Tales of Herding Gods

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“I’m twenty-three this year,” Qin Mu said honestly. “I’ve wasted twenty-three years of my life and still have achieved nothing. I can’t help sighing endlessly and shedding silent tears.”

“Divine Physician Qin is twenty-three years old and has already achieved so much. It is already extraordinary.” Xing An turned around and raised the mirror in his hand. In the meantime, he exclaimed in admiration sincerely. “Not only are you Heavenly Devil Cult Master who controls a million divine arts practitioners at twenty-three years, but you also have other high positions like Heavenly Saint Academy Grand Chancellor and Human Emperor.

“You are the richest in the world and have a vast group of friends. How many people could have your kind of achievements at twenty-three years old? It’s just you!”

He raised his mirror to catch a glimpse of the youth, but he couldn’t see him at all. Stunned, he heard Qin Mu’s voice coming from afar. “Fatty Dragon, Fatty Dragon! Tell the divine arts practitioners that just arrived to not run around at night. This is Great Ruins; they will die! Those with loud voices, come. Give a few shouts for the divine arts practitioners to not go out of the city at night!”

Xing An put away his mirror and went after him. When Qin Mu finally stopped for a moment, he took out the mirror to capture his reflection, yet there was no figure of Qin Mu in the mirror once more.

The youth’s voice came from far away again. “Yuxiu, can you find a few painters from the palace? Brother Xing An gave me a drawing of which I need to make a thousand copies to send to all parts of the empire.”

Xing An’s eyebrows rose as he thought to himself, ‘If the person Lu Li wants to find is him, he wouldn’t have examined that drawing of the jade pendant in such detail. Could I be too suspicious? However, why is he trying to avoid me?’

He caught up to Qin Mu once more as his gaze flickered. ‘If he runs again, I’ll suppress him in place with my magic power!’

At that moment, the well-rounded young woman of Ling Family took a glance at the painting and said in astonishment, “This jade pendant, I seem to have seen it before!”

Xing An’s attention was caught, and he stopped bothering with Qin Mu right away. He hurriedly asked, “Princess of Ling Family, have you really seen this before?”

Ling Yuxiu had been in charge of the military situation on the northern border, so her skin was very fair under the nourishment of the snow plains. She was going through puberty as well so her face had become slightly longer, looking more delicate and pretty. However, her body was still well-rounded.

When she returned to the capital for debriefing, Qin Mu had set up Between Life and Death, so she took the chance to come to Border Dragon City. Other than to rendezvous with her lover, she also went there for training.

“I’ve seen it once before.” Ling Yuxiu had undergone the training of the army so she was much more mature than before. However, she still liked to dress as a man and looked very suave. “I’ve seen it in one of the ruins in Great Ruins.”

“Great Ruins!” Xing An’s heart trembled violently, and he asked in a hurry, “Was the person a youth?”

“Not really. I just saw this kind of writings in the ruin. There was also a swaddle and a wooden horse there, so it looked like a child had lived there before.”

Qin Mu looked at Xing An who went silent again. It was evident that he was communicating with the weird eye in his Life and Death Divine Treasure.

He looked at the mirror in Xing An’s hand with curiosity. Xing An had kept on trying to point it at him, which was why he had avoided it.

“Senior Brother Xing An, you also like to carry mirrors? Could this mirror be some remarkable treasure?” Qin Mu’s gaze flickered, and he made a grab for the mirror. “Can you lend it to me? I think I have a pimple on my face, so I want to take a look—”

Piak!

Xing An slapped his hand away and stuffed the mirror into his taotie sack while saying indifferently, “Don’t touch my stuff. You are poisonous. Princess Ling, where’s the place you had gone to before? Can you bring me there?”

He had communicated with the weird eye in his Life and Death Divine Treasure, so it was probably the weird eye that wanted him to go take a look.

