Tales of Herding Gods

Qin Mu nodded with a faint smile.

Five years ago, Xing An took out Celestial Venerable Qin’s token to trick him to Fallen God Valley. It was merely a way to the High Emperor Celestial Heavens, where Celestial Venerable Ling’s disciple, Yi Shisheng, kept on trying to recover Celestial Venerable Ling’s corpse.

When Qin Mu arrived, Celestial Emperor’s disciples, such as Yan Qiling and Mu Qiubai, were there too. Dragon King Tian, under Mother Earth, was also there, along with a divine weapon Celestial Venerable Yu who snuck in.

The floating coffin in the valley had the words, “Open when Qin, Mu is here” on it. It meant that it would open when it came into contact with Celestial Venerable Mu and Celestial Venerable Qin.

At the time, Qin Mu thought it was strange that when he didn’t go to Fallen God Valley, no one went to explore it. However, when he did, everyone went there with him. It was too coincidental.

Now, it seemed that the ancient Celestial Emperor and the Grand Emperor’s plot failed. Of course, Mother Earth was also involved.

Five years ago, Qin Mu couldn’t understand their scheme. Today, he understood what happened there five years ago.

Celestial Emperor, the Grand Emperor, and Mother Earth knew that it was only when they got both Celestial Venerable Qin and Celestial Venerable Mu’s tokens that they could open the passageway in Fallen God Valley. Thus, they waited for Qin Mu’s arrival so they could enter.

Despite their slyness, they failed to predict that the Grand Emperor’s divine weapon Celestial Venerable Yu would be eliminated by Qin Mu and that Xing An would suppress and seal the Celestial Venerable’s consciousness within it. Ultimately, Xing An took the divine weapon Celestial Venerable Yu and ran away with it.

The people under Mother Earth died, while most of the ancient Celestial Emperor’s disciples died as well, except for Yan Qiling.

Mother Earth suffered heavy losses, while Celestial Emperor couldn’t find his corporeal body. As for the Grand Emperor, not only was he unable to verify the death of Celestial Venerable Ling, he wasn’t able to take back the consciousness he used to control Celestial Emperor’s corporeal body.

Qin Mu got nothing out of it either. Only Xing An got the divine weapon Celestial Venerable Yu and suppressed the Grand Emperor’s consciousness within it.

The big winner of that battle seemed to be Xing An.

However, fate made a fool of everyone. After Xing An got the divine weapon Celestial Venerable Yu and occupied the corporeal body, he wasted five years of his life on the Great Dao runes of the ancient gods. Meanwhile, he failed to refine the most valuable prize, the Grand Emperor’s consciousness, which now fell into Qin Mu’s hands.

Qin Mu looked at the jade bottle with a smile on his face that gradually grew. He ended up laughing loudly!

“Five years ago, who would’ve thought that I would be the ultimate winner?”

He laughed as vital qi and consciousness danced around him. They manifested themselves into all sorts of runes that Qin Mu adjusted. He then retrieved all sorts of calculation spirit weapons and recalculated again and again to modify the runes.

Divine King Lang Wo watched him and got excited. “Holy infant, do you need me to help you refine the Grand Emperor’s consciousness? The bit in the Jade Bottle is weak, and it would be easy to refine.”

“Not now.”

Qin Mu was fully concentrated on his calculations, not lifting his head once. He replied, “Once I’m finished perfecting this divine art, then I will trouble you.”

Divine King Lang Wo examined the runes that his consciousness and vital qi conjured up. They were marvelous and complicated, which made her unable to comprehend them.

Shu Jun couldn’t understand them either, so he asked the dragon qilin about it. The dragon qilin glanced at it and said, “Cult Master is modifying the Soul Guide divine art. Soul Guide is used to lead and guide souls. Judging from his modified runes, he aims to get it to guide consciousnesses instead of souls.”

“Guide consciousnesses?”

Divine King Shu Jun and Divine King Lang Wo were perplexed. There were divine arts that could guide consciousnesses?

