The grand and bloody New Year festival, from dawn till dusk in the rainforest, lasted for a whole day. The Eye of the Spirit, the Heavenly Fire Thunderbolt, the sacrifice of Divine Descendants, the blood oath conversion… Under Xiulote's personal presiding, the kingdom's conversion ritual brought mystery and shock to the utmost degree, even surpassing this era!
Under a series of mind-blowing experiences beyond understanding, chieftains and envoys from the southern jungle ca with heartfelt reverence and knelt before the Priest of the Chief Divine. They drank the Blood Wine of the Moon Water Divine Descendant, uttered the blood oath of conversion to the Chief Divine, and etched the emblem of the Chief Divine! When they return to their own tribes, they will spread everything seen today as 'miracles of the Chief Divine' among the jungle tribes, laying the foundation for the subsequent missionary work of the Chief Divine Priests!
When the curtain of night falls after sunset, it marks the grand banquet to entertain envoys from various tribes. Although nad a banquet, the core of this gathering is for the chieftains to formally express allegiance to the King, establishing a lord-subordinate alliance.
For this crucial gathering, the ancient temple of the Olc era was cleaned and repurposed. On the highest divine platform in the temple center, stands a two-ter-high human statue of the Chief Divine, surrounded by shiny jade artifacts, gold items, silverware, and bronze objects. Flaming torches are held high by the Kingdom's Warriors, and hundreds of Imperial Guards stand watch inside and outside the palace. The faded murals of all gods on the temple's mottled wall slabs still remain, engraved with eagle, serpent, and jaguar reliefs, indicative of the sacredness from millennia ago.
The prominent feature of the Olc spirit murals is the very abstract spirit faces and extrely complex spirit decorations. The decorative runes surrounding the spirits are like layers of overlapping petals, each petal blooming with various abstract patterns: simplified divine symbols representing heaven, cloud, wind, thunder, fire, mountain—all that in nature manifests divine power; also lifelike symbols, including eagle, serpent, wolf, monkey, bird, jaguar, and human face, representing the life created by the spirits…
"Your Highness, look at this half-human, half-jaguar-headed spirit carving, that's the 'Heavenly Divine' earliest worshipped in this ancient city! And you see the decorations on this carving—the everlasting jade mask, the turquoise wisdom necklace, the obsidian sun-viewing mirror, and the dark green stone death axe—all indicating the reverence for the Heavenly Divine!"
Old Witch Doctor Kani's white eyebrows quivered, his face filled with a leisurely yet solemn smile. As a local sage versed in ancient Jiao culture, he observed the prince's expression and suggested an imitation of the Heavenly Divine.
"Your Highness, as the earthly incarnation of the Heavenly Divine, when eting with these jungle chieftains, you can don the Heavenly Divine's attire: wear the jaguar head bone helt, jade mask, turquoise necklace, then hang the obsidian mirror, and hold a dark green stone axe! Thus, you would resemble the ancient deity stepping out of the murals, full of divine majesty, surely able to let all the chieftains yield in reverence…"
"Sage Kani, you must understand, this is the old Heavenly Divine of the Olc Jiao people, but not the Heavenly Divine in our xica vision... and certainly not the supre Chief Divine of the xica! We resurrect the Olc Holy City to establish the majesty of the Chief Divine, establish a common ancestor for all tribes, not for the long-dead Olcs…"
"Therefore, I will not change my attire! I will still wear a tricolor feather crown, obsidian necklace around my neck, hold the erald divine staff, and dress in xica Supre High Priest ceremonial attire… What you need to do is to align the old Olc Jiao traditions with the needs of the kingdom and the alliance!"
Upon hearing Kani's suggestion, Xiulote raised his eyebrows and solemnly shook his head. His aning was clear, whether it be ancient mythology, history, or spirits, it all needs to comply with this era and the needs of the kingdom… It must be 'Heavenly Divine imbued in ,' rather than 'I imbued in Heavenly Divine.'
"Chief Divine Witness! Sage Kani, what you must do is to rebuild the ancient Jiao rites and arrange an 'ancient' audience ceremony! You need to establish ancient sacred rituals according to the tribes' myths, and, in the na of compliance with ancestral rituals and adherence to sