Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!-Chapter 1447 - 1000: The Scholar’s Voyage Log—Divine Peak, Blood River, and Gold River; The Final Divine Revelation Prophecy!
"Chief Divine’s protection! Early July, the fleet set off from Yakutat’s purple bay, along steep tall cliffs, rolling mountains, and majestic pristine glaciers. Amidst these awe-inspiring white wonders, the fleet saw two exceptionally towering, almost sky-occupying, white divine mountains!..."
"The guide Eyak gestured and haltingly told me: those two towering divine mountains are the ancestral legends’ bridge between sky and earth! Only the strongest tribal warrior can climb these divine peaks to personally converse with all gods in the sky. In the ancient ancestral legends, only three outstanding chieftains have ever ascended the three supreme divine mountains! They received the blessings of the divine, bringing back ’fire’, ’bows and javelins’, ’boats and fishing nets’ - these three divine objects that changed the entire tribe! The Eastern peak internal corresponds to ’bows and javelins’ and is called Heavenly Divine Hunter Peak. The western one by the sea corresponds to ’boats and fishing nets’, named Heavenly Divine Fish Peak..."
"Upon hearing this, I laughed and asked Eyak, if that’s the case, is the divine mountain corresponding to ’fire’ called ’Heavenly Divine Fire Peak’? And where is that divine mountain?..."
"At these words, Eyak’s expression became serious, earnestly telling me: the divine mountain bringing back ’fire’ is the ancestral divine mountain shared by many northern tribes; thus, it is not ’Heavenly Divine Fire Peak’ but the most sacred ’Heavenly God Ancestor Peak’! The ancestor peak is located deep in the remote northwestern mountains, hundreds of miles inland... But that divine mountain is very tall, the most majestic peak in the world. It’s so high aligning the clouds, even connected to the sky, visible from far along the coast!..."
"Chief Divine’s witness! I originally didn’t believe such a mountain could exist until the fleet traveled over a thousand miles west, indeed seeing behind the mountains, a peak taller than high peaks by the bay! I even felt this majestic sacred ’Heavenly God Ancestor Peak’ was the place where the ancient gods emerged from heavenly skies and ancient divine mountains, where the supreme Chief Divine resided in Snake Mountain!..."
The wind howled, brushing Scholar Mikki’s cheek and sparkling his eyes. He seemed to see once more from this northeast wind direction, the past place, those three awe-inspiring peaks! He had a vague feeling, the height of these three divine mountains, towering into the sky, even surpassing the Alliance’s first divine mountain, the lofty Smoke Peak Divine Mountain!
"The three divine peaks visible from the coast... Heavenly Divine Fish Peak, Heavenly Divine Hunter Peak, Heavenly God Ancestor Peak..."
Scholar Mikki murmured softly, recalling the ice-covered, sky-filling peaks; his heart was full of devotion and reverence.
He did not know that the height of Heavenly Divine Fish Peak (Mt. St. Elias) is 5489 meters, the second-highest peak in the future United States. Heavenly Divine Hunter Peak (Mt. Logan) is 5959 meters, the highest peak in the future Canada. As for the so-called Heavenly God Ancestor Peak (Mount McKinley), it is 6190 meters high, the highest peak in North America! Regarding the Smokey Peak Divine Mountain’s elevation on the Mexican Plateau, it is 5426 meters, indeed lower than the trio of divine mountains.
What’s more, these three true divine peaks on the Northern Coast can be seen from sea level elevation! Such grandeur, sky-blocking, spectacular level is nothing comparable to the two-thousand-meter-highland gaze!
"Praise Chief Divine! The fleet docked below the two divine mountains, holding a sacred prayer ceremony, uplifted the morale of the sailors! Then, we continued west, following the warm sea currents, in just four to five days, traveling six hundred miles, reaching a magnificent delta rivermouth, seeing a surging red great river (Copper River)! This river’s mouth is twenty miles wide, with swift currents. However, the most mysterious thing is, the river’s water is deep reddish-brown, like a flowing blood river!..."
"Chief Divine’s protection! Every fleet member’s heart rippled with exploration desires due to the surging mysterious blood river. This sacred red was undoubtedly symbolizing Chief Divine’s blessing! So, we stopped here, encountered large gatherings of fish, easily catching barrel after barrel of red-fleshed salmon. According to the fleet’s Samurai, such red meat fish, blessed by Chief Divine, is more hunger-resistant than white meat fish!..."
"We fished at the rivermouth for two days, replenishing the ship’s food again. Along Northern Land’s coast, fish is the best food source. Especially around the warm currents, slightly near the deep sea, the fish population is extraordinarily impressive! They seem never to have been captured, unaware of avoiding ships..."
"During the two days of hunting, the longship’s weary sailors discovered a tribesman fainted on the riverbank. He seemed to have drifted along the surging blood river, accompanied by river ice and sand, from an unknown upstream distance. Upon seeing the thick deer skin coat, peculiar fishbone necklace around his neck, and the broken pinewood mask on his head, guide Eyak confidently judged: ’This is a distant mountain’s Sugepian, from the Blood River’s upstream mountainous tribe!’..."
"Chief Divine’s protection! Indeed, when the fainted tribesperson awoke, speaking simply and unintelligibly, gestured with us for ages, finally explaining his name, ’Annu Fish’, ’a hunter skilled in hunting and fishing’. His origin was ’the migratory tribe of Blood River upstream, residing at the lakes and forests by the mountains’. And the reason he jumped into the Blood River, drifting here, was during mountain hunting, encountering ’Thunderbolt of the Heavenly Divine, newborn cycle, burning forest fire!’..."
