Tales of Herding Gods

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Saint Woodcutter’s stone statue has revived?” Qin Mu’s heart trembled violently, and he hurriedly asked, “Where is he?”

“He left as well. If you were a few days earlier, you could have met him. Saint Woodcutter had left then with his ax. When he awakened, I jumped in shock, wondering why such two existences had woken up one after another,” Hermit Qing You said. “As for where he went, I do not know.”

Qin Mu composed himself. First Ancestor Human Emperor of Hall of Human Emperors and Saint Woodcutter of Heavenly Saint Cult waking up one after another was indeed strange. Why did it happen?

Where could Saint Woodcutter go?

Heavenly Saint Cult wasn’t founded by him, but by Founding Master. Saint Woodcutter had only wanted to leave behind his legacy, so it was doubtful he’d go to Heavenly Saint Cult.

But besides it, where else could he go?

Wang Muran and the rest were not in Little Jade Capital since they had gone to Border Dragon City, so there were only some old immortals left on the mountain. Hermit Qing You examined Qin Mu and said, “Human Emperor Qin’s state doesn’t seem right. Do you really want to enter Hall of Five Qi? You look out of sorts now.”

Qin Mu shook his head and said, “May I ask Hermit Qing You to open Hall of Five Qi, Hall of Six Directions and Hall of Seven Stars? I want to go in and take a look.”

Hermit Qing You hesitated for a moment. He wasn’t too at ease with the youth’s current state. “If Human Emperor is insistent on entering, my Little Jade Capital will naturally do its best to satisfy you. However, your state doesn’t seem right now, and barging in by force will not be good for you. You only have one chance after all,

“Passing Five Qi Breakthrough, Six Directions Breakthrough, and Seven Stars Breakthrough would definitely increase your foundation drastically, so don’t waste this chance and come only when in your best state.”

Qin Mu smiled at him. “I just want to go in and take a look, not to challenge.”

Hermit Qing You was helpless. “Please follow me.” He led Qin Mu to Hall of Three Aeons while saying, “You passed through Three Aeons Breakthrough so after you enter the hall, you will automatically enter Hall of Five Qi. If you pass through it, you will enter Hall of Six Directions. After it will be Hall of Seven Stars. You aren’t in the right state, so to prevent you from making any mistakes, I will host this personally.”

Qin Mu gave his thanks and walked into Hall of Three Aeons. Before he could even steady himself, the scenery in front of his eyes changed, and five huge stars rose in the sky, shining in gold, green, blue, red, and yellow colors. Each one of them had a palace on it.

Qin Mu focused himself, and besides the five stars, he could also see the sun and moon in the sky. However, they were extremely far from him as though there was a world separating them.

The five stars in the sky were huge beyond belief, but they were at different distances, some far and some close. In the five sacred halls, gods who corresponded to the five star sovereigns stood up.

Suddenly, Hermit Qing You’s voice came from afar. “Senior Sister Ying He, let me replace you for this stage.”

A red-haired god with a snake’s body stood up and transformed into a flowing light that left into the distance.

Another ray of bright light flew over and landed in that sacred hall. Hermit Qing You changed into a red-haired god with a snake’s body and said, “Human Emperor Qin, Hall of Five Qi is separated into metal, wood, water, fire, and earth breakthroughs. Which element will you choose?”

Qin Mu shook his head. “My trip here was to take a look at the divine treasures of a true god, so may Hermit Qing You make things easy for me.”

Hermit Qing You frowned, and so did the other four immortals. One of them said, “The founder of my Little Jade Capital left behind Hall of Three Aeons to teach the later generations and fill in what they lack. It isn’t for us to observe his divine treasures.”

An elderly woman frowned. “The people who’ve come in to challenge here had never made such a weird request before. Senior Brother Qing You…”

“Human Emperor Qin is not an outsider.” Hermit Qing You pondered over it before saying, “He shared the method to become god with the world and we have all received his grace. Little Jade Capital should satisfy his request. Besides, the ancestor who left the test also was surnamed Qin.”

The other four old immortals spoke no more.

