"Is that not what a brainwashed person would say?" Aurora asked, raising her eyebrows. "And how do you know you're not being tricked into thinking that?"
Ryan raised his hands in mock surrender. "I guess so. But what if I'm not?"
"What do you mean?" Aurora asked, frowning.
"What if the Grand Empress thinks I'm brainwashed, but I'm not?" Ryan grinned. "What if she thinks she has full control over me yet doesn't have any?"
"And what if men could cultivate and dogs could fly?" Aurora retorted. "You speak of what-ifs as though they were reality. Speak plainly."
"What if I could trick her into thinking she controls us, the Emerald Family, through me?" Ryan finally got to the point.
Although Aurora didn't know it, Ryan was also her son, and when she learned of it, Ryan would be transferred to the Dawn Pavilion and its assets.
With the Dawn Pavilion's assets in Ryan's hands, they could set up a heavenly blessed kingdom and eventually fight the Kheaweth Empire.