Stealing Heavenly Secrets from Shrouding the Heavens Section 11

Even in winter, when no one was home, the heating in every room blazed just as hot.

He made sure it was exactly the same as when someone was living there.

For this, Li Zhi had transferred thirty thousand yuan to Li Zhong as upkeep funds.

He also regularly sent Li Zhong and his wife some good liquor, cigarettes, and snacks back home.

Li Zhong and his wife lived up to Li Zhi's trust, keeping his house spotless and the windows gleaming.

They even took the sheets and bedding out regularly to wash, change, and air them.

Back home, Li Zhi once again brought a large box of gifts to Li Zhong's house.

First, to let Li Zhong know he was back.

Second, to thank the couple for their hard work.

Gifts never hurt, after all.

Seeing Li Zhi show up with gifts worth several thousand yuan again, Li Zhong and his wife welcomed him warmly.

After chatting for over half an hour, Li Zhong asked, "Xiao Zhi, how many days are you staying home this time?"

Li Zhi said, "I'm planning to stay for a while this time. Uncle Zhong, I don't intend to cook at home these days. I'll just drop by your place for meals. Hope it won't be a bother."

Li Zhong readily agreed, "No trouble at all, what's the hassle?"

Seeing this, Li Zhi took ten thousand yuan in cash from his bag and handed it to Li Zhong as meal money.

Li Zhong quickly refused, "You kid, it's just a few meals. How can I take your money for that?"

Li Zhi said, "Uncle Zhong, just take it. I've been working out lately and eating a lot every day. I can't let you and Auntie foot the bill."

Aunt Zhong, seeing that ten thousand in cash, beamed brightly and said, "Xiao Zhi, don't worry. Whatever you want to eat, Auntie will cook it for you. I'll make sure you're well-fed."

Li Zhi put the cash on the coffee table and said, "Then I'll trouble you, Auntie."

After that, Aunt Zhong asked with concern, "Xiao Zhi, have you found a girlfriend? You're twenty-seven this year, almost thirty. You can't put off finding a wife."

Li Zhi said, "I've found one. She's a woman built for bearing children."

Aunt Zhong's face lit up with gossipy curiosity. "Bring her home sometime so your Uncle Zhong and I can meet her."

Li Zhi nodded. "I will, another day."

In truth, Li Zhi already had a plan.

Zhou Mei wanted to give him a child, and Li Zhi felt it was best to leave behind offspring before he left Earth.

On one hand, it would give Zhou Mei some closure; on the other, it would keep the Li family line from dying out.

Using a child to repay the karma he owed the Li family.

And Zhou Mei had a great figure—the kind suited for bearing children.

Compared to hastily finding some young woman with an unknown background, Zhou Mei, just past thirty, actually suited Li Zhi's preferences better.

Alright, Li Zhi didn't want to admit it.

But deep down, he had a bit of a thing for married women.

Though with his wealth, finding a young, pretty woman to bear his child wasn't hard.

He couldn't let Zhou Mei's efforts go to waste.

He wasn't a faithful "good man."

But after coming to this world, it was Zhou Mei who let him taste "the flavor of flesh" again.

And it was a very enjoyable experience.

Once he set foot on the Path of Cultivation, the future would be uncertain, life and death unpredictable.

Maybe leaving behind a bloodline could indirectly help him achieve his path.

The world of Shrouding the Heavens didn't preach celibacy.

Whether it was the Desolate Heaven Emperor or the Ye Heaven Emperor, both had many close companions and all had children.

On that front, Li Zhi had no qualms.

He knew exactly how hard it was to achieve the path in the world of Shrouding the Heavens.

Often, a Great Emperor would only emerge once every tens of thousands of years.

During that time, the countless beings across the universe who set foot on the Path of Cultivation numbered in the billions.

From those billions of beings, only one could become a Great Emperor.

Li Zhi wasn't arrogant enough to think he was sure to become an emperor.

In the first three years after crossing over, before meeting Ye Fan, he even thought he'd ended up in a parallel world and was ready to enjoy a lifetime of wealth.

