Tales of Herding Gods

From the sky of the dark cavern to the light below was actually such an incomparably long journey. Qin Mu descended continuously, his blood running cold as his speed of descent became faster and faster. If he continued to fall like this and couldn’t execute any divine art to slow himself, he would probably turn into a pile of mush!

He tried to execute his divine art. Just as his vital qi formed a rune marking, the rune scattered the next instant, unable to take shape.

This underground cavern seemed to have a strange power that could disrupt the operation of his technique and his divine art. Qin Mu soon realized that this kind of disruption was on his consciousness. Every time he tried to execute his divine art, there would be a strange power that messes up his thoughts. This made him unable to execute his divine art.

‘Mental divine arts?’

Qin Mu was astonished. Even though this kind of divine art was rarely seen, Great Educational Heavenly Devil Scriptures had some records in regards to divine arts of this field. They were divine arts that relied on the strong brainwaves, aiming towards the mind—they were usually illusion attacks. This caused the opponent to sink into a hallucination, making them unable to differentiate between what was real and what was fake.

At this time, he could use his own divine arts to break out of the land of fantasy and peer into the truth, killing the opponent.

However, the mental divine art in this underground cavern was even more profound. It struck his consciousness directly and made him unable to break the opponent’s mental divine art.

‘Mental divine art is a direction that is worthy of studying. I need to tell Imperial Preceptor about it once I return. We can train some scholars with mental divine arts. If they are on the battlefield and burst forth with mental divine art, the enemies will be unable to execute their divine arts. It would be as easy as slaughtering livestock… Bah, why am I thinking of this now? I’m almost becoming mush now!’

Despite that Qin Mu couldn’t focus his consciousness, his corporeal body was still incomparably strong. He took a step and tried to sprint in the darkness. He tried to use an incomparably astonishing speed to allow himself to sprint in the air.

Next, he discovered a strange point. The air in this place was very thin. The more he descended down, the thinner the air became. Even if he sprinted with his legs, he couldn’t borrow any strength.

Right at this moment, he saw a star. That star was actually only the size of a basket. It should be a grain of star sand.

‘Big senior brother’s star sand! He has indeed come here before!’

Qin Mu was delighted. When he stepped on this star sand, it descended rapidly after being pressed down. However, there was a strange power in the star sand that was resisting against the strange forcefield here. His increasing momentum while falling down gradually slowed, and instead, there was a momentum that was going to spring him back up.

Qin Mu immediately squatted and his legs exerted force to spring himself outward. He landed on another star sand and he leaped around as though he was flying. He stepped on dozens of star sands and quickly closed in where the light in the earth’s core was.

Where the earth’s core was giving off light, a flat platform was floating in the darkness. There were steps in all four directions. The bottom was wide and the top was narrow. This platform just floated alone in the center of the darkness, like a sacrificial altar that was hanging in the air.

Qin Mu landed on the sacrificial altar and turned his head back to look at star sands that floated in the darkness. Founding Master had apparently found his way here and laid a formation. Which also meant that the thing on this sacrificial altar was a thing that Founding Master wanted to leave behind for Saint Woodcutter.

‘What exactly is this thing? Big senior brother has already left two things behind. One is God Execution Mysterious Knife, a human head that was stuffed into a case. The other is a commander’s seal that is from some era. In that case, what’s the thing on this sacrificial altar…”

He looked towards the center of the sacrificial altar and saw that there was a stone coffin there. He didn’t know what stone this coffin was made out from. It was covered with relief markings that looked like a kind of sealing spell.

This stone coffin was over thirty yards long and ten yards wide. It was very huge and wouldn’t be considered a coffin of an ordinary person. It was where the god was buried.

Qin Mu tried to execute Nine Heavens Eyes Awakening Skill, but he was still unable to execute his divine art. He hesitated for a moment before taking down the golden willow leaf on the heart of his brows. He then used his third eye to look at the stone coffin.

He couldn’t see any abnormalities with this eye of his, but he could faintly see there was no corpse in the stone coffin. There was only a huge jar inside.

Qin Mu stuck the golden willow leaf back on the heart of his brows and walked forward.

‘What’s the logic of placing a huge jar in the coffin?’

