Tales of Herding Gods

Dragon Rearing Sovereign looked at a half-god walking over from the distance. That half-god should also be a god, as its body was already half-faded. He should be a strong practitioner that was following Ancestral Dragon King, and he had been killing the others who had boarded the ship.

However, this person was afraid of Village Chief and waited until Village Chief had vanished before appearing.

“My Lord, this person’s abilities are extraordinary.”

Dragon Rearing Sovereign jumped down from the hall and said solemnly. “I shall fight to my death. I hope My Lord can revive me in the future!”

“Dragon Sovereign, don’t worry. You are my Celestial River Dragon King, I won’t let you die here.”

Qin Mu also jumped down from the palace hall and said, “You will fade into the void in the next reset, and it will be the same for that half-god as well. You just need to drag the fight out until the next reset.”

Dragon Rearing Sovereign faced that half-god and chuckled. “But I don’t have the confidence. The bloodline of the dragon race in his body is higher than mine, so I can only fight him with the intention of dying together with him. The more I try to drag for time, the more likely it is that I will simply be killed by him.”

He roared and smacked his fist against his palm in front of his chest. His qi and blood flared up as he chuckled. “Victory belongs to the strong! Back then, I was also a god that fought against Human Emperor Su and didn’t die under his sword! Following My Lord, I became Celestial River Dragon King and not a puny god that is raising dragons for High Heavens! If you want to take My Lord’s life, it will be over my dead body!”

He fought with that half-god, and both of them transformed into two huge dragons to roll and fight. They controlled fire and water with their divine arts and had terrifying power.

Qin Mu walked into the palace hall.

Loud explosions rang out from the fight between the two divine dragons, and even though not many people that had boarded the ship with them were left, there were still some that had survived. He didn’t manage to see Luo Wushuang’s Spirit Elite Guards, and he didn’t manage to see that Prince Qiu Ming from the celestial heavens.

Those people must have hidden, and since their cultivation wasn’t at the god realm yet, they wouldn’t fade into void yet. They could wait until the gods finished killing one another or after they faded into the void.

Qin Mu examined the palace hall. It was Wei Suifeng’s palace hall.

Founding Master Wei Suifeng of the Heavenly Saint Cult had explored the Ruins of End and experienced a peculiar time travel incident, which brought him back to the Dragon Han Era.

He had become the Left Commander of the Dragon Han Celestial Heavens’ Feathered Forest Guards, managing the most powerful army of gods.

This big senior brother also had some understanding of Celestial Venerable Ling’s divine art. When he was returning to the celestial heavens with the Feathered Forest Guards, he realized he should be returning to his time when he encountered the fog again, so he extinguished his lamp to return.

Wei Suifeng was very clever, and it was very likely that he had figured out what was lacking in Celestial Venerable Ling’s divine art, allowing him to escape unscathed.

‘Maybe I can find some clues at big senior brother’s place.’

Qin Mu examined the layout of the palace hall, and he memorized the exact location of every item before he started to search in detail.

He found Founding Master’s bookshelf, and on the shelf were books that were written in different languages. Some were written in the immemorial god language, some were written in the ancient god and ancient devil languages, and some were written in the human language.

Qin Mu browsed through them and placed them back messily.

He found the personal letters that big senior brother had written using the human language. The letters recorded some trifling matters big senior brother had in the Dragon Han Celestial Heavens. Qin Mu read through in detail, but there wasn’t much useful information. However, there was a geographic map that led to the Ruins of End.

Qin Mu was slightly stunned. This map to the Ruins of End complemented one of the geographic maps big senior brother had left for him. Even though there was a slight difference to the terrain, the rest was more or less similar.

‘One of the places big senior brother wished for me to find is the Ruins of End! He must have left something in the Ruins of End as well, something that is definitely extremely important!’

Qin Mu composed himself. From the looks of it, the geographic maps that Wei Suifeng had left for him contained huge secrets and treasures. The first thing he had found was the commander’s seal of the Feathered Forest Guards.

