Tales of Herding Gods

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Dao Master Lin Xuan and the rest were delighted. Daoist Cha took off the Dao crown from his head and gently spun the Yin Yang Taiji Diagram on it. He took out some books, a fork, and a few pieces of stone wall with sword traces on them. The fork was probably his divine weapon.

“I have always kept these books with me, but I don’t understand their strange symbols,” he said.

Thick white hair grew from the front of his head to the back while the hair at his temples was black in color. Unlike other Daoists who had their hair worn in a coil, he had a flattop haircut. The white hair on the top of his head was shaved neatly and made him look very lively.

The flattop Daoist stabbed the fork back into his Dao crown and sealed it up with the taiji seal before putting the crown back on his head.

Dao Master Lin Xuan flipped through the books and examined the sword traces on the stone slabs. His heart pounded furiously, and he couldn’t help shedding a tear. “My master and the past Dao masters have been studying the fourteenth sword for their entire lives, but they could never comprehend it completely. It turns out that the profound theory didn’t lie in the sword, but in the astronomical phenomenon. If master was still alive, he would have been very glad…”

Numerous Daoists remembered the past Dao master and cried.

Once Dao Master Lin Xuan glanced through the books, he passed them to everyone. They contained Precelestial Supreme Mystery Technique and the learnings of Daoist Qing Tian after he had studied the follow-up sword skills of Dao Sword.

Daoist Tian Qing had recorded everything in fine detail, and his calculations were very meticulous. It was no wonder then that Daoist Cha couldn’t understand them.

“Senior Uncle Qing You, does our Little Jade Capital have any profound inheritance?” Wang Muran asked in a low voice.

Hermit Qing You shook his head. “We don’t.”

“Isn’t our Little Jade Capital the number one sacred ground in Eternal Peace? Dao Sect and Great Thunderclap Monastery both have even more profound inheritances, but our Little Jade Capital doesn’t, so how are we supposed to fight against them? Even Heavenly Saint Cult has a Heavenly Teacher so how could our Little Jade Capital not have god level techniques passed down by strong practitioners like Jade Emperor and so on?” Wang Muran said with anger his voice.

“Our Little Jade Capital has always stood aloof from worldly affairs and never fought for the title of the number one sacred ground,” Hermit Qing You said patiently. “It is a false reputation that the people of the world have given us; it’d be better if we didn’t have it.”

Wang Muran was speechless from anger, and he could only turn to ask Daoist Cha from helplessness, “Daoist, may I ask where is Cult Master?”

“Cult Master Qin? Many people have been looking for him today, and they are all weird people; there’s even one riding on a bull. However, Cult Master is not in Li City currently. He left a bit earlier saying he was going over to the devils to train his mount.”

Wang Muran cried out in astonishment, “He went to the territory of the devils alone?”

“Not really. My Supreme Emperor Heaven has already taken back some territory, and we constructed a sentry tower in Without Embroiling City. God Sang Ye is stationed there. Numerous divine arts practitioners of Supreme Emperor Heaven and Eternal Peace are all searching for devil soldiers scattered around there,” Daoist Cha explained.

“There have been no battles recently, so it’s still quite peaceful. The armies have yet to make their moves, so it’s just the divine arts practitioners of the devils and humans challenging each other at the border. Cult Master Qin will be fine.”

What he was talking about was an unwritten rule of Supreme Emperor Heaven. Martial custom was prosperous in it, and both devils and humans respected martial power. When there were no large scale battles, the divine arts practitioners of both sides would roam around, and numerous young devil and human divine arts practitioners would exchange blows.

Gods and devils would rarely interfere, allowing the trainees on both sides to clash. This was an extreme way to train the younger generation. It was a well-known thing here, but since had come to Supreme Emperor Heaven for the first time, he still didn’t know it.

“Has Cult Master Qin passed the test of God Suppression Pagoda?” Wang Muran asked.

“Why would he need to?” Daoist Cha’s expression filled with admiration. “The moment he came to Supreme Emperor Heaven, he killed four greatest experts in the bet for Li City and forced True Devil Fu Riluo’s proudest disciple to admit defeat. After that, he became a legend.

“Later, he was kidnapped by Fu Riluo, escaped and ran for a hundred thousand miles while nearly killing all of the Six Directions and Seven Stars Realm’s disciples of the devil gods! There were even quite a number of Celestial Being Realm’s disciples that had died under his hands! With Cult Master Qin’s abilities, there’s no need for him to pass the test of God Suppression Pagoda.”

Wang Muran’s body trembled violently as his expression filled with disbelief. He suddenly turned his head. “Senior uncle, do we really not have any profound inheritance?”

