Zhou Ming did not know if that powerful being, who had made his hair stand on end, was still outside.

The pressure from that powerful being had come too quickly and too violently, even now while he was hiding inside the qiankun bead.

Zhou Ming did not intend to risk extending his Divine Sense out; if the other party were still lingering nearby, his Divine Sense might be caught the moment it poked out, leading the enemy straight to him.

It was better to just stay honestly inside the bead and wait for the trouble to blow over.

Fortunately, he had now found the direction for refining the qiankun bead, so he felt more confident.

This bead was a money-guzzling beast; the more it consumed, the better it recovered, and the better it recovered, the more the array patterns would open up to him—it was a virtuous cycle.

However, what was more important right now was that he no longer needed to pour the heat currents generated after the death of those who cultivated the Dushi Sutra into the qiankun bead.

These heat currents could be used entirely to improve his own cultivation.

Whether it was Magic Treasures or Spirit Stones, in the end, they were all external possessions.

Although the qiankun bead was extremely helpful to him—evolving the world, concealing heavenly secrets, and hiding to save his life—each ability was Heaven-Defying, but after the initial refinement, it was enough for now.

What could truly allow him to settle down and establish himself was his own cultivation.

Only when he himself was strong could he be considered truly strong.

Zhou Ming extended his Divine Sense back into the world within the qiankun bead.

On the border between Youzhou and the Zongsheng Sect, the war was still ongoing.

The Youzhou Army under the command of Old Marquis Su Yongning attacked like a tidal wave; the black-armored Sorcery army, combined with the fanatical morale brought by the new laws rewarding military merit, was invincible on the battlefield.

On the other hand, the Zongsheng Sect, although occupying the entire territory of the former Great Yuan Dynasty and possessing a vast number of followers, had a loose organization, and the number of truly elite Sorcery troops was limited.

Under the wave after wave of fierce attacks from Old Marquis Su Yongning, the Zongsheng Sect's defensive lines had already begun to show signs of collapse; several mountain passes had fallen one after another, and the followers were being pushed back step by step.

Zhou Ming frowned.

He could not let the Zongsheng Sect be defeated just like that.

If the Zongsheng Sect were completely routed, Empress Su Mingyue would unify the entire world within the qiankun bead. Once she became the sole power, it would be extremely difficult to incite war again.

Without war, there would be no large-scale deaths of Cultivators; without large-scale deaths of Cultivators, the heat currents in his Dantian would be cut off; if the heat currents stopped, his cultivation would stagnate.

A unified, peaceful world was, for him, the worst possible outcome.

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Ming decided to use the authority of the qiankun bead to slightly relax the suppression of the Zongsheng Sect by this world.

He had now refined twelve Restrictions, and although his control over the qiankun bead was still superficial, he was already able to make some extremely minor adjustments.

This kind of fine-tuning would not cause any damage to the qiankun bead itself; it was like loosening a screw on a huge machine to slightly reduce the pressure in a certain area.

The reason the world within the qiankun bead suppressed the cultivation of Cultivators was that it was dilapidated and needed to limit the consumption of Spiritual Qi inside to maintain its own operation.

He was now just slightly relaxing its suppression on the Zongsheng Sect followers; this would not put any pressure on the qiankun bead.

In fact, Zhou Ming had always had a question regarding the logic of cultivating the Dushi Sutra.

According to the law of conservation of energy from his previous life, Cultivators needed to absorb Spiritual Qi from the outside world and refine it into their own magic power to improve their cultivation.

But the Spiritual Qi in the world within the qiankun bead was so thin it was almost non-existent, yet one could still Cultivate the Dushi Sutra.

This indicated that what was absorbed during the cultivation of the Dushi Sutra was not the Spiritual Qi of this world.

Instead, it was drawing energy from some channel that Zhou Ming currently could not understand at all, or perhaps it was converting other energy into magic power in a way he did not know.

