Tales of Herding Gods

“Brother Qi, I told you I would spare your life so I really won’t take your life.”

Both Qin Mu lowered their heads at the same time as he looked at Qi Jiuyi who was struggling to get up and fight again. He said firmly, “The information that you leaked is beneficial to me, and it’s worth your life.”

Qi Jiuyi still couldn’t stand, so he struggled to sit up. He scorned himself as he gasped heavily for his breath. “I originally planned to use that information to crush your Dao heart, never would I expect that information would save my life…”

He had a feeling that whatever he had done was merely a joke. He composed himself and continued, “After this battle, I will return to the celestial heavens and cultivate diligently. I will seek guidance from beings on Emperor’s Throne. Brother Qin, don’t fall behind me.”

Qin Mu raised his head to look out into the distance and surveyed the surroundings with doubt. With a strange expression, he said, “Brother Qi, you might not be able to leave Eternal Peace for a short time. Even I might be trapped here as well…”

Qi Jiuyi was slightly stunned. When the ground was burned through, and they fell to the depths, he had already noticed the strange sight in the underground space of the God Broken Mountain Range. He was just too caught up with fighting Qin Mu that he didn’t have the time to examine his surroundings properly. He couldn’t lose his focus.

Only when Qin Mu made clear that he would uphold his promise and not kill him, was he finally at ease to survey his surroundings.

Below the shrine was a sacrificial altar which should have been constructed by the devil race, and there were numerous sacrificial runes from the devil race that were intact. There was once a blood sacrifice there, and it was unknown who had broken the sacrifice. There were still bloodstains splattered all over the sacrificial altar.

They were on the surface of the knife, and the knife seemed to have no thickness at all. The blade of the knife was very long as the handle and tip of the knife couldn’t be seen at all.

Furthermore, what was strange was that their primordial spirits, including the primordial spirit of the dragon qilin who had just arrived, had all entered the knife that seemed to have no thickness.

There seemed to be a vast space inside the knife as though there was another world!

Qi Jiuyi tried to pull his primordial spirit back, but he realized that there was a world between him and his primordial spirit. Even though he could sense his primordial spirit, he couldn’t pull it back.

Cold sweat couldn’t help breaking out on his forehead, and he croaked, “Brother Qin, what is going on?”

Qin Mu didn’t reply to him, and his expression became grimmer and grimmer.

He had long seen the strange sight where the knife was during the battle against High Heavens. The God Broken Mountain Range was razed to the ground, and the battle was extremely bitter. Village Chief had ‘died’ in battle, and among the five immortals of the demon race, Willow Immortal, White Immortal, and Yellow Immortal had died. Old Dao Master, Old Rulai, Daoist Ling Jing, Young Patriarch, Tuxing Feng, and Xuan Shengwu had also died in battle while the others received substantial injuries. Apothecary and the rest had also ‘died’ and it was Qin Mu who had seized their souls back to revive them.

In that battle, High Heavens was beaten until they could no longer fight Eternal Peace anymore.

At that time, Butcher and the rest discovered the knife that was under the God Broken Mountain Range, as well as that devil god stone statue that was under the knife. The stone statue that had tunneled out under the knife was a terrifying devil god that was the old ancestor of a devil world. When he had descended onto Eternal Peace, he was careless and tunneled out under the knife and landed in a precarious situation that concerned his life and death.

Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor had used Earthquake Cauldron to crumble the world barrier between Eternal Peace and the other world, and that world was none other than the devil world where the devil ancestor resided. Numerous devil gods transformed into stone statues to enter the God Broken Mountain Range and they searched for the knife as they planned to rescue their old ancestor.

Finally, the blood sacrifice of the devil race in that world was intercepted by Qin Mu using mirror images. The revival of the devil god stone statue had failed, and so, all of them crawled back into the ground and vanished.

Qin Mu had once suspected that the world was Luofu Heaven, but after he saw Luofu Heaven, he realized his guess was wrong.

The world which the devil god stone statue came from was on a much higher class that Luofu Heaven, it should be a devil world that was under the celestial heavens. The power of Luofu Heaven was far inferior to that devil world.

As for the long knife, none of them could even move it back then. Furthermore, the long knife looked like a treasure left behind from Founding Emperor Era for blocking the darkness of the Great Ruins from invading Eternal Peace; thus, no one touched the knife.

Back then, the primordial spirits of Granny Si and the rest, as well as the primordial spirits of the gods of High Heavens, had fallen into the space inside the knife. Luckily for them, Fengdu had passed by the place at the right time, and so, the primordial spirits of Granny Si and the rest managed to fly out of the knife and returned to their corporeal body while being in a daze. Only then did they not lose their lives.

