Tales of Herding Gods

Chapter 1064: Darkness Is Coming

“Ah Chou?”

Qin Mu immediately became nervous. He hurriedly asked, “Which one?”

The god didn’t recognize him, but he replied, “I don’t know. We are at the border. Half-gods and humans live together, and neither us nor the half-gods can manage this area. There are no censuses.”

Qin Mu’s expression changed as he hurriedly said to Yan’er, “Look after the lantern. Don’t let it be extinguished.”

Yan’er was perplexed. The lantern was Wei Suifeng’s treasure, and he was the Emperor of Endless Clouds. How could the lantern he forged be easily extinguished?

Qin Mu was extremely nervous. He walked around and hurriedly told Celestial Venerable Ling and Celestial Venerable Yue, “Evacuate the people here. Move them inland, far away from this place. There’s about to be a terrifying occurrence here!”

Celestial Venerable Yue was stunned and immediately ordered people to move the humans inland.

‘The darkness is coming... it’s coming. The darkness of that day must have come from a nearby heaven. Those half-gods found the wrong place.’

Qin Mu looked up at the sky. There were several heavens in it. Some powerful half-gods were flying towards them and leaving behind god light trails, like meteors streaking through the sky.

Qin Mu mumbled, “Ah Chou is actually in a nearby world, but darkness is coming, and this place will be affected... The lantern can’t withstand it! Sister Yue, Sister Ling, I have to leave this place for the celestial heavens immediately. I must get there before darkness arrives and do what I have to do!”

Celestial Venerable Yue and Celestial Venerable Ling were somewhat reluctant as they said, “You want to leave when you just got here?”

Qin Mu hopped on the carriage and said, “We’ll still have chances to meet later, relax. I’ll come back for you two! Yan’er, look after the lantern. Pi, prepare to go!”

He entered the carriage, opened the windows, and said, “Don’t stay here, leave now!”

Celestial Venerable Ling and Celestial Venerable Yue saw how serious he was, so they knew it was something big. Celestial Venerable Ling went to him, gave him her peachwood hairpin, and said, “Before you leave, return it to me.”

Qin Mu put it in the heart of his brows, and as soon it landed in the Qin word land, there was another one in Celestial Venerable Ling’s hair.

Celestial Venerable Ling smiled and whispered, “With this, I can persevere.”

The heavenly dragons pulled the carriage into the air and used the wind to speed onward. When the carriage went by the palace on the bird, the man with blood all over his face lifted his head and shouted at the carriage, “I can’t die! If I’m dead, none of you will escape!”

Qin Mu looked at him through the windows. He was expressionless and speechless.

The lady walked out and looked at Qin Mu from afar. Qin Mu nodded, and the lady returned the greeting.

“I separate my feuds and favors clearly. I’ll repay you in the future.” Qin Mu felt the lady’s consciousness wave in his head.

The carriage passed the palace and flew towards the celestial river.

The man with the spear through his chest on the pole smiled. “Nü Xin, I feel the eruption of a powerful force in the darkness. Earth Count has reincarnated. Do you want to use this opportunity to get rid of him?”

“The greatest enemy of the masters of creation, besides the Grand Emperor and Tai Chu, is Earth Count.”

The lady plainly said, “Both of them, as well as Earth Count, are going to die. This is an excellent opportunity to kill Earth Count. Once he’s gone, the masters of creation will be rid of their natural enemy! I can then create many masters of creation and repopulate the Nü Xin Tribe!”

“I can help you.”

The man gently said, “After all, we’re husband and wife...”

It was still fine when he didn’t mention that. After he did, the lady became angry and retrieved a tray from the palace with hundreds of silver needles on it.

She picked one up and gently shook it, and it became a foot long. She then proceeded to stab them into his body one by one.

The man cried out in bitter pain.

At that moment, the lady suddenly felt something and looked up into the sky in a hurry. The man on the pole excitedly said, “You felt it too? The surging dark force! This force is coming from Earth Count! They have already found him. We can work together as husband and wife to get rid of him...”

The lady heard what he said, and hatred grew in her heart. She picked up the whip and whipped him crazily, causing him to be covered in injuries.

The man on the pole shouted while laughing, “As long as you’re by my side, I’ll like it even if you hit me with ten times the force!”

The lady put away the whip and looked up towards the dark wave. She coldly said, “It isn’t easy to scheme against Earth Count. I’ll need your real body to come forth. Where is it? Why hasn’t it shown itself yet?”

The man looked at her gently. “It has been quietly looking at you. I watch how you hit me. I’ll never get bored of it, even if it goes on for another hundred thousand or a million years...”

The lady beat him up again. “Bring it out!”

Celestial Venerable Ling and Celestial Venerable Yue felt the dark wave as well. It didn’t come from a place near them. Instead, it came from the heaven above them.

The Primordial Realm had thousands of worlds hanging in the sky. Where they came from and why they appeared were mysteries to Postcelestial races.

They just knew that they hung there.

After his travels outside, Celestial Venerable Yun once revealed that they may be worlds created by some prehistoric race, but he didn’t go into detail.

Suddenly, the earth shook violently, and dark devil aura flooded out of the ground. The people at the border panicked and scampered as if the sky was falling.

Celestial Venerable Ling and Celestial Venerable Yue were shocked as they looked up. The heaven was like a giant devil eye emanating a devilish aura that was like tentacles.

Meanwhile, the devilish aura flooding out of the ground was flooding towards that heaven, but both of them felt that it didn’t come from a place underground. Instead, it came from another space and time.

Youdu!

‘There has been a drastic change in Youdu!’ Both of them thought simultaneously.

At that moment, the dark devilish aura became denser and denser. Celestial Venerable Yue flew up and said, “Quickly, evacuate the people here!”

