Tales of Herding Gods

“You’re… the long braid girl!” As Qin Mu examined the girl with the two long braids, he couldn’t help thinking about the girl he had met in the darkness. In delight, he asked, “Is that really you?”

The girl back then had also had two long braids, but because they were situated in two different worlds, they couldn’t talk or even see each other’s faces. They could only take note of the other’s silhouette.

They had once been through a long night together and avoided the pursuit of the Heavenly Devil Horde. But the sun had risen, and the darkness retreated. The girl had then vanished along with the dark realm.

The girl standing on the shoulder of the god in front of Qin Mu also had long braids that were hanging down to her waist.

When she heard the mention of a girl with longs braids, and she couldn’t help becoming delighted and surprised. She hurriedly jumped down from the shoulder of the god and came to Qin Mu in a few footsteps. Two small dimples appeared on her cheeks. “You’re that shadow boy! Father, he is that shadow boy that later disappeared!”

The god lowered his head and looked at Qin Mu. He asked suspiciously, “If you’re that shadow, why do you have a physical body now? We saw you battling earlier, and it was truly extraordinary. We were wondering where had such an expert came from! You’re on Seven Stars Realm? For divine arts practitioners of Seven Stars Realm to have such achievements like yours is very rare in Supreme Emperor Heaven. You’re a truly formidable youth!”

Qin Mu’s heart trembled slightly, “There are divine arts practitioners of Seven Stars Realm here that are stronger than me? Are they overlord bodies?”

“Overlord bodies?” The god picked them up to carry forward while asking with a blank face, “What’s overlord body? I’ve never heard of it before. They are all youths with the aptitude of true gods, the kings among the spirit bodies. They were born extraordinary and aren’t any overlord bodies.”

“Kings of the spirit bodies?”

Qin Mu blinked. He had never heard of kings among the spirit bodies, and his mind blanked out. However, excitement grew in his heart once more. Kings among the spirit bodies, youths with aptitudes of true gods—he had been right to come to this world!

He had treated himself as an offering to teleport his body to this world. In the battlefield, he had already noticed the extraordinary points of the Heavenly Devil Horde. Their abilities were extremely strong, and if any of them were put in Eternal Peace, they would all be people who wouldn’t be inferior to Pangong Tso. Of course, in terms of escaping abilities, Pangong Tso would still be unrivaled.

‘Supreme Emperor Heaven has been through some twenty thousand years of baptism of war. The paths, skills, and divine arts here must have improved at a godly speed. Over here, I might find the way to defeat First Ancestor Human Emperor!’

His hands clenched into tight fists. Defeating First Ancestor Human Emperor had become his biggest goal. Since he couldn’t find hope in defeating him in Eternal Peace, he might as well go look for it in Supreme Emperor Heaven!

Even if he couldn’t find it, knowing more paths, skills, and divine arts could also assist him in improving himself.

Suddenly, the god rushed into the battlefield, leaving them behind. “You guys remain here!”

Far away, a tear ripped open in space, and six pitch black hands pulled out. They grabbed hold of the corners of the crack and tried to pull it open wider.

The god rushed forward and pulled out his sword to cut off those hands. But just as he took care of two, a huge hammer suddenly came and sent him away. A devil god had arrived to stop him.

The long braid girl watched the battlefield with concentration for a time. She only let out a sigh of relief when she saw that her father was fine and had returned to kill the devil that had attacked him.

“Hey, you guys were not here originally, so why have you appeared here?”

He was slightly confused. The place in which he had met this girl was the hinterland of Great Ruins while this place was the borders of Great Ruins that were twenty to thirty thousand miles apart. By right, she shouldn’t have been anywhere nearby.

The long braid girl’s face fell. “After you vanished, our city was invaded and many people died. Father was the one that rescued us and brought us to this Brilliance Injured City…”

She rushed forward, and Qin Mu followed after her in a hurry. “When I disappeared, it was just as the night became day, so didn’t the devils in your Supreme Emperor Heaven vanish?”

The long braid girl was puzzled. “Why would they vanish?”

Qin Mu was stunned.

