Stealing the Secret from the Cover of Heaven

Chapter 496: The Age of Chaos, Shintoism Prospers

"Scavengers?"

Seeing a group of people surrounding him, Li Zhi was not angry, but asked curiously.

The sun was shining brightly, the air was fresh, and the mountains that had collapsed due to the ancient war had grown grass and trees again. As long as it did not involve the erosion of the laws and was only physical damage, the Great Wilderness's ability to recover was still extremely impressive.

Although no tall trees have grown in this collapsed mountain range, there are already many kinds of flowers, plants and shrubs.

Even on the flat land in the small valley where he lived back then, several tall sycamore trees have grown.

After not basking in the sun for two years, Li Zhi greedily opened his arms to absorb the warmth from the sun.

But seeing Li Zhi so leisurely and not taking them seriously at all, a bearded man shouted at Li Zhi fiercely: "Boy, where are you from? This place has been owned by our Xunlong Gang. How dare you break the rules set by our scavengers' alliance?"

"The Scavengers' Alliance has established rules?" Li Zhi became even more curious, and then appeared in front of the big man.

Everyone couldn't even see how Li Zhi got there, as if he had teleported away in the blink of an eye. This shocked everyone.

"Who are you?" The big man also realized Li Zhi's extraordinaryness and asked again.

"Tuoba Yaoyang." Li Zhi reported the name of this person.

"Tuoba Yaoyang? I haven't heard of any Tuoba clan nearby. But judging from his temperament, he doesn't look like an ordinary casual cultivator. Could he be the descendant of a powerful force who went out to gain experience?" The bearded man pondered in his heart, and then asked: "Master Tuoba, I wonder what you are doing here? If you need us, we will certainly be happy to serve you."

"Can you tell me about the latest situation of the Great Wilderness within a radius of ten thousand miles?" Li Zhi found that this person had good eyesight, so he asked.

"To answer your question, sir, two years ago, a three-tailed fox demon came from nowhere and caused chaos, massacring dozens of tribes, large and small, within a radius of thousands of miles. We..." The bearded man did not hide anything and told everything he knew.

"Are you saying that the three-tailed demon fox killed more than a dozen powerful sacrificial spirits back then, and then disappeared here with the precious bones in those sacrificial spirits? You came here to find the original precious bones?" Li Zhi confirmed.

The big man nodded and said, "To be honest, sir, the Seven Star Scavengers team was the first to discover this news. Most of their team members were killed or injured in order to obtain this news. A year ago, the white-faced scholar of the Seven Star Scavengers team sold the news to other scavenger teams, but they never expected that after the news was leaked, it caused a huge dispute. In the end, it was the leader Lei Peng who stepped in to mediate the fight between the various scavenger teams. We also paid a huge price to fight for this place."

"I see. Then you guys continue." After listening, Li Zhi nodded and prepared to leave.

But when Li Zhi reached the mountain pass, the bearded man suddenly shouted, "Set up the battle formation!"

In an instant, the aura of precious bones flashed in seven or eight places among the pile of rocks, and then a large formation covering the entire valley appeared, and Li Zhi was instantly trapped inside the formation.

"Boy, hand over all the treasures on you, otherwise don't blame us for cutting you into pieces." The bearded man laughed.

"He is indeed a rookie, with eyes full of pure stupidity. He looks tall and strong, so he is probably less than 18 years old." Another middle-aged man next to the big man also laughed. Then he said to the bearded big man: "It is still the boss who is very smart. This young man fell into the trap we set up so easily."

"Go and inform Alliance Leader Lei that we have captured the person he wanted. I want you to give me the three precious bones in one hand and the bones in the other." The bearded man immediately said to another tall young man.

"Don't worry, Master Tiger. I will definitely pass on the message." After saying that, the young man activated his magic, condensed a pair of eagle wings on his back, and then flapped his wings and flew away. He was young, but he already had the status of a cave heaven cultivator, which was not low in the Great Wilderness.

The bearded man called Tiger Lord walked in front of the formation and said to Li Zhi inside: "Master Tuoba, if you want to hate someone, don't hate us. After all, you are someone that Alliance Leader Lei has taken care of. Alliance Leader Lei has issued a huge reward to find your whereabouts."

"You and I have no grudges against each other. Aren't you afraid of bringing disaster upon yourself by plotting against me?" Li Zhi said calmly.

"To bring disaster and trouble?" Tiger Lord was stunned for a moment, then he burst into laughter, and his other subordinates also laughed.

"Boy, are you a nobleman from the imperial capital of some ancient country? Did you bring the rules of the capital to the wilderness?" Lord Hu looked at Li Zhi with interest, as if he was looking at something rare.

"Boys, who can tell this Master Tuoba what rules he should abide by when making a living in the wilderness?" Master Hu glanced at his younger brothers around him and said jokingly.

