Stealing Heavenly Secrets

Without the extreme suppression of the Dharma-Ending Aura from Earth, the Hundred Herbs Diagram, a Quasi-Emperor Divine Weapon, had finally recovered some of its power.

Of course, getting it to autonomously awaken and unleash Quasi-Emperor might was still unrealistic.

But breaking a mere seal placed by a cultivator in the Dragon Transformation Realm was a trivial matter.

At this moment, Nangong Wentian and the Jiang siblings were still locked in aerial combat.

Not only had Jiang Caihong crushed her life-saving Divine Talisman to summon a Great Power's divine thought avatar, but Jiang Shuwen had also crushed his, calling down another Jiang family Great Power's divine thought avatar.

The three fought until the sky dimmed, the sun and moon lost their light, and swaths of forest were destroyed.

This drew the attention of many passing cultivators.

Dark clouds blotted out the stars and moon, and a faint breeze left behind fleeting shadows.

He ran continuously across The Great Earth, from high noon until nightfall, not knowing how much time had passed or how many thousands of miles he had covered.

Feeling a trace of fatigue, Li Zhi finally stopped.

The special energy that Senior Hundred Herbs Diagram had given him had been exhausted two hours ago.

To avoid being caught up by Nangong Wentian, Li Zhi had run at full speed for another two hours before finally feeling at ease.

He didn't know if Jiang Shuwen and Jiang Caihong could hold off Nangong Wentian.

Still, Li Zhi believed that as Disciples of an Ancient Family, they must have plenty of life-saving items on them and wouldn't be so easily killed.

He had planned to spend the night in the wilderness, but after standing atop a tall ancient tree and spotting a brightly lit town in the distance, Li Zhi abandoned that idea.

Now, he needed to return to the human world as soon as possible and quickly master the local culture.

Only then could he communicate normally with the locals and avoid being seen as an outsider.

Walking toward the town, gazing at the familiar yet strange forest in the distance, Li Zhi suddenly realized he had returned to the edge of the Barren Ancient Forest.

And that town was no ordinary mortal settlement.

As soon as he entered the town, he sensed the auras of many cultivators.

Some even used Divine Sense to scan him.

However, to ensure nothing went wrong, Li Zhi had secretly activated the Longevity Locking Body Art, concealing his Bitter Sea.

Though it couldn't fool true experts, it was more than enough to block the divine sense probes in this town.

After all, earlier, under the cover of the secret technique, even Jiang Shuwen, a peak Dao Palace Realm cultivator, hadn't noticed that his Bitter Sea was already opened.

Li Zhi believed that once he cultivated the Longevity Locking Body Art to the second layer, even if a Dragon Transformation Realm expert personally probed his body with magic power, they wouldn't detect anything unusual about his Bitter Sea.

After entering the town, the brightly lit streets held few mortals.

No mortals were setting up stalls or doing business there.

It seemed this town was built specifically to serve cultivators entering and leaving the Barren Ancient Forest.

The town had only a few inns, each covering a large area.

When Li Zhi stopped in front of an inn called Lingxu, it suddenly dawned on him.

This town was likely built by the six great grotto-heavens of Yan State, not a territory under the control of the secular Yan royal family.

As he entered the Lingxu Inn, a robust innkeeper's assistant immediately greeted him warmly.

"Young master, will you be dining or staying the night?" Though the assistant hadn't opened his Bitter Sea, his steps were steady and his movements light—he had clearly practiced some secular martial arts and was at a decent level.

"Give me a superior room." Li Zhi mimicked the assistant's tone.

"Right away! Young master, please come this way." The assistant led Li Zhi deeper into the inn.

As they passed the main hall, Li Zhi noticed many cultivators sitting idly, as if waiting for someone, each wearing a hint of anxiety on their face.

Soon, the assistant brought Li Zhi to a superior room.

After dismissing the assistant, Li Zhi pricked up his ears to listen to the outside.

Within a hundred meters, as long as no one deliberately used Telepathic Transmission, no sound could escape his hearing.

Sure enough, he caught voices from the inn's main hall.

"That child just now—which family's disciple is he? So young, yet he looks extraordinary."

"Child? Haha, Fellow Daoist Wu, your eyesight needs work."

"Oh? Fellow Daoist Zhang, do you know his background?"

"Though he looks like a child on the outside, I didn't sense the vibrant vitality a child should have. And he seems shrouded in a layer of mist. I observed him with my spiritual eye just now, but couldn't tell if there was any divine power fluctuation on him. Yet his blood energy blazes like a scorching sun. I can't pinpoint his exact cultivation, but it's certainly not weak. He might be an Old Senior who practices a special Cultivation Method."

"Really? To me, he still looks like a child."

"Even if he is a child, he's no ordinary one. What normal seven- or eight-year-old would come here alone?"

"Forget it, let's not talk about that child. Lately, more and more strange cultivators have been appearing in our Yan State. I wonder if they're all here for the Barren Ancient Forbidden Zone. Fellow Daoist Bai and the others followed those two into the Barren Ancient Forest almost a day ago. They should have sent back some news by now. I'm worried something might have happened to them."