Ling Yuxiu hesitated for a moment before saying, “I would still like to make a trip to Fengdu so I don’t have the time to bring you there. However, I remember the way there so I can draw it for you.”

Xing An gave his thanks.

Ling Yuxiu asked for brush and ink from Qin Mu and drew a geographical map. Xing An then asked calmly, “Is there any danger there?”

Ling Yuxiu smiled at him. “If there was danger, how could I have lived to return? Who else could be the strongest in the world other than Senior Xing An?”

Xing An smiled back at her. “If you could live to return, I naturally can too. Divine Physician Qin, come with me.”

Qin Mu hesitated. “Senior brother, why do you need to bring me along if you’re just going to Great Ruins to find a person? I’ve already helped you look for him, and I’m still going to help you hang his drawing throughout Eternal Peace. As long as there’s news, I will inform you. You can find the tracks of the jade pendant while I go to Hall of Human Emperors to sweep their tombs. If I keep delaying it, all of the past human emperors are going to curse me to join them sooner.”

Xing An looked at the geographical map that Ling Yuxiu had drawn and said seriously, “Princess Ling, if I don’t find the word on the jade pendant there, you should know the consequences. Your Ling Family will be wiped out from this world!”

Ling Yuxiu shuddered as she forced a smile. “I didn’t lie to you…”

Xing An turned to leave.

Qin Mu and Ling Yuxiu let out sighs of relief. Ling Yuxiu wiped off the sweat on her forehead and was about to speak, but Qin Mu raised his hand. She then hurriedly closed her mouth.

They knew what the other was thinking, and their primordial spirits left their bodies to move far away.

After getting tens of thousands of miles away from Border Dragon City, Ling Yuxiu’s primordial spirit asked, “The one that herds cows, what is that place? Is it dangerous? The lives of my Ling Family rest on this!”

The reason why she said that was because Qin Mu had taken the chance when Xing An was off guard to use the brainwaves of Heavenly Feather Clan to communicate with her, telling her what to draw.

Between Heavenly Feather Clansmen, words weren’t needed. They all relied on brainwaves to communicate with each other. Without a sound, just by moving one’s consciousness, they could tell the other party what they were thinking. They could move together as one, which made them very flexible.

Even though there was a very huge flaw in communicating with consciousness, this kind of method was very useful for keeping secrets.

“Don’t worry, all that you told Xing An, he will find there. However, he won’t learn anything useful there,” Qin Mu’s primordial spirit said. “After he goes there, if he immediately turns back, he’ll still be able to walk out. But if he is insistent on going further to find more clues, it will depend on his wisdom if he’ll be able to walk out or not.

“Back then when Village Chief and the rest barged in, they almost couldn’t return. It was Grandpa Mute who had rescued them. After Xing An returns, he won’t kill you because of this, since you didn’t lie at all.”

The place to which Xing An was going was where they had once suspected to be Carefree Village. It was a huge ship that was forged by Heavenly Works God Race, but they hadn’t managed to reach Carefree Village. They had suffered an ambush from the enemy and got trapped in an incomparably gigantic cube along with the ship.

Heavenly Works God Race had spent countless generations and sacrificed countless people to finally let a child walk out of the seal. Qin Mu suspected that Mute was that child

After all, VIllage Chief and the rest had relied on Mute to lead them out.

If Xing An stepped into that place and turned back immediately, he could still barge out. However, if he entered, he would be trapped by the seals.

Ling Yuxiu let out a sigh of relief and asked, “Why is Xing An looking for you? That jade pendant is clearly yours.”

Qin Mu shook his head. “I also don’t know. However, there’s an extremely powerful being hiding in his Life and Death Realm, and it is extremely terrifying. Xing An must have been threatened by it. I only saw the eye of that being and not the body. However, for Xing An to fall into Youdu and come back alive, that eye in his divine treasure must belong to a devil god of Youdu!”

Ling Yuxiu frowned. “If Xing An is able to escape?”

