Tales of Herding Gods

Qin Mu sent the memorial asking to leave the celestial heavens to travel to the Jade Capital’s Numinous Sky Hall. Soon, Celestial Emperor approved it and gave him a Heavenly Dragon Treasure Carriage as a show of his authority as a Celestial Venerable.

Qin Mu knew the approval came from the ten Celestial Venerables, not Celestial Emperor.

There were grudges between them, and they were busy trying to suppress one another. It was to the point that they didn’t even have time for the Great Void or Carefree Village. Qin Mu’s stay in the celestial heavens wasn’t useful to them, so they let him out with some surveillance.

Yun Chuxiu tagged along too.

Qin Mu was visibly unnerved. ‘I’m leaving the celestial heavens this time to find the ancestral court of the masters of creation, visit the ancient gods of each realm, and to avoid the celestial heavens and summon the soul of Celestial Venerable Yun. Yet, you came to provoke and spy on me. Hehe, Divine Knife Luo has cut you down once, he won’t be afraid of doing it again!’

Qin Mu was satisfied with the Heavenly Dragon Treasure Carriage, for it was luxurious and was pulled by nine heavenly dragons at the Jade Capital Realm. Although it paled in comparison to Divine King Lang Wo’s carriage, it was still the most luxurious carriage Qin Mu has ever used.

“You’re dead!” Yun Chuxiu exclaimed upon seeing the carriage. She was excited to the point of trembling.

Qin Mu angrily replied, “You’re the dead one! How dare you speak like this to me, I’m Celestial Venerable Mu!”

“These nine heavenly dragons are from East Deity Qing Long’s bloodline, which you are going to see at the East Pole, right?”

Yun Chuxiu gleefully said, “When he sees how you are using his relatives to pull your carriage, he will be furious. Aren’t you dead?”

Qin Mu improvised and said, “Then I will have them sit in the carriage while I get Fatty Dragon to pull it.”

Yun Chuxiu examined the canopy and said, “You’re still dead. Look at the Heavenly Dao web imprinted on the canopy. The orbital track of the stars on it resembles Heaven Duke. When we reach him, he will kill you!”

Qin Mu’s face was as black as charcoal as he entered to observe it. The Heavenly Dao web formed Heaven Duke’s figure. Using him to shelter oneself would anger him greatly.

“Look beneath the carriage too.”

Yun Chuxiu looked at the bottom of the carriage, waving at him and telling him, “Come! The formation markings here are the Black Tortoise’s Markings. When you ride, you are essentially crushing the Black Tortoise. When the Black Tortoise of the North Pole sees this, he will kill you too!”

Qin Mu came to her side, and they looked at the bottom of the carriage.

She was indeed telling the truth, which made Qin Mu’s face even blacker.

“The golden chrome of the carriage has formation markings of White Tiger’s stripes. It’s indestructible and can break all obstacles. The stripes are on the handle too.”

Yun Chuxiu jumped back into the carriage and examined the seats, gleefully saying, “You are sitting on West Deity White Tiger while grabbing her head. Would she allow that?”

Qin Mu’s heart was pounding when he asked, “Is there more?”

“There are the Vermillion Bird markings at the back of the carriage to form its rainbow wings. Would South Deity Vermillion Bird tolerate you using her as the tail of your carriage?”

Yun Chuxiu jumped on the carriage’s shaft and picked up the whip on it, smiling and saying, “The driver sits here with the whip in his hand, yet the shaft has the Great Dao of Youdu on it, which allows the carriage to ignore it and drive straight into Youdu.”

Qin Mu relaxed and said, “I have good relations with Earth Count. It’s fine to draft the Great Dao of Youdu.”

Yun Chuxiu coldly smiled. “Earth Count uses a whip. Your driver sitting here uses a whip too. Will Earth Count let you off?”

Qin Mu’s face was as black as iron as he furiously said, “This carriage was given to me by you lot, the ten Celestial Venerables! It’s none of my business! Besides, you’re part of it, right? Who is to say that you’re not part of this scheme!”

He was leaving to visit the ancient gods of each realm, which was the official reason given in court too. The celestial heavens gave him this carriage with the intent to get him killed.

