Tales of Herding Gods

The dragon qilin looked suspiciously at him, and a sour feeling suddenly filled his heart. He felt a pang of sorrow and whimpered, “Cult Master, you are lying to me. I thought you were sacrificing for our sakes, to protect us and let us escape. Yet you treated us as bait to let us lure these maidens away…”

Qin Mu immediately came to a decision. “I’ll give you extra food.”

The dragon qilin immediately stopped his sorrowful whimpers and said to Celestial Venerable Yu and Gongsun Yan, who were still in a daze, “Cult Master is wise and strong, using such a distraction to seize this young lady in order to exchange for our safety. Such a brilliant move.”

The water qilin rolled his eyes and thought to himself, ‘This guy’s technique in shamelessness is far superior to mine. Just two to three words allowed him to gain benefits for his meal, he’s truly the epitome of shamelessness. Come to speak of it, what is that scripture of his called? I need to please him so that I can borrow it to study. In that way, I can also gain some more food…’

He had gotten injured trying to protect Celestial Venerable Yu, but the one with the heaviest injuries was still Gongsun Yan.

This girl got beaten up miserably, and that horsetail whisk was even seized by Yan Qiling’s maids.

Yan Qiling’s maids had powerful cultivation, and one of them was on the Numinous Sky Realm, while the others were on the Jade Capital Realm. Even though Gongsun Yan was a true god, a half-god born from the core of an Earth Aeon Dao Fruit, she couldn’t unleash much power with the Six Directions Origin Sword that she was wielding.

After a bitter fight, she was still injured and captured. The small sapling in the halo behind her head was also wrinkled and lifeless from the beatings.

When Qin Mu saw that everyone wasn’t in much trouble, only then was he at ease. “Senior Sister Yan, now our situation is very clear. You are now in my hands, so what should we do?”

Yan Qiling tried her best to suppress her injuries, and her breath was weak. She said with difficulty, “Release them.”

Those few women hesitated for a moment, but they still heeded her instructions to release Celestial Venerable Yu and the rest.

Yan Qiling’s eyes were swollen until they were just lines, and her earlier beauty could no longer be seen. She said with a soft voice, “How’s this, Celestial Venerable Mu?”

Qin Mu stuffed several spirit pills into her mouth and said, “This is healing medicine, don’t worry, there’s no poison.”

Yan Qiling held the spirit pills in her mouth and didn’t dare to swallow them.

Qin Mu said with a smile, “Eat them, I have things to ask you.”

Yan Qiling kept her mouth shut.

Suddenly, Qin Mu pressed her throat, and Yan Qiling swallowed the pills with a gulp. Beads of cold sweat started to roll down her forehead and back.

Yet when these few spirit pills landed in her stomach, she could immediately feel all of the wounds on her body itching. Her wounds were slowly closing.

“These spirit pills are made from Fatty Dragon’s drool and mixed with several herbs. One of these usually goes for ten thousand great abundance coins during normal times,” Qin Mu said with a smile.

The dragon qilin was extremely nervous, and he whispered, “Cult Master, it’s dragon saliva! Dragon saliva! If you say it’s my drool, no one is going to be willing to buy.”

Yan Qiling gave a grunt and her wounds no longer bled. She got some cultivation back, and she asked weakly, “What do you want to ask?”

“Pass the Six Directions Origin Sword back first,” said Qin Mu.

Yan Qiling looked at those girls and said, “Return the horsetail whisk to him!”

One of the women came up with the horsetail whisk, and Celestial Venerable Yu hurriedly said, “Pass it to me!”

That woman hesitated and handed it over to Celestial Venerable Yu. Celestial Venerable Yu carried up the horsetail whisk and handed it over to Qin Mu before saying softly, “Brother, these few women are very strong, I’m afraid she will take the chance to attack.”

Qin Mu kept the horsetail whisk and praised him, saying, “You did very well, brother.”

“So you are from the extraterritorial celestial heavens?”

He turned to look at Yan Qiling and asked in concern, “Is Celestial Emperor still doing fine?”

Yan Qiling said coldly, “The extraterritorial celestial heavens is merely a celestial heavens created by rebels and traitors, how do they deserve me to pledge loyalty to them? You are wrong, I’m not in the least related to the extraterritorial celestial heavens. I never expected the Celestial Venerable Mu that had shaken the world back there was actually a person from this era. If Celestial Emperor knew about this, he would definitely be extremely shocked as well. I’m very curious, how did Celestial Venerable Mu travel back a million years into the past? And the Celestial Venerable Qin that had traveled with you, was he the young Founding Emperor?”

