Tales of Herding Gods

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

The remaining consciousness of the Grand Emperor backed off and disappeared, leaving behind only a cold humph.

Qin Mu didn’t mind that. It was the Grand Emperor, after all. His consciousness was the strongest and the best. To be able to capture a part of it was good enough.

The consciousness of a god was thoughts and consciousness, and it contained memories. His end goal was to obtain the cultivation technique needed to cultivate the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness.

He was unable to completely refine the Grand Emperor and thus had only a part of the Grand Emperor’s consciousness.

It would be extremely lucky for him if he were able to obtain the cultivation technique of the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness from refining this part of the Grand Emperor’s consciousness.

The luring out of the Grand Emperor’s consciousness from the imperial seal and the sacrificial altar could be considered a crisis for him. However, there were opportunities on top of danger in crises, and one could take hold of that opportunity after surviving the danger. This was what a wise man should think about and do.

A lot of people only saw the danger and would avoid it when facing crises. They forget crises were two-sided. When one avoided the danger, they missed out on opportunities.

Qin Mu and the others forced back the Grand Emperor and captured part of his consciousness. That was seizing the opportunity in a moment of crisis.

After seeing his consciousness back away, Luo Wushuang and Yue Tingge both flew out of his divine treasure.

Qin Mu thanked the two of them as Shu Jun returned to the Grand Primordium Divine Stone. Qin Mu’s consciousness descended on him and thanked him too.

“Things related to your life and death also concern me. There’s no need to thank me.”

In Shu Jun’s head, the two eyes were jumping around in their sockets as he smiled and suggested, “If you feel bad, offer me more consciousness, essence, and blood so that I can recover my ears, mouth, and nose!”

Qin Mu laughed heartily. “Relax, King Jun, I will grant your wish!”

Shu Jun coldly smiled. “What King Jun? Although I was one of the three kings of the primordial era, my people didn’t call me King Jun, they called me Divine King Shu Jun. You should call me Divine King too! Although you nabbed a part of the Grand Emperor’s consciousness, you don’t know how to refine it and obtain its memories. Offer me more essence, blood, and consciousness so that I can recover my head and teach you. This deal is fair, right?”

Qin Mu frowned and proposed, “How about you teach me how to refine the Grand Emperor’s consciousness, then I’ll impart the knowledge within to you. Don’t you want the Grand Emperor’s Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness? Isn’t this deal better?”

Shu Jun’s heart moved, and he thought about it before saying, “This isn’t a bad proposal. My Three Enclosures Higher Knowledge is strong, but it pales in comparison to the Grand Emperor’s Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness. However, the Grand Emperor didn’t get to where he was simply because of it, he also had the visualization of countless people, which helped his cultivation…”

Qin Mu tried to persuade him, saying, “If the Grand Emperor’s consciousness contains the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness, I will impart it to you without any reservations! After Divine King Shu Jun is revived, with the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness, it’s likely that you will be the next Grand Emperor!”

Shu Jun smiled. “Alright, it’s a promise!”

“I promise!”

Shu Jun was very happy. ‘This fellow feels refreshed for once! Hehe, the Grand Emperor’s Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness is way better than my Three Enclosures Higher Knowledge. This fellow doesn’t know that he suffered a great loss from the deal… Wait a moment!’

His two eyeballs blinked, and he suddenly realized another plan. ‘If my brain was recovered, I could occupy his corporeal body and eradicate his consciousness. Then, I could refine the Grand Emperor. Wouldn’t that be better? If I impart the refining method to him, even if the imprisoned consciousness has the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness within it, I have no brain and won’t be able to cultivate it… I suffered a great loss!’

The head on the sacrificial altar was angry as hell, and the two eyeballs jumped around as he called out, “How dare you toy with me, a divine king. I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you!”

Qin Mu smiled. “Is Divine King Shu Jun, one of the three primordial kings, going to go back on his words?”

