Tales of Herding Gods

In the potted plant world, Qin Mu entered his dream again and again. He experienced countless failures, but he also gradually made progress in Celestial Venerable Ling’s unchanging substance divine art.

The divine art became more and more complete.

It was already very hard to learn the divine art, which made it clear how heaven-defying it was for Celestial Venerable Ling to comprehend it!

That was why Celestial Venerable Yu said that Celestial Venerable Ling had the highest aptitude and comprehension and that he was nothing compared to her.

Yet, Qin Mu found an even harsher truth. That truth was that he would become unchanging substance after completely deploying the unchanging substance divine art!

In other words, using it would lead to a terrifying outcome. He would be assimilated by it to become unchanging substance, a form that he could never escape from!

He entered his dream again and again and tried again and again. However, the results were the same every time. The Qin Mus in his dream would become unchanging substance, a bunch of fog!

Celestial Venerable Ling was the fog on the Surging River. After deploying the divine art, she assimilated to form the unchanging substance. She herself was trapped in it too, without any chance of escape!

Of course, when she became unchanging substance, she dragged the Grand Emperor’s reincarnation, the eleventh Celestial Venerable, Ming Fangyu, into it.

Celestial Venerable Ming Fangyu was using the real Celestial Emperor corporeal body then, which spurred the ten Celestial Venerables to use the creation divine weapon to create another Celestial Emperor to continue their rule.

The most terrifying thing about this divine art wasn’t how many people it trapped, but how one couldn’t escape from being unchanging substance after using it. Even Ming Fangyu and the ancient Celestial Emperor’s corporeal body couldn’t break out of it and the reincarnation cycles forced onto them!

That was the case for Qin Mu in the dream. He deployed the divine art again and again, and he was assimilated again and again.

The little Qin Mus of his dream became fog and were forever lost in it.

He wanted to find a way out for Celestial Venerable Ling, yet that was the case every time, with no exceptions!

That meant that if Qin Mu completely deployed it, he would become unchanging substance too and end up like Celestial Venerable Ling!

However, he had other discoveries too. If he used part of it, he wouldn’t be assimilated. That was why Celestial Venerable Ling used the ghost ship to exile the Feathered Forest Guards before she perfected the divine art.

Finally, Qin Mu stopped dreaming. Instead, he took out the five Dao runes he comprehended from the egg of Tai Shi.

‘The only way to liberate Big Senior Brother and Celestial Venerable Ling is to use the egg to break Celestial Venerable Ling’s divine art. Whether I can do that, however, depends on verifying how correct the five runes are.’

Qin Mu calmed himself down. He figuratively experienced thousands of years of traveling in his dream. It was an illusion caused by changes in substances in his dream.

The five runes were Tai Shi’s Great Dao runes that he comprehended from its egg. Wei Suifeng tried to hack Tai Shi’s egg, which caused it to give out infinite amounts of Dao light that broke the ghost ship temporarily. This allowed it to temporarily escape from the unchanging substance before sinking back in again.

It was then that Qin Mu knew that the Dao of Tai Shi was the solution to the unchanging substance divine art.

He needed Celestial Venerable Ling’s divine art to verify whether the five Dao runes he comprehended from Tai Shi’s egg were correct.

He meticulously set down the runes Celestial Venerable Ling’s divine art needed. He was surrounded by weird runes that his vital qi created. They flickered and hid mysterious power.

Qin Mu was careful. He couldn’t allow those runes to form the unchanging substance divine art, for he would be stuck in it and become unchanging substance.

He carefully put together the unchanging substance divine art runes to form divine art parts that came into contact with the five runes to test the reactions between them.

‘This rune is wrong.’

‘This rune is wrong too!’

‘This isn’t correct either…’

…

He finished testing all five runes and frowned. He exhausted his knowledge to calculate them from the rune markings of Tai Shi’s egg, yet they were all wrong!

He couldn’t help but feel anxious. He walked around and suddenly had a eureka moment. He took out the Tai Shi egg and placed it in the middle of the unchanging runes.

‘I calculated these five runes from the Dao voice. The Dao of Tai Shi within might be incomplete. Big Senior Brother broke three of his fingers when he tried to hack it. Aside from the Dao voice, when the ancient god egg fought back, it created markings from Dao light!’

Qin Mu’s gaze flashed. He stopped utilizing the parts of the unchanging substance divine art and instead attacked the ancient god egg!

He attacked the egg in hopes that he could provoke it to retaliate and show the beautiful Dao markings he had seen on the ghost ship so that he could comprehend what was missing from the five runes via the Dao markings!

The unchanging substance divine art was activated, and as soon as it landed on Tai Shi’s egg, the flawless and perfectly spherical egg glowed. A Dao voice that sounded like the recital and prayers of billions of ancient gods was emitted from it!

Ringing filled Qin Mu’s ears as his third eye opened. It stared at the Dao markings coming from the ancient god egg!

Outside, Yan’er walked quickly towards the farm with her basket. As for the dragon qilin, he was planting in the fields. He had finished planting around a hundred acres worth of farmland with vegetables and spirit medicine.

Yan’er retrieved a towel and carefully gave it to the dragon qilin for him to wipe the sweat off his forehead. She opened the basket and said, “Look, I heated a plate of spirit pills for you.”

The dragon qilin, who had morphed into a youth with the head of a Qilin, sat on the farmland and ate the steamy hot spirit pills. Yan’er fed him water and gently said, “Eat slowly so you won’t choke…”

Outside, the trees shook before collapsing. The tiny Earth Count walked out with an elephant with wings. It was a half-god of Southern Heaven. He was shot down when flying and dragged there to be eaten.

The tiny Earth Count was about to drag it into the fields when the dragon qilin chased him out. “Don’t trample on the medicine I just planted!”

The tiny Earth Count placed the elephant aside, looked at Yan’er helplessly, and said, “Moo!”

Yan’er was going to help him grill the elephant when she suddenly looked at the house that Qin Mu had visualized. It suddenly lit up, and terrifying light burst open from the inside of the house!

Whoosh—

Violent winds pulverized the house as grand Dao voice reverberated in the area. The light burst forth as the earth cracked and mountains shook!

Yan’er quickly deployed her wings to protect the dragon qilin and the tiny Earth Count from that terrifying wave!

In a hurry, she only saw Qin Mu flailing around as he was sent flying into the air by that terrifying wave.

Yan’er immediately looked up and saw white smoke coming from a large mountain far away. The same happened to the mountain behind it too. The white smoke came from the white powder created by broken stones of the mountains that Qin Mu crashed into.

White smoke came from another mountain far away. When one looked further beyond, more and more mountains were broken through by Qin Mu. It was impossible to know when Qin Mu would stop.

Yan’er retracted her wings, and the dragon qilin’s expression changed drastically. He stomped his feet and said, “Our medicine farm was destroyed!”

Yan’er unnervingly said, “You should be worried about Master instead!”

The dragon qilin quickly looked at the house. He saw only a large crater with the Tai Shi egg at the bottom. The Dao markings on it slowly went away.

“You’ll guard the egg here, while I’ll find Master!” Yan’er quickly flew away.

The dragon qilin responded and called the tiny Earth Count to guard the egg with him. He kneeled down beside the ancient god egg and listened in. He turned around and probed, “Moo?”

The dragon qilin touched his small head and said, “This can’t be eaten. One can’t grill it.”

“Har…” The tiny Earth Count was sad.