Tales of Herding Gods

Chapter 62: Spoiling Your Merit

Translator: Ninetales Editor: Fish Creek

“Spoiling your religious practice and spoiling your merit?”

Qin Mu sneered as he cut off the rest of the chains, “You’re merely a copper Buddha statue so where does your merit come from? Is your merit restraining Woman Wu here? But you turned a blind eye when Woman Wu ate humans in front of you. If you had any merit, it would have all been squandered away by you!”

The body of the great Buddha quivered as the blood marks on the copper body glowed. With the golden leaves covering it, it became a great Buddha sparkling in golden lights as it spoke with a muffled voice, “Do you know how many people would be eaten and ruined if you set it free?”

“I only know that it had hidden countless bones behind your back and used you to commit evil. I don’t see you doing anything about it.”

Qin Mu cut off the second chain and sneered, “The ice tide right outside the temple happens several times a year. Have you done anything about it? To solve the ice tide issue is then considered a merit, but sitting in the temple to restrain a monster is not, much less allowing the monster to eat people. If you shatter the ice tide to save the common people downstream, then will you have great merits!”

The Buddha statue shone with a golden glow and its hands moved as if he was becoming alive. Woman Wu immediately shouted in alarm, “The old bald donkey is an evil Buddha. He’s trying to purify me to death. Hurry up!”

Qin Mu moved quickly and went out of the temple in a flash as he used Junior Protector Sword to cut off the chains outside the temple.

“The sins of all lives need to be washed away by the flood. Only then could they rid themselves of evil. They reap what they sow.”

Booom.

A violent tremor came out as the copper Buddha stood up and broke apart the temple with its head. It roared like thunder which shook the heavens and the earth. “You evil spirit, how dare you spoil the teachings of Buddha! You stubborn evil creature can’t be enlightened!”

The chains that had chained down the copper Buddha and Woman Wu instantly seemed to become alive as they whistled through the air and shot towards Qin Mu.

“The teachings of your Buddha are all about saving yourself by saving others and not saving others for the sake of saving them. Hypocrite.”

Qin Mu leaped and avoided the coiling of a chain. He used his Junior Protector Sword to cut down the last chain, “It would still be your merit if you killed Woman Wu back then when you brought it under control. But you merely restrained it and still allowed it to harm people. Why? Because eating people is its sins, and the greater its sins become, the greater your merit would be for purifying it. Bah! The sins of Woman Wu for the people it had eaten should be counted as your sins as well!”

Clank—

Junior Protector Sword collided with the chains and a powerful force came out from the chain, deflecting the treasure sword away.

Qin Mu grunted and stumbled back while avoiding the chains that were like two black pythons. He then sneered, “With the flood around all the temple, you are not only sitting here and refusing to help people, but even stopping me from helping people, and you still think of attaining merits? Let me tell you, there are many elderly in my village that helps fight against the ice tide every year, saving the common folks and beasts, saving countless of lives! If one can become a Buddha just by merits alone, every one of them would already be Golden Body Great Buddha and not like you, mere a copper statue!”

“Ridiculous!”

The copper Buddha was extremely huge and with a raise of its leg, the Buddha walked out of the rundown temple. With its palms together, the clanging of the metal chains sounded as the Buddha shone brightly and repelled Qin Mu!

All of Qin Mu’s limbs and bones shocked as he hanged in midair while the chains came flying at him.

Stepping on the chains, he sprinted along it as he used his vital qi to control Junior Protector Sword to cut down on the last chain that was shackling Woman Wu.

The chains were like extremely thick pythons crisscrossing in midair as they attacked towards Qin Mu, dazzling him.

The copper Buddha was clearly made from brass yet it was extremely nimble, simply unimaginable.

Previously the copper Buddha couldn’t differentiate between Qin Mu and Woman Wu. Only when Qin Mu used the devil voice would the copper Buddha react automatically by saying Buddhist incantation to purify Woman Wu. Now that Qin Mu had tried to release Woman Wu, the copper Buddha had changed its ways by attacking Qin Mu automatically.

The thick chains flew towards him in all directions and Qin Mu stepped on one of the chains to avoid the rest of the attacks.

The power of the copper Buddha from the chains slowly grew stronger. The vibration caused by the chains grinding against one another made Qin Mu’s unstable. His legs got sore with the vibration, and his control on Junior Protector Sword wasn’t as accurate as before.

The copper Buddha grew stronger and stronger as if there were limitless strengths in its body. At this moment, these strengths were awakening bit by bit.

Granny Si and Cripple had brought up this copper Buddha before and had said that there was something strange with the copper Buddha. Granny Si had said she once decided to get rid of Woman Wu but was stopped by the copper Buddha and didn’t succeed.

Granny Si was naturally extremely powerful yet she was unable to get rid of Woman Wu. This meant that when the power of the copper Buddha fully awakened, it would be extremely terrifying!

And now, the copper Buddha’s strength was awakening bit by bit!

