Sam gave a sweeping nce at the whole audience before he started reciting the story.
"There was once a world where there is no such thing as cultivation. There is no such thing as eternal life. People are all mortals and they rely on agriculture for their food needs.
They store grain for months so that they could survive.
But at one point of time, some rats sniffed the grains out and decided to invade. A huge hoard of rats attacked the vige. They are eating grain like crazy and they are reproducing like there is no tomorrow.
The viges were scared shitless.
They couldn''t find enough poison to kill all of them and they couldn''t find enough energy to beat them.
They are helpless and then came a man who ys an instrument called Bagpipes. He is a Piper, a musician who ys bagpipes. He told the vigers, ''I can help you with the rats. My music is so good that I can make the rats go into trance and make them follow me out of the vige.
I will just lead them to the river and make them drown there. Of course, I would need some payment for that.''
The vigers were ecstatic. They thought that it was a blessing and they let him do it.
The piper made his move.
He yed the pipes and every single rat in the whole vige followed him out. He yed the pipes for a whole day and led them into the river far away from the vige. All the rats just drowned themselves in the river as they lost themselves in the ecstasy of the music.
The piper went back to the vige and asked them to pay.
But the vigers who already lost a lot of grain to the rats became greedy and selfish. They didn''t want to pay him and defaulted. After all, he is one man.
The piper warned them. ''I will get my payment one way or the other. And you won''t like the other way.''
But the greedy humans didn''t listen. Do you know what happened next?"
Sam paused and asked the crowd. None of them responded.
"Piper made them pay in a very harsh way.
Vigers only saw that Piper used his power to save the vige so they thought it is only good enough to save the vige. But Piper knew what he can do with his music.
He travelled the vigers in the surroundings as he yed his pipes, he travelled to every human establishment and even every forest around the vige as he yed for days and lured every single rat in that ce and finally he came to the vige.
He lured all the rats into the vige and this time the number is many more than what they originally hand. He brought up on a gue on that vige and not a single person survived much less grains.
The vigers who enjoyed the power of music when its saved them, didn''t realize that it had the power to destroy them all along and provoked it."
Sam looked at all of them with a smile. He is very leisurely telling this story as if he didn''t observe the sweat covering the body of every single person in the room. They are shaken to their cores. Even Priestess raised an eyebrow as she looked at Sam.
His bodynguage is very rxed. He sat in the chair as if he owned the ce. With one of his legs over the other and a wine ss twirling in his hand. He didn''t even look at the audience properly.
"I hope you all understand what I am trying to say. This rules I said before are my payment and just because I am here to save you, don''t think I am a nice young man that you could try to manipte.
You better pay this piper handsomely. Or he would make you pay one way or the other and you wouldn''t like the other way."
Sam just stood up stretched and walked out.
Priestess looked at the whole group and said.
"I hope you remember those words. It is a really great story after all."
Priestess also left.
That day, the n leaders went back and started making preparations. Since Sam didn''t get any vision about the disaster yet, they have some time.
Sam was given a tour for the day and at night, they had dinner once again. But this time, it is only Priestess, Sandhya and Sam. Except for the two gods at the entrance of the room.
Priestess looked at Sam and asked.
"I hope you like the food. I prepared it myself."
"It is delicious. Thank you. But you shouldn''t have done it. I don''t think I can afford such hospitality."
"It is the least I can do for you since you are saving my home here."
"As I said, it is not a noble conquest. I am on a mission here. If the mission was to kill all of you, I would have done that with the same amount of dedication."
"I guess you are right. But right now you are here to save us. We don''t have to think and talk in what ifs."
"Thanks.
Anyway, I wanted to ask. Why would the ancestors of this do something stupid as make a deal with Zeus and Olympus? What is the goal exactly? When I look around, there is nothing special here. The people that are considered geniuses here, I don''t see anything that is worthy of the trade off."
Sandhya was stunned by these words.
"Really? The base level rose from Mortal ne to Divine ne. They took the trade off so that they could pursue the path of immortality. They are closer to that goal more than ever."
"Hahahaha…"
Samughed out loud. He didn''t hold back. Priestess looked at him with intrigue.
"What are youughing at? Isn''t it the dream of every cultivator to be an immortal? I think the pioneers are rather strong and daring to take that trade." Sandhya said in confusion.
Sam shook his head and said.
"What do you think immortality is? A person living with infinite lifespan?"
"What else? The stronger their strength the longer their life span, the closer they are to the immortality."
Sam shook his head once again and didn''t say anything. He just ate his food silently.
"What? Is it not true?"
"Let me ask you something. The guard at the entrance, he is a Divine ne cultivator and he is one stage higher than me. Doesn''t that mean, he is closer to immortality than me?"
"Yes, of course."
"So, let''s say I stopped all the disasters, but I am still of the same cultivation and I died right after that. My cultivation will just be Initial Stage Divine ne Initiation. But he has a higher chance of increasing cultivation level and he is going to increase his cultivation. ording to you he is closer to the immortality even then."
"Of course, you are not even alive in that case. How are you going topete with him?"
"I might be dead, but a memory of mine will be remembered forever. That is how I am going topete.
In a thousand years, even if that guy is alive all he would be remembered is as the guard of this temple or a warrior of this temple a believer as this temple. What else is he going to be remembered as?
But me, I would be the savior of this. In a thousand years, you go and ask a child on the street why this exists, he will say that a god hase and saved the world, or he would say a devil was paid some money to fight the disasters, or he would say that Sam was here and he fought every disaster that came at this.
Whether my story was truthfully passed down or not, I will be alive in them. I will be remembered in them. As long as this exists, this remembers that it exists because of me.
In my opinion, a man''s immortality is going to be remembered by his legacy, not his lifespan.
And my legacy is so big that I have immortalized every single one of the enemies that I acknowledged. In the world where I interacted with them, their names will always be associated with mine. We will be spoken in the same sentence and every world I interacted with will remember by name, I made sure of that."
Sandhya is confused by Sam''sments.
"Aren''t you bragging a little too much? History can be changed you know. It is the one who lives that writes it. Who knows your name could even be eliminated in history. How would your legacy exist then?"
"My legacy will exist in the mind of the one who tried to erase it and whenever he sees the new history that he reced mine with, he will think of me. Simply put my way of looking at immortality is way different than yours.
At least, I never desired the infinite lifespan that you spoke of."