Yun Chuxiu shook her leg and said while smiling, “Yeah! I recommended this carriage, and everyone agreed, so we gave it to you.”

Qin Mu furiously humphed. Divine King Lang Wo had already approached and sat in the carriage. She sat in the seat next to the main seat and said, “This carriage isn’t bad. Celestial Venerable, when are we setting off?”

Yan’er stood on the dragon qilin’s head while they ran towards them. Dutian Devil King was sitting on the dragon qilin’s back with his legs crossed, but when they got near, he leaped to the carriage’s shaft.

Yun Chuxiu smirked and passed the whip to him. Dutian Devil King took it and praised, “This carriage is good, it must be fast!”

Yun Chuxiu lifted her hands and rubbed her neck.

Qin Mu rolled his eyes before asking Yan’er, “Sister Yan’er, have you seen big head?”

Yan’er replied, “He has been learning with Qi Jiuyi for the past few days. I ordered someone to find him. He should be here soon.”

The dragon qilin hopped in the carriage and slept on the carpet, while Yan’er flew from his head and landed on the carriage’s poles, fluttering her feathers.

Soon, Shu Jun arrived. When he saw the carriage, he praised, “Good carriage! It’s very luxurious!” After saying that, he boarded it and sat on the right side of the main seat.

Qin Mu was helpless and could only board it and sit in the main seat.

Yun Chuxiu got on too. Seeing how there were no seats left, she wanted to sit on Qin Mu’s laps. Qin Mu was going to kick her out, but Divine King Lang Wo smiled and said, “Sister, sit here. This seat is spacious.”

Yun Chuxiu squeezed into the seat with her as she giggled and said, “Sister Lang Wo, we are like biological sisters, which would explain why we look so similar.”

Divine King Lang Wo smiled and said, “Yeah.”

Yun Chuxiu blinked and looked at the willow leaf on her forehead. She curiously asked, “What’s beneath that leaf, Sister?”

“You wouldn’t want to know.” Divine King Lang Wo smiled gently.

Outside, Dutian Devil King waved his whip, and the dragons rose into the air, pulling the carriage with them. The wheels of the carriage moved and created a Black Tortoise peculiarity, enough to cross the long and winding celestial river.

“Where are we going, Cult Master?”

Dutian Devil King’s voice came from the outside as he said, “There are many Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridges in the celestial heavens that connect it to thousands of worlds. If we use one, we can save a lot of time.”

Qin Mu was going to speak when Yun Chuxiu excitedly interrupted him, saying, “The East Pole first!”

Qin Mu could no longer tolerate her. With a serious expression, he pointed at her, trembling. He laughed out of anger and said, “Yuanmu, you have fallen like a broken can and lost all of your demeanor. Don’t forget how I beat up your bastard child Celestial Venerable Hao until he couldn’t take care of himself for a thousand years! It was even in front of you, and you couldn’t do anything!”

Yun Chuxiu jumped on him and carefully hammered his legs. She looked up at him and pitifully said, “Don’t be angry, Celestial Venerable. How do you know I’m Yuanmu? Did someone reveal something in the Great Void? Although I do like it when you’re angry…”

He had no way to unleash his anger, so he humphed.

Yun Chuxiu smiled and said, “Hao’er isn’t good at all. He schemed against his father and me! He was too weak to do it himself, so he hired Celestial Venerable Ling to deal with me instead. Luckily, I was smart enough to defend myself against Celestial Venerable Ling. I faked my death at her hands, allowing her to grant me my wish. I was originally angry about you beating him up, but I became happy that you did it.”

She hammered Qin Mu’s legs and excitedly said, “A lot of Celestial Venerables will strike out against you during this trip, including Hao’er! You offended him too badly! People want to see him beat you up personally!”

Qin Mu said disappointingly, “It would be bad if Celestial Venerable Hao beat me to death. Go back to your seat to rest, there’s no need to hammer my legs. Dutian, we are going to the Primordial Realm first instead of the East Pole. It has been a long time since I was there. I want to visit friends and relatives back home first.”

Dutian Devil King nodded and had the dragons pull the carriage towards a Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge.

Yun Chuxiu excitedly ran out of the carriage to take in the view while holding onto its pole.

