Several days later, the Cyan Dragon Kingdom completed the swiftest imperial succession in its history.

Meanwhile, Qin Li was already on his way to the New Qin Kingdom.

The Great Qi Kingdom lay between the Cyan Dragon Kingdom and the New Qin Kingdom. Keeping a low profile, Qin Li hired a horse-drawn carriage. The roads were smooth and the carriage was comfortable enough, allowing Qin Li to rest and recover along the way. And so, after more than twenty days, Qin Li finally arrived in Shangyuan City, the capital of the New Qin Kingdom.

Walking the streets of Shangyuan City, he felt it was fundamentally different from Cyan Dragon City. It was, without a doubt, the most prosperous city Qin Li had visited since arriving in this world!

Countless businesses lined both sides of the street. A crowd of people moved along the wide, flat road paved with massive bluestone slabs, their voices and the cries of vendors rising and falling in waves.

Luxuriously decorated restaurants and inns stood tall one after another. The attire of the people coming and going also spoke to the nation’s wealth.

All these aspects could be summarized in two words—a powerful nation!

That’s right. This was the New Qin Kingdom, currently the most powerful emerging nation in the East of the Celestial Essence Continent!

It was called the New Qin Kingdom because the original Qin Kingdom from a century ago had been a weak nation with less than half the territory of the Great Qi Kingdom. Its resources were scarce, its land barren, and its Royal Family was debauched and insatiably greedy. They were weak and inept in foreign affairs, yet they plundered from their own people. The sheer number of different taxes was staggering, edicts were issued in the morning only to be rescinded by evening, and the common folk lived in utter misery.

Over ninety years ago, a mysterious faction appeared. With the ease of smashing rotten wood, they instantly annihilated the New Qin Kingdom’s Royal Family. The faction’s leader, Cui Hong, then proclaimed himself Emperor, renamed the country the New Qin Kingdom, and for the next eighty to ninety years, began a frenzied war of territorial expansion!

To this day, they had already conquered three or four neighboring countries. It was precisely because of the deterrent of this immense military might that the Cyan Dragon Kingdom and four other nations had signed the Five Nations Alliance. They were all afraid that the New Qin Kingdom would one day come knocking on their doors!

For the last five years, the New Qin Kingdom has been resting and recuperating, with no new wars. On the surface, things appeared quite peaceful.

But according to intelligence from spies in various countries, the New Qin Kingdom was sharpening its weapons and feeding its horses, having never once abandoned its ambition to expand its territory!

Although other countries both hated and feared the New Qin Kingdom, its own citizens possessed an extremely strong sense of national pride. This was because their Emperor had brought about earth-shattering changes to their lives compared to the past! 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Furthermore, taxes were light, and all sorts of commerce flourished with immense Life Force.

Today, you could hardly find a commoner in the entire New Qin Kingdom who spoke ill of the Emperor. For a regime, this was the pinnacle of achievement.

In ninety years, the New Qin Kingdom had only seen four generations of emperors. Each emperor lived a long life. The current Emperor, Cui Qi, was over fifty but showed no signs of age, his spirits exceptionally high. There were even rumors that Emperor Cui Qi’s strength had already reached the Celestial Level!

Of course, there were also street rumors that behind the New Qin Kingdom’s Royal Family was a powerful, mysterious faction. This faction supported their conquest of neighboring countries and even made the powers behind those vanquished nations too afraid to take any retaliatory action!

This demonstrated the sheer power of the New Qin Kingdom. Their army boasted over three thousand Celestial Level masters! And within the New Qin Kingdom’s Royal Family, there were several dozen experts at the Celestial Shattering Realm!

Furthermore, an insider had revealed that the New Qin Kingdom’s Royal Family was, in fact, a super-faction from a Mysterious Land! Otherwise, how could they have cultivated so many Celestial Level experts in just a few decades? How could Martial Artists of the Celestial Shattering Realm appear so openly among the Royal Family? And how could they leave the factions behind the conquered nations daring to feel anger but not to voice it?

All of this pointed to one fact: the New Qin Kingdom was by no means simple!

And so far, this nation possessed all the necessary elements to become a Super Empire. It seemed the day it would become such a colossus was just around the corner.

This was a belief shared by everyone in the New Qin Kingdom, from the top to the bottom.

At over fifty years old, one could never tell Cui Qi’s age from his appearance. Those who didn’t know better would assume this elegant and scholarly-looking Emperor was not yet forty!

Cui Qi had a mustache on his upper lip, a square jaw, thick eyebrows, and large eyes. His eye sockets were slightly sunken, and he had an aquiline nose. With his straight back, broad shoulders, and narrow waist, one’s first impression was that this Emperor was a shrewd character who was not to be trifled with.

His wedding to Princess Zhao Qianqian of the Cyan Dragon Kingdom was in three days, an auspicious date on the New Qin Kingdom’s calendar. However, at this moment, Emperor Cui Qi’s mood was anything but pleasant.

He had just received a piece of news that left him utterly shocked and furious!

First came the report from two Celestial Shattering Realm Martial Artists who had just rushed back. Immediately after, a message arrived by Homing Falcon: the Cyan Dragon Kingdom... had a new ruler!

