Tales of Herding Gods

Chapter 213: Seeking Revenge

Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem

“Sword Hall, inform the twelve cult protector elders and the eight supervisors of our sacred cult to wait beside Mud River outside the capital city.”

Qin Mu closed up the dossier and handed what he learned from Spirit Treasure Unmovable Meditation Technique to Sword Hall Master. “I had researched Spirit Treasure Unmovable Meditation Technique to find its weakness and recorded it down here, let them have a look. All of the hall masters shall stay put for now and wait for my arrangements.”

Sword Hall received his command and rose to leave.

Qin Mu called Hu Ling’er and the dragon qilin over and instructed them to stay in Imperial College for the next few days. He then went to the end of the alley in Scholar’s Residence and found Wei Yong. “Brother Wei, is Duke Wei back?”

Wei Yong said, “He just returned a few days ago from quelling the rebellion.”

“Can I trouble Brother Wei to go home and tell Duke Wei that there’s going to be something fun to see at Nantuo Monastery.”

Wei Yong was puzzled, but he still smiled. “Even though my old father likes to join in on the fun, he doesn’t join just any fun. If the situation isn’t large enough, he will definitely not go. After all, his chatter reaches the ears of everyone in the capital! What exactly is it?”

Qin Mu said, “Just tell him, you will know once you get there.”

Bewildered, Wei Yong went down the mountain with him. They parted ways later, and Qin Mu came to Rain Listening Pavilion in Flower Alley.

Fu Qingyun welcomed him in a hurry and said, “Cult master…”

Qin Mu raised his hand and signaled for her not to say anymore. Suddenly, cracking sounds exploded from his body as his bones shifted their locations. He became taller and taller, turning into a tall yet lean man. He looked like a barbarian from beyond the Great Wall.

Fu Qingyun jumped in shock. “Creation technique? I wonder which writing is it from among the seven writings?”

A faint golden glow radiated off Qin Mu’s body. He changed into a robe that was rougher made and took out the Thousand Banners Pagoda from his taotie sack. He lifted the Thousand Banners Pagoda, which was about three yards tall, and it spun continuously, giving off clanking sounds. A Buddha voice could be faintly heard coming out from inside it.

“Hall Master Fu, stay here and don’t make a move. Wait for my instructions.”

Qin Mu dragged out the Thousand Banners Pagoda after himself as he left Rain Listening Pavilion. He walked out of Flower Alley and headed towards Nantuo Side Palace.

This place was the Crown Prince’s Grand Preceptor’s manor. Nantuo Monastery was one of the sects which were only inferior to Great Thunderclap Monastery in the buddhism path. After Sun Nantuo acknowledged allegiance to the imperial court, Nantuo Monastery had become one of the big sects under the imperial court.

Sun Nantuo had deep attainment in buddhist skills and was an upright person. He hated evil with a passion and was known as an arhat. Once he became the grand preceptor of the crown prince and had Nantuo Monastery submit to the imperial court, the other monasteries on the path of buddhism also had to submit. Due to this, his contributions couldn’t be denied.

After Sun Nantuo had changed the name of Crown Prince’s Grand Preceptor’s manor to Nantuo Side Palace, this place became the main preaching grounds of Nantuo Monastery. There were many young monks from Nantuo Monastery that came here listen to lectures. There were also some women from the kings, dukes, and ministers’ families that had the hearts that worshiped buddhism. They would come to listen to lectures from time to time.

However, these women were usually painstakingly lonely and some of them came with impure intentions, hooking up with the young monks in the name of worshiping the buddha to relieve their loneliness. There were even aging women who would raise a few young monks, which resulted in those monks entering and leaving their chambers. This was something that was a common occurrence in the capital.

Some old monks even kept a few young women working hard round the clock to make music, causing quite a controversy.

Even though Sun Nantuo knew his subordinates were a little dirty, he was too busy with official work and duties and had no time to discipline them. In addition to that, the social customs in the capital were much more open and the women here were more daring. Even the Empress Dowager in the palace had a lover, so Sun Nantuo had no interest to get involved with his folk.

The emperor had bestowed marriage to Sun Nantuo repeatedly, which he had rejected three times in a row. However, he accepted it on the fourth, so he was considered half a monk and half a secular person; therefore, it wasn’t good for him to condemn his disciples’ common practice.

