That crazy idea was quickly tossed out of his mind.
It was unrealistic.
Before he could sacrifice the Three Lives Bronze Coffin, he might already be killed by the backlash of the Heavenly Secrets.
Since the sound of bells had come from the Great Thunderclap Temple, it meant the Crocodile Ancestor had escaped and could come over at any moment. He had to hurry and adjust his condition.
After ascending the Five-Colored Altar, Li Zhi spotted Ye Fan and the others sprinting toward it from afar.
Moreover, several of them were already missing. They had probably died in the mouth of the Little Divine Crocodile.
Since they had demolished the Great Thunderclap Temple, it was impossible to avoid bearing the resulting karma.
Afterward, Li Zhi stopped observing them. The area around the Five-Colored Altar was relatively safe for the moment, and he needed to recover his energy as quickly as possible.
He then sat cross-legged and began circulating the Breathing Method.
When the group, having just endured a life-or-death ordeal and become unusually quiet, returned to the Five-Colored Altar, they happened to see Li Zhi sitting cross-legged atop it, cultivating with a faint radiance emanating from his entire body.
At the same time, the Five-Colored Altar beneath Li Zhi began to emit a hazy halo. It swallowed the faint specks of light gathering from all directions, which then sank into the stone foundation and vanished.
As the Five-Colored Altar began devouring energy from the outside world, the Light Shield covering the sky also gradually melted away, as though the energy supporting it were being devoured.
As the light curtain shrank, everyone climbed back onto the altar.
Immediately afterward, thunderous rumbling came from outside. The entire earth seemed to begin shaking, as if thousands upon thousands of troops were charging toward the altar.
The sight made those who had just endured a life-or-death ordeal especially vigilant.
Zhou Yi even walked over to Ye Fan and reminded him, "Ye Fan, your neighbor is very suspicious."
Ye Fan, however, recognized it as the phenomenon produced by Li Zhi while cultivating the Breathing Method. A glint flashed through his eyes as he said, "Brother Li is fine. He's trustworthy."
Afterward, everyone gathered together and nervously watched everything happening outside.
Ye Fan even stood beside Li Zhi.
Half an hour later, when the light curtain had gradually compressed until it covered only the area around the Five-Colored Altar, Pang Bo lowered his voice and whispered into Ye Fan's ear, "Liu Yunzhi and Li Changqing seem to have set their sights on you and Boss Li."
"Don't worry. I know!"
Ye Fan even revealed a gentle smile and nodded toward Liu Yunzhi and the others.
Another five minutes passed before Li Zhi finished regulating his breathing.
He did not stand up immediately, however. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and surveyed everything around him.
Sure enough, Ye Fan and the others had still ended up clashing.
They had even vaguely split into three small groups on the altar.
The group led by Ye Fan and Pang Bo was filled with hostility toward the group led by Liu Yunzhi, Li Changqing, and the others.
As for Zhou Yi, Wang Ziwen, Li Xiaoman, and the others, they seemed unwilling to get involved in the dispute and maintained neutrality.
The scheming under such circumstances was truly interesting.
As the hazy Light Shield outside gradually shrank, everyone on the altar could even clearly hear the "woo-woo" sounds of ghosts wailing and wolves howling from the sandstorm beyond.
Moreover, the sandstorm was tremendously powerful. It battered the light curtain until it swayed precariously, seemingly on the verge of shattering at any moment.
The sight left everyone shaken, and they continuously edged toward the Bronze Giant Coffin at the center of the altar.
But at that moment, a male student beside Liu Yunzhi suddenly passed by Ye Fan. He reached out to grab the Bronze Lamp in Ye Fan's hand while pushing Ye Fan hard with his other hand, attempting to shove him off the altar.
Li Changqing had also appeared behind Li Zhi at some point. He kicked straight toward Li Zhi's back, seemingly intending to send him off the altar as well.
Unfortunately, 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 backward with one hand. He suddenly pulled and seized Li Changqing by the ankle, then slammed him heavily onto the ground.
The force was so great that it nearly broke Li Changqing apart.
At the same time, Ye Fan also grabbed the student who had tried to ambush him and lifted him up with one hand.
Just as he was about to speak, Li Zhi calmly rose from the ground and stared at Li Changqing, who lay there howling in pain.
"You probably don't yet know the price of ambushing me."
Then, under everyone's watchful eyes, Li Zhi suddenly planted one foot on Li Changqing's chest.
"Pfft!" A mouthful of blood sprayed out.
Li Changqing's breastbone and internal organs were crushed beneath Li Zhi's stomp.
The astonishing turn of events left those who thought Li Zhi was about to lecture them completely dumbfounded.
Blood constantly poured from Li Changqing's mouth as he stared at Li Zhi in disbelief.
Other than Ye Fan, no one present had expected Li Zhi to attack directly, nearly stomping Li Changqing to death with one foot.
Then, something even more horrifying happened.
