Tales of Herding Gods

“Where did you obtain this item?” Qin Mu looked away from the chest and questioned.

Young Xing An let out a sigh of relief. “When the Primordial Realm broke through the seals, I noticed that there was an area in the ancient ruins that was enshrouded in divine rays. I went in to search around, and thereafter obtained this item.”

Crimson Light Son of God, Butcher, and the other onlookers came forward to see the chest, but it was now shut, and they couldn’t see what was contained within it.

However, there were few treasures in the world that could sway Qin Mu’s heart, even things like the Emperor’s Throne technique couldn’t make him waver—this implied that whatever was in that chest must be of extraordinary value.

The dragon qilin approached the chest. Nudging it, he whispered, “Good brother, what’s inside? Can you let me see it?”

Hu Ling’er tried to crack open a slit in the chest, yet it remained tightly sealed, not allowing them to see its contents.

“Where are the ruins that you obtained this item?”

Qin Mu continued solemnly, “This item isn’t of much use to me. The most important thing to me is the location of the ruins. If you want me to save you, tell me where it is.”

“There’s a geographical map in the chest.”

Xing An added, “If you help me, I will give you everything in the chest, including the geographical map. If you are still not assured, I can escort you there personally.”

Qin Mu looked him deeply in the eyes and nodded, turning to Chancellor Ba Shan. “Senior Brother, please lend me a space so I can cast a spell for this guy and reforge his soul.”

Chancellor Ba Shan immediately cleared out the main hall, Li River Hall. Qin Mu lifted the chest up and walked into the hall, placing the chest beside him.

Xing An followed behind and looked towards the chest.

The chest was able to walk on its own, yet Qin Mu still stubbornly insisted on carrying it—evidently, the item that Xing An had found was of great importance to Qin Mu. Taking this artifact to Qin Mu proved to be the right move to make.

Within the hall, the Gate of Heaven Influence emerged behind Qin Mu. He started to work on the spell to gather Xing An’s scattered soul.

Xing An was a saint from the previous generation that appeared only once in 500 years, and he was remarkably intelligent and talented. However, due to the restraints from his generation, he was unable to become a god.

He was different from the current saint—Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor. Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor was wholeheartedly devoted to the reforms of Eternal Peace Empire, pursuing his ambitions with utmost passion and without a care for his own life. In comparison, Xing An was wholeheartedly devoted to studying the ways of prolonging his own life.

Xing An took an unorthodox route, killing many practitioners who were nearly gods, taking the body parts that were cultivated to the god realm, and assembling them together so that he could remain youthful.

Later, he made further advancements in his research, slicing apart even his primordial spirit and his own soul, piecing together a new primordial spirit with the souls and spirits of others.

As time went by, Xing An began to lose himself, no longer knowing who he was.

Furthermore, the physical body and soul of another would ultimately limit his achievements. In the present booming era of skills, his inability to return to his original self would doom him to elimination.

To Qin Mu, reforging Xing An’s soul was a walk in the park. He could do it effortlessly—after all, Xing An wasn’t a being the likes of Mother Earth or Goddess of Heavenly Yin.

Furthermore, he wasn’t worried that Xing An would be able to learn the Soul Guide. Since he wasn’t the Son of Youdu, he could forget about cultivating the true Gate of Heaven Influence.

Even more crucially, if one didn’t have a good relationship with Heaven Duke and Earth Count, stealing the powers of these two ancient gods to reforge a soul would most likely guarantee death.

After a while, the spell was done. Xing An sat down in a lotus position, carefully sensing the reappearance of his own soul. He felt a myriad of emotions that were indescribable.

Qin Mu opened the chest. Lined-up neatly inside was a collection of physical bodies belonging to divine beings, many of which were half-gods who had already cultivated to the god realm.

There were also many primordial spirits locked up inside by Xing An using bizarre techniques. There were all sorts of primordial spirits that were of strange and unique varieties and from different races.

However, what drew Qin Mu’s attention wasn’t this collection, rather it was a token made of jade, one that was very similar to the Celestial Venerable Mu Token.

The chest spat out the token, and it landed in Qin Mu’s hand. Qin Mu flipped the token over, and a single ‘Qin’ character was carved onto its back in ancient god writing.

