Tales of Herding Gods

Granny Si saw the dream realms contracting, and the dainty Qin Mus in the dream realm vanished one after another. Qin Mu then opened his eyes and couldn't help feeling delighted.

Qin Mu's last dream realm was about to disperse, and Old Ma and Zhan Kong Rulai woke up at the right time. They took a step forward and walked out of his dream realm.

The dream realm completely vanished, and Qin Mu's primordial spirit stood behind him as he bowed to express his thanks.

Zhan Kong Rulai immediately returned the greeting and pointed at himself. "Brother."

He then pointed at Qin Mu and said, "Brother, why are you thanking me?"

Qin Mu laughed and saw that both of them were exhausted. He immediately invited them to go down and rest. Granny Si went forward and returned the divine bow to him. She asked, "Mu'er, has the crisis been averted?"

Qin Mu nodded and said with a smile, "The nine Celestial Venerable of the Celestial Heavens are extremely righteous. They acted out of righteousness and killed the Yuan Sage of Miluo Palace, finally solving my crisis."

Granny Si let out a sigh of relief and praised, "Those nine Celestial Venerables are indeed supremely righteous. You must thank them properly in the future."

Qin Mu immediately said, "I'll try my best to let them die without pain."

"Then I'm at ease." Granny Si let out a sigh of relief.

Qin Mu's spirit was roused, and he felt as though he had parted the clouds to see the sun. He let out a long sigh of relief and said with a smile, "Big Senior Brother and Shu Jun are indeed efficient. I was worried that they would leave the Hall of Fragrance after activating the seal in the Jade Capital City. If the nine Celestial Venerables don't enter the Hall of Fragrance and fight against the Yuan Sages of Miro Palace, I would be in trouble."

He said happily, "I didn't expect them to do so well. Ninth Celestial Venerable also entered the Hall of Fragrance successfully and got rid of the Yuan Sage! Are big senior brother and Shu Jun back yet?"

Granny Si shook her head and said, "They haven't returned yet. The Jade Capital of the ancestral court is quite far from here, so they are probably on their way back. When the two of them arrived at the Jade Capital City of the ancestral court, they caused quite a commotion, blowing a huge hole in the sky. How terrifying!"

Qin Mu walked around and said with a smile, "I wonder if the nine Celestial Venerables has discovered anything good after entering the Jade Capital City. The mystery of the Jade Capital City…"

Granny Si stared at him. "You got ambushed and just wanted to run out? You have the habits of a roe deer and don't know how to write the word death! You don't know, but after the Jade Capital City opened, another huge incident happened. Yan'er said your sacred ground has sprouted, so you better go take a look."

Qin Mu immediately put Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun aside and said in astonishment, "The sacred ground has sprouted? What does that mean?"

"I don't know either. I've been guarding this place all along. I don't know how this Hundred Thousand Holy Mountains sprouted."

As they spoke, they walked towards the center of the Hundred Thousand Holy Mountain.

They didn't walk far before they saw a youth repairing the cracked black mountain.

That youth put down the bucket easily and pointed to the center of the sacred ground of Great Black Mountain. He said to Qin Mu, "I've been waiting for you there for a long time, go over quickly."

Qin Mu was bewildered and wanted to ask, but the youth was too elusive to deal with.

The two of them came to the center of the black mountain and saw a tender green sapling towering high up in the distance. The sapling was hundreds of thousands of yards tall, but it only had five to six leaves. On one of the leaves was a palace, and it was the sacred hall that Qin Mu was guarding!

Qin Mu and Granny Si had blank expressions as they hurried over. The closer they got to it, the larger the sapling became. Its leaves were as tall as the clouds, and there was lightning all around it, striking the leaves.

However, even the lightning of the ancestral court seemed insignificant in front of this sapling. It was as fine as a needle and couldn't harm the sapling in the slightest.

Qin Mu came to the bottom of the tree and saw Lan Yutian and Xu Shenghua comprehending the Dao under the tree. Blind and Mute were examining the huge ax in detail while the rest were busy drawing the Dao markings on the leaves of this peculiar sapling, trying to solve the mystery of this sapling.

There was also Light Emperor who stood not far away and stared at a burly man under the tree. That burly man looked down and ignored him.

Qin Mu went forward and probed, "Dao Brother Tai Yi."

Tai Yi stood up and said, "Celestial Venerable Mu, this land is yours, and the trees growing here are also yours. Therefore, I'm waiting for you to ask if you want to chop down this tree."

Qin Mu hesitated and probed, "This sapling is…"

"This tree is the World Tree. From the destruction of the universe until now, the divine tree is undying and indestructible. It has experienced the calamities of the destruction of the universe one after another. Countless living beings, even those who have achieved the Dao, can't escape death. Only this tree survived."

Tai Yi said, "I once chopped it down and burned it, but I didn't expect it to still be alive. This is already your territory, so I'm a guest here. I have to ask for your opinion when I chop down your tree."

"World Tree?"

Qin Mu's heart pounded, and he raised his head to examine the inconceivably huge sapling. He muttered, "This is a divine object that can survive the destruction of the universe?"

His eyes were full of spirit. He had always been worried about not being able to see this divine tree with his own eyes. He had always dreamed of seeing this tree with his own eyes.

However, the tree was easily cut down by Tai Yi, so he set a fire and burned it until only the black roots were left. However, he didn't expect the tree to come back to life!

"Celestial Venerable Mu, if you leave this tree behind, it will cause the sixteen undying parasites to crawl into this universe. Even I can't resist them."

