Tales of Herding Gods

Qin Mu smiled, and the muscles on his arms regenerated quickly.

Deity Xuan glanced at him and told the sword gods of the academy, “Since that’s your wish, you can go tour the Primordial Realm. However, remember this, you are no longer our sword gods nor my descendants. You can’t act with my name, for you all have been expelled from the North Deity bloodline. Secondly, you have no background and aren’t superior, so treat the weaker people of Eternal Peace kindly. Understand?”

Qin Mu couldn’t help but look at Deity Xuan. His instructions were on point. The sword gods wouldn’t attract the celestial heavens’ attention as long as they weren’t acting under Deity Xuan’s name, which reduced the danger involved. Even if they did something wrong, the North Pole wouldn’t be involved.

If they didn’t have a background and treated Eternal Peace’s people well, they wouldn’t come into conflict with Eternal Peace. If they discriminated against Eternal Peace and bullied the people there because they had the bloodline of North Deity, they would cause trouble, and Qin Mu wouldn’t be able to tolerate them.

With those things done, this batch of sword gods could assimilate into Eternal Peace and become members of its reform.

Older people were more experienced. Deity Xuan was very wise in his orders.

Those sword gods of the academy nodded.

Deity Xuan removed their surnames, so the head of the sword gods said, “Celestial Venerable, we are now people without surnames pleading for you to give us one.”

Qin Mu thought about it in silence before saying, “You all entered the path through the sword 40,000 years ago, became gods because of it, and are now leaving the North Pole with your surname taken because of the Sword Dao. Thus, your surname shall be Jian.”

The head of the sword gods of the academy smiled and said, “So my name is Jian Wuji.”

“Which means I’m Jian Sansheng.”

“I’m Jian Yutang!”

…

The masses laughed, and Deity Xuan couldn’t help but say, “Celestial Venerable Mu, my disciples might be good in nature, but they are inexperienced. They don’t know about the evils of the world, so I would like to ask you to treat them kindly, Celestial Venerable.”

Qin Mu nodded solemnly. “Relax, Deity Xuan. My reputation in the Primordial Realm is great. I was called the conscience of Eternal Peace. Anyone who mentions me will raise their thumbs and praise me as the absolute good guy. I won’t mistreat them.”

Deity Xuan said, “Yes, yes, I’ve heard of your character. It has garnered a reputation of its own.”

After he was done, he whispered to Jian Wuji after showing him a look, “Be careful, don’t work for the guy after he betrayed you!”

Jian Wuji was astonished.Read more chapter at vipnovel

Qin Mu gave Jian Wuji a letter and said, “You shall head to the Primordial Realm’s Eternal Peace first and give my letter to Emperor Yanxiu. She will arrange everything. Deity Xuan, why don’t you give the 100 Five Thunder Pots to them first so they can take them to Eternal Peace. What do you think?”

Deity Xuan nodded and said, “Jian Wuji, after you retrieve the Five Thunder Pots, go to the Real Martial Academy and take six scrolls of Black Tortoise Lectures and Fire Bell Divine Weapon Scrolls. They are to be taken to Eternal Peace and given to Emperor Yanxiu.”

Jian Wuji left after receiving the order.

Deity Xuan watched them leave and sighed. “You really are ruthless, Celestial Venerable Mu. Now you should see my sincerity, right?”

Qin Mu clasped his hands, bowed to the ground, and solemnly said, “Instead of looking down on me due to my inferior power, you entrusted me with such heavy responsibilities. I am very grateful, Deity Xuan.”

Deity Xuan returned the favor hastily and smiled. “Don’t do that, Celestial Venerable. I value you because of what you did during the Eternal Peace Calamity. During the Founding Emperor Calamity, Founding Emperor took his elites and left, abandoning his citizens. During the Eternal Peace Calamity, you chose to fight to the death and tried to manipulate all of the powers to find a way out. In the end, you surprisingly secured Eternal Peace. This is why I am willing to entrust them to you.”

Qin Mu sincerely said, “I will repay your trust in consigning them to me, Deity Xuan.”

Deity Xuan laughed and said, “I ordered people to prepare a banquet. You are my bosom buddy. We shall drink until we are drunk.”

