Tales of Herding Gods Chapter 1839
Previously on Tales of Herding Gods...
Chapter 1839: The second story of Milo, ‘Are You a wizard?’?
Translator: 549690339
The yellow sheep carrying Xuanji acted as the vanguard. With the leader charging ahead, the rest of the flock surged forward like a crashing tide, scattering the alpacas in their path.
The Wizards were incensed. Under the shroud of the night sky, dark silhouettes rose from the flock like a swarm of bats taking flight.
To the common folk dwelling at the roots of the World Tree, Wizards were a terrifying and enigmatic class of beings.
They were regarded as the offspring of the deities residing at the World Tree’s summit, the direct descendants of gods. They had inherited a portion of divine power, which they referred to as divine abilities.
These beings acted as intermediaries, communicating the will of the gods, managing their mundane affairs, and attending to their daily needs and sustenance.
Simultaneously, they were the vessels through which the gods' wrath was delivered!
Storm clouds gathered in the sky behind Xuanji. The enraged Wizards had summoned the power of the gods to congregate dark mists and lightning.
Bolts of lightning poured down like a torrential rain, a physical manifestation of the Wizards' fury.
Xuanji maneuvered the yellow sheep to evade the electrical strikes. Once the storm subsided, only a handful of yellow sheep remained to continue the trek; the rest had been incinerated by the lightning.
The howling of the wind intensified. Glancing back, Xuanji observed the Wizards gliding upon the gales—a feat far beyond the reach of ordinary mortals!
As the Wizards pursued, the upper-world garrison guarding the palace arrived, alerted by the commotion. Golden-armored cavalrymen charged directly toward Xuanji and Susu, their plate mail shimmering brilliantly under the sun's rays.
This army served as the palace guard, tasked with suppressing any rebellion from the slaves who constructed the monument. Only those of divine extraction or the people of God were permitted to serve in this guard.
While they lacked the specific divine abilities of the Wizards, they were graced with innate, Herculean strength!
From the distance, a volley of golden arrows was loosed toward Xuanji and Susu. The projectiles formed a metallic cloud that blotted out the sun!
With a sharp cry from Xuanji, the yellow sheep pivoted and bolted toward the World Tree.
Suddenly, vibrant green vines erupted from the earth ahead, growing with unnatural speed to barricade their path to the tree.
This was the manifestation of a Wizard’s divine ability.
The flora spiraled around the yellow sheep, rapidly transforming the landscape into a dense, primordial thicket.
The vines moved with sentient intent, lashing out like agile tentacles to ensnare them.
Susu screamed in terror, but a look of astonishment crossed Xuanji’s features. He reached out, his fingers barely brushing against the encroaching vines.
The moment he touched the plants, he felt the presence of something known as the “Dao.”
He perceived the “Dao” embedded within the Wizard’s divine ability. It felt remarkably unrefined, almost rudimentary. He was perplexed that such a simplistic “Dao” could generate such immense force.
“Is this what they call a divine ability? Is this the power of a God?”
He felt a sense of disorientation. Could the power of the gods truly be this crude and basic?
It felt like the most superficial interpretation of the “Dao” imaginable.
He understood it perfectly.
In fact, his understanding went much deeper.
While he was lost in thought, the vines had already coiled tightly around him and Susu, hoisting them into the air.
The yellow sheep was also captured, its legs bound as it hung upside down.
Xuanji remained in a state of confusion. He had always been a somewhat bewildered youth, yet his physical instincts had always outpaced his conscious thoughts.
Before his mind could catch up, his body had already unleashed the very “divine ability” he had just grasped!
Strictly speaking, what he performed could hardly be classified as a divine ability.
He simply applied the “Dao” he had gained from his study of the nature of things, using the vines as his medium.
The pursuit stopped as the Wizards and the Myron Palace guards reached the massive thicket. Thorns blanketed a hundred acres, a testament to the Wizard’s domain over nature.
“The woman who would steal from a god...”
The general of the Myron Palace guard shook his head, caught between mockery and disbelief. Suddenly, the entire forest of vines began to heave violently.
* Whoosh *
The vegetation underwent a secondary, explosive growth. The vines thickened until they resembled massive pythons, dancing in the sky like thousands of writhing tentacles!
They expanded outward in every direction, rapidly encircling the Wizards and the army until the vines covered a thousand acres!
The palace soldiers stared upward in a daze at the magnificent sight. Countless vines swayed in the heavens like Azure Dragons.
“Wizards!” the general barked, looking for an explanation.
The Wizards shook their heads in shock. “This was not our doing...”
The foliage parted, allowing the yellow sheep to trot through. Atop its back, Susu remained bewildered, though she had grown calmer. They stopped before the Wizards.
“I intend to marry this woman,” Xuanji informed the Wizards.
“Are you a Wizard?”
The lead Elder Wizard’s face contorted. “How can there be a Wizard in the Lower World?”
He looked outraged, as if the very idea was a personal affront. “Which God is responsible for this?”
The surrounding Wizards shared his sense of humiliation and anger.
Xuanji, oblivious to their indignation, repeated himself: “I am taking this woman. Inform Milo that his woman now belongs to me.”
“This is heresy!”
The Wizards roared in fury. “The union of a child of the upper gods and a servant of the lower world is an abomination! How dare you attempt to steal the woman of Milo!”
Milo was the primordial God, the progenitor and sovereign of all deities. To steal from him was unthinkable!
The upper world would not permit a Magus of such low birth to exist, let alone allow him to seize a goddess belonging to the supreme Milo!