Qin Mu said with a smile, “I’m asking you yet here you are trying to get information from me, big sister, how mischievous. About the Dao One, Dao Twenty-Two that you spoke of earlier, how are they being classified?”

Yan Qiling’s expression softened slightly, and she said, “The Great Dao under the world can be separated according to affiliations, Yuandu has thirty-six Dao, the first kind of Dao is Dao One, the second kind of Dao is Dao Two, so on and so forth. Youdu has sixty-four Great Dao, Xuandu has seventy-two Great Dao, there are three hundred and sixty Great Dao of the constellations. These Dao all have their own serial number. When one executes a divine art, which logic of which Great Dao means it’s a divine art belonging to that kind of Great Dao. For example, if you execute the heavenly fire, it belongs to Xuandu’s Dao Two.”

Qin Mu muttered and pondered, “This kind of classification method reminds me of the Dao Sect… Do you know a sloppy Daoist?”

“You are talking about Dao Ancestor of the Dao Sect?”

Yan Qiling shook her head and said, “I’ve heard of him, but I’ve never met him.”

Qin Mu carefully observed her expression and continued to ask, “Have you met Dao Ancestor of the Dao Sect before?”

Yan Qiling said, “I have not… I’ve met Dao Ancestor of the Dao Sect before! What did you make me eat?”

She revealed a look of terror, and her consciousness didn’t seem to be controlled by her. She clearly wanted to say she didn’t meet Dao Ancestor of the Dao Sect before, yet when Qin Mu asked a second time, she couldn’t help telling the truth.

“Fatty Dragon’s drool.”

Qin Mu said pleasantly, “With some additional herbs, it’s a sacred healing medicine. However, there’s a flaw with this kind of spirit pill, and that is that it will affect one’s consciousness. The consciousness of the one that consumes it will involuntarily go along with other people. If paired with some divine arts of the devil path from Youdu, it can affect the soul of the consumer. It’s not bad for interrogation. Is Dao Ancestor of the Dao Sect the person who helped you guys determine the serial numbers of these Great Dao?”

The dragon qilin was pleased and said to the water qilin, “This is the use of the dragon saliva.”

The water qilin was full of admiration. “Brother, you definitely have to teach me when you are free!”

“This is an innate talent, you can’t learn it!” The dragon qilin became more and more pleased.

The beads of cold sweat on Yan Qiling’s forehead became bigger and rolled down her cheeks with the golden-colored blood. She kept her mouth shut and didn’t want to speak, no matter what.

“Even if you don’t say, I also know it’s him. Dao Ancestor has a love for algebra, and he thinks that the nature of all things is algebra. If Celestial Emperor invited him to all the worlds to rank the Great Dao, he would definitely be more than willing to.”

Qin Mu’s voice became more and more gentle as he probed. “Was it Dao Ancestor who compiled all kinds of Great Dao? The Dao that he compiled, you have seen all of them, am I right? In that case, where’s Dao Ancestor of the Dao Sect now?”

Yan Qiling gritted her teeth, and her face was flushed. Her body trembled, and it was obvious she was resisting against his devil voice, which affected her soul.

Qin Mu frowned slightly. Yan Qiling didn’t want to speak no matter what, and he also didn’t have any way to force her to speak.

This woman’s spirit was strong, and she was skilled in the paths, skills, and divine arts of Yuandu, Youdu, and Xuandu. It wouldn’t be easy to control her soul.

“When you talked about Sword Dao’s Dao One, Martial Dao’s Dao One, what is up with that?” Qin Mu asked.

Yan Qiling felt as though she was relieved from a burden and said with difficulty, “This world has no Sword Dao or Martial Dao to begin with, these Great Dao have formed afterward, and they were formed by the later generations, they didn’t belong to the natural Great Dao. Dao Ancestor said, if there’s a move that could enter Dao directly, it would belong to Dao One, Dao Ancestor…”

“Where’s Dao Ancestor?” Qin Mu quickly asked.

Yan Qiling’s body trembled violently, and she opened her mouth wide as she tried to bite off her tongue.

Qin Mu frowned and instantly stuffed the horsetail whisk into her mouth to prevent her from really biting her tongue off. He coughed and said, “Don’t worry, I won’t ask this question again.”

Yan Qiling spat out the horsetail whisk and coldly said, “You are too scheming, I don’t trust you! For Celestial Venerable Mu to actually resort to such lowly methods as to even drug me!”

Qin Mu laughed and couldn’t help being pleased.

Yan Qiling sneered and said, “Celestial Venerable Yu is still missing some shards of his soul, right? I know where the remaining shards of his soul are. You and I have common enemies, so we need to work together.”

