Even in winter, when no one was home, the heating in every room was kept blazing.
This ensured that everything remained exactly the same as when someone was living there.
For this reason, Li Zhi transferred thirty thousand yuan to Li Zhong as maintenance expenses.
From time to time, he also sent Uncle Zhong and Aunt Zhong some good liquor, cigarettes, and snacks.
The couple did not let Li Zhi down. They kept his home spotless, with every window shining clean.
Even the bedsheets, quilt covers, and other bedding were regularly taken out, washed, and aired.
After returning home, Li Zhi once again brought a large box of gifts to Uncle Zhong's house.
First, to tell Uncle Zhong that he had returned.
Second, to thank the couple for all their hard work.
After all, people never complained about receiving too many gifts.
When they saw Li Zhi arriving with gifts worth several thousand yuan once again, Uncle Zhong and Aunt Zhong welcomed him enthusiastically.
After chatting for more than half an hour, Uncle Zhong asked, "Xiao Zhi, how many days are you staying home this time?"
Li Zhi said, "I'm planning to stay home for a few more days this time. Uncle Zhong, I don't plan on cooking while I'm here. I'll come to your place for a meal when it's time to eat. I hope I won't be troubling you."
Uncle Zhong readily agreed. "It's a small matter. What trouble could that be?"
Seeing this, Li Zhi took ten thousand yuan in cash directly from his bag and handed it to Uncle Zhong as meal expenses.
Uncle Zhong hurriedly refused. "You silly child, it's only a few meals. How could I accept your money for food?"
Li Zhi said, "Just take it, Uncle Zhong. I've been working out recently and eating more than usual every day. I can't keep making you and Aunt Zhong pay for me."
When Aunt Zhong saw the ten thousand yuan in cash, she smiled brightly. "Don't worry, Xiao Zhi. Whatever you want to eat, Auntie will make it for you. I guarantee you'll eat well."
Li Zhi placed the cash on the coffee table and said, "Then I'll have to trouble you, Aunt Zhong."
Afterward, Aunt Zhong asked with concern, "Xiao Zhi, have you found a girlfriend? You're twenty-seven this year, aren't you? You'll be thirty before you know it. You can't put off getting married any longer."
Li Zhi said, "I've already found one. She's a woman who'll be good at having children."
Aunt Zhong showed a hint of gossip and said, "Bring her over sometime so your Uncle Zhong and I can meet her too."
Li Zhi nodded. "I definitely will."
In truth, Li Zhi already had a plan in mind.
Zhou Mei wanted to have a child with him, and Li Zhi also felt that it would be best to leave behind an heir before he left Earth.
On one hand, it would give Zhou Mei an explanation. On the other, it would keep the Li Family bloodline from dying out.
He would use a child to repay the karma he owed the Li Family.
Besides, Zhou Mei had an excellent figure—the kind that was well suited for having children.
Compared with hurriedly finding a young woman whose background he knew nothing about, Zhou Mei, who had only just passed thirty, actually suited Li Zhi's wishes better.
All right, Li Zhi was unwilling to admit it.
But deep down, he did have a special preference for married women.
Although, with his wealth, finding a young and beautiful woman to have his child would not have been difficult.
He simply could not let down everything Zhou Mei had done for him.
He might not be a devoted "good man."
But after coming to this world, Zhou Mei had been the one to let him taste "the pleasures of the flesh" again.
And he had enjoyed it immensely.
Once he embarked on the Path of Cultivation, his future would truly be uncertain, with life and death impossible to predict.
Perhaps leaving behind an heir could indirectly help him attain the Dao.
The Shrouding the Heavens World did not place much importance on remaining chaste.
Whether it was Desolate Heaven Emperor or Heavenly Emperor Ye, both had many female confidantes, and both had children.
Li Zhi had no reservations about this aspect.
Li Zhi knew all too well how difficult it was to attain the Dao in the Shrouding the Heavens World.
An Emperor often appeared only once every several tens of thousands of years.
During that time, countless living beings throughout the universe embarked on the Path of Cultivation.
Out of those trillions upon trillions of living beings, only one Great Emperor could emerge.
Li Zhi was not arrogant enough to believe that he would definitely become an Emperor.
During the first three years after transmigrating, before meeting Ye Fan, he had even thought that he had arrived in a parallel world and was preparing to enjoy a lifetime of wealth and glory.
