Yu Lian raised his head and wiped the blood from his eyes. His gaze was weary but clear. "I could give counterexamples, but that doesn't matter anymore. Your Majesty, the truth is, change has already begun. I brought this way of thinking here, and now it will develop, advance, and evolve on its own. It has become part of the universe. You can't take it away."
As he said this, Yu Lian truly felt a deep sense of pride.
He suddenly realized that if he had accomplished anything in this life, anything he could talk about with Teacher Ma and Teacher Li after death, then this was probably it.
Perhaps, just as the Emperor had said, after spending too long atop the clouds, he would regret everything he had done and wish he could kill his twenty-year-old self. But at least now, he truly felt proud.
"If one day I stand against this ideal, someone will come to oppose me. Many of my comrades follow me for different reasons. Some seek fame and fortune, but there are also those who are sincere. A pure ideal can be passed down. Isn't that true of the Galactic Empire as well?"
The light in the Emperor's golden eyes rapidly dimmed. The madness, power, majesty, and severity that had once filled them were being replaced by a profound emptiness.
"What an arrogant fellow! Ahahaha! Now I understand why I took such a liking to you. At your core, you're even more arrogant and insane than I am. The entire vast universe has become a sample for your social experiment, hasn't it?"
"Perhaps. Maybe I was able to defeat you because I'm evil enough—more evil than you. So many affairs of rise and fall across the ages come down to one thing: treating people as