Tales of Herding Gods

Chapter 997: Celestial Venerable Mu’s Manor

Divine King Lang Wo was frustrated. ‘Why does everyone say I’m Jue Wuchen?’

After all, she was the masters of creation’s divine king and had little contact with the outside world. However, as the only divine king of the masters of creation and a being on par with Founding Emperor, she was cunning and deep. Although she was frustrated, she never said it.

As soon as Heavenly Lady Qiang spoke, she knew she shouldn’t have, as it revealed a lot of information about her.

She shut up and fell into silence.

Qin Mu was stunned, and waves flooded his brain. He also went silent.

Only the select few who participated in the ambush to kill the ancient Celestial Emperor, such as the Heaven Alliance leaders and Celestial Emperor himself, knew about Jue Wuchen.

Back then, the Heaven Alliance wanted to work together to deal with Celestial Emperor, which led to them recruiting a complex task force to do so. Outside of the original Celestial Venerables, leaders of the half-gods, the son of Heaven Duke, the daughter of Earth Count, and even Celestial Emperor were involved.

However, not many people should have such a large reaction to Jue Wuchen. Outside of Celestial Empress and Mistress Yuanmu, the most likely person would be Celestial Emperor!

It would be interesting if Heavenly Lady Qiang was Celestial Emperor.

Qin Mu immediately thought about a possibility in the Dragon Han Celestial Heavens back then. Celestial Emperor might have split part of his soul to become Heavenly Lady Qiang, infiltrating his harem to prevent Celestial Empress from gathering the power of the harem and growing too powerful. After all, that could have threatened his rule.

He saw how Celestial Empress and Mistress Yuanmu caused trouble in his harem as Heavenly Lady Qiang.

When he went down and reincarnated to put down the Jue Wuchen that Mistress Yuanmu created, Heavenly Lady Qiang stayed in the harem.

Then, his corporeal body was in the celestial heavens as well. However, it was hollow without Celestial Emperor’s primordial spirit.

Mistress Yuanmu and the Heaven Alliance then took out the reincarnated Celestial Emperor and excommunicated his soul. After that, Celestial Venerable Yun, Celestial Venerable Hao, and Mistress Yuanmu’s Jue Wuchen rushed to the celestial heavens to try and steal his corporeal body.

These were things that Qin Mu already knew.

‘What if they found out that Celestial Emperor’s corporeal body had already been controlled when they rushed into the celestial heavens to control it?’

Qin Mu blinked. ‘What if the one who controlled it was Heavenly Lady Qiang?’

Who was the third-party winner then?

Of course, it was only a theory. However, he was certain that if the ancient Celestial Emperor wanted to maintain his rule back then, he would have left someone behind to protect his corporeal body.

The simplest route was to leave a part of himself in his harem. Thus, that part of his soul could be hiding in the harem.

As such, Heavenly Lady Qiang and Heavenly Lady Yan could be Celestial Emperor. Given the former’s surprised reaction to Divine King Lang Wo, the probability was high.

‘Besides that, there was also something else—Celestial Venerable Hao’s biological father.’

Qin Mu’s gaze stayed on Heavenly Lady Qiang with his usual smile as he thought, ‘Celestial Emperor might have fallen for Yuanmu. He might have wanted to give birth to a half-god to find a way to extend the longevity of half-gods, so he reincarnated. Becoming a human, he gave birth to a half-god, Celestial Venerable Hao, with Mistress Yuanmu, who was an ancient god. After giving birth to him, what happened to that version of him? Does it still exist? Is he hiding in the ten Celestial Venerables? If he is still here, Celestial Emperor wouldn’t need Heavenly Lady Qiang or Heavenly Lady Yan, he would only need to leave a soul in that form.’

Celestial Venerable Hao’s biological father had always been a secret. The only person who knew the real identity of the reincarnated Celestial Emperor was probably Mistress Yuanmu.

If Mistress Yuanmu exposed the identity of Celestial Emperor’s reincarnation, her own identity would be exposed. This allowed them to maintain a delicate balance where their identities remained a secret.

