Tales of Herding Gods

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

‘Celestial Empress’ sister… what is her corpse doing here?’

Qin Mu’s mind was a blank, he could barely believe his eyes!

Celestial Empress’ corpse was hidden on the ghost ship—Qin Mu’s experience on the ghost ship was so bizarre that he would never be able to forget it.

To solve the mystery of the ghost ship, he had memorized every single detail of the ship and every cycle, so the memory of the ghost ship was abnormally vivid to him.

On the ghost ship, Celestial Empress and Jue Wuchen’s corporeal bodies were both placed in the same coffin. Qin Mu had tried to summon Jue Wuchen’s soul and found out that Jue Wuchen actually had no soul. She was a man-made beauty, a perfect woman that Celestial Venerable Ling had created using the technique of creation to get rid of the ancient Celestial Emperor.

Qin Mu then summoned Celestial Empress’ soul only to shockingly find out that Celestial Empress wasn’t dead and that she was still in this world!

After, he deduced the process of how Celestial Empress and her sister had joined forces with the Heaven Alliance to murder the ancient Celestial Emperor.

The two sisters had joined forces. The younger sister remained in the celestial heavens to keep the ancient Celestial Emperor in check, while Celestial Empress went back to her hometown to visit her relatives. While there, she made use of the nearby Dragon Count Country, allowing King Dragon Count to revolt and injure her, keeping her captive in the Ruins of End.

Celestial Emperor then ordered Wei Suifeng to lead the Feathered Forest Guards to suppress the rebellion. After rescuing Celestial Empress, the day before Wei Suifeng was set to return to the celestial heavens after quelling the rebellion, Celestial Empress was ambushed. The undercurrent spewed from the Ruins of End, two Celestial Empresses appeared in the night, and the real Celestial Empress perished.

Wei Suifeng retrieved the corpse of Celestial Empress and planned to return to the celestial heavens when he encountered Celestial Venerable Ling executing her powers on the celestial river. Wei Suifeng immediately used the fog to leave the Dragon Han Era and return to his own era. Meanwhile, the Feathered Forest Guards and the ship, through Celestial Venerable Ling’s divine art, became the ghost ship that would end up traveling through time and space thirty-six times in cycles.

However, Celestial Empress wasn’t dead. She had become Jue Wuchen.

The celestial heavens also announced that Celestial Empress hadn’t perished. Qin Mu deduced that the Celestial Empress in the celestial heavens should be the younger sister of Celestial Empress.

Following this deduction, Celestial Empress and her sister were both involved in the plan to kill Celestial Emperor.

Yet, in front of him was the coffin of the younger sister of Celestial Empress, and her corpse was currently lying in the coffin!

What if, back then, Celestial Empress’ younger sister hadn’t stayed behind in the celestial heavens to restrain Celestial Emperor but had instead followed Celestial Empress to the Ruins of End and instigated Dragon Count Country to rebel. What if she then took the chance to get rid of her older sister but was instead killed by Celestial Empress?

The older sister then hid the younger sister’s corpse within the Ruins of End. After, she pretended to have been ambushed, perishing in the process. She then let Wei Suifeng take her corpse to the celestial heavens, using the ghost ship to escape and finally transforming herself into Jue Wuchen.

Wei Suifeng had then realized something was fishy, and that the one who had really died was the sister of Celestial Empress. Therefore, he left a map behind to guide Qin Mu to uncover the truth.

‘However, this guess has a loophole. That is, why did the celestial heavens announce that Celestial Empress didn’t die?’

Qin Mu composed himself and fell into deep thought. ‘The Celestial Empress in the celestial heavens is definitely one of the sisters. Which of them is it exactly? Perhaps there’s another possibility, that both sisters schemed together. The younger sister pretended to ambush the older sister and killed her while everyone was watching. Then, the older sister faked her death and escaped, becoming Jue Wuchen, while the younger sister returned to the celestial heavens to become the legitimate Celestial Empress.’

‘After the death of the ancient Celestial Emperor, Celestial Empress got rid of her younger sister and sent her corpse here to bury the truth! That was until Wei Suifeng came here and discovered the corpse of Celestial Empress’ sister…’

‘There are still areas that don’t make sense! The corpses of the sisters, one is hidden in the ghost ship, and one is hidden in the Ruins of End… so who are they now? Is there still a Celestial Empress in the celestial heavens? Or could it be that Celestial Empress didn’t kill her sister, that instead, both sisters are sharing the same body while remaining in the celestial heavens to control the corporeal body of Celestial Emperor?’