Qin Mu’s primordial spirit looked out and saw his corporeal body. If he wanted to save his primordial spirit, he would probably have to wait for Fengdu to pass by again.

However, even though he had gone to Fengdu numerous times, he had only been to the first city of Fengdu. He hadn’t been to the other cities of Fengdu, and King Yama didn’t open those cities for touring either.

There were still many mysteries in Fengdu.

The crucial point was how they were going to leave the inside of the knife.

The world inside the knife was vast, and it was like two pieces of incomparably clear and bright mirror stretching across the void, trapping them in the center of the two bright mirrors that had no thickness. The end couldn’t be seen.

Their corporeal bodies gazed at their primordial spirits from across the mirror. Even though it looked like the primordial spirits were stepping on the soles of the corporeal bodies, they could never return into their corporeal body.

“When will Fengdu move to this place? I’ve heard Sister Jing says, the previous time Youdu had invaded, King Yama led the gods of Fengdu to defend against Youdu, and that was why they had come to the God Broken Mountain Range. King Yama probably doesn’t know I’m trapped here…”

Qin Mu frowned and his primordial spirit was trapped there. He couldn’t use his Secrets of Three Primordial Spirit Assembly so he couldn’t contact Si Yunxiang and Ling Yuxiu. If they didn’t know about it, King Yama wouldn’t be able to help.

“No one will know even if we die inside the space of the knife…”

He composed himself and took a step forward into the depths of the knife.

Qi Jiuyi recovered slightly, and his primordial spirit struggled to get up to follow Qin Mu. The dragon qilin also hurried to follow.

Qin Mu examined the mirror below his feet and the mirror above his head but couldn’t see any signs that they were forged. He couldn’t see what the knife was forged from and what method was used to forge it. With his standard as a great master in forging, he actually couldn’t infer anything at all.

One had to know that Mute was the senior in the path of forging and Qin Mu learned under Mute. His skills in forging were number two in the world, and if even he couldn’t see any traces from it, other people could forget about trying.

Qi Jiuyi stared with his eyes wide open and suddenly revealed his nine heads to look around. He turned to spew phoenix flames to burn both sides of the mirror and didn’t even manage to make them red hot. There were no signs of the mirror melting!

“Is this place still the lower bound?”

Qi Jiuyi laughed from extreme anger. “Is there such a powerful thing in the lower bound? Could the country… people of the lower bound have such powerful standard of forging?”

“Country bumpkins of the celestial heavens, no knowledge at all.” The dragon qilin rolled his eyes at him.

Qi Jiuyi was furious. As a child blessed by the heavens in the celestial heavens and the disciples of two Emperor’s Throne, he was actually being held in contempt by that fellow.

Qin Mu also tried to use his heavenly fire divine art to melt the mirror, but just like Qi Jiuyi, there was nothing done.

“There should be an end to this world, right?”

They continued forward and what disappointed them was that no matter how far they walked out, there were always two flat mirrors in front of them that seemed boundless.

It was unknown how far they had walked, but they had walked until they were in despair. They walked until the dragon qilin didn’t want to walk anymore and was only willing to lay down on the ground.

Qin Mu pulled his tail with one hand and dragged him to continue forward. The mirror was very slippery, so he didn’t have to spend much energy.

Qi Jiuyi’s gaze was blank, and he followed behind the dragon qilin. He could only see the huge head, and the entire body of the dragon qilin slumped on the mirror. He just let himself get pulled by Qin Mu with his lifeless eyes.

“It’s impossible that it’s endless…”

Qi Jiuyi revealed a miserable smile and said, “We have already been walking for two years, right? There’s still no end! Let’s not talk about a small place like the inside of this knife; two years is already enough from us to walk from one end of the celestial heavens to the other, right?”

Qin Mu didn’t reply. He just set his sights on one direction and continued walking forward.

“Two years, our corporeal bodies have already died, right?”

Qi Jiuyi had signs of breaking down and laughed hysterically. “Our corporeal bodies outside the knife must have already rotted, and there must be flies hovering around us while maggots feast on our flesh and blood. Our bodies are definitely giving a foul smell…”

“Shut up!” Qin Mu shouted with a grim expression.

