indianbanksassociation Chapter 63 Quetzalcoatl? Perfect timing, the courtyard needs a gatekeeper!
Chapter 63 Quetzalcoatl? Perfect timing, the courtyard needs a gatekeeper!
Li Zhenguo never imagined that his life would reach such a new "height" in this way.
He, the top leader of the China Special Operations Group, whose hands had signed countless S-level top-secret documents, was now covered in mud, doing the most primitive labor in a vegetable field.
weed.
The damp smell of earth filled my nostrils, mingled with the fishy scent of crushed grass. My fingernails were filled with black mud, giving them a rough and unfamiliar feel.
At first, it was a humiliation ingrained in one's very bones.
It is the shock of the complete collapse of the logic of reality.
It was the poignant, hesitant step as I walked toward this vegetable patch.
But as he continued to pull, he noticed that his heart, which had been pounding wildly with fear and tension, was gradually calming down.
The sun beat down on my back, sweat trickled down my forehead, dripped into the soil, and disappeared instantly. All I could hear was the faint sound of myself and the blond man beside me pulling at the grass roots.
Beside him, Shaka, the once mighty Gold Saint who could deprive people of their five senses with the blink of an eye, now moved with a practiced ease that made him seem less like a warrior of the gods and more like an old farmer who had toiled here for generations.
He remained silent, his eyes vacant and numb, yet deep within that numbness emanated a strange serenity.
Suddenly, Li Zhenguo had an absurd realization.
When resistance becomes a joke, when reality completely surpasses cognition, then letting go of everything, accepting it, and merging with it seems to be the only way to maintain rationality and avoid collapse.
Labor is indeed the best way to transform one's thinking.
Mr. Lin, brilliant!
This seemingly leisurely Mr. Lin possesses profound skills that transcend the realm of "power" and reach a level akin to "Tao."
Just as Li Zhenguo was about to comprehend some kind of "labor Zen" or "weeding mantra" in this strange atmosphere, a hurried footstep shattered the eerie tranquility.
A member of the action team rushed in, looking nervous.
He didn't even bother to greet the owner of the yard on the recliner. He rushed straight to the vegetable garden, leaned forward, lowered his voice to the lowest possible level, but his tone was so urgent that it changed.
"Team leader! Urgent intelligence! S-level encrypted!"
Li Zhenguo's brows furrowed instantly.
He put down the handful of weeds in his hand, stood up, and vigorously wiped his mud-covered hands on his coarse cloth trousers.
"explain."
His voice was calm and steady, without a trace of emotion, as if the person who had just been having such an intense inner monologue was not him at all.
The team member handed over a specially made tactical tablet that shimmered with a faint blue light. His fingers were white from gripping the tablet so tightly that his voice trembled uncontrollably.
"We've just intercepted an 'accidental' leak of intelligence from within the Egyptian pantheon!"
The team member swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing violently.
"Intelligence indicates that during archaeological explorations of the Americas, the Egyptian pantheon unexpectedly discovered a sapling that appears to be a branch of the 'World Tree'—the 'Tree of Life'!"
The Tree of Life!
These four words seemed to possess a tangible weight, crashing into Li Zhenguo's eardrums and causing his heart to clench sharply.
This weight is enough to crush any mythological system and drive any deity mad!
"But," the team member's voice suddenly dropped even lower, filled with a lingering fear, "they encountered a devastating attack from the local guardian spirit while trying to seize the saplings! The losses were immense; almost the entire team was wiped out!"
"Guardian deity?"
Li Zhenguo's voice tightened.
"It's...it's Kukulkan, the supreme god of Aztec mythology, the feathered serpent god!"
When the team member uttered the name, his voice carried a profound fear stemming from his bloodline and the legends of his civilization.
"Based on our analysis of the deciphered intelligence fragments, Kukulkan's power is deeply intertwined with the ley lines of the entire American continent. On that land, he... is virtually invincible!"
