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.

about to say while Gravis only smirked. Aris closed his eyes and

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

for

say, stop being a

Cera nearly exploded.

have seen," 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

crawl, flee, and hide from 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

gone too smooth. If I were a mortal, I would feel for your circumstance, but we're not mortals. We're Cultivators. How can you possibly reach the top

back again. "Yersi should know. She had once been in such

dignity," she said. "I had to crawl and hide in caves,

is right," Yersi said. "This has maybe been the most horrible thing in our lives, but in

Emperor, father, I felt rage. I felt like you were stealing my opponent. If our situation had truly been so bad, I would have felt relief,

completely willing to accept her father's

more powerful," Gravis said. "As mortals, we can vie for a life without such pain, but as Cultivators, we need to fight against the

Gravis stood up.

an incident has such a gigantic impact on you, it might actually be better for you

Silence returned.

too far, father,"

will be the first time that any of this will happen? Only more pain will wait for you in the future. You guys

said, less angry by now. "Your circumstances are far from

for some seconds and sighed. "Is this as far as you can

handed to me? I won't be a hypocrite and say that I have

for two weeks, I wouldn't have gotten Destruction Lightning. Without me killing someone

in shame, I would be dead. Without me constantly fighting

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

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

continued as he walked around, "I have been able to fight a beast three levels above me. Something like this doesn't even exist in this world. Yet, was that enough? Was that where

of my current age at that point to