Tales of Herding Gods

Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem

Qin Mu had an eerie feeling. If True Heaven Old Mother really still hid in True Heaven Palace, she was hiding while they were standing right under the spotlight. If True Heaven Old Mother was to land a sneak attack on them, who could block her?

Qin Mu didn’t know if Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor could block her, but he himself definitely couldn’t!

Even if True Heaven Old Mother couldn’t kill Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor, she could definitely kill him.

‘Is she targeting him or me?’

Qin Mu blinked. The threat Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor posed was even bigger when before as he had cultivated divine bridge. He had gotten rid of Ba Gou and her fake body, so by right, he should be her target.

But in the flaming desert, True Heaven Old Mother’s god statues had already laid their hands on Qin Mu numerous times. On top of that, the invasion of True Heaven Palace had a lot to do with him. Compared to Imperial Preceptor, True Heaven Old Mother’s hatred for Qin Mu should be even deeper!

‘No matter what, I need to be by Imperial Preceptor’s side. I can’t take a step away from him!’

Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor stretched his hand out and moved it to the side. Numerous women on the wall slid to the side and revealed the fourth mural.

It recorded a battle between True Heaven Old Mother, Sun Ship, and Moon Ship.

That battle had been initiated by True Heaven Old Mother when she attacked Great Ruins. It attracted the Moon and Sun Ships, then retreated toward the flaming desert where she managed to destroy them.

The sight of the battle on the mural was extremely majestic. The huge land ships brought the suns and moons that flew in the sky. Sun and Moon Guardians stood on the huge ships with towering physiques, but their faces were wretched. It was clear from one glance that they were evil people.

Yet it wasn’t only True Heaven Old Mother that fought against them—there were also some other gods in the sky. However, on the mural, those gods were drawn very tiny, while True Heaven Old Mother was valiant and strong, with an indomitable spirit. The other gods were simply infants in front of her!

“Is True Heaven Old Mother really so strong?” Qin Mu couldn’t help doubting what he saw.

“Let me tell you a story so you will understand why True Heaven Old Mother isn’t strong at all. One day, the emperor brought me and the ministers out for a hunt. When we caught our prey, the emperor ordered a painter to do a painting, and that painter had also drawn the emperor to be that large,” said Imperial Preceptor.

He raised his right hand and made a gesture of extending two fingers to show the size of himself in the painting. “And I was this small. The emperor was indomitable while the ministers and I were all very tiny. Among them, I was the tiniest. On top of that, when the painter drew me, he drew me to be very wretched and fiendish, with a cunning and sinister expression. The emperor wasn’t satisfied so he ordered the painter to redraw it, but it ended up the same. Thus, the emperor dismissed him, telling him to scram back home.”

Qin Mu understood what he meant and smiled. “The person who painted this mural was bootlicking True Heaven Old Mother. She shouldn’t be stronger than you; otherwise, she wouldn’t have resorted to using fake bodies to attack you.”

“True Heaven Old Mother’s abilities should be very strong, but her battle power should have a big flaw. Her magic power is extremely strong, but her spells are also in the path of all things having spirit and all things having soul. If she doesn’t show herself, I can’t do anything to her. But if she shows herself, she’s dead.”

Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor had a lot of confidence, but he suddenly changed the topic. He seemed to be warning Qin Mu when he said, “There are bootlickers beside the emperor so how can there be none beside others with power? However, these kind of people aren’t scary; it’s their thoughts that are scary.

“The painter drew me and the ministers as tiny figures and it is understandable, but he shouldn’t have drawn me to be sinister and cunning, since it involved his personal loathing. He wanted to use the chance to bootlick and influence the emperor’s view toward me, to make the emperor think that I’m sinister and cunning. He wanted to use it to get rid of me and stop the reform. Putting bootlicking and a stab in the back together was too much.”

He looked at Qin Mu with a smile that was not really a smile. “Cult Master has an important position, and even the emperor can’t match up to your authority sometimes. You need to be careful of people who hide daggers behind their farts.”

Qin Mu was between laughter and tears. Hiding daggers behind their farts… Imperial Preceptor was both refined and vulgar at the same time.

When he was refined, he could harangue with Deaf and Butcher, but when he was vulgar, he could even say phrases like hiding daggers behind farts.

However, he was speaking the truth. It was indeed not hard to encounter such people in life that would stab their competitors in the back with flattery while harboring unfathomable motives. Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor’s warning was very right.

“On the mural, True Heaven Old Mother is assisted by other gods, but where did they come from?”

Qin Mu examined the mural and inspected the pictures of the other gods in it, trying to recognize their faces. He suddenly saw one person which looked familiar. “That’s Jade Sovereign! Could the others also be the gods of High Heavens? No, they shouldn’t all be gods of High Heavens!”

He recognized another face!

He took out a scroll from his taotie sack and gently unfolded it. He placed it side by side for comparison and checked the god in the painting again.

Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor was slightly stunned. “Isn’t this the painting of paying respect to the soul that Cult Master drew?”

“It is.” Qin Mu raised his head to examine the mural. “The divine art of paying respect to the soul that Pangong Tso uses is extremely strange. When he pays respect to a soul, an apparition of a god appears behind him. I painted it here. Imperial Preceptor, please take a look, doesn’t this god in my painting looks similar to that god?”

Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor looked back and forth a few times, then nodded.

Doubt appeared on Qin Mu’s face, and he went into deep thought. “That god of Pangong Tso had once appeared in this world and was the same as True Heaven Old Mother. One of them founded True Heaven Palace and the other one founded Rolan’s Golden Palace. In that case, is he still in this world? If he is still alive…”

Chills ran down his back even though he wasn’t cold.

