Tales of Herding Gods

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

There were several hundred floors in Guardian Pavilion and every floor had countless jade scrolls. There were also a huge number of runes on every scroll so it was a difficult task to remember all of these runes.

‘To do a good job, the best tools are needed. If we were to memorize them one by one, how long will we have to take?’

Qin Mu sat on the steps and he stared at Lin Xuan, Xiao Chunfeng, and Yu Hongxiu hurrying to and fro, trying to memorize the runes in the jade scrolls. Yu Hongxiu had already come back to her consciousness but she still had to rest for half a day in order to return back to her normal mental state.

She also knew the intentions of Dao Ancestor and planned to fake her death as well after leaving this jade building, thus she began to memorize the runes along with the rest.

Memorizing the arrangements of the runes on one floor was already a terrifying amount to memorize. The arrangements of these runes could construct the structure of an ancient god’s Great Dao so one could well imagine how complicated it was. It was very difficult to achieve this just by memory alone.

Even if they were people with outstanding intellect, it would still take them ten days to half a month just to memorize one floor.

Moreover, the runes of the ancient god’s Great Dao at the bottom level were still considered simple. When it comes to the level of the four deities, the amount to memorize was dozens to hundreds of times more than the levels at the bottom.

When it comes to Heaven Duke, Earth Count, Mother Earth, and Celestial Emperor, the amount to memorize would probably increase several folds again.

Just by memorizing them and not making any mistake, one would probably have to stay here for a few hundred or even a few thousand years. Qin Mu would never stay here for so long.

The most crucial point was still that Guardian Pavilion was an extremely important construction in the celestial heavens so anyone from the celestial heavens could drop by anytime. Dao Ancestor wouldn’t let them stay here for so long.

The longer they dragged this out, the greater the danger they would be in.

This also meant that they had to memorize all of the runes in the building in just a few days and leave.

Qin Mu rested his checks in his palms and fell into a daze.

Dao Master Lin Xuan, Xiao Chunfeng, and Yu Hongxiu were all in a frenzy as they quickly browsed through the jade scrolls to memorize with everything they had. The three of them would sneak glances over from time to time and yet they saw Qin Mu still sitting there without an ounce of panic.

The three of them were bewildered.

Not long later, Xiao Chunfeng came to his senses. ‘It’s impossible for me to memorize all of the runes in Guardian Pavilion with such a short time, I’m not that intelligent nor do I have such a strong memory. Therefore, I want to choose the best and that is the runes of Celestial Emperor’s Great Dao. The best solution for me would be to memorize the runes of Celestial Emperor’s Great Dao!’

Once he came to his senses, he immediately left this building and headed for the top.

At the same time, Dao Master Lin Xuan also came to his senses. ‘I can’t memorize so many floors so I have to extract the basic runes of these ancient gods and turn them into serial numbers, arranging them into one, two, three, four, five… In that way, I just need to memorize the several hundred runes and then memorize the arrangements of the serial numbers. In that way, I will be able to memorize the rune system of an ancient god’s Great Dao in the fastest time!’

He was slightly excited and immediately started to number them.

Yu Hongxiu’s eyes started to turn blurry and she suddenly came to her senses as well. ‘I’m learning from South Deity, I’m also a vermillion bird half-god, what’s the point of me memorizing the runes of other ancient god’s Great Dao? Because of the different characteristics, cultivating their runes would only make me spend twice the effort for half the result!’

She immediately headed for South Deity’s floor.

The three of them got busy while Qin Mu continued to sit on the steps of the first floor, lost in his thoughts.

The three of them had no time to straighten him out so they went on with their own work. Not only later, they peeked at Qin Mu when they took a break and saw that he had already stood up. He took out a bunch of calculation tools, brush, ink, and paper. He was writing and painting, activating his calculation spirit weapons to calculate some difficult questions.

The three of them rested for a moment and they went off to memorize their runes of the Great Dao.

When their brains couldn’t handle it anymore, they took a break again and now they saw Qin Mu setting up a smithy and taking out a pile of divine metal. He raised the fire in the furnace and stuffed a crystal of heavenly fire in the furnace fire to smelt the divine metal.

The three of them were puzzled but they didn’t have time to care about him. They rested for a moment before going back to what they were doing.

Clang, clang, clang.

Sound of hammering metal came from the bottom of the building and the three of them were more and more puzzled. They popped their heads out and saw Qin Mu forging the god statue of an eight-armed devil god. He summoned a spirit for that god statue that came to life. The god statue grabbed eight huge hammers and began to hammer a huge chunk of divine metal.

Meanwhile, Qin Mu executed devil fire divine art, god fire divine art, and yin water divine art to continuously temper that chunk of divine metal.

The three of them kept quiet and continued to memorize diligently.

Sometime later, when Qin Mu was still forging, the hammering sounds was so noisy that the three of them couldn’t concentrate.

Yu Hongxiu couldn’t take it any longer and she hardened her heart. She popped her head out and shouted upward, “Senior Brother Xiao, the one with the surname Qin has gone crazy, he doesn’t want to learn and he’s not letting us learn as well. Let us get rid of this guy!”

