Tales of Herding Gods

Qin Mu went to the Vermillion Bird Celestial Palace, but South Deity Vermillion Bird wasn’t there. The gods watching over the place said, “South Deity left after the chaos to visit North Deity and East Deity.”

Qin Mu frowned and asked for paper and ink from the god. He wrote a letter, gave it to the god, and said, “When she returns, give it to her. Tell her that her brother was here, and ask her to do what is written on it.”

The god kept the letter.

Not long after, the looting of Clear Sun Hall became clear to everyone. Celestial Emperor was furious, and he ordered Great Sun Sovereign to lead the star gods to lock down the celestial heavens and interrogate and search everyone. Even the celestial palaces of the four deities weren’t spared.

Earth Count, Heaven Duke, Mother Earth, Heavenly Yin, and Celestial Empress’ sister all had celestial palaces in the celestial heavens, which were searched.

The celestial heavens’ impenetrable web was spread open. Dense lights floated everywhere in the sky. Those were light chains formed by Great Dao. Under such conditions, it was almost impossible to leave the celestial heavens.

‘I wonder if I can bring things from the past into the future?’

Qin Mu groaned. According to the rules of unchanging substance, one could do that, but he was unsure about it.

At that moment, the army was about to search the place he was at, so Qin Mu decided to extinguish the lantern.

Sometime after the ruckus was over, South Deity returned to her celestial palace after visiting the other three deities of the ancient gods.

The god watching over the door gave her the letter and said, “Empress, a youth with large eyes and thick eyebrows came forward with a lantern claiming to be your brother. He left behind a letter. Strangely, he had nothing to write with and asked us for stuff.”

“Brother? With a lantern?”

South Deity was confused. She took the letter and entered, thinking, ‘Those two old slick b*stards of North Deity are right. Celestial Emperor originally ordered the 28 ancient gods to take over from us and rule the four poles. Now that they have died to Earth Count, the four poles have no gods ruling over them, which means chaos will occur. It’ll be our chance to return!’

She sat in the palace nest, her red clothes covering it. The entire place was splendidly crimson and red. It moved like a flame, and it made her look very fair.

South Deity put the letter aside, thinking, ‘It may have seemed like Celestial Emperor had a benign intention in building celestial palaces for us, but in reality, he wanted to take away our power and trap us in the celestial heavens like prisoners! There must be a big revolt for us to leave this place, something bigger than Ah Chou’s assault!’

‘When one is far away from authority, the powers that be won’t intervene. As long as I return to the poles, I’ll be free and no longer restrained by the celestial heavens.’

Sorrow covered her face. Where would a revolt larger than Ah Chou’s assault come from?

After a while, she faintly sighed and picked up Qin Mu’s letter. She saw a seal on it with the imprint of a vermillion bird.

She was shocked. The imprint was lively, and the runes on it were Vermillion Bird markings. Even people that knew her well wouldn’t be skilled in so many Vermillion Bird Great Dao runes!

Yet, the person who left the letter casually left behind a near-perfect Vermillion Bird imprint!

Only she could break the seal. If others touched it slightly, the letter would ignite and turn into ashes!

‘The person who left it behind claimed he was my brother? Could it be?’

She broke the seal and opened it. The words inside jumped up and slowly burned in the air.

The words became flames that assembled themselves.

South Deity Vermillion Bird looked at it for quite a long time and read the contents. The letter became ashes by then.

“It really is Brother Mu Qing.”

South Deity’s long eyes blinked, and she whispered, “He claims that I’ll die in the future and wants me to be prepared. He gave me two strategies. The first is to contact Celestial Venerable Yue of the humans and give her a feather for safekeeping. The other is to split my soul and plan for a scheme of reincarnation.”

South Deity laid in her nest as her thin feet slipped out of her clothes. She thought, ‘However, East Deity wanted me to be guarded against human Celestial Venerables like Celestial Venerable Mu, for he killed many ancient gods and is the biggest threat to us. He’s right, the Five Elements Star Sovereigns died at his hands…’

She was in a dilemma. She sat up and walked around. However, soon, she was determined. ‘I’ll see Celestial Venerable Yue first! If her character is bad and this is a scheme, I shall distance myself from her. If her character is great, then I don’t mind making friends with her! I do recognize that little girl, Celestial Venerable Ling. Oh right, she formed the Heaven Alliance with Brother Mu…’

In the same year, Celestial Venerable Yun went to the Great Void and passed the Grand Primordium Origin Stone to the masters of creation there and said, “Luo Xiao left behind a precious stone that he claims is meant for all of you to build the Void Bridge and Paramita World.”

