Tales of Herding Gods

Qin Mu was still slightly uneasy and planned to recalculate everything to check if he had made any mistakes. It wasn’t because he didn’t trust the black tiger god, but because connecting the two worlds and building a Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge had never been done before. If something went wrong, he didn’t know what would happen.

For example, every new kind of spirit pill that Qin Mu had refined to cure injuries had the possibility of strange side effects. He could salvage it when it was a medicinal problem, but how could he salvage if the Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge that connected two worlds went haywire?

The black tiger god collected the blueprints rapidly and rushed outside excitedly, “Quickly, quickly! I can’t wait to test it out!”

Qin Mu could only follow him out if the city tower. On his way, he asked Sang Hua, “Sister Hua, is something the matter?”

“Li City has already been reconstructed, but the surroundings still have plenty of devil activity. The devils use the flesh, blood, and soul of the people of our Supreme Emperor Heaven to cultivate and pose a huge danger,” the girl answered. “We’ve spent quite some time searching for you to go training together. We want to get rid of those roaming divine arts practitioners of the devil race.”

“When Fu Riluo was in Li City, he had restrained the devils to not harm any of the people, but now that he’s gone, the remaining devils cannot hold themselves back anymore. To them, we humans are food and materials for cultivation and treasure refinement,” Yu He said.

“That’s why during these few days, the villages in the surroundings were trampled. Junior Sister Sang Hua had wanted to go God Suppression Pagoda, but she has no choice but to push that back.”

Qin Mu frowned and asked, “Fu Riluo restrained the devils from harming people? Why did he give such an order?”

“To win the people’s hearts,” Shu Yao said with a grim face. “The city can be invaded, the empire can fall, gods can also die in battle, yet the hearts of the people are the hardest to win. Fu Riluo is a devil god with great ambition, so his way of conquering was not that simple too.

“If he didn’t hurt the people, they wouldn’t fight back And even if he squeezed them a little more, turning them into slaves for mining ores and growing all kinds of medicinal ingredients, they would still remain docile.

“Like this, he could make those lowly devils put their hearts into the battle. Such an enemy that can strike at the heart is the strongest enemy.”

Qin Mu nodded, and his impression of Fu Riluo changed drastically.

Fu Riluo wasn’t a boorish man that only knew how to invade cities and seize lands. He understood the method of governing and knew what he had to do to reap the biggest benefit for the devil race.

Lowly devils have low status, and Qin Mu had already seen the fate of the lowly devils in the battlefield. They were expendables in the battle. If he turned them into slaves before forcing them to become expendables, it would be hard for him to rule.

To avoid that, Fu Riluo made humans into slaves so lowly devils would be waited upon comfortably. They would then go to battle with their lives on the line without a care, and he could sustain his rule.

And because the humans could still live, they didn’t fight back even though they had become slaves. Like that, Fu Riluo’s backlines were stable. With humans providing a constant supply of resources, he could put all his efforts into the battle on the front lines.

“Fu Riluo is a great talent. No wonder Sacred Teacher is so wary of him.” Qin Mu pondered it for a moment before saying, “There should be a lot of devils’ spirit weapons collected from the battlefield, right? How are you guys going to deal with them?”

“Because they contain devil nature and qi, they are destroyed so the devils won’t have a chance to reclaim them,” Yu He said.

Qin Mu smiled at her. “Brother Tiger and I will be setting up the Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge, so we need a lot of black gold and black iron. Since the spirit weapons of the devils are useless, could you guys lend them to us? The devil nature and qi in them is just what we need!”

Yu He smiled back at him. “My master can get numerous devil spirit weapons. I wonder how much does Cult Master need?”

“The more the better!” Qin Mu said solemnly, “Thanks for the trouble, Hall Master Yu!”

Turning to leave, she said, “Cult Master is too courteous. Those things of the devils are useless anyway. You guys can go first. My master and I will deliver the weapons later.”

Qin Mu looked at Sang Hua and the rest and he hesitated for a moment. “Sister Hua, Brother Tiger and I need some time to set up the bridge so you guys should go train. Come back after ten days. We should be done by then, and I might even be able to introduce you to some new friends.”

“Besides finding you for training, there’s another purpose for our visit. We would like to join your cult,” Sang Hua said in a low voice.

The divine arts practitioners of Supreme Emperor Heaven present all hurriedly nodded.

Qin Mu stared dumbfoundedly at Shu Yao.

