Lord of Glory

"Father, what did you just say?"

These soldiers were still perplexed by the situation, but all of a sudden, they began to feel their limbs weaken and their heads dizzy. They saw golden stars twirling before their eyes. This made their expressions change dramatically.

"We've been drugged!" the scarred man immediately shouted.

However, the next thing he saw was several of his companions fainting one after another on their respective chairs. All of them fell unconscious!

"Pft, hahahahaha! What wonderful raw materials. After all, all of you are soldiers who went to fight on the battlefield." Paladin’s icy eyes narrowed. Surprisingly, he took out a bottle of purple potion, raised his head, and drank it as if no one else was present.

In an instant, the scarred man realized that everything was a ploy devised by this seemingly benign priest. That small bottle was most likely the antidote to the drug. One thing he didn't understand was how quickly the drug took effect; he'd never seen a drug as fast as this. Furthermore, what was Paladin's real motive? They were captured and sold as slaves. For money? But they didn’t have any. Either way, they’d die in the end. Plus, Paladin already had dozens of gold coins. The scarred man really couldn't figure Paladin out. When he saw Paladin walk forward while smirking before patting his unconscious compatriot, his mind became more and more confused. The man could only feel coldness deep inside his heart.

After opening the entrance to the basement, Paladin dragged the five men who had fainted into the dark and gloomy basement. Paladin threw the quill in his hand and gazed at the massive Philosopher's Stone refining formation drawn on the ground. Feeling satisfied, he smiled.

"Huh?"

Paladin frowned and covered his nose as he looked at the bodies piled up in the empty space. What a wonderful pile of corpses. The pile consisted of six to seven dried corpses. Small luminous flowers that were emitting white light sprouted from the corpses' dark brown skin. The flowers grew in clusters all over the bodies, just like mushrooms. It was hard to believe that this beautiful flower grew on top of the death of others. These white phosphorus flowers were used to make Novin, the main material of the Deadly Rain.

At first, Paladin didn’t sense anything, but just now, he was sure he smelled a sour odor. The odor blended with the white phosphorus flowers’ seeds. The seeds were harmless if inhaled by living creatures, but it would quickly take root and sprout once it fell on the skin of dead creatures. It didn’t even take a few days for the white phosphorous flowers to grow lush. If one looked closely, they could see that these clusters of white phosphorus flowers sometimes shook. It was as if the petals surged upwards to spurt its untraceable seeds just like dust. Paladin felt helpless, he didn’t know how to get rid of the odor.

"There’s no way. The basement can’t be ventilated. These seeds have accumulated in the basement and are becoming a hazard. This is not a good sign."

When Paladin was thinking about how to get rid of the odor, he heard an ‘Ohhhhh’. Paladin's nape hair immediately stood on end. He opened his right hand to make a lightsaber by condensing the light magic element. He took a step and turned around. Without even having the time to look, he was about to strike the unknown entity behind him with a wave of his hand.

"Whoa..."

Paladin halted abruptly. He stared blankly at the creature that was behind him. It turned out to be the monster he had just bought. The said monster was timidly lying on the ground.

"Woah-woo." The giant monster put his chin on the ground, looked upwards to see Paladin's gaze, and yelped flatteringly. A smile gradually appeared on Paladin's face, and the lightsaber in his hand vanished into nothingness.

"Stand up." With an inexplicable smile on his face, Paladin gave an order. The monster stood up obediently. The top of his head, which was covered with brown hair, was directly touching the basement ceiling.

"Do you understand what I’m saying?" Paladin inquired, his voice tinged with curiosity. The monster actually nodded vigorously while smiling pleasantly at the small man who was much shorter than him.

Paladin, who found this very interesting, had a flash of doubt in his eyes and asked bluntly, "How did you get out of the cage?"

The monster opened his palm to reveal a pile of iron pieces, which made Paladin want to laugh but also cry at the same time. What a powerful strength! Paladin was both surprised and delighted. It would be fantastic if the monster obeyed him. When the monster saw that Paladin wasn’t responding, he pointed to his mouth, which was full of sharp teeth, and then pointed to his belly. The message was clear: he is hungry.

Paladin got a grip of himself and fell silent. He had no idea how much food he needed to feed such a large man! Moreover, judging by his demeanor, he was clearly not a vegetarian. The question was, where would he get so much meat? Although Paladin was not short on cash right now, buying so much meat for no apparent reason would be suspicious. Paladin had also decided that the existence of this big man must not be known by the public.

Suddenly, an idea popped in Paladin’s brain. Squinting at the people who were lying unconscious on the ground, his face gradually began to distort, showing a cruel expression as he laughed.

"Big man, do you eat humans?"

The big man, whose appearance was horrifying, froze. Obviously, he didn’t understand what Paladin had just said, but he still nodded in agreement. Seeing him nod, Paladin smiled. Then, Paladin pointed to a relatively strong soldier, the cruel expression on his face intensified.

"You can eat this one. But remember, you can't eat it in my church or anywhere else where other humans can see it. Remember, etch it into your brain! If you want to eat, go eat in the wild! Run away if you see someone you can't kill passing by! Never, ever run towards the church! Got it?"

The big man looked at Paladin with a genuinely serious expression on his face. It took him thinking for a while to understand. Nodding happily, he stepped forward and grabbed the man as if he was grabbing a chicken. He was about to go to the wild to fill his stomach when he suddenly heard Paladin’s shout.

"Wait a minute!"

The big man immediately came to a halt and then, and he was back to squatting timidly at the basement's entrance while staring at Paladin. However, Paladin simply said this while smiling, "It's really inconvenient to call you big man all the time. Because you’re a monster, from now on, you'll be called Aberleigh."

"Oh oh oh!"

When he heard his new name, Aberleigh waved his arms very happily, and then quickly went out of the church with Paladin's permission.

Nobody else was around when Paladin brought out a kettle, soil, and a torch. He approached the few people who were lying in the refining formation step by step.

"That's right, I want power," he said while looking at them.

At this time, Aberleigh, who had already run to the deep mountains and old forests, was very happy. Although he had no memory of the past, his pure intelligence was still there. He believed he had found a good master. The master had helped him to escape from those weak humans and gave him something to eat. He felt very happy.

However, Aberleigh had always had this question in his heart. Why did his powerful master take on the form of those weak humans? Aberleigh's wild intuition assured him that his master was definitely not a human. There was no trace of human breath on him! Considering his intelligence at the time, Aberleigh couldn't possibly solve the mystery. Perhaps, even Paladin himself hadn't even considered the possibility that he was no longer a human.