Tales of Herding Gods

Chapter 838: Sword Trace

The white dragon rode on the clouds and soared towards Dao Sect.

Under Dao Master Lin Xuan meticulous care, Xiao Chunfeng finally regained consciousness and Dao Master Lin Xuan revealed a smile. “It’s good that Senior Brother Xiao is fine. I’ve treated you and the medicine I had used wasn’t cheap, they amount to a total of two thousand great abundance coins.”

Xiao Chunfeng seemed slightly dispirited and he said, “Two thousand great abundance coins? I won’t owe you, don’t worry, I have my abilities. Once I earn the money, I will return to you.”

Dao Master Lin Xuan said with a smile, “If Senior Brother Xiao has no money, you can teach in my Dao Sect and slowly return me.”

Xiao Chunfeng stretched his limbs and probed. “How much is the salary per month to teach in Dao Sect?”

“The salary a month is thirty great abundance coins.”

Dao Master Lin Xuan said kindly, “This is already the price for a high-leveled directorate, normal directorates in Dao Sect only receives fifteen great abundance coins a month. Your abilities are high enough so you are worth thirty great abundance coins.”

Xiao Chunfeng jumped in shock and stared at him relentlessly. He asked with a hoarse voice, “Only thirty a month? If I don’t eat or drink and spend any money, I have to work five and a half years to repay this debt?”

Dao Master Lin Xuan had a guilty conscience and thought to himself. ‘Back when Cult Master Qin injured Xu Shenghua and treated him, how did he scam him without even blinking an eye? My face can’t hold on any longer, I might just increase Senior Brother Xiao’s salary if this continues…’

Clear Sky Heaven, Yu Chen’zi arranged everything properly and Clear Sky Sect Master reported to the celestial heavens that the emissaries of the celestial heavens were assaulted. They waited patiently for the celestial heavens to dispatch someone over.

On this day, Clear Sky Heaven’s sky split apart and a flying ship sailed in from beyond the sky.

The connections between the celestial heavens and Clear Sky Heaven had never broken off before. Even when Primordial Realm was sealed back then and space was overlapped, leaving only Great Ruins, Eternal Peace, West Earth, and et cetera, Clear Sky Heaven could still contact the celestial heavens at that time.

To the worlds like Clear Sky Heaven, it wasn’t the worlds of Primordial Realm that were sealed. It was Eternal Peace and Great Ruins.

Clear Sky Sect Master hurriedly led everyone out to welcome them and several half-gods from the celestial heavens stood at the bow, looking at them with smiles that weren’t smiles. Behind them were half-gods with wolf heads and human bodies, they were armed with pikes and didn’t give off any sounds.

Clear Sky Sect Master and the rest of the Daoists lowered their heads, they didn’t raise their heads back up.

“Raise your heads.”

The half-god in the lead said with a smile, “Fu Yuntian, you are the sect leader of Dao Sect’s Clear Sky Heaven, your position is even far above mine who is merely a constable from Divine Constable Camp, there’s no need to be so polite.”

Clear Sky Sect Master hurriedly said, “High Official is joking. High Official is the imperial censor of the celestial heavens, a high-ranking official. On the other hand, I’m merely a lowly god in the lower bound, how could I be reckless? High Official, it is my Clear Sky Heaven’s mistake for allowing the emissaries to be assault, my entire Clear Sky Heaven is in fear and trepidation, we are afraid of the punishment from heaven. May High Official please put in a few good words for Clear Sky Heaven when you return. Little God has prepared some small gifts here…”

That half-god laughed loudly and walked down the ship with the people behind him. He shook his head and said, “The celestial heavens have strict laws, who dare to accept your gifts? This is a heavy crime with execution as punishment! However, if you placed them on my ship without me noticing, I also can’t help it, could I?”

Clear Sky Sect Master smiled and threw glances to the rest of the Daoists. The Daoists hurriedly carried all kinds of treasures onto the ship.

That half-god walked in front of him and gently waved his hand. Those half-gods with wolf heads vanished like wind. Their bodies disappeared and reappeared in the front of all the palaces in Clear Sky Heaven. They prone down and sniffed around, vanishing again after they finish sniffing. When they reappeared, they sniffed around on the ground again.