He had thought that Supreme Emperor Heaven was like Great Ruins and also faced the invasion of darkness. When he had walked through it and the darkness retreated, he had also left Supreme Emperor Heaven. But from the looks of it now, the situation in Supreme Emperor Heaven was different from that of Great Ruins. The devils didn’t vanish upon the rising of the sun, but stayed without any limits.

‘It looks like Dutian Devil King was right. The world barrier between Supreme Emperor Heaven and the devils’ world has been compressed and broken.’ Qin Mu was astonished. ‘Since his guess was completely accurate, his other guess will probably come true as well. After the devils take over Supreme Emperor Heaven, they will sacrifice it for the devil world to collide with Eternal Peace World! But how can I stop that?’

The long braid girl rushed down to the altar while saying quickly, “You have fought for a while so you should go to Brilliance Injured City to rest first. I still need to fight with the army.”

“This bit of injury is nothing.” Qin Mu quickly caught up with her and said, “I’m also an apothecary and am quite famous in my world. I’ve already treated myself just now. I’ve come here to seek stronger skills, since many in my world have been lost throughout the ages.”

The mountain-like sacrificial altar had already been taken by the Heavenly Devil Horde with the lead of the Heavenly Devil General that had blown Qin Mu over ten miles away. Several hundred soldiers of the Heavenly Devil Horde were fighting with divine arts practitioners of Supreme Emperor Heaven up the altar. The latter’s situation was extremely bitter.

The Heavenly Devil General at the highest point of the sacrificial altar was casting divine arts. In the sky, lumps of dark lightning rolled and scattered through the ground. Everywhere they passed, the flesh of divine arts practitioners of Supreme Emperor Heaven would dissolve, turning them into running skeletons.

Qin Mu narrowed his eyes. The fierceness and strangeness of the divine arts of the devil race were even higher than what the divine arts practitioners that cultivated the devil path in Heavenly Devil Cult could show!

The long braid girl rushed up the altar. “My father and I had seen it when we were observing the battle in Brilliance Injured City. Even though you are very powerful, your magic power is ridiculously strong, your divine arts are incomparably exquisite, your achievements in the divine arts are extremely high, your techniques seemed to have a problem. You showed no true god level techniques, and my father said that there’s a gap in your civilization.”

The girl faced a Heavenly Devil Horde soldier who was an asura with extremely strong abilities and corporeal body. His attacks were incomparably fast when he suddenly trembled, revealing all kinds of rune markings as though they were carved into his skin.

However, the corporeal body of the long braid girl was also ridiculously strong. The two of them fought with speed, hiding their divine arts between their palms and fingers. Like that, the outcome of the battle was decided in an instant.

The long braid girl shattered the heart of her opponent by jabbing at the heart of his brows. The head of that asura exploded, and his corpse fell to the ground, rolling down the steps of the altar.

The corners of Qin Mu’s eyes twitched. He saw that the divine arts of the girl weren’t more exquisite than his—in truth, they were really crude—but her technique had extraordinary points.

The long braid girl continued to fight her way up the altar while speaking to him. “Father said that many parts of your body are already no inferior to those of the divine arts practitioners with aptitudes of true god. For example, your hands, heart, dantian, legs, and eyes have already reached extremely high achievements.

“However, your hands are hands, legs are legs, heart is heart, dantian is dantian. Looking at them alone, your achievements are extremely high, but your corporeal body hasn’t unified them, so you have not reached the aptitude of a true god. Compared to a young true god, you’re slightly inferior.”

Throughout her speech, she killed several people with her fierceness. She walked step by step up to the top of the sacrificial altar.

With her breaking up the disposition of troops, the other divine arts practitioners gained spirit and frantically rushed toward the top of the altar as well. Yet more Heavenly Devil Horde flooded over to block them, holding back their momentum.

Qin Mu transformed into Saturn Sovereign’s form and swept Gate of Heaven Influence forward. The Heavenly Devil Horde soldiers which got caught instantly lost their souls and collapsed.

He looked around and nodded; the long braid girl had been right. The divine arts practitioners of Supreme Emperor Heaven indeed possessed an advantage over the divine arts practitioners of Eternal Peace.

Their divine arts weren’t exquisite, but their power was much stronger. Their changes in moves couldn’t be compared to those in Eternal Peace, but because of their strong corporeal bodies, the power of their moves was much greater.

