Tales of Herding Gods

“Bullfighting Palace should be one of the thirty-six celestial palaces of Founding Emperor Celestial Heavens. Those that could possess celestial palaces were all extremely remarkable and powerful people in Founding Emperor Era.”

Qin Mu followed the villagers to enter the Bullfighting Palace, and in comparison, the celestial palace looked very complete. It didn’t seem like it had gone through the flames of war.

On the other hand, Jade Brightness Palace in Hall of Human Emperors and Sand Border Palace in Fengdu had both been worn down from the battle during Founding Emperor Era. As for the other celestial palaces, Qin Mu hadn’t seen them before, but he could imagine most of them were destroyed in the flames of war.

“So why is Bullfighting Palace able to be preserved completely?”

He couldn’t help feeling bewildered. ‘Could Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher have become an army deserter back then too? The reason why he was able to preserve his strength was that he escaped with the Bullfighting Palace?’

Bullfighting Palace was different from all the other celestial palaces that Qin Mu had seen before. Jade Brightness Palace in Hall of Human Emperor had the smell of books and was a place to teach students among the celestial palaces. Numerous disciples of gods continue learning the ultimate arts there.

Even though Qin Mu was the human emperor of Hall of Human Emperor, he didn’t stay there for long. He had only been there once with First Ancestor Human Emperor and didn’t manage to get a complete tour.

Qin Mu had never entered Sand Border Palace. King Yama hid it at the deepest end, and while he could only see god cities from afar, they appeared dilapidated and old.

Right then, they entered the world of the Bullfighting Palace. Bullfighting Palace slowly became clear, and he could see the entirety of the Bullfighting Palace.

Closest to them was a majestic door, and in front of them was a jade pool behind layers and layers of palaces. Two trails of blood red baleful air weaved in the sky like dragons, swirling continuously.

Behind the God Execution Stage, there was a squarish god city which should have been the Jade Capital. The most majestic palace inside the Jade Capital should have been the Luminous Sky Hall.

Qin Mu was stunned. The layout of the constructions in the Bullfighting Palace was slightly similar to the celestial palaces of gods.

His gaze pulled closer, and he looked at that gate. He saw a rainbow bridge connected to the land of the world. The bridge was very long and floated alone in the sky, and it was the only path leading to the Bullfighting Palace.

Qin Mu looked at the land of that world, and his heart trembled slightly.

The land of that world was actually squarish, and five mountain ranges stretched across from south to north. Every mountain range had tall mountains standing upright while six great rivers rushed throughout the land. The rivers were either from east to west or north to south; however, none of the rivers flowed into the sea.

There was no sea there. The six great rivers just flowed into the land and vanished into an underground abyss in the center of the world—which was immeasurably deep.

Qin Mu raised his head to look around and saw the sun, moon, and stars below the Bullfighting Palace. The sun rose and the moon descended to swap between day and night.

He blinked his eyes. If the land was the spirit platform, the five mountain ranges would be the five elements. The six great rivers should have been transformed by the six directions. The sun, moon, and stars were the seven stars, and below the abyss was Youdu, the Life and Death Divine Treasure. Which meant the bridge was the divine bridge that led to the celestial palace.

In that case…

‘This heaven is formed by the corporeal body of a strong practitioner on Emperor’s Throne?’

His gaze swept around to search. ‘There’s still a celestial being missing. The primordial spirit is cultivated in Celestial Being Realm, and if the primordial spirit enters the Luminous Sky and ascends the Emperor’s Throne, there’s indeed no need for it to be located in the land. Could there be a primordial spirit on Emperor’s Throne sitting on the Emperor’s Throne in the Luminous Sky Hall… There’s another possibility, and that is that this heaven is forged according to the layout of an Emperor’s Throne’s divine treasures and celestial palaces! After all, there aren’t too many strong practitioners on Emperor’s Throne, and it’s impossible for Founding Emperor Era to have so many experts on Emperor’s Throne.’

Bullfighting Palace was one of the thirty-six celestial palaces of Founding Emperor Era, and the most famous palaces of the thirty-six celestial palaces were the four great celestial palaces which the Four Great Heavenly Kings were stationed in. Bullfighting Palace wasn’t part of them.

Founding Emperor couldn’t have killed an Emperor’s Throne just to forge the Bullfighting Palace, right?

“Go and prepare,” the old farmer instructed the villagers, “Tell the children that the Bullfighting Palace is open today, get them to come forth and train.”

Those villagers immediately flew up. Some flew into the Bullfighting Palace while others flew into the other lands in the heaven.