You can imagine how unremarkable his crossing was.

No heaven-defying system, no extraordinary background or identity.

In this world, to become an emperor, sometimes even a lifetime of accumulation wasn't enough.

Many Great Emperors had already accumulated the experience of two lifetimes before even attaining enlightenment.

Li Zhi would never simplify difficulties or trivialize danger.

Because he deeply understood one truth: if you fool with hardship, hardship will toy with you, until one day it hurls you into the abyss with no chance of redemption.

Earlier, Li Zhi had secretly compared their physiques—he lagged far behind Ye Fan and Pang Bo.

He was roughly on par with Ye Fan's classmate, Zhang Wenchang.

Though his cultivation aptitude couldn't yet be judged, judging from his year of scripture study, it likely wasn't great.

Perhaps, relying on his own cultivation, he would waste his entire life, unable even to sense the location of his Bitter Sea.

Thus, he placed exceptional importance on the book Stealing Heavenly Secrets.

After arranging his life back home, Li Zhi threw himself entirely into studying Stealing Heavenly Secrets.

He even compared it with Li Daqiang's research from back then.

Sure enough, there was no similarity whatsoever—Li Daqiang hadn't even touched the door.

And the breathing technique in the first chapter.

With the "help" of those two young cultivators, Li Zhi could now understand the original cultivation method written in Oracle Bone Script.

After comparing it with the method Ye Fan had deciphered, there were still some subtle differences between the two.

Though the discrepancies were minor, Li Zhi dared not be careless in the slightest.

A cultivation method, as the fundamental foundation of early practice, often diverged by a hair and led to errors by a thousand miles.

No amount of caution was excessive.

It was only over the past year that Li Zhi had successfully visited several Daoist masters who remained in the mortal world, struggling across.

He learned the key points of many breathing techniques, which allowed him to comprehend the breathing method recorded in Stealing Heavenly Secrets.

Perhaps because of the Age of Dharma Decline, those Daoist masters held nothing back.

When Li Zhi sought their advice, as long as it didn't touch on their sect's core teachings, they answered every question, greatly enriching Li Zhi's understanding of cultivation.

After comparison, Li Zhi chose the breathing technique recorded in Oracle Bone Script as his primary cultivation method going forward.

Stealing Heavenly Secrets, aside from its first chapter being a breathing technique, the remaining chapters all introduced methods related to sacrifice.

Rather than a cultivation method, Stealing Heavenly Secrets was more like a manual on sacrificial rites—using special means to sacrifice to heaven and earth, thereby borrowing a thread of luck to grace oneself, smoothing the Path of Cultivation.

This method didn't resemble the physical secret realm cultivation popular in the Shrouding the Heavens era; it was closer to the Sacrificed Spirit Method of the Immortal Ancient Period.

Only, the object of sacrifice had changed from a powerful sacrificed spirit to the external heaven and earth.

Severing the Cosmic Luck of the Great Universe and claiming it for one's own use—that was the means of an Immortal King.

At that moment, Li Zhi felt that the origin of Stealing Heavenly Secrets was somewhat unusual.

Perhaps it wasn't a method created by a cultivator in the Human Way Domain at all, but a technique left behind by a being at the Immortal King level during the Immortal Ancient Period, later transcribed in Oracle Bone Script by someone who obtained it.

The Cosmic Luck of the Great Universe, unlike tangible matter, was the foundation of creation for an entire realm—a formless substance.

This method actually allowed a cultivator to borrow a thread of Cosmic Luck through sacrificial means.

What an heaven-defying technique.

What shocked Li Zhi even more was that this method had no cultivation requirement.

That meant even a mortal could perform it.

However, how much Cosmic Luck one could borrow depended on the quality and quantity of the offerings.

After learning the truth behind Stealing Heavenly Secrets, Li Zhi felt full of confidence about his future path of cultivation.

Even if his talent was lacking, with Cosmic Luck upon him, he would surely possess insight no less astonishing than that of a Peerless Heavenly Pride.