Chapter 343 - 147: New God_2
He could only do his best to attribute all the noble, sacred, powerful, mighty, and merciful words related to gods in the tribal language to Chen Zhou.
...
The emaciated captive who regained consciousness listened to his narration and saw his genuine and reverent expression, which couldn't be feigned, involuntarily feeling admiration for the god who saved his life.
He had tasted chocolate himself and knew how sweet this strange food, which had never existed in the tribe, was.
Moreover, upon waking, his memory still lingered on being tied up in the canoe just before he fell unconscious.
Originally, he felt physically weak and on the verge of death.
After being revived from a heatstroke, he genuinely thought he had come back from the dead, feeling grateful for the Celestial God's mercy but also anxious about whether he could bear this blessing.
While communicating with the young native, as he watched the sun setting, with the Celestial God still not returned, he felt increasingly uneasy, repeatedly asking the boy if the Celestial God had abandoned them.
The boy also had no answers, so he could only comfort his companion while anxiously watching the forest, waiting in place.
As the sun was about to set, the younger and more impatient boy even suggested venturing into the forest to look for traces of the Celestial God with the emaciated captive.
In a critical moment, it was still the emaciated captive who maintained his composure and persuaded the boy to wait until Chen Zhou returned.
...
In the hostile tribe, they could only get a few fruits to eat over two days, just enough to sustain life and ensure they were alive to participate in the sacred ritual.
The two boys waited under the shade, already famished.
The smell from the pile of burnt corpses in the distance was especially tempting to them; several times, the emaciated captive wanted to leave the shade to fetch human flesh from the beach, but the boy stopped him.
Judging from Chen Zhou's behavior of killing and burning the corpses, as well as his expression in front of the cooked bodies, he deduced that the Celestial God disliked eating human flesh, so he didn't want himself and his companion to anger the Celestial God with such an outrageous act.
Facing the threat of death, the emaciated captive finally suppressed his appetite and continued to sit honestly under the tree, waiting.
During this long stretch of time, he only drank a few sips of water with salt.
The boy wanted to give him the rest of his chocolate, but he refused—
The tribe's Priest had once told them that the Celestial God's gifts could not be shared; once bestowed, the recipient must bear it, and sharing it would bring about punishment.
His father, a brave warrior, had once shared food bestowed by the Celestial God with his family and was punished by having his ear cut off.
To the emaciated captive, "gods" were not usually merciful figures.
On the contrary, in the Priest's words, gods often symbolized death, reproduction, and punishment.
He had a sister who was punished by the Celestial God for not gathering enough fruits, given to several strong warriors to satisfy their lust, and later died in childbirth.
In his understanding, accepting a god's gift always required a price.
Although this "True God" walking among humans was different from the god the Priest spoke of, having witnessed his father's ear being cut off and his sister being taken into the grass hut, he dared not rashly accept his companion's kind sharing.
...
He patted Lai Fu's head, reminding it to stop barking.
Chen Zhou was slightly surprised by the exceptionally strange behavior of the two natives.
He thought that even though these two were thin as monkeys, they would still wander around to find some fruit-bearing trees, climb them to get some food, or even go to the sandpit to steal human flesh to eat—it wasn't impossible.
He never imagined they would actually wait in place until nightfall.
...
Seeing the two well-behaved and cautious natives waiting quietly for his return, Chen Zhou's terrible mood slightly improved.
He silently mocked in his heart.
"If Tang Monk were as obedient as you two, Sun Wukong would be much less troubled."
As he approached the tree, he unconsciously raised his hand to smell, feeling the bloody odor wasn't as strong, and then approached the two natives with a stern face, signaling the young native to pick up the water jar and follow him.
Although the young native wasn't as bright and clever as Friday in the original, he grew up in the tribe and was perceptive, immediately putting away the chocolate and picking up the jar.
...
Regaining his senses and understanding how he "came back to life," the emaciated captive finally saw the "god" who saved his life again. He hurriedly crawled up, prostrated on the ground, and moved to Chen Zhou's side, indicating for him to place his foot on his head to show submission.
Chen Zhou felt particularly uncomfortable with this unique "etiquette" of the natives.
A child skinny as a skeleton and stark naked being stepped on by him was difficult to accept for someone educated in the modern world.
Every time he placed his boot on a native's head, he felt inexplicably like an unforgivable invader, a feudal lord oppressing the people, or even worse—
After all, rulers only made their subjects bow multiple times, not step on their heads and look down on them.
...
He gently rubbed the emaciated captive's back of the head with his boot, afraid of accidentally crushing him to death.
After a simple gesture, Chen Zhou quickly withdrew his foot, bent down to grasp the emaciated captive's shoulder, and pulled him up.
"Follow me."
Knowing the young native could not understand his words, Chen Zhou also made a beckoning gesture while speaking.
Gestures are the earliest form of human communication, and both the native boy holding the jar and the emaciated captive understood his meaning, all lowering their heads, following behind Chen Zhou.