Dreaming for 10,000 years

Chapter 407 Name
Upon hearing Yu Tian's question, the man's eyes suddenly became unfocused, and countless fragments of the past seemed to be reflected in his cloudy pupils.

His chapped lips trembled a few times, and he finally managed to utter only a few words: "I have offended the River God."

"How did you offend the River God?"

"I can't say."

"Then tell me what you can say."

"All I can say is that I offended the River God and was sentenced to 'exile'."

"Exile?"

“Like me, tie my hands and feet and throw me into the river.”

Yu Tian narrowed his eyes: "Then you should have died."

No one can survive being tied up by their hands and feet and thrown into the river.

“Yes, I should have died.” The man nodded.

"But you didn't die!"

"Perhaps I'm luckier," the man said bitterly.

If he were truly lucky, how could he have ended up in this situation?

Yu Tian suddenly turned around, his clothes catching a slight breeze: "You can go now!"

"I..." He looked at the vast river, then looked up at the gloomy sky, and finally fixed his gaze on Yu Tian's back.

Suddenly, he cried out hoarsely, "The world is vast, but there's nowhere left for me! I want to live!"

He struggled to crawl forward, his festering fingers grabbing Yu Tian's trouser leg: "I can worship the Cat God with you!"

"Believing in the cat god may offend all the gods."

"So what!" The man suddenly looked up, a terrifying flame igniting in his amber vertical pupils. "I just want to live! And then take my revenge!"

At that moment, the hatred Yu Tian saw in his eyes was so intense that it seemed to want to burn this broken body to ashes.

Yu Tian stared at him for a moment, then reached out and pulled him up: "Come with me."

Instead of taking the man back to the cave where he lived with Little Bell, he found a secluded tree hollow deep in the forest. The gnarled roots of the ancient tree formed a natural barrier, and the hanging vines served as the perfect curtain.

Yu Tian gathered some hemostatic herbs and dandelions, crushed them, and applied them to the man's festering wrist. The cool scent of the herbs diluted the stench of the rotting flesh.

“I don’t know your name yet. My name is Yu Tian!” Yu Tian said to the man.

“My name…” the man said absentmindedly, “I am called He… Never mind! I used to worship the River God, so I took ‘He’ as my surname.”

He looked up, dappled sunlight filtering through the trees and falling on his face: "Now that I've converted to the Cat God, I might as well ask the Cat God to give me a new name, as if I've been reborn."

Yu Tian tightened the bandage: "The Cat God is a benevolent and kind god; he doesn't care about these things."

“He doesn’t care, so we need to care even more!” the man said. “Gods should remain mysterious and majestic. In that case, I’d like to take ‘Yu’ as my surname.”

"Whatever!" Yu Tian shook his head: "Cat God doesn't care."

“I know that to the Cat God, we are nothing. But the Cat God is very important to us!” the man nodded and said.

Yu Tian frowned and said, "No, it's not that! Cat God doesn't care whether he's important to us or not."

The man was somewhat taken aback. As a former priest of the River God, he had been instilled with the concept of the supreme authority of the gods since childhood. The gods were important to him, but they were not important to the gods. Now, suddenly there was such an anomaly as a cat god, how could he not be astonished?

"What legends are there about the Cat God? What miracles have he performed? What scriptures do we need to recite?" he asked eagerly. "When is the day of the sacrifice? What rituals are required?"

"No!" Yu Tian shook his head again, repeating his previous statement: "Cat God doesn't care!"

"...No! This isn't right!" the man suddenly exclaimed excitedly. "Every deity needs sacrifices to gain recognition and expand their influence. The Cat God..."

He suddenly said, "Do you only know the name of the Cat God?"

The tree hollow was silent, with only the rustling of the wind through the vines.

Yu Tian said calmly, "Now you understand why the Cat God is an anomaly among the gods, right?"

Instead of answering the question directly, he left it to the man to figure out for himself.

The man's pupils contracted sharply, and his chapped lips trembled. "No wonder...no wonder..." He seemed to have grasped something crucial, yet couldn't quite articulate it, "So that's how it is."

"The Cat God doesn't care whether others can worship him; what the Cat God cares about is whether those who suffer can survive." Yu Tian looked at the dappled light and shadow outside the cave, as if he could see Shi Fei teaching martial arts.

"Those who rely on the gods to survive will eventually be abandoned by them. Only those who survive on their own are truly alive!"

These words struck the man's mind like a bolt of lightning, causing him to tremble violently! He had previously lived by the gods, who had made him a high-ranking priest, but also a sinner.

"Then... how can I survive on my own? Didn't they say the Cat God doesn't care?" he asked hurriedly.

Yu Tian said, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. What the Cat God taught us is a kind of power. A power that can make people stronger!"

Yu Tian turned around, and a wisp of scorching air suddenly condensed at his fingertips, splitting the falling leaves in two: "I call this power 'Martial Arts'!"

"Martial arts?" The man's vertical pupils suddenly contracted as he stared intently at the lingering internal energy at Yu Tian's fingertips.

As a priest, he was familiar with all the rituals, but he had never heard of such a power that did not depend on the gods.

"The reason why gods are high above us is simply because they possess power far exceeding ours," Yu Tian's inner energy suddenly transformed into a whirlwind in his palm.

The whirlwind transformed into flowing water, finally condensing into a tangible aura. "If only we could possess such power."

The man suddenly began to tremble violently, oblivious to the fact that his festering wounds were reopening. A terrifying thought exploded in his mind: "Could it be... that mortals can truly..."

“Really.” Yu Tian closed his palm, and his protective aura dissipated. “But there will be a price to pay.” He pointed to the wounds on the man’s body: “A price a hundred times more painful than this.”

Outside the cave, the sound of a small bell calling could be heard.

As Yu Tian stood up, the man suddenly lunged forward and grabbed his sleeve: "Teach me!" The flame in his eyes was no longer just hatred, but also a burning desire: "No matter the cost!"

Yu Tian looked down at the former priest, and at this moment, something seemed to be awakening in his hunched body.

"Wait until you're healed," Yu Tian said, pulling his clothes back. "First, think of your name."

As the vines drooped down, the man sat alone in the dappled light and shadow, gazing at Yu Tian's back.

He needs to think of a name for himself.

After a long, long time, he came up with a name. Instead of using "Yu" as his surname, he decided to become a "fish." He wanted to become a giant fish and take revenge on the River God!

Since that's the case, let's call him Carp!

Carp are the most common fish in rivers. One day, a carp will leap over the Dragon Gate and become a dragon!

(End of this chapter)