Sam gave a sweeping glance 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 village. They are eating grain like crazy and they are reproducing like there is no tomorrow.
The villages 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 plays an instrument called Bagpipes. He is a Piper, a musician who plays bagpipes. He told the villagers, '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 village.
I will just lead them to the river and make them drown there. Of course, I would need some payment for that.'
The villagers were ecstatic. They thought that it was a blessing and they let him do it.
The piper made his move.
He played the pipes and every single rat in the whole village followed him out. He played the pipes for a whole day and led them into the river far away from the village. 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 village and asked them to pay.
But the villagers 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.
Villagers only saw that Piper used his power to save the village so they thought it is only good enough to save the village. But Piper knew what he can do with his music.
He travelled the villagers in the surroundings as he played his pipes, he travelled to every human establishment and even every forest around the village as he played for days and lured every single rat in that place and finally he came to the village.
He lured all the rats into the village and this time the number is many more than what they originally hand. He brought up on a plague on that village and not a single person survived much less grains.
The villagers 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 body language is very relaxed. He sat in the chair as if he owned the place. With one of his legs over the other and a wine glass 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 manipulate.
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 clan 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 planet 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 Plane to Divine Plane. They took the trade off so that they could pursue the path of immortality. They are closer to that goal more than ever."
"Hahahaha…"
Sam laughed out loud. He didn't hold back. Priestess looked at him with intrigue.
"What are you laughing at? Isn't it the dream of every cultivator to become 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 Plane 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 Plane Initiation. But he has a higher chance of increasing cultivation level and he is going to increase his cultivation. According to you he is closer to the immortality even then."
"Of course, you are not even alive in that case. How are you going to compete with him?"
"I might be dead, but a memory of mine will be remembered forever. That is how I am going to compete.
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 planet. In a thousand years, you go and ask a child on the street why this planet exists, he will say that a god has come 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 planet.
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 planet exists, this planet 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's comments.
"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 replaced 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."
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