Stealing Heavenly Secrets from Shading the Heavens - Section 35

This crazy idea was quickly cast out of his mind.

It wasn't realistic.

Before he could even offer up the Three Lives Bronze Coffin, he'd likely be killed by the backlash of heavenly secrets.

Since the bell had tolled from Great Thunderclap Temple, it meant the Crocodile Ancestor had already broken free and could arrive at any moment. He needed to hurry and adjust his state.

After stepping onto the Five-Colored Altar, Li Zhi saw from a distance Ye Fan and the others sprinting madly toward it.

And their numbers had already dwindled by several—likely devoured by the Little Divine Crocodile.

Since they'd dismantled Great Thunderclap Temple, there was no way to avoid bearing the karmic consequences.

With that, Li Zhi stopped observing them. The area around the Five-Colored Altar was still relatively safe for now; he needed to recover his energy as quickly as possible.

He sat cross-legged and began circulating the Breathing Method.

When the group—now silent and hardened after surviving a life-or-death ordeal—returned to the Five-Colored Altar, they saw Li Zhi sitting cross-legged on it, his entire body radiating a faint, lustrous glow as he cultivated.

At the same time, the Five-Colored Altar beneath him emitted a hazy halo, devouring the faint specks of light converging from all directions before they sank into the stone base and vanished.

As the Five-Colored Altar began absorbing external energy, the light shield enveloping the sky gradually dissolved, as if the energy sustaining it was being consumed.

As the light barrier shrank, everyone climbed back onto the altar.

Immediately after, thunderous roars erupted from outside, and the entire ground seemed to tremble, as though thousands of troops were charging toward the altar.

This sight put the group, who had just endured a life-and-death trial, on high alert.

Zhou Yi even walked over to Ye Fan and warned, "Ye Fan, that neighbor of yours is very off."

But Ye Fan recognized it as the phenomenon produced by Li Zhi's Breathing Method cultivation. A glint flashed in his eyes as he said, "Brother Li is fine. He's trustworthy."

Then, everyone clustered together, watching the events outside with tense focus.

Ye Fan even stood beside Li Zhi.

Half an hour later, when the light barrier had been compressed to only cover the Five-Colored Altar, Pang Bo lowered his voice and whispered in Ye Fan's ear, "Liu Yunzhi and Li Changqing seem to have their eyes on you and Boss Li."

"Don't worry, I know!"

Ye Fan even put on a gentle smile and nodded in the direction of Liu Yunzhi and the others.

After another five minutes, Li Zhi finished regulating his breath.

But he didn't stand up right away. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and surveyed everything around him.

Sure enough, conflict had already broken out among Ye Fan and the others.

On the altar, they had even vaguely split into three small factions.

One faction, led by Ye Fan and Pang Bo, was openly hostile toward the group led by Liu Yunzhi and Li Changqing.

Meanwhile, Zhou Yi, Wang Ziwen, Li Xiaoman, and the others seemed unwilling to get involved in their struggle and remained neutral.

This kind of scheming and infighting in such a situation was truly interesting.

As the hazy light barrier outside continued to shrink, the people on the altar could even clearly hear the wailing and howling of the sandstorm outside.

And the sandstorm was terrifyingly powerful, shaking the light barrier until it seemed on the verge of shattering at any moment.

This sight filled everyone with dread, and they kept pressing closer to the Bronze Giant Coffin at the center of the altar.

But at this moment, a male student beside Liu Yunzhi suddenly passed by Ye Fan, grabbing for the Bronze Lamp in his hand while shoving him hard with the other, trying to push him off the altar.

Meanwhile, Li Changqing had somehow appeared behind Li Zhi and directly kicked at his back, apparently trying to knock him off the altar as well.

Unfortunately for him, Li Changqing had no idea of Li Zhi's true strength.

Just as his foot was about to strike Li Zhi's back, Li Zhi simply reached back, grabbed hold, and yanked hard, catching his ankle and slamming him heavily to the ground.

The force was so great it nearly broke Li Changqing apart.

At the same time, Ye Fan also caught the student who had tried to ambush him and lifted him up.

Just as he was about to speak, Li Zhi calmly rose from the ground, stared down at Li Changqing writhing in pain, and said, "You have no idea the price of scheming against me."

Then, before everyone's eyes, Li Zhi suddenly stomped down on Li Changqing's chest.

"Pfft!" A mouthful of blood sprayed out.

Li Changqing's sternum and internal organs were crushed directly under Li Zhi's foot.

This shocking turn of events stunned those who had expected Li Zhi to deliver some grand speech.

Li Changqing, blood gushing from his mouth, stared at Li Zhi in disbelief.

Aside from Ye Fan, no one present had anticipated that Li Zhi would act so directly, nearly stomping Li Changqing to death with one blow.

