Tales of Herding Gods

The elders that raised Qin Mu up mostly didn’t have children before so they didn’t teach him knowledge and experience in this field.

Village Chief was the human emperor and he took eradicating High Heavens as his responsibility, he didn’t dare to have a family.

Butcher was a literary giant and abandoned all restraint. He never paid any attention to minor details like giving birth to a child.

Cripple had a bad reputation. When he was not stealing stuff, he was being chased by people on the streets.

Blind had never mentioned his family. Mute only know he was tricked badly.

On her night of marriage, Granny Si got rid of her own husband Li Tianxing.

Deaf was intoxicated in painting and calligraphy which resulted in him becoming crazy. He had a wife in the past but his wife had died along with his country, thus he never mentioned his family.

It was the same for Old Ma, Old Ma’s wife and children had died when the monks of Great Thunderclap Monastery had pursed them.

The only one with plenty of experience in this field was Apothecary but the people of the village usually take Apothecary as a bad example to teach Qin Mu. This made him realized the danger of women.

Village Chief said how could he have a family before High Heavens was vanquished. Granny Si said that the women outside were all vixens. Butcher’s poems and knives were all fast and strong, he never had any woman before.

Only then did Qin Mu realized that if he wanted a child, he could only ask Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor who had already given birth to a child.

As for the people around him, there was no need to talk about the dragon qilin and the water qilin. Celestial Venerable Yu was silly now so there was no need to ask him and Gongsun Yan was merely a small sapling. She wouldn’t know even if he asked her.

‘I should go back to Eternal Peace.’

Qin Mu sat on the dragon qilin’s back and turned back to look at the battlefield where the two Mother Earth were fighting. Terrifying waves of energy could still reach here from time to time but he didn’t know if they were ripples from the divine arts rebounding or if the two Mother Earth were still fighting.

Gongsun Yan also looked over anxiously, “I wonder how is Mother Earth. I don’t know if Sister Qiuyun is dead or alive as well, she wouldn’t die with Mother Earth Primordial Sword with her, right…”

She was slightly at a loss.

After tens of thousands of years, she had always stayed in Mother Earth Temple which was outside the earthly palace. She tended to the fields and took care of Mother Earth’s remaining soul. This change had thrown her life into chaos and this caused this pure and innocent girl to be at a loss.

She couldn’t return to Mother Earth Temple and this made her felt as though she had lost her direction in life. Actually, she was like a tree that likes to be planted in a place.

She wasn’t used to drifting around.

Beside her, Qin Mu still held on to her hand and the energy from Earth Aeon Dao Fruit poured endlessly through Qin Mu’s hands and into her body. The warmth from Qin Mu’s hands made her felt at ease and the shriveled sapling in the halo behind her head also became to stretch out and slowly grow.

‘I still didn’t manage to talk to Bai Qu’er.’

Qin Mu retracted back his gaze and the youth felt a little depressed. ‘I wonder how she had live through these forty thousand years. She should have escaped from that place, right… Also, no matter which Mother Earth is victorious, it’s a good thing for Eternal Peace. If they died together, that would be even better. However, that kind of probability is too low. The next best outcome is for both of them to be heavily injured and each will hold their place. In this case, both Eternal Peace and Great Ruins would feel the lowest pressure. It’s a pressure I don’t have the ability to do that.’

He wanted to search for Bai Qu’er but it was also hard for him to find a person in this Primordial Realm which was god knows how many times larger than Great Ruins. It was simply too difficult to find a person.

And at this moment, the two Mother Earth were still fighting in North High Emperor Celestial Heavens and even though it wasn’t as terrifying as the start, it was still world-shaking. Even strong practitioners of Emperor’s Throne would feel fear when faced with such a battle.

One of these two Mother Earth was above the ground and one was under the ground yet the ground didn’t seem to exist at all. Only the Dao light of the Great Dao could be seen turning the ground brilliant gold, thousands of mountains rose up continuously and got destroyed.

