Tales of Herding Gods

“Your time spent in the Dragon Han Celestial Heavens was too short. You only stayed there for a short period, so you aren’t at all aware of the darkness of the Dragon Han Era.”

Elder Messenger of Death’s face was hidden in the dim shadows, making it impossible for one to see his face clearly. He continued to speak without a trace of emotion in his voice, “In the era of the ancient Celestial Emperor, countless races of the lifeforms after the beginning of the world were exterminated. Even the half-god races weren’t spared from this threat. At the Jade Pool, what you saw was merely the most glamorous side of that era. Regarding the ugly side of the era, you know nothing of it.”

Qin Mu was silent for a while. “How ugly was it?”

Elder Messenger of Death suddenly reached a finger out and touched Qin Mu’s forehead with it.

The scene before Qin Mu’s eyes instantly transformed as he entered Elder Messenger of Death’s memory.

He reached an era that seemed to be a barbaric one. The people wore beast skins or straw skirts, and their clothes were ragged and ruined. Yet, in the distance, there was an enormous shrine that was glorious and incomparably extravagant looking.

Before this shrine was a towering sacrificial altar. Those people who were neither well-dressed nor well-fed had given their best food to feed the best looking virgin males and virgin females, and then they had offered them on the sacrificial altar to pray for good weather.

Rays of light flashed past above the sacrificial altar, and the apparitions of Celestial Emperor and the Celestial Heavens God Kings appeared, taking these virgins with them to feast and enjoy.

Qin Mu then saw a different scene, one of a race that didn’t sacrifice meat to Celestial Emperor and the Celestial Heavens God Kings. These clansmen were captured by imposing-looking gods and escorted to the sacrificial altar to be beheaded and sacrificed so as to appease the rage of the heavens.

Beneath the sacrificial altar were countless corpses and skeletons that piled up like a mountain.

Elder Messenger of Death then showed Qin Mu another memory of his. This memory was one about the slaves from different races who were mining in the Primordial Realm. Those divine arts practitioners had chains piercing through their bodies, and pus flowed out of them. They were barefoot as they walked into the seemingly bottomless mine to extract ore under the brilliant lights radiating from the divine metal.

The ones who were guarding these divine arts practitioner slaves were the gods of the Heaven Han Celestial Heavens.

The sharp glare of the divine metal made the skin of these divine arts practitioners fester endlessly, and their souls felt like they were being sliced at every moment. This was almost similar to the great torture of death by a thousand cuts!

Elder Messenger of Death’s memory transformed yet again, and he brought Qin Mu into another memory of his.

This one was of the war between the different races in the heavens. Before the war started, the chiefs would order a sacrifice by executing the common people and slaves to offer to the gods of the celestial heavens to pray for the help of these gods in the war. Countless corpses collapsed before the front lines, and a blood-red glow rushed up into the heavens.

When the war broke out, the gods and devils of the celestial heavens came down to the mortal world to enjoy their sacrificial offerings.

These ancient gods mercilessly slaughtered the opposite army on the battlefield. However, they didn’t lay a hand on the other ancient gods who had similarly come from the heavens. They merely killed those of the opposing army, and whoever exterminated the opposing army first would be the one who won.

To the ancient gods of the celestial heavens, the wars of the mortal world were merely games that were insignificant to them and would instead allow them to enjoy the sacrificial offerings of blood.

Yet, to the races of the mortal world, war was a fight for survival.

For every battle, the people had no choice but to offer sacrifices to the celestial heavens. This was because if they didn’t do so, they would definitely end up being exterminated!

Qin Mu’s body trembled as he broke free from Elder Messenger of Death’s memories. He gasped for air with great effort, resembling one who had almost drowned and was now catching his breath on land.

In such a horrifying era, the founding master, Wei Suifeng, truly could only follow the local customs!

Elder Messenger of Death said, “The scenes that I witnessed are merely the tip of the iceberg. What I couldn’t see was even more. These were daily occurrences of the Dragon Han Era. This kind of Dragon Han Celestial Heavens, this kind of ancient god Celestial Emperor… regardless if one was of the half-gods or the races of lifeforms after the beginning, they all wanted nothing more than to annihilate it all.”