“After Cult Master told us about the philosophy of Heavenly Saint Cult, Senior Sister Yu He and I found it really agreeable, so we joined and became hall masters. Later, I was too talkative and told my friends about the aim of the cult and they felt that it was good as well, so they also came to join.”

“Can we have the positions of hall masters as well?” Sang Hua asked with excitement.

Qin Mu was overjoyed, but he didn’t show it. “Heavenly Saint Cult is righteous and outstanding in Eternal Peace, so not anyone can join. However, I’m moved by everyone who fights the devils without a care for their lives and knows that everyone here are righteous people. We are like-minded, so I won’t make it difficult for all of you to join.

“However, to become hall masters, you need proficiency in a particular field. My sacred cult has three hundred and sixty-one halls which represent three hundred and sixty-one professions, so it’s not about the strength of your abilities.”

Sang Hua and the rest were slightly disappointed, but Qin Mu smiled at them. “However, the sacred cult has just established a branch in Supreme Emperor Heaven, so there are many things to do. We need to handle the urgent things in a swift manner, so there’s no need to look too much into it. That’s why, everyone can become a hall master of the sacred cult in Supreme Emperor Heaven.”

Sang Hua cheered. “Do we need to smear our lips with the blood of sacrifices and pledge to never betray the cult?”

Qin Mu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He shook his head and said, “Our Heavenly Saint Cult is not a devil cult with a bad reputation, so we don’t do things like smearing ourselves with blood. No one needs to worship the cult master either. You just have to greet me; there’s no formal etiquette. The cult master is the sacred teacher and not an emperor.

“I’m currently hurrying to build the Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge so I got no time to talk. Come back after ten days. When the two worlds connect, I will have the brothers from Eternal Peace’s sacred cult explain everything in detail.”

Sang Hua and the rest were satisfied and left with Shu Yao.

‘Establishing a cult in Supreme Emperor Heaven is much simpler than I thought.’ Qin Mu sighed ruefully, then his gaze flickered when he took a glance at the black tiger god beside him. “Does Brother Tiger want to join the cult?”

The black tiger god rolled his eyes at him and sneered. “My lord has never acknowledged your Heavenly Saint Cult. Don’t waste your energy and let’s just build the Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge!”

The human and the tiger soon came to the front of a huge sacrificial altar which was as towering as a mountain. It had steps that led toward the sky where there was a level platform. Blood sacrifice runes were imprinted around it, and countless corpses of Supreme Emperor Heaven’s divine arts practitioners were piled up on the ground. Only because of that were the stone statues and the primordial spirits of gods be summoned from Great Ruins.

The runes of Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge that Qin Mu and the black tiger god had designed were formed on the foundation of the sacrifice runes, so only minor changes needed to be done to the runes on the sacrificial altar. The human and the tiger immediately made their moves to do exactly that.

After a moment, True God Pang Yu brought Yu He and numerous devil spirit weapons that piled into a mountain. He said with a smile, “Little friend, is this enough for you? If not, there’s another, much larger batch in Brilliance Injured City.”

Delighted, Qin Mu smiled. “These are enough, much thanks, true god!”

“Is there any place in which you need our help?” True God Pang Yu asked. Yu He also couldn’t wait to assist.

The black tiger god was about to accept their help, but Qin Mu hurriedly shook his head. “There’s no need for that! True god is busy, and Senior Sister Yu He also needs to go train. I don’t dare to trouble you two!”

True God Pang Yu was indeed plagued with many matters so he bid farewell with Yu He and left.

“There are many parts that need to be forged for Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge, and the two of us will take a very long time to do it. Why didn’t you let them help?” the black tiger god grumbled.

“Senior brother, look at the suns in the sky!”

The black tiger god raised his head and came to a realization. “We indeed can’t let the gods of Supreme Emperor Heaven help; otherwise, it’s impossible to know what trouble they’d bring!”

The human and the tiger started smelting all of the devil weapons. Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge required didn’t need for the devil nature to be removed, so they just smelted and reforged everything.

They were both professionals in forging and skilled in calculation, so each and every component was done with great precision. The rune markings on all things had to be exact and as precise as the digits of Shun Xi. They sought perfection.

Sun Forger God had forged the sun crooked because when he was designing it, he didn’t seek for his every component to be precise. In Qin Mu’s hypothesis, the blueprints of the half sun were at most calculated to the digits of Hu or Wei, which resulted in the final product being crooked and unbearable to look at.

For the sun in the sky to look round, the digits had to be calculated to Xu Yu or Shun Xi at the least.

