Tales of Herding Gods
Chapter 1484: Heaven's Wrath

"Celestial Venerable Mu, why do you always have so many strange ideas?"

That girl couldn't help but say, "Your ideas are always preposterous, but they are filled with a devil's temptation. Even I can't help but be tempted sometimes. I feel that if your ideas are implemented, they will definitely be good ideas!"

Qin Mu's eyes lit up.

The little girl sniffled and said, "However, from my experience, your ideas are always incomparably rotten. The Grand Emperor is also considered half a Dao practitioner, but after listening to your rotten ideas, he broke his corporeal body in just two or three times. I listened to your idea and lent you the Chaotic Axe, so you chopped the World Tree but couldn't save it."

Qin Mu laughed loudly.

The girl Tai Yi quietly waited for him to finish covering up his awkward laughter before continuing, "How do you know that your idea this time isn't a bad idea? Even I don't dare to say if I can save that World Tree. Even if I can, do you know the consequences?"

Qin Mu's expression changed drastically, and he probed, "You mean this World Tree will burst my divine treasures when it reaches my divine treasures?"

"Exploding your divine treasures shouldn't happen. This tree is alive, and its roots are growing slowly. The tree won't grow for a while."

The girl easily dispelled his doubts and said, "I'm talking about something else. The water in my bucket isn't ordinary water, it's the Dao dew on my Dao Tree. The Dao dew condenses at night and disappears during the day. Every leaf on my Dao Tree is my Dao, and every leaf can only condense a drop of Dao dew every night. The total number of Dao dew is fixed, and I can only collect this bucket of water every time. This bucket of water is just enough to repair the mountain that cracked at night in the black mountain and stop the strong practitioners of the previous universe from sneaking in."

Qin Mu understood what she meant and said, "In other words, if you use the Dao dew to revive that World Tree, there will definitely be strong practitioners from the previous cosmos sneaking in?"

Tai Yi nodded his head and said, "That's right. If you have the ability to stop them, that's easy. I can lend you a bucket of water and you can just kill the stowaways. However, you don't have the ability."

Qin Mu was extremely ashamed.

The little girl glanced at him and said calmly, "I'll point out a righteous path for you. Go under the World Tree and comprehend it like Lan Yutian, Xu Shenghua, and the rest. When you have some achievements in the future, you can use your own Great Dao runes to plant a Dao Tree in your ancestral court. With this Dao Tree, when you cultivate to the point of achieving the Dao, you will realize how great the benefits are. All your hard work in the past was not in vain! This kind of attaining the Dao isn't like the Grand Emperor who is full of water."

Qin Mu had an ashamed expression as he looked around. When he saw that there was no one around, he bent down and whispered into the little girl's ear, "Let me tell you a secret, don't tell anyone else. Truth be told…"

He hesitated over again, but he still mustered up the courage to tell her the secret that had been hidden in his heart for many years. "Actually, I'm not as smart as Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian. My comprehension isn't as high as theirs, and my Dao heart might not be stronger than theirs."

The girl rolled her eyes and looked at him with disinterest. It was obvious that she already knew this.

Qin Mu hesitated and said, "If I comprehend the Dao under the tree with them, my achievements will definitely be inferior to theirs. They will know that my Overlord Body is a fake and that there are a lot of holes in it. If I take the unconventional path and refine the World Tree directly, they will still praise me. It's indeed the Overlord Body. Therefore, even if I can't refine the World Tree, I have to grow one…"

"In that case, are you ready to face the prehistoric experts that crawled here from the shattered universe?" the girl asked too easily.

Qin Mu hesitated.

The girl Taiyi sneered and said, "You aren't their match yet. The existences with the lowest cultivation aren't inferior to the ten Celestial Venerables, and this is the result of the great calamity of destruction weakening them. If they come to this universe and imprint their own Great Dao into the void, reaching the ultimate void of our universe, they will be able to recover to their peak state. At that time, not to mention you, even if the ten Celestial Venerables are tied together, they won't be a match for any of them!"

Qin Mu hung his head in dejection and turned to leave. At this moment, the girl's easy voice came from behind him. "However, it's not like there's no solution."