Hermit Qing You smiled at him. “Aren’t the inheritance of our Little Jade Capital good enough? Even though it has flaws, it has only top-notch techniques. As long as the flaws are patched, you won’t be any inferior to Dao Master. And Supreme Emperor Heaven is a good place to do that. You can learn from the strong points of other people and fuse them with the techniques of our Little Jade Capital.”

“There are so many techniques in Little Jade Capital; how could it be an easy task to fuse all of them?” Wang Muran muttered to himself.

Hermit Qing You looked at him with encouragement. “When there’s a will, there’s a way; I view you highly! After you comprehend them well, teach them to me first. I’m old and my mind isn’t as clever as that of youngsters like you.”

…

“Young master, why hasn’t Fatty Dragon morphed like Jiang Miao?” Between Without Embroiling City and Li City, there were over two thousand miles of land. Hu Ling’er followed beside Qin Mu and looked at the dragon qilin fighting with a strong devil practitioner of Celestial Being Realm. “Jiang Miao could morph so Fatty Dragon should be able to do it too!”

Qin Mu took in a deep breath, and Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique circulated in his body while his vital qi gave off dragon roars. “I also don’t know. Could he be too fat and unable to morph? It doesn’t look like it…”

“I think it’s because he is still too lazy,”

The qilin bead was extremely strong, so his cultivation was no longer any inferior to that of great experts of Life and Death Realm, yet his overall battle power wasn’t high. He was covered in injuries from fighting with a single strong devil practitioner.

Qin Mu didn’t help but just stood on the side and watched. The other devil experts side also didn’t interfere. They just stood and watched the battle.

The rules of Supreme Emperor Heaven were very strange. As long as it was an encounter between divine arts practitioners, they would usually fight one on one and rarely swarm up. When Qin Mu was escaping for his life during the hundred thousand miles and was chased by numerous devil divine arts practitioners, it was different however. The reason behind why the devils didn’t abide by the rules and kept swarming him was because the devil gods had laid down an order for him to be killed.

The dragon qilin fought hard. A bit later, he suddenly comprehended the marvel of Ancestral Dragon Supreme Mystery Technique. He then instantly executed his qilin bead and changed qilin fire into countless dragon-shaped flames. They swept at his opponent.

Next, his body shook, and the dragon scales flew up, transforming into bright mirrors to reflect the divine art of the opponent.

The strong devil practitioner was flustered by having to face his own divine art and the fire dragons. Suddenly, dragon scales flipped over and swirled around him furiously.

The strong devil practitioner couldn’t unleash any attack, for all divine arts were reflected back by the scales. The area in which they swirled became smaller and smaller. The qilin bead flew into the surrounded area and shone brightly with flames. A miserable shriek came from inside, and the strong devil practitioner was burned to ashes.

The dragon qilin shook his body and called back his dragon scales. He swallowed down the qilin bead with surprised delight. He cried out, “Cult Master, I’ve won! I’ve finally won for the first time!”

Qin Mu was suspicious. “Ling’er, when Fatty Dragon was cultivating with Senior Brother Tiger, he had never won even once?”

Hu Ling’er nodded. “Not even once. The black tiger god said he was embarrassing at first and wanted him to kowtow and apologize to the devils that had defeated him. Afterwards, the black tiger god got used to it, and Fatty Dragon also got used to it.”

Qin Mu was speechless.

The dragon qilin arrogantly scampered over on the tips of his feet, his tail held up high. He walked a few rounds around Qin Mu and Hu Ling’er, very pleased with himself.

A devil expert walked over from the other side and called out, “Are you Cult Master Qin Mu?”

“It is I. May I ask who you are?” Qin Mu said.

“A nameless person, farewell!”

The devil experts separated and left in a hurry, and Qin Mu frowned slightly. The devils were all strong practitioners of Celestial Being Realm, so it would’ve been very difficult to defeat them by himself. Yet they had made the unwise decision to separate. Wasn’t this giving him a chance to get rid of at least one of them?

“Young master, the devils seem to be escaping for their lives.” Hu Ling’er took out a huge basin for him to produce some dragon saliva which she would apply on his body. With suspicion, she said, “If they combined their powers together, their abilities would probably be greater than ours, yet they fled without a word. Could they be trying to pass information? For safety reasons, we should return to Li City immediately!”

Qin Mu raised his eyebrows. “If we walk forward, we will reach the sentry of Without Embroiling City. We are too far from Li City; the sentry tower is closer. With God Sang Ye, mere devils won’t dare to come over.”

He jumped onto the back of the dragon qilin, and Hu Ling’er did the same with her basin. The dragon qilin immediately sprinted toward Without Embroiling City.

