Tales of Herding Gods
chapter-36

"Mu’er, the temple fair is a good place to see the world."

Old Ma finished a pair of crutches and placed them in front of the furniture and spoke to Qin Mu, "There are many villages in Great Ruins and some of the villagers are experts that could no longer mingle around in the outside world. They stayed here after being forced into Great Ruins and have also taken in disciples of their own. Only during the temple fair would these people and their disciples gather here. Only at the temple fair would you be able to see all the various techniques and skills in the world!"

Qin Mu didn’t really understand and gave it some thought, "I lack the experience of actual combat, therefore, it was hard for me to turn my cultivation into my actual prowess. Is that why Grandpa Ma wants me to grab this chance to spar with practitioners from various sects?"

Old Ma revealed an expression of affirmation, "That’s the reason."

"But what about selling crutches?"

Qin Mu asked in puzzlement, "Why did Grandpa Blind set up a betting stall? Furthermore, the strange beast Grandpa Butcher is selling is clearly not a flood dragon, but why is he shouting that he is selling flood dragon’s precious blood? Why had Grandpa Apothecary prepared his medicine in advance?"

Old gave a few coughs, "This is adult’s business. You’re a kid so don’t ask so many questions. What are you waiting for?"

Qin Mu could only go up the arena and paste the words Blind had written onto the arena’s pillars.

Not long later, more and more villagers gathered under the arena. A boiling cauldron of voices made Qin Mu feel that Blind’s words were inappropriate as well but he was still stumped at the numbers of villagers those words had attracted.

"The unrivaled one that splits the river, sweeping away all eight hundred villages in Great Ruins! What a bold statement! You only look eleven or twelves year old and even if you had started cultivation in your mother’s womb, your cultivation would also only be not more than so-so!"

A righteous voice rang out, "Are you trying to challenge the villages in our Great Ruins by putting up these words? Who gave you the guts to?"

Qin Mu’s face turned red from embarrassment but he reacted and gave Blind an angry look. The voice was very familiar because wasn’t it Blind who had shouted?

Blind’s righteous voice had a hint of bewitchment as he continued, "Is there no real man in our Great Ruins? Are we letting this kid be arrogant up there? How could any of you hold yourself back listening to an eleven to twelve years old brat? Where’s the unyielding spirit of the man of Great Ruins?"

Once this was said, it caused a great commotion as over a dozen young men immediately jumped onto the arena, turning Qin Mu’s face green.

"However, our good men of Great Ruins shouldn’t look down on him."

Blind’s voice was like a huge bell ringing in everyone’s eardrums, "Since he has set up his arena, we’ve to follow the rules. He has come here for a challenge and not a gang-fight. We have to take our turns. Since this youth is of the Spirit Embryo Realm, those that accept the challenge will have to be of the Spirit Embryo Realm as well so as not to lose faces of all the villages."

As his voice fell silent, the dozen over young men walked down the arena, leaving only a young man on top.

Qin Mu let out a sigh of relief and said, "How may I address senior brother…"

"If you want a fight so be it! Who’s getting chummy with you?"

The young man suddenly fell on all fours and the vital qi in his body burst forth. Tiger stripes appeared on the back of his body, making him just like a fierce tiger!

Sharp claws made from vital qi appeared on his palms and feet. With a sudden jump, he pounced towards Qin Mu as fast as a fleeting shadow!

With this pounce, Qin Mu suddenly felt as if he was being targeted by an extremely savage strange beast. With the fierce wind in his face, it was like the roar of a tiger. This imposing aura was what he was lacking and could only be comprehended during a life and death experience!

"The martial arts practitioners in other villages all had their unique points!"

Dragon markings appeared on Qin Mu’s back and coiled around his limbs.His footsteps moved like the flowing river surging into the sea, with the waves sounding like thunder. He used water attributes from the Black Tortoise Vital Qi to execute the first form of Thunderclap Eight Strikes. Even though he still couldn’t achieve thunder in palms, he still managed to unleash the grandeur of a river surging down into the sea without restraint!

As both of them clashed, Qin Mu used this punch to take on his opponent. The might of the water attributes in Black Tortoise Vital Qi burst forth and actually formed the shape of a dragon head on his fist, surging forward violently!

The young man immediately felt astonished. His opponent's strength was extremely powerful. His vital qi got destroyed and he flew back from Qin Mu’s attack.

Just at the instant where he flew backward, both his feet actually kicked towards Qin Mu’s chest. His feet were extremely sharp like tiger’s claws and tore apart Qin Mu’s shirt, nearly slicing apart his belly!

