During the few days that Zhou Ming spent behind closed doors studying spells, Empress Su Mingyue had already brought the entire Qing Province under her sphere of influence.

A massive fire at the foot of Qingyun Mountain had caused the 800,000-strong loyalist army of Yuwen Shuo and Zhao Chongyuan to collapse like a mountain.

After the two fled into the night with their personal guards, Qing Province became ownerless land.

Empress Su Mingyue led her army south, and the counties along the way surrendered upon seeing her approach, encountering almost no significant resistance.

The scattered garrison troops still stationed in various counties of Qing Province opened the city gates the moment they saw the black commander's flag of the Youzhou army.

Some even opened the city gates without having clearly seen the flag.

Regardless of who was coming, they certainly wouldn't fight; dynasties might not last a thousand years, but noble families do.

Whoever ruled this place couldn't do without the co-governance of the noble families.

The routed loyalist army was scattered throughout Qing Province.

Some had even abandoned their weapons on the road during their retreat, wandering the countryside in twos and threes, looting for food.

Empress Su Mingyue sent out cavalry to round up the routed soldiers across Qing Province, proclaiming: "Those who surrender will be forgiven, incorporated into the Youzhou army, and treated the same as our own soldiers."

Upon hearing that they wouldn't be beheaded for surrendering, and would instead get a full meal and military pay, the routed soldiers laid down their weapons and surrendered one after another.

In just a few short days, Empress Su Mingyue had rounded up over 100,000 routed soldiers; added to her original 150,000 elite troops and the over 200,000 captured soldiers from the battlefield, her total military strength approached 500,000.

In the commander's tent in Qing Province, Empress Su Mingyue spread out a map and divided her nearly 500,000-strong army into two paths.

The first path, 200,000 strong, with 50,000 elite northern troops she had brought as the core and 150,000 surrendered soldiers as support, was handed over to her subordinate general, Niu Bocheng, to take advantage of Zhao Chongyuan's flight to Cloud Province and strike directly at An Province.

An Province was the old capital, and the political significance of recapturing An Province far outweighed the military significance.

After taking An Province, Niu Bocheng could join forces with Gao Pengda's division, which had previously captured Liang Province, and encircle Cloud Province together.

Cloud Province was Zhao Chongyuan's lair, managed for many years, and would not be easy to take in one fell swoop, but surrounding Cloud Province City with 400,000 troops would be enough to trap Zhao Chongyuan to death inside.

The other path was led personally by Empress Su Mingyue, commanding 100,000 elite troops and less than 200,000 surrendered soldiers, plus Ren Yunjie's division that had previously captured Luzhou, to launch a pincer attack directly at Yuwen Shuo's lair, Chong Province.

Acting on her orders, Ren Yunjie led 30,000 elite troops from Hidden Cloud Valley to depart from Luzhou, cross the river, and while expanding his forces in Chong Province, set up defenses in the north to seal off Yuwen Shuo's escape route.

Empress Su Mingyue moved east from Qing Province, pressing directly against the western part of Chong Province.

The two armies were like a pair of pliers, slowly closing in on Chong Province from the north and west.

Since Chong Province bordered Duanyun Ridge to the east and Cang Prefecture to the south, if Yuwen Shuo wanted to escape, he could only flee to Cang Prefecture.

Yuwen Shuo had managed Chong Province for many years and had deep roots; in terms of strength, he was not much worse than Old Marquis Su Yongning, who held the northern territory.

Chong Province was located in the southeast, with dense water networks, high city walls, and ample grain; if attacked head-on, even if they could take it, they would pay a heavy price.

But Yuwen Shuo's defeat lay in the great righteousness of the world.

While reorganizing her army to advance, Empress Su Mingyue used the intelligence network in her hands to start spreading rumors throughout Chong Province.

She turned over the old account of how Yuwen Shuo and Zhao Chongyuan had colluded at Wild Wolf Slope in An Province to entrap and kill the Marquis of Yongning, Old Marquis Su Yongning.

"Yuwen Shuo and Zhao Chongyuan, under the guise of being loyalists, are actually committing treason. They have colluded with the Zongsheng Sect to entrap and kill the loyal Marquis of Yongning, Old Marquis Su Yongning, causing the downfall of the nation."

Following the rumors was a manifesto with resounding wording: "Empress Su Mingyue, acting under the imperial decree of the Great Xia Emperor Yongchang, has come to quell the rebellion, execute the traitor Yuwen Shuo, and rectify the imperial court. All aspiring people in the world should join in punishing the national traitors and return peace to Great Xia."

