Tales of Herding Gods

“Hold it!”

The dragon qilin’s gaze flickered. “Brother, Yin Chaojin and Celestial Venerable Hao are quite close. This person has been up to no good all along. This time around, he is most likely here to stop you from leaving. It might even have been him who led the army of the celestial heavens to come and stop you!”

Prince You Ming hesitated for a moment, moving to the palace gate to look around. He saw that Yin Chaojin was currently chasing in the direction of the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace with the great army of the celestial heavens right behind him along with countless ships and their fluttering flags. It seemed to be exactly as this Brother Dragon had said, with Yin Chaojin really leading the great army of the celestial heavens there to attack him!

Prince You Ming was instantly enraged, and he cried out loudly, “Yin Chaojin, I treated you as a brother, yet you treat me as a fool! If I let you in, the celestial heavens’ troops of tigers and wolves will just come and trample my Black Tortoise Celestial Palace!”

Son of Heaven Yin turned around to look before laughing. “You’ve been so guarded because you thought that I’m with them? Dao Brother, I came here to tip you off, but I was discovered by the Celestial River Navy, and they have chased me all the way here. If you don’t let me in, I’ll die outside!”

Prince You Ming was unable to make a decision, and he looked towards the dragon qilin. “Brother, he said that he came to tip me off. If I don’t let him inside, isn’t he going to die out there?”

The dragon qilin was up to no good as he replied, “The Black Tortoise Celestial Palace is incredibly important. If you can’t protect it well and let it land in the hands of the enemy, even Deity Wu and Deity Xuan would be implicated. We must be cautious. Let Son of Heaven Yin kill some of the soldiers of the celestial heavens army to prove that he’s not one of them.”

Prince You Ming praised, “Brother is truly wiser. Brother Yin, if you’re genuinely here to help me, then kill some of the gods and devils from the celestial heavens. Otherwise, it shows that you actually led them here to harm me!”

Son of Heaven Yin wore a dazed expression. ‘This tortoise, when did he become smart?’

He turned his head to glance behind him. The Celestial River Navy had already arrived, and one of the leading generals at the front of the ship raised his knife and yelled out, “Prince You Ming, His Majesty Celestial Emperor has sent a decree! He wants you to return to the Jade Capital!”

Upon noticing that Son of Heaven Yin hadn’t laid a hand on the Celestial River Navy and that the Celestial River Navy didn’t attack Son of Heaven Yin, Prince You Ming was instantly enraged, and he yelled out, “Yin Chaojin, you’re really trying to trick me into opening the Glassy Sky Pagoda to try and take over my Black Tortoise Celestial Palace!”

Son of Heaven Yin was upset and anxious. Suddenly, he grit his teeth hard and charged towards the Celestial River Navy, thinking to himself, ‘If it wasn’t due to there being so many precious artifacts in North Deity’s residence, would I put myself in such danger?’

He suddenly unleashed a ruthless attack, and countless white banners flew out towards one of the navy’s ships. With a shake of the banners, the primordial spirits of the gods and devils on board that ship were also shaken as they were dragged out of their bodies one after the other and enveloped within his banners.

There were some stronger practitioners whose primordial spirits remained stabilized and didn’t suffer the same fate. However, in the next moment, the gourd on Son of Heaven Yin’s back opened up, and, from its mouth, countless insects flew out and swarmed onto the ship, sucking them all dry!

Having succeeded in his attack, Son of Heaven Yin yelled out, “Dao Brother You Ming, you have now witnessed my sincerity!”

Cries of rage could be heard from the surrounding ships, and the Celestial River Navy activated their formations. The celestial river seemed to be almost boiling as countless formation runes flew up and locked down all four sides of the celestial river.

Swoosh—

Countless divine weapons flew alongside those formation runes. Within the formation markings, the weapons struck together and heavily injured Son of Heaven Yin.

Son of Heaven Yin spat out blood as he flew backward and collided into the barrier of the Glassy Sky Pagoda.

Prince You Ming was about to open up the barriers of the Glassy Sky Pagoda to let him in when the dragon qilin raised a hand, “Brother, won’t you wait a little while more? What if it’s a self-harming ruse?”

Prince You Ming hesitated. At that precise instant, the Celestial River Navy unleashed their second attack!

The formation of the navy was incredibly powerful. Countless ships were sailing through the giant waves, and the various divine weapons became even more formidable when used together with the formation.

Even Son of Heaven Yin’s ancient primordial divine insects were almost all vanquished by the formation. Son of Heaven Yin conjured up his own Mingdu Heavenly Gate, which wasn’t completely formed when the terrifying power of the formation crushed it into pieces!

“Netherworld sea, up!”

