Tales of Herding Gods

Qin Mu was flabbergasted. He looked at Si Yunxiang and then looked at Granny Si beside him again with a stupefied expression. He had always thought Granny Si was Si Yunxiang and now another Si Yunxiang had jumped out and she was the current saintess of Heavenly Devil Cult!

He felt his mind becoming messy. The current saintess also had the surname Si, therefore, he had the first impression and kept testing whether if she was Granny Si. He even purposely teased the saintess a few times to see if she would become shy!

Until last time when Si Yunxiang tested him, only did he confirm Si Yunxiang was Granny Si and now…

“The saintess of this generation is much safer than the previous generation, the previous generation saintess was simply a demoness.”

A white-haired elder sighed, “Even though they are both from Si Family, the saintess of this generation won’t bring harm to our sacred cult.”

Granny Si stared at him with angry eyes.

That elder turned his head away and acted like he didn’t see it.

Si Yunxiang went forward and came to Qin Mu’s side. She was still slightly shy and greeted sincerely, “Young Cult Master, Saintess Si Yunxiang pays my respects to Young Cult Master.”

Qin Mu immediately returned her greeting, “Junior sister is too courteous.”

“The saintess of this generation is natural and unrestrained in her conduct.”

An elder sighed ruefully, “Not like the one of the previous generation, plotting to kill the sacred cult master as a wife.”

Granny Si flew into a rage and shouted, “Old woman I am still here, what do you old man want?”

That elder immediately shut up and didn’t dare to argue with her.

“Saintess Si Yunxiang ain’t someone who is easy to deal with.”

Qin Mu’s gaze wavered and looked at this girl who looked delicate and shy, thinking to himself, “She has a profound mind and the one who defeated Fozi should be her. She then came to flaunt to me to test my limits of decorum. She had long known I was the young cult master yet she showed off in front of me, what was that for?”

Granny Si smiled, “Si Yunxiang is from my Si Family and Patriarch taught her personally for a few years. Patriarch found her after he had already found you, and when he met her, he even sighed ruefully that if he had met her earlier, he wouldn’t have chosen you.”

Qin Mu looked at Si Yunxiang and Si Yunxiang also looked over coincidentally. Their gazes met and Qin Mu could see the unacceptance in her seemingly gentle eyes.

Qin Mu gave a smile.

Si Yunxiang should be groomed accordingly by the young patriarch under the cult master’s rules. He then let her take Imperial College’s examination with Qin Mu in the same year to compare the two of them.

Qin Mu never knew that he actually had a contest with this girl.

How could she help when Qin Mu was too stunning during the examination and had beat Daoist Ling Yun all the way to the emperor. No matter what Si Yunxiang tried to do, it would only be overshadowed by him and no way better than him.

Meanwhile, Patriarch’s test was to test Qin Mu’s ability in being a cult master. After testing, Patriarch had his mindset and the person he chose wasn’t Si Yunxiang. Compared to her, Qin Mu was more suitable to be the sacred cult master.

However, Si Yunxiang didn’t accept it, therefore, after she had defeated Fozi, she came to flaunt to Qin Mu.

The young patriarch looked around and asked, “Heavenly King Qian hasn’t arrived yet?”

“Not yet.”

The young patriarch frowned. Heavenly King Qian always had a temper that burned with anxiety. No matter what it was, he would always be the first to be involved in. Now that he was still not here, it meant that he was already unable to come.

What matter could be more important than the ascension of the cult master?

There could only be one reason why Heavenly King Qian couldn’t attend the cult master’s ascension.

“Young Cult Master, you must treat the family of Heavenly King Qian well,” the young patriarch told him softly.

Qin Mu’s heart trembled slightly and was about to inquire when the young patriarch announced solemnly, “Three hundred and sixty halls, unfurl your flags and meet at Saint Arrival Mountain!”

Whoosh.

The huge flags unfurled and the entire manor was completely covered. When the huge flags were furled back, the city lord’s manor in Harmony Prefecture City had vanished into thin air without a trace. The place where the city lord’s manor had been was only left with a piece of white land.

When the huge flags that had shrouded them above their heads vanished, Qin Mu looked around and was greatly shocked. He could see that they had left the bustling Harmony Prefecture City and came to a place that didn’t look like the mortal world.

There was a circular sky above his head and below his feet were mountain ranges standing tall on the illusory ground. One could not reach the sky going upwards and could not reach the ground going downwards.

The green mountain was fresh green yet no sun could be seen up in the sky and no land could be seen when he lowered his head. This mountain seemed not to be located in the mortal world.

“This is Saint Arrival Mountain?”

Qin Mu looked around and saw range upon range of mountains. Some palace halls were hidden deep in the forest which should be the palace halls constructed by the sacred cult. However, the young patriarch didn’t bring him around those palace halls and had instead brought him to a cypress pine.

That cypress pine was verdant and lush and had been around for god knows how many years. There was a straw hut under the pine cypress and it was very clean. The hut didn’t have any signs of degeneration from the passing time.

There was a large rock under the cypress pine and the young patriarch came to the bottom of the cypress pine. The three hundred and sixty hall masters, twelve cult protector elders, eight great supervisors, three great cult heavenly kings, left and right guardians sat down under the cypress pine.

The young patriarch signaled Qin Mu to go forward and said, “This mountain was originally in the mortal world. Back then when the founding master of our Heavenly Saint Cult came here, he saw a woodcutter chopping firewood. The tree he was chopping was this cypress pine. When the woodcutter chopped the firewood, he did it with a regular movement which seemed to contain boundless marvel within it. Meanwhile, when the cypress pine received a chop, another piece would grow out, returning it to its original state. When the founding master realized he met a saint, he consulted that woodcutter. That woodcutter then imparted his path to him under this cypress pine, and once he started, he continued on for dozens of years. The founding master received endless comprehension but he still wasn’t satisfied and thus he asked the woodcutter, how to become a saint?”

