Tales of Herding Gods

Di Yiyue looked at her reflection in the mirror over and over again. She couldn’t help bursting with joy and praised him, “You are truly a great wizard, the one with sacred hands—I can’t see any flaw at all!”

“Wait a moment!”

Qin Mu immediately stopped her and said, “Don’t move! When big sister smiles, there’s a slight wrinkle at the corner of your eyes. Let me smooth it out for you.”

Di Yiyue immediately stopped moving. Qin Mu went forward, and small runes burst forth from his fingers to activate the skin at the corners of her eyes, smoothing out her wrinkles. That made the skin at the corners of her phoenix eyes looked very white and tender.

Di Yiyue blinked her eyes and raised her mirror a few more times. She smiled at the mirror and realized her small wrinkles had indeed vanished. She was delighted.

Qin Mu praised, “Sister is really pretty.”

Di Yiyue was beyond elated and was even a little shy.

“The one who sells fake medicine, it’s not the apothecaries that are losing their jobs.”

Deaf came to Apothecary’s side, and he twitched his ears. “It’s you that is going to lose your job. You can only sell fake medicine from now on; you can’t rely on your face to make a living anymore.”

Apothecary sighed, and he smiled bitterly. “The disciple is taught well, but the master is going to starve to death. Mu’er is going to be number one in the world. Luckily this young fellow is muddle-headed and isn’t passionate about love; otherwise, how many love affairs would he have created with that mouth of his?”

Deaf said calmly, “We taught him well. His mouth has to be sweet, but all women are vixens. This brat still remembers what we said, therefore even though he is very sweet to every woman he meets, he also put his guard up against them. Therefore, he wouldn’t follow you in your steps.”

Apothecary adjusted the bronze mask on his face and said with a low voice, “Mu’er is not young anymore. If we teach him like this, would we delay the major turning point of the brat’s life? What if he puts his guard up against every woman and doesn’t dare progress further with them, what should we do?”

Deaf stopped speaking.

Apothecary asked again, and Deaf still didn’t say a thing.

Apothecary laughed from anger. “Your ears have already grown out, so stop acting deaf! I’m asking you, quickly think of an idea or I’ll poison you to deaf!”

Deaf was helpless and said, “I also don’t know. Back then, I taught him a gentleman should always describe a woman as sweet, fair, and graceful, while you guys taught him that every woman is a vixen. The holy book didn’t say what I should do when encountering such a situation. Why don’t you prescribe some medicine to put him in heat?”

Apothecary said proudly, “As my disciple, he still needs to rely on medicine to be in heat? Won’t that throw the face of Jade Face Poison King? Furthermore, his medical expertise is not inferior to mine, and he can undo any drug I put on him. If I knew this would happen, I would have held back…”

…

The commoners of Lizhou woke up, and they were all in a daze. They didn’t know what happened during the night and just treated it as they had fallen asleep. Some divine arts practitioners could guess something huge must have happened, but they couldn’t guess what it was exactly.

However, many strange incidents still happened in the countryside. Someone woke up, and her nature changed drastically, claiming that she wasn’t a woman. It was a man from a certain place that had woke up and realized he had turned into a woman.

The divine arts practitioners of the countryside asked the person where he stayed and who was in his family, all which he could answer. When they went over to check the place he had claimed, there was truly such a person, and that person was clamoring that he wasn’t a man. He said he was a woman that had entered the wrong body.

There were thousands of such incidents, and it created quite an uproar.

“The souls have most likely entered the wrong body when they were called back.”

Qin Mu heard the rumors and guessed, “Teacher’s Soul Guide still isn’t there yet, as a result, when sending the souls back into their body, there were slight mistakes made. This should be because you don’t completely under the Youdu language.”

Saint Woodcutter retorted with a black face, “If you are so capable, why didn’t you do it?”

Qin Mu said honestly, “I thought teacher could do it but never did I expect teacher to be slightly lacking. If you completely understand the accurate meaning and mood of the Youdu language, the paths, skills, and divine arts will become clear to you without any explanation. In that way, there will be no mistakes.”

Woodcutter was speechless from anger as he choked on his words.

Apothecary and Deaf were immensely pleased. Deaf praised, “Mu’er is humble and polite, as expected of the child we have raised painstakingly. He’s too humble, he says the saint is only slightly inferior to him, but it’s actually this much!”

