Tales of Herding Gods

Suddenly, Sang Hua seemed to feel something and stopped in her footsteps. The female devil in front also felt danger and immediately stopped. With not high but precipitous mountain separating them, they executed their divine arts. It happened nearly at the same time, each of them imprinting on the mountain in front of them.

The violent divine arts of the two women collided, and after a moment of silence, the mountain crumbled and dust rose into the sky like fog.

Within it, rune markings began to disintegrate and turned into spots of bright light as though they were exploding fireworks. The two women couldn’t see each other, and their sword and knife pellets flew out of their sleeves to circle around their beautiful bodies. The fine flying swords and curved knives fluttered around their clothing like fireflies dancing in the sky.

Sang Hua had learned from her father, God Sang Ye, so what she knew was sword skills. The female devil on the other side was Devil Knife Fu Luotuo’s disciple, so she cultivated knife skills.

They touched each other at the same instant, and they were like two butterflies flying around each other as their pellets spun. Incomparably fine knives and swords clashed, and sparks burst out.

“God Sang Ye’s sword skills, you are Sang Hua!”

“Devil Knife Fu Luotuo’s knife skills, you are Bi Yi!”

The two girls immediately recognized each other’s skills. Among the knife lights and sword shadows, the two graceful girls unleashed their divine arts at close range. A knife light penetrated through divine arts, and the sword light swept past hair. The bright light given off by the rolling pellets lit up their eyes and shone on their bodies.

Even though their corporeal bodies looked delicate, they possessed energy that even surpassed that of Qin Mu. When they saw each other, their bodies had already reacted before they could even form thoughts. With their palms, elbows, shoulders, legs, and knees, they attacked their opponent like a raging storm!

The two girls grunted and suffered from the other’s moves, falling out of the fireworks. They rolled down the mountain like tattered sacks and only stopped after some six-seven miles.

When they were about to stop rolling, the sword pellet and knife pellets that they had used to attack each other had come to their heads. The swords and knives rained down, and in an instant, hundreds of curved knives and flying swords poured down.

The two girls tumbled and flipped. Sang Hua took down the bow on her back and rolled around like a leopard cat. With every tumble, there would be over a dozen arrows shooting out. In the meantime, thirteen miles on the other side, Bi Yi had also taken out her devil bow to attack back.

Behind them, the knife and sword lights were still clashing.

The two girls went around a mountain and fought across it. The vibration of the bowstrings created crisp sounds as the mountain was pierced, gaining numerous holes.

As the two were sprinting at high speed to avoid each other’s arrows, swords, and knives, Sang Hua suddenly saw the huge ax and spear. They had actually gone back to the place where the two large weapons crossed.

One of the girls sprinted up the huge ax while the other jumped onto the black spear. They moved like snakes while attacking each other. When they finally fought to the peak of the two divine weapons, the two girls suddenly fell like shooting stars after executing all kinds of moves in midair.

Sang Hua hurriedly took a look and saw Bi Yi falling into the trap she had laid earlier. She then immediately activated the sword pellet formation she had set up!

“Ahhhh—”

As the only child of God Sang Ye, Sang Hua could have anything she wanted. Even though she couldn’t refine a sword pellet like Qin Mu, she felt no lack of sword pellets.

She had placed seven of them in her Seven Stars Sword Diagram. The divine arts practitioners of Supreme Emperor Heaven were too lazy to cultivate algebra, so they used the simplest method and that was to copy the sword diagrams that the ancestors had left behind. By refining treasure according to the methods left behind, the time they saved could be used on cultivation.

Seven Stars Sword Diagram was one such formation.

Seven Stars Sword Picture wasn’t very complicated and many divine arts practitioners just copied the sword diagrams. Their power wasn’t great, but with seven sword pellets, it would be no small matter.

In a life and death struggle, even if it was a short while in which one was hindered, it was enough to determine their fate. There was nothing then that needed to be said about falling into a trap.

