Chapter 22

Grobtooth watched Divine, walking through the parting crowd, carrying an assortment of weapons and leather bags over his shoulder.

Much bigger and heavier than any goblin could carry, but that wasn't what astounded Grobtooth the most.

Bound and following after Divine were two humans, carrying another human and the corpse of a really big shadow cat.

Humans were much taller then he would've imagined. And they were much shabbier.

Only after Divine and the humans on a leash disappeared into the tunnel leading to Divine's cavern did the crowd stir slowly from its stupor.

Grobtooth took deep breaths, calmed down a little and looked at Gribbly.

She had an appreciative look on her face. Grobtooth didn't like it.

"This the Divine me hear about." Gribbly was still staring at the tunnel where Divine had left.

"He's terrible. A monster. Kill our raiding party when visiting him. Without reason. Torture me and Cruffy and Griptooth with poison. Me only survive because of my resilience." Grobtooth successfully directed attention back to himself, but now Grippy had a shrewd look on her face, that gave him a strange feeling in his tummy.

Gribbly looked really intense. "Go tell Chief Mouth about humans!"

"What? Crazy? Gribbly want Groby to die? Not going against that terrible Divine. Never." Grobtooth declined vehemently.

Was Gribbly planning his death? Suspicion dominated his mind. Because of the other goblin tits?

Gribbly looked right through him and gave him a cuff on the head. "Silly dick. Chief Mouth find out anyway. Best if you tell."

That made sense. Groby nodded. "And then?"

Gribbly snuggled into his arms and whispered. "Listen carefully. I have plan..."

Talking in whispers right there in the noisy crowd was much safer than looking for a secluded hidey hole, where sounds traveled far and were easily captured by other goblins' sharp hearing. Goblins loved sneaking around at those places.

----------

The disciples and the minions welcomed Divine back enthusiastically.

They were flabbergasted about his state. Completely dirty and with a torn robe.

They were also very curious about Divine's haul, but he shooed them away.

Divine placed the humans near Venus, that's what Divine had named the demonic venus flytrap, and directed three of her vines that didn't have thorns to bind the three humans' ankles.

He directed his qi into the spirit hemp rope and freed the humans from it.

The shadow cat's body and the woman fell to the ground.

The two men sank down next to them in utter exhaustion.

Divine picked up the dead shadow cat and took it to skin it.

He was careful to preserve the high quality pelt and searched for the magical beast core.

With his qi sense he located it easily inside the shadow cat's chest.

It was a dark qi core, the size of a goblin's fingertip.

He placed the core into a satchel that was tied to the piece of spirit hemp rope around his waist.

"Minion Scarface." Divine knew she was in hearing range without even looking.

Seconds later she was at his side.

"Make food." Divine still gave her his orders in Gobble, but that would change, hopefully soon.

He sat down in his familiar place to meditate after washing himself. He left the ruined robe for one of the minions and bought a new one.

Now that he was back and had a calm moment, he felt his exhaustion.

It had really been a long and eventful outing.

Tiredly he just sank into meditation until Minion Scarface roused him to eat.

Divine wolved down four portions and went staright back to his meditation.

Much later he rose again, finally feeling refreshed.

Divine surveyed his territory and noticed that the cavern was a little crowded with the addition of the three bigger humans. Them next to the goblin minions and the four disciples, the demonic venus flytrap, the well, the mushroom farm and the latrine pits, there really wasn't much space left.

Also his breakthrough to the foundation establishment realm was nearing and he couldn't allow to be disturbed during that.

It was doubtlessly time for an expansion.

Divine only roughly guessed but after so long beneath the mountain he had a pretty good idea in which direction to dig. He wanted a short way out the mountain that didn't cross any existing tunnels.

He stepped up to his chosen wall and concentrated, letting his spirit qi seep into earth and stone.

With a flex of his mind the wall rumbled. The others looked over frightened by the loud noise.

Crumbled rocks and earth flowed from the wall around Divine's feet.

