Tales of Herding Gods

‘Wei Suifeng? It’s a very normal name. He keeps yelling it out like this, what could the meaning behind it be?’

Human Emperor Qi Kang didn’t dare to make any movements, watching as the gods from the celestial heavens sent the cage and the man within it into the Surging River. The ship that was enshrouded in a dark aura and chains beneath the surface of the Surging River suddenly burst out of the water, causing great waves to surge up into the sky!

Within the black colored fog, flickering human figures could be seen indistinctly onboard the ship.

Human Emperor Qi Kang had seen this ghost ship by the riverbanks of the Surging River. Back then, Qin Mu had stopped the others from boarding the ship and had killed a prince of the celestial heavens by the riverbank.

“Wei Suifeng, you have a deep connection to this ghost ship. Back then, you were the owner of this very ship, the Commander of the Feathered Forest Guards. Then you ran away and disappeared for hundreds of thousands of years. Yet the Feathered Forest Guards under you are still on the boat and have become a part of the ghost ship.”

In the sky, the existence on the Emperor’s Throne Realm within the celestial heavens ship laughed. “Look at how much your old subordinates miss you, they have all emerged. You infiltrated the Heaven Alliance, thinking that you had concealed yourself well enough, and then ruined the great plans of the celestial heavens countless times. Your sins are deserving of a thousand deaths. However, you’re still of use.”

The cage sunk into the Surging River, and the ghost ship fully emerged out of the surface of the river. There was actually a strange force that was replacing the substance within the celestial river!

At this very moment, the man in the cage suddenly acted up. There were a series of loud explosion sounds, and the massive chains that held him down suddenly snapped from the middle!

The chains locked on to the ghost ship, and with a forceful swing, the cage burst out from the surface of the river and landed on the deck of the ghost ship.

Whoosh—

The chains flew up and actually merged with the chains that surrounded the ghost ship. It was as though these chains and the chains around the ghost ship were originally the same things!

“Bastard!”

An imposing figure descended from one of the ships in the sky. From the ship, countless chains flew down together and were directed towards the ghost ship!

The countless gods of the celestial heavens also activated the ships one by one as the chains intertwined around the ghost ship, intending to drag the ghost ship out.

“Green Deity of the Eastern Sky, do you dare to board the ship?”

The weirdo in the cage stood up, and with a loud boom, he burst the cage open, splitting it into several pieces. His towering body was emitting a thick black aura, and his whole being was transforming into fog and fusing with the ghost ship.

Very soon, he became the black fog that enshrouded the ghost ship. The ships in the sky weren’t able to move this ghost ship. On the contrary, they were being pulled downwards by it.

From the black fog, Wei Suifeng’s voice could be heard, and he laughed and said, “If you board the ship, you will become like me and become one with the ghost ship! You don’t realize it at all, but the ghost ship is a cycle to me. You sending me here is merely the starting point of this cycle!”

The ghost ship sunk into the river. Green Deity of the Eastern Sky leaped in and chased after the ghost ship, but the chains on the ghost ship intertwined and attacked him ceaselessly. At the same time, the ships of the celestial heavens were also dragged down until they plummeted to the river’s surface.

The soldiers of the celestial heavens quickly undid the chains so as not to be dragged into the black fog.

Two existences on the Emperor’s Throne Realm—one beneath the surface, the other on the surface—exchanged blows, and instantly, it caused great chaos. The Surging River trembled from the force until it burst out into the sky, revealing the dragon palaces and dragon halls clearly.

Human Emperor Qi Kang hurriedly carried Dao Master Lin Xuan and escaped during the chaos, running off in the direction of the Heavenly Saint Academy.

He then heard the yelling of the madman from within the Surging River. “My name is Wei Suifeng, follow the map and save me!”

“Is he directing that at me?” Human Emperor Qi Kang was perplexed.

In the chaos, several gods discovered him and immediately chased after him. Human Emperor Qi Kang sneered. “Do you think that me reliving this life was for naught? This old man has learned from the Divine Legs before!”

His legs moved as fast as the wind, and he sprinted off while the skies were turning dark. Along the way, he left behind a series of thunder rumbling sounds.

‘That fellow who calls himself Cripple, although his divine legs are great, he likes to be showy. He likes to leave a series of thunder behind when he runs…’

Human Emperor Qi Kang felt helpless about it. He had learned the Heaven Pilfering Sun Switching Technique from Cripple, and the Heaven Pilfering Divine Legs within it had only one flaw, which was that there would be the sound of thunder rumbling when he ran.

Back in the day, Cripple had stolen from all over the world, and no one was able to catch him. Thus, it molded his showy personality. When the unlucky victim chased after him, Cripple would leave behind a series of shocking thunder sounds and disappear into the distance. The one chasing behind him would then only be able to see the trail of white smoke that he had left behind.

However, at present, several gods were chasing after Human Emperor Qi Kang. If he left trails of thunder behind, he would clearly just be pointing out his location for these gods.

