Tales of Herding Gods

Chapter 936: Lady Pitying a Flower’s Soul

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Celestial Venerable Hao recalled his shred of consciousness and looked unwell. The experiences felt by this shred of consciousness of his were instantly reflected in his brain.

Although Qin Mu wiped the memory of this shred of Celestial Venerable Hao’s consciousness, there were still major flaws in his unperfected unchanging divine art.

He investigated and instantly knew how many ways of the Hundred Ways to Kill Mu he had used.

‘Is it Brahma Buddha’s Boundless Calamity Sutra? Brahma Buddha’s technique was a cultivation technique. Although this old monk handed over the Boundless Calamity Sutra, few in the celestial heavens could learn this cultivation technique of his.’

He couldn’t help but frown. Brahma Buddha’s Boundless Calamity Sutra was extremely difficult to learn. In the past, he would never impart his Boundless Calamity Sutra to outsiders. It was only when he saw the bad situation of today that he voluntarily handed the sutra to the celestial heavens.

However, the Boundless Calamity Sutra required extremely high cultivation on the path of Buddha. Without experience from someone who was on the path of Buddha, one wouldn’t be able to learn it.

Although Brahma Buddha was the one who opened Buddhism, he was younger than Celestial Venerable Hao, which made it unlikely that Celestial Venerable Hao would study the path of Buddha.

If one had to learn from scratch, one would take countless years to completely comprehend the path of Buddha’s scriptures and learn the Boundless Calamity Sutra.

Of course, Brahma Buddha also hid away some stuff.

The Boundless Calamity Sutra was a cultivation technique from the school of mind. This technique could be learned by understanding Buddhist scriptures slowly with a high enough Buddha nature and a peaceful state of mind. Alternatively, it could be learned by having it taught directly in one’s dreams, without the need for comprehension.

Both techniques had their own pros and cons. The first technique yielded greater comprehension levels and was what one considered to be true learning. For example, Devil Ape Zhan Kong, Rulai Ma, Monk Ming Xin, and Sakra Buddha belonged to the first category.

They had Buddha nature and were at a high realm for their peaceful state of mind.

Qin Mu belonged to the second category, where Brahma Buddha taught the technique via dreams, kind of like passing down knowledge. One didn’t require comprehension before use. However, one could only use it without understanding its principles and with little comprehension.

Qin Mu couldn’t even explain how the Boundless Calamity Sutra’s cultivation technique worked.

“Master, do we need to create another Celestial Venerable Mu?” a half-god walked forward, bowed, and asked.

Celestial Venerable Hao shook his head and replied, “No, Qin Mu is a mere small figure that’s not worth my energy. My enemy isn’t him, it’s the ancient gods and the other Celestial Venerables. Currently, the situation is becoming more optimistic, as we can now differentiate friends from foes. If I spend too much energy on Qin Mu, I’ll lose big due to small mistakes.”

He laughed. “Kunwu, choose 18 outstanding disciples and send them to me. I will impart to them 18 ways to kill Mu so that they can find the opportunity to kill Qin Mu.”

The half-god Kunwu nodded and asked, “What realm should these disciples be in?”

Celestial Venerable Hao replied, “There’s no need for them to be in too high a realm, just those in the true god realm will be fine.”

There weren’t any disciples in a higher realm in Hao Palace anyway. Those who accomplished things in cultivation would be sent out for appointments in the celestial heavens by Celestial Venerable Hao to rule the various heavens.

One couldn’t form a large force by congregating their disciples. By appointing them as leaders of armies, they could flourish and ensure that he had power on all levels of society.

Kunwu bowed and went down to choose 18 disciples.

Not long after, Kunwu brought 18 disciples with him. Although Celestial Venerable Hao had quite a lot of disciples, he rarely taught them himself, so Kunwu had a greater understanding of his disciples than he did. Most of the time, he gave the job to his most proud disciples and only occasionally taught them himself.

Those who could receive the Celestial Venerable’s true teachings were few and far between.

Even the ancient Celestial Emperor’s disciple Yan Qiling didn’t receive the true ultimate art from Celestial Emperor. What she received was merely runes from the ancient gods’ Great Dao that were arranged by Dao Ancestor. She was merely imparted a couple of great divine arts by Celestial Emperor.

It was the same for the 18 people brought forth by Kunwu.

Celestial Venerable Hao looked at these 18 people and frowned as he said, “These disciples are too weak, they aren’t much stronger than Qin Mu.”

Kunwu hurriedly replied, “I imparted the Emperor’s Throne techniques to them according to your teachings so that they could comprehend it themselves. The 28 Emperor’s Throne techniques that you imparted to me have been learned by them. As for their degree of comprehension and understanding, it’s up to their individual qualities and comprehension capabilities.”

