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

Zhou Ming once again focused his consciousness into the space between his eyebrows.

After a day and a night of continuous breakage, the causal network, which was originally densely covering the entire area of ​​perception, now has large gaps, like mulberry leaves that have been eaten by insects.

He roughly estimated that there were at least hundreds of thousands of broken causal chains.

In just one day and one night, hundreds of thousands of causal chains completely disappeared from his brow.

A faint glow lingered at the broken edges, like the last embers left after a star had died out, which would soon dissipate.

Zhou Ming sat on the low couch and remained silent for a long time.

Hundreds of thousands of people died on the battlefield. The sheer scale of the tragedy doesn't need to be witnessed firsthand; the sheer number is enough to shock anyone.

He just didn't know which side would win.

Did the Sect of All Beings break through Anzhou, or did the Great Xia Dynasty defend the capital?

The Marshal's Mansion had not yet received the latest military reports, and he had no way of inquiring about them from this secluded side room.

Zhou Ming shook his head. No matter which side wins, it will be a good thing for him.

At the very least, it was he himself who was forcibly pushed to the Golden Core stage by this war.

With this in mind, Zhou Ming withdrew his consciousness from the causal network and focused his inner gaze on his dantian.

The purple-gold elixir floated quietly in the center of the dantian, its Dao patterns flowing, each breath releasing extremely pure magical power.

He could sense that no one in the entire North Town was his match.

It wasn't that he overestimated himself, but rather that after his divine sense covered an area of ​​a thousand meters, everyone's cultivation level seemed like a candle flame compared to the bright moon in his presence.

Those generals, whose combat strength at the Bone Forging Realm was already enough to defeat ten thousand men in the mortal army, were not even qualified to make him take a serious action in front of this Purple Gold Yuan Pill.

Of course, this only refers to cultivation level.

In terms of actual combat, he has never personally fought anyone to the death, and he himself doesn't know how much he can perform in a real battle.

Zhou Ming stood up, stretched his limbs, and began pacing in the cramped room.

He was thinking about a problem.

Should we continue to stay by Su Mingyue's side?

He remained by Su Mingyue's side as the kitchen manager and part-time advisor.

He didn't have much freedom; he had to follow the young lady wherever she wanted to go.

He was the one who was jostled around so much when changing horses, and he was also the one who had to push through the night despite being exhausted.

Occasionally, if you say the wrong thing, you have to be on tenterhooks, worrying that you'll be disciplined by Dongmei again.

There is one major advantage to staying here:

He was able to keep abreast of changes in the world situation.

The northern border defenses, the movements of the All Beings Sect, the actions of the Great Yuan Dynasty, and the rise and fall of various forces.

He could only learn these things by eavesdropping on other people's whispers when he was the kitchen manager in the Marquis's mansion.

While by Su Mingyue's side, he could access military reports, maps, intelligence from all sides, and the situation on the front lines immediately.

This was crucial to the spread of the "Scripture of Crossing the World" and to his own judgment.

If he were to run off and live a carefree life, with his current Golden Core stage cultivation, he could simply find a secluded mountaintop to sit on, and no one could control him.

But if he did that, he would become completely blind and deaf.

They knew nothing about which state was occupied, which country went to war, or which people received the scriptures.

After thinking about it, forget it.

He had already gotten used to being by Su Mingyue's side.

From now on, I'll be able to listen to military reports, look at maps, and direct the cooks in the kitchen every day, following the young lady around. It's not a bad life.

Moreover, he also wanted to see if Su Mingyue, who had been fooled by his story of a woman becoming empress, could actually ascend to the throne as empress.

In his previous life, he had read so many novels on Tomato, but he had never witnessed firsthand how a real empress rose to power.

This idea was somewhat improper, but that was indeed what he was thinking.

Zhou Ming put these thoughts aside, walked to the door, unlatched it, and went out.

The sunlight outside was perfect, with the sun shining brightly overhead, and the old locust trees in the backyard of the Marshal's Mansion rustled in the wind.

Zhou Ming took a deep breath of the dry, cold air from the northern border, but before he could exhale, he ran into Dongmei.

Dongmei stood under the eaves, her arms crossed over her chest.

Seeing Zhou Ming push open the door and come out, she first looked him up and down to make sure he wasn't missing any limbs, then glared at him and said fiercely:

"I thought you died inside, and I was just about to go in to collect your body."

Zhou Ming laughed heartily: "Did Sister Dongmei really want me to die? Too bad I'm tough, I survived, haha..."

"Tough as hell." Dongmei didn't give him any face at all.

"If you hadn't cultivated the 'Scripture of Salvation,' you probably would have died on the way. With your skinny arms and legs, you couldn't even ride a horse steadily."

As she spoke, she looked him up and down, left and right, as if to make sure he was really alright. Then, her tone shifted abruptly, becoming as sharp and swift as her swordsmanship.

"Come on, come with me to the kitchen. What kind of rubbish are these chefs making? Not only does Miss not like it, but I don't like it either."

Zhou Ming opened his mouth, cursing inwardly.

He was the head of the kitchen in the Marquis's mansion. Now, he travels thousands of miles to the northern border and still has to manage the kitchen. Is he destined to be stuck with the kitchen for the rest of his life?

Speaking of the kitchen, Zhou Ming suddenly realized that he hadn't eaten anything for a day and a night.

He patted his stomach. He wasn't hungry, though. With his current Golden Core stage cultivation, he wouldn't feel any discomfort even if he didn't eat for ten days or half a month.

But he couldn't stand the feeling of an empty stomach. That feeling of emptiness when his stomach shrunk had nothing to do with his cultivation level; it was purely a psychological habit.

Upon entering the kitchen of the Marshal's Mansion, Zhou Ming frowned as soon as he stepped inside.

This kitchen is much larger than the kitchen in the Houfu Haitangyuan, but the stove is covered with a thick layer of grease, and the kitchen knives on the cutting board are scattered haphazardly.

In the corner, several baskets of radishes and cabbages drooped and lay together, clearly having been delivered several days ago.

Several cooks were busy around the stove, their techniques were rough, and the slices of meat they cut were uneven in thickness.

Without saying a word, Zhou Ming rolled up his sleeves and began to give instructions.

Although he can't do it himself, he can talk.

I spent over a month sitting next to Liu Sandao, watching him cook every morning and listening to him talk about cooking time and ingredient pairings in the afternoon.

Although he had never cooked a meal himself, he had learned most of Liu Sandao's cooking skills.

Liu Sandao was particular about slicing meat diagonally along the grain, so he asked the cook to re-slice it.

Liu Sandao's method of stewing soup is to boil it over high heat for three boils and then simmer it over low heat. He would have the cook remove two pieces of firewood from the stove.

The cooks were thrown into a frenzy by his commands; some were chopping vegetables again, some were starting fires again, and some were re-seasoning.

When the first pot of food was cooked, Zhou Ming picked up his chopsticks and tasted it. Although the taste was not up to Liu Sandao's standards and was worse than expected, it was still much better than the previous rough military rations.