Clear Sky Sect Master smiled subserviently and said, “High Official, this is…”

“We are just acting according to official business, Clear Sky Sect Master, please don’t blame us.”

That half-god grabbed his arms and laughed, “Don’t call me High Official, don’t be an outsider, these few here are my disciples. Those Howling Celestial God Race are bailiffs I’ve raised. I’m Celestial Heavens Divine Constable Camp Guard Qu He, Sect Master can just call me Old Qu.”

His primordial spirit suddenly flew out from his back and it was three thousand yards tall. That primordial spirit stretched its arms and there was actually a thousand arms stretching out in all directions with the palms facing outwards.

In his palms were actually huge eyeballs that rolled around to shoot out beams of divine rays in all directions as he tried to search for all kinds of clues.

Qu He continued to hold onto Clear Sky Sect Master’s arms and laughed, “Doing official business, don’t blame us, don’t blame us!”

Clear Sky Sect Master hurriedly smiled subserviently and he thought to himself. ‘I wonder if Yu Chen’zi had done everything flawlessly…’

Qu He’s primordial spirit flew up and shone in the surroundings. It quickly searched through the entire Clear Sky Heaven and those wolf-head half-gods also jumped at extremely fast speed. They searched around and seized several Daoists for questioning.

After a moment, Qu He’s primordial spirit flew back and those hundred wolf-head half-gods also suddenly appeared. In their hands were also some Daoists that were beaten half to death and the bailiffs moved to Qu He’s primordial spirit and whispered to him.

Clear Sky Sect Master’s expression had no change but he was truly not confident.

Suddenly, Qu He laughed and said, “Sect Master, I’ve injured some of your people, pardon me, pardon me. However, all of these are official business so I seek Sect Master’s understanding.”

Clear Sky Sect Master lowered his head and said, “I dare not.”

“So who was the one that had discovered the corpses of the emissaries?” Qu He asked with narrow smile.

“Yu Chen’zi who is under me.”

Clear Sky Sect Master summoned Yu Chen’zi over and Qu He stretched his hands to grab Yu Chen’zi. With a flash, they landed on the flying ship and he said with a smile, “In that case, Yu Chen’zi can bring us to the scene of the crime! Sect Master, please stay here, I only need Yu Chen’zi to lead the way.”

Clear Sky Sect Master’s expression changed slightly Yu Chen’zi hurriedly said, “Sect Master, don’t worry, I will be taking a look with the high officials, I will be back soon.”

Clear Sky Sect Master forced himself to smile and said, “Treat High Official well. High Official, please take care of my little disciple.”

Qu He laughed and the flying ship rose to fly out of Clear Sky Heaven.

Surging River Academy. Qin Mu tried searching for Cripple to no avail and he slowly became secretly nervous.

If it was any other elder in Disabled Elderly Village bringing Celestial Venerable Yu to walk the martial world, he wouldn’t be worried. Cripple was the only exception.

The villagers of Disabled Elderly Village wouldn’t put themselves in danger after all and even the most daring Butcher wouldn’t take the initiative to create trouble.

Cripple was the only one with the mission of stealing throughout the world. He would usually head towards the dangers and go for places were the most treasures. Furthermore, those places were usually the most dangerous places.

“Don’t worry, Cripple only has interest in anything for three days at maximum.”

Village Chief consoled him. “Cripple is like an old monkey that likes to play with his toys and cast them aside after he’s bored. When he gets sick of playing, he will return Celestial Venerable Yu to you.”

“I hope so.” Qin Mu’s expression didn’t change.

Right at this moment, Blind brought Celestial Venerable Yu to Surging River Academy. Qin Mu was beyond astonished and hurriedly welcomed them. Blind said, “I met Cripple at Flame Dragon Tomb, this scoundrel was currently being chased by a bunch of flame dragons that had set a thousand miles ablaze. They chased him until there was no place he could hide and so he threw this young man to me, telling me to bring him to Surging River Academy.”

Qin Mu was finally at ease and he examined Celestial Venerable Yu up and down. Celestial Venerable Yu revealed a simple and honest smile.

Qin Mu’s heart jumped and he also revealed a simple and honest.

Village Chief and Blind cheered. “Cripple taught well!”‘

Qin Mu revealed his white teeth, looking pure and innocent, radiant like sunshine. Celestial Venerable Yu also revealed eight teeth and he was very pure and radiant too. One couldn’t put up any guard against him.

