Tales of Herding Gods

Chapter 1162 – Annual rings of the Black Tree

The ancient god egg within in Glassy Sky Pagoda as well as Grand Beginning’s egg had come into contact with many external affairs. The two eggs had been dug out early and Qin Mu’s keen senses told him that these two ancient god eggs were no longer pure.

The ancient god egg that grants every request within the Glassy Sky Pagoda was a treasure dug out by the Xin Clan. After experiencing the destruction of the masters of creation, it fell into the hands of North Deity Xuan Wu and was refined into the Glassy Sky Pagoda.

Grand Beginning’s egg was dug out by one of the masters of creation, but it fell into the hands of Celestial Emperor Grand Creation.

Because Celestial Emperor Grand Creation himself was born imperfect, he worried that the egg would give birth to an perfect god, so he sealed the egg and hid it in Clear Sun Hall.

After they were dug out, they experienced the viciousness of human hearts. The ancient god Celestial Emperor Grand Creation was also an egg-born ancient god, be he could still become such a ruthless ruler. Therefore, Qin Mu felt that the ancient gods in the two eggs cannot possibly be as indifferent as the two ancient gods in Grand Extremes Mine, nor can they be so transcendent as the ancient god of the chaos mine.

Whenever the two ancient god eggs communicated with each other, they always stopped in the presence of Qin Mu. It was obvious that they were plotting something.

“Soon, I will be able to decipher the Dao language of Grand Beginning’s egg. At that time, I will be able to decipher the language of the ancient god egg within the Glassy Sky Pagoda from their conversations. Once I decipher both Dao languages, I will know what they are talking about.”

Qin Mu walked out of the mine in large strides and temporarily put aside the matter of how to deal with the two ancient god eggs. He quickly went down the mountain and summoned the dragon qilin and Yan’er, “Let us leave this place.”

The dragon qilin and Yan’er asked in astonishment, “Cult Master (Young Master), what kind of treasure ground is this? Why are you giving up?”

Qin Mu took a glance at the void beast beside him and said with a smile, “Heavenly resources and earthly treasures: the blessed can gather and the virtuous can obtain. My fortune isn’t good enough. If I forcefully occupy this place, I will definitely be harmed.”

he dragon qilin and Yan’er were both puzzled. Qin Mu had always plundered everything cleanly in the past, so how could he return empty-handed after encountering a mountain of treasures?

Furthermore, this was a supreme treasure ground: one of the five primordial mines of Ancestral Court. The five mines contains five different kinds of power, and it could even be said to be five different cultivation systems, cultivation directions and cultivation paths!

The masters of creation relied solely on Grand Creation Divine Stones to develop and create divine consciousness. They ruled the universe of Ancient Primordial Era for billions of years and even enslaved ancient gods!

Just Grand Creation Divine Stones were already so powerful, so the other divine stones were definitely not bad. If they could occupy primordial mine, there would be more possibilities in the future.

However, since Qin Mu wanted to leave, they could only follow him.

“It’s a pity that I had just planted several acres of land…”

The dragon qilin looked at the fields that he had cultivated with pity and thought to himself, “Even though this world is huge, it can’t contain a few acres of fertile land.”

They entered the black desert again and walked out. The black sand in front of them filled the sky, and the sand was extremely fierce. They had no choice but to rely on the support of the Glassy Sky Pagoda.

Qin Mu inadvertently looked behind him and was stunned.

The black desert they passed through transformed into a vast starry sky. Countless stars formed a galaxy, and the surging black sand was the stars surging like a tide.

He retracted his gaze and looked forward. The desert stretched into the sky and was covered in darkness. It was hard to see his five fingers.

“It’s truly a strange place, to be able to give birth to such gods.”

He took out a piece of Grand Extremes Divine Stone and poured his vital qi into it. Suddenly, his vital qi split into two and transformed into Yin and Yang qi.

Qin Mu was stunned. The Yin and Yang qi formed by his vital qi through the use of the divine stone was much stronger than the vital qi that was originally poured in. Furthermore, there were even more transformations, as though it could evolve into the myriad beings of the world.

‘This Taiji Divine Stone also contains this kind of cultivation path, similar to the Grand Primordium Divine Stone and the masters of creation. If the Taiji Divine Egg is dug out, the person who controls the eight pieces of Taiji Origin Stone will become eight Grand Emperors, and the two ancient gods in the egg might become another Celestial Emperor Grand Primordium.’

“This Grand Extremes Divine Stone also contains another kind of cultivation path, similar to the Grand Creation Divine Stones possessed by the masters of creation. If Grand Extremes’ egg was dug out instead, then the eight people who possessed the eight pieces of Grand Extremes Origin Stone will have become eight Grand Emperors and the two ancient gods in the egg might have become similar to Celestial Emperor Grand Creation.”