The dragon qilin thought about it and said, “Soul Guide should actually be called Soul Acquisition, as one can acquire souls from Youdu and summon them to the world of the living. After Cult Master’s improvements, it can even summon broken souls. Cult Master likely intends to modify it so it can summon the consciousness that Grand Emperor scattered in the Primordial Realm.”

After a while, Qin Mu finally completed his calculations. Everyone appeared bewildered as they looked at the magnificent runes spread across the interior of the carriage.

Qin Mu examined it carefully and modified several calculation errors before he felt pleased.

Qin Mu retrieved the bottle, got out of the carriage, and placed it on the level ground of the Fallen God Valley.

His magic power almost went berserk as he utilized the modified Soul Guide. Countless runes flew around and orbited the jade bottle!

His primordial spirit appeared, standing on the main celestial palace of the taiji diagram imposingly. Beneath the Southern Heavenly Gate, dense Dao language came from him as he read all sorts of secretive Youdu languages. Countless Heavenly Yin World runes lit up around him. Some were bright while some were dark!

“The Grand Emperor wants to kill me now, while I’m here. Thus, he mobilized the corporeal body of the eleventh Celestial Venerable. But he met Founding Emperor on the way and was killed.”

After Qin Mu’s primordial spirit utilized the improved Soul Guide, Qin Mu laughed. “When the Grand Emperor was defeated by Founding Emperor, Founding Emperor didn’t know how to gather his consciousness, so he eliminated him, causing his consciousness to be scattered. Previously, I had no objects belonging to him, so I couldn’t summon his soul. But now that I have his consciousness in this bottle, I can try summoning his scattered consciousness!”

Divine King Lang Wo followed him to the plain and saw how the ground around Qin Mu had countless runes imprinted on it. They lit up and spread in all directions, covering more and more ground.

Soon, those runes covered an area with a radius of a hundred miles, forming a large formation!

Divine King Lang Wo thought about it and said, “Even if Founding Emperor scattered the Grand Emperor consciousness that was in the Celestial Venerable’s corpse, it will coalesce again. He has likely retrieved his consciousness.”

“Sister Divine King, relax. Founding Emperor unleashed the twentieth sword form and the 34 heavens of the sword path to kill him. Thus, his consciousness can’t coalesce in a short time. Besides…”

Qin Mu’s primordial spirit fully activated Soul Guide, and countless magnificent runes orbited around the jade bottle. The runes imprinted themselves on the bottle one by one.

One ringing wave after another was transmitted into the jade bottle before they spread out within it. After that, they spread out from it in a marvelous rhythm.

Normal people couldn’t sense such a rhythm. Even Divine King Lang Wo and Divine King Shu Jun could barely catch it.

“Besides, since he’s here to kill me, why would he retrieve his consciousness so easily?”

Qin Mu became visibly nervous as he solemnly said, “His consciousness must not have left the Primordial Realm. Instead, it would be on the gods and devils here to continue tracking me down. Divine Kings, I’m about to establish a connection with the Grand Emperor. Are you two ready?”

Divine King Lang Wo hastily utilized her consciousness. Her consciousness was unbelievably strong, and it instantly spread across the 35 voids and formed all sorts of divine arts forged from all sorts of consciousnesses!

Shu Jun hesitated and said, “Holy infant, how strong is his consciousness? If we plot against him, we will have offended him fully. Besides, his consciousness web is hidden in the Ultimate Void. If we summon his consciousness, he can lock on to our position and attack us from the Ultimate Void…”

“Divine King Shu Jun, I’ve already offended the Grand Emperor greatly. Doing it again is just icing on the cake.”

Qin Mu’s Soul Guide established a connection with the consciousness in the jade bottle. He instantly traced the source and felt wave after wave of terrifying consciousness. He laughed and said, “The Grand Emperor’s consciousness will be summoned by me! We shall scheme against the one that’s not scheming. After that, we’ll run so he can’t do anything to us!”

Divine King Shu Jun instantly felt his hair rise when he felt the terrifying waves of the void. He decided to use all of his consciousness and help Divine King Lang Wo put down the Great Void Refining Formation.

He hadn’t recovered to his peak condition, but his experience stuck around, allowing him to help Divine King Lang Wo with some of her weaknesses in refining divine arts.

