The world order Li knew was roughly like this...
Four irregular continents in the east, west, south, and north, plus the peninsula occupied by Ankhseram Temple in the far north, which was nearly as large as a continent itself.
Aside from the Northern Continent, each of the other three continents had its own powerful figures.
There had originally been an absolute-level powerhouse on the Northern Continent: Zeref.
However, Zeref later went to the relatively western Western Continent. Now, Zeref was the absolute-level powerhouse of the Western Continent. As for the remaining two continents, the Southern Continent was known as the Wasteland. In the original Fairy Tail story, Li had not actually seen many nonhuman races there.
Those races had, in fact, been defeated by humans long ago and fled to that continent.
There was also a powerhouse there comparable to Zeref: the Barbarian Emperor Catherine. That name could not really be considered a name so much as a title.
The title was passed down through generations. On that continent, only women could become emperor, and once they did, they changed their names to Barbarian Emperor. At the same time, the previous Barbarian Emperor would pour all her power into her successor. In other words, every successive Barbarian Emperor was stronger than the last. That was why humans had never attacked that continent.
The Eastern Continent, meanwhile, was an isolated land. Vast numbers of whirlpools surrounded it, and the sea was plagued by exceptionally terrible weather.
It could be said that this was why most people could not reach the Eastern Continent.
Moreover, its people were extremely xenophobic and had begun shutting themselves off from the outside world many years ago. Yet their magic was completely incompatible with the magic of the outside world. Even most powerful people would be defeated