With blood in his mouth, Son of Heaven Yin cried out shrilly, “Even though I may not be a Celestial Venerable, my reputation isn’t undeserved!”

Whoosh—

A boundless netherworld sea emerged from the void with violent waves surging. Within the sea, blood rays swept about as countless imposing corpses of gods and devils rose from it. They cried out with angry growls, prepared to fight the Celestial River Navy.

Even though the current Son of Heaven Yin didn’t have great achievements in his cultivation, one could already see the shadows of his future attainments through his paths, skills, and divine arts.

He was highly adept in the Great Dao of Youdu and had shocking attainments in the art of the soul. Regardless of whether it was the netherworld sea or the Mingdu Heavenly Gate, the Youdu knowledge required to execute them was extremely vast, and they even touched on the Dao of reincarnation. It could even be said that he had already surpassed the traditional Great Dao of Youdu and had great contributions towards its evolution.

Onboard the massive navy ships, the countless half-god generals revealed cold smiles as they raised their palms together and waved them down swiftly. “Activate the Sea Stabilizing Divine Needles!”

Dong dong dong!

Countless massive iron pillars descended from the sky and pierced into the netherworld sea, instantly freezing it in place. The corpses of the gods and devils that were just emerging from the sea also immediately stopped their ascent and were crushed back into the depths.

The netherworld sea was calm and peaceful, and nothing stirred in it anymore.

Son of Heaven Yin coughed out blood and dropped to his knees. Just as he was about to plead for mercy towards the Celestial River Navy, a slit opened up in the barrier of the Glassy Sky Pagoda as Prince You Ming reached out and pulled him inside.

The dragon qilin lamented, “Brother, we should have waited a bit more…”

“If we had waited any longer, Brother Yin would be dead!”

Prince You Ming looked incredibly apologetic as he turned to Son of Heaven Yin with a red face. “I have wronged Brother. I didn’t expect Brother to be so loyal and fearless and to have such a righteous spirit that you would actually sacrifice yourself for my Black Tortoise Celestial Palace. I’m incredibly ashamed of myself.”

Son of Heaven Yin rolled his eyes at him weakly as fresh blood surged up into his mouth, and he almost lost consciousness from the blood loss.

His netherworld sea, which he had cultivated painstakingly for the past tens of thousands of years, had been suppressed by the Celestial River Navy, and his Mingdu Heavenly Gate had also been crushed by them. It could be said that he had lost almost half of his most valuable assets.

‘If I can’t make some good profit off Black Tortoise’s foolish son, then won’t I have made great losses?’

Son of Heaven Yin gathered his spirits together, but his injuries were really too severe, so his aura was dispirited.

Prince You Ming hurriedly supported him and introduced him to the dragon qilin and the others. “This is Brother Dragon, these are the descendants of East Deity, and this is my cousin—the princess of South Deity’s family.”

Son of Heaven Yin stared at the dragon qilin and smiled coldly. “Brother, your friends here don’t even dare to give their real names. I fear there might be some trickery.”

Yan’er was a little nervous. In the later generation, when Qin Mu visited North Deity, Prince You Ming had seen them before. However, he hadn’t seen the dragon qilin in his human form, and, in that period, Yan’er had a good figure and wasn’t as fat as she was at present.

If they revealed their real names, then Prince You Ming would be able to recognize them in the later generation!

The dragon qilin was, however, calm as he replied, “Rumor has it that Son of Heaven Yin is scheming and ruthless, and that he has a divine art that allows him to kill someone just by knowing their name. Thus, in front of Brother Yin, I dare not reveal my real name. We are all distressed people from all over who are sharing a similar fate. There’s no need for us to be acquaintances when we only met each other by chance.”

“Well said!”

Prince You Ming clapped his hands together and praised as he laughed. “Brother Yin, you do have such a divine art, so it’s not wrong that Brother Dragon is unwilling to reveal his real name.”

Yan’er was full of admiration for the dragon qilin, and she looked towards him with a gaze full of respect.

The dragon qilin felt quietly pleased with himself. ‘After all, I’ve also followed Cult Master and read some books on poetry… It’s a pity I don’t have a tail now, or else I could give it a shake…’

Having suffered such a great blow, Son of Heaven Yin was unable to recover in a short time period.

Prince You Ming gathered all of Black Tortoise’s descendants within the palace and asked the dragon qilin to deploy the troops.

The dragon qilin said earnestly, “Deploying troops and setting up formations, I’ve learned some of it from an expert once, so I’ll lay out the formations. Even if the ten guards of the celestial heavens come down, they can forget about invading the Black Tortoise Celestial Palace, much less just the Celestial River Navy!”