Tales of Herding Gods

Elder Angler said with a smile, “A fellow who leaves affections everywhere.”

After saying so, he shook the strand of qi, and the qi of pure yin tunneled into the heart of Yan Jingjing’s brows like a small dragon without a body.

Yan Jingjing experienced the sensation, but she didn’t feel any different. Only her forehead felt cool, and so she asked, “Heavenly Teacher Fisherman, what’s the effect of the qi of pure yin? I don’t feel like I’ve gained any benefit.”

Elder Angler didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “This is not the miraculous dual cultivation that your chief talked about. Of course, it doesn’t have an effect in the beginning. The qi of pure yin is to allow your yang to grow, and the effect won’t be seen right away. It relies more on a gradual transformation.”

The big red kun in the sky let out a long and melodious cry as it flew through the air above the Great Ruins. They were getting closer and closer to Supreme Emperor Heaven.

Elder Angler said, “You are the body of pure yang, and your body only has the qi of pure yang. In addition to the sun that God Zi Qing made, the Sun Ships are formed from intense qi of pure yang that is extremely violent. After you became the Sun Guardian, you wouldn’t have any qi of pure yin in your body. So, whenever you controlled the Sun Ship, violent qi of pure yang would fuse into your body and accumulate. Since you wouldn’t have a little qi of pure yin, your qi and blood would dry up. So what is dried up?”

Qin Mu continued, “My Grandpa Apothecary is an example of qi and blood drying up. He said his qi and blood drying up is like a flower arrangement. When you snip off brightly-colored flowers and put in a vase, the flowers would bloom beautifully. However, they would wither after a few days. Grandpa Apothecary said when qi and blood dry up, it will make someone suddenly die at their most beautiful moment.”

Elder Angler said bewilderedly, “This Grandpa Apothecary sure has some knowledge, that it is indeed the logic. When lone yang doesn’t grow, it will result in qi and blood drying up. When qi and blood are clearly withering and yet still burning fiercely, one wouldn’t be far from death. That qi of pure yin is to supplement you, and it’s countless times better than dual cultivation! Of course, dual cultivation can settle some of the problems, but it won’t solve the root of the problem.”

The little female fish in the basket popped her head out and snickered. “Old master is destined to be single for life.”

The big red kun flew to the place where Supreme Emperor Heaven and the Great Ruins crossed, and suddenly, the magnetic force suddenly messed up as though they’d entered a territory that had no magnetism. Over there, people were neither up nor down, and they didn’t need to cultivate flying divine arts to be able to float in the air.

That was because the magnetism of the Great Ruins was interfering with the magnetism there, and when the magnetism on both sides was equal, it would make people float in the air.

That was nothing much to the divine arts practitioners. After all, there was still flowing air there, and they could fly away with flying divine arts.

“The qi of pure yin that Son of Qin has given you is no ordinary qi of pure yin. That’s the god vitality that protects the body, and it was refined in the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure of a strong practitioner of Jade Pool Realm.”

Elder Angler looked at Qin Mu and said, “Even if you completely absorb the power of a sun that God Zi Qing made, the body protection divine vitality is enough to solve your problems.”

Yan Jingjing was shocked, and she cried out, “So valuable?”

“Of course, it’s very valuable.”

Elder Angler narrowed his eyes and said calmly, “To receive this kind of treasure, it must be extremely difficult, and he might have undergone trials of life and death before being deemed worthy by a god of High Emperor who gave him the qi of pure yin and qi of pure yang. I didn’t expect him to give it to you without any hesitation at all.”

Yan Jingjing was overjoyed, and she took a glance at Qin Mu before lowering her head bashfully.

Qin Mu scratched his head. “It wasn’t really difficult. I met a general of the High Emperor Era in the desert of another space. I woke him up and helped him forge a mausoleum to bury his soldiers. He gave me these two strands of qi as a token of gratitude.”

Elder Angler trembled from anger.

The little female fish in the basket popped her head out and chuckled. “Old master, the Son of Qin is very similar to you; both of you are going to be single for life.”

Elder Angler said insipidly, “We will have fish soup tonight.”

The little female fish hurriedly pulled back her head and didn’t dare to talk anymore.

“Strange, when I pulled out the qi of pure yin just now, I felt there was still something in the heart of your brows, but it isn’t hidden in your Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure.”