Qin Mu also laughed. “I was going to bother you about that.”

During the banquet, Deity Xuan and Qin Mu drank until they were drunk. They held each others’ shoulders and called each other as brothers. The dragon qilin and Yan’er accompanied them, along with the high officials of the Xuan Celestial Palace. They greatly disagreed with their action. “Deity Xuan and Celestial Venerable Mu called each other as Dao brothers. How are we to sort the seniority if we met Founding Emperor?”

They drank to their hearts’ content, and those accompanying them were forced to put up a smile.

Deity Xuan sent Qin Mu away and said, “You have to be careful when you see the witch. She’s not easy to talk to. She must know how you came to see me first after you arrived. Thus, she might trouble you out of envy and hatred.”

Qin Mu smiled. “I don’t think she’s that kind of person. Brother Deity Xuan, I have to ask you about some things. Who does the divine weapon Celestial Venerable Yu stationed here belong to?”

“Heavenly Lady Qiang.”

Qin Mu nodded and remembered it carefully. He then asked, “May I ask, is there a reverse side to the North Pole?”

Deity Xuan’s expression changed slightly as he smiled and asked, “Why do you ask this, Brother?”

Qin Mu replied, “I met the masters of creation in the Great Void, and I know that their ancestral lands are called the ancestral court. Do you know where it is, Brother Deity Xuan?”

Deity Xuan’s face sank as he solemnly said, “Send our guests off!”

Qin Mu was stunned. He cupped his hands and was about to leave when Deity Xuan sighed. “It’s not that I’m cruel, but what you’re asking about is too shocking. Celestial Venerable Mu, I know you like to explore history, but some things are better left untouched.”

Qin Mu nodded and led the dragon qilin and Yan’er to ride the carriage to Wu.

Deity Xuan watched them leave before whispering, “It was difficult for us to steal the masters of creation’s ancestral court. You better not solve sealed history…”

“Deity Xuan still told us a lot. What he indirectly claimed was that places like the Primordial Realm, Xuandu, the four poles, and the celestial heavens have no reverse sides, yet they are related to the masters of creation’s ancestral court.”

Qin Mu tapped on the handle in the carriage as he vaguely talked to himself, “However, these places shouldn’t be the ancestral court, or else Divine King Lang Wo would’ve detected it. Yet, these places’ reverse sides are related to it. That’s strange…”

Yan’er fed him fruits from East Deity, and Qin Mu instinctively opened his mouth to eat them as he mumbled, “These places aren’t small. What’s the link between the disappearance of these places and that of the ancestral court?”

The dragon qilin suddenly said, “Do you remember the Great Ruins, Cult Master?”

Qin Mu was stunned as the dragon qilin continued, “Cult Master, didn’t you find four or five spaces stacked together at the source of the Great Ruins’ Surging River? Later on, when the Primordial Realm’s seal was broken, these stacked spaces spread out and became today’s Primordial Realm. Could such a sealing method be similar to the one used against the ancestral court?”

Qin Mu thought about it and said, “Fatty Dragon, continue on.”

Yan’er jumped to the side of the dragon qilin and fed him fruits from the East Pole to encourage him.

The dragon qilin continued, “Could it be that the reverse sides of places like the four poles, the celestial heavens, the Primordial Realm, Xuandu, and Youdu still exist, but that the ancient gods used their magic power to stack them together to form a three-dimensional space seal like the one that sealed the Paramita Ark to lock up the ancestral court?”

Qin Mu’s eyes lit up as he applauded him. “Fatty Dragon, you are wise!”

The dragon qilin proudly ate the fruits Yan’er gave him. Yan’er even carefully put spirit pills in the fruits, which moved him.

Qin Mu stood up and applauded. “There is such a possibility! Divine arts are inherited. The divine arts used to seal both the Primordial Realm and the Paramita Ark could be different than the one used to seal the ancestral courts. However, there could be some traces of visible inheritance in them!”

He clasped his hands before pushing them out. Instantly, the layout of the Dragon Han Celestial Heavens, the Primordial Realm, Youdu, Xuandu, the four poles, and even the Heavenly Yin World and Ruins of End, appeared one by one to form a large three-dimensional star atlas of the universe!

