Tales of Herding Gods

Qin Mu stared with his eyes wide open. Ancient God Celestial Emperor still had one soul that had yet to be erased, and this soul had even turned into a Founding Elder of Heaven Alliance?

Would this mean that Ancient God Celestial Emperor was still undertaking a very high position in the celestial heavens?

Beside him were all people that had once killed him and nearly erased his soul completely!

These people even seized his position as the celestial emperor and took over his corporeal body.

His position, his wife, everything no longer belonged to him.

He still had to feign civility with these people and call them brothers. He still had to plot against the ancient gods with these people and assist these people in becoming the rulers of the entire universe.

He might even be among the experts of the Heaven Alliance that had killed Mother Earth back then. He had also made a move to get rid of Mother Earth and even groomed a new Mother Earth to replace her!

Only then could it explain how the Primordial Tree had landed in Celestial Emperor’s hands when it was the Heaven Alliance that had gotten rid of Mother Earth.

That was because he was situated in the Heaven Alliance, and safeguarding the Heaven Alliance’s benefits was safeguarding his own benefits!

He even had to slowly plan his resurrection and plot on how to seize back his authority and position. He had to conspire and borrow the Heaven Alliance’s power to recover his own rule, conspiring against the enemies in the Heaven Alliance that had destroyed him.

This incident was even stranger than any strange incident Qin Mu had encountered before. It was much more motley and inconceivable to him!

Qin Mu couldn’t resist himself and burst into laughter. His laughter became louder and louder as it reverberated through the Heavenly Yin Palace.

He laughed until he was out of breath and laughed until he coughed endlessly. “Old and experienced… Cough cough! This is what Village Chief means by old and experienced! Whatever pleasure, grudges, feuds, and grace are all tactics! Whatever order of the world is just merely your plaything! Whatever justice in this world is also merely a plaything for you to trample upon!”

His smile vanished, and he said with a smile that was yet not a smile, “Now I actually feel that the celestial heavens is indescribably hideous and, on the other hand, Eternal Peace, this tiny little place that is struggling between life and death, is then the true human world, a place where you can feel cold and warmth. The celestial heavens is merely a place to hide dirt and conceal corruption.”

The old and sloppy Daoist remained silent as though he had entered a meditative state.

Goddess of Heavenly Yin’s expression changed slightly, and she examined the apparition of Celestial Emperor in the black soul sand carefully.

The figure in the black sand was unmoved and said, “In that case, why did Celestial Venerable Mu still want to see me?”

“That is because Eternal Peace is lacking the time and chance to grow.”

Qin Mu said, “Eternal Peace needs time. The Founding Emperor Era lasted for twenty thousand years and still couldn’t change the world, they were wiped out because the time was too short. It has only been several hundred years for Eternal Peace, and it already has the trend of being wiped out. I need a helper like Your Majesty to share the pressure. Your Majesty also needs me to help you reconstruct your soul.”

The figure in the black sand said with a smile, “You and I are making use of each other. I have very great authority in the celestial heavens, so I can give Eternal Peace time. I can let the new and old Mother Earth deal with each other to give Eternal Peace a chance to survive. However, I feel that if I return to my throne and Eternal Peace also grows up, Eternal Peace would instead become a danger to me.”

Qin Mu said seriously, “Your Majesty, do you have another choice?”

The figure in the black sand said with a smile, “I don’t.”

“I don’t think Your Majesty has any either.”

Qin Mu said indifferently, “Your Majesty, there’s still one more condition to reconstruct the souls, which is that I need the power of Heaven Duke and Earth Count.”

The black sand vibrated, and the man in the sand was silent.

Qin Mu said with a smile, “I’m not sure about Heaven Duke’s side, but I feel it would be a problem on Earth Count’s side. If I borrow the power of Earth Count to revive Your Majesty, Earth Count will definitely kill me.”

The figure in the black sand continued to remain silent.

Goddess of Heavenly Yin was faced with a dilemma and didn’t know if she should speak.

Back then, to control Earth Count, Celestial Emperor had taken the chance when Earth Count was reincarnated and allowed his son to lead half-gods, laying their hands on the reincarnated Earth Count.

The reincarnated Earth Count was called Ah Chou, and he had three children. His oldest son and daughter were dropped to their death, and only his youngest daughter was left. When Ah Chou fought his way up to the celestial heavens, she had landed in Celestial Emperor’s hands and became a handle for Celestial Emperor to control him.

Even though they were a ruler and his minister, the hatred had already been planted.

