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 on

his answer

Should he lie?

wouldn't even attempt

skills to lie in front of a Mage

argue for the

good reason, this would

he defer the responsibility of the decision to the Lightning Emperor? After all, he was much

give a neutral

would do, what someone else should do, what the village should do, or what the morally correct thing to do is?"

them," the Lightning Emperor answered as he drank more

to send it out of the village," Shang said. "If

Lightning Emperor didn't

village is to either collectively raise the beast to make it follow everyone's orders

Emperor

would do, it would depend on their ambition. Is it worth the risk to nurture it for the eventual payoff? The

piqued the Lightning Emperor's interest,

as for what

let it

reason?" the Lightning Emperor

existence has no impact or relevance," Shang

Lightning Emperor said with

goal is to be the strongest,"

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

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

means I might as well kill myself

Silence.

Lightning Emperor looked at Shang with a

just tell me to kill myself?"

I know that my own goals and priorities are not in line with most

"You are not me."

your case, it doesn't mean that you should make that choice or

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

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

many people in this world. Geniuses might be rare, but among billions, trillions,

many of them are

is still a thousand people that I have to defeat if I

them from being the