Stealing Heavenly Secrets

Moreover, the edges of the large hole were extremely smooth, and he could even see bone marrow flowing out of the broken spinal column, while blood gushed from the heart that had lost half its atrium.

Within just a few seconds, Miss Ke, like Yao Le, had closed her eyes forever.

Five minutes later, Li Zhi leisurely emerged from the shadows and picked up the Luoyang Shovel.

With a slight flick, the bloodstains on it were shaken clean.

Only then did he have the mind to carefully examine that stretch of rock wall.

The previous chapter was blocked; it can be viewed once unblocked.

Facing the morning mist in the mountains, Li Zhi used the ropes installed by those bodyguards to climb up to the spot on the rock wall that seemed to be the entrance to a cave dwelling.

Then, wielding the Luoyang Shovel in his hand, he began to chisel away at the rock.

"Clang, clang, clang, crash."

Holding the sharp Luoyang Shovel, Li Zhi's rock-breaking efficiency nearly matched the advance speed of a hard-rock tunnel boring machine.

Large chunks of rock were dug out from the rock wall.

Two hours later, he had carved an oval cave about one meter two deep and one meter in diameter into the rock wall.

Then Li Zhi crouched inside the cave and continued digging.

The ancestral Luoyang Shovel now displayed its immense utility, with a digging speed in his hands comparable to a pneumatic drill's boring rate.

By noon, Li Zhi had opened a three-meter-deep hole in the rock wall.

In his hands, the hard rock wall seemed no different from yellow earth.

The deeper he dug, the more he felt a comfortable aura seeping out from the rock.

It seemed to be the scent of spiritual energy.

When he felt tired, he sat on the ground and operated the Breathing Method to recover his strength.

Using the Breathing Method to absorb spiritual energy was far more efficient than eating food.

By afternoon, as the sun was about to set, Li Zhi finally felt the Luoyang Shovel in his hand pierce into a gap in the mountain.

Then, a dense wave of spiritual energy seeped out from the gap.

Inhaling such rich spiritual energy suddenly made Li Zhi's soul feel as if it had been elevated.

His exhausted body instantly regained its vitality.

It was a full resurrection state.

After pausing briefly, Li Zhi finally dug through the cave.

What came into view was a huge natural Cavern.

The hole he had dug was about three meters above the ground.

Pulling out a burning flare stick, Li Zhi tossed it into the Cavern.

He roughly made out the size of the Cavern.

It was about twenty meters high, and the bottom of the Cavern was roughly a hundred meters in both length and width.

The ground was uneven, with only a narrow path leading straight to an area in the southeast.

It seemed there had once been a sizable pool of water at the bottom of the cave.

Seeing that the air inside was fresh with no sense of stuffiness, Li Zhi jumped straight in.

Then, every few meters, he pulled out a burning flare stick, directly dispelling the darkness that had been sealed for who knows how many tens of thousands of years.

Arriving at a flat area in the southeast corner, he saw several stone stools, a stone table, and a Stone Couch leaning against the cave wall, seemingly where the Master of this place once slept.

Beside the Stone Couch was a bookshelf carved into the cave wall.

On it were placed some scrolls woven from Jade Scrolls, and the cords binding those Jade Scrolls seemed to have rotted away.

In a pool southwest of the flat area, there was also a dark red Elixir Furnace over one person in height.

The bottom of the pool had scorch marks, as if it had once been an Underground Fire Pool.

Other than that, there was nothing else.

Then, Li Zhi took a high-power LED lamp from his backpack, instantly illuminating that flat area.

Only then did he see the true appearance of that dark red Elixir Furnace.

The Elixir Furnace, cast from an unknown metal, was engraved with many beast patterns, seemingly indicating its function.

Li Zhi couldn't resist reaching out to stroke the Elixir Furnace.

The furnace instantly flashed with a blood-red light and then began to shrink rapidly.

When it became the size of a fist, the blood-red light converged, and it slammed heavily into the ground.

In that instant, Li Zhi felt as if the earth was shaking and the mountains were quaking.

The entire Cavern seemed about to collapse, scaring him into quickly dodging.