The magnetic force involved the sun, moon , and stars in the sky and magnetic forces from the sun, moon, and stars would burst forth from time to time, transforming into shocking blades of light which descended down from the sky to slash at the enemy.

“With my abilities, it’s very difficult to kill both Mother Earth, I’m only on Numinous Sky Realm after all and had yet to cultivate to Emperor’s Throne. Do you think so, Lü Zheng?”

On the borders of the battlefield, Scholar sat on the donkey’s back and looked at this astonishing battle. She said to the donkey, “I can only hope for the next best scenario and that is for both Mother Earth to heavily injure each other, forcing them on opposite sides to split the power of Primordial Realm, this is so they won’t pose much of a threat to Eternal Peace.”

The donkey said, “Aang—”

Scholar opened up her small bag and said with a smile, lucky these two Mother Earth were injured in their fight so they aren’t at their peak, otherwise, I would have to cultivate to Emperor’s Throne Realm to heavily injured them.”

The donkey said with a smile, “Hwee hwee.”

“You are right, I can defeat Guan Cha, the number one in Martial Dao so I can definitely injure Mother Earth heavily, it’s just two Mother Earth makes me feel extra pressure.”

Countless chess pieces were placed in her bag and the donkey carried her far away. Scholar threw the chess at every set amount of distance and said with a smile, “Go chess has nineteen rows and columns that are set for mortals, how can a true game of chess only have only nineteen rows and columns? With the starry sky as the game of chess and the land as the chessboard, there are thousands of rows and columns. When this game of chess transforms into a formation, that would be a calamity. Lü Zheng, I feel my formation skills can be ranked number one.”

“Hwee.” The donkey sprinted quickly and his speed was extremely fast.

This donkey ran one circle around the battlefield of the two Mother Earth and Scholar had also threw down countless black and white chess pieces.

She raised her head to look at the astronomical phenomenon in the sky and she suddenly shouted as she swept her feathered fan forcefully towards the battlefield!

Far away, Qin Mu was currently hurrying on his way and his heart suddenly throbbed. He hurriedly looked back and was dumbfounded.

In that battlefield where both Mother Earth were in, a black and a white beam of light coiled around each other as they rushed into the sky. It was as if there were two huge black and white dragons twisting furiously!

He was already extremely far from the ancient battlefield and was probably ten thousand miles away yet he could still see that black and white light clearly. One could well imagine how thick those two beams of light must be to form such a destructive twist.

‘Is this a divine art? No, that’s not right, no one possesses such strong magic power! This is a formation skill!’

He fell into a daze as he looked at the formation skill that was full of destructive power tearing through everything in the Mother Earth’s battlefield!

The distance was too far so he couldn’t see the transformation in the formation, however, he could feel the transformations and killing intent from the ripples.

The power of this dangerous formation was terrifying.

‘Who had laid out this formation? Could he be borrowing the law of heaven and earth to wipe out Mother Earth? Now that Primordial Realm is unsealed, there are truly so many strong practitioners.”

He turned around and sorted out his feelings before putting his heart to focus on studying Life and Death Divine Treasure.

Life and Death Divine Treasure was the divine treasure that Elder Messenger of Death had opened up and it belonged to the sixth divine treasure of the divine treasure cultivation system. It led directly to Youdu and borrowed the power of Youdu through Life and Death.

Qin Mu’s understanding of the power of Youdu needed no explanation, however, his Life and Death Divine Treasure was different from the rest. There was a difference of Youdu and Xuandu and there were no predecessors he could study from.

He had to figure things out himself.

‘And the most crucial point is still that I have no more path after Life and Death Divine Treasure, I will still need to open up Divine Bridge Divine Treasure.’

Qin Mu’s gaze twinkled. The dragon qilin walked forward at a steady pace while Celestial Venerable Yu was studying hard to make spirit pills for the water qilin as his ration. His pill furnaces would explode from time to time, turning his face black from the soot.

“I’ve finally completed furnace!”