"Probably not. Senior Bai is a master in the Dao Palace Realm. Those two young men looked barely over twenty—there's no way their cultivation could surpass Senior Bai's."

"I've heard that disciples of ancient families have started venturing out for training recently—all of them young, yet with cultivation levels extremely high."

"I've heard that rumor too. They say it's the young master of the Desolate Ancient Ji Family, challenging the Heavenly Prides of various sects in the Southern Domain. Lately, he's even been stirring up trouble with the Demon Race's Princess, though for some reason she keeps avoiding battle."

"I've heard of this as well. Young disciples from the Desolate Ancient Jiang Family, Jade Pool Holy Land, and Shaking Light Holy Land have all come to our Yan State. I think this is a sign that some major figure is about to descend. Maybe something big is about to happen in Yan State."

"Speaking of that, it reminds me. Half a month ago, while handling business in Wei State, I saw from afar nine Kirin Beasts pulling an ancient War Chariot, escorted by a group of knights, heading toward our Yan State."

"I've heard that story too, but it wasn't a War Chariot pulled by Kirin Beasts—it was a Hundred Flowers Fragrant Chariot."

"What do you all think? With so many big shots descending on Yan State, could someone have dug up a treasure in the Primordial Ruins again?"

"I think you're overthinking it. The Primordial Ruins have been swept clean countless times by now—there's no treasure left. I reckon they're here for the Barren Ancient Forbidden Zone."

"A dozen mortals walked out of the Barren Ancient Forbidden Zone alive all at once—that hasn't happened in ages. And some even ate a legendary Saint Medicine. I figure those big shots are coming to Yan State because of this."

Just then, a voice came from outside the hall: "Fellow Daoists, Fellow Daoist Feng has returned from the Barren Ancient Forest."

The crowd in the hall rose and filed out of the inn.

As soon as the cultivator surnamed Feng landed, he said with a heavy face, "Fellow Daoists, Senior Bai and the others—they're gone."

"Gone? How gone? Fellow Daoist Feng, speak clearly—how did Senior Bai and the others die? Did they recklessly enter the Barren Ancient Forbidden Zone?"

"When I arrived, Senior Bai and the others had already turned into a pile of Snow Mud. They were killed by that Golden-Winged Great Peng Bird in the Barren Ancient Forest."

"How could this be? The cultivators of Yan State and the beasts of the Barren Ancient Forest have always kept to themselves—why would that Golden-Winged Great Peng Bird kill people?"

After a moment of silence, someone sighed and said, "This must be fate. The Forbidden Zone of Life is truly not something we can covet. Fellow Daoists, this old man has urgent matters at home—I won't wait here with you any longer."

"Let's disperse, all of you. They hadn't even entered the Barren Ancient Forbidden Zone, and Fellow Daoist Bai and the others are already dead. If they had gone in, who knows how many more would have died. A dream is just a dream—now that it's over, everyone go home." Another cultivator spoke up as well.

Sorrow for the fallen, fear for their own kind. The cultivators, who had clung to a sliver of hope, finally faced reality upon hearing that their pillars had all perished.

In the room, after listening to their conversation, Li Zhi fell into deep thought.

The Barren Ancient Forbidden Zone truly couldn't be entered recklessly. He had been considering whether to risk going in to gather some spirit herbs.

In the nearly year he'd spent living on the outskirts, he'd already pinpointed the locations of several spirit herbs.

Especially a snow lotus growing halfway up the mountain—it had likely reached the level of a Little Medicine King.

Now it seemed his caution back then was justified.

The Barren Ancient Forbidden Zone was indeed not to be trespassed.

And from their talk, it seemed the Green Emperor's Tomb in the Primordial Ruins hadn't been opened yet.

Maybe he could try his luck there.

He wondered if the Cosmic Luck he'd borrowed on Mars had run out.

No sooner had he been led out of the Barren Ancient Forest by the Jiang Family disciple than he ran into a peak Dragon Transformation expert.

And that expert was utterly greedy for his physical body.

A Longevity Immortal Body—what kind of constitution was that?

What made it special? Li Zhi wanted to know too.

He wondered if this so-called Longevity Immortal Body was an innate constitution, or one forged postnatally by the combined effect of half an Immortality Elixir and that special Power of Law from the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Zone—much like the post-natal constitutions of the Eternal Star Domain.

Sitting in his room, having finished listening, Li Zhi didn't start cultivating.

Instead, he took out the scroll of cultivation basics that Jiang Shuwen had given him and began reading it carefully.

The cultivation basics compiled by the Jiang Family Great Power, along with the notes on cultivating the Wheel Sea and Dao Palace secret realms—while not exactly priceless treasures—were the most suitable introductory knowledge for a loose cultivator like Li Zhi, just stepping into the path of cultivation.

With it, Li Zhi didn't even need to join one of Yan State's minor sects to learn.

He had already decided in his heart that once he advanced the "Longevity Locking Body Art" to the next level, he would head to Tai Xuan Sect.

He'd see if he could join Tai Xuan Sect and cultivate on Zhuo Peak.

To say he had no interest in the Nine Secrets would be a lie.