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nBlood splattered everywhere. Blood covered the blankets and ground. It was a shocking sight!

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n“Big Brother, Father!” Outside the door, Zhaoyang shouted worriedly when she heard the commotion.

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nThis shout made Li Yuanqing sigh and his heart softened!

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n“Don’t worry, I will protect the Northern Li Clan for a hundred years and not let the unfilial descendants of the Li Clan break the inheritance of the founding Martial Saint…”

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nLi Yuanqing’s words made Li Huanjun, who was already out of breath from coughing, feel completely relieved. His grip on Li Yuanqing’s hand loosened.

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n“Let Zhaoyang in, cough cough cough!”

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nLi Huanjun finally let go of Li Yuanqing’s hand. Li Yuanqing let Zhaoyang in. Then, ministers from the court were summoned in. The people who came and went bowed to Li Yuanqing in awe.

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nIn the end, Li Yuanqing was annoyed and simply avoided everyone. When Li Huanjun stopped breathing, he heard the bell of the palace ring.

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nThe bell rang twelve times in a row.

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nThe Imperial City was filled with cries and white everywhere. It was not winter yet, but some people’s houses had even hung up the white ribbons.

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nHis father was living in the hearts of the common people in the Northern Kingdom. This made Li Yuanqing, who had promised his father to protect the Northern Kingdom, firm his resolve.

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nNo matter how indifferent he was to kinship, a promise must be kept. Since he had promised, he should not change his mind so easily.

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nSo be it. There was no end to cultivation. To him, a hundred years might pass easily! After all, a Martial Saint’s lifespan was about five hundred years if they didn’t die by accident!

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nIf he used a hundred years to protect the Northern Kingdom, he still had four hundred years to use. Moreover, he would not interfere in every small matter.

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nHe would only take action when the Northern Kingdom was in danger. Moreover, he had to let the Li Clan of the Northern Kingdom grow quickly so that they could face all kinds of storms on their own in the next hundred years instead of relying on him as a guardian!

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nEven if Li Huanjun’s funeral was simple according to his wishes, it had already been forty-nine days since his death. Furthermore, he had allowed the people of the Northern Kingdom to pay their respects. The entire Imperial City was filled with cries these days.

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nFortunately, less than ten days after the late Emperor’s death, Princess Zhaoyang ascended the throne under the protection of the officials and became the first Great Empress of the Northern Kingdom.

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nWhat was surprising was that Princess Zhaoyang’s title after her ascension to the throne was also Zhaoyang. She even issued a decree to reward the members of the Li clan’s royal family and announced that regardless of gender, the royal family would have the right to inherit the throne in the future!

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nThis made the original Li clan, who were worried that the Northern Kingdom would change hands in the future and the Li Clan would decline after the Great Empress passed away, heaved a sigh of relief.

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nLi Yuanqing stayed in the Imperial City for forty nine days. He saw Zhaoyang ascend the throne and become the Great Empress of the Northern Kingdom. He saw his father being buried in his bedroom, where the coffin of the Second Emperor of the Northern Kingdom was.

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nPrincess Zhaoyang had come to see Li Yuanqing once before she ascended the throne. She had sent him a wooden box that she had found on the patriarch of the Ba Serpent Clan. It was about the secret of providing for the Ba Serpent.

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nIn the end, the Ba Serpent clan was devoured by the Ba Serpent and their entire clan was destroyed. Zhaoyang felt that it was a little troublesome to leave this in her hands, so she gave it to Li Yuanqing and let him handle it.

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nLi Yuanqing left the Imperial City and returned to the valley in the Wilderness. Hu Jiujiu was injured and returned to her original form. She turned into a fiery red little fox. She was furry and cute.

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nNot long after Hu Jiujiu was beaten back to her original form, the Qilin Beast disappeared. Li Yuanqing did not care where it went.

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nCow felt that it was very useless after the Ba-Serpent calamity, so it followed behind Li Yuanqing and started cultivating.

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nOccasionally, Li Yuanqing would throw a few pills that he had no use for to Hu Jiujiu, but if Hu Jiujiu didn’t like them, he would throw them to Cow.

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nTime passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, three years had passed.

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nPrincess Zhaoyang had been handling the government matter since the beginning before she ascended the throne, so she was very comfortable with these things. She loved the common people very much. She promoted the Martial Arts Academy vigorously and won the support and prestige of the common people.

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nIt quickly stabilized the situation in the Northern Kingdom and the regime.

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nAfter experiencing the Ba-Serpent disaster in the Northern Kingdom, the news of the guardian of the Northern Kingdom hunted the Ba-Serpent for ten days and ten nights of blood rain falling from the sky was spread throughout the world.

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nAlthough the Northern Kingdom had been in danger in recent years, the Ba-Serpent disaster made the Northern Kingdom famous!

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nBecause the Ba-Serpent was too strong!

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nIn the past thousand years, it has devoured countless people and harmed countless countries. It had even killed countless Martial Saints.

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nHowever, this time, it was intercepted by the guardian of the Northern Kingdom. Although the Northern Kingdom had only been established for a short period of time and had always been regarded as lacking in foundation, the Northern Kingdom was not to be underestimated after the Ba-Serpent disaster. It was a powerful country.

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nLi Yuanqing’s battle had caused the Northern Kingdom to be very peaceful for the past three years. There were almost no traces of thieves.

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nHowever, in the past three years, ever since the bloody rain of the Ba-Serpent, there had been some changes in the Northern Kingdom. Every year, when winter was about to arrive, the vicious beasts in the Wilderness seemed to be stirring up trouble and harassing the Wilderness’ camp.

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nEspecially after the disappearance of the Qilin Beast, this situation became more and more serious year by year.

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nOn the third winter of the Ba-Serpent Disaster, for half a month, there was no sun in the sky. It was always gloomy.

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nEven when Wang Shun was delivering food to Li Yuanqing, he was talking about the abnormal things that had happened over the years.

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n“In recent years, it seems that everyone’s cultivation has become easier, especially in the Imperial City. I heard that there are many seventh-grade martial artists in the Martial Arts Academy now. Moreover, many commoners can cultivate. Some say that the blood rain allowed our Northern Kingdom to benefit from calamity…”

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nThis was because everyone’s cultivation speed seemed to have increased over the years. He had advanced too.

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n“Yes, that Ba-Serpent is more than a thousand years old. The blood in its body is a great tonic. The blood falling down as rain is indeed a blessing for the Northern Kingdom. Moreover, I feel that something bad will happen this winter…”

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nWang Shun did not know that Li Yuanqing was the guardian of the Northern Kingdom. He had always been in the Wilderness. Back then, when Li Yuanqing killed the Ba Serpent, he was too fast and he did not have the chance to see him.

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nMoreover, in the past three years, Li Yuanqing had been cultivating non-stop and had already advanced to the fifth-grade Grotto-Heaven Realm.

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nThis speed was already quite fast. This was also related to the recovery of something in the air after the blood rain.

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nJust as Wang Shun had said, everyone’s cultivation speed had increased, but the speed of improvement was not that shocking.

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n“That’s right, Your Highness. Look at how gloomy it has been for so many days. You can’t see the sun or snow. Just looking at it makes you feel suffocated…”

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