Tales of Herding Gods

Hall of Wen Yuan was young patriarch’s place, and it was much shabbier than the halls of the cult masters. This was probably because Patriarch had never been a cult master before, and his status was much lower than that of the cult masters.

However, in Qin Mu’s eyes, it was also because the young patriarch had never been the cult master sacred teacher that he could drop the baggage and achieve things that those cult masters had never done.

The young patriarch and Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor were half teacher and student and half friends. When Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor came to visit him, he took the initiative to show him Great Educational Heavenly Devil Scriptures and also told him about the general teachings of the path of the saint. He then personally wrote a letter to recommend that young man to Dao Sect and Great Thunderclap Monastery.

Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor’s huge achievements were related to him by a lot too.

Afterward, when Eternal Peace started his reform, it was also related to the young patriarch. Even the founding of Imperial College also had very deep relations with him.

He was the first grand chancellor of Imperial College, and when Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor carried out his reform, he would frequently seek his opinion.

Eternal Peace had three big players in the reform. The two big players—Imperial Preceptor and Emperor—were out in the open while the young patriarch was the third big player hidden behind their backs.

Just based on achievements, in the entire history of the sacred cult, there was at most two-three other people who could match up to the achievements of the young patriarch.

Yet because he wasn’t the cult master, he didn’t receive the treatment of the other cult masters, and this made Qin Mu felt grief for him.

“You still haven’t changed your temper.”

The young patriarch brought Qin Mu into the hall while the huge bones and scales of a dragon qilin kept rubbing against him. It was to the point that the young patriarch’s clothes were already torn and his leg had turned bright red.

Yet he acted like it was nothing and said to Qin Mu, “What now? All the past cult masters have been beaten up by you! Do you think they are easy to get along with? They are a force in Fengdu! After you die of old age, how are you going to stand in Fengdu…”

“Patriarch…” Qin Mu suddenly hugged him tightly as his voice shook slightly. He didn’t let him go even after a long time. “I missed you.”

The skeleton boy wanted to wipe his tears, but there were no tears to be wiped. He choked as he said, “I didn’t know you were blocking off the gods of High Heavens in Great Ruins and only heard about it later from Si Yunxiang. Elder of Discipline brought your ashes back, but I wasn’t able to meet you one last time. So I’m here to see you now! I kept hiding it from Fatty Dragon, not daring to tell him, but I couldn’t any longer…”

The young patriarch was stunned. He patted the youth’s back and sighed ruefully. “I’m only living elsewhere. Look, I still have flesh and blood. In my eyes, you guys are the dead ones, so should I cry miserably too? There, there. Cult Master Qin was so fierce when scolding and beating up all the ancestors so why are you acting like a small child now… Enough, dragon qilin, my leg is bleeding from your rubs! Haven’t you rubbed enough?”

The dragon qilin wanted to stick his tongue out to help him lick his injury, but he then remembered that he had no tongue. He then reluctantly retreated. But after a moment, he couldn’t resist coming up to rub himself against the leg again.

The young patriarch was speechless. He had not met the dragon qilin for a long time, so when they first met, they even cried a whole lot because they had been close before. But as that Fatty Dragon kept rubbing against his leg, he was starting to get really annoyed. In a moment, there was nothing he wanted more than to send that fellow far away.

“I’ve thought about meeting Saint Woodcutter who had imparted his teachings on the rock and also Founding Master, as well as the three kings,” Qin Mu said. “Patriarch, are they also in Fengdu?”

“You can’t see the Three Sacred Kings anymore, their souls have dispersed,” the young patriarch said sorrowfully. “They died in battle while forcing themselves to impart the teachings on the rock to the next cult master, so they couldn’t protect their own souls and enter Fengdu. I thought I would meet Founding Master here as well, but I’ve not seen him. Saint Woodcutter is not here too.”

Qin Mu was stunned. Besides Fengdu, where else could Saint Woodcutter and Founding Master have gone?

The stone statue of Woodcutter’s corporeal body still stood in Little Jade Capital, looking toward Great Ruins. His primordial spirit had left his body and went to other places. After Founding Master established his cult and set his ideas in writing, he had not established merit so he still wasn’t a saint. He shouldn’t have been a god as well, so he would have died of old age. Where could he have gone then?

The young patriarch hesitated and said, “You beat up the past cult masters…”

“Patriarch, I’m a cult master, and they are also cult masters, so why should I be lower than them? I’m still a human emperor too, so my status is even above theirs. If you want me to talk to them nicely, I can’t do it,” Qin Mu said.

