Chapter 271: Leaving the Shrine
Kaelen and the children stayed at the Shrine for two months. In these two months, he devoted his effort to nurturing the children, turning them into true Warriors.
Besides daily training, he also led them to hunt magical beasts and kill demonic creatures.
Initially, getting injured was unavoidable. Gradually, the children not only did not get injured, but their combat strength also became increasingly astonishing. Now they had more meat to eat every day than they could finish, even starting to complain about eating meat being too cloying.
Kaelen rolled his eyes: "The high-level demonic creatures have all been wiped out by me already, you naturally feel it is easy. If you meet high-level demonic creatures and still have this attitude, then just wait to be gnawed until no bones remain!"
The children were scolded, embarrassedly scratching their heads.
Waiting until all six kids had reached level four, Kaelen finally began preparing to depart.
Looking at the large and small piles on their backs, the green veins on Kaelen’s forehead twitched:
"Food and drinks taken along I will not say, Harbet, what are you bringing that pot-supporting stone for? And Ivy, what are you plucking the grass in the Shrine to bring along for?"
The two kids whose names were called felt guilty and threw the things in their hands away. This was merely the children’s habit. Previously every time changing their residence, whatever could be brought they would bring all along. Kaelen let out a long sigh. After taking an inventory once, throwing the unnecessary things away, Kaelen finally let them place the items onto the handcart.
It was not that he could not store the items in his spatial bag; he merely wanted to temper their perseverance.
The Great World now was extremely chaotic. Non-humans refused to abandon their faith, immediately becoming the most bottom-tier race. Humans because of abandoning their faith early on, therefore became stronger day by day.
Non-humans became commodities casually slaughtered and traded.
Paul’s clan had originally always lived deep in the Elf Forest, but one day, the Elf Forest’s protective array was broken, the Elf clan immediately becoming a target of attack.
The Elf clan had long lost the Elf King; for hundreds of millions of years, the Tree of Life also had not birthed a new Elf King, the spiritual power of the Tree of Life was also weakening day by day.
The protective array originally relied on the Tree of Life’s spiritual power to maintain; year after year it kept thinning down like an animal skin gnawed by termites. Humans had lurked outside the Elf Forest for hundreds of years, only waiting for the day the array revealed a gap.
That day ultimately also arrived.
Paul’s father was one of the Guards guarding the forest gate. The night the array broke, he stuffed his son and Ivy into a tree root hollow, covered them with a layer of rotten leaves on top, then grabbed his bow and turned back.
Paul did not continue telling the story. The boy only said, the next morning when crawling out of the tree hollow, the whole forest only smelled of smoke.
Kaelen sat on Paul’s shoulder, turning his head to look at the Shrine that was gradually distancing with each of the children’s footsteps, remaining silent for a very long time.
He knew why the Tree of Life had not birthed a new Elf King for hundreds of millions of years. That was the punishment the original Heavenly Dao reserved for the Elf clan. The traitor to the Gods back then was the Elf King, and an entire race had to pay the price with hundreds of millions of years of having no guide.
The Beastman clan was punished for initiating the war for several centuries with the Elf clan, causing origin energy to be depleted.
The Dwarf clan was punished because they clearly had the ability to stop it yet stood aside watching with folded arms.
As for the Goblin clan, they were not punished at all. Their clan had originally been weak and always bullied beforehand; they were called rats in the sewers, filthy thieves by the whole world. Not because they wanted to, but only by going to steal from other races could they have the ability to feed themselves and their cubs. No one taught them how to be better.
As for the Human clan, the God of Decay had chosen them as believers. Because in this world there was no race greedier than the Human clan. Without anyone pushing them, they would also voluntarily walk the most evil path.
For example, the non-human children here and that Half-Demon baby lying in diapers over there, all encountered disasters because of the Human clan’s evil nature.
The Lion clan boy was captured when he had not even grown enough fangs, growing up in the arena of a human city-state; on his back, the branding iron scar imprinting a number was still intact.
As for the Dwarf kid, his whole family were forging slaves; his father was beaten to death by the master after forging a ruined batch of steel. The Goblin kid crawled out from a collapsed mine; for three consecutive days no one dug him up, he scratched the earth crawling out himself.
As for Harbet, he never mentioned his own clan. Kaelen asked once, the boy only smiled evasively. He also did not ask anymore.
The baby boy still lying in diapers was picked up by them beside two charred corpses. These two corpses were exactly the child’s parents. This child was also a Half-Demon like Sunlight of the previous life, but he was different from Sunlight because he came from his parents’ love. His parents both welcomed his birth, only the Human clan did not. Up until the moment of death, this one human one demon still protected him.
Seven children, seven paths of blood, ultimately crawled to the same place: an abandoned Shrine that both humans and demonic creatures disdained to even glance at.
Because in the Great World now, Deities were already the most useless things.
Thinking of this, Kaelen’s mouth corners curved into a very faint smile.
The original Heavenly Dao had been altered already. It could be the God of Decay or someone else; Its goal was to push the Human clan up to be the ruling species, then use the evil ego inside the Human clan to destroy the world.
The Human clan was not entirely evil; there were people having lives no different from these non-humans. However, when facing a choice, the Human clan would still lean towards the direction more beneficial for themselves.
"Do you know why Deities need believers?"
Kaelen suddenly spoke up.
Paul thought for a moment: "Because faith gives You strength?"
"Half wrong." Kaelen shook his head: "Faith is not something for Deities to drain dry. It is a string. You believe in me, only then do I see you. I see you, only then can I protect you."
He pointed at the cold starry sky overhead.
"Hundreds of millions of years ago, when that string snapped, it was not that the Deities abandoned the mortals. It was that the mortals let go of their hands first, then the Deities could no longer find you."
The children fell silent.
A very long time later, the Lion clan boy finally asked in a tiny voice: "Then... if we do not let go of our hands, You will not abandon us right?"
Kaelen turned his head looking at him.
The boy sat huddled up, his hand still unconsciously covering the branding iron scar on his back.
"I swear to the Origin." Kaelen said, every word clear: "As long as you still call my name, I will arrive."
The Deity’s words had just ended; the space shook slightly once.
Inside Kaelen’s body, a "clack" sound echoed very softly.
Another section of the shackles had automatically snapped.
Kaelen froze.
He lowered his head to look down at his palm, where six glowing threads as thin as silk had just connected; warm, tender, trembling yet extremely stubborn. It turned out, having the children revere him was not enough; he also had to see and respond to that reverence.
Having once sat on the Deity Seat, Kaelen clearly understood what kind of existence Deities were. Deities were born from heaven and earth; They possessed enough tolerance and patience with believers. But They very rarely responded.
Because They always stood up high looking down; all things in Their eyes were so small that just one finger could crush them. They did not understand that giving and responding was a fair binding. They thought it was merely grace.
Kaelen had gone through reincarnation, lived the life of a normal person, knew how to love and hate, knew how to share and sympathize. Therefore at this moment, he finally saw the connection strings between himself and the six small believers, rather than purely just faith.
He suddenly understood, perhaps in the past Edward had seen this point, therefore gathering all the final bit of Divine Energy of the Deities to send him and Sane into reincarnation. Then from the cause and effect on him and Sane, They also took turns stepping into reincarnation following them.
It was not to resurrect, but to understand...
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Author’s note:
Dear readers, tomorrow the author will take a holiday to celebrate Vietnam’s National Day on 02/09, see you again on 03/09~