The old and sloppy Daoist gradually opened his eyes and said, “The daughter of Earth Count is still alive. She has an extremely high position in the celestial heavens, so there should still be some leeway for him to redeem himself.”

The figure in the black sand said, “There’s also Heaven Duke. He might not lend his power to revive me either.”

Qin Mu’s heart jumped. Could Celestial Emperor have also done something similar to Heaven Duke?

No wonder Heaven Duke and Earth Count weren’t willing to mention this Ancient God Celestial Emperor and detested his conduct.

Heaven Duke wasn’t even willing to mention that piece of history.

“You deserve what you get.”

Qin Mu said, “Your Majesty, it might look like you control all the power and are unrivaled in the world, however, when you find yourself utterly isolated and sinking into desperate straits, no one will come to save you.”

The figure in the black sand gave a snort, but he didn’t refute him.

Qin Mu said, “In that case, could Dao Ancestor convince the daughter of Earth Count and let her convince Earth Count. As for Heaven Duke’s side, I will think of another idea. As for the pressure on Eternal Peace, could Your Majesty let the new Mother Earth handle it for now.”

The figure in the black sand sighed again, and his tone was rather unhappy.

Qin Mu’s gaze twinkled, and he said, “There’s still one matter, and that is in regards to Celestial Venerable Yu. I want the last strand of Celestial Venerable Yu’s soul.”

“Impossible!” The figure in the black sand shook his head firmly.

The old and sloppy Daoist also shook his head. “That’s impossible. Celestial Venerable Yu’s soul is hidden in the Hall of Fragrance, no one can take him out. This matter…”

He looked at the figure in the black sand and remained quiet.

Qin Mu frowned. This soul belonging to Celestial Venerable Yu was related to the Ancient God Celestial Emperor. Back then, when Celestial Venerable Yu was assassinated and died, Ancient God Celestial Emperor had given the order to search for Celestial Venerable Yu’s soul, however, Earth Count didn’t manage to find it.

Qin Mu could guess that Celestial Venerable Yu’s soul had been shattered, but the broken soul that contained his memory was actually taken away by Celestial Emperor. Only he could hide things from Earth Count.

And now that the owner of the celestial heavens had changed, Celestial Venerable Yu’s broken soul that was hidden in Hall of Fragrance was interrelated with all the various powers. This wasn’t something that Ancient God Celestial Emperor and Dao Ancestor could make a decision on.

Qin Mu gritted his teeth. Would Celestial Venerable Yu always be so silly from today onwards?

“In that case, who created the Celestial Venerable Yu that came down from the celestial heavens?” he suddenly asked.

The figure in the black sand said, “Which Celestial Venerable Yu do you mean?”

Qin Mu was stunned.

The figure in the black sand smiled and said, “The celestial heavens have created numerous versions of Celestial Venerable Yu. These Celestial Venerable Yus have probably gone down into the lower bound. They are doing an experiment to see if the Celestial Venerable Yu they created is perfect or not. As for whose Celestial Venerable Yu you met, that’s not something I would know. Furthermore, I also created one.”

The corners of Qin Mu’s eyes twitched, and he looked at Celestial Venerable Yu. He felt a pang of sorrow for him, and yet he also had a murderous intent that he couldn’t restrain.

“Let me ask about one more matter.”

Qin Mu composed himself and forced a smile. “Is Founding Emperor in the celestial heavens? Has he become one of the power wielders in the celestial heavens? After all, he is also one of the Founding Elders of the Heaven Alliance.”

The figure in the black sand shook his head. “He isn’t willing to compromise, and he doesn’t want to die, so he has naturally hidden in Carefree Village. The celestial heavens has always been searching for the location of Carefree Village, but we still can’t find it even now.”

Qin Mu was lost in his thoughts, and he finally put down the rock that was weighing on his heart. His eye sockets were slightly damp, and he was slightly moved.

“This is then Founding Emperor…” he said softly with a chuckle and vaporized the tears in his eyes.

Founding Emperor said that the more one understood the extraterritorial celestial heavens, the more despair one would feel. He could now feel the emotions of Founding Emperor when he said that. However, he didn’t compromise and didn’t choose to become one of the power wielders that stood high above.

All this while, Founding Emperor was Qin Mu’s motivation and role model. Even though there were many misunderstandings, Qin Mu’s admiration for him had never broken before.

If Founding Emperor was also in the celestial heavens, this kind of blow would probably have crushed him!