Human Emperor Qi Kang sprinted frantically for almost two weeks. At that point, he was long burnt out, and his vital qi was exhausted. He couldn’t run any further. Being able to escape from the pursuit of those gods up until now was already an incredible achievement on its own.

“Heavenly Saint Academy is just nearby…”

He was no longer able to push through, and he fell from the sky. Up ahead was the Heavenly Saint Academy, it was just that it was surrounded by white fog.

Human Emperor Qi Kang landed in the fog, and with all his strength, he walked towards the Heavenly Saint Academy. He saw that there were immobile figures standing within the fog.

He walked to the front of one of the figures and couldn’t help but shudder. That person’s head was missing and in its place grew a tender and lovely flower.

From his attire, he should be one of the god generals of the celestial heavens.

Up ahead, there was another person with green vines growing all over his body. The green vines intertwined about his bones, and he had no flesh or blood. There were also two leaves that tunneled out from the eye sockets of the skeleton.

There was another god with a huge mushroom growing out of his neck. Upon noticing Human Emperor Qi Kang’s arrival, the mushroom actually pulled out its roots from the neck of the god and flew by him slowly as it waved its root about.

The flying mushroom made puffing noises and puffed out white fog, which contained incredibly minuscule spores.

“There’s poison in the fog…”

Human Emperor Qi Kang immediately felt his whole body grow numb and turn stiff. He felt like there were innumerous things tunneling out of his throat.

“Jade Face Poison King—” He managed to cry out, but his voice was very weak.

Behind him, the several gods of the celestial heavens who were chasing after him walked over and sneered. “Run, why aren’t you running anymore?”

Human Emperor Qi Kang’s body was completely stiff, and he couldn’t move a single inch. On his back, a lush green sapling emerged out of the nostrils of Dao Master Lin Xuan with a poof.

“We’re finished…” Human Emperor Qi Kang felt that there was something climbing up his thigh bone, most likely the root of a poisonous object growing inside his body.

Within the fog, the footsteps of the gods also gradually slowed down. Suddenly, one of the gods coughed violently, and he spat out countless mushrooms. The mushrooms flew past him slowly and soundlessly.

“There’s poison in the fog!” he cried out in rage.

Suddenly, his two eyeballs dropped out of his eye sockets, and replacing them were two huge mushrooms that laid comfortably within his eye sockets.

Yet, that god didn’t seem to sense it.

The flesh and blood of his legs were being replaced by vines, and still, he didn’t sense anything.

Roots were growing in his feet, and his whole body seemed to have transformed into numerous strange plants that rooted themselves into fertile land.

His companions shared a similar fate—their bodies were stiff, and their primordial spirits and divine treasures were also verdant and lush with all sorts of poisonous things growing all over them.

From the fog, a man who was of a very tall build walked over, and he laughed towards the people behind him. “Granny, fusing the technique of creation and the Dao of Healing is truly very promising. Although that mischievous brat, Mu’er, is highly skilled in the technique of creation, in the area of medical expertise, he is still far inferior compared to me.”

“Yes, yes!”

Behind him was a woman who replied impatiently. “Just now, someone called out for you from within the fog. If you don’t go over soon, he will be poisoned to death by you.”

“He won’t die. When I heard him calling out just now, I ordered the poison within his body to stop growing… Eh, it’s Qi Kang and Daoist Lin!”

Human Emperor Qi Kang was completely relieved, and he passed out. When he regained consciousness, he saw that he was lying on the body of a huge spider that was running forwards noisily.

Dao Master Lin Xuan was already completely healed and was sitting beside him.

He got up and looked around his surroundings, seeing his own disciple floating in mid-air with a sword on his back.

“Little Brat Su, this is?” Human Emperor Qi Kang saw that there were other people around—Jade Face Poison King, the God Eyes Spear God who called himself Blind, the Thief God who escaped extremely fast, the Art Saint Heavenly Painting Crown Prince, the old blacksmith, the most beautiful Granny Si, and others.

“We are going to save people.”

Village Chief looked back at him. “Teacher, if you arrived a little later, we would have left the Heavenly Saint Academy. The cities around the academy have already been cleared by us.”

Human Emperor Qi Kang looked about and asked in puzzlement, “Where are the people that you have saved?”

Suddenly the giant spider stopped. They had reached. Within the town were some old people who didn’t manage to escape in time. Mute had a loud voice, and he yelled for everyone in the town to come out and stand together.

Deaf leaped down from the back of the spider and unraveled a scroll painting. He flipped it in their direction, and all of the people of this town were taken into the painting.

Human Emperor Qi Kang looked at the painting. The people from the town were walking about the painting, and there were other people there as well, amounting to tens of thousands of them.

Qi Kang was dumbstruck, and he noticed that within Mute’s chest were hundreds of such scrolls.

“It’s good that Teacher is awake.”

Village Chief continued, “Along our journey, anyone can die but Deaf. No matter what, we have to escort Deaf alive to Eternal Peace’s capital city!”

Human Emperor Qi Kang nodded silently. Suddenly, he asked in a hoarse voice, “What happens after we reach the capital city?”

Village Chief was silent for a moment before he replied with a choked voice, “I don’t know either… I don’t know either…”

“Four great heavenly teachers, four great heavenly kings, where are they?” Human Emperor Qi Kang asked again.

Everyone remained silent. Village Chief choked out, “I don’t know…”

“They are the forces of Founding Emperor, we are Eternal Peace.”

Granny Si smiled warmly. “It’s only rational that they don’t help Eternal Peace. If we asked them to help, we would just be bringing harm to them.”

Everyone nodded their heads and didn’t speak up again.

“By the way, do any of you know Wei Suifeng?” Human Emperor Qi Kang suddenly thought of the weirdo in the cage and asked.

Granny Si was astonished. “Wei Suifeng is the Heavenly Saint Cult’s Founding Master, the big disciple of Saint Woodcutter. Why does Human Emperor Qi know of his name? Mu’er has been looking for him for a long time. He said that he left some geographical maps behind that hid many secrets.”

Human Emperor Qi Kang looked blankly before he cried out, “Heavenly Saint Cult’s Founding Master? No wonder he was of such devil nature! I saw him, he was drowned in the river by the celestial heavens’ Green Deity of the Eastern Sky and then fused with the ghost ship. He also said something about following the map to save him. I think…”

He hesitated for a while before continuing, “I think that he may be the most powerful person after the annihilation of the Founding Emperor Era, and from the Eternal Peace Era until now.”

Granny Si shook her head. “This founding master is one who washed his hands of all responsibility and vanished after founding the Heavenly Saint Cult. He can’t be too powerful. If he can even cultivate to become a god at present, it would probably be due to a miracle.”

Human Emperor Qi Kang was taken aback, and he scratched his head. “He may have already cultivated to the Emperor’s Throne Realm. He may be the one and only existence on the Emperor’s Throne Realm in Eternal Peace.”

Everyone was astonished.

Village Chief clarified, “You said that he was drowned in the river by the celestial heavens’ Green Deity of the Eastern Sky and that he fused with the ghost ship?”

Human Emperor Qi Kang nodded his head.

Village Chief spoke resolutely, “Then he can’t be saved!”

Everyone was puzzled. Village Chief explained, “Mu’er spoke of the ghost ship to me before. He said that he relied on the divine arts of the four deities of the ancient gods and the power of the most formidable ancient army of gods and devils to solve the divine art of the ghost ship and walk out alive. Wei Suifeng has fused together with the ghost ship, where can he find the four deities of the ancient gods? Don’t bother thinking about saving him, he is definitely dead without question.”

Granny Si furrowed her brows.

Butcher smiled. “We should still tell this to Mu’er, whether or not he wants to save him is up to him.”

Granny Si let out a sigh of relief, and then she asked again with worry, “Does anyone know where Mu’er ran off to?”

Human Emperor Qi Kang hurriedly replied, “He is still in the Great Ruins and should be near Border Dragon City! When we were passing by there, there was an army of the celestial heavens that said they were following orders to go and kill the Son of Youdu!”

Village Chief pondered over it and said resolutely, “Cripple, go and inform Mu’er. You have the greatest speed and the least courage. When a fight breaks out, you just run off, so there’s nothing much you can do here.”

The honest Cripple snorted, a little unhappy.

Blind added with concern, “Cripple, be careful on your way there, don’t die.”

“I haven’t stolen from the celestial heavens yet, so how can I die?”

Cripple laughed out loud and instantly vanished, and a series of thunder rumbling could be heard from afar. Clearly, he was already several hundred miles away.

“This rascal, he runs pretty d*mn fast!” everyone exclaimed in admiration.

Cripple sprinted all the way, and after a few days and nights, he reached the surroundings of Border Dragon City. Looking around, he didn’t find any traces of Qin Mu. Instead, he saw that suddenly, the sky was filled with radiant stars, and all of a sudden, within a split second, a resplendent galaxy emerged.

Cripple was startled. The stars in the sky multiplied and grew larger and larger, and the sounds of war drums could be heard indistinctly.

Very soon, the bright stars could be identified clearly with the naked eye. They were ancient gods, completely different from mortals. They were like the ancient gods that had walked out of myths and legends, and the halos at the back of their heads resembled stars.

“Lay the inescapable net and capture the Son of Youdu!” A voice that sounded like thunder and lightning came from the skies.

Cripple’s heart flickered, and he moved along the direction of the galaxy flow. From afar, he could see the boundless darkness that resembled an enormous black pot covering the Primordial Realm upside down, enshrouding it for god knows how many tens of thousands of miles.

In the darkness, innumerous celestial troops and generals drove battleships and rushed forwards. The rays of light from the various divine arts tore through the darkness.

Within the torn darkness, a god with three heads and six limbs was slaughtering mercilessly. He had drawn the attention of almost a third of the army of the celestial heavens that had come to the lower bound.

Cripple retracted his head. “That’s Mu’er? The Mu’er that used to fight with me over sugar-coated haws when he was a child?”