Tales of Herding Gods - Chapter 184
Chapter 184: Ghost Transferring God Dispatching
Translator: Ninetales Editor: Fish_Creek
The black fog grew denser and denser. It was daytime yet it looked like the night. Qin Mu and the rest could still roughly determine the direction. When they raised their heads up to the sky, they could still see the sun but the sun wasn’t harsh to their eyes. It was like a faint circular halo that was much dimmer than the moonlight.
Looking around their surrounding, they could only see the green mountain turning into a hazy black mountain.
Noisy voices came from behind as someone shouted, “There’re a few that escaped. There are three males and three females, and also a huge lion… Don’t go away, pick up my head! Come back quickly—”
Qin Mu’s heart moved slightly and he looked towards Chen Wanyun.
Chen Wanyun understood his intention and his flying sword flew out of his sheath to dig a long hole in the ground for him to lie down. It was the first time he had met such a weird incident of the dead reviving, therefore, he was slightly at a loss but now he had already calmed down.
Qin Mu waved his sleeves and swept up the earth on both sides, burying Chen Wanyun under the earth.
The rest of them continued walking forward and they didn’t move much further when they heard miserable shrieks coming from their back.
“Someone hid in the earth to ambush us!”
“My head is severed, does anyone see my head?”
“Shut up idiot! If your head is missing, how are you talking?”
“So I see. No wonder I couldn’t find it for so long.”
“Which senior brother saw my leg? Sorry to trouble you, much thanks.”
…
Qin Mu made the dragon qilin stop and Chen Wanyun immediately caught up, “There shouldn’t be any more pursuers. Let us go quickly.
Suddenly, singing voices faintly sounded out from the fog and these songs were even more peculiar than the song coming from the river surface. These songs had no cadence and sounded very monotonous.
Qin Mu made them stop for a moment while he sneaked over and saw the few singers that were singing.
They were a few ‘corpses’ singing and casting spells, executing Soul Guide in the dark forest. Their bodies were tattered and they looked very strange casting spells in the darkness.
“Dead people casting spells?”
Qin Mu was slightly stunned. He suddenly thought of the divine art of Nine Spectres Sect and felt that they had the flavor of breaking through the boundary of life and death.
If this kind of divine art was researched to its limit, could it break the boundary between life and death and achieve eternal life?
The divine arts of Nine Spectres Sect were far from being called eternal life now. They were only guiding the souls of the dead back from the netherworld, to allow the souls to reside in their own bodies temporarily.
They had to continue to execute Soul Guide and if they stopped executing Soul Guide, their souls might probably be dragged back to the netherworld and they would really die.
“No wonder those corpses are also executing Soul Guide.”
Qin Mu thought to himself, “They must execute Soul Guide continuously for them to be able to continue moving. These dead men are not weak in cultivation, therefore, it’s still best to avoid them.”
He left these dead people alone and sneaked back, “Let us change a direction.”
They didn’t move much further when they met another group of Nine Spectres Sect’s disciples that were casting spells. Other than these Nine Spectres Sect’s disciples that were already dead, he also saw a few disciples of Corpse Immortal Cult that were also controlling corpses to surround the soldiers that were escaping from the city. The flying zombies flew by walking on the yellow joss papers beneath their feet.
Qin Mu frowned and changed another direction, “Let us head to Deer Mountain. The corpses of Nine Spectres Sect were buried there and they slaughtered their way to the county city from there, therefore it must be empty over there!”
Everyone was extremely nervous as the people of Nine Spectres Sect and Corpse Immortal Cult were now everywhere in the black fog. Since Corpse Immortal Cult was eradicated by Yuyuan Chuyu, he reckoned the cult disciples’ corpses were also buried nearby, allowing Nine Spectres Sect to revive them as well.
It was obvious that Nine Spectres Sect had come prepared, catching Yuyuan Chuyu off guard. If this situation went on, Lizhou would probably be in danger.
