Tales of Herding Gods

Chapter 55: Number One Sword Skill In The World

Translator: Ninetales Editor: Fish Creek

“I’m Rain Hall Master of our sacred cult and people called me Little Rainbringer. Are you good in your spells?”

Qin Mu walked into the next room and there was a woman inside. On her face were strange tattoos and on her head was a victory headdress made from feathers. On her hand was a staff made from an unknown beast tail that had twenty-four joints to correspond to the twenty-four solar terms. The woman smiled, “We shall compete using our spells in this room!”

Qin Mu shook his head, “I don’t know any spells. Can practitioners of the Spirit Embryo Realm learn spells too?”

The woman smiled, “Why not? Vital qi is magic power and you can cast spells once you know spells. Cult mistress was the best spellcaster in our cult. Didn’t she teach you? When I was in the Spirit Embryo Realm, I had already traveled around in the martial world to bring rain by spells for the commoners. Whenever there was a drought, the commoners would invite me over to help them. Therefore they called me a witch. However as my cultivation grew stronger and had a greater reputation, they then called me Little Rainbringer. I’m indebted to the cult master for thinking highly of me and bestowing me as the hall master of Rain Hall. However, I’m still inferior compared to the cult mistress. Back then, she was the one who had become saintess and not me.”

Qin Mu was bewildered, “How do I fight using spells?”

Rain Hall Master put her hand on her forehead and sighed, “Why don’t you know anything? The dispute between the school of spells and the school of battle techniques has existed down through the ages. Before, people cultivating spells and people cultivating battle techniques always fought to the death against each other. The two schools recognized each other as heresy and wanted to kill off each other. Now everyone may be living together in harmony but in the past, if you run to a divine arts practitioner and say you cultivate battle techniques, you would be diced in pieces in the next instant! The battle prowess of spellcasters is much powerful than you imagine!”

Qin Mu asked curiously, “Are sword control techniques considered spells?”

No, they aren’t”

Rain Hall Master shook her head, “Sword control techniques were considered battle techniques in the past. However, they later claimed that they were the true path and that people who cultivated spells and battle techniques were going down the unorthodox path thus they had to die. This was why Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor held a conference and challenged all the strong practitioners of battle techniques, crippling them. Didn’t cult mistress tell you these?”

Qin Mu frowned, “Why are they always fighting? Aren’t battle techniques, sword arts, and spells all divine arts? Isn’t it better to gather all their advantages together as one?”

Rain Hall Master didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, “A person’s energy is limited. How does one have the time to cultivate all three styles to a profound realm? One could use up their life and wisdom just by meticulously studying a single style and still could hardly cultivate it to its peak. Since people are cultivating different things, there would be competition on who’s better, which would result in that they’re unable to coexist with one another.”

Qin Mu raised his spirit and asked, “Elder sister, show me some spells. I have never seen spells before!”

Rain Hall Master raised her slender white hand and pointed her five fingers down. With a raise and a tremor, mist started to form in the room and it began to rain.

Qin Mu observed closely and saw that after the raindrops fell on the ground, they flew up the sides of the walls to create an endless cycle.

Rain Hall Master waved her hand and the raindrops clearly became lines just like the strings of an instrument. Opening up all ten of her fingers, she strummed the rain lines, causing music to resonate throughout the room. In the music, the rain transformed into a flood dragon rushing towards Qin Mu!

Qin Mu stretched his hand out and grabbed onto the weakness of the water flood dragon, crushing it with a splash.

Rain Hall Master was astonished and strummed the musical strings even faster, turning the raindrops into sharp weapons that flew toward Qin Mu in all directions at an insane speed. The temperature in the air rapidly decreased and froze the rainwater into ice, making the sharp weapons even more treacherous!

With his ten fingers flicking after one another, Qin Mu shattered the sharp weapons that were flying to him, “So these are spells. Elder sister, is this move considered a spell too?”

His hands suddenly ignited with blazing flames and with his hands as knives, he swung his knives continuously and blew Rain Hall Master away.

Rain Hall Master landed in the courtyard and her angry yet startled voice cried out, “You are a heretic of the battle technique faction, to use battle techniques as spells…:

Walking into the next room, Qin Mu saw a burly man with a stubbly beard as he sat in seiza. Beside him was a rectangular sword case with a bronze buckle firmly fastened around it.

“I’m the hall master of the Sword Hall.”

The burly man didn’t rise up and remained in seiza as he said, “You’re carrying a sword pouch, therefore, you should know sword skills. We shall compete in our sword skill today.”

Qin Mu shook his head, “I never learned sword skills before.”

The Sword Hall Master raised his head in astonishment, “If you never learned sword skills before then why are you carrying a sword pouch? Did Cult Mistress not teach you anything about sword skill?”

Qin shook his head and answered, “Granny said in the village there was a man with number one sword skill in the world, therefore, she couldn’t teach Heavenly Devil Cult’s sword skills to me in case it would cause the person not to teach me in the future.”

“Number one sword skill in the world?”

The Sword Hall Master stared with wide open eyes. His sharp eyes were like two rays of sword light penetrating into Qin Mu’s heart as he laughed coldly, “Who dares to be so arrogant? Go learn a move from him. I want to see what the so-called number one sword skill in the world can do against ours from our sacred cult!”

Qin Mu blinked his eyes innocently and said, “I have also learned other skills like Thunderclap Eight Strikes, Heaven Pilfering Divine Legs, Pig Slaughtering Knife Skills, spear skill, painting, hammer skills…”

The Sword Hall Master caressed his sword case gently and demanded coldly, “I only want to see the number one sword skill in the world! The rest is all crap!”