They were shocked, but they didn’t question it much.

Celestial Venerable Yun looked at these honest masters of creation and couldn’t help but shake his head.

It would be hard for the masters of creation to fight against the incoming invasion of the Grand Emperor.

He saw Lang Wo again. This girl of the masters of creation was extremely beautiful and moving. Every time he saw her, peculiar thoughts would emerge in his mind.

He had an idea, but he couldn’t bear letting this girl be put in danger.

He returned to the Heaven Han Celestial Heavens and saw Celestial Venerable Ling improving the path of creation. She created many more weird species. His heart fluttered as he asked, “Ling, can you create a real human?”

Celestial Venerable Ling looked up from countless scrolls and looked at him, clearly perplexed.

“A perfect girl.”

Celestial Venerable Yun’s gaze flashed as he said, “I’ll take you to see her.”

Soon, Celestial Venerable Ling saw Lang Wo and couldn’t help but be mesmerized by her beauty, even praising her. “No other girl is as fair as her, who is fairer than snow. Phoenix flutes deploy their wings and fly at the sight of her. Her skin is like that of a jade mountain, and her figure and steps are so genteel and light that no dust is stirred. Her waist is like a willow branch that can’t bear the spring that is her body. Such a girl should be called Jue Wuchen!”

Lang Wo heard it and succumbed to shyness.

Celestial Venerable Yun asked, “Could you create a Jue Wuchen with the path of creation?”

Celestial Venerable Ling thought about it and said, “I can try, but it’s not perfect yet. I need some time. When I perfect it and can create a creation divine weapon, I can create Jue Wuchen.”

“How long do you need?”

“I don’t know, you have to wait.”

Celestial Venerable Yun had no choice. He thought about Luo Xiao again and thought, ‘Is that Luo Xiao really Luo Xiao? Or is it that Luo Xiao was not Luo Xiao but that man…’

Mu Qing’s figure floated into his eyes. He shook his head and whispered, “No way. Ling said he’s a shadow of the future, though I do hope that I can see him. I have many aspirations that I want to share with him…”

He looked at the carefree masters of creation of the Great Void in a daze as he thought, ‘I feel that we are similar, why is he the shadow of the future? I have no Dao friends in this era. Why is the only one I have in the future…’

He had a feeling that he and that Dao friend of the future helped each other forward despite being separated by countless years. Yet, they remained so far apart.

A few hundred years later, Crown Prince Qi led the ten guards of the celestial heavens into a rebellion, sending the celestial heavens into chaos. Many other ancient gods also joined him.

The rebellion came from the chambers of concubines. Crown Prince Qi, the most powerful half-god, had the bloodline of Celestial Empress and the Celestial Emperor. He had also matured, making him the most terrifying being of the half-gods.

He was so powerful that he was scarier than God Emperor Lang Xuan and Ancestral God King.

The chaos he caused was massive too. The rebellion wasn’t just backed by half-gods and the ancient gods following him. It was backed by Celestial Empress too.

When he unleashed his Ruins of End divine art and swallowed the celestial heavens, even ancient gods trembled.

Yet, he lost still. Every move of his was suppressed by the ancient Celestial Emperor. Heaven and earth pushed him straight into the deepest depths of the Jade Lock Pass of Youdu.

A cold and icy voice from high up reached Youdu. “From today on, your surname is gone. You are only left with evil and sins. From today on, you shall forever sit in the blazing flames to be tortured. From today on, you are…”

“Xie Wuqi.”

The battle caused heavy casualties in the celestial heavens, more so than the chaos caused by Ah Chou. Even Celestial Empress was banished afterward.

Almost all of the ten guards were executed on the newly built God Execution Stage. It went on for a hundred days, with countless heads being chopped off.

There were so many executions, and the new divine knife was extremely ferocious. The two pieces of baleful air were made to be indestructible, cutting primordial spirits and corporeal bodies as if cutting melons and vegetables.

Celestial Emperor picked new strong practitioners from each race to fill the ten guards, and the elites of each race were almost all selected.

