Chapter 8: The Eastern Pine Cat

In the fifth year of Yuxing, the seventh month, in the height of summer, at the southern edge of the Dong Song Kingdom.

A cool sea breeze swept in from the vast, azure ocean, causing the lush silk moss outside the city to sway like a great banner stretched across the land.

In times past, the silk moss in this area would be harvested daily by the people of Dong Song, but now, the fields lay empty, unharvested.

This was because the King of Dong Song had already issued a strict decree:

“All silk moss around the Xuan Mountain Fortress shall be reserved for military use. Anyone caught privately harvesting provisions for the Northern Expedition shall be executed on the spot.”

Indeed, though Dong Song had long maintained friendly relations with Tianyu, the King now planned to muster forces northward, with intentions seemingly set on crossing the Luma River and striking directly into Liaodong.

Whether they could succeed or not remained to be seen.

At present, most of the garrison had been redeployed north, leaving only the military-use silk moss waving in the breeze.

Beyond the mossy fields stood a massive fortress, its defensive structure reminiscent of Jin Chuan City, but this grand stronghold appeared far older.

Each brick of the towering walls was made from a mysterious stone, its hue similar to the exquisite jade treasured by Tianyu as a “treasure of a hundred uses,” but with a texture even harder.

The stones bore the patina of age, making the fortress resemble an ancient tortoise resting by the sea.

Outside the walls, along the coastline beneath a watchtower, a Dong Song soldier yawned as he stepped out slowly.

Despite the summer season, the morning chill caused him to shiver beneath his dense fur, his feline tongue licking his lips.

Yes, the people and soldiers of Dong Song were not human in appearance like the Yuren, but rather a catlike race, about a head shorter than humans, with humanoid forms yet bearing the features of cats.

Like the wolf tribes of the northern steppes, though they walked upright like humans, the catfolk retained many feline traits: fluffy heads and dense fur covering their bodies.

Despite their “furred” appearance, this soldier wore attire similar to the Yuren—half leather armor draped across his torso.

He faced the mist-shrouded blue sea, relieving himself with a stream of jade-colored liquid.

“Oh ho, mornings always start with this,” the soldier murmured lazily, pulling up his trousers and wiping the moisture from his armor.

Shouldering a slightly rusted bronze halberd, his cat-eyes glanced back at the dark green fortress behind him.

Humming a tune, he began a sluggish patrol along the shoreline.

---

The rhythmic sound of footsteps echoed: “Clack, clack, clack… clack, clack, clack…”

After strolling along the coast for some time, the weary soldier reached the ruins of an old dock.

The remains were grand and imposing—over a thousand berths for ships and hundreds of massive anchors abandoned along the pier.

In the heyday of the Dong Song Kingdom, this dock had been a colossal harbor capable of sheltering over a thousand warships.

A thousand years ago, long before the Yuren arrived in this world, the Dong Song Kingdom was known to the fox tribes as the “Flourishing Eastern Sea Kingdom.”

Back then, its navy boasted over a thousand towering treasure ships, regularly crossing the sea’s edge through the legendary Xuanxu Gate to wage war in other worlds.

But all of that was now merely legend.

No living Dong Song citizen had ever truly seen those towering treasure ships or the fabled Xuanxu Gate.

The old soldier gazed across the water, where faint glimmers shimmered in the ocean’s depths.

“Three days eastward, and you’ll reach the Xuanxu Gate. Pass through it, and you enter another realm,” he said softly.

“There are countless treasures beyond, dazzling beyond words,” he added.

“And strange people and lands to behold.”

“Just stories our ancestors made up to fool us,” he scoffed, looking at the battered fishing boat abandoned by the shore, spitting into the sea.

Yet all Dong Song folk who had stayed by this blue sea could see faint lights flickering on the opposite shore.

“Old soldier, staring at the sea? Have you ever been across?” a voice suddenly asked.

“Who could go across? Nonsense… huh?” The soldier turned to see a Dong Song officer clad in rhinoceros-hide armor and wearing a bronze mask.

The man was tall by Dong Song standards, with a notably robust build.

“Oh, it’s Lieutenant Gou. Our general was drinking with the men last night—why weren’t you there?” the soldier said, unfamiliar with the northern district officers.

In Dong Song’s hereditary military system, officers rarely transferred between districts.

According to a veteran general in the fortress, this man was related to him, having fled north to avoid possible war with Tianyu and sought refuge with his nephew.

The soldier had wanted to ask more but, respecting his old commander’s dignity, let it go.

Lieutenant Gou seemed to notice the probing look and avoided direct eye contact, his bright jade-colored eyes glancing elsewhere as he smiled awkwardly.

“I went to Donglai last night, so I missed the drinking. Just got back this morning.”

---

Lieutenant Gou cast his gaze at the towering fortress behind him, but the soldier noticed his eyes kept drifting back to the vast sea before them.

“What’s this? Gou, you’re staring at the sea early in the morning too?”

“No… it’s just that I grew up in the north and have never seen such an endless ocean.”

The soldier shook his head, pulled out his flask, and took a hearty swig.

“Ah, I heard that a thousand years ago, our ancestors sailed a thousand tall treasure ships, setting off deep into the ocean, all the way to its end where a great gate stood.

If you passed through that gate, you’d reach another world, another kingdom…”

He wiped his furry mouth thoughtfully.

“But that was long, long ago—ages past.”

“Today, all four southern and northern districts combined don’t even have as many warships as Liaodong under Tianyu.

The northern army itself barely numbers thirty to forty thousand soldiers. Sigh.”

Lieutenant Gou watched the disappointed old soldier and clicked his tongue silently.

His eyes remained fixed on the boundless sea.

“Old brother, do you know if we still have any ships that can sail?”

“Ships? Plenty of small boats. Good for fishing a few miles out.”

“Big ships, old brother. I want ships that can sail far, that can reach the Xuanxu Gate.”

“The Xuanxu Gate? Big ships?”

The soldier stared at the lieutenant in surprise, then laughed, patting his slender waist.

“Hahaha! You don’t actually believe that fairy tale, do you? Hahaha!”

“Besides, what are you planning to do at that gate? Going on a spring outing?”

“They say the last expedition beyond the world, a thousand years ago, destroyed that gate.

The sea around it whipped into storms with thunder and lightning. Any ship that tried to pass capsized.”

Lieutenant Gou listened to the soldier’s teasing, then shook his head as he looked again at the sparkling waves.

“Ah, old brother, I was just asking.”

He then turned and headed towards the fortress.

“All right, old brother, I’m heading back. I have other duties this morning.”

“Take care…”

The soldier turned away but suddenly remembered something.

He called out to Lieutenant Gou, who was briskly walking to the fortress.

“Lieutenant Gou, be sure to put in a good word for me with the general!”

“And next time the brothers are drinking rice wine, you must come!”

Lieutenant Gou waved back without turning.

“Really, this new lieutenant looks so rough and untamed.”

Before the soldier could turn his head fully, a shout rang out from the watchtower nearby.

“A ship!”

“A big ship!”