Tales of Herding Gods

He now had to ascertain the rough position of the ancestral court. He still knew nothing about it and the exact spatial geographic data of the four poles, Xuandu, and the abyss of the Ruins of End. He also had to ascertain the exact spatial coordinates of the dimension of where the Dragon Han Celestial Heavens was previously.

Only then could he precisely locate the ancestral court.

One could use the data from the Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridges for the spatial geography of the four poles, Xuandu, and the abyss.

The Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge was designed by Qin Mu and black tiger god, and one needed different spatial geographic data for the bridge to connect different worlds. Thus, it wasn’t hard for Qin Mu to obtain such data.

It was just that no Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge was connected to the abyss of the Ruins of End. Even if there was one, it was probably in the hands of Celestial Empress and Yuanmu.

However, Qin Mu went there before. All he needed to do to confirm its spatial dimension was to go there again.

The only problem he had was finding out the altitude of the Dragon Han Celestial Heavens.

In this aspect, he didn’t have accurate data.

After he figured out its specific coordinates, he could build a large spatial teleportation formation to teleport straight towards the ancestral court.

‘No wonder North Deity Xuan Wu’s crown prince, You Ming, claimed that he met me during the Dragon Han Era. I was probably there to measure the celestial heavens’ altitude.’

Qin Mu was visibly perplexed as he thought, ‘Then, when did I go to the Dragon Han Celestial Heavens? Who was the couple that stole the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace’s Glassy Sky Pagoda? The reverse side of the celestial heavens is part of the ancestral court seal, so why did the celestial heavens move up? If the celestial heavens moved, wouldn’t there be a hole for the seal?’

He was going to carefully research its consequence, but the heavenly dragon’s voice came from the carriage exterior again. “Celestial Venerable, Deity Wu is here to receive you!”

‘There’s no time. I will calculate the consequences after I leave the North Pole!’

Qin Mu couldn’t think too much about it, so he dispersed the Grand Star Atlas of the Universe and smiled. “Fatty Dragon, Yan’er, follow me to see Deity Wu!”

The carriage stopped, and he stepped out of it. He saw the other half of the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace in front of him, with Deity Wu and her entourage of female god officials waiting for him.

Unlike what Deity Xuan said, Deity Wu wasn’t a witch. Instead, she seemed more proper and solemn than Deity Xuan. This lady wore an imperial robe that was black and red with a tree peony fragrance diagram sewn into it. Snakes swam between the flowers, and some looked like they were about to fly.

Her eyebrows were like a goose with its wings open. There was a peony in her eyebrows and some light powdering on her lips. She wasn’t as imposing or fierce as Deity Xuan said. She was formal and well-mannered as she said, “Celestial Venerable Mu.”

Qin Mu hurriedly got off the carriage to return the greeting. “Sister Deity Wu.”

Deity Wu couldn’t help but smile. “People claim that you call every lady you meet Sister. It appears that it’s true.”

Qin Mu solemnly said, “Not always.”

Deity Wu acknowledged it, and Qin Mu continued, “I can’t help but call beautiful ladies ‘sisters’. Just now, I did that when I met you, Deity Wu. My mouth is more honest than my heart.”

Deity Wu laughed, shook her head, and said, “You are honest. It’s rare to find honest men nowadays, unlike that cheap man in my household who doesn’t know how to sweeten his tongue at all. All he does is anger me. I get angry just by speaking to him.”

Qin Mu smiled. “Brother-in-law is honest too. He just doesn’t know how to properly express himself.”

The dragon qilin secretly praised him, ‘Cult Master really knows how to talk! He called Deity Wu ‘Sister-in-law’ in front of Deity Xuan and Deity Xuan ‘Brother-in-law’ in front of Deity Wu. He sounds like their brother. He is becoming more and more powerful after reading my Human Rearing Sculptures! It’s looking like he will become better than me!’

“Let’s not talk about him.”

Deity Wu invited him, “Let’s talk inside.”Read more chapter at vipnovel

She glanced at the dragon qilin and Yan’er. She was visibly perplexed as she asked, “Could this be the princess of the Vermillion Bird Residence?”

Yan’er returned the favor hurriedly and said, “Yan’er hereby greets aunt.”

