Tales of Herding Gods

Pangong Tso stood in the center of the mirror. He saw all the broken surfaces and the shattered pieces which were like broken up transparent land with an impassable distance between each part of it.

His mirror was an unusual treasure which he had received from Great Ruins. The world inside the mirror could overlap with the real world, and no one would discover it. The only flaw was that he couldn’t use any divine arts while inside.

In the past, Pangong Tso had always used this treasure as a tool for escaping, so he had never expected that a day would come when he would end up trapped in the mirror.

It was no longer possible for him to escape. Qin Mu had severed his rope so the only way out was to jump out of the mirror, but if he attempted that, he would be pierced through the heart where he stood.

“Cult Master Qin was not here to kill me, but to have a talk?” Pangong Tso gave up on the idea of escape and probed, “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Qin Mu looked at Pangong Tso in the mirror and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “When did I have the chance? The moment you saw me, you wanted to act tough and even kill me, so I could only retaliate. Actually, when we met just now, didn’t I say a friend from afar came to see you and isn’t that a joy? You should have known I had come to reminiscence about the past with you and not to kill you. So what was all this for?”

Pangong Tso nearly vomited blood. The rascal had clearly said a friend from afar came to see you so why aren’t you coming out to die. When did he say isn’t that a joy?

However, now wasn’t the time to argue about word choices. Since his life had landed in the brat’s hands, it was best to follow his wishes.

“Cult Master Qin is noble, benevolent, and broadminded which I have always admired. This little brother was just joking with you earlier; I just wanted to see Cult Master’s skill and power. You are indeed extraordinary, I’m completely won over.” Pangong Tso wiped away the blood dripping from the corners of his mouth and sat down with a smile. “For Cult Master to travel so far here, I wonder what you want to discuss?”

“That god behind your back.” Qin Mu raised the mirror with a face full of smiles. “Imperial Preceptor and I would like to meet him and pay our respects to this sacred predecessor. I wonder if Grandmaster would give us the chance?”

Pangong Tso’s face changed slightly.

The god behind his back was none other than the god which appeared when he executed his shaman spell of paying respect to the soul!

Qin Mu asking him the location of that god was definitely not to pay respect to him. He was preparing to gather power to get rid of that god!

“Cult Master Qin, Human Emperor Qin, how would I know such an existence?” Pangong Tso immediately laughed. “You know what my abilities are like. Such a measly existence like me, Cult Master can beat two with one hand so how could I know any god? As for his location, that’s something a weakling like me wouldn’t be able to know. Cult Master, think please!”

Qin Mu held up the mirror and stabbed around in the sand with his sword. He said nonchalantly, “Grandmaster says he doesn’t know any gods, but that’s obviously a lie. If you didn’t know any gods, how could you invite people of High Heavens to deal with me? How could you lure Xu Shenghua out? If you didn’t know any gods, how would you recognize True Heaven Old Mother?

“Grandmaster, you and I are not kids, so let’s not beat around the bush. You indeed don’t have the right to know any gods, but the person behind you does, and you should be very close to him. The god apparition that appears behind your back when you pay your respects, that god should be your master or grandmaster, right?”

Pangong Tso looked at the sword with which he was stabbing the sand, and his face flickered between clear and dark. Suddenly, he stood up and paced to and fro in the mirror as he made a difficult decision.

Everyone said he was the founder of Rolan’s Golden Palace, but they didn’t know that there was someone else involved in it. Back then, when that god with whom Pangong Tso had a deep connection, founded Rolan’s Golden Palace, it was by chance that it had landed in his hands.

There were many disgraceful events in the past.

“He’s my master.” Pangong Tso stopped and raised his head to look at Qin Mu who was outside the mirror. “Your guess is right, the reason why I have connections with High Heavens and was able to recognize True Heaven Old Mother is indeed because of him. However, I would advise you not to provoke him; he’s too evil!”

The corners of his eyes trembled violently as he said in a low voice, “Cult Master should know that I’m considered evil, but compared to him, I pale into insignificance. I’m his disciple, but every time I execute the soul worship shaman spell, I need to borrow his power. You know that, right? Every time I use that shaman spell, I have to lose quite some lifespan! Hehe, if he’s treating even his disciple like this, what about others? This is why I wasn’t willing to use this kind of shaman divine art.”

Qin Mu’s expression couldn’t help changing. Pangong Tso would actually say someone was evil? This was truly a fantasy story which no one could believe!

In terms of evil in this world, who could be above Pangong Tso who had poisoned the entire prairie and killed countless of innocent herdsmen?

“I also don’t know his true name. I only know what he goes by,” Pangong Tso said. “Other people call him Shaman God Kui. I think his surname should be Kui, but people of our lineage rarely reveal their true names and surnames, so his surname might not be real either.”

“Shaman God Kui?”

Qin Mu was stunned. Kui was indeed a surname, but the Kui of Shaman God Kui could also not be a surname. Kui by itself could mean ear or ghost. Could it then be not a surname but the name of a race?

If that was the case, Shaman God Kui should be a ghost.

“However, it’s quite impossible for Cult Master to find him,” Pangong Tso said. “He came from another world and left early in my first lifetime.” Qin Mu carefully examined Pangong Tso’s face in the mirror, but the other didn’t look like he was faking it. “Cult Master Qin, there’s no need to doubt me. There’s no need for me to lie to you. I’m now in your hands and my life and death is within your grasp. I won’t gain anything by lying to you.”