…

Qin Mu felt that his brain was about to explode, and he yelled out abruptly, “Fatty Dragon, get down here and open the coffin!”

The dragon qilin trembled all over. He laid on the crystal coffin and didn’t dare to move an inch. Qin Mu raised his hand to lift both him and the crystal coffin up. He then threw it to the side and, immediately after, executed the Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique.

Behind Qin Mu, the Gate of Heaven Influence emerged, yet what was peculiar was that the Gate of Heaven Influence was extremely faint—it faded in and out of existence and was completely unable to take shape!

Qin Mu’s brows furrowed. The Ruins of End was extremely strange—it countered Youdu’s divine arts, and he was unable to make use of the Soul Guide to check if Celestial Empress’ sister was dead or alive.

‘Wei Suifeng left the corpse of Celestial Empress’ sister here as a precious artifact, could it be that he wants me to take this corpse out of here?’

His brows furrowed deeper, and he paced around the coffin as he looked at the corporeal body of Celestial Empress’ sister within it in silence.

‘Must I really take this with me?’

Suddenly, a monstrous water sound traveled in from outside. Qin Mu was taken aback. He walked out of the red palace with quick steps and raised his head to look outwards. The sound of water came from the sky outside, but it didn’t reach the world within the flower.

‘The celestial river was cut off, so where is this water noise coming from?’

Qin Mu was stumped. ‘Could it be…’

At this very moment, a dense fog drifted through the sky, entering the world within the flower through the gaps and gradually filling up the entire flower world.

Yan’er was still fighting ferociously with the snake belle who was transformed from the stamens, and they faded in and out of visibility within the fog.

After a moment, the dense fog dissipated, and the sound of water also vanished. Suddenly, an extremely loud sound could be heard, and the world within the flower trembled violently. Following this, Qin Mu sensed that the two giant flowers were slowing rising upwards!

‘These two flowers are about to rise out from the Ruins of End!’

Qin Mu’s heart quivered slightly, and he immediately returned to the red palace, picking the dragon qilin up and pulling him off of the coffin.

Qin Mu covered up the crystal coffin. “Fatty Dragon, stop shaking, I’ll give you more meals. Hurry and call Sister Yan’er over. Let’s leave this place while these two flowers are floating out of the abyss!”

The dragon qilin was invigorated, and he immediately dashed out of the red palace and scanned around his surroundings, yelling, “Cult Master, the flower has opened up! Sister Yan’er and that ancient god have fought all the way into the dark world! It’s too dark in there, I dare not enter!”

“Add two meals!”

The dragon qilin rushed into the dark world to search for Yan’er. Meanwhile, Qin Mu lifted up the crystal coffin and laughed. “I don’t know what kind of tricks Celestial Empress and her sister are playing, but once I carry this coffin out of here, I will know whether she is dead or alive…”

Just as he walked out of the red palace, a middle-aged man walked towards him. The man was dressed in rough clothes, looking travel-worn. He had big limbs and thick brows with big eyes, and on his waist was a belt made of rough weaving. In front of him floated a sheet of goatskin paper that moved as he moved.

Before the goatskin paper was a brush that was writing and drawing on the paper on its own, drafting out the topography of the world within the flower.

The two of them faced each other and were both stunned.

“Founding Master… Big Senior Brother!”

The coffin on Qin Mu’s shoulder fell to the ground as he stared blankly at the middle-aged man before he stuttered, “Wei… Wei Suifeng!”

“Who are you?”

The middle-aged man was stunned, and his gaze turned to the crystal coffin on the ground. The coffin opened up, and a female corpse rolled out of it, her face facing downwards, revealing a hole in the back of her head with a peachwood hairpin sticking out of it.

The middle-aged man was wary, and he immediately put away his goatskin scroll, brush, and ink. “Who are you? How do you recognize me? What do you intend to do to this female corpse?”

Qin Mu’s mind was a mess. The fog from just now, the sudden appearance of his big senior brother, Wei Suifeng, the peachwood hairpin in the back of the head of Celestial Empress’ sister—this series of unexpected occurrences made him unable to straighten out his thoughts in a moment’s time.

The middle-aged man was really the founding master of the Heavenly Saint Cult, Wei Suifeng. His portrait hung in the Heavenly Saint Cult headquarters at Saint Arrival Mountain, and when each Cult Master underwent the experience of receiving their teachings from the sacred teacher on the rock, they would be shown the scene of Wei Suifeng listening to Saint Woodcutter’s teachings.

