Tales of Herding Gods

He was about to leave when Celestial Venerable Gong’s voice called from behind, “If I were you, I wouldn’t use these void beasts. Void beasts aren’t impossible to subdue, but they are extremely strange. Every void beast is equivalent to a small part of a brain. When all of them are put together, they become a complete brain.”

Qin Mu was stunned. There was such a strange beast?

Celestial Venerable Gong continued, “And the mother beast is equivalent to the thoughts of the brain, controlling all the void beasts. When the void beasts first appeared in the void, many masters of creation tried to subdue them. Later on, when the mother beast appeared, these masters of creation were all swallowed by the void beasts, and not a single one was spared!”

Qin Mu expressed his gratitude and suddenly thought of a key matter. He probed, “Dao Friend Gong said that the void beast suddenly appeared from the void? Was there no such creature in the past?”

Celestial Venerable Gong shook her head and said, “Even though the ancient beasts in Ancestral Court are terrifying and incomparably strong, none are as abnormal as void beasts. This creature is born from the void, and from the moment of its birth, it dominates all kinds of ancient beasts and devoured them all. The power of a single void beast isn’t the strongest among all the ancient beast, but the rate at which they reproduce is simply too fast. No matter how strong the other beasts are, they cannot endure the assault of a group, and so, they gradually became extinct.”

Qin Mu had a similar sentiment.

The void beast eggs in the 19th void was the most terrifying thing to him.

“If a complete brain is only formed by the combination of all the void beasts, are these creatures naturally born or man-made?” Qin Mu asked.

Celestial Venerable Gong hesitated for a moment before saying, “Follow me.”

Qin Mu followed her as she led him to the back of the mine. The terrain formed a huge basin which was filled with countless white bones.

Those skeletons were as tall as mountains, and even a beast leg was ten thousand yards[1] long!

“Back then, my Xin Clan was a matriarchy with women as the honoured ones. However, the physical strength of a women’s body was inferior to that of stinky man.”

Divine King Gong Yun led him into the basin and as they waled on top of the huge beast bones. She said apologetically, “I didn’t mean you... That’s why our Xin Clan often tamed beasts to fight. This is where the huge beasts of the Xin Clan are buried. Come look at this.”

Qin Mu lowered his head and saw that this beast skeleton had six thick legs that were as thick as mountains!

“This species of strange beast is called Mountainous Hiss. It is akin to a walking mountain range, and its mouth will emit hissing sounds. It has six legs, and they look identical to the legs of void beasts. However, Mountainous Hiss does not have the sharp claws of void beasts.”

Divine King Gong Yun arrives at another huge beast skeleton. Its legs had claws that were as sharp as sickles, and each leg had eight or nine sharp claws.

“This is Odd Toll.”

Divine King Gong Yun said, “Its body is covered in trees and moss. When it’s crawling on the ground, people will mistake it for a hill. However, its claws are incomparably sharp and it is just like the claws of a void beast!”

Qin Mu examined Odd Toll’s sharp claws, and they were indeed abnormally sharp. They looked the same as the claws of the void beasts, except they were much smaller.

This beast skeleton is Slope Racoon. They walk around as if they are limping but they have fleshy wings that are good at gliding off mountains. These flesh wings are the same as the flesh wings of void beasts.”

Divine King Gong Yun came to the corpse of another huge beast and said, “This kind of strange beast is called Great Fury. It has a single eye, and its divine consciousness is naturally strong. It’s good at confusing people. The huge beast over there is called Sniffing Wind. It has no eyes; it only has a huge mouth on its head.”

Qin Mu’s heart stirred slightly, and he asked solemnly, “What you’re trying to say is that the void beasts are man-made?”

Divine King Gong Yun shook her head, “I’m not sure myself. However, I once dissected the body of a void beast and found the organs of other huge beasts in its body. What’s even stranger is that these void beasts have no gender and no reproductive function.”

Qin Mu was stunned.

Divine King Gong Yun said, “Isn’t it quite strange?”

