Tales of Herding Gods

‘Summoning all of the half-gods? Could Mother Earth really be alive?’ Qin Mu felt uneasy.

The Primordial Realm, once Yuandu in the past, had been in a sealed state for a very long time. It was like a folding fan that was folded up. Now that the seal was undone, he didn’t know how many half-gods had resurfaced.

With a powerful leader like Mother Earth, what kind of change would this bring to the Great Ruins and Eternal Peace?

Sakra Buddha didn’t know anything. During the period of Founding Emperor, Mother Earth had already vanished without a trace. There were no ruins in the High Emperor Great Ruins that were related to Mother Earth. Even the records and legends weren’t passed down.

Coming to Eternal Peace, their understanding of this ancient god was like a blank piece of paper.

Qin Mu had also merely heard some rumors about Mother Earth from Heaven Duke and Earth Count. As for the nature of this ancient god, how her attitude was towards humans, there was no way for him to know these kinds of things.

Even though Heaven Duke told him that the High Emperor Era was related to Mother Earth, High Emperor was separated into north and south. With this clear separation, which High Emperor Celestial Heavens did Mother Earth support?

And who was supporting the opposing High Emperor Celestial Heavens?

High Emperor Era lasted for three hundred thousand years, so why could the era last so long.

“In regards to Mother Earth, what do you know?” Qin Mu asked the water-qilin half-god pleasantly.

The water qilin hurriedly said, “I’ve never met Mother Earth before, I can only sense her summon.”

Qin Mu frowned slightly and continued to ask, “In that case, do you know about the High Emperor Era? How much do you know about the High Emperor Era?”

That water qilin couldn’t move from the pressure, and he said, “When I was born, it was already at war. I heard the extraterritorial heavens had attacked and wanted to kill Mother Earth. As for the rest, I’m not too clear. My position isn’t high…”

Qin Mu tried his best to give off a pleasant smile, and he asked, “Are you willing to follow my Worthy Little Brother Lan Yutian?”

That water qilin asked cautiously, “What if I don’t agree to follow him?”

“You will be served for dinner later on the table.”

That water qilin said firmly, “I’m willing to work hard as his mount!”

Qin Mu told Celestial Venerable Yu, “Worthy brother, this water qilin shall be your mode of transportation. I also have a dragon qilin, this kind of half-god eats a lot, and they are very greedy. You need to learn how to make several kinds of spirit pills. When you finish learning the basic runes of Buddhism, I’ll teach you how to make them.”

Celestial Venerable Yu wiped his saliva, and he asked in hesitation, “I still need to feed them? Wouldn’t it be simpler to just eat them?”

Qin Mu’s head started to ache. He got the water qilin to swear to Qin Fengqing and made the Pact of Little Earth Count. “Don’t think of trying to betray him. If you betray him, my brother will appear in front of you and eat you.”

In Qin word land, the big-headed baby, who was beating up Earth Count, immediately felt a pact coiling around his body and felt bewildered.

Earth Count crawled up and regained his body of lava. “This is the pact of the soul. You are considered my little brother, so other people can also swear to you. If they break the promise, the pact would be activated, and you will be able to suck away the primordial spirit of that person!”

The big-headed baby was delighted, and he consulted sincerely, “Is that how you have eaten until you became so strong?”

Qin Mu scattered his Magnetic Five Fingers Mountain, and the water qilin crawled up from the huge pit. He took a look at the silly Lan Yutian and thought to himself, ‘I’ve heard of the Pact of Earth Count, but what in the world is the Pact of Little Earth Count? He is most likely trying to trick me. When they let their guard down, I’ll just swallow up this youth and run. They would never hope to catch me…’

When he thought that, darkness flooded his eyes.

A huge head appeared in the darkness, and it had three eyes. His mouth was wide open and filled with razor-sharp teeth. On the other hand, he seemed incomparably tiny, and he started to shiver in front of this huge head!

At this moment, he heard a deep voice coming from the darkness. “You can’t eat him yet, he is only thinking and hasn’t taken any action. Only when he takes action can you eat him.”

That huge head muttered, “I can’t eat him even if he thinks about doing it? I feel I can already start eating when he began to think…”

“Earth Count must have the rules of Earth Count.”

That deep voice in the darkness guided him. “If you don’t go by the rules and just eat, who will find you to make a pact next time? Look at me, everyone looks for me when they make a pact and swears to me. However, many people also break the pact and become my food. I conduct matters righteously, therefore, there are many people that come find me. If I eat them regardless, other people will not send themselves to my doorstep.”

