Tales of Herding Gods

In the carriage, the four Celestial Venerables split up and took their respective seats. The dragon qilin was worried that Qin Mu would wander around, so he crawled under his seat while Yan’er transformed into a green sparrow to take a nap on Qin Mu’s head.

Celestial Venerable Qiang and Celestial Venerable Yan looked around. Both of them were Celestial Emperor’s concubines, so they were naturally beautiful. Even their eyes were gentle like water, giving viewers an indescribable feeling. From their eyes alone, one could see how beautiful they were.

Celestial Venerable Qiang was more carefree. She wore lighter clothes and had a certain charm to her. The clothes revealed where it should and hid where it shouldn’t

Heavenly Lady Yan, on the other hand, was much more proper. However, the white cat in her arms was simply too eye-catching and would always draw one’s gaze there.

Their gazes swept past Celestial Venerable Xiao’s face and landed on Qin Mu.

Qin Mu smiled leisurely.

The Nine Dragons Treasured Carriage drove away from Celestial Heavens. Celestial Venerable Xiao coughed and was about to speak when Qin Mu spoke first, “Benefits will be split equally!”

The gazes of the three Celestial Venerables landed on him, and Qin Mu said with a smile, “There are no outsiders here, so I’ll be straightforward. I can enter Ancestral Court, but I don’t have much fighting strength, so it’s hard for me to gain much from Ancestral Court. My three Dao friends are strong enough, but whether it is repairing Ancestral Court or entering Ancestral Court, you will need me. Therefore, I propose to split the benefits equally.”

Heavenly Lady Yan hugged the white cat and didn’t say anything.

Heavenly Lady Qiang took out a bag of sunflower seeds from who-knows-where and ate them leisurely. She had a smile on her face as she looked at the other three.

“Ancestral Court must be sealed. We can’t release it.”

Celestial Venerable Xiao said solemnly, “My teacher, Celestial Venerable Yun, said that if the seal of Ancestral Court is broken, it will be an apocalyptic disaster. Celestial Venerable Mu, don’t always think about benefits; think about the living beings in this universe.”

“The ancient gods would be more worried than us about Ancestral Court’s seal-”

Heavenly Lady Yan’s gaze landed on Celestial Venerable Xiao, and she said indifferently, “But some people seem even more worried than the ancient gods.”

Celestial Venerable Xiao said with a straight face, “I’m a human, so I’m naturally worried about the safety of the human race. Heavenly Lady Yan isn’t a human, so you don’t understand my anxiety. However, Heavenly Lady is also worried about this world, right? Otherwise, why would you come here in a hurry to check Ancestral Court with me?”

“Whether gods or humans, it is not my concern.”

Heavenly Lady Yan smiled as she stroked the white cat’s head. “Like Celestial Venerable Mu, I think Ancestral Court has a lot of benefits. I heard that the ancient gods benefited a lot from Ancestral Court in the past. Also, Ancestral Court is related to the origin of the masters of creation and the origin of the ancient gods, so I must go. What does Sister Qiang think?”

Heavenly Lady Qiang chuckled. “I don’t have any opinions. I want to listen to Xiao, but I also want to listen to you people. How about this? I want Ancestral Court to be sealed, but I also want the benefits of Ancestral Court! What do you think?”

Qin Mu clapped his hands in praise and said, “Grand Emperor will definitely go to Ancestral Court to release the void beasts there. Grand Emperor is a dead man yet he’s not gone, and he’s extremely hard to deal with. Heaven Duke, Earth Count, and the other ancient gods will also be paying attention to that place. The four of us will work together and fight!”

The three Celestial Venerables had weird expressions. Heavenly Lady Qiang smiled and said, “Celestial Venerable Mu, which side are you truly on? You actually want to ally with us against the ancient gods.”

Qin Mu laughed loudly and said righteously, “I’m on the side of justice!”

Everyone laughed out loud, and even the dragon qilin chuckled, waking up Yan’er who was dozing off. The white cat popped its head out from Heavenly Lady Yan’s embrace and stared at Yan’er with hostility in its eyes.

Celestial Venerable Xiao smiled. “Dao Brother Mu, Celestial Venerable Qin said to replace Celestial Heavens Realm with the Dao Realm. What do you think?”

Heavenly Lady Qiang and Heavenly Lady Yan also looked at Qin Mu.

Qin Mu said with a smile, “Founding Emperor’s words were very startling when I first heard them, but when I ponder carefully, his Dao Realm is the but the same as Celestial Palace and Celestial Heavens Realm, it cannot fully represent the standard of cultivation.”

The three Celestial Venerables did not understand.

Heavenly Lady Qiang said, “I think what Founding Emperor said makes sense, but it is still hard to accept. Why do you say those words, Celestial Venerable Mu?”

Qin Mu said with a smile, “My sword path is at the 3rd heaven, and my divine arts are at the 8th heaven. According to the 36 heavens of the Dao Realm, my realm can only be ranked below average between gods and devils. However, if ordinary Jade Capital Realm practitioners were to fight with me, it would only be a question of how fast they would die.”

