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

The following night, Zhou Ming rose into the night sky once again.

The night wind blew from the north, dry, cold, and biting, making Zhou Ming's dark blue robe flutter loudly.

The palace lights grew smaller and smaller beneath my feet, gradually turning into a few scattered pieces on a chessboard, and finally being completely swallowed up by the thick darkness of the night.

Zhou Ming hovered above the clouds, spreading his divine sense to its fullest extent.

From the siege of Shunning City to the final battle in Yunzhou, every war Su Mingyue fought was accompanied by a large-scale break in the chain of cause and effect.

The ensuing torrent of magical power repeatedly washed over Zhou Ming's nascent soul.

Now, the range of his divine sense has expanded from forty kilometers when he first formed his Nascent Soul to more than fifty kilometers.

Within a radius of fifty kilometers, a full hundred li, mountains, rivers, villages, cities—everything was clearly visible to Zhou Ming.

After returning home last night, Zhou Ming thought about it again and realized that one phoenix descending from the sky was not enough; he needed to add something else.

He then thought of the original inscription on the auspicious stone that Wu Zetian discovered in the Luo River before she became empress in his previous life.

This is a classic case, and according to historical records, the effect was immediate.

So Zhou Ming also wanted to find a stone.

It cannot be an ordinary stone.

It needs to be big enough, heavy enough, and awe-inspiring enough.

It must weigh at least 10,000 jin (5,000 kg).

Ordinary people can't lift it, ordinary machinery can't move it, and even the strongest martial artist in the world can't move the boulder an inch.

Only a boulder like this, exceeding the limits of human capability, could convince everyone that it wasn't moved by humans, but fell from the sky.

With Zhou Ming's current cultivation level at the Nascent Soul stage, there's little difference between carrying a boulder weighing tens of thousands of kilograms and carrying a stone weighing a hundred kilograms.

Zhou Ming flew slowly through the night sky, his divine sense spreading out like an invisible giant net across the ground beneath him.

The outlines of the mountain ranges appeared in his mind, one after another, sweeping over the mountains surrounding Yuyang County, passing over the remaining ridges of the Western Mountains, and then heading south along a tributary of the Wuding River.

He saw many huge rocks.

Some are embedded in the edge of cliffs, some are half-buried in the riverbed, and some stand alone on barren slopes.

But either it's not big enough, or the shape isn't round enough, or there's a problem with the texture of the stone.

After searching for half the night and flying two or three hundred kilometers, he finally found a stone that satisfied him in a deep mountain more than three hundred kilometers away from Yuyang County.

The stone stood silently in the very center of a valley.

Surrounded by green mountains on all sides, the mountain walls are covered with gnarled old vines, and there is a dry stream at the bottom of the valley, with pebbles paving the bottom.

The stone stands at the end of the stream, perfectly round, like a giant egg left behind in the valley by the gods.

The stone surface is smooth and has been kept clean by rainwater all year round. When the moonlight shines on it, it reflects a layer of bluish light.

Zhou Ming landed next to the rock and patted the surface with his palm; it felt as cold as iron.

He estimated in his mind that the boulder weighed at least tens of thousands of kilograms.

Zhou Ming did not immediately begin to move the rock. Instead, he first unleashed his inner power, and a purple-gold light overflowed from his palm, spreading along the surface of the rock and enveloping the entire boulder layer by layer.

The massive boulder, weighing tens of thousands of kilograms, trembled slightly after being enveloped by magical power, emitting a very low hum.

Zhou Ming took a deep breath, simultaneously channeling his divine sense and magical power, and let out a low shout.

"rise"

The massive boulder, weighing tens of thousands of kilograms, slowly floated up from the ground.

The pebbles in the stream trembled violently from the aftershocks of the magic, and the soil beneath them was uprooted, revealing a deep pit several feet deep.

A stone weighing tens of thousands of kilograms hung in mid-air in front of him, and the moonlight cast a huge shadow on the ground through the purple-gold halo around the stone.

Zhou Ming then slowly placed the boulder back in its original position.

We can't move it now, the inscription hasn't been carved yet.

Zhou Ming released his flying sword, its dark, lusterless blade leaving only a faint afterimage in the moonlight.

He hovered directly in front of the boulder, using his divine sense to control his flying sword as a pen, and carved into the rounded stone surface.

The sword made a crisp chisel-like sound as it cut into the stone, and stone chips fell down in a flurry.

Zhou Ming carved slowly, each stroke heavy and steady, the stone surface cracking open wherever the sword passed, the characters reaching several inches deep.

In a short while, the eight large characters were deeply engraved on the stone.

The sun and moon shine brightly in the sky, and the earth embodies virtue.

Zhou Ming sheathed his sword and hovered in mid-air, examining the eight characters.

The phrase "sun and moon" directly refers to Su Mingyue's name without explicitly stating it. The sun and moon in the sky are astronomical phenomena, naturally carrying a touch of mystery.

"Kun Yuan" is taken from the commentary on the Kun hexagram in the Book of Changes: "How great is Kun Yuan, from which all things are born."

Kun represents the earth, the mother, and the virtue of gentleness and compliance, while "harmony of virtue" implicitly aligns with the ancient logic of the interaction between heaven and humanity.

The rise of a king must be accompanied by the virtue of Heaven. The sun and moon hanging above the earth is a sign of Heaven and Earth witnessing and Yin and Yang in harmony.

There's no need to carve another word; the meaning is already conveyed.

In the future, a great scholar skilled in apocryphal texts will analyze each word for him.

After Zhou Ming finished carving the words, he used his magic to wrap the boulder again.

This time, without hesitation, he transformed into a streak of purple-gold light, carrying a massive boulder weighing tens of thousands of pounds, and flew towards Yuyang County.

The boulder moved silently through the night sky, carried by magical power as it swept over mountains and rivers, the moonlight making the eight large characters on its surface flicker.

To the west of Yuyang County lies a remote mountain gully, at the bottom of which are scattered dozens of households, an inconspicuous little village.

A dam stands across the ravine. It's unclear when it was built, but despite its age and disrepair, it still holds a full reservoir of water.

Zhou Ming chose this spot; the center of the dam was the ideal location.

When the dam releases water and the water level drops, the giant rock will slowly emerge from the water and be seen by everyone.

A massive boulder weighing tens of thousands of kilograms appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the dam; it was not something that could be transported there by human power.

There is no other explanation besides it falling from the sky.

Zhou Ming slowly lowered the boulder into the water.

The water's surface was pressed into a huge depression by the magic, and the water surged in all directions, making a dull sound in the night.

Zhou Ming controlled the descent speed, allowing the boulder to gently touch the silt at the bottom of the dam without creating a large splash.

The massive, round boulder, weighing tens of thousands of kilograms, sank steadily to the bottom of the water, its surface covered by eight large characters submerged in the murky reservoir water.

It left only a few slowly spreading ripples on the water's surface, which disappeared after a moment.

The water returned to calm, and the moonlight once again bathed the dam, just as before, as if nothing had happened.

Zhou Ming hovered above the dam for a while, scanning the surrounding area for miles.

It did not disturb anyone, nor did it leave any trace.

The fish in the dam were startled for a while, and began to regroup, swimming around the boulder blankly.

Nodding, Zhou Ming turned and ascended into the clouds.

When we returned to the Wuying Hall, the sky was already faintly turning white.

He silently entered the inner hall, returned to his room, sat cross-legged, and went over the entire operation of the night in his mind.

The auspicious phoenix was hidden in a cave in the western mountains, and the giant stone prophecy tablet was submerged under the dam.

Now all that's missing is the opportune moment for auspicious omens to appear.