Tales of Herding Gods-Webnovel - Chapter 217

Duke Wei rolled his eyes at this little fatty. This brat didn’t find it a trouble to enjoy the bustling scene. After pushing his own old father into the pit, he even wanted to jump in himself. He was helpless.

“Heavenly King Yu, Heavenly King Shi, may I trouble you to brief Heavenly King Wei about our sacred cult.” Qin Mu looked around, then said, “Ladies and gentlemen, tear down this place and don’t leave any traces behind.”

Wei Yong and Duke Wei immediately rose and saw figures flashing by. In a short moment, the entire village was cleanly dismantled and all the planks and pillars were stacked neatly. Even the iron woks, kerosene, and stands were all put away.

A few hall masters unfurled their huge flags and gently covered the planks and pillars with them. When the huge flags were pulled back, the planks and pillars had all vanished without a trace.

Couple more hall masters covered up the corpses of the Nantuo Monastery’s monks, and when the huge flags were pulled off, the bodies had disappeared as well.

Some other hall masters were shoveling a hectare or so of land and sending it into Mud River, to be washed away by the strong currents.

Many things were cleanly executed in a short while, and soon no one would be able to tell that a bustling night market had once existed here.

Qin Mu said, “Disperse.”

The few hundred hall masters and guardians bowed to him. Some used huge flags and disappeared with a sweep, some covered themselves with their clothing and left, others blended into the darkness or drummed on their flower drum to leave. A few more pushed away their single wheel carts, and soon, this place was no longer the bustling place it was before. It had sunk into pitch black darkness, and only Qin Mu, Wei Yong, Duke, and the two heavenly kings were left.

There were lights farther away, they were the ones that belonged to the real night market outside the city gate.

Qin Mu rose to leave, leaving the four people behind.

Duke Wei has just joined the cult so Heavenly King Yu and Heavenly King Shi had to talk to him about the rules of Heavenly Devil Cult so as to prevent any blunders.

Qin Mu stopped the on way back to the city as he enjoyed the night market and the flower lanterns. There were scholars and beauties who enjoyed themselves in the brightly lit streets and forgot to go home. There were also literary people who were showing off their literary excellence, martial artists who showed off their skills, and maidens laughing from time to time.

“The capital city has indeed a myriad of things and is a place of glory for its illustrious people.”

Qin Mu was deeply moved. Suddenly goose feathers came swirling down from the sky as the snow arrived. The sparkling snowflakes landed on the shoulders of the people who had forgotten to go home, and many of them raised their heads up to the sky. Quite a number of them exclaimed, “Beautiful snow!”

The snow was lighted up by the lamps in the city and became even more sparkly. There were quite a number of maidens standing under the roofs of the shops, stretching their hands out and letting the cool snowflakes land in their palms. The people on the street didn’t decrease because of the snow; instead, more and more people came out.

“It’s snowing and the end of the year is coming. I reckon Imperial College will let the scholars go home for New Years soon, I wonder if granny and the rest are back in the village?”

Billowing white steam was given off by numerous stalls on both sides of the street, spreading a nice fragrance around. Qin Mu sat down in front of one stall and said, “Boss, two bowls of minced meat noodles, add more chili oil.”

“Okay!”

After a moment, two big bowls of minced meat noodles were served with a layer of spicy red chili oil covering the surface. A few pieces of pork floated about, which was seventy percent lean and thirty percent fat meat. There were also some garlic shoots and leaves, bringing out the fragrance of this dish.

Qin Mu took a bite and felt invigorated by the spiciness. He had only eaten once today and was feeling hungry; thus, he radiated with heat as he slurped up the bowls of noodles.

At this moment, someone laughed. “Old Brother Qin, I’ve finally found you. You had promised to build an iron shell ship for him, now you can’t run! Boss, I want four bowls of minced meat noodles, make them spicier, he will pay!” When the person was done ordering, he sat down opposite of Qin Mu.

Qin Mu looked at that person and smiled. “Brother Fan Yunxiao, why have you come to the capital?”

The person was indeed Fire Bandit Fan Yunxiao. He had a knife scar across his left eye, but Qin Mu suspect it was pasted on.

“Don’t bring it up, what wretched luck I’ve had.” Fan Yunxiao sighed. “It’s sad just talking about it. My ship crumbled to pieces and disassembled in midair, so everyone inside almost fell to their deaths. I had to exhaust all of my strength to catch them in midair; however, I couldn’t send them to the capital city so I had to compensate them quite a sum of money.

