up here?" Lin Qiye looked at Li Yifei as if he were an idiot.
"You're really something," Li Yifei grinned. "So, are you going to go up and rescue more people?"
"Certainly."
"I'll go with you," Li Yifei said firmly. "Don't worry, I definitely won't hold you back with you. Besides, they trust me more now, and I can help you control the situation."
Lin Qiye hesitated only slightly before nodding, "Take your axe squad and come up with me."
Although nothing seemed to have changed on the surface, after a day of fighting, he had killed nearly twenty monsters. Lin Qiye was exhausted, both physically and mentally.
With Li Yifei and his Axe Squad, he could relieve a lot of pressure.
"I'll go too," An Qingyu suddenly said.
"You?"
"I can help you devise strategies and analyze the monster's behavior." An Qingyu looked calmly into Lin Qiye's eyes, without the slightest hesitation.
Li Yifei leaned close to Lin Qiye's ear and whispered, "I think this kid is pretty smart."
Lin Qiye hesitated for a moment, then nodded slightly: "Alright, but let me make this clear first, I can't guarantee your safety."
"Since he already had the entire Axe Squad, one more person wouldn't make a difference."
"No problem, I'm not afraid to die." An Qingyu's eyes lit up, seemingly very excited.
After giving some instructions to the rest of the class, Lin Qiye told them to head to the auditorium on their own. The auditorium wasn't far from the senior high school building, and since Lin Qiye had just cleared out the monsters again, they were unlikely to encounter any danger.
"Li Yifei."
"What's wrong?"
"How's the situation upstairs?"
"It's alright, holding off those monsters on the fourth floor shouldn't be a problem."
"Okay, let's rest here for a while."
"Ugh... I want to sleep..." Lin Xi Chen was yawning repeatedly, overcome by drowsiness; she had to wake up early to accompany Lin Xi Chen and hadn't eaten breakfast yet, causing her stomach to growl. She found a table and sat down, her eyelids heavy and her body swaying slightly from sleepiness.
Lin Qiye casually found a stool and sat down. There were quite a few monsters on the fourth floor, and he would need enough physical and mental strength to fight his way up.
"Sister Hongying, how are things on your end?" Lin Qiye turned on his headset.
"I didn't catch it. I chased it for most of the school before it disappeared into the woods behind your school." Hongying sounded a little frustrated on the other end of the headset.
Lin Qiye's heart sank again.
As long as the main body doesn't die, this incident won't end. Even if he manages to find and kill all the monsters in the school one by one, it's only a temporary solution.
"So where are you now?"
"Xiao Nan is trying to track down the monster's trail. We'll keep chasing it. As long as [No-Rules Sky Zone] exists, it can't escape this school."
"Good."
"By the way, Wu Xiangnan has found out what this monster is."
Lin Qiye's eyes lit up.
"This monster is the Nanda snake demon, which should originate from local legends. Wu Xiangnan searched through all the mythological books but couldn't find any information about it. Finally, he found a few words about it in a tattered ancient book."
"Nanda the snake demon?"
"This snake demon possesses superb camouflage abilities and intelligence comparable to humans. After swallowing a creature, it can implant snake seeds within its body, transforming the creature's shell into its offspring and controlling their actions."
"However, the production of snake species is limited. Even the original snake can only produce one snake species per day, while offspring take three days to produce one. Moreover, the combat strength of both the original snake and its offspring is not high, at least not during their juvenile stage."
"I see." Lin Qiye stroked his chin.
It seems that this snake demon has existed for longer than he imagined. With so many snake demon offspring, it may have been in this school for more than a month.
It is very careful and cautious.
Just as Lin Qiye was pondering, An Qingyu quietly walked up to his side."Is there something you need?"
"I have a question."
"If you're asking if I'm Superman or a cultivator, then forget it."
"No, what I want to ask is... does such a monster exist in places we don't know about?" An Qingyu pointed to the monster outside with its head severed from its body.
Lin Qiye hesitated and exchanged glances with Lin Xi Chen for a moment, then nodded.
"Then why are we still able to live such a leisurely and comfortable life?"
Lin Qiye glanced at him and slowly said, "Because someone is watching over the darkness for humanity."
Logically, Lin Qiye shouldn't have answered this question, but since their memories would be erased sooner or later anyway, it didn't matter what he said now.
However, Lin Qiye could only say so much.
"I understand." An Qingyu nodded.
"Aren't you scared?"
"Afraid? Why should I be afraid?" An Qingyu's lips curled up slightly. "I just find it amusing."
"interesting?"
"So, besides science, this world also has such wondrous creatures." An Qingyu licked his lips, his gaze never leaving the monster's corpse outside the corridor. "I really want to take them back and dissect them for research."
"...You're still just a high school student, right?"
"So what? Do you think high school students can only learn high school material, just like everyone else?" An Qingyu chuckled. "Spending three years learning those rigid, monotonous, and simple facts is just a waste of life."
"and you..."
"I recently completed my master's degree in biology, and I plan to begin my doctoral studies in the second half of the year, mainly focusing on biological genetics and gene mutations, with some research also in clinical medicine."
"Is that a normal human talking...?" Lin Xi Chen leaned over to whisper to Lin Qiye; she looked just as surprised as he was.
"... Definetely not." Lin Qiye stared blankly at An Qingyu for a long time before finally uttering a few words: "Sorry to bother you."
"Does such a monster really exist in this worldt"
Lin Qiye had always considered himself quite clever, but compared to the boy in front of him, the word "clever" seemed so pale and powerless.
He glanced at the time, stood up from his chair, and walked out of the classroom.
"Let's go, it's time to rescue them."
Everyone grabbed their weapons and followed Lin Qiye out aggressively. Even An Qingyu pulled a fruit knife from her drawer and followed with a smile.
The expression on his face suggested that he wasn't going to fight monsters, but rather to cut them into eighteen pieces and take them back for research.