“Master Tuoba, let me tell you. If you want to make a living in our wilderness and have a stable life, you must first have a sacrificial spirit as a backer. Otherwise, you can only become a scavenger like us, the children of the tribe in distress. Do you know what a scavenger is? Just like the hyenas on the prairie, they are human-shaped beasts that compete with the ferocious beasts of the wilderness for food.” A monk who was obviously reduced to a scavenger after the death of the tribal sacrificial spirit and the tragic death of his tribesmen at the hands of the beasts said with jealousy.

Unlike those human beings living in the ancient country, these human beings living in the wilderness are in danger of falling at any time.

Even if the tribe has more than 10,000 people, as long as the tribe's sacrificial spirit is killed, the tribe members will soon be eaten by the ferocious beasts in the wilderness.
Because there are very few mortals in the human race who can truly become cultivators in the Blood Moving Realm.

In a tribe of tens of thousands of people making a living in the wilderness, even if they have inheritance, generally less than one percent of the mortals can enter the Blood Moving Realm, and those who can enter the Spirit Transformation Realm are even rarer.

Through a simple conversation, Li Zhi learned from him the true situation of the human tribe living in the wilderness.

Life in Shi Village is not a typical life in a wilderness village.

After all, as the true ancestral home of the Stone Clan, almost all the people in Shi Village are descendants of the Immortal King.

It was much easier for them to embark on the path of cultivation than others, and their ancestors were also wealthy, leaving behind a foundation that was not comparable to that of ordinary tribes. Even the Luofu Great Lake, the Golden Wolf Tribe, the Purple Mountain Tribe, and the Thunder Tribe, which had millions or even tens of millions of people, did not have the rich foundation of the Stone Village.

"No wonder Shintoism is so prosperous in today's world."

After listening to the man's desperate venting, Li Zhi instantly understood why Shinto was the theme of this era.

The world is indeed difficult, and everyone lives in a precarious state. Praying to gods and Buddhas has become their means of survival.

Moreover, the law of the jungle where the strong prey on the weak is interpreted to the extreme.

No matter how big or small a force is, as long as it loses the protection of a powerful sacrificial spirit, it will become the target of division by other forces.

This is true for ordinary villages in the wilderness, for the vast ancient countries, and even for the great religions with a long history.

As long as you are a weak person, you may become the roast meat on someone else's table at any time.

Despair is not only reflected in the border battlefield, but also in the nine heavens and ten earths, in the three thousand states, and in the eight regions of the lower realm, where despairing dramas are played out all the time.

Order collapsed, morality declined, all spirits were uneasy, and Shintoism flourished.

Compared with the peaceful monastic environment in the ancient times, the monastic environment today can be said to be extremely bad.

It is not only because the heaven and earth are imperfect and the great way is incomplete, but it is also the result of the collapse of human order.

They confuse right and wrong, the strong prey on the weak, bully the weak and fear the strong, have no mercy or compassion, are lawless, have evil hearts, and all the spirits in heaven and earth have perfectly interpreted the four words "going too far".

It was not known whether it was influenced by the desperate trial in the Supreme Hall or by the cause and effect in the dark, but Li Zhi gradually developed a deep-seated disgust for the creatures living in the nine heavens and ten earths, and perhaps also a sense of anger from the depths of his blood.

Clearly he is the descendant of a hero who protects the world, and the mark in his body symbolizes the supreme mark of glory, yet he is slandered as the descendant of a sinner by misleading others.

Finally, he had no choice but to go to the eight realms of the underworld to seek survival.

Tuoba Yaoyang's bloodline finally began to have an impact on the soul transformed from Li Zhi's divine consciousness.

It is said that after practicing the Immortal Sutra, even if one dies in battle, as long as the body is still there, the soul can be reunited.

But I have never heard of any cultivator who, after changing his physical body, can still maintain his previous character.

The physical body is the boat, the soul is the rudder, and the Tao behavior is the sail. Only when the three cooperate with each other can we sail to the end of the Tao.

The trial in the Supreme Hall not only made Li Zhi experience a feeling of despair, but also activated the anger towards this world that originated from Tuoba Yaoyang's blood.

That trial road was originally designed for cultivators to awaken their bloodline.

Although Li Zhi's strength exceeded the upper limit of the trial road, and he did not undergo the final baptism in the Immortal Pool, the process of burning his flesh, blood, and soul during the battle was actually a spiritual baptism.

When Li Zhi finally burned his flesh, blood and soul in order to destroy the enemy, he had already completed the baptism.

And it is the most important spiritual baptism.

Later, after taking the holy medicine fruit, the lack of essence in the body was replenished, and the baptism was completed unknowingly.

In the practice of Dharma in this world, the physical body is very important.

It is even more important than the secret realm of the human body in later generations.

Only when a cultivator reaches the realm of a god can he regenerate severed limbs, which shows the importance of the physical body.

In later generations, only the cultivators in the Four Extreme Secret Realms can achieve regeneration of flesh and blood. Even if they fight to the point where only their heads are left, they can recover quickly.

Even Li Zhi hasn't realized this yet.

The influence of the physical body on the soul is much greater than he imagined.

Just as Li Zhi was lost in thought, Lei Peng was finally invited.

