Chapter 3: The Voyage to Caoyuan

Chapter 3: The Voyage to Caoyuan is the third chapter of Longma Warriors.

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## The Voyage to Caoyuan

The night the boat departed, Mazhanshi and her friends slept in the boat's cabins, exhausted from the long trip they each took to get to Sishui.  They slept really good the first night of the trip.  During the next day, they did training exercises on the deck and checking the map and compass to make sure that they were still on course.

That night, the four of them met after dinner to discuss their plans for when they arrived.  "So here's what we have been told by our scouts." Nulieren began saying.  "This horse that they have found is called the Jade Horse.  It's a really valuable steed that will help us in our upcoming invasion of Shijie.  The Jade Horse was spotted near Nangang to the east, but we're not going to land in Nangang so as to avoid attention to ourselves." she finished.  "Ok, sounds good." Mazhanshi said.  "We will also want to make sure we have about 6 lengths of rope to help us with capturing the horse." Suojiang said. "There might be some on the ship." Mazhanshi said.  "I checked the map and there is a place where we can dock the boat right up to the shore, and it's deep enough at the shore so we won't have to worry about a hull puncture." Cike said. "Then it's settled.  We'll get some sleep now and be ready for tomorrow." Mazhanshi said.  The four of them got ready for bed.

Before going to bed, Mazhanshi lit a candle and pulled out another one of her scrolls and opened it.  As opposed to the previous scroll, which had 6 figures drawn on it, this one had a complex and intricately detailed picture.  Mazhanshi started by looking at the center of the scroll which had 2 arch like gateways, one white and one black.  She then focused on the white gateway.  The gateway was white and had an oriental design and on the right side of it there appeared 8 white keys.  Looking to the left of the gateway, she saw a mystical realm with green hills, trees and rivers.  She also noticed what looked like a brown pit in the mystical realm and saw a white humanoid figure as well.  Inside the mystical realm stood another gateway.  This one lead to another realm with a sky blue backdrop and blue pillars.  A white dragon and white horse stood in this realm.  There was also a third gateway.  The third gateway led to a vault filled with golden treasure.  There was also a sword with a white blade in this vault.

After looking at the left side of the scroll, Mazhanshi turned her attention to the right side of the scroll.  She saw a black gateway with a corresponding set of 8 black keys.  To the right side of this gateway was another mystical realm, but this one was a stark contrast from the other one.  In this realm, Mazhanshi saw brown caverns, rocks, lava, and what appeared to be prison cells.  There was a deep black pit in this realm, with a black humanoid figure standing guard.  In this realm stood another gateway.  This gateway led to a realm with a red backdrop and crimson red pillars.  A black dragon and black horse stood in this realm.  At the other end of this realm stood a gateway connecting to another vault.  This vault held treasure like the first and had a sword with a black blade stored inside.

Looking at the picture one final time, Mazhanshi read some symbols on the bottom of the scroll that translated into: "The white gateway is at the northernmost point, and the black gateway is at the southernmost point.  After that, she put the scroll away, blew out her candle and went to sleep.

The next day, the 4 of them woke up and did various tasks around the ship to keep it on course.  A couple of hours later, Cike spotted land.  "Land ho!" he said.  Mazhanshi, Nulieren, and Suojiang looked and saw Caoyuan's coast.  It had green plains and forests and a few tall gray mountains.  There was a small place up on the coast for the ship to dock.  After Cike carefully steered the boat so that it wouldn't collide with rocks, Mazhanshi and Nulieren threw down anchors and both ends of the ship.  The two of them then took some rope and jumped off of the ship onto dry land.  They found 2 trees that they could secure the ship to and tied it to the shore.  Once the ship was secure, Cike and Suojiang got out a boarding ramp and lowered it so it connected the ship to the land.  The docking was a success.  Mazhanshi and Nulieren went back on board to get supplies for the next stage of the plan.