Celestial Venerable Hao had an idea and said, “Answer me yourselves. How many Emperor’s Throne techniques did you lot comprehend and merge by yourselves?”

A lady approached him and bowed. “I am disciple Xiu Youfang, and I have comprehended the Four Symbols Calamity Technique, Great Green Watery Jade Sutra, and Delighted Yin and Yang Technique, which I merged together to be ranked into the Small Celestial Heavens techniques.”

Celestial Venerable Hao nodded and said, “Merging these three Emperor’s Throne techniques will allow you to be ranked into the Small Celestial Heavens techniques. It’s just that it’s not enough since the traitorous Qin Mu also knows three or more Emperor’s Throne techniques.”

Another lady with a purple shirt approached and bowed. “Disciple Hua Anxiu here. I have understood the Boundless Mingdu Sutra, Xuandu Mahayana Sutra, Four Symbols Calamity Technique, and Nine Phoenix Towards the Sun Technique. I have already merged these four Emperor’s Throne techniques.”

Celestial Venerable Hao laughed. “Your strength barely makes the cut.”

A young man bowed. “I am disciple Pan Chunjing, and I have comprehended the Green Wood Great Desolation Sutra, Southern Dutian King Sutra, Boundless Mingdu Sutra, and Delighted Yin and Yang Technique.”

One young god after another came forward to list the techniques they cultivated.

Although Celestial Venerable Hao kept his real ultimate technique to himself, he didn’t forbid his disciples from learning the many Emperor’s Throne techniques in Hao Palace. The number of techniques they could learn was dependent on their capabilities.

Although the disciples that Kunwu chose were gods, they usually only merged three or four Emperor’s Throne techniques. The most one merged was five. All of them were Small Celestial Heavens techniques and were unremarkable.

Of course, such people would be the best genius-level figures in the outside world!

In the thousands of worlds and heavens, Emperor’s Throne techniques were extremely rare. In some worlds, one could hardly find an Emperor’s Throne technique. Not to mention that one could barely find a true god in such worlds.

Celestial Venerable Hao spoke only after these 18 people listed the techniques that they had learned. He looked at Kunwu and said, “That’s all you’ve got?”

Kunwu hesitated and said, “Master said you wanted disciples in the true god realm, so I found 15 true gods. Other than them, some disciples fused more Emperor’s Throne techniques, with one even hitting the standard of Great Celestial Heavens.”

Celestial Venerable Hao’s expression changed. Great Celestial Heavens required one to fuse 18 or more Emperor’s Throne techniques!

In this world, only Celestial Venerables could fuse various Emperor’s Throne techniques and comprehend the Great Celestial Heavens technique. Unexpectedly, one of his disciples had already hit that standard.

Kunwu was forced to explain to him, saying, “He fused 18 Emperor’s Throne techniques, which made him barely qualify for the standard of Great Celestial Heavens. It’s just that this person isn’t at the true god realm but the Divine Bridge Realm...”

“He merged 18 Emperor’s Throne techniques despite being at the Divine Bridge Realm?”

Celestial Venerable Hao was shocked. His aptitude could be compared to the ten Celestial Venerables of the celestial heavens. He was young, too, and already at the Divine Bridge Realm, which made him weary.

“Ignore the part about realms, Qin Mu’s realm isn’t high either.”

Celestial Venerable Hao suppressed his shock as he laughed and said, “This crafty Qin isn’t a god either. He has only fused three or four Emperor’s Throne techniques. Bring this disciple over.”

Kunwu left before bringing the divine arts practitioner with him after some time.

Celestial Venerable Hao looked at her and saw that this person was a lady. She paid her respects upon seeing Celestial Venerable Hao. “Disciple Lian Huahun paying respects to Master.”

Celestial Venerable Hao’s heart fluttered as he smiled and said, “Rise up.”

That lady, Lian Huahun, rose up as Celestial Venerable Hao inspected her, noticing that she was extremely beautiful. He noted that if her shoulders were smaller, her clothes would be fitting, except that they would be somewhat stretched by her breasts. When he looked at her waist, he realized that she was thin there too.

Her eyes were enthralling, and one couldn’t help but feel shaken when looking at her eyes.

Her sashes flew about and circled her back. At the back of her head, there was a wheel made of vital qi that floated about, untainted by a shred of aura from the mortal world.

Her appearance was remarkably similar to her mother, Mistress Yuanmu!

Celestial Venerable Hao, after careful inspection, subtly praised her after suppressing his passion. ‘I have such a lady under me?’

He opened his eyes to observe in detail that the lady lacked any marks that indicated sculpting, suggesting that her body and soul were natural and not a beauty formed by creation techniques.

He was the one who employed the scheme of using a beauty to trick the ancient Celestial Emperor, so he would naturally be more cautious to prevent someone from using his own scheme against him.

