Tales of Herding Gods

Chapter 896: Treasure Sword Drawn From Ancient Sheath, Wind and Rain Washed Off the Lead Dust

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Yan’er and the dragon qilin were shocked. Yan’er thought that Qin Mu wanted to kill himself and tried to stop him, but the dragon qilin quickly shouted at her, “Cult Master just discovered a path of survival, why would he commit suicide? Stop letting your imagination run wild!”

Yan’er was docile after being reprimanded, not daring to answer back.

Qin Mu faced the calamity with a single sword and stabbed his own celestial palace—cutting the Numinous Sky, sweeping across the Jade Capital, flattening the celestial residence, destroying the Jade Pavilion, quelling the Jade Sea, and crushing the Southern Heavenly Gate.

Within the crumbling celestial palace, all of the sword light gathered into one beam and moved along the celestial river, grinding and crushing it. It descended from the Southern Heavenly Gate in the sky and moved towards the Builder Tree!

The sword light twisted the Builder Tree into pieces, and the celestial river that was spiraling downwards along the Builder Tree was also broken into pieces, reduced into pure power of the celestial river, formless.

Above the broken pieces of the celestial river, the destroyed celestial palace was reduced into a huge sea of pure energy. It crushed the starry sky, swallowed the sun and moon, and crashed towards the Six Directions Land!

Qin Mu’s spirit embryo suddenly grabbed the sword light. Before the powerful destructive energy could reach him, he stabbed the sword light into Youdu, breaking the devil path Five Elements, Six Directions, Seven Stars, Celestial Being, Xuandu, and piercing through the Celestial River Divine Treasure!

From outside, Yan’er and the dragon qilin saw that Qin Mu’s realm was madly collapsing. A moment ago, he was at the Life and Death Realm. Then, in an instant, he descended to the Celestial Being Realm!

Within the blink of an eye, Qin Mu fell through the Seven Stars Realm, Six Directions Realm, and Five Elements Realm!

Their hearts jumped. Finally, Qin Mu’s realm landed within a valley, and he became a tiny practitioner of the Spirit Embryo Realm!

Within the Spirit Embryo Realm, one couldn’t even be considered a divine arts practitioner, because they would be limited to a few battle techniques and moves, unable to perform divine arts.

Qin Mu unexpectedly dropped into the Spirit Embryo Realm, his cultivation as good as gone!

Yan’er voice trembled as she asked, “Fatty Dragon, what is Young Master doing?”

The dragon qilin was in a daze and unable to answer.

Suddenly, an enormous surge of vital qi spewed out of Qin Mu’s eyes, ears, mouth, and nose like hot steam. With the other divine treasures destroyed, his corporeal body was left with only the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure, which was unable to contain such an enormous amount of vital qi.

Since his corporeal body was unable to handle it, the vital qi was discharged out of his body.

It being discharged out of his body was a good thing. After all, if he wasn’t able to discharge it in time, he would explode!

They saw Qin Mu’s corporeal body suddenly expand as though it was filled with gas. Very soon, he was plumper and rounder than Yan’er.

Not only that, the countless pores on Qin Mu’s skin expanded as the intense vital qi streamed out, making a sizzling sound.

Regardless, Qin Mu quickly performed the Heavenly Devil Creation Technique, trying to close up the pores on his body and lock up his vital qi and essence in an attempt to prevent the energy from leaking out of his body.

He continued to grow bigger and fatter, turning into a huge object in front of the dragon qilin and Yan’er, growing as tall as a mountain.

“Fatty Dragon, what is Young Master doing?” Yan’er’s voice was shaking.

This green sparrow was like a woodpecker, her beak pecking the back of the dragon qilin’s head. It filled his head with the sound of pecking, and soon, her pecking pierced his head, causing blood to flow.

The dragon qilin didn’t feel any pain at all. He was too distracted, his mouth agape as he stood dazed, looking at Qin Mu’s expanding body.

The mass of Qin Mu’s current body had already exceeded the dragon qilin in his full form. Even if Qin Mu was the top practitioner of the art of creation in the world, he was unable to bear a corporeal body of such proportions!

“Stop pecking!”

The dragon qilin suddenly felt pain and said hurriedly, “Sister Yan’er, your pecking has reached my skull!”

Yan’er stared at the ever-growing Qin Mu with fear as she raised her wings and shoved them into her beak. She was, after all, a dragon sparrow, so her beak was filled with tiny sharp dragon teeth.

Yan’er’s teeth knocked into each other and emitted a “Chi-Chi-Chi” sound. Soon, the feathers at the end of her wing were neatly cut.