This manifesto was copied over ten thousand times and posted by scouts and intelligence personnel hidden in various places on city gates, notification boards in front of county offices, and the pillars of markets and teahouses in every county of Chong Province.

Among the local generals of Chong Province, not everyone was a die-hard loyalist of Yuwen Shuo.

Many were already shaken by his defeat on the Qing Province battlefield, and now, seeing the manifesto, their morale was even more shaken.

While spreading the manifesto, Empress Su Mingyue accelerated her march. Before the army even reached the border of Chong Province, three counties in the south of Chong Province had already secretly sent letters of surrender under the "persuasion" of the Nightingales.

As a result, this completely cut off Yuwen Shuo's path to flee to Cang Prefecture.

Yuwen Shuo could only remain trapped in the capital of Chong Province. Although he still had over 100,000 troops, his army's morale had collapsed, and the peripheral cities were defecting one after another. He could only watch helplessly as Empress Su Mingyue's encirclement tightened.

Empress Su Mingyue received a letter sent by Zhou Ming via eagle from Yuyang Commandery.

Sitting in the commander's tent, she unfolded the letter by the flickering candlelight on the desk and read it from beginning to end.

The letter described how he had placed Grand Duke Su and his direct descendants under house arrest in Wenhua Hall.

How he had pointed at a deer and called it a horse in Taihe Hall to sideline Emperor Yongchang.

How he had made Su Mingli a commandery governor.

And how he had thrown open the palace gates to accept bribes and accumulate wealth, having the gold, silver, and jewels of the noble families of Yuyang Commandery carted into the Imperial Palace treasury.

Empress Su Mingyue's brows raised slightly as she read.

She had grown up with Zhou Ming. That sharp-mouthed, monkey-cheeked little attendant who was as thin as a hemp stalk, whom she had beaten until his nose was bruised and face swollen without him daring to fight back—when had he become like this?

Empress Su Mingyue put down the letter and leaned back in her chair, silent for a long while.

It wasn't that she was unhappy, just that it was somewhat unbelievable.

She was on the front lines, desperately expanding her strength, while in the rear, Zhou Ming was ruining his own reputation to consolidate the rear and raise military funds for her.

Empress Su Mingyue rubbed her brow, a complex emotion flashing in her eyes.

She hadn't expected Zhou Ming to act in such an unconventional way.

To stabilize Yuyang Commandery and raise enough military funds for the front line, he didn't hesitate to soil his own reputation, incurring all the criticism of the noble families, and forcibly pinning the label of a treacherous and powerful official on himself.

It seemed like he was arrogantly hoarding wealth and manipulating the chaotic situation, but in reality, he was calculating every step, stabilizing the imperial court, manipulating the noble families, and managing the rear flawlessly.

The once timid and scrawny little attendant who followed behind her had now become so deep and calculating, his methods ruthless, his mind so strategic that even she found him hard to fathom.

Empress Su Mingyue wanted to find a suitable phrase to evaluate Zhou Ming's actions during this period, but found that her vocabulary did not seem to contain words for this purpose.

In the end, she didn't say much, just picked up a pen and wrote a sentence on the back of the letter: "Find a way to promote the Dushi Sutra throughout Youzhou."

Yuyang Commandery, Imperial Palace, Wuying Hall.

Zhou Ming was still locking himself inside the hall, researching spells.

With the Foundation he had explored earlier, what he needed to do now was not to learn new things.

Instead, he was breaking down the spells he already knew layer by layer, until they were the simplest, most mana-efficient, and fastest to condense.

He knew that the Fireball Technique he used was achieved by brute-forcing it with the immense mana of the Nascent Soul Stage.

When others used the Fireball Technique, it was like a match lighting a handful of dry grass.

When he used the Fireball Technique, it was like pouring a bucket of kerosene and then throwing a torch. While powerful, the precision and casting speed were far inferior to Cultivators who could cast Fireball Techniques in the Qi Refinement Stage.

Zhou Ming broke the Fireball Technique into three steps: condensation, compression, and release.

Then he pondered and simplified each link, figuring out the most efficient way for mana to flow and how to cast the Fireball Technique without using Divine Sense.

One had to know that Divine Sense was only cultivated by Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators; Qi Refinement Stage Cultivators did not possess Divine Sense, yet they could still cast Fireball Techniques.