Lights streaked across the sky as they flew towards the heaven. Those were abnormally strong half-gods!

On the celestial river, Qin Mu hastened them, and the carriage went straight for the celestial heavens. At that moment, he saw the stars in the sky becoming brighter as they overshadowed the sun’s glow.

Qin Mu’s heart fluttered. That was an ancient god moving their ancestral star while flying towards them from a distant time and space!

At that moment, he saw several large ships dragging a gargantuan thing while flying over them on the celestial river, heading towards a heaven in the Primordial Realm.

Now that he was far from it, it looked like a black line to him.

The large object that the ships were dragging was a large god stage, where two giant portions of baleful air intertwined as if they were flood dragons. They kept on rotating until they reached the highest point of the sky!

“Sacrifice, my people!”

A low growl came from the sky. It was the voice of an ancient god. “Sacrifice, so we can descend!”

More ships moved to the front of the carriage. They connected to form a giant sacrificial altar.

Many half-gods pushed out numerous lifeforms of all sorts onto the sacrificial altar.

The blood sacrifice began, and they evaporated in a crimson aura. They cried out to the heavens bitterly as their corporeal bodies shriveled at a visible rate!

In the sky, crimson lights dragged the stars closer and lower.

Old gods formed weird shapes and descended from the heavens and onto the sacrificial altar along the light. They opened their mouths to breathe in deeply, and countless limbs rose and entered their mouths!

Extremely weird-looking ancient gods laughed and hollered, “Let’s go and meet that Ah Chou!”

The carriage drove by, and the dragon qilin looked back and probed, “Cult Master?”

“Ignore them.”

Qin Mu said apathetically, “Darkness is coming. Hurry. We can’t waste this opportunity. We only have five chances to go back to the past left.”

The dragon qilin nodded and said, “However, those ships have blockaded the celestial river, so it’ll be difficult.”

“Ram through them,” Qin Mu said.

The ancient gods on the sacrificial altar noticed them, and their gazes fell on the carriage. The half-gods on the ships also looked at it restlessly.

“This carriage seems familiar...” said an ancient god with the head of a wolf. He was Wood Wolf of Kui Star Sovereign.

An ancient god with the head of a chicken said, “I think Celestial Emperor has one of these...”

“In the celestial heavens, people of prestige have carriages like these. However, Celestial Emperor has ten heavenly dragons, while the four deities have nine.”

An ancient god with wooden horns and a scaly head that resembled a crocodile’s said, “Powerful officials have eight, the crown prince has seven. However, I have never heard of a carriage with six dragons pulling it.”

“Jiao Mujiao, I’ve heard of it. A hundred thousand years ago, that fiend had six heavenly dragons pulling his carriage. The Five Elements Star Sovereigns...”

Qin Mu opened his window and revealed half of his face. He looked towards the front, not towards the 28 ancient gods. He plainly said, “Yes, it’s me. If you don’t hinder me, I won’t hinder all of you. Open the path.”

Their gazes fell on his face, and they were hesitant.

Suddenly, Wood Wolf of Kui waved his hand and hollered, “Open the river!”

The ships moved towards the sides, and the carriage drove on. The ancient gods on the sides looked at Qin Mu in the carriage.

Suddenly, an ancient god laughed. “Celestial Venerable Mu, your battle at the celestial river back then shocked the world. I wonder if you can still fight. Later on, you struck out a few times, but you lost a few times too.”

The carriage came to the center of the fleet, and Qin Mu meditated, remaining silent.

Gui Jinyang smiled and said, “You disappeared 70,000 years ago. I heard that you lost to Celestial Venerable Hao, which made you disheartened. A hundred thousand years have passed, and your opponents from back then have become famous strong practitioners, while you are still the same. Did you improve?”

Qin Mu opened his eyes and said plainly, “I have cultivated to the true god realm from the god realm.”

Laughter came from all around him. “Others are already at the Numinous Sky Realm! Celestial Venerable Yun even reached the Emperor’s Throne Realm! Yet, you are still a true god!”

Qin Mu closed his eyes again. “I’m different.”

Laughter came again.

The carriage went on.

Suddenly, Jing Muhan grabbed the carriage and said, “Come down and play, Celestial Venerable Mu!”

Qin Mu remained in the carriage without moving. Jing Muhan’s hand was about to grab the carriage’s canopy when a door appeared in front of it.

The Heavenly Door of Heaven and Earth.

His hand went through the door, and when it came out, it was mere bones.

He screamed and wanted to extract his hand, yet he was pulled into the door by its force.

Beyond it, he became a skeleton. He shook and fell into the celestial river before being washed away by its currents.

Silence surrounded them.

“My true god realm is different from theirs.” Qin Mu’s plain voice came from the carriage.

The carriage drove on and out of the siege of the ships.

The remaining 27 ancient gods watched the carriage move away from them in horror.

“A divine art more terrifying than Earth Count...” someone hoarsely said.

On the carriage, Yan’er’s gaze flashed as she whispered, “Master, they always say that your cultivation realm is low. Can we stay in the past to cultivate for a few thousand years?”

Qin Mu looked out at the celestial heavens. “Time doesn’t matter for cultivation if one is like a tree without roots or water without its source.”

Yan’er didn’t understand him.

“Without the soil of reform, one can only cultivate to become a normal Emperor’s Throne, regardless of how long one stays in the past.”

Qin Mu took back his gaze and leisurely said, “By then, I would be like everyone else, fit to fight to become heroes, like what Celestial Venerable Hao and Celestial Venerable Huo did. However, I wouldn’t be supreme, nor would I be able to win against the ten Celestial Venerables. It’s only by absorbing the results of Eternal Peace’s reform that we can surpass them. All of my achievements come from Eternal Peace’s reform, not the past.”