Nantuo Side Palace always had repulsive stuff happening, and Sun Nantuo always turned a blind eye to it.

However, he still hated evil with a passion and didn’t bother to hide his displeasure towards the officials coming from the devil path, scolding them in the imperial court.

On this day, a commotion rose up outside of Nantuo Monastery. The monks there ran out one after another, and there were also quite a number of disciples that had ran out as well while shouting, “There’s someone outside selling an important treasure of Buddhism! Thousand Banners Pagoda, a complementary treasure to our Nantuo Monastery’s Spirit Treasure Unmovable Meditation Technique. It’s our legacy treasure that was lost a few hundred years ago!”

Everyone came out of the side palace and indeed saw the lost legacy treasure of Nantuo Monastery, Thousand Banners Pagoda. Many monks crowded the area, blocking off the whole street. There were also some women squeezed among them.

A pagoda towered among the crowd, and it was formed by a thousand banners. Each and every one of them was sculpted out from jade and split into seven levels. Each level had circular cylinders that were carved with scriptures. These cylinders could revolve, and when they turned, the scriptures on them would glow and give off buddha voice.

Inside each scripture banner, there were treasures like colored glaze, jade necklace, sarira, lamps, topaz, and agate.

Thousand of banners piled up together to form a tower. This was the legacy treasure of Nantuo Monastery, Pagoda of Thousand Banners, which was also known as Thousand Banners Pagoda!

This treasure had been long lost in some scuffle, and never did the monks had expected it to resurface once again. Each and every one of them in Nantuo Monastery was red with envy and didn’t want anything more than to snatch the pagoda back.

However, this was the capital city, so they couldn’t make their move recklessly.

The one selling this Thousand Banner Pagoda was a young man that had an appearance of someone from a different race. He was standing under the pagoda, activating it.

The Thousand Banners Pagoda was originally not tall, each banner only three inches in height. However, when it was activated by this young man, each banner became three yards long, causing the Thousand Banners Pagoda to reach an astonishing height of two hundred yards. As the thousand cylinders rotated, scriptures continuously glowed while a powerful buddha voice spoke, creating a magnificent sight.

The barbarian’s voice was resounding. “My humble self has an important treasure handed down in my family and will give it to a fated person. I’m from the prairie beyond the Great Wall, a shaman of Rolan’s Golden Palace. This treasure was handed down to me by my ancestor who had rescued an old monk and received it as a gift from him. Coming to Eternal Peace Empire this time, I would like to meet the heroes of this empire and find a fated person for this treasure.”

“Senior Brother Yuan Jing, is this not the legacy treasure of our Nantuo Monastery?” one monk whispered to another one beside him, who had delicate features.

Even though Senior Brother Yuan Jing wasn’t that old, he was still the direct disciple of Sun Nantuo and had a high position. Cultivating with Sun Nantuo for so many years, he was extremely familiar with the history of Nantuo Monastery and nodded. “This is indeed the legacy treasure of our Nantuo Monastery, Thousand Banners Pagoda! The scriptures carved on it are the Arhat Nantuo Scriptures with the blessing of the leaders of the past generations. It can’t be faked.”

Monk Yuan Jing’s gaze wavered, and he suddenly shouted out loudly, “You barbarian, this is the treasure of our Nantuo Monastery, quickly return it to us!”

Qin Mu took a look at him and said, “Monk, this treasure was given to my family by a senior monk and since it was given to my family, it is mine. My treasure will only be given to a fated person.”

Suddenly, another young monk laughed. “How can one be considered to be fated?”

Monk Yuan Jing looked towards him and was astonished. This monk also had delicate features and was the other disciple of Sun Nantuo, Monk Yuan Feng. The two of them had already had a dispute with each other by fighting over a woman and a few more times for other reasons in the dark. On the outside, they might look polite and amiable, but they had fallen out with each other long ago.

It was obvious that Monk Yuan Feng had planned to get this Thousand Banners Pagoda from the hands of this barbarian and do a great deed in front of Sun Nantuo, receiving Sun Nantuo’s attention and becoming the teacher’s pet, squeezing him aside.

