Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

For now, he decided to remain silent.

"Let me explain my conundrum with a metaphor," the Lightning Emperor said.

"Imagine you are a mortal and live in a village with 50 other villagers. You don't have any sort of real societal standards and norms, and the strongest person in the village is the leader."

"Now, imagine there is a council of five leaders since they don't want to fight each other for whatever reason, and you are one of them."

"One day, you find the offspring of a very powerful beast, which is far more powerful than any member of the council."

"You nurture it, and it follows you."

"Yet, it doesn't completely follow your commands, and you know that there is a chance that it might attack you and everyone else. After all, it is still a wild beast."

"But maybe, it will also help you."

"But also only you. What if it attacks any of the others in the village?"

"Right now, the beast is still a baby."

"So, what do you do?"

"Do you nurture it?"

"Do you kill it?"

"Do you ask the others?"

The Lightning Emperor drank another mouthful of tea.

"Everything about this beast screams risk at you. No matter what happens, it will be a risk. If it isn't one for you, it definitely will be one for the village."

"But you like the village. You live in the village. You are happy with the village."

"You don't want your beast to kill other villagers."

"But it very likely will."

"So, what would you do?" the Lightning Emperor asked.

focused

that his answer would decide his

Should he lie?

wouldn't even

he had the skills to lie in front of a

for the beast's

a good reason, this

of the decision to the Lightning Emperor? After all, he was much older and much more powerful than

he give a neutral

what someone else should do, what the village should do,

Lightning Emperor answered as he drank more

thing to do would be to send it out of the village," Shang said. "If you can't do that, nurture it and trust that

Lightning Emperor didn't show

either collectively raise the

Emperor

worth the risk to nurture it for the eventual

piqued the Lightning Emperor's interest, but he

for what

let it

the

no impact

elaborate," the Lightning Emperor said with

is to be the

any shot at reaching my goal. Even more, the beast's growth might even give me the incentive to

out that the beast is stronger than me, it means

means I might as

Silence.

Shang with a

just tell me to kill

what I would do. I know that my own

"You are not me."

I might make that choice in your case, it doesn't mean that

sounds a bit extreme. Is your goal really that important

all I have left," Shang said. "I sacrificed everything else, and

be rare, but among billions, trillions, quadrillions, or however many people there

how many of them

if there are only a thousand people left from one trillion people, that is still

stops them from being