He definitely wouldn’t have mistaken him for someone else.

‘The sound of the water from just now, it was of the reemergence of the celestial river. Then the fog burst out, and it caused this place to return to twenty thousand years ago.’

Qin Mu’s head was no longer jumbled up, so he instantly rationalized what was going on.

Celestial Venerable Ling’s divine art had made him travel back to twenty thousand years ago. At this time, Wei Suifeng, in order to fulfill the three things required to become a saint—establish his cult, his ideas in writing, and establish his merit—he had started to search for the mysteries of the past and had thus come to the Ruins of End.

The peachwood hairpin behind the head of Celestial Empress’ sister was there because the one who had killed her was Celestial Venerable Ling and not Celestial Empress.

It was Celestial Venerable Ling who had hid the corpse of Celestial Empress’ sister here!

“Why are you not saying anything?”

The middle-aged man was carrying different weapons on his back. Suddenly, his body shook, and all of the weapons fell to the ground noisily before they quickly reassembled. He stared at Qin Mu with caution. “How do you recognize me? Are you someone who has been left here by the extraterritorial celestial heavens, or are you a tomb raider?”

His weapons were extremely peculiar. They were composed of various components that could be put together into different weapon forms at will.

Qin Mu figured out the crucial point, and he smiled. “Big Senior Brother, I am your second junior brother. We are both of the same sect and are both disciples of Saint Woodcutter…”

The middle-aged man reached his hand behind his back, and the freshly formed divine weapon immediately landed in his hand. He laughed coldly. “You are my junior brother? Sacred Teacher has never taken in any other disciples! Who exactly are you?”

The weapon in his hand resembled a bamboo hat, but it should be just one of its many forms.

“I am your junior brother from twenty thousand years later.”

Qin Mu hurriedly continued, “Teacher Woodcutter took me as his disciple twenty thousand years from now. I am also the Heavenly Saint Cult Master, and we have twenty thousand years between us. Did you encounter the dense fog just now? That fog is the reason why I have time-traveled twenty thousand years into the past. I followed the geographical map that you left behind for me and found this place, this coffin, and the woman inside the coffin. These are all the truths of history that you left behind for me, which were waiting for me to uncover them. This woman is the younger sister of Celestial Empress of the extraterritorial celestial heavens…”

As he spoke, he couldn’t continue speaking.

These words, if he was in his shoes, he wouldn’t believe them either!

Because it was too absurd, too bizarre!

Qin Mu sighed. “Saying all of this… you must not believe me, right?”

“Do you think I would believe you?”

The sneer on the middle-aged man’s face grew deeper. “Leave the coffin and the female corpse behind, and I can let you go.”

Qin Mu sighed again. “Teacher said that you are very stubborn, that if you made up your mind about something, even a nine-headed bull wouldn’t be able to move you, and no one would be able to make you change your mind. It seems that only if we fight and after I defeat you will you accept that I am your junior brother. Though us three brothers of the same sect have never sparred with each other before.”

The middle-aged man was plain and simple in appearance, and upon hearing what he said, he replied, laughing, “I still have a third junior brother? Coming to this evil land today, I suddenly have two more junior brothers… it is truly all very strange.”

Qin Mu replied with seriousness, “In the future, you will meet us. However, today…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Wei Suifeng suddenly threw up his bamboo hat. The bamboo hat revolved and floated in the air before it suddenly vanished. Qin Mu raised his head to look, and the sky was filled entirely with stars that shone brilliantly overhead!

Tens of thousands of beams of starlight crossed each other and crushed downwards.

“Star sand? No, it’s the Great Educational Heavenly Devil Scriptures’ tens of thousands divine art!”

As he was thinking about it, he was drowned in countless stars!

Wei Suifeng stretched his hand, and the bamboo hat returned to his hand. He said indifferently, “Fighting against me? To take you down will only require slight effort…”

Boom!

The bamboo hat in his hand suddenly burst apart, and countless divine weapons filled the air. Qin Mu countered the bamboo hat, leaping into the air and laughing. “Big Senior Brother, using Teacher’s abilities against me will not…”

Wei Suifeng’s expression changed slightly. Numerous divine weapons merged together and transformed into a cauldron just before Qin Mu managed to rise up, once again absorbing Qin Mu into the cauldron to entrap him!

“Heaven Burying Celestial River!”

The galaxy encircled him, and suddenly, a vast and mighty river surged as countless stars rushed into the cauldron!