Qin Mu composed himself. When he had time-traveled to the first year of Dragon Han, he hadn’t stayed for long. Back then, it was during the Jade Pool Meeting. The celestial heavens had gathered the leaders of the various races and the ancient gods, and it was an extraordinarily exciting event.

What he had witnessed was truly the most prosperous and flourishing side of that era.

He hadn’t gone to the lower bound and thus didn’t get to see the lives of the citizens in the different worlds of the various heavens.

As such, he wasn’t very averse towards the ancient Celestial Emperor, and when he felt he could join forces with the ancient Celestial Emperor, he had proactively contacted Celestial Emperor through Yan Qiling so as to form an alliance.

It was only now that he realized that he was still somewhat naive in his thinking.

Although he was the one who had suggested the formation of the Heaven Alliance and was also a Founding Elder of the Heaven Alliance, he didn’t understand why Celestial Venerable Yun and the Heaven Alliance would join forces with the Dragon Heaven Celestial Heavens founded by Celestial Venerable Hao. He didn’t understand why they would put aside their grudges of life and death and plan to get rid of the ancient Celestial Emperor together.

In hindsight, the celestial heavens formed by the ancient Celestial Emperor was savage and cruel beyond measure. It made the tens of thousands of races in the world fall into a state of great fear, all of them fearful that their race could be annihilated anytime.

The Dragon Heaven Celestial Heavens and Heaven Han Celestial Heavens were also both pawns that he had used to maintain his position of power. He let the two smaller celestial heavens control the lower bound for him and make sacrificial offerings to the high and mighty Dragon Han Celestial Heavens. He also let them fight each other so as to prevent either one from becoming too powerful!

At that time, the conflict between the half-gods and the different races wasn’t the most important—the conflict with the Dragon Han Celestial Heavens was of the utmost importance!

Thus, Heaven Han Celestial Heavens and Dragon Heaven Celestial Heavens had to join forces, and all of the races—regardless of whether they were half-gods or lifeforms after the beginning—also had to join forces. They had to get rid of the ancient Celestial Emperor!

This world wasn’t only split into black or white. At present, the Heaven Alliance seemed to have changed, replacing the ancient gods to become the rulers of the corrupted celestial heavens. However, back then, there were still righteous and ambitious people within the Heaven Alliance who were fighting hard for the right to live for the various races.

It was only after the Heaven Alliance had gotten rid of the ancient Celestial Emperor that there were the future generations of the Crimson Light Era, High Emperor Era, Founding Emperor Era, and the Eternal Peace Era of today.

If the ancient Celestial Emperor had continued to be in power, the whole universe, the tens of thousands of worlds and heavens, would eternally be stuck in that savage era and would never be able to evolve!

Although the Heaven Alliance became corrupted in the future, in the early stages, they did a great deed that had impacted all of the races, including the half-gods!

Eliminating the ancient Celestial Emperor was a deed of immeasurable merit!

“Then, my alliance with Celestial Emperor, was it right or wrong?” Qin Mu muttered.

In the ruins of Dragon Count Country, the countless messengers of death took their paper boats and flew about soundlessly, guiding the citizens of Dragon Count Country to board the paper boats.

Some of the Dragon Counts weren’t willing to board the boats, and they flew around the skies to avoid capture.

The messengers of death then raised their lamps, shining the lights onto the faces of these Dragon Count souls. The Dragon Count souls lost their consciousness upon being shone upon, and they foggily queued up to board the boats involuntarily.

The boats that were full of Dragon Counts sailed into Youdu and vanished from sight.

Very soon, the place quieted down, and there was deathly silence.

“However, if I didn’t make an alliance with Celestial Emperor, Eternal Peace would be in danger. Eternal Peace wouldn’t even be able to survive Mother Earth.”

Qin Mu retracted his gaze, feeling lost. He paced back and forth around this skeleton covered dragon city aimlessly.

The dragon qilin understandingly left him to be by himself.

‘Celestial Emperor deserved death. However, if I hadn’t joined forces with Celestial Emperor, Eternal Peace wouldn’t have been able to last for long. Joining forces with Celestial Emperor, if he manages to revive and reclaim his corporeal body, we will definitely return to that savage era!’

‘Celestial Emperor can be made use of, he can be used to delay time. However, Celestial Emperor must not be revived!’

‘He cannot be revived. Let him continue to be half-dead as he is now.’