Celestial Venerable Yu’s delighted voice rang out and he grabbed a handful of spirit pills from the boiling hot pill furnace. He stuffed them into his mouth in front of the water qilin’s gaze of anticipation.

Next, Celestial Venerable Yu’s face turned green and he started foaming at the mouth.

Qin Mu spent quite a great deal of effort to resuscitate him back and got rid of the poison. He taught him patiently, “Refining pills is a work of temperament and also a work of technique, it’s also very dangerous at the same time. When you match the herbs just slightly wrong or if the heat was slightly incorrect, what you make would not be spirit pills and instead, they would be poisonous pills. In the future after you finish refining, don’t eat it first, let Ah Shui eat it first.”

The water qilin’s face turned black as he carried Celestial Venerable Yu to continue on the way.

“That’s right, isn’t the spirit pills you made for Ah Shui to eat?”

Qin Mu suddenly came to his senses and asked puzzledly, “Why had you ate it yourself?”

Celestial Venerable Yu lowered his head apologetically. “It smelled really nice, I couldn’t resist…”

Qin Mu shook his head and threw him some more herbs while he figured out Life and Death Divine Treasure and how to open up Divine Bridge Divine Treasure.

He pondered deeply and would sometimes walk to and fro on the dragon qilin. Gongsun Yan was being held by him so she could only follow him to walk to and fro.

The energy of Earth Aeon Dao Fruit raised her cultivation very quickly and her primordial spirit also became stronger and stronger. As the small Primordial Tree grew, it also awakened more Great Dao of Yuandu for her.

Gongsun Yan was slightly muddle-headed and she didn’t know what had happened. She wanted to ask Qin Mu yet she didn’t dare to disturb him so she could only keep it to herself.

Staring at the ground, she felt that this ground had a unique attraction which made her couldn’t help wanting to just root herself to the ground immediately.

She really felt like planting down her primordial spirit and becoming a huge tree. It was the best if she could even breed a nest of baby phoenixes on the tree crown.

Suddenly, she sensed that there was also a tree in Qin Mu’s body and that tree supported heaven and earth as it passed through the divine treasures in Qin Mu’s body. That tree was also continuously absorbing the nutrients of Earth Aeon Dao Fruit.

‘Could he be a tree as well?’

Gongsun Yan blinked her eyes and felt happy. ‘He is also a tree, in that case, we can find a warm place to take root. We can hold hands and touch our roots as we bathe in the sun. We can have several nests of phoenix in our tree crowns and these phoenixes would sing when they are bored, calling on each other…’

She looked forward very much to this kind of blissful life.

And yet the Builder Tree in Qin Mu’s body was also different from what she imagined. Builder Tree was created by Xu Shenghua and Qin Mu had perfected it with him. The main thing was using algebra and structure of vital qi to form it, using it to link heaven and earth, passing through all the divine treasures to combine all the divine treasures into one.

‘Divine Bridge Divine Treasure is a flying bridge which connects to the celestial palace. When the primordial spirit stands on the bridge and walked up step by step, one could reach the outside of Southern Heavenly Gate. Using Builder Tree Divine Bridge can also achieve such result but Builder Tree Divine Bridge is too difficult, it’s only a tad simpler than soaring into the celestial palace using the martial path. The algebras involved are too complicated.’

Qin Mu calculated silently in his heart. ‘Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher had destroyed my Divine Bridge Divine Treasure and allow me to reopen it so this is a chance for me to experiment. There’s not only one method to levitate into the celestial palace, right? Maybe there are still other methods.’

He was full of excitement and he immediately tried his hands at it by experimenting in his body. He thought to himself. ‘Can I open up a Paramita Divine Treasure? Sailing on a Paramita Ark to reach the celestial palace on the other shore?’

All kinds of marvelous thinkings started pouring out from him. “Builder Tree Innate Divine Bridge is too difficult to cultivate, in that case, I can construct a Builder Tree Divine Treasure and plant the Builder Tree in the seventh divine treasure. It will be slightly simpler than Builder Tree Innate Divine Bridge, just allow Builder Tree to grow and reach straight for the celestial palace.”

