Tales of Herding Gods

Zhe Huali shouted loudly and took another step toward Qin Mu.

“Admit defeat!” From beyond the sky, Fu Riluo’s voice boomed like thunder. “Your knife skills are prim, proper, and full of calculations. However, your frame of mind is already in disorder, so you will lose fast and die even faster! Your close friends are dead so you have to take revenge for them. If you don’t take revenge and just give up your life, you’d be nothing more than a boorish man!”

Zhe Huali’s expression distorted, and he suddenly pulled out his knife with his left hand.

Outside the sand table world, Fu Riluo frowned, but he didn’t make a move to stop Zhe Huali who was in the sand table world.

That land was created by him and Saint Woodcutter, so if he interfered, Saint Woodcutter on the other side would also interfere. If that happened, things would become hopelessly muddled, and he couldn’t be sure of success.

Saint Woodcutter had been summoned from the other world earlier in the day and disrupted his arrangements and plans, catching him off guard. That was why he could only set up such a bet. He couldn’t breach the rules he set up himself, or he might lose everything completely.

He needed time.

Even though he admired Zhe Huali and the youth had his own master, he also viewed him as his own successor. However, for the great cause of the devil race, he could only endure the pain and lose him, no matter how much he admired that young man.

The corners of Zhe Huali’s eyes twitched, and the demon eye at the handle of the demon knife became stranger and stranger. The location where it was staring at wasn’t Qin Mu though, but Zhe Huali’s right arm.

Zhe Huali raised it along with the knife.

Qin Mu was right: He couldn’t execute the knife skills of Luo Wushuang perfectly. If he wanted to do that, he needed to cut off his right arm; otherwise, it would become a burden to him.

His motive when coming to the lower bound was to find a way to hold knives in both hands. He wanted his knife skills to enter the path and walk out of Luo Wushuang’s shadow.

Just then, Qin Mu’s sword had been incomparably stunning, and he felt that even he himself wouldn’t have been able to avoid it. Only with a broken arm could he unleash Luo Wushuang’s knife skills to the fullest.

However, if he cut off his arm, he would never walk out of Luo Wushuang’s knife skills and would never find his own knife path. This would be the same as cutting his own path short.

Zhe Huali’s face flickered with many emotions. Then, the knife light slashed down against the ground.

“I’ve lost.”

He collapsed and knelt on the ground. But he didn’t kneel to Qin Mu or Yu He and the rest. No, he knelt to the corpse of Jiang Yi.

Zhe Huali bowed and got up. He picked up Jiang Yi’s corpse and turned his head around. “I’ve seen your sword skill, but I won’t let my master see it because I want to kill you personally and take revenge for my close friend!”

Qin Mu nodded solemnly. “If that day comes, I will die without regrets.”

Zhe Huali walked toward the wall of fire. His demon knife flew up and slashed it open, paving a way out. Zhe Huali carried Jiang Yi out, and their bodies vanished.

The corners of Qin Mu’s eyes twitched; Zhe Huali’s actions left him slightly uneasy.

Zhe Huali was no inferior to him, and the knife skill used to slash apart the sea of fire was extremely exquisite. His corporeal body, magic power, primordial spirit, and even his knife skills that showed his attainments in paths, skills, and divine arts were all no inferior to those of Qin Mu. His corporeal body was even much superior.

The Zhe Huali now was like Qin Mu after First Ancestor Human Emperor had given him a ruthless blow. He was on the border of breaking down and transforming.

If he walked out, having found his own path, he would be like Qin Mu who had founded the first form of his Calamity Sword. He would also found his knife skill and walk out from Luo Wushuang’s knife skills in his search for revenge.

‘When he turned around to walk out through the wall of fire, if I had sent a sword at him, I could have gotten rid of him… If it was Grandpa Cripple, he would have definitely done that without a moment’s hesitation!’ Qin Mu’s face flickered between clear and dark.

Outside the sand table world, the black tiger god caught his expression and immediately became excited. “My lord, my lord! Did you see that? The corners of this brat’s eyes are twitching often and his expression keeps changing tremendously, flickering between clear and dark. He even cries out in astonishment sometimes! His frame of mind is clearly not good!”

Saint Woodcutter gave him a stare, and the black tiger god’s expression changed. He hurriedly covered his ears.

Saint Woodcutter stretched out his palm and caught the handle of the divine ax. At the same time, Fu Riluo stretched his hand out to take hold of his devil spear. Both of them pulled out their weapons.

Qin Mu who was located in the sand table world immediately discovered that something was wrong. The space started crumbling from the place where the ax and the spear had crossed. Everything was shrinking continuously, swallowing the majestic mountains!

“Quickly, go!” Qin Mu pulled Sang Hua without any explanation and beautiful runes appeared around him. They swirled as he said, “Senior Sister Yu He, Senior Brother Shu Yao, quickly come to me!”

Yu He and Shu Yao still stood in a daze and looked at him blankly. They seemed to have yet to return to their senses.

The crumbling space was gradually closing in on them, and Qin Mu gritted his teeth as he executed his teleportation divine arts. With a flash, he vanished with Sang Hua.

Only then Yu He and Shu Yao come back to themselves and turned back to look. Their expressions couldn’t help changing drastically, and Yu He shouted, “Junior Brother Shu Yao, let’s work together to break apart the wall of fire to rush out of this place!”

Their speed was extremely fast, but when they raised their legs, they realized that they had underestimated the danger. They were extremely fast and surpassed even the speed of sound. They were faster than Qin Mu running at full speed yet the speed of the space collapsing was even greater!

