Its current era could be said to be the most prosperous era of the Empire, with five palace realm experts, of which those belonging to the royal family were four, but before that, in every era, there would be maybe one or two, with the number being mostly one palace realm expert.
Before the Red Maple Empire was established, the territory was under a different ownership and it was vastly different to what it was now. Back then it was under the rule of a tree spirit that had reached the peak of the palace realm, the tree which ca as no surprise to Yang Qing when he read about it was a red maple.
That tree gained sentience and managed to cultivate to the peak of the palace realm. The majority of what is now the Imperial Capital of the Red Maple Empire and roughly 40,000 kiloters around counted as the territory of that Red Maple Spirit whose territory was much smaller than the present-day Red Maple Empire that had more than tripled in size.
The capital and the territory under its control were filled with countless trees, herbs, and even spirit beasts with zero human population. The lack of human population was an enforcent of the red maple tree spirit that prevented human cultivators into its territory and with its strength, only those at the domain realm could ignore its warnings.
As valuable as that territory was, it was not valuable enough to incite the greed of domain realm experts, and it had also been rumored that the red maple tree spirit had a close relationship with one of the in-na disciples of the founder of the dical Saint Garden Sect which was enough as a deterrent for human cultivators to not violate the rules set by the Red Maple Spirit lest they incur the wrath of said in-na disciple and those who owed said disciple a favor or two.
However, towards the end of its lifespan, that red maple tree beca lax in its prohibitive rules. Normally spiritual herbs and trees that had awakened their spirits and beco sentient usually had absurdly long lifespans. Take ifeng for example, she was at the first stage of the palace realm, while Yang Qing was closely approaching the third stage.
In terms of overall abilities and insights into the dao, Yang Qing had her beat in every regard except lifespan. A standard human palace realm cultivator would automatically have 15,000 years of lifespan the instant they broke through to the palace realm with the value increasing with each minor breakthrough. 15,000 years was the bare minimum. Provided one had excellent foundations that base value grows.
When Yang Qing broke through, he could already tell his lifespan had hit 25,000 years which he guessed had to do with his peerless jade physique and achieving absolute perfection at every step of his breakthrough from perfect qi circulation, to purple-grade pillars, to purple core and finally using a major dao for his breakthrough to the palace realm.
Few could et those standards and in the end, in terms of lifespan what he got was 25,000 years. For ifeng, things were different. Even though her foundations were weaker than Yang Qing by a considerable margin, in terms of lifespan, she had him beat by a considerable level.
Because of his dao, and physique, Yang Qing was sensitive to the vitality and vigor of things. Provided they were weaker than him, he could more or less feel their life expectancy, which was how he could tell the changes in Ma Yuan's body, and when it ca to ifeng, he could already tell at the bare minimum, provided no accident befell her and things remained stagnant, she would live for at least 80,000 years and as she grew stronger, that number was likely to grow.
If ifeng had 80,000 years lifespan, how much lifespan did the red maple tree spirit tree have with a cultivation base that was at the peak of the palace realm?
If he were to guess, Yang Qing estimated it would have reached at least 120,000 years, and considering what he knew, he felt it would have likely been more. Just like him, that tree had a natural aptitude for the vitality dao, and as such its life expectancy was bound to be way higher even when compared to other spiritual awakened trees.
Yang Qing would not find it strange if it was said it had a lifespan that had reached 200,000 years. It was that absurd lifespan that he sohow wished his ancestral root was tied to so spiritual tree, but as it stood, there was nothing like that in his lineage. All he had in his genealogical tree were fanatical lunatics who would decrease his lifespan rather than contribute to it.
However, as huge a lifespan as that red maple tree had, all of it was for naught as it never got to live the entirety of it and the reason for that was, that it failed its tribulation into the domain realm.
Breaking through to the domain realm was the ultimate test for cultivators and being called a genius wasn't enough to get one over the line and your background never mattered. You could be in a holy land, or a rogue cultivator, but the difficulty and uncertainty of breaking through to the domain realm was the sa for you both.
In the palace realm, core formation realm, and foundation establishnt real, the powerful seniors can prepare you enough for them, and provided you had a sturdy enough foundation you could breeze through them.
Yang Qing slept through his tribulation for the core formation realm, and for the foundation establishnt realm, because it was his first ti experiencing a tribulation as one didn't get to experience one when breaking through to the qi refinent realm, he was so wound up, that when it finally fell, he didn't believe that was a tribulation.
The reason for that was because it felt like he had the most refreshing bath as the tribulation fell on him, soothing his entire body in the process. If it wasn't for the change in strength, and the glowing purple pillar produced after, he had thought he had failed it. What his grandfather and the rest put him through in the body refinent realm, especially his breakthrough to the peerless jade physique was a thousand tis more terrifying than the foundation and the core formation tribulation.
The one for the palace realm was tough, but he smoothly went through it, and at no point in ti did he ever feel like his life was in danger, but the domain realm was different. Countless died, and even the most talented wavered on whether to go through it despite reaching the bottleneck and having the necessary accumulations to trigger the tribulation. Many choose to suppress it and only go through it when they're close to the end of their lifespans.
The rate of failure to transcend the tribulation was 70% and the likelihood of death from those who failed was 95%.
The red maple tree spirit failed its tribulation but it managed to survive, which was a rare feat in and of itself, no doubt its natural traits had sothing to do with it, but it nonetheless paid a price, which was its lifespans. After failing the tribulation that absurd lifespan was slashed, and from what the records said, it only had less than a thousand years left to live after its failed ascension.
It used its remaining years to look for a successor amongst the spiritual plants that grew within its territory, moving even to the spirit beasts, but spiritual plants and animals had an absurd lifespan for a reason, which was they improved at a slower pace when compared to humans.
The red maple spirit failed to find a suitable successor among them and was forced to look for one among the humans.
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