Stealing Heavenly Secrets from Shading the Heavens

Then he noticed there was actually another drawer beneath the table.

Li Zhi, who had already lost much of his anticipation, instinctively pulled open the drawer.

Inside was only an ancient book bound with some unknown material.

The cover felt like it was made of leather.

Without examining it closely, Li Zhi stuffed the book into the Snakeskin Bag as well.

Afterward, unwilling to give up, he carefully searched the cellar again but found nothing else.

Then, he took the Snakeskin Bag and went out.

After covering the stone slab back up and filling in the large pit, Li Zhi carried the Snakeskin Bag back to the front yard.

He went to take a shower first, then brought the Snakeskin Bag into the living room.

Only then did he realize that the Snakeskin Bag before him was far from ordinary.

It wasn't a bag woven from common plastic; instead, it was sewn from the hide of some animal he didn't recognize, with dark green patterns that merely resembled a snakeskin bag.

The bag was one meter long and one foot wide, with a purple-black rope at the opening.

To describe its exact appearance, Li Zhi felt it resembled the "Human Seed Bag" carried by Maitreya Buddha in films and TV shows.

He emptied everything from the bag.

Only then did Li Zhi discover that the Luoyang Shovel, oil lamp, brush, small flat shovel, and even the Feng Shui Compass were all made from unknown materials.

They were not only lightweight but also exceptionally sturdy, definitely not tools forged from ordinary steel.

Li Zhi even picked up the Luoyang Shovel and lightly tested it on the living room floor, immediately leaving a small hole about an inch deep in the ceramic tiles.

The hard ceramic tiles, before that Luoyang Shovel, seemed as soft as beach sand.

With little effort, he could poke a hole with each jab.

The small flat shovel was similar; though it looked far from sharp, when he scratched it across the tiles, it was like a diamond cutter, leaving a very distinct mark on the ceramic surface.

The seemingly rusted Luoyang Shovel and small flat shovel were actually comparable to divine weapons.

Next, Li Zhi tested the other items by tapping them.

Without exception, they were all extremely sturdy—even the brush. Li Zhi used all his strength but couldn't cut off a single bristle from its head.

Moreover, he was astonished to find that the rust on these items seemed impossible to remove.

No matter how hard he tried, it was futile.

Even when he used the small flat shovel to scrape the rust off the Luoyang Shovel, he couldn't manage it.

"Treasures, real treasures." Li Zhi shouted inwardly.

Then he shifted his gaze to the book bound with unknown beast hide.

On the cover were three characters, seemingly written in Oracle Bone Script.

Li Zhi barely recognized the middle character—"Heaven."

After running to Li Daqiang's study and flipping through many reference materials, he finally determined the meaning of the other two characters.

"Stealing Heavenly Secrets"—that was the correct reading of the three characters on the cover.

The moment he read those three characters, Li Zhi felt a chill rise from his tailbone, shooting straight to his forehead, cooling his already overheated mind.

Calming down, Li Zhi looked at the archaeological tools neatly arranged on the living room coffee table and fell into deep thought.

This set of archaeological tools was clearly something no mortal could forge; it was likely a magical artifact made by a Cultivator.

Moreover, it was a complete set of equipment specifically designed for tomb raiding by a Cultivator well-versed in burial studies.

If this were any other parallel timeline, Li Zhi might not have fallen into such contemplation.

But being on Earth within the world of Shrouding the Heavens, he had to consider whether he was worthy of possessing these items.

Based on his memories from his past life, he speculated that part of this Earth might have evolved from ancient burial grounds.

That was why it possessed extraordinary corpse-nurturing properties, greatly shortening the time needed for the Mark of Reincarnation to form.

One could imagine how many corpses of past Great Powers lay buried beneath the earth.

The Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning, Emperor Heng Yu, Emperor Void, the Amitabha Emperor, and Emperor Jiu Li had all buried their imperial bodies here, emerging anew after forming the Mark of Reincarnation within themselves.

How many senior Great Powers beneath the earth had yet to successfully form the Mark of Reincarnation? The original text never mentioned it, so Li Zhi didn't know either.

But common sense suggested the number was not small.

Moreover, the Netherworld organization existed in this world.

The curses from the Netherworld were extremely dangerous; one could fall victim without even realizing it.

Even merely cultivating their techniques could bring a curse—the Source Heavenly Master of Ancient Beidou Star was a prime example.

Those who dealt with tombs year-round rarely met a good end, except for the Nether Emperor.

In fact, Li Zhi vaguely suspected that his father, Li Daqiang, might have died young because he was wounded by these artifacts in his early years and thus afflicted by a curse.

Now Li Zhi had two paths before him.

One was to keep these magical artifacts on him for protection, then go seek immortality and the Dao.

The other was to return the artifacts to the cellar, pretend he knew nothing, and then go seek immortality and the Dao.

Caught in indecision, Li Zhi's gaze inadvertently swept over the book titled Stealing Heavenly Secrets.

Perhaps he could find the answer within Stealing Heavenly Secrets.

However, he had already flipped through that book, which was only a few dozen pages thick.

To be honest, he could recognize no more than five of the characters in it.

The entire text was written in Oracle Bone Script, like a heavenly book.

And each character, taken alone, looked like a ghostly scrawl, utterly incomprehensible.

From the materials in his father Li Daqiang's study, it was clear that Li Daqiang had put in serious effort to crack the secrets of this book.

He had filled several notebooks with annotations alone.

For Stealing Heavenly Secrets, which contained only a little over a thousand characters, Li Daqiang's notes were remarkably extensive—at least a million words.

Perhaps the opportunity lay within Stealing Heavenly Secrets.

Li Daqiang didn't know that Cultivators existed in the world, but Li Zhi did—the methods of cultivation on Earth had never been severed.

They simply remained hidden from the sight of ordinary people.

Oracle Bone Script was an ancient script to mortals.

But to those Cultivators, it might be nothing more than everyday writing.

Having made up his mind, Li Zhi picked up a notebook and began copying the characters from Stealing Heavenly Secrets, mimicking them stroke by stroke.

There was no need to bring out the original when asking others about the script.

That book, bound in unknown animal hide, might hold other secrets within.

If those Cultivators saw it, it could bring deadly trouble.

Over a thousand Oracle Bone Script characters—Li Zhi spent a full three hours copying them.

After checking repeatedly to confirm there were no errors or omissions, he finally set down his pen.

He packed the set of archaeological tools from the coffee table into the Snakeskin Bag, then picked up the bag, grabbed a shovel and the keys, and returned to the backyard.

Night had fallen, the full moon had risen, and a cool breeze was blowing.

Only then did Li Zhi return the Snakeskin Bag to the cellar, smoothing the ground back to its original state.

The time had already passed ten in the evening.

He was exhausted from the day's work.

Lying in bed, he tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.

Strange and bizarre images kept surfacing in his mind.

There were scenes of battlefields, charging into the nine heavens to fight on all sides.

There were visions of the Heavenly Palace, with jade towers and jade buildings, drinking and reveling.

There were Netherworld scenes, graves everywhere, Yin Energy thick, not a single living soul in sight.

And there were images of supreme dominance, controlling heaven and earth, reigning as the unrivaled sovereign.

What made Li Zhi's hair stand on end the most was a scene where he, clad in a black robe, lay peacefully in a black-canopied boat drifting through the cosmos, when suddenly a sword beam flew from nowhere and shattered both him and the boat.

"Hah!"

Li Zhi snapped awake instantly.

He touched his forehead—it was drenched in sweat.