He carefully used his vital qi to touch this stone coffin. There was no abnormality. Qin Mu didn’t relax as he moved quickly around the stone coffin like a spirit cat. He tested out over and over again, but there was still no abnormality.

Only then was he at ease and he walked forward to try to open up the stone coffin.

The lid of the coffin was extremely heavy. He used all the strength he had to finally shift open the lid of the coffin a little.

There was indeed a huge jar inside the stone coffin. Looking from the coffin’s small opening, he saw a head placed inside the jar. The head had four faces and there was a hairpin with the shape of a pagoda canopy on top. There was also an eye there.

This head was soaked in strange water and it seemed to be still alive. The eye on top of the canopy suddenly opened up and his gaze fell upon Qin Mu’s face.

Qin Mu’s heart was astonished. The scenery in front of his eyes suddenly changed. The earth’s core, the darkness, the sacrificial altar, the stone coffin, and the head in the jar had completely vanished!

He appeared in an extremely luxurious palace. The ground was paved with white jade, and the pearls and beads were stars. A man without a face was currently walking towards him and said, “Ying Zhao, I need you to do something for our Founding Emperor Era.”

“I will follow Founding Emperor’s orders.”

“Sakra is going to gather all the craftsmen in this world to craft Carefree Village and construct Paramita Ark. I need you to preserve some foundation for our Founding Emperor Era. I’m afraid the people in the future will forget about Carefree Village and I’m also afraid the enemies will destroy Paramita Ark. These are the blueprints of Paramita Ark. You have the strongest god brain, memorize them.”

Qin Mu looked at the blueprints that had piled up like a mountain. He ‘looked’ at himself flipping through the pages of these blueprints. The diagrams and writings on the blueprints were extremely complicated and hard to memorize, but ‘he’ managed to imprint these pages without mistake into his memory.

“Your Majesty, do we really have no chance of victory?” Qin Mu heard an unfamiliar voice.

That was the voice of the god named Ying Zhao.

“No.”

That man without a face turned his back to him and shook his head. “None at all. The more I know about our enemies, the more despair I feel. The past eras in history had all been erased and it’s difficult for us to escape the same fate as well. However, there’s still hope in the future. Leaving behind these blueprints means hope is being left behind. In the future, my descendant will come to look for you and take back these blueprints. He will bring you guys to meet me in Carefree Village. When that time comes, we will make a comeback, and change heaven and earth!”

“Your Majesty…”

That man without a face walked out and left him behind. He memorized with his heart and spent a very long time to finally memorize this incomparably complicated blueprints of Paramita Ark.

He then destroyed the blueprints and they burned for a long time before finally extinguishing.

Once the blueprints were all burnt, the palace hall sank into darkness.

Light surged forth from the darkness in front of Qin Mu’s eyes. The scene before him was the battlefield of gods that was unfolding in a magnificent scale. Everywhere in the sky and land were gods fighting each other. Countless gods had died. The sight was miserable.

Qin Mu saw Founding Emperor Celestial Heavens falling from an extremely high place and smashing through the layers of heavens. It left a long trail of fire and light as it crashed down into the other worlds.

Qin Mu looked at ‘himself’ in a daze and ‘he’ was currently raising his divine sword. ‘He’ then put it down and returned to the god city. He went underground and constructed a space of darkness beneath the ground. He forged a sacrificial altar.

He used his consciousness to construct an abnormal mental forcefield and prepared a coffin for himself. He then placed a huge jar in the coffin and poured water in the jar. It was divine water that was refined from his consciousness and lifeforce. It could preserve his corporeal body from decomposing.

He raised his sword once again.

“The person who sees this sight…”

Qin Mu heard that unfamiliar voice once again that was muttering to himself. “Are you the descendant of Qin? Are you following Founding Emperor’s orders to retrieve the blueprints? I cannot repay the kindness of Founding Emperor, so I can only offer my head and wait here quietly for Lord Qin to retrieve.”

Chiâ—

Sword light flashed and Qin Mu felt intense pain. He then ‘saw’ himself falling into a jar and looking outside. He could see the corpse of God Ying Zhao moving the lid of the coffin as it gradually closed on him.

After a moment, he heard a loud thud from the earth’s core. That was the sound made when the corpse of this god had fallen and crashed on the ground.

Qin Mu’s eyes were red and he wiped away his tears.

