Tales of Herding Gods

Translator: Ninetales Editor: Ninetales

If Granny Si or Village Chief were here, they definitely would have scolded Qin Mu for fooling around and putting himself in danger.

After all, the god voice was different from the collective voice of the maidens in the ruins. Granny Si and Village Chief would have considered it a mistake to use the chant of the devil voice to counter the god voice and break the wall. If the god voice reacted to the devil voice’s chant in a strange way, the end result wouldn’t be as simple as Qin Mu losing just his life—

—It was possible that his soul could end up being destroyed! 𝗳r𝗲𝙚w𝐞𝚋𝘯𝚘ѵ𝗲l.𝑐oｍ

However, neither of the two were there to bring this danger to Qin Mu’s attention, so he didn’t know about the risk.

As soon as Qin Mu learned the devil voice’s ancient chant, he tried it out.

When his vital qi reached the space in the middle of his eyebrows, the god voice from the nine heavens above resounded out as usual, pushing back his vital qi. Qin Mu recited the devil voice’s chant and both of the voices immediately began to fight one another.

Qin Mu seized the opportunity to push his vital qi and have it break the Spirit Embryo Wall. However, the god voice always managed to break through his devil chant from time to time, pushing back his vital qi.

Despite failure after failure, Qin Mu refused to be discouraged and continued to push his vital qi toward the wall. After hundreds of failures, his vital qi finally managed to ram into the Spirit Embryo Wall.

However… it didn’t break. The Spirit Embryo Wall was still standing.

“I couldn’t utilize all of my vital qi with the god voice distracting me…” Qin Mu thought to himself, somewhat understanding what had happened. “Because of that, the wall didn’t break.”

Having identified the problem, Qin Mu continued his efforts to break the wall. Numerous failures later, he finally managed to hit the Spirit Embryo Wall with his vital qi once more.

Just like the first time, the wall didn’t collapse.

Not long after that, he succeeded in hitting it a third time, then a fourth time, and then a fifth time…

Since Apothecary had been teaching him how to refine herbs into medicine, Qin Mu had developed a nearly endless patience. Refining herbs tested one’s patience, wisdom, vision, and finesse. Among these traits, patience was the most important. If a person wasn’t patient, they would never be able to concoct effective medicine.

Countless failures later, Qin Mu could finally hear a cracking sound emanate from the space between his eyebrows.

This sound rang out like a gentle, heavenly melody. Even though Qin Mu possessed a strong will, he couldn’t help but get excited.

A crack the shape of a lightning bolt appeared in the Spirit Embryo Wall.

The Spirit Embryo Wall was invisible, so it could only be felt, not seen.

The moment the crack appeared, a ray of light shone from his brow in the shape of a lightning bolt.

As it did, it gave Qin Mu a wondrous feeling

If a person were to close their eyes, everything would go completely dark. They wouldn’t be able to see the space between their eyebrows, the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure, or the Spirit Embryo Wall.

If a person’s vital qi created a crack in their Spirit Embryo Wall, they would be able to see a ray of light shining out from the darkness in the shape of a lightning bolt. Once that happened, they would be able to see their Spirit Embryo Wall.

Not only did Qin Mu see his Spirit Embryo Wall, he could even see the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure through the jagged crack in it.

The Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure radiated an intense, brilliant light. This sparkling light and thick vital qi bled through the lightning-bolt-shaped crack and fused with the vital qi outside the wall.

The vital qi on the other side of the wall with the divine treasure was much purer and stronger than the vital qi that Qin Mu had cultivated all this time. However, they were similar in that both did not possess any attributes.

Qin Mu strongly believed that the vital qi he cultivated came from his overlord body, so he was perfectly fine with it being devoid of attributes.

Aside from just vital qi, something more mystical lay hidden inside the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure. However, since the wall only sported a jagged crack and hadn’t been completely broken, Qin Mu couldn’t see what else lay within.

Qin Mu’s heart sank as the lightning-bolt-shaped crack began to close. The Spirit Embryo Wall apparently wasn’t as simple as he thought it was. Although it had a distinct shape most of the time, the formless energy that it consisted of was like a sticky glue. As a result, it could repair itself whenever it was breached.

One wouldn’t be able to break the Spirit Embryo Wall unless they completely demolished it in one go!

“My vital qi still isn’t strong enough. However the more cracks I make in the wall, the stronger my vital qi will get! My vital qi will eventually become strong enough to completely break down the Spirit Embryo Wall!”

The moment he finished raising his spirits, the crow of a rooster jolted Qin Mu from his meditation. The sound stirred his heart, and he quickly opened his eyes.

