Tales of Herding Gods

In the past, Prince You Ming and Son of Heaven Yin would’ve thought that he was merely bragging. However, the dragon qilin broke the Celestial River Navy easily, forcing them to admit that he had such capabilities.

The dragon qilin couldn’t help but proudly say, “No one knows a well-read man, but a person with talent will find a chance to unleash it! Today is my day!”

Prince You Ming praised, “You really are a worthy talent, Brother, enough to be called the number one heavenly master of the Dragon Han Era!”

Yan’er’s face was full of admiration for him.

Even Son of Heaven Yin had to praise him, although bitterly. He thought, ‘After this fellow blocks the armies of the celestial heavens, I’ll find a chance to steal the Glassy Sky Pagoda!’

Celestial Emperor cut the world apart, allowing him to control the four poles of the four deities. With the four deities under the celestial heavens’ control, they had no territories nor armies. They only had their descendants to guard their celestial palaces.

The dragon qilin was able to use the Glassy Sky Pagoda, the snake gods, and the turtle gods of the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace to utterly defeat the Celestial River Navy, which rendered him a talented genius.

This was because the two Divine Martial Guards, the Northern Sect Army, and the Celestial River Navy combined had enough power to easily trample over all of the strong practitioners of the Emperor’s Throne Realm in the world, let alone the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace!

He deserved the title of number one heavenly master if he could withstand their attacks!

The three armies surrounded the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace to halt its advance up north. However, it was difficult, for Prince You Ming was North Deity’s son, and his cultivation had reached the Emperor’s Throne Realm.

Add to that the fact that North Deity was a saint born from the celestial river and how the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace was going north via the celestial river while being protected by the Glassy Sky Pagoda, and it became nearly impossible for them to use ships to halt the celestial palace.

Any ships that tried to block it would be pulverized by the celestial palace.

Using chains to bind the celestial palace was impossible as well. The Glassy Sky Pagoda had plenty of powerful treasures. When they tried to hook the celestial palace with chains and hooks, the disciples of the celestial palace utilized the power of the treasures to break said chains.

Although the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace wasn’t fast, it was impossible to block it.

“A formation grandmaster is in charge of the Glassy Sky Pagoda!”

The number one heavenly master of the Northern Sect Army was Shang Pinying. He was a talent of the first year of the Dragon Han Era too. However, he was overshadowed by the nine Celestial Venerables. He had high attainments in algebra, which made him as formidable as Dao Ancestor, just not as famous.

He was more skilled in formations, researching the corporeal body structures and Great Dao runes of ancient gods and pioneering new formations. The armies of the celestial heavens cultivated his formations. He was the number one formation heavenly master of the Dragon Han Era.

It wasn’t until the rise of Dao Ancestor’s disciple, Yue Tingge, that he was replaced. This was due to Yue Tingge’s extraordinary talent that surpassed even his.

Shang Pinying moved to the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace and orbited it once to examine the formations. He gravely said, “The one setting the formations is extremely intelligent. Even I can’t see through many of his formations. I would be pleased for the rest of my life if I was able to converse and exchange ideas with him! Could it be Prince You Ming? If so, he’s really humble!”

He got excited and laughed, his blood boiling. “I’ll control every army to break the formations and face off with this great formation expert!”

His clothes flew up as he passionately said, “The most beautiful language of this world is algebra! Formations made from algebra are the world’s most majestic poems! I’ll be satisfied for the rest of my life if I can use the most beautiful language and most majestic poems to meet a friend with algebra!”

He laughed and deployed the armies’ formations to attack the Glassy Sky Pagoda!

The Black Tortoise Celestial Palace’s army was weak, for the disciples’ cultivation realms were low. However, with the power of the number one treasure, the Glassy Sky Pagoda, even millions of gods and devils could hardly break in with force.

Yet, to fully unleash its potential, an extremely intelligent person was needed.

The dragon qilin followed Qin Mu’s advice and immediately changed formations to break the opponent’s formation with a formation.