Then, something even more horrifying happened.

Li Zhi pulled out a brush from somewhere, dipped it in the blood spilling from Li Changqing's mouth, and began writing Mysterious Runes on the Five-Colored Altar.

His movements were lightning-fast, inscribing runes at a rate of nearly ten per second.

Three hundred runes were completed in less than half a minute, forming a circle around Li Changqing.

Then, Li Zhi began to chant: "Houtu Huangtian, the vast Supreme, shepherd the people by Heaven's decree, Cosmic Luck hangs in the void."

For this ritual of borrowing luck from Heaven, Li Zhi recited the Sacrificial Oration only once before directly pulling out the Luoyang Shovel and chopping off the head of Li Changqing, who was still struggling in his final moments.

This scene utterly terrified Li Changqing's classmates.

And amid the crowd's fearful gazes, Li Changqing's blood was rapidly absorbed by the Five-Colored Altar below.

Seeing this, Li Zhi broke into a wide grin.

He even let out a loud "haha" of laughter.

Everyone kept their distance from him, as if Li Zhi were a bloodthirsty Demoness, and even Ye Fan wore a contemplative expression.

Then, Ye Fan simply tossed the classmate in his hand to the ground and ignored him.

Because it was meaningless.

His classmates had been completely cowed by the brutal methods Li Zhi had displayed—how could these urban youths have ever witnessed such a bloody and cruel scene?

This scene was a completely different concept from the inexplicable deaths of their classmates in front of the Great Thunderclap Temple earlier.

The more carefree Li Zhi's laughter was, the more terrifying it sounded to Ye Fan's classmates.

Everyone instinctively moved away from him, even Ye Fan, who thought he had some understanding of Li Zhi, was no exception.

However, Li Zhi was immersed in the wonderful sensation of Cosmic Luck settling upon him and paid them no mind.

When he had first performed the ritual with the Three Sacrificial Animals and Five Grains and received Cosmic Luck, he was still a true mortal, so he only felt something sinking into his body.

Now, his strength had greatly increased, his Spiritual Power had multiplied several times over, and his perception had become much sharper.

He truly experienced the joy that came from the depths of his soul when Cosmic Luck descended upon him.

Moreover, he could clearly sense that before the Cosmic Luck faded, he seemed to enjoy the treatment of a Protagonist—able to turn misfortune into fortune and danger into safety.

He was no longer a nameless extra whose name wasn't even worth remembering.

Just like the Heavenly Prides specially cultivated by major powers, blessed with luck and endless opportunities.

Perhaps because the Cosmic Luck bestowed upon Li Zhi wasn't innate, when it descended, he felt a surge akin to "when the time comes, all forces align."

That feeling came quickly and left just as fast.

A few seconds later, it was completely imperceptible, as if the Cosmic Luck had fused with his soul.

And unlike the first time he received Cosmic Luck, this time he didn't have that vague sense of when the luck would run out.

It seemed that as his cultivation increased, the consumption rate of each borrowed Cosmic Luck was no longer a linear relationship.

Moreover, using a human life as a sacrifice this time, stealing Cosmic Luck through blood sacrifice, gave Li Zhi a brand-new insight.

It seemed that using living beings as sacrifices to Heaven yielded the best results, but the karma he would have to bear was also great.

Using Li Changqing's life as a sacrifice this time was a stroke of luck that happened to resolve the underlying karma.

Because Li Changqing had tried to kill him first—that was the cause; Li Zhi killing him in return—that was the effect.

Thus, after Li Changqing was used as a sacrifice, the karma on him would not transfer to Li Zhi.

If he had used an unfamiliar Cultivator as a sacrifice, the karma on that person would likely have shifted to Li Zhi.

For example, if Li Zhi had used a disciple from an Ancient Family with strong luck, who bore no grudge against him and might become a Saint in the future, as a sacrifice, he could borrow a substantial amount of Cosmic Luck from Heaven.

Then, under the blessing of Cosmic Luck, his cultivation would soar.

But the stolen Cosmic Luck would eventually run out, and when it did, perhaps among that disciple's direct blood relatives, there would be someone Li Zhi couldn't withstand. Guided by the mysterious force of karma Within the Nether, they would inevitably meet.

The outcome was predictable.

And Li Zhi also thought of the Weird Clan.

They had blood-sacrificed the heavens, and in the end, karma rebounded, leading the three Heavenly Emperors to join forces and overturn their lair.

The power of karma—how mysterious it was. It had already shown its might during the era of the Desolate Heaven Emperor. The Crimson King of the Other Domain tried to erase the Desolate Heaven Emperor from the lower reaches of the long river of time, but guided by the force of karma Within the Nether, he encountered the Desolate Heaven Emperor at his weakest moment, who directly chopped off his Divine Embryo.