The establishment of the Celestial Dynasty began with the bestowal of the title upon the River God.

"Oh, it's snowing."

Before dawn, Liu Zhi pushed open the door of the barracks and felt a slight coolness on his face. He looked up and saw that the roofs of all the barracks in the barracks were covered with a light white layer.

Fortunately, the Qifeng County army set out during the coldest days of winter. Although it only lasted a few days, the weather was kind and it did not snow.

It has been almost half a month since the Great Yan Kingdom was abolished and replaced by prefectures. It is already the first day of the twelfth lunar month, and only now has the first light snow fallen.

Not long after Liu Zhi left the house, as if the sound of the door opening signaled, six sentries emerged from all four sides of the barracks.

No one spoke, but they exchanged knowing glances before taking their blood-qi pills and starting their fist-training practice early in the morning.

This barracks houses a hundred garrison soldiers, including not only Li Yi's captain, but also Zhong Ming, Ma Lian'er, and others.

After the initial establishment of Manxing County, various scouts patrolled the surrounding areas, spending half a month creating a complete map of the county. They compared it with the map left by the Great Yan Wu Dynasty and made many changes.

During this period, Liu Zhi practiced boxing from dawn to dusk every day, and he never missed a day of taking the Blood Qi Pill. Although he never caught a cold, his physique became stronger and stronger, and he could easily take on two or three ordinary soldiers.

Practicing boxing early in the morning, while not particularly loud, is still noticeable to some.

Gradually, this infected many sentries, and today the morning exercise team has grown to about ten people. However, not everyone can take pills without restraint, so there are only six or seven people a day, sometimes even fewer.

Since it was the barracks of the garrison's sentry cavalry, the morning training team naturally included other squad members, including those under Xu Rong's command.

Although Xu Rong and Li Yi were at odds, Xu Rong remained respectful on the surface, and his actions and words were acceptable.

As for Sun Xueming and Chang Heng, they were both driven by self-interest and avoided harm, and thus did not gain Li Yi's favor.

He was opportunistic and lacked Xu Rong's cunning, shamelessness, and decisiveness. His somewhat awkward flattery went unnoticed by Commander Meng. In fact, he had always wanted to get close to Li Yi, but he had no opportunity.

They're stuck in a limbo, caught in a dilemma, as if they've suffered some great injustice.

As Li Yi's brother and leader, Liu Zhi holds considerable influence in the morning exercise group.

He never ostracized the soldiers in the three small flags mentioned above, which won him many fans.

The wind and snow were not heavy, and the crystal flowers became clear and dazzling in the gradually rising light, drifting down and covering everyone's heads with a layer of white frost.

One of the scouts turned around to look at the barracks, then exchanged glances with another man before quietly approaching Liu Zhi.

"Brother Liu, we need to talk to you about something. Could we rest together behind the kitchen?"

Liu Zhi stopped his boxing stance, asked no further questions, and led the way to the back of the kitchen, where he stood next to a poplar tree and asked:

"What is it?"

The two scouts were about the same height as Liu Zhi, and their appearances were ordinary; they were common sights in the army. However, they always had a hint of worry between their brows.

"As Brother Liu knows, I work under Xu Xiaoqi. Since the start of the campaign, although I haven't achieved any great feats, the rank and merit earned from the various duties of a scout are enough to sustain us for one or two months with Blood Qi Pills, but in reality, we have to reduce it by half..."

Liu Zhi frowned, and then heard the man say:

"I worked under Xu Xiaoqi, and on every holiday, I had to offer tributes, which were euphemistically called congratulatory gifts."

"In just over half a month, we accompanied Xiaoqi through the coldest days of winter, the day of victory, and Xiaoqi's birthday. After each task was calculated and the points were distributed... after a round, out of ten military merits, only four or five were actually earned."

The scout looked distressed, clearly needing someone's help.

Liu Zhi looked at the other person and asked, "Does Sun Xiaoqi also enjoy celebrating holidays?"

The man quickly shook his head, "I came with Dazhuang to give him courage."

Having worked alongside Li Yi for a long time, Liu Zhi had developed some manners and was not easily swayed by Li Yi's warmheartedness, so he agreed without thinking it through.

"This person was called here by Dazhuang, so he can serve as a witness. Otherwise, when I report this to Yi Ge'er, Dazhuang will deny it outright."

In this way, as long as I reveal a little, Xu Xiaoqi will not need to suspect his many scouts and assume that Dazhuang is deliberately handing me leverage to gain my trust.

After some thought, Liu Zhi ultimately did not agree in person.

"Let me think about this for a while. You two go back first, and don't give anything away."

When he returned to the courtyard, there was already some activity in the barracks, so the scouts stopped their training and prepared to begin their day's work.

Li Yi also came out of the second room, saw Liu Zhi, greeted him briefly, and then noticed the fine snow. He couldn't help but smile knowingly and began his day of cultivation.

Seven days have passed since I wrote the letter, and I presume Junyi has already received it. It's a pity that the post stations along the way cannot send a reply.

Li Yi wanted to go back to Dahan Mountain to take a look, but he hesitated to set off because he didn't have any magic to conceal his identity.

As the River God, Xiaoqing has a keen sense of the area around the Qingchi River. If He sees her appearing on the Great Cold Mountain, wouldn't He ask her questions?

The only thing to do is to suppress your thoughts and focus on cultivation.

Xiao Qing has already reached the late stage of cultivation, and her territory has expanded from Da Han Mountain to outside Qi Feng County. The amount of incense offerings she receives is increasing day by day. As her golden body and cultivation level improve, her territory will likely expand even further.

However, He is merely the River God of a tributary of the Qiujiang River, and cannot overstep His authority to rule the Qiujiang River.

If Xiaoqing can be promoted to a divine rank and expand her jurisdiction to the entire Qiujiang River, it will not only be a great help to me, but also protect Junyi from the flood and allow him to quickly travel from Dahan Mountain to the Hetao area of ​​Manxing County.

The key to this matter probably lies with me, a mere "minor official."

Li Yi internally examined his own gallbladder meridian. Since the last time he opened the "Jingmen" point, he had opened three more spiritual acupoints and gained a "blood and qi enhancement". He was only one acupoint away from the thirtieth spiritual acupoint "Huantiao" which was the later stage of the gallbladder meridian.

It should only take three to five days.

Li Yi has now integrated the four stance exercises of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, and can consume wood qi at all times for body tempering. Therefore, his cultivation speed has not decreased at all, but has even increased.

Even if he mastered the complete set of Taoist techniques of "Hejian Danmu Chaowu", his wood qi would often be insufficient if he did not replenish his qi pills in time.

"As the Daoist teachings say, if one can cultivate one's inner energy and achieve foundational cultivation, even with a poor foundation, one can still rely on the inner energy to mobilize the entire meridian system and absorb Qi at all times."

In this way, one's cultivation can continuously improve without neglecting the practice of the Liver Meridian and the absorption of Yin Wood Spiritual Qi.

Moreover, as is customary, the Investiture of the Gods will surely change at that time, and it is unknown what kind of divine miracles will occur.

For a moment, Li Yi's mind wandered, and he gradually stopped absorbing Qi. It wasn't until Zhang Junyi's face flashed through his mind that he finally remembered her advice and quickly regained his composure.

A restless mind, driven by desires, is truly terrifying.

Some vague and uncertain things can easily lead people to fantasize and become unable to extricate themselves...

Li Yi broke out in a cold sweat, stopped his daydreaming, and focused on his cultivation.

Meanwhile, Liu Zhi had already gone out and called Erhu back to the barracks, and then summoned Guan Tian and Zhong Wending to secretly discuss something.