Tales of Herding Gods

The old bull stood on the river and looked at the pleasure boats and ships weaving through the water. The desolate Great Ruins that was supposed to be experiencing night had actually turned into daytime. The Surging River had also become countless times wider than before as pleasure boats carved with dragons and phoenixes sailed past them.

The huge river with jade ripples was actually flowing in the sky!

The old bull looked down and didn’t see the land of the Great Ruins. He could only see stars hanging in the starry sky.

Some of those stars were close while some were far. The close ones seemed very huge, while the far ones were like the moon. However, he could still see the mountains and constructions on the stars.

On both sides of the Surging River, palaces stretched deep into the celestial palaces. These celestial palaces looked more like lands that were floating on both sides of the Celestial River. When the celestial palaces assembled together, they would form the vast celestial heavens!

The old bull shook his head and seemed to be at a loss.

He was just carrying Qin Mu over, so why did he meet such a peculiar incident?

Also, there was a woman that had said this was the Celestial River. The Celestial River? Wasn’t this the Surging River?

Where did the Great Ruins go?

What about Eternal Peace?

There was no land at all, so where was the world he was previously in?

The old bull swished his tail uneasily and smacked his buttocks loudly, looking at his surroundings cautiously.

The origin of the Surging River, the zone of the broken cliff, it was supposed to be a place that was scarce of people. This place was in the center of the Great Ruins, but there was an astonishing fault.

Because of the fault, East Great Ruins was thousands of yards lower than West Great Ruins.

Because of this hindrance, the Great Ruins didn’t have smooth traffic from east to west until Qin Mu invited Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor and the divine arts practitioners of West Earth to pave roads. They erected two flying bridges to finally establish access from East Great Ruins to West Great Ruins.

The origin of the Surging River was from that broken cliff and water flowed out from that broken cliff to head east.

Qin Mu had once examined it in detail. He suspected that five worlds were overlapping each other at the source of the Surging River and the river water might be from the other five worlds.

Of course, this was only his guess when he was young.

When he discovered Heavenly Yin World and the countless number of worlds around it, he knew his guess was wrong.

He had guessed too little. The number of worlds was simply too many.

The old bull had followed the old farmer for tens of thousands of years after all. His understanding of the Founding Emperor Era was even above Qin Mu.

Qin Mu only deduced that the river water had come from other worlds, but the old bull knew that the Surging River was one of the most peculiar places in the Founding Emperor Era!

Long ago, when this place was still the ruins of the High Emperor Era, young Founding Emperor had led a group of young people over here. They faced hardships at the beginning, but raised their family from the ruins and created a huge base—they founded a glorious era that lasted twenty thousand years.

But at that time, the origin of the Surging River was a peculiar land that was very well-known.

Founding Emperor, Woodcutter, as well as other existences, had searched their way here, and numerous inconceivable things had happened.

Fog was frequent on the river, and when the fog poured out, numerous people would see inconceivable things and even see other worlds. Some people walked into the fog by accident and realized thousands of years had already passed.

Some people even saw a passerby that was lost, and the passerby claimed to be a person from the High Emperor Era. When the fog was gone, the passerby vanished.

The old bull remembered the most famous incident that had happened here, and it was Founding Emperor mentioning he had vanished for a few months when he was young. He entered an inconceivable place, and when he returned, he realized it was a few months later.

He tried to search for that inconceivable place again, but he couldn’t find it.

However, when others asked Founding Emperor about what he had encountered and who he had met in that place, Founding Emperor didn’t speak a word and kept it a secret.

Numerous gods came to the Surging River to search after, but it was all for naught. The incident gradually faded from people’s minds.

Even though the incident was forgotten, after Founding Emperor became the emperor, he would come here frequently. It wasn’t known if he was searching for that inconceivable place.

Afterward, Saint Woodcutter once led Heavenly Words Division here and focused on investigating the Surging River. They found numerous secrets and numerous worlds that were buried by history. They also found the source of darkness and dispatched people to investigate.

However, it was already at the ending period of Founding Emperor Era, and the Founding Emperor Calamity broke out before Saint Woodcutter could get any results.

‘Maybe Big Heavenly Teacher would know numerous secrets regarding Surging River, but he’s not here now.’

The old bull looked around cautiously. He saw that every celestial palace had an extremely strong god guarding it, so he didn’t dare to be reckless. He thought to himself, ‘The problem now is how do I return to the Great Ruins?’

At this moment, Qin Mu’s voice rang out, and he was slightly astonished, “Senior Brother Sanduo, what is this place? Why have you brought me here?”

The old bull blinked his eyes and opened his mouth. He wanted to speak, but he didn’t know what to say. “I…”

Qin Mu said excitedly, “This is the extraterritorial celestial heavens?”

The old bull hesitated, and he opened his mouth. “I also…”

Qin Mu stretched his body. His cultivation was still rising furiously. It was obvious after merging the five great divine treasures that his cultivation had increased by leaps and bounds. He looked around excitedly and couldn’t contain his excitement. “Senior Brother Sanduo is no doubt the strongest under Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher, you are truly bullish to the high heaven, to actually dare to bring me to extraordinary celestial heavens! Did Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher arrange a secret mission for you?”

Niu Sanduo looked at the water surface and didn’t know how to reply.

Qin Mu asked, “Have you thought of a path of retreat?”

“I…”

“I can forge a Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge!”

Qin Mu said excitedly, “However, we have to find a secluded place. I got numerous divine metals and divine materials from Sakra Buddha previously, so I can totally build another Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge. Imperial Preceptor should still have a sacrificial altar with him since he is preparing to wage war in Heavenly Feather World…”

“Junior brother, I seem to be lost,” the old bull mustered his courage and said.

