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

A month passed in the blink of an eye amidst the clash of swords and the relentless pace of life.

The Yuyang County Prefectural Governor's Mansion, which originally belonged to the former governor, has now been brazenly occupied by Zhou Mingtang.

The former prefect didn't suffer much.

On the day Zhou Ming led his troops into the city, he was listening to music in the back office with his seventh concubine in his arms when he heard the clanging of armor outside the door. He thought it was some servants from a noble family causing trouble.

When Zhou Ming pushed open the door and slammed the young lady's warrant on the table, the prefect's reaction was even more decisive and efficient than Zhou Ming had expected.

He pushed the official seal forward with both hands, packed his valuables, and left the city with his family overnight.

In his words, "I am getting old and want to retire and return to my hometown."

Zhou Ming didn't make things difficult for him. After all, the man had been in office for five years and had governed Yuyang County relatively peacefully. He didn't have a reputation for extortion and tyranny, so killing him was unreasonable. Letting him go was the easiest thing to do.

Now Zhou Ming was sitting behind a large rosewood desk in the main hall of the prefectural governor's mansion, flipping through a thick booklet.

The booklet was filled with information about the population, land, taxes, granaries, garrison, and family names of Yuyang County.

There was a pile of official documents half a foot high on the desk. Some were requests for tax reductions, some were lawsuits against neighboring counties for occupying irrigation canals, and some were reports of suspected traces of the Zhong Sheng Sect found in a certain township or village. The sheer volume of documents gave him a headache.

After chatting with the young lady in the backyard of the Marshal's Mansion that day, Su Mingyue made a decision on the spot.

She gave Zhou Ming five thousand elite soldiers and asked him to take them back to Yuyang County.

The young lady's order was very simple, consisting of only eight words.

Take Yuyang and protect the Marquis's residence.

Zhou Ming wanted to ask a few more questions about the specifics of the operation, but Su Mingyue had already turned around and gone back to the council hall to discuss the northern border defenses with the generals.

He left Zhou Ming with a dashing silhouette and five thousand soldiers awaiting his orders.

Actually, Zhou Ming didn't need to do anything about this.

Any general chosen from the northern border army could easily take over Yuyang County by leading 5,000 elite troops south.

Yuyang County is located in the heart of Youzhou, with no borders on any side, and has enjoyed a long period of peace.

The garrison nominally has two thousand soldiers, but what is the actual number on the roster? How many of them are just drawing salaries without working? And how many are elderly and weak who can't even lift a sword?

Neither the former prefect nor Zhou Ming were aware of these issues.

However, he didn't care, because the five thousand men he led were not ordinary soldiers.

All of these people had cultivated the "Scripture of Crossing the World," and the lowest level of cultivation among them was at the Skin Refining Realm.

The leading teams have even reached the threshold of the tendon training stage.

An army of five thousand warriors was like a red-hot knife cutting into a block of tofu in front of this inland county town that had been peaceful for decades.

On the day we entered the city, it was drizzling.

Zhou Ming rode on that chestnut gelding, wearing an oilcloth cloak, with five thousand armored and armed northern border soldiers behind him, their hooves splashing water as they trod on the bluestone slabs.

The city gate guards saw this commotion from afar and didn't even dare to close the city gate.

To be precise, before they could even close the gate, the advance team had already taken control of the sentry posts at the city gate.

The prefectural commander led the two thousand garrison troops to form ranks on the drill ground. Zhou Ming sent someone over to deliver the young lady's order, and the two thousand garrison troops immediately laid down their weapons.

The commander who decided to surrender on the battlefield turned out to be a sensible man. He told Zhou Ming that he had served as commander for eight years.

With fewer than ten officers capable of simulating attack and defense on a sand table and no more than fifty archers who could draw a three-stone bow, how could they possibly fight the northern border troops? How could they possibly save face?

Zhou Ming found the man's words quite interesting, so instead of dismissing him, he allowed him to continue managing the city's security.

Of course, not everyone is so sensible.

Several powerful and influential families have been entrenched in Yuyang County for generations, and their influence in the area is comparable to that of the Marquis of Yongning.

These powerful families owned vast estates within the county town, and maintained hundreds or even thousands of private soldiers and retainers. Even the county governor had to defer to them on a daily basis.

After Zhou Ming led his troops into the city, the first to jump out was the Sun family in the south of the city.

The eldest son of the Sun family, leading two thousand private soldiers, blocked the entrance to the prefectural governor's mansion. He pointed at Zhou Ming's nose and cursed him for abusing his power and disregarding the law. He threatened to send a message via hawk to Anzhou, asking the imperial court to send the imperial guards to annihilate this traitor.

Zhou Ming had just come out of the prefect's mansion, still holding a bowl of unfinished noodle soup.

He placed the bowl on the doorstep, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, turned to the squad leader behind him, and said, "Arrest him."

With two thousand private soldiers against five hundred border troops clad in armor and skilled in the Refined Skin Realm, the outcome was a foregone conclusion.

That very evening, Zhou Ming confiscated the Sun family's property on charges of "colluding with the enemy's religion."

He sent troops to surround the Sun family mansion under the cover of night, completely blocking it with three courtyards, including the back gate, which was also blocked by three layers of people.

After breaking down the door, the soldiers searched the woodshed in the backyard and found a statue of a deity worshipped by the Zhong Sheng Sect, several handwritten copies of the "Scripture of Salvation," and a command flag embroidered with the Zhong Sheng Sect's logo.

The entire Sun family, numbering over 150, was captured. The men were conscripted into the army, the women were sold off, and their property was confiscated.

The next morning, the prefectural government posted a notice listing the Sun family's crimes of "colluding with heretics and plotting wicked schemes," with each charge supported by evidence.

The crowd of onlookers formed several layers deep. A literate scholar stood in front and read aloud, while an illiterate old farmer stood on tiptoe behind to listen.

When the text read, "Since the rise of the Sect of All Beings, the Sun family has secretly provided provisions and weapons, acting as an inside agent," a buzz of discussion arose in the crowd. Some clapped and cheered, while others turned pale and quietly withdrew from the crowd.

The statue and all the evidence were planted by Zhou Ming.

Moreover, Zhou Ming also used his divine sense to scan the entire city of Yuyang.

He knew every mansion, every secret room, and every hidden letter in the city. His divine sense covered an area of ​​a thousand meters; no one could escape his eyes.

The Sun family indeed had no connection with the Sect of All Beings; they simply ran into trouble.

The case was tried for two days, and was finally concluded publicly in the main hall of the prefectural governor's mansion in front of the entire city.

Zhou Ming sat under the plaque of "Mirror of Justice" hanging high above him, and laid out the evidence he had "searched" out one by one in the hall.

The hall was packed with people who had come to listen in. Those who couldn't stand stood outside the threshold, and the line stretched all the way to the stone-paved road outside the mansion gate.

Less than half an hour after the court session ended, the whole city knew that the new prefect was a ruthless character.

In the teahouses on every street corner, rumors were circulating that the newly arrived Prefect Zhou was a ruthless and cold-blooded tyrant.

They even dared to raid the homes of powerful families; the silver found in the cellars of their mansions took several trips to haul away with horse-drawn carriages.

With the Sun family as a precedent, the remaining few powerful families that were eager to make a move immediately became much more subdued.

However, they didn't have to wait long. Zhou Ming sent people to invite them one by one to the prefect's mansion for "tea".

After closing the door, I don't know what they talked about, but when they came out, they were all more well-behaved than the last, and they took the initiative to hand over the roster of their private soldiers for the prefectural government to register.

He also handed over 50% of his own assets to the prefectural governor's office for unified allocation.