Tales of Herding Gods

“Not going to save!”

Qin Mu threw the parchment on the ground and stomped on it twice before digging into it with the tip of his foot. He sneered and said, “Save you my a**! If you’re so capable of not listening to anyone, you can save yourself!”

He turned around and wanted to leave, but after some thought, he still picked up the parchment and dusted the dirt off. He stuffed it into his taotie sack and grumbled resentfully, “You ask me to save you, so at least tell me where you are trapped. How am I supposed to save you when you aren’t clear?”

He walked out of the black palace and came to the red flower world. The dragon qilin hurriedly welcomed him and looked around. “Cult Master, where is the female corpse?”

“She was reanimated earlier, so I threw her in to let older brother take care of her.”

Qin Mu examined the green sparrow on the dragon qilin’s head and saw that the originally cute and small bird had swelled up as though air was pumped into her. Even though she was slightly chubby now, she was still very cute.

“Young Master, I’m Yan’er,” said the round and bulging green sparrow.

Qin Mu said with a smile, “Sister Yan’er, of course I would recognize you. Have you finish eating the snake belle?”

He looked at the red flower world and saw that the thick and straight stamens had all vanished without a trace. They had all been cleanly plucked. “Is an ancient god hard to digest?”

“The taste of this big worm was extremely good.”

The round and bulging green sparrow’s voice was clear and a little embarrassed. “It took me a long time to finish eating. I forgot to leave some for you to try. Fatty Dragon wasn’t willing to eat, so I finished it.”

Qin Mu stared with his eyes wide open. She had finished it?

The snake belle was born from the stamens in the world of flowers, and the stamens were like pillars that stood between heaven and earth, yet they were all finished by her?

The dragon qilin retorted softly, “I’m not fat at all, on the other hand…”

The green sparrow pecked his head loudly, and the dragon qilin winced in pain. He hurriedly shut his mouth.

Qin Mu looked out of the sky, and the seal of the red flower world was still in a sealed state. They should still be in the abyss, and they would have to wait for the undercurrent to have a chance to leave.

He took out the geographical maps and spread all of them out. These geographical maps were left behind by Wei Suifeng in the valley outside the Paramita Ark, and he had already been to some of the maps.

For example, using the map of Dragon Village, he had received the commander token of the Feathered Forest Guards from Elder Qing Huang. Using the map of the abnormal star, he met God Chi Xi on the God Execution Stage and received the God Execution Mysterious Knife.

And in Supreme Brightness Heaven’s desolate city, he met the strongest god brain Ying Zhao, receiving the blueprints of the Paramita Ark as well.

In the abyss of the Ruins of End, he received Celestial Venerable Ling’s peachwood hairpin.

Actually, it was Big Senior Brother Wei Suifeng’s geographical maps that had led him here step by step.

Qin Mu placed the past geographical maps aside and observed the other geographical maps. He tried to find where Wei Suifeng was trapped.

At the side, Yan’er was muttering to the dragon qilin, “Young Master said that the female corpse was being taken care of by his older brother. Young Master still has an older brother? Why have I not meet him before?”

The dragon qilin glanced at Qin Mu and raised a claw to point at his head. He lowered his voice and said, “Cult Master’s older brother is actually Cult Master himself. Cult Master has always imagined that he has a very powerful and vicious old brother, don’t expose him.”

Yan’er raised her wings and stroked her little head with the tips of her wings. She gasped in disbelief. “What you mean is that Cult Master is…”

The dragon qilin nodded his head.

Yan’er looked at Qin Mu, who was currently studying the geographical maps, and her gaze was filled with sympathy. “Young Master is too lonely, that is why he’s having those hallucinations.”

Qin Mu studied the maps for a long time, and these geographical maps were all very unfamiliar to him. He couldn’t tell where Wei Suifeng was trapped, and he had no way to find out.

“In the past, Saint Woodcutter seemed to recognize numerous geographical maps when I showed them to him. We might be able to go look for him. He would definitely put in more effort towards finding his big disciple.”

Qin Mu put away the geographical maps and took out Celestial Venerable Ling’s peachwood hairpin.

Celestial Venerable Ling’s hairpin was the simplest and most ordinary peachwood hairpin, and there was nothing unique about it. It was also not imprinted with any runes. Qin Mu examined it in detail, and he couldn’t find any divine art or Great Dao hidden inside.

He gently exerted force, and the hairpin started to bend as though it could break at any moment.

