Chapter 50

Divine eyed the uneven table and the six roughly carved chairs.

At the head of the table stood the only chair that had armrests and a pelt draped over it.

Beorn, the brown-noser, had made that one especially for Divine, which Divine appreciated immensely.

The wooden furniture was all sized for adult goblins.

That posed no obstacle to the four goblings, who were only half as tall, they easily climbed or hopped onto the chairs like little monkeys.

Fourth Disciple threw the chair and himself on the ground with his first try, but on the second try, he managed to stay on top.

Head Minion served the food and sat down opposite Divine at the other end of the table.

The rabbit mushroom stew, that was sweetened with some winter berries, tasted especially good today.

One could almost taste the dedication the stew was prepared with.

What Divine definitely tasted was the richness of its Qi.

Except for the sound of their feasting, it was silent at the table.

The food claimed their whole attention.

Only after everyone had had seconds, and Fourth Disciple was already busy with his fifth portion, did Divine consider starting the discussion.

Divine took the second smaller bowl next to his empty food bowl and took a deep gulp of water.

“Now that our hunger and thirst are soothed, it is time to choose names for you all. By now all five of you have completely stepped onto the path of cultivation. And with that accomplishment you have earned your right to a Daoist name.” The deeper meaning of what Divine said went a little above the heads of the others, but they understood they had gotten stronger and would be rewarded with a great name.

“Why do I need a new name? I want to stay Third Disciple!”

Maybe they understood even less than he had thought.

“You are and always will be Third Disciple. My third disciple. But you have grown, and this name alone is not enough for you anymore. In the course of your life, you will hopefully earn many names for yourselves, but none will be as important as those that you receive from me.” Divine smiled at Third Disciple. “Since you opened your mouth first, how about we start by looking for a name for you?”

Of course, her Master didn’t wait for her confirmation, but her Master’s words had already convinced her anyway, so she looked forward to getting a new name from him now.

“Does anyone have a suggestion?” Divine asked around.

“How about Stupidhead?” First Disciple smiled mockingly at her sister. “It fits her.”

“You!” Third Disciple cried out in outrage and threateningly raised her hand.

She prepared to jump above the table and hit First Disciple in her ugly face, but one look from Divine and she sank back into her chair with an unexpectedly calm expression.

“Ouch!” First Disciple cried out and looked at Third Disciple’s innocent expression. “Did you just kick me under the table?!”

Third Disciple couldn’t control her expression anymore and smirked.

Divine waited until First Disciple had retaliated with a kick to call them to order. “Enough!”

Asking for their suggestions had been a mistake.

What names would they even know?

“We will do it another way. I will just give you some choices and we will choose one. How about Afrit? Lubia? Lamya or Layla? Loki?” Divine listed a few demon names and demonic sounding names for Third Disciple, he thought would fit her.

“Lubia? I like this name, Lubia. What does it mean?” Third Disciple didn’t think long.

“It’s the name of a storm demon. It fits you. You are a real whirlwind.” Divine smiled at her and she smiled back proudly. “Congratulations and greetings to you, Daoist Lubia.”

“Thank you, Master.” The newly christened Lubia rose from her seat, cupped her hands and bowed to Divine like she had been taught.

“So, who…” Divine wanted to ask who wanted next but couldn’t even finish his question.

“I want my name next!” First Disciple shouted and shot Lubia a jealous look.

“All right.” Divine thought about it silently for a minute before he continued. “How about Lisha? Dusk? Adrienne? Lilin? Or Jemisha?”

“Snotty Booger or Fartbrain?” Lubia threw these names in from the side, trying to mimic Divine’s voice.

She wasn’t very successful, except for making Fourth Disciple laugh and Second Disciple suppress a smile.

Divine shot them a stern look, First Disciple completely ignored them.

“What does Lilin stand for?” First Disciple wondered.

“Lilin is a term for night spirits.” Divine told her.

“Hum… What about Jemisha?” She asked.

“It means queen of darkness.” Her master told her.

“That sounds awesome. I’m Jemisha.” First Disciple was happy with this name.

The meaning appealed to her considerably.

“Congratulations and greetings, Daoist Jemisha.” Divine received her bow with a nod and moved on to the next one.

“Second Disciple, for your Daoist name I can think of Ronove. The name of a demon that teaches art, among other things.” Divine saw his disciple hesitate and proposed another name. “What about Samael?”

“Samael?” Second Disciple asked interested.

“Samael, the accuser, the destroyer. Samael, the seducer. It’s a great name, which takes a lot to live up to.” Divine introduced.