The half sun was dozens of times bigger than the huge sacrificial altar, so the degree of preciseness that Qin Mu required was extremely high. Every component had to be calculated to the Shun Xi digit, since he couldn’t look at the sun in the sky which was a truly horrific sight.

Saint Woodcutter was an expert in calculation and forging, so he also couldn’t bear to see the sun of Supreme Emperor Heaven.

After ten days, Sang Hua, Shu Yao, and the rest hurried over with hundreds of divine arts practitioners in tow. They came to see Qin Mu and the black tiger god activating Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge.

Qin Mu and the black tiger god were still hurrying to and fro on the sacrificial altar, doing various tests and adjustments. They didn’t dare to relax even in the slightest. Over the ten days, they had only slept twice or thrice and were truly exhausted, but their spirits were still high.

Not much later, True God Pang Yu, God Sang Ye, and the rest of the gods also came with thousands of divine arts practitioners. Everyone looked at the sacrificial altar with all kinds of huge, pitch black components merged into it. They were of different lengths and looked half-smelted spears, halberds, knives, and swords that all aimed at the sky.

They were covered in profound runes that were difficult to understand. Most were near the ground. The bottom part of the sacrificial altar had been nearly cleared out by Qin Mu, and there were numerous large components placed instead. Everything looked extremely complicated.

Many passageways had been dug out throughout the sacrificial altar, and all of them were made of countless components. The runes connected each and every component.

The entire sacrificial altars was an entire body and yet it had incomparably complicated inner structure at the same time.

Thousands of divine arts practitioners and gods surrounded the area and walked a few rounds around it while exclaiming in admiration. Qin Mu and the black tiger god had shown them a new beauty that a huge metal artifact could posses!

This kind of beauty wasn’t regular, but uneven. Shadows fell disorderly while metal pieces and runes exhibited a strange kind of beauty.

Qin Mu and the black tiger god installed the last component and aligned it with the sacrificial altar in the other world. The two of them looked at each other and saw the excitement in the other’s eyes.

“Are you ready?”

The black tiger god raised his eyebrows. “I’m ready to activate the power of the runes!”

Qin Mu nodded heavily, and a beam of divine vitality surged out from the black tiger god to activate the rune. The bright light slowly went forward, lighting up more runes. As if that was too slow, it soon split into two and flowed toward even more runes like running water!

A humming could be heard as bright light flowed into the interior of the sacrificial altar and leaked out to the steps, slowly lighting up all of the rune markings.

Finally, it flowed to the bottom and gathered there.

Twang!

A violent tremor reverberated, and the steps of the sacrificial altar floated into the sky. They separated into more than nine hundred layers according to the steps. Each of them rotated in different directions, and after every rotation, the runes on different layers would link with each other. The process looked incomparably intricate!

Qin Mu and the black tiger stood on one of the steps full of excitement. The divine arts practitioners of Supreme Emperor Heaven below the altar and the gods standing upright in the sky also couldn’t help becoming excited.

The sight of the huge metal artifact being activated was simply too magnificent!

The sacrificial altar spun continuously, and every quarter of a rotation, there were waves of spirit energy rushing out. They were the devil qi and nature hidden in the weapons that were being activated!

Based on Qin Mu and the black tiger god’s careful calculation, as long as they broke through the barrier of the two worlds and constructed a funnel-shaped Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge, the energy of the two worlds would maintain the stability, and the passage wouldn’t crumble easily. All the devil qi and nature of the weapons would be completely exhausted in the moment of connection.

The layers of the sacrificial altar rotated countless times. When a great amount of energy was accumulated, a beam of black light suddenly rushed into the sky. The boundless power howled while shaking the world!

Thousands of divine arts practitioners and gods, as well as Qin Mu and the black tiger god, raised their heads to look into the sky with a smile. It then froze on their faces.

Up above, that beam of black light was incomparably fierce when it struck the half sun. The macabre creation was instantly vaporized.

The black tiger god’s ears, which were upright, bent down toward the back of his head, and his mouth went wide open. “We’re going to die… Junior brother, is this creating trouble or starting an incident?”

Bead-sized sweat hung down from Qin Mu’s left eyelid and fell on his cheek. The sweat then came rolling down his forehead like a stream before forming two trails down both his eyes.

Qin Mu turned his head with difficulty and looked to his companion. The black tiger god with a youthful appearance had more sweat rolling down his face, and his shirt was already drenched.

“Senior brother, take a look at the expression of the people below?” Qin Mu’s voice was hoarse as he suppressed its volume.

“You look, for I don’t dare. I’m afraid they won’t be able to resist beating us to death… Do you think they will beat us to death?”