Tales of Herding Gods

The masses flooded out. Blind said with a cheeky smile, “Village Chief, there are still some flaws in the sword. Bring it to me, and I’ll show you.”

Everyone understood him except for Village Chief. He gave him his sword and its sheath.

Blind received the sword and hollered, “Go!”

Butcher suddenly hugged Village Chief while Granny Si punched him. Cripple, Deaf, Mute, Blind, and the others swarmed him to punch and kick him. Qin Mu and Apothecary also snuck two kicks in to unleash their anger.

It wasn’t until Village Chief begged for mercy that the masses stopped to throw him aside. Mute said, “Let’s go and forge other treasures!”

Village Chief climbed up and furiously asked, “Apothecary, did you kick me just now?”

“No!”

Apothecary said with sincerity on his face, “We’re best friends and we drank tea in the village. Why would I kick you? I’d never do that! I was even pulling them so they would stop. However, Mu’er kicked you!”

Qin Mu leaped into the air to escape. Village Chief coldly laughed and pulled his blade. A sword light flashed as Qin Mu fell from the sky and into the courtyard.

Village Chief put his sword back and praised, “What a good sword. I’ll call you Evil Cutter, for you will be cutting bad hypocrites. Let’s go. We shall continue to forge treasures.”

Qin Mu climbed up and limped into the shipyard so he could observe them forging in order to learn its marvels.

After a dozen more days, Mute and Blind forged Granny Si’s treasure Dao wheel together.

Granny Si wanted to test its power, and everyone was alarmed by that. Qin Mu pointed his finger immediately and used his teleportation divine art to send her somewhere else.

“Mu’er, I’ll beat you to death when I get back!” Granny Si’s voice came from the aftermath of the teleportation divine art with a lot of echoes.

The masses felt relieved enough to continue forging, but Qin Mu was unnerved and said, “Village Chief, Old Ma, when Granny returns, you two ought to say some good things for me.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.”

Cripple patted and consoled him. “You’ll be fine.”

Qin Mu didn’t feel relieved though, feeling that the elders of Disabled Elderly Village seemed to harbor some bad intentions.

It turned out that when Granny Si came back from testing her treasure and beat Qin Mu up on the ground, no one spoke up for him. Instead, they drank tea and engaged in small talk.

It was only when Granny Si got tired that the masses dispersed to continue forging divine weapons.

Qin Mu climbed up with his face all swollen. He looked at the dragon qilin. He was hiding in a corner, pretending to sleep. Yan’er morphed into a little green sparrow and was sleeping on his head.

“You two are useless. I’ll serve you two as food together during the Lunar New Year!” Qin Mu said maliciously.

The little green sparrow shuddered, so the dragon qilin’s tail was lifted to put her into his embrace. He lightly patted her head to get her to sleep.

In the shipyard, Qin Mu went to Granny Si’s side and whispered Gongsun Yan’s affairs to her. “Please guide her, Granny.”

Granny Si smiled and said, “I know she’s silly and that she dislikes cultivation. What realm is she at now?”

“The true god realm.”

Qin Mu hesitated before continuing, “But her power is at the top of the Emperor’s Throne Realm. She has great magic power and is likely number one in the list of strong practitioners of the Emperor’s Throne.”

Granny Si was spooked as she said, “Her cultivation is at the Emperor’s Throne level when she’s at the true god realm? There are five realms in between!”

Qin Mu replied, “She’s a half-god, the daughter of Mother Earth. Realms were only opened by the Dragon Han’s nine Celestial Venerables. They have very little to do with power.”

Granny Si felt troubled as she murmured, “It’ll likely be hard to teach her to control her own power. She’s in the true god realm, but she has power belonging to the top of the Emperor’s Throne Realm. This is difficult…”

She rose up and left hastily.

Qin Mu continued to analyze Blind and Mute’s formation and forging paths until they forged Apothecary’s cauldron. By then, he had basically mastered the results of their many years of cultivation.

“You still have a lot to learn about forging.”

Mute advised him, saying, “You’re at the limit in terms of forging accuracy. However, you still lack a lot in terms of the forging spirit. Firstly, you have to understand why we found objects and work!”

Mute lifted his hammer as the flames in the furnace filled the air as if there were thousands of suns within. He solemnly said, “We didn’t have the powers of ancient gods. We didn’t have the ways of creation nor the wonders of it! However, we had tools, brains, perseverance, passion, and dreams!”

“Heavenly works and founding objects are dependent on our hands. We build our own dreams and create powerful machines to make us de facto masters of creation!”

Qin Mu carefully comprehended, and after a while, he smiled. He then quickly picked a treasure from the ancestral court to forge his own divine weapon.

Blind came forward, looked at him working, and asked, “Mute, microscopic forging requires at least three people. Can he do it alone?”

“Of course he can.”

Mute continued to help Butcher forge his knives as he said, “He was the one who told us about microscopic forging and consciousness forging five years ago. Now he’s here to rely on us. If he doesn’t learn it, he might as well die in a pit!”

Blind nodded. “This fellow’s cultivation is already above us. However, he still pales in comparison when put up against our specialties. This fellow acts so righteously when he relies on us!”

Mute said, “Why not let him try on his own and grind on his own? If we teach him, he’ll never be at our level. However, we have to work hard to prevent ourselves from having nothing to teach him.”

Blind said with a lot of intensity, “The b*stard comes back to visit us every few years to learn things. If we had nothing to teach him, he would probably abandon us!”

Qin Mu sensed the characteristics of the treasures he stole from Clear Sun Hall. In Mute’s terms, every material had its own attributes and even characteristics. It was only when one understood them that they could mix them together to elevate the toughness, strength, and healing of their divine weapon greatly!

Qin Mu was doing that right now. A successful blacksmith must first have a soft heart. Mute may have looked like a rough old man, but his heart was the softest in Disabled Elderly Village.

That was why he was the one most susceptible to lies. Thus, he refused to open his heart. Instead, he would much rather be mute.

Qin Mu found many Heavenly Workers of the White Tiger god race for him, yet Mute liked none of them despite all of them being beautiful ladies. This was because the experiences in the early years of his life impacted him too much.

Qin Mu carefully sensed them. In his eyes, the treasures became different beauties. Some were hot like fire, while some were gentle like water. Some were as cold as an icy mountain, while some were as elusive as clouds.

“No wonder Grandpa Mute likes none of them. In his eyes, these materials are probably unrivaled beauties.”

Once he understood their different attributes, he began to mix them.

“This beautiful jade becomes longer when you add a part of it, and it becomes shorter when you cut a part of it. Thus, it should be matched with the lady that is like floating clouds and flowing sand. Add to that some powder…”

It was like Qin Mu was dolling up a beautiful girl as he worked, whispering, “With this pearl, the skin will be as fair as snow. This silk can be used to make the waist belt. A girdle is worth as much as a thousand gold bars…”

After he was done, he became excited and utilized the heavenly fire divine art to melt the nicely decorated “beauty”.

Qin Mu opened his third eye and used the Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique. Using vital qi and consciousness as hammers, he forged his own divine weapon.

Mute and Blind looked at him. They said they weren’t worried, but they were worried that Qin Mu might waste the treasures.

Qin Mu’s essence and spirit grew stronger as he indulged in forging. The Dao rhythmic vibrations that came from him resembled that of comprehension of Dao more than forging, surprisingly.