Tales of Herding Gods

A hundred miles away from the center of the explosion, Qin Mu crawled out from a massive pit, battered and exhausted. His clothes were ragged, and he patted the flames that were still burning on his body. The fire sizzled and gave off the fragrance of cooked meat as they burned him.

When he used devil vitality to light up the heavenly fire earlier, the explosion happened, and there were no warning signs at all.

Luckily, he was careful and only used a trace of devil vitality to execute the heavenly fire, so the explosion wasn’t too fierce. It had merely blasted him a hundred miles away.

Even so, he also suffered terribly from the explosion. Luckily for him, because he had cultivated Crimson Emperor and Light Emperor’s creation techniques, he preserved his life.

‘Youdu belongs to the devil path, and Xuandu belongs to the god path; if I use Youdu devil qi to ignite Xuandu Heavenly Fire, it looks like things will go wrong.’

The youth extinguished the devil flames on his body and turned his head back. There were several huge holes in his clothes which revealed half of his snow-white buttocks.

The clothing was made by Yu Zhaoqing and the experts of the Heavenly Feather Race. It was very fitting, and its size could change accordingly. It could even change colors according to his mood, so it wasn’t too plain.

He had always worn it, but he couldn’t wear it any longer.

‘I can only find Sister Yu’s help to make a few more sets.’

He rose into the sky and felt the cool air brushing against his buttocks.

Qin Mu returned to the center of the explosion and found the sword pellet. During the explosion earlier, he had aimed the fire energy at his sword pellet so his sword pellet had suffered the collision of both devil fire and heavenly fire. He didn’t know if it was spoiled from being burned or exploded.

“Eh—”

Qin Mu gave a soft cry of astonishment as his sword pellet shrunk numerous times again. It was only the size of a fist, but he didn’t know if part of it was vaporized or if it was truly refined to be smaller.

At that moment, the sword pellet gave off a tranquil glow like a luminescent pearl. The glow wasn’t too intense, but it was like flowing water as it flowed out from the inside of the sword pellet. Containing the light and not releasing it made the sword pellet look like it was formed by light.

He stretched his hand to hold the sword pellet in his hand, and it was extremely heavy. Its weight hadn’t changed from behind, which meant the explosion of devil fire and heavenly fire didn’t vaporize the sword pellet.

Qin Mu was slightly stunned. The refinement from the combination of god fire and devil fire could refine the sword pellet into the standard of flowing water. However, with that intense explosion from the combination of devil fire and heavenly fire, it was truly unimaginable that the sword pellet could still be refined into the state of flowing water under such a situation.

He grasped the sword pellet forcefully, and in the sword pellet, the sword was like flowing light and slipped through his fingers. It curved and flowed according to his will.

That kind of sword light was very quiet and mysterious. It streaked across the sky without any sounds, and when he slashed quickly, there was no sound of sword slashing through the air—the silence was terrifying.

Yet when Qin Mu touched the sword light gently, he could feel the ice-cold texture from the body of the sword.

That characteristic meant that the flexibility of the sword had already reached the level of flowing water. The strength of the sword body was also abnormally high!

The flexibility and strength of the sword pellet had already reached a perfect standard!

‘My forging and smelting technique are still not on this level yet. Even Grandpa Mute might not be able to achieve this level yet, so what is going on?’

When other people refined their treasure, once they succeed, it meant that they had succeeded and they wouldn’t delve into thinking about the reason behind why they had succeeded. Yet such a situation made him even more curious and interested.

‘I wonder about the wear resistance?’

Qin Mu rummaged through his taotie sack and found the Heavenly Funeral Bell. The Heavenly Funeral Bell was a treasure of Mingdu. In Heavenly Yin World, the disciple of Mingdu had once used the treasure to hit him and cause him quite some trouble.

The Heavenly Funeral Bell was a treasure forged by gods, and it was also made by Metal of Heavenly Yin. It was similar to the sword pellet in Qin Mu’s hands, but Qin Mu’s sword pellet had some more Buddha Vitality Crimson Chromium.

Qin Mu raised the bell and used the mouth of the bell to grind the sword pellet. After a long while, he saw a small chunk being ground away at the mouth of the bell but the sword pellet was still perfectly fine.

‘Its wear resistance is extremely high!’

Qin Mu was stunned. From the forging method, he was indeed very superior, but he was still far being so superior.

‘The effect of heavenly fire and devil fire? It might be that, but there’s a higher possibility that the explosion earlier had created abnormally intense heat and impact.’

Qin Mu frowned slightly. ‘Explosions can also be used for tempering and forging? Why hasn’t Grandpa Mute taught me this before… Wait a moment! When refining treasure, we have to hit repeatedly with a hammer during the smelting process. The manufacturing factory uses huge mechanical giants to hammer, exploding forth with a pressure that was several millions of pounds in an instant. However, a god like Grandpa Mute could raise the pressure to hundreds and thousands of times more than what a mechanical giant could! The instant when he hammered down, the temperature could be raised to the temperature of the sun’s surface. However, an explosion could result in a similar effect, and it might even bring greater pressure!’