Pangong Tso’s divine art killed to whoever he paid respect. If the god himself was to execute it, who could withstand him paying his respect?

“The mural here only records the history of True Heaven Old Mother and not what I wanted.” Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor shook his head and walked out of the hall. “If True Heaven Palace is really part of the celestial palaces, there should be even more ancient history recorded on the murals and not just the history of True Heaven Palace! There must be another hall for older history!”

Qin Mu followed him out, and only then did the women of Yu Family fall to the ground, regaining their movement.

The battle outside was still continuing and the situation was extremely messy. All of the influential families were fighting over Vermillion Bird Bead. They were hindering each other and making dirty moves.

The power of Vermillion Bird Bead was unusually strong and not any inferior to that of Green Dragon Bead. It was one of the four great spirit treasures of True Heaven Palace so it naturally invoked quite a fight among people who wanted to obtain it.

Even though women held the authority in West Earth, their internal conflicts and power struggle were no inferior to those in Eternal Peace.

Qin Mu followed Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor to the main hall of True Heaven Palace and saw that the murals there were different from the other palaces.

Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor stood in front of one and looked at it calmly. The corners of his eyes suddenly twitched and fear spread across his face.

Qin Mu looked at the mural and saw the imposing celestial heavens. There was a person dressed like the heavenly emperor inviting gods for a banquet. There were countless of them who chose to attend!

“Earth Count!”

Qin Mu’s heart trembled violently when he saw Earth Count with horns on his head among the gods!

In the painting, Earth Count’s position was extremely high yet his face still couldn’t be distinguished. And he wasn’t the only one like that!

That meant that there were many existences that were like Earth Count.

In the painting, the gods were all frozen in different poses, drawn so vividly that they looked like they were about to step out and come to life. This showed that the painter who had painted the mural was exceptionally brilliant.

Qin Mu’s gaze swept through the gods, but he found no sign of True Heaven Old Mother or even Ba Gou. “Could it be that True Heaven Old Mother wasn’t even born back then?”

The corners of Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor’s eyes were still trembling when he croaked out, “This is the true celestial palace, the true celestial palace… No wonder, it’s no wonder that even Founding Emperor Era was wiped out…”

Qin Mu grabbed his hand, and it was actually shaking. Fear and hesitation could be seen in the depths of the middle-aged man’s vacant eyes!

“Imperial Preceptor is scared by a painting?” Qin Mu laughed.

Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor struggled free, but his voice was still hoarse. “Aren’t you scared? Don’t you see how many gods there are in this celestial palace? Don’t you see Earth Count among them too? Don’t you understand that the destruction of Founding Emperor Era was probably due to the gods in this celestial palace?”

Despair appeared on his face and he laughed. “I thought I could abolish the degenerates and return the world a clear heaven and earth. I hoped to prevent people from being deceived anymore and break the gods in the temples and in their hearts so they would have the courage to fight the heavens, but isn’t all that just a joke? Cult Master Qin, you don’t understand anything! If I continue with the reform, Eternal Peace Empire will end up the same! Hehe, reform, hehe…”

He was completely disheartened and fell into a daze. He waved his hands while saying, “I’m not going to High Heavens anymore. When I return to Eternal Piece, I will bring my wife into seclusion. Cult Master you… continue being the cult master. As for the reform, don’t touch it again.”

He turned around to walk out of the hall with a bleak expression. He had lost all his courage to continue fighting.

“Heavenly King, you just now asked me if I understand or not. Let me answer you!”

Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor stopped in his tracks.

“I know.” Qin Mu’s smile was more radiant than ever before. “I’m even more deeply involved than you. The Founding Emperor also had the surname Qin, and the orphan of the eradicated Founding Emperor Empire is right in front of you.”

Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor trembled. He turned around to look at him, his words coming out in a stutter. “You-you…”

Qin Mu showed him his white teeth as he smiled radiantly. “My name might be fake, but my surname isn’t. Founding Emperor’s Qin is my Qin. If I’m not scared, what should you be scared of? Heavenly King, I suddenly have an idea, help me grind my inkstone.”

Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor was still in shock from Qin Mu’s words and didn’t understand what he meant.

Qin Mu took out his brush and threw the inkstone at him. He looked with interest at the painting which had inflicted so much damage to Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor. After a moment, his eyes lit up and he found the crux of the matter. With a smile, he asked, “Is the ink ready?”

Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor was in a daze, barely having caught the inkstone. Qin Mu smiled and spoke once more. “Heavenly King, this isn’t like you. Where’s the saint that appears once every five hundred years?”

Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor took in a deep breath and threw out all the thoughts in his mind, focusing on grinding ink.

Qin Mu soaked the brush full of ink and placed a few strokes at the bottom right corner of the mural. After he was done, he smiled and said, “Help me wash my brush.”

“You!” Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor could barely hold back his anger. “Founding Emperor Era ended over twenty thousand years ago, and the hundredth heir of Founding Emperor might not be any more respected than a farmer! If you make a fool out of me, I’ll create trouble for you and make sure they haunt you forever.”

Qin Mu laughed loudly and said, “We will leave after you finish washing.”

Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor washed the brush with dedication. He was serious in everything he did and was never careless.

Qin Mu put away his brush and inkstone before grabbing the middle-aged man’s hand. He dragged him toward the mural with a smile. “Let me bring you to a meeting, the banquet of the celestial heavens!”

The two of them hurled themselves against the mural and vanished as they entered the painting.

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