Tales of Herding Gods

“This…”

Qin Mu hesitated for a moment. The fact that he managed to awaken the god’s skeleton’s consciousness with the help of Black Tortoise Bead was a mere coincidence. It was because of the consciousness that had remained dormant that the skeleton could talk after awakening and even recover his memories.

The other skeletons might not have the consciousness still left in them. Even if he awakened them, they would just be a pile of walking bones.

On top of that, awakening the skeleton of a god required an extremely huge amount of magic power. Even with Black Tortoise Bead, Qin Mu might not be able to endure awakening so many gods’ skeletons.

With his comprehension of Ten Thousand Spirit Nature Technique, he could at most summon a sand ‘giant’ that was no higher than three yards. Any higher would be impossible for him.

With the Black Tortoise Bead, he could increase his comprehension of all things having spirit and all things having soul and heighten his senses. Yet awakening so many gods’ skeletons at the same time would exhaust him to no end, and it might even be dangerous.

The god’s skeleton ‘looked’ at him with faint flames in his eye sockets, full of anticipation. It was the anticipation of a warrior from ancient times about to meet his comrade in arms again. This made Qin Mu unable to bear rejecting him.

He smiled wide. “I can try.”

He took out Black Tortoise Bead and executed Ten Thousand Spirit Nature Technique to use the awakening spell.

After a moment, a huge skeleton stood up unsteadily, and the true god couldn’t help being elated. He hugged the skeleton of his comrade in arms and burst in laughter and tears.

“General.” The skeleton was muddle-headed and seemed to not have much intelligence. He could only say a single word.

But even with just that word, the true god was moved. It was as though he had returned to the time of High Emperor Era.

The more skeletons Qin Mu had awakened, the paler his face became. There seemed to be countless voices squabbling in his head, which made it hard for him to concentrate.

The true god raised the sand with the awakened skeletons and used the last of his magic power to execute the fire of a true god, smelting the sand.

It transformed into boiling lava before solidifying into huge chunks of rock.

The true god constructed their mausoleum while the various skeleton used the rocks to construct their graves. One by one, they started to take shape.

When Qin Mu awakened the last skeleton, he collapsed from exhaustion.

On the desert, numerous tall skeletons finished up the last of the mausoleum. They stood upright in front of their own graves and waited for the final words from their general.

The true god burned the last bits of his magic power to prop up the tattered flag and looked at the comrades that had died with him.

Wind blew at the tattered flag.

It fluttered and flapped. It seemed to be reliving the time of blood and sweat.

“If there’s an afterlife.” The true god didn’t open his mouth, but there was a sound as though metal was colliding against metal and battle drums were beating. “If there’s an afterlife, let us gather together and fight the heaven and earth once more!”

His voice reverberated throughout the desert as he shouted to his own soldiers, his comrades in arms. “High Emperor will return and bring us to fight with our enemies once more! For now, soldiers, you can rest!”

“General, let’s meet again in the afterlife!” the skeletons shouted back.

The skeletons walked into their own graves and placed their tattered weapons at their sides before lying down. They seemed to be prepared to leap up once more when the bugle horn rang out and rush into another fight.

The flames in the true god’s eye sockets flickered, and huge stone tablets flew silently across the air, sealing shut the door to the mausoleum.

Runes flowed on the four walls, and with the closure of the stone tablets, the formation that was protecting the god mausoleum became complete.

Qin Mu let out a sigh of relief and raised his head to look at the skeleton of the true god beside him. “Senior, you constructed a mausoleum for them so why are you not there as well?”

The tall god’s skeleton sat down while holding onto the flag. It stayed straight, same as his back, and they faced together the tall and desolate mausoleum.

“I’m their general yet I didn’t bring them back home. I don’t deserve to have my own grave.” The true god sat quietly while the flag fluttered in the wind. “I need to protect them and be their tomb guardian. I could see that none of them woke up; it was you who spoke for them.”

He lowered his head to look at Qin Mu. “Thank you.”

Qin Mu was stunned. “I didn’t want you to feel like you are the only one left. So I…”

The true god raised his head and smiled. “Even though it was you, I’ve felt warmth in my heart. I’ve no more regrets.”

From his empty eye sockets, two streams of lights flowed out like dragons and flew into Qin Mu’s eyes, settling down there.

It was the last of qi of pure yang and qi of pure yin in his divine treasures. They were a gift to him.

“Darkness is coming, go there!” The skeleton raised his hand and pointed into the distance.

Qin Mu turned back and saw the sun setting. It was about to sink into the desert.

“Senior, what do you mean the darkness is coming?” Qin Mu asked. “Could the night here also be faced with the invasion of darkness? Senior…”

The god’s skeleton fell silent and didn’t speak anymore. It had no more breath left. Its will was silenced and scattered away. What remained was only the skeleton with a raised arm pointing into the distance.

Qin Mu stood up silently and summoned the chest as well as the dragon qilin who was shivering on top of it. “Let’s go there.”

The chest followed him in the direction that the true god had pointed.

The dragon qilin collected his courage and asked, “Cult Master, what did the huge skeleton mean when he said that it was you?”

“My awakening spell couldn’t awaken the spirits of the gods who had died in battle. The skeletons I awakened had no consciousness and could only follow my commands. He could also see this, so he had said that.”

The dragon qilin was puzzled. “But I had heard those skeletons talking and calling him general.”

“They could talk because I spoke through their mouths. I didn’t want him to feel lonely and feel that only he was left from High Emperor Era.”

