Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 823: Vol V Chapter 183

Once he heard this, Sui Xiong froze for a while before racking his brain for information on Jose.

Jose was about 100 years old and was a Northern Barbarian. He had previously been “Snow Bear” tribe’s chief, and they were disciples of the Goddess of the Northern Snowfield, the evil god known as the Queen of the North. This goddess had was highly skilled, even though she only had mid-level Divine Powers. More than once, she had been in conflict with great gods, and many had assumed she would triumph even if the other party had a higher level. Although her victories were less than her losses, with her strong façade and ferocity, her following was extremely strong and even exceeded that of the barbarians’ patron saint, Bear Herding Elder.

In the Snow Bear tribe, many were disciples of Bear Herding Elder as he was the barbarians’ patron saint. However, Jose was different, and as a strongman himself, he could not follow someone who had the approval of the good gods and barbarians. However, he was powerless against the Arctic Federation, which was headed by the Goddess of the Northern Snowfield. Thus, he decided to follow the stronger party and become the Goddess of the Northern Snowfield’s disciple.

In reality, he was not just a disciple but also a clergyman; he was a Soul Shaman.

Gnomes were a special branch of clergymen that only existed in rural areas, which were more illiterate. They did not use prayers and godly contact unlike priests, but instead gained spiritual powers and magical skills and used soul contact to eventually contact gods. Souls usually had ancestors of the same status, and they rose accordingly from there. If not, gnomes became souls through the transformation of powerful creatures in the area. While they had no physical body, they were extremely strong and possessed power, similar to a god.

In the gnome’s belief system, souls were the true mediums, and clergymen were not as recognized. As long as an area had a gnome with a high-level soul and even if the gnome’s own skills weren’t too high, powerful magic could still be performed. There were also gnomes who did not follow gods but rather worshipped ancestral spirits. These gnomes were a bit more backward and barbarian, but their souls resembled priests more.

Jose’s soul was a giant magic beast, a snow bear. Originally, when he had first become the Goddess of the Northern Snowfield’s disciple, he had hunted alone and with his wit and bravery, managed to kill a ferocious Snow Bear. With such a feat, he curried favor with the goddess and became her patron saint. As for the Snow Bear’s soul, it was converted by the goddess to be his soul.

If things continued in this fashion, Jose could become a famous tribal chief of the North or a famous gnome. Within tens or hundreds of years, he may even be able to lead the barbarian army to war with the Orc Empire in the South, making history.

As fate would have it, or perhaps while the goddess was not paying attention, the Snow Bear tribe was demolished on a random winter day due to the bitter cold and snowstorm. Even though Jose prayed hard and even sacrificed his only child as an offering, the goddess did not show mercy on him. In the end, after he had lost everything, Jose went mad in his desolation and cursed the goddess viciously before leaving the snowfield for the South. After wandering alone for several years, his heart was still not completely at peace, but his rage had gradually simmered down. Afterward, Jose thought hard about what to do with the rest of his life.

Deaths could not be reversed, and his goal of revenge was also hard to attain. Was he to live the rest of his life in hopelessness?

In this period of darkness, Jose arrived at the Ancient Forest in the South and came across the temple that was said to exist even before the world was created. There, he met the ancient sage who was rumored to have foresight further than any god. Despite the fact that this old sage was simply a frog the size of a human fist, he offered good advice to Jose, who decided to change his goals and rebuild the Snow Bear tribe. Jose planned to give birth to numerous children and for them to in turn reproduce… This way, with sufficient effort, he could rebuild the Snow Bear tribe four or five generations down the road.

Many were skeptical of this idea. They did not understand why Jose only wanted his future generations to rebuild the tribe. Sui Xiong had brought this matter up with Jose before, to which his answer had simply been that only his own kin would be able to inherit his bitterness towards his situation. Sui Xiong disagreed with this notion, though. However, Sui Xiong did not oppose Jose and only stared at him strangely, curious as to how much of his goal he could achieve.

To have multiple children, Jose sustained several relationships at once and was extremely loose. Originally, when he was roaming about Double-Headed Stork City, he had had stable and slightly unstable relationships with at least 25% of the female soldiers and nearly all of the wind and dust girls. Later, after joining the Church of Void Mask and becoming the rapid mobility troops’ leader, he used his wealthy status to attract even more females to increase his number of children.

According to Sui Xiong’s best knowledge, by the time Jose became a Legendary Master, he had already had more than 50 children and grandchildren. After becoming a Legendary Master, however, he began to slow down this process as he already had absolute certainty that he had enough offspring to create a new tribe. If not, he could use his original methods and, riding on his Legendary Master title, he could use a mere two to three years to form a family for his tribe. As a Legendary Master, he could easily attract 200 to 300 ladies as long as he was not picky.

In any case, he had already achieved his base goal.

The more Sui Xiong thought about it, the more he decided to explore the situation himself and thus paid Jose a visit through their spiritual connection.

Sui Xiong saw that in the east corner of the Northern Snowfield, along a snow-covered canyon, was a newly built tribe. This tribe was slightly different from normal northern barbarians’ tribes. Its position was slightly more north, there were no pastures nearby, and instead, in the center of the tribe, there was a large courtyard which housed a giant transmission formation.

Sui Xiong immediately recognized this transmission formation as the grouping of the magic runes were similar to that of the Church of Void Mask’s chief mage, Master Satan’s style. If it had not been created by Jose, it would then probably have been made by another disciple of the church. Most possibly, it could have been made from one of the most talented disciples, Nice Parne.

With this transmission formation, the newly built Snow Bear tribe could sell its hunting and mining gains at desirable prices and use these earnings to buy food. They could also be secondhand dealers, buying other barbarians’ products and selling food and daily necessities to them.

In summary, this tribe’s foundational livelihood was rather stable.

“Jose has finally achieved his goals!” As Sui Xiong watched Jose lead his grandchildren and great-grandchildren to the central courtyard for prayers towards the giant jellyfish ice carving, he smiled slightly and nodded in satisfaction to himself.