The old farmer brought the old bull, Qin Mu, and the dragon qilin to walk up the divine bridge. The divine bridge was very narrow, and while Qin Mu still felt fine standing on the bridge, it was a little constricting for the dragon qilin.

The old farmer stopped in his footsteps and looked around his surroundings to admire the scenery.

Qin Mu also looked around and took in the mountains and rivers in his vision. Admiring the scenery from there was truly carefree and relaxing.

“Wen Tiange’s disciple, you are on the Celestial Being Realm, right?”

The old farmer said calmly, “Of the Four Great Heavenly Teachers of Founding Emperor Celestial Heavens, Woodcutter is the first, and I’ve always been unwilling to accept him. What abilities does he have to climb above my head? Among the Four Great Heavenly Teacher, he is number one, I’m number three, and Scholar Zi Xi is number two. I’m able to accept that, but what rights does Woodcutter have? He just relied on his glib tongue to climb above me, Scholar, and Fisherman. That is why I don’t accept him.”

Qin Mu looked down at the lands in the heaven and saw numerous sturdy youths rushing over. Those people leaped as though they were flying, and their speed was very fast.

“Teacher Woodcutter still admires Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher.”

Qin Mu said seriously, “Teacher mentioned you. He said your martial prowess is number one, the strongest existence among the Four Great Heavenly Teachers. In the Eternal Peace’s reform, Teacher immediately came to find you after his plan to save Di Yiyue. That shows that in Teacher’s heart, Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher’s position is not inferior to Di Yiyue.”

“My abilities weren’t much inferior to Di Yiyue to begin with,” the old farmer said indifferently, “Twenty thousand years ago, Di Yiyue was slightly stronger than me, she was the head of the Four Great Heavenly Kings. I fought with her before, and I was won over from her beatings. However, twenty thousand years have passed, and it’s hard to say who’s stronger and who’s weaker. After all, even if she’s revived now, she was still delayed twenty thousand years of cultivation.”

Qin Mu’s heart jumped, and his scalp crawled. ‘Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher has already cultivated to Emperor’s Throne Realm! I really can’t take on his three punches. I reckon older brother can’t either…’

The old farmer sneered and said, “I’ve fought with scholar before, and he’s able to mess with me every time even when his martial prowess is weaker than mine; therefore I admire him. He truly has the abilities, but Woodcutter just knows how to talk; thus, I’m unable to accept him climbing over our heads. When he came over to invite me out of the mountain, he didn’t do anything except make hand signs here and there. In the end, before I even used any power, he was already lying in the ditch.”

Qin Mu had a smile on his face, but cold sweat had beaded out on his forehead.

He could imagine how miserable Saint Woodcutter must have been.

Even when right, a scholar could never win an argument with a soldier.

When those divine arts practitioners of the lands closed in, Qin Mu was slightly stunned. He saw that they should be divine arts practitioners from the countries of the lands, but the weird thing was that not one of the divine arts practitioners was truly a human.

There were people with a bird head and human body, some with a beast head and human body, some wore a tortoise shell on their back, some grew the fur of beasts, some had three heads and six arms, and some had many heads and many eyes.

‘The god races of Founding Emperor Era!’

Qin Mu narrowed his eyes. He even saw a few divine arts practitioners of the White Bat God Race!

The people in the Bullfighting Palace were actually the descendants of Founding Emperor Era’s god races.

“Cult Master, there are girls in White Bat God Race!”

The dragon qilin suppressed his voice and whispered, “Fu Yuqiu and Fu Yuchun in Ghost Valley are going to be overjoyed.”

Qin Mu remembered the two white bats in Ghost Valley and revealed a smile. Soon, the smile turned into a frown.

The old farmer pulled along the old bull to head towards the Southern Heavenly Gate. He said calmly, “Don’t be so happy yet. If you want to go by the rules of the martial world, then you will have to test if you have the rights like them. Let’s go, walk with them through Southern Heavenly Gate and fight your way up to Luminous Sky Hall.”

Qin Mu hurriedly said, “Heavenly Teacher, I’m still on Celestial Being Realm, I can’t go through Southern Heavenly Gate! How is this a fair fight?”

“Fair fight?”

The old farmer looked back, and his face full of wrinkles revealed a look of scorn. “How has the battle between the extraterritorial celestial heavens and Founding Emperor Celestial Heavens been fair before? If you fight your way up to Luminous Sky Hall, I let you take Woodcutter away!”

On the divine bridge, numerous god races from all lands followed after the old bull, and they all look very respectful. The old bull slowly walked towards the Southern Heavenly Gate as he followed the old farmer.

Qin Mu was also in the crowd, and he secretly peeled off his willow leaf to take a look at the god races. He couldn’t help being stunned. The god races were actually all on Life and Death Realm!

