Yang Qing's sighs grew more and more the closer he got to the location of the Clear sword river sect. The flight over had taken close to two hours. It was mostly because the area was a lot further away and Ellie had to be on a higher alert, the moment they entered the Deer mountain kingdom air space.
The Deer mountain kingdom was a rank 3 kingdom same as the Red Maple Empire, however, its territory vastly exceeded that of the Red Maple Empire, despite both being rank 3 organizations.'
Its size closely matched rank 2 kingdoms and empires. It was about 40 million square kilometers. Its size wasn't the only thing that stood out as Deer mountain Kingdom could be considered an oddity.
It has rich lands, and an enormous territory but despite that, it never grows and is rarely attacked by its neighbors.
The kingdom, just like its name, is hugely filled with mountains all over. Each more dangerous than the other. Some are surrounded by forests filled with spirit beasts, others are filled with poisonous miasma, while others have unexplained phenomena associated with them, such as a mountain that rains blue lightning every month.
The lightning is so dangerous that it can threaten the life of an early-stage palace realm expert.
Because of the large territory, coupled with the dangers surrounding it, the royal family of the Deer mountain kingdom has a loose control over its territory.
Most of its forces and efforts are concentrated in the central area of the kingdom while the further away from the center the territory moves, the lesser the attention is given.
There was once a king who had tried to bring the whole kingdom firmly under their control but it ended up in complete failure.
The idea was cooked up during one of their highest periods when they had over 20 palace realm experts, with even three of them being in the late stages, with one of the three late-stage palace realm experts being the ambitious king.
They pooled all their manpower and resources together, and little by little, they conquered mountain after mountain. It wasn't easy but thanks to their enormous manpower they managed to gain ground.
But their run ended in one of the mountains. It didn't look any different than the rest except for the fact that it seemed a bit barren at the foot of the mountain. However the further up they moved, the verdant it seemed.
The king and his men charged up the mountain with momentum, assuming there was definitely a natural treasure at play here and indeed there was a treasure up there, an ascendant-grade spirit-weaving orchid. The orchard is an alchemist's dream because it can promote or induce the evolution of other plants around it.
Having a spirit-weaving orchid would ensure you would never lack quality herbs for life as long as the orchid exists. With it, the Deer mountain kingdom could even rise to a rank 2 kingdom, if given enough time and sufficient talent. The orchid would ensure the resource part of the equation would not lack.
However, it wasn't meant to be for the Deer mountain kingdom, as along with the spirit-weaving orchid, there were two half-step domain spirit beasts who immediately retaliated the moment the royal family stepped on that peak.
Three-quarters of their forces got decimated and those that survived ended up with fatal injuries. The only reason there were even survivors was due to the intervention of the king, who used a secret sacrificial art to buy enough time for his people to escape and send the information back.
From that moment forth, they never once tried that folly again. They centralized their power and control in the central region of the kingdom and the areas they had conquered while they left the rest of the unexplored areas to remain as it were.
Those areas could be considered part of the Deer mountain kingdom in name only. The habitable areas of that region soon got flooded with foreign sects, clans, and small kingdoms that could be considered subsidiary forces of the Deer mountain kingdom since they paid tribute to them even if they didn't get anything in return.
Due to the dangers and opportunities present, the number of foreign powers in the area has not grown by much but it hasn't reduced either.
However, those that have managed to survive have grown by leaps and bounds to the point that the area has over a hundred rank 4 organizations.
Some at the Order have even suspected there may be a rank 3 organization in the area, it's just that they are maintaining a low-key so that they don't draw the attention of the Deer mountain kingdom.
Even with the loss they suffered during their excursion, the power of the Deer mountain kingdom as the true overlord of the area is still undisputed. Most of the organizations in their territory are wary of that fact. It's the nail that stands out, that gets hammered. Who knows, if word of one of the organizations having a palace realm cultivator gets out, they may get targeted by the Deer mountain kingdom as a show of force to keep the other organizations in line.
It's a well-tested and well-proven tactic employed by powerful organizations like rank 2 empires, to maintain order and their supremacy in the massive territories.
As for the Deer mountain kingdom, the whole tragedy ended up being a blessing in disguise for them more so for the royal family.
With the threat of potential domain-level spirit beasts roaming about in their territory, it made the whole of the Deer mountain kingdom, from the royal family to the noble families down to the commoners, have a united front. Who knew how many other scary existences lurked about in the other areas, they couldn't afford to be divided.
When the news of the discovery of the half-step domain-level spirit beasts lurking in Deer mountain kingdom broke out, it created a ripple effect on the other nations surrounding them who extinguished any designs they may have had on the kingdom.
Those unexplored regions served as a buffer for the Deer mountain kingdom. It is why they never interfered when other organizations settled in their territory without a heads-up or tribute. The dangerous unexplored areas were a buffer to the outside nations, while the organizations within the territory were a buffer for them in case anything dangerous broke out of those unexplored areas.
They could be considered free manpower whose presence showed which areas were safe and which were not.
The Clear sword river sect was among the organizations that made their home within the Deer mountain kingdom's territory though their true roots lay elsewhere.