Tai Yi said, "However, even if we cut down this tree, we won't be able to completely cut off this passage. They will still come over, but they will delay for a period of time. Leaving this tree behind will bring forward the time. Whether this tree stays or is cut will all depend on you, the landlord."

Qin Mu hesitated for a moment and looked at the sprouting World Tree.

Green Deity of the Eastern Sky and Mother Earth were both successful in cultivating their divine wood. Mother Earth was even a Primordial Tree that held up the thousands of worlds in the universe. However, compared to this divine wood in front of him, Mother Earth was far inferior!

This divine tree was almost a natural divine item that wasn't easy to obtain!

It was a divine object that could connect one universe after another!

However, it was also because of this divine tree that prehistoric existences crawled along the roots of the tree to the next universe, avoiding the great calamity of destruction and thus residing in the new universe.

This led to another disaster, which was that the lifespan of the new universe was greatly reduced!

"Conservation of mass energy. The total amount of energy and matter in the universe is fixed, and an existence that has cultivated successfully is equivalent to gathering the energy in the universe."

Tai Yi seemed to be able to see through Qin Mu's thoughts, and he said beside him, "The more strong practitioners there are, the richer the energy will be. On the other hand, existences that have achieved the path are the things with the most abundant energy. The Dao Tree of those who have achieved the path will be entrusted to the Ultimate Void, and that place will become the place with the most abundant energy. The more existences that have achieved the path that squeeze into this universe, the faster the Ultimate Void will be destroyed. The great calamity of destruction originated from the Ultimate Void."

Qin Mu composed himself and his gaze still landed on the divine tree. He muttered, "Could it be that I can't comprehend the marvel of the World Tree and find a method that even the great calamity of destruction can't erase?"

Tai Yi said, "If there were, they would have been found by the strong practitioners in the previous universe. They still have to rely on the World Tree to survive, so it's obvious that they can't be found."

Qin Mu muttered to himself.

Suddenly, violent tremors came from underground, and the sprout of the World Tree actually grew upwards!

In just a few breaths, the World Tree had grown another thousand feet. Its trunk had become much thicker, and another leaf had grown out!

As the tremors underground disappeared, the World Tree stopped growing.

Tai Yi said, "Before you woke up, this tree had already trembled many times, once a day. Furthermore, it shook during the day. Why did this tree come back to life and grow in the day? Does Celestial Venerable Mu know the secret behind it?"

Qin Mu shook his head and said sincerely, "Dao brother, please teach me."

"Someone is raising this tree. The resurrection of the World Tree, the growth of the World Tree, the entire ancestral court transforming into a huge sacrificial altar to devour the dead creatures here. Even when Lan Yutian got the Hall of Fragrance, Wei Suifeng, to send the Hall of Fragrance back to the Jade Capital City, the reappearance of the Jade Capital City might be under that person's control."

Tai Yi's words were shocking. He said calmly, "Maybe, the person has the idea of protecting the World Tree."

Qin Mu's heart stirred slightly. "You mean the strong practitioner of the first universe era? He's already in the ancestral court?"

Tai Yi shook his head. "I don't know. I may seem omniscient, but there are actually many things that I don't know. For example…"

He hesitated for a moment and didn't continue the topic. "The Jade Capital City of the ancestral court is also a place that I can't see. It's extremely mysterious, and I can feel an extremely terrifying existence blocking my vision. Celestial Venerable Mu, after saying so much, should I cut this tree?"

Qin Mu paced back and forth, stopping from time to time to look up at the World Tree Sapling. He was hesitant.

Tai Yi waited quietly.

After a long time, Qin Mu's chaotic frame of mind gradually calmed down, and his footsteps also slowed down.

Finally, he stopped and looked at Tai Yi with his bright eyes. He said with a smile, "Dao brother, you have remarkable abilities and are almost omniscient. In that case, let me ask you something. The strong practitioners of the prehistoric universe can crawl to our universe through the roots of the World Tree. In that case, can we also pass through the World Tree and enter the prehistoric universe?"

Tai Yi was stunned.

He had indeed never thought about this.

"What you mean is…" He looked at Qin Mu's bright eyes and hesitated.

This was the first time in his life that he was slightly hesitant. This was something he had never experienced before!

"What I mean is, since the arrival of prehistoric experts is unavoidable, whether we chop or not, they will descend into our universe. Why don't we keep this World Tree and wait for it to grow? When that time comes, let's go to their universe first and stop these old fellows in their universe, even killing them one by one?"

Qin Mu said with a smile, "When defending, you can never ensure that you don't have any loopholes. On the other hand, attacking will expose the opponent's weakness! In this way, the attack and defense will be different!"

Tai Yi looked at the sapling behind him, and after a long time, he said, "Alright. When you achieve the Dao, I'll send you there!"

The smile on Qin Mu's face instantly froze, and he muttered, "Dao brother, we still need to think about this matter at length…"

Tai Yi stretched out his hand to grab the huge ax and shook Blind and Mute off the ax. He then turned around and left, vanishing without a trace.

"The matter of cutting down trees isn't something that can't be discussed!" Qin Mu said loudly.

However, Tai Yi was already gone.

Qin Mu said angrily, "You usually dilly-dally, but now you're running so quickly!"

He turned to look at the World Tree, his eyes shining.

Meanwhile, in the Jade Capital City, beside the long river of chaos, Wei Suifeng was full of confidence. He said to Shu Jun, "Don't worry, Junior Brother will definitely come and save us!"