Chapter 7

Divine was cultivating his body this time.

Slow and steady, he made progress with the stances, movements and the breathing.

While trying to perfect that he also tried to add controlling his spirit qi the way taught by the instructions in the Shining Blood Demon Body Cultivation Manual.

He worked himself to the bone until his alarm went off.

The goblings cried loudly, signaling meal time.

The meal was the same as before. Nutrition pills and spirit water.

That was it with his supplies now.

Now it was time to leave his cave again.

Divine sat down for a moment to relax and watched the goblings while digesting the spirit water.

It didn't take long at all for Divine to get restless and feel the need to do something productive again.

Relaxing felt like wasting time in this new life. Like he couldn't afford to if he wanted to survive.

'I can relax when I'm safe. Like when I cultivated to the peak and dwarf everyone else in this world with my power.'

Divine took out the Dancing Feather Sword.

It had a plain but well made wooden handle. Soft to the touch and not chafing at all.

The sheath that came with the sword was made of the same wood. Leather to strap it over his shoulder was on it.

After pulling the Dancing Feather Sword out, he admired the stainless blade.

Sharp and deadly.

The only markings on it were two different inscriptions near the handle.

The description in the book The Demonic Path of Immortality said the sword came with durability and sharpness inscriptions.

Only Divine didn't know which inscription meant what. Yet.

He tested the blade by swinging it in a controlled manner. The only sword moves he knew were the bare basics of western fencing.

He worked through the moves and noticed again how smooth and stable he controlled his body now.

Divine loved cultivation.

When Divine left he gave the goblings a second look.

He went the tunnel farther down because he wanted to familiarize himself with the sorroundings of his abode. The memories he had inherited from Snarky didn't paint a very comprehensive picture.

The first other goblin Divine came across in the tunnel was a young one that knelt before a lot of glowing mushrooms growing there en masse.

The young goblin was watching the glowing mushrooms, smelling them and sometimes poking them. All that with a giddy delight.

"No eat. Glowies no food." Divine was in a generous mood and warned the goblin in a friendly tone.

The goblin looked at him for a moment and continued with what it was doing.

'If it has its fun. It probably knows not to eat them much better than me.'

Divine continued down the tunnel and shot a glance into the caves on the way.

Everywhere goblins, all thin and dressed in rags living their wretched lives. Sneaking, stealing, fighting and fucking.

To see goblins eating and drinking was a rarity. And when he saw a goblin eating it was sometimes just moss.

The farther he went the more corpses were lying around. They all lay around outside the caves in the tunnel.

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

He saw more than three corpses, but the others weren't fresh enough to collect blood qi essence from.

In one small cave Divine discovered a very bloody scene.

A goblin lying in a massive pool of its own blood.

Divine stepped closer to collect the blood qi essence. Watching his bare feet.

[+2 Blood Qi Essence]

Only now Divine realized what was up.

A female goblin died while giving birth. And the goblin baby or more propably babies died inside of her.

Divine felt sick.

And moved on very fast.

Two more fresh corpses were not far away.

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

But they were just two regular murder victims so Divine wasn't shaken. Looked like someone ambushed them from the big fissure next to them.

There wasn't anyone hiding now.

The farther Divine went down the tunnel, the poorer and thinner were the goblins that lived there.

What surprised him was that he didn't find any more dead bodies.

The reason for the atypical lack of corpses Divine found in a little cavern at the end of the tunnel.

A cooking fire in the center.

Ten goblins feasting and grilling.

Three goblins being grilled.

Many old and new bones littering the cavern's ground.

These cannibals weren't malnourished and looked even well fed.

One of them was drinking blood from a goblin skull.

Divine could spy three rusty knifes and three pointy sticks.

What the others were armed with, Divine couldn't tell from his position right outside the entrance.

Something looked fishy around the area right behind the entrance.

Divine examined that particular place further and noticed it was a pit trap.

A pit trap hidden by a brittle construct of bones held together by a brown material.

Divine didn't want to think about what that brown material was.

Goblins could be horrifying ingenious little shits.

The cannibalistic goblins hadn't noticed Divine yet.

One of the goblins got up, went to the side and worked on the next construct for the pit.

The goblin took some left over bones from the meal to a collection that was already prepared to the side.

It arranged the bones and sat down on top to produce the brown material.

'Goblins are so disgusting. Reeducating them will be a blessing for this whole world.'

'So how am I going to play this?'

From the tracks on the ground Divine knew exactly where to step around the pit trap. It was a narrow path right next to the right wall.

But if he stepped forward the ten goblins could come at him together.

"Divine" announced his name to let the goblins know who was going to kill them. And to bait them of course.

That caught the goblins' attention and two of them came over. They stopped right before the pit trap.

"You hungry? Come." The smaller of the two grinned maliciously, but made an inviting hand gesture.

It clearly wanted Divine to fall into the trap.

'My first option is to taunt those two to get them to walk the narrow path next to the trap. I can kill one after another. If they don't have some kind of long range weapon.'

Long ranged weaponry was an excellent idea.

They lived inside a mountain and stones could be found everywhere.

Divine picked up two stones as big as his goblin hand.

The two goblins were only four steps away on the other side of the trap.

Divine aimed and threw the first stone with a strong force.

Headshot.

The stone didn't pierce into the skull, but made a huge laceration on its head. It cracked the goblin's skull too.

When the other goblin realized what had happened it was already too late. The goblin couldn't do anything before a stone filled its vision and everything turned dark.

The cannibals watched two of their own getting killed.

First they were stunned. Then they got angry.

The eight that were left grabbed their weapons and rushed over.

They were so focused on Divine that they didn't notice one of them falling behind and hiding behind a pile of bones.

Before the cannibals could even start an attack two more went down from Divine's stone throws.

His aim had never been better.

"Kill!" One of them cried to motivate the others.

Two goblins with sticks came over the narrow path.

Two others stopped before the pit and aimed at Divine with their slingshots made of sinew and wood. They shot little rocks with quite some speed.

The last goblin threw a rusty knife at him.

Divine held up the big stones in his hands to defend.

But then he threw himself to the ground, letting the attacks fly over him.

Divine jumped up and threw one of his stones at the nearest goblin closing in on the narrow path next to the trap.

He hit the goblin's torso. It threw the goblin a step back. A step with heavy consequences, because the goblin fell into the pit, arms flailing.

Sadly the goblin didn't take the one following down with it.

But it bought Divine a second before the melee began.

Another stone flew through the air and felled a goblin. The one with a slingshot that was a tick faster than the other and ready to take the next shot at Divine.

Luckily the second stick wielder arrived and blocked further ranged attacks for Divine.

Divine dodged the stick's attacks and fell back.

He pulled out his Dancing Feather Sword but kept defending and falling back.

That gave his attacker confidence and Divine the opportunity to lead the goblin further away.

The tunnel in front of the cannibals' cavern wasn't straight so it didn't take long until the two left the other goblins' sight.

Suddenly Divine changed tactics. Instead of blocking the stick with his Dancing Feather Sword and stepping back, Divine sidestepped.

Another step forward and that cannibal was eating Divine's blade.

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

Picking up one new stone, Divine carefully moved towards the cavern again.