Qin Mu’s hand suddenly moved and there was a pair of underwear was in his hand.

At the same time, Celestial Venerable Yu’s arm transformed into an illusion and Qin Mu laughed loudly in joyful satisfaction. “I never wear that, I always feel that it’s stuffy… Return me my taotie sack!”

Celestial Venerable Yu grabbed a taotie sack in his hand and since the sack was too heavy, he was spending quite some effort holding it up.

Qin Mu’s face turned black and threw back his underwear before snatching back the taotie sack. He said with a pained heart, “Brother Yu, you didn’t learn from the good and now you have learned to be bad from the old hooligan! Look, even though I had learned Grandpa Cripple’s methods, I never steal. I usually snatch them with my abilities. Grandpa Blind, is Grandpa Cripple going to be okay?”

Blind shook his head and said, “Hard to say. The abilities of those flame dragons are extremely high and they are guarding the tomb of an extremely terrifying god. Cripple brought your brother in and stole something in the tomb, it must definitely be an important treasure that is why they are chasing him relentlessly now. Looking from far away, I felt any of the flame dragons could kill me easily so I laid down a formation to escape with this boy. However, Cripple is always changing, he might just be able to escape.”

Qin Mu was still slightly worried. He looked at Village Chief and Village Chief understood him. “I will find help from First Ancestor and meet the strong practitioners of Flame Dragon Tomb.” After saying so, he left in a hurry.

Qin Mu was at ease and he said to Blind. “If Grandpa Blind is free, could you follow me to Dao Sect? I haven’t been learned Eternal Peace’s paths, skills, and divine arts for these few years so I’m lagging behind. I would like Grandpa Blind’s guidance.”

Blind was immensely pleased with himself. “You have indeed fallen behind. I have been studying Founding Emperor Era’s formations and even had an interaction with Heavenly Teacher Zi Xi in the capital city. Now my attainments in formation skills have already reached an all-new height.”

Qin Mu was delighted and said with a smile, “Indeed, no one can surpass Heavenly Teacher Zi Xi’s attainments in formation skills!”

Blind shook his head and said, “However, Heavenly Teacher Zi Xi has also fallen behind times, Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor, I and many other formation masters created new types of formation markings that even she has never seen before, I even had to teach her. However, I also learned a lot from her, she could still be known as the number one formation master in the world, I’m still inferior to her.”

Over these years, there were more and more attainments in Eternal Peace’s formation skills. Other than battle formations, killing formation, city defense formations, there all kinds of other new formations appearing and the most basic ones were formation markings.

Like how sword skills had nineteen basic sword skills, formation markings were the foundations to construct formations. To be able to add a few more kinds of formation markings to the existing formation markings was already a remarkable feat!

There were numerous formation masters in Eternal Peace Empire but their area of cultivation was different. Among them, Surging River Academy Grand Chancellor Su Yunzhi was a master in formation and she mainly cultivated city defense formations. General of Heavenly Strategies Qin Baoyue mainly cultivated battle formations and he was a god of the army along with Duke Wei.

Sikong Wei Pingbo was in charge of the water conservancy in Eternal Peace Empire and he was also a formation master. He was skilled in borrowing the terrain to lay out his formation.

Even though Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor was famous for his sword skills, his attainments in formation skills were even above General of Heavenly Strategies and the rest.

These elites of Eternal Peace had absorbed the attainments of Founding Emperor Era and expanded on it, thus their attainments were naturally extraordinary.

Qin Mu summoned the dragon qilin and the water qilin. He bade farewell to Su Yunzhi, Yuyuan Chuyu, and the rest before coming to the river and calling out to Dragon Rearing Sovereign.

Dragon Rearing Sovereign saw Blind and he gave an involuntary shudder. He smiled subserviently and said, “Master Spear God, long time no see.”

Blind closed his eyes and examined him with his divine mind’s eyes. He opened his eyes and asked, “Why haven’t you improve at all? Dragon Rearing Sovereign, your cultivation is too low, how are you going to control the Celestial River from today onwards? If you don’t improve, you will be killed sooner or later.”

