The southwest part of the Central Continent was ruled by the Wyan Dynasty. They were one of the 5 rulers that ruled the central continent. The 5 dynasties weren't at war with each other, but they weren't very lax with each other either.
They owned about one-fifth of the land while the other 4 empires owned the rest of the land. They had a fairly decent amount of strength and were middle of the pack in terms of strength.
The weakest of the 5 was the Sun Empire in the middle where most of the empire was simply desert and Qi was way too sparse for them to produce strong cultivators.
While the empires on the edges, like the Wyan Empire, had a lot more abundance of Qi and didn't need to worry about getting enough sun to become a desert.
Also being next to the seas opened up a massive source of food to these 4 empires that the Sun Empire could not hope to get.