Li Zhenguo's breathing stopped instantly.
His chest cavity was emptied in an instant, and his mind went blank for a moment as well.
Nearly invincible?
His gaze, uncontrollably and unconsciously, drifted toward the recliner not far away.
That leisurely figure didn't even change his posture once.
Isn't there one sitting here too?
This intelligence came out in a very strange way.
What a coincidence!
It was as if an unseen hand was stirring up trouble, deliberately pushing this news precisely to China, and to... Mr. Lin.
This is not an intelligence leak.
This is a trap!
A blatant conspiracy!
Using the "Tree of Life," a supreme bait that no being can resist, they lured Mr. Lin away from his impregnable courtyard "divine kingdom" and to the "home ground" of another "invincible" being!
What a vicious scheme!
Li Zhenguo's heart began to pound wildly, pounding against his ribs with a dull thud.
The tactical tablet in his hand, a symbol of modern technology, felt heavier than a mountain at that moment.
How should he handle this intelligence?
To keep it a secret?
No, he dared not. In this courtyard, in front of Mr. Lin, any concealment was tantamount to suicide. He had no doubt that the moment he entertained that thought, he would be discovered.
report?
Wouldn't that play right into the hands of the mastermind? Wouldn't they be pushing Mr. Lin into a highly targeted and extremely dangerous vortex? Would they be placing this pillar of stability that China has so painstakingly held onto into an unknown and perilous situation?
Li Zhenguo was caught in a fierce internal struggle.
The shirt, which had just dried in the sun, was once again soaked with cold sweat, sticking stickily to the skin and bringing a chill.
He gripped the tablet tightly, his fingernails almost digging into the alloy casing.
In the end, he made his decision.
He took a step, each step like the drumbeat of his own heart, heavy yet resolute.
He walked to Lin Fan's recliner and bowed respectfully, a gesture he had become very adept at.
"Mr. Lin, I'm sorry to bother you."
"I just received some information... that may be related to you."
Lin Fan didn't even lift his eyelids, as if he were asleep.
He simply uttered a single syllable softly from his nose.
"Um."
The voice was nonchalant, as if nothing in the world could truly arouse his interest in the slightest.
Li Zhenguo had no choice but to bite the bullet and, in the most concise and objective language, briefly recount the intelligence content word for word.
His eyes were fixed on Lin Fan's face, trying to catch even the slightest hint of emotion from that overly calm expression.
Shock? Gratitude? Vigilance? Or...greed?
There was nothing there.
Lin Fan's expression was as calm as an ancient well, so still that not even a breeze could stir the surface.
After Li Zhenguo finished speaking the last word, the courtyard fell into a deathly silence once again.
Only in the vegetable garden, the rhythmic rustling sound of Shaka pulling weeds continued.
And from the toilet in the distance, the faint sound of flushing could be heard—the seventeenth work done by Ares, the god of war, that day.
a long time.
It went on for so long that Li Zhenguo felt his heart was about to jump out of his throat.
Lin Fan finally slowly opened his eyes.
He didn't look at Li Zhenguo, but gazed at the azure sky that was divided into squares by the courtyard wall, his eyes distant, as if he was pondering something.
Just when Li Zhenguo was almost suffocating, Lin Fan finally spoke.
His tone was so calm, as if he were asking what we were having for dinner.
"A sapling of the Tree of Life?"
Li Zhenguo was taken aback.
He could hear his own heartbeat.
Potted plants?
That's a branch of the World Tree! The root of mythology! A treasure for which countless pantheons are willing to wage world-ending wars!
"As for that thing..."
Lin Fan seemed to be recalling that somewhat difficult-to-pronounce name.
"Kukulkan, the feathered serpent god?"
The corners of his mouth turned up slightly, forming an inexplicable arc, and a faint, playful glint finally appeared in his usually calm eyes.
"Perfect timing, I need someone to guard the gate of my yard."