“The sacred cult has no seniority, and the one who discovers the truth should be the teacher. Even though they are the past cult masters, they also have their own strength of character. If I didn’t beat them, they would say that my cult master title was not attained properly. After beating them, they were speechless. Besides, the sacred cult in their hands had no achievements and their way is corrupted, so they deserved to be beaten.”

The young patriarch sighed and asked curiously, “You don’t have your corporeal body so how did you use your magic power?”

“I’ve come here once with Village Chief, and it was then that I realized that me turning into a skeleton was merely an illusion. Since it was an illusion, my corporeal body disappearing and you guys coming back to life is also an illusion. Grandpa Blind’s divine eyes allowed me to see through everything in Fengdu, and it was from then on that I could use magic power and divine arts in Fengdu. I can sense my own corporeal body. Patriarch, you don’t know this but in my eyes…”

Boundless sorrow flooded his heart, and he didn’t continue to speak.

In front of his divine eyes, Patriarch who was living perfectly fine was only a skeleton.

When Qin Mu walked in Fengdu City, that was all he saw.

Everyone walking to and fro in the bustling city of Fengdu were all skeletons and ghosts. Only he was moving through the city with a corporeal body. He was a lonely soul, isolated and alone.

Even when he talked cheerfully with the past human emperors in Sacred Hall of Five Yang, he had only been talking with dozens of skeletons.

Only within Between Life and Death did he saw the past human emperors gain flesh and blood.

This was the sight Qin Mu saw when he used the divine eyes Blind had imparted to him.

His sight was completely different from the sight the ghosts in Fengdu saw.

In the living realm, life and death were reversed, but Patriarch, the past human emperors, and the past cult masters were still dead.

Qin Mu didn’t say all of this. He was silent for a moment before smiling. “Patriarch, you, Imperial Preceptor, and the emperor are in charge of the reform. Now that you’re here, how will the reform continue on?”

The young patriarch walked side by side with him to prevent the dragon qilin from coming up again. He smiled and said, “The path of the reform has already started and it won’t end. What Imperial Preceptor is reforming are the traditions, the slave nature, the fights between sects so that the divine arts practitioners in the world need not fight for the sects anymore and exhaust their own power for nothing. It is also to change the individual mindset of the sects, to let divine arts practitioners work for the people and serve them. This is the great idea and the great framework.”

He came to the back garden of Hall of Wen Yuan and handed a pair of shears to Qin Mu. He also took one for himself and trimmed the sprays carefully. “The most important thing about the reform is that it changes the bad habits in the hearts of people, pushing down the god statues within them. Destroying gods in people’s hearts is not something divine arts practitioners have to do, but something the whole world has to do. If everyone could destroy the god and buddha in their hearts, this would become a world of prosperity.”

Qin Mu trimmed the sprays and turned a blossom into a hen dragon without feathers. When the young patriarch finished speaking, he stopped and pondered his words before nodding. “The people of the world pray to the gods and buddhas for wind, rain, and a bountiful harvest, for their family to prosper and have lots of children. If the divine arts practitioners could fulfill their wishes, it could indeed assist in breaking the gods in their hearts.”

The young patriarch looked at the flowers and plants that were messily trimmed by him and shifted his gaze after a moment. “I’ve said it to Imperial Preceptor before, that to break the gods in the hearts, he’ll first need to reform the economy. It will improve the statecraft and aid the people. When the economy is open, the knowledge of the people will be opened. To put it in simple words, when divine arts practitioners will use their divine arts to help the farmers harvest their crops, the farmers will pay them, and with the money received, they’ll buy food or resources they need for cultivation.

“This money would then return to the people’s hands. They all have to pay taxes to the empire, so the empire would grow wealthy. When the empire is wealthy, it can open more traffic and irrigation works, which are all for the convenience and benefit of the people. Thus, when the empire is wealthy, people are wealthy, when people are wealthy, the resources are abundant. Divine arts practitioners will be able to buy all kinds of resources, and their cultivations would naturally far surpass the past. The people would become strong, and the empire would become strong.”

Qin Mu was enthralled, but he suddenly heard footsteps. When he turned back to look, he saw Cult Master Zu Yang, Cult Master Yu Lian, Cult Master Si Yuanwei, and the rest entering Hall of Wen Yuan with murderous intent.