‘I can also create a Heaven Access Rope! Dangle the rope down from Southern Heavenly Gate and climb upwards towards the celestial palace.’

‘That’s right, I can also construct a Levitating Pool Divine Treasure! By making us of Jade Pool to levitate from the bottom up, passing through Jade Pool to land on Jade Pavilion! En, but in this case, the cultivation would be raised straight to Jade Pavilion Realm and turn one into a heavenly god, it can only be done if a divine art practitioner has as much magic power also as a true god. It’s impossible for anyone to have such dense accumulation but it’s still a feasible method…’

‘That’s right, there’s also another method that is turning the seventh divine treasure into the celestial river. As the celestial river flows down from the celestial heavens, one can reach the celestial palace on just a single celestial river!’

…

Qin Mu was ineffably excited and he thought of more and more ways to open up the seventh divine treasure. Every method was feasible but what he had to do was to turn these ideas into reality.

‘My current cultivation is still not at the standard of being able to open up the seventh divine treasure but I can first use my vital qi transform into the shapes of these divine treasure. With Mother Earth’s Earth Aeon Dao Fruit, my cultivation is rising rapidly, I’m not far from opening the seventh divine treasure!’

He was brimming with confidence and he raised his head to look into the distance. ‘With the dragon qilin’s leg power, we will probably take a few months to reach Eternal Peace Capital City. When I reach the capital city, my cultivation is probably enough to open the seventh divine treasure! After I open up Paramita Divine Treasure, I will go to the capital city and get Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher to destroy it so I can try opening Builder Tree Divine Treasure. After trying out all of the methods, I shall find the simplest one and this will perfectly solve the problem of the people in Eternal Peace and Great Ruins having broken divine treasure.’

He put all his heart and mind into constructing the shapes of the divine treasures and connecting the divine treasure to the celestial palace until he had no time to bother about the matters happening outside.

The dragon qilin hurried on the journey with all his strength and they only came to the vicinity of the capital city after eight months. There were numerous half-gods that had appeared on the journey. The half-gods all resided among the grand mountains and great rivers, keeping to themselves.

The dragon qilin got the water qilin to scout for information and the water qilin returned back to report. “Brother, now there’s two Mother Earth and no one knows who is real and who is fake. There’s also a scholar on a donkey that had heavily injured both Mother Earth and they escaped. Now everyone is feeling anxious and don’t dare to create any trouble.”

The dragon qilin said in astonishment, “There’s still such a thing… Cult Master, you’re awake?”

Qin Mu opened his eyes and shook his head.

He has been completely focused on deducing the seventh divine treasure and felt muddle-headed. Even when he refined spirit pills and cooked for them, he was slightly careless.

“Where’s little brother?” Qin Mu looked around and he only saw a round water qilin and a round roly-poly. He couldn’t see Celestial Venerable and ask in bewilderment.

“Big brother, I’m here!” That round roly-poly raised up his hand and called out.

The dragon qilin explained, “Cult Master, when you were in comprehension, Fatty Yu has finally succeeded in making spirit pills and so he started eating with Ah Shui. After eight months, that is the result. Cult Master, I didn’t eat!”

Qin Mu turned to look at Gongsun Yan who was beside him in a fluster and he realized he was still holding her hand. Gongsun Yan didn’t become fat but there was a small tree in the halo behind her head. It was currently swaying gently in the wind.

Gongsun Yan had even used tree branches to weave a nest in the tree crown and it looked slightly like Feng Qiuyun’s phoenix nest.

Qin Mu blinked his eyes and thought to himself. ‘The people around me are all abnormal, only Fatty Dragon and I… No, only I am normal!’

“Fatty Dragon, let us go!”

The youth said with high spirits, “Enter the capital! Let us find Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher, I’m about to open up my seventh divine treasure so I need him to shatter it again… Wait a minute, go to Imperial Preceptor’s manor first, I need to ask Imperial Preceptor how to give birth to a baby!”