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

The group rode slowly on horseback, taking the rare opportunity to bombard Zhong Wending with questions.

"The Qi-refining Earth Deity controls the spiritual energy of the land, and although he has not yet established his foundation, he still possesses a supernatural power;

Combined, an ordinary second-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator would be no match, but a third-stage cultivator could put up a fight—if those two stages involved cultivating the same Five Elements and achieving Yin and Yang, they could certainly put up a fight, and their chances of winning would not be low.

After leaving the county town, the scouts from Sanyi Village followed the Qiujiang River into the valley. Although it was the dead of winter, a large number of withered trees could still be seen on the surrounding mountain walls, which must be due to the presence of the Wood element in the land.

As the army marched along, there was a tree every ten steps and a shrub every five steps.

The valley was quite desolate and there wasn't much to see. Li Erhu glanced around and then asked:

"Are specific cultivation levels not considered when cultivating Qi among deities?"

"There are still subtle differences," Zhong Wending said. "However, most of the Qi-refining deities are new gods, and they can achieve Foundation Establishment in at most thirty to fifty years, so we can treat them all as the later stage."

Li Yi smiled wryly, "Brother Zhong is still too conservative. As long as the local life flourishes and the boundary is broken, I think three to five years will be enough."

As for the land of the Great Yan, it is said that he has been a god for more than ten years, but I don't know why he has not yet established a foundation.

Chung Wending couldn't stop laughing when she heard his remarks.

"For a Qi Refining cultivator to establish their foundation, cultivating a single orthodox Great Dragon is extremely difficult; not to mention how rare the Foundation Establishment Dao is, even if one is lucky enough to obtain one, one must supplement it with the cultivation of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians."

I'd completely forgotten about that.

While offerings of incense may aid in spiritual practice, the meridians that need to be cultivated must not be neglected.

Therefore, those who can cultivate their internal organs solely through a single meridian are truly exceptionally gifted.

The "Life-Refining Body Method" has the effect of nourishing the gallbladder and internal organs, which is exactly what is needed to prepare for foundation building.

No wonder it was designated by the Ministry of War as the top-grade Qi-refining method for strengthening the body with gallwood.

Looking at it this way, Commander Meng is truly a prodigy. He's only in his early thirties, right? Yet his cultivation is already on par with many local deities.

Li Yi secretly praised him and stopped chatting. Just then, the road forked ahead, so he and Zhong Wending separated, each leading their own men to perform their geomantic duties.

Liu Zhi, who was following Li Yi alone, suddenly felt a little nervous and blurted out:

"I've been taking blood-activating pills every day lately."

Li Yi couldn't help but chuckle. Just as he was about to say something, a mountain wind suddenly blew in front of him, chilling and biting, making his hair stand on end.

Liu Zhi's mind went blank for a moment, and he said with a chill down his spine:

"Yi-ge, why do I feel a bit creepy?"

Looking around the valley again, it turned out to be a cone shape, narrow at the front and wide at the back, with vegetation becoming increasingly sparse on both sides, and completely absent at the tip of the cone.

Li Yi squinted. Although he was not as terrified as Liu Zhi, he still felt slightly uncomfortable. So he called to his mount and stopped for a moment. Sure enough, a second mountain breeze came.

Liu Zhi's teeth chattered, and he gasped, his voice trembling as he said, "Yi-ge'er, shall we go back? Report this strange occurrence to Commander Qianhu."

Li Yi then focused his attention and saw that the mountain wind contained wisps of yin energy, which naturally made living people shiver with fear when it blew on them.

He placed his hand on Liu Zhi's shoulder and channeled some of his Gallbladder Yang Wood Qi into him, which immediately relieved the latter's anxiety and fear.

"While we haven't been apart for long, hurry and find Brother Zhong and the others, and go with them to the capital region."

"That Yi-ge'er..."

"It's alright, my body is imbued with the Qi of the Wood element, I have no fear of demons or monsters."

The more detailed and accurate the military intelligence reported by a scout, the higher the military merit.

Li Yi only sensed something strange, but dared not investigate further, thus feeling ashamed of his armor and the two mounts provided by the guards.

