Chapter 2023: Chapter 1478: A New Dawn, Emerging from the Storm

"Whoo—shhh~~"

The September wind swept across Sakhalin Island, bringing with it the chill of the Siberian pole. The deep birch forest was the ink of the northern sky, and the bright surface of the Ezo Sea was the white of the southern sky. In that vast scroll of ink-green and white-blue, there was a place where gray, yellow, red, and white blended together, like the midpoint between two parallel horizons that would never meet.

"Awoo! Awoo!..."

When the Flying Eagle rode the cold wind closer, that complex color in the desolate heaven-and-earth suddenly unfolded, turning into a simple, crude yet vibrant tribal port. The gray became harvested potato fields, the yellow a chain of thatched huts and wooden houses, the red the Temple at the center of the port, and the white a pier of white birch wood where ships of all sizes lay moored.

Countless tiny dots moved between fields, camps, and harbor. There were Tribespeople drying fish and smoking meat, tanning hides and making bows; there were cattle and horses grazing, walking and stopping; and there were packs of dogs yelping as they ran, wary and chasing.

"Awoo, awoo! Awoo!..."

This was the Kingdom’s Divine Kutadai Port, home to more than twelve hundred Tribespeople of all races. With the return of the Zuwaro fleet bringing back the Jurchen Tribe, and the surrounding Ainu People coming in to submit, the population of Kutadai Port grew rapidly, and its proportions changed yet again. In what was now the Kingdom’s largest harbor on the Western Sea, one third were Ainu Tribe, one quarter were Jurchen, one sixth were Japanese, and one quarter were the Kingdom’s Warriors and Shandan Hunter.

Of course, aside from the Japanese, neither the Ainu, the Jurchen nor the Shandan Tribespeople had much sense of "nation"; they were easily assimilated into the Kingdom’s heartlands, becoming one body of "Gummy People." They valued more their identity as a "Gummy People Tribe," valued the "interests of the Tribe." Such migration, slaughter, and fusion of Tribes was precisely the norm upon the harsh land of Northeast Asia. Once they followed a rich and powerful Great Tribe, able to eat their fill and keep warm, they naturally became part of that Great Tribe. As for the Japanese, their channel for integrating into the Kingdom was as "followers of the Chief Divine," offering their souls as "faith"...

"Swish, swish!"

The Chief Divine’s Hummingbird flag fluttered atop the Temple’s sacrificial altar, like the totem of this nascent Tribe. The same Hummingbird Flag flew from the masts of the Kingdom’s Large Ships, like a proclamation facing the sea and the Mountain Forest. And if one carefully counted the flags on those ships, there were fully seven banners—seven Large Ships!

Yes: three Kingdom Longship that had crossed the sea, two single-masted merchantmen bought from the Japanese, and two largest, just-arrived Ocean Shielding Ship...

"Chief Divine bless us! Is that you, Loshanda?!"

"Zuwaro High Priest! It’s me, I’ve come!..."

"Good! Good, good!... Call me senior!"

"Yes, Senior Zuwaro!"

"Hahaha! Did the ship bring any liquor? Let’s drink as we talk!..."

"Gladly! We have Tequila, brought from the Kingdom..."

"Tequila!!..."

One brand new, one timeworn, both Ocean Shielding Ship had been tempered by storms and waves, now lying quietly moored in the harbor. Their draft was very deep, so they were anchored farther out than the other Large Ships. At this moment, a meeting that had crossed the far north Ice Sea was taking place on the deck of the new Large Ship.

The two Priests, who had graduated from Divine Power University in successive years, both had eyes shining as they gripped each other’s forearms and straightened their chests. The smiles on their faces were like waves bursting open; their hearty laughter was like the sea surge pounding upon the shore.

"Hahaha! Tequila with chili—what a nostalgic taste!"

"Chief Divine bless us! Senior Zuwaro, I sailed across the sea, searching for a full four months before finally meeting you here! Let us drain a cup to celebrate this day of reunion!"