Second Disciple nodded hesitantly, still unsure if he could prove worthy of the name, but he wanted to try.

He liked the sound of the name.

“Congratulations and greetings to you, Daoist Samael.” Divine received his Disciples bow and continued.

“So, Fourth Disciple, I already thought of three names that could suit you. Belphegor, the sloth. Sodom or Oni.” Divine presented.

“I’m Oni.” Fourth Disciple quickly decided on the name that sounded best to him, without hesitation or even asking for its meaning.

He was delightfully uncomplicated that way.

“Congratulations and greetings to you, Daoist Oni.” Divine received his bow and Oni continued eating right away afterwards.

“Last but not least, it’s your turn.” Divine looked at his head minion. “How about we call you Butterfly?”

“You want to name after an insect?” She asked offended.

“Butterflies are beautiful creatures that have to endure being a caterpillar for a long time before they can transform into their true appearance.” Divine’s explanation mollified her somewhat.

“I still don’t like the name.” She said almost petulantly.

“How about Hannya?” Divine asked leadingly.

“What does that mean?” She narrowed her eyes at him.

“The name represents a jealous female demon.” Divine smirked at her.

Struggling between bashfulness and outrage, she settled on silently giving Divine the stink eye.

“What about Lilith?” Divine asked contemplatively.

“Lilith? That sounds better. What does the name mean?” She wondered what he had thought of this time.

She stayed wary of the master’s ideas.

Divine looked deeply into her eyes. “Lilith, the mother of demons.”

All of a sudden, her heart started pounding faster.

She jumped up, cupped her hands and bowed deeply. “Daoist Lilith greets Master. Daoist Lilith thanks Master for her new name.”

Scared he would take the name back again, the newly named Lilith jumped to make it official.

Divine nodded at her, already regretting his suggestion a little, but seeing her and the goblings so happy swept his worries away.

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Hours later.

During sleeping time.

Knorky and Gnocky, the woodcutter duo, sneaked out of Divine’s cavern.

Their destination was their usual haunt, the first cave in the tunnel.

They were so hot and bothered, they couldn’t wait until they reached the cave and started making out on the way.

Their experience with the surroundings guided them safely to the cave entrance.

Without tearing their eyes from each other, the two goblins sank down together in their usual corner.

Knorky suddenly noticed another body there with them.

Because of the dim lighting, Knorky couldn’t really see him, but he could feel him.

That promised to get hot.

“Ahhh!!!” Their third participant seemed to have woken up.

He tried to push the goblin pair away from on top of him, but that only excited Knorky more.

Knorky planned to keep on going just like this, but Gnocky had other tastes and climbed down from the unfamiliar goblin.

Knorky let out a sigh of disappointment while watching the goblin flee the cave.

“Stay! You can play with us. It fun. Me promise.” Knorky called after him with a laugh.

Gnocky shot his woodpecker partner a sulky look and called after the goblin, too. “Cavethief, don’t dare come back. No one wants you!”

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Snicky was scared and confused.

That had been closer than he liked.

What should he do now that he got tossed out of the cave?

Actually, it was the perfect reason to run away.

It wasn’t his fault he got kicked out of the cave and he was forbidden from following the Beauty-from-Behind to the cavern so he couldn’t do anything else but run away.

Snicky hesitated because he didn’t want to be burned to a crisp later.

The Beauty-from-Behind would definitely be angry with him if he just ran away like this.

But if he went to the forbidden cavern and the guards sent him away, then even the fiery Beauty-from-Behind wouldn’t be able to blame him.

Snicky gathered all his little courage and went in the direction of the cavern.

He didn’t meet any guards when he got to the cavern but a very big, very strange-looking plant.

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Divine awoke suddenly in the middle of the night.

Wondering what disturbed his sleep, Divine concentrated on his senses.

He felt a nudge.

Through their connection, Venus was nudging him to alert him about a foreign intruder.

Divine expanded his Qi sense to check if Venus was right or if she was only hungry and targeting one of the cavern’s inhabitants.

After a few seconds, Divine recognized Scarface’s boytoy.

Divine remembered his promise to this servant…

And he was determined to keep his word.

Divine was just and fair like that.

He gave Venus a nudge back and she extended one of her vines.

Easily, the vine grabbed onto the goblin, slithered around his neck and choked him out of air.

Desperately, the goblin clawed at the vine, but it was futile.

Darkness descended onto Snicky and the last thing he felt was his weakening body getting dragged by the murdering vine.

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

Divine got the blood Qi essence and Venus consumed the body.