"What do you mean?" Astria asked in confusion.
"I deliberately made my criteria broader." The old man's admission was shocking. "I deliberately made my purges seem 'crude.'"
"The aim was to spur intelligent life in the universe to grow enough to shoulder the responsibility of a conceptual judge."
The holographic projection revealed the full scope of this astonishing plan: every seemingly brutal conceptual purge had actually been a carefully designed test.
"Every 'reset' of a cosmic cycle was actually an examination," the old man continued. "A test of whether emerging civilizations could understand the complexity of concepts, and whether they had the wisdom to shoulder the burden of maintaining cosmic order."
"Those civilizations that were purged..." Lin Ye's voice was filled with shock.
"Most truly needed to be purged because of conceptual contamination," the old man confirmed. "But a few civilizations... were sacrificed to create enough pressure to drive the evolution of those that remained."
"These were necessary sacrifices. Without a sufficient threat, intelligent life would never grow enough to shoulder this responsibility."
Leo felt anger and understanding intertwine within him. "You paid for your successors' growth with the lives of other civilizations?"
"I paid with my own suffering," the old man corrected him. "Do you think destroying civilizations was easy for me? Every purge was torture for me as well."
"But this was the only way. The universe needs a conceptual judge, yet that duty cannot rest with a single being forever. Power must be passed on, and responsibility must be shared."
Astria understood the logic behind the entire plan. "So the emergence of the Twelve Zodiac Guardians..."
"Was precisely the outcome I hoped for." The old man nodded in confirmation. "The civilizations of this cosmic cycle that you represent have finally grown enough to shoulder the responsibility of