For Cui Qi, who had been ready to begin a new round of conquests right after his wedding to the Cyan Dragon Kingdom’s princess, this was truly terrible news.

"Senior Brothers, are you saying that the boy is that young man held in high esteem by the people of the Cyan Dragon Kingdom, Qin Li? And that he exuded an aura stronger than yours?" Cui Qi’s face was calm and unreadable, but his words still made the two Celestial Shattering Realm Martial Artists feel a sense of shame.

Indeed, two experts of the Celestial Shattering Realm, figures nearly deified in the eyes of the secular world, had been scared into retreating by the aura of a mere boy.

No one would feel good about something like that.

This was especially true since their identities were widely known. To make matters worse, after they left, the emperor propped up by the New Qin Kingdom, Zhao Xinghe, died mysteriously, just like his father, Zhao Yuanli.

After the Second Prince, Zhao Xinghai, ascended the throne, he eagerly announced the re-signing of the Five Nations Alliance treaty, promising to give the other four nations justice and an explanation for the Cyan Dragon Kingdom’s past mistakes. Then, he publicly condemned the New Qin Kingdom, accusing them of sending assassins to kill the Cyan Dragon Royal Family, including his father. He also declared the political marriage with the princess void and demanded that the New Qin Kingdom return the Cyan Dragon princess as soon as possible, so as not to drag an innocent girl into a political vortex!

This was tantamount to the New Qin Kingdom suffering a defeat before the war had even begun. It was a vicious slap in the face!

Cui Qi’s eyes narrowed as he sneered inwardly. ’Return your princess? Fine! After I publicly marry her and have my way with her, I’ll send her right back!’

At that moment, one of the two Celestial Shattering Realm Martial Artists, who were seated below with somber expressions, nodded and said, "Your Majesty, you are correct. It was that young man. Alas, we are ashamed that we failed to complete the task Your Majesty entrusted to us... We are prepared to return to our sect to receive punishment!"

Cui Qi’s face broke into a gentle smile. He waved his hand and said, "Senior Brothers, what are you saying? Victory and defeat are common in war; who can guarantee they will never lose a battle in their lifetime? Winning over Zhao Xinghe was just a way to avoid some trouble. Who would have thought he’d be so useless, like mud that can’t be plastered onto a wall! Even without that Qin Li, he would have been replaced by his younger brother sooner or later once you two left. It’s just that the Cyan Dragon Kingdom would have fallen into civil war, and the situation would have been slightly better than it is now..."

Cui Qi continued with a slight smile, "That young Marquis named Qin Li, however, does surprise me. How old is he? Sixteen? Seventeen?"

The two Celestial Shattering Realm Martial Artists replied with embarrassed expressions, "We have reliable intelligence. That Qin Li is only sixteen this year!"

HISS!

The others in the room couldn’t help but gasp when they heard this.

One of them blurted out, "That... that can’t be, right? Sixteen years old... suppressing two Celestial Shattering Realm Martial Artists with his aura alone?"

One of the two Celestial Shattering Realm Martial Artists, who were already simmering with anger, said with an ashen face, "Is Brother Huo implying that we are lying?"

The old man addressed as Brother Huo gave a faint smile and shook his head. "I meant nothing of the sort. I just find it a bit incredible. Sixteen years old... tsk tsk. Such strength is truly admirable!"

"You, surnamed Huo, what do you mean by that? Don’t think that just because you’re a bit older and slightly stronger than us brothers, you can criticize us! Your sect is no stronger than ours! Besides, if it were you in the Cyan Dragon Kingdom that day, you might have fared even worse than we did!"

"That’s not necessarily true," the old man surnamed Huo said with an arrogant smile. "If I had encountered that brat, I would have made sure he never returned!"

"Huo, if you’re not convinced, let’s have a match right now!"

"Heh, a match it is! You think I’m afraid of you? If you can’t handle it, you two brothers can come at me together!"

"You’re courting death!"

"You’re the one courting death!"

"Alright, alright, that’s enough!" Cui Qi frowned and sighed. "Just drop it! I believe the two Senior Brothers from the Wu Family would never lie. I was just marveling at how a young man could possess such strength, which makes me curious about his origins. We are all gathered here for a common purpose. Who among us truly cares for the trifles of this mortal world? My father, my grandfather... alas, didn’t they all eagerly return to secluded cultivation after being emperor for a few decades?"

The old man surnamed Huo snorted softly and said, "Didn’t the two junior brothers from the Wu Family say that brat would come to rescue his princess? In that case, I’ll be waiting! I’d like to see for myself how a sixteen or seventeen-year-old doll managed to cultivate to the Celestial Integration Realm!"

Another old man in the room tried to smooth things over. "Well, perhaps the boy carries some kind of treasure that can release a powerful aura..."

At this, the two Celestial Shattering Realm Martial Artists from the Wu Family were no longer so angry. Instead, they both sneered. "It’s fine if you don’t trust us two brothers. It really doesn’t matter! We don’t care. That boy will definitely come. For all we know, he could already be in Shangyuan City! You... will meet him sooner or later!"

"I look forward to it!" the old man surnamed Huo said. A disdainful sneer played on his lips, his eyes filled with arrogance.