Seated on the Dragon Throne, Ye Chen watched the changes before him, his face expressionless.
Clearly, he had known about these effects for a long time.
After the Longevity Liquid was created, the first person Ye Chen rewarded with it was Long Yu, the current leader of the Imperial Guard.
As his most loyal personal guard, Long Yu naturally wouldn't be treated unfairly.
Time passed. In the blink of an eye, twenty years went by, and it was now the year 144 of the Yanhuang Calendar.
Over those twenty years, the Yanhuang Empire had grown ever more prosperous.
The Imperial Capital had become the heart of the entire empire, a place of incomparable splendor.
Standing atop the Imperial Palace walls, Ye Chen clasped his hands behind his back. Dressed in a simple black silk robe, he gazed down at the bustling Imperial Capital in silence.
"This is the prosperous age of the empire I built with my own hands.
"Peace reigns throughout the land, and the people are united. The education system is complete, and after twenty years, the empire has built up a sufficient reserve of talent. It's time to begin the First Industrial Revolution."
As he spoke, Ye Chen's gaze passed through endless space and over the sea, as if he could see the land of Huaxia.
According to the fleets he had sent out over the years, some of them had managed to reach the far shore—the land of China.
From the reports they had brought back, Huaxia was probably in the middle-to-late Ming Dynasty. It wouldn't be long before the dynasty fell.
According to the course of history, the Qing Dynasty would come next. Ye Chen planned to wait until the empire had completed its Industrial Revolution before crossing the sea to Huaxia.
Then, he would personally destroy the Ming Dynasty—or the Qing Dynasty—and bring Huaxia into the Yanhuang Empire, before going on to conquer the entire world.
His ambition was plain to see in the very name he had given the empire: the Yanhuang Empire.
Although he knew that remnants of the Deno Star System's forces were still in Huaxia, he wasn't worried they would stand in his way.
Bound by the Angels, they wouldn't dare interfere with the rise and fall of mortal dynasties.
In that sense, the Angel Civilization's Righteous Order was a good thing. At the very least, it was extremely friendly to civilizations like Earth's, which had yet to reach the stars.
The Righteous Order was a double-edged sword. It greatly benefited lower civilizations, sparing them from being crushed before they could grow strong. But to powerful civilizations, it was a shackle.
It severely restricted the rise of higher civilizations. This was especially true of those in the universe who liked to stir up trouble, like Carl. And this was the true reason the Righteous Order would eventually collapse.
The first Grand Court after the New Year.
Star Hall.
"Bow!"
"We pay our respects to Your Majesty!"
"Cry out!"
"Rise!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Once the formalities were over, the court session began.
Ye Chen looked at the gathered officials and spoke in a deep voice. "My ministers, the empire is at peace, and the land is united. In this region, aside from a few scattered tribes still living in the mountains, all the rest is under Yanhuang's rule.
"More than twenty years have passed since the education system was fully established. The empire's illiteracy rate has fallen dramatically, and the number of talented people within our borders continues to grow..."
"Though the empire is now wealthy and strong, its people live in peace, and its national strength has reached its peak, I tell you this: the empire is still far from strong enough. What you now call its peak is, in my eyes, only the beginning."
Hearing Ye Chen's words, the officials below couldn't help feeling proud, as if they shared in the glory.
But his next words left them stunned. They hadn't expected that, in Ye Chen's eyes, an empire as powerful as theirs was still nowhere near strong enough—and that this was only the beginning.
At that, they all looked up at Ye Chen, waiting for him to show them the way forward.
"Minister Zhao."
"Your Majesty."
"The empire is about to undergo a tremendous transformation. Have the things I ordered the Academy of Sciences to research ten years ago been completed?"
As he spoke, Ye Chen looked sternly at Zhao Ximing, head of the Imperial Academy of Sciences.
After the education system was fully established and its first graduates emerged, Ye Chen had selected a large number of them to join the Academy of Sciences. They became the empire's first basic researchers, and work began on building an industrial system.
Over the years, Ye Chen had used Civilization Points to purchase modern materials from the system, then rewritten them to suit the Yanhuang Empire's circumstances. These became the textbooks used in the empire's education system.
As a result, the first generation of educated people in the empire had all been Ye Chen's students—quite literally, students of the Son of Heaven.
Those first students were the seeds of the Yanhuang Empire. Over the course of a century,
one became two, two became three, and three gave rise to all things. Over the decades, their influence spread throughout the empire, and the illiteracy rate fell year after year.
Hearing Ye Chen's question, Zhao Ximing immediately replied in a clear voice, "Your Majesty, after ten years of work using the materials you provided, we have devised a complete construction plan.
"The empire's first railway and first locomotive are nearly finished."
That was right: Ye Chen planned to begin building the industrial system with transportation. If the empire was to develop rapidly, transportation was essential.
There were two reasons he didn't simply spend Civilization Points to exchange for finished products and let the Academy of Sciences study them.
First, he was broke. As the empire moved into the industrial age, it would need many more items and technical documents. The Civilization Points he had now wouldn't be enough.
Besides, he wanted to save up to exchange for the plans for a weapon powerful enough to defend the nation.
Second, the empire was at a turning point in its transition to an industrial system, and building up its scientific foundations was the top priority. There was no need to rush things and stunt its growth.
Haste made waste. Though forcing growth could bring short-term benefits, it could cause lasting harm.
It would make the people of the empire too dependent on him and stifle the empire's creativity, along with the scientific thinking of its talented people. It would do more harm than good.
That was why Ye Chen exchanged for a large number of foundational scientific materials and research documents, giving the Academy's people the chance to study, think, and work out how to build things for themselves. In this way, he could nurture their scientific thinking and creativity.
With each new generation of researchers carrying on the work, the empire would have more and more scientific talent, and scientific thought would flourish.
Besides railway transport, Ye Chen planned to build cement roads across the empire on a large scale, further improving transportation efficiency.
Cement roads had existed in the empire for a long time, but they had only been built between the major cities. The reason they hadn't been laid on a larger scale was simple: the empire had no money.
Poor, poor, poor!
Ever since its founding, poverty had defined the Yanhuang Empire. Sometimes Ye Chen wished he could split a single coin into ten just to make it stretch.
After the empire was founded, Ye Chen had devoted his energy to education, increasing the population, and ensuring the people had food and shelter.
After all, a country's population was its most important asset. Without enough people, any talk of development was a joke.
According to the latest figures, the Yanhuang Empire now had a population of twenty-three million.
The population had grown from fewer than a million to tens of millions. To feed so many people, Ye Chen worked himself to the point of exhaustion. Day after day, he dealt with all kinds of state affairs until late into the night, consumed with thoughts of how to keep everyone alive.
He also had to personally train officials and educate the local natives.
If not for the Super Healing Ability the system had given him, he probably would have dropped dead from overwork.
All he wanted to say now was that being emperor was damn exhausting. He really wanted to throw in the towel.
But unfortunately, under his guidance, the empire had grown ever more prosperous, and the livelihoods of tens of millions rested entirely on him. Whenever he thought about quitting, he felt the weight of an immense responsibility.
Or perhaps he just couldn't bear to let it go.
After all, he had spent decades working himself to the bone. If he gave up now, wouldn't all that effort have been for nothing?
So he kept plodding along, enduring it day by day. After a hundred years, the thought of quitting no longer crossed his mind.
He had grown used to the exhaustion—or, perhaps without even realizing it, he had become a worthy emperor.
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