Tales of Herding Gods

Chapter 26: Thickness Of An Arm

Translator: Ninetales Editor: Fish_Creek

Everyone in the blacksmith workshop stared blankly.

An attribute actually appeared in Qin Mu’s vital qi in his Overlord Body. Furthermore, it was the fire attribute which clearly was the Vermillion Bird Vital Qi.

Deaf was about to shout in joy but Village Chief interrupted him, “Relax first, Deaf. Mu’er, now focus your mind and observe water, don’t think of anything else.”

Doing as he said, Qin Mu observed water and his vital qi turned into a trickling stream, flowing into his Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure to temper his spirit embryo. The small blacksmith workshop was soon squeezed full from all the villagers who had rushed here after hearing the news. Old Ma, Cripple, Butcher, Apothecary and Blind had all squeezed into it to take a look at Qin Mu who was currently observing water. None of them even dared to take a deep breath.

Village Chief’s voice sounded out, “Do you still remember the spear skill that Blind have taught you? Imagine you have such a spear in your hand and give a stab forward!”

Qin Mu lifted his arms and gave a stab while circling the spear tip. The instant his empty hands tried to do a stab, his vital qi turned into snow white vapour and surged out, forming a spear shape in his hands. At the same time, there was also sounds of trickling water as the water dragon like steam circled from his tremors.

“Success, a success…”

Old Ma cried tears of happiness, “He finally succeeded. Our years of hard work is not in vain… Mu’er, you have grown up…”

He couldn’t resist turning his head to the side and used his only arm to wipe his tears.

Cripple carried his sincere smile on his face and muttered, “Our Qin Mu can finally survive in Great Ruins… Damn it Old Ma, can you stop wiping your tears? You’re going to make me cry as well! Granny Si had gone to Border Dragon City to buy stuffs if not she would be the one who would cry the most among us!”

“What’s there to cry about?”

Apothecary’s eyes turned red and smiled, “We should be smiling! Should we die of old age in the future, Qin Mu can still continue to survive by himself. This is a extremely good thing and we should laugh happily!”

“You’re right, extremely right!”

Deaf laughed heartily, “Apothecary, even though I don’t think much of you, but you got me good by this sentence!”

World shaking laughter resonated out from the tiny blacksmith workshop and into the heavens. Looking at these excited old men, a warm feeling flowed throughout Qin Mu’s entire body.

All these people who were slightly disabled and more or less had some kinds of shortcomings might look fiendish at times but they were all his family, his closest kin!

Suddenly, Granny Si’s voice came from outside as she laughed, “What are you old things squeezing inside for and laughing about?”

Qin Mu was surprised and elated. Granny Si had finally returned from Border Dragon City!

Soon, Cripple disclosed this happy matter out and Granny Si couldn’t help being surprised. With her eyes reddening, she smiled, “Good, good. Mu’er has finally grown up… This is good…”

Thinking about her hardships for the past eleven years, she couldn’t resist tearing up. The little old woman sat down and wiped her tears, “If we die in the future, Mu’er can still live on… Don’t touch me, it’s only some sand that had got in my eyes…”

Village Chief secretly gave a sigh of relief. The dark clouds that were hovering above his head had vanished along with the appearance of attributes in Qin Mu’s Overlord Body vital qi. With Qin Mu now able to unleash the full power of his vital qi, he had affirmed his ‘Overlord Body’ identity and resolved a crisis in the village.

However, even with his remarkable abilities, he couldn’t help feeling puzzled. How did the attributes suddenly appear in Qin Mu’s Overlord Body’s vital qi?

And the weird thing was Qin Mu’s Overlord Body’s vital qi had two attributes, the attributes of fire and water!

It was known that as a Spirit Body, they only could have one attribute and never two.

Qin Mu was obviously an ordinary human and yet he had two kinds of attributes. Furthermore they were the fire and water attributes which couldn’t coexist together, making it strange.

“Does an ordinary human always have two kinds of Spirit Body when they awaken their spirit embryo?”

He couldn’t help feeling at a loss, “What exactly did Mute teach him to let his vital qi have the fire and water attributes? Can other ordinary people do the same too?”

He knew that the villagers had tried all means to help Qin Mu to unleash the full power of his Overlord Body’s vital qi these days. Apothecary used medicinal supplements. Cripple, Butcher and Old Ma trained him vigorously. Blind didn’t hesitate to imparted his god eyes. Deaf wanted Qin Mu to enter the path through painting and calligraphy, to paint out his divine art. Whereas he had no idea what means Mute had tried to use.

He didn’t expect Mute to be the one who had aroused the power of Qin Mu’s Overlord Body Vital Qi.

He only knew Mute had instructed Qin Mu to observe fire and water. How did Qin Mu’s vital qi attained attributes by observing fire and water was still a mystery to him.

Mute was the village blacksmith who had never revealed his talents. The most frivolous person in the village was Blind. Butcher was the most brash while the most helpful one was Old Ma who always put up a cold front. Cripple looked full of enthusiastic spirit but actually was the most insidious. The most down to earth guy was Apothecary and the one who had no desires was Deaf. Hunchback Granny Si was the most mercurial and the Mute was the most inarticulate man.

In regards to Mute, Village Chief hadn’t the slightly clue about him. He only knew Mute had his tongue cut off by someone and was good at forging tools. Normally, the neighbouring villages would request items like cooking knifes, plows and farming hoes from him to get by.