The dragon qilin opened up his eyes in a daze and said weakly, “Shut up, nine-headed bird man…”

Qi Jiuyi was furious and sneered. “You master and servant only knows how to bully me! Don’t forget, both of you are like me, you have both been dead for two years! Hehe, in this strange world, no matter if you are the descendants of celestial heavens’ aristocrats, even if you are the emperor of the mortal, everyone is trapped here until they die, until our primordial spirit gets whittled away! I shouldn’t have listened to Old Man Black Deity and come to descend calamity for Eternal Peace! I shouldn’t have come to this broken place to capture you! F*cking Mingdu, f*cking Black Deity…”

He cursed non-stop, and the state of his psyche had completely broken down.

Qin Mu was affected by his negativity, and his psyche was also showing signs of breaking down. He couldn’t help thinking of evil thoughts. “I should first kill Qi Jiuyi, this fellow who can’t stop talking…”

Right at that moment, the two layers of mirrors in front suddenly broke off.

Qin Mu was stunned and suddenly stopped. He stared at the broken mirror blankly and saw a dark space where the mirror had broken off. There was no heaven above and earth below. There was only a step made of white jade slabs, and it was laid out regularly into the darkness, stretching into the depths of the darkness. He couldn’t see where the steps led.

“There’s a road!”

Qin Mu cried from happiness and swung the dragon qilin to smash him ruthlessly on the ground before swinging him up and smashing him down once more. He said with a smile, “Fatty Dragon, quickly wake up! There’s a road!”

The dragon qilin was giddy from Qin Mu swinging him around and hurriedly said, “I’m awake, I’m awake!”

Qin Mu threw him to one side and looked at Qi Jiuyi. “You can be happy if you want to but don’t try to swing me around!”

The dragon qilin crawled up and shook his body. He looked at the road paved by the white jade slabs and asked in glee, “Cult Master, can we finally go out?”

The two humans and beasts were delighted and ran barefooted on the stone slabs, sprinting down into the darkness as though they were flying.

Three months later, Qin Mu’s eyes were lifeless as he dragged the dragon qilin to land weakly on another step.

Qi Jiuyi followed behind them and jumped over. Next, he sprawled himself out on the dragon qilin’s head and turned limp.

Qin Mu pulled along the dragon qilin’s tail and threw them forward, making the dragon qilin and Qi Jiuyi to land on the next stone stab together.

He jumped over and grabbed Qi Jiuyi by the collar. He raised his fist to start beating him, and Qi Jiuyi didn’t fight back. He just let Qin Mu’s fists fall on his beautiful face and said weakly, “Just beat me up however you like, just beat me to death…”

After two punches, Qin Mu had no more interest to continue beating him up, so he just threw him to one side. Qi Jiuyi laid on the stone slab and was just sprawled out on his back.

The dragon qilin sat up with a blurred face and sat Qi Jiuyi under him. He opened his eyes and licked his lips. “Scarlet Fire Spirit Pills have the best flavor. I had a dream that Cult Master made numerous Scarlet Fire Spirit Pills for me. A whole world filled with spirit pills… I ran and ran, but no matter how much I ran, I could never reach the end. I rolled around in the sea of spirit pills happily and swam inside the sea of spirit pills… Cult Master, there is a door in front…”

Qin Mu looked over and couldn’t help crying from happiness. “Brother Qi, there’s a door, there’s a door!”

Qi Jiuyi was squashed under the dragon qilin’s butt, and only half of his legs were revealed on the outside. He kicked his legs, but he couldn’t crawl out, so he grunted. “What are you saying? I can’t hear you, stop disturbing me.”

Qin Mu was delighted and sprinted straight for the door, and the dragon qilin also stood up in a hurry. He ran over while crying tears of joy.

Qi Jiuyi sat up, and the plumes on the back of his head were all crooked. He said weakly, “What were you saying? Oh, there’s a door!”

Qi Jiuyi cried from joy, and the smile on his face spread open like a blooming flower. He danced around and skipped over to the door.

When they came to the final stone step, he saw Qin Mu rushing into the door first, followed by the dragon qilin who jumped kicked and shut the door to block him out.

Qi Jiuyi was furious and hurriedly rushed into the door, only to see a long corridor filled with doors on both sides.

Qi Jiuyi broke down and collapsed on the ground. He grabbed onto the dragon qilin’s tail and let him drag him along. “So many doors, until when must we walk? Anyway, even if we go out, our corporeal body would have died a long time ago…”

At that moment, a door suddenly creaked open, and a head popped out from inside. “Who are you guys? Why are you guys here?”

The dragon qilin kicked Qi Jiuyi onto a wall and looked at the person curiously.