Stealing Heavenly Secrets from Cover the Heavens Section 24

At that moment, Yao Le and a young squinty-eyed woman stood on a cliff near the Worship Terrace, accompanied by eight bodyguard-like figures.

"Miss Ke, this is the location of the ancient cultivator's cave as shown on the map." Yao Le said, his face full of flattery directed at the squinty-eyed woman.

"Mr. Yao, you should be well aware of the price for deceiving us." The squinty-eyed woman's eyes narrowed even further as she issued a threat.

"Miss Ke, please rest assured. Once the Longevity Fruit is found, I will present it to you with both hands immediately. I dare not forget the care Boss Ke has shown me before." Yao Le said.

"Then I'll trust you this once. From now on, my people will follow your orders on how to proceed." Miss Ke didn't seem to fully trust Yao Le.

Yao Le then turned to the eight bodyguards behind them and said, "Split into two groups. Use our newly purchased Geomagnetic Anomaly Detectors to carefully search every inch of the Worship Terrace for magnetic anomalies."

The eight bodyguards, dressed in outdoor gear, immediately pulled out the handheld geomagnetic detectors Yao Le had specially ordered from abroad from their backpacks.

Finding a cultivator's cave is no easy task for mortals.

The Yao Family had already expended considerable manpower and resources searching for the ancient cultivator's cave here.

But they found nothing.

The cave seemed hidden within an Array Barrier.

Not something a mere mortal could discover.

This time, Yao Le had obtained a tip from a foreign expert, who said that wherever an Array Barrier exists, the earth's magnetic field will show irregular disturbances.

So Yao Le planned to start from this angle to find the cave left by the ancient cultivator.

A day later, they finally made a discovery.

In front of a Rock Wall, they found an area of geomagnetic disturbance.

"Mr. Yao, don't tell me the ancient cultivator's cave is inside this Rock Wall?" The squinty-eyed Miss Ke stared at Yao Le with a displeased expression.

Yao Le hurriedly explained, "The abilities of ancient cultivators are beyond us mortals. It's possible the cave really is behind this Rock Wall."

Miss Ke said, "Mr. Yao, this Rock Wall is clearly natural, with no trace of artificial carving. How do you expect me to believe the cave is inside?"

Breaking open a mountain is no easy feat.

Even with heavy machinery, it couldn't be done quickly.

Moreover, their identities were somewhat sensitive, making large-scale construction deep in the Qinling Mountains impossible.

Yao Le said, "Miss Ke, you seem to misunderstand me. I mean the entrance to the cave is somewhere on this Rock Wall, not that the entire cave is hidden inside it."

Miss Ke said, "Since we've already helped Mr. Yao find the entrance location, shouldn't you now fulfill the agreement with my father?"

Yao Le shook his head. "The agreement with your father was that I'd hand over the original Cultivation Method only after you helped me find the cave. Right now, we've only pinpointed the entrance location, which is far from meeting the terms."

Miss Ke frowned, stared at Yao Le for a moment, then said to the bodyguards, "Blow open this Rock Wall."

"Mr. Yao, if we use explosives now, will it cause trouble?" The bodyguard didn't act immediately but asked Yao Le instead.

"As long as you don't blow up an entire mountain with a single large charge, the dense forest and high peaks here will keep it from attracting outside attention." Yao Le said confidently.

The nearby villagers had already been relocated by the Yao Family through various means.

Turning the area within dozens of miles of the Worship Terrace into a no-man's land.

Soon, a series of booming sounds echoed near the Worship Terrace.

Li Zhi, dozens of miles away, heard those sounds.

He thought it was an extreme thunderstorm in the mountains, making him hesitate about whether to continue deeper.

After a thunderstorm, flash floods and mudslides usually follow.

If caught in a mudslide, with his current strength, he wouldn't stand a chance of survival.

Climbing a nearby high peak to look in the direction of the thunder, he saw no trace of dark clouds in the sky.

Recalling the weather forecast before entering the mountains, there should be no rain for the next few days.

After waiting a while and seeing no rise in the mountain stream, Li Zhi felt the thunder seemed unusual.

Then he quickened his pace.

Four hours later, he finally arrived near the Worship Terrace.

From a distance, he saw several people hanging by ropes on a Rock Wall, drilling holes and setting explosives.

The thunder seemed to be the noise they were making.

Silently sneaking to within a hundred meters of them, Li Zhi hid in a Big tree and watched them blast the mountain repeatedly.