Qin Mu placed down the Thousand Banners Pagoda and said solemnly, “My humble self is from beyond the Great Wall, and when I saw the magnificent state of the empire, admiration bloomed in my heart and I was certain that this place derives its glory from its illustrious heroes. This Thousand Banners Pagoda is not an ordinary object and my humble self is willing to use it to meet the heroes of this empire. If anyone that is on the same realm as me can defeat me, I’ll be willing to hand him this treasure.”

Wei Yong and Duke Wei had walked out of Duke’s Manor and come to Nantuo Side Palace. Duke Wei took a look and shook his head with a smile. “What fun is there to see? Isn’t it just a brat from Rolan’s Golden Palace seeking trouble with Nantuo Monastery.”

His voice was so loud that when he spoke, everyone in the next few streets could hear him clearly.

The few streets were where all the kings, dukes, and ministers lived. When they heard Duke Wei’s words, they all left all their manors and looked over, creating quite a commotion in a matter of seconds.

The monks of Nantuo Monastery saw more and more people appearing, so it wasn’t good for them to just snatch the treasure. A yellow-clothed monk smiled. “As long as we defeat you, we can take away the Thousand Banners Pagoda?”

Even though Duke Wei wasn’t really excited, he still shouted out in a loud voice, “Baldy, he said on the same realm, you can’t break the rules! Where’s Sun Nantuo? His treasure has appeared, so which woman is he getting on now?”

Wei Yong was bewildered and looked around, thinking to himself, “How did Brother Qin know there would be interesting things to see here? Where is he?”

Qin Mu said, “As long as you win against my humble self, you can take away Thousand Banners Pagoda. Even though the world beyond the Great Wall isn’t as flourishing as your empire, our words hold enormous weight.”

The yellow monk was about to go forward when Monk Yuan Jing took a step before him and said with a smile, “I’ll take the pagoda! Senior brother, this Little monk is Yuan Jing, Five Elements Realm, may I know who you are?”

Qin Mu said solemnly, “Rolan’s Golden Palace, Pangong Tso, Five Elements Realm!”

Monk Yuan Jing’s vigor burst forth as he executed Spirit Treasure Unmovable Meditation Technique. Rays shone brightly from his body, and a huge apparition of a buddha appeared faintly behind him. The huge buddha had a thousand arms holding a thousand treasures. There were colored glaze cups, jade lanterns, a bow, an arrow, a metal truncheon, a pestle, and all kinds of other treasures.

The huge buddha suddenly merged with Monk Yuan Jing and disappeared. Rays of treasure light shone off Monk Yuan Jing’s body, and his hand formed a treasure mudra. With a step forward, the mudra on his hand turned into colored glaze mudra. His hand shone with the gloss of a colored glaze, and he smacked towards Qin Mu.

This was the strong point of Spirit Treasure Unmovable Meditation Technique. This buddhist skill was known as thousand treasures, since those who cultivated this technique to the Celestial Being Realm could form a thousand treasures buddha that had astonishing might.

Those that had not yet cultivated to Celestial Being Realm could transform the thousand treasures into a thousand mudras, and each mudra was different from the rest, having different power and use.

Even though Monk Yuan Jing was only in the Five Elements Realm, he had a dense cultivation and had learned over a hundred types of mudras from the thousand mudras of Spirit Treasure Unmovable Meditation Technique. In addition to that, this technique allowed one to cultivate the Arhat’s Body. With a body like diamond, the person’s defense was so astonishing that no weapons would be able to penetrate it.

With this mudra, rays of light burst forth from Monk Yuan Jing. In a radius of ten yards around his palm, an area of colored glaze was formed. From the rays, buddha voice could be heard, which was extraordinary.

Qin Mu did not move from his spot. He suddenly raised his hand before lowering it, and with a loud boom, the colored glaze boundary, the spirit treasure buddha, and the colored glaze mudra were all scattered by his palm. A huge pit appeared in the ground, and Monk Yuan Jing had turned into a pile of mush inside it.

All the monks jumped in shock while Duke Wei twirled his mustache in suspicion. “Even though this barbarian’s move is very brutish, his cultivation is irregularly strong… What is his name?”

Wei Yong immediately said, “I think it was Pangong Tso.”

Duke Wei muttered to himself, “This doesn’t look right, this technique doesn’t look like part of Grand Shaman Ruda Scriptures…”