# 476
Chapter 476 – The Eternal Secret Garden
Vroom—!
The low engine roared like a beast. Tires spinning at breakneck speed kicked up clouds of yellow sand as the black off-roader shot across the wasteland like lightning, racing straight for the abandoned factory standing alone in the wilderness.
Jiang Liu gripped the steering wheel, eyes narrowed at the wide-open factory gates ahead, right hand snapping through the gears.
Tires screeched over the uneven ground. The SUV drifted through the gates and screeched to a halt beneath the crumbling steps.
Dust billowed.
The instant the vehicle stopped, six dark-red figures floated out in succession, piercing the dust. Several blades flashed through the air!
Clang—!
The ring of Straight Blades being drawn echoed overhead.
Lin Qiye’s brows lifted slightly at their decisive attack the moment they arrived.
Blades howled down. Amid the flying sand, the five Journey-to-the-West masks showed neither joy nor anger; like statues they sat motionless on the steps, calmly watching the slashes come.
“Pangpang.” Beneath the Sun Wukong mask, Lin Qiye spoke quietly.
“Universal Reversal!”
A vast Taiji Eight-Trigram diagram unfurled beneath Baili Pangpang’s feet, covering the battlefield in an instant. The Qian and Kun trigrams swapped, twisting the laws of reality.
Universal Disarmament!
The five Straight Blades about to land on Lin Qiye and the others flickered, tore free of their owners, and spiraled toward Baili Pangpang at the center of the diagram—along with two black Uzi submachine guns.
Th-th-th-th-th—!!
All five blades buried themselves in the step at Baili Pangpang’s feet, quivering with a shrill hum.
The 009 squad stared in shock as their weapons were stolen by the man in the Zhu Bajie mask; they hadn’t even seen what happened—only a flash of black-and-white light and their hands were empty.
But they were veterans of Night Watch. Weapons or not, they held formation, shifting into a spearhead assault pattern.
Gray light flared from Shan Mei at the front, weaving into a thin battle-suit. Her right hand twisted, elongating into a two-meter Sky-Piercer Halberd.
She stamped the ground and shot forward like a savage beast, straight at Lin Qiye’s group.
At the rear, Jiang Liu raised a hand. The SUV’s roof burst open and thumb-sized micro-missiles screamed out on plumes of white steam, a sweeping barrage racing ahead.
Lin Qiye sat immovable upon the steps, eyes narrowing. “Qingyu, Jialan.”
The figure in the Tang Monk mask lifted a pale hand and closed it gently. The earth beneath 009 squad convulsed.
Boom—!!
Icy vines exploded from the muddy ground like tentacles, slapping at the missile swarm. White frost boiled through the air; every warhead that touched a vine froze solid, even the steam jets sealed dead. The missiles tinkled harmlessly off the vines and clattered to the dirt.
Crack!
Jialan, in a deep-blue hanfu, stomped on a step, shattering it, and launched herself like a cannonball to meet Shan Mei.
Shan Mei, armored in gray and wielding her halberd, snarled and accelerated. The two collided head-on—then Shan Mei was flung back like lightning!
Seeing their famously ferocious vice-captain hurled twenty meters by the boy in the Red Boy mask, the rest of 009 squad gaped.
What human could send Shan Mei flying?
Was that thing even human?!
Jialan didn’t pause. Toe touching the ground, she charged again, empty-handed.
The others spun to help Shan Mei, but the sky above them darkened as though night had fallen.
A figure wearing the Sun Wukong mask coalesced from the gloom, blocking their path.
“Sorry—no one leaves.”
Lin Qiye lifted a finger. A pale green light bloomed at its tip.
“【The Eternal Secret Garden】.”
The moment the words left his mouth, lush green grass spread from his feet like wildfire, reaching the squad’s boots in a breath.
Night above, green below.
The eerie contrast sent a chill through the five. Battle instinct screamed at them to flee, but as they moved, buds burst open across the turf.
Crimson, pale-yellow, deep-purple… every color, every size—none smaller than a basketball.
At the garden’s center a snow-white blossom unfurled. A faint, barefoot girl in a white dress drifted up from it, face blurred and impossible to see.
A strange fragrance filled the air.
The girl raised a finger to her lips in a hush gesture.
In that instant the squad’s feet rooted to the grass; no strength could tear them free. Their muscles stiffened.
What happened next made their scalps crawl.
Flower buds pierced their skin, spreading like a tide. In less than ten seconds not a patch of unbroken flesh remained.
The blossoms drank their mental energy, blooming brighter and brighter.
Consciousness blurred; strength fled. They dropped to their knees among the flowers, swaying.
Their bodies were merging into the garden…
Enter the garden, sleep among ten thousand blooms; soul to earth, flesh to soil, and secrets kept forever.
This was the second power Lin Qiye had drawn from Bragi and Idun—
【The Eternal Secret Garden】.