At the same time, he secretly observed the feng shui around the Worship Terrace.

Eventually, his gaze also fixed on that Rock Wall.

It was a Confined Dragon Wall Formation.

No wonder they were using explosives to break the mountain—they were looking for an entrance.

But watching their crude methods, Li Zhi felt they were wasting their effort.

With their aimless blasting, they wouldn't find anything even after a month.

As expected, when night fell, the squinty-eyed Miss Ke and Yao Le had another disagreement.

The explosives they had brought were already used up.

In a short time, getting more explosives was no longer possible.

Seeing her men nearly too exhausted to stand, Miss Ke said angrily, "Mr. Yao, you owe me an explanation."

Yao Le's eyes flickered with a strange light as he replied, "Miss Ke, I have to tell you a harsh truth."

Miss Ke asked, "What truth?"

Yao Le said, "To open the barrier of the Ancient Cultivator's Cave, I'm afraid the only option now is the Blood Sacrifice Method."

Miss Ke's face turned cold. "You're messing with me."

Yao Le said, "I'm not playing games with you, Miss Ke. Since the explosives didn't work, the Blood Sacrifice Method is the only way left—this was agreed upon with your father."

Miss Ke said coldly, "Why use my people?"

Yao Le replied, "Because they have no identity. Even if they die or go missing, no one will notice."

Miss Ke said, "Aren't you afraid they'll kill you if they find out the truth?"

Yao Le laughed. "With your cooperation, Miss Ke, how could they ever learn the truth? If you think they deserve to know, then go ahead—maybe before they die, they'd rather send you to see King Yan first."

Miss Ke gritted her teeth and stared at Yao Le. "You did this on purpose."

Yao Le smiled. "You grew up abroad, Miss Ke, yet your thinking is still so naive. Only those who control capital are people. In your eyes, aren't the rest just livestock wrapped in Human Skin? Your country even abolished the death penalty—just to make it easier for people like you to take matters into your own hands, right?"

Miss Ke was left speechless by Yao Le's words and ultimately agreed to his plan.

Yao Le said, "Tomorrow morning, we'll—"

Their secret discussion was heard word for word by Li Zhi.

Li Zhi couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Even ordinary mortals could be very sky-covering.

Very sky-covering—a term Li Zhi had coined to describe a state where human life was treated like mere grass.

The Forbidden Zone Supreme Being, every time it emerged, devoured the life essence of billions of beings, treating the creatures of the universe like Leeks, cutting them down batch after batch.

If a Supreme Being acted this way, others naturally followed suit, disregarding human life.

And every Great Emperor's rise was accompanied by a trail of corpses.

The Killing Intent was so intense that it stood out like a crane among chickens across All Heavens and Myriad Worlds.

A single drop of a Sage's blood carried boundless killing intent—something unimaginable in other cultivation worlds.

Li Zhi didn't feel much pity in his heart.

The environment of this world was what it was. Since he couldn't change it, he had to learn to adapt.

The next morning, Li Zhi watched with his own eyes as the eight bodyguards drank the oatmeal laced with poison.

Then, as they drilled into the mountain, they suddenly suffered a massive hemorrhage, spitting out blood in great gushes.

The Rock Wall was stained red over a large area.

Seeing this, Li Zhi dared not be distracted for a moment, focusing intently on the changes in the Rock Wall.

Finally, in an area six meters above the ground, all the blood seeped in.

Seeing this, Yao Le said excitedly, "The entrance is right there."

"Mr. Yao, since we've found the entrance, you can go die now." Miss Ke suddenly pulled out a pistol and pointed it at Yao Le's head.

Yao Le was startled and quickly said, "Miss Ke, what are you doing? Are you going to break the agreement I made with your father? Don't you want the Jade Scroll recording the Cultivation Method?"

Miss Ke said, "Now that the cave is found, the Jade Scroll in your hand is worthless. Mr. Yao, you were right. In our eyes, they're livestock. But you seem to have forgotten—you're also one of those livestock with nothing."

Seeing this, Yao Le immediately dodged, but Miss Ke was no pushover; she shot him straight in the chest.

Under a look of disbelief, Yao Le gradually lost his breath.

After confirming Yao Le was dead, Miss Ke pulled out a satellite phone.

She seemed about to call for backup.

But before she could press a single button, a Luoyang Shovel flew from behind and tore a gaping hole in her back.