Qin Mu could only walk out of the wooden building helplessly and return to Disabled Elderly Village, explaining to Granny Si what had happened.

Granny Si angrily grumbled, “Sword Hall is such an inflexible brute! Same goes for you, Mu’er. Just use your knife to hack him into pieces!”

Qin Mu mumbled, “That would be an unfair fight.”

Granny Si held his hand and brought him back to the gate of the village. At the gate, Village Chief and Apothecary were still brewing tea while the young patriarch sat in front of them. The three of them drank together.

“Village Chief, the Sword Hall Master is persistent to have a sword skill contest with Qin Mu.”

Granny Si beamed, “Why don’t you teach him a thing or two?”

Village Chief frowned and shook his head, “In such a short time, it will still be difficult to win the opponent even with my guidance. After all, nobody knows how many years the Sword Hall Master has been immersed in the study of sword skills. He should probably have got some achievement of his own. You want me to teach Mu’er a thing or two, and then he would be able immediately to win the Sword Hall Master. Isn’t it like reaching for the stars?”

“But it’s a good thing Mu’er is an Overlord Body, am I right?” Granny Si blinked his eyes innocently.

“Overlord Body…”

The corners of Village Chief’s eyes started twitching and he was starting to regret what he had done.

After all, he was the one who insisted that Mu’er was the Overlord Body that he had made up. Qin Mu being able to awaken his spirit embryo was already out of his expectation, but he knew there was a limit to everything. It was a Herculean task to make Qin Mu able to fight against an outstanding sword skill expert from Devil Cult in just a short time.

Granny Si had pushed this task to him and he, of all people, couldn’t reject her.

Village Chief muttered to himself for a moment before saying, “Mu’er, recite to me the Secret Of Elixir Heart that you had learned from Gu Linuan.”

Qin Mu immediately recited out Secret Of Elixir Heart once and Village Chief nodded in admiration, “The Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor has indeed created an accomplishment by gathering all the sword experts in the world. The sword control techniques of Secret Of Elixir Heart truly have its originality.”

The young patriarch in front of him also sighed in admiration, “The Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor is a genius.”

Village Chief continued, “Tell me how did Gu Linuan explain the Secret Of Elixir Heart to you.”

Qin Mu repeated Gu Linuan’s explanation word for word and Village Chief smiled and kept silent for a while, “Gu Linuan had selfishly hidden away some stuff.”

He pointed out the mistakes within it and Qin Mu immediately used qi to manipulate sword after he tried changing the mistakes that Village Chief had fixed, becoming very impressed after he found that controlling the sword became much easier and faster.

The eyes of young patriarch lit up as he smiled, “Gu Linuan didn’t hide stuff selfishly. It was that his comprehension was limited and not as profound as brother. You only heard it once and you could completely comprehend the entire profundity of Secret Of Elixir Heart whereas he who had cultivated it all his life had still cultivated wrongly.”

“Thanks for the praise, brother.”

Village Chief looked at Qin Mu and said in a steady pace, “I shall not teach you sword skill. I shall only teach you a simple movement, which is stab.”

“Stab?”

Qin Mu was stumped. Wasn’t stabbing as easy as using vital qi to manipulate the sword to stab forward? Why was there a need to learn?

“Using the sword to stab is not as simple as you think. Even if you don’t know sword skills, as long as you master this stabbing movement, not much sword skill experts in the Spirit Embryo Realm would be able to defeat you in this world.”

Village Chief continued, “Using an ordinary sword, try using qi to manipulate the sword to stab into the pillar of the butcher’s shop.”

Qin Mu executed Secret Of Elixir Heart and his vital qi which was as thick as an arm swept up a treasure sword in his sword pouch, flying towards the pillar of the butcher’s shop in the village.

Thud.

Qin Mu stabbed through the pillar of the butcher’s shop with the tip of the sword coming out from the back of the pillar. The cowherd boy then turned back to look at Village Chief.

Village Chief’s expression turned stiff as he coughed, “Try stabbing this rock.”

Qin Mu’s vital qi curled and pulled the treasure sword out from the pillar and with a clang, the sharp sword pierced through the mountain rock in front of Village Chief. The cowherd boy once again turned back and innocently looked at Village Chief whose expression had turned totally stiff.

The young patriarch felt startled and funny at the same time, however, he could only restrain his laughter as to not be impolite.

“I’ve forgotten this kid’s vital qi cultivation is extremely dense. His sword skill may be utter crap but with the support of his extremely dense vital qi, the power of his stab had increased exponentially.”

Village Chief covered up his awkward by giving off a few coughs and continued, “Trying stabbing through your Pig Slaughtering Knife.”

A crisp clink sound rang out, however, Qin Mu wasn’t able to pierce through the Pig Slaughtering Knife this time.

“It’s lucky he didn’t pierce through it else I wouldn’t have any idea on how to teach him…”

Village Chief secretly gave a sigh of relief and guided patiently, “So what did you feel when you stab your sword?”

Qin Mu pondered over it carefully and his eyes suddenly lit up, “I felt that my vital qi wasn’t strong enough. When using qi to manipulate sword, my vital qi was somewhat obstructed at the tip of the sword. It felt like having an entire body filled with strength yet I’m beating someone with my hair. The vital qi thread was too flimsy and can’t handle all of my strength.”