The second geographic map had led him to God Chi Xi and the God Execution Mysterious Knife, but this wasn’t the main point. The main point was that the result was him pulling strings to get Qin Mu to meet with the remaining survivors of Crimson Light Era, allowing Eternal Peace to form an alliance with Crimson Light Son of God.

The third geographic map had led Qin Mu to find the head of God Ying Zhao in Supreme Brightness Heaven, receiving the complete blueprints of the Paramita Ark.

Meanwhile, this geographic map was the fourth map that he knew the name of. Wei Suifeng had returned to the Dragon Han Celestial Heavens when he was exploring the Ruins of End. He must have discovered something there and hid the secret there, waiting for Saint Woodcutter or Qin Mu to discover it.

The ghost ship gave off a gentle tremor. This was the prior indication that the ghost ship was about to reset again.

Qin Mu’s expression changed slightly, and he hurriedly left the palace hall. He used a stone to press down on the personal letters before raising his brush to doodle on the pillar where Celestial Venerable Ling had left her poem. Once he did that, he hurriedly retreated.

Outside the hall, Dragon Rearing Sovereign was still battling that divine dragon, and the blood of dragons was splattered around. Both of them were completely into the fight, and even if the ship was going to reset, they couldn’t stop themselves anymore.

Light burst forth as the ghost ship left this time and space. When the light faded, Qin Mu regained his vision and saw that the personal letters he had pressed down with the stone had vanished without a trace!

Qin Mu’s eyes lit up, and he returned into the palace hall. He saw that the things he had placed messily earlier had returned to their original locations. Everything was neat and tidy.

Qin Mu turned to walk out of the palace hall. He examined the pillar in front of the hall and saw that his doodle had vanished. However, Celestial Venerable Ling’s words were still there.

Qin Mu smiled and suddenly laughed loudly.

A distance away, Dragon Rearing Sovereign’s opponent had vanished, and this big dragon was also completely exhausted. He was covered in injuries, and his body was also about to fade away as well. He gasped for breath and asked, “What is My Lord laughing about?”

“I changed the location of some items, and after the reset, the items returned to their original positions.”

Qin Mu looked at the poem on the pillar with interest and said with a smile, “I even doodled on Celestial Venerable Ling’s poem, and where I doodled has vanished. However, Celestial Venerable Ling’s poem still remains. Do you know what this means?”

Dragon Rearing Sovereign was at a loss.

“We are situated in Celestial Venerable Ling’s divine art, and we can’t change anything on the ship. Anything that is destroyed will return back to its original state once the ship resets. However, Celestial Venerable Ling boarded the ship afterward and changed something on the ship. She left behind a poem on the pillar.”

Qin Mu asked, “Why was she able to leave her poem behind?”

Dragon Rearing Sovereign was even more at a loss. He shook his head and said, “My Lord, my brain is dumb. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been seized by you to become Celestial River Dragon King.”

“The substance on the ship doesn’t change, doesn’t move, doesn’t increase, and doesn’t decrease, yet Celestial Venerable Ling could still leave behind a poem. This means that she solved her own divine art.”

Qin Mu said with a smile, “In her poem, she described the reason behind her divine art, and when writing her poem, she used the method to solve the divine art. This also means that she hid the solution to the substance not changing, not moving, not increasing, and not decreasing in her poem. Dragon Rearing Sovereign, Dragon Rearing Sovereign…”

Dragon Rearing Sovereign’s body became fainter and fainter. When he turned back to look, the dragon king slowly faded away like an illusion.

“My Lord, you will have to rely on yourself for the rest of the journey…”

Dragon Rearing Sovereign completely vanished.

Qin Mu stood there in a daze and only came back to his senses after a while. There was no one left beside him, only he and his shadow were left.

“You guys are still beside me, right? I know Village Chief and you are both here, you haven’t gone far.”