Among the strange beasts around Qin Mu were a few Bald Neck Roosters. Each of them was abnormally large and intimidating, being as tall as a normal human. Their feathers were magnificent, but none grew from their necks. These were the birds that had just crowed. 𝑓𝑟eℯ𝒘𝗲𝑏n𝑜𝚟𝙚𝒍.𝒄o𝐦

“It’s almost morning,” Qin Mu said in realization, awakening from his trance.

Hazy rays of light started to appear in the eastern skies, signaling that dawn would soon break. It was too late for Qin Mu to try and completely break down the Spirit Embryo Wall.

It was good that he had finally figured out how to break down Walls. As long as he managed to escape the grasp of Senior Brother Qu and Senior Sister Qing, he would have all the time in the world to break them.

Even though he had only managed to create a crack in the Spirit Embryo Wall, Qin Mu’s cultivation had improved to the point where he was confident that he could to escape from them!

“It’s almost morning,” Senior Brother Qu stated solemnly.

“Our three junior brothers died at the hands of this little devil,” Senior Sister Qing said coldly. “Their souls in heaven wouldn’t be at peace if we let him escape.”

Qin Mu stood up and stretched his body, pretending not to hear them.

The maidens in the plaza continued their bitter struggle against the darkness, stuck at an impasse as light and dark clashed over and over.

Soon enough, another crow sounded out. The voice of the darkness became extremely loud and clear, a sign that it was growing impatient. The collective voice of the maidens resounded as well, resulting in a stunning clash between light and darkness.

A third crow rang out as the first rays of sunlight suddenly pierced through the darkness in the east, illuminating the mountain peaks nearby.

Sunlight shone onto the pitch darkness, forcing it to immediately recede like an ebbing tide. The darkness retreated as quickly as it had arrived, withdrawing beyond the horizon at an increasingly rapid rate.

As the light of dawn illuminated the valley, the luminescent pearl gradually descended from the air. Its iridescent light flooded back into the plaza before the sunlight reached the ruins..

As the multi-colored light vanished, the maidens in the plaza reverted back into skeletons, sitting there motionlessly.

It was as if the fierce battle that was fought throughout the night had just been an enchanting dream.

Qin Mu had previously heard the villagers talk about the strange things that happened in the Great Ruins, about how monstrous and outrageous they were. However, seeing them happen with his own eyes was definitely more overwhelming than just hearing about it.

Whenever night fell, the darkness would invade. The face of darkness would form and chant in its mysterious devil voice. The skeletons in these ruins would transform into maidens each night as well, taking part in the struggle between light and darkness. All of these strange events simply couldn’t be understood.

The secrets behind these events were just waiting for people to unearth them.

As the herd of strange beasts crept toward the gate to leave the ruins, Qin Mu’s figure blended among them. The peaceful beasts seemed to have an unwritten rule forbidding conflict within the ruins, but they would probably become extremely dangerous again as soon as they were outside.

On the other side of the herd, Senior Brother Qu glanced at Senior Sister Qing, and both of them blended into the herd as well. They slowly made their way over to Qin Mu.

The herd continued walking out of the ruins in an orderly manner when, suddenly, a sword quietly shot toward Qin Mu from behind. He promptly dodged the strike, resulting in the treasure sword nearly stabbing into a nearby beast.

That strange beast roared irritably.

“Junior Sister, don’t use your sword,” Senior Brother Qu exclaimed. “If this herd of strange beasts was to go on a rampage, all of us would just die here!”

His warning caused Junior Sister Qing to reclaim her treasure sword and leap onto the back of a strange beast. Leaping from one beast to another, she quickly closed in on Qin Mu.

Qin Mu envied Senior Sister Qing’s ability to form a thread of qi and use it to manipulate her treasure sword from dozens of yards away. Although this ability wasn’t as astonishing as Butcher’s divine arts, he found it impressive nonetheless.

Senior Sister Qing’s footsteps were light and graceful, and her dress spun through the air like a pink lotus. From under that lotus, her feet kicked towards Qin Mu like sharp blades.

The leg skill she used was sharp and precise. Each of her kicks seemed like a huge hammer covered in spikes and caused the surroundings to vibrate with a hum.

This kind of leg skill could easily shatter huge rocks and even penetrate an iron wall!

Qin Mu’s eyes lit up as he faced Senior Sister Qing’s whirlwind of kicks!

Thinking back to his training, he remembered Cripple telling him about how the Heaven Pilfering Leg Skill had never lost to any other leg skill!