Chapter 46

Divine and Nola were right in the middle of their morning ritual when suddenly interlopers appeared.

“Master!” “Master!” “Master!” “Master!” Four voices clamored at the entrance of Divine’s cave.

Nola startled and got embarrassed to get caught in the act, but because she was lying beneath Divine, she couldn’t immediately disentangle.

“Disciples!” Divine called out to them, exasperation in his voice. “Wait a moment!”

Totally unruffled, Divine got up stark naked.

Nola hectically grabbed for a robe and covered herself, scooting to the wall and making herself small.

The rope barrier and Divine’s words only stopped the goblings for a short moment.

The smallest quickly squeezed through a narrow opening while the fattest held it open.

Third Disciple plopped ungraciously on her butt, but she made it through.

Second Disciple tried to squeeze through next and got stuck.

His siblings laughed at his misfortune with no intention to help him out of this tight spot.

Fourth Disciple even stopped pulling the rope apart in his amusement.

“Maaaster…” Second Disciple whined for help.

Divine calmly put on his Sea Serpent Hide Robe and then gestured at the rope.

It untangled itself and Second Disciple plopped next to his Junior Sister onto the ground.

“What do you want this early? I hope this is important!” Divine’s tone was a little harsh, but he had to be strict, especially about his own rules or else there would be chaos.

Hearing their master’s strict tone, the disciples quickly moved to line up.

“Good morning, Master!” The four intoned together and bowed.

Their master always liked it when they were well behaved, and by now they knew when to appease him.

“What is it? You know you shouldn’t disturb me in my cave if it isn’t important.” Divine wanted to get to the point, his tone already softer.

“Scarface hasn’t come home until now.” Fourth Disciple blurted out, when his siblings hesitated.

That wasn’t good news.

Divine didn’t know what to tell them.

“Where is she?” Second Disciple asked.

“You have to bring her back!” Third Disciple told the still silent Divine.

“There is no one to make food!” Fourth Disciple told of the horror.

“What were you doing earlier with her?” First Disciple pointed curiously at Nola.

Distractedly Divine answered the question he had an answer to. “We were doing the beast with two backs.”

“Beast with two backs… Looked interesting. What is it? Some kind of training?” First Disciple wondered.

“Stop being so annoying all the time! Always with your endless questions! This is about Scarface!” Third Disciple got angry.

“I will see what I’m going to do about her. You go back first.” Divine told them.

“Can’t you go look for her now? Why is she gone anyway? Doesn’t she like us anymore?” Third Disciple complained and started to get sad.

What a headache, Divine scratched the back of his head.

“I will go get her soon. Go and play something. And later she will be back.” Divine’s words finally convinced them to retreat.

Only Fourth Disciple didn’t move a muscle. “What do we eat?” He asked desperately.

His three siblings stopped in their tracks and looked back to them.

Divine sighed.

“Just eat these pills for now and tell me when you are hungry again.” Divine took out four nutrition pills from his inventory and gave them to Fourth Disciple.

The fat gobling just eyed the small pills critically and Divine realized giving them to him was the worst choice.

Divine concentrated on his qi control and grabbed the four pills.

Suddenly they flew into the goblings’ open mouths.

Before there could be any more complaints the pills were forcibly swallowed.

With some grumbling the disciples left Divine’s cave.

“What is going on? Is something wrong?” Nola had to ask him, since she didn’t speak English.

“It’s nothing. I just have to make a little trip.” Divine didn’t want to elaborate further.

“Do you…?” Nola spoke hesitantly. “Do you want to finish before you leave?”

For a second, Divine didn’t know what she was talking about until he noticed her shy expression.

“No, I’m not in the mood anymore. I will be back later.” Divine left Nola in his cave and went to the cavern to search for his last remaining female minion.

The new mother had occupied the corner of the cavern with her five babies where a year before his disciples had slept.

Hooknose, the father, tried to entertain three of the babies while they were waiting for their two siblings to make room at the milk dispenser.

“Ouch! Bad little nipple biter! Bad gobling!” She admonished the baby, that had her left tit in the mouth.

“Great Divine.” Minion Hooknose immediately jumped up when he spotted Divine.

His baby mother quickly set her children down and got up too.

They both bowed deeply.

Ever since the birth they looked at Divine with fanatical worship in their eyes.

These two really knew to be grateful for his help.

“Can we do good for you?” Hooknose asked subserviently.

“Me leave for while and Scarface not here. So, you keep eye on Disciples.” Divine ordered and they accepted their job with enthusiasm.

…

The Lost Tooth Tribe was as lively as always.

Divine slowly wandered through the tribe’s territory, keeping his eyes open and his other senses sharp.

By now the tribe had gotten used to his unique presence.

They still all respectfully made way for him the moment they noticed Divine, but there was no panic anymore when he appeared and they didn’t make such a wide berth around him like in the past.

If Divine had no luck finding his favorite minion in his first round trip, he decided he would go set the members of the Lost Tooth Tribe on her tail.

He only hoped she hadn’t left the tribe altogether.

That would make things much more complicated.

In the main cavern Divine spotted many familiar faces.

Witchtooth and her servant were concocting something at their usual fireplace.

Not far away Chief Mouth enjoyed a hearty meal, protected from the chieftain groupies by his domineering better half.

In the crowd he even spotted Old Tooth, who was chatting up an adolescent goblin.

But his favorite minion wasn’t here.

Divine wandered on to the poor cavern and its adjoining tunnels.

In one of the tunnels, he made a discovery.

His Qi sense caught a conspicuous Qi signature.

For a second Divine thought it was Flaming Paw, because of all the fire Qi, but then he noticed that its strength was a little too weak for that and that the signature felt like his favorite minion’s.

As he got closer and could feel the Qi better, Divine derived an explanation for this change in her Qi signature.

Apparently, his minion had broken through to the First Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm.

What differed her from Divine was that she already cultivated elemental Qi in the first realm, unlike Divine who had cultivated attributeless Qi in the Qi Condensation Realm and only started cultivating elemental Qi in the Foundation Establishment Realm. (Attributeless Qi was actually only what it was called in Divine’s books, it didn’t mean that there were no elemental particles, only that it was a mix and not pure enough)

Obviously, his favorite minion had an astounding affinity for fire.

That his head minion first broke through to the Qi Condensation Realm also explained how she could have more Qi than First Disciple and still break through second.

Divine sensed that her body cultivation was nearing the first stage too.

Hidden underneath Scarface’s eye-catching aura, Divine discovered the signature of a regular goblin.

Reaching the small cave’s entrance, Divine looked inside.

With her Daoist robe parted, Scarface was sitting on the goblin’s face.