Heavenly Devil Cult’s past cult masters didn’t make a move, but instead stopped and listened.

“Commonfolk has been slaves of influential families for too long, and they now have the nature of slaves. Once you kneel down, it’s hard to get up. Imperial Preceptor is now making the people stand up, but this requires time. Still, the reform has been moving slowly. The people now no longer kneel to divine arts practitioners.”

The young patriarch’s thoughts were full of the reform, and he didn’t realize the arrival of guests. He reminisced about the past. “I’ve seen the situation before the reform. At that time, the sects and cults stood in numbers, and the farmers slogged their lives out. They had to kneel and call them old masters, offering up meat and rations. To change this kind of slave nature, Imperial Preceptor and I used some two hundred years. Once the people stand up, it’s also very hard for them to kneel back down.”

Qin Mu remembered the incident where people knelt in front of the stone statues that had popped out from the earth. “They still kneel to god statues.”

The young patriarch’s expression grew a little weird. “Imperial Preceptor said that it’s easy to break the god in the temple, but it’s hard to break the god in the heart. To me, it’s not easy to break the god in the temple as well. I’ve done a small experiment once to test the heart of the people. I built a small temple outside the capital and enlightened a dirty mangy dog, then made it sit on the shrine. Can you guess what happened?”

He sighed and said, “After a few days, the mangy dog’s temple was flourishing with incense, and there were countless old men and old women coming forth to give offerings. The virtue box in front of the mangy dog was stuffed with money. If you put a toad on the shrine, not even a mangy dog, people would still stuff it with money and offer incense!”

Qin Mu laughed, but as he continued, he slowly couldn’t laugh anymore.

“That’s why we need to open the economy and wisen the people. Only then could we break the gods in the temples and the god in the hearts,” the young patriarch said. “And to wisen the people, we need you guys to continue with the reform to increase the number of divine arts practitioners. They need to become more common and become gods.

“When divine arts practitioners that become gods continue to serve the people, the people will no longer pray to the gods in the temples. With the new wisdom, there will only be more divine arts practitioners.”

He then added, “Opening the economy, wisening the people is all part of the path of reform. What you guys are doing now is very good. Divine arts are being used for the people, but time is still required for the people gain wisdom and not kneel to the gods in the temples anymore. This journey is arduous, and it will first touch the benefits of the sects before touching the benefits of the high gods.

“High Heavens are only the dogs of the high gods, so there is probably an even greater danger behind.” He trimmed the sprays as he said, “The reform of Imperial Preceptor has added three more forms to the sword skills and began the change of the paths and skills in the heaven and earth. You spreading the technique to become god by mending the divine bridge has pushed the reform another step ahead.

“Si Yunxiang had offered incense and prayed to me, telling me that you and Princess Yuxiu founded the skill of awakening Six Directions Primordial Spirit. Numerous divine arts practitioners in Eternal Peace Empire had done their bit to help on the foundation and have by now created numerous techniques and divine arts. These are all great deeds.”

He straightened his back. “With the paths, skills, and divine arts improving day after day, there will be more and more gods in Eternal Peace Empire. In time, the gods in the temples will be broken, and when that happens, we won’t be far from breaking the gods in their hearts!”

Qin Mu’s mind trembled, and he threw down the shears. He did a long bow to the ground. “Patriarch is truly the sacred teacher of my Heavenly Saint Cult!”

The young patriarch also hurriedly threw away his shears and helped him up with a smile. “You are the cult master sacred teacher of our cult, so how could you call me sacred teacher? Quickly get up!”

At that moment, all the past cult masters in the surroundings bowed lowly to the ground and said in unison, “Sacred teacher!”

The young patriarch only noticed them now and was at a loss.

“Sacred teacher is a saint who’s a teacher. All the past cult masters aren’t deserving to be called the sacred teacher. Only you are worthy of this title and worthy of the respect of all the past cult masters!”

The young patriarch was flustered, various emotions flooding his heart. He couldn’t help the tears that flowed down his face.

He had never been a cult master before and was always excluded outside the circle of power in Heavenly Saint Cult. He had only carried the burden of Heavenly Saint Cult when it was in trouble.

That was why he had never even dreamed that he would be like Saint Woodcutter, receiving respect from all the past cult masters!

The only one who was worthy of all the cult masters’ respect was only Saint Woodcutter who imparted his teachings on the rock.