Qin Mu pondered it for a moment and smiled. “Grandmaster, you are lying to me again.”

“When did I lie to you?”Pangong Tso asked helplessly.

“If he really left, why can you still execute the soul worship shaman spell? That apparition behind you, isn’t it the apparition of his primordial spirit?” Qin Mu smiled. “Do you think I’ll believe he has the ability to project his primordial spirit from another world? If he had this ability, the gods in the upper bound wouldn’t need to go through so much by first sending their petrified corporeal bodies with orders for the gods of High Heavens to activate the world-shattering divine artifacts.”

Pangong Tso’s expression instantly changed.

Qin Mu looked at the youth that was even younger than him and said leisurely, “Besides, he can also sense your summons and project his apparition over to help you kill others by paying respect to them. I don’t think a god would be that free and I don’t think a soul worship shaman spell would be executed like this. What if one day he was in a bad mood and decided not to project his apparition, wouldn’t you be harmed by him then? Grandmaster, we are all smart people, so tell me a truth and I’ll let you live.”

Pangong Tso’s expression flickered. He suddenly laughed out loudly and clapped his hands. “As expected of Cult Master Qin, the man who I view as my nemesis. It’s not easy to trick you. That’s right, he didn’t leave. He planned to leave, but I schemed against him and severely injured him before taking away his primordial spirit!”

Qin Mu stared at him with his eyes wide open in astonishment.

Pangong Tso’s smile was full of pride. “As the teacher, so the pupil. Whatever he taught me, I learned it all and even surpassed him! Yet that old thing never imparted the method of becoming a god to me. At that time, I was already old and about to die in a few years, but he never thought of our relationship as that of master and disciple.

“Hmph, since he wanted me to die, I chose for him to die first! So when he was finally ready to leave this world and the upper bound projected a divine ray to receive him, I made my move.”

Chill rose in Qin Mu’s heart.

Pangong Tso smiled and said, “I used the divine art he taught me to disrupt the receiving divine ray, splitting it into two! Cult Master Qi, you are proficient in teleportation divine art, so when your teleportation divine art gets split into two, what will your end be like?”

Qin Mu’s heart thunked against his ribcage. “I will also split into two.”

“Receiving divine ray is no different from teleportation divine art, with the only difference being in the separation of the corporeal body and the primordial spirit.”

Pangong Tso was immensely pleased with himself as he talked leisurely. “I used shaman spells to sacrifice my disciple and split the receiving divine ray into two. The corporeal body and primordial spirit of my master, Shaman God Kui, instantly separated and fell from the receiving divine light. It was killing two birds with one stone.

“My disciple had long anticipated my death so he could take over my position, so I got rid of them both at the same time. Without a corporeal body, Shaman God Kui’s primordial spirit was easy to control when I planted a soul bug in him!”

Qin Mu felt his hair stand on ends, and he sighed. “Grandmaster, you said Shaman God Kui is evil, but in my eyes, he might not be as evil as you.”

Pangong Tso shook his head. “You are overestimating me. I can’t compare to him. He is the true evil. Even after having been trapped for so long, his corporeal body hasn’t died yet, and his primordial spirit is also fine. It even nearly broke through my seal a few times after I made use of it to found soul worship shaman spell.

“Cult Master didn’t expect it, right? In my first lifetime, I was one of the top existences in this world, a strong practitioner that was close to god level. Maybe I had reincarnated too many times, and my wish to improve has been worn down, but my demeanor back then wasn’t any inferior to that of Cult Master Qin.”

Qin Mu nodded. “That is true. Grandmaster’s abilities are extraordinary. Even though you learned the techniques of the other sects and sacred grounds, your shaman spells are your strongest skills. They were accumulated from your first lifetime and other techniques that you learned in your successive lifetimes are just decorating what’s already perfect; they are of little use to you. If you had focused on researching your shaman spells, your achievements today would not be what they are now.”

Pangong Tso’s expression grew bleak and his voice dim. “So what if I could cultivate my shaman spells to however strong they could get? I still couldn’t become a god. After realizing this, I started to walk other paths, trying to find the path to become a god in other sacred grounds and sects.

“What a pity that they also didn’t have it or even fully comprehended what I had learned in my lifetimes. In the end, it was Cult Master Qin, the man who I view as my greatest enemy that spread the method of becoming a god to the public, giving me hope to finally reach that stage. You really make me sigh endlessly, not knowing what to say.”

He fell into a daze, then suddenly said, “If I had met you in my first lifetime, we might not have been enemies. We might even have been friends.”

Qin Mu blushed and laughed. “Grandmaster, don’t joke around, I ain’t evil at all. Where did you hide Shaman God Kui’s corporeal body and where did you suppress his primordial spirit?”

“If I tell you, will you not kill me and let me go that way?”

“I can make an oath to Earth Count!” Qin Mu said firmly/

Pangong Tso shook his head. “Cult Master, don’t joke around.”

Qin Mu laughed loudly and waved his hand. “If you don’t want to make an oath to Earth Count, then let us make an oath to Shaman God Kui’s primordial spirit. If you go against the oath and give me a fake location, you will die suddenly when you meet him! It will be the same for me, if I don’t let you go, I will die immediately when I meet him!”