Elder Angler examined Qin Mu, and his gaze then fell on the heart of his brows. He was very curious about the heart of Qin Mu’s brows that was under the willow leaf, which was changing color. “What’s under the willow leaf? I can’t see through it. Can you take it off?”

Qin Mu said, “Under the willow leaf is my third eye and my older brother stays inside, so it’s best not to take off the willow leaf. Living inside with my brother are Brahma Buddha, Heaven Duke, and Crimson Emperor’s consciousness.”

Elder Angler was shocked, and he stared at Qin Mu. “Are you not bragging? This makes me even more curious about your eye. Take it off, I can send my hook in and hook your older brother out.”

Qin Mu hurriedly said, “Brahma, Heaven Duke and Crimson Emperor are inside to seal him, and there’s even Earth Count’s seal inside! How could you just let him out?”

Elder Angler was even more astonished. He was even more curious about his eye.

Qin Mu was alerted by his actions. “Are heavenly teachers all so curious?”

The big red kun flapped its fins and descended onto Supreme Emperor Heaven with a rapid turn in direction. However, it was only a rapid turn to Qin Mu and the rest. To the great red kun, he was turning very leisurely.

When they reached Supreme Emperor Heaven, Qin Mu saw the Great Ruins was erected vertically at the side of Supreme Emperor Heaven. The angle of his heaven and earth had flipped.

That kind of thing may look inconceivable, but it was still the effect of the magnetic force.

‘There are also divine arts related to magnetic force in the Great Educational Heavenly Devil Scriptures, but such divine arts are few. Granny Si should be familiar with them.’

Qin Mu drifted off into his thoughts. Magnetism divine arts seemed to be very useful, and it might be a good direction for development and let the scholars of Heavenly Saint Academy focus and research.

It might just result in creating a grand system of divine arts!

Elder Angler took a glance at him and was bewildered. ‘This Son of Qin seems to be in a daze frequently. Even with a beautiful girl beside him, he can also keep drifting off and thinking of other things.’

Qin Mu took out a small booklet and raised his brush to write down his ideas. He then blew dry the ink and thought to himself. ‘After I go back, I shall get Granny Si to lead the scholars to work on magnetism divine arts as their main focus!’

Yan Jingjing looked at his serious expression and felt he was quite charming.

“The maiden is also hopeless.”

The female fish in the basket shook her head. “She’s completely infatuated with that dense brat.”

Qin Mu looked down, and he saw the lava waves of Supreme Emperor Heaven had already frozen, forming mountain range with the shapes of waves. It was quite a magnificent sight.

Because it had cooled, some demon beasts had already run there, and some flying birds had even brought seeds as well. Qin Mu could actually see slight greenery.

He even saw the strange beasts of the Great Ruins currently migrating to Supreme Emperor Heaven, and it should have been because Supreme Emperor Heaven was too high. It meant the sun could shine down there at night and they wouldn’t have to worry about being swallowed by the darkness. Therefore the strange beasts of the Great Ruins also liked the area.

“Twenty thousand years… the descendants of the gods from the past celestial heavens have now become clueless strange beasts. What a pity, what a pity.” Elder Angler shook his head.

Qin Mu’s heart trembled violently and he muttered, “Senior uncle, what you mean is, these strange beasts are all…”

Elder Angler said, “The remaining survivors of Founding Emperor Celestial Heavens’ gods. However, they have all degenerated severely.”

Qin Mu asked with a trembling voice, “In that case, hen dragons are also the remaining survivors of the celestial heavens?”

He thought about how he would eat hen dragons during every festive occasion, and he couldn’t help feeling a pang of guilt.

“Hen dragons?”

Elder Angler shook his head. “These hens didn’t die when the celestial heavens collapsed? They aren’t the remaining races of gods. It wasn’t known when, but in the Founding Emperor Era a divine dragon got along together with a hen, and thus hen dragons were born. The private lives of the divine dragons were all messy… Afterward, people realized that hen dragons actually tasted good, and since it wasn’t good to eat the liver of dragons and the brains of phoenixes, they started to raise hen dragons as poultry.”

Only then did Qin Mu let out a sigh of relief.

They circled around Luofu Heaven and only arrived at the west of the Great Ruins after a day or two.

Qin Mu let out a cry of astonishment as he saw that Supreme Emperor Heaven didn’t land far from the source of the Surging River. At that moment, the ravine was even steeper and deeper that before. There were even more cracks on the cliff, and numerous cracks were shining with light that shone on the back surface of Supreme Emperor Heaven.