“What mission did Martial Arts Heavenly Teacher give you? To save Heavenly Teacher Scholar, right? Scholar Zi Xi must be captured and suppressed by the extraterritorial celestial heavens, am I right?”

Qin Mu said excitedly, “Give me a moment, let me open up the eye in the heart of my brows!”

“Junior brother, I’m lost!”

The old bull couldn’t resist blurting out, “I’m really lost! I also don’t know what kind of godd*mn place this is! I don’t recognize this place at all, so don’t dare create a ruckus as I don’t know what will happen. Let me sort out my thoughts first!”

Qin Mu had a blank expression and said suspiciously, “People usually say an old bull knows the way, how did you come here? Just return back the same way.”

That old bull said exasperatedly, “I also don’t know how I reached here! After jumping down from the broken cliff of the Surging River, fog poured out the moment I stepped on the water surface. When the fog dispersed, I’d reached here inexplicably. Don’t say a word, let me think about how to get back!”

Qin Mu was silent, and after waiting for a moment, he asked, “Has senior brother thought of an idea?”

The old bull was completely out of temper. He shook his head and said, “My brain is completely blank, I can’t think of any idea to get back. What exactly is this place? I’m completely clueless…”

Qin Mu looked around and analyzed. “These pleasure boats are very primitive and what’s carved on the pleasure boats are the most basic black tortoise markings. This is to borrow the water controlling power of Black Tortoise’ to allow the boats to float. The movement power of the boat is still from the water beasts pulling on the boats, it isn’t from pill furnaces. This isn’t the extraterritorial celestial heavens, the celestial heavens aren’t so behind the times…”

The old bull’s eyes lit up. He looked towards those pleasure boats and indeed saw several huge water beasts pulling them. These were details he hadn’t noticed, and he hurriedly asked, “What else?”

Qin Mu took down the willow leaf on the heart of his brows and revealed his third eye. He examined his surroundings and looked at the people on the pleasure boats and the gods in the celestial palaces. He said solemnly, “The path of their vital qi circulation is also very simple, and their divine treasures are very primitive, they aren’t as exquisite as the divine arts practitioners’ divine treasures in Eternal Peace. Furthermore, all of their divine bridges are complete, not one of them is broken.”

The old bull finally regained some confidence and asked, “What else can you see?”

“I also see people without divine treasures.”

Qin Mu’s expression became grim, and he gazed at a celestial palace. Over there, an awe-inspiring god stood while blazing with flames; it was as if he was being shrouded by a sun. Qin Mu said solemnly, “I might have seen the true Great Sun Sovereign. He has no divine treasures, he is the Great Sun Sovereign born by heaven and earth. He isn’t the Great Sun Sovereign of High Emperor Era…”

The old bull’s mind went blank, and he had no ideas or thoughts in his head at all. He stuttered, “W-what y-you mean is…”

“What I mean is…”

Qin Mu suddenly revealed a radiant and sunshine smile on his face as he waved towards a woman on a pleasure boat coming towards them. “Big sister, over here! Over here! We are lost, big sister, what is this place?”

The old bull’s expression turned ashen, and he thought to himself, ‘Why is Junior Brother Qin so careless? We have barged into this place, and there are plenty of experts everywhere. What if someone realizes we don’t belong here…’

The woman on the boat was dressed luxuriously and gorgeously. She was admiring the scenery in front of the ship when she looked over, and her eyes lit up. “Little brother’s mouth is really sweet. This place is naturally the celestial heaven, come on the boat.”

The old bull was in a daze and still hadn’t come back to his senses.

Qin Mu jumped onto the boat and called out, “Senior brother, come on the boat too, big sister is kind, and she’s willing to bring us along.”

The old bull hurriedly stood up like a human and shook his body to transform into a bull-headed god. He followed Qin Mu and jumped onto the bow of the boat.

That woman examined Qin Mu and saw that this youth looked handsome and talented, having a bearing of a simple and pure boy. She couldn’t help having a good impression and said with a smile, “Today is the distinguished meeting of the celestial heavens, most of the boats that are sailing on the celestial river are young talents from the lower bound that have come up to play. It must be your first time coming to the celestial heavens, right?”

Qin Mu nodded his head and blushed. “Senior Brother Niu and I have come here for the first time, we are like country bumpkins entering a city. We only focused on gazing at the beauty of the surroundings and got ourselves lost.”

That woman said with a smile, “It’s always like this when coming to the celestial heavens for the first time. Your Majesty ordered skilled craftsmen to construct the thirty-six celestial palaces and the seventy-two throne halls, to confer to the ancient gods. I also felt that this is too mired in minor details. Your Majesty even wants to give a name to the celestial heavens. He’s currently discussing what the name should be with Heaven Duke and Earth Count.”

Niu Sanduo looked around, and his gaze suddenly landed on a pleasure boat that was sailing beside him. He looked as if he had seen a ghost, and he couldn’t shift his gaze away.

Qin Mu was currently chatting happily with that woman when he saw his expression from the corner of his eye. He was slightly stunned, and he asked, “Senior brother, is everything alright?”

“Found, found, found…”

The old bull stuttered, and his gaze was still fixated on that pleasure boat. Qin Mu followed his gaze and only saw a young man talking cheerfully and wittily with another person.

“Found, found…”

The old bull stuttered and still couldn’t spit it out.

Qin Mu asked with a smile, “Senior brother, what have you found?”

“Founding Emperor!”

Niu Sanduo finally spit out what he was trying to say and croaked, “I am seeing the young Founding Emperor!”