In Celestial Emperor’s chambers of concubines, Qin Mu, Heavenly Lady Qiang, and Divine King Lang Wo looked at each other in silence. The atmosphere was tense.

Only Divine King Shu Jun didn’t care about the situation. He looked around and asked, “This is Celestial Emperor’s chambers of concubines? No wonder it smells so good.”

His words awakened the three of them.

Qin Mu’s smile became more honest as he paid his respects to Heavenly Lady Qiang. He politely said, “I pay my respects to you, Heavenly Lady Qiang. I have been here for so long, yet I was always busy, making me unable to see you. Please forgive me.”

Heavenly Lady Qiang returned the ceremony and smiled. “Celestial Venerable Mu, you are too modest. I have been here for so long, yet I haven’t visited you. You should be the one forgiving me.”

They kept their doubts to themselves, and everything they said was formalities.

Qin Mu said, “We accidentally intruded. Luckily, we met you, or else we would have been in big trouble.”

Heavenly Lady Qiang laughed. “The roads here crisscross a lot and are quite confusing. It’s reasonable that you would accidentally intrude here, considering you don’t know the way. If you can’t find your way out, I will order people to lead you out.”

Qin Mu thanked her, and Heavenly Lady Qiang smiled back. “A pleasure to help. I heard that you went on an expedition in the Great Void to find Carefree Village. There have been a lot of rumors claiming you died there with the whole army gone. I didn’t think you would come back alive and enter here. Could the people with you be from Carefree Village?”

Qin Mu laughed. “Of course not. You seem to recognize my sister, though? Have you two met?”

Heavenly Lady Qiang shallowly smiled. “We have not. Celestial Venerable Mu, you haven’t come here.”

Qin Mu smiled. “I haven’t seen you either.”

Heavenly Lady Qiang nodded and clapped. Two palace maids came. She whispered to them, and they nodded before gently saying, “Please follow us, precious guests.”

They led them away. Heavenly Lady Qiang sent them off before frowning and whispering, “Which one of the two wretches is she? This is strange, too strange…”

Qin Mu looked back, and Heavenly Lady Qiang smiled again. They smiled at each other from a distance.

Qin Mu followed the palace maids, who clearly recognized him. They looked at one another, but they didn’t dare to speak.

Qin Mu smiled. “Sister, how long have you been following her?”

They didn’t reply to him directly. Instead, one of them giggled and said, “Celestial Venerable Mu, you are shameless. You peeped on us bathing with the emperor’s lady a few days ago, but you seem to have forgotten about it.”

Qin Mu blushed and didn’t dare to ask again. He sneakily glanced at Divine King Lang Wo.

Divine King Lang Wo looked normal and unfazed.

Shu Jun was excited and asked, “Sisters, which of the emperor’s ladies was the one bathing on that day? Was it that Heavenly Lady Qiang from just now?”

Qin Mu’s face was as black as iron.

They didn’t dare to answer. If they answered, they would probably die.

When Qin Mu opened the door to Celestial Emperor’s chambers of concubines twice at the Void Bridge then, a huge ruckus was caused already. The emperor’s lady imposed a gag order and killed a bunch of gossiping palace maids. They were lucky to survive, which made them naturally worried about their circumstances.

Celestial Emperor’s chambers of concubines was vast. The palace maids led them down alleyways to avoid people and sent them out through the back door.

Qin Mu looked back and whispered, “There seems to be a lot of secrets hidden there…”

Divine King Lang Wo vaguely said, “And a lot of bathing ladies too.”

Qin Mu didn’t say another word.

Shu Jun nodded and said, “When he opened the door then, he just so happened to see the emperor’s lady and palace maids bathing. There were a lot of them, and their skin was really white.”

Qin Mu glanced at Shu Jun, and Shu Jun shivered as if he fell into an abyss.

Qin Mu smiled. “Sister Divine King, this is the celestial heavens. You wanted to see your ancestral court. Now you got your wish, right?”

Divine King Lang Wo looked around and saw the light beams above the celestial heavens being funneled together. It was odd for her.

It was the Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge that Qin Mu designed. She didn’t recognize it.

