Chapter 23

Above the demonic venus flytrap Divine could see around twenty heads of unwelcome goblins, who were visiting his cavern.

One head wore a really special headdress, looking not that different from a crown.

Further inspection showed it was a jawbone with fangs. Maybe a shadow cat's.

From what Divine had heard in passing from the other goblins, this had to be the famous Chief Mouth.

Before the chief even opened his mouth Divine already disliked him, because he came in here as if this cavern belonged to him.

The worst thing was, the chief and most of the tribe propably thought that was true.

This Chief Mouth really didn't know what was good for him, coming here with his entourage of wannabe goblin warriors.

"Come out! Come out! Show me humans!" Chief Mouth called out loudly and in a good mood until he discovered Divine's head above the big plant.

"Me Chief Mouth. Who you?" Chief Mouth looked expectantly at Divine.

The goblins, who had followed the chief here, stood by the side, spectating.

"Me Divine."

"Oh, you that Divine? Me hear about you. Come here!" Chief Mouth pointed before himself.

When Divine didn't immediately comply, Chief Mouth grew impatient.

"Come here! You cowardly frog? Me not hurt you, me reward you." Chief Mouth words were harsh, at least in goblin circles.

Goblins were naturally all cowardly, everyone knew that, but if one let that stand before witnesses, they would be looked down upon by the whole tribe for as long as the other goblins remembered it. It was a great shame.

Divine's minions, who were listening in, were affronted on his behalf and became a little restless, shifting around and grabbing their weapons.

The chief's entourage just watched Divine's head above the demonic plant attentively, looking forward to the show and of course to seeing the humans.

Chief Mouth gestured for some of his followers to go around the demonic venus flytrap, but before they could get far Divine stepped into their path with his sword in hand.

The goblins backed away.

Calmly, Divine walked up to Chief Mouth.

Chief Mouth's followers were crowding around, their weapons drawn, waiting what would happen.

Chief Mouth just gave Divine's weapon a disdainful look, not drawing his own short sword, only laying a hand on the handle, completely confident.

"You strong young goblin. With growing reputation in my tribe. Here reward for catching humans." Chief Mouth spoke as if Divine had completed a great mission for him and gestured in the direction of the cavern's entrance.

Four female goblins, dressed scantily in pieces of pelt that didn't really cover much of anything, were led inside by a goblin Divine recognized.

The goblin was dressed in a pelt and had lost the rags he had worn. He even carried a pretty long dagger now.

Divine wasn't wrong, the goblin had been one of the final batch of glowing mushroom testers.

That goblin had even enjoyed the fruits of Divine's labour, eating the first glowing mushroom dish that wasn't poisonous.

So the glowing mushroom tester was following Chief Mouth now.

And the chief wanted to exchange these four female goblins for the humans.

No, it wasn't really an exchange.

Chief Mouth considered the humans his, since the moment a member of his tribe had caught them.

He was only giving the female goblins as reward. And as a compensation so that Divine wouldn't get rebellious for claiming his catch.

Of course Divine had no use for four female goblins and if he wanted them, he could attract them himself.

Divine would never hand over humans to this little goblin chieftain.

But he was kind of positively surprised that Chief Mouth hadn't tried to use force yet.

When Chief Mouth noticed that Divine showed no interest and wasn't even a little moved by his gift, he tried another approach.

"Me hear you have humans. Me interested. Me want to see. Show me!" Chief Mouth just asked to see them.

The chief actually hadn't said that he wanted to take the humans for himself yet, but it was obvious.

The humans were sitting behind Venus and were covered. Chief Mouth and the other interlopers couldn't see them without stepping around the demonic venus flytrap, if the humans didn't stand up.

Divine really wasn't in the mood for this now. He had been in the zone, cultivating.

He couldn't wait to finally break through.

Other reasons and excuses shot through his head. Like the blood qi essence, the fact that Venus was hungry and that he wanted a specific reputation in the tribe so that the goblins wouldn't just dare to enter his cavern.

