Of the five kingdoms in the Eastern Region...
The closest to the Vast Sea was the Featherflame Kingdom.
It had originally been occupied by the Nine Nether Sect, one of the Four Demonic Sects. After the Four Demonic Sects were driven out, the Academy had used it during the last Heaven-Worship Ceremony at Donghua Mountain to exchange for the interests that the Crimson Flame Sect and other Central Region sects held in the Donghua Mountain Market Ward.
This transaction offered the Academy two advantages.
One was plain for all to see. After obtaining the Featherflame Kingdom, the Crimson Flame Sect was satisfied and voluntarily relinquished its interests in the Donghua Mountain Market Ward, allowing the Academy to move back to its own sect grounds.
The other was that the Academy's leaders still harbored grave misgivings about the Core Formation cultivators of the Four Demonic Sects who had mysteriously vanished.
After all, strength reigned supreme in the cultivation world.
Aside from doing miscellaneous chores and gathering resources for Core Formation cultivators, Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining cultivators served another purpose within a sect: some of them might eventually reach Core Formation themselves.
Even if the four sects had been uprooted, so long as their Core Formation cultivators remained unharmed, they could return to the Western Wasteland at any time and rebuild their sects.
By allotting the Featherflame Kingdom to the Crimson Flame Sect, they could have the latter serve as a warning post if the Four Demonic Sects' Core Formation cultivators really returned.
After decades of development and construction, the operations of the Crimson Flame Sect and the other sects in the Featherflame Kingdom had settled onto the right track.
Every few years, they could take away a large shipment of cultivation resources from the Featherflame Kingdom to replenish their own