Divine King Lang Wo looked at Qin Mu with some visible suspicion. Qin Mu used his consciousness to transmit his voice, “She’s Mistress Yuanmu of the ten Celestial Venerables. However, I don’t know who among the ten she is. Mistress Yuanmu is an ancient god born from the Ruins of End. She’s the mistress of Celestial Emperor and the younger sister of Celestial Empress.”

“Her temper is weird.”

Divine King Lang Wo asked, “As Mistress Yuanmu of the Ruins of End, shouldn’t she act proper, dignified, and magnanimous? How is she like this?”

Qin Mu sighed. This Mistress Yuanmu’s personality had become elusive after taking on Jue Wuchen’s appearance.

Shu Jun used his consciousness to cut into their communication and said, “Ancient God Yuanmu controlled the power to destroy everything. In the primordial era, she was like this, annoying yet lovable.”

Qin Mu glanced at him and asked, “Divine King Shu Jun, did you know that the ancient Celestial Emperor was born from an egg?”

Shu Jun nodded and said, “I did.”

Qin Mu hastily asked, “Then, where did the egg come from?”

“I don’t know about that.”

Shu Jun shook his head and said, “We don’t know where the Grand Primordium Origin Stone and Grand Primordium Divine Stones came from either, nor do we know the origins of the primordial liquid or the great beasts of the primordial era. The egg of the ancient Celestial Emperor was picked up by the Grand Emperor’s people in the ancestral courts. I know little about this.”

Qin Mu frowned.

Shu Jun continued, “Accordingly, the Grand Emperor’s clan realized that the egg was big and filled with life after discovering it. Thus, the life had to be older than us, just dormant. In the early days, they even worshipped it like a holy object. After finding the Grand Primordium Divine Stones, we became gods, so they threw the egg away. Someday, someone took it out and continued to worship it. It was then that the ancient Celestial Emperor was born from it! They created their own tragedies.”

He shook his head and sighed.

The breaking out of the ancient Celestial Emperor from his egg was the beginning of the masters of creation’s extinction.

“Which Celestial Venerables, in your opinion, will strike out against you during this trip?”

Divine King Lang Wo inquired, “Just now, Yuanmu said that Celestial Venerable Hao will strike. Besides him, who else will?”

Yun Chuxiu poked in and said, “We entered the Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge! What are you guys talking about?”

Qin Mu calmed himself down, looked at the howling light outside, and said, “We were talking about who will strike out against me during this trip outside of the celestial heavens. Mistress Yuanmu, I believe you think someone’s trying to kill me this time, right?”

“Don’t call me Yuanmu. I’m Yun Jianli’s younger sister now. I’m following you down to find my brother.”

Yun Chuxiu thought about it and said, “Every Celestial Venerable has a reason to do so, even me. However, the celestial heavens still has a lot of secrets that you aren’t privy to. The one you harmed the most isn’t Hao’er, it’s the Grand Emperor. He hid well enough, yet you revealed that he’s amongst us. I don’t think he will sit well with that.”

Qin Mu asked, “If you can guess that the Grand Emperor will strike, the other Celestial Venerables probably guessed that too. Will he still strike?”

Yun Chuxiu blinked and, after a while, leisurely said, “The celestial heavens had an eleventh Celestial Venerable. However, he has been dead for 40,000 years. He was the one who used the ancient Celestial Emperor’s corporeal body to kill Celestial Venerable Ling. He was trapped to death in her divine art. His corporeal body should still be intact. If he’s the Grand Emperor and is still alive, this corporeal body of his will mobilize.”

She smiled. “If he does use it to kill you, no one will be able to expose him.”

Qin Mu’s heart shuddered as he let out a ragged breath. “How smart. He won’t be able to hide if his corporeal body leaves the celestial heavens. In that case, you guys…”

Yun Chuxiu shook her head and said, “It’s not in the celestial heavens.”

Qin Mu was slightly stunned.

Yun Chuxiu giggled and said, “He was buried in the Primordial Realm. I told you to go to the East Pole first, yet you insisted on going to the Primordial Realm. Aren’t you seeking death?”

Qin Mu’s mind was blown. Suddenly, the carriage stopped, and Dutian Devil King’s said, “Cult Master, we’re at the Primordial Realm!”