Mountain islands towered, their rocks flashing with running gold. The golden sun slanted west, and the bay floated with golden light. The two Kingdom Priests looked around, gazed at the flowing golden creek, then into the distance at the unbroken gold mountains, and both felt a divinity that shook the heart. That golden divinity flowed through mountains and rivers, making people worship with devotion, and also hunger with greed.
"This majestic gold mine, this boundless great gold-mining belt! It is the true miracle by which the Main God guides us, and also the strength the Main God grants us to press forward!... Praise the Main God, praise His protection, and praise the divine mountains and seas!..."
"Praise the Main God! Praise His protection! Praise the sacred mountains and seas!..."
The two Kingdom Priests lowered their heads and prayed devoutly for a while. The dozens of Samurai around them also bowed their heads in prayer. Before this vast mountain-island gold mine, whether the two Priests, the dozens of Samurai, or the more than two hundred tribespeople at the port, all seemed very small.
On this desolate, cold, and sparsely populated Far North Coast, the native tribes that had struggled to survive generation after generation had never possessed such ambition and wild hope as to regard the sacred mountains, seas, and Earth Mother as belonging to some tribe. Instead, the large tribes of various places often claimed themselves to be the descendants of God Mountain, holy lakes, or birds and beasts. And the mountains, seas, wind, and snow, the gods and Ancestral Spirits, were the true masters of this land in people's hearts!...
"Priest Marigold, over this past year and more, how much placer gold has your Divine Gold Creek Port camp mined?"
"High Priest Miki, the placer gold we've mined is