“Divine King Lang Wo, we have to seal the 35th void to prevent the Grand Emperor from coming down from the Ultimate Void!” Divine King Shu Jun said to Divine King Lang Wo as they worked together to seal the 35th void around them.

Divine King Lang Wo praised him. Although Shu Jun was a divine king of the primordial era and thus only had largely outdated knowledge, his experience was vast and unique.

Just as they finished setting up the Great Void Refining Formation in the 35th void, terrifying waves responded to Qin Mu’s Soul Guide and were summoned!

At the source of the Primordial Realm’s Surging River, the Grand Emperor’s Celestial Venerable corpse, which had been cut into pieces, fell into a body of water in the mountains. His coffin fell into a cave and opened, and thick corpse air came from within.

At the same time, many weirdly dressed gods arrived. They had white robes that covered their bodies and faces. They came from the celestial heavens, and each one of them carried a cinnabar-colored gourd on their backs.

The white-robed gods each went to a piece of the corpse, and steaming light came from the gourds to extract the consciousness within.

Those corpse pieces still contained Founding Emperor’s sword path. It was suppressed by the Grand Emperor’s consciousness, but it continuously ground the consciousness. After a long while, the Grand Emperor’s consciousness would be completely ground away by Founding Emperor’s sword path.

However, the cinnabar-colored gourds of the white-robed gods had something unique about them. They could extract the Grand Emperor’s consciousness without touching the power of Founding Emperor’s sword path.

Even then, they had to be careful to not touch the corpse pieces in order to prevent inciting Founding Emperor’s divine arts.

They were just about to finish collecting it when suddenly, an unknown force came and took away all of the Grand Emperor’s consciousness with it!

Even the consciousness collected into the gourds was led away, with light coming from the mouth of the gourds. The consciousness became thousands of beautiful lights that ran away!

“Crap!”

The Grand Emperor’s consciousness rumbled like thousands of bolts of lightning as it boomed, causing those white-robed gods to grow dizzy. “Quickly seal the divine gourds of consciousness!”

The white-robed gods immediately capped the gourds, yet that peculiar summon was too strong, going as far as to pull the divine gourds of consciousness towards the east as well!

The Grand Emperor’s consciousness also flew out uncontrollably from those Celestial Venerable corpse pieces, being led by Qin Mu’s Soul Guide.

Many white-robed gods hugged their large gourds and utilized magic power to stay put. Regardless, many divine gourds of consciousness flew away.

“Useless things!”

Suddenly, the consciousness in one of them flew out and went into the body of a white-robed god. After his body was borrowed by the Grand Emperor, he too flew towards the east, as it was led by Qin Mu’s Soul Guide too.

At the same time, the other gourds exploded, and the Grand Emperor consciousness within flew out and went into the bodies of the white-robed gods.

Only one of the white-robed gods was a true god, and he struggled against Qin Mu’s summon as he was pulled flying towards Fallen God Valley.

Fallen God Valley was far from there, but at that rate, it would only take a short time before he was pulled there and refined by Qin Mu!

‘Little brat, you think you can take away my consciousness? You think too little of me!’

That white-robed god was furious, and he used all of his power to utilize the corporeal body’s magical power, wanting to push his corporeal body down. Nevertheless, he was still led towards the east.

A god city appeared in front. It was the staging ground of the army of the celestial heavens in the Primordial Realm. That white-robed god’s eyes flashed as he opened his mouth. Light came out of it like a torrent from a waterfall and headed towards that god city.

The rainbow light howled as it swept across the city.

The thousands of gods and devils were drowned by the light before they could react. Like thousands of tentacles, rays of light drilled into the orifices of the gods and devils. Instantly, all of them were led by the Soul Guide, flying towards Fallen God Valley!

The general in charge of the city was an expert of the Numinous Sky Realm, and he immediately utilized his divine arts. However, it was of no use.

The Grand Emperor flew with thousands of gods and devils that he controlled, and they crisscrossed in the air to form a grand killing formation. The sight was grand and shuddering!

‘Celestial Venerable Mu, you have provoked me again and again. Today I will let you see the power of the ruler of the distant past!’