Qin Mu stopped and turned around with a hopeful expression.

The girl smiled too easily, revealing the scattered teeth in her mouth. It was obvious that she was changing her baby teeth. "I'm guarding here to deal with this situation. If any prehistoric strong practitioners step in, I will kill them one by one!"

Qin Mu's eyes were bright.

"But why would I do that? This black mountain is your black mountain after all. I've already given you the position of the landlord."

Tai Yi said calmly, "It's already tiring enough for me to repair the black mountain every day, so it's not impossible for me to do it. However, mending the mountain every day is really boring."

Qin Mu immediately said, "I'll mend the mountain! I'll mend however many days you want me to!"

The girl blinked her eyes slyly. "I don't need you to replenish it for too long. As long as you replenish it for half a year, I will have to leave the black mountain to do something during this half a year. You just need to ascend to the highest point of the World Tree every night, and my Dao Tree will drip with Dao dew. You just need to accept these Dao dews and mend the cracked black mountain during the day. After half a year, I will rush back, and you will be free then."

Qin Mu was overjoyed and nodded repeatedly.

Tai Yi took out another iron bucket which was full of Dao Dew.

Qin Mu was suspicious and looked at the little girl. He then lowered his head to look at the Dao Dew in the iron bucket and probed, "Dao brother, why do you have two iron buckets here, and both of them are Dao Dew? Didn't you say that the number of leaves on your Dao Tree is fixed and you can only connect one bucket of Dao Dew every time?"

"Yes, I can only take one bucket."

The girl easily answered his doubts and said, "However, before you guys returned to the ancestral court, the activity in the black mountain wasn't as intense, so there would be some leftover after every repair. The lesser the better, so there were a few more buckets. I was naturally thrifty, so I stayed behind to prepare for emergencies."

The corners of Qin Mu's eyes twitched. "In other words, Dao brother doesn't have to deal with those prehistoric strong practitioners that crawled out."

The girl was too straightforward. "Yes!"

Qin Mu grunted and took the iron bucket. He bowed and said, "Thank you, Dao brother."

The girl's eyes curved into crescents as she smiled. "Aren't you angry?"

"Why are you angry?"

Qin Mu said with a smile, "Dao brother lent me a bucket of Dao dew and prevented prehistoric Dao practitioners from crawling over to harm the people of the world. I couldn't be more grateful, so why would I be angry? I was merely tricked by Dao brother and thought my wisdom was inferior, but I was still very happy."

The girl was too easy to praise. "Celestial Venerable Mu, although you aren't as smart as Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian, and your comprehension isn't as high as theirs, your Dao heart might not be as strong as theirs, and you aren't as pretty as them… However, you are a real person! Lan Yutian is a saint, Xu Shenghua is a god, and you are a real person."

Even though Qin Mu didn't know which saint, god, or Perfected One she was referring to was powerful, he thought that she was praising him, so he humbly accepted her praise and carried the small bucket.

He returned to the bottom of the World Tree and stored the other World Tree he had severed into his divine treasures. He then planted it in the ancestral court.

Everyone under the tree was alarmed. Only when they saw that he wasn't here to chop the tree did they relax.

Qin Mu composed himself and opened up his divine treasure realm. He saw the broken tree standing upright in the ancestral court. Its branches and leaves were withered, and there was no sign of life.

He carefully sprinkled water under the roots of the tree. In the Taishi mine not far away, the egg of Taishi stood steadily on the altar of the mine. The egg slowly turned half a circle, and the voice of the Taishi came. "This tree is already dead, you can't save it… What is it? Give me a taste!"

The huge egg jumped down from the sacrificial altar and came to the bottom of the tree. Qin Mu was sprinkling water, and the egg of Tai Shi tilted to the side as though it could see his actions. It asked curiously, "Without roots, there's no way to absorb nutrients. You can't save this tree, so why don't you give me a taste of the water in your bucket…"

Qin Mu sneered and said, "Trees without roots can't absorb water, and you don't have a mouth, so you can't absorb water."

The egg of Tai Shi smiled. "Although I don't have a mouth, I can absorb the power of the mine."

