"Daddy, why don't you allow me to cultivate?"
Up in the highest world, a ten-year-old girl sat in a massive hall in front of a middle-aged man with black hair.
The man with black hair was the Opposer, and the child in front of him was his youngest daughter, Artemis.
When Gravis had discovered new love, the Opposer and his wife had felt their old love being rekindled.
When Artemis had heard about Cultivation from her friends, she had felt it to be wondrous.
People could fly around?
People could completely reshape the entire world?
She also wanted to do this!
"Artemis," her father said. He tried his best to make his voice as soft as possible. He didn't want to scare her or suppress her with his authority.
"I love you, and you know that I only want the best for you," the Opposer said with difficulty.
Artemis didn't react.
Her father told her so often that he loved her that this statement had no impact on her.
"But Cultivation is not as easy as you imagine," the Opposer said.
"Cultivation doesn't lead to happiness. It can help you in securing happiness, but you first need to go through a black sea of pain and despair before you can truly find happiness."
SHING!
A white screen that showed images from a village was summoned in front of Artemis.
"Do you see them?" the Opposer asked. "These are mortals, and they are truly happy."
Artemis saw several adults working together, and whenever the husbands looked at their wives, a long and deep connection between them could be felt.
"You want to be happy, right?" the Opposer asked.
"Yes," Artemis said without any hesitation, "but I also want to see more of the world. I want to become powerful and understand the world. I don't just want to spend the rest of my life in this city!"
The Opposer sighed. Why was raising this child so much harder than raising all the other ones?
In the past, he could just have directly shown them that they didn't need any power to be happy, but now, everything had become more difficult.
The Opposer had changed, and he was trying his best to be as good of a father as he could be.
Artemis didn't call him father but daddy.
Artemis wasn't surprised when her father told her that he loved her.
Artemis wasn't even a little bit nervous in front of her father.
As a young child, Artemis felt all of this to be natural.
This was just normal, right?
"I have told you what your big brother had to go through," the Opposer said, referring to Gravis.
"He had accidentally killed his only friend in the lower world."
"He had to decide between power and happiness."
"He had to stay alone for so many years, and even when he made friends, he had to separate from them."
"Even now, over 50,000 years later for him, he still hasn't met his earliest friends again."
"If you step on the path of Cultivation, the world will become your enemy. At that point, you can't increase your power and be happy at the same time. As soon as you step on the path of Cultivation, happiness has to wait until you are powerful enough to protect this happiness."
"Right now, no one is threatening your happiness. If you want to search for happiness, no one will stop you."
"Are you truly willing to spend your entire life among blood and destruction just to be able to search for the very thing you can already have right now?" The Opposer finished.
Artemis frowned. "So, that's a no, right?" she asked.
The Opposer sighed again.
"It's not that easy to make such a choice," he said. "Right now, you are only ten, and you're not able to make such a long-lasting decision."
"I'm grown-up already!" Artemis shouted, aggrieved.
Some seconds of silence passed in which the Opposer looked with a complicated expression at his daughter while his daughter looked with narrowed eyes at her father.
"How about this? When you're 15, you can decide what path you want to choose," the Opposer said.
"15!?" Artemis asked in shock. "That's so long!"
Five years for a ten-year-old child might as well be as long as their entire life for them.
She had to wait for her entire life!?
"Yes, that's the best compromise I can come up with," the Opposer said.
"I can't believe you're doing this!" Artemis shouted as tears gathered in her eyes. "Why don't you just say no!? At least you would be honest!"
"You're stupid, daddy! I hate you!" Artemis shouted before she ran out of the room.
Silence.
The Opposer only sighed.
"Why is this suddenly so hard?" he asked himself.
"It's because you now truly care for our children," a voice appeared as the Opposer's wife appeared beside him.
She had an expression of tranquil pride on her face.
She had known her husband for so long, and finally, he was showing progress.
The way her husband had raised their newest child was like night and day in comparison to their last ones.
She was so proud of her husband!
Even after living for so long, he was still able to change for the better.
"I'm trying my best, but decisions I would have been sure of in the past are now filled with uncertainty," the Opposer said to his wife.
"That's normal," his wife said.
"That only means that you realize the weight of your decisions. You no longer directly decide what is right but question your decisions."
"Give her some time," she said, referring to Artemis.
The Opposer only sighed.
BOOOM!
Suddenly, a massive mountain of God Stones appeared in the room.
"Anyway," the Opposer's wife said with an excited smirk. "Look at all the money I made today!"
The Opposer looked at the mountain of God Stones.
"That's great, honey," he said, demotivated.
His wife nodded twice in pride. "Could you be a dear and throw it into the God Stone Ocean?"
"Sure."
Whooop!
And the mountain was gone.
It was dumped into the God Stone Ocean, the place where the Economistress stored her wealth.
She sat down close to her husband with a proud smile.
"How's Gravis doing?" she asked.
"Still at it," he said.
"Still?" she asked. "That should be 1,500 years by now. How can they be at it for so long?"
"Don't act like we haven't managed longer before," the Opposer said as he looked his wife in the eyes.
She only giggled. "True, but it's still impressive."
"Well," the Opposer said. "At least he's getting some Laws from it."
BANG!
His wife "lightly" punched him in the shoulder, a "light" punch that could have distributed a Divine God over millions of kilometers.
"Hey!" she shouted with a frown. "Just let him experience love! You don't always have to think about his Laws. Give your son some slack once in a while!"
The Opposer sighed again, something he had been doing quite frequently in the last couple of years.
"Yes, honey," he said, demotivated.
His wife only nodded with a proud smile. "Good!"
"Now, do you want to hear about what I have planned for tomorrow?" she asked.
"Yes, honey," the Opposer said.
BANG!
Another punch.
"Take this seriously!"
