The next day dawned. In the little grove outside Sand City where Qin Zihui and Han Ling had once hidden, over a thousand Viking Warriors followed the orders they had received the previous night, felling trees and pulling up grass across a broad area, then stuffing it all into the cloth sacks and wooden baskets they had brought. In the first light of morning, they looked every bit like hardworking farmers tending their fields.
While the Viking Warriors busied themselves with their work, the gates of Morgaya City, over three hundred li away, slowly opened amid clouds of dust and yellow sand. The knight who emerged at the head of the column was Zeng Mu.
Behind him came the war banners, followed by a dark mass of horses and knights. Bundles of supplies were strapped behind every saddle, with ample weapons, provisions, and equipment. Beyond those, there was nothing else.
Without the cumbersome chariots and other excess equipment Swinburne had brought on his march, the Knights' Order could travel at a frightening speed.
The Black Tide Army departed Morgaya City in the morning light. They had committed their entire force to this expedition-a full seven thousand knights and their mounts-and set off in a vast column toward Sand City, their destination over three hundred li away. This time, they were determined to reclaim their city from Swinburne.
The horse Zeng Mu rode at the very front was, naturally, the thousand-mile horse he had previously tamed. He had named it Abyss.
When Abyss was in its private stable, the Coachman tended it carefully, and Yenaier occasionally came to feed it grass and brush its coat. Apart from that, Zeng Mu himself made time every day to care for it.
Rather than saying he made time, it would have been more accurate