Sang Hua acted without thinking. Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh. The curved bow shot numerous arrow lights into the sword diagrams. Bi Yi blocked left and right, defending hard against the attacks, but the next moment, the sword pellet from Sang Hua’s hand flew out and the flying swords formed a line. The first one stabbed through the devil’s heart of the brows, then the second followed right after, and so did the others. A few hundred swords flew out one after another from the back of her head.

Bi Yi’s body turned stiff as she was swallowed by the countless swords bursting forth from the Seven Stars Sword Diagram.

“I won?”

Sang Hua was stunned, and her confidence gained a huge boost. She put away her Seven Stars Sword Picture and her sword pellets, leaving the place where the ax and spear crossed to continue searching for opponents.

Outside the sand table world, God Sang Ye’s sweat was falling like rain. He was a god and was experienced, so he naturally knew that his daughter had won by luck.

Sang Hua might have experienced the massacre and been training diligently for a long time while experiencing numerous struggles of life and death, but she was still inferior compared to Bi Yi, this devil expert that had been in hundreds of battles. Her experience was a drop in the ocean in comparison.

Defeating Bi Yi was a fortunate event, but she couldn’t win by luck every time. If she encountered other devil experts, wouldn’t his last kin be killed in front of him?

Suddenly, God Sang Ye went still, stunned as he surveyed the sand table world.

Within it, another few battles had ended, and the number of devil experts had been reduced significantly. Only two people were left: Fu Riluo’s disciple Zhe Huali and True Devil Su Mo’s other disciple Jiang Yi.

The young experts of Supreme Emperor Heaven were left with Qin Mu, Yu He, Sang Hua, and Shu Yao. Yu He had found Shu Yao and the two of them worked together to kill strong practitioners with the advantage of numbers.

Of course, most of the enemies were still killed by Qin Mu, the grain thresher.

It was because he had killed three devil experts in a row that the divine arts practitioners of Supreme Emperor Heaven were able to hold an advantage.

Jiang Yi’s abilities were extremely high, but his injuries were quite serious after fighting head-on with the opponent, so his remaining battle power wasn’t too high. Maybe this would be enough for Sang Hua’s survival.

‘However, Yu He and Shu Yao also seem to be injured…”

God Sang Ye’s heart shook again. He watched as his daughter ran in the direction of the forging brat.

Meanwhile, at the border of the sand table world, Zhe Huali carried a demon knife like an ascetic monk, walking forward step by step. He didn’t use any divine arts so his speed wasn’t fast. His footsteps seemed to have been measured accurately by a ruler and every step he took was exactly a foot long. The length of each one was exactly the same, not an inch longer or an inch shorter.

This was the rule of his knife skills.

The experts of the devil race were usually open, and their moves were flashy and big, unbothered by trifles. They would burst forth with astonishing battle power without warning.

But Zhe Huali had learned from Divine Knife Luo Wushuang, an existence that was a knife god. Luo Wushuang’s knife skills were proficient in calculations and had awe-inspiring practices. The position, strength, footwork, body motions, and even muscle movement was measured extremely strictly. There was no room for any error.

Vital qi circulation at a deeper level, the mobilization of the primordial spirit, the intention, the essence all had to fulfill the requirements too.

Zhe Huali had grown up under such teachings so he was different from the divine arts practitioners of Supreme Emperor Heaven. To learn Luo Wushuang’s knife skills, he needed to be skilled in calculations. On top of that, he needed extremely high attainments in them.

Even though he had come down to Supreme Emperor Heaven under orders and become a disciple to Fu Riluo, he didn’t learn the unrestrained heroism from his new master. He was still using the rules he had learned from Luo Wushuang to restrain his words and actions, acting prim and proper at all times.

He came to the wall of fire of the sand table world and raised his head. Qin Mu’s back was facing him. The youth raised a sword to examine his craft in the light of the flame.

In contrast to Zhe Huali’s cautiousness, the youth had the same unrestrained heroism as Fu Riluo.

His figure when raising his sword had a kind of heroic bearing. Admiring a sword in front of the fire was a heroic emotion one couldn’t learn.

