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.

Spirit Sense focused on

answer

Should he lie?

wouldn't even attempt

to lie in front of a

for

good reason, this

the Lightning Emperor? After all, he was much older and much more powerful

give a

know what I would do, what someone else should do, what the village should do, or what the morally

of them," the Lightning Emperor answered

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

didn't

raise the beast to make it follow everyone's orders or kill

Lightning Emperor remained

what a normal person would do, it would depend on their ambition. Is it worth the risk to nurture it for the eventual payoff? The person could become the leader of the village. Maybe, they could even leave the

Emperor's interest, but he

as for what I would

let it

your reason?" the Lightning

no impact or relevance," Shang

elaborate," the Lightning

be

means that I must be stronger than the beast if I want to have any shot at reaching my goal. Even

turns out that the beast is stronger than me, it means my goal was impossible to achieve

means I might as well

Silence.

Lightning Emperor looked at Shang with a bit

tell me to kill myself?"

that my own goals and priorities are not in line with

"You are not me."

doesn't mean that you should

Emperor raised an eyebrow. "That sounds a bit extreme. Is your goal really that

all I have left," Shang said. "I sacrificed

among billions, trillions,

those geniuses, how many of them

thousand people left from one trillion people, that is still a thousand people that I have to defeat if I want to

stops them from