His eyes lit up, and he walked to and fro. He said with a soft voice, “The explosion when the heavenly fire and devil fire collide creates high temperature and pressure that even a god like Grandpa Mute can’t reach; thus, my sword pellet was refined into the perfect state in an instant! Refining treasure with explosions is highly possible!”

Qin Mu’s five fingers opened up, and the sword pellet suddenly rang to split into eight thousand swords. The tip of the swords pointed towards the center of the circle.

His heart stirred, and the sword pellet vanished to transformed into two long knives. Qin Mu wielded the knives and tried to execute Midnight Battle Across Stormy Cities, but he could only execute half a move before gasping heavily for his breath. He nearly knelt on the ground.

‘The sword pellet is too heavy; it’s fine if I use vital qi to control it, but if I hold it in my hands, I can’t execute one move.’

Qin Mu’s heart stirred, and the two long swords vanished. They combined back into a sword pellet the size of a fist, and he placed it in his taotie sack. However, that just placed more pressure on his belt and kept pulling his pants down.

The guards of the capital city noticed the explosion here and rode a black-feathered and red-crested bird to hurry over. When they saw Qin Mu in tattered clothes, they were astonished and hurriedly asked, “Lord Qin, what happened here?”

Qin Mu waved his hand and said with a smile, “Minor incident, you guys don’t have to worry. I’ll return to Mud River Manufacturing Factory first. Level out the pit that was caused by the explosion earlier.” After saying so, he walked towards the manufacturing factory.

The guards looked at one another in dismay and saw Lord Qin, who was renowned throughout the capital city, walking back with difficulty. As he walked, he even showed half of his snow-white buttocks.

“Should we give the lord a shirt to cover up?” a soldier asked softly.

The leader hesitated and shook his head. “I’ve heard rumors that Lord Qin is a tailor too, they were even gentry looking for him to tailor their clothes in the early days; he was very popular. This set of clothes is most likely one of Lord Qin’s special creation; he tailored out an outfit of a beggar…”

When Qin Mu returned to the manufacturing factory, he shook his head as he saw the dragon qilin was still laying down flat on the ground with his limbs stretched straight out.

A disciple of Heavenly Works Hall in the manufacturing factory quickly took out a set of clothes and said, “Cult Master, we don’t have any nice looking clothes here, they are just all ordinary clothes made from coarse cloth; Cult Master, please put up with them.”

Qin Mu wore the clothes and said with a smile, “I was just planning to experiment with some stuff, so the clothes need not be too good. Prepare a few more sets; I might still need to change several times later. That’s right, is Heavenly Works Hall Master here? Ask him to come over quickly!”

The disciples of Heavenly Works Hall hurriedly informed Heavenly Works Hall Master who asked in astonishment, “What does Cult Master plan to do?”

“Refining treasures with explosions!”

Heavenly Works Hall Master was originally in River Tomb and was forging Sun Ships and Moon Ships with Imperial Preceptor and the emperor. The problem was solved, so he quickly took a fast ship over when he heard the news. He finally reached as the sun went down.

Qin Mu, Heavenly Works Hall Master, and numerous disciples of Heavenly Works Hall went into the factory. After ten days, explosions kept coming from the manufacturing factory, and it caused the houses in the capital city to shake. The people were angry.

Finally, the empress and the crown prince couldn’t sit still any longer and hurried to the factory. When they reached the factory, they saw numerous divine arts practitioners surrounding a huge furnace that was over thirty yards tall. All kinds of runes were being imprinted on the furnace.

The furnace was different from an ordinary furnace. There was no opening for air, and all kinds of flame markings were on the outside of the furnace. The structures were incomparably complicated.

“Empress, Your Highness!”

Heavenly Works Hall Master’s face was all sooty, and he hurriedly greeted them. “To actually alarm Empress and Your Highness, I deserve to die!”

The empress said with a smile, “I see you guys causing explosions from here every day and it’s so noisy that the people can’t have a proper sleep, so I’ve come to take a look. Where’s Lord Qin, what strange things has he got you guys to do again?”

“Cult Master has gone to the southern borders; he said he was going to Chief Yu to make new sets of clothes.”

Heavenly Works Hall Master Shan Youxin said with a smile, “Cult Master brought us to experiment refining treasures with explosions. This furnace is used to refine treasures with explosions. Empress, Your Highness, this furnace could quickly refine a divine weapon to a stage it could be used. On this furnaces are runes of the vermillion bird and runes of the heavenly fire. After igniting them, the powerful explosion would push the hammer inside the furnace to hammer the divine metal. It would then be finalized with one strike, and it is extremely fast!”

Ling Yushu and the empress were both stunned, and they cried out, “Refining divine weapons can be so quick as well?”