Celestial Venerable Qin’s Token.

Back when Qin Mu and Niu Sanduo traveled to the first year of Dragon Han, Qin Mu met Founding Emperor at the celestial river. Their huge battle at the Jade Pool Meeting shook the heavens.

Celestial Venerable Yu, seeing that both of them possessed remarkable abilities and were extraordinary—surpassing the human race, ancient gods, and half-gods of that period—had sent a memorial to Celestial Emperor for them to be rewarded.

Celestial Emperor then bestowed upon them the title of Celestial Venerable. Qin Mu, under the alias Mu Qing, was conferred the title Celestial Venerable Mu, while Founding Emperor Qin Ye, under the alias Qin Kai, was conferred the title Celestial Venerable Qin.

Qin Mu and Founding Emperor were now equals with the Seven Celestial Venerables. Together, they were known as the Nine Celestial Venerables.

Additionally, Celestial Emperor bestowed upon them each an edict and a token.

This was the reason he immediately agreed to help Xing An reforge his soul upon seeing the token.

Qin Mu tossed about Celestial Venerable Qin’s token several times, looking at it before putting it in his taotie sack. He glanced over at Xing An. At the moment, Xing An was executing a technique to strengthen his newly reforged soul that was still in a weakened state.

Qin Mu retrieved the geographical map from the chest, giving it a few looks. This map was of the present time Primordial Realm, and there were far too many unfamiliar areas, so he was unable to make anything of it.

‘Even with the geographical map, I will need Xing An to escort me there.’

Qin Mu put away the map and walked out of Li River Hall.

Outside the hall, Butcher transformed into a ray of blade flash and flew towards him laughing. “Mu’er, didn’t you want to learn about the reforms in Li River Academy? I will be waiting for you in the Heaven Knife Faculty!”

Qin Mu let go of his thoughts and chuckled. “Grandpa Butcher, you will get beaten to death by me.”

Butcher laughed heartily as a blade flash landed in one of the academy buildings—the Heaven Knife Faculty.

With a turn of his purple robes, Crimson Light Son of God disappeared in a flash. A voice rang out, saying, “Son of Youdu, I await your arrival in the Creation Faculty!”

The old farmer walked off, speaking calmly, “Martial Arts Faculty. Come find me for a beating!”

Qin Mu’s face darkened, and Yu Zhaoqing giggled. “Nature Faculty, I will be waiting for Cult Master to come by.”

Pangong Tso was filled with a sense of heroism in that instant, he laughed and said, “Cult Master Qin, I will face you in the Shaman Faculty!”

…

Most of the strong practitioners returned to their own faculties to await Qin Mu’s arrival. Hu Ling’er too became excited, riding off on a demon cloud. She exclaimed, “Young master, I await your challenge in the Demon Faculty!”

Qin Mu scratched his head. “Ling’er seems to be mistaken. I am here to learn the divine arts, and I won’t even be able to learn demon spells… However, it’s rare to see her in such high spirits, so after challenging the other faculties, I will head to her side to sit and talk with her so that the little girl won’t be upset. The faculties of Li River Academy seem to be difficult to mess with… Of course, besides grandmaster…”

There were over 20 faculties in Li River Academy—Sword Path Faculty, Devil Path Faculty, God Path Faculty, and so on—they were all strong in their own way. Qin Mu went around challenging each and every one of them.

His goal was to learn the reforms of Li River Academy, and thus he challenged the various faculties using the divine arts techniques of Li River Academy, where he had his fair share of both victories and defeats. The worse loss he experienced was against Pangong Tso of the Shaman Faculty. They competed based on escape techniques, and Qin Mu was utterly defeated.

Qin Mu tried to salvage his pride by challenging Pangong Tso to shaman skills, but the latter refused and disappeared soon after winning.

Qin Mu had the easiest win in the Creation Faculty. Regarding the technique of creation, Crimson Light Son of God was still inferior to Qin Mu despite him having a level of cultivation that was far beyond that of Qin Mu’s.

The most relaxed challenge was in Hu Ling’er’s Demon Faculty. Qin Mu and Hu Ling’er played around for a while before drinking with the Fox Immortal and the other demons until they were dead drunk.