Qin Mu turned back and looked at the god’s skeleton that was sitting with the battle flag and guarding the mausoleum. He then looked away and said with a calm expression, “However, he noticed, though he didn’t expose it. Actually, in his heart, there should still be some hope that the ones talking were his comrades and not me.”

The dragon qilin couldn’t understand such feelings so he just laid down on the chest to sleep while muttering, “I’m afraid of these things the most. Back then at Liu Family, I had nightmares for a few days…”

The sky became darker and darker. Qin Mu quickened his footsteps while the sun set in the desert.

Darkness flooded over from the west and caught up to them in an instant, drowning them out.

Qin Mu was stunned. The world was swallowed by the darkness, just like another Great Ruins. The only difference was that when in Great Ruins it was daytime, it was nighttime here.

Suddenly. Qin Mu’s heart trembled slightly. ‘I understand! I understand the source of the darkness!’

Slight noises came from the bottom of the chest, and Qin Mu stopped to look under the chest. He saw a youth without both legs hugging onto the leg of the chest.

“Grandmaster.” Qin Mu broke into a smile, “I trust you have been well?”

Pangong Tso’s face was ashen as he spat out, “Qin brat, this goddamn world is toying with me. Kill me, cut my flesh, just do whatever you want with me!”

Qin Mu smiled pleasantly. “Why would I cut your flesh? Stop fooling around. Killing is much simpler than cutting.”

A bright light shone in the darkness. It was a divine light that could pass through the darkness.

Qin Mu’s heart almost leaped out his throat, and he hurriedly jumped onto the chest. His body sank it down, sending it and Pangong Tso who was below into the yellow sand.

“What are you doing?” Pangong Tso cried out in a panic.

“Shut up. Xing An’s eyes have entered this place!” Qin Mu shouted back in a low voice.

A beam of light from an eyeball swept past the desert. Not finding anything, it flew forward.

Soon, another eyeball flew over, and the two big eyeballs met in the sky. They paused for a moment. Another faint glow then flew quickly from afar and paused in midair. It was the head of a youth.

It had no eyeballs, but the two floating ones soon entered the eye sockets.

“You guys are close by!” The head in the sky suddenly laughed coldly and said, “Divine Physician Qin, Grandmaster, you guys stole my chest and want to escape my pursuit? Aren’t you underestimating me too much!”

Suddenly, the yellow sand in the surroundings hardened, and Qin Mu felt it press tighter and tighter around him. He knew that things were bad and immediately executed Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique. His vital qi burst forth around his body, transforming into elegant runes that fell into a formation under the sand.

Pangong Tso’s blood ran cold, and he hissed, “You’re going to execute a teleportation divine art in such a place? You don’t want to live, but I want to…”

“Over here!” Xing An’s head which was in midair screeched, and his eyes shot out divine lights to sweep over the land!

Hum.

The place where Qin Mu was suddenly collapsed and became a huge pit. Next, the two divine lights shot into the huge pit and vaporized a huge portion of the yellow sand.

Pangong Tso’s scalp crawled as he was teleported away with the chest by Qin Mu. He then shouted out, “Cult Master Qin, your abilities are lacking. We didn’t teleport too far!”

“Shut up, it’s Fatty Dragon that’s too heavy!”

Qin Mu gritted his teeth and executed the teleportation divine art again. The runes shone brightly. Behind, a head was flying over with two beams of light going over the desert, vaporizing everything they passed!

Qin Mu executed his teleportation divine arts until he was out of magic power. He then pointed in a direction and said, “Grandmaster, head over there!”

Pangong Tso hurriedly took over. He brought out small flags from his taotie sack which were imprinted with teleportation runes. Once activated, the flags fluttered and covered them. They vanished before the divine lights from Xing An’s eyes could hit them.

Pangong Tso had entered Heavenly Devil Cult in one life and had almost become the Heavenly Devil Cult Master, so he was no stranger to the teleportation divine art of Heavenly Devil Cult.

He teleported them over and over again, and his magic power was also exhausted rapidly. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. “Cult Master Qin, I’ll be out of magic power soon! Are we there yet?”

He executed the last of his magic power and moved them once more. When the teleportation formation markings dispersed, light shone brightly in everyone’s eyes as they appeared in a city.

The walls were stunning, decorated with lanterns and colored banners. The two of them raised their heads to look and couldn’t help becoming flabbergasted. On top of the high buildings and towers of the city in darkness, there stood gods that were three hundred yards tall. They either had four heads and eight arms, or three heads and six arms. There was also those with bird heads and those with beast heads. Some of the gods looked like black tortoise, vermillion bird, white tiger, or green dragon.

They gave off intense divine light that forced back the darkness.

The city was incomparably bustling with people coming to and fro.

They looked as though they had suddenly appeared, squeezing past Qin Mu and the big chest while full of smiles.

“That’s not right, this isn’t right… This place was clearly a desert, so why is there a city? If there are really that many people here, why would no one have buried the skeletons of those gods? And why are there so many gods here?”

Qin Mu had a splitting headache, so he suddenly grabbed the hand of a girl passing by him. That girl saw that he didn’t look too bad and burst out laughing. “Lecher, what are you grabbing my hand for?”

“Good sister, what year is this?” Qin Mu asked with a pale face.

The girl smiled and said, “You sure have a way of flirting. The year now is without a doubt High Emperor Year 24000. Today is none other than the twenty-six thousandth birthday of High Emperor!”