Dark qi slowly ran along his Dancing Feather Sword.

Divine closed the distance and slashed out very fast.

Chief Mouth and his followers couldn't even react.

The blade went right through Chief Mouth's midsection.

A sickle-shaped wave of dark qi spread from the sword and cut down the chief's followers, that were standing close.

[+2 Blood Qi Essence]

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

Divine wouldn't have thought that the chief was worth two blood qi essences. What a surprise.

Blood was spraying everywhere, only not on Divine, because he protected himself with a layer of qi.

Half of the goblins who had followed the late Chief Mouth to Divine's cavern were lying on the ground in a growing pool of their own blood now.

The other half, the lucky survivors were painted blood red and panicking. They were crying out in fear and shock. Some froze where they stood, but most fled as fast as they could.

Divine noticed that one of the followers lying on the ground wasn't dead yet. The goblin had gotten his arm cut off by the dark qi attack and was bleeding out.

The dying goblin laboriously reached into his rags with the hand he had left and took out a white stone. A white crystal? A white beast core?

Divine couldn't tell exactly, so he went closer to find out.

The dying goblin held the white stone near his face and licked it.

Now Divine was even more curious and snatched the white stone from the dying goblin's hand.

It was rock salt.

Divine held genuine salt in his hand. How he had missed it. That's what his meals lacked the most right now.

The dying goblin was staring at Divine hatefully for stealing his treasure in his dying moments.

"Where you get it?" Divine waved with the piece of rock salt.

"Me not telling you!" The dying goblin spat out defiantly.

Divine pressed down on the goblin with his spirit qi.

The goblin only gnashed his teeth in pain and kept silent.

So more pain didn't work.

Right when Divine had decided to feed the goblin a healing pill, the glowing mushroom tester came forward. Or it was more like he stumbled forward.

In the cavern's entrance, next to the four scantily clad female goblins, who for some reason hadn't fled yet, stood another normally dressed female that had kicked the glowing mushroom tester forward.

"Me know. Great Divine, me know. White stone from the caves of the Misty Mountain Tribe. Me see him take on the raid. In the caves of the Misty Mountain Tribe, there many white stones. Me even see great white crystals." The glowing mushroom tester was visibly scared of Divine.

Divine graciously nodded at the goblin in thanks.

With a casual move of his sword, Divine released the dying goblin from his suffering.

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

Divine gave Venus the green light to start consuming the dead, nudging the plant with his qi.

Divine looked at the rock salt in his hand again, waiting for the rest of the goblins to leave.

The glowing mushroom tester cried out when Venus pulled the top half of Chief Mouth's corpse with her vines to her blossom.

Divine watched amused when the goblin hastily shot forward, grabbed the chief's headdress and ran back to the entrance even faster.

Hesitantly the glowing mushroom tester looked at Divine and the exit tunnel alternately until the female goblin, who had given him the kick, whispered something in his ear.

Slowly the glowing mushroom tester went to Divine again, carrying the headdress with both hands like it was something precious, like a tribal crown, and presented it to Divine.

"You Chief Mouth now." The goblin lowered his head when Divine looked at him.

"Your name?" Divine inquired and took the jawbone with the teeth. His first guess had been correct, it really was from a shadow cat. A quite small one at that, but otherwise it wouldn't have fitted on a goblin's head.

"Me G-groby." The goblin answered in a wavering tone.

"The name of the goblin tit standing at the entrance?" Divine looked at the female goblin that was obviously responsible for everything this Groby did.

Groby's expression darkened.

Although Groby hadn't followed Divine's eyes and the four scantily clad goblins were still standing right next to her, gossiping, giggling and stealing glances at Divine, Groby knew exactly which goblin Divine had meant.

With an ugly expression Groby pressed out an answer. "Gribbly."

Divine met Gribbly's eyes and she managed to hold his gaze longer than Groby, before she too eventually looked away first.