Tales of Herding Gods

Chapter 680: The Source of Darkness

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Qin Mu gave him half a bucket of spirit pills, which filled up the basin. He said to Yan Jingjing, “He’s timid, but once you talk about food, he’s fearless.”

Yan Jingjing came to a realization and said with a smile, “Fatty Dragon’s strength isn’t weak either, I spent quite the effort earlier yet I still couldn’t pull him out from the ground. What were you looking at just now? It looked pretty scary!”

Qin Mu handed the Life and Death Book to her and said, “I was looking at the divine art that Official Sovereign left behind, and I was completely entranced.”

Yan Jingjing sat down and examined the runes on the book in detail. She realized that it was too complicated so she couldn’t understand anything at all.

Qin Mu sat down beside her and guided her. “These are the writings of Youdu. The writings of Youdu are different from the writings in the world of the living. To the people of the living world, Youdu’s writings are merely scribbles. However, Youdu writings are extremely ancient, and they contain divine arts, paths, and skills that cannot be measured. They are the carrier of the great Dao of Youdu.”

His explanations confused Yan Jinging, but with him by her side, she felt blissful. As for what the words on the book were, she didn’t bother to listen.

Qin Mu continued to explain, “Words are information, and they carry the Dao. By understanding every word of a civilization, it wouldn’t be hard to understand the paths and skills of a certain era. Official Sovereign doesn’t want me to learn this divine art in fear I would spread it around. However, if he thinks he can hide it from me like this, he’s underestimating me too much.”

Yan Jingjing placed the Life and Death Book on her leg, and both of her hands smoothed the hair coming down from her temples. She asked puzzledly, “This divine art is so complicated, so how can we learn the logic within it?”

Qin Mu said with a smile, “I understand Youdu language, so the secrets of the runes are not difficult for me. What’s difficult is actually the changing vein lines and the layering structures. What’s involved is something I don’t understand. I don’t have much research in Youdu’s divine arts, but luckily, I have met many outstanding people and can invite them over to study this together. We can definitely unravel the secrets of this divine art!”

Elder Angler got up and kept his stool to walk over. “Let me take a look.”

Yan Jingjing hurriedly rose and handed the Life and Death Book to him. Elder Angler looked through it, and his head became dizzy. He shook his head and said, “I can’t understand. Maybe the woodcutter can understand, he knows more things.”

Qin Mu looked at the Moon Well and saw numerous moons, which were tied up beside the Moon Well, that scattered bright radiance. Elder Angler had actually been able to hook out so many moons in such a short time. His abilities were truly extraordinary.

Elder Angler reeled the fishing line, and the two little red fish jumped back into his fish basket.

Elder Angler waved his hands, and he said, “Now that the suns and moons have already been hooked out, I should be leaving. Are you guys following me to take the red kun back, or are you taking the Moon Well back?”

Qin Mu and Yan Jingjing discussed and said, “Heavenly Teacher Fisherman keeps staring at the heart of my brows, I’m afraid he wouldn’t be able to resist hooking out my brother. Therefore, let us enter the Star Sea from the Moon Well, the path is much closer.”

Elder Angler waved his hand and left with his basket.

“You two must stay lovey-dovey!” The two little red fish popped their heads out and waved their fins at them.

Qin Mu and Yan Jingjing’s faces turned slightly red, and the atmosphere was slightly awkward. The dragon qilin was currently licking his basin, and scraping sounds could be heard coming from it, breaking the momentary silence.

The dragon qilin licked the basin clean and his tongue swept up to conceal the basin somewhere.

He always treated his rice bowl more importantly than anything else.

“Jumping down from the Moon Well, it would be the area of the Star Sea. The Star Sea is extremely strange, and we can quickly arrive at the Sun Well.”

Yan Jingjing said, “In that case, we can save half a month’s journey.”

Qin Mu was very curious and asked, “Do you know about the origin of the Star Sea?”

Yan Jingjing said, “Grandpa Chief also doesn’t understand a lot about it, and only heard that the Star Sea is a treasure that’s not yet formed. A strong practitioner started creating it during the Founding Emperor Era, but before he finished, he moved to Carefree Village.”

They stood on the back of the dragon qilin, and the dragon qilin dove into the Moon Well. The light became more and more intense, and soon, they reached a vast underground world.

Qin Mu said, “A treasure that’s not yet formed? I clearly saw numerous god weapons flying past the stars, so why is it a treasure?”

He had once seen a terrifying sword pellet in the bottom of Star Sea which burst forth with flying swords of various colors. It could release and pull them back at will, and it was incomparably terrifying.

