Tales of Herding Gods

Chapter 934: Facing the Sea

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Qin Mu walked towards the pavilion and stood side by side with the other Qin Mu as they both looked at the Jade Pool’s surface.

“Celestial Venerable Mu doesn’t seem surprised at all.”

The other Qin Mu glanced at him and laughed. “If I saw another one of myself, I would certainly scream in shock before eliminating him. In this world, I am unique.”

Qin Mu smiled back. “If the celestial heavens can create more than ten Celestial Venerable Yus, it should be easy to create another me. This body was created in the celestial heavens’ Patriarch Creation Palace, right? It looks like it was. However, even if they could create an exact copy of me, it would be outdated in the next moment.”

The other Qin Mu observed every action of his and imitated his actions and his tone before pointing out, “The goal wasn’t to create another you but to replace you. By doing so, you will die quietly while the other you still lives on.”

He imitated every minute action of Qin Mu’s and vividly said, “After you die, you will still live on as a leader of Eternal Peace’s reform. You will still be Celestial Venerable Mu and remain in your accomplices’ midst. Earth Count, Heaven Duke, and the others won’t see any flaws. These ancient gods still want to preserve your life and expect the invincible Great Wizard to revive them. You gave these corrupt beings hope, yet you will have died unexpectedly.”

Qin Mu tilted his head, and his third eye emerged from his eyebrows. He inspected this body before saying, “You are Celestial Venerable Hao? You lost to me twice.”

The Qin Mu on the opposite side’s pupils contracted as an eye emerged between his eyebrows. It opened as fast as Qin Mu’s third eye, a clear imitation of him.

His eye’s pupil was hexagonal too. It was clear that when Dao Ancestor examined Qin Mu, he did it in a detailed fashion and ensured that every detail would be identical.

From the clothes and accessories to the location and number of every hair, it was all exact!

This was how serious a man Dao Ancestor was.

“The first time was during the first year of the Dragon Han Era. In fact, it was at this exact location.”

Qin Mu was excited as he recalled the past. “You were beaten to the point of becoming a dog that lost its family. You ran for your life as those under you tried to stop me and prevent me from killing you with their lives, but I killed them like one would chickens. Their blood and yours dyed the Jade Pool red, and your mother, Mistress Yuanmu, had to project herself here to save you. However, in front of her, I still beat you until you were a dead dog. How long did it take you to recuperate?”

The opposite Qin Mu replied, “Medicine was undeveloped then. Celestial Emperor hired famous doctors to save me, but they were unable to do so. Nobody could heal your sword will and the sword wounds you inflicted. I laid in bed for more than a hundred years, unable to eat or drink, relying on others to feed me. I couldn’t control my urination or defecation and could only do those things with the help of palace maids. During those years, I wanted to die more than once. I even prayed for others to kill me more than once.”

Qin Mu smiled. “This was my reward for you. You laid in bed for around a hundred years, yet Celestial Venerable Yu laid in his bed for more than a million years.”

“Afterwards, I slowly recuperated and was able to walk. It was then that I realized that my physical injuries had healed a long time ago. What didn’t recover was my Dao heart.”

The opposite Qin Mu’s pupils contracted as the divine light in his eyes grew denser. After retracting his divine light, he plainly said, “The injury to my Dao heart took longer to heal. Within the thousand years after that, I would always see your sword going through my body and your fist colliding with my body and crushing my bones and tendons whenever I closed my eyes.”

Qin Mu apologetically said, “I should have killed you then so you wouldn’t be tortured like this.”

The opposite Qin Mu coldly said, “It took me a thousand years to emerge from your shadow, but, after that, I knew that I was no longer the old me. I was then a mere knife in my father’s hand that he used to get rid of the future potential rival to his position, Celestial Venerable Yu. You made me die once before giving me a new life. From then on, I swore to live for myself.”

