If you die, I will be able to inherit your cultivation.

Zhou Ming reached out and touched the sphere that emitted a soft light once more.

This time, it was no longer a tentative, light touch, but rather the entire palm was placed on it, the palm firmly pressing down on the round ball that emitted a warm glow.

The magic power began to slowly flow into the sphere through the meridians of his arm, seeping in strand by strand like a silkworm spinning silk, and began to permeate the extremely complex restriction patterns inside the sphere.

Zhou Ming did not pour all of his magical power into it at once.

He knew perfectly well that doing so would be tantamount to suicide.

A surge of heat flowed from his dantian. He refined this heat and then poured it into the sphere. Another surge of heat flowed out, which he refined again and poured into the sphere once more.

He didn't touch the magic power within his body at all; it was his foundation, his origin, and his last trump card, which he absolutely couldn't touch.

That is to say, he has already reached the Nascent Soul stage, and his meridians' ability to withstand and refine are far superior to those of lower-level cultivators.

If it were an ordinary Qi Refining stage cultivator, let alone refining the sphere, they would starve to death just from being trapped in this secret room without food or water.

While Zhou Ming was refining the sphere inside the cave, the Shangshu Mansion in Yongning City, Yuyang County, was already in an uproar.

Zhou Ming had just told those powerful families that he would give them three days to implement the new laws, but three days had passed and he still hadn't made a move in the secret room.

Five days passed, and he was still in seclusion in the secret room; ten days passed, and the door to the secret room remained tightly closed, with no sound coming from inside, and not even a single light was turned on.

Wu Shijun was pacing anxiously in the front yard. Su Mingyue sent people every day to ask Lord Zhou when he would inspect the various prefectures.

He stammered and gave vague answers day after day, his official robe, soaked with cold sweat, never drying.

Later, Su Mingyue sent someone directly to summon Zhou Ming. Butler Meng had no choice but to reply with a bitter face that the master was still in seclusion and would not see anyone, not even allow anyone to open the door, let alone dare to open it himself.

Finally, Su Mingyue sent Dongmei to find Zhou Ming in person.

When Dongmei arrived at the Zhou residence, she was dressed in a neat black outfit, with a short sword hanging at her waist, and a hint of impatience on her face.

She has recently been assigned several tasks by Su Mingyue, and each one is making her feel overwhelmed.

When Su Mingyue asked her to come find Zhou Ming, she verbally agreed, but in her heart she had already cursed Zhou Ming a thousand times.

She and Zhou Ming were extremely close; while others might be afraid of Zhou Ming, she wasn't.

Standing outside the secret chamber door, he raised his hand and kicked the stone door several times:

"Zhou Ming! Zhou Ming! Get out here right now! His Majesty summons you to the palace, did you hear me?!"

However, the secret room was completely silent.

Seeing no response from inside, Dongmei pressed her ear against the stone door and listened for a moment. Then, she frowned and kicked it a few more times.

This time, they used even more force than before, causing dust to fall from the door frame in a flurry.

"Zhou Ming! If you don't say something, I'm going to break down the door!"

There was still no response from the sealed room; it was as quiet as a tomb.

Dongmei's brows furrowed suddenly, and a bad premonition rose from the bottom of her heart.

She took a half step back, gripped the hilt of the short sword at her waist with her right hand, and drew it with a swift motion, the sword flashing in a cold arc in the dimly lit secret passage.

She took a deep breath, channeled her magic into the tip of her sword, and slashed at the hidden door.

Sparks flew as she cleaved the hidden door in two with her sword.

However, after the door was split open, the secret room was empty, with a futon sitting alone in the center of the stone bed and a long sword beside it.

Dongmei recognized the longsword; it was the personal sword that Su Mingyue had given to Zhou Ming.

Apart from that, there wasn't a soul in sight.

Dongmei's expression changed instantly.

She searched the secret room thoroughly, inside and out. The walls were all solid granite, there were no hidden compartments in the floor, no hidden layers in the ceiling, and not even a speck of dust in the corners.

The person just vanished into thin air.

She turned around, strode out of the secret room, and summoned all the dozens of people in the Minister's mansion to the front yard. From Steward Meng to the gatekeeper, from the guard captain to the servant sweeping the yard, she interrogated them one by one.

No one knows when Zhou Ming left the secret room, and no one knows where he went.

The last person to see Zhou Ming was Butler Meng. He watched as the master entered the secret room, closed the door, and was never seen again.

All the guards have said that no one has entered or left the secret room in the past ten days; not even a fly has been seen flying in or out.

Dongmei also knew why the servants were all old men of the Marquis's mansion, loyal to the mansion, and there was no need for them to lie about this matter.

Standing in the front courtyard of the Minister's residence, he held Su Mingyue's personal sword in his hand.

Dongmei remained silent for a long time before finally gritting her teeth, mounting her horse, and returning to the palace with the sword to report back.

After hearing Dongmei's report, Su Mingyue remained silent for a long time.

Dongmei stood in front of the dragon table, head bowed, not daring to speak.

After a long while, she finally heard Su Mingyue say a sentence in an extremely calm and steady tone:

"Order Nightingale to search for Zhou Ming with all her might. Find him alive or dead."

Dongmei clasped her hands in acceptance of the order and turned to leave, but was stopped by Su Mingyue.

"The official statement should be that Minister Zhou's cultivation has become somewhat lax, and he has gone into seclusion to break through to a higher level."

However, to Dongmei and Su Mingyue's surprise, even with Nightingale's intelligence capabilities, they couldn't find a single clue about Zhou Ming after several months.

In the following months, the Ming Dynasty, with Zhou Ming's thunderous sword strike and ruthless methods of confiscating property and exterminating clans as a prelude, saw the Ming Dynasty's fate unfold.

The new laws were implemented without encountering any significant obstacles throughout Youzhou.

Although the aristocratic families hated the new laws to the core, the sword of Damocles hanging over Zhou Ming's head was simply too sharp.

Who knows if he's really in seclusion or just pretending?

Who knows if he might suddenly emerge from the secret room one day, carrying that imperial longsword that can cut through iron like mud, and patrol from house to house?

They dared not gamble and had no choice but to accept it reluctantly.

The common people and soldiers cheered for the implementation of the new laws.

Military merits can be exchanged for noble titles, noble titles can be exchanged for land, and beheading an enemy can change the fate of an entire family—this is a blessing earned over several lifetimes.

The line of people signing up for the army stretched from the city lord's mansion to outside the city gate, winding around several corners and seemingly endless.

Three months after the new law was implemented, Su Mingyue officially appointed a group of officials.

With the institutional framework of the new laws, the absolute military power of the magic army, and the morale boosted by military merit and titles, the people were in high spirits.

The entire Youzhou region was like a machine that had been wound up tightly, and it began to operate efficiently.

Recruiting soldiers, training troops, establishing agricultural settlements, building roads, and manufacturing weapons—everything was proceeding in an orderly manner.

Then, Su Mingyue began to expand outwards from Youzhou as the center, taking the first step in her quest to conquer the world.

The first battle was fought in Luzhou.