From his guidance to help Qin Mu to unleash his vital qi’s power, Mute’s cultivation and insight probably was the best except him in the village.

“Mu’er, can you now shape qi into thread?” Granny Si asked in anticipation.

Qin Mu tried to shape his vital qi into thread and the next moment his vital qi left his body becoming as thick as an arm that was blazing with flames.

The huge and thick ‘vital qi thread’ swept up the Pig Slaughtering Knife and gave a hack forward. The wooden stake as thick as a water barrel was instantly split into half by the astonishing power!

All of the villagers were speechless as they saw the vital qi thread which was as thick as an arm.

It was true that Qin Mu’s vital qi thread was powerful enough, however refining qi into thread required one to refine vital qi into fine thread. In this way it would be more flexible and unpredictable to control treasure swords using qi, executing moves that one could not normally execute.

Whereas Qin Mu’s vital qi thread couldn’t be considered as a thread and would be more suitable to call it vital qi arm.

With such a thick vital qi ‘thread’, it was also extremely vital qi consuming.

Cripple scratched his head, “I feel that having vital qi arm isn’t that bad, it’s equivalent to having another arm and could also be pretty powerful in fights.”

Everyone didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. Granny Si shook her head, “Vital qi thread is more nimble whereas vital qi arm is way too thick. It’s flexibility and agility are way inferior to vital qi thread. Mu’er, you have to refine vital qi into thread as soon as possible.”

Qin Mu nodded.

Only when he observed fire could the fire attribute emerge from his vital qi, turning it similar to the Vermillion Bird’s vital qi. If he didn’t observe fire, his vital qi was still ordinary vital qi.

To observe fire while refining qi into thread was still slightly difficult for him to accomplish.

Village Chief and the rests also saw something amiss as they frowned. If Qin Mu could only unleash his fire and water attributes when observing fire and water respectively, it would be extremely unfavorable in the midst of a battle!

In the midst of a battle, would the enemies give you chance to observe fire and water?

They had originally felt that Qin Mu’s Overlord Body was extremely powerful for having both the fire and water attributes but they were not as sure of it now.

“Ah ah!”

Mute gave a few hand signs while smiling brightly.

Deaf understood it and smiled, “Mute is right, Mu’er has only learned the basics. Practice makes perfect. If he continues to cultivate, he would definitely be able to master it!”

Having fire and water attributes in his vital qi was equivalent to awakening both Black Tortoise Spirit Body and Vermillion Bird Spirit Body. When Qin Mu observed fire, it would become Vermillion Bird Spirit Body and when he observed water, it would become Black Tortoise Spirit Body.

In the village, Qin Mu controlled his vital qi with the thickness of an arm to execute the Pig Slaughtering Knife Skill. As the Pig Slaughtering Knife flew around, it almost split Qin Mu into two halves from time to time. Every time when danger approached, Blind at the side would use his bamboo cane to deflect the Pig Slaughtering Knife away so as to avoid Qin Mu from really splitting himself to death.

Refining qi into thread and using it to manipulate swords required step by step cultivation. To use vital qi thread to control treasure sword for killing enemies was extremely dangerous and only the hardworking ones could control it smoothly.

Butcher’s Pig Slaughtering Knife belonged to the Battle Techniques Faction. Despite Butcher gaining some merits from the Divine Arts Faction and could manipulate his knife without hands, there was still an extremely great difference between the moves of Battle Techniques Faction and Divine Arts Faction. Using Pig Slaughtering Knife to train manipulating sword by qi was extremely dangerous.

Butcher’s moves were simply too insane and dangerous. When he became wild, it was not empty talk to say that he could even cut himself to extinction.

Whereas Thunderclap Eight Strikes that Old Ma had imparted to him was purely from the Battle Technique Faction and could not be used for any method that required qi to manipulate sword.

The Heavenly Devil Creation Technique that Granny Si had imparted to him was classified as spells. Cripple’s leg skill, Blind’s staff skills, Deaf’s calligraphy and painting, Apothecary’s medicinal concoction and Mute’s blacksmith techniques were obviously unable to be used to train how to manipulate sword by qi.

Therefore to cultivate qi to manipulate sword, Qin Mu could only use the dangerous Pig Slaughter Knife Skill to train.

At the village entrance, Village Chief lazily basked in the sun. Apothecary was standing beside him as he looked back at Qin Mu who was struggling to cultivate qi to manipulate sword when he suddenly said, “Blind had imparted divine eyes to Mu’er while Butcher had also imparted his knife skills to him. There’s also Cripple’s legs skills and Deaf’s calligraphy and painting techniques… Now what about you, Village Chief?”

Village Chief turned his head to look at him.

Apothecary had an aggressive tone, “What we are good at are different, but we’re all not competent in using qi to manipulate sword. You have a greater experience than any of us here and your abilities are also higher than any of us here. Why don’t you want to teach him? In regards to using qi to manipulate sword, I would like to ask in this entire world, whose sword skill could be stronger than you?”

Village Chief’s face turned dim as he looked down at his non existent limbs and said softly, “I want to teach but the responsibility is too great for Mu’er to handle. When I still had my limbs back then, I wasn’t able to take on the responsibility as well, or else there was no need for me to hide in the Great Ruins… do you know how my limbs were broken?”

Apothecary shook his head.

“These are sword wounds.”

Village Chief raised his head and said in a daze, “My limbs were chopped off by a sword. Anyone who inherits my techniques would have to take on my responsibility which I was unable to handle, much less the current him.”