Deity Wu was intimate to her as she went forward to take Yan’er’s hand. She smiled. “I hugged you when you were small. Your mother was ruthless to send you away. By the way, since you all came from the East Pole, you’ve seen your father, right?”

Yan’er was visibly upset.

Deity Wu saw that and smiled. “East Deity has so many sons, he probably didn’t think that he had a princess like you.”

Qin Mu probed her, “Sister Deity Wu, when I arrived here, I saw your son, You Ming, and how bitter of a condition he’s in. He’s carrying a divine mountain while it’s so cold here. I know he made a mistake from talking to him and that he’s being punished by you. But, it has been 600,000 years. I can’t help but pity him and cry…”

Deity Wu coldly smiled. “He deserves it for losing the Glassy Sky Pagoda! That was what we forged over our lives, yet he lost it. His carelessness should be punished!”

Qin Mu nodded and said, “Yes, but children can be naughty. As long as he understands the punishment, it’s enough. Truth be told, I went to see Brother-in-law just now and talked to him about it. I wanted to plead mercy for your son, yet he was furious and ordered people to go whip him 99 times!”

Deity Wu was furious. “You pleaded mercy, and yet that glutton chose to beat him up instead of being understanding? All this old thing does is handle internal affairs. If I didn’t run around so busily outside, he wouldn’t be able to hold on to this North Pole! He would’ve been crawling in the celestial river and been cold and hungry! Now he acts like he’s so competent by hitting his own son!”

Qin Mu sighed. “Please calm down, Sister. Your son, You Ming, understood his mistake and suffered the whip. It’s time to free him, or else Brother-in-law might whip him again. What good would that do?”

Deity Wu called the maids around her and said, “Take my decree out, and free the prince and get him here instead of his d*mn dad! His dad can do nothing. All he does after encountering anything is hide in his shell and push me to help him out! If he follows his dad, he will be just as useless! Quickly, quickly!”

That palace maid left hurriedly.

Qin Mu relaxed and thought, ‘It’s a relief that he’s freed.’

Deity Wu’s liking of him increased as she looked at him more and more. She smiled and said, “Your brother-in-law, that glutton, never thinks about other people. He stutters when he talks, and he beats around the bush in handling affairs.”

Qin Mu solemnly said, “Sister, you wrongly blamed Brother-in-law. When I met him, he gave me 200 Five Thunder Pots and sent several hundred sword gods to support Eternal Peace.”

Deity Wu was full of doubts. “He would be so generous? When he was with me, he was stingy as hell. How would he be willing to give you 200 of those?”

Qin Mu blushed and whispered, “He wanted to give only one originally. He lied to me about having only 16, so I told him you gave 200, and he became more generous.”

Deity Wu laughed heartily. “You may be honest, but you’re also cunning. That glutton was probably determined to give you this much after seeing my generosity. He probably felt heartache when doing it. Relax, Brother, I won’t be as petty as that glutton.”

With her words, Qin Mu felt assured. ‘It’s enough to form an army with 300 Five Thunder Pots. When this army is mobilized, thunder will rain!’

Deity Wu was more freehearted than Deity Xuan, and she gave Qin Mu 201 Five Thunder Pots before saying, “My gift can’t pale in comparison to the hundreds of true martial sword gods that glutton gave you. When Founding Emperor came here to learn my abilities, in exchange, his most powerful formation experts designed the Connected Snake Rampart Formation for me, which needs thousands of female gods to deploy. It can even go up against strong practitioners of the Emperor’s Throne. I will send you one of this formation.”

Qin Mu was delighted and said hesitantly, “When Brother-in-law got the sword gods to help me in the lower bound, he took their surnames back and chased them out of the North Pole so they wouldn’t burden him…”

Deity Wu understood him and said, “Are you worried that my palace maids would use their bloodline to bully the people of Eternal Peace? Relax, I will arrange the same for them.”

Qin Mu gave a sigh of relief. It was comfortable to talk to a smart lady like her.

“Speaking of this, this is our second meeting. We met for the first time on the ghost ship, and it was only because of your wisdom that I could get off.”

Deity Wu laughingly said, “Sister Vermillion Bird talks about you all the time. She even talked about how you mentioned the Heaven Alliance when she met you in the first year of the Dragon Han.”

Qin Mu’s heart tightened as he nodded gently.

