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

"Royal Li, Royal Li."

Wu Hao stared intently at the arena, then patted his subordinate on the shoulder. "Look at that guy, doesn't he look like Li Yi?"

Wang Li stared wide-eyed as well, and stammered, "It looks a bit like it."

The new recruits in Shili followed their brothers' gazes and saw that the man was wearing chainmail, with a pair of iron guards on his arms gleaming coldly, and a plume on the top of his helmet fluttering in the wind, giving him a rather imposing air.

Could such a person be an ordinary soldier who returned to his hometown two months ago?

Judging from the appearance of the sergeant and the squad leader, they might have made a mistake.

Within the white circle, Horse Face shouted. Li Yi, no longer content to sit idly by and watch the fight, subtly gathered a surge of green energy in his palm, fixed his gaze on Xiao Zhou, and grinned:

"Coming right away!"

Li Yi pushed off the ground with his feet and flashed away.

Seeing the horse-faced man's posture, Xiao Zhou realized that Li Yi was a tough opponent, so he immediately withdrew from the battle and regrouped. Unexpectedly, his opponent did not rush towards him.

His gaze was fixed on Li Yi, and his expression suddenly changed!

"Lin Yue, watch out!"

Lin Yue, who was wielding the Iron Body, was locked in combat with Zhong Ming. Without needing anyone to remind him, he noticed a swift figure out of the corner of his eye. He immediately pushed aside his opponent and was about to retreat when the person was already in front of him.

Li Yi aimed for Lin Yue's chest, stepped forward and pushed his palm, but Lin Yue hurriedly raised his arm to block it. Instead of being surprised, Lin Yue smiled.

Zhong Ming seized the opportunity, lowered his body, and punched Lin Yue in the left abdomen, making his eyes widen and his arm lose its strength.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Li Yi grabbed Lin Yue's right wrist, flung him to the side, disrupting his balance, and then kicked him several meters away with a whip kick.

The two guards, united in their hatred of the enemy, attacked and subdued Lin Yue in an instant, temporarily rendering him unable to fight.

Zhong Mingfei stepped forward and delivered another punch, then reached out and snatched the waist token from Li Yi's waist. Just as he was about to deliver another palm strike, several sentries were about to surround him, so he had to retreat back to Li Yi's side.

"good!"

Gongsun Ling couldn't help but shout, attracting the attention of Li Shuyan and Wei Wuyan.

"That kid chose his timing well and was clear-headed; he wasn't distracted by his colleagues and decisively joined forces with them to take down a formidable adversary—was it your subordinate?"

Wei Wuyan picked up where Li Shuyan left off, sighing, "This man was able to cooperate with Zhong Ming and successfully interfere with Lin Yue, so his physique must be incredibly strong. The garrison has really gone all out this time."

"You two are too kind..." Gongsun Ling didn't want to reveal Li Yi's background. If Li Shuyan knew that he had been a garrison soldier in the Tiger Might Camp, and that she had personally poached him...

General Wei Wuyan of the Trapped Camp suddenly raised an eyebrow. "This is getting interesting."

Gongsun Ling suddenly snapped back to reality and looked towards the arena.

Just now, the Trapped Camp's scouts lost a major fighting force and fell into a slump, but the Tiger Might Camp suddenly stopped fighting and, under Xiao Zhou's leadership, held off the garrison, finally managing to catch their breath.

Despite being an adversary, Xiao Zhou was currently protecting Lin Yue, with flashes of electricity crackling across his body, which was quite frightening.

Zhong Ming glanced sideways slightly. "Be careful. Xiao Zhou cultivates a third-grade body-forging technique, the Jade Pivot Thunder Subduing Technique. Every move he makes is imbued with thunder energy."

Li Yi glanced around and saw that there were less than twenty people left in the white circle, eight of whom were from the Tiger Might Battalion.

"I'll go and meet him. Brother Zhong, you can take your men and capture the Trapped Camp first."

After speaking, he looked past the group of people and focused his gaze on Xiao Zhou.

"Brother, are you going to come out and fight me one-on-one, or are you prepared to lose a few of your colleagues first?"

Upon hearing this, the expressions of several scouts from the Tiger Might Battalion changed drastically.