He spread his arms wide open.

Apothecary was also slightly pleased. “This is all thanks to our teachings. Ever since he was young, we have taught him that there will always be others that are above him, so he has to be humble and careful. Even if he meets people that are inferior to him, he should always say you are only slightly inferior. This is why Mu’er still hasn’t been beaten to death up until now.”

The two elders revealed gratified smiles.

“To solve this problem, we will have to swap the souls.”

Qin Mu said, “It’s just that there are thousands of such cases and they are all living in different parts of Lizhou, it will take a long time to find all of them…”

He was terrified of troublesome matters.

Saint Woodcutter said, “Regarding swapping of souls, leave it to those scholars that cultivated Soul Guide, we don’t have to do it personally. You have already ordered those scholars to head to Yuzhi County, just get them to hurry back.”

Qin Mu nodded his head and projected his primordial spirit out to contact Si Yunxiang.

Si Yunxiang had a look of fatigue on her face, and she said, “Cult Master, you let us head to Yuzhi County to pull the souls of the people of Yuzhi back. Everything was still fine, but afterward, something happened. When the scholars were executing Soul Guide, small boats suddenly appeared, and light came shining in from the darkness. With a shine, the scholars would lose their souls and turn into corpses.”

Qin Mu was astonished. “This is Official Sovereign making a move!”

Si Yunxiang continued to say, “Heavenly King Yu said it’s because we summoned too many souls back and touched the rules of Youdu, so the messenger of death made a move to take the souls of the offenders away. Yet not long ago, the souls of the scholars suddenly came back, and some of them said it was Son of Youdu who had pleaded with the messenger of death to let them back. I’m not sure if that’s real or fake.”

Qin Mu had a blank expression on his face. “I didn’t plead with Official Sovereign, what’s going on… Anyway, it’s good that the scholars are back, this saves me the trouble of returning to Youdu. I have the feeling that Youdu doesn’t really welcome me. Every time I go there, Official Sovereign and Earth Count don’t give me a good look. They always look like they want me to scram.”

He explained the reason and said, “Saintess Xiang, bring a hundred capable scholars to Lizhou, help the people whose souls have wrongly entered the bodies to return into their own bodies. Don’t create any more trouble.”

Si Yunxiang agreed and immediately summoned the scholars to hurry to Lizhou.

Qin Mu bade farewell to Apothecary and Deaf. He followed Saint Woodcutter, First Ancestor, and Di Yiyue to the capital city to meet the other disciple of Woodcutter, Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor. Qin Mu had originally not planned to go, but Di Yiyue wanted him to tag along.

“Heavenly King, we can slowly walk and take a look at the local customs and conditions of Eternal Peace.”

Woodcutter suggested, “The reform of Eternal Peace is not just words, they are true actions that are being taken. What you see on the way will definitely change your view.”

Di Yiyue said indifferently, “You are the heavenly teacher of Founding Emperor Era, and you have been in charge of Founding Emperor’s reform. In just a short twenty thousand years, you managed to push Founding Emperor Era to the extent that the extraterritorial celestial heavens had no choice but to wipe it out. Are you going to join this Eternal Peace’s reform again? How many years do you want to use to push Eternal Peace to the extent that Founding Emperor Era could no longer tolerate it?”

When Saint Woodcutter heard her mention Founding Emperor Era, his face dimmed, and he said bitterly, “I indeed directed Founding Emperor’s reform, but I didn’t interfere with Eternal Peace’s reform, the people truly directing the reform are my three disciples.”

He straightened up one finger and said, “My big disciple passed down the philosophy that the path of the saint is none other than the everyday use of the common people.”

Everyone chatted as they walked. Di Yiyue was also observing the lives of the people she saw on the way. Woodcutter raised his second finger and said, “My third disciple used that sentence for Eternal Peace, which is why Eternal Peace looks like it does today. I taught my big disciple for a hundred years, and I only taught my third disciple for two years. As for Eternal Peace’s reform, I haven’t interfered in anything; I’m just running errands for my third disciple.”

Di Yiyue took a glance at Qin Mu, and he said with a smile, “You said that the ones directing the reform are your three disciples, but you only say your big disciple and little disciple and have not talked about your second disciple.”

