Chapter 24

Divine gave the tribal crown to Groby.

It didn't sit completely right with him, because it would play right into Gribbly's prepared hands.

"You can be Chief Mouth." Divine had really no interest in leading this rabble of goblins that called themselves the Lost Tooth Tribe.

But he was interested in making use of them.

Groby looked at the tribal crown with a mix of excitement and suspicion.

Gribbly, listening in from the entance, suppressed obvious reactions of ardor, but surreptitiously made a fist in victory.

Divine was tempted to kill the two and let some random goblin be the new Chief Mouth.

He really hated feeling used, but with Gribbly pulling Groby's strings, maybe the two of them wouldn't be the worst leaders for the tribe.

Especially as they would have to show a lot of restraint, because there still were Witchtooth and himself.

Divine gestured for Gribbly to come closer.

Groby wasn't happy about that. The four scantily clad female goblins giggled and whispered excitedly.

"For Groby to stay Chief Mouth you have to do the following. No one, and me mean absolutely no one touches what's mine. Me want regular tribute, food is best. And every time someone dies in this mountain, you bring the corpse here to feed my beautiful flower." Divine gestured to Venus.

The demonic venus flytrap was still busy eating the late Chief Mouth's dead followers.

The goblin pair shuddered as they watched the blossom closing around one of the goblins. Not than long ago they had talked with him on their way to this cavern.

Divine hoped Venus would continue to grow and develop as well as as it had so far.

The plant continuously spread qi and a nice smell in his cavern.

And it was a great tool, very handy. The bound humans were the best example.

Divine looked forward to refining the demonic venus flytrap further as soon as he reached the foundation establishment realm.

The goblin pair before him exchanged subtle looks, silently discussing Divine's demands.

Divine was impressed, Gribbly managed to give Groby instructions without saying a word.

"Yes, great Divine. Me bring food and the dead." Groby looked pretty uncomfortable, but assured himself by looking at the tribal crown in his hands.

"Don't kill the goblins yourself to bring more. Enough are dying in the tribe. Don't annoy me and you can enjoy being chief. If you come here, or send someone here, never step past my flower or you dead. Understand? “ Divine pierced the two goblins with his gaze and flared his qi for a moment for emphasis.

The goblin duo stiffened and nodded fearfully.

"Now scram!" Divine watched amused as the two retreated post-haste and Groby stumbled, letting the tribal crown fall from his hands.

"And take these four goblin tits with you!" Divine was really astonished that these goblin females still hadn't checked that he didn't want them.

Or maybe they just didn't care? Or it was willful ignorance.

Gribbly had a really hard time making the four other females leave. Groby wasn't any help at all until he donned the tribal crown and took the female goblins away, using his new position for the first time.

Divine waited until all of his unwelcome visitors had left.

He ignored the clamoring disciples, the interested minions and even the roused humans and went to sit down in his usual place and meditate.

First he just let his thoughts wander, waiting for his active mind to calm down.

His thoughts were filled with regrets regarding his old life and worries about his new.

They were filled with blood. With blood and death.

After letting these thoughts flow unhindered through his mind, he examined them and tried to let go of them. He was only moderately successful.

After a while his body relaxed and his mind wandered further.

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His blood flowed naturally to a specific place.

It was hard and he immediatly felt like only a breath away from bursting.

Divine should really start taking care of himself. He hadn't lost his load even once since he had become a goblin.

The first days after the transmigration it hadn't even come up. Propably because of the trauma.

Naturally his body had recovered before his mind and when it had come up, he hadn't been in the mood.

Distracting himself with other thoughts and just waiting for it to calm down had sooner become a habit than he would've thought possible.

Sometimes he wondered, if it had something to do with his cultivation. Sometimes he worried, that he wasn't well.

By now he was so pent up, it was almost hurting. But only almost.

He had been waiting for the day he coulnd't resist this urge anymore and finally take the dragon down by hand, but weirdly that day hadn't come yet.

It was boiling inside him, right beneath the surface, but he was still keeping a lid on it. It had something tantric.

Divine enjoyed the feeling, the tension, right at the edge. He just basked in it for a while.

Later he thought about his next steps to calm his raging fire down.

Reaching the peak of the qi condensation realm and the body tempering realm had priority. He was already very close.

The new room should be ready by then and he could try to break through to the foundation establishment realm somewhat secluded.

Divine hadn't forgotten that Flaming Paw had declared his intent to come and find him. Not for a second.