Li Zhi somehow produced a Brush, dipped it directly into the blood spilling from Li Changqing's mouth, and began writing Mysterious Runes on the Five-Colored Altar.
His movements were incredibly fast. He inscribed the runes at a speed of nearly ten per second.
He finished writing three hundred runes in a circle around Li Changqing in less than half a minute.
Then Li Zhi began chanting, "Houtu Huangtian, boundless Grand Supreme, wielding Heaven and shepherding the people, Cosmic Luck fills the sky..."
This time, when borrowing luck through a heavenly sacrifice, Li Zhi recited the Sacrificial Oration only once. He then directly took out the Luoyang Shovel and chopped off Li Changqing's head while he was still making his final struggle.
The sight thoroughly stunned Li Changqing's classmates.
Amid the crowd's fearful gazes, Li Changqing's blood was rapidly absorbed by the Five-Colored Altar beneath them.
Seeing this, Li Zhi revealed a broad smile.
He even let out a loud "hahaha" laugh.
Everyone moved far away from him, as if Li Zhi were a demon who killed without batting an eye. Even Ye Fan wore a thoughtful expression.
Then Ye Fan tossed the student in his hand directly onto the ground and ignored him.
There was no point anymore.
Li Changqing's display of ruthless methods had completely intimidated his classmates. When had these urban youths ever witnessed such a bloody and brutal scene?
This was entirely different from the inexplicable deaths of their classmates in front of the Great Thunderclap Temple.
The more hearty Li Zhi's laughter sounded, the more terrifying it was to Ye Fan's classmates.
Everyone instinctively moved away from him. Even Ye Fan, who believed he understood Li Zhi to some extent, was no exception.
Li Zhi, however, was immersed in the wondrous feeling brought about by the Cosmic Luck upon him and paid them no attention.
The first time he had used the Three Sacrificial Animals and Five Grains in a sacrifice, the Cosmic Luck had descended upon him while he was still an utterly ordinary mortal. Thus, he had only felt something enter his body.
Now, his strength had increased greatly, and his Spiritual Power had grown several times over. His perception had become far sharper.
He truly experienced the soul-deep joy of having Cosmic Luck descend upon him.
Moreover, he could clearly sense that before the Cosmic Luck vanished, he seemed to have received the treatment of a protagonist. He could turn misfortune into fortune and survive disasters safely.
He was no longer a passerby who was not even worthy of possessing a name.
He was like those Heavenly Prides specially cultivated by great powers, with luck surrounding him and opportunities arriving one after another.
Perhaps because the Cosmic Luck upon Li Zhi had not been innate, when the great luck descended, a feeling similar to "when the time comes, Heaven and Earth lend their strength" rose within him.
The feeling came quickly and disappeared just as quickly.
After a few seconds, he could no longer sense it at all. It seemed that the Cosmic Luck had fused with his soul.
Moreover, unlike the first time the great luck had descended upon him, this time he no longer had that vague feeling of wondering when it would be exhausted.
It seemed that as his cultivation increased, the rate at which each borrowed portion of Cosmic Luck was consumed was no longer linear.
Furthermore, using a human life as a sacrifice to steal Cosmic Luck through a Blood Sacrifice had given Li Zhi an entirely new insight.
It seemed that using living beings as offerings to sacrifice to Heaven and Earth produced the best results, but the karma he had to bear in return was also greater.
This time, using Li Changqing's life as the offering had inadvertently resolved the karma behind it.
Li Changqing had tried to kill him first—that was the cause. Li Zhi had killed him in retaliation afterward—that was the effect.
Therefore, after Li Changqing was used as the offering, the karma on him would not transfer to Li Zhi.
If he had used an unfamiliar cultivator as the offering, the karma on that person would probably have transferred to Li Zhi instead.
For example, if Li Zhi used a disciple of an Ancient Family, someone with dense luck and the potential to become a Saint in the future, who had no grudge against him, as the offering, he could borrow a substantial amount of Cosmic Luck from Heaven and Earth.
Then, with the great luck upon him, his cultivation would soar.
But the stolen luck would eventually be exhausted. Perhaps when his luck ran out, there would be someone among that disciple's direct blood relatives whom Li Zhi could not withstand. Guided by the invisible power of karma, they would meet.
The outcome was obvious.
Li Zhi also thought of the Weird Clan.
They performed Blood Sacrifices to the All Heavens, only to suffer karmic backlash in the end, and three Heavenly Emperors joined forces to overturn their lair.
The power of karma was incredibly mysterious. It had already displayed its might during the era of the Desolate Heaven Emperor. The Crimson King of the Other Domain had tried to sit at the upper reaches of the river of time and erase the Desolate Heaven Emperor downstream. In the end, guided by the invisible power of karma, he encountered the Desolate Heaven Emperor while he was weak, and the Desolate Heaven Emperor directly chopped apart his Divine Embryo.
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