There were still two hundred miles away, but Qin Mu could already see God Sang Ye’s aura from afar. It was the divine light giving off by God Sang Ye, and it reached the clouds like a pillar.

That was the purpose of a sentry, to show a safepoint for Supreme Emperor Heaven’s divine arts practitioners that were in the wilderness. If they were in danger, they could head there for protection.

Suddenly, a voice filled with delight rang out. “Are you Cult Master Qin?”

A small mountain was village in the wilderness around them. There were a few divine arts practitioners of Supreme Emperor Heaven resting their feet there. They were the only people around.

The group consisted of familiar faces. One of the girls was called Guan He who had been introduced to Qin Mu by Yu He, and she was an expert of Celestial Being Realm. She was ranked nine in Supreme Emperor Heaven on her level, and her abilities were extremely strong.

She was the disciple of a god and was proficient in sword skills.

Because Qin Mu was expanding Heavenly Saint Cult in Supreme Emperor Heaven, he had appointed Guan He as the hall master of Sword Hall of the new branch.

“Guan He, why are you guys here?” Qin Mu jumped down from the back of the dragon qilin and looked to the other divine arts practitioners. They were also hall masters and incense masters of Supreme Emperor Heaven’s Heavenly Saint Cult.

“It’s really Cult Master,” Guan He said with a smile. “We were training in the vicinity when we encountered some devil experts. One of them was extremely strong, so I had to fight with all I had before executing him.”

Qin Mu looked in the direction she had pointed and recognized the devil expert as one of those who had escaped. There were still signs of a hard battle in the surroundings.

“I see.” Qin Mu smiled at her. “Hall Master Guan, it was hard on you. The sky is almost dark and I’m planning to head to the sentry. Do you guys want to tag along?”

Guan He’s eyes lit up, and she walked over with a smile on her face. “We were also planning on going back!”

The other people came too, and Qin Mu headed at the front of the group to the sentry in Without Embroiling City.

Guan He hurriedly cam to his side and said with a smile, “Why is Cult Master in such a hurry? We are all experts of the cult, so how could we be afraid of anyone?”

“I was recognized by the devils, and I’m afraid they would inform strong practitioners to intercept me up ahead.” Qin Mu smiled at the girl then. “Hall Master Guan, who is your master again? When Yu He introduced you to me, I had forgotten to ask.”

“My master is Tian Fenggou, Cult Master has met her before.”

“So it’s Goddess Tian Fenggou.” Qin Mu nodded and turned to rest with curiosity. “Hall and incense masters, what about your masters?

“We are also disciples of Tian Fenggou,” one youth said.

Qin Mu nodded again and patted the thick neck of the dragon qilin beside him while saying with a smile, “Hall Master Guan, when you guys were fighting with that strong devil practitioner of Celestial Being Realm, you must have ended the battle quickly. Looking at the traces of divine arts you guys left behind, they aren’t from fatal attacks even if they’re not simple.

“The true fatal blow was the sword that pierced the devil’s back, killing his primordial spirit straight away. Back then, the distance between Hall Master Guan and that devil expert should have been as close as we are now. From this close up, Hall Master Guan had killed him.”

Guan He’s expression changed slightly, and a huge qilin bead suddenly rose into the sky. In an instant, blazing qilin flames were everywhere, incinerating everything!

Among the flames, a flying sword rushed out. Just as the woman executed her sword skill, Qin Mu tapped with his sword fingers the heart of his brows. His sword pellet transformed into dazzling sword light that swept forward, crushing Guan He’s sword skill and the heart of her brows!

Qin Mu pulled back his sword and watched his surroundings in which hall masters and incense masters of Heavenly Saint Cult were shrieking miserably. The next moment, their heads were cut off by huge dragon scales!

The dragon qilin shook his body and they returned.

Qin Mu grabbed his sword pellet and said gently, “Fatty Dragon, you have won a few more battles.”

“Young master, they were the people that those devils wanted to call over?” Hu Ling’er popped her head out from the dragon qilin’s ear. “In that case, Goddess Tian Fenggou…”

Qin Mu was about to speak when his ears twitched, and he turned around abruptly. “Who’s there?”

A roe deer ran out from the forest and swayed its little tail while looking at him curiously. It was then followed by a herd of roe deers that ran out from the forest to examine his group curiously.

“So it’s a bunch of silly roe deers.” Qin Mu let out a sigh of relief.

The silly roe deers went forward and raised their heads to look at him daringly. Qin Mu’s shook slightly, and a clear voice suddenly rang out from before him. “Cult Master Qin, you just killed my disciples. Don’t you think you should give me an explanation?”