Xiao Chunfeng was also rather irritated by the noise. He hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. “We can’t. You aren’t a match for Lin Xuan and even though I’m no weaker than him, if he works together Lin Xuan, I will also die.”

Quite sometime later, Lin Xuan’s head was also swelling from the noise and shouted downward. “Cult Master Qin, settle down a little! You’re too noisy!”

Xiao Chunfeng popped his head out from above and he cried out. “Dao Friend Lin, we are both from Dao Sect so we are senior and junior brothers, why don’t we work together to get rid of this Lunatic Qin! Sharpening the ax will not interfere with the cutting of firewood, by getting rid of this Lunatic Qin, we can memorize even faster!”

Yu Hongxiu also popped her head out and nodded repeatedly, “This guy is not putting in any effort and not letting us memorize, how nasty! Let us get rid of him first then we can learn in peace!”

Dao Master Lin Xuan shook his head and said, “Stop talking nonsense, Cult Master Qin always has his own idea when he does something, there’s definitely a reason for him to be doing so. I’m just asking him to be quieter.”

Qin Mu was still there hammering away. That eight-armed devil god statue had already been reduced to scraps and thrown into the taotie sack by him. He was doing it personally now and his speed wasn’t slow as well.

Lin Xuan looked down and saw that Qin Mu was forging a mirror. He was hammering runes of creation into the mirror to expand more and more space inside the mirror.

“What is he doing?” Dao Master Lin Xuan took a look and couldn’t understand so he continued to memorize the runes.

Another one to two more days later, they got used to the hammering sounds and even though it was noisy, it couldn’t affect them anymore.

Suddenly, the hammering stopped and the three of them were driven mad. They popped their head out and Yu Hongxiu stared with her eyes wide open. She was about to say something when Dao Master Lin Xuan roared angrily, “Scumbag Qin, why aren’t you hammering anymore? If you don’t hammer, we can’t calm down!”

Yu Hongxiu couldn’t resist and burst out into laughter. “This Dao Master Lin is always so mature and earnest, I didn’t expect his temper to be even more explosive than mine.”

Qin Mu was currently sweeping the ground and he cleaned everything up without leaving a trace. He raised his head and said, “I’m done hammering. Wait a moment, I’ll come up after I finish sweeping the floor.”

After a moment, he lifted up a mirror with his vital qi and went up the second floor. The three of them looked at him and saw Qin Mu using his vital qi to sweep up the jade scrolls. The jade scrolls opened up and shone towards the mirror.

Next, Qin Mu placed the jade scrolls back to their original positions and climbed up to the third level.

They saw him repeating the same actions again and not long later, he climbed up to the floor where Lin Xuan was on.

Dao Master Lin Xuan looked towards the mirror and was astonished. He saw jade scrolls that were opened up in the mirror and the runes of the Great Dao could be seen clearly on the scrolls.

These jade scrolls were arranged neatly in rows and he could check the rune markings on the jade scrolls anytime.

“Stop memorizing.”

Qin Mu arranged the jade scrolls from the bookshelves in the air and shone the mirror at them. He said with a smile, “Even if I give you a hundred years, you can’t memorize every single level. Moreover, if you memorize wrongly, you also won’t know where you are wrong at.”

Dao Master Lin Xuan looked into the mirror and saw another row of jade scrolls. He saw that the runes on the jade scrolls were exactly the same at the runes on this level, there was no mistake at all.

The only difference was that the jade scrolls in the mirror were flipped.

“When I go Dao Sect to seek knowledge, I will give you a copy.”

Qin Mu continued to walk up and left the dumbfounded Lin Xuan on the spot. “After you calculate it again with Computational Canon of Supreme Molecule, give me another copy.”

Lin Xuan came back to his senses and stumbled after him. He looked at him with a depressed expression as he imprinted rows after rows of jade scrolls from the bookshelves.

“Does this mirror uses the world inside the painting by Heavenly Painting Art Saint?” he couldn’t resist asking.

“That’s right.”

Qin Mu said without even turning his head. “There’s also my Grandpa Mute’s forging skills, as well as Crimson Emperor and Light Emperor’s art of creation. I even use magnetism divine art from Granny Si to overlap part of the space inside the mirror.”

Dao Master Lin muttered with his lifeless eyes. “Wonderful, how wonderful…”

“That’s right.” Qin Mu turned back and gave a kind smile.

Dao Master Lin Xuan found his kind smile to be unexplainably annoying and wanted to just punch him ruthlessly on the face twice.

Soon, Qin Mu came to the level where Yu Hongxiu was on and imprinted South Deity Zhu Que’s runes right in front of the girl in red before walking up to the next level.

Yu Hongxiu had a blank gaze and followed behind Dao Master Lin Xuan in a daze. She followed them up to the upper levels.

“Is Eternal Peace’s Overlord Body Qin always so quirky?” she couldn’t resist asking Lin Xuan.

Lin Xuan said helplessly, “He’s always like this. The structure of his brain is different from us, I…”

He shook his head and smiled bitterly, “I also don’t know how his brain grows, maybe the brain of an overlord body has a unique structure.”

