Tales of Herding Gods

Up ahead was a figure that was tall and sturdy. Qin Mu walked up the steps of the sacred hall with the chest clattering behind him. He raised his hand, and the chest stopped outside. It pulled back its four legs and landed on the floor.

The chest creaked as its top opened up. In the gap, the dragon qilin looked around and saw tombstones everywhere. He gave it some thought before crawling out with difficulty. His stomach stayed close to the ground as he followed Qin Mu while his tail was lowered, but not to the point it touched the floor. He didn’t dare to make a sound.

Suddenly, the dragon qilin felt something stepping on his tail and let out a shriek. The hair and scales on his body all rose up.

Qin Mu turned back to take a look and saw the dragon qilin with both his paws stuffed in his mouth. Only then did he make himself from making the noise.

When he turned back, he saw the chest tiptoeing behind him. It was this thing that had stepped on his tail and scared the hell out of him.

Qin Mu’s head started to ache, and he wanted to chase them out, but he felt like it wouldn’t be appropriate in such a sacred and solemn place. He could only brace himself and let them follow behind him. “If you two fool around again, I’ll turn one of you into firewood and the other into dinner!”

When he came to the back of the figure, only then did he realize that he was much shorter than the other party. As a youth, he was merely an inch shorter.

However, the impression that the figure gave him was of a very tall person. It was the impact the person’s aura and manner brought to his heart.

The figure belonged to First Ancestor Human Emperor whose stone statue Qin Mu had seen in Little Jade Capital.

“You should be the thirty-sixth human emperor, right?”

First Ancestor tilted his head to look at him. He was a man who looked to be in his thirties. He had a full beard and looked robust, radiating the aura of reliability.

“I’m the thirty-seventh,” Qin Mu corrected. “Village Chief is my master and the person who had taken me in, but this is still the first time I’ve come here.”

He looked forward and was slightly stunned. He realized at what First Ancestor Human Emperor had been looking.

It was rows and rows of bookshelves stored with countless books. Hall of Human Emperor was very huge, but it didn’t have any gold or jade accessories like Qin Mu had expected. There was no tall and majestic god statue or any luxury at all. There were only rows and rows of bookshelves.

He walked forward and picked up a book. The words written on it were unfamiliar to him, but he could feel a familiar kind of sword will from them.

It was a book that Village Chief had written.

In it, he talked about the techniques and divine arts of High Heaven’s Star Sovereign Qiao. He had written numerous weakness of them and studied their flaws.

Qin Mu returned the book to its place and picked up another one. On it was written numerous pros and cons of Jade Sovereign’s techniques and divine arts. He flipped through the other books, and most of them were experiences of facing the techniques of the gods of High Heavens.

Qin Mu even found Sword Picture. There was a big pile of scrolls which recorded how Village Chief had cultivated his sword picture. The path and the mood of every kind of sword skill were recorded inside, which made it evident that he had prepared it for the descendants.

The youth came to the second bookshelf where the words were filled with a boundless atmosphere. It had a kind of passion that was like volcanoes erupting, so the books there were most likely written by Human Emperor Qi Kang.

His were also mostly about the techniques of the gods of High Heavens as well as the way to face them calculated by him. Besides that, the rest were the techniques and divine arts of Human Emperor Qi Kang.

However, he mentioned that anyone who would cultivate his techniques would be an idiot. He had never defeated the gods of High Heavens, so cultivating his techniques would only allow one to walk the same path as him. There was a hint of disappointment in his words.

‘No wonder every human emperor wouldn’t cultivate the technique of their master, but instead insist on founding new techniques.’ Qin Mu suddenly understood the feelings of the past human emperors.

They were all failures and didn’t want their disciples to walk their old path. The reason they left their techniques was probably because they were the hard work of their whole lives. They wanted to have a successor, but it couldn’t be their own disciple.

This was probably their biggest regret.

“These books are all strategies on how to pacify High Heavens.” First Ancestor Human Emperor walked over and caressed the books on the bookshelves. “They viewed High Heavens as their biggest enemy and used all their effort to take it down. However, it’s a pity that all of them failed. You can stay here and study for some time. It will help you in finding your own path.”

Qin Mu shook his head. “The gods of High Heavens are mostly dead, all of the four sovereigns already gone. The High Heavens now is not a big problem anymore. The books in these bookshelves are no longer of much use. My goal isn’t the gods of High Heavens or the conquer of that place.”

First Ancestor Human Emperor looked at him with astonishment. “What is your goal?”

Qin Mu looked straight at this predecessor and said solemnly, “My goal is to tear apart this fake sky, to reform this unfair world, to seek advancement with reform, to rebuild a flourishing era that doesn’t belong to Founding Emperor!” His gaze was fervent when he asked loudly, “First Ancestor, this is also your goal, right?”

“No.” First Ancestor’s eyes dimmed, and he shook his head. “My ideal is not as ambitious as yours. I’ve been worn down by time and many enemies. You are still young and have the drive while I’m just a dispirited old man. The day will come when time and your enemies will wear you out too.

“When that time comes, you will come to Hall of Human Emperors and leave your book like the other human emperors. You will write down your failures and hope for your descendant to do what you couldn’t.”