“The enemy of my enemy might not be my friend.”

Qin Mu shook his head and said, “I don’t know your true aim, and I don’t know if you are a friend. As for Brother Lan’s soul, I also know where it is.”

Yan Qiling fell silent. Suddenly, she asked, “You really don’t care about the title of Celestial Venerable Mu?”

“Celestial Venerable Mu?”

Qin Mu laughed and shook his head. “Celestial Emperor conferred me as Celestial Venerable Mu, but what has he given me? Merely a token of Celestial Venerable Mu and a sacred edict. I didn’t even bother to look at them. Other celestial venerables at least get some blessings from the ancient gods, yet I only have a token. At most, he takes it back.”

Yan Qiling was silent. After a moment, she said, “Celestial Emperor’s blessing is right inside the token and the sacred edict, you didn’t know that for the past million years?”

Qin Mu was stunned.

Yan Qiling looked at him with a smile that was yet not a smile. Qin Mu resisted the urge to flip through his taotie sack and coughed. “I’m done with my questions, you girls can go now. Nurse your injuries well and don’t worry about Celestial Venerable Yu, he’s with me, and I will take good care of him. If you really want to ally yourself with me, bring his soul to meet me.”

Yan Qiling shifted her feet with difficulty and walked passed him. She suddenly stopped and said in a low voice, “Don’t trust Mother Earth and be on guard against Heaven Duke and Earth Count. Also, the Heaven Alliance, they aren’t anything good.”

Qin Mu was slightly stunned, and his expression changed tremendously. He immediately took out the willow leaf and wanted to paste it on the heart of his brows.

Suddenly, he stopped and didn’t paste the willow leaf there. Instead, he put it back quietly and said with a smile, “What an intelligent girl.”

Yan Qiling moved, and after walking over a dozen steps, those women hurriedly came to her to support her. One of them whispered, “Young lady, should we…”

Yan Qiling shook her head. “He didn’t land a fatal blow and even treated my injuries, so I need to have some basic respect. We will leave today’s matter at that. I will avenge my shame today by myself, I don’t need any of your help! Let us go!”

One of the women’s body trembled, and she suddenly transformed into a huge kun. The other girls escorted her up the back of the kun.

That huge kun moved its body and was about to fly away when Qin Mu’s voice came from behind. “Sister Ling, is Celestial Emperor dead?”

On the kun’s back, Yan Qiling’s body trembled violently, and she gritted her teeth. Her voice came out from her mouth as she forced out a word. “Go—”

The huge kun flapped its fins that were like wings and soared into the sky.

Qin Mu saw them off, and he sank into deep thoughts.

Gongsun Yan and Celestial Venerable Yu hurriedly went to his side, and Qin Mu came back to his senses. He smiled warmly and said, “Sister Yan, you are injured, let me treat you so that no scars are left behind.”

Gongsun Yan gave a soft acknowledgment and stood there quietly, allowing him to undo her shirt and reveal her injuries.

Qin Mu carefully applied ointment on her body and squeezed out the clotted blood. His finger techniques were very exquisite.

The young girl’s skin was very white.

“Celestial Emperor is dead.”

He suddenly stopped and fell into a daze. “That ancient Celestial Emperor from the Dragon Han Celestial Heavens is dead.”

Gongsun Yan was slightly at a loss. She didn’t know why he was in a daze, and she didn’t know why he suddenly said something so random.

Qin Mu came to his senses and continued to apply ointment on her. He said softly, “I always thought that the celestial emperor of the extraterritorial celestial heavens was the Ancient God Celestial Emperor, yet from the information that Yan Qiling gave out unknowingly, Celestial Emperor should already be dead. The celestial emperor of the extraterritorial celestial heavens isn’t him, it’s someone else.”

He stood in front of Gongsun Yan, and his hands were very gentle as he helped his girl wear her shirt again. He was tidying her shirt in detail, but Gongsun Yan could see that this youth was distracted. His mind was full of other things.

Her clothes were already very tidy, yet Qin Mu was still straightening the shirt here and there.

After a moment, Qin Mu suddenly let out a long sigh and said in a low voice, “Heaven Duke, Earth Count, it’s time we have a serious talk. What do you think?”

Gongsun Yan was baffled and didn’t know why he had suddenly said that.

And in Qin word land, the white-bearded elder and Lava Earth Count looked at each other without speaking a word.

Swoosh—

From the sky of Qin word land, an undying consciousness descended down and transformed into the shape of Qin Mu. He looked at the clones of these two ancient gods.