The accounts of what happened before the establishment of the Red Maple Empire with its founders, more specifically Deng Wei, was the only thing with contradiction,and one could argue it wasn't truly in contradiction as only one account from multitudes portrayed a tale that was different from the norm. Only those with wildly curious minds like Yang Qing would entertain some truth in that account, with most dismissing it as the mad ramblings of a scholar trying to get fame or some misinformation scheme by the enemies of the Red Maple Empire trying to muddy its history.

Other than the difference on what happened when those founders met with the red maple spirit, everything else when it concerned what happened after, was the same.

After gaining the red maple spirit's recognition those seven cultivators grew their abilities in leaps and bounds, with Duan Qui being ahead of the race when she stepped onto the palace realm a few months later.

With her already taking that jump, they no longer had to fear the rank three clan that was after them. Duan Qui was already a palace realm expert and even though she had just fleshly broken through, she had the insights of a peak palace stage expert within her, and not only that, she also had the resources that the expert had left behind.

Spiritual plants may not necessarily require the same resources as human cultivators but that did not mean there were not universal resources that worked across all species. The red maple spirit had accumulated a lot of resources in the duration of its long lifespan. It had expended quite the sum in its pursuit to break through to the palace realm, but it still had a lot left over.

This tidy sum was able to support a rank 3 organization several times over. Among the wealth that was left untouched, some were spoils of war it had taken off human cultivators that thought themselves powerful enough to break into its territory unimpeded. Duan Qui even as a new palace realm expert had a lot of foundation to rely on to guarantee her safety along with the rest, all due to the inheritance left to her by the red maple spirit.

Luckily, even with the newfound wealth and the change in their status, they did not make any flashy moves and opted to seclude themselves silently in the territory of the red maple spirit for hundreds of years bidding their time as they slowly grew their strength.

Even without a powerful enemy after them, Yang Qing felt that provided they had a good head above their shoulders, which he felt they had, they would have still done the same thing. They had just landed a windfall and they were too weak to own it. Birds die for food, and men die for treasures.

In the cultivation world, it was considered a sin for a cultivator to posses treasure that he or she could not protect. It was a sure way of dying early and that couldn't be more true for those seven cultivators. The red maple spirit was a peak palace stage cultivator known to have lived longer than even some domain experts, who knew how many treasures it had accumulated over the years.

That reason was why even with its territory sworn off humans, there were still some who risked getting in. The allure of getting their hands on the red maple spirit's fortune was just that tempting.

What would they do if they heard the red maple spirit had passed and left its fortune to seven no-name explorers with just one of them being in the palace stage?

If such news broke through, cultivators from the coast of Millionsfold Treasure Ocean to the coast of Celestial Ocean would already be swarming to loot the area of everything and those seven cultivators would hardly be spared in the plunder and would likely be made to spit out every single bone they consumed.Keeping a low profile until they had the necessary strength to guarantee their lives and the treasures they were left with was the right choice and that they did. The records showed that for close to seven hundred to eight hundred years, not one of them took so much as a step outside the territory of the red maple spirit as they slowly improved their abilities.

During that period, three out of the seven cultivators were mentioned to have broken through to the palace realm bringing their total including Duan Qui, to four palace realm experts.

Of the three who broke through, one was Mo Li. Of the handouts handed to them by the red maple spirit, from the resources he got, one of them was a saber legacy called the dark falling stars saber art, which was rumored to be a middle-tier blue-grade art. Using that profound art, his talents with the saber, and a high-quality environment, he was able to breakthrough to the palace realm.

Other than him, Chen Fu and Zhang Ren were the other two to breakthrough to the palace realm. Both, just like Mo Li, made the best use of the resources and environment provided to make great strides in their cultivation.

As for the remaining three, though Gong Zhi and Gui Ling had not yet reached the palace realm, they were well on their way to it, having reached the quasi-palace stage and even though they were slightly lacking, that was only in terms of cultivation base. In terms of functionality, they were just as valuable to the group as the four palace realm experts. Gong Zhi was a blacksmith, who at the time was well on his way to becoming a blue grade blacksmith while Gui Ling was an alchemist well on her way to becoming a blue grade alchemist.

With such expertise, both would be highly valued wherever they went, even without apalace realm cultivation base.

As for Deng Wei, the records said he had the weakest cultivation base, still suck at the late stage of the core formation realm, completely lacking in any talents other than being the dao partner of Duan Qui.

After exactly one thousand years, they finally let themselves be known, well all except Deng Wei. At that point in time, Duan Qui had already reached the fifth stage of the palace realm, leading the group, while the rest had already reached the palace stage, teetering at the first stage with Mo Li being the only person with the cultivation base that was closest to Duan Qui, at the second stage.

