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

Zhang Junyi lit an oil lamp, which illuminated the golden body of the City God statue in a half-light, half-dark manner, so he lit another lamp.

Hearing Li Yi's question, she didn't want to say more and advised him:

"It's best not to speak ill of the gods. If you really offend the City God, you'll be in for a world of hurt."

Li Yi immediately felt a little guilty and glanced at the bronze statue.

Zhang Junyi smiled gently, glancing sideways at Li Yi with a seductive look in her eyes.

"Forming the Golden Core is not so easy. In the entire Qifeng County, there is only one universally acknowledged Golden Core cultivator, Master Xu, and in the Xilong County to the east, there is not even one."

Li Yi was even more astonished, "Didn't you say there was a Golden Core cultivator in Qishan?"

Zhang Junyi shook his head with a smile, "There is indeed a Golden Core Ancestor, but he hasn't shown his face for hundreds of years, and his fate is unknown. The other six peak masters are all at the Foundation Establishment stage, and have almost no hope of forming a Core."

Li Yi nodded thoughtfully.

In this sense, Qishan is no different from a Foundation Establishment sect at present, except that it lives a peaceful life because of the prestige of its ancestor.

Even so, it still attracts many people from the surrounding area who aspire to the Way, and many waste half their lives for a chance to enter the path.

Li Yi, having been warned by Zhang Junyi, was genuinely afraid of attracting the attention of the City God, so he refrained from speaking recklessly and only shared his joy of opening the acupoint with her.

Silent all night.

The soldiers of Sanyi Village were selected as scouts and had to go into the city every afternoon to study reading, writing, surveying, and archery. Fortunately, this did not interfere with their half-day of training and physical exercise.

Li Yi has now opened seventeen spiritual acupoints. Just absorbing Qi takes nearly two hours. If he doesn't take Qi-boosting pills, just absorbing Qi, tempering his body, and practicing martial arts will take up almost the entire day.

In the future, when we are on military expeditions and reconnaissance missions, where will we find the time to cultivate ourselves?

With this in mind, Li Yi inevitably felt some resistance to going to war.

However, if one wants to acquire resources, military merit is an unavoidable channel. The resources needed for foundation building in the future, including the Taoist techniques and body tempering techniques after foundation building, will all depend on the nine-rank military merit system in the army.

Since he was brought to the Nine Provinces by the Investiture of the Gods, he might have a chance to use it to return to his hometown.

If one wishes to glimpse even a sliver of possibility, obtain some useful information, and quickly improve one's cultivation level in order to discover more uses for the Investiture of the Gods, that is the right path.

Spiritual practice must not be delayed by anything else.

We should replace "The Essentials of Five Elements Qi Gathering" as soon as possible, otherwise, without Qi-boosting pills to replenish Qi, we won't have enough time each day.

Furthermore, as local deities, Qin Kaixian and Xiaoqing should have the ability to mobilize the spiritual energy within their jurisdiction to create a "fairyland." Being in a place rich in spiritual energy would naturally shorten the time required to absorb spiritual energy.

The spiritual energy within Qifeng County is indeed gradually becoming richer, but it is mostly earth energy, and the territory is too large, so it is difficult to achieve results in the short term.

Junyi could move to Qingchi River, as she and Xiaoqing are both kidney water cultivators, which would be a good fit.

"Talk to her about it later."

Li Yi then began to consider the useful resources he had. He had ten Blood Qi Pills left, and three bottles of Qi-Boosting Pills totaling thirty-six pills, one of which he had used this morning.

"The Qi-Boosting Pill is considered a second-grade item, which can be exchanged for second-grade military merits. As long as I do my best to accumulate military merits, I won't have to worry about falling behind in my cultivation."

Li Yi comforted himself for a moment, and after lunch, just as he was about to practice his martial arts footwork, another person rushed over to the official residence.

The man was thin and wore a cotton hat. He bowed to Li Yi immediately upon seeing him, and his face seemed somewhat familiar.

"Greetings, sir. I am a minor official in the library of the prefectural governor's office, and I have met you once before."

Li Yi immediately remembered that the person was the official who had delivered the list of martial arts masters to him.

This person has come looking for us, could it be...?

"Is someone trying to exchange for 'Lingmingqing'?"

