Stealing Heavenly Secrets from Cover the Heavens Section 36

Having grasped the flaws of Blood Sacrifice, Li Zhi carefully comprehended the principles recorded in Stealing Heavenly Secrets.

No wonder sacrificing living beings yielded the best results but was not advocated; instead, it came with stern warnings to proceed with utmost caution.

Li Zhi now understood why Stealing Heavenly Secrets recommended using Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures as offerings instead.

Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were born from the power of heaven and earth; sacrificing them essentially returned them to the world. The Cosmic Luck borrowed this way carried the least karmic consequences, nearly nonexistent.

Fortunately, the first time he used Blood Sacrifice on a living being, the offering was Li Changqing—a mortal who had wanted to kill him.

If Li Changqing hadn't harbored murderous intent toward him, then after arriving at the Northern Dipper, Li Zhi might have been unable to resist using Blood Sacrifice, capturing some Cultivators with no enmity toward him but foul deeds to sacrifice.

What kind of trouble that would have stirred up was beyond his ability to predict.

After all, Li Zhi's innate fortune wasn't strong. Once his Cosmic Luck ran out, his innate fortune might not be enough to protect him.

Because in the eyes of heaven and earth, Cultivators have no distinction between good and evil—both are treated equally.

What Laozi said—"Heaven and earth are ruthless, treating all things as straw dogs"—wasn't without reason.

As Li Zhi deepened his understanding of Stealing Heavenly Secrets, his grasp of Cosmic Luck also grew.

To the others, after laughing, Li Zhi stood there lost in thought.

Such strange behavior led many to mentally label him a "Madman," making them even less willing to deal with him.

The Five-Colored Altar fell into dead silence.

Only the howling sandstorm outside echoed across the altar, growing louder by the moment.

No one dared to call out Li Zhi, nor did anyone speak up for Li Changqing.

Li Zhi wasn't Ye Fan; he had no connection or goodwill with them.

If it had been Ye Fan, after being ambushed without real harm, those classmates might have shamelessly urged him to be magnanimous with lines like "We're all classmates."

But Li Zhi was clearly not Ye Fan. His earlier strike embodied the essence of "steady, accurate, ruthless"—the mark of a cold-blooded veteran.

They knew exactly how to handle a man of few words and ruthless actions.

Lin Jia quietly approached Ye Fan and whispered, "Ye Fan, has your neighbor killed before?"

Ye Fan nodded slightly and replied softly, "There are things I can't tell you. But remember this: Brother Li's experiences are nothing like ours."

Lin Jia was a sharp girl. Seeing Ye Fan's certainty, as if he'd witnessed Li Zhi kill someone, she understood immediately and asked, "Then have you also—"

Before she could finish, the light barrier surrounding the Five-Colored Altar suddenly cracked.

"Bang!" It sounded like a glass window about to shatter from something hitting it.

Startled, everyone saw something slip through the cracks in the barrier and enter the protective dome.

A streak of Dark Light flashed. With a "pfft," a male student's forehead was pierced. Blood splattered, his eyes went wide, and he fell backward, his soul seemingly devoured, instantly lifeless.

"Grab the Buddhist artifacts!" Some students who had experienced similar attacks on the way back shouted loudly.

The altar erupted into chaos. Those without Deity relics frantically rushed toward Liu Yunzhi, Zhou Yi, Wang Ziwen, Pang Bo, Ye Fan, Lin Jia, and others holding Buddhist artifacts, hoping to share their protection.

"Clang!" At that moment, another metallic ring sounded on the altar.

Those clutching the Buddhist artifacts saw that Li Zhi, who had stood there like a Great Devil King, had somehow appeared beside the dead student, crushing a thumb-sized, pitch-black, limbless little crocodile.

Then Li Zhi moved to the altar's edge, staring grimly toward the Great Thunderclap Temple.

Behind him, Ye Fan's classmates began discussing the little crocodile's identity.

Finally, an unnamed female student with typical Zhetian flair revealed its origin—it seemed to be a descendant of the Crocodile Ancestor, a great ferocious beast suppressed by the Buddha in the first layer of hell, commonly called a Divine Crocodile.

"Roar!"

Suddenly, a soul-shaking howl erupted from the sandstorm, earth-shattering, as if a peerless demon had broken its seal and returned to the world.

"Anyone who doesn't want to die, retreat into the coffin immediately." Seeing the towering Demonic Aura charging toward the Five-Colored Altar, Li Zhi shouted back at Ye Fan's classmates.

But it was wasted breath. The students seemed not to hear him and started discussing the source of the sound.

"The sound came from the Great Thunderclap Temple."

"The Great Thunderclap Temple is destroyed. Could the demon suppressed beneath it have escaped?"

