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

Zhou Ming had received news of Su Mingyue leading a large army back to Youzhou long ago.

The 500,000-strong army set off from Yelangpo in Anzhou. The counties and prefectures along the way bowed in reverence, and the people of the northern border lined the roads to welcome them with food and drink. Wherever the army passed, the streets were deserted.

Counting the days, Su Mingyue will arrive in Yuyang County in five or six days at most.

Zhou Ming leaned back in his chair in the Wuying Hall, tapping the armrest with his fingers.

Now that Su Mingyue has returned, she will surely find a way to ascend to the throne.

Now Yunzhou has been pacified, Chongzhou has been stabilized, Anzhou and Cangzhou are under our control, and Youzhou is as secure as an ironclad fortress.

Su Mingyue commands a million-strong army and effectively controls over 80% of the Great Xia Dynasty's territory and almost all of its elite troops.

In all the world, there is no one who can rival her anymore.

Yuwen Shuo is dead, Zhao Chongyuan is dead, the loyalist coalition has been wiped out, and Emperor Yongchang is a puppet who can't even leave the palace.

No one could stop her from ascending the throne, and no one dared to.

Su Mingyue's ascension to the throne is extremely beneficial to Zhou Ming.

Firstly, Su Mingyue herself did not oppose spreading the "Scripture of Crossing the World," and she even took the initiative to promote the "Scripture of Peace" throughout Youzhou.

The wider the scriptures spread, the denser Zhou Ming's karmic network becomes, and the higher his cultivation level.

He could openly and legitimately use the power of the dynasty to promote the scriptures throughout the Great Xia Dynasty, and even further.

Secondly, Su Mingyue is not a person who sticks to the rules; once she takes that position, she will definitely expand her territory.

The Yuan Dynasty was eyeing the north with hostility and had a long-standing grudge against the Su family.

The Dayan Dynasty was also an old enemy of the Great Xia in the west, and these two battles were bound to happen sooner or later.

Once war breaks out, many people will die.

For Zhou Ming, every broken causal chain represents a step in his cultivation.

Thirdly, Zhou Ming admitted that he also wanted to see the real Empress.

Back when he told Su Mingyue the story of the Empress at the martial arts arena, she was still a young lady sitting in the Begonia Garden listening to stories.

Now she has conquered three states and her sword is pointed at the world. She is only one step away from ascending to the position that has always been held by men.

The conditions for Su Mingyue to become empress have actually matured considerably by now.

Zhou Ming mentally went through each point one by one.

The first point is a legal pretext.

The second point is absolute control over the machinery of violence.

The third point is that one's own people in the imperial court.

Fourth, the erosion of the social foundation creates a sense of crisis.

Article 5: Clear away external obstacles and trim wings.

Article Six: Psychological and public opinion offensive, that is, mysticism, to make the world believe that this is the mandate of heaven.

With all six conditions met, usurping the throne would be a natural outcome.

Su Mingyue has already met four criteria.

The army was in her hands, the court was full of her people, Yuwen Shuo and Zhao Chongyuan were dead, and the people of the world had little hope for the old dynasty.

The remaining two, the first being a legal facade and the sixth being divine mandate, must be created by human intervention.

These two things are difficult for Su Mingyue to do herself. She can't very well stand up and say, "It is Heaven's will that I become the emperor." So Zhou Ming has to do them.

The first condition is a legal pretext.

Zhou Ming thought of abdication.

This is the simplest and most classic routine in history.

They coerced the emperor into abdicating by staging a ceremony of "three refusals and three concessions".

Imagine a puppet emperor personally presenting the imperial seal to you, and you have to refuse repeatedly before finally accepting the abdication with "utter helplessness."

In previous historical records, Cao Pi forced Emperor Xian of Han and Sima Yan forced Emperor Yuan of Wei, both of whom did the same thing.

Emperor Yongchang is now a puppet confined to his palace, making him the perfect candidate for this role, but now is not the time.

The sixth condition is that it is ordained by Heaven.

In ancient times, people believed in destiny. To get them to accept a woman as emperor, it wasn't enough to rely on swords and spears; they also had to believe that it was the will of Heaven.

Zhou Ming's idea was to create auspicious omens.

A phoenix descends from the sky, divine light appears, and a prophecy stele inscribed with "The Empress Rules the World" is unearthed from a stone—they do whatever it takes to scare people.

He's always been a man of action; the moment he's sorted out his thoughts, he's already standing up.

It was nearly evening, and the palace was quiet. Emperor Yongchang was still playing with crickets in the Qianyuan Hall.

No one will notice where Zhou Ming went.

Zhou Ming secretly took saltpeter and dozens of bolts of red cloth from the storeroom, tied them together, pulled one end of the rope, and silently rose into the night sky, flying towards the western mountains.

He was very familiar with the caves in Xishan.

He discovered the cave when he was scouting the location for the poetry gathering. Later, when the gathering was attacked, he led everyone to hide in the cave.

Previously, I had planned to use this place as a temporary opportunity location, intending to reserve it for some "chosen one".

Now this cave has come in handy for a new purpose.

Zhou Ming landed at the cave entrance, released his divine sense to scan the area, and confirmed that there was no one within a few miles before bending down and crawling inside.

Inside the cave, the rocks were still jagged and chaotic. Zhou Ming released his flying sword, and the dark, lusterless blade spun silently in the darkness, shaving off the protruding stone edges on the cave floor piece by piece.

The rubble was gently lifted by divine sense and piled up in a corner of the cave, without even a single fragment spilling out of the cave entrance.

Zhou Ming untied the rope, took out dozens of bolts of red cloth, and spread them out one by one on the leveled ground.

Then he sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and used his mind to control the red silk thread that was already threaded onto the needle, stitching the edges of dozens of pieces of red cloth together one by one.

The stitches are fine and even, and the seams are almost hidden between the fabric texture.

While sewing the red cloth, my mind started wandering.

He felt that if someone from his past life saw his series of actions now...

They will surely shout: "Eastern Cult Leader".

Under the guidance of divine will, dozens of red cloths were slowly pieced together into a huge red cloth, covering the entire bottom of the cave.

Then Zhou Ming released his flying sword and began cutting along the outline drawn in his mind.

The fabric tore open with a sharp sound as the sword passed through, the edges so neat it looked as if it had been measured with a ruler.

Before long, the outline of a huge phoenix emerged from the red cloth, spreading its wings and raising its head, with its long tail feathers trailing, lifelike.

Zhou Ming crushed the saltpeter he brought into powder and sprinkled it evenly on the front of the phoenix red cloth.

Saltpeter fuels the fire, and it ignites easily upon contact with a flame. He wanted to make this phoenix burn more brilliantly than fireworks.

Then he found a few thin bamboo strips, and used his divine sense to bend them into an arc to support the red cloth, so that the phoenix red cloth could stand steadily at the deepest part of the cave.

Looking into the cave, all one could see was a blurry red shadow, vaguely resembling the shape of a phoenix, yet indistinct.

This is exactly the effect Zhou Ming wanted.

Auspicious omens are more likely to appear false if they are too clear; the more ambiguous they are, the more they inspire endless imagination.

After finishing all this, Zhou Ming patted the saltpeter powder off his hands, straightened up, and examined the enormous phoenix from head to toe.

He nodded in satisfaction, then turned and left the cave.

Under the cover of night, it flew back to the imperial palace and landed silently in the backyard of the Wuying Hall.

That night, the city of Yuyang slept peacefully as usual, and no one knew that something had appeared on the western mountain.