Tales of Herding Gods

Among his 15 celestial palaces, the first was his main celestial palace. It was created from the Great Dao contained in his Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure.

The second was the Great Overarching Consciousness celestial palace. There were also the celestial palaces of the sword, dragon, devil, creation, the martial path, and the painting path.

Those eight celestial palaces were complete.

However, the rest of the seven celestial palaces, such as the knife, medicine, divine arts, forging, the Buddhist path, the thief path, and the formation path, weren’t complete.

This time, Qin Mu tried to use his primordial spirit to break through the Southern Heavenly Gates of his eight completed celestial palaces. In this way, he would be considered as having stepped into the true god realm, except that it wasn’t fully complete.

When Butcher and Old Ma’s had reached a certain level of success with their cultivation and comprehended techniques that would bring them directly to the Emperor’s Throne, Qin Mu could then learn those techniques and perfect his remaining seven celestial palaces.

His current Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique could be considered a Small Celestial Heavens technique. However, there was still quite some distance between that and the Great Celestial Heavens technique of the 18 celestial palaces.

Qin Mu mobilized his Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique as his primordial spirit stood in front of the Southern Heavenly Gate of his main celestial palace. Suddenly, his primordial spirit divided into 15 parts, turning into 15 primordial spirits that appeared in the center of his 15 celestial palaces.

That was the art of primordial spirit division of the Three Primordial Spirit Undying God Consciousness.

Crimson Emperor’s Three Primordial Spirit Undying God Consciousness had been improved and integrated by him into his Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique, and it was different from other people’s Celestial Heavens Realm cultivation techniques. For instance, Mistress Yuanmu and Celestial Empress’ Great Celestial Heavens technique utilized projections of primordial spirits. Their primordial spirits were projected into their celestial palaces and weren’t real primordial spirits.

Qin Mu used the division of primordial spirit, which created real primordial spirits.

The 15 primordial spirits of Qin Mu advanced side by side, entering the Southern Heavenly Gates together.

A formless pressure surged forth. The pressure of Southern Heavenly Gates was strange, attacking from all directions. Every inch of the primordial spirits’ skin was under tremendous pressure. Not only that, but every corner of the inside of their bodies was under pressure from every direction.

Before, Qin Mu didn’t understand where this pressure came from. Now, he knew that it was Dao pressure.

The realm of celestial palaces imitated the structure of the celestial heavens. The Southern Heavenly Gate was the celestial heavens’ Southern Heavenly Gate, which was created by the Great Dao of the ancient gods.

It could be said that for every god that entered the god realm, their Southern Heavenly Gate was the projection of the celestial heavens’ Southern Heavenly Gate. By entering the gate, withstanding the Dao pressure, and walking into the celestial palace, they were considered true gods.

However, among Qin Mu’s celestial palaces were Southern Heavenly Gates created by Postcelestial Great Dao. The four celestial palaces of the sword, creation, the martial path, and the painting path all had different forms of pressure, which was different from the pressure of the traditional Southern Heavenly Gate.

The Southern Heavenly Gate of the celestial palace of the sword seemed to have countless flying swords piercing his primordial spirit from all directions, damaging his primordial spirit’s Sword Dao. He was left with no choice but to mobilize his Sword Dao to resist.

He felt that he was facing Founding Emperor, the great emperor of the Sword Dao. His primordial spirit involuntarily performed various sword moves to contend against the formless Founding Emperor.

In the Southern Heavenly Gate of the celestial palace of the painting path, he seemed to have entered into countless incredible painting worlds. Every step forward seemed to pass through thousands of worlds, causing him to experience all kinds of hardships.

His primordial spirit used Dao as a brush and vital qi and consciousness as ink, drawing a lustrous and dazzling world in the Southern Heavenly Gate. It was as if he was fighting against the art saint, Deaf, using painting path to resist painting path.

In the Southern Heavenly Gate of the celestial palace of creation, it was as though he had encountered Crimson Emperor and Light Emperor, competing with those two magnificent great emperors of creation on the path of creation!

In the Southern Heavenly Gate of the celestial palace of the martial path, he seemed to be battling the powerful great emperor of the martial path. It felt as though he was fighting Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher!

Qin Mu’s eight primordial spirits walked forward at the same time. The pressure of the Southern Heavenly Gates was growing, causing his primordial spirits to gradually shrink.

He acted decisively and mobilized his corporeal body’s functions, combining his spirit and body into one as he resisted the pressure and continuing to move forward with great difficulty.

It was very easy to resist the traditional Southern Heavenly Gates. However, resisting a celestial palace that was created by Postcelestial Great Dao was extremely difficult.

It was because the Great Dao of ancient gods had already been researched thoroughly, while research on the Postcelestial Great Dao was still in its infancy.