Qin Mu thought to himself, “There must definitely be a ruthless fellow behind the scenes in Nine Spectres Sect. For victory, he could even sacrifice the lives of so many disciples of Nine Spectres Sect unscrupulously!”
They came to Deer Mountain and there was indeed no one here. The black fog had also faded quite a bit.
Chen Wanyun, Yun Que and the rest gradually put their hearts down. As long as they crossed this mountain and left the area shrouded by the black fog, they would be temporarily safe.
Suddenly, a cadence chant sounded from the mountain. Everyone’s heart turned anxious again and they looked towards Qin Mu.
Qin Mu frowned slightly and whispered, “Something’s wrong with his chanting. This isn’t Soul Guide and is another kind of spell.”
Yue Qinghong and the rest couldn’t hear the difference. They didn’t know much about Soul Guide of Nine Spectres Sect while Qin Mu had studied this divine art before thus he could hear some disparity from the chants.
“You guys stay here, I’ll go and have a look!”
Qin Mu instructed them and approached the chantings silently. When he came near to the chantings, Qin Mu’s footsteps became even softer. On the mountain col in front of him, he could see a sacrificial altar and there were over ten male and female Daoists casting spells on the sacrificial altar.
That sacrificial altar was constructed by skeletons. The length and width were the same, each being thirteen yards long. Meanwhile, on the altar, skulls were used to create a flat surface. With a white banner erected at the four corners: north, south, east, west. Runes written in cinnabar mixed with blood were on the white banners.
A sculpture of an eight-armed devil god was erected on the center of the sacrificial altar. This sculpture squatted with one single leg while the other leg wrapped the previous one around the back of its calf. With the palms of the eight arms clasped together, the devil god had four faces and each face had three eyes.
These male and female Daoists each executed a talisman treasure and the talisman treasures floated in the air. The talisman had numerous surfaces and on each surface was a rune.
With these Daoists’ chant, the runes on the talisman treasures lighted up continuously. The runes that lighted up shone precisely on the body of the devil god’s sculpture. Whenever a place got shone on, a rune would light up on the devil god’s sculpture.
The talisman treasure continuously spun and lighted up the runes on the sculpture one after another.
At this moment, more than half of the runes on this devil god’s sculpture had been lighted up.
“Ghost Transferring God Dispatching Runes Command!”
Qin Mu’s heart trembled slightly, “The spells of Great Mountain Sect! They are the disciples of Great Mountain Sect which was already exterminated!”
These dozen male and female Daoists were all divine arts practitioners and it looked like that they had already been executing Ghost Transferring God Dispatching Runes Command for quite some time. It was obvious that after Great Mountain Sect was exterminated, they had conspired to strike back, allying themselves with Nine Spectres Sect and Corpse Immortal Cult!
Qin Mu then took the time which Nine Spectres Sect rose up in revolt into consideration and found it was precisely the time when the scholars of Imperial College were just arriving at Lizhou and Deer County. This meant that there was someone who had clearly kept tabs on the movement of the scholars of Imperial College and even the time the imperial scholars would reach here.
The scholars of Imperial College coming out for experience were all elites chosen from their own realms. These scholars would become the future officials of Eternal Peace Empire, taking over the current batch of officials that had come from each and every sect.
The current officials mostly belonged to the older generation while the imperial scholars were the new generation.
If this batch of scholars was to be entirely eradicated, Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor would lose a pillar of strength in his new generation.
“This time the scholars coming out for experience was a decree by the emperor and those who knew this beforehand would only be the first-ranking high officials who held high authority other than Gu Linuan.”
Qin Mu’s gaze flickered. Among the first-ranking powerful ministers, there were definitely people who had betrayed.
He very much wanted to continue watching how these disciples of Great Mountain Sect summoned the devil god but if he waited until the devil god was summoned, their deaths would probably be due.
Qin Mu sneaked back silently and described what he had seen to Chen Wanyun and the rest, “Thirteen divine arts practitioners and their abilities aren’t weak. If they bring out the devil god, none of us will be able to escape. We’ll have to eliminate them before they bring out the devil god and destroy the sacrificial altar! Who dares to follow me to kill them?”