The answer to this question was beyond his current knowledge and cultivation, so he could only set it aside for now.

On the battlefield, the Zongsheng Sect followers, who were originally about to be routed by the Youzhou Army of Old Marquis Su Yongning, suddenly seemed to be injected with some kind of vitality.

Those followers who were originally panting heavily and couldn't even lift their arms suddenly felt the exhaustion all over their bodies vanish the moment Zhou Ming relaxed the suppression.

Magic power surged and flowed again in their Meridians, and the pain from their wounds was replaced by a warm current surging from deep within their bodies; even the weapons held in their hands seemed to have become lighter.

The Zongsheng Sect's position was silent for a moment.

Then, not knowing who was the first to react, someone suddenly raised their long blade high above their head and roared to the sky, their voice hoarse and desperate: "It is the Lord of All Beings... It is the Lord of All Beings protecting us!"

This roar was like pouring a ladle of water into boiling oil, and the entire crowd exploded into chaos.

Some soldiers knelt on the ground, trembling all over, their foreheads pressed against the soil soaked with blood, choking as they shouted: "Praise the Lord of All Beings."

Someone who was originally being beaten by two veteran Youzhou soldiers suddenly seemed like a different person; he blocked the blade swinging down from the opposite side, kicked his opponent several steps away, and laughed to the sky: "Haha! It is the Lord of All Beings protecting us!"

Laughter and weeping, prayers and roars mixed together; the followers along the entire battle line were either waving their arms and shouting, kneeling and praying, or hugging their comrades while crying and laughing.

Opposite them, the elite troops of the Great Ming under the command of Old Marquis Su Yongning were completely bewildered by this sudden scene.

These veterans had fought for half their lives; they had seen deserters, those kneeling to beg for mercy, those charging to their deaths, and those collapsing like a tide.

But they had never seen soldiers who, while in the middle of a fight, suddenly knelt down collectively to pray.

They held their blood-stained long blades and looked at each other in dismay.

Someone subconsciously withdrew their blade and muttered: "These people are crazy."

Someone else lowered their voice and said: "Could it really be that some Lord of All Beings has manifested?"

For a time, the entire battle line became eerily quiet; no one dared to be the first to make a move.

Old Marquis Su Yongning stood on his horse on the high ground of the center army, watching this scene in the enemy's position, his brows knitted into a knot.

To tell the truth, he didn't dare to move either.

He had not only heard about Immortals appearing in the world, but he had also seen it with his own eyes.

He was one of the more than two thousand Martial Artists who had been rescued from the hands of a Golden Core Stage Cultivator when that mysterious person, who called himself the Immortal of Qingyun, cut their chains with a single sword in the blood pool cage.

He knew better than any Youzhou general present that Immortals did indeed exist in this world.

Since Immortals had already appeared, the "Lord of All Beings" mentioned by the Zongsheng Sect might not be baseless.

If it really was some unknown power protecting the Zongsheng Sect, then attacking rashly at this moment would be no different from seeking his own death.

After a long silence, Old Marquis Su Yongning finally squeezed two words through his teeth: "Retreat."

He raised his hand, and the center army's flag-bearer raised the retreat signal high.

Under the command of the signal flags, the Youzhou Army slowly retreated like an ebbing tide; their formation was not in the least bit chaotic, but every soldier's face bore undisguisable confusion and unease.

Zhou Ming sat cross-legged in the cave, watching this scene, the corners of his mouth twitching repeatedly; he was speechless for a long while.

His original intention was to let the Zongsheng Sect gain a slight advantage so that both sides would be evenly matched and continue fighting to the death, allowing him to reap the benefits as the third party.

But as it turned out, instead of taking the opportunity to counterattack, these people all knelt on the ground to thank some Lord of All Beings.

Now, this was great; one side was only concerned with praying, and the other side was too scared to move. The battle didn't happen, and instead, a ceasefire occurred.

This move of his really was stealing a chicken only to lose the rice.