The number one heavenly master of the celestial heavens, Shang Pinying, felt his blood boil. The battle was intense, and its outcome was up in the air. The battle made him feel like he had found a bosom friend. He controlled the Celestial River Navy, the Northern Sect Army, and the two Divine Martial Guards to break formations with formations. He pushed the formation moves of the Dragon Han Era to the absolute limit!

Yet, the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace was like a giant and incomparable algebra calculation spirit weapon. Every formation crisscrossed, moved, and constantly changed irregularly. The formation expert in the celestial palace seemed incredibly powerful and intelligent, for he blocked all of the formations that Shang Pinying set up one by one, then broke them.

The most powerful group in the armies of the celestial heavens was the ten guards. Any random god or devil in the ten guards could be a commander in any other army. Yet, even such a strong army suffered heavy casualties when attacking the Glassy Sky Pagoda!

Shang Pinying grew more excited, and he became louder and louder. His brain calculated rapidly. He cared not for the casualties of the armies, for all he wanted to do was battle against the expert in the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace to test their cultivations.

The celestial river was dyed red by the corpses of countless gods and devils. It almost became a red river that flowed through the vast starry sky. This slaughter lasted from dawn until dusk and dusk until dawn.

For several nights, Shang Pinying remained excited, changing his formations and encouraging his armies to attack the Glassy Sky Pagoda.

He was incredibly intelligent, and he broke through heaven after heaven in succession, from the first to the twenty-eighth. He would soon break the Glassy Sky Pagoda’s twenty-eighth heaven and attack the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace!

By then, the armies had lost more than half their men!

The disciples of the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace suffered heavy casualties too. The dragon qilin wasn’t Qin Mu, so he was relatively slow despite being advised by Qin Mu.

Yet Qin Mu’s consciousness injuries were too serious. He was barely conscious, and thus the descendants of Black Tortoise inevitably fell and suffered.

The drain on Qin Mu’s consciousness was great as he used it to battle the number one heavenly master of the Dragon Han Era, Shang Pinying. His form became so bad that he ran the risk of having his consciousness obliterated.

Even Prince You Ming was deployed by him. He repeatedly entered the formation to fight and take on the two Divine Martial Guards. He almost died to them multiple times.

“Dragon Pi, bring despair upon this number one heavenly master.”

Qin Mu’s consciousness said, “Today, I’ll make you famous. Worship the Glassy Sky Pagoda and reverse the twenty-eight heavens.”

The dragon qilin heard it, bowed to the Glassy Sky Pagoda, and saw the Glassy Sky Pagoda’s 28 canopies retract before spreading out again!

Shang Pinying had broken through to the twenty-eighth heaven and was about to reach the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace. It was then that everything suddenly changed. Layer upon layer of heavens expanded outside, making the twenty-eighth heaven the first!

The armies of the celestial heavens saw victory at hand before they suddenly returned to the outermost layer of the Glassy Sky Pagoda again. The interior heavens of the Glassy Sky Pagoda were guarded heavily by formations. The heavens they broke through with their lives were restored and made into killing formations!

The morale of the Celestial River Navy, the two Divine Martial Guards, and the Northern Sect Army collapsed. They had no will to fight, for despair was all they felt.

“Weurgh—”

Shang Pinying’s face suddenly became red, and he spat out fresh blood before dropping down to the surface of the river, kneeling. His hair turned white at a visible rate, and soon, his gray hair became white as if he entered his senior years.

His Dao heart collapsed, and he never mentioned the idea of dueling that formation expert in the celestial palace again. He didn’t want to fight anymore.

He lifted his head and shouted, “Retreat!”

Soldiers’ cheers surrounded him as they retreated.

Shang Pinying spat out fresh blood by the mouthful as he kneeled there. He hoarsely asked, “Which expert was the formation master? May you appear and let me accept defeat wholeheartedly?”

The dragon qilin appeared. He stood outside of the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace’s doors, looked at him, and said, “It was me.”