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

The soldiers inside and outside the house spoke in unison. The tall man nodded silently and glanced into a corner of the house, where he spotted a thin boy leaning against a side cabinet.

"Xiao Guan..."

The skinny boy leaned against the side table, staring blankly at the corpse on the bed. Suddenly, he snapped out of it and grinned at the tall man.

"My lord, I'm alright."

His gaze returned to the head of the bed. "The news of the fox demon's beheading reached the village this morning. Brother Yang is free now. He has gone with his parents. It's a happy funeral."

"You're the only man left in Sanyi Manor"—the tall man swallowed these words, stepped forward, patted Guan Tian on the shoulder, and whispered:

"If you need anything in the future, just let the institute know."

The tall man led Guan Tian and the two Lis out of the courtyard and introduced them:

"This is Guan Tian, ​​a soldier from Sanyi Manor; this is Li Yi, the newly appointed junior officer of Sanyi Manor; Li Erhu will also be your colleague in the future."

Guan Tian glanced at the two Lis and said in a low voice, "Greetings, Lord Xiaoqi, and Brother Erhu."

The tall man nodded and said to Li Yi, "I was originally planning to help you familiarize yourself with the affairs of the manor, but after this incident, I have to take charge of Yang Lin's funeral. You can have Xiao Guan accompany you to familiarize yourself with things first, and we'll talk about the rest in seven days."

After saying that, he gave Li Yi a meaningful look, then glanced almost imperceptibly at Guan Tian, ​​before turning and walking back into the courtyard.

Is this a way for me to find something for this young man to do?

Li Yi understood and directly instructed Guan Tian to take him and Li Erhu to his residence.

Like Yang Lin's family, it had three rooms and a small courtyard of forty or fifty square meters. However, the materials used were more solid than those used in his adoptive father's house. The courtyard was paved with bluestone slabs, and the house was also made of blue bricks and white tiles, which was more solid than Li Dashan's wooden house.

Winter is approaching, and the entire Baihusuo area stretches as far as the eye can see. Each household's courtyard is similar, and a small path leads to the farmland, making it very convenient to cultivate the farmland on a daily basis.

Li Yi sat on the doorframe and asked, "What do you usually do?"

Guan Tian didn't show much emotion or say much along the way, only responding after hearing Li Yi's question.

"Reporting to Your Excellency, it depends on the season. During the busy farming season, we focus on cultivation, while during the slack season, we train, build fortifications, and sometimes we are taken away by the military camp to patrol or level sandy fields."

Li Yi nodded slightly. He did know about the matter of calming down Shatin, and he had even done it before.

Qifeng County was a border county of the Wu Dynasty. Around some important roads on the border, sand had to be filled in. There were people who patrolled every day. If they found human traces in the sand, they would send the information back to the barracks.

If everything goes well, I'll be responsible for leveling the sandy fields, which is a tough job.

In contrast, the neighboring Great Yan Dynasty had no sand on its border passes. The reason for this was that there was a local deity there.

Just a local deity, yet he can spare hundreds of soldiers the hardship of patrolling day and night...

Li Yi's mind wandered for a moment, then he came back to his senses and asked:

"How many acres of land does each military household receive? What is the annual yield, and what percentage does the garrison take?"

"Each household has fifty mu of land, with an annual output of about fifty shi. As for stored grain, each household in the office is allocated grain according to the number of people in the household, with six shi per person. Any excess grain must be handed over to the authorities for storage."

"Is there enough to eat?"

"Enough to eat."

He was probably feeling down. Guan Tian was like a toad right now, only jumping up and down because Li Yi was a higher-ranking official. Otherwise, he wouldn't even hop on a poking post.

Li Yi didn't care. He had paid attention to the two soldiers, Guan Tian and Yang Lin, in the register of Sanyi Village. Their parents had both suffered from demonic calamity, and only they were left on the household registration.

The one with the weak will had already hanged himself, so it was already quite remarkable that Guan Tian could still answer questions.