Seeing Li Zhi trapped in the bag formation, he said to Tiger Master with great satisfaction: "Little Tiger, you did a good job. Here is your reward."

After saying that, he threw three pieces of precious bones from the sacrificial spirit to the bearded man.

After the big man got the treasure bone, he immediately examined it. However, he became confused as he looked at it. He said, "Lei Alliance Leader, it was said to be the original treasure bone for the sacrifice of the spirit. Why is there no treasure rune on it?"

"Do you think the magic runes are so easy to obtain?" Lei Peng said with some displeasure.

Master Tiger immediately realized that there was something wrong with his words. The original treasure bones that contained the treasure runes would not be preserved permanently. If the body itself was not strong enough, the runes on the original treasure bones would disappear.

In the end, it can only be used as a treasure, and cannot be comprehended as a magic technique.

"Are you the one offering a reward for finding my whereabouts?" Li Zhi asked after seeing Lei Peng.

"Mr. Tuoba, I have heard of your name for a long time. It is not easy to meet you. I thought you had died at the hands of those ancient creatures, but I never thought that you were so lucky." Lei Peng said to Li Zhi with a smile.

"How come we knew each other before?" Li Zhi looked at Lei Peng with some confusion. He didn't remember where he had seen Lei Peng before.

"I don't know them, but you can attract a group of ancient relics. There must be something on you that attracts me. It's just that those ancient relics are all fools. They actually started killing each other, and in the end, you, Master Tuoba, took advantage of them." Lei Peng said in a very certain tone, as if he had been secretly observing the battle two years ago.

But who is Li Zhi? How could he be frightened by his lies? He said, "You have been plotting against me in secret for a long time."

Lei Peng said, "I'm sorry to have embarrassed you, sir. Thanks to those ancient species, I believe that you don't have a protector."

After saying that, he threw a bag of poison into the bag formation, as if he wanted to knock Li Zhidu to the ground.

Seeing the bag of poison exploding in the air, Li Zhi just waved his hand lightly and suppressed them all to the ground without letting a trace of poison gas spread.

Then Li Zhi said to everyone: "Aren't you surprised that I entered the trap you set but never put up any resistance from beginning to end?"

After these words were spoken, not only did Lei Peng's pupils shrink, but even Tiger Lord and others who were watching the fun on the sidelines were terrified.

"Launch the killing formation." As if remembering Li Zhi's ghostly movements before, Lord Hu immediately shouted to his men.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Li Zhi stretched out his right hand, and a cave emitting green light appeared in front of his palm.

As the green cave appeared, the surrounding space seemed to be solidified.

Then, green light shot out from the cave and instantly turned into a green mountain.

After the green mountain came into contact with the essence of heaven and earth, it began to grow rapidly, and in an instant it broke through the cloth bag formation, then grew stronger in the wind, and finally turned into a giant mountain a thousand feet high.

"Buzz!"

Tall mountains fell from the sky, trapping everyone around them. Even the surrounding void began to tremble.

The people imprisoned by the void showed a look of despair.

The despair in Lei Peng's eyes was mixed with a hint of regret.

"Boom!" Unfortunately, it was too late. The green mountain fell down, and those people seemed to be judged by the power of heaven and earth. In an instant, they were smashed into a ball of bloody mud by the heavy green mountain.

When the green mountain disappeared, the cave in the palm of Li Zhi's right hand also disappeared.

During the whole process, there was not a trace of pity in Li Zhi's eyes, and he didn't want to know why Lei Peng was plotting against him.

After killing everyone with one move, Li Zhi picked up the precious bones.

Those precious bones that came from the sacrifices to the spirits were left here after the Fox King’s spirit dissipated after his death.

Finally, it was picked up by Lei Peng, who paid special attention to this place.

After walking out of the valley where he had lived for nearly three years, Li Zhi headed towards the direction of the Stone Kingdom.

Along the way, he saw dozens of villages that had become ruins, almost all of which were destroyed by the spirit body of the Fox King.

Looking at the ruined villages and the bones lying in the houses, Li Zhi couldn't help but think of a sentence from his previous life.

If there were no suffering in the world, there would be no gods or Buddhas.

The Age of Chaos is such an apt name.

a perfect world?

Haha, maybe after Emperor Huang Tian cut off eternal time and space with one sword, the world on this side of the sea boundary will be a perfect world.

Only then will all the living creatures in this world be able to live like human beings.

The prosperity of Shinto may have just begun.

With the coming of the Great Reckoning, all the heavens and worlds will become bloody battlefields, and the era truly belonging to the Shinto will arrive.

But with what identity can he exist in this chaotic ancient era?
A savior, a conqueror, or a protector?
Li Zhi had no answer in his heart, and there was no answer in Tuoba Yaoyang's blood either.

However, Li Zhi firmly believes that the road is paved by walking, and what kind of person one will become in the future is determined by his character and experience.

Stepping out of the wilderness may be the beginning of Li Zhi's formal integration into the chaotic ancient era.

In this bloodiest and most chaotic era, whether he can reach the end and get what he wants is unknown.

(End of this chapter)