Divine called Scarface to gather the other minions and transport the loose earth and stones.

Since there were in a natural cavern that was pretty high it was no problem to raise the floor a little.

Divine instructed the goblins about filling up the uneven parts in the ground first and try to even them out.

Minion Scarface seemed to get what he wanted, but he would still have to keep a watchful eye on everything.

Divine worked hard and managed to excavate a one meter long tunnel of goblin height in under an hour.

While working, his skills of earth control improved considerably, which only made his working pace faster.

They took a break to eat. The goblings had been getting hungrier and increasingly impatient.

Minion Scarface prepared a meal of shadow cat leftovers, glowing mushrooms and some herbs Divine had collected, and extensively tested over weeks.

Divine used the time to check up on the humans.

Venus had them in her vines' grips and the humans hadn't managed to make even a little headway in loosening their bindings. He could see they had tried.

Surprisingly it seemed like they hadn't tried to wander a little, because they could. The vines were a leash like a dog's, binding it to its dog house, but leaving room to run around the garden a little.

They should really thank Divine for his consideration and generosity.

The two men still looked weak and exhausted, maybe even more than when they had arrived in Divine's cavern. They were bent over the woman.

Divine stepped closer and discovered their reason was worry. They were fussing over her.

It seemed the woman was suffering from a fever.

When Divine came closer and the two men noticed him, both stood up.

The young one placed himself protectively between the woman and Divine.

Divine gestured for the young man to step aside.

The young man didn't comply even when the older man urged him to in their language that Divine didn't understand.

Divine only got: "Torm! *Something* *something* Nola." But Divine understood enough to know the old guy was trying to convince the young one to step aside.

Divine also understood enough of the young man's response to recognise the expressed noncompliance.

Divine punished this disobedience immediately. He shot forward and gave the young man a slap. Only a contolled light one. Divine didn't want to behead the boy right away.

He had to jump up a little to reach the face, but it was worth it.

The boy's head rattled so much that he got weak in the knees and fell down on his ass.

Divine examined the woman up close and confirmed his assumption.

She was so hot, she defenitely had a fever. He could feel it holding his hand above her forehead, touching her wasn't even necessary.

The woman breathed laboriously and her eyelids fluttered deliriously.

Rivulets of sweat ran down her filthy skin, only spreading all the dirt and blood even more.

It wasn't a pretty sight.

Since Divine didn't know what else she had, he decided to play it safe.

He hesitated only a moment before he took out a healing pill.

When Divine fed the healing pill to the woman, the young man yelled.

"*Something* *something* Nola!"

Divine ignored him when the older man kept him from interfering. To the young one's luck because he would only have gotten another slap.

Shortly after the woman had taken the healing pill, her breathing evened out and she stopped sweating like a pig.

Her stomach roared in hunger.

The two man didn't feel different and with that reminder their stomachs growled loudly too.

It seemed the minions hadn't fed the humans.

Divine couldn't really blame them since he had forgotten to feed the humans too, but he would do so anyway.

It was only to help the goblins become better versions of themselves. Better minions.

Divine fed the woman a nutrition pill and went back to Scarface who had almost finished preparing the meal.

When Scarface served him a bowl, he instructed her to feed the two humans.

After Divine's appetite was satisfied he went back to studying earth qi and creating a room behind the new tunnel at the same time.

He kept at it until he had dug out a room with goblin height and an area of 25 square meters.

After accomplishing that, Divine left the minions to transport the earth under Scarface's supervision and went to his disciples, reading to them and revisiting old lessons.

Next he did a round of body cultivation, followed by sitting down and doing some qi cultivation.

In both he was at the ninth stage and nearing the breakthrough to the foundation establishment realm.

Suddenly Divine noticed a group of goblins arriving at his cavern's entrance.

He rose from his meditation to receive them. He had an idea what they wanted, but he would have to make sure.

Divine stopped next to the well not far away from the humans and looked above Venus at the intruders.