“Celestial Venerable Ling’s divine art is also not inside this hairpin. How could the item of a Celestial Venerable be so ordinary?”

Qin Mu tried to execute his magic power and poured his vital qi into the peachwood hairpin, yet there was still no transformation. However, he could feel an extremely powerful and strange power hidden inside the hairpin.

His heart stirred slightly, and he executed the art of creation. He saw spring returning to the red-colored hairpin, and it quickly sprouted in his hand. Not long later, it transformed into a peach tree.

The peach tree bloomed and bore fruit, and soon, the peaches ripened.

Qin Mu plucked a peach and removed the peach skin. He took a bite, and it was very sweet.

‘However, I didn’t manage to activate this power, it might require an even more profound creation technique…’

Suddenly, a light flashed from the peach tree, and it vanished, transforming back into a hairpin, which landed beside him.

‘Unchanging substance!’

Qin Mu’s heart stirred slightly, and he picked up the hairpin. He had used a creation divine art to change the structure of the hairpin’s substance and allowed it to grow. Then, a strange power inside the hairpin had caused it to revert back to its original state.

This was exactly the characteristic of an unchanging substance!

Not only did the peach tree transform back into a hairpin, Qin Mu even saw the peach pit and the peach he had eaten earlier vanishing at this very moment. They returned back to their original substance.

‘This hairpin has already become an unchanging substance that won’t change for eternity. No matter what I do to it, it can never be damaged!’

Qin Mu executed his creation divine art once more, and suddenly, an overflowing flood majestically poured out from the hairpin and formed a suspended celestial river that was incomparably heavy. When the celestial river impacted, even the world in the flower swayed indeterminately!

Not far away, the dragon qilin and Yan’er didn’t have stable footing and got struck by the celestial river. In the next instant, they were blown to the borders of the world in the flower and collided with the flower wall.

The pressure of the celestial river was too strong, and the dragon qilin couldn’t withstand it. He was nearly crushed, and Yan’er hurriedly spread open her wings to protect him.

Suddenly, the celestial river stopped and vanished. All of the river water vanished without a trace, as though it had never appeared. The only thing left was Qin Mu examining the peachwood hairpin curiously and muttering to himself.

The dragon qilin and Yan’er fell down from the flower wall on the horizon. As they were trying to figure out what happened, the celestial river appeared and blasted them up against the flower wall once again!

Yan’er protected the dragon qilin once more, and she felt the pressure growing stronger and stronger. Suddenly, the celestial river vanished once again, and both of them fell to the ground.

Yan’er gave a delicate shout and shook her body to transform into a dragon sparrow. Her body size was enormous and chubby. She raised her two huge wings to block in front of her as she looked warily at her surroundings.

Suddenly, the celestial river came attacking once more, nearly extinguishing the vermillion bird sacred flames on her body. Once again, they were smashed into the flower wall on the horizon.

‘Strange, where is the water coming from?’

Qin Mu tested it once more, tormenting Yan’er and the dragon qilin beyond life and death.

And in the ruins of the High Emperor Celestial Heavens, which was in Fallen God Valley, Blind Elder Yi Shisheng was currently fishing out Celestial Venerable Ling’s corpse. He had already been there for over forty thousand years.

Suddenly, this blind elder revealed an astonished look, and he muttered to himself, “The water of the celestial river has become shallow… The water of the celestial river has never lessened before, why would it do so now?”

He became agitated. “Could Teacher be about to break free? Is she going to be free from endless death?”

After a moment, the water of the celestial river returned back to its original water level.

Yi Shisheng was stunned.

After a moment, the water in the celestial river was reduced once again and returned back to normal before being reduced again.

Yi Shisheng stood beside the celestial river, and he was completely bewildered. He didn’t know what was happening.

In the world of flowers inside the abyss of the Ruins of End, Qin Mu finally stopped his experiments and scratched his head. He muttered to himself, saying, “The power of the hairpin is powerful enough, yet this isn’t the reason Celestial Venerable Ling handed this hairpin to me. She wouldn’t have given me this treasure without reason. However, what should I do to execute the true power of this hairpin? Unchanging substance, unchanging substance…”

He walked to and fro while pondering hard, and suddenly, his eyes lit up. He said urgently, “What if I use Celestial Venerable Ling’s divine art to activate this hairpin, what would happen? When an unchanging substance meets the unchanging divine art, there is bound to be some other transformation!”

He had deduced Celestial Venerable Ling’s divine art on the ghost ship and acquired considerable learning. However, he was still far from recreating Celestial Venerable Ling’s divine art.