His main primordial spirit, together with the primordial spirits of Great Overarching Consciousness, dragon, and devil, had individually managed to pass through the Southern Heavenly Gates. However, his primordial spirits of the sword, the martial path, the painting path, and creation were still trapped in their Southern Heavenly Gates.

The treasure carriage traveled through the depths of the starry sky, unknowingly arriving at the celestial river again. The dragon qilin was steering the carriage while Yan’er was trying her best to digest the ancient god that she had consumed.

‘At this speed, it’ll take at least half a year before we arrive at the position given by Cult Master.’

The dragon qilin looked in front and saw that the flow of the present celestial river was different from the celestial river of the later generations. In the distance, he saw a galaxy descending from the heights of the universe, flowing towards the four poles.

Countless stars revolved around this galaxy. The water of the celestial river flowed from Xuandu. Hence, the top of that galaxy should have been situated in Xuandu.

At that moment, the Heavenly Dragon Treasure Carriage was heading towards the bottom of the galaxy.

Inside the spacious carriage, Qin Mu was cultivating and paid no attention to the others. Da Hong and Gu Xiao were trying to pry information from Luo Xiao. No matter the kind of flowery language they used, they were unable to get Luo Xiao to reveal the location of the Great Void.

Time passed leisurely. Eventually, the Heavenly Dragon Treasure Carriage arrived below the galaxy. They stopped moving forward and advanced into the depths of where the galaxy had descended instead.

At that moment, Qin Mu had finally broken through the Southern Heavenly Gate of the celestial palace of the sword. Soon after, he broke through the Southern Heavenly Gates of the celestial palaces of the martial path and creation, leaving only the celestial palace of the painting path.

“Cult Master, we are going to arrive at our destination soon!” The voice of the dragon qilin traveled over.

Qin Mu opened his eyes and let out a shaky breath. The primordial spirit of the painting path retreated from the Southern Heavenly Gate of its celestial palace and didn’t continue on.

His painting path was far inferior to that of Deaf. Even if he continued on, he wasn’t confident in breaking through the Southern Heavenly Gate and becoming a true god of the painting path.

“My three big brothers, we will arrive at the ancestral court soon. Let’s go out,” Qin Mu said to Da Hong and the rest.

Da Hong, Gu Xiao, and Luo Xiao stepped forward and looked at Qin Mu, each revealing a shocked expression.

The Qin Mu of then was very different from several months back. The aura he gave off had a strange Dao charm. He stood there as though he was cut off from the rest of the world.

It felt as though Qin Mu’s body contained a universe that was isolated from the outside universe. It had its own Great Dao of Heaven and Earth and its own state of primordial chaos.

‘His cultivation path is definitely different from other divine arts practitioners and gods!’ Gu Xiao and Da Hong secretly thought to themselves.

Qin Mu’s cultivation path was indeed different from the rest.

Before the Dragon Han Era, there were no such things as realms. During the long period of time between the annihilation of the masters of creation and the first year of the Dragon Han Era, where the celestial heavens were established, the half-god race grew and became stronger.

During this period, people didn’t cultivate, relying on bloodline to separate the strong from the weak instead.

The stronger and better the bloodline, the more powerful their abilities.

During this period, the children of ancient gods ruled each and every race in the world. God Emperor Lang Xuan and Ancestral God King were the leaders among them.

Around the first year of the Dragon Han Era, the seven Celestial Venerables created the seven realms of divine treasures. After Celestial Venerable Yu’s death, Qin Mu improvised on his own and comprehended the longevity method of becoming a god. He and Celestial Venerable Hao then imparted that to the people, together with the seven realms of the celestial palace and the Celestial Heavens Realm.

The term “realms” was hence created.

Therefore, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the realms were created by Qin Mu and other Celestial Venerables.

Many people of the later generations hadn’t thought about this and rashly used realms to measure Qin Mu, hence drawing incorrect conclusions about his cultivation strength. As a result, plenty of gods and devils died by his hands.

In the first year of the Dragon Han Era, the cultivation system of divine treasures and celestial palaces established by Qin Mu and the seven Celestial Venerables hadn’t yet taken firm root among the masses. During this period, the half-gods and other races cultivated these systems so that they could be immortal like the ancient gods.

The half-gods cultivated divine treasures and celestial palaces for immortality, but bloodlines still determined the extent of their abilities.

However, in the long years that followed, more and more people realized the strength of the system of divine treasures and celestial palaces. As a result, the views about bloodlines were gradually marginalized.

One’s bloodline no longer represented their abilities. This was a subversion against the ancient gods. Hence, the revolution of the Dragon Han Era was called the Dragon Han Revolution.

What was revolutionized were the lives of the half-gods and ancient gods.