Qin Mu’s mood was much happier, and he stood up with a smile. “The talk with Your Majesty will stop here today. I can think of a solution for Heaven Duke’s side, but I can only rely on you for Earth Count’s side. Your Majesty, I have many matters to attend to, so I’ll take my leave now. Brother Yu, let us go.”

He brought Celestial Venerable Yu out, and the figure in the black sand stopped him. He said with a smile, “Celestial Venerable Mu, you have asked me many questions in our talk, and I also have a question I don’t understand.”

Qin Mu stopped in his footsteps.

The figure in the black sand asked puzzledly, “I don’t know what you are pursuing. You have such splendid talent and capabilities, you have a burning curiosity, you are very hardworking, you have many tactics, and you even have the title of Celestial Venerable Mu. Your position is so high that you don’t have to do anything for the human world for the celestial heavens to regard you highly. As long as you are willing to, you can head over to the celestial heavens, to be a Celestial Venerable Mu that is high up. However, you are running to and fro in this mortal world and have no qualms in standing against the celestial heavens, to become an enemy of a power that even Founding Emperor felt despair against.”

He voiced out the puzzlement in his heart again. “In that case, what are you pursuing? What do you want to receive?”

Qin Mu turned his head around, and his gaze sparkled with a pure smile spreading across his face.

“Your Majesty, the moment you were born, you were the leader, the chief of the entire universe. You aren’t a mortal, and you have never lived in the mortal world before. You also haven’t lived in Eternal Peace before.”

He said with a smile, “Ever since I was young, I have been living in the mortal world. There are too many people that love me and too many people that I love here. Even though they all have small faults, they are all human, they are all adorable people. They aren’t gods, and they aren’t high up.”

“Of course I know, the gods of the celestial heavens are afraid of these adorable mortals, and so they broke off their divine bridges. When they broke off their future prospects, I knew from then on that it wasn’t the mortals that were afraid of the gods, it was the gods that were afraid of the mortals.”

The figure in the black sand was slightly stunned.

The old and sloppy Daoists who was relaxing with his eyes closed had now opened his eyes again.

“When I peed on the god statue with Grandpa Blind in the village, I already had no more respect for you gods. When I was still herding cows beside the Surging River, I was actually just a cowherd boy with no world-shaking ambition, nor did I have any plans that were universally shocking. I only wanted to herd all the gods so that these gods were no longer high up.”

Qin Mu walked out of Heavenly Yin Palace, and his voice rang out. “The person herding the cows has to give the cows a rule so that the cows won’t run all over the place. To herd the gods, one has to give the gods a rule, to let the gods serve the humans. When they do evil, there will be rules to punish them, there will be new gods to replace them, and these new gods will be born from mortals, not just a power game between gods. Eternal Peace’s reform is just like this.”

The figure in the black sand was silent for a moment before sighing. “Asking a tiger for its hide, truly the greatest danger to me.”

Outside the hall, Qin Mu turned around and smiled radiantly. “That’s right. However, that is all in the future, we still have to cooperate now.”

The black sand faded away and vanished.

The old and sloppy Daoist stood up and came out of the hall. He walked past Qin Mu and said, “You will fail, you will die. Many people harbored the same dreams as you did, the past celestial emperors of South High Emperor Era, Founding Emperor, Celestial Venerable Ling, every one of them failed without exception.”

Qin Mu saw him off and said loudly, “Someone still has to do it! There are things that must be done and things that must not be done, there can’t be nothing done!”

That old Daoist paused in his footsteps, and his body vanished.

“Someone still has to do it.”

Qin Mu muttered to Celestial Venerable Yu beside him, “Right?”

Celestial Venerable Yu was perplexed and puzzled.

Qin Mu forced a smile and asked again, “Right?”

Celestial Venerable Yu couldn’t reply to him.

Qin Mu looked lost, and he muttered again, “Right?”

The dragon qilin, who was lying in front of the palace, stood up and walked over with his swaying body. “Right.”

Qin Mu revealed a smile and happiness filled his heart.

Yan’er looked at the dragon qilin and said softly, “Why did you say right?”

“When Patriarch was still alive, Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor would frequently find him.”

The dragon qilin said with a muffled voice, “Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor frequently had times he was at a loss and was helpless. He would then ask Patriarch if what we did was right? When Patriarch didn’t answer, Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor would feel an emptiness in his heart. When Patriarch replied right, only then would Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor reveal a smile. Cult Master needs a Dao friend to support him, but it’s a pity he doesn’t have one. I don’t want him to feel sad.”