He sat down and looked at the poem on the pillar. He muttered to himself softly, “Don’t worry, I will find a solution. Celestial Venerable Ling thinks that time doesn’t exist in this world, that it’s just a hallucination from the change in substance. If a substance doesn’t change, move, increase, or decrease, time doesn’t exist. This is the basis of her divine art. When she was executing this divine art, she didn’t perfect it and left behind a flaw. When she returned to this place, she left words on this pillar and increased the substance…”

In the distance, divine weapons were placed on the racks in the ghost ship’s armory. Even after so many thousands of years, these divine weapons still looked brand new.

The armory was very wide, and there were corpses on the ground. A knife that was currently dripping blood hung in the armory, the droplets of blood pitter-pattering down from the tip.

The person who held the knife had a very steady grip. The owner of the knife was also like the corpses on the floor, it was also a one-armed youth.

“Junior Brother Zhe Huali, Teacher Luo has already faded into the void, and there are fewer and fewer people on the ship. We, the Spirit Elite Guards, are the most outstanding disciples chosen by the descendants of the gods in the celestial heavens. Only by going through strict elimination rounds can we enter the Spirit Elite Guards.”

That one-armed youth looked at Zhe Huali on the other side of the weapon rack and said indifferently, “Hundreds to thousands of people have to die in every selection in order to choose an outstanding disciple of the Spirit Elite Guards and receive the true teachings of Teacher Luo. Most of the people choose to sever one arm, as only then can we comprehend the path from Teacher Luo’s knife skills. However, Teacher was biased and felt that you had the best aptitude, so he sent you to the lower bound to learn from Fu Riluo, hoping that you would walk down another path.”

The demon knife behind Zhe Huali’s back trembled, and he said solemnly, “Big senior brother, you are the best at learning Teacher Luo’s knife skills to the point that even I’m inferior to you. However, you are inferior to me in the Knife Dao. You are only following behind Teacher Luo. Why did you have to kill so many junior brothers and junior sisters? They could have faded into the void, and they posed no threat to you.”

“They had to die because they were weaker than me. I would fade into the void earlier than them.”

That one-armed youth said coldly, “I need to ensure that I’m the last one alive. To enter the Knife Dao, I could even sever my own arm, much less kill them. As for junior brother, I want to see what Teacher Luo saw in you. I want to see how you are better than me and how much further you can walk ahead of me! This is why I’ve left you for last.”

Zhnng—

Knife light shone, and in an instant, the entire armory was filled with knife light. The two youths collided, and the terrifying power activated all of the divine weapons in the armory. The power of the divine weapons burst forth and blew the whole hall into pieces!

After the terrifying divine might swept past in all direction, Zhe Huali raised his hand and sheathed his two knives behind his back. He walked out of the ruins and didn’t bother looking at the corpse of the one-armed youth.

Every step of his seemed to be perfectly measured, and the distance never changed.

“My knife skills have been through Overlord Body Qin’s beatings and have long surpassed Teacher Luo. Not even Teacher Luo knows it, so you wouldn’t either. I entered the Dao with my knife and comprehended two heavens of the Knife Dao. This is my own Dao, my own skills, while you are using Teacher Luo’s knife skills, Teacher Luo’s Knife Dao. This is why you are dead.”

He walked towards the camp. When he looked at Qin Mu sitting in front of the palace hall from a distance, his pupils constricted.

Qin Mu seemed to sense his gaze and turned around to look at him with a smile.

Zhe Huali couldn’t help revealing a smile, and he felt apprehensive in the next moment. ‘This rascal is using his smile to lower my guard, I can’t fall for his trap! He is an enemy I have to get rid of!’

At that very moment, another figure appeared in the distance, and it was Prince Qiu Ming.

“Only three of us are left from the same batch.”

Prince Qiu Ming shook the sword in his hand, and droplets of blood splattered out. “I killed several batches of people that boarded the ship later and discovered a secret I want to tell both of you.”

He smiled and said, “It turns out that the unchanging constants on the ship can also die. I just killed one.”