Free Web NovelChapter 152: Chapter 152: Not the Original Person
The spiritual energy fluctuation in the air drew back the Temple Lord’s attention.
He stopped smashing things, tilted his head, and smiled:
"My, you can’t even guarantee your own life, yet you still have the strength to protect a cub. Should I call you kind-hearted or foolish, former Temple Lord?"
The elderly Sub-Beast didn’t even spare him a glance. The Temple Lord didn’t care either, covering his mouth and chuckling:
"Oh my, I completely forgot. You were robbed of the Temple Lord position by the original owner of this body. You picked him up from a slave camp, fed him, housed him, and taught him the skills of a Priest.
He swore to be loyal to you for his entire life. Yet, I only needed to whisper a few words into his ear, and he betrayed you~. Do you know, right before he was completely swallowed by me, he kept calling out ’Teacher, save me’. Tsk tsk, how truly pitiful~"
Hearing this, the elderly Sub-Beast’s body trembled slightly, his eyes widening. A coppery-sweet taste surged up his throat, but he forcefully swallowed it down. The elderly Sub-Beast closed his eyes and lowered his head, not looking at the Temple Lord a single time more.
The Temple Lord didn’t care about the elderly Sub-Beast’s attitude either. He just felt frustrated in his heart and wanted to find a place to vent his anger. The Temple Lord waved his hand:
"I brought a little friend for you guys, remember to take good care of him, okay~"
He waved his hand, and a streak of green light flashed. The ground on the central altar suddenly sprouted a pillar with blood curses identical to the twelve smaller altars, but the pressure of this blood curse was many times stronger.
Clanking sounds echoed from mid-air, like the wailing of living souls, yet also like urgent war drums. The green light grew brighter and brighter, until it dissipated, revealing a tiger cub with its four limbs and neck tightly bound, suspended on the pillar. The tiger cub’s eyes opened coldly, looking at the Temple Lord as if looking at a dead person.
Suddenly, the tiger cub’s gaze collided with the image of the little snake lying carelessly on the edge of the stone platform. His pupils suddenly shrank, and he let out a growl:
"You bastard, what did you do to Edward?!!"
The tiger cub tried to struggle. Golden light flashed around his body, and the light chains loosened slightly before abruptly tightening, squeezing his body hard. Simultaneously, tentacles burst out from the ground below, piercing into his body. Wofu let out a tragic scream of pain.
Blood dripped from his body *pit-a-pat*; amidst the red blood was a hint of golden yellow. The vines were both excited and afraid, timidly not daring to absorb it. The precious blood just seeped into the cold floor of the altar, completely absorbed by the altar.
The Temple Lord stepped beside the little snake, grabbed its tail to lift it up, rubbed his chin, and said:
"Oh, so this little brat is named Edward? That’s a good name." He tilted his head: "So, dear Second Holy Son, what is your name? Once you are dead later, I will carve a tombstone for you."
Wofu angrily bared his fangs and growled: "As if I want it! It’s best you don’t touch Edward, otherwise we will not let you off!"
The Temple Lord clicked his tongue twice, lifted the little snake in his hand, and tossed it straight down into the lava below. Wofu’s eyes looked as if they were going to split open, and he roared in despair:
"No!!! Edward! You devil! I must kill you!"
The Temple Lord ignored the fury of the other three, only staring down at the lava river. A golden sphere of light floated on the boiling lava; the little snake inside the sphere was made uncomfortable by the heat, hissing softly a few times.
The Temple Lord’s eyes turned cold. As expected, the Demigod bloodline in this snake’s body was many times thicker than the White Tiger’s, practically on the verge of evolving to the God level. The Temple Lord understood clearly that with his current strength, there was no way he could seize the Divine Blood in Edward’s body.
The Temple Lord waved his hand, and a thick, ugly root immediately slithered down from the altar, scooping the little snake back up. Seeing that the little snake was unharmed, the other three secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Wofu didn’t dare to spout words to provoke the Temple Lord anymore; who knew if that madman would throw the boy Edward down into the lava again.
In the resonance space, Edward’s mental body flickered between bright and dark. Edward felt very uncomfortable in his body, wanting to wake up to see what was happening but unable to wake up no matter what he did.
The boy’s face turned cold: "Something happened outside. My body has been tampered with by someone."
Ryder anxiously held onto Edward’s semi-transparent body, and Oliver also slithered around his older brother. Ryder plucked a pinch of his own mental body and brought it to Edward’s mouth:
"Brother Edward, eat this. You won’t feel uncomfortable anymore."
Edward rubbed the mouse cub’s head, pushed the mental body back to the boy’s body, and comforted: "I’m fine. It’s just that I can’t wake up, I’m not injured."
He waited a bit longer, and his mental body brightened back to normal again: "The discomfort is gone."
The two little ones were still uneasy, staring at Edward for a long while. Only when they saw that he truly wasn’t fading anymore did they truly breathe a sigh of relief.
Edward pointed his tail at the massive sphere of spiritual energy resembling a small sun in the sky of the resonance space, and said to Oliver and Ryder: "You two try and see if you can absorb any of it? The spiritual energy in the Northern Continent is very dense anyway; if I absorb it freely without restraint, it will fill up again in no time."