The ten guards of the past were made out of powerful half-gods. Now, they were made out of gods that cultivated to the Jade Capital Realm.

The power of the celestial heavens was transformed like that.

After the chaos caused by Ah Chou Earth Count and Xie Wuqi, the power of the old guard of the celestial heavens receded to an all-time low. The new era came like that, unnoticed.

The divine treasures and celestial palaces system replaced the bloodline system and became mainstream for all races of the heavens.

Before this, bloodline determined position and power.

Now, cultivation determined those things.

The ancient gods were able to rule the world because of their bloodlines, but, after these events, the divine treasures and celestial palaces system rose up!

That was the revolution of the Dragon Han Era. It was quietly completed under the subtle stirring of the ancient Celestial Emperor.

Those that impeded the ancient Celestial Emperor from growing stronger were ancient gods. Thus, he used the power of Postcelestial races and half-gods to suppress them and their descendants.

The ancient gods were weakened, but he wasn’t.

His rule became even more secure.

On the ghost ship, Qin Mu took out the round egg that he stole from Clear Sun Hall and studied it with Wei Suifeng.

Wei Suifeng knocked on it. The voice coming from it was a Dao voice. It was as if someone was speaking inside, yet it was bizarre and hard to understand.

Wei Suifeng researched it for a bit and used all sorts of god eyes divine arts to look inside, but it was useless. “It can’t be an ancient god since they are all born already, and no new ones can appear. Unless it’s a natural god formed from a dragon bloodline or mountain essences. Could a half-god be inside?”

He crawled down to listen in on the egg. The Dao voice coming from it was bizarre. The heartbeat was unique as well, sounding distant.

“Can I crack it open?” Wei Suifeng asked.

Qin Mu said, “I used it to block Celestial Venerable Yun and Celestial Venerable Hao’s attacks, and it didn’t crack. Celestial Venerable Yun’s realm was the Emperor’s Throne, and Celestial Venerable Hao’s realm was the Numinous Sky. He also had a strong bloodline power and was about to mature.”

“In the era that you went to, Celestial Venerable Yun and Celestial Venerable Hao still weren’t strong enough. They weren’t as strong as I am now!”

Wei Suifeng shouted, and countless stars shone above him. They rotated around as if they formed a sky!

Qin Mu’s heart fluttered. His big brother’s power was far superior to that of Saint Woodcutter’s!

The sky spun, and with the celestial river orbiting it, it formed the peculiar scene of the celestial river drooping over the celestial dipper!

Great Celestial River Celestial Dipper!

It was something that later generations wouldn’t be able to see. One could only see the true appearance of Xuandu when one was in the Dragon Han Era or an earlier era.

Obviously, when Wei Suifeng transmigrated to the Dragon Han Era and became the leader of the Feathered Forest Guards, he saw the real Xuandu and comprehended his own techniques and divine arts!

Wei Suifeng lifted his right hand, and the Great Celestial River Celestial Dipper’s power fused into his hand. Using his hand as a knife, he cleaved straight down at the egg.

His power was truly much stronger than the Celestial Venerable Yun and Celestial Venerable Hao of that era!

With that cleave, the egg glowed, and suddenly, a loud ringing bell was heard by everyone on the ship. It was the sound of the universe opening and surging forth!

Countless beautiful Great Dao markings flew out of it, and it caused the ghost ship to be inside its dense Dao marking lights!

At that moment, Qin Mu and Wei Suifeng felt the ghost ship getting rid of the state of unchanging substance. Instead, it fell into a formless groggy state where Yin and Yang were combined.

At the same time, all sorts of complex Dao voices rang. They were bright and ear-shattering, and it sounded as if thousands of ancient gods were all reciting it at once. It sounded like the masses calling out the same bizarre yet holy name!

Soon, they disappeared, and the markings returned to the egg. The ghost ship returned to the state of unchanging substance.

Wei Suifeng’s eyes jumped, and his right hand drooped. His hand was shivering.

“It’s broken?” Qin Mu’s gaze fell on the disappearing Dao marking around the egg as he asked with a serious expression.

“Yep.”

Cold sweat fell from Wei Suifeng’s forehead as he said, “Three of my fingertips are broken, and my pinky bones are shattered. This egg is too tough!”