It didn't take too long for Yang Qing to make his way to the Blue Lotus kingdom. Ellie managed to reach in good time, most likely the silver basses she schemed off Yang Qing had something to do with it.

The Blue Lotus kingdom, just like the Summerfield kingdom, was also a rank 4 kingdom. However, unlike the Summerfield kingdom, it was not a subsidiary of a larger power.

The Blue Lotus kingdom had a much deeper and longer history than the Summerfield kingdom. It has been in existence for almost 100,000 years. Such a history is enough to rival some rank 2 organizations.

In those 100,000 years, it has experienced uprise and downfalls. It was originally a small province of some long-forgotten empire. It built its prestige slowly over time, till it grew strong enough to split from the Empire it was a part of, and become independent.

Lucky for them, at the time of their independence, there was a wide world mutiny in the empire, and they were not the only province to break away from it and announce their cessation from it.

From there, they clawed their way up to becoming a semi-renowned kingdom when their then-king reached the palace realm. With every generation, they seemed to be growing and improving at a steady rate.

They always seemed to make the right move; they formed alliances when the circumstances called for it, they attacked when the circumstances demanded it, and they conceded or held their ground depending on the situation.

This was why after ten thousand years since they were established, they had managed to swallow almost a third of the territory of the Empire they belonged to. Immediately soon after, they halted all their expansion projects and consolidated all their gains for 30,000 years.

When the 30,000 years lapsed, they came out once more with the goal of increasing their territory by half.

It didn't take too long for the others to realize, the Blue Lotus kingdom had the grand ambitions of swallowing all the territory belonging to the former Empire.

The provinces of the former Empire, which just like them had become independent kingdoms, banded together to resist them. Those provinces even collaborated with the royal family of the broken Empire.When mutiny broke out and some of the provinces broke away, the empire managed to maintain its control over one territory, this was the capital where the royal palace was located. They consolidated all their power there, as they bided their time while also guarding themselves against all these provinces that were eyeing them on all sides. However, the threat from the Blue Lotus Kingdom gave them the reprieve they needed, as they formed temporary alliances with the other provinces to confront a common foe, the Blue Lotus Kingdom.

A five thousand-year battle ensued, with the Blue Lotus kingdom emerging as the victor. They managed to conquer the capital which was the last bastion of the Empire, while also fending off the other provinces.

Despite being alone, their victory was made possible due to the overwhelming firepower they revealed. They revealed four quasi-domain experts from within their ranks, who helped them hold their own against the ancestor of the empire who was also a quasi-domain expert while also fending off the alliance of the other provinces.

Despite their victory, they still paid an enormous price for it, which was the devastating injuries to two of the four quasi-domain experts who got critically injured when the ancestor of the empire used a secret art to try and perish with them.

The Blue Lotus kingdom thus halted any expansion activities for the next 15,000 years to heal from the damage the 5,000-year battle caused.

In that time, the other kingdoms couldn't attack either, since even they had paid a terrible price in that war. They could only watch in trepidation as the Blue Lotus kingdom bided its time, knowing full well the next time it made a move, it would be to conquer the remaining half of the former Empire's territory.

Some of the kingdoms found the wait unbearable and decided to give up their own autonomy and join the Blue Lotus kingdom as their subordinates. The moment that door was opened, others soon followed.

After 15,000 years, the Blue Lotus kingdom went on for its third expedition with even more fervor, since they had fewer enemies to fight and one of their quasi-domain experts had become a full-fledged domain expert.

None of the remaining kingdoms was their match, since they only had palace realm experts at the helm. The Blue Lotus kingdom managed to bring the whole territory of the former Empire under their control in just under 100 years.

Soon a period of peace and stability returned to the region now under a new name, the Blue Lotus Kingdom. As a tribute to remember their beginnings, they decided to retain their name as a kingdom instead of dubbing themselves an empire.

However, after 15,000 years, that peace got destroyed when a sworn brother of the ancestor of the former Empire came out of seclusion. That sworn brother was a rogue cultivator who had managed to reach the middle stage of the domain realm. When he heard his brother's Empire had fallen and him along with it, he charged alone, sword in hand, and brought havoc to the Blue Lotus kingdom, decimating everything in his path.

At that time, the kingdom had added another domain expert to their ranks, but they were still only in the early stages of the domain realm while the attacker was in the sixth stage close to reaching the seventh stage of the domain realm. Every jump in minor rank from the palace realm going forward was a huge gulf, which only got more distinctive the higher up the realms, one moved. Therefore, even though the attacker was facing two domain realm experts, he was not the one at the disadvantage and it was instead the two early-stage domain experts of the Blue Lotus kingdom, who were on the struggling end.

Their battle destroyed the capital and everyone and everything in between as it escalated in intensity and destruction.

The two domain experts on seeing the severity of the situation decided to risk their lives by detonating their cultivation to fuel a special ascendant-grade artifact they had, which they used to strike the enemy with. That artifact was one of the defining trump cards of the kingdom.

Their plan succeeded but three domain experts fell that day and three-quarters of the kingdom the Blue Lotus kingdom had worked so hard to conquer, got destroyed along with them.

Luckily the kingdom still had a bit of manpower saved up in the original location, the first province where they declared themselves a kingdom before they expanded and move their headquarters.

As fate would have it, the location of the Blue Lotus kingdom of today is situated within that province where they started from.

The reserves left behind from over 20,000 years ago are what have sustained them till today and luckily for them, when the war between the three domain experts destroyed three-quarters of the kingdom, it also destroyed those who could have potentially attacked the original members of the Blue Lotus kingdom in their weakened state.

To date, the kingdom has not once expanded beyond the confines of its original province, even though the territory that was once wrecked by the domain-level war, has already restored itself naturally, in the 20,000 years that have passed by since the battle.

The territory, lacking any owners over the years. soon got occupied by others when they saw the Blue Lotus kingdom not showing any intention or interest in laying claim over their former territory.

It was already common knowledge that one of the reasons why the Blue Lotus kingdom was passive to the whole thing, was they didn't have the manpower to reclaim that territory, either in terms of quality or quantity. Almost all of their strongest powerhouses died the day the middle-stage domain expert attacked the kingdom. Some got killed as he was making his way over, while others died as collateral damage in the fight that took place in the capital.

Of those who were left, none had reached the palace realm. Trying to lay claim over that territory with just the strength of core formation experts was sure to invite another calamity to their doorstep.

The Blue Lotus Kingdom thus decided to turn a blind eye to everything as it focused on its own recovery. As for whether they would reclaim that territory, no one knew but them. But with such a tragic history behind them, one would wonder if they would be willing to tempt fate again.

...

Yang Qing couldn't help but sigh when he reached the air space of the Blue Lotus kingdom. Its story made him remember the sect master of the Clear sword river sect, who he had met earlier today for the demotion of his sect.

The Clear sword river sect had also been prominent in its heyday and suffered a tragedy. However, unlike the Blue Lotus kingdom, they couldn't bounce back from their misfortune, and in three months when the sect master died, it would more than likely disappear from the continent.

Two organizations suffered an almost similar tragic event, but one was well on its way to regaining back its former glory while the other was about to be buried and soon to be forgotten. Its only hope of being remembered is as a cautionary tale and a lesson to warn against the folly of arrogance and irresponsible leadership.