A moment later, the shaking sensation faded.

Glancing at the distant entrance, Li Zhi felt as if this cavern wasn't inside the mountain at all, but existed in some other space.

The earlier tremor seemed to come from the elixir furnace crashing heavily to the ground, causing the space to nearly collapse.

Li Zhi quickly draped the snakeskin bag over himself, picked up his small flat shovel, and headed to the pool to dig out the furnace.

Though it was only the size of a fist, Li Zhi sensed its weight exceeded four hundred jin.

Fortunately, his practice of the Breathing Method had greatly increased his strength, or he might not have been able to lift it.

After loading the fist-sized furnace into the snakeskin bag, he carried it out of the pool.

Setting it gently on the ground, Li Zhi went to the bookshelf beside the stone couch.

Carefully opening the bamboo slips, he took out his digital camera and began photographing each one.

Then he bundled the slips together and stuffed them into the snakeskin bag.

The shelf held twenty scrolls woven from jade pieces.

Li Zhi photographed and packed them all.

Once done, he immediately hoisted the snakeskin bag onto his back and left the cavern.

Only the heirloom snakeskin bag, stitched from unknown demon beast hide and sturdy enough, allowed him to haul those items away.

When he returned to the Worship Terrace outside, Li Zhi felt, perhaps as an illusion, a gust of foul air suddenly blow out from the cave in the rock wall.

He climbed back up to check, but the cavern at the bottom was nowhere to be found.

The alternate space had collapsed.

It seemed that taking the furnace, which had been stabilizing that space, caused its collapse.

The sky outside had darkened, so Li Zhi had to stay there for the night.

Entering the tent where Yao Le had stayed earlier, Li Zhi opened the camera and began reading the contents of the jade scrolls.

Sure enough, he found the remaining scripture of the Longevity Sutra.

But only three chapters: the Dao Palace Chapter, the Four Extremes Chapter, and the Dragon Transformation Chapter.

Besides cultivation methods, other jade scrolls recorded some cultivation insights and anecdotes.

From the cultivation insights, Li Zhi learned the true name of the Longevity Sutra—it was called the "Primordial Longevity Art."

According to the jade scrolls, the "Primordial Longevity Art" was a Quasi-Emperor Scripture.

It was created by the ancient cultivator Longevity Daoist, based on one-third of the "Wa Huang Scripture" combined with the Kunlun Qi Refining Art, focusing on cultivating the Wheel of Life.

Once mastered, a cultivator's life force became extremely vigorous, granting nearly a third more lifespan than peers at the same realm.

What stunned Li Zhi even more was that the scrolls recorded their lineage's grandmaster, Longevity Daoist, had lived for fifteen thousand years at the Quasi-Emperor Triple Heaven realm. Such a long lifespan rivaled the single Emperor's Destiny of an ordinary Great Emperor.

He also learned the origin of that elixir furnace.

Called the Myriad Bath Furnace, it was a top-tier Great Saint Artifact left by Longevity Daoist, nearly evolving into a Quasi-Emperor Divine Weapon.

It was forged from Phoenix Bone, Phoenix Blood Scarlet Gold, and Nine Heavens Breathing Earth. By collecting myriad spirit essence blood, refining it in the furnace, and bathing in it, one could enhance their own life force.

It was said that Longevity Daoist once unearthed a secret about the Undying Heavenly Emperor from the ruins of the Ancient Heavenly Court, leading him to forge this furnace.

For some reason, Longevity Daoist never nurtured this furnace into a Quasi-Emperor Divine Weapon.

Instead, he forged another Quasi-Emperor Divine Weapon, the Hundred Herbs Diagram.

Legend had it that the Hundred Herbs Diagram sealed an ancient medicinal garden, nurturing a half-divine tree grown from the core of a Ginseng Fruit Tree—the Longevity Fruit Tree.

Li Zhi also learned that the true original text of the "Primordial Longevity Art" was recorded on a golden book forged from Eternal Blue Gold.

That golden book also contained three Great Emperor Runes related to the Dao of Life.

Those three Great Emperor Runes came from the incomplete "Wa Huang Scripture" that Longevity Daoist had obtained.