Ryder and Oliver stepped forward together, closing their eyes to try to absorb it. Unfortunately, they waited for a long time without any reaction at all. Both of them shook their heads, and Edward said dejectedly:
"What a pity. With your and our two fathers’ cultivation talents, if you were in the Northern Continent, sooner or later you would break through to high-level warriors, or even Demigods."
Oliver gently advised: "It’s okay, brother. Since we are geniuses, we can dominate an area no matter where we are. Do you remember the method to break the blinding spell I taught you? Once you learn it, try to sneak a peek at a set of cultivation techniques for mid-level warriors; only then can you help our two fathers break through to the High level earlier."
No matter how capable Kaelen and Sane were, they still had to bow to the laws of this world. Kaelen’s techniques only served to elevate a portion of the strength of Divine Energy and Beast Energy warriors, but in comparison, they still fell short of this world’s intrinsic cultivation techniques.
Currently, the Crimson beastmen were strong because they were systematically trained according to the official Military system, plus the benefits from cultivating the techniques created by Kaelen. But if they encountered a regular army using original high-level techniques, perhaps the Crimson army would be wiped out in just a few breaths.
Edward naturally knew the pros and cons within, nodding: "I will try my best. That Temple Lord didn’t give us cultivation techniques but didn’t forbid us from going to the Temple’s library either. If I can’t find mid-level techniques there, I will sneak into the living quarters of the Mid-level beastmen in the Temple and steal theirs."
Ryder said worriedly: "You must be careful."
"Yeah, I know."
Outside, the Temple Lord had finished venting the frustration in his heart and gently placed the little snake back into the vine basket. He caressed the silver-white hair, placed two fingers on his lips to blow a kiss, and threw it towards Wofu:
"Little one, have fun playing here. Your friend is being taken care of by me~"
Saying that, he carried the vine basket back along the path he came.
Wofu’s eyes stared intently at that graceful figure until the Temple Lord disappeared around the corner. Only now did Wofu have time to observe the surrounding scenery, startled upon seeing the two dying people on either side.
He licked his lips, asking curiously: "Were you two also kidnapped by that guy? Have you been locked up here for a long time?"
The elderly Sub-Beast was already weak, finding it very difficult to speak. The only person who could answer Wofu coherently was that Snow Wolf beastman:
"I am the previous generation’s Holy Son, the person on the other side is the previous generation’s Temple Lord of the Temple. We encountered a traitor, so we are locked up here; it’s been nearly a hundred years already."
Wofu was incredibly astonished, his tiger eyes widening to their limits. In his understanding, Holy Sons and Temple Lords were always incredibly noble existences, excluding that devilish Temple Lord, of course. He didn’t expect that noble existences could also wander down this path.
Furthermore, he didn’t expect this cruel sacrifice to have been happening for a whole hundred years!
The Snow Wolf beastman seemed to read the thoughts in Wofu’s heart, sneering:
"This place has a total of twelve smaller altars and one main altar. You are the second person to be bound on the main altar. The first person was the Former City Lord of the Beast City, who is also the father of the current City Lord. He only held out for three months. The ten people bound in the same batch as us have all turned to dust already; only us two old fogeys are still clinging to our dying breaths until now."
The Snow Wolf sighed bitterly: "In the past, it was all adults or people nearing the end of their lifespans, but now he even lays hands on beast cubs. What a sin!"
The elderly Sub-Beast said hoarsely: "Not... the original... person..."
The Snow Wolf beastman angrily scolded: "Are you still defending that traitor even now, Temple Lord?! If he hadn’t betrayed us, sacrificing us to that Evil God, how would we have fallen into this situation! It serves him right to have his soul swallowed by that Evil God!"
The elderly Sub-Beast pursed his lips and said no more; a tear slipped down his chin. He wanted to justify that it wasn’t his disciple’s intention; the child was just bewitched. After all, that Evil God was truly skilled at bewitching people’s hearts.
But he no longer had the strength to justify it, and his foolish disciple was no longer here either.
After that scolding, the Snow Wolf beastman also fell silent. The space was only filled with the panting breaths of the people nearing the end of their lives, blending with the gurgling sound when lava bubbles burst.
Wofu tried to digest the massive amount of information he just received, then slowly analyzed it.
During the few days he was chained at the ancient tree, his Magical Energy was absorbed, but not much. However, in just the moment he was dragged down to this altar, the Magical Energy in his body was slipping away at a terrifying speed.
For generations, the City Lords of the Beast City had all been high-level Beastmen on the verge of reaching the Demigod threshold. If a beastman that strong vanished after only three months, then a tiger cub only the size of a fist like him might not even last three days.
If he didn’t quickly find a countermeasure, he would definitely be the second Former City Lord.
Wofu looked at the shackles binding him tightly, his gaze profound.
*If only there was some way for me to return to an adult state.* With the inheritance passed down from his ancestors, he would definitely be able to shatter space and bring Edward safely back to the Southern Continent.
For the first time, Wofu felt powerless because he wasn’t as intelligent as Kaelen or as capable as Sane. Fortunately, Obsidian had disbanded, and he was no longer the successor to the Chief title.
Otherwise, he would have become an even more failed Chief than his Daddy...