Yan’er raised her other wing and produced the same sound. The wing also lost a ring of feathers.

Yan’er hugged the dragon qilin’s ears with her two wings, frightening him. He quickly flattened his ears, but Yan’er was too strong. She raised one of his ears and brought it to her beak.

The dragon qilin endured the pain and didn’t scream.

...

The Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure within Qin Mu’s body...

At this moment, the shattered celestial palace, all of the destroyed divine treasures, and all of the contained pure energy—be it god vitality or devil vitality—was compressed into the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure. It was like a great flood, a giant whirlpool drowning his spirit embryo.

He was originally at the Celestial River Realm, which was equal to the Divine Bridge Realm of a great divine arts practitioner. However, because of the cultivation of his vital qi, he could match up to and be on par with gods.

Even though Qin Mu had lost his primordial spirit recently, which led to his cultivation leaking and the lowering of his realm, his power was by no means insignificant.

The enormous power of the destroyed divine treasures and celestial palace pressed against the interior of the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure, causing it to expand. Every time the walls of the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure burst apart, a new spirit embryo wall was formed, which in turn burst apart again.

Due to the ferocious energy, the surface of his spirit embryo also kept disintegrating. However, with the support of the Three Primordial Spirit Undying God Consciousness, it was able to recover each time.

The beam of sword light remained in his spirit embryo’s hands. The sword light still wasn’t extinguished, and it was helping him block the vital qi’s uncontrollable attacks.

Had it been someone else, their spirit embryo would have already been destroyed. Only he could endure such a frightening onslaught. Even so, he was unable to hold out much longer.

Elder Messenger of Death had mentioned before that he wasn’t supposed to utilize his vital qi. Otherwise, he would damage his consciousness. And now, he was more than just utilizing his vital qi!

This was obviously a loss of control over vital qi!

Under this scenario, his Undying God Consciousness wouldn’t only begin to break down, it would also be disintegrated!

Qin Mu’s spirit embryo held the sword, and the sword light was becoming brighter. The hilt was extremely dazzling amidst the destructive flow of vital qi, like a heaven-supporting pillar in a whirlpool that covered the universe of the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure!

“The unchanging spirit embryo!”

Qin Mu’s spirit embryo used the remaining vital qi to perform his technique. The sword light exploded, sweeping across the universe!

“Splitting open Yin and Yang Heaven!”

The sword was the Facing Calamity Sword, and his technique was the Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique.

He used the Boundless Calamity Sutra, entering the path through dreams. Then, he transformed into countless copies of himself and calculated countless possibilities. Finally, he found one slim chance of survival among innumerable scenes of death.

This path was the technique he comprehended from Celestial Venerable Ling’s unchanging divine art. He incorporated the philosophy of Celestial Venerable Ling’s unchanging divine art into the Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique in order to prevent his spirit embryo from dying.

At this instant, his spirit embryo was in a strange and mysterious state. It was destroyed by the uncontrollable vital qi and then recovered in the next moment.

However, the sword skills were his Sword Dao. The Third Writing of Calamity Sword, the Writing of Facing Calamity.

Facing Calamity was a Sword Dao he created based on the calamities the Primordial Realm had experienced, the drastic changes experienced by Eternal Peace, and the spirit of all living things that faced the calamities.

This sword was the result of him being in the dream world, repeating the calamities and countless battles, and finally producing a sword that was able to defeat the calamities in the dream world!

The Writing of Facing Calamity of the Calamity Sword took the initiative in meeting calamities, facing natural disasters, and facing the misery of living beings and the impermanence of things head-on, as well as facing the strongest enemies, god heart, devil heart, and human heart head-on!

In the Writing of Facing Calamity, the first person to face the calamity would be the swordsman himself.

Qin Mu faced the calamity, sweeping through his celestial palace and razing his various great divine treasures, leaving only his Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure. He had destroyed his path of retreat and reached the point of no return.

Only when there was no path of retreat could one advance without retreating!

This was the predicament he was facing, as well as that of Eternal Peace. There was no path of retreat, only forward. Fight a path out, kill a path out!

No matter what, this was a path that had to be taken!

Boom!

His spirit embryo was shattered into pieces, but in the next moment, it reappeared, continuing to face calamity with the sword. This time, his power was stronger.

His spirit embryo was crushed and recovered again. Every time it was crushed, it recovered. Each time he faced calamity, he was stronger than before.

After Celestial Venerable Yu opened up the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure, the next divine treasure was the Celestial River Divine Treasure. He sought power from outside, comprehending the celestial river that was between heaven and earth.