In a hurry, Qin Mu placed one foot on the ground as he fell backward while his other leg kicked as fast as lightning. The other person tumbled in the air from the kick and landed several yards away from the arena.

The person flipped himself up and wanted to stand properly but a crisp cracking sound suddenly came from his leg as his leg has been broken from Qin Mu’s kick.

Apothecary’s voice lingered, "Top quality medicine which can mend broken bones in a day so as not to hold up your hunting."

Old Ma shouted as well, "A pair of crutches made from Dragon’s Eye Wood, extremely sturdy."

Blind continued with a clear voice, "If your luck is bad, you can come to me to change your fate."

"A pair of fortune rhyming couplets to bring fortune to your household," Deaf said in a loud voice.

Qin Mu’s face turned black and he stabilized himself. It had been an extremely dangerous situation earlier and all they could think about was whether or not they could sell their goods!

"However Grandpa Ma and the rest were right, I lack life and death experiences. The guy just now didn’t have a cultivation higher than mine yet he could almost slice apart my belly in that instant where he got hit backward, almost turning defeat into victory!"

Qin Mu took a deep breath as his eyes sparkled, "I have too little experience in this area and the temple fair is a rare chance for me to fight with practitioners from the villagers around here. This is my chance to absorb their battle experiences! I must defend this arena all the way to the end!"

More and more people crowded below the arena, creating quite a commotion. When fighting with the young man earlier, everyone could see Qin Mu had a dense cultivation but lacked in experience.

To be able to survive in Great Ruins, every village basically would have martial arts practitioners and even divine arts practitioners. This was because the Great Ruins was simply too dangerous. All the villagers revered martial skills, having to be brave and be good at fighting.

Very soon, there was another person that had jumped into the arena. It was a girl with a unique kind of Black Tortoise Vital Qi but her attacks were ruthless. The moment they clashed, her vital qi was like a huge snake coiling around both of Qin Mu’s legs, binding him tightly.

After binding his legs, the girl was like a female snake slithering on his body as she went for the killing blow.

Her vital qi was very queer as she transformed it into a huge snake to coil around Qin Mu. This kind of vital qi was different from the pure Black Tortoise Vital Qi but was classified as part of it.

Tortoise and snakes were classified as Black Tortoise, however, her spirit embryo should be a snake and not a tortoise, belonging to a branch of Black Tortoise, therefore the motion of her body was also strange.

Qin Mu used Thousand-Armed Buddha to defend against her strange attack and despite her body motion being weird, Qin Mu seemed to have grown a thousand arms as there were hands all around him. In just a short while, she received hundreds of punches and fainted.

Old Ma successfully sold a stretcher.

This was the first time Qin Mu had met such a strange body technique and had suffered little injuries, however, it was good that it wasn’t serious.

On the arena, the battles continued and there were also many people coming forward to Blind’s fortune telling table to bet on who would win. There was no fixed currency in Great Ruins so tradings were all done using goods. If one thought that the value was almost equal, they would do the trade. It was the same with betting. Any pieces of jewelry, ores, jades, livestock were just used for betting.

A pile of goods had already piled up behind Blind. There were all kinds of items like a multicolor feathered old hen that was as tall as a human. Inside its beak was filled with razor sharp teeth and it looked very menacing as it flapped its wings and scattered the sand away like a rain of arrows.

This was a hen dragon and not an ordinary old hen. It’s the offspring of a dragon and a hen. Even though the dragon blood in its body wasn’t much, the eggs it laid were considered treasures.

"Next match, this poor monk would bet on my disciple’s win."

Suddenly, one of the many names of Buddha sounded out as an old monk squeezed to the front of the fortune-telling stall and placed his monk staff on the table, pushing the feet of the tables deep into the ground. The old monk sat in front of Blind and put his hands together, "This is the stake! Who dares to come wager with poor monk?"

Blind asked sternly, "Great Thunderclap Monastery?"

The old monk replied, "Great Thunderclap Monastery."

Blind looked back at Old Ma and said, "Old Ma, you handle this."

Old Ma put down the crutch in his hand and sat in front of the old monk. The old monk raised his head and looked expressionlessly at Old Ma, "Junior brother."

Old Ma replied with a blank face, "Senior brother."

"You had imparted out our Great Thunderclap Monastery’s divine arts to others, breaking the rules of our Great Thunderclap Monastery."

The old monk’s white eyebrow was drooping as he said softly, "Back then you severed your own arm and sent it to the monastery saying that you had returned our Great Thunderclap Monastery’s divine arts back to us. Your arm is still within the Thousand Buddha Pagoda. Now, you had imparted away our Great Thunderclap Monastery’s divine arts to that youth, going back on your words."