The wall of fire was clearly right in front of them yet no matter how fast they ran, they could not get close to it.

Not only that, the distance was even widening and they got closer and closer to the crumbling space!

Cold sweat broke out on Yu He and Shu Yao’s foreheads. Inside the crumbling space hid the power of the collision between Saint Woodcutter’s divine ax and Fu Riluo’s devil spear. This power had created the sand table world earlier, turning a plaza that was a hundred yards by a hundred fifty yards into a vast world with a thousand miles mountain range.

The falling apart of that world would definitely release the power generated by the collision of the divine axe and devil spear!

This power was not something that divine arts practitioners of Seven Stars Realm could defend against. They would most likely be vaporized to the point there would be nothing left even of their souls!

“Could that Qin Mu who was calling us just now have wanted to bring us out?”

Only now did they start to regret. They were astonished by the light of Qin Mu’s sword and went into a daze, so they didn’t hear what he was trying to say after that. When they came back to their senses, it was already too late.

At this moment, a light flashed by them, and Qin Mu suddenly appeared beside them. The countless runes swirled around them and burst forth with light. Yu He and Shu Yao felt the world spin for a long while. When they finally stepped on the ground, they opened their eyes to take a look and realized that they had come out of the plaza.

“Move!” Qin Mu shouted out and ran forward. “Hide behind the big palace!”

Yu He and Shu Yao hurriedly followed him toward where Sang Hua was already hiding. When the four of them reunited, Qin Mu squatted down, closed his eyes, opened his mouth, and covered his ears. Sang Hua immediately did the same upon seeing his actions.

Before Yu He and Shu Yao could even think to do the same, a terrifying wave burst forth from the center of the plaza and incomparably bright lights shone. In an instant, they were blinded, and when they closed their eyes, two lines of bloody tears were streaming down their faces!

Next, the wave formed by the collapse of space rushed over them. Yu He and Shu Yao’s body were pulled longer and longer as though they were noodles,.

Terrifying sounds rang out for a moment before their ears could hear nothing at all. It was strangely silent!

Warm blood started to flow out of their ears.

Above the big palace, the gods of Supreme Emperor Heaven released their god power and raised a wall of divine light, blocking the energy blasting out from the collapsed space. Even so, the two youths were tormented terribly.

On the other hand, Qin Mu and Sang Hua who had squatted down weren’t affected much. After the light dispersed and the wave left into the distance, the two of them closed their mouths and opened their eyes.

Yu He and Shu Yao landed on the ground with a thump and sprawled motionlessly. When they got up, both of their faces were covered in blood.

The two of them couldn’t hear or see anything.

“Senior sister and senior brother are still too young and hasn’t experienced anything like this.” Qin Mu shook his head and went forward to examine the two of them. “I have encountered something similar to this before and knew what would happen if I was near where a god and a devil fought… They’re not too badly hurt. I will refine some medicine for them later to regrow their eye membranes and eardrums.”

Sang Hua was worried. “What happened?”

“Their eye membranes were burned and their eardrums were torn. It isn’t a big problem.” Qin Mu flipped through his taotie sack in search of medicinal ingredients. “If their eyes had exploded and the bones in their ears had broken, I wouldn’t be able to cure it. At that point, even the brain would be all fried. Their eye membranes weren’t fully burned and their eardrums only had a small hole pierced, so they can still grow back.

“Senior Sister Yu He and Senior Brother Shu Yao’s corporeal bodies are indeed strong, stronger than me. If it was me, my eye membranes would have burned off completely.”

Sang Hua stuck out her tongue and looked around. She saw that close to half of the buildings in Li City were destroyed. Everywhere were collapsed houses and pavilions. Numerous devils had collapsed to the floor and were rolling on the ground in extreme pain.

Fu Riluo pulled out his devil spear and his three faces shouted in unison. “One must always honor a bet! All the devils, listen up and abandon the city! Junior Brother Su Mo, bring all the men out of Li City!”

The devil gods received their orders and restrained their own devils in preparation to withdraw.

“Heavenly Teacher, today is not a good day to fight with you. We’ll continue another day.”

“Not a problem, not a problem.”

Fu Riluo jumped down from the palace and led everyone in leaving. Qin Mu at that time was refining pills to treat Yu He and Shu Yao’s injuries. When he saw Fu Riluo walking out from the corner of his eyes, he hurriedly looked at him and couldn’t help becoming stunned.

He saw that the back of Fu Riluo’s head had thick curly hair and had no fourth face. Instead, two sharp ears were there, and they were very straight.

‘He only has three faces.”

Like that, Qin Mu settled one of the questions gnawing at his heart. Ever since he saw Fu Riluo, he had wanted to know how many faces the devil had. He kept thinking about it and finally got his answer.

Fu Riluo sensed his gaze and twisted his neck to reveal a face that had a smile. He said leisurely, “Your name is Qin Mu? The blacksmith Qin Mu?”

The youth was about to say something when a figure flashed before him and Saint Woodcutter appeared in front of him, blocking Fu Riluo’s line of sight.

Qin Mu still popped his head out from the back and said with a smile. “Yes, my name is Qin Mu. I pay my respects to Vajra Devil God.”

“You understand the devil language? Fu Riluo indeed means vajra.” Fu Riluo nodded and said with deep meaning, “You and I are fated, so we will meet again.”

When he was done, he turned around and walked away. “Zhe Huali, follow up.”