Qin Mu shook his head. “It should be able to trap him for half a year. After he comes out, we will continue to help him find the jade pendant youth.” His gaze became weird when he said in a low voice, “When he comes out, he will discover that no matter if it’s Middle Earth or West Earth, the prairie, the snow plains, or Great Ruins, this jade pendant can be found everywhere. Try guessing why that is so?”

Ling Yuxiu rolled her eyes at him. “I know you are capable, stop bragging!”

Qin Mu laughed, and their primordial spirits returned to their corporeal bodies. The sky outside had already turned dark. Beside the river in Between Life and Death, a pleasure boat was about to sail. Hu Ling’er and Si Yunxiang let the people who had paid money to board it, and they went through the river in the sky toward Fengdu. Ling Yuxiu had also boarded that boat.

Outside the city, Qin Mu walked into the darkness, followed by the dragon qilin sitting on the chest which was filled with items like fruits and sacrificial offerings. The chest was displeased about these things, but it was helpless since Qin Mu had forcefully stuffed all of them into its stomach.

‘Hall of Human Emperors is the same as Little Jade Capital, another broken piece of Founding Emperor Celestial Heavens.’

Qin Mu’s gaze flickered as he walked through the darkness while holding a black lump in his hand. He thought to himself, ‘Second Ancestor and the rest didn’t tell me where to go, just that I need to activate Human Emperor’s Seal. But how is it going to find Hall of Human Emperor…’

His vital qi flooded into Human Emperor’s Seal, and it trembled gently. It was different from when he’d activated Human Emperor’s Seal the previous time. The last time he had executed the seal, he saw the years of hardship of the human race after eradication of Founding Emperor Era. The consciousness hidden in the Human Emperor’s Seal had struck out in all directions and spread through the world.

However, Village Chief and a group of experts had helped him back then. Now there was only Qin Mu, so he naturally couldn’t unleash the call of Human Emperor’s Seal with just his consciousness.

Qin Mu used his vital qi to test it, and his heart suddenly shook. His vital qi had touched a marking in the Human Emperor’s Seal.

The next instant, Human Emperor’s Seal gently trembled, and a ray of light shot out, hitting Qin Mu’s eyes. The light then vanished.

Qin Mu shook his head and opened his eyes to look. A light shone down from somewhere and landed directly under his legs.

Astonished, Qin Mu turned back to look. “Fatty Dragon, can you see the light?”

The dragon qilin was asleep, but he hurriedly raised his head to look around. “What light?”

‘Only I can see this light?’

Qin Mu hurriedly took out a mirror and pointed it at himself. He saw that there was a strange rune in his eyes, and he reckoned that it was the reason he saw that light!

‘So that’s how you go to Hall of Human Emperors!’ Qin Mu followed the light.

Meanwhile, Village Chief returned to Fengdu which was currently very lively. There was a long river and a bridge in the sky above the city. The bridge was crowded with gods and devils while a bunch of skeletons stood on the pleasure boat underneath.

‘What is happening?’

Village Chief was astonished. He suddenly saw Human Emperor Qi Kang on the bridge, and his eyes lit up. He waved and shouted to him, “Old Man Qi Kang, over here! I’m back! I have astonishing news, something about the overlord body! Hehe, you won’t believe this. Forty thousand years ago, there was actually an appearance of the overlord body! Come down quickly, I have a rubbing of the inscription here!”

Human Emperor Qi Kang jumped off the bridge and pointed at Village Chief. “Don’t move, don’t move! I’ll call Second Ancestor and the rest over!”

Village Chief smiled at him. “Aren’t you going to take a look at the inscription first?”

“Enjoying happiness alone is not as great as sharing it. Let’s wait for the other human emperors to come before we read it together.” Human Emperor Qi Kang looked at him with sincerity in his eyes.

Village Chief was puzzled. ‘This old fart’s smile seems to be a little familiar. Why is he so polite to me today…’