Tales of Herding Gods

In Fengdu City, gods and devils flew over to surround King Yama and looked down at the bridge. When they saw the whirlpool, their faces changed drastically. They were about to make a move, but King Yama raised his hand and said solemnly, “No need for that, let him go.”

The gods and devils of Fengdu City were all rather puzzled.

“The divine art below the bridge is of Youdu. That place has come to our Fengdu to steal our people, so how can we tolerate them?”

Another god then added, “If Youdu continues to create a ruckus, we will be unable to keep our Fengdu for long! King Yama, let’s attack Youdu!”

King Yama shook his head. When he spoke, his voice was slightly strange. “The person who used the divine art of Youdu is neither a god nor devil of Youdu, but a guest from Carefree Village. I’ve seen this face before, it’s very similar to that person… There’s no need to delve into this.”

Under the cape of darkness, his gaze was like candlelight, burning with a ghostly glow. “A person of Carefree Village has shown up. I was waiting for the old swallow of the previous dynasty and old dreams to return to rebuild its nest, but what can I do when a new swallow comes instead of the old one.”

“It’s time for the return of swallows that I’ve met before. Old or new, it’s hard to distinguish,” Village Chief said

King Yama lowered his head to look at him. His cape fluttered in the sky above Fengdu City, and his figure left into the distance.

Village Chief looked down the bridge and sighed. “I thought I was going to have a reunion with Apothecary and the rest, but Qin Mu went and summoned them back. I wonder if their corporeal bodies are dead or not. If they are, we will still have to reunite in Fengdu… Master, what’s the river below the Bridge of Helplessness?”

“Legends say that it originates in Youdu. We call it the River of Forgetfulness.” The human emperor before his master came to his side and looked down the river. “There are many stories here and it’d be hard to tell you all of them in a short while. There are plenty of monsters in the river. They come from Youdu and are extremely terrifying.

“The strong practitioner who had executed the divine art of Youdu to snatch the people had found his way here through the River of Forgetfulness. You should be very familiar with that person, right?”

He looked at Village Chief’s face, and his gaze flickered. “You were the closest, but when you heard his voice, you didn’t make a move to stop him.”

Village Chief nodded, and with a hint of pride in his voice, he said, “He’s my disciple, the current human emperor! How’s that, old bastard? The disciple I’ve chosen is better than the disciple you chose, right?”

“Bah! Isn’t the disciple I’ve chosen you, dumbass?”

“Old bastard, die!”

…

In Great Overarching Heavenly Stars Force Field, Apothecary, Cripple, King Kun, and the rest suddenly opened their eyes.

“Crap, my corporeal body has already died. I can’t protect my primordial spirit anymore!” Deaf suddenly said.

King Kun and Rat Immortal also woke up, and their expressions changed drastically. Their primordial spirits had left their corporeal bodies for too long, and as a result, their bodies had started to decay!

The reason why the divine flood dragon king had noticed they had no breath was because of the death of their corporeal bodies.

“Mu’er, how long can you hold on for?” Apothecary rose in a hurry and took out all kinds of herbs and silver needles. “If you can hold on for a bit longer, I can extend our lives and revive our corporeal bodies!” he said with nervousness on his face.

Qin Mu stood in front of Gate of Heaven Influence, continuing to borrow the power of the flood dragons and the divine flood dragon king to maintain Soul Guide. “Grandpa Apothecary, don’t worry, I can hold on for several days and nights!”

“No need for that long.” Apothecary took out a beehive and said, “I shall first use Soul Termites to link our corporeal bodies and primordial spirits before using poison to nourish the former. The poison will cut off the connection between our primordial spirit and Fengdu and Youdu. I will then raise Life Substitution Insects to die in our place.”

He tossed the beehive up, and it began to float as it grew bigger rapidly. Inside it, there were insect eggs and strange seeds of all sizes. The insects in the milky white eggs were all different from one another.

Apothecary rapidly cultivated poison and refined medicine. He tapped on everyone’s bodies with all kinds of unpredictable hand techniques and soon the sound of hearts beating came from their bodies.

Apothecary quickly used silver needles to stab them all over their bodies. Deaf looked at the insect egg nervously, but the next moment, his mouth was pinched open by Apothecary to stuff in the egg.

Deaf’s face turned ashen.

Apothecary quickly dug up holes and planted a few seeds. After a moment, they germinated and huge buds grew out. The flowers swirled, and their petals spread outwards.

“Everyone, enter the flowers!”

Everyone did as told, and Cripple asked, “Doctor of the martial world, what’s this flower of yours? It’s fleshy to the touch.”

Apothecary had a nervous expression. “They’re not flowers, but Life Substitution Insects. Don’t move, let them swallow you guys.”

“Life Substitution Insects?”

Everyone was slightly stunned. The huge flowers then pulled back and their petals closed up, wrapping everyone tightly inside.

Those flowers were indeed not flowers, but a kind of bizarre insect. After swallowing everyone, they started to distort and gradually grew a head, four limbs, and a body. Their appearances were identical to the people they had swallowed.

Qin Mu was stunned. He recognized King Kun, Apothecary, and the rest, and could find no fault. However, what was weird was that the insects actually had everyone’s auras. They even imitated their souls and primordial spirits with an uncanny resemblance, so that others couldn’t see any difference!

What was even weirder was that ‘Apothecary’ and the rest rapidly aged and grew white hair in an instant. In the blink of an eye, they aged from their middle years to their late years, before aging from their late years to their end.

After a moment, ‘Apothecary’ and the rest had exhausted their lifespans. They collapsed onto the ground without any breath left, covering the ground with corpses.