The white cat shuddered and looked at him.

Heavenly Lady Yan gently stroked the white cat and asked, “What about the Numinous Sky Realm?”

“Even though I will definitely lose, the Numinous Sky Realm practitioners can forget about killing me.”

Qin Mu continued to say, “It’s evident that the Dao Realm cannot fully incorporate the abilities of gods and devils. Celestial Heavens Realm is also not sufficient. I’m only at the second level of Celestial Palace Realm: the true god realm[2]. However, my abilities are on par with Jade Capital Realm. It can be seen that both of them are lacking as metrics.”

The white cat closed its eyes and started to nap again.

Heavenly Lady Qiang asked, “In that case, Celestial Venerable Mu, how do you think we should divide the realms?”

Qin Mu thought about it and said, “I am not sure either. However, if I were to divide it using myself as an example, then there’s only one realm: Spirit Embryo Realm. Spirit Embryo can directly reach the Ultimate Void[3], and it can also directly reach Celestial Heavens. The so-called Dao Realm and Celestial Heavens Realm are all but small realms in Spirit Embryo Realm.”

The three Celestial Venerables laughed and shook their heads. “You are even more nonsensical than Founding Emperor!”

Qin Mu laughed loudly, and the atmosphere in the carriage was very cheerful.

Suddenly, Heavenly Lady Qiang opened the window and saw a treasure carriage flying close to them.

“It’s Celestial Venerable Hao’s carriage.”

Heavenly Lady Qiang smiled. “As a Heavenly Lady, I don’t dare call him. Celestial Venerable Xiao, please greet him.”

Celestial Venerable Xiao acknowledged and called out. The window of the carriage opened, and Celestial Venerable Hao looked over. He saw Qin Mu being together with the other three Celestial Venerables, and he couldn’t help be unhappy.

Celestial Venerable Xiao said, “Didn’t Celestial Venerable Hao chase after Founding Emperor? Why are you back?”

Celestial Venerable Hao snorted and said indifferently, “Celestial Heavens have split open, and I’m afraid there will be a great disaster, so I had no choice but to return. Wasn’t Dao Friend Xiao chasing after the demoness of the masters of creation?”

Celestial Venerable Xiao sighed. “When I saw Celestial Heavens split apart, I knew that if it was destroyed, the disaster would be even greater, so I abandoned the demoness of the masters of creation and hurried over.”

Heavenly Lady Qiang smiled. “That demoness is truly beautiful. She’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”

Celestial Venerable Hao and Celestial Venerable Xiao felt embarrassed, and Qin Mu also felt uncomfortable.

“Heh, man,” Heavenly Lady Qiang chuckled.

Suddenly, a bright light flashed outside, and Heavenly Lady Yan immediately shouted, “Celestial Venerable Hong!”

That bright light stopped and transformed into an elder with white hair and white eyebrows. It was Celestial Venerable Hong. He stood in the starry sky and looked at everyone with a face full of smiles. He bowed and said, “So it’s fellow Dao friends.”

Qin Mu smiled. “Where is Celestial Venerable Hong heading to?”

Celestial Venerable Hong smiled and said, “I saw that Celestial Heavens was in trouble and I knew that something big must have happened when Celestial Heavens split and Ancestral Court was revealed, so I am heading there to check.”

“Excellent, excellent.”

Everyone said, “Dao Friend Hong is warm-hearted and is a role model. Quickly enter our carriage, the cold air outside is awful.”

Celestial Venerable Hong had no choice but to board Celestial Venerable Xiao’s carriage. He looked around and said with a smile, “This carriage is too full, and my body is big. Let’s me go visit Celestial Venerable Hao’s carriage instead.”

Everyone pretended to be angry and said, “Just squeeze in a little. You are a demon Celestial Venerable, you just need to shape-shift a little.”

Celestial Venerable Xiao raised his hand, and the carriage became larger. Another seat appeared in the carriage.

Celestial Venerable Hong had no choice but to sit. He looked at Qin Mu and smiled. “Celestial Venerable Mu still owes me a favour.”

[1] Incense Scattering Palace is the place where Celestial Venerable Yu’s remanent soul was sealed.

Also, “Celestial Heavens” is actually a very nice addition done by the previous translator. The characters used would be normally translated as “Heavenly Court” but “Celestial Heavens” surprisingly fit the story a lot better due to the scale of the story. The reason why I don’t use “the” in front of Celestial Heavens is because, although it is called heavens (plural), it is still one big entity and I’m treating it as such. Hence “Celestial Heavens” is a proper noun name given to the generic heavenly court.

[2] “true god realm” will not be a proper noun as it’s an informal way of saying “Southern Heavenly Gate Realm”

[3] I think the previous translator called this the “Supreme Void” but I chose “Ultimate Void” as a more literal translation and to avoid confusion with “Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain”. This Ultimate Void is the 36th void.