His voice was slightly cold and grew crueler and crueler with each word. “You are a failure, just like them. You will quietly build a straw hut and sit in it with all hope lost. You won’t want for anyone to walk the same path as you, but the responsibility of the human emperor will make you have no choice but to find a successor. In the straw hut, you will shed tears of regret, you will hate the master you respect, and you will carve a tombstone for yourself on which you will write your failures.”

He sneered and said, “You’ll feel that you’re unworthy of a grave, unworthy of meeting your ancestor, then you will take your last breath and become like the other skeletons in the straw huts!”

Qin Mu stared with his eyes wide open, full of disbelief. The heroic and wise image of First Ancestor Human Emperor suddenly crumbled in his heart!

“Do you still want to be the human emperor? Let me tell you a cruel truth, there’s no human emperor in this world!” His voice was cold to the extreme. “Back then, when I saved my people from the big disaster, I already knew that I was a failure! I saved them because I was weak and couldn’t see these ordinary people die in front of me. However, that made me a deserter!”

He laughed loudly and pointed at the countless burial mounds in the fog outside Hall of Human Emperors. “I am a deserter. When escaping, all I thought about was how to leave that hell! So I escaped! I didn’t fight with them, but run away alone! I’ve thought about it countless times: what if I had stayed with them at that time? There’s only one answer to that, and that’s I’d have become a corpse just like them!”

He laughed a little maniacally. “That’s right, they died while I lived and became the human emperor in the hearts of the world! The people respect me because I brought them to a place where they could live, but so what? I only turned them into prisoners. Even the sky is fake in this huge cage, an inescapable prison! Everyone is just a prisoner in this cage! I didn’t bring them out, but only sent them into this prison of gods!

“Human emperor? Ha ha, human emperor! There’s no such thing as a human emperor in this world!”

His hair blew upwards from the anger, and he took a step forward. When he closed in on Qin Mu, his terrifying aura forced the youth to fall back continuously. “Throw away that laughable dream of yours and let go of your burden. You are not the human emperor. From the beginning to the end, the human emperor was a fake, merely a murderer who had sent the people of the world to the cage of gods!”

His aura didn’t allow Qin Mu to even breathe. He had no choice but to use his vital qi at full strength to fight back.

“Then why have you come back?” Qin Mu’s chest was almost compressed, and he could barely suck in a breath, but she still shouted out, “Why have you come back to erect tombstones for the ones who had died in battle? Why have you buried them? Why have you placed the weapons they used under their tombstones?”

First Ancestor’s aura suddenly calmed, and he lowered his head. “I went back, back to this battlefield to bury them because I have guilt in my heart. I know I’m not worthy to be the human emperor so I’ve come to redeem my sins.”

Qin Mu found it hard to believe. “Do you really not have any hope in your heart?”

First Ancestor was expressionless. “No. Young man, put down the dream in your heart. This human emperor farce should have ended long ago.”

Qin Mu lowered his head, but after a moment, he raised it with a smile, a radiant smile that a big boy like him always wore. “You failed, they failed, but I have never failed before. Since you can’t be the human emperor, I shall do it.”

First Ancestor sneered at him, his expression full of scorn. “In what way do you think you’re capable of that?”

“My surname is Qin, and my ancestor is Founding Emperor. I have the lineage of Carefree Village’s Qin family, and I’m also the overlord body! Is there a problem?” Qin Mu asked in a loud shout.

First Ancestor tilted his head, the scorn still there. “You have too many titles and too much honor in your heart. So what if you have the lineage of Founding Emperor? He also lost and hasn’t shown his face for twenty thousand years. What can an overlord body do? I’ve heard about its legend, but I’ve never heard of any of its achievements. You’re just a silly boy, just a kid… Let me shatter your illusion!”

He swept up his sleeves and suddenly attacked.

Astonished, Qin Mu hurriedly blocked. However, he felt that the power in the strike wasn’t great, so he couldn’t help becoming stunned.

First Ancestor’s power burst forth, and the ripple of the divine art threw the books on the shelves into the air.

“Don’t destroy these books!” Qin Mu shouted at him angrily and struck out with his fist. Behind him, a huge buddha appeared, and fourteen layers of heavenly gods and buddhas surrounded him, transforming into fourteen rays.

“Technique of Great Thunderclap Monastery, small tricks.” First Ancestor broke it easily and punched Qin Mu in the chest while saying indifferently, “With just this, you can’t protect yourself, let alone those books.”

Qin Mu was blown back, but his body transformed into a shadow, swooping into the ground. First Ancestor tapped the floor with his feet and shook him out. With his vital qi as a sword, he stabbed toward Qin Mu’s heart of brows.

“With just this low ability, your future will have nothing but death!” First Ancestor scorned. “You are also a failure.”

Qin Mu flew into a rage and gathered his qi into a sword. When he pointed his finger, the vital qi swords clashed and hummed. The collisions rang endlessly, and books kept dropping out to be shredded by the sword qi.

Qin Mu stared at their pieces with hatred burning in his eyes. “Don’t destroy their blood, sweat, and tears!”

“Come and stop me then.” First Ancestor chuckled. “If you can’t defeat me, you’re merely another pile of junk!”