Qin Mu dispersed Soul Guide, and peculiar auras surged from places unknown. From the depths of space, darkness surged out and lamps lighted up in the darkness as paper boats floated over. Elders stood up on them and raised their lamps at the corpses of ‘Apothecary’ and the rest. Their ‘souls’ floated out without any obvious awareness at all. They walked onto the paper boats with stupefied expressions, following the light of the elders’ lamps.

The paper boats turned away, and the messengers of death hung their lamps back onto the boats. They then sailed into darkness, and the bizarre auras vanished.

“That’s good, the messengers of death have been tricked!”

Apothecary’s voice came from underground, and the earth suddenly bulged as fleshy insect sacs popped out. Apothecary, Cripple, and the rest made their way, covered in sticky liquid.

Apothecary pulled out the needles from everyone who was still very weak. Their primordial spirits were still slightly unstable. Apothecary checked and said, “Half of the Soul Termite is in the soul and the other half is in the corporeal body. I first need to adjust your corporeal bodies, allowing them to recover, before I can fully revive you guys. But I’ve already exhausted all the spirit herbs I had on me…

“There’s a pond of pure yang on Sun Ship which can recover life force rapidly,” Qin Mu immediately said.

“That would be a great help!” Apothecary let out a sigh of relief and said, “Let’s go soak in that pond of pure yang and recuperate our bodies. Those Life Substitution Insects won’t be able to trick the messengers of death for long.”

Everyone hurried over to Sun Ship, and since Qin Mu was familiar with the place, he quickly brought them to the pond of pure yang. Everyone went into it, and their corporeal bodies gradually recovered. However, the water in the pool also gradually lessened.

When Qin Mu saw that everyone was no longer in danger, he asked, “Everyone, where had your primordial spirits went?”

Rat Immortal let out a sigh of relief and said, “During the battle, Sun Guardian brought her ship to assist us, but the gods of High Heavens were truly powerful. They had all kinds of divine arts and god treasures with immense power. Big sister and second brother died in battle one after another. Sun Guardian was also forced back, which left everyone on the brink of crisis. Imperial Preceptor activated Earthquake Cauldron, having chosen to bring everyone down together. He injured all the gods with the tremors, but something weird happened…”

Qin Mu looked at him with puzzlement, then suddenly came to realization. He cried out, “Earthquake Cauldron pierced the barrier between another world and Eternal Peace?”

“No.” Cripple shook his head and said, “The power of Earthquake Cauldron was absorbed by God Broken Mountain Range.”

Qin Mu was stunned.

“When I saw Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor that scoundrel taking out Earthquake Cauldron, I immediately knew something was wrong, so I brought Apothecary to run for our lives. That’s why we were slightly farther away. Deaf, you were much closer, so you tell him.”

Deaf plucked out his two iron ears and washed them in the pond of pure yang before stabbing them back into his ear holes. “When the power of Earthquake Cauldron exploded, I also knew it was bad and planned to hide in the world in the painting to escape unscathed. But never did I expect that the power of Earthquake Cauldron would simply be too terrifying. I didn’t manage to escape in time, and the world in the painting was eradicated.

“At that moment, an unimaginable power suddenly came from God Broken Mountain Range to absorb the power of Earthquake Cauldron. Next, a huge hole formed in the heaven and earth, and on its other side was another world.”

Back then, they had been in a fierce battle and Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor hadn’t cared about the consequences and frightened everyone out of their wits. Yet the huge change in God Broken Mountain Range had allowed everyone to escape unscathed.

They didn’t have time to check on the situation of the other world before entering into a fierce battle again. The abilities of Flower Sovereign and Star Sovereign Qiao were simply too strong. No one could match them, so Flower Sovereign went to attack Sun Ship, planning to kill Yan Jingjing, and the situation grew grim.

Granny Si saw that it was bad and gathered everyone to lay down Great Overarching Heavenly Stars Formation, executing it by force and pulling everyone’s primordial spirit out of their bodies. She planned to launch a big battle with primordial spirits.

“Then, we entered a strange world.” Deaf was slightly in a daze as he said, “Under God Broken Mountain Range, there was a strange world. It should be, it should be…”

King Kun had more experience so he explained, “The inner world of a god’s treasure!”

Deaf nodded. “At that place, we were trapped and had to kill non-stop. In the end, we were killed and after we died, we noticed a strange energy invading that world, then we saw a bird-headed god flying over. He led us to Fengdu, saying that we’ll meet an old friend there. But just as we saw Village Chief, we got dragged back by you Mu’er.”

“Village Chief is in Fengdu?”

Qin Mu was astonished, then felt a pain in his heart. He gripped his fist tightly. ‘Village Chief, I will definitely save you from Fengdu!’

But what was truly astonishing was that there had been an unknown energy blocking the power of Earthquake Cauldron under God Broken Mountain Range. It had even pulled everyone’s primordial spirits into it. What was that treasure exactly? Why was it buried there? Who was the one who had forged it and who was it that had buried it?

‘What the stone statues of the devil gods from the other world are searching for is probably that treasure! Also, the primordial spirits of Granny Si and the others should still be in that treasure!’

Just as Qin Mu thought that, the ground suddenly trembled, and mountain rocks rumbled down in the distance as a stone statue swirled while breaking through the earth to rise up. The devil god from before had found them from underground.

At the same time, tremors came from the darkness, and Qin Mu looked over there. In the fog were numerous stone statues walking in their direction.

‘They found that treasure!’

Qin Mu’s expression changed abruptly.