Many in the Three Pure Heavens believed that everything within the Blazing Maple Forest was River Meng Clan territory.
Young members of the River Meng Clan, such as Luo Meng, believed the same.
But Wu Meng, the clan chief, knew very well that this was not the truth.
After the previous chief of the River Meng Clan died, Hei Meng appointed Wu Meng as the new chief and told him that the true masters of the Blazing Maple Forest were those motionless blazing maple trees, not the He Meng Clan.
The He Meng Clan were merely a symbiotic species within the Blazing Maple Forest. Everything they had was bestowed upon them by the forest.
If any opportunity to expand the Blazing Maple Forest arose, Wu Meng, as clan chief, had to seize it!
In truth, expanding the Blazing Maple Forest was extremely difficult. To the south lay the Heavenly Thunder Plain; any blazing maples that grew there would only be blasted to ash by the rolling heavenly thunder. To the east lay frozen lands, unsuitable for their growth.
The most suitable direction was southwest, upstream along the Divine River.
This was how the Blazing Maple Forest had originally expanded, but once it reached its current extent, the Origin Spirit Civilization discovered it.
The Origin Spirit Civilization poisoned the soil to the southwest, creating a stretch of Poisonous Land twenty li wide. This Poisonous Land became an insurmountable natural barrier for the Blazing Maple Forest. Any blazing maple seed or root that entered it immediately rotted away.
The He Meng Clan had once tried to negotiate with the Origin Spirit Civilization, but they had been refused. After their previous chief was killed, the River Meng Clan understood that the Origin Spirit Civilization would never allow the Blazing Maple Forest to expand.