Saint Woodcutter looked at Qin Mu and felt his head was about to explode. He shook his head and said, “My second disciple, I’ve not taught for even a day, I’ve no idea what had happened, I just had such a disciple out of the blue.”

Di Yiyue asked curiously, “What had he done?”

Saint Woodcutter wanted to rouse his spirit, but he couldn’t, so he just said listlessly, “He is the man behind my third disciple.”

Di Yiyue was puzzled.

Saint Woodcutter said weakly, “When Eternal Peace Empire and my third disciple were at their most dangerous period, he was the one that had supported him fully and only then was Eternal Peace Empire saved. He protected the emperor and my third disciple. When Eternal Peace Empire was in danger again, he was the one who protected them again. When danger fell again…”

“Big Heavenly Teacher, stop, I understand.”

Di Yiyue didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “It must be him who protected Eternal Peace Empire and your third disciple, am I right?”

“I really don’t understand this disciple of mine.”

Saint Woodcutter had a weird expression and examined Qin Mu secretly. He said in a low voice, “He truly can’t be comprehended, I have never seen such a weird nature. He has the boldness to reform, and he has a great ambition and belief that can’t be erased, furthermore, he is also clever and eccentric. He is curious about everything like a silly roe deer. Yet…”

He gave some thought before continuing, “Yet he has a strange charm, and when he’s focused, he could research numerous strange and weird things. He could actually run to Heavenly Yin World alone and revive Goddess of Heavenly Yin, creating a spell that could allow shattered souls to gather back together to reconstruct the soul and revive the dead!”

“He also created Primordial Spirit Guide in Six Directions Realm, allowing Six Directions Realm to cultivate primordial spirit and changed the cultivation system that had been passed down for hundreds of thousands of years!”

“He even created the eighteenth sword form without thinking of it and pushed the sword skill a huge step forward. He seems to have no limits or rules in comprehending the paths, skills, and divine arts. What others couldn’t think of, he can usually think of it. What others thought couldn’t be done, he could do. Even the Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge that connected two worlds together was made by this brat unintentionally, solving the problem of the world barrier.”

“Furthermore, he is never stingy, whatever he learns and whatever he comprehends, he spreads it throughout the entire empire, and he never keeps it for himself. It’s hard to get an Emperor’s Throne technique, right? The extraterritorial celestial heavens spend so much effort to collect Emperor’s Throne technique yet he just passed down three Emperor’s Throne techniques he received.”

“One who is clearly an enemy would be won over by him and become his friend. One who is clearly a friend would be so maddened by him that they want nothing more but to beat his ass!”

Saint Woodcutter sighed and said, “When I thought he was a perfect person, I found all kinds of flaws on his body. One is that he isn’t focused, and he always likes to research this and research that. After founding Primordial Spirit Guide, he ran off to do something else. He founded the eighteenth sword form and ran away without taking the momentum to research the nineteenth sword form. This made people want to hold a sword to his neck so badly so we could force him to research on one thing.”

“The second problem is him being too daring. He is so daring that he seems a little silly. He dares to do any dangerous thing. This incident in Lizhou was clearly a bait, yet he still ran over stupidly.”

“The third is he’s arrogant. You may see he is humble, but he isn’t humble at all, he is very arrogant. Heaven is number one, and I’m number two. Earth Count is number one, and I’m number two. The emperor is number one, and I’m number two. The celestial emperor is number one, and I’m number two…”

Saint Woodcutter’s brows were all scrunched up, and he sighed. “I don’t understand him; I really don’t understand him.”

Di Yiyue looked at Qin Mu who was currently refining pills for the dragon qilin. After feeding the dragon qilin, he ran to see the wind carriage and discussed with the scholars of the countryside to see if there was any shortcut to improving it.

“Truly an interesting person.”

Di Yiyue said with a smile, “He lives more freely and happier than anyone else!”

“No!”

Saint Woodcutter shook his head. “Actually, the responsibility on him is too heavy, he is just very optimistic, which makes people feel he is living free and happy. Yet, only he knows his own pain. He just chose to face life with a positive attitude, to face the dangers.”

“He couldn’t choose his birth, but he could choose the path for his future, as well as his attitude in walking on this path. He is the most charming person I’ve ever met.”