Dragon Rearing Sovereign hesitated and said, “Little Dragon’s aptitude is dumb…”

Blind sneered and said, “You have been to Surging River Academy to give lectures and even become a chancellor there so you should know there’s Ancestral Dragon Supreme Mystery Technique there in Surging River Academy’s Floor of Heavenly Records, why didn’t you learn?”

Dragon Rearing Sovereign took a glance at Qin Mu and smiled subserviently. “Ancestral Dragon Supreme Mystery Technique is such a powerful technique, how would I dare to secretly learn it?”

Blind didn’t know where to laugh or cry. He shook his head and said, “You are too careful, your lord has already passed down this technique to the masses so why would he stop you from learning? Those flood dragons that laid on your body and only knows how to cry maha maha back then have already learned it. Some of the flood dragons’ abilities are even above yours. If you still don’t improve, it will be your turn to lie on their bodies to cry maha maha.”

Dragon Rearing Sovereign was delighted and gave his thanks profusely. He quickly ferried them towards the direction of Dao Sect.

Qin Mu sat on the head of Dragon Rearing Sovereign and consulted Blind about formation skills. Celestial Venerable Yu also listened at the same. Blind thought he had to teach them for half a year before they were able to master everything but after six days, there was nothing left that he could teach.

Blind stared with his eyes wide open and he felt angry for no reason so he punched Dragon Rearing Sovereign’s head a few times.

Dragon Rearing Sovereign felt the pain but he didn’t know what he had done wrong to anger this old master. He could only hear Qin Mu explaining to Celestial Venerable Yu, “As long as you master the basic formation markings before learning the formation skills, you will be able to learn them easily. This is called grasping this fundamental point and all the rest will follow. However, this is not enough, you will still have to deduce many things from one case, comprehending new things by analogy. Formation skills aren’t pure just formation skills, they could be used in other areas as well, for example using it on Dao skills, on sword skills. Some people only know how to mechanically memorize but they don’t know that is the dumbest method.”

Celestial Venerable Yu said, “It’s not difficult to learn them. I’ve comprehended several formation skills, brother, can you help me take a look to see if they are correct.”

Blind was furious again and punched Dragon Rearing Sovereign’s head two more times.

Dragon Rearing Sovereign didn’t dare to say a word. He could only continue forward in agony and the grueling journey finally came to an end. He only let out a sigh of relief when Qin Mu and the rest went ashore and he hurriedly dived back down into the water.

There was still some distance to Kunlun Border where Dao Sect was at so Qin Mu and the rest hurried on the way. After walking two days, they saw a flying ship stopped in the sky and there were numerous wolf-head mutants jumping down from the ship to sniff around.

Qin Mu was startled and he stopped the dragon qilin. He saw one of the wolf-head mutant finding a human corpse that had already been defiled by wild beasts. The face couldn’t be seen.

‘This corpse seems to be a half-god that had died in my hands, in that case, these mutants are…”

He looked towards the flying ship and he saw a god in golden armor. He stood on the bow of the ship with his hands behind his back and beside him was Yu Chen’zi.

Qin Mu’s heart jumped.

One of the wolf-head mutants leaped quickly and suddenly appeared in front of Qin Mu and the rest. He sniffed hard and suddenly vanished. He reappeared on the ship and whispered to that golden-armored god.

That golden-armored god Qu He looked over at him and revealed a smile. He asked Yu Chen’zi, “This person had appeared in Clear Sky Heaven before, Howling Celestial God Race had sniffed out his scent before. Do you recognize him?”

Yu Chen’zi cried out bitterly in his heart and hurriedly said, “I do. He is Heavenly Saint Cult Master Qin Mu from Eternal Peace Empire, I have brought him up the mountain to pay respect to Sect Master.”

“Heavenly Saint Cult Master Qin Mu?”

Qu He tilted his head and thought about it. “I seem to have heard that somewhere before… Since he is your old friend, just let them pass.”

Yu Chen’zi gave his thanks and said loudly, “Brother Qin, the celestial heavens is conducting official business here, you can just take a detour.”

Qin Mu acknowledged and instructed the dragon qilin to take a detour.

“Wait a moment!”

Qu He suddenly stopped him and narrowed his eyes. “Qin Mu, you cultivate sword skills? Could you execute a sword move to show me? I’ve discovered a sword trace on the wall of Clear Sky Heaven’s Dao Sanctuary, it was different from Dao Sect’s sword skills.”