Zhou Ming had long since received news that Empress Su Mingyue was leading her great army back to You Province.

The army of five hundred thousand set off from Wild Wolf Slope in An Province; commanderies and counties along the way bowed in submission at the mere sight of them, and the common folk of the Northern Territory welcomed them with food and drink, lining the roads. Wherever the army passed, the streets were emptied as everyone flocked to watch.

By his calculations, Empress Su Mingyue would arrive at Yuyang Commandery in at most five or six days.

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

With this return, Empress Su Mingyue would certainly find a way to ascend to the throne.

Now that Yun Province was pacified, Chong Province was settled, An Province and Cang Prefecture were completely under control, and You Province was as tightly managed as an iron barrel.

With a million-strong army in her hands, Empress Su Mingyue effectively controlled over eighty percent of the territory of the Great Xia Dynasty and nearly all of its elite forces.

In all the vast world, there was no one left who could challenge her.

Yuwen Shuo was dead, Zhao Chongyuan was dead, the royalist coalition had vanished into dust, and Emperor Yongchang was a Puppet who could not even step outside the palace gates.

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

For Zhou Ming, Empress Su Mingyue ascending to the throne brought immense benefits.

Firstly, Empress Su Mingyue herself did not oppose the spread of the "Dushi Sutra"; she even took the initiative to request the promotion of the "Pingan Sutra" throughout all of You Province.

The wider the scriptures spread, the denser Zhou Ming's Causality Web became, and the higher his cultivation rose.

He could openly use the power of the Dynasty to push the scriptures across the entire Great Xia, and perhaps even further.

Secondly, Empress Su Mingyue was not someone who clung to convention; once she ascended to that position, she would surely expand the territory.

The Great Yuan Dynasty was eyeing them covetously from the north and had long-standing grievances with the Su Family.

The Great Yan Dynasty in the west was also an old enemy of Great Xia, and these two wars would have to be fought sooner or later.

Once war broke out, many people would die.

For Zhou Ming, every broken Causal Chain meant cultivation.

Thirdly, Zhou Ming admitted that he also wanted to see the true The Female Protagonist.

Back when he told Empress Su Mingyue the story of the empress at the Martial Arts Training Ground, she was still just a Young Miss sitting in Begonia Court, listening to stories.

Now, she had trampled through three provinces and pointed her sword at the world, only one final step away from ascending to that position which had only ever been occupied by men.

The conditions for Empress Su Mingyue to declare herself emperor were actually quite mature now.

Zhou Ming mentally combed through them one by one.

First, a legitimate pretext.

Second, absolute control over the machine of violence.

Third, his own people in the imperial court.

Fourth, the shaking of the social Foundation, creating a sense of crisis.

Fifth, clearing away external obstacles and clipping wings.

Sixth, psychological and public opinion offensives, that is, mysticism, to make the people of the world believe that this is the destiny of heaven.

Once all six conditions were mature, usurping the throne would be a natural outcome.

Empress Su Mingyue already had four of them.

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 held no great hopes for the old Dynasty.

The remaining two, the first, a legitimate pretext, and the sixth, the destiny of heaven, had to be artificially manufactured.

Empress Su Mingyue could not easily do these two things herself; she could not just stand up and say, "Heaven intends for me to be emperor," so it could only be done by Zhou Ming.

The first condition, a legitimate pretext.

Zhou Ming thought of abdication.

This was the simplest and most classic trope from the history of his previous life.

Coerce the emperor to abdicate and perform a "three refusals and three acceptances" ceremony.

Make the Puppet emperor personally present the jade seal to you, while you repeatedly decline, only "reluctantly" accepting the abdication in the end.

In the history of his previous life, Cao Pi forcing Emperor Xian of Han, and Sima Yan forcing Emperor Yuan of Wei, were both done this way.

Emperor Yongchang was now just a Puppet locked in the Imperial Palace, making him play this role was perfect, but it was not yet the time.

The sixth condition, the destiny of heaven.

Ancient people believed in the destiny of heaven; to make them accept a woman as emperor, relying on swords alone was not enough; one had to make them believe that it was the will of the Heavens.

What Zhou Ming thought of was creating auspicious omens.

A Phoenix descending from the heavens, divine light appearing, unearthing a prophecy tablet from a stone carved with "The Female Protagonist rules the world"—he would do whatever it took to bluff them.

He had always been a man of action; as soon as he had cleared his thoughts, he had already stood up.

It was nearing dusk, and the Imperial Palace was quiet; Emperor Yongchang was still in Qianyuan Hall playing with crickets.

No one would notice where Zhou Ming went.

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

He was all too familiar with the cave in West Mountain.

He had discovered this cave while scouting for the poetry gathering, and later, when the poetry gathering was attacked by assassins, he had led everyone to hide inside the cave.

He had previously intended to use this place as a temporary site for an Opportunity, planning to leave an Opportunity for some "chosen one."

Now, this cave could be put to a new use.

Zhou Ming landed at the cave entrance, released his Divine Sense to sweep the area, and after confirming that there was no one for several miles around, he bent down and crawled in.

Inside the cave, the rocks were still jagged; Zhou Ming released his Flying Sword, and its pitch-black, lusterless blade rotated silently in the darkness, slicing flat the jagged stone ridges on the cave floor piece by piece.

The rubble was gently carried by his Divine Sense and piled into a corner of the cave, not even a single speck of dust escaping the entrance.

Zhou Ming untied the rope, took out the 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 Divine Thought to control the red thread already threaded onto a needle, stitching the edges of the dozens of bolts of red cloth one by one.

The stitches were fine and even, the seams almost hidden within the texture of the fabric.

As he stitched the red cloth, his mind wandered aimlessly.

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

They would surely shout: "Leader Dongfang!"

Under the guidance of his Divine Thought, the dozens of bolts of red cloth slowly stitched together into a single, massive piece of red cloth, covering the entire cave floor.

Then Zhou Ming released his Flying Sword and began to cut along the outline traced in his Divine Thought.

Where the sword blade passed, the fabric parted in response, the edges as neat as if measured with a ruler.

In no time, the outline of a massive Phoenix emerged from the red cloth, wings spread, head held high, tail feathers trailing long, looking vivid and lifelike.

Zhou Ming ground the saltpeter he had brought into powder and sprinkled it evenly over the front of the Phoenix red cloth.

Saltpeter helped combustion and would ignite upon contact with fire; he wanted to make this Phoenix burn even more brilliantly than fireworks.

He found a few thin bamboo strips, used his Divine Thought to bend them into arcs, and propped up the red cloth, letting the Phoenix red cloth stand firmly in the deepest part of the cave.

Looking in from the cave entrance, one could only see a blurry red shadow, vaguely in the shape of a Phoenix, but not clearly visible.

This was exactly the effect Zhou Ming wanted.

Things like auspicious omens were fake if they were too clear; the blurrier they were, the more they sparked infinite imagination in people.

After finishing all this, Zhou Ming clapped the saltpeter powder off his hands, straightened his back, and examined this massive Phoenix from top to bottom.

He nodded with satisfaction, turned around, and left the cave.

Taking advantage of the night, he flew back to the Imperial Palace and landed silently in the backyard of Wuying Hall.

That night, Yuyang Commandery slept as peacefully as usual, and no one knew that something extra had appeared on West Mountain.