“Human Emperor Qin, you only have one chance to challenge us, and if you succeed, you would receive the divine vitality of the five qi. This could supplement the deficiency of your Five Elements Divine Treasure’s cultivation. Are you sure you just want to take a look at the divine treasures of this god?”

Qin Mu bowed. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime. I’m willing to give up the divine vitality of the five qi.”

Hermit Qin You broke into a smile. “Alright. I thought Human Emperor Qin’s frame of mind was unstable and worried that you had lost your wisdom and would lose the challenge, but your boldness makes me admire you. In that case, come up!”

His green light fell to the ground, and Qin Mu was raised up by it, landing on the water element star. The red-haired god with a snake body that Hermit Qing You had transformed into led him into his sacred hall. “Human Emperor Qin, feel free to look. It will depend on your abilities how much you will be able to comprehend.”

Qin Mu gave his thanks and examined everything in detail. He observed the rune markings on the four walls of the sacred hall, paying close attention to them.

There were sacred halls on all five stars in Five Elements Divine Treasure, and they were all naturally formed.

Every divine arts practitioner that cultivated to this realm would refine five stars in their Five Elements Divine Treasure. The five stars would correspond to five elements.

The stars were naturally formed and the palace halls on the stars were also naturally formed. However, different techniques would form different rune markings. They would then combine with the vital qi and become the gods in the palace halls.

In the Five Elements Divine Treasure of any divine arts practitioner, when the gods of the five elements breathed out their vital qi, its attributes changed. That was why such a name as five qi was created.

Qin Mu’s Five Elements Divine Treasure has already been cultivated to the extremes, so it was difficult for him to take any more steps further. However, the fight between him and First Ancestor had made him realize that his limit wasn’t everyone’s limit.

He observed in detail, and Hermit Qing You was very patient. He kept waiting for him.

It was hard to say how long had past when Qin Mu closed his eyes, having studied enough.

When he opened them, he looked toward Hermit Qing You. “I have an unreasonable request.”

Hermit Qing You understood and changed into a ray of bright light that left. Only Qin Mu was then alone in the sacred hall. The rune markings on the walls instantly lit up, and his body changed against his will, turning him into a red-haired god with a snake’s body.

After a long time, Qin Mu dispersed the god form and left the sacred hall. He went to another star and entered another palace hall, observing the rune markings there.

After a dozen days, he finally walked finished with all five stars and went to Six Directions Divine Treasure.

He spent a dozen days more there before entering Seven Stars Divine Treasure. Many more days passed. After that, he couldn’t proceed anymore since Celestial Being Divine Treasure and Life and Death Divine Treasure had no one to host them.

When Qin Mu walked out of Hall of Three Aeons looking a little haggard and with a stubby beard, Hermit Qing You knew that the youth had not been sleeping the whole time. He felt slightly pained for him and asked, “Has Human Emperor Qin found what he wanted?”

Qin Mu was in good spirits. The improvement in his Five Elements, Six Directions, and Seven Stars Divine Treasures had given him a lot, renewing his confidence. He gave his thanks. “Much thanks, immortal. As for whether I found what I wanted, I still need to confirm it. May I ask, comparing the founder of Little Jade Capital to First Ancestor Human Emperor of Hall of Human Emperors, whose abilities were better?”

“I can’t really say whose abilities were stronger, since both of them are seniors who had become true gods twenty thousand years ago and I’ve never seen them fight before. However, Little Jade Capital has a few old scrolls that speak about the ancestor once going to find the first generation human emperor. He had wanted to make him leave a mountain, but he returned in low spirits from a defeat and had to nurse his injuries for several months.

“The scroll stated that the first generation human emperor had used immense magic power to move the fragment of Founding Emperor Celestial Heavens and that his abilities were extremely strong. Hall of Human Emperors is a hundred times bigger than Little Jade Capital and is known to be terrifying.

“I think that the ancestors of Little Jade Capital had all went out of their way to protect themselves while the first generation human emperor had brought countless people from various races to battlefields all the time. From that, it’s not that hard to make a guess whose abilities were stronger.”

Qin Mu’s face turned ashen. After a long time, he bowed. “I understand, much thanks, immortal.”

Hermit Qing You frowned and felt that the youth’s state of mind was even worse than when he had come. “You haven’t been sleeping for a month and more, so you should take a rest first.”

