Tales of Herding Gods

Chapter 445: Night Attack

Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem

When the meteorological phenomenon changed drastically at the end of Founding Emperor Era, Sun Ship and Moon Ship crafted by the gods of Founding Emperor Period were used to drive away the darkness. It allowed things to grow, and the people were able to survive.

However, the two types of ships were sharp weapons in battle as well. Sun Guardian of Sun Ship and Moon Guardian of Moon Ship could mobilize the energy of the majestic ship so that their own energy would reach the level of heavenly gods. They would gain the mighty force to change heaven and earth.

Qin Mu had once used Sun Ship and also borrowed Moon Ship, so he knew the powerful and extraordinary points of the two ships.

With Secrets of Dragon Control from Dragon Rearing Scriptures to borrow the power of the divine flood dragon king and the flood dragons, he could open his Divine Bridge so his primordial spirit would reach the celestial heavens. However, he could only enter the Southern Heavenly Gates and had no way to enter the depths of celestial heavens. In comparison, borrowing the power of Sun Ship or Moon Ship would allow him to reach Jade Pavilion which stood beside Jade Lake!

Yet Sun Ship and Moon Ship had their bane, and it was Ten Thousand Spirit Nature Technique.

Sun Ships lent power to Sun Guardians and Moon Ships lent power to Moon Guardians. That power came from the bodies of the two ships, not their wielders. The two ships possessed boundless terrifying energy, and with the sun or moon forged by gods as an energy source, they were able to drive away the darkness.

Ten Thousand Spirit Nature Technique had the ideology of all things having spirit and all things having soul. It relied on practitioners’ sense of nature to create spirits, awakening all things in heaven and earth, and calling them to fight.

A god who cultivated Ten Thousand Spirit Nature Technique could wake the spirit in Sun Ship and Moon Ship to fight for them.

In that case, what awaited Sun and Moon Guardians as well as the Sun Herders and Moon Herders would only be a bloody massacre and death. Even the guardians themselves wouldn’t be able to escape!

“Many years ago, there must have been a terrifying battle here. Sun Ships and Moon Ships encountered a god that cultivated Ten Thousand Spirit Nature Technique, which resulted in them being destroyed, one by one. Meanwhile this…” Qin Mu looked to the west, and his gaze was like candlelight flickering in the wind. “West Earth’s True Heaven Palace must have some relation with this.”

He always felt that West Earth’s True Heaven Palace was a sacred ground like Great Thunderclap Monastery and Dao Sect, but even though Palace Master had remarkable divine arts, she was merely a strong practitioner trapped in Divine Bridge Realm. Her sacred ground was no different from the other sacred grounds.

However, from the looks of it, West Earth’s True Heaven Palace was probably hiding numerous secrets and even a terrifying existence!

Not only that, just the name True Heaven Palace gave rise to some possible considerations.

Heavenly Saint Cult got its name because of Woodcutter imparting his teachings being revered as a saint. Great Thunderclap Monastery was named that because of Mount Meru’s height, its top being located at the layer of thunderclouds. When thunder and buddha voice resonated together, it was so loud that even the deaf could hear.

Dao Sect was famous because of Dao Sword and Kunlun Mountain while Little Jade Capital was a fragment of Founding Emperor Era’s Jade Capital. The names of the sacred grounds revealed their origin in a way.

So what was the origin of True Heaven Palace?

Why did the god of True Heaven Palace destroy Sun and Moon Ships?

The ruin of the divine palace in the desert and the strange sand giants were probably the doing of that same god as well. The desert covered in strange flames which made flame markings appear on the abandoned people and attempted to burn them to death, was it also related to True Heaven Palace?

Why would flame markings appear on the abandoned people that stepped onto the land, though? Why would only the abandoned people of Great Ruins be burned to death while the others felt nothing when they touch the flames?

How many secrets were hidden in West Earth?

The flaming desert blazed furiously, feeling extremely scorching to Qin Mu. Suddenly, another ruin appeared in front of them, and before the dragon qilin could close in, they saw violent gusts of sand gathering in there. A sand giant gradually took shape and another was also forming next to it. Violent sand was swirling all around their feet.

The dragon qilin was about to take a detour when Qin Mu said, “No need, continue on the way.”

The dragon qilin could only rush toward the sand giants that were overflowing with murderous intent. Formation markings swirled in Qin Mu’s eyes as he surveyed the ruin from afar.

The sand giants rushed over and came closer and closer. Suddenly there was a sword hum as Carefree Sword swooshed along the desert floor. It raised a whirlwind which swept up the sand!

The sand giants came to a hundred miles away from the dragon qilin before suddenly collapsing. Rolling sand surged forth, and the dragon qilin immediately gave a loud roar, dispersing the crumbling dunes.

Qin Mu called back Carefree Sword while the dragon qilin carried him into the ruin. There, he saw a god statue which was sliced into some eight pieces lying around the shrine.

The dragon qilin floated away.

“We should be able to enter West Earth by tomorrow afternoon.”

On a broken Sun Ship, Qin Mu lighted a bonfire and let the dragon qilin and Xiong Qi’er rest. He could still endure, but the dragon qilin needed to rest after running for so long. It was also hard for Xiong Qi’er to endure the journey at a young age.

Qin Mu looked toward the west, and his gaze passed through the weird flames of the desert. In them, a figure appeared in the distance.

Qin Mu smiled and waved his hand. It startled the figure, and it hurriedly escaped.

“Grandmaster’s guts are becoming smaller and smaller.” Qin Mu burst out laughing.

Pangong Tso left the broken Sun Ship, his face was flickering between clear and dark. He had already reattached his broken arm, and the injuries he’d suffered were all basically healed. However, he still couldn’t manage to sneak up on Qin Mu.