…

Qin Mu calmed down and started to search around the area for traces that his big senior brother Wei Suifeng could have left behind.

Wei Suifeng did things meticulously, so if he left something behind in the Ruins of End for Qin Mu, he would definitely have considered the possibility that in the future, Qin Mu might not find the Ruins of End.

Thus, he definitely would have left some clues behind.

However, Dragon Count Country had already become a wasteland, and it was extremely huge. It was almost as vast as Eternal Peace, and it was a ruin. It would take an inestimable amount of time if he wanted to find the clues left behind by Wei Suifeng.

Qin Mu continued to walk. Suddenly, he turned around and laid down on his back, his hands folded behind his head as he laid among the dragon skeletons and stared at the sky in a daze.

After a short while, he slowly closed his eyes and drifted into sleep.

The dragon qilin snickered. “Sister Yan’er, Cult Master has times when he slacks off too…”

As he was speaking, he saw a mini Qin Mu crawling out from between strands of Qin Mu’s hair. The mini Qin Mu stuck out his head to look about his surroundings as he made some mumble-jumble noises.

The dragon qilin was startled and was about to speak again when he saw more mini Qin Mu’s crawling out from Qin Mu’s hair. They stretched their bodies, moving their limbs about and mumbling in a language that no one could comprehend. It sounded like incoherent sleep-talk.

After, from Qin Mu’s mouth, nostrils, and ears, mini Qin Mu’s emerged as well, growing in number. They ran about in all directions and spoke in an incomprehensible language.

Very soon, the dragon qilin had no place to stand, and he quickly floated in the air.

Some of these dainty little Qin Mu’s flew with the wind, some tunneled underground, and there were also some who mumbled a string of words to the skeletons of the Dragon Counts. Following this, the skeletons noisily stood up one by one.

Those mini Qin Mu’s stood on the heads, dragon horns, and in the eye sockets of these Dragon Count skeletons. They were in high spirits as they waved their hands and cried out, “Ma ha-”

The dragon qilin understood this line. After all, he still had half of the bloodline of the dragon race. This “ma ha” could mean excitement or to start moving. It could be comprehended in different ways.

The mini Qin Mu’s rode on the skeletons of the Dragon Counts and ran about in a disorderly manner. They flew into the air, tunneled into the ruins, and ran into the seas, searching through heaven and earth—it was a busy affair.

“Ma ha, ma ha!”

When the mini Qin Mu’s bumped into each other, they would also interact with one another with solemn expressions.

The dragon qilin and Yan’er watched this sight in a daze. The mini Qin Mu’s emerging from Qin Mu’s head grew exponentially in number, and very soon, the desolate Dragon Count Country became extremely lively. Countless mini Qin Mu’s very seriously searched the place thoroughly, flipping the whole Dragon Count Country on its back!

“I have heard of this technique, it seems to be the Emperor’s Throne true scriptures of Brahma Buddha from the Buddha Realm.”

Yan’er transformed into her human form and lifted up a mini Qin Mu. This mini Qin Mu sprinted across her palm and onto her body, running around randomly.

“Goddess mentioned before that this technique requires one to be asleep to cultivate it. It’s very mysterious.”

Yan’er was tickled by the mini Qin Mu crawling about on her body, and she couldn’t help but giggle out loud. “Stop crawling about, it’s ticklish… Come out quickly, you can’t crawl there!”

She intended to grab the mini Qin Mu when he suddenly ran onto her head and grabbed one of her plume feathers. He solemnly pointed to the front and cried out, “Ma ha-”

Yan’er couldn’t help herself as she grew out her wings and flew into the sky, following the command of this little fellow and flying in the direction that he had pointed.

Another one of the dainty Qin Mu’s leaped onto the dragon qilin’s head, crying “ma ha, ma ha” as he directed the dragon qilin to fly.

The sky, the land, and the sea were all filled with these tiny fellows. Their three eyes all shone brilliantly, making use of their god eyes to search for the clues left behind by Wei Suifeng.

Suddenly, all of the Qin Mu’s sprinted back, returning to the dragon city with great speed. Then, they all tunneled into the heart of Qin Mu’s brows and disappeared.

Qin Mu yawned, stretching out his body and lazy back, and then laughed. “I’ve finally found it!”