“This morning, I went to find you, but you ended up not in Imperial College. I decided to take a walk around the capital and coincidentally saw you here. You must help me build an iron shell ship! Now that the world is peaceful again, I’m going back to my business!”

Qin Mu had a weird expression. With the world at peace, the business this bandit mentioned was his old business. He was planning to forgo turning good and return to being a bandit once again.

“Have you prepared enough black iron, black copper, and money?” Qin Mu asked. “And also the blueprints of the flying ship. Without a blueprint, it isn’t easy to build one.”

“It’s is all prepared. I bribed the official registrar of the shipyard and got a set of blueprints for the flying ship.”

The minced meat noodles were served and Fan Yunxiao took a big mouthful before exclaiming, “How spicy, how fragrant! I have also bought the black iron and black copper. They’re in a shipyard beside Mud River, outside the city. I’m now bankrupt and can only rely on this iron shell ship to earn more money.”

Qin Mu smiled. “Alright, I’ll help you finish building the ship before Imperial College goes on a holiday. You can come to find me tomorrow.” When he was done, he took out a great abundance coin and handed it to the noodle stall owner.

That man used a towel to wipe his hand before smiling over at Qing Mu. “Guest, I don’t have the change for this, do you have any change? Six bowls of noodles only need thirty wen.”

“There’s no need for change,” Qin Mu said and left.

Fan Yunxiao looked at his back figure and exclaimed, “How rich!”

Qin Mu was still confused about the value of a great abundance coin, so he didn’t know how much it was worth. When he comes out for a meal, even the most expensive restaurant only cost over a dozen great abundance coins for a whole spread of delicacies using the best ingredients. As for an ordinary roadside stall like this, the owner would be deeply grateful for a great abundance coin.

The next day, Fan Yunxiao came to Imperial College. Qin Mu brought Hu Ling’er, the dragon qilin, and Dutian Devil King to the shipyard. There were quite a number of martial arts practitioners using true fire to smelt the black iron and true water to cool it down in this place, forging the pill furnace used for the flying ship. There were also those proficient in algebra that were measuring the sizes of the components and using vital qi to assemble them. There was also strong men forging and strong giants casting metal as well as carpenters using sword qi to shave wood. The shipyard was very lively.

Fan Yunxiao led them to a factory, and Qin Mu looked around. There were all kinds of wares over here. There was a great furnace used for smelting, irons, and diamonds for forging, scaffoldings, wingwall, wood sliding rails, and also quite a number of black iron and black copper piled up at one corner.

This factory was very huge and was big enough to store six to seven ships properly.

There was an official registrar waiting there, and he grumbled when he saw Fan Yunxiao, “Why are you here only now? I will only let you use this empty room for ten days. Once they’re over, I’m closing the factory down.”

Fan Yunxiao smiled and said, “Ten days are enough!” When he finished saying this, he stuffed a coin pouch into the other’s hand.

The official registrar weighed the coin pouch and said, “I’ll close one eye for the next ten days. Finish your ship quickly or else it’ll be difficult for me when the supervisor comes.”

He then left the factory. Fan Yunxiao looked at Qin Mu and asked, “Old Brother Qin, can you finish in ten days?”

Qin Mu took a look at the blueprint and marked several changes before saying, “There’d be some difficulty if I was to do it alone. I’ll need some helpers. My helpers and I will be building your iron shell ship here for the next few days and you are not to enter the factory during that time. If you enter, you’ll have to pay the price.”

Fan Yunxiao didn’t understand what he meant but nodded nonetheless. “Don’t worry, I’m not that curious of a person.”

Qin Mu nodded and chased him out of the factory. He then said to Hu Ling’er, “Help me call a few people over and let them enter this place using the teleportation flag.”

Hu Ling’er acknowledged and left immediately.

After a while, Hu Ling’er returned and said, “Young master, Nature Craft Hall Master and Carpentry Hall Master said they would hurry over as soon as possible.”

Just as she was saying that, two huge flags appeared out of thin air. Under each of them were a hundred followers of Heavenly Devil Cult. Nature Craft Hall Master and Carpentry Hall Master had led everyone and come right over.

Qin Mu handed the blueprint to the two hall masters and asked, “Can you do this in ten days?”

The two hall masters looked at the blueprint several times, and Carpentry Hall Master asked, “Cult master wants to build an iron shell ship? The firepower of the pill furnace must be fierce enough!”

