Chapter 16: The Goblin’s Benevolent Temple

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The underworld beneath the City of Darkness was not very large. It took Li Bin about three days to explore the entire subterranean city, but his gains during those three days were far from small. Along the way, he encountered three small dragon tombs; two of them had already become bone dragon camps, which he took over, and for the third, abandoned dragon tomb, he showed not the slightest mercy, stripping even the dragon-tomb soil from the ground.

Of course, they did not travel without trouble. In the underworld, they even came under attack from a squad of twelve one-eyed giant kings, and that battle cost Li Bin dearly; he even lost two false bone dragons.

Only then did Li Bin understand why that fellow Narak had seized such an excellent piece of land and yet failed to make proper use of it.

Once they emerged from the underworld, Li Bin felt a wave of comfort spread through his body. He turned back and said to Reed, “Reed, do you think I’ve been down in the underworld for too long? Why does stepping onto the surface make me feel so comfortable?”

“That’s not it at all.” Reed also stretched lazily, looking relieved. “This should be holy ground. No matter who steps here, they’ll feel at ease.”

“Holy ground? Wouldn’t that be bad for us undead?” Li Bin asked.

“Of course not. Otherwise, where would the temples of the undead gods be built?” Reed explained with a smile. “Holy ground simply means a place where cities cannot be built, only temples.”

“So you mean this is a temple district?” Li Bin blinked, then laughed. “If all the gods’ temples are built here, won’t they end up fighting each other?”

“Even if they wanted to, it would be difficult. Building a temple on holy ground has stricter requirements than building a city. For every ten thousand square meters of holy ground, only one temple may be built. If it’s a large temple, the required area is even greater. Tell me, who could ever find such a vast stretch of holy ground? That’s why sometimes you’ll see four or five statues standing together inside a single temple.”

Hearing this, Li Bin grew very interested. “Then let’s have a look and see which god’s temple is here.”

Li Bin and Reed had gone only a short distance when a tiny temple came into view. It stood only two or three meters high, built from countless stones of all sizes piled together. Aside from the sacred glow surrounding it, it looked no different from an ordinary house.

Beside the temple were more than thirty small wooden cottages made from raw timber, and farther off stood a stone quarry and a logging camp.

From a distance, Li Bin saw that the workers in the quarry and logging camp were all little green-skinned fellows, only four or five dozen centimeters tall.

Looking at their large eyes and ears, Li Bin hesitated and asked, “Goblins?”

“No. Those are goblins, a branch of the goblin race.” At that moment, an aged voice sounded behind them.

Li Bin turned around and saw an elderly knight mounted on a large rhinoceros. He was holding a battle flag emblazoned with a lightning bolt cleaving across a shattered shield, and he stood behind them, watching them calmly.

The appearance of this old knight caused surprise to flicker across the faces of Li Bin and the others. One had to know that Li Bin was no weakling now, yet this man had been able to appear naturally behind them without their noticing.

Seeing the confusion in their eyes, the old knight smiled generously. “Don’t be so tense. It isn’t that you’re too slow to react; it’s simply that this old fellow has borrowed a little ability learned from the temple.”

“A temple hero?” Li Bin asked after a brief hesitation.

“Not bad. Young man, you even know of temple heroes.” The old knight chuckled. “Why not come and believe in our great god as well?”

“Your great god?” Li Bin glanced at the rather dilapidated houses nearby, his expression plainly skeptical.

“Come now, young man. Don’t look down on our great God of Kindness. Stay here a few more days, and you’ll end up like these lovely children, believing in him too.” The old knight pointed to the goblins laboring nearby.

Li Bin and Reed exchanged awkward smiles, neither quite knowing what to say.

In the end, however, the old knight did not force them to worship his God of Kindness. Instead, he led them into the temple.

Inside, Li Bin saw the deity worshiped by the old knight: a human-shaped figure piled together from several rough stones, not even possessing a face.

Reading Li Bin and Reed’s thoughts, the old knight smiled awkwardly. “My apologies. It is rather crude here.”

“It doesn’t matter. I can already see the greatness of the god in this statue,” Li Bin said firmly.

“Why is that?” the old knight asked curiously.

“Because the statue has been cleaned very thoroughly. For goblins to achieve that standard, it is truly no easy thing.” Li Bin looked at the statue as he spoke.

When the old knight heard this, excitement immediately flashed in his eyes. He grabbed Li Bin’s hand and said, “You truly think so? The God of Kindness has truly blessed me. At last, someone has recognized all I have done.”

Amid the old knight’s endless rambling, Li Bin finally understood the full situation.

It turned out that this old knight named Subivin had originally been nothing more than a scout, sent by his main city to search for a holy ground. After enduring countless hardships and suffering heavy losses among his troops, he had finally found this place.

Yet he had never imagined that the statue he had brought with him had somehow been broken into two pieces. Without the statue, even if he found holy ground and built a temple, the task could not count as complete.

And when he wanted to go back for another statue, he discovered that his forces had been reduced to almost nothing. By his side remained only this small band of goblins.

In the end, he had no choice but to remain here. Even so, he did not despair; instead, he worked hard to find a way back. Not long afterward, he discovered that he could use another statue to replace the broken one required by his quest and thus complete the task.

This left Subivin both delighted and troubled, because as someone born in the Sacred Court Kingdom, he knew the origin of the statues enshrined in temples: one thousand believers had to pray to a single statue for three years, causing the deity it was offered to answer and infuse it with divine power.

If converted into the effort of a single believer, that would mean three thousand years. Subivin knew very well that he did not have that much time, so he turned his attention to another group instead.

He chose the goblins, who were supposed to be cannon fodder. In order to help them remember the benevolent deity once worshiped by their ancestors, Subivin first taught these goblins the knowledge needed to survive and helped their numbers gradually grow.

All these years of effort had not been in vain. He had successfully become the mentor of this thumb-sucking tribe, civilizing and protecting the goblins who, after a long search, had at last chosen to believe in the God of Kindness.

Subivin provided by reader zerowing

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