Chapter 3892: Power or Talent

Alex took a moment to consider the Fire God’s question.

"There’s honestly not enough information to simply answer such a thing, senior," Alex said. "If you’re asking me to blindly choose what I would have, then..."

Alex considered the two options for a moment.

"Let me elaborate a little to make this easier for you," the Fire God said. "Would you rather have the talent to become the strongest out there but start weak, or would you rather have the power to defeat the majority of your foes but not have the talent to reach the peak?"

"That does help," Alex said, nodding slowly as he considered the two options. After a brief thought, he answered. "I would have the power."

The Fire God raised an eyebrow. "Not the talent?"

"No," Alex said.

The Fire God snickered quite loudly before turning around to the others. "This is the man who is the other God of Fire and Yang?" he asked. "This is who I had to come all the way over for?"

Alex frowned slightly. "Did I make the wrong choice, senior?"

"For a God of Fire, yes. You seem not to understand that a single ember can burn a forest down. Fire needs nothing but tinder. A God of Fire should need nothing but talent himself," the Fire God said. "To say that you choose simple power means you lack the necessary desire to reach the peak of cultivation yourself. Such a person could never be deserving of the title of Fire God."

A few people seemed to nod along with the Fire God, as though his words made perfect sense. They too didn’t believe Alex deserved to be a God of Fire.

The Fire God turned toward Alex. "Do you have anything to say to that?" he asked.

Alex made a thoughtful face for a second before nodding. "I do have two things to say."

The Fire God raised his eyebrows. "Go on. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Well, first of all, I chose to accept power instead of talent in your hypothetical because, for once, I was curious how it would be being on the other side. If I chose talent to reach the peak, then nothing about me would have changed at all, and the hypothetical would stop being one."

The Fire God’s face turned stern. "What?"

"As for the second thing I want to say, I think you are mistaken as to what I am. You are the Fire God. I am not," Alex said, standing straighter. "I am the Sun God. The Sun is all-powerful. It doesn’t grow. It doesn’t weaken. It is power, and it is forever. Please do not judge me with your misguided understanding of who I am."

A faint smile appeared on Bladedance’s face, but aside from her, no one was amused by his words at all.

The temperature in the room suddenly spiked while the robe around the Fire God seemed to glow brighter, the orange flames that propagated around it picking up speed.

"You have quite a lot of guts to speak to me like this," the Fire God said.

"I meant no disrespect, Fire God," Alex said. "But I do not need to be overly respectful either. And as for my words, what are they compared to what is going to happen next? I know it. You know it. We all know it. So why don’t we get to the topic we all wish to get to right away?"

The Fire God laughed mirthlessly, letting out soft snickers that contained nothing but pure anger.

"Oh, we will be fighting. I will not let you go on acting as a Half God when you haven’t even become a Divinity yet," the Fire God said. "Your end was going to be a peaceful one, but seeing how you want to play with fire, I might as well let you burn."

Alex remained silent, saying nothing.

The man had been angered from the start. Alex had only brought that anger to the surface. Nothing had truly changed from the beginning. Even if the man had wanted to give him a peaceful end, considering how Alex was going to fight back, that was never going to be the case.

As such, Alex could only wait for any further decisions to be made.

And considering the difference in their power, his words wouldn’t matter here at all.

"If I may speak," a voice came from behind Alex.

Alex could tell it was Sunflare speaking from the voice alone.

Everyone’s eyes turned toward Sunflare. While a few of them didn’t recognize him, the Celestials among them did.

"Brother Sunflare, was it?" the Fire God said. "This is a discussion among Gods here. We would appreciate it if you didn’t butt in."

"Not everyone here is a God," Sunflare said, looking around, his eyes falling on Bladedance.

The Fire God turned toward her as well before looking back. "She’s a God too. It’s just not official yet."

Alex raised an eyebrow, turning toward his master.

Was that true?

She hadn’t mentioned anything about it.

"Well, I have no way to find out what is true or not, and if you do not want me here, I will leave after I say this," Sunflare said. "Young Dawnblade here is under the protection of the Nine Yang Court for the foreseeable future. I understand the situation quite well and know that you have your own traditions, stupid though I think they are since none of you really are a God, but I cannot stop you from doing what you want to do."

He looked around.

"I won’t stop any conflict from arising, and I won’t stop any duel if one should form. But should young Dawnblade be crippled or killed in the process of all of this, you will face the collective wrath of everyone in the Nine Yang Court."

The room went silent for a long few seconds as the Gods looked among each other, trying to understand what was going on.

The Fire God stared at Sunflare in disbelief.

"Excuse me. What the fuck?"