Tales of Herding Gods

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There’s an ancient saying in Great Ruins, ‘Don’t go outside when it’s dark.’

In Great Ruins, the old, weak and disabled elders of Disabled Elderly Village picked up an infant by the riverside and named him Qin Mu, raising him up with blood and sweat. This day, as the night descended and the darkness shrouded Great Ruins, Qin Mu left home…

Become a villain undulating in the spring breeze!

That’s what Blind told him.

This is the rise of Qin Mu’s road to becoming a villain!

Associated Names
One entry per line
Mu Shen Ji
Mục Thần Ký
THG
牧神记
Related Series
Rise of Humanity (Shared Universe)
Recommendations
Perfect World (3)
Ze Tian Ji (3)
Cultivation Chat Group (2)
A Will Eternal (1)
The Avalon of Five Elements (1)
World of Cultivation (1)
Recommendation Lists
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  3. Novels That I Have Read Over The Years
  4. Awesome Novels I've Read
  5. Light Novel list

Latest Release

Date Group Release
10/30/23 Isohungry Translations c1748
10/30/23 Isohungry Translations c1747
10/29/23 Isohungry Translations c1746
10/29/23 Isohungry Translations c1745
10/28/23 Isohungry Translations c1743
10/28/23 Isohungry Translations c1744
10/27/23 Isohungry Translations c1741
10/27/23 Isohungry Translations c1742
10/26/23 Isohungry Translations c1740
10/26/23 Isohungry Translations c1739
10/25/23 Isohungry Translations c1738
10/25/23 Isohungry Translations c1737
10/24/23 Isohungry Translations c1736
10/24/23 Isohungry Translations c1735
10/23/23 Isohungry Translations c1734
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65 Reviews sorted by


gingingin1605
gingingin1605 rated it
July 11, 2022
Status: c1143
A beautiful novel with fleshed out characters. The world is very mysterious and it attracts my curiosity.

The protagonist is not selfish and hypocritical like many protagonists. He is a sharing and open-minded individual who thinks for the world.

Characters behave like normal human beings where unlike other novels they are not programmed to fight MC to the death for no intelligent reason. They are all intelligent in their own right which makes it a very good cultivation novel.

The setting is also described in a way that makes me love the world... more>> which is very important for me and I appreciate in this novel. The plot feels neither too fast nor too slow and it makes me anticipate the future.

This makes it a five star novel, and I have given it a 3 star because I judged it as a "good novel". I like to read easy-going novels, which are not that well written and are full of plot holes and illogical things while having a OP MC. Most cultivation novels fall under this category. If this novel is placed in that pile then it indeed deserves 5 stars, rather it deserves a lot more but if I am considering a good novel, then I wont judge it by those parameters.

I gave this novel 3 stars because of three small problems.

  1. Dense protagonist: I knew it before I started reading the novel but I don't like it at all. If I would rate the protagonist's character 10/10 otherwise, it becomes 5/10 because of this which is really bad thing.
  2. I dont like it when protagonist tries to modernize the world. I already know that the world would be a better place this way but it won't be that fun anymore which is all I care about. (I will remove 1 star for 1. And 2. Combined)
  3. This reason is not related to my personal preference but with respect to the general character behavior. I used to think that when cultivators cultivated they would use modern day maths or science knowledge derived from the dao in some form or another. The author used this thinking and I liked it a lot. But one thing I didn't like was that the author started treating the cultivators as scientists or researchers. If the author showed the characters having a researchers mindset, I would like it. If the cultivators are shown to explore maths and science, it would be interesting because it would be connectable but the author at some point treating the cultivators as scientists and wrote with that mindset imo. Because of this, although the characters were well written, they became vague because of my preconceived image of cultivators. After reading countless novels all of us have a distinguishing characteristic for cultivators which is indescribable but it exists (this has nothing to do with personality) that thing was missing when the author was writing the novel so I felt off. (I am cutting 1 star for this.)
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Bugai-sha
Bugai-sha rated it
February 26, 2022
Status: c469
Many parts of the novel are very entertaining, specially in the beginning. But as the story progresses, it slowly devolves into a boring drag with plot holes, everyone making s*upid decisions, and cliche developments.