Thinking that the tall guy needed someone to do something so he wouldn't end up like Yang Lin and take his own life, he stood up and asked:

"Xiao Guan, have you mastered the 'Essentials of the Five Elements' Qi Gathering'?"

A strange light flashed in Guan Tian's eyes, and he shook his head.

"Although we military households have no worries about food and clothing, we still don't have enough to support the depletion of our Qi. Father said that if we don't prepare fine food, our Qi absorption will backfire."

Li Yi frowned. "Even the garrisons don't have the usual practice of testing for innate aptitude for external pathogens?"

Guan Tian noticed the look of disdain in his eyes and quickly replied loudly, "Yes! When a man in the garrison turns seventeen, someone will specifically investigate his talent. I just turned seventeen this year, but I missed the deadline, so I'll have to wait until next year."

That's acceptable.

Ordinary people are weak when they are young, and their vitality is not as strong as that of adults, so they are naturally less likely to catch a cold.

According to Junyi, Qishan opens its doors to disciples every three years, and the applicants are generally older, which gives them a better chance of success.

Unless there are immortal families who like to search for suitable children within their territory, most people have to wait until the child is fourteen or fifteen years old.

"Alright, Erhu, you first teach Xiao Guan the 'Essentials of Five Elements Qi Gathering'. Xiao Guan, memorize it well, and then you can try it when I bring you meat."

"this!"

Guan Tian was taken aback and before he could react, he saw Li Yi stride out of the courtyard.

Li Erhu chuckled beside him, "Following Brother Yi, these are all minor matters. You just need to accept them sincerely."

……

After being discharged from the hospital, Li Yi returned to Yang Lin's courtyard, untied the reins, mounted his horse, and headed straight into the city.

"First, I'll seek out Gongsun Ling to obtain the body-refining method, inquire about Xiaoqi's future plans, and then return to the Zhang residence to bid farewell to my uncle and aunt..."

Li Yi arranged his itinerary and rode a fast horse into the city to the government office on North Street. Unexpectedly, Gongsun Ling was still not there, so he had to go to Zhang's residence to say goodbye first.

Zhang Ling didn't say much, only instructing Li Yi to be quick-witted when handling official business and not to offend his colleagues unnecessarily.

Madam Zhang tried to persuade her to stay, but she couldn't resist her stubbornness. She then ordered the kitchen staff to bring a hundred taels of silver and fifty catties of beef, and sent a carriage. Standing under the plaque of the Zhang residence, she watched the carriage leave with reluctance.

Li Yi sat in the carriage, lowered the curtain, and scratched his head somewhat awkwardly.

The carriage drove straight into the government office on North Street. As soon as Li Yi alighted, he saw Gongsun Ling riding up on horseback and immediately went forward to greet him.

"grown ups."

Gongsun Ling dismounted and took the reins, too lazy to make Li Yi change his mind again, and talked to him as they rode:

"The military officer has already reported our merits, and the county government approved it today. So I took the liberty of exchanging your merits for a body-tempering method."

As Gongsun Ling spoke, she took out a thin manual of martial arts techniques from her bosom.

"This method is called the 'Life-Renewing Body Refinement Method,' a superior body-forging method for wood-element body cultivators in the Qi Refining stage. Even if you, Brother Li, cultivate your internal organs in the future, you can still exchange your merits for a Foundation Establishment stage method without having to change it."

Li Yi took the "Life-Refining Body Method" and, after entering the tea room and taking his seat, followed Gongsun Ling's instructions to use wood qi to engage with the method.

Suddenly, a stream of wood energy surged from the book and entered Li Yi's body, flowing through the gallbladder meridian and more than thirty surrounding acupoints.

Gongsun Ling smiled and said, "You already know the Qi circulation route of this method. As for the specific body-tempering method, you'll understand once you open it and take a look."

I've finally gotten my hands on a body-refining technique!

Li Yi was excited, but knew that haste makes waste, and he had official duties to attend to. So he nodded slightly and brought up Yang Lin's suicide, asking:

"Right now, my small team only has one elderly person left, Guan Tian. Should we fill the remaining eight spots as soon as possible?"