"What is that thing?"

"Did the Buddha really seal a peerless demon under the Great Thunderclap Temple? Now that we've taken the artifacts holding it back, has it broken free?"

"..."

Admittedly, Ye Fan's classmates were no ordinary people—they still had the nerve to discuss such trivial matters in this situation.

The commotion outside grew louder. The darkening sandstorm made even Li Zhi's heart race.

Then, a clattering sound rang out on the light barrier.

It seemed like thousands of little crocodiles were battering the shield.

"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh"

Soon, the sound of Sharp Arrows piercing the air echoed inside the barrier. More little crocodiles broke through and shot toward the crowd on the altar.

Even with Li Zhi's current eyesight, he could only see streaks of Dark Light, unable to make out their True Appearance.

Without a word, he swung the Luoyang Shovel in his hand, smashing several streaks of Dark Light nearby into pieces with a crackling sound.

The remaining Dark Light, upon reaching Ye Fan and his companions, was killed by the Buddhist artifacts that suddenly erupted in their hands.

Seeing that the light barrier couldn't hold, Li Zhi turned without a second thought and ran toward the Bronze Giant Coffin.

Watching Ye Fan and the others kill those little crocodiles yet still show no intention of entering the Bronze Giant Coffin for shelter, Li Zhi was utterly stunned by their stupidity.

"Still not running? Waiting to die?"

After shouting once, Li Zhi charged straight into the Bronze Giant Coffin.

Whether it was because he ran too fast, the others hadn't reacted, or the surrounding noise was simply too loud for anyone to hear him, not a single person followed as Li Zhi fled back into the Bronze Giant Coffin.

Once inside, Li Zhi dashed straight to the farthest corner, immediately pulled the Snakeskin Bag from his backpack, dumped the fruit inside onto the ground, took off his jacket, and wrapped the Snakeskin Bag around himself.

He had killed a few little crocodiles with the Luoyang Shovel, but he'd already tested their strength earlier.

With his current physical toughness, he couldn't withstand the piercing force of those little crocodiles at all.

Just as he finished putting his jacket back on, he suddenly felt the Bronze Giant Coffin shake.

At the same time, the Five-Colored Altar outside also trembled, and then five-colored ancient runes appeared in the sky, quickly summoning the shadow of a Bagua Diagram, as if about to reopen the Starry Sky Gate.

At that moment, Ye Fan's classmates, upon seeing the Bagua Diagram, seemed to realize that the Nine Dragons Coffin Transport was about to set sail again, giving them a chance to escape Mars.

Then they swarmed back into the coffin.

And once inside, their mouths still didn't stop, endlessly recounting what they had just seen and experienced.

Of course, Li Zhi wasn't part of their discussion.

It was as if Li Zhi, hidden in the darkness, didn't exist at all.

Perhaps this was the effect of fortune's favor—when he was determined to conceal himself, others would subconsciously overlook him.

Li Zhi didn't want to expose himself before the Crocodile Ancestor, so he tried his best to stay hidden in the corner.

Who knew what trouble that ignorant Crocodile Ancestor might stir up if it discovered him?

And sitting in the corner, Li Zhi wasn't doing nothing.

He was silently reciting the "Lingbao Heavenly Lord Salvation Scripture," terrified that the Deity's Thought of the Great Completion Holy Physique might come looking for him.

Before entering the Bronze Coffin, Ye Fan and his group had fought a bloody battle with those little Divine Crocodiles. Where they got the courage, he had no idea.

Especially the artifacts in their hands—they didn't seem like proper artifacts at all, more like someone was manipulating them from afar. Even more absurdly, those artifacts, just by being held, automatically provided protective power.

To Li Zhi, this was simply ridiculous.

Perhaps knowing too much made it worse—in Li Zhi's view, a bunch of mortals swinging those "self-awakening" artifacts to slaughter clearly intelligent little Divine Crocodiles in droves was like grinding his intelligence into the dirt.

Could it be that the Crocodile Ancestor was an ignorant monster, not even finding this bizarre scene strange?

Or had it been suppressed for so long that its mind had gone dull?

After all, it possessed cultivation above the Saint level—even just emerging, a single glare should have been enough to wipe out all these mortals.

Even if they were holding so-called artifacts.

But then, another jaw-dropping event occurred.

After absorbing the divine energy from those Buddhist artifacts, the Five-Colored Altar opened the Starry Sky Gate, and the Crocodile Ancestor made the foolish move of sealing it.

It even tried to grab the Ancient Bronze Coffin.

In the universe, the Nine Dragons Coffin Transport was practically a taboo existence.

Unknown origin, unknown destination, forever roaming through the cosmos.

Any being that tried to claim it for itself, or even attempted to destroy it, would meet disaster.