Qin Mu listened carefully and the young patriarch paused for a moment before continuing, “Woodcutter said, if one wants to become a saint, one must first establish one’s virtue, establish one’s merit, and establish one’s ideas in writing, which are the three immortal deeds. The founding master asked once again on how to attain the three immortal deeds. Woodcutter said, clear logic, clear understanding, clear teaching. The three clears became the teacher of all the people. Thus, the founding master was completely enlightened.”

The young patriarch lifted his head and looked at this cypress pine which had gone through the transformation of time, “The founding master knew to become a saint, he had to first become the teacher of all people, therefore he tidied up the saint’s teaching into writings and compiled them into a record which is now known as Great Educational Heavenly Devil Scriptures.”

“When the founding master wrote out Great Educational Heavenly Devil Scriptures, he had attained clear logic.”

“He then traveled around the world and experienced a few hundred years of imparting the principles that the saint had imparted to him to others. The principles which the saint had imparted to him became his principles after he had imparted to others. From one’s mouth to your ears, from your mouth to his ears, this is understanding. The founding master attained clear understanding.”

“As for clear teachings, the founding master founded a cult to recall fondly on how the woodcutter had shown him the right path, therefore he had called it Heavenly Saint Cult and established the cult’s doctrine. The path of the saint is none other than the everyday use for common people. Anyone who does otherwise is considered heresy! To act straightforwardly, to follow the course of nature, that’s the meaning of path. That’s the origin of our cult’s doctrine.”

Below them, even though all the hall masters, guardians, elders were the higher-ups, most of them were attending the cut master’s ascension for the first time. Even the cult protector elders, cult heavenly kings didn’t familiarize themselves with the history.

They had originally thought that some world-shaking ceremony would be held for the cult master’s ascension and never expected the young patriarch to start talking about the history of the cult.

Regarding this legendary story of the founding master, they had seen records among the cult’s ancient records but they were only the bits and pieces and not as detailed and moving as how the young patriarch had described.

“What clear teachings meant was to impart, to teach. The founding master founded the cult was to impart the saint’s teachings to everyone in the world. He managed to become the teacher of all people, having clear logic, clear understanding and clear teaching. He established his virtue, established his words but he didn’t establish his merits and thus had not become a saint.”

The young patriarch continued, “In his later years, he thought and thought yet he didn’t know where his merits lay. Even though the founding master had not become a saint, he had established his words for the saint and founded a cult personally, perfecting his virtue. By attaining the three clears and two immortal deeds, he had already far surpassed countless of ordinary people. Qin Mu, are you willing to inherit the founding master’s virtue and words, logic, and understanding?”

Qin Mu bowed and cupped his fists while stretching forward, “Disciple is willing to.”

The young patriarch gave a smile and said, “In that case, the cult will belong to you. You will have to undertake this responsibility.”

Qin Mu replied solemnly, “Disciple will undertake this responsibility.”

The young patriarch smiled gently and said, “Go and sit on the rock.”

Qin Mu went forward to sit on the rock under the cypress pine.

The young patriarch looked down and his voice reverberated deeply, “This rock is Saint’s Rock, the saint’s seat. Back then, the woodcutter that had guided the founding master was a saint that came down from the heavens. He had no blood relations with the founding master, no benefits to gain, yet he had become a teacher and imparted skills to the founding master only because the founding master had sought to learn from him. The one who sits on Saint’s Rock is the cult master, but he will also be the sacred teacher of our cult.”

His gaze swept over every single one of the hall masters, cult protector elders, supervisors, heavenly kings, and guardians. He ordered solemnly, “All of you, do the disciple’s rite and pay your respects to the sacred teacher.”

The three hundred and sixty hall masters, twelve cult protector elders, eight great supervisors, three cult heavenly kings, left and right guardians all maintained the disciple’s rites. Saintess Si Yunxiang hesitated for a moment and could only maintain the disciple’s rite.

“Disciples pay our respects to sacred cult master!”

Everyone shouted in unison which reverberated throughout the entire Saint Arrival Mountain.

The young patriarch looked at Granny Si and said solemnly, “Li Tianxing, the new cult master has already ascended so why aren’t you showing yourself? Aren’t you going to impart the technique of our cult? Are you going to bring the sacred technique of our cult to your grave and completely bury it?”

Granny Si’s body trembled and an ancient voice came out, “Disciple… follows teacher’s decree.”

She was clearly a woman yet she spoke like an old man with a rough voice which had an extremely overbearing awe. However, he didn’t dare to be unbridled in front of the young patriarch.

Granny Si came to the front of Qin Mu. Qin Mu was about to stand up when Granny Si’s palm touched his forehead. Golden lights traveled back and forth in the heart of Granny Si’s brows and all kinds of sounds rang out along with the golden lights as they tunneled into the heart of Qin Mu’s brows and into his mind.

“Cult Master Li…” someone whispered below.

At this moment, the one who was in control of Granny Si’s body was the previous cult master, Li Tianxing. Even though he was assassinated by Granny Si, he had also planted himself into granny’s Dao heart and turned into the devil in Granny Si’s heart, waiting for the time to replace her to turn into the woman he loved most.

All kinds of disorderly voices sounded in Qin Mu’s mind. There seemed to be lectures from the nine heavens above, devils whispering beside his ears, Buddhas chanting scriptures in his heart, sounding indescribably weird.

“The voice of the saint?”

His heart suddenly trembled as he thought of a possibility. The voice was the voice of that woodcutter. What Cult Master Li had imparted to him was the scriptures that the woodcutter had imparted to the founding master!