Seven palace realm experts appearing out of the blue caught a lot of eyes, especially when said experts, human experts, appeared in the territory of the red maple spirit. Their presence there drew a lot of questions about what happened to the red maple spirit and it wasn't long before news of its passing filtered through.lightsnovel

As was expected a few waves were created when such news broke through, with a few cultivators letting greed of what potentially the red maple spirit left behind, guide them. It wasn't long before violent confrontations broke through between those greedy cultivators and the seven founders.

A line-up of seven palace realm cultivators supported by the vast resources of a long-lived peak palace realm spiritual plant was nothing to scoff at. Those seven, more so Duan Qui, who was the most powerful of the group quickly stood out as she defeated opponent after opponent, and thanks to the insane vitality the baptism afforded her, and the attunement she had with the former grounds of the red maple spirit, she was able to face multiple opponents, and even if she couldn't defeat them, she could contain them long enough for the rest to act.

After the death of over a dozen palace realm experts, of which, amongst that number featured palace realm experts from the clan that was after them, few dared set their sights on whatever fortunes the red maple spirit may have left them, not unless an organization backed by a late stage palace realm expert decided to act, and to curb that potential threat, it's unknown how, but those seven managed to form a partnership with the Golden Bamboo Pavillion.

lightsnοvεl It wasn't long after that, they declared the territory of the red maple spirit as the Red Maple Empire, with Golden Bamboo Pavilion serving as witnesses to that declaration.

At the time, many wondered why they went with Red Maple Empire, and not Red Maple Kingdom. By all accounts, as per the norm, going with the Red Maple Kingdom first before they switched to Red Maple Empire, was the expected route. They were new, and other than the seven of them, they had no subjects, and when it came to territory, the territory of the red maple spirit covered about twenty-five thousand square kilometers which was roughly the size of some minor province in a rank 4 kingdom.

In terms of territory and population, they were severely lacking to even be considered a Kingdom, let alone an Empire. Among rank four nations, not one was an empire, and it was with reason. Those who would dub their nations as such, needed territory of a certain size and power, and the seven founders had one of those things, yes, but territory and population they were lacking.

Even calling themselves a kingdom was a huge stretch, but with time, it became clear why they went ahead and dubbed themselves an empire from the jump. They quickly revealed their fangs and their ambitions along with it as they subjugated all the land that was within a hundred thousand kilometer radius of the former territory of the red maple spirit.

Clans, sects, small kingdoms, and other organizations were forced to cede their territory either willingly or by force. Most of those organizations were not powerful with a bulk of them being rank four, so they surrendered immediately, with some even offering to be vassals.

But there were others that resisted, and those that did, one or two had once produced a palace realm expert, while some had one living palace realm expert to hold the helm. It ended badly for both these groups who were destroyed with extreme fanfare as a show of force and an example to the rest.

For the next hundred or so years after their declaration, they wantonly expanded their territory till it was veritably the size of a true empire.

It was from those records that Yang Qing learned where the feud between the Red Maple Empire and the Five Clovers Kingdom started as the former had been one of the kingdoms that had lost a part of its territory to them.

Of course back then, when it did, it didn't have a palace realm expert at the helm, nor did it have the backing of the Zou family. It had no option but to swallow the humiliation until it was at a better place to pay back that vengeance, and pay back it got with the war between the two sides still ongoing to date.

Its rise to an empire, or even becoming an empire itself was something that Yang Qing found puzzling. The red maple spirit seemed to be the reclusive sort. It may have denied entry to humans and even retaliated fiercely against those who infringed on its territory, but it couldn't be said to be domineering, considering how lax it was with its neighbors even if they were humans. If it was, they would not have settled so close to its terrirory.

As its inheritor, Yang Qing would have expected Duan Qui to at least adopt part of its nature as a form of acknowledgment and respect as its successor.

In the cultivation world, there were a lot of cultivators who continued certain acts that their masters did as a way to honor them after their passing with some even going to the extent of taking over in their master's place if it was something duty-

bound like protecting a certain place, a certain clan, a certain sect, a certain person because it was what their master used to do.

In Duan Qui's case, Yang Qing would have expected her to maintain the territory of the red maple spirit as it was, free of the chaos and explosion of expansion. Forming an empire was the last thing he would have expected.

Then again, maybe it was his bias spirit talking. In her shoes, he would have definitely chosen the path of a recluse and tucked away in the territory of the red maple spirit, enjoying the resources slowly, improving himself, selling a few treasures to eat out every now and then, and using some to buy resources that would help stop intruders. Creating an empire was the last thing he would ever think of doing.

Somehow he couldn't help but feel that the red maple spirit was rolling over in the afterlife in anger for what its territory had become, especially with the events that came to light.