The head in the jar seemed to be able to see and his head slowly turned. Strong brainwaves resonated within Qin Mu’s consciousness, and the blueprints transformed into pictures that were firmly imprinted into his mind. The more pictures that appeared, the lesser the divine water was left in the jar.

When the divine water in the jar was depleted, Qin Mu’s mind was already filled with the blueprints of Paramita Ark.

The head of that god was still giving off brainwaves and passed the rest of the blueprints into Qin Mu’s mind. The head was decomposing at a rate which the naked eye could see. When his consciousness was depleted, only a skull was left lying quietly on the bottom of the jar.

Qin Mu stood quietly in front of this stone coffin. He suddenly said, “You don’t owe Qin family anything, Qin family owes you! I can let you die without a complete corpse!”

He leaped down from the sacrificial altar and dangled from the vital qi thread to continue down into the dark underground. After a long time, Qin Mu carried a headless skeleton and the vital qi that was as thin as spiderweb slowly pulled him up.

He went back to the sacrificial altar and took out the huge jar. He placed the headless skeleton respectfully into the coffin and took the skull out from the jar, placing it on the neck of this headless skeleton.

Qin Mu shut the stone coffin and bowed three times to it. He turned around and leaped up. He stepped on the grains of star sand and leaped into the sky.

On his final leap, he was still three thousand yards away from the hole. Qin Mu stretched a finger out and a vital qi thread flew out three thousand yards. It then coiled around the white bone rope that was hanging down from the hole.

Numerous skeletons at the hole quickly crawled upward. After exerting quite a deal of effort, they finally managed to pull him out of the underground space.

Just as Qin Mu crawled out from the hole, tremors came from beneath the ground. His expression couldn’t help changing. His vital qi quickly burst forth and he swept up all of the skeletons in the surroundings. He formed Great Overarching Heavenly Stars Forcefield and brought these skeletons to run away.

Behind him, the ground caved in. The god city that had already become a dilapidated ruin dropped down towards the earth’s core. The hole became bigger and bigger.

Qin Mu’s speed quickly rose to its extreme as he rushed out of this ancient ruin at the speed of lightning. The tremors gradually stopped and when he turned back to look, that god city had already turned into a deep abyss, burying history.

Qin Mu placed the skeletons down and sat on a rock. He looked at the abyss—its bottom couldn’t be seen. His gaze was deep and sorrowful.

A skeleton caressed his head and seemed to be consoling him. Another skeleton came to his face and wanted to wipe his tears.

Qin Mu’s face revealed a smile. He rose and greeted these skeletons. “I’m fine now. Thank you, everyone, for accompanying me these past few days. Maybe in the future, if I’m not dead, I will come back. I will gather your souls back and revive you all. Let us meet in the future!”

He left with wide strides and those skeletons didn’t follow him this time. Qin Mu turned back his head and saw these white bones were waving their arms at him.

Qin Mu waved back and left.

“Even in death their bones remain fragrant, and do not shame the heroes of the realm. Founding Emperor, my ancestor who is far away in Carefree Village, do you still remember a god named Ying Zhao who beheaded himself because of an order from you? I’m afraid you don’t, let me help you remember. The sons of Qin will not betray anyone who follows them. They won’t forget the promise they or their ancestors had made!”

He sprinted on this desolate land and headed towards where Founding Emperor Celestial Heavens had crashed. Over there, it should be the entrance that leads to Supreme Emperor Heaven or Great Ruins according to God Ying Zhao’s memory.

“I will complete your promise for you and let the heroic spirits that had died rest in peace!”

He came to a broken space and the dazzling sunlight was flowing over there. He could faintly see another world. The sunlight was from the shattered pieces of space—it was extremely dangerous to cross over.

Qin Mu took out a small case from his taotie sack and he leaped into the broken space. When he met the sunlight, the youth suddenly opened the case. Blood-thirsty and fierce light overflowed into the sky, transforming into two knife lights. With a snip, they snipped off the sunlight!

Before the sunlight merged back together, Qin Mu passed through the shattered piece of space and his body hurriedly fell downwards. Below him were lush forest and boundless mountains. The Southern Heavenly Gate stood tall there as well.

Qin Mu was slightly stunned. It wasn’t Supreme Emperor Heaven below him. It was Great Ruins.