Tales of Herding Gods

The white-haired elder wore green clothing that had been washed pale. He placed the fishing net in his hands, and Qin Mu felt something moving on his chest. Next, he saw the Emperor’s Disk change into a small dragon that popped its head out from under his collar.

When Jiang Miao saw the small dragon, he couldn’t help changing back into his true form. He became a small dragon also and hid behind Qin Mu with a low growl that was both respectful and fearful. “Ma ha—”

The little dragon with its head out was a true dragon lord. It opened its mouth to yawn before slowly crawling out from Qin Mu’s collar and slithering to the hand of the white-haired elder. It coiled up in his hand and closed its eyes sleepily.

Immediately, numerous young men and women walked out from the small village, surrounding Qin Mu and Jiang Miao. One of the robust young men asked, “Old Ancestor, are they here to create trouble?”

The white-haired elder smiled. “No, they aren’t. Don’t scare them, these two have some fate with our village.”

The young men and women lost their enmity then and examined Qin Mu and the Little Dragon Jiang Miao that was behind him.

Qin Mu was astonished. The young men and women all had vigorous vital qi, and every one of them was hiding their light under a bushel. However, when they had surrounded them, Qin Mu had heard seven explosions from opening the divine treasures coming from the youngest girl’s body, making it clear that she was an expert on Divine Bridge Realm!

Yet she should’ve been the weakest in the village as everyone was protecting her!

Even the weakest villager in this place that was by no means large was on Divine Bridge Realm!

Qin Mu had thought that Disabled Elderly Village was the strongest village in Great Ruins, but from the looks of it, Great Ruins was really a place of concealed talents.

“Besides the Emperor’s Disk, you also have the true dragon’s nest.”

The white-haired elder looked astonished when his gaze landed on the youth’s waist. Qin Mu took off the taotie sack and brought out the true dragon’s nest, placing it respectfully in front of the white-haired elder. “May senior take a look at it.”

The spirit of the true dragon lord immediately rose and swam into the true dragon’s nest.

When the other villagers saw it, their spirits rose, and they wanted to tunnel into the dragon’s nest with that little dragon.

However, they resisted the urge.

‘Could the villagers here be dragons and not humans? Is this a village of dragons?’

Qin Mu made his own guesses after noticing everyone’s reaction.

“The Emperor’s Disk of Ling Family was stolen by my Grandpa Cripple who gave it to me. As for the true dragon’s nest, it was refined by Dragon Rearing Sovereign of High Heavens. Since I subdued him, the true dragon’s nest also fell into my hands. Senior, you are the god that refined the Emperor’s Disk, right?”

The white-haired elder’s gaze landed on the true dragon’s nest, and he spoke with a smile that was not a smile. “Back when I refined the true dragon lord into the Emperor’s Disk and entered Middle Earth to find a successor, I met a young fellow with extraordinary aptitude and comprehension. He was the old ancestor of Ling Family. I saw that he had the qi of the true dragon so I gave the Emperor’s Disk to him and imparted the dragon language and technique on the Emperor’s Disk.

“But what could I do that his mind wasn’t on this and he went to chase after some girl instead? In the end, he managed to chase catch that girl, but by then he had forgotten most of the dragon language and technique I had taught him. It was then that I knew that this young fellow wasn’t the true dragon lord.”

Qin Mu had once heard Ling Yuxiu talk about this before and had found it funny. But never had he expected it to be true!

“However, I’m lazy by nature and I had been asked by another to refine the true dragon lord and find a successor. Since the successor wasn’t useless, I let him be,” the white-haired elder said with a smile.

“Who would have thought that even though the young fellow wasn’t hard working, his descendants were all very hard working and managed to strengthen Eternal Peace Empire to its current state. Since Emperor’s Disk fell into your hands and you also have the true dragon’s nest, you must be after the technique on it, right?”

“Senior, I’m indeed rather interested in the technique on the true dragon’s nest; however, I’ve come here because of Heavenly Saint Cult’s Founding Master. He is my big senior brother and he left a geographical map which marked this village, so I’ve found my way here,” Qin Mu explained respectfully.

The white-haired elder was stunned and pondered over it. “Heavenly Saint Cult’s Founding Master? Is that the young fellow whose name is Wei Fengsui?”

Qin Mu hesitated. He didn’t know what was the name of his big senior brother.

The white-haired elder saw his expression and smiled. “He once came to find me and asked me how to gain merit. He wasn’t a bad youth and his abilities were extremely extraordinary. Teacher had found a good disciple.

“However, if Wei Fengsui wanted to become a saint, it was very hard for him to gain merit as the path he walked was Teacher’s path, and it is very difficult. I couldn’t teach him anything. If you are his junior brother and have also come to ask me on how to become a saint, I can’t teach you anything as well.”

The teacher he had been mentioning probably referred to Saint Woodcutter who once was the heavenly teacher of Founding Emperor Celestial Heaven. He’d been in charge of teaching all the princes and princesses of Founding Emperor’s bloodline.

“May I ask if my big senior brother mentioned where he was planning to go?” Qin Mu asked.

The white-haired elder shook his head. “He didn’t say where he planned to go, but he left something behind. If he made you look for me, it should be for that item.”

He stood up and walked into the straw hut. After a moment, he brought out a red box and handed it over.

Qin Mu opened it and saw a palm-sized token engraved with a picture of a ferocious beast.