This should have been the effect of their techniques.

Even people as powerful as Butcher, Mute, Cripple, Granny Si, Blind, and the rest had only one thing in which they were skilled and had cultivated to god realm. They couldn’t reach such heights in all fields.

Even if it was a sicko like Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor, the saint that appears once every five hundred years, he too couldn’t reach god realm in every field.

Yet the techniques of the divine arts practitioners in Supreme Emperor Heaven were a grade higher, so all parts of their bodies had received training. They developed in all fields, and so their battle power was even greater!

‘No wonder all of the divine arts practitioners and devils in Supreme Emperor Heaven are so strong!’

Qin Mu suddenly had a feeling of the dark clouds parting and the sky becoming clear. The purpose of his journey was to find the method to defeat First Ancestor Human Emperor, and now he finally saw a ray of dawn.

“However, your magic power is strong and your divine arts are exquisite, so even though you are lacking, you can still hold your place in a battlefield. In Supreme Emperor Heaven, there shouldn’t be many people stronger than you on the same realm.”

The long braid girl continued to talk in a loud voice, telling Qin Mu about her father’s opinion of him. “Your technique is too scattered, though. When you train your eyes, you just train your eyes. When you train your hands, you just train your hands. And when you train your heart, you just train your heart. You’re training all of them separately.

“If you unified all parts of your body and was able to cultivate your corporeal body, magic power, primordial spirit, and also divine arts together, you would have another astonishing leap in power! However, all of this happened because your technique was too scattered. If you wanted to combine everything into one now, it would probably be incomparably difficult.”

Qin Mu let out a shaky breath. The long braid girl was only passing on her father’s opinion since she couldn’t have that kind of judgment and knowledge herself, but she had indeed pointed out Qin Mu’s weakness, or in fact, the entire Eternal Peace Empire’s weakness.

Throughout that land’s history, as long as the divine arts practitioners gained achievements in one area, it would be enough for them to stand at the top of the world. However, since they didn’t string all these achievements together, the technique had never become a system.

This was because they were all the later generations of people who had escaped from the disaster twenty thousand years, and there was a huge gap in their inheritance. They had cultivated hard and the wise had researched the divine arts, but they could never break through the shackles of technique.

The two finally fought to the top of the sacrificial altar. Hundreds of divine arts practitioners fought against the Heavenly Devil Horde that was attacking up from below while the rest surrounded Heavenly Devil General.

“A bunch of dogs and chickens!” The Heavenly Devil General laughed loudly with his primordial spirit standing behind him overflowing with flames. His four heads surveyed the surroundings as the huge flags on his back flew up. He sneered and said, “Killing you guys is as easy as flipping over a palm!”

The long braid girl and the rest looked at him with grim expressions. The Heavenly Devil General’s abilities were extremely high, and even Qin Mu didn’t dare to receive his attack head-on. The four-headed devil could probably take one of their lives with a single move.

‘Looks like the next step of Eternal Peace Empire’s reform should deal with technique…’

Beside the braid girl, Qin Mu seemed to be in deep thought as he took out a huge jade eye from his taotie sack. His hand made some tweak at its back.

“Do you think I can construct a bridge to connect Eternal Peace to your Supreme Emperor Heaven?” Qin Mu asked. “I want the divine arts practitioners of Eternal Peace to come here for experience and to open up their horizons.”

The long braid girl was extremely nervous, and cold sweat kept rolling down her forehead. She said angrily, “Why are you asking so many questions? Stop thinking about other things for now! With the enemy in front of us, if we don’t kill him…”

Light burst forth from the jade eye, and the Heavenly Devil General leaped up, but he was still split apart in midair.

Qin Mu closed the jade eye and took out a bunch of tools for calculation along with stacks of papers before squatting down on the ground to record some numerical symbols. Next, he took out a bunch of measuring spirit weapons, then continued to draw.

He didn’t even raise his head and when he said, “I want to construct a bridge that could connect the two worlds together. However, that requires a huge amount of calculations. Do you have any experts skilled in calculations? I think if we can maintain the balance of the two worlds’ energy, it should be possible… What happened? Why are you all looking at me with such strange gazes?”