Tales of Herding Gods

Panda Novel

Crippled hesitated slightly, not moving forward. Rather, he looked from afar.

It was too dangerous over there. He saw many gods and devils of the celestial heavens charging into the darkness and collapsing, their primordial spirits destroyed. Some of these gods and devils were much stronger than him but were unable to defend against the invasion of the darkness.

‘This power of darkness is much stronger than the darkness of the Great Ruins!’

Cripple was worried. He thought to himself, ‘Will Wei Suifeng survive an hour and a half?’

In the sky, galaxies drifted. However, these weren’t stars but the Great Heavenly Cycle Constellation Army of the celestial heavens. They formed a giant Heavenly Net, suppressing the darkness. It looked like a great overarching dome had been placed over a black pot.

The sky and ground were completely lit, as though by millions of bright shining stars. Their brightness radiated in all directions, eliminating all shadows.

The Heavenly Net began contracting, compressing the pitch-black devil qi of Youdu. Very soon, the Little Youdu within the Primordial Realm was compressed by half.

‘Mu’er is being restrained!’ Cripple was startled.

Countless mountain gods rushed over, and Cripple quickly merged into their midst and followed them towards the darkness.

He was proficient in the art of creation and transformation and swiftly disguised himself as a mountain god.

The huge and majestic mountain gods had circled the Heavenly Net completely.

Each mountain god took out a pillar and abruptly stabbed it into the ground. They then stood beside the pillars, performing spells and chanting phrases.

The pillars began to grow bigger and taller at a frightening pace, spinning as runes glowed on their surfaces. The runes then flowed along the pillars into the ground, which was quickly solidifying.

The mountain god beside Cripple noticed him and shouted, “Where’s your treasure? Why didn’t you take it out?”

Before Cripple could answer, a terrifying radiance suddenly glowed within the darkness. Upon seeing the light, Cripple quickly fell to the ground, shrinking his body.

Before the mountain god realized what was going on, a gigantic beam of light hummed and swept past him, slicing him into two. His thick pillar was also sliced and fell to the ground.

The light swept across the surroundings, shaking the air and emitting a deep humming sound.

It wasn’t a single beam of light but six.

The six beams of light swept, sliced, and cut in all directions, and across the inescapable net. The Heavenly Net of the Great Heavenly Cycle Constellation Army had been completed. The back of every celestial gods’ head glowed brightly like stars, overpowering the six beams of light.

However, the Earth Net wasn’t yet done. Suddenly, the pillars were destroyed one by one, with some even being broken into six or seven pieces. As for the mountain gods, they were dodging the beams of light emitted from the darkness. Since they were powerful and the beams were bright, they dodged them expectedly.

Cripple remained prone and looked towards the mountain gods. They were indeed powerful and had reacted quickly. Apart from the one who got distracting talking to him, the rest of the mountain gods successfully dodged the terrifying six beams of light.

Interestingly, when the mountain gods jumped to avoid the light beams, the height of their jumps was pretty similar.

‘Idiots!’

Cripple broke into a cold sweat and didn’t dare to move. He thought to himself, ‘Mu’er has three eyes. Two are able to shoot divine rays of bright light, while the center eye shoots dark light. Now, he’s in his three-headed, six-armed form. Six beams of bright light and three beams of dark light. He’s forcing you to jump to the same height so that he can kill you with his three beams of dark light…’

When he was in Supreme Emperor Heaven, he saw Qin Mu break the seal and transform into Son of Youdu. It was a frightening scene. If not for Earth Count’s interference, things could have been disastrous.

Cripple was extremely fearful of Qin Mu’s demonic third eye.

He saw a mountain god leaping through the air, and suddenly, his body was sliced neatly into four equal parts by three invisible knives.

Cripple looked around and saw that the rest of the mountain gods had been sliced neatly into four equal parts as well.

‘Mu’er isn’t being controlled by the devil nature. Rather, he is controlling it. It has to be—Son of Youdu doesn’t fight this way.’

Cripple thought, ‘Son of Youdu fights on instinct, whereas he fights with reason.’

In the sky, the Heavenly Net suddenly contorted, as if it was pulled by some fearsome beast. The Great Heavenly Cycle Constellation Army, which was inside the Heavenly Net, was trapped and ended up being dragged with it. They screamed in despair.

The Great Heavenly Cycle Constellation Army was under the charge of the Heavenly Cycle Star God of the celestial heavens. The star god was an ancient god, but the Great Heavenly Cycle Constellation Army recruited half-gods and other races who managed to cultivate successfully.

The Great Heavenly Cycle Constellation Army fell into the darkness with the Heavenly Net and was greeted by a huge cauldron. The entire Heavenly Net and the army of gods and devils dropped into the cauldron and went silent.

After swallowing so many gods and devils, the huge cauldron suddenly spewed upwards. Many faces floated in the darkness, all saying, “Ah Chou.”

Just when Cripple began to relax, the dark sky brightened again. In the sky, countless gods were moving pieces of precious treasures, arranging them to form the face of Heaven Duke with his white eyes and white eyebrows!

The form was comprised of countless treasures that were reorganized into Heaven Duke’s head using his runes of Great Dao, which were formulated by the celestial heavens’ usage of algebra models.

Heaven Duke’s eyes shined downwards, burning away the devil qi of Youdu with immeasurable brightness and easily revealing Qin Mu!

