Tales of Herding Gods

Qin Mu looked at that coffin, and the coffin was suspended in the air without touching the ground. The multicolored rays in the surroundings just floated here and there around the coffin and the stone well. It was very tranquil.

It was as if everything here had stopped, and no other voices could be heard. The pitch-black coffin hung there and faced the well directly.

The multicolored rays were coming out from the well, and they were very light and faint.

Qin Mu asked suspiciously, “Xing An, the coffin hasn’t been opened yet, so where did you pick up that token from?”

The coffin was still bound by the chains and wasn’t open yet. Other than the black coffin and the well, there was nothing else, so he was a little puzzled.

Xing An placed down the chest, and the chest opened up with a clack.

“The token was placed on top of the coffin.”

He didn’t know what kind of technique Xing An had used for the corporeal bodies of half-gods to jump out from the chest. The chest was slightly uneasy and kept jumping to and fro, wanting to swallow up these gods again.

After a moment, there were a hundred gods standing around Qin Mu.

These gods had no more breath as they had already been refined by Xing An.

Xing An raised his sword fingers and moved around like a phantom, tapping on the heart of the brows of every half-god before standing still once again.

“Open!”

The heart of his brows suddenly split apart and revealed a pitch-black eye. The eye rolled one round, and a black line shot out from it to swim through the air like smoke. The line tunneled into the heart of these half-gods’ brows.

‘Spell of Youdu.’ Qin Mu was astonished.

The vertical eye in the heart of Xing An’s brows was like his third eye. They were both used for controlling Youdu’s power, but Xing An’s eye was still at an elementary stage. It wasn’t as exquisite as Qin Mu’s third eye.

Yet Xing An’s Youdu divine art had a very eye-catching point.

“Cult Master, he’s imitating you,” whispered the dragon qilin.

Qin Mu remained unmoved and said, “Don’t speak nonsense.”

Even though he had said so, he became a little warier. Xing An’s third eye was indeed imitating his, which meant that Xing An valued Qin Mu’s body very much.

With Xing An’s character, he definitely had to get anything that caught his eye!

What astonished him even more was that these half-gods that had jumped out of Xing An’s chest were all extremely strong. They were actually existences on the true god realm, and they actually got captured by Xing An. This showed how terrifying Xing An’s abilities were.

Xing An finished his spell, and suddenly, a half-god opened its mouth wide to swallow a half-god in front of him!

Qin Mu was alarmed, and yet he saw another half-god swallowing up this half-god, which was later swallowed up by the half-god behind. In the blink of an eye, only one half-god was left from the hundred half-gods.

This kind of situation was like a big fish eating a small fish before getting eaten up by another bigger fish right after.

The remaining half-god instantly leaped up and sprinted furiously down the mountain peak, heading straight for the ancient well below the coffin.

This half-god ran and ran while the flesh and blood on his body fell off. However, he only managed to rush midway down the mountain before getting turned into a running white skeleton by the power of the multicolored rays.

Right at this moment, the white skeleton burst apart, and another half-god rushed out of the white bones. He continued to run and quickly turned into a skeleton in the multicolored rays.

The skeleton exploded apart, and the third half-god rushed, followed by the fourth, the fifth…

These half-gods appeared from the white bones one after another and ran towards the ancient well like a relay race.

Xing An had a slightly nervous expression. When he counted to one hundred and seven, the last half-god rushed to the well and turned into a skeleton in the multicolored rays.

That skeleton half-god leaped and jumped into the well.

A soft thud came from inside the well.

Xing An let out a sigh of relief and lifted up the chest. “The other sword bridge is appearing soon, follow closely after me! Now, jump!”

Light suddenly rose from the well, and it had the shape of a sword light. There was no physical substance. This sword light just floated in the sky and hung there with the sword tip pointing down.

Suddenly, the sword light moved, and countless swords appeared in all directions to spread out horizontally. The sword lights that were spread out vibrated, and even more sword light spread out. In that instant, countless swords were spread throughout Fallen God Valley!

Qin Mu jumped up the instant Xing An said jump. The dragon qilin was a step behind and didn’t come back to his senses, so he was grabbed by Qin Mu immediately.

Swoosh—

Sword lights spread out under their feet, and Xing An landed on them gently. Standing on the sword light, he said solemnly, “The sword light spreading throughout Fallen God Valley will vanish soon and go back into the well, let’s hurry!”

Qin Mu hurriedly ran to the coffin with the dragon qilin. Xing An jumped onto the coffin and said, “This is the only safe place.”

Suddenly, that valley filled with sword light retracted and returned back to that sword light hanging above the well.

The sword light gradually sank back into the well and vanished. The multicolored rays rose up once again and shrouded the valley. On the other hand, there were no multicolored rays in the surroundings of the coffin.

This kind of multicolored sunlight was extremely peculiar, and when one walked into the light, their corporeal body would melt continuously. The death was too miserable to look at.