Although he inherited some of the ancient Celestial Emperor’s bad habits, he was still a cautious person. Many had tried the scheme of using a beauty to trick him in the past, but he always received the beauties before devouring them.

Celestial Venerable Hao observed her again and couldn’t suppress his passion as he laughed and said, “Other disciples can receive one way to kill Mu from me, while Lian Huahun can cultivate 18 of them. Help me get rid of Qin Mu. I will forge a precious artifact for each of you that will protect your consciousnesses from being stuck in that thief Qin Mu’s illusion.”

The masses bowed and nodded.

Kunwu said, “Master, it’s hard to strike in the celestial heavens. Although Celestial Venerable Mu doesn’t have much power here, there are many ancient gods and Celestial Venerables that are quietly protecting him.”

Celestial Venerable Hao silently thought before saying, “Celestial Venerable Huo and Celestial Venerable Xu went to jointly explore the Great Void and discovered many pitfalls there. Celestial Venerable Huo sent a message back saying that the place is very dangerous and that the celestial heavens should send out an army to suppress it. Since we can’t kill him here, we can kill him in the Great Void. Finding a reason to send him to the Great Void shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Kunwu nodded.

“Kunwu, withdraw. The rest of you will stay here. I will impart to you the 18 ways to kill Mu.”

Celestial Venerable Hao’s gaze fell onto these 19 people and shook when he looked at Lian Huahun. It was a recurrence of a bad habit he inherited from Celestial Emperor. However, he couldn’t devour her yet, for he needed her to remove Qin Mu. All he could do was calm himself down and put in effort to impart the 18 ways to kill Mu to them.

In the Slow Winding Pavilion of the Jade Pool, Qin Mu was playing with the Grand Emperor’s seal when, after a while, his consciousness flooded into it as he hollered, “Rise!”

Pa-thud.

The imperial seal crashed onto the ground.

Qin Mu scratched his head and picked up the seal. He switched to controlling it with his vital qi and hollered, “Rise!”

The seal floated in midair but didn’t have any power. The eye in the heart of his brows opened as he attempted to use his third eye to control it, but nothing unusual occurred.

He attempted to construct the Supreme Palace Enclosure within the seal via his consciousness again. The seal shakily floated up, and as Qin Mu began to feel happy, the seal fell onto the ground again.

“This d*mn broken seal is useless!”

Qin Mu was furious and took out the core of the Primordial Tree to smash it, causing the Slow Winding Pavilion to shake so much that it almost collapsed. Yet, the seal remained unchanged. As sturdy as the core was, it couldn’t damage the seal one bit.

“This thing is so tough, maybe it would be good to smack people with it.”

Qin Mu stored the seal, and Shu Jun’s voice appeared in his mind as he laughed. “How can you use the seal of Grand Emperor Ju Yushi to smack people, lowly lifeform! Give me one year’s worth of your blood, essence, and consciousness, and I will teach you how to utilize it!”

To ask for one year’s worth of those things now when he asked for three years’ worth prior was already a great discount.

Qin Mu ignored him as he retrieved the case left behind by Celestial Venerable Yun and observed the sacrificial altar within.

Shu Jun couldn’t help but feel nervous as he thought, ‘Could this fellow have figured it out?’

Qin Mu closed the case, and Shu Jun finally felt relieved. Suddenly, Qin Mu said, “Shu Jun, impart to me the other techniques of the Supreme Palace Enclosure Higher Knowledge, and I will help you restore another eye.”

Shu Jun coldly laughed. “In your dreams! The Supreme Palace Enclosure Higher Knowledge is only one-third of the complete technique. Does it only cost one eye for me to impart everything to you? At least a brain is required! Besides, you still haven’t found the master of creation in the celestial heavens for me, you still haven’t fulfilled your promise!”

Qin Mu was so angry that he laughed. “Old schemer, our deal was that I would find the master of creation for you and that you would impart the technique to cultivate consciousness. However, you only imparted one-third of it, and you have the guts to say that I didn’t fulfill my promise?”

Shu Jun coldly laughed. “I only said that I would teach you how to use the Grand Primordium Origin Stone to cultivate, not give you the complete technique. Thus, I didn’t renege on my promise.”

Qin Mu was so angry that he trembled. “You a**!”

The ball of flesh on the Origin Stone’s sacrificial altar also trembled out of anger as it shouted, “You too!”

After a while, Qin Mu smiled gleefully and suggested, “Impart to me the full technique, and I will give you the essence, blood, and consciousness to restore your head. How does that suggestion sound?”

Shu Jun considered it before agreeing, “Sure. I need you to cooperate earnestly with me, with no tricks by either of us!”

Qin Mu nodded, thinking, ‘I will restore your head, but not your brain, ears, the other eye, mouth, teeth, or tongue. I will only restore an empty head!’