MC is only 16 but second-best in the world at everything (crafting, alchemy, painting, sword attainment etc), with the best being the elders of his village, even though it's stated that MC has only ordinary talent, and people in that world live over 800 years. So 800 years of training of geniuses can't compare to less than... more>> 16 years of training of ordinary MC? And the reason author provides is that MC works really hard despite having only ordinary talent, lol.

Both MC and his enemies are s*upid. MC rushes head first into dangerous situations despite knowing the danger in which people much stronger than him can easily die. And he rushes in alone despite having many strong elders he can ask for help. But MC comes out fine due random lucky encounters and the s*upidity of his enemies. His enemies mostly only send people slightly stronger than him rather than sending the strongest they have, despite knowing his position and importance as the master of a big sect. He can let strong elders from his sect protect him but he doesn't. I think his behavior is extremely arrogant and he never learns his lesson. <<less
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Arkeus
Arkeus rated it
March 25, 2018
Status: c90
Really well done so far- it manages to have a protagonist that's mostly smart because of how he was raised, and also naive because of how he was raised. He has real significant flaws in the way he thinks that so far have actual consequences in what he does.

The supporting cast of elderlies is really well made with each having distinct characters in both background and way they think (not just way they talk and powerset), and the outside supporting cast is also fairly interesting.

Worldbuilding itself seems fairly well thought... more>> out though it's a bit hard to know exactly where it will go yet. <<less
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Souless66
Souless66
December 15, 2023
Status: --
I rarely write reviews, so ill keep it simple. The story is good, for those who read a lot it might not be anything original or new, but it has its own charm with different cultivation levels than your normal cultivation novels.

One damn thing that compelled me to write a review is that translation goes beyond bad after 1170 (somewhere around there), I wish I was warned before I started this novel because it really is good, but after 200 chapters of horrible translation I just couldnt go on.

The idiot... more>> who started translating this, damn you, you didnt even try, probably just copy pasted from some third rate mtl. <<less
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defry
defry rated it
September 4, 2021
Status: c1147
This is a good novel because thee MC is unique in a lot of ways, it's a bit like Makoto from Tsuki... he faces personal tragedies or hardships to develop. Also, the novel has a great world with a lot of different characters. In fact, the mc's adopted parents, the elders are sort of the main characters at times & each of them are rather interesting.

This novel has great humor, it was definitely the best novel on webnovel. com & it was popular, found it weird how it was stopped.... more>> Out of the current on-going novels, only this one stirs me to support it to keep the novel going.

The only bad thing about this is that the MC is currently underpowered as his enemies have a lead of thousands or tens of thousands of years ahead of him. So, he has to rely on his brain to scheme. The MC being able to do so much is more believable if you consider how the elders raised him or what kind of elders raised him. <<less
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fireutsie
fireutsie rated it
March 17, 2020
Status: --
Imagine a big cultivation world, in it are outstanding people that each have their own story. Now take 9 protagonist tier characters out of them, each with their past, their own unique skills, a downfall and a devil in their Dao heart causing them to be "disabled". They are all forced to flee from the normal world and come together to live in a hellish place known as the Ruins, living as refugees in a small village.

Then one day these old people find a baby who came out of nowhere... more>> and decide to raise him. What would you get if a naive baby was raised by a bunch of unique, scheming, shameless, and OP protagonists of the past? Inheriting their skills, knowledge, treasures and legacies? That is the story of this novel.

This is a really great cultivation novel. A rare gem. The world building is great, we get more and more explanation of how things work, how the empire functions, how the cultivation works ect. Each of the inhabitants in the Disabled Elderly Village have their own backstories, characters and way of doing things. We see that not all enemies who oppose the main character are "bad". We get to see things from both sides of the perspective. The rulers and master cultivators are also not ret*rded people.
Sure there will be a bunch of cannon fodder characters, but it really has been a while since I've seen intriguing morally grey/neutral side characters, and actually agreed that the enemy was respectable.