And at this moment, Yan Qiling, Mu Qiubai, and Dragon King Tian had rushed to the cliff only to look at Qin Mu and the others from far away. Every one of them frowned.

Mu Qiubai raised a door again and opened the door. As for Dragon King Tian, he roared continuously as his dragon beard flew backward. Incomparably heavy and dull sounds came from the air, and it was actually the brute strength of this old dragon king that was pulling over the world where the fire dragon crows delved in by force!

“They are just pushing forth with lives. They might just be able to push out a path to activate the sword in the well, but I don’t how many lives must end for them to reach here.”

Xing An’s gaze twinkled, and he looked at Qin Mu. “If it were Cult Master Qin here, how would you have broken the seal without my lead?”

Qin Mu pondered for a moment and said, “I would try to find the marvel of the divine art hidden inside the multicolored rays and solve it. If I could recognize the divine art inside these multicolored rays, they wouldn’t be able to hurt me.”

Xing An gave a slight smile. “You still don’t want to admit you are inferior to me. The token was picked up from atop this coffin, lower your head to take a look.”

Qin Mu lowered his head and was slightly stunned.

The top of the coffin was very wide and had a radius of four feet. It wasn’t cramped even though they were standing there, and other than the beautiful markings on top of the coffin, there was still a line of fine writing.

Beside the fine writing was a notch, and the token of a celestial venerable could fit perfectly inside.

Qin Mu read it and said, “Open when Qin, Mu is here.”

He raised his head and looked at Xing An with a smile that was yet not a smile. “So you gave the token to me not entirely in exchange for your life. It was also to lure me over to open this coffin for you. Xing An, you are very smart, killing two birds with one stone. The reason why I couldn’t understand the map that you drafted for me was probably also your doing, you purposely didn’t want me to understand it so I would have no choice but to get you to bring me here.”

Xing An revealed a smile and rubbed his palms in glee. “It’s too late for you to understand now. Now that you are already here, what can you do? When I was first here, I obtained that token and also saw your name on the coffin. When I couldn’t open this coffin with that Qin word token, I thought that maybe only you would be able to use this token to open the coffin, so I came looking for you.”

Both of them stood on the coffin, and there were countless fire dragon crows and bird-winged half-gods rushing towards the ancient well below the suspended coffin frantically. However, their flesh and blood dissolved in the multicolored rays and turned them into countless white bones.

Even so, there was still an uncountable number of fire dragon crows and bird-winged half-gods rushing straight at the ancient well. They saw the white bones below start to pile up before rolling forward with a rattle. It wouldn’t be long before the white bones piled up to the extent where they would be able to roll down to the opening of the well.

“Fallen God Valley isn’t huge, it’s surrounded by mountains in all directions, so it wasn’t difficult to search throughout the place. However, I felt that coming to Fallen God Valley was only reaching the entrance of the true treasure.”

Xing An stared at Qin Mu and said leisurely, “Cult Master Qin, make your decision when it’s time to, otherwise, the hundreds of thousands of lives could also pile up and activate the sword light in the well.”

“Xing An, if you had put your intelligence on the righteous path, your achievements wouldn’t be inferior to Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor. It’s a pity that you always use your smarts on the evil path.”

Qin Mu shook his head and took out the token of Celestial Venerable Mu. He said indifferently, “I can’t use the Qin word token that you received, the Qin Mu written on this coffin refers to two people, one is me, the other is the owner of this Qin word token. To open this coffin, I have to use my own token.”

He slotted his token into the notch, and it was stuck perfectly. Right at that moment, the white bones had formed a mountain below them, which had pushed its way to the side of the ancient well. Suddenly, several sets of white bones fell into the well.

In the well, the sword light rose up once again and suspended below the coffin.

Celestial Venerable Mu’s token was jammed in the notch, and the chains started to vibrate. A chain fell down with a crash as it undid itself, and it was followed by another chain.

Qin Mu stood at the top of the suspended coffin, which started swaying, and another chain opened up automatically. On the other hand, the sword light below suddenly burst forth and spread throughout Fallen God Valley.

Dragon King Tian, Yan Qiling, and Mu Qiubai immediately stepped on the sword light to rush towards the suspended coffin.

Finally, all of the chains were undone, and the suspended coffin sank down. It was suddenly empty below Qin Mu’s feet, and he fell down with the dragon qilin and Xing An with a whoosh. In front of his eyes was nothing but darkness.

‘We have fallen into this suspended coffin!’

A searing pain spread throughout his shoulder. It was because the green sparrow Yan’er on his shoulder had become nervous and dug her claws into his flesh.

Qin Mu hurriedly pat Yan’er’s back, and only then did this green sparrow come back to her senses and release her claws.

They were still falling, and even though the suspended coffin didn’t look huge, the space inside was truly astonishing. Qin Mu raised his head to take a look and saw a square-shaped light at the top of the coffin. The light immediately turned dark, and there were some people that had managed to take the chance to slip in before the coffin was shut.

The moment those few people rushed into the coffin, the suspended coffin closed.

Thump.