In the long years that followed, the system of divine treasures and celestial palaces took firm root among the masses. Its roots were so deep that people didn’t raise any doubts about it and had stopped thinking about why the system of divine treasures and celestial palaces made people so powerful.

However, Qin Mu and the rest who were born a million years later—Jiang Baigui, Emperor Yanfeng, Xu Shenghua, Wang Muran, Lin Xuan, and other pioneers of Eternal Peace’s reform—had already started doubting this truth.

Hence, the Celestial River Divine Treasure was created to overturn the Divine Bridge Divine Treasure.

Qin Mu was the greatest revolutionary of the reform of the system of divine treasures and celestial palaces.

After the calamity of Eternal Peace, he was left without a soul and had to rely on his consciousness to maintain his life, temporarily surviving. He then created the Facing Calamity Sword, destroying his own celestial palace and seven great divine treasures. Following that, he reopened his Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure and regained his soul.

He used his Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure to evolve into the primordial state of the universe and the ancient gods, completely surpassing the cultivation system of divine treasures. He had already created a totally different path from his predecessors and the wise men of the past.

It was very difficult to solely use realms to measure his attainments.

The well-known realms of divine treasures and celestial palaces were created by him and the seven Celestial Venerables, but they were also broken by him.

After he reopened his Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure, its cultivation was on the same level as a true god, or even someone at the Jade Pool Realm.

He could have even abandoned the system of celestial palaces and celestial heavens completely and sought his own path, ceaselessly moving forward until he reached a brilliant and extraordinary realm!

However, in order to grow rapidly, he forsook this path, returning to the system of celestial palaces and celestial heavens.

However, after experiencing that transformation, he was very different from the gods and divine arts practitioners who cultivated the system of celestial palaces.

To him, all along, he only had one realm, which was the Spirit Embryo Realm.

It was because his celestial palaces or celestial heavens weren’t above the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure but within it!

The Celestial Palace Realm and Celestial Heavens Realm were just two small realms in his Spirit Embryo Realm!

The seven realms of the Celestial Palace Realm were tiny realms within the small realm!

This was the difference between him and the gods and divine arts practitioners.

For him, the realms of celestial palaces and even the realm of celestial heavens were one. They all resided in the Spirit Embryo Realm.

Others were like students who followed blindly. For him, after the calamity of Eternal Peace, he had already broken free and surpassed the realm he created.

Realms were used as the framework for the founders to teach ordinary folks about cultivation. As a founder, he tried to break out of the restraints of realms.

Naturally, Qin Mu would need to rely on the wisdom of the people of the past million years. To go further, he even needed the wisdom of the reformers.

This was the reason he didn’t abandon the system of celestial palaces and celestial heavens.

He needed the wisdom of those people to grow.

Only by doing that would he be able to, within the shortest possible time, cultivate to a level where he could contend with the ten Celestial Venerables.

In that regard, he wasn’t completely a revolutionary.

A revolution was to overturn totally. Without that, with only some tinkering, it would merely be considered a reform.

The Dragon Han Era was considered a revolution. It overturned the determinism viewpoint of bloodlines, allowing cultivation to become mainstream.

The Crimson Light Era was considered a revolution. It overturned the advantages of half-gods over humans, allowing humans to become as strong as them.

The High Emperor Era was considered a revolution. It overturned the respect humans had for gods, putting forward the belief that human lives were greater than the heavens, even putting that belief into practice.

The Founding Emperor Era was a reform, continuing the fruits of the labor of the High Emperor Era. If the Founding Emperor Era was able to imprint the void with the Postcelestial Great Dao, then Founding Emperor, Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher, and the rest would become a new generation of ancient gods. In that case, it would be considered a revolution rather than a reform.

Eternal Peace didn’t overturn the prior generations but improved and perfected the system of divine treasures and celestial palaces. This was why the reform of Eternal Peace couldn’t be called a revolution.

The efforts of people and gods in the five eras, where generation after generation had used their lives and blood to perfect the system of divine treasures and celestial palaces, allowed the continuous advancement of ideas.

Qin Mu represented a completely different trend to this million-year-long revolution and reform.

Qin Mu stepped out of the treasure carriage and looked in front. There was only a sea of void, with no stars, nebula, or light. It was as though that was the dark area of the starry sky.

“The ancestral court is here.” His spirit was roused.

Gu Xiao looked at him and whispered, “Is Brother Mu a master of creation?”

Qin Mu shook his head.

“In that case, don’t release the devil,” Gu Xiao looked at the void and whispered softly.

Qin Mu was stunned. Luo Xiao moved excitedly to the front of the carriage. As he visualized, the void behind him opened up, and a sacrificial altar flew up from it.

“Whether this is the ancestral court, just one check, and we’ll know!” he exclaimed.

“How do we test and verify?” Qin Mu asked.

Luo Xiao found it hard to contain his excitement. “Summon a void beast!”