There were several more times the number of Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridges here than when Qin Mu left. Various worlds and heavens like Youdu and Xuandu were likely connected by it. It was convenient for everyone, as well as for the celestial heavens’ rule!

Divine King Shu Jun shook his head. “This is the celestial heavens of the ancient gods, not our ancestral court. Divine King Lang Wo was young then, so she likely hasn’t gone there before. It’s not here.”

Qin Mu was stunned as he asked, “The celestial heavens isn’t your ancestral court?”

Divine King Shu Jun shook his head. “No.”

Divine King Lang Wo said, “I also feel like it isn’t. I heard from our spirit ancestors that the ancestral court was extremely vast and filled with holy mountains and rivers on top of ore deposits of divine creation rocks. There were countless other precious minerals too. Although this place is filled with riches, it doesn’t seem like the ancestral court my spirit ancestors talked about.”

Qin Mu frowned. His first impression of the ancestral court of the masters of creation was the celestial heavens. However, it seemed that he was wrong.

“This should be the ancient Celestial Emperor’s birthplace.”

Divine King Shu Jun sniffed around, saying, “I sniffed the fellow’s Great Dao smell. There are big secrets hidden in his birthplace. From what I smelled, his birthplace is somewhere in the chambers of concubines.”

Qin Mu looked at him peculiarly, thinking, ‘The smell of Great Dao? He can smell that too? Could Shu Jun’s nose be different from ours? However, if Celestial Emperor’s birthplace is the chambers of concubines, it would be a shocking secret! If only one could enter the chambers to explore…”

He shook his head. Although Celestial Venerable Qiang harmoniously ordered people to send them out, it would be difficult to enter the place again.

‘Fatty Dragon and Yan’er are still in the Vermillion Bird Palace. I should pick them up first.’

Qin Mu calculated and thought, ‘I have no properties here, and I don’t have money to buy one. It’s quite troubling…’

He led the two of them to the temporary palace of South Deity in the celestial palace. She originally had her own celestial palace called the Vermillion Bird Palace. However, it was moved to the South Pole. She left behind only a temporary residential palace that shared the same name. However, it wasn’t as vast as before, for it was a mere normal palace.

Qin Mu arrived and saw that it wasn’t big. There was another palace beside it that was extravagant and extremely vast. It was Qi Xiayu’s temporary palace in the south of the celestial heavens called the Loyalty Submission Palace. It meant submitting oneself to loyalty.

Due to how Red Deity Qi Xiayu wasn’t the original Red Deity of the celestial heavens but one who paid allegiance to them during the battle to eradicate the High Emperor Celestial Heavens, her temporary palace was called the Loyalty Submission Palace.

The Loyalty Submission Palace was more extravagant and tall than the Vermillion Bird Palace.

Qin Mu arrived at the latter but saw that the palace was locked. He asked the god guarding it what happened, and he replied, “Oh, it’s Celestial Venerable Mu. Mistress Yan and Master Pi have already left and returned to your Celestial Venerable Residence.”

Qin Mu was shocked. “Celestial Venerable Residence?”

“Do you not know about it?”

That god smiled. “It was a gift to you from the emperor. It’s in the Jade Capital. Please, follow me, I’ll lead you all there.”

Qin Mu frowned, for he was unnerved. ‘I am poor here. How can I upkeep a large property like a Celestial Venerable Residence? I should stay at the Jade Pool and live off Celestial Empress, or else I won’t be able to pay for my daily expenses…”

That god sent them to the Celestial Venerable Mu Palace at the Jade Capital. They saw that it was extremely vast and luxurious, and there was a building every five steps and a pavilion every ten steps! It was like a small celestial palace!

Qin Mu was stunned. He soon heard Hu Ling’er’s voice from within. “Quickly, quickly! Decorate this place before Master returns… This is a Celestial Venerable Residence, and it should feel like one to not throw away Master’s face. We don’t lack money. Fatty Dragon, come over here, this is your palace…”

Qin Mu walked into the residence and heard Hu Ling’er’s voice get closer. “Do you prefer the place to be decorated like a dragon’s nest or a qilin’s cave? Do you need a chain to sleep? Do you want Eternal Peace’s Heavenly Workers to build a pure gold chain for you?”