Tales of Herding Gods

Northern Heaven was the territory of Son of Heaven Yin, with him residing in Mingdu. The gigantic landmass was created from a piece of Earth Count’s horn, similar to Qin Mu’s Qin word land.

However, apart from Earth Count’s horn, there was also the netherworld sea. It was a treasure refined by Son of Heaven Yin. The majestic netherworld sea wasn’t smaller than the Mingdu continent.

Outside Mingdu were star regions formed by 40 star constellations, with numerous heavens floating among this vast universe.

That day, Son of Heaven Yin had also led the great army of Mingdu towards the celestial heavens, preparing to attack the Great Void.

The four great sects had suffered a huge defeat in the Great Void, and the ten Celestial Venerables were angered. This time, they had mobilized the powers of Son of Heaven Yin and the rest of the four deities, preparing to level the Great Void in one blow.

Qin Mu traveled through Mingdu and saw that the architecture of its celestial palace looked extremely strange and sinister. The murals and statues on the palace wall were either ghosts and ghost kings of Youdu or images of various devil gods. There were even totems of Mahakala.

However, what numbered the most were statues, totems, wall murals, and relief sculptures of Earth Count.

“Ahh?” The tiny Earth Count peeked out from the dragon qilin’s ear, examining those murals and relief sculptures confusedly, not understanding why Son of Heaven Yin was so into worshiping him.

Yan’er took him out. She placed him on the dragon qilin’s head and gave him a spirit pill as a reward.

After all, he was the one who spotted Prince Qing Zong. Hence, he deserved a reward.

Qin Mu surveyed his surroundings. Son of Heaven Yin had taken away most of Mingdu’s military force. There weren’t many left who were able to threaten Qin Mu.

‘Son of Heaven Yin is definitely a fanatical admirer of Earth Count!’ Qin Mu thought to himself secretly as he looked at the Earth Count statues.

He traveled from Mingdu to the star constellation of Shangli Palace and entered a heaven, observing the lives of the people as he consulted Celestial Venerable Ling’s letter.

He looked around and found that the people there weren’t much better off than those in Western Heaven.

Although Son of Heaven Yin was a great deity of the human race who controlled souls and was Earth Count’s equal, humans continued to be the lowest rung of society in his territories, serving as sacrificial offerings for ancient gods and half-gods.

The people were struggling to survive. From time to time, they would face dangers such as floods and fierce beasts. Not only that, but they also had to face exploitation by the divine arts practitioners of the half-gods and the pettiness of the devil gods. If sacrifices were made irregularly, the devil gods would bestow disasters upon them.

Qin Mu saw that many temples were filled with an endless stream of people offering incense. Perhaps, it wasn’t incense. Rather, people from nearby towns had prepared livestock like cows and sheep or boys and girls to be sacrificed to the high and mighty devil gods.

When incense was lit, devil gods would ride on their devil qi and descend to enjoy the sacrificial offerings.

When he passed the huge river in that heaven, he also saw the villagers putting young girls on rafts, letting the current take them down the river.

Those were sacrificial offerings for the river god. After eating the girls, he wouldn’t cause a great flood to drown the villages on both sides of the river.

He even saw villagers throwing boys and girls into a volcano. Within it lived a mountain god.

If they didn’t submit their offerings, the mountain god would be angered, causing the volcano to erupt, covering the land around it with flames up to a thousand miles away, burning countless people alive.

Qin Mu reached the most prosperous place in the heaven and saw countless divine arts practitioners being used as slaves in mines.

Their primordial spirits were penetrated by some kind of soul spell. The gods that stood high above held whips in their hands as they supervised the slaves. If they were a little careless, the whips would come cracking down, beating their souls until they wailed tragically.

Son of Heaven Yin had the same bloodline as Celestial Venerable Hao. Although Celestial Venerable Hao was half-human, he never regarded himself as human. Similarly, although Son of Heaven Yin was human, he didn’t regard himself as human.

Qin Mu felt a great amount of sorrow in his heart. Sometimes, the cruelest to the humans wasn’t necessarily the half-gods, but humans themselves.

Qin Mu was unable to stand the sight before him anymore.

He originally wanted to see the outside world, beyond the celestial heavens and the Primordial Realm. However, the more he saw, the more unbearable it got.

He wanted to start a massacre, but it was difficult to change anything with just him alone.