"In that case, this tree is the same."

Qin Mu poured the water seriously and said, "If it had grown into a huge tree, it might not have been able to be saved. However, this tree is still a sapling. Now that it has received nutrients, it might be able to grow roots."

The egg of Tai Shi moved to the side of the barrel, and Qin Mu pushed it to the side. After a moment, the egg of Tai Shi moved forward again, and Qin Mu pushed it to the side.

"Fine, I won't!"

The Tai Shi egg bounced off into the distance and returned to its own mine. It stabilized itself on the sacrificial altar. "This tree has no roots and can't absorb water. I control the power of the mine, so the water you spilled must have been absorbed by me!"

Qin Mu turned a deaf ear to him. The egg of Tai Shi was controlling the mine, trying its best to steal the Dao dew that Qin Mu had scattered. At that moment, the huge egg became restless and jumped up from the sacrificial altar. It jumped into the air and didn't dare to land. It cried out, "Something is stealing the power of my mine! Strange, strange!"

That mine had been forged by Qin Mu to imitate the ancestral court's Tai Shi mine. The Tai Shi Divine Stone and Tai Shi Origin Stone that Qin Mu had obtained were both planted in the mine for the ancient god to absorb.

At that moment, the shadows under the mine were slowly squirming and growing, stealing the power of the mine. However, the Tai Shi Divine Stones in the mine gradually lost their power, and their light grew dimmer.

Pa!

A piece of divine stone suddenly split open and shattered on the ground. The Tai Shi egg cried out in fear and floated in the air, not daring to land.

Pa, pa, pa!

The Grand Primordium Divine Stones lost all their energy and continued to shatter. Even the light of the Grand Primordium Origin Stone was becoming dimmer.

The Tai Shi egg wanted to cry, but no tears came out. It cried out, "Celestial Venerable Mu, what kind of water is that? You've raised this tree into a monster, stop now!"

At the same time, the divine stones that Qin Mu had buried in the other mines were also cracking and shattering. It was obvious that the energy of these divine stones had been absorbed by the World Tree!

The World Tree had been nourished by the Dao Dew, so growing its roots should have been a good thing. However, it had seized the power of the four great mines, which made Qin Mu hesitate.

The four great mines were formed by him comprehending the Great Dao of Tai Chi, Tai Shi, Tai Su, and Tai Chu. Because his comprehension was incomplete, he needed to borrow the power of the divine stone.

If the four mines were sucked dry by the World Tree, wouldn't it be a loss for him?

Right at this moment, he suddenly felt his own power flowing away rapidly, and his heart couldn't help but jump!

Other than seizing the power of the four mines, the World Tree was actually absorbing his power!

No matter what kind of Great Dao it was, the World Tree didn't reject any of them. It snatched and accepted them all!

The profound energy in his divine treasures kept shrinking, and Xuandu, the stars, and all kinds of Great Daos started to flow into the World Tree. The starry sky of Xuandu quickly shrunk, and it was like a whale swallowing a rainbow. Countless stars, stars, and galaxies rushed into the tree!

Not only that, but Yuandu, Youdu, and the four poles were all contracting and collapsing into the tree!

Even the worlds were being swallowed by the World Tree one after another!

Qin Mu had used his own Great Dao to refine the ancient gods of the heavens, and nearly two thousand of them had been swallowed by the World Tree. They didn't even have a chance to escape!

Qin Mu couldn't help being astonished. He hurriedly put away his divine treasure realm and sprinted towards the girl who was still repairing the black mountain.

Now, only Tai Yi could save him. As long as Tai Yi swung his huge ax to cut down this World Tree that was playing tricks in his divine treasures, he wouldn't be swallowed by the World Tree!

However, the moment he took a step forward, his corporeal body visibly slimmed down.

Qin Mu took his second step and was already all skin and bones.

When he took his third step, he had already lost all his moisture. He fell straight down from the sky and landed on the ground, motionless like a dried corpse.

Hua Xuanxiu was the first to notice Qin Mu falling from the sky. He cried out in astonishment, "Old Cult Master has been punished by the heavens for cutting down trees!"