The main character is also likable, he has flaws, he is not too arrogant and carries himself respectfully. He is like a child growing up influenced by the people around him, his thoughts and worldview change constantly. He also doesn't show bias against people who are seen as "evil" or "good".

Meetings and departures, life and death are also treated like a cycle in this novel. It's fun and nice when you meet certain characters, but you are sometimes also filled with hopelessness about their fates and sadness about the inevitable parting or death. Really, this novel is an epic journey. I wish more cultivation novels like this.

Although the novel starts out strong, it suffers from the same issue as with other cultivation novels where the author starts to use unrealistic scales later on and makes things too big, adds too many side characters of little significance and allows the depth of the story to become shallow. <<less
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Macho
Macho rated it
October 21, 2019
Status: c519
The worldbuilding and overall depth of the world's characters and surroundings are immense. This novel must have the best worldbuilding i've seen in any novels i've read, yet it has downsides also.

The story takes the world seriously, characters not-so seriously unfortunately though - it's a strange mix of storytelling. You feel the world is immense, the story ever-expanding, the characters ever-increasing and ever-powerful. Yet the character interactions are really rubbish in my opinion. Everyone seems to be interacting with eachother very light-heartedly - by that I mean, there isn't a... more>> lot of drama, genuine emotions or concerns. Hell, the most annoying thing in the book for me is the fact how our main character doesn't seem to be realistically maturing at all. Other characters' mental states and maturities vary depending on their situations greatly at all time also.

There's a lot of good humor in the novel though, that's new to see in a CN novel, I was pleasantly surprised most of the time, yet I can't get immersed into the characters when they take eachothers and themselves so lightly, the main character seems to be seeking death constantly by letting enemies go, s*upid mistakes, forgetfulness, ignorance and overall s*upidity whenever it isn't needed. He seems to be smart otherwise though, yeah he can plan and sh*t I guess. He trains in all sort of buddhist, magical, sword and spear skills; not to mention the layman skills he learned from the Blind Elderly Village residents, he is truly a big genius, at least the author has milked that constantly so far, and it's great. I just hoped the main character would start taking stuff seriously at some point though, not constantly belittling stuff, running around randomly to advance story arcs that conveniently lead him to getting some sort of benefit and overall doing random sh*t all over the place.

I like the worldbuilding, like most of the characters, yet I despise how the enviroment of the story is depicted - by that I mean how the characters' moods and actions are so light-hearted they don't take anything seriously. F*cking hell I guess I'm just not the target audience. 3 Stars though, the faults in the book were subjective from my perspective.

Edit, c675. I can't read this dogsh*t anymore, f*cking hell why is everything happening so light-heartedly, humorously and in a children's story style. <<less
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Niktals
Niktals rated it
May 11, 2019
Status: c459
Man I'm actually crying.

This is the kind of novel that I'm searching for the past 3 weeks (and in this 3 weeks I did not read any novel cause I read it all already except for the boring ones) thank you!!
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Lil K.O
Lil K.O rated it
May 10, 2019
Status: c412
I loved it, then I hated it

I enjoyed this novel up until somehwere around the 200s or the 300s til I decided to drop it at the 400s. It's a good time waster fod when you just shut off your brain and read whatever is in front however If you someone who thinks alot while reading or scrutinizes over the details then you not gonna like this one or like before dropping it later on cause the quality drops massively from chapter 300 onwards. There's already 1500 written chapters and... more>> it starts dropping in quality in the 300s!

I'm being generous giving this novel a 3 star rating it's unbelievably overrated. It has tons of glaring issues that start being really being obvious in the 300s. The fight scenes start out really good but quickly start to lose all meaning when you realize you have no idea what the hell is going on in the fights and whose winning is never made apperent or hinted at especially when the MC fights as he just throws around whatever skill or martial arts he learn which is every single powerful skill/martial art. The plot had potential but failed heavily in its execution as it literally went all over the place with no clear goal. The cultivation was well thought out and the author put clear effort but that only for the first 2 realms after that it turns to shit, he first put clear emphasis on exploring your cultivation realm and doing so would make you more powerful in the long run and amoung your peers in the same realm but after that the author just glosses over the details over the next realms and no real exploring is done and the cultivation realms don't even matter cause of how ridiculously OP the MC is, he just jumps to fight people who are at way higher realms then him even going as far to fight a god. Muiltple cheat items exist that have allowed to kill/ens*ave the strongest beings with zero side effects or backlash absolutely zero. What's madding is the boss he fought right before I dropped this who was said to have God level magical power (whatever level that is) he suddenly has a technique that allows him to fight him with the help of other people with zero backlash! This technique was never mentioned before even tho it's Cleary OP yet it was never once mentioned before this fight

People say it's refreshing but the character developments have to be the laziest most cliché developments I've ever had the displsure of reading. Characters usually have a motive or a reason for doing something but that doesn't exist in this novel character just do whatever just cause. This is most clear in its failure of what you could call "romance".
Spoiler

First female lead quite literally appears out of thin air. I am not exagerating, some girl appears out of no where in a town the MC is in and wants the MC to follow her while the MC knows he doesn't know this person just follows her we are hinted that she likes the MC without stating a reason why or if they ever met before, it then revealed That the young master he said hi, only said hi to is the girl! This was never hinted that young master is the princess or ever explained or talked about why she dressed like a boy even tho in all other parts of the novel she dresses like a girl. They only said hi once and we supposed to belive she likes the MC just cause of that! The author doesn't even try to explain or talk about why she likes him

The second girl that part of the harem wanted/wants to kill him and that never talked about either, they just magically get along and she doesn't wanna kill him no more?

The third girl is as ridiculous as the first cause the MC saves her from an OP item that drained her lifespan everytime she used it yet she still looks young as ever its like it that item doesn't even drain life span (MC used that item to and yep doesn't effect him at all even when he was almost eaten by it) this one also crazy cause she regards him as his childhood friend yet they only met once for a short exchange and thats it yet that's all it takes for her to remember him for years after they met

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This novel is honestly overrated, you could say it's unique in its own sense but not in a good way, you can enjoy if you just shut off your brain but that has a limit as this novel just gets worse and worse my limit was chapter 412 I cant continue reading this. To sum it off good waste of time but I seriously wouldn't suggest it <<less
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TypicalTakesa
TypicalTakesa rated it
March 28, 2019
Status: c68
Slow-paced story with a powerful ML who, unlike other Xuanhuan novels, doesn't really have a goal like cliched plots of revenge or motive to defeat some villainous sovereign. The words flow easily and make your imagination run, but the events aren't particularly thrilling or exciting. So far the story's pretty great, I'm hoping it becomes more stimulating in later chapters. Oh, and there's little to no romance bc the mc's dense when it comes to girls lmao
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baalthegreat
baalthegreat rated it
July 31, 2018
Status: c182
The first 100 chapter were very good its enjoyable but after 100 chapter its literaly a mess especialy in world building

ancient empire with barely any modern technology having elementary school all over he empire?

dude resource are finite this idk if its the writer that is fanatical comunist without any economic knowledge or people around him

it doesnt make any sense after that. God, devil budha anti-religion nonsense, its almost like propaganda biography of MC an not a story of heroes growth
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albreo
albreo rated it
July 8, 2018
Status: c238
Your typical uttering OP MC with his cheerleading squad. His squadmates are there to admire his OPness in handling things. The villainess in our MC is nowhere to be found, probably the author has already forgotten despite an early attempt. The story progress at a steady pace which I like it. A hint here and there livens up the story greatly which also provide logical background histories.