‘Celestial Venerable Huo, what are you trying to change?’

He couldn’t help but laugh. Today, the celestial heavens had so many elites of the human race that Celestial Venerable Xiao didn’t have to mind him for the time being. However, Celestial Venerable Huo was a Celestial Venerable of the human race, through and through.

Celestial Venerable Huo, Son of Heaven Yin, Dao Ancestor, Brahma Buddha, Heavenly Master Bai Yujing, their abilities weren’t weak. Apart from them, there were also existences like Founding Emperor. Nevertheless, humans continued to live in the lowest rung of society.

Celestial Venerable Huo always portrayed himself as a noble person. Qin Mu wanted to go over to Celestial Venerable Huo’s area to have a look, to see how the humans under him lived.

He left the heavens in the north and headed towards the heavens in the south.

Southern Heaven was under the jurisdiction of Red Deity Qi Xiayu. In name, she was the ruler. However, it was actually Celestial Venerable Huo who ruled Southern Heaven.

Every generation of Red Deity was a puppet supported by Celestial Venerable Huo. Since the ancient times, many had been known as Red Deity, but actual power resided with him

It was precisely because Celestial Venerable Huo was the actual ruler of Southern Heaven that resulted in the grudge between him and South Deity Zhu Que.

South Deity Zhu Que ruled the South Pole at the edge of the universe, close to the border of the heavens in the south. Her territories weren’t considered significant.

Even so, Celestial Venerable Huo had spent thousands of years infiltrating the South Pole, resulting in South Deity Zhu Que not having any troops to defend herself when Celestial Venerable Huo attacked with the divine weapon Celestial Venerable Yu.

Qin Mu walked out of the Red Deity Celestial Palace’s Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge and looked around. He saw plenty of heavens in the south, with the Red Deity Celestial Palace at the center. They hung in the sky like shining red stars of different sizes, looking extremely dazzling.

Qin Mu didn’t directly enter the Red Deity Celestial Palace, roaming around instead. He saw the people of Southern Heaven continent living and working happily in peace, and everything seemed orderly.

A colorful phoenix flew across the sky, making a clear chirping sound like a singing bird.

Qin Mu walked to the edge of the water and saw a divine dragon lurking in the mountain stream. It lay coiled beneath the clear water as it opened its mouth to spit out a dragon bead which took in the essence of the sun and moon.

A sweeping sound came from the mountain forest. A qilin walked out of the forest and came to the mountain stream to drink. After taking a glance at them from afar, it continued to lower its head to drink.

Right next to this mountain stream lived more than a dozen families. There was even a private school, where loud and clear sounds of reading could be heard!

Qin Mu was shocked. He listened carefully.

“The ruler guides the subject, the father guides the son, the husband guides the wife. These are the three cardinal guides…”

Qin Mu frowned as he thought, ‘This is to teach humans not to rebel.’

He was about to leave this small mountain village, but he suddenly stopped when he heard some funeral music. There was a funeral procession belonging to an old man from the village. The villagers were carrying an uncovered coffin. On it sat an old man who was bowing with folded hands at the surrounding villagers. He smiled and said, “Today, I’m going to rise up to heaven to serve the gods. There’s no need to be sad!”

Qin Mu didn’t understand the custom and thus stopped to observe.

The villagers played gongs and drums as they carried the coffin out of the village. They walked over ten miles to a temple. The Daoist guarding the place hurriedly opened the door, allowing the funeral procession to enter.

The drums were deafening. The villagers placed the old man and the coffin in front of the god statue in the hall, then lit up some incense sticks before dispersing.

Qin Mu, the dragon qilin, and Yan’er stood outside and watched. After a while, a ray of light descended from the sky and landed in front of the god statue, transforming into a god with the head of a bird and the body of a human.

The old man in the coffin wasn’t afraid. He bowed and said, “Your humble mountain villager greets Mountain God Li!”

The bird-headed god examined him from head to toe and said, “How old are you this year?”

“Mountain God Li, I’m 60 this year.”

Mountain God Li said, “It’s rare for people to live until 60. You must be quite remarkable to live until this age.”

The old man beamed and said, “Whoever lives to 60 has to come forth to serve the mountain god in accordance with the rules. I’ve lived long enough to see my grandchildren and have no regrets.”

Mountain God Li nodded and said respectfully, “In that case, can I eat you?”

“Please,” the old man said with delight.