Zhe Huali’s heart couldn’t help but beat slightly faster. However, he swiftly calmed his mind down. At that moment, the youth with the sword seemed to have heard the speed of his heartbeat changing, for he lowered his head and glanced at him from the corner of his eyes.

However, Zhe Huali soon realized that the youth wasn’t looking at him from the corner of his eyes. Instead, he was looking at his sword and using the mirror-like surface to see what was happening behind him.

‘The reason he made it seem like he was looking at me from the corner of his eyes was to throw off my judgment. If I took the chance to make a move, my judgment would’ve been wrong and he would have gained the upper hand.’

Zhe Huali raised his eyebrows slightly. If experts like them were to make a wrong judgment from a minute movement of the enemy’s body, the enemy would not let go of it.

Sometimes, victory or defeat came from the simplest of errors!

‘He’s so experienced that it doesn’t fit his age.’

Zhe Huali took in a deep breath and pushed his shoulders back. It was this young man that his master Divine Knife couldn’t forget. He was someone to whom he even had to show his knife skills!

Zhe Huali suddenly bowed to Qin Mu and said solemnly, “My master is Luo Wushuang.”

Qin Mu turned around and placed the sword in his hand on the smelting table. “I know, I remember him.”

Zhe Huali didn’t get up and continued to say, “My master said that if I meet you, I need to ask you to see the knife skills he had founded!”

When he bowed, the demon eye on the demon knife behind his back suddenly opened, and bloody, vertical pupil swirled around. Its gaze was on the young man.

Qin Mu smiled and placed his palm on the smelting table. Flying swords flowed to him like fine sand and gathered under his palm, forming a perfect circular ball that was the size of a thumb.

“I would also like to see his knife skills very much.” Qin Mu held the sword pellet in his hand and said, “You’ll be executing his knife skills on behalf of him so you greeted me, but it was because you respect him and not because you respect me, isn’t that right?”

Zhe Huali straightened his back and nodded.

Qin Mu smiled lightly. “He executes his knife with one arm, so have you learned his knife skills with one arm too or two arms?”

Zhe Huali’s pupils contracted.

Qin Mu didn’t miss any minute changes in his expression and noticed his reaction. The smile on his face grew wider. “Zhe Huali, you can execute his knife skills to show me.”

Zhe Huali instantly felt an invisible pressure pressing down on his Dao heart!

Qin Mu had asked him if he mastered one arm or two arms, and this had given his Dao heart immense pressure. This was because Luo Wushuang was One-Armed Divine Knife!

If he mastered the skills with one arm, it meant that his other arm would end up useless. If he didn’t use that arm in battle, no matter what divine arts he executed, they would never be perfectly matched with his knife skills. In this case, he would have a large flaw.

If he had mastered the skills with two arms, it would mean that he had not learned Luo Wushuang’s One-Armed Divine Knife. Executing Luo Wushuang’s knife skills with two arms would mean that he could never execute them perfectly, that he would not master their essence!

Other than to fulfill Luo Wushuang’s wish, Zhe Huali had come down to the lower bound to find a method to perfect his knife skills from Fu Riluo. It was to patch his inadequateness through experience and battle, to advance another step closer to becoming a young true god in paths, skills, and divine arts.

And now, at the first face-off, he was completely seen through by his opponent. No matter if he were to execute his knife or not, it was impossible for him to stop halfway!

Outside the sand table world, Saint Woodcutter’s eyes lit up and he took a glance at the black tiger god beside him and said solemnly. “His frame of mind is clearly ridiculously strong, pressuring Zhe Huali the moment they met, so why did you say his frame of mind was weak?”

The black tiger god covered his ears and whimpered in grievance. “His frame of mind is really very weak, his expressions keep changing drastically… That’s right, my lord, didn’t you also say he had a bouncy temper and that the cultivation of his frame of mind was too weak?”

Saint Woodcutter’s expression didn’t change. “I didn’t, don’t speak nonsense, you have heard wrong.”

The black tiger god pouted, and a vein popped out on Saint Woodcutter’s forehead. The black tiger god then immediately looked down and laughed. “It was this little tiger who had heard wrong.”