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 the Lightning

his answer would decide

Should he lie?

wouldn't even attempt

the skills to lie in

he argue for

good reason, this would feel

Lightning Emperor? After all, he was much

he give a neutral

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

answered as he

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 it

Lightning Emperor didn't

either collectively raise the

Lightning Emperor

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.

interest, but

for what I would

let it

reason?" the

existence has no impact or relevance,"

Lightning Emperor said with

to be the strongest,"

to have any shot at reaching my goal. Even more, the

the beast is stronger than me,

I might as well kill myself

Silence.

Lightning Emperor looked at Shang with

tell me to kill

told you what I would do. I know that my own goals and priorities are not in line with

"You are not me."

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

sounds a bit extreme. Is

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

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

how many of them are

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

from being the