Who do you think you are?

"If you want to challenge Boss Xiao, you'll have to get past us first!"

Xiao Zhou, however, remained calm as he stepped out of the military formation, stood on the open ground to the west, and raised his hand, saying, "Please enlighten me."

Li Yi took a few steps forward and stood in front of Xiao Zhou. He did not rush to make a move, but smiled and said:

"Lin Yue is currently out of fighting strength, and Zhong Ming is also showing signs of fatigue. If you can take me down in one fell swoop, winning the first place will be as easy as taking candy from a baby."

Xiao Zhou looked Li Yi up and down, seemingly becoming more interested.

"So you think so too?"

Li Yi said no more, stood in a stance, raised his arm and threw a punch, which was enveloped by Xiao Zhou's left palm, and sure enough, he felt a slight tingling sensation.

That's quite novel.

Xiao Zhou's palm contained thunderous energy, and he thought he had paralyzed his opponent. He immediately pressed down with his right palm, aiming straight for Li Yi's face, but unexpectedly, Li Yi raised his hand to block it, and the two hands clasped together.

Want to test your strength?

Xiao Zhou sneered inwardly and quietly activated his lightning energy.

Once an opponent comes into contact with his lightning energy, even if they are as strong as an ox, they will be unable to use any of it. He is almost invincible in fighting with his lightning energy, and he may only be in a tough fight when facing a fool like Lin Yue.

Li Yi indeed felt a tingling sensation in his hands. The lightning energy traveled straight through his palms and arms, but unfortunately it was too "weak" to penetrate his torso.

The incense-burning golden statue was indeed domineering; the slight lightning force was merely a novel experience and had no effect whatsoever.

Now it seems that even though I am not as good as Xiaoqing and Qin Kaixian and cannot reach the level of Foundation Establishment, I am still more than capable of dealing with mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators, and I am not restricted by region.

Even minor officials have their own unique strengths.

With thousands of people watching intently and cultivators observing from the high platform, Li Yi couldn't go too far. He decided to test the Jiamu strength he had practiced the other day, so he channeled his energy into his arms.

The Wood element has a regenerative effect. Although it cannot completely resist the penetration of lightning energy, it can accelerate recovery and keep the arms active, preventing them from being paralyzed to the point of being unable to control themselves.

Xiao Zhou's lightning energy hadn't penetrated much to begin with, and under the wash of the Jia wood energy, even that slight tingling sensation quickly disappeared.

Li Yi estimated that about five or six breaths had passed. It shouldn't be too much to counterattack now, right?

While he was busy making various plans, he didn't notice that Xiao Zhou's expression had already changed.

Shouldn't you be completely weak and unable to control yourself?

Why do these two hands look like a pair of iron clamps?

Just then, Li Yi suddenly pulled with both arms, causing Xiao Zhou to fall forward. Then, he was hit by Li Yi's right shoulder, and a sharp pain shot through his chest. He flew several meters backward.

Xiao Zhou braced himself with his hands to avoid falling to the ground. His gaze suddenly fell on something Li Yi was carrying, and he hurriedly reached for his waist with his left hand, his face turning ashen.

Although the competition was about the number of waist tokens obtained after an incense stick had burned out, Xiao Zhou was too embarrassed to argue with someone who had won so easily. When the scouts from the Tiger Might Camp saw his uncertain expression and that he had walked out of the white circle on his own, their expressions changed drastically.

Horse Face turned his head and, after a moment of surprise, exclaimed, "That guy loading the cargo has some backbone. Hey, you bunch of cowards, are you going to drop your badges and kneel down to surrender, or fight to the death and get utterly thrashed by us?"

The incident caused a huge uproar. Not only the sentries remaining in the white circle, but also the thousands of Tiger Might Battalion soldiers in the training ground were filled with righteous indignation, wishing they could personally take to the field and beat Horse Face black and blue.

"That horse-faced guy is infuriating, watch out when you're walking at night!"

"A long face like a horse, a mouth as foul as a donkey's!"

Horse Face kicked a scout away, and amidst the uproar, roared in anger:

"My surname isn't Ma, and I'm not called Horse Face!"