To his surprise, Empress Su Mingyue was not sitting behind the Dragon desk waiting for him; instead, she was standing at the entrance of Qianyuan Hall, hands behind her back, still dressed in that set of black armor.
When she saw Zhou Ming wearing the dark red official robes of the Minister of Justice, her brows furrowed almost imperceptibly, then immediately returned to normal, though the corners of her mouth twitched slightly.
Zhou Ming's originally scrawny frame had become much more robust after more than a year of Cultivating, and his muscle definition filled out the shoulders and sleeves of the official robes.
He no longer looked as thin as a stalk of hemp as he did before working as a manager in the Kitchen of the Marquis's residence.
Yet, that face of his still retained its sharp-mouthed, monkey-cheeked appearance.
Wearing these dark red official robes of a second-rank high official, paired with that completely incongruous face, he looked just like someone wearing a costume borrowed from a theater troupe—it looked bizarre no matter how you looked at it.
"Your Majesty, I have returned." Zhou Ming stepped forward two paces, bowed slightly, his tone remaining that same unhurried cadence.
Empress Su Mingyue nodded, her gaze lingering on his face for a moment, before she turned and walked into the hall.
"Come, let us talk inside."
Zhou Ming followed Empress Su Mingyue into Qianyuan Hall.
The furnishings in the hall had not changed much from over a year ago; mountains of memorials were still piled on the Dragon desk, and the map was still hanging on the wall.
However, there was an extra chair in front of the Dragon desk, and Empress Su Mingyue gestured for him to sit.
Zhou Ming did not stand on ceremony with her; he flicked the hem of his official robes and sat down.
The two sat opposite each other. Empress Su Mingyue stared at Zhou Ming, and Zhou Ming stared back at Empress Su Mingyue. For a moment, neither of them spoke.
After a while, Empress Su Mingyue broke the silence first.
She asked softly, "Zhou Ming, where have you been this past year?"
Zhou Ming shook his head, not answering her question directly, but instead said.
"Your Majesty, outside of this world, there really are other worlds."
Empress Su Mingyue nodded, not surprised at all.
Emperor Liu Jun came from the outside world, and Master Qingyun came from the outside world. She had accepted the fact that there were other worlds beyond the three kingdoms earlier than any other minister in the imperial court.
Zhou Ming looked at her calm face, prepared to drop a bombshell, and continued.
"Your Majesty, in the near future, the gate to the outside world will open. I ask that Your Majesty prepare early."
"What?" Empress Su Mingyue, who always kept a straight face, felt her pupils constrict slightly upon hearing this, and a rare note of astonishment entered her voice.
She straightened her body, withdrew her hands from the Dragon desk, and folded them on her lap, her fingers unconsciously gripping the leather buckles of her bracers.
"Yes... it won't be long before the gate to the outside world is opened."
"You should have felt it too; the world we are currently in has almost no Spiritual Qi."
"Yet, the outside world is filled with Spiritual Qi and teeming with experts."
"However, the good thing is that the cultivation base of any Cultivator entering this world will be suppressed."
"Your Majesty, forgive my bluntness, but if you wish to remain in a corner of peace, the current strength of the Great Ming Dynasty is enough to achieve that."
"You need not pay attention to whether the gate of the ten thousand worlds will open, but if you want to..."
Zhou Ming did not continue, and Empress Su Mingyue understood what he meant.
After hearing Zhou Ming's words, Empress Su Mingyue remained silent for a long time, as if she were digesting the information he had provided.
After a while, Empress Su Mingyue took a deep breath and slowly said.
"When exactly will the gate to the outside world open?"
Zhou Ming shook his head: "The exact time is unknown. It could be as short as one or two months, or as long as one or two years."
Zhou Ming did not speak in absolutes.
He did not yet know what the situation was like in the outside world, nor did he know if that powerful being who had made his hair stand on end was still lurking near the treasure vault.
He planned to wait a month or two before slowly exploring the outside world; before then, he would absolutely not easily open the passage to the outside world.
"How did you find out?" Empress Su Mingyue asked curiously.
Zhou Ming shook his head again: "Your Majesty, there are some things that I cannot say."
The curiosity in Empress Su Mingyue's eyes grew stronger, but in the end, she restrained herself and did not press him.
After being silent for a good while, she suddenly asked a seemingly unrelated question: "What is your current strength?"
Zhou Ming was stunned. He hadn't expected Empress Su Mingyue to ask this question. He thought for a moment: "Er... I suppose I am quite strong."
Empress Su Mingyue stared at him for a long while, and then asked the question she had been holding back for an entire year.
"Why can I not sense Divine Sense? And why can I not Cultivate the Sword Control Sorcery?"
Back then, Zhou Ming had beheaded several Blood Refining Realm experts with a single sword strike in front of the Zheng Mansion.
Empress Su Mingyue had wanted to summon him to the palace to ask clearly at that time.
But Zhou Ming didn't give her the chance; he rode his horse back to his residence from the front of the Zheng Mansion, disappeared into a secret room, and remained incommunicado for over a year.
Now that she had finally waited for him to return, she poured out all the confusion she had been suppressing in her heart without hesitation.
No monarch could refuse a Sword Control Sorcery that could multiply the combat power of an army several times over.
Not to mention anything else, just the half-baked simplified Sorcerys that Zhou Ming had researched back then.
Had already saved Empress Su Mingyue from taking countless detours on the road to achieving hegemony.
The power of the Sorcery army had already been fully verified in the defense of Yongning City, in deterring the Blood Refining Realm experts who had escaped from the Blood Pool Prison, in the siege of Luzhou, and when the Northern Border Army attacked Great Yuan.
If she could obtain the orthodox Sword Control Sorcery recorded in the two Jade Slips that Zhou Ming had given her, the military power of Great Ming would directly jump up several levels.
It would be strange if she weren't covetous.
Zhou Ming understood as soon as he heard it; so she was thinking about this.
He explained: "Your Majesty, this is because this world suppresses the cultivation base of Cultivators. Once you reach the outside world, it will naturally resolve itself."
"Hmm? Then why are you not suppressed?" Empress Su Mingyue asked immediately.
"This... Your Majesty, it is because of this treasure that my cultivation base is not suppressed."
As Zhou Ming spoke, he pointed to the emerald jade ring on his finger.
While pointing at the ring, he secretly mobilized the authority of the qiankun bead and granted a sliver of authorization to this ring.
As long as someone wears this ring, the world's suppression will disappear.
Empress Su Mingyue's gaze fell on the emerald ring, and she stared at it for a long while.
Seeing her staring at the ring unblinkingly, Zhou Ming sighed internally, took the ring off his finger, and handed it to her.
The moment Empress Su Mingyue took the ring, the qiankun bead's suppression of her cultivation base suddenly vanished.
She had been Cultivating the Dushi Sutra for over a year, and her cultivation had long since reached the Foundation Establishment Stage, but she had been unable to use Divine Sense due to the world's suppression.
Now that the suppression was suddenly lifted, her Divine Sense instantly enveloped an area of several dozen miles.
The entire Yongning City, from the imperial palace to the aristocratic district in the west of the city, from the garrison camp in the north to the merchant market in the south, all appeared in her perception.
Zhou Ming could even feel Empress Su Mingyue's Divine Sense sweeping over him, but he reacted extremely quickly, circulating a sliver of magic power to block it out.