Good read to kill time.
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Fang_Yuan
Fang_Yuan
January 26, 2024
Status: Completed
One of the greatest novels I've read where the mysteries never end and are actually integral to the plot points. There are so many fantasy elements that no other novel ever delve into.
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1404Daniel
1404Daniel rated it
July 10, 2023
Status: Completed
4.5/5

It was very good, but then the translation got worse. And then ending was very rushed.

Spoiler

I would've liked to hear more about what he does in the previous epochs after being told about what he does. (Other than just a passing mention at the end). And being told he has a solution to the final problem but never finding out what that solution was is very annoying

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Chronossss
Chronossss rated it
November 26, 2022
Status: c1831
I Read the Mtl to the end but it was an enjoyable read but have some complaints at later end of the novel,

... more>>
Spoiler

really disliked how there was suddenly a new major villain specifically the young masters of the miluo palace. And how it undermined the villains in the story mainly the celestial emperor and disliked how pathetic Celestial Venerable Hao was at the end until his death.I mean They and the celestial venerables was the main antoganist of the majority and it felt a disservice and let down on how they ended.

That said I very much Enjoyed how Much of the Notable Side characters there was and how they contributed to the story main the people from Disabled Elderly Village and eternal peace empire

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Overall definitely in my top 10 webnovels and will reread it in the future <<less
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Uhoh_
Uhoh_ rated it
December 10, 2021
Status: c276
Incredibly incredibly slow. Slow in a way that most of the things that happens to the MC is just uncessesarily boring, can be compared to fillers. The world does feel alive, but that makes it a drag to read with about hundreds of divine arts, skills, names, etc etc that get pasted down every other chapter. The novel does have some good points, but at this point my brain is too tired with skimming almost every single thing that happens in the story. Dropped.
Spoiler
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bushwhacker2k
bushwhacker2k rated it
October 30, 2019
Status: c33
I'm not far into the story, but even by this point, the amount of noteworthy things that have happened is practically nothing.

The premise is fine, the darkness at night is very interesting and makes the world seem interesting...

But every chapter is the same thing, he just trains in or around his dinky little village. It should NOT be spending this much time on him at this age. We do NOT need to know every little detail about his techniques and cultivation. It's spending far too much time hinting at things... more>> in the outside world when the protagonist needs to be getting out there and exploring and experiencing it himself.

Like I said before, I'm far in at all, but even the little I've read feels like a lot of the same stuff with no variation. Hopefully it gets moving quicker after this. <<less
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Nolkeg
Nolkeg rated it
June 30, 2018
Status: c36
It started of nicely, then slightly went downhill after the first few chapters.

The cultivation was nice. MC and side characters was nice. The world set up was also interesting.

The major problem was a clear plot. You can even call this a slice of life with tons of info dump.

... more>> MC had no goal and clear motivation. There's no clear objective or struggle or cliff hanger or things that make I as reader want to read the next chapter.

So, the story just goes on and on and on in straight line. MC train. MC fight. MC train again and then fight some more.

It's not a bad read, but too bland for my taste, so I'll just dropped it here. <<less
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samwalski
samwalski rated it
May 29, 2021
Status: c9
Im only at chapter 9 but I just wanted to take note of it so far. More then 6 chapters so far are just the MC running and every character other then the villagers being hypocrites. The so called righteous elders are just c*nts that admonish the villagers for being devils but act like pricks and order their disciples to act just as shitty as they claim others to be. The disciples call the villager that was making clothes evil because she killed an elk and then they go on... more>> to kill dozens of elk to find the MC and still fail to catch him. It shows that the author cant right proper villians.. Its annoying. But i'll still keep reading because other then that its interesting <<less
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Yukiya7
Yukiya7 rated it
October 27, 2020
Status: --
at the beginning of the chapter I considered this novel to be one of the best Xuanhuan novels I have read.

but in chapter 300+ the novel got worse. A lot of disappointments that I experienced in this novel, such as when he met his father who had spent several chapters and ended with a meaningless light conversation, WTF what the author did ? No side character developments, and romance is too bad too. The fight was also too little and not tense at all.

actually this novel was so good before... more>> the author destroyed it himself <<less
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