“Kill divine arts practitioners?”
Yun Que and Yue Qinghong were both astonished, “And thirteen of them?”
Qin Mu gave them a glance, “You guys don’t dare?”
Yun Que muttered, “I felt a little afraid. They are divine arts practitioners and furthermore, there are thirteen of them.”
Qin Mu replied solemnly, “If we don’t kill them, when they bring out the devil god, not only will we die, the entire Lizhou would be destroyed!”
Chen Wanyun muttered to himself irresolutely and asked, “Is Great Mountain Sect a spell sect?”
Si Yunxiang tightened the sword case on her back and said, “I’ve heard my elders mentioned before that Great Mountain Sect was a sect that was proficient in cultivating spells related to souls. They aren’t as proficient in sword skills or battle techniques. Back then when Imperial Preceptor exterminated Great Mountain Sect, he brought a team of divine arts practitioners that cultivated sword skill to attack Great Mountain, exterminating this sect! After Great Mountain Sect got exterminated, their disciples that were scattered outside might not learn the traditional spells and won’t have many attainments in their battle techniques and sword skills.”
Qin Mu said, “Imperial Preceptor used sword skills to kill them but we won’t use sword skills, we’ll use battle techniques. If we use sword skills, we won’t win their spells. But in close combat, before they could even execute their spells, they would be slain by us! Wanyun, Yun Que, Qinghong, I’ve seen your battle techniques before and they aren’t weak, do you have the guts to face them?”
Chen Wanyun replied solemnly, “You dare, I dare!’
Qin Mu looked at Si Yunxiang and Si Yunxiang lowered her head while saying, “Yunxiang will take imperial academician as my only guide.”
Qin Mu then looked at Yue Qinghong and her eyes were sparkling as she found it hard to suppress her excitement, “I had never come to grips with such a situation before, how can I not participate? Wolf slave, get ready as well!”
Qin Mu’s gaze fell on Monk Yun Que and he hesitated for a moment before gritting his teeth, “If I don’t enter hell, who would? I’m in!”
Qin Mu said, “I will be the first to rush out later and slaughter my way up to the sacrificial altar to pave the way for you guys. You guys will follow behind me and fight in close combat. We’ll have to fight as quick as possible and cannot drag the battle out! The sacrificial is only thirteen by thirteen yards, with such cramp space, you guys will have to think what move you want to use and go through it several times in your mind!”
Yue Qinghong was so excited both her hands were trembling as she smiled, “Following you isn’t so bad after all, the first battle is already so exciting, I already can’t wait!”
Qin Mu stooped down and moved forward. Chen Wanyun and the rest followed him and came to the mountain col. They could see that the runes on the body of devil god’s sculpture were almost all lit up. The thirteen female and male Daoists were still executing their talisman as they continued walking around the sacrificial altar. The chants came out continuously from their mouth as if it was an ancient sacrificial language.
Qin Mu’s heart jumped and he suppressed his urge to immediately rush out and break the sacrificial ritual. He instructed softly, “Observe the terrain and after you guys are done, we’ll make our move. Ling’er, bring the dragon qilin to the other side and make some sounds to attract their attention.”
Hu Ling’er immediately brought the dragon qilin to take a detour around the sacrificial altar and went towards the right.
After a moment, Yue Qinghong said softly, “We are done observing!”
Qin Mu waved his hand and Hu Ling’er immediately jumped out from the underbrush while the dragon qilin roared behind her and gave chase as if he was hunting.
The thirteen Daoists on the sacrificial altar were astonished but when they saw the fox and the dragon qilin, a Daoist smiled, “So it was a huge lion catching its prey…”
Before he could even finish his words, he saw a knife light flashed by. Qin Mu had already arrived at the sacrificial altar with each hand wielding a knife, the human head rolled down as he raised his hand!
Battle technique, Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining!