After the promotion, both the Heart Image World and Qingming needed time to gradually accumulate and develop. The mortal world was immense and enhancing it was immensely difficult, one could even say that the accumulation required for Wei Yuan's Dao Power was several times that of other Dharmic Images, thus the promotion needed proportional accumulation.
With the Red Leaf hit by the Yang Bullet, the Rain Country significantly contracted and focused all its resources to address the war with the Spirit Witches, leaving a vacant area over a thousand miles wide between Rain Country and Qingming. This area was meant for Wei Yuan to occupy, which would take him several years.
Currently, Qingming was almost entirely naturally expanding without any nurturing, growing less than a mile daily, and with the expansion of the boundary domain, the daily natural extension would gradually decrease, although the total area would remain about the same.