The Wizards and the generals launched an attack simultaneously. However, in an instant, every Wizard, general, and the tens of thousands of soldiers were bound fast by the vines, rendered completely immobile.
The Wizards attempted to invoke divine power, but strangely, that power seemed to obey the will of this “lowly” wizard instead.
The soldiers tried to use their raw physical strength to tear the vines, but it was futile. Even as descendants of gods, they could not overcome the mysterious power of this youth.
Xuanji rode the yellow sheep past the restrained army. Thunder echoed and lightning struck from the heavens, yet the bolts carefully avoided hitting any of the trapped men.
“Do not follow us,” Xuanji warned.
The sheep carried the pair away. After a significant delay, the vines lost their strength, going limp like dying snakes. The Wizards and soldiers tumbled to the ground.
“This cannot be ignored!”
The Elder Wizard turned to depart. “The commoners of the lower realm must never possess Magi! Their existence threatens the stability of the upper world. His power rivals that of a Great Wizard! He must be eliminated. Come, we must go to the upper world to consult the Great Wizard!”
The other Wizards followed in his wake.
“Teacher...”
Xuanji was visited by that recurring, enigmatic dream. A blurred figure walked through infinite calamity, while the birth of the universe unfolded behind him.
“Teacher,” the figure called out.
As before, he could not see the face and could not find the words to respond.
He struggled against the nightmare as it shifted into a sea of faces pursuing him and Susu. They were monstrous and terrifying, with the visages of black-robed Wizards appearing and fading within the mass.
The forms of the Wizards became warped and inhuman.
Xuanji snapped awake. The crackle of a fire filled the air. They were inside a dark cavern. At the mouth of the cave, the yellow sheep stood watch, its ears twitching occasionally.
As his vision adjusted to the firelight, the memories returned.
They were being hunted by the Great Magi of the upper world. These foes were formidable, far exceeding his current strength. He had narrowly avoided death several times.
Despite dozens of ambushes and chases, they had managed to circle back to the World Tree. His comprehension of the “Dao” had been the key to evading their pursuers and finding this sanctuary.
The yellow sheep looked up as Susu entered the cave carrying wild fruit. Seeing him awake, her face lit up with a pure, radiant smile.
She was now Xuanji’s wife.
As Susu set the fruit down, Xuanji stared at her, suddenly overwhelmed by tears.
Susu rushed to him, panicked. “What is it? Are your injuries hurting again?”
“I can see you growing older,” Xuanji sobbed.
“I see time carving its path onto your body. I see the years fleeting. In a few decades, you will fade away and die in a sickbed.”
His Cultivation had become so profound in such a short time that his vision now rivaled that of a god. He could even perceive fragments of the future.
He had not understood the true nature of time and space until a woman named Ling had arrived; only then did the reality of existence become clear to him.
Susu gave a gentle smile, finding his worry both silly and endearing.
“Everyone ages. The masters of the upper world are no different. Even the Wizards and Great Wizards eventually grow old.”
She continued, “Only the gods are eternal.”
“But I will not grow old.”
Xuanji opened his hand. The path he had grasped manifested in his palm, shaped like a miniature World Tree. It was a single path, yet it branched into countless interpretations of roots and leaves.
Though his Path Tree was still in its infancy, it possessed all the necessary components of a true Path Tree.
By the fire, Susu watched the palm of her husband. The tiny tree danced like a dream, stretching its roots and limbs with ethereal grace.
She could only stare in amazement.
Neither of them truly understood the monumental nature of what Xuanji had achieved in these few days.
Cultivation realms were irrelevant to him. Such stages were the inventions of later generations, and he was carving a path that ignored all established conventions.
“Once I fully comprehend the path, age will no longer touch me.”
Xuanji manipulated his Path Tree, purging the marks of time from his own form. Seeing that he could remain youthful forever, he grew fervent. “I will find a way for you to stay young too! I will devise a new language—a language capable of expressing the words and essence of the path. If you learn it, you can transcend just as I have!”
Susu laughed. “How could it be that simple? I am not a Magus like you.”
“I am not a Magus either!”
They could not linger. The Great Magi were approaching, and their power was on a different level than the ones they had previously fought.
They gathered their things and departed immediately.
The yellow sheep carried them out of the valley and up a mountain path. From the heights, Xuanji and Susu looked out over the lowest realm of the World Tree.
From this vantage point, they could see the head of Milo. Reaching the summit revealed the god’s full scale and the breathtaking Milo Palace.
Milo was a deity who loomed larger than the world beneath him, surpassing even the highest peaks. It was almost inconceivable that the people of the World Tree could have ever constructed such a palace for him.
A mass of dark clouds appeared on the horizon. Seeing this, Xuanji urged the sheep to begin the descent.
The Great Wizards were closing in.
They had spent months as fugitives in the lowest realm, yet the pursuit never wavered. However, word had spread among the common people: a young wizard had appeared who could challenge the rulers of the upper world.
The man who had stolen a god's woman.
One day, Xuanji and Susu entered a small town. The locals, having heard the rumors, gathered around them with intense curiosity.
While the couple purchased supplies, they addressed the crowd's questions.
“I heard you are a child of God,” an old man remarked. “That a deity descended, transformed into a yellow sheep, and carried your mother to an island where you were conceived. Is that the truth?”
“No, that is false.”
A woman spoke up next. “Some say a god turned into a swan and stole your mother’s scarf. She chased him and met a handsome man, and thus you were born. Is that how it happened?”
“No, that is also false.”
“Another story says your mother found the footprint of a giant in the wilderness and became pregnant just by stepping in it. Is that the tale?”
“False.”
..