Qin Mu was brutally beaten up in the old farmer’s Martial Arts Faculty. He was beaten up the moment he stepped into the faculty, and he was relentlessly beaten until he could no longer stand.

Finally, the most heartwarming exchange was still in the Heaven Knife Faculty. Both grandpa and grandson fought against each other, stopping at times. As Butcher seriously guided Qin Mu in his knife techniques cultivation, hoping that he would be able to enter the path through knives, Qin Mu was reminded of his time back in Disabled Elderly Village—it was truly a sentimental moment.

When he wasn’t in a crazed state, Butcher had the warmth of an elder figure.

On this day, Xing An emerged from Li River Hall and said to Qin Mu, “Cult Master Qin, we can leave now.”

Qin Mu said his goodbyes to the others, turning to Butcher. “Grandpa Butcher, this journey may be fraught with numerous dangers, so I’ll let Lan Yutian remain here first and allow him to study the paths and techniques of Li River. Please take good care of him, you don’t need to teach him skills, but do supervise him in his cultivation.”

Butcher glanced at Xing An. “I’m wary of this Little An. This fellow is ruthless, and I’m afraid that he may lay his hands on you when you are alone with him. Mu’er, a tiger cannot change its stripes. The way he looks at you is strange, I suspect that he really wants to obtain your body!”

Qin Mu replied calmly, “Xing An won’t be able to touch me.”

Butcher remained slightly uneasy.

Qin Mu called the dragon qilin and Yan’er over, and they began their journey together with Xing An.

Xing An took out a dragon from the chest. When he breathed on it, the divine dragon immediately came to life. It rode on the clouds, weaving in and out of the fog with incredible speed.

Qin Mu sat on the dragon qilin’s head as the dragon qilin rode on fire clouds, sprinting after the divine dragon.

“Cult Master Qin, this glutton of yours, his cultivation speed is pretty fast.”

Xing An turned to look around and said, surprised, “Cult Master Qin didn’t bring any experts along in this journey with me? It seems like you are at ease with me.”

Qin Mu replied in an indifferent manner, “Xing An, back in the day you were truly outstanding. In the battle of Heavenly Saint Academy, the experts of Disabled Elderly Village and Eternal Peace Empire were almost entirely defeated by you. However, times are different now, your abilities are no longer as remarkable as they were. I don’t need to have any other experts around to travel with you.”

Xing An responded calmly, “You underestimate me. Although I know I took a wrong path, amongst my peers, there are still only a few who can be my match. Even Sword God Su is slightly weaker than me. You should have called along some experts because you are very attractive to me. Just by looking at the contents in my chest, you should already be aware that I have yet to completely abandon my previous path.”

Qin Mu laughed out loud. Taking the opportunity when he opened his mouth to laugh, Yan’er fed him a Scarlet Fire Spirit Pill.

Qin Mu’s expression darkened, just as he was about to spit it out, he realized that the taste was surprisingly good and he swallowed it down with devilish impulse. ‘No wonder Fatty Dragon likes to eat Scarlet Fire Spirit Pills so much, I didn’t know that it actually tasted so good… Bah, bah! This is to feed Fatty Dragon!’

With Yan’er on his side, Qin Mu felt he was full of courage.

Even with the dragon qilin sprinting with all his might and traveling through the nights, they still used almost two months before they reached the ancient ruins that Xing An spoke of.

The dragon qilin descended, and the divine dragon beneath Xing An’s feet also gradually landed. The divine dragon slowly shrank in size, flying back into the open chest.

Xing An held the chest and said softly, “This is the place. I narrowly escaped death here and almost didn’t make it out alive.”

Qin Mu looked forward, only to see a destroyed divine mountain with brilliantly colored divine rays gushing out of it.

There was a bright light shifting amidst the divine rays. Qin Mu was about to inspect it when a ball of bright light flew out of the rays, and a blade flash emerged from the light, spanning dozens of miles!

“Isn’t this similar to your sword technique?”

Beside Qin Mu, Xing An continued, “I obtained the token with the ‘Qin’ character right here. Upon seeing that sword technique that looked similar to yours, I determined that this artifact would be able to move you.”

Qin Mu’s heart and mind pounded slightly. The Carefree Sword was giving off low hums again.