After a while, Shu Jun finally calmed down and kept his promise, imparting the technique for refining a consciousness to obtain its memories to Qin Mu. However, he wasn’t happy about it.

Rising Heaven Creation of Knowledge. The technique he imparted to Qin Mu was a type of consciousness divine art named Rising Heaven Creation of Knowledge.

After learning it, he immediately went to modify it. Shu Jun was used to it. Qin Mu had always modified whatever he learned from him. He couldn’t raise any objections at all.

After he finished modifying it, he immediately went to refine the Grand Emperor’s consciousness.

Rising Heaven Creation of Knowledge was a divine art in the Three Enclosures Higher Knowledge technique that required relocating the 72 constellations and 328 star gods. The 328 star gods would rise to the heavens and shift the stars around to allow the stars in the constellations to orbit in an irregular manner.

Every time it moved, it would create a strong refining force that would refine the enemy’s consciousness and make it one’s own.

The memory in the opponent’s consciousness would be refined and made into information that would enter one’s brain. However, it didn’t change one’s thoughts, which made it similar to providing nutrients for one’s consciousness.

This allowed one to avoid being assimilated by the opposing consciousness while allowing them to refine it and raise their own cultivation in consciousness.

Rising Heaven Creation of Knowledge was a divine art the prehistoric masters of creation made against the other masters of creation. There were frequent battles between them. Hence, ways of defeating one’s enemies became the prime research focus of that era’s masters of creation. Of course, that era’s divine arts were way different from today’s, rendering it alien territory for Qin Mu.

Within the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure, he utilized Rising Heaven Creation of Knowledge to refine the Grand Emperor’s consciousness trapped in the heavenly bottle. A bunch of chaotically arranged and mixed information bombarded Qin Mu’s brain with all sorts of images. It was the Grand Emperor’s memories!

He immediately went to separate the wheat from the chaff in search of useful things in the Grand Emperor’s memories, annihilating things he deems useless as he went.

There were too many things in the Grand Emperor’s consciousness. Memories from the primordial era alone made up countless pieces of information.

Qin Mu frowned. Amongst the memories, there was little about the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness. However, there were many parts regarding consciousness divine arts, though they were just parts and not complete divine arts.

The strength of his consciousness, however, was rising rapidly. The rate of his increase in strength was way faster than when he cultivated the Three Enclosures Higher Knowledge!

When the Grand Emperor’s consciousness in the heavenly bottle was almost fully refined, he had still only obtained a few simple techniques on the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness.

He refused to give up and refined the remaining portion of the Grand Emperor’s consciousness, which allowed him to grow stronger.

This time, more memories regarding the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness came up.

Qin Mu gave a sigh of relief and immediately went to arrange the information in an attempt to find the techniques for the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness.

The difference between the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness and the Three Enclosures Higher Knowledge was in visualization. The Three Enclosures Higher Knowledge visualized the 78 constellations and 328 star gods, while the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness visualized at most 365 constellations and nearly 2000 star gods!

There were so many star gods that it even exceeded the knowledge Qin Mu had on them!

Currently, there were only 360 star gods in the celestial heavens, yet there were nearly 2000 of them in the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness. What was that supposed to mean?

‘Are there so many ancient gods in this world? Where did those in the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness go?’

Qin Mu thought about it in silence. The current number of ancient gods was far less than the recorded number in the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness. Was there a possibility that there were 2000 ancient gods in the world at a point in time?

‘Most of these ancient gods are dead.’

Qin Mu stopped thinking about it and continued arranging the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness. Outside of the number of star gods, its visualization technique was also better than that of the Three Enclosures Higher Knowledge.

The Three Enclosures Higher Knowledge visualized by placing the Supreme Palace Enclosure Higher Knowledge, Purple Forbidden Enclosure Higher Knowledge, and Heavenly Market Enclosure Higher Knowledge in the Grand Primordium Origin Stone or Grand Primordium Divine Stone. Meanwhile, the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness’ visualization technique involved spreading it across the corporeal body and turning a person into a universe!