Back then, to avoid Xing An’s pursuit, he had ridden the chest and brought the dragon qilin and Pangong Tso back to High Emperor Era from forty thousand years ago!

However, the cracks were passages to travel through time, and each of them led to a strange world.

He and Pangong Tso entered a desert world back then, and when the darkness flooded over the desert, they had somehow traveled back in time to forty thousand years ago.

Furthermore, it wasn’t the only strange incident at the Surging River. He had even met Founding Emperor on the Surging River before!

“Senior uncle, is there anything special about the source of the Surging River?” Qin Mu suddenly asked.

“Of course there is, a lot.”

Elder Angler seemed to be used to the strange sight at the source of the Surging River, and he made the big red kun avoid the lights. “Numerous entrances to other worlds hide here. Some worlds are ruins left behind by Founding Emperor Era, and some are ruins of Crimson Light and Dragon Han Era. Founding Emperor once dispatched numerous gods to scout, and they ended up with nothing. Don’t touch the lights, and be careful of getting sucked in!”

The big red kun avoided the light from the broken cliff and brought them far away from that place, heading to the Moon Well.

Qin Mu turned his head back and looked at the source of Surging River that was moving further and further away. “In that case, is there anyone who could return to an era tens of thousands of years ago from here?”

Elder Angler burst into laughter. “How could there be such a thing? I’ve never heard of it before. According to what I know, the entrances of these worlds should be the ruins that were left behind by the various celestial heavens. These celestial heavens might have overlapped together, and thus, the worlds linked to the celestial heavens would all be smashed at the same spot, causing many strange things to appear.”

Qin Mu pondered. He could never understand why he and Pangong Tso could return the past.

His meeting with Bai Qu’er in the past wasn’t just a dream.

‘When can I unravel all of the mysteries in the Surging River?’

He pulled back his gaze and turned around. ‘I can definitely solve these mysteries!’

Finally, they came to the Moon Well, and Qin Mu jumped down from the big red kun’s back. The red kun became smaller and smaller until it became a little red fish that jumped back into the basket. The two fish snuggled together and started enjoying each others company again.

Yan Jingjing looked around, and she saw that the Moon Well was also an invisible barrier that was held up by the moonlight in the well to protect the place, forming a world in its own. If outsiders went there and didn’t know the path inside, they would definitely be unable to enter the Moon Well. That was because, from the outside, one couldn’t see the Moon Well. The only thing one could see was a forest.

Elder Angler had been there before, and he was familiar with the road.

The area which the Moon Well covered was a mess. Broken tiles were everywhere, as was shattered constructions. There were also countless skeletons on the ground, and Qin Mu knew what had happened there—the invasion of enemies. Yet the moon guardian had abandoned his clansmen and drove the Moon Ship to escape to Fengdu.

His clansmen died right away in the surroundings of the Moon Well, and because the moon guardian had betrayed his clansmen, King Yama wasn’t willing to take him in, so he could only stop the Moon Ship outside Fengdu.

What was even more infuriating was that a devil god had followed him into Fengdu and laid in ambush. The female devil god tempted Qin Mu and almost caught him. Luckily, Village Chief injured her.

After Qin Mu took over as the Moon Guardian, that moon guardian got swallowed up by the ship. It was a fitting end to him.

Qin Mu carefully avoided the bones of the moon herders and said to the dragon qilin, “These moon herders are all guardians of the Great Ruins, they are to be respected. Don’t step on them and hurt them.”

The dragon qilin was most afraid of things like that, and he immediately tucked his tails between his legs and said with a trembling voice, “Step on them and hurt them? Cult Master, they are still alive?”

“I will be awakening them in a while and let them bury themselves.”

Qin Mu said with a calm expression, “The warriors that protect the Great Ruins shouldn’t have their corpses laid out in the open like this.”

Elder Angler put down his small stool and sat down beside the well. He said with a smile, “You have the bearing of a kind man. When Heavenly Teacher Guan Cha sees you, he will definitely like you very much.”

Qin Mu asked, “Heavenly Teacher Guan Cha is?”

“One of the four heavenly teachers of Founding Emperor Heaven. He plows the fields while leading along a bull.”

Elder Angler put down his fishing line, and the little female fish jumped out from the basket to swim in the Moon Well. Elder Angler continued speaking, “He is the Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher among the four heavenly teachers, and his abilities are the strongest.”