Qin Mu smiled. “I have some attainments in forging and can make a pill furnace with a high firepower. However, the shipyard only allows us to stay here for ten days, so it’ll be slightly rushed. We have to finish it in ten days. Are you guys confident in doing it?”

The hall masters of nature craft and carpentry looked each other in the eyes and asked, “How many ships does cult master want to make? With our two halls working together, we can build five flying ships in ten days. We can’t do any more than that.”

Qin Mu was startled and muttered to himself irresolutely, “There’s not enough black iron and black copper to build five flying ships…”

“We have enough materials in our Carpentry Hall and Nature Craft Hall.”

Qin Mu’s eyes lighted up, and he smiled. “Then we’ll build five!”

The two hall masters immediately left to take care of the materials.

Five days later, Fan Yunxiao came by a few times, but he never dared to enter the factory. It sounded like a few hundred people forging at the same time, and he wanted to go check in on the situation, but when he thought of Qin Mu’s words, he didn’t dare to do so.

Snow had been falling heavily for the last two-three days, so lots of it had accumulated on the ground. The Sky Supervising Department led a group of divine arts practitioners above to melt the snow clouds to disperse the heavy snow; however, the snow outside the capital city was still very heavy.

Fan Yunxiao’s curiosity grew heavier, and his ears twitched ears as he scratched his cheek in anxiousness. Another two days passed, and Fan Yunxiao could resist no longer, thinking to himself, “There should be no harm in sneaking a look, right?”

He pushed open the gate to the factory and put his head in to have a look. Suddenly, an eight-armed and four-faced devil god appeared in front of his eyes and grabbed his neck. “Brat, how dare you peek!”

Fan Yunxiao immediately cried out, “Old Brother Qin, it’s me, it’s me!”

In the factory, over two hundred Heavenly Devil Cult’s followers looked towards the source of the sound, their gazes landing on the troublemaker. They then turned their heads towards Qin Mu. “Cult master, this man…”

Fan Yunxiao jumped in shock when he saw everyone. When he saw the clothing of these people, his expression changed, and he cried out, “Heavenly Devil Cult… I saw nothing! I’m a blind man, where is this place, why am I here…”

Qin Mu was creating the pill furnaces when he heard the commotion. He then instructed the two hall masters, “Continue building, I’ll handle this.”

Fan Yunxiao didn’t dare to retaliate after being grabbed by the eight-armed and four-faced devil-god who had a dragon qilin by its side. With a smile, he said, “Old Brother Qin, I had wandered in here without paying any attention, I didn’t see anything…”

“Brother Fan, I told you not to come in and take a look. Now you have placed me in a very difficult situation.” Qin Mu raised up two fingers and said with a smile, “Two choices. You are not new to the martial world, you should know what those two choices are.”

“I’m in!” Fan Yunxiao immediately said. “From today onwards, I’m part of the sacred cult!”

Qin Mu laughed out loud and made Dutian Devil King place him down. “From today onwards, we’re brothers!”

In Crown Prince Side Palace, a middle-aged man who looked like a scholar hurried over to Eternal Peace Crown Prince’s side. “Your Highness, the grand preceptor has really died. There is not one monk that can be found in Nantuo Monastery, so I reckon they had met with a treacherous assault. Yesterday, Abundance Prefecture had also sent news that Nantuo Monastery was eliminated. The emperor was angered and sent people to investigate, but no trace of the perpetrators was found. The people only said that it was the doing of Rolan’s Golden Palace, so the emperor has an inclination to send troops beyond the Great Wall after New Years…”

Eternal Peace Crown Prince had a grim look as he rose. “Can’t find any trace of them? I’m afraid it’s because father doesn’t want to investigate, right? This was clearly the doing of Heavenly Devil Cult! Only Heavenly Devil Cult, the head of the devil, could execute such a secretive operation! They lost two of their heavenly kings, so they naturally wanted revenge! You shall head to Great Thunderclap Monastery and ask for an audience with Old Rulai, I want to know who exactly is the new cult master of Heavenly Devil Cult!”

With his hands behind his back, he added coldly, “Nantuo Monastery is also part of Buddhism path, so Old Rulai won’t sit back and do nothing. Even though Grand Preceptor is dead, we can’t lose our connections with Great Thunderclap Monastery. Old Rulai isn’t satisfied with Imperial Preceptor, so he will definitely be glad to help. I will have to kill a person to warn all others, to make sure the sects in the martial world see clearly that I’m not a useless person. Those who dare to touch my men shall wait to be eliminated!”