By cultivating this technique, a god would reside in every corner of one’s corporeal body!

In the heart of the brows, there were the various Purple Forbidden Gods and Celestial Emperor. In one’s sea of qi lay the two gods of the Ruins of End. In one’s dantian lay Mother Earth, while Earth Count lay in one’s Yongquan. In the tip of one’s backbone lay the 33 star gods!

‘No wonder Shu Jun praised the Grand Emperor and said that he had the strongest corporeal body in history. One has to have a strong corporeal body for this cultivation technique. It’s just that I don’t know whose corporeal body would be stronger, the ancient Celestial Emperor’s or the Grand Emperor’s?’

The Grand Emperor’s consciousness in the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure was completely refined. It was then that he realized that the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness was different than the masters of creation’s techniques that he imagined, making Qin Mu frown.

The Grand Emperor’s Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness was actually a technique for the divine treasure cultivation system and the celestial palace cultivation system!

The Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness he obtained was incomplete and lacked the technique for the Seven Stars Divine Treasure and Celestial Being Divine Treasure. In addition, it lacked techniques for cultivation after the Jade Capital Realm!

‘The Grand Emperor modified the technique!’

Qin Mu’s head figuratively exploded, and he had the feeling of missing a punch that he put every ounce of his effort into.

If this was the original Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness, he could still fuse it with the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure in accordance with the original technique to perfect it and make it suitable for him.

However, it wouldn’t be that useful after the Grand Emperor combined it with the divine treasure cultivation system and the celestial palace cultivation system.

This was because he only had a Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure, not even having a celestial palace!

The usefulness of this technique was greatly reduced for him.

He imparted what he knew of the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness, stunning Shu Jun. Nevertheless, he learned it seriously.

Qin Mu was perplexed and asked, “Divine King Shu Jun, as one of the three primordial kings, why do you still learn the divine treasure cultivation system? After modification, the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness isn’t that useful to me, and it’s useless for you!”

“Brat, do you think I still want to go the way of visualization with consciousness after I resurrect?”

Shu Jun shook his head, and two eyeballs flew out of their sockets, jumping around. One of them said, “If I continue with the path of visualization with consciousness, I will be going against a million years’ worth of knowledge and research alone. Ultimately, I’d be eliminated by time like the other masters of creation, causing my species to go extinct.”

The other eye smiled. “After I resurrect, I’ll learn your cultivation techniques and fuse them with the masters of creation’s visualization and consciousness technique. Thus, even with an incomplete Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness, my accomplishments won’t pale in comparison to the Grand Emperor’s.”

Qin Mu was stunned.

Shu Jun’s two eyes utilized their consciousness, which evolved repeatedly, calculating the marvels of the Grand Overarching Supreme Consciousness. He continued, “I entered your divine treasure and found that it doesn’t match with the Grand Emperor’s technique. You lack a lot of divine treasures. You probably chose a unique path of cultivation, which you are now stuck on with no way out. You don’t know how to continue.”

Qin Mu nodded.

Shu Jun pointed out his weak points.

He opened the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure and used it to evolve the prehistoric times of the universe. However, there was a limit to it. He had already used up the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure’s potential. Later on, he was only able to barely activate its power with the primordial liquid he got from Mother Earth.

However, the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure’s potential had already been reached.

Recently, he felt that his power had already reached the limit set by the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure. His vital qi cultivation reached the level of true gods, but it also reached the limit of the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure.

Thus he worked hard on his consciousness to make up for his flaws and attempt to get out of his current predicament.

He never thought clearly about how to continue.

He wanted to open a new path based on the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure. However, to where and in which direction, he wasn’t clear.

While he was fumbling around, he felt that the end of that path could be a marvelous realm that flowed together with the Dao. It was something that words couldn’t describe.

Shu Jun said, “If I were you, I would open the celestial palace.”

Qin Mu humbly asked for guidance, bowing down and saying, “Please guide me, Divine King.”