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

From that day on, Zhou Ming's infamy spread throughout Yuyang County.

Rumors spread like wildfire, accusing him of fabricating charges out of thin air, of coercing innocent people into confessions, and of being greedy and profit-driven. All sorts of stigma and criticism came one after another.

Zhou Ming probed out with his divine sense, heard these infamous reputations, and simply laughed them off.

He sneered inwardly. These were just some rumors from the streets. What did they amount to?

If the world knew that it was he who passed down the "Scripture of Crossing the World," stirring up turmoil in the world, causing wars and conflicts between nations, resulting in the displacement of countless people and the suffering of countless lives, they would probably all wish to grind him to dust and devour him alive.

The wealth obtained from the confiscation of the Sun family and the subsequent coercion of several other families can be described as enormous.

These powerful families had been entrenched in Yuyang County for generations, occupying vast tracts of fertile land.

The old grain piled up in the warehouse hadn't been finished yet, and new grain was piled in as well.

The strings of copper coins piled up in the storeroom had rusted green, the silver was packed in large wooden boxes that filled several cellars, and there were countless paintings, calligraphy, antiques, land deeds, and house deeds.

Zhou Ming dispatched an entire team of clerks who spent five days and five nights to complete the inventory of the spoils.

The grain alone would be enough to feed an army of 200,000 for a whole year, not even counting cloth, livestock, carts, and ironware.

He transported most of these valuables back to the Marquis's residence, and kept a small portion for military expenses and people's livelihood expenditures in Yuyang County.

After Zhou Ming took control of Yuyang County, he put the old general who commanded 5,000 elite troops in charge of the city's defense, while he himself moved into the county governor's mansion and became the de facto governor of Yuyang County.

From the first day he took office, he had no intention of getting involved in those trivial political matters.

He gets sleepy just looking at the numbers on official documents, let alone doing the daily tasks of measuring fields, collecting taxes, and repairing water conservancy projects.

Fortunately, it's okay if he doesn't know how; there are plenty of others who do.

What is the one thing the Marquis's mansion has in abundance?

He is a talented person.

The Su family has accumulated not only military power and land over generations, but also a group of talented individuals who were trained by powerful families but were not given important positions.

Zhou Ming sent a message by eagle to the northern border, and the young lady's reply arrived five days later.

The envelope contained a long list, written on three whole sheets of mulberry paper.

From the Prefectural Assistant to the County Magistrate, from the Registrar in charge of taxes to the Water Conservancy Officer.

Each position is labeled with the name, former position, strengths, personality, and precautions to take when using the position.

The list was followed by a small note: "Go into the third alley east of Yuyang County, there is a three-courtyard house where a retired official from the Ministry of Revenue surnamed Chen lives. He has a bad temper but is very capable in governance. You must go and invite him yourself; no one else can persuade him."

Zhou Ming sent people to invite him twice, but as expected, the old doctor Chen refused to see him.

Later, Zhou Ming brought two jars of fine wine and a rare copy of a previous dynasty's book that he had copied from the library to visit in person, and they spent an afternoon drinking tea together.

Finally, Dr. Chen agreed to try it out for three months.

With the help of the former Minister of Revenue from the previous dynasty and a group of capable personnel carefully selected by the young lady, the Prefectural Governor's Office began to operate smoothly.

Zhou Ming then had more energy to focus on what he cared about most: expanding the army.

The young lady's order was clear: to expand the defensive forces of Yuyang County.

He had money, grain, and manpower. Yuyang County was also one of the most populous counties in the heart of Youzhou. All the conditions were readily available.

In less than ten days, Zhou Ming had raised an army of 100,000 men in Yuyang County.

As soon as the recruitment notices were posted at the gates of the prefectural city and various county towns, long lines of young men came to apply.

The notice stated very clearly: those selected would receive a monthly salary 10% higher than that of the original garrison soldiers, and would be provided with food, lodging, and new clothes.

Zhou Ming had the five thousand veterans from the northern border serve as instructors, and led the one hundred thousand new recruits to set up camp in the abandoned military garrison outside the city, where they trained day and night.

At the same time, the "Scripture of Crossing the World" was taught to all of them, and 100,000 new recruits entered the camp and recited the scripture every day.

Among 100,000 people, the earliest to condense the Qi sensation took less than three days, and the slowest took no more than ten days.

New recruits who practice the "Scripture of Crossing the World" train several times harder than ordinary soldiers every day, yet they remain full of energy.

During the month that Zhou Ming was in charge of recruiting soldiers and reforming internal affairs in Yuyang, Su Mingyue was not idle in the northern border.

She has already reviewed all the more than ten prefectures and cities in Youzhou.

They either sent someone to take over, or reached an agreement with local powerful families.

She integrated the local troops stationed in Youzhou with the Marquis's direct descendants, unified their organization, allocation, and teaching of the "Scripture of Crossing the World."

At the same time, she expanded the military force, strengthened the city defenses, stockpiled grain and fodder, and repaired the beacon towers, thus reuniting the entire military and political system of Youzhou from top to bottom.

In the past month, Zhou Ming's cultivation level has not increased much.

The purple-gold primordial core within his dantian remained as stable as a rock.

Every day, hundreds and thousands of faint streams of heat flow into the causal chain, and are silently absorbed by the Yuan Dan, yet they do not even cause a ripple.

Zhou Ming knew that these heat flows meant that hundreds or thousands of people were still dying intermittently every day.

On the battlefield, on the border, or on the edge of a knife where the Sect of All Beings is fighting against the defending forces in other states and counties.

But Zhou Ming had already taken these things for granted.

In chaotic times, human life is as worthless as grass; this is not a simple statement.

Even with hundreds or thousands of heat flows generated every day, it was no longer sufficient to substantially advance his Golden Core cultivation.

To rise further on this trickle of water, it would be impossible without another war of the scale of the Battle of Anju, in which hundreds of thousands of people would die simultaneously.

However, the causal network at the center of the forehead experienced an unprecedented explosive growth in this month.

The number of new phantoms gradually increased from tens of thousands per day to hundreds of thousands or even millions per day.

In recent days, there have even been astonishing daily increases of over two million.

These phantoms typically take only two to three days to solidify from their appearance.

Each solidified causal chain signifies that another complete stranger has read the scriptures a hundred times and cultivated the first wisp of Qi in their dantian.

Zhou Ming roughly estimated that the causal chains that have now been completely solidified number no less than ten million.

Millions upon millions of cultivators are scattered throughout Youzhou, Cangzhou, Qingzhou, Anzhou, and even further afield, reciting the same scripture and practicing the same set of techniques.

They might be refugees drawn into the Sect of All Beings, ordinary soldiers in the Youzhou camp, or private soldiers secretly trained by a powerful family in a secret chamber.

They kept reciting it, and with each recitation, the chain of cause and effect grew thicker.

The number of tens of millions did not excite or unsettle Zhou Ming.

He would glance at the cause-and-effect network twice a day, morning and evening, to confirm its growth, and then return his attention to the official documents on his desk.