Lightning Is the Only Way

"Haven't you said that you cared about us?" Cera said with venom. "Have you been lying?"

"Hey!" Gravis shouted as he frowned. "Don't ever question my love for you! I know very well how it feels to be suppressed, and I understand how frustrating it must have been for all of you, but don't blow this out of proportion!"

"There are many ways you could have used to solve this issue. If it were truly so bad, you would have taken any of them," Gravis said.

All three of Gravis' children had different reactions to his words. Yersi sighed while Aris looked with a complicated expression towards the battle. Meanwhile, Cera only looked with disdain at her father. "Enlighten me," she said, and judging by her tone, she didn't expect much.

"First of all, you could have immediately fled as soon as you were confronted by this situation."

"Where to?" Cera asked without any amusement.

"The sea beasts," Gravis answered simply.

"The enemy?" she asked like she hadn't heard correctly. "And become traitors? I could never live with such a shame."

"And exactly that's why the situation wasn't so bad," Gravis said. "Because staying in this situation was not as bad as living with some shame. If living in this situation was so bad, you would have simply fled in shame. Tell me, what would you have done if you knew that the Earthquake Emperor would kill you tomorrow? What would have happened? Would you have waited and obediently died?"

Cera gnashed her teeth. "Of course not! I'm not throwing my life away!" she shouted.

"So you admit that you had a choice in your current circumstance," Gravis said.

Cera glared at Gravis. "Of course we had, but living in shame is even worse than dying."

"Now, you're contradicting yourself," Gravis said with some annoyance. "You said that you wouldn't have thrown your life away, but now you say that you would rather die than live in shame. What is it?"

Cera stood up angrily. "These are two unrelated things!"

"No, they're not," Gravis answered. "When you're confronted with a horrible situation, you will want to find a way out of it. But sure, let's put a pin in that. Next thing: You could also have attacked the Tornado Emperor together when the Earthquake Emperor was busy. There surely had to be some times where that opportunity presented itself."

"And waste such a great tempering opportunity?" Cera shouted back. "That's a level three Emperor, and there are not many left. Wasting such a great tempering opponent just to- "

And then, silence.

say while Gravis only smirked. Aris closed his eyes and sighed while

Gravis said after some seconds. "I have a close and powerful friend in this world, and I think her

for

would say, stop being a

Cera nearly exploded.

Gravis said, "none of you three had had any genuine setbacks yet. You have been born in a perfect area suited for you. Then, you have been at a place that allowed you to become Kings very quickly. After that, you joined the defensive lines and stayed

an enemy that was about to kill you. You didn't have to do something shameless to defeat an opponent that was too powerful for you to kill. Now, you have been suppressed once by a level four Emperor, and you immediately acted like it was the

too smooth. If I were a mortal, I would feel for your circumstance, but we're not mortals. We're Cultivators.

been in such a situation. Isn't that right, Yersi?"

have left the Offspring Areas for the outside world to recover my power, I didn't live with dignity," she said. "I had to crawl and hide in caves, flee from anything that even looked like

in our lives, but in the grand scheme of things,

said from the side. "When I saw you killing the Tornado Emperor, father, I felt rage. I felt like you

to accept her father's

things make you more powerful," Gravis said. "As mortals, we can vie for a life without such pain, but

Gravis stood up.

a gigantic impact on you, it might actually be better for you to stop cultivating," Gravis

Silence returned.

far, father," Yersi

time that any of this will happen? Only more pain will wait for you in the future. You guys know my story. Yet, instead of listening, put

less angry by now. "Your circumstances are

looked at Cera for some seconds and sighed. "Is this as far as you can go?" Gravis asked. "Have you already accepted that you

her eyes. "Do you think my power has been handed to me? I won't be a hypocrite and say that

have gotten Destruction Lightning. Without me killing someone I felt very close to, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to

tempering and pain, my Will-Aura would be nearly useless right now. Without me fleeing from my opponents in shame, I would be dead. Without me constantly fighting Heaven and purposefully walking into its traps, my Spirit and lightning wouldn't be so powerful, and I

Gravis said. "If you can deal with the pain, great, but if you can't,

listened intently. Cera didn't want to admit it, but her father's words also touched

able to fight a beast three

I spent three times of my current age at that point to push myself one