Cripple saw that one of Qin Mu’s three heads was a big-headed baby. It was being burned by Heaven Duke’s gaze and was in pain, trying to retract back into his body.

Cripple thought to himself, ‘The Great Dao of Xuandu and Youdu are clashing with each other. Mu’er is unable to take it anymore…’

Qin Mu leaped and flew away. The gods in the sky moved together with him, keeping the formation of the head of Heaven Duke intact. However, Qin Mu was too fast for them to catch up.

Cripple quickly got up and followed suit, but he was unable to catch up with Qin Mu as well.

At this moment, Cripple saw a flash of white light bursting in the western sky where Qin Mu was heading. An aura of emperor’s awe emerged, blocking his way. A fleet of overlapping celestial palaces materialized with a great deity primordial spirit sitting within the Jade Capital’s Numinous Sky Hall. He suddenly stood up.

Almost at the same time, a blanket of darkness appeared over the northern sky with the same aura of emperor’s awe. A fleet of celestial palaces appeared, like a scroll painting unfurling. Son of Heaven Yin was sitting on the Emperor’s Throne, the great seas surging behind him.

Over at the south, where blazing fire raged, a fleet of celestial palaces appeared among the flames. The Numinous Sky Hall sat within the sacred fire, with nine phoenixes spreading their wings and shrieking.

Cripple was overwhelmed by the emperor’s awe. He looked back and saw a green light bursting into the sky, followed by a fleet of celestial palaces appearing among the light. Countless palaces had grown a layer of dragon scales, giving off an air of unsophisticated simplicity.

The White Deity, Black Deity, Red Deity, and Green Deity—the four great deities born after the creation of the celestial heavens—had all arrived.

Cripple’s heart sank, he was getting more and more desperate.

Qin Mu rushed towards the White Deity in the west, sending out a terrifying shock wave. However, he was forced back by the White Deity and was unable to escape via the west.

He charged at Son of Heaven Yin and battled him among the great seas. After a few blows, he was forced to retreat. The north route wasn’t an option either.

Qin Mu turned towards the south. Music played, and Red Deity Qi Xiayu transformed into a nine-headed phoenix and forced him back.

Cripple saw Qin Mu rushing madly past him towards the oncoming Green Deity from the east. Not long after, he saw Qin Mu tumbling back to him.

“Mu’er…”

He reached out his trembling hands, unable to catch Qin Mu, who continued to be beaten back every time he charged forward.

“Don’t hurt the Son of Youdu, capture him.”

From afar, an emotionless voice said, “He is an important weapon to deal with Earth Count.”

Cripple saw Qin Mu continue charging forward, only to get beaten back time after time. His injuries were getting worse, and he had difficulty standing.

“Mu’er!”

Cripple rushed towards Qin Mu. Qin Mu’s six arms were supporting him off the ground, and he was coughing up blood and fragments of his lungs.

Cripple rushed towards his location with all his might. When Qin Mu saw him, he turned around and smiled.

“Grandpa Cripple…”

Cripple saw Qin Mu lift a finger at him, which had runes surrounding it.

“No!” Cripple shouted angrily before he was engulfed by the runes and disappeared.

He spun and twirled—when his body settled, he was already thousands of miles away.

Cripple was shocked and angry, wanting to return to the battlefield. However, it was too far, even for a peerless thief god like him.

“Brother, you should go.”

Qin Mu struggled to get up. He wiped the blood off his mouth, looked around at the four approaching deities, and laughed. “You can still return to Youdu. You are very important, we can’t let the Heavenly Courts gain possession of you. If they do, Earth Count will be in danger. Let me send you back.”

Qin Fengqing shook his head and charged at Red Deity Qi Xiayu. “You are more important!”

Qi Xiayu plucked her musical strings, causing him to fall back. He immediately got up and charged at her again.

Qin Mu invoked the undying god consciousness, trying to suppress him and force him back to Qin word land. “Go back! Return to Youdu!”

Qin Fengqing was beaten back once again and tried to crawl up. All of a sudden, his devil nature erupted, strongly resisting the suppression. “You should go back!”

“Stubborn!”

Qin Mu used all of his power to suppress him and shouted angrily, “We must not let them gain possession of you! I’m not Son of Youdu, I’m just a consciousness born out of this body after you were sealed! I don’t have a soul, my soul is yours! Go back!”

Qin Fengqing was suppressed until he was crawling on the ground like a baby. He groaned as he moved towards Qi Xiayu. “You are more important… bad brother is more important… Mother doesn’t like me, she’s afraid of me… Mother likes you more. If you live, Mother will be very happy…”

He tried to stand up again, fighting to regain control of his body.

Qin Mu sighed and closed his eyes. He said softly, “Heaven Duke, Earth Count, please lend me your power…”

A burst of power surged within him, causing Qin Fengqing to be sent back to Qin word land.

“Bad brother!” Qin Fengqing shouted at the top of his lungs as he fell into Qin word land.

Qin Mu held down the Slaughter Cauldron. Within the cauldron, there were faces floating on the surface, staring at him.

Qin Mu raised his hand and plucked out the third eye that was residing between his eyebrows.

A Gate of Heaven Influence appeared behind him, and he threw his eye through the gate into Youdu.

The faces in the Slaughter Cauldron looked at him—a teenager without his third eye—and said quietly, “Ah Chou.”

“Yes, I am Ah Chou.” Qin Mu wiped the blood off his forehead and grinned.

He staggered to his feet as the four deities of the celestial heavens approached.