Starforce Warriors-Chapter 1003: Secret Garden (1)

The days passed in quiet serenity. The mountain winds blew gently in harmony. For over ten days, Li Xiaofei experienced a rare period of peace. With his wife and daughter by his side, his heart found a tranquility he had never known before.

During those days, he paid no attention to the troubles of the outside world. He cooked delicious dishes for Si Kongxue using ingredients from the Secret Time Pavilion. He accompanied her on walks, chatted with her, tended to the vegetable fields, and picked fresh produce together. They lived like a rural couple.

Meanwhile, Li Anyi continued her daily routine of charging through the valley atop wild beasts. She was well on her way to becoming the king of all beasts. Li Xiaofei also rode beside her, galloping across the vast lands beyond the valley and playing freely on rivers and plains.

Since she had little contact with human society from a young age, even with Si Kongxue’s careful teaching and guidance, Li Anyi often displayed habits and thinking shaped by her life among beasts.

She had grown up among the creatures of Oblivion and lived with them as partners. Li Xiaofei never blamed her for it. Instead, he chose to adapt to her world, joining in her wild antics with joy. The girl became more affectionate and trusting toward him with each passing day.

One morning.

"Dad, I want to take you to a really fun place," said Li Anyi, sitting atop a massive lion, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Alright," replied Li Xiaofei.

He stepped out of the muddy fields, wiped his hands, changed his shoes, and leaped onto the back of a wind-winged azure wolf.

"Let’s go!" Li Anyi urged her lion forward, shouting happily as they sped off.

Li Xiaofei waved to Si Kongxue before riding after her. The valley where they lived was part of a range of beautiful mountains.

These peaks were not towering or imposing, but the scenery was peaceful and pleasant. However, the presence of Oblivion beasts made the area too dangerous for ordinary people to explore. Though in truth, this hidden territory of an ascended race had never been disturbed by outsiders. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

For some unique reason, Li Anyi was never attacked by the Oblivions. In fact, she could blend in with them as if she were one of their own.

As for Li Xiaofei, perhaps because he had lived beneath the statue in the valley for a time and absorbed some of its aura, the Oblivions showed him an unusual tolerance as well. Eventually, the great lion came to a halt beneath a towering cliff that rose thousands of meters into the sky.

This was a mountain that rose a thousand meters high. Its shaded side was lush with vegetation, teeming with life, complete with flowing streams and cascading waterfalls. But the sunlit side appeared as though it had been sheared away by some mysterious force, revealing a broad white cliff face. From a distance, it looked like a blurred bronze mirror.

Li Anyi approached the cliff face with practiced familiarity and placed her hand on it. Her small palm moved as if painting on the stone. She traced the contours of the rock surface, gently feeling along its texture. Then, without any warning or sound, a narrow fissure silently opened in the stone wall.

"Come on, Dad," she called, waving to Li Xiaofei before darting inside ahead of him.

Li Xiaofei was thoroughly surprised. Despite his cultivation, he had not detected anything unusual. What shocked him even more was that a hidden space lay behind the cliff wall that he had failed to sense at all. Moreover, there had been no ripple of energy when Li Anyi opened it... It didn’t seem to involve any kind of formation.

He dismounted from the wind-winged azure wolf and stepped into the narrow gap in the cliff. He walked forward several hundred steps as the lighting gradually dimmed into a warm, dusky hue. Yet everything remained clearly visible.

What is this place...

A look of amazement filled Li Xiaofei’s eyes. He had expected a hollowed-out space within the mountain, but the sight before him was far beyond his expectations. It looked like an amusement park, or more accurately, a recreational area.

There were structures resembling stone merry-go-rounds, climbing ladders, small pools, and sandpits. All of it was carved from stone and appeared to be quite old.

There were also rock sculptures of various animals and plants. They looked lifelike, painted in bright, vivid colors. At first glance, they almost seemed alive. This was clearly a space excavated purely by physical force. It was not a small world created through formations.

"Did you make all this?" Li Xiaofei asked curiously.

Li Anyi shook her head and replied, "No, I discovered it by accident. This is my secret playground. Hehe. Dad, come play with me!"

Discovered by accident?

Li Xiaofei was even more astonished. He asked, "That cliff mechanism is extremely well hidden. How did you find it?"

He recalled the way Li Anyi had opened the fissure in the cliff wall earlier, by tracing the texture with her palm in a rather complex manner. Such a mechanism would be nearly impossible to discover by accident.

Li Anyi explained, "Back then, when I was bored, I liked to draw and doodle on this cliff wall. One day, while I was drawing, the crack just suddenly appeared. When I went inside, I found this playground. Hehe. Ever since then, whenever I was happy or sad, I’d come here to play... Dad, this is our little secret. I haven’t even told Mom."

Li Xiaofei had grown used to how his daughter referred to them as Dad and Mom.

Curious, he asked, "Why didn’t you tell your mom?"

Li Anyi replied, "This place is really fun, but it also feels a little strange. I was afraid she’d worry if she knew. You know how she is. She can’t leave the valley, so she always tells me not to go poking around weird places."

Li Xiaofei gently stroked her hair. What a thoughtful and obedient child she had turned out to be. Si Kongxue’s years of careful nurturing had not been in vain. Though this wild little girl looked like she had grown up among beasts, she had a heart that was clear and gentle as crystal. She understood far more than others expected.

Li Anyi excitedly began introducing her secret playground to her father. This was the first time she had brought anyone else inside, and her desire to share it bubbled over with joy. Li Xiaofei, too, became like a child again, playing silly games with his daughter, laughing and enjoying himself with abandon.

"Dad, look over here," said Li Anyi as she led him deeper into a grove of stone sculptures and pointed toward the rock wall above. "There are a lot of murals here. They’re really interesting, like they’re telling a story. Can you understand it?"

Li Xiaofei looked in the direction she had indicated. The rough stone surface did indeed have murals drawn across it. No, more accurately, they were more like graffiti.

The drawings weren’t particularly refined. They were made with some sort of white powder, and looked like the playful scrawlings of a mischievous child. Yet they conveyed powerful emotions.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the series of drawings were actually connected, almost like scenes from a story. Li Xiaofei’s heart stirred. This was the territory of that ancient ascended Reaper race. So everything within this mountain hollow might have been left behind by them.

All traces of that ascended race had long since vanished in the outside world. These graffiti drawings must be related to them. He began examining them carefully.

In the first drawing, white powder was used to depict what looked like clouds or mist swirling counterclockwise, forming a vortex. At its center was a glowing spot, shaped like an eye, radiating light outward.