Shan Youxin said with a smile, “It’s extremely hard to refine divine metal and Mud River Manufacturing Factories are one of the few places that can refine divine metal. Even so, we can’t refine much divine metal every day. To make their divine weapons, the gods in our Eternal Peace have already queued all the way to the next year and the next-next year! However, with this kind of furnace, we will be able to refine the divine metal needed by the gods in just two months!”

Ling Yushu remembered Emperor Yanfeng’s instructions, and he hurriedly asked, “Are the medicinal stones required to activate the furnace high in number? Cult Master Qin is usually rich, and the Sunshot Divine Cannon he had forged uses up too many medicinal stones according to father. In the past, after firing just one shot, father couldn’t have a good sleep for three months because of the heartache.”

Shan Youxin hesitated for a moment. “The consumption isn’t too much, yes, it isn’t too much…”

At Li River Academy, Qin Mu found Yu Zhaoqing and asked her to help him tailor several sets of clothing. She hurriedly gathered all of the experts in the Heavenly Feather Race and said with a smile, “Your Highness, I’ve reared silkworms in the academy and found quite some good materials, Your Highness just needs to be at ease, I will definitely tailor the best for you. Does Highness want a dragon robe?”

Qin Mu hurriedly shook his head and said, “Stop joking. I’m not trying to rebel.”

Yu Zhaoqing felt some pity and said, “I can make two sets for you to keep in times of need.”

Qin Mu shook his head and went to find Chancellor Ba Shan. The senior and junior brothers sat in the hall to drink wine. Hu Ling’er was also in the south, and she was cultivating alongside Fox Immortal. When she heard the news, she ran over and whined for wine, only to see the dragon qilin beating up the green bull outside the hall. The bull mooed miserably.

“Big sister, I’m also your sworn brother, save me!” the green bull cried out.

Hu Ling’er shook her head and ignored him. She slipped into the hall to drink with Qin Mu and Ba Shan.

After several days, Yu Zhaoqing finished the sets of clothes, and Qin Mu was very satisfied after trying them out. He then used golden and silver threads to decorate the clothes with heavenly fire markings and Youdu writings.

The two runes could ensure that his clothes wouldn’t be destroyed when they encounter that level of powerful explosion again.

“Your Highness, these days, Heavenly Feather Clansmen are starting to miss their homeland, and they always think of returning to Heavenly Feather World.”

Yu Zhaoqing carefully tested out Qin Mu, and she said with a smile, “Now that there’s no more threat of natural disaster in Eternal Peace, is it time to think about the other worlds?”

Qin Mu understood what she wanted and replied, “Now, Eternal Peace is just starting to stabilize and there are many things waiting to be done; the emperor still doesn’t have enough military power to take back Heavenly Feather World. Heavenly Feather World is like the Great Ruins, it’s still normal in the day, but at night, darkness invades. Since the darkness still isn’t quelled, why doesn’t big sister just wait a while more? When Goddess of Heavenly Yin completely gets rid of the remaining danger in Heavenly Yin World, you guys will be able to return to Heavenly Feather World.”

Yu Zhaoqing could only say, “I will wait for news from Your Highness.”

Qin Mu drew a geographical map and said, “Chief can bring some young men and young women of the race to Heavenly Yin World first. Goddess of Heavenly Yin is currently lacking manpower, and if you reach there, you will be valued highly by Goddess of Heavenly Yin, there will be many benefits. When the other races start to make their way in, there won’t be as many benefits. I will still have to go Fengdu, so I’m afraid I won’t have the time to bring you guys there.”

Yu Zhaoqing was delighted, and she hurried away to take care of that.

Qin Mu bade farewell to Chancellor Ba Shan and Hu Ling’er before heading straight to the Great Ruins.

When he reached the Great Ruins, he entered Fengdu and let the dragon qilin wait outside. However, he didn’t see Di Yiyue and Tian Shu. Fengdu still looked the same and didn’t seem to have been changed.

‘Could Sister Di Yiyue still be finding Heavenly King Tian Shu?’

Qin Mu was puzzled, and he boarded Daoist Ling Jing’s small boat to leave Fengdu. He saw the dragon qilin bruised all over and looking quite miserable.

Qin Mu hurriedly asked him, and the dragon qilin said, “I met an old bull that was plowing the land. He looked similar to the green bull, so I wanted to bully it. I ended up getting beaten.”

Qin Mu was stunned and asked, “Where is this old bull?”

The dragon qilin brought him back to seek revenge, and they came to the vicinity of several fields. From afar, Qin Mu could see an old cow sitting down on its buttocks and under the shade of a tree. Its hind legs were propped up against the ground like a human as it sat down while its forehoof was grabbing on a water pipe. It puffed out white smoke leisurely as it gazed across the fields with narrowed eyes.

Beside it was a tiny stone table and on the stone table was tea being boiled.

Qin Mu walked up and greeted him, “Dao brother.”