Suddenly, both of their gazes turned sluggish. They saw a moat stretching from north to south, cutting across the underground Star Sea and blocking the path between the Sun Well and the Moon Well!

Countless stars in the Star Sea formed galaxies which collided in succession, rupturing the underground heavenly moat continuously. The galaxies actually pierced holes through the underground moat!

The galaxies still swirled around the two wells, but the stars in the galaxies weren’t stars anymore. Instead, they were treasures that emanated with divine might. Sounds of things breaking filled the air as they flew past furiously.

‘The moat should be a part of Supreme Emperor Heaven that smashed into the underground of the Great Ruins, and it got pierced through by the ‘stars’. Those stars aren’t truly stars, but treasures that have already taken shape.’

The treasures flew at astonishing speed, and some treasures would burst forth with divine might from time to time. It was extremely terrifying. The huge sword pellet Qin Mu saw the previous time was also among them.

The speed of the sword pellet flying was extremely terrifying, and it was bursting with flying swords of various colors. It was like a star that was shining brightly and moving at a rapid speed!

The other treasures would also release their power from time to time. With the power of all kinds of treasures colliding with one another, it was as if they were borrowing each other power to refine themselves!

“My god...”

Qin Mu’s gaze was in a daze. Looking at the incomparably terrifying sight, he muttered and said, “This is indeed refining a treasure, but we just don’t know what kind of treasure it is. It might be numerous times more terrifying than the Crimson Light Heaven Suppression Floor when completed...”

Yan Jingjing said, “We already can’t go over from here. If we go from here, we will die if we aren’t careful.”

Qin Mu nodded his head. The sight was too terrifying, and it even pierced through Supreme Emperor Heaven. If they tried to barge through, they would be turned into ash by the treasures!

‘Who made these treasures? They look like they are about to be completed...’

He was bewildered, and he instructed the dragon qilin to go out from the Moon Well. He thought to himself. ‘Come to think of it, there are so many strange treasures under the Great Ruins. Under God Broken Mountain Range, an incomparably huge divine knife rests, and it is no less than a hundred thousand miles from north to south. And now there’s such a terrifying galaxy, and divine weapons are everywhere in this galaxy...’

Star Sea should have been left behind by strong practitioners of Founding Emperor Era; otherwise, God Zi Qing wouldn’t have planted the Sun Well and the Moon Well there. However, the Star Sea was about to finish, so why hadn’t anyone retrieved it?

“If we take a detour around Supreme Emperor Heaven and Luofu Heaven, we will probably take close to a month to reach the Sun Well.”

The dragon qilin flew out of the Moon Well, and when they reached outside, they flew towards the broken cliff.

It was still daytime, and there was no light coming from the broken cliffs. Only when it was night time would there be light.

There were originally two roads that people could pass through the broken cliffs, and they were flying bridges that were paved from the top of the cliff to the bottom of the cliff, making it easier to travel. However, when the big red kun carried Qin Mu over, he had seen that Supreme Emperor Heaven destroyed the two bridges. Yet, someone fixed the two bridges!

Qin Mu was astonished, and he made the dragon qilin slow down. There was a huge hole on the back of Supreme Emperor Heaven. Outside the hole, many girls were hurrying to and fro, fixing the foundation of the bridge.

Meanwhile, at the entrance of the hole, numerous square rocks grew legs to walk out orderly.

Yan Jingjing has never seen such a strange incident before, and she couldn’t help being astonished. Qin Mu said with a smile, “This is the divine art of West Earth, I know who is trying to open a tunnel through Supreme Emperor Heaven.”

He let the dragon qilin descended, and when the female divine arts practitioners saw him coming over, they were surprised and delighted. They shouted into the cave, saying, “The one in charge, the son-in-law is here!”

Qin Mu’s face turned slightly red, and he explained to Yan Jingjing, “The person inside is definitely Formation Master He Yiyi, one of the three masters of West Earth. She’s an extremely strong woman who is unmatched in her formation skills... Yes, she’s the number three in the world for formation skills. They are talking nonsense, as I’m not the son-in-law of the He Family. They have the tradition of visiting marriage, but I didn’t attend. I had only gone to West Earth to help Nai Kui seize her position back...”

As he was speaking, a gust of fragrance assaulted his nostrils as a woman flew into his embrace with a smile. “Darling, you are here!”

Qin Mu was helpless, and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

He Yiyi let him go and said with a smile, “Look at you, all frightened like this. Young lady, he’s not my darling, don’t be scared.”