He was still imitating every action of Qin Mu’s as he continued, “I started to become steady and impassive. I was an unremarkable prince amongst the other princes. After all, I was a failure, someone beaten by Celestial Venerable Mu as if I were a dead dog. Yet, the more I became like that, the more chances I got to prove myself. My father valued me more as a result. I helped him scheme to get rid of the crown prince and killed him. He was the son of Celestial Empress, and he had humiliated me before, taunting the fact that I was an illegitimate son and someone beaten badly by Celestial Venerable Mu. Thus, I gave him the name of Xie Wuqi to shame him so he would be tortured in Youdu even after his death!”

Qin Mu saw the opposite Qin Mu smile as brightly as him. However, beneath this brightness were dense feelings of hatred, as well as satisfaction at avenging himself.

“After Xie Wuqi died, the princes with authority weren’t my opponents. Some died, while some became injured. Some even had their Dao hearts collapse because of me.”

The other Qin Mu chuckled. “My father felt that Celestial Venerable Yun and Celestial Venerable Ling were still a threat to the celestial heavens, so he planned on supporting a trusted aide against them to restrain them. Thus, he chose me. Hehe, he could only choose me then. Consequently, I came to the Primordial Realm and established the Dragon Heaven Celestial Heavens to go against Celestial Venerable Yun and others, fighting to the death. However, I also established my own entourage, who allowed me to seek my cause.”

Qin Mu praised him, “Celestial Venerable Hao, you grew up.”

“It was all thanks to you.”

The other Qin Mu’s smile grew to be purer. His smile glowed like a sun as it became that of a boy, and he said, “I fought Celestial Venerable Yun for a long time, and the humans and lifeforms were too weak to be proper opponents of half-gods. Thus, to inspire confidence, he morphed into an image of you to fight me. How laughable.”

He couldn’t help but say, “I was indeed scared then, until I found out that Celestial Venerable Mu wasn’t you. As great as his imitation was, he couldn’t fool me.”

A vague expression somewhat akin to smiling and crying appeared on his face. “Who could understand you like me? You were the devil who appeared in countless nightmares of mine. Celestial Venerable Yun was too naive to imitate you! Yet, I never exposed him in front of everyone and instead told him about my plan. Thus, I, the person you hate so much, joined the Heaven Alliance. Hehe, I killed Celestial Venerable Yu, which made me hated universally by humans and you, but I still joined the Heaven Alliance and became one of its elders! This was because he wanted to deal with my father with me!”

He observed Qin Mu’s expression in an attempt to find traces of disappointment from it, but none appeared.

“I conspired with him and designed a plan to get rid of my father. At the same time, I constantly placed half-gods inside the Heaven Alliance to fight against him. Not only did I want to get rid of my father, but I wanted the Heaven Alliance too!”

He smiled. “I succeeded, and he failed.”

It was a simple sentence, yet it contained a hair-raising past.

Qin Mu smiled. “Even if you succeeded, the Heaven Alliance still didn’t fall into your control entirely. You experienced the second setback of your life because of me, again.”

The opposite Qin Mu didn’t deny it. In fact, he nodded. “I had never seen your true appearance. I built Celestial Venerable Yu to become the strongest weapon, aiming to get rid of Mother Earth in the lower bound. Yet, I never knew that the Great Wizard who resurrected her was you. You used her to strike at me with the move that incapacitated me for more than a hundred years. The shadow in my heart reemerged, and I was thus hurt by Mother Earth. This was taken advantage of by humans, and, as a result, I lost the Primordial Realm. However, that was a mere surprise attack.”

He seemed nonchalant about the past as he plainly said, “Today, your worth is no longer as great in my eyes. My cultivation has grown greatly, and I have a greater understanding of Dao. When I think about the battle at the Jade Pool now, it’s merely for a laugh, a laugh aimed at my youthful immaturity then.”

He gazed at the waves on the Jade Sea and leisurely said, “I don’t hate you now. The hatred I express now is a mere smokescreen. You no longer have a place in my Dao heart. You are a mere tool for me to exploit. Additionally…”

A trace of a smile glowed on his face, and it grew and grew. “Additionally, you are dying today! I have staged a perfect death for you!”