"Chief Divine! I never thought, in this snowy, icy, river, lake-filled cold Northern Land, there would be recurring forest fires, continuously bring cycles of destruction and rebirth?..."
Scholar Mikki, stroking his chin, recalled meeting with Sugepian hunter Annu Fish, by summer’s sunny seaside, the schools of red-fleshed salmon sparkling with golden light. However, these abundant coastal fish populations had nothing to do with the mountain-migrating tribes, nor easily captured by small tribal canoes.
The riverside Sugepian man was robust yet simple, extraordinarily tall and muscular, with deep wrinkles and scars on his face. Those were the etched frost and blizzard of Arctic snow plains, coming from the midsummer Black Forest’s fire, recounting further north, thousands of years of difficult migration and wandering of mountain tribes!
"Winter is all-engulfing heavy snow, howling winds, endless white... Tribes nestled between mountains, seeing nothing..."
"Summer is dark forests, unpredictable forest fires, and surging rivers... Tribes move about, chasing deer and fish, wandering endlessly..."
With Annu Fish’s narration, that endlessly flowing Blood River upper reaches, the vast snow plain basin, the boundless black forests finally imprinted on the exploration fleet’s heart. Even more startling and fantastical was the tribe’s poetry, those fleeting golden legends.
"Ancestor of the tribes, from ancestral god mountain, obtained fire!... The great fire burned, burned the land, burned the forest, burning forth the golden river!... We moved from the golden river’s source, stepping upon golden stones, all the way migrating south to warmth. The migration path is long, the people sparse... Until golden turned white, white turned blood red, flowing with, tribes’ deceased blood..."
"Wait! Wait! Chief Divine bless us!..."
Upon hearing the fragmented, simple, and difficult to comprehend Sugpiaq poem, Scholar Miki’s eyes widened as he sensitively captured a word. Similar tribal vocabularies greatly aided the fleet in searching for the prophesied ’Juneau’ Great Jin mining area and locating the coastal Gold Mountain.
"Chief Divine’s witness! Annu Fish, did you just say, golden river? Golden stone?..."
"Yes. Golden. River. Stone."
"Where is it?"
"In the tribe’s, ancestor’s, place. At the end of Blood River."
"How far is it?"
"Very very far, takes many many many days to walk."
"Have you personally seen it?"
"No. I haven’t seen the Gold River. There, north, cold. Tribe, south, warm."
"Chief Divine bless us! Think again! Does that Gold River exist? Where exactly is it?"
Hunter Annu Fish shook his head, looking puzzled at this strange large ship tribe. Under the eager gaze of the two fleet captains, he thought again before replying.
"I’ve never been there, but the tribe’s Elder, very old, has been there. It’s definitely there, definitely! There are several Great Rivers meeting there, very barren... golden rivers, golden stones, everywhere; walk a few days, you can see them by the riverbank!..."
"Ah! Chief Divine bless us! Golden rivers and stones, a vast riverbank gold mining area... this, this!... this is Your Majesty’s last goldmine prophecy!..."
Hearing this, Scholar Miki and Captain Zuwaro exchanged a glance. Then, Scholar Miki cautiously took out the Divine Revelation Prophecy bestowed by His Majesty and unrolled the soul-abstract handwritten sea chart.
"North of 60 degrees latitude, at the upstream of a Great River, deep inshore several hundreds of miles... lies the last grand gold mining area. It’s where numerous golden rivers converge, flowing over a glittering gold riverbed, holding ancient slumbering wealth, drawing Southern Tribes from across the sea, braving deadly waves to arrive!..."
In mid-July, the Alaskan coast was bathed in bright and warm summer sunlight, bringing the light and warmth bestowed by Chief Divine. At the mouth of Blood River, the Kingdom’s exploration fleet first heard of the "Gold River Gold Mine" from Sugpiaq hunter Annu Fish. It was precisely the center of Alaska’s future gold rush, the Fairbanks Great Jin mining area!
This gold mining area, stretching over hundreds of miles and containing countless wealth, produced at least 220 tons of gold in the centuries of the 20th century, truly transforming the entire history of Alaska’s development! To every nation, every captain, and every explorer from the Old Continent, it was truly a land of wealth, filled with the cold, golden allure of death...
For the Kingdom’s exploration fleet carrying half a ton of gold, the rumor of this Great Jin mining area did not tempt them much. This clear rumor only further confirmed His Majesty’s prophecy, determined the fleet’s position, and revealed the upcoming final exploration!
"Chief Divine’s witness! From this gold mining area corresponding to the Southern Coast, continue west and the coastline will turn southwest. You will sail southwest, discover that westward chain of islands... From there starts the longest and also the most challenging few thousand miles of perilous journey in your exploration! Beyond the chain of islands lies the most eastern part of the New Continent, a vast far northern Great Island with roaming, scattered tribes, and the four-legged beasts the Kingdom urgently needs. Further south are the powerful nations where the fleet’s gold and silver can display their strength... Brave westward explorers, may Chief Divine bless you to reach the true West!..."
Note: Easter egg Chapter is an updated exploration map... Ah, finally reaching a thousand Chapters! Happy, excited!...