The three eyes on that huge head blinked, and he said in delight, “So this is the reason! I understand now, by being righteous, people will send themselves up to be eaten! Good, good, this is a good idea… I can at least lick him, can’t I?”

“You can’t. He’s almost frightened to death by you.”

“Just a lick!”

“You can’t! Think of the benefits from today onwards!”

…

The darkness in front of the water qilin’s eyes faded away, and he was covered in sweat. He obediently became a mount for Celestial Venerable Yu, and he thought to himself, ‘This Pact of Little Earth Count is even more dangerous than the Pact of Earth Count! The Pact of Earth Count at least adheres to reason while the Pact of Little Earth Count depends on the mood of Little Earth Count. If he’s in a good mood, I’ll be eaten, if he’s in a bad mood, I’ll also be eaten…’

Qin Mu looked ahead and thought to himself, ‘The direction that these half-gods are moving seems to be near Bullfighting World.’

They continued to hurry on their way, and with the water qilin, everyone’s speed rose drastically. Sakra Buddha continued to teach Celestial Venerable Yu the knowledge of Buddhism while the water qilin listened at the side. He was astonished. ‘This young baldy has deep and profound knowledge, his lecture on Buddhism is clear and logical, making it easy to understand yet still having profound reasonings. He’s probably a great expert! And here I was, still planning to eat them, looks like I was too haughty!’

The water qilin’s speed was very fast and not inferior to the dragon qilin. But even with the water qilin as a mode of transportation, they had still only come to Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher’s small mountain village after a month’s time.

On the journey, Qin Mu encountered several half-gods hurrying on their way. Some half-gods attacked them.

Mere beasts could still be blocked down by Qin Mu, but these half-gods also had differences in cultivation. Some adult half-gods were even stronger than true gods, and they even met a half-god that was equivalent to a strong practitioner on Numinous Sky!

His aura warped the sky from the pressure that was incomparably terrifying!

That half-god saw Celestial Venerable Yu actually sitting on the water qilin’s back and was about to erupt in fury when Sakra Buddha completely released his aura. Only then did he scare that adult half-god off.

Only then did the water qilin know how terrifying the ‘young baldy’ beside him was, and he had lingering fears.

On the journey, Qin Mu and the rest also saw some small villages that were destroyed. Those were villages in the Great Ruins that were destroyed by half-gods. The villagers were eaten up by the half-gods, and no remains were left.

Qin Mu frowned and took in a deep breath.

However, he encountered several more small mountain villages that weren’t destroyed by the half-gods.

Qin Mu asked around, and a villager said, “The stone statues in the village suddenly came to life and executed the monsters that came to create trouble. After killing those monsters, they turned back into stone statues.”

‘In that case, King Yama of Fengdu has reacted and allowed the gods of Fengdu to return to their corporeal bodies in order to protect the people of the Great Ruins.’ Qin Mu let out a sigh of relief. With the protection from the gods of Fengdu, the people of the Great Ruins should be able to survive.

The gods of Fengdu were left behind by Founding Emperor. When the Founding Emperor Era was wiped out, the gods of Founding Emperor Celestial Heavens transformed into stone statues in the Great Ruins while their primordial spirits resided in Fengdu, waiting for the day they could make a comeback.

Their stone statues also became the only hope for the people of the Great Ruins to fight against the invasion of the darkness.

This time, with the stone statues reviving, most of the villages could be protected unless they encounter an adult half-god.

The abilities of an adult half-god were too terrifying.

Fields could be seen in his sight, and Qin Mu relaxed. Seeing these fields, Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher’s village wouldn’t be far away.

The fields were still the fields, and there was a huge willow tree beside the fields. Under the willow tree sat a dragon qilin that was lying against the tree. His hind legs were crossed, and his buttocks was planted on the ground. On his forearms was a water pipe, and he looked at the fields lifelessly before lowering his head to take a puff. He puffed out a huge ring of smoke.

Qin Mu looked from afar, and he was slightly doubtful. “Is this my Long Pi? Doesn’t look like it…”

Under the shade of the tree, the dragon qilin raised his claws and scratched the dragon scales on his belly, giving off rustling sounds. Beside him was a pot of coarse tea.

That dragon qilin placed down the water pipe and poured himself a huge bowl of concentrated tea before drinking it up in a mouthful.