Qin Mu agreed.

Hermit Qing You arranged a room for him and let him sleep.

Qin Mu woke up after a dozen more days, but his complexion still wasn’t good. He insisted on leaving, and Hermit Qing You didn’t keep him back any longer. “If Saint Woodcutter comes back, where do I go to inform you?”

“I’ll have to trouble immortal to go to Border Dragon City. I might be there.”

Hermit Qing You saw him off while thinking in bewilderment, ‘Back when Human Emperor Qin came here for the first time, he was so full of mettle, so why has he become so dispirited?’

Qin Mu sat on the chest that brought him away. He poured a full basin of Scarlet Fire Spirit Pills mixed with Fire Element Divine Vitality Pill to the delighted and surprised yet nervous dragon qilin. ‘Why has Cult Master become so kind today? Is it because I starved for over a month or is he preparing to put me on the table? No matter what, I need to eat first!’

After he finished the basin, Qin Mu poured him another one.

The dragon qilin hesitated for a moment while looking down at the basin full of spirit pills. He suddenly began to cry miserably as he lowered his head to eat more.

Qin Mu looked at him in bewilderment. “What are you crying for?”

“It’s good to die as a full ghost!” the dragon qilin said through a full mouth while wiping his eyes. “At least I can head on my way with a full stomach. Cult Master, make it a swift one!”

Qin Mu shook his head and said, “I’ve starved you these few days so I’m paying you back. I ain’t going to kill you for your meat.”

The dragon qilin was delighted and ate all the spirit pills in the basin.

When they passed by a city, Qin Mu stopped to buy some medicinal ingredients. He went to several cities and refined numerous Scarlet Fire Spirit Pills and Fire Elements Divine Vitality Pill which he stuffed into the chest. The dragon qilin was ineffably moved by such actions. ‘Cult Master is really good to me!”

Qin Mu bought some black iron and black gold to forge strange spirit weapons on the way.

The dragon qilin couldn’t understand what he wanted to do. He only saw some of the things refined by Qin Mu were flags, some were sacrificial altars, and some were tools of calculation like eight trigrams, taiji, abacus, and five element talismans.

After a few days, they came to Border Dragon City, but did not enter it.

Qin Mu used eight trigrams platform, taiji diagram, and numerous other tools of calculation to calculate while looking around his surroundings. He found the terrain and used a ruler to measure a nearby mountain. He then recorded a series of runes on a paper. The dragon qilin went over to take a look, but he couldn’t understand anything.

There was no end to the calculations even when the sun was about to descend and the darkness about to come.

When Qin Mu finally finished, he set up a sacrificial altar with flags all around it. He then stood upon it after chasing the dragon qilin and the chest away.

“Cult Master, what is this for?” the dragon qilin asked from beside the chest.

Qin Mu executed the flags and looked at the darkness in the surroundings. Another world soon appeared and overlapped with Great Ruins. In that world, countless devils moved around with their smoke-like bodies as they came from huge space holes.

In Qin Mu’s eyes, the people of the other world were fighting back against those devils. He was faced with a large-scale battlefield that was incomparably vast.

“Fatty Dragon, I’ve prepared enough spirit pills to last you a long time. Just stay with the chest for a few days. I plan to…” His gaze was fixated on a running devil general on the battlefield. On the sacrificial altar, countless runes lit up, and the teleportation flags rustled. “Go to another world!”

Boom!

A loud explosion rang out, and Qin Mu and the teleportation flags instantly vanished. Instead, on the sacrificial altar, a devil general that was tall and sturdy suddenly appeared and looked around in a daze.

Toot, toot!

The sound of the bugle horn was long, and countless flags fluttered, swirling to form a huge circle. Qin Mu suddenly appeared in the middle of a vast battlefield where countless soldiers of the devil army were rushing forward.

They swept him along in their charge.

In front of them was an incomparably majestic city with huge ships flying in the sky. Gods stood upright there with divine weapons in their hands and swept up countless soldiers and horses with each strike!

Qin Mu had used the spell of sacrifice and teleportation formation to come to the world of the girl in the darkness!