"Main God, protect us! May we smoothly head south, trade with the Great Ming that His Majesty prophesied, and obtain the artisans and physicians the Alliance urgently needs... We come bearing goodwill and gold! If five hundred catties of gold is not enough, we have five thousand catties too. We merely need to wait for the later fleet to arrive..."
Zuwaro prayed for a long time inside Yongning Temple, offering a gold talisman of the Main God upon Buddha's altar. Afterward, he looked again at the stone stele in the corner, then turned and left the temple. His heart was filled with many things he did not understand, and with much impatience. And when he found Maha Tribe's chieftain, Aguda, the first thing he asked was where the great river led.
"Where does the great river lead?... Uh... Doesn't it lead south?... What? You're asking where it ends? How would I know that?... I came south from the north. I only know the sea up north!..."
Maha Aguda was utterly baffled. He looked at the rather agitated "ship-using Shaman chieftain," not knowing what hallucination the man had seen while sacrificing to the "Mountain God."
The Jurchen Tribes were always used to divining during prayers and sacrifices, eating some poisonous mushrooms, then shouting excitedly at the tops of their lungs. Unfortunately, as the savage "Wild Jurchen," the Fish-Skin Tribes had not had many Shamans to begin with, and the slaughter of their migrations had been far too brutal; they simply could not preserve the Shaman inheritance...
"Ship-User, don't keep going south! The south is in chaos, everyone killing each other everywhere... I'm telling you, with the few men you have, once you reach the south, you'll be eaten up in two bites! Those tribes that headed south before were nowhere near