The Primordial Realm was in the center, and it was stacked with Youdu while being connected to the four poles. Xuandu sat high above the Primordial Realm. Qin Mu looked towards the poles, thought about it, and said, “The celestial river connects the four poles and the celestial heavens, yet they aren’t on the same surface. Also, the Ruins of End isn’t in the Primordial Realm but in another space and time. I only found it with the space algebra that Big Brother Wei Suifeng left behind. His space algebra recorded another dimension of space…”

He walked around the atlas, staring at it while calculating.

Suddenly, he extended his palm and pulled the atlas down. A funnel shaped abyss of the Ruins of End appeared beneath the Primordial Realm.

Qin Mu’s gaze flashed as he whispered, “Youdu isn’t completely stacked with the Primordial Realm. Instead, Youdu connects to the four poles and various other heavens. The only one not connected is Xuandu, which means that when one puts Youdu and Xuandu together, one can form a large circle!”

He expanded the frontiers of Youdu. He had an idea, and he created an Earth Count with his vital qi immediately. Earth Count stood in the center of Youdu with a large corporeal body with yellow springs on his head.

Qin Mu frowned and looked at the landmass beneath Earth Count. It was stacked with the abyss of the Ruins of End.

He was stunned.

“Accordingly, the celestial river flows into the abyss of the Ruins of End. Yet, they didn’t say that it was at Earth Count’s feet nor that it will pass through Youdu, but what if it did?”

Qin Mu’s eyes lit up more and more as he adjusted the celestial river so that its water flowed through Yuandu and Youdu. These two worlds overlapped in space, and for the celestial river to come to Youdu, it didn’t need to pass through the Primordial Realm’s landmass. Instead, it entered another space.

The celestial river became a torrential ghost river that circled the majestic body of Earth Count.

Qin Mu was stunned as he looked at Earth Count’s palm.

Earth Count’s weapon was a whip, which he had seen Earth Count use to tie up Tian Shu before. Yet, the celestial river morphed into the ghost river and flowed into Youdu after flowing through Earth Count’s palm!

The ghost river was thus Earth Count’s whip!

“Now I know why I always felt that there was something missing from Earth Count every time I went to Youdu. It was the ghost river whip!”

Qin Mu calmed himself and adjusted the ghost river to see it flow into the Ruins of End.

“There’s still something wrong!”

Qin Mu looked up and saw Xuandu and the four poles. “The height of the four poles is wrong! They should be higher than the Primordial Realm but lower than the celestial heavens. The celestial river should flow through Xuandu, yet it doesn’t. Instead, it flows through the celestial heavens like a large lasso that droops down into Youdu…”

He calculated frantically, and after a while, he swung his hand, smiling. “The water of the celestial river comes from above. It naturally comes from Xuandu!”

In Xuandu, a celestial river rushed down and changed the course of the water of the original celestial river. Instead, it came from above into the North Pole. After that, it went to the West Pole, South Pole, and East Pole before flowing towards the celestial heavens.

After it reached the celestial heavens, the celestial river came from the sky and flowed towards the Primordial Realm. It was stacked with Youdu, so the celestial river became the ghost river and entered Youdu. Finally, it reached the Ruins of End beneath Earth Count’s feet!

Qin Mu examined the Great Star Atlas of the Universe and walked around restlessly. If he calculated according to it, the four poles should be vertical in reference to the Primordial Realm. They should be straight and facing the Primordial Realm with their backs.

He drew lines with his hands to connect the worlds, yet he couldn’t find a place to connect every world.

Qin Mu frowned before having a eureka moment. He whispered, “The Dragon Han Celestial Heavens wasn’t at its current position initially. It was above the Primordial Realm. Thus, if I shift it down…”

He moved the celestial heavens in the star atlas towards the Primordial Realm and hung it on its skies.

A heavenly dragon’s voice came from outside the carriage, saying, “We have reached Wu, Celestial Venerable!”

Qin Mu ignored it and slowly adjusted the coordinates of the celestial heavens. He suddenly shuddered as he saw how, after weaving all the lines together, a light spot was formed!

Qin Mu cried out of joy as he mumbled, “This, this is the ancestral court. This is the location of the masters of creation’s ancestral court! It’s clearly useful to master algebra!”