He put away the Grand Extremes Divine Stone and turned around to wave at the Grand Extremes Mine.

Of the five egg-born ancient gods, two had already come into being. When will the ancient gods in the Grand Extremes divine egg come out? If these two ancient gods came out, what changes would they bring to the world?

“I forgot to ask them if the void beast was artificially created? Was it created by the ancient god that had already been born? What was the purpose behind creating the void beast?”

Qin Mu frowned slightly. After Celestial Emperor Grand Creation defeated the masters of creation and Grand Emperor, he had worked with almost all the strong practitioners at that time to seal Ancestral Court. One of the goals was to seal the void beast.

Furthermore, Divine King Gong Yun was also Celestial Venerable Gong. Although she was a master of creation, she believed that the void beast should be sealed there and couldn’t be released.

Further, even the master of creation Divine King Gong Yun, who was also Celestial Venerable Gong, believed that the voice beast must remain sealed and must not be released.

Evidently, even if the masters of creation felt that the existence that created the void beasts had ill intentions.

What was the story behind this?

When Celestial Emperor Grand Creation sealed Ancestral Court, did he also plan to seal the ancient god that had been born?

After travelling north for more than ten days, they finally saw the black stump that the two ancient gods in Grand Extremes Mine had mentioned. Qin Mu raised his head to take a look, and his heart trembled. If the two ancient gods hadn’t said that this was a black stump, he wouldn’t have been able to see the true appearance of this place.

In front of them, there were countless black mountains that stood tall and proud. Looking from afar, the hundreds of thousands of mountains were lined up concentrically, forming many circular mountain ranges that was connected one after another. It was impossible to see that this was actually a tree stump!

This was indeed a stump left behind by an extremely old tree. The ring-shaped structure formed by the mountain ranges was actually the annual rings[1] of this black tree!

However, the incomparably large circular mountain ranges were few in number and it didn’t look like there were that many annual rings.

Qin Mu flew into the sky and counted. The mountains here only formed sixteen circular wheels, and so according to this, the age of the black tree should be only sixteen years old.

“How can a sixteen-year-old tree grow so big?” He couldn’t help but laugh and shake his head.

“The ancient gods said that this place is second only to the five great primordial mines. In that case, my territory shall be here!”

Qin Mu controlled the void beast to fly over the pitch-black mountains, heading straight for the core of the black wood. In the centre of the Hundred Thousand Mountains was a huge black peak that stood upright, but its peak was extremely flat.

Qin Mu controlled the void beast and flew over the pitch black mountain ranges, heading straight for the core of the black stump. In the centre of the hundreds and thousands of mountains was a huge black peak that stood proud: its peak was extremely flat.

Qin Mu took out the Glassy Sky Pagoda and stabbed it into the centre of the huge black peak. He shouted in a deep voice, “Rise!”

Buzz—

The Glassy Sky Pagoda opened its canopy layer by layer, and the heavens expanded outwards. Soon, they covered the black mountains, and the sixteen black mountain ranges completely covered the 28 heavens.

After protecting his territory, he immediately opened the vertical eye in the heart of his brows. Through the visualisation of the masters of creation, he created a palace.

At that moment, the dragon qilin’s voice rang out. “Cult Master, this black mountain also has annual rings!”

Qin Mu’s heart stirred, and he walked over. He saw Tiny Earth Count lying on the ground and counting the years on this big black peak. He had already counted to a few thousand years.

“These… are really annual rings!”

Qin Mu was astonished. Tiny Earth Count had already counted to three thousand, but he had only taken two steps.

Meanwhile, the entire black mountain was several hundred miles long and wide. It was unknown how long it would take to count it all!

Qin Mu’s heart trembled violently, and he looked at the markings of the black mountain in a daze. His mind was blown. “This black tree is only sixteen years old. What does one year mean in this case… How long is one year for this tree?”

The dragon qilin measured the length of Big Black Peak with each step and calculated how many rings there were in each step. He then multiplied the number of steps and said with a smile, “Cult Master, if this Big Black Peak is a tree, it should be thirty billion years old!”

The dragon qilin measured the length of this black peak with his steps and counted the number of rings within each step. He multiplied these two numbers together and said with a smile, “Cult Master, if this black peak is a tree, then it should be around thirty billion years old!”

[1] The annual rings of a tree can be seen when you cut the trunk. It reveals a pattern of differently coloured concentric circles. The reason for the colour difference is due to the difference in growth speed during summer and winter. As such, by counting the number of rings, you can accurately determine a tree’s age.