The dragon qilin was lean and muscular, but his spirit seemed to be of no use.

Sakra Buddha said with a smile, “If the one sitting under the tree was a bull and not a dragon qilin, I would have turned and run right now! The bearing of this dragon qilin is exactly the same as that bull! If it’s that bull, that means that the farmer in nearby. That fellow only has muscles for his brains and is always unhappy with me entering Buddhism.”

The dragon qilin heard voices and turned his head to look over. There was no focus in his lifeless eyes. After a moment, when he finally saw Qin Mu who was walking over clearly, he was stunned.

Tears poured out from his eyes. Whimpers came from the dragon qilin’s mouth, and he wiped his tears when he saw Qin Mu coming closer.

“Cult Master…”

His voice trembled, and he burst into tears. “I’m so hungry—”

The water qilin turned his head to look at the dragon qilin before giving a look of disdain. “This fellow is of the same race as me and is quite capable at a young age, however, what is this lack of backbone! What is hunger? Just eat humans!”

Qin Mu hurriedly took out the spirit pills, and the dragon qilin hurriedly placed a huge basin in front of him. Qin Mu filled the basin to the brim.

The dragon qilin was overjoyed, and he drooled as he looked at the mountain of spirit pills in his basin. After a moment, he ate one tearfully and kept the rest.

“Just eat, just eat.”

Qin Mu said with a smile, “I won’t leave you alone for so long the next time.”

“You swear!”

“I swear. Eat, just eat.”

Right at this moment, a deep voice boomed with a cold tone. “You kidnapped my bull, and now you want to kidnap my horse. Even if your surname is Qin, you can’t be so willful!”

Qin Mu looked towards the source of the voice, and he saw numerous farmers surrounding an old farmer as they came to the sides of the fields. That old farmer had a furious expression as he shouted, “Qin boy, where is my bull?”

Sakra Buddha’s face changed drastically, and he hurriedly turned to run. When that old farmer saw him, he was slightly stunned before blustering like thunder. “Flowery Monk, Li Youran! You scum! You ran away to become Sakra Buddha in the middle of the huge battle! Take three punches from me!”

Boom—

Violent waves swept over, and the first wave had swept over from a hundred miles away. Those farmers hurriedly came to Qin Mu’s side to defend against that terrifying wave of impact so that Qin Mu wouldn’t be injured.

However, the second wave of impact had already come from a thousand miles away. Space was warped, and mountains were stretched like braided pigtails.

Before the warped space could even recover, the third wave of impact had already swept over. Next, the space calmed down and gradually relaxed. The mountains also returned back to normal.

“Alright, alright, everything is fine now.”

Most of the farmers laughed and said, “Little Friend Qin, you took away Heavenly Teacher’s bull, and he has been sulking. He said that you are equally despicable, shameless, and untrustworthy for tricking Senior Brother Niu Sanduo away. Just explain to him later and clear up the misunderstanding.”

Qin Mu’s heart twitched, and he probed, “Can I really clear up the misunderstanding?”

Everyone escorted them back to the small mountain village, and they said, “Heavenly Teacher is the easiest to talk to. Don’t worry, just admit your mistake, and his anger will be quelled.”

When he came to the front of the mountain village, a loud thump suddenly rang out as the old farmer landed on the ground. He was short but was carrying Sakra Buddha, whose face was completely bruised. He flicked his hands and flung Sakra Buddha into the smelly ditch before shouting, “I’ll beat anyone who dares to pull him out! This fellow, biting the hand that feeds you, getting together with a woman among our enemies!”

Qin Mu stretched his head to look towards the smelly ditch and saw Sakra Buddha lying inside with lifeless eyes.

“You said I didn’t know the people you were meeting…”

He muttered, “Isn’t this just getting me into trouble…”

Qin Mu pretended not to hear and hurriedly bowed to the old farmer. “Senior Brother Sanduo is now in Fengdu to help King Yama settle the fate of Fengdu! Even though little nephew didn’t mean to bring away Senior Brother Sanduo, Senior Brother was influenced by you and insisted on staying in Fengdu to help out because of loyalty and guts. He is truly supremely honorable and righteous like senior uncle! Because of this matter, little nephew is uneasy, so I apologize to senior uncle!”

That old farmer stared at him and suddenly broke into a smile. He grabbed his shoulders and laughed. “What’s there to apologize about? Worthy nephew, come on in.”