Even if it was partly awakened, it wasn’t what Qin Mu was able to withstand.

Right at this moment, an earth-shattering crash sounded out. The ice tide from upstream had finally reached the oasis. The towering ice mountain which was dozens of yards in height rushed down under the violent currents and appeared right in front of the oasis, which was at the back of Qin Mu.

Qin Mu immediately got shrouded by the shadow, and he hurriedly looked back only to see numerous ice chunks squeezing each other as they rolled up towards the pinnacle of the ice mountain before rolling back down again into the river. New ice chunks would be sent up to the pinnacle of the ice mountain again before rolling down.

With the ice tide crushing everything in its path, the corpses on the ice were shattered into pieces that could not be found anymore. The only thing left was the rolling ice mountain that surging forwards, crushing everything in its momentum!

“Tut—!”

The copper Buddha also seemed to realize the imminent danger and couldn’t care more about Qin Mu as it stretched open his arms to face the rolling ice tide, trying to push it back.

Bang—!

The surrounding of the oasis formed a huge golden bell from rays of light which enveloped the entire oasis!

Numerous ice chunks collided onto the golden bell and created loud banging sounds as they shattered from the tremors. Every floating ice that collided onto the golden bell would cause ripples of golden light to spread out. From Qin Mu’s angle, it was a splendid and magnificent sight.

Following it, the ice tide collided, causing sounds like the booming of thunder, deafening the ears. In midst of the noise, the bell rings of the golden bell could also be heard!

The power of nature against the Buddhism divine art of the copper Buddha was world-shaking. Even the oasis swayed from the vibrations and seemed like it could sink into the water any moment.

The ice tide was blocked by the oasis and the golden bell, and this caused it to grow taller and taller. The ice tide at both sides had already continued to flow downstream through the sides of the oasis. Only the place which was blocked by the oasis had accumulated more and more floating ices. Gradually, the ice tide had the trend to flow over the oasis.

Rattle—

The chains shook as they flew towards Qin Mu. This copper Buddha actually had energy left over to control the chains like spirit snakes to chase relentlessly after him.

At the same time, the copper Buddha moved and gave off sonorous sounds of metal colliding as it palms struck continuously on the walls of the golden bells to reinforce it.

The chains were coiled around on its body and flew around continuously with its movement as they attacked Qin Mu. Meanwhile, Woman Wu who was in the form of the little girl, Xian Qing’er, staggered from the pull of the chains and suddenly tripped, causing its face to become badly battered from being dragged around miserably.

Qin Mu stepped on the chain and immediately felt that the great Buddha’s strength had diminished quite a lot and wasn’t as terrifying as before. He took the chance to cut down and break the last chain with a loud clank while using Junior Protector Sword.

Woman Wu was stunned and couldn’t refrain from being astonished and delighted as it lifted its arms to see the two golden loops around its wrists along with the broken chains.

There were also golden loops around its ankles which were dragging two broken chains.

“Stop daydreaming and move quickly!” Qin Mu shouted loudly as he flew over.

Woman Wu laughed loudly and its body suddenly bulged rapidly. Xian Qing’er’s skin burst apart randomly and revealed its true body which was covered with bones. With its hundred feet dancing in the breeze, it shouted, “Little brother, jump onto my body and I’ll bring you out of here!”

Qin Mu landed on its body. The body of this great demon was covered in bone armor as it barged forward towards the back of the oasis while dragging the golden loops and chains. Its legs moved very fast and soon rose up into the air. The hundred feet under its long body moved in unison as it broke through the air and charged towards the wall of the golden bell!

“Evil creature, you’re my merit and you still think of running away?”

The copper Buddha turned around and its brass hand grabbed onto the void. The golden loops and chain on Woman Wu’s body rattled and started to fly backward. Meanwhile, the chains on the copper Buddha’s body also flew up by themselves as if they wanted to reconnect back with the broken chains.

Woman Wu’s blood ran cold. It fell down from the pull of the chains on its body. The strength coming from the chains on its legs grew greater and actually pulled her backward continuously.

Using all the strength in her hundred feet, it tried its best to crawl forward but couldn’t help being dragged back.

Qin Mu was planning on using qi to manipulate his sword to cut off the golden loops on Woman Wu’s limbs when suddenly, an extremely fine ray of light flashed by and broke open the golden bell before passing between the copper Buddha’s eyes.

The copper Buddha howled and its palm grabbed towards the front of its eyes. Woman Wu suddenly felt its body becoming light and immediately took to its heels to run. With a few steps, it rose into the air and rushed out from the area which was enveloped by the golden bell, vanishing on the river surface.

Behind them, the copper Buddha howled continuously. Suddenly the golden bell crumbled and mountain like ice tide came crashing down, burying the oasis along with the copper Buddha. The ancient temple was also shattered in that instant. The entire oasis was flattened!

“You and I have always minded our own business…”

The copper Buddha was furious. But before it could finish its words, it was pushed down into the river by the ice tide along with the oasis!