The clerk seemed a little anxious. "There are people here. In recent days, many officials in the city have been searching for suitable spells in the library. Few martial arts cultivators with enough military merit would not want to exchange for one."

He paused for a moment and then said, "Even cultivators of the Liver Wood realm have been asked about the possibility of cultivating it."

Li Yi had never thought of this before. After careful consideration, he realized that the Lingming Qingxing Qi circulation technique only affected the liver meridian, which was a pure Yang wood technique and probably wouldn't work well.

"How many people actually inquired?"

The clerk quickly replied, "There are six so far, and there will likely be more in the future. Please come with me into the city, sir."

Li Yi had just been worried about the depletion of the Qi-boosting pills, but upon hearing that there were military merits to be earned, he became even more eager than the other side. So he hurriedly said goodbye to Zhang Junyi and rode into the city ahead of Erhu and the others.

"How many military merits can I get for recording a spell?"

"Five points of military merit," the clerk replied respectfully.

The military merit of Lingming Qing was set at 30 points for a third-rank official. Li Yi would take 5 points for each person, and the Ministry of War would take the lion's share of 25 points. It was practically a risk-free and highly profitable scheme!

In terms of Taoist and magical arts, soldiers exchanged military merits among themselves, but the Ministry of War did not actually contribute much.

Li Yi entered the prefectural governor's mansion, went up to the fifth floor of the library, and entered ten Lingmingqing texts in a row before he was finished.

In this way, you will have fifty points of military merit for a third-rank soldier!

There was still some time before the next shift, so Li Yi ordered the clerk to bring the register and began to look through all the information about the Danmu Daoist methods.

The "Detailed Rules for the Gathering of Qi in the Gallbladder and Wood" stipulates 50 points for second-rank military merit.

The "Jiamu Gathering Spirit Technique" grants 40 points of military merit, equivalent to a third-rank military achievement.

The "Qingyang Naqi Jue" grants 50 points of military merit for a third-rank soldier.

Li Yi casually flipped through a page. Any Taoist manual required at least 50 military merits to be at the second rank. The "Detailed Rules for Gathering Qi in the Gallbladder and Wood" was the refined method of gathering Qi in the Gallbladder and Wood from the "Essentials of Gathering Qi in the Five Elements".

It comes from the same school as the "Detailed Rules for the Circulation of Qi" that Guan Tian received two days ago.

However, ordinary cultivators of the Five Elements do not have this privilege; if they do not exchange for it, they can only cultivate introductory Daoist techniques.

There aren't many Danmu Daoist techniques, so the Ministry of War's Heavenly Officials should have refined and selected them. Li Yi flipped through two pages and found that the most expensive Danmu Daoist technique in the Qi Refining stage required a full 100 points of third-rank military merit, and was called "Jiamu Shaoyang Scripture".

Certified by the Ministry of War: expensive means good, and good means expensive.

When Li Yi saw the price, and then looked at the other methods, he found it difficult to be satisfied.

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough military merits...

He pondered deeply, but ultimately decided against wasting his efforts on methods that were neither superior nor inferior, so he summoned a clerk to inquire:

"How many second-rank military merits are equivalent to one third-rank military merit?"

"Ten o'clock," the clerk hurriedly replied.

Li Yi's eyes lit up. In this way, he only needed five points of third-rank military merit to exchange for a "Detailed Rules of Qi Absorption in the Gallbladder and Wood". He might as well exchange for it and practice it first, which would at least shorten the time required to absorb Qi.

Once you've accumulated enough military merits, you can exchange them for the "Jia Mu Shao Yang Jing" (甲木少阳经). The loss will only be five points.

Li Yi made up his mind and spent another five points to help Li Erhu exchange for a "Detailed Rules for Stomach Earth Qi Absorption". He planned to give it to him when he arrived at the destination, as a belated congratulatory gift for Li Erhu since he started absorbing Qi and opening acupoints.

……

The garrison scouts practiced the four skills of scout training in the commander's mansion.

When Li Yi arrived, almost everyone had already arrived.

Horse Face was whispering to his rascal friend when he suddenly heard Zhong Ming calling out loudly. Only then did he see Li Yi and hurriedly went to greet him.

The other scouts noticed Li Yi, and with smiles on their faces, they followed him away.

As soon as the Sentinel Force was established, Li Yi already showed signs of becoming a leader.