“The ten Celestial Venerables of today are the Heaven Alliance. Did you know how great of an impact your careless act would have?”

Deity Wu seemingly said on accident, “Almost every major event after then had something to do with the Heaven Alliance. As one of its oldest elders, you should lead the effort to quell the internal strife too.”

“Sister, do you think there would’ve been a Heaven Alliance had I not mentioned it?” Qin Mu asked.

Deity Wu was stunned.

“There would still be a Heaven Alliance. Perhaps it would have a different name, such as the Earth Alliance or the Ghost Alliance, but the Heaven Alliance wasn’t formed because of me. It was formed because of the ancient gods.”

Qin Mu walked with her and whispered, “If the ancient gods treated the Postcelestial lifeforms and half-gods better, there wouldn’t have been the Heaven Alliance. The great amount of pressure left them with few ways out, which is why the Heaven Alliance was born. If I eliminate the ten Celestial Venerables with the ancient gods and you all still do things the old way, there will be another Heaven Alliance.”

Deity Wu thought about it in silence and then said, “The ancient gods of today are better than those in the past. Besides, the half-gods of the celestial heavens today are no different than the half-gods of the past. People worship and sacrifice to them. The Heaven Alliance became the ancient gods after eliminating them. Brother Mu, you should instead think about how not to become a leeching ancient god that feeds off the people.”

Qin Mu was stunned. He bowed and thanked her, “Many thanks for your reminder!”

Deity Wu returned the favor and said, “I’ve seen the replacement of too many dynasties, seen life and death splitting people apart, and seen disaster killing people. I can’t help but feel despair after seeing so much. I think it’s a large cycle, one I can’t change. But you have the energy to do it. Perhaps you can do it. I shall hold you back no more.”

Qin Mu bade her farewell and left.

Deity Wu sent him off to her half of the Southern Heavenly Gate and watched him leave. After a while, the maids brought Prince You Ming over. He became a humanoid, then kneeled down and kowtowed to Deity Wu to thank her.

“Stand up.”

Deity Wu lifted her hand and said, “Celestial Venerable Mu went through a lot of effort to get me to free you. I had to oblige him since he’s a Celestial Venerable. Your father whipped you 99 times because you were too talkative, so you would remember to not be so naive after you finished fulfilling your punishment.”

Prince You Ming nodded, climbed up, and said, “Where’s Celestial Venerable Mu? I haven’t had the chance to thank him.”

Deity Wu said, “He has left, presumably to meet West Deity in the West Pole. You might’ve been freed, but you still made a mistake. Since you owe Celestial Venerable Mu a favor, you shall head down. You lost the Glassy Sky Pagoda, so you shall only return after finding it.”

Prince You Ming kowtowed again.

Deity Wu sighed and held him up. “You are my son. Although you look like that dumb father of yours, I still can’t bear to watch you risk your life. You are too naive. If I hadn’t suppressed you in the North Pole, you probably couldn’t have survived the Dragon Han Era. This Eternal Peace Era is even harder. You must be careful.”

She retrieved a sack made out of snakeskin and said, “This is forged from the skin I shed. It can store anything and forge anything. You can use it to defend yourself. Also, go see your dumb dad one more time so he can do the same.”

Prince You Ming choked, turned around, and left.

When he reached the Xuan Celestial Palace, Deity Xuan was furious. He hollered, “Stupid women! You freed Ming’er! How long can he live in this dishonest world?”

Prince You Ming bowed and said, “Father, I know I was wrong.”

Deity Xuan came forward and held him up, then sighed. “You aren’t wrong. It’s fine that you lost the Glassy Sky Pagoda. I didn’t blame you for that. I punished you because, during the fracturing of the celestial heavens then, you were too naive and a son of mine that could be fooled by anyone. You were too close with bad friends like Celestial Venerable Hao and Son of Heaven Yin, and they are ruthless. You would have died being with them, so I locked you up! I can do nothing about your mother freeing you.”

He shook his head and retrieved a mirror before saying, “This is the Eight Trigrams Mirror that Founding Emperor forged from the Eight Trigrams Diagram on my back. I imprinted a Black Tortoise marking on it for you to take out for self-defense. If someone calls for you after you leave the North Pole, walk forward without turning back. If you don’t turn, no one will dare to hurt you. You will be d*mned if you turn. Remember, remember!”