And at that point, Celestial Venerable Ling had only finished the fledgling stage of her divine art, so one could imagine how complicated Celestial Venerable Ling’s divine art of unchanging substance was.

Qin Mu grabbed the peachwood hairpin and tried to execute the incomplete divine art that Celestial Venerable Ling had created.

Yan’er and the dragon qilin saw him grabbing the hairpin once again, and their scalps crawled. They hurriedly went into hiding,

The celestial river appeared once again, but it wasn’t as terrifying as it was before. A section of the celestial river’s surface appeared in the sky, and it seemed to be extremely far from them.

There were layers of fog on the celestial river, and a woman wearing a leopard fur skirt and grass shoes could be faintly seen standing in the fog.

“Celestial Venerable Ling!” Qin Mu shouted loudly.

The woman in the leopard fur skirt and grass shoes seemed to hear his voice and turned around. The astonishment on her face turned into a smile.

She opened her mouth and wanted to speak when an incomparably gigantic shadow appeared in the fog behind her.

Qin Mu’s expression changed drastically. “Be careful, behind you!”

A beam of light appeared and pierced through Celestial Venerable Ling’s chest. She was then lifted up and smashed into the celestial river.

Qin Mu froze on the spot, and a chill spread throughout his body.

In the celestial river, Celestial Venerable Ling’s face was still facing him, and it was a long spear that had pierced through her body. The spear was in the hand of that gigantic shadow.

The smile on her face didn’t fade away, and her voice faintly traveled over. “Save me.”

That shadow in the fog closed in and seemed to want to break out from the restraints of Celestial Venerable Ling’s divine art. He rushed at Qin Mu and wanted to break free from the endless cycles.

“Who exactly are you?”

Qin Mu shouted loudly, “Show me your face!”

That figure rushed to the front section of the celestial river and leaped, trying to jump out. However, at this moment, the celestial river went into turmoil. He and Celestial Venerable Ling were swept away and vanished.

Qin Mu was stunned. He raised the peachwood hairpin and executed the divine art once again. The broken section of the celestial river appeared once more, and the scene repeated itself in front of him.

Celestial Venerable Ling was killed once again, and that shadow in the fog rushed out of the broken section, only to be swept back into Celestial Venerable Ling’s unchanging divine art once more. However, he was much closer to the broken section this time, so Qin Mu could faintly see his face. However, it wasn’t too clear.

This figure was trapped by Celestial Venerable Ling’s divine art and could never jump out of the celestial river, he couldn’t jump out of the cycle.

“Young Master, the undercurrent of the abyss is spewing out!”

Yan’er’s cries rang out to wake Qin Mu up. “The world in the flower is rising, we should be leaving here now!”

Qin Mu ignored her and executed the divine art once again. The world in the flower was rising, and the sky split apart. The twin lotuses were about to bloom.

In front of him, the torrential current of the celestial river surged up violently as the scene of the gigantic shadow killing Celestial Venerable Ling appeared once more. The shadow shrouded the heaven and earth as he rushed at the broken section again, heading straight for Qin Mu.

The world in the flower had bloomed completely, and outside was the Ruins of End. The dark celestial river hung in the sky, frozen. With one red lotus and one black lotus in the river, everything seemed extremely tranquil.

Yan’er and the dragon qilin looked at Qin Mu anxiously, and the dragon qilin cried out and said, “Cult Master, if we don’t go out, I don’t know how long we will have to wait for the next undercurrent to spout!”

Finally, that huge shadow in the celestial river rushed to Qin Mu’s face, and his face collided mercilessly with an invisible barrier. He still couldn’t rush out of Celestial Venerable Ling’s unchanging divine art.

He let out a furious roar and was swept away by the celestial river again, falling into the next cycle.

Qin Mu looked at that face in a daze. This time, he had finally seen the face of the owner.

Yan’er rushed over and transformed into a big fat bird that caught him and the dragon qilin before flying towards the sky that was about to close.

Finally, she managed to rush out of the world in the flower before the twin lotuses closed.

On the outside, the dark celestial river started to flow back, and the speed of the flow was becoming faster and faster. The attraction force of the abyss was also becoming stronger and stronger. Yan’er exerted all her strength and transformed her primordial spirit into a dragon sparrow as she fought against the force of attraction and pressure, flapping her wings to fly out.

Boom—

She crashed into Celestial Empress’ side palace and knocked down countless palaces and corridors before finally coming to a stop.