"Hahaha! Praise the Chief Divine! Drink!..."

"Bang!..."

The sea was like a ten-thousand-li wine vat: the farther the voyage, the more it brewed the reunion of old friends into a heady aged liquor. And to drink such a bold, magnificent wine, one must use courage and fearlessness as the cup, hide a moth of death at the bottom, and then drain it in a single swallow!

Those who have never experienced the far voyage can never taste such a fine wine, nor can they ever comprehend how, after downing a cup, a blaze flares up within the chest, upon the icy cold wind and the sea...

"By the witness of the Chief Divine! We set sail from Divine Great Whale Port after the thaw in May. After that came the six thousand li of the long Divine Initiation Archipelago, and the colossal sea surges I had never foreseen, yet still found utterly overwhelming! Several times, those surges crashed down from above our heads, smashing everyone flat, pressing the whole ship into the sea, then with a great crash letting her float up again..."

"Each of us had a rope tied around our waist, fastened to the Large Ship. No one was to place any hope on abandoning ship and surviving. The ship is our life! If she goes down, none of us will live; we must stake our lives to hold her! Fortunately, under the protection of the Chief Divine, we still made it through the storm!..."

Speaking of the voyage through the Divine Initiation Archipelago, Loshanda’s face bore an awe that would never fade, and the devotion that follows from overcoming such trials of fear. Zuwaro’s gaze drifted far away, as he too recalled that arduous probing through storms and sea mists, and that westward venture where they had wagered their lives and set forth with iron resolve.

In such a storm‑wracked extremity, the only thing that could support them onward was never Wealth, but devotion rising from the depths of the heart! And of course, the yearning for glory and for going one step further...

"Senior Zuwaro! Two Ocean Shielding Ships, seventy Samurai and Sailors, crossed the six thousand li of the Divine Initiation Archipelago in just over two months! Between Divine Sky Stone Island and Divine High Mountain Island, we ran into the most terrifying man‑killing waves and lost one Samurai and three Sailors! Between Divine Elder Daughter Island and Divine Snow Mother Island, we met another sudden storm, and lost two Samurai and two Sailors!..."

Recalling the voyage amid the storms, Loshanda’s eyes grew deep, as if holding tempests within them, yet showing a hint of dawn’s light. One in seven lost and sacrificed—this was the price of a single passage along the Divine Initiation Archipelago. Costly as it was, such a price proved the possibility of maintaining the West Sea Route in the long term.

For with the appearance of the Wind God’s Ocean Shielding Ships, that six‑thousand‑li leg of the journey had finally been shortened to just over two months. And the voyage from the Divine Initiation Archipelago to the Kingdom of the Lake had been cut to half a year. The entire route spanning the Western Sea now required only seven to eight months...

By the witness of the Chief Divine, death is the sacrifice that seafaring must offer, while time and efficiency are the crucial elements that sustain a route! If the deep‑sea voyage from the offshore islands that Loshanda envisioned could one day be realized, then the western sea line could be shortened by another two or three months, perhaps even more!

"Under the protection of the Chief Divine! Senior Zuwaro, when we lay at anchor in Divine Peak Mountain Port and Divine Snow Mother Port, we replenished our numbers with the finest Unanga men, returning again to seventy souls!... The Tribes that these ports along the Divine Initiation Archipelago can support have already reached their limit. And the Unanga Gummy People in these ports are the bravest and finest Sailors I have ever seen!..."

The Kingdom had established four supply ports along the Aleutian Divine Enlightenment Island Chain. Divine Land Port had over four hundred people, Divine Peak Mountain Port over three hundred, Divine Snow Mother Port over two hundred, and Divine Ancestor Port two hundred. Eight tenths of the population at each port were island Unanga Tribespeople who, for the sake of food and fuel, had voluntarily turned toward the Kingdom. They were new converts to the "Fire and Fish Great Divine Spirit," the tallest and strongest of the Extreme North Gummy People!