Finally, Qin Mu came to the level where Xiao Chunfeng was on and Xiao Chunfeng opened his mouth wide when he saw Qin Mu imprinting all of the runes from the jade scrolls into the mirror.

Bathump.

Xiao Chunfeng collapsed on his butt and his limbs were weak. He hung his head down dejectedly.

Dao Master Lin Xuan stretched his hand out to him and gave him a warm smile. “It’s okay, you will get used to it, there is still a long time.”

Qin Mu stretched his lazy back and said with a smile, “I’m finally done, as for the runes of creation on the topmost level, I think there’s no need for them. Now that we have imprinted these runes down, Dao Ancestor should be sending up back to Clear Sky Heaven soon…”

Just as he said until here, human voices suddenly came from outside and they were gradually closing in. They could only hear a loud and clear voice speaking. “Is Guardian Pavilion still considered peaceful these days?”

“Guardian Pavilion is a forbidden ground inside a forbidden ground, who dares to sneak their way in here?” another elderly voice said with a chuckle.

“Hmm, that’s is true.”

That loud and clear voice said, “Now that the creation divine weapon is constructed, His Majesty’s intention is to retrieve the runes first and create that body.”

That elderly voice asked doubtfully, “Is it still too early to make it? There are still many runes that are not yet perfected and we still haven’t found thirty-six different celestial palaces…”

The sound of the door opening came from the bottommost floor and two long shadows appeared in the sight of Qin Mu and the rest.

Qin Mu made a hush action and signaled for the others to move back. The four of them hurriedly moved to a corner in the jade building so they wouldn’t be found out.

Qin Mu secretly looked at the two shadows and saw that one of the shadows was extremely gorgeous. Behind the head was layers and layers of flame-shaped vein lines.

“His Majesty’s intention is to first manufacture it and the rest of the runes could be slowly perfect in the days to come.”

That shadow with the flame-shaped vein lines walked into the building and his loud voice rang out. “It’s just that Heaven Duke and Earth Count aren’t that easy to deal with, they are too stubborn and too conceited…”

Qin Mu’s heart skipped a beat and cold sweat broke out on his forehead. ‘Celestial Venerable Huo! He is Celestial Venerable Huo!’

Xiao Chunfeng, Lin Xuan and Yu Xiuhong revealed looks of despair. The visitors were now heading up the building and soon, they would come to the very top!

When that time comes, the four of them would have no place to escape to and no place to hide!

“Why isn’t Dao Ancestor sending us back?” Xiao Chunfeng gripped his fists tightly and his body was trembling slightly.

Qin Mu frowned. Now that Celestial Venerable Huo and the other person had already started to climb the steps, Dao Ancestor probably doesn’t have the time to send them away!

If Dao Ancestor was to execute his divine art now, he would definitely be detected by Celestial Venerable Huo!

One had to know that Celestial Venerable Huo was one of the nine celestial venerables, the founder of Celestial Being Divine Treasure. He was even more ancient than Dao Ancestor!

His abilities were probably even above Dao Ancestor!

Qin Mu gritted his teeth and suddenly turned around. A pitch-black Gate of Heaven Influence silently appeared at the top and there was no fluctuation of vital qi at all.

Qin Mu’s gaze twinkled and he signaled to Dao Master Lin Xuan.

Lin Xuan walked forward and Qin Mu moved his hands quickly. His various kinds of finger skills had a myriad of changes and they suddenly retracted as he tapped his index and middle fingers on Lin Xuan’s forehead. He sealed his corporeal body and primordial spirit together before pushing him backward.

Lin Xuan’s body fell involuntarily into Gate of Heaven Influence and he fell into Youdu.

Qin Mu looked at Xiao Chunfeng and Xiao Chunfeng hurriedly walked over. He did the same thing and sent him into Youdu.

Yu Hongxiu hurriedly walked forward and Qin Mu cast his spell once again. This time, he heard the voice from below again. “The two ancient gods are ancient yet they are stubborn and only swallow ancient learning without digesting it. They cannot see the general trend.”

Those two voices moved closer to closer to the top at a steady pace. “Each of them has their own thinking. Heaven Duke is still fine, Earth Count is the slightly cunning one. Luckily for us, the daughter of Earth Count is still in the celestial heavens and now Son of Youdu is also born. They are the cruxes to getting rid of Earth Count…”

Qin Mu’s heart jumped and his vital qi became messed up. Right at this moment, incomparably terrifying waves came assaulting from below and filled the entire Guardian Pavilion!

“Someone had infiltrated in!” Celestial Venerable Huo’s voice rang out.

Qin Mu’s expression changed drastically and he stretched out his hand to tap on the heart of Yu Hongxiu’s brows before pushing her into Youdu!

And at this moment, Celestial Venerable Huo’s figure appeared at the very top and he sneered. “How dare you infiltrate Guardian Pavilion, what guts! You can’t escape in front of me!”

Qin Mu sighed softly and turned around. He revealed a smile and said, “Celestial Venerable Huo, long time no see.”