This showed just how utterly unremarkable his transmigration had been.
He had neither an heaven-defying system nor an extraordinary identity or background.
In this world, becoming an Emperor sometimes required more than the accumulation of a single lifetime.
Quite a few Great Emperors had already accumulated two lifetimes of cultivation before attaining the Dao.
Li Zhi would never oversimplify difficulties or make light of danger.
He deeply understood one principle: if you fool around with difficulties, difficulties will toy with you. Then, at some point, they will send you plunging into the bottomless Abyss, where you will never rise again.
Li Zhi had secretly compared himself with Ye Fan before. His physical fitness was far inferior to both Ye Fan's and Pang Bo's.
He was about on par with Zhang Wenchang, one of Ye Fan's classmates.
His cultivation aptitude was still impossible to judge.
But judging from his experience studying the scriptures over the past year, it probably was not very good.
Perhaps if he relied on his own cultivation, he would waste his entire life and ultimately fail even to sense the location of the Bitter Sea.
That was why Li Zhi placed such great importance on the book Stealing Heavenly Secrets.
After arranging his life back home, Li Zhi devoted himself wholeheartedly to studying Stealing Heavenly Secrets.
He even compared it with Li Daqiang's research from back then.
As expected, there was not the slightest similarity. Li Daqiang had not even touched the threshold.
And then there was the first chapter's Breathing Method.
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 Cultivation Method Ye Fan had deciphered, he found that the two still differed in some subtle ways.
Although the differences were minor, Li Zhi did not dare to be careless in the slightest.
A Cultivation Method was the fundamental support during the early stages of cultivation. The slightest deviation could lead to a difference of a thousand miles.
It was impossible to place too much importance on it.
It was also because, over the past year, Li Zhi had successfully visited several Daoist Sect masters who remained in the mortal world and struggled across the path of cultivation.
He had learned many of the essential points of practicing different Breathing Methods. Only then could he understand the Breathing Method recorded in Stealing Heavenly Secrets.
Perhaps because this was the Age of Dharma Decline, those Daoist masters had not kept anything secret.
When faced with Li Zhi's questions, they answered almost everything as long as it did not involve the foundations of their sects. This greatly enriched Li Zhi's understanding of cultivation.
After comparing them, Li Zhi still chose to make the Breathing Technique recorded in Oracle Bone Script his primary Cultivation Method from then on.
Aside from the first chapter being a Breathing Technique, Stealing Heavenly Secrets consisted entirely of chapters introducing methods related to sacrificial rites.
Rather than calling Stealing Heavenly Secrets a Cultivation Method, it was more accurately a manual on sacrificial rites. Through special means, one could offer sacrifices to Heaven and Earth and borrow a strand of Cosmic Luck to bless oneself, making the Path of Cultivation smoother.
This method was unlike the fleshly Secret Realm cultivation method popular during the Shrouding the Heavens era. It was more like a sacrificial method from the Immortal Ancient Period.
The only difference was that it changed the objects of sacrifice from powerful Sacrificial Spirits to the Heaven, Earth, and Cosmic Luck of the outside world.
Severing the Cosmic Luck and using it for oneself was an Immortal King's method.
At that moment, Li Zhi felt that the origins of Stealing Heavenly Secrets were somewhat unusual.
Perhaps it was not a method created by a cultivator in the Human Way Domain at all.
Instead, it might have been left behind by an Immortal King-level powerhouse from the Immortal Ancient Period, then copied down in Oracle Bone Script after being obtained by later generations.
The Cosmic Luck of the Great Universe was different from other tangible materials. It was the foundation of a world's Fortune, an intangible existence.
This Cultivation Method could actually allow cultivators to borrow a strand of Cosmic Luck through sacrificial rites and have it bless them.
What an heaven-defying method.
What shocked Li Zhi even more was that this Cultivation Method had no cultivation requirements.
In other words, even mortals could use it.
However, how much Cosmic Luck they could borrow would depend on the quality and quantity of the offerings.
After learning the truth about the book Stealing Heavenly Secrets, Li Zhi was filled with confidence in his future cultivation path.
Even if his talent was lacking, with Cosmic Luck blessing him, he would surely gain astonishing comprehension that was no weaker than that of a Peerless Heavenly Pride.
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