Without a doubt, these ports upon the island chain were the most harsh places to live along the entire West Sea Route. Game was scarce on the cramped islands; fishing was the principal source of food. Autumn and winter storms swept the islands, snow often lay as deep as a man’s height, and even large trees were seldom seen. Only at the volcanic hot springs near Divine Land Port and Divine Peak Mountain Port could a few Potatoes be planted, and their yields were pitiful. The present few hundred souls were already the upper limit these ports could sustain.

As for the Unanga Tribe that the land could no longer support, in the past they had no choice; now, however, they had gained a new path... and that was to board the Kingdom Longships, become the Kingdom’s Sailors, cross the sea, and go to a new homeland!

"Under the protection of the Chief Divine! At the end of July, we finally passed through the Divine Initiation Archipelago and reached the Ice and Snow Island, where we encountered our allies, the Tribespeople of the Mountain Part. They showed us the way, so we could reach Divine Twins Smoke Harbor and rest for half a month. During that half month I also gained a wife from the Mountain Part, my first wife, Mu Zidiao... That old grandmother of the Mountain Part truly is a formidable Northern Shaman!..."

At this point, Loshanda wore a wry smile. The Kimier Grand Priest had long counselled him that, if he wished to go further, he must seek a noble lady of the Kingdom as support behind him. Who would have thought that just after he had passed through the storms and reached the Kamchatka Ice and Snow Island, he would run headlong into that formidable old grandmother of the Mountain Part, who was determined to marry off her granddaughter?

Confronted with the warm reception of a powerful ally, faced with the sincere request for a Blood Oath of marriage, and before five to six hundred stalwart Hunters of the Mountain Part, what chance did Loshanda have to refuse?

He knew well that Zuwaro had already taken away the greater part of the fighting warriors to go south and open new lands. Now the Kingdom’s two prosperous ports on the Ice and Snow Island depended upon the allies of the Mountain Part to ensure external security...

"Hm?! The old grandmother of the Mountain Part? Loshanda, the one she promised you was her granddaughter?..."

"Yes, Senior Zuwaro... By reckoning, my wife Purple Sable is in fact your wife Suona’s younger cousin..."

Loshanda said this with a smile, then his expression turned solemn. He met Zuwaro’s gaze and spoke the first formally important matter since their reunion.

"By the witness of the Chief Divine! Senior Zuwaro, the old grandmother of the Mountain Part is acknowledged as grandmother by all the mountain Tribes along the two‑thousand‑li Peninsula, and has the prestige to arbitrate and influence the various groups. When she heard that the Kingdom had discovered wide hunting grounds in the South, she bade me bring a proposal for further alliance..."

"Last year’s snow disaster was severe; many of the Mountain Part’s deer herds froze to death. The Rokube farther to the North also suffered heavily, and once more showed themselves north of the Ice and Snow Island... If this were but a single year’s snow disaster, the Tribes could still endure it. But if another snow disaster came this year, and many more deer herds froze to death... then whether Mountain Part or Rokube, neither would have game for the coming year, and many people would have to die!..."

"In former years there would have been nothing to discuss—Mountain Part and Rokube would simply fight a few more times, turning mouths that needed feeding into meat, and then wait for the deer herds to slowly multiply again... But now, as allies by marriage, the old grandmother has heard that we have found hunting grounds to the south... The Mountain Part hopes to send out some of their closer Tribes to travel southward with our fleet and establish new branches of their Tribes... As for the terms—whether it be conversion to the Chief Divine, further marriage alliances, or having a portion of their Tribes join our Great Tribe... all can be negotiated!"

"She even said that the Rokube of the farther‑north nomadic deer herds need not be enemies to be fought to the bitter end. She will again seek to speak with the Shaman and Chieftains of the Rokube... So long as they have another road to take, we can give them a path!..."

"What?! You mean... the Mountain Part and the Rokube hope to go south through us? To go south to Maoshili Island?!..."

Hearing this, Zuwaro showed his astonishment, instantly grasped the meaning within, and his expression began to shift.