The sound of something falling into water came from outside, and Qin Mu’s heart stirred slightly. ‘This coffin has fallen into the ancient well.’

The vertically suspended coffin fell into the well and sank to the bottom. Even though they were in the pitch-black darkness, they could still feel the suspended coffin sinking down faster and faster.

Not only that, but they were also continuously falling in the coffin. The depth of the coffin was astonishing.

Finally, Qin Mu saw light coming from below, and he hurriedly executed his magic power to stabilize his body. Not long later, his feet touched solid ground, and he raised his head to look forward. He saw that there was actually an octagonal pavilion inside this coffin. Eight lanterns hung at the eight corners of this pavilion, and the light from the lanterns was very faint.

Xing An was apprehensive, and he carefully examined the pavilion. He didn’t go forward.

This coffin was too peculiar. There were no terrifying corpses, and it only had a pavilion, but he still had to be careful.

There was light coming from the pavilion, while the surroundings were completely dark. Who knew if a zombie would suddenly jump out from the darkness?

On the other hand, Qin Mu walked forward and came to the pavilion. He saw that there was only a stone table and four stone seats.

There were two teacups placed on the table and a pot of tea. One of the cups was empty, while the other cup was full. The tea had a jade green color, and it was giving off steam.

Qin Mu sat on the side with tea, and he raised the teacup with both hands towards the opposite side. He lowered his head slightly and bowed to the air.

He raised his head and sighed ruefully in his heart. “When we first met, you kept calling me junior brother, and I kept being fierce to you, so you blamed me for being prideful. You didn’t know there was a gap of a hundred generations between us, but I did. When you met Niu Ben, Niu Sanduo, again, you should have known. Leaving this cup of tea behind, could you want to have a drink with me?”

Xing An walked over, and he said coldly, “Cult Master Qin, you even dare to drink the tea here? Be careful of poison!”

Qin Mu raised his head to gulp it down, and he was overwhelmed by emotions. The tea had a sweet aftertaste, and it was still warm. It was as if the person drinking opposite to him had just poured this cup before getting up to leave.

Qin Mu had a complicated expression, and he put down the teacup. He raised the teapot and poured a full cup of tea for the empty teacup on the opposite side before pouring another cup for himself. He said gently, “How I wish you could be sitting in front of me and we could exchange cups of tea. It’s a pity you’re not here.”

He raised his head to gulp it down, and even though it was tea, he seemed to be a little intoxicated. He drank by himself and asked softly, “Will you still come back?”

Even though it was empty on the opposite side, Xing An didn’t dare to sit down. Instead, he stood outside the pavilion.

At this moment, Yan Qiling and Mu Qiubai landed down with several maids, and those maids looked warily at the surroundings. Dragon King Tian also brought several strong practitioners under Mother Earth to land, and divine light burst forth from the eyes of those few strong practitioners as they peered through the darkness to look for any danger.

Meanwhile, Yan Qiling, Mu Qiubai, and Dragon King Tian had their gazes on Qin Mu, who was drinking by himself beside the stone table.

On Qin Mu’s shoulder, the green sparrow flew up and transformed into an obedient looking girl on the stone seat beside him. She poured the tea for Qin Mu before raising the cup to Qin Mu’s mouth.

With a beauty nestling up beside Qin Mu, it looked like he was abandoning all restraint.

“There’s a very big secret hidden in Fallen God Valley.”

Mu Qiubai suddenly said, “We, senior brother and junior sister, have come to explore this place on His Majesty Celestial Emperor’s orders. Dragon King Tian, you should be on Mother Earth’s orders, am I right? Mother Earth resided in the Primordial Realm for a long time, the secret in Fallen God Valley naturally couldn’t escape her eyes.”

Dragon King Tian was silent for a moment before answering. He said, “Mother Earth told me that a celestial venerable is buried here, therefore, she got me to search for this celestial venerable.”

Suddenly, Xing An twitched his nose, and he asked suspiciously, “Did any of you bring one more person to search for this celestial venerable that is already dead?”

Everyone was slightly stunned.

Xing An said, “I can smell the breath of another person. Could someone have taken the chance and slipped in while you guys were entering the suspended coffin?”

When he said that, everyone could sense another person in this coffin immediately, and they couldn’t help becoming nervous.

They were all remarkably strong practitioners, so who could have mingled in behind them without them noticing anything?

“Everyone, there’s no need to worry.”

A chuckle came from the darkness, and the sound of laughter came nearer and nearer to this pavilion. Gradually, a young face was lit up by the light from the lanterns.

That was a familiar face that was full of smiles. He bowed towards everyone and said, “I don’t have any ill intentions, I’m just here to meet an old friend.”

“Pak!” The teacup in Qin Mu’s hand suddenly exploded, and tea splattered everywhere.

His chest heaved up and down violently, as the face in the darkness belonged to none other than ‘Celestial Venerable Yu’. It was a ‘Celestial Venerable Yu’ that was exactly the same as Lan Yutian!