Everyone was extremely sturdy, and their cultivation was extremely high. However, none of them had cultivated their divine bridge!

Everyone’s divine bridges were broken, and their divine bridges were even more broken than the divine bridges of the divine arts practitioners in Eternal Peace!

The divine arts practitioners of Eternal Peace still had divine bridges even though they were broken. As long as they cultivated the Three Secrets of Divine Bridge that was imparted by Qin Mu, they would be able to patch the divine bridge and fly across Southern Heavenly Gate.

Yet the god races residing in the Bullfighting Celestial Palace all had their divine bridges completely broken. There was no Divine Bridge Realm!

Without Divine Bridge Realm, not even the Three Secrets of Divine Bridge could help them patch up their divine bridge, and they could never cultivate into gods!

Which also meant that all the god races that were living in that land would forever be trapped on Life and Death Realm.

‘What is going on?’

Qin Mu was bewildered. ‘Why would their divine bridges be so broken?’

He was very puzzled, and those god races were also very curious about him. When they saw he actually had an eye on his forehead, they couldn’t resist a few extra glances.

A few girls whispered in each other ears and kept looking at them. They were saying something and started giggling.

“Cult Master, they said you look ugly.” The dragon qilin’s ears were sharp, so he whispered to Qin Mu.

Qin Mu’s face turned dark, and the dragon qilin shuddered. He raised a claw to slap his mouth before continuing on his way obediently. He thought to himself, ‘I will have to starve for a few days before Cult Master is appeased.’

Even though the divine bridges of the god races were completely broken and they were trapped on Life and Death Realm, every one of them was terrifyingly strong. Their abilities were not inferior to an expert on Divine Bridge Realm!

Finally, they reached the outskirts of Southern Heavenly Gate. The old farmer led the old bull to enter Southern Heavenly Gate first before stopping. He turned around to look at everyone.

All of the god races stopped in their footsteps and stood outside the gate respectfully.

Qin Mu also stopped in his footsteps to examine the Southern Heavenly Gate.

He had seen the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Great Ruins before, and it was majestic and tall. It was like a gate standing tall into the heavens. Even though it was already worn-out, it still had an indomitable aura that showed its simplicity and imposing appearance.

The Southern Heavenly Gate before him was much more delicate, but even so, it was also tall and majestic. It was like a gate that was carved out from a mountain that was a hundred thousand feet tall.

The Southern Heavenly Gate was covered in all kinds of markings which should have been rune markings. They formed all kinds of dazzling pictures that glimmered.

“Your divine bridges are broken, and they cannot be repaired. You have no hopes of reaching Southern Heavenly Gate in this life and cultivating into gods. However, you are the hopes of everyone who has broken divine bridges.”

The old farmer’s voice was resounding as he said solemnly, “For twenty thousand years, the descendants of the deceased gods have died of old age batch after batch. But as long as one lives, there’s hope! You guys don’t have divine bridges, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t use your martial path to cross the void of the divine bridge. Since there’s no path, forge a path out!”

“Since there’s no path, break through Life and Death and use the martial path to carve out a path, use your martial soul to reach the celestial palace!”

Qin Mu’s heart trembled. He finally understood the motive of the test.

The descendants of the god race in the Bullfighting Palace had their divine bridges broken, and Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher was hoping to use the martial path to connect to the celestial palace. He wanted them to use their martial soul to replace that Divine Bridge Realm that didn’t exist, to let the bloodline of the god race continue and forge out a new path!

Since Divine Bridge Realm didn’t exist, they could rely on their martial soul to cross that realm and reach the celestial palace directly, cultivating into gods.

The martial soul was the primordial spirit of the martial path; it was the martial path primordial spirit that was able to cross the void of the divine bridge!

The primordial spirits of other divine arts practitioners had divine bridges for them to cross and enter the celestial palaces.

Even though Eternal Peace’s divine arts practitioners had broken divine bridges, they could still use Three Secrets of Divine Bridge to finally enter their celestial palaces.

And for the descendants of the god races in Bullfighting Palace, they had no divine bridges so they could only rely on their own primordial spirits to fly through the void forcefully!

If they couldn’t fly over, they would fall into Youdu in the Life and Death Realm, killing them and wiping out their Dao!

The reason why Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher had hidden in the mountain village for twenty thousand years was probably to groom the descendants so that they could continue to cultivate!

“Cultivating primordial spirit with martial arts, that’s martial soul. When the martial soul enters the path, that’s martial path!”

The old farmer shouted and led his bull forward. “Enter the gate! Test your martial path! I’ll be waiting in Luminous Sky Hall!”