Qin Mu nodded his head and said, “There’s no difference between male and female... In other words, void beast mother can reproduce without a gender. However, if we kill the void beast mother, we should be able to get rid of them forever.”

Divine King Gong Yun shook her head. “The void beast mother was killed before. After killing it, the strongest void beast would turn into a new void beast mother.”

Qin Mu was stunned, “This reminds me of a divine artifact...”

“Divine Creation Artifact!”

Divine King Gong Yun said, “I also thought of the Divine Creation Artifact, but I have already witnessed the Divine Creation Artifact built by Celestial Venerable Ling. That divine artifact cannot create living beings.”

Qin Mu frowned and probed, “In that case, was it created by Grand Emperor?”

Gong Yun shook her head, “It wasn’t Grand Emperor. The void beast mother that was controlled by Grand Emperor is the seventh generation void beast mother. When the first void beast mother appeared, he was still young and didn’t have that level of cultivation.”

She came to the void beast that Qin Mu had subdued and gently touched the void markings on the beast’s body. “Look at these markings, do they look like one of the Great Dao Runes?”

Qin Mu’s heart stirred slightly. He had long discovered that the void markings on the void beast’s body were very gorgeous and shared similarities to the runes of the Great Dao. Therefore, he had already planned to spend time to understand the marvel within and comprehend the Void Runes.

“Knowledge like the Great Dao RUnes is something the masters of creation don’t have. Back then, in our era, this knowledge was far too ahead.”

Divine King Gong Yun said, “Only ancient gods born from the Dao have such runes, but the masters of creation can’t understand them.”

Qin Mu muttered to himself for a moment and said, “The exalted one of myriad Dao, ancient Celestial Emperor, should be proficient in all kinds of Great Daos. Could he have created the void beasts?”

“It’s not him either. He cannot control the void beast, and he’s not omnipotent.”

Divine King Gong Yun looked up at the sky and said, “In this Ancestral Court, we and the void beasts are not alone.”

Qin Mu shuddered. “We aren’t the only ones in Ancestral Court?”

What did this mean?

Could there be something sealed in Ancestral Court by the ancient gods of the Primordial Era?

“Celestial Venerable Mu, you have to be careful. The dangers here isn’t limited to the void beasts and the Celestial Venerables.”

Divine King Gong Yun had the intention to send him off, and Qin Mu understood her intentions. He jumped onto the bone mountain behind the void beast’s head and said to Divine King Gong Yun, “Divine King, I want you to owe me another favour. How about it?”

Divine King Gong Yun looked up at him and said, “That will depend on whether your news is worth it.”

Qin Mu smiled faintly and said leisurely, “I heard your relationship with Celestial Venerable Hong isn’t good.”

Divine King Gong Yun’s expression turned cold as she said coldly, “I beat him a few times, but I didn’t manage to kill him. Why are you bringing this up?”

“Celestial Venerable Hong isn’t Grand Emperor.”

Qin Mu smiled, “Your close friend, Heavenly Lady Qiang, is Grand Emperor.”

Divine King Gong Yun was dumbfounded. “Impossible!”

Qin Mu laughed loudly and said, “Doesn’t that little hussy have a good relationship with you? Doesn’t she always look for you for no reason?”

Divine King Gong Yun nodded.

Qin Mu asked, “Doesn’t Celestial Venerable Hong hide whenever he sees you: the further the better?”

Gong Yun nodded again, and she suddenly came to a realization. She gritted her teeth and said, “Grand Emperor won’t hide when he sees me. Instead, he will rush forward. He won’t leave even if I ruthlessly beat him up! Damn it, he has become a little slut!”

She was furious. Heavenly Lady Qiang had once invited her to share a bed, and the two sisters would lie on the same bed and talk about everything. Thinking about it now, Gong Yun shuddered.

Qin Mu said with a smile, “The ancient mine of Xin CLan... I want ten percent of the divine stones produced. Is my news worth ten percent?

[1] The term yard is quite often used in this novel. The term in Chinese is 丈(Zhang) and it denotes 3.33 metres.