This time, however, Qin Mu wasn’t learning from Celestial Venerable Yu.

He sought power within his body. The power of heaven and earth from outside may be strong and convenient, but when Celestial Venerable Yu opened up the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure, he didn’t borrow the power of heaven and earth but power from within himself.

Hence, Qin Mu not only abandoned the cultivation systems of divine treasures and celestial palaces—which were built upon the power of the ancient gods—he even forsook the cultivation system of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth that was seen when Celestial Venerable Yu opened up the Celestial River Divine Treasure.

This time, he wanted to employ what Celestial Venerable Yu did when he first opened the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure, in which he used the cultivation system of his own body. This was the most primitive cultivation method, to cultivate one’s body without any foreign external objects!

He wouldn’t borrow the power of gods and devils or heaven and earth.

The calamity that the Primordial Realm faced this time... heaven and earth were deaf to his cries for help. The inaction of the remaining survivors of Founding Emperor, the cowardice of Heaven Duke, the silence of Earth Count, and the sinister acts of Celestial Emperor had left him feeling powerless. He also realized that powers that were borrowed weren’t reliable at all.

The only person reliable was oneself!

With no soul, he would perform the groundbreaking feat of recreating one!

With no vital qi cultivation, he would face calamity to subdue vital qi and raise his cultivation.

This was a path of no return, walking until the end and until dark!

His spirit embryo continued to go through destruction and recovery. Finally, he felt his power had reached its limits.

The Writing of Facing Calamity of the Calamity Sword that was in his hands transformed into unprecedented sharpness, dividing Yin and Yang in one blow, cutting the dawn and twilight, and opening up the two qis of gods and devils

The shaking Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure had finally stabilized.

His spirit embryo stood on the two flowing qis of gods and devils, the Yin and Yang divided, looking very distinct from each other like a taiji diagram.

From the perspective of his spirit embryo, these two qis were circulating smoothly, vast and endless, like a pure holy land.

This was his spirit platform, a foothold for his spirit embryo.

A sun slowly rose from the air currents that were transformed from god vitality, its brilliance shining in four directions. On the other side, the moon slowly retracted its moonlight and sank among the devil vitality.

Qin Mu’s spirit embryo raised its head. The sky was filled with radiant starlight, and the twirling galaxy was like a bright mirror, reflecting his face.

The face within the center of the galaxy was like the high and mighty Heaven Duke. He was his own Heaven Duke.

Qin Mu’s spirit embryo looked down. Below the spirit platform was darkness, reflecting his face. He was like the Earth Count in his own world.

His spirit embryo put down the sword. There was calmness throughout.

Within the spirit embryo, he felt as though there was something growing.

That was his soul, his groundbreaking soul. It was as though it was a seed of this heaven and earth, slowly growing.

The soul and spirit of other people were separated, and when combined, they would be a primordial spirit. However, his soul was born from facing calamity. When it was born, it was already merged with his spirit embryo, inseparable.

The spirit embryo sat down in a lotus position, lost in thought.

Outside, the dragon qilin and Yan’er were terrified. They saw Qin Mu’s corporeal body shrinking, and it wasn’t as big and fat as before.

Soon, Qin Mu returned to his original size, neither fat nor skinny but well proportioned.

The skin on the dragon qilin’s big ears had already been gnawed off by Yan’er and was drenched in blood. Yan’er’s wings, which had also been gnawed by her, were now shorter by a great deal.

The two were about to ask Qin Mu about the outcome of his cultivation when he suddenly collapsed to his knees, howling and crying on the ground.

The dragon qilin and Yan’er looked at each other in dismay. They could hear the boundless grievances and humiliation from Qin Mu’s crying.

This humiliation was from his own personal encounters and also from the suffering Eternal Peace had experienced!

The dragon qilin was about to go forward and console him when Qin Mu’s crying slowly turned into laughter, a laughter that was getting louder and more high pitched.

His face was covered with tears, but the laughter was from his heart, sweeping away his prior depression and grievances.

Among the loud laughter, Qin Mu stood up, not kneeling again.

The dragon qilin and Yan’er were dazed. At this moment, Qin Mu looked as though he had changed into a different person.

All along, even though Qin Mu usually had a smile on his face and never wore a troubled expression, they could feel the weak delicateness and hopelessness in his heart.

But now, he looked as though he was reborn, returning to the bright and cheerful boy he used to be.

However, there was something different, though they couldn’t tell what it was exactly. They only felt Qin Mu’s blazing sun that came after the thunderstorm.