“Do you see those palace maids at the Jade Pool? During the night of the Jade Pool incident, the god officers and the army of gods and devils that were sent to announce the imperial decree were sent by me, and the palace maids were changed with my consent. Everyone, from the divine turtles that bear the divine mountains in the Jade Sea to the flower spirits in the lotuses, are my subordinates.”

He turned around with a sweeter smile on his face. “Your entourage was also drawn away by me. I placed people in the Yun residence, Red Deity residence, and South Deity residence. It was easy to draw them away. If I kill you here, nobody will know, not even Earth Count or Heaven Duke will know that the real Celestial Venerable Mu has died.”

Qin Mu sighed. “Celestial Venerable Hao, I didn’t know that your stratagem was so deep. It seems that I can hardly escape. It’s just that, this Celestial Venerable Mu that you created, are you sure that it’s my opponent?”

He smiled. “You put in so much effort to create this Celestial Venerable Mu and ensure that it’s exactly the same as me. In order to ensure that you don’t raise the suspicions of the other Celestial Venerables and the ancient gods, you had to ensure that he was at the Divine Bridge Realm too. Such a body can’t tolerate your primordial spirit, for it’s too strong. You can only use a shred of consciousness to control this body. However, I have killed many Divine Bridge Realm practitioners and ruined two weapons that are akin to yours.”

The other Qin Mu’s smile was as bright as the sun, which was chilling to see. In such a short time, he achieved such a great degree of similarity that one would have a hard time telling the difference.

“You underestimate my accomplishments during these million years. During this time, I analyzed and fought with you countless times in the depth of my consciousness. You and I have actually fought billions of times.”

He laughed without restraint. “In the past, you won more than you lost, but as I grew, the chances of you winning declined. By the Founding Emperor Era, I had defeated you. After that, every time I fought you in my consciousness, I was merely experimenting with the simplest way to kill you. By the High Emperor Era, I only needed one move to kill you.”

Self-confidence brimmed out of him as he smiled and said, “I arranged the move to kill you, and it’s called the Hundred Move to Kill Mu. It contains a hundred divine arts, and by today, in my consciousness, you will have died before you strike!”

Qin Mu’s pupils contracted.

His aura grew dramatically as his sword pellet flew out!

When he struck, he used the second move of Raising Calamity, Raising Calamity Sword!

At the Jade Pool Meeting then, he used this move to heavily injure Celestial Venerable Hao while he was under the projection of Mistress Yuanmu to the point where he couldn’t take care of himself unless helped!

Now, this Raising Calamity move was even more powerful with even more changes to its moves. Raising Calamity was a sword path but also a basic sword skill known as the nineteenth sword form, which could be combined with any other sword skills. There were nearly infinite amounts of changes!

Unexpectedly, before the potential of Qin Mu’s sword was unleashed, the attack of the other Qin Mu arrived. The sword stabbed out as the light broke the Raising Calamity Sword, which tapped on the heart of Qin Mu’s eyebrows.

Nothing changed on Qin Mu’s brows, yet the back of his brain exploded. An expression of disbelief appeared on his face as his body shook and fell to the ground. His two legs tangled together, and after some body spasms, he was no longer breathing.

The other Qin Mu slowly retracted his finger and said plainly, “Killing you was that simple. It only took one finger. How lonely…”

He looked at the peaceful Jade Sea, and on it, Qin Mu walked towards him.

The other Qin Mu stood in the pavilion with his hands behind him as he awaited his arrival.

He watched Qin Mu approach him until he was beside him, looking out at the sea.

“Celestial Venerable Mu doesn’t seem surprised at all.”

He glanced at Qin Mu and laughed. “If I saw another one of myself…”

He frowned slightly, feeling that something was wrong.

In the real world, Qin Mu sat behind him and poured a cup of tea for himself. He raised the cup to his mouth and commented, “It’s not a bad move. I would hardly be able to defend against it unless I used my life to take yours. Celestial Venerable Hao has certainly grown.”