It was not that he had never thought of sneak attacking or even facing off with Qin Mu, just that when he realized that his chances of victory weren’t high, he could only banish the thoughts.

He wanted to leave, but he suddenly saw sand flowing silently in the surroundings, and his heart couldn’t help throbbing slightly. He hurriedly looked at the flames.

The desert at night wasn’t in complete darkness. The flames lighted it up, but by a lot. In the distance, Pangong Tso saw a strange human figure which looked like a wooden puppet walking over. Its joints warped as it walked in a strange manner.

The flowing sand in the desert moved with the puppet’s footsteps, and the strange thing was that the sand actually didn’t make any sound.

Pangong Tso’s heart leaped into his throat when he saw the figure of another wooden puppet followed by the third and the fourth…

When they got close, he realized that the strange figures were actually wooden god statues. But their eyes were actually real and not wood. At that moment, they were closing in on the Sun Ship silently.

As Pangong Tso’s heart throbbed, one of the wooden god statues turned to look at him, revealing a peculiar smile. It stretched out a wooden finger and placed it by its mouth to make a shush action.

Pangong Tso blinked, but didn’t move, watching the god statues moving toward the Sun Ship.

The flowing sand surged, carrying the wooden sculptures into the air. The sand mass beneath them became larger and larger.

Pangong Tso grew nervous, his hands forming into firsts in a certain excitement. The surroundings of Sun Ship were already sealed off by sand giants. They raised their huge fists high up and prepared to smash down on the Sun Ship in which Qin Mu rested!

‘That Qin brat is a goner!’ Pangong Tso was so excited he nearly began shouting in joy.

At that moment, a silver sword light swooshed and pierced the head of a wooden god statue. It exploded and was then followed by a second, third, and fourth one.

After the explosions, the arms of the sand giants froze in midair before crumbling like flowing sand, burying half of the Sun Ship.

“Fight with me?” A sneer came from the ship.

Pangong Tso no longer hesitated and turned to leave. ‘There’s no chance to succeed when scheming against this brat! However, why is an abandoned person like him coming to West Earth? Is he seeking death? The owner of these wooden god statue, I know her, we’ve met once, but it wasn’t something I like to recall. Hehe, Qin brat, even if I want to kill you, why would I need to make my move personally?’

He smiled. ‘Then again, even if I didn’t borrow her power, I still have a few old friends in West Earth, so killing you is simply too easy! Rascal, you dare to oppose me? After you die, I’ll make your corpse grovel before me!’

The next afternoon, the dragon qilin finally walked out of the desert and the flame markings gradually faded from Qin Mu’s body.

They came to the border town of West Earth where there were many men and women wearing embroidered headbands. Their clothes were gorgeous, full of gold and silver. Those with a higher status wore silver headdress that was sculpted as phoenixes and vermillion birds. The clothes on their bodies were usually red or black and looked dazzling to the eyes.

There was an extremely high number of pretty girls while the men looked somewhat plain and simple.

When the trio just entered the little town, Xiong Qi’er whined about wanting to eat sour fish, chili bones, rice-flour noodles and drink bug poop tea. She had left her hometown for more than half a year and couldn’t hold back her excitement at the thought of being able to eat the delicacies of her hometown. She wanted to eat everything at once.

West Earth used gold and silver to settle payment so Qin Mu had brought some and let the girl eat to her content.

Qin Mu also got a taste. The food of West Earth tended to be more spicy and sour, having a different taste. However, he didn’t dare to try bug poop tea. It was made from the feces of the bug which ate tea leaves so even though the tea was unusually fragrant, he was still slightly terrified.

‘Grandpa Apothecary likes to drink tea so I should bring some for him to try,’ Qin Mu thought to himself.

He then examined his surroundings. The architecture of West Earth was quite different from that of Eternal Peace. The local conditions and customs were all different, but the strangest things were the houses. They were constructed from wood and were circular. Many buildings had an inscribed board on which hung a god statue.

After inquiring about it, Qin Mu learned that those god statues were used to prevent people from using spells to awaken spirits.

Because the spells of West Earth took the path of all things having spirit and all things having soul, if a divine art practitioner executed a spell and a house suddenly stood up and ran away, wouldn’t the whole family be left cold and hungry?

Only if a god statue was worshiped in the house would it not be summoned away by divine art practitioners.

Qin Mu blinked at such an explanation. The sight of a huge cluster of houses standing up to battle was truly something fresh.

However, could the god statue really prevent the houses from being taken away by divine arts practitioners?

“There are also numerous shrines on the mountains used to suppress the mountain spirits. There’s also a divine shrine in every river to prevent divine arts practitioners from taking them away. However, those mountains and rivers all have owners,” an elder explained.

Qin Mu looked around and clicked his tongue in wonder. When looking at the mountains stretching into the distance, he finally understood why the mountain range of West Earth was hadn’t yet been razed to the ground. The land still had verdant hills and limpid water which was a pleasant scenery.

“Why do all the mountains and rivers here have owners?” Qin Mu asked. “Who are they?”

They, of course, belong to the masters of True Heaven Palace. There are also some that belong to divine arts practitioners of some place or some sect,” the elder said. “Not only do the mountains and rivers have owners, even flowers, grass, and trees all have owners. They can’t be carelessly touched; otherwise, even selling oneself won’t be enough to pay up!”

As he was saying that, the ground gently trembled, and the people around became flustered. They hurriedly dodged to the side, and Qin Mu looked toward the origin of the sound where he saw a tree walking over. On it stood a woman who was holding a painted scroll. She shouted loudly, “An escapee from Great Ruins entered our West Earth today. True Heaven Palace has ordered to capture this fugitive! Come, hang this portrait up!”