After reaching the foundation establishment realm, he could take his time to intensify the disciples' lessons and finally make use of the humans.

His thoughts wandered through some other topics until Divine felt ready.

He breathed in some natural qi and started the circulation.

His ability to refine qi had made leaps and bounds, since he first had started.

To master, or at least to better his skills with cultivation was gratifying. Not a second he worked on that felt wasted.

The road to mastery was a long one and he was looking forward to walking it.

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Noelani van Geroge, or Nola for short, woke up.

That alone was something she hadn't thought would ever happen again.

The last days were pretty spotty with her injury and the bonedeep exhaustion.

She remembered the desperate flight from the nightmarish shadow cat, losing one member of their party after another.

And she remembered Marka's death.

After that everything was only a blur of pain.

Her injury had been unnoticeable at that point, because the pain of losing Marka had overshadowed everything else.

Nola noticed that she was still wearing her leather armor and her chain mail.

She was lying on hard ground. It was uncomfortable, but her body was in a much better condition than expected.

She didn't feel any bodily injury.

She still didn't move a muscle.

She had lost everything. Cornered and desperate, she and Marka had joined this expedition to flee the Holy Lumodian Empire and seek refuge in the Kingdom of Medani.

Now that she had even lost the loyal Marka, she really did have nothing left.

She didn't know in what kind of situation she was in right now and she wasn't interested in finding out.

She just wanted to lie here, wherever this was, and die.

She had no strength to keep on living.

Even the fires of revenge were smothered by her last loss. He wasn't even responsible for this. He hadn't killed Marka, that had been Nola herself, by dragging Marka with her into the Witching Forest.

She would lie here forever, unmoving and just fade away.

Her body itched. It seemed she was caked in dirt from top to bottom.

She felt a little thirsty, but no hunger.

Not that she had the least bit of an appetite or even the intention to relief her thirst, it was only strange.

Nola could hear activity in the surrounding area, but she kept her eyes closed and didn't move.

She couldn't face the world right now. She lost herself in her thoughts, silent tears running down her cheeks.

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Divine was completely immersed in his cultivation, neglecting everything else.

Fortunately Scarface was there to pick up the slack.

Divine noticed how dedicated and proactive she was. Taking care of the goblings, supervising the other minions and even keeping watch over the humans.

Scarface prepared all the meals and always took care that Divine ate too and didn't lose himself in his cultivation.

Divine was really proud of himself, because he had found and trained such a competent minion.

He was in a great mood, because after continuous hard work, he had finally reached the peak of the ninth stage of the qi condensation realm.

Soon, his body cultivation would be at the peak of the ninth stage too.

Divine decided to take a break.

After reaching the peak of the body tempering realm, he would to try and break through without the help of a foundation establishment pill.

A foundation establishment pill was still useful to raise his cultivation up to the peak of the foundation establishment realm and every pill taken lessened the effectiveness of the next.

It was a bad start into foundation establishment, if he couldn't manage without drugs or medicine or whatever you wanted to call it.

Divine let his gaze wander over the other inhabitants of his cavern.

The disciples were playing among themselves.

The minions were lazying around a little early after carrying earth and stones from the new room.

The two men were still sitting and the woman was still lying next to the demonic venus flytrap.

Divine went to the the new room for an inspection.

Only a little streak of light shined from the cavern through the short tunnel into the room, but Divine could see excellently.

There was still some loose earth and stones on the ground, but the most had already been brought outside by his diligent minions.

This time they had earned their rest.

Divine used his control over earth qi to bring the rest into the cavern, making a hill for the minions to scatter on the cavern's ground.

He controlled the earth around the new room's entrance to create stone hooks on both sides.

Divine took out a spirit hemp rope and controlled it to fasten it from one side to the other. Again with the hooks underneath. And again. Like a fence.

It was still possible to look inside but no goblin and not even a little gobling could squeeze through the openings the rope left.

It wasn't much, but it should suffice.

Shouts and laughter sounded inside the room, coming from the cavern.

Divine went to look what the commotion was about. The rope came off very quickly, considering he could control it with his qi.

"Gahahaha. Gahahaha!" The laughter sounded mischievous and victorious. It was Third Disciple's.

"Third!" Another of the goblings screamed in outrage. It sounded like the second disciple.

"Get her!" Another one cried out.

When Divine stepped into the cavern, something came flying at him.

With a reflexive arm movement, he flexed his qi and slapped the thing from the air.

It was a ball of mud.