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

his answer would decide his

Should he lie?

even attempt

skills to lie in front of a Mage

argue for the beast's

reason,

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

give a

what the village should do, or what

the Lightning Emperor answered as he drank

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

didn't show any

either collectively raise

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. Maybe, they could even

Lightning Emperor's interest, but he let

for what

let

reason?" the Lightning Emperor

its existence has no impact

Lightning Emperor said

goal is to be

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

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

means I might as well kill myself right

Silence.

Emperor looked at Shang with a bit of

you just tell me to kill myself?" he

my own goals and priorities are

"You are not me."

mean that you should make that choice or

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

have left," Shang said. "I sacrificed everything else, and I don't regret

rare, but among billions, trillions, quadrillions, or however many people there are, there have to

many of them are

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

from being the