Qin Mu flipped it around, but he still didn’t understand what it was. He sincerely sought enlightenment and asked, “May I ask senior what is the use of this token?”

“This is a commander’s seal used to mobilize soldiers. There’s a formation with positions for gods in it, but it’s extremely ancient, so it’s most likely useless now,” the white-haired elder said.”Even I don’t recognize some of the runes on this, so it might be a commander’s seal from High Emperor Era or even earlier.”

He took back the commander’s seal and activated it with his magic power. They saw stars rise from the commander’s seal and swirl around them. “These stars are the positions for gods. If they’re all taken, they could use this formation to face the enemy and fight against it.”

Qin Mu raised his head and noticed that the stars that had flown out of the commander’s seal weren’t truly stars. They were apparitions, but there was an extremely high number of them. There were probably several thousand stars, and his heart couldn’t help shuddering. He muttered, “A formation of several thousand gods… What kind of battle requires several thousand gods and devils?”

“Your horizons are too narrow.” The white-haired elder retrieved his magic power, and the star apparitions vanished. He said with a smile, “During Founding Emperor Era, there were more than a few such battles. The formation in this commander’s seal isn’t of much use anymore, but it’s still a pretty nice collectible.”

Qin Mu looked at him in bewilderment. “How is the formation useless?”

The white-haired elder handed the commander’s seal to him and said, “Tthe Great Dao of Heaven and Earth have changed, so the formation in the commander’s seal is no longer compatible with it. The formation also has no more power left. This item is very ancient, and it’s no longer compatible with the Dao. It’s probably something from tens of thousands of years ago, but as for which era it comes, that’s not something that I know.”

Qin Mu placed the commander’s seal back into the red box and put it away in his taotie sack.

Since Founding Master Wei Fengsui had left the red box and the commander’s seal with the white-haired elder, it meant that this item was definitely very important. His reason to lead Qin Mu to the village was definitely for it.

“Forgive this junior’s impudence, but may I ask for senior’s name?” Qin Mu said.

The white-haired elder smiled at him. “I thought a descendant of Qin Family would know my name, but you actually don’t. I’m a dragon vein that attained Dao and cultivated itself into a true dragon. Back then, I followed after your ancestor. Because I was just born and didn’t know how to talk, I could only cry out ma ha, so your ancestor named me like that. My surname is Ma and my name is Haqing; he used it to make fun of me.”

Qin Mu looked at him with a weird expression. “Ma Haqing…”

Jiang Miao popped his head out from Qin Mu’s back and said timidly, “Ma ha—”

The white-haired elder continued his story. “Afterwards, I became an official in the celestial heavens which had four great celestial palaces. I oversaw Green Dragon Palace and its Sixty Star God Divisions. All of them was under my administration. I was honored as Green Emperor, but I disliked this title since it was too overbearing, and I changed my name to Qing Huang. Now that Founding Emperor Celestial Heavens was eradicated and Green Dragon Celestial Palace no longer exists, you can just call me Elder Qing Huang.”

Qin Mu greeted him once again and said, “Qin Family’s one hundred seventh descendant Qin Mu pays his respects to Elder Qing Huang.”

Elder Qing Huang hurriedly motioned for him to straighten. “Please rise. When I saw you coming here, I immediately knew your bloodline and guessed you were a descendant of Founding Emperor. You want to learn the dragon language of this true dragon’s nest? I can teach you.”

Qin Mu was overjoyed and bowed in gratitude. “Thanks for the trouble, senior.”

Elder Qing Huang brought him into the true dragon’s nest and said, “I see that your paths, skills, and divine arts have already gained small success, and you seem to be cultivating both god and devil paths. You seem to have opened your divine treasures of both, which is very strange. Seeing how you have already found your path, learning the technique of my dragon race will only be decorating something that’s already perfect. On the other hand, for this little dragon, you should receive a lot of benefits.”

Jiang Miao which was a little dragon at that moment tiptoed behind Qin Mu. When he heard what Elder Qing Huang said, he shrunk his head back and said, “Ma ha…”

Elder Qing Huang smiled at him. “No need to thank me. If you want to thank someone, thank him. That’s right, Qin Mu, I can sense something very strange about your body, and it’s on your neck. It seems to be a jade pendant with a very powerful seal hidden inside it.”

“Is this what the senior has sensed?” Qin Mu took out his jade pendant and said, “It was crafted by Earth Count, and he said it’s to seal my devil nature. I was born in Youdu and got invaded by the devil nature lingering in there, so Earth Count crafted this for me. As long as I wear it, it can suppress my devil nature.”

Elder Qing Huang looked at the jade pendant and sneered. “Earth Count sealed your devil nature? Why would he be so nice? Give me that jade pendant, I’ll help you undo the seal!”

“This…” Qin Mu looked at him with a troubled expression and said in a low voice, “Senior, King Yama once tried to undo it and suffered the curse of the jade pendant. Also, Fu Riluo of the devil race also tried to undo the seal and got cursed as well; he ended up in quite a miserable state. My master and King Yama said that it’s best to not undo the seal in the jade pendant and that I shouldn’t let the jade pendant leave my body. Otherwise, terrifying things will happen…”

“What is there to fear from a mere curse?” Elder Qing Huang said with a smile. “However, if even Teacher said so, then there must be a reason, Come, let me clear your doubts in regards to the true dragon technique on the true dragon’s nest!”