Moreover, the one thing that cultivators with gallbladders have in abundance is gallbladders.

Knowing that Shangguan was a man of his own mind, Liu Zhi said no more, turned around and shouted loudly, then turned to chase after Zhong Wending and the others.

Li Yi patted the restless Jueying and Chitu horses, calming them down with his wood qi for a moment, before setting off towards the mountain pass against the mountain wind.

Before they could get close, a figure suddenly blocked their way, standing against the light at the mountain pass, with black energy constantly emanating from its body.

"The realm of the living is forbidden to the Yin spirits!"

The man shouted, noticing that Li Yi's armor was clearly not that of the Great Yan army, and seeing the small flag stuck behind him, he exclaimed in surprise:

"Are you a soldier of the Great Zhou? Or of the Great Li?"

Seeing that he did not intend to do evil, Li Yi dismounted and stepped forward, stopping two zhang away from the man, and clasped his hands in greeting:

"My name is Li Yi, and I am honored to serve as the Commander of the Great Zhou Cavalry."

"Is that so..." The man had a wound on his face, which extended from his left temple to the corner of his mouth.

As for the temple itself, it is hollow, with a hole about the size of a finger.

He wasn't angry when he heard this; instead, his thoughts drifted.

When will the Great Zhou attack the Great Yan?

Li Yi was immediately stunned. Could this person not be from the Great Yan?

"Having already breached the border, a great victory is surely on the horizon."

Scarface remained silent for a moment, seemingly lost in thought, then looked up and asked again:

"If the Great Zhou Dynasty were to conquer the Great Yan Dynasty, would it mobilize the City God?"

Li Yi was puzzled. "What does that mean?"

Scarface sighed softly, turned around and said, "Please come with me—but please keep your distance and don't burn me."

Li Yi scratched his head. It seemed that compared to the discomfort caused by the other party's yin energy, his own yang energy was more unsettling.

The two walked one after the other across the mountain pass, where the sky was high and the land was vast. However, if one looked down slightly, all that could be seen was a murky expanse.

On the other side of the mountain pass, there was another valley with a village below, but no one lived there. There were blurry figures coming and going, all of them were ghosts with scars.

Li Yi turned his head and saw that, besides the scarred man, there was also the ghost of a child standing silently at the mountain pass, with little spirit in his eyes.

"You... are ghost cultivators?"

Scarface gave a wry smile. "Brother, you may not know this, but the Great Yan only has one Earth God and lacks a City God of the Underworld to govern the spirits."

"In the village at the foot of the mountain, most of the people are mortal ghosts with deep-seated obsessions. Only a few, like me, have some cultivation and are unwilling to let their souls be scattered, so they became ghost cultivators by some twist of fate."

He lowered his head and rubbed the boy's head. "This child died seven days ago, strangled to death by a poisonous woman. He harbored deep resentment. We had to persuade him to let go of his grudges and only asked to visit his mother on the seventh day after her death."

Li Yi's mouth was slightly open, but he remained silent for a long time.

The Great Yan Dynasty had no City God, which meant it had no underworld.

He had never thought of this. Doesn't that mean that the beings of the Great Yan Dynasty are unable to reincarnate?

The person before me has neither the authority of a city god nor the position of a ghost general; let alone the life-and-death prayer flag, he doesn't even have a soul-guiding bell, yet he holds the position of a ghost general in the underworld.

Li Yi gazed into the valley, "How many more ghost cultivators like yourself are there?"

Scarface shook his head helplessly, "There are only six of us in total. We patrol around at night. When we encounter ordinary ghosts, we mostly ignore them and let them turn into spiritual energy. When we encounter Yin cultivators, we try our best to save and win them over. If there are those with deep resentment or obsession, we try our best to resolve them so that they do not cause harm to the world."

It turns out that if a place has no underworld, the beings there will find it difficult to enter the cycle of reincarnation, and will only live this one life.

If it weren't for these few ghost cultivators working tirelessly, who knows how many vengeful spirits and evil ghosts would have wreaked havoc, what a tragic scene that would have been.