Yan Jingjing had a solemn face, and she didn’t say a word. She just stared at her.

Qin Mu said with a smile, “You have given me a scare. Sister Yiyi, it’s your He family who has receive orders this time to create a tunnel through Supreme Emperor Heaven?”

“The emperor issued a decree to let our He family of West Earth fix the road first before opening up a tunnel to connect East Earth and West Earth.”

He Yiyi smoothed the hair on her temples, and she tried to wipe away her sweat. “The emperor has granted us the Black Tortoise Bead and dispatched all the experts of our He family. We borrowed the power of the Black Tortoise Bead to slice the mountain rocks and let them walk out by themselves. These mountain rocks will then mend the bridge. Look at the bridge pier over there. If we didn’t have the Black Tortoise Bead, I wouldn’t have such humongous magic power and sense.”

Qin Mu turned to look back and exclaimed in admiration. Below the bridge pier of the two flying bridges was actually mountains giants that were holding up the bridges with their shoulders.

The mountains giants were lined up from shortest to tallest, and they used their shoulders to lift the flying bridges, allowing the surface of the bridge to be paved smoothly. The tallest mountain giant was likely over a hundred thousand feet!

Qin Mu exclaimed in admiration and said, “When compared to clan treasure of the influential families in West Earth, they aren’t inferior by much.”

Suddenly, a woman shouted loudly, “Formation Master, the sky is about to turn dark. Let’s go to the closest village to hide first!”

Yan Jingjing suddenly said, “No need for that, I’m here, so you guys don’t have to worry about the invasion of darkness.”

He Yiyi was slightly stunned. She took a long look at her and not long later, the sun set. Qin Mu immediately looked towards the cliff, and he saw darkness spewing out from the cracks on the cliff. The darkness poured out like a flood and instantly washed them over.

When that kind of darkness encountered Supreme Emperor Heaven, it made it seem as though Supreme Emperor Heaven didn’t exist and it just passed through Supreme Emperor Heaven, sweeping through the Great Ruins quickly.

Everyone gathered beside Yan Jingjing, and the girl was like a small sun that emanated intense divine light to block the darkness. No matter how the darkness rushed at her, she was immovable.

Yan Jingjing gave He Yiyi a look of power, and He Yiyi gave a slight smile, but her heart was crawling. ‘This girl is a god, and she’s also so protective, I probably can’t get close to him anymore.’

Qin Mu stared at the wall, and darkness completely poured out from the cliff. Suddenly, rays of bright light shone out and landed on the back of Supreme Emperor Heaven.

The rays of bright lights were coming from the cracks on the cliffs!

“As I’ve guessed, the darkness is coming out from those hidden worlds! When night falls in the Great Ruins, those worlds would be in the day, and when day breaks in the Great Ruins, those worlds will be in the night. It’s like an hourglass.”

Qin Mu narrowed his eyes. Numerous lights were coming out from countless cracks on the cliff, and that meant that there was quite a large number of worlds hidden in the broken cliff!

‘Lou Qianzhong, who died in my hands, said that the darkness of the Great Ruins was laid out by his master, Mingdu’s Black Deity. Even though the darkness changes locations at the broken cliff, what exactly is the darkness?’

He hesitated for a moment. Until then, he didn’t know what the darkness of the Great Ruins was exactly. It was definitely not darkness in the literal sense, and it should be a kind of strange substance.

Not only that, when the darkness invaded at night, there would be some strange monsters that would roam the land and swallow up every lifeform that dared to step into it.

When day broke, the monsters would disappear along with the darkness.

So where did the monsters come from?

Furthermore, after the darkness descended, there would be terrifying devil gods that would roam in the dark. When Qin Mu saved Yu Zhaoqing and the rest of the Heavenly Feather Race at the Sun Well, he had seen monsters climbing out from another space, and that meant that the Great Ruins had many such entrances!

The place with the most entrances was right there, the broken cliff, where the source of the Surging River came from.

‘Among them, there must be one that’s the true source of the darkness! The source of the darkness is definitely not the worlds that are giving off bright light from the cliff. Darkness is hidden inside the world, so it will definitely not light up. The simplest method is to find the source...’

Qin Mu quickly took out paper and brush, and he started to draw the outlines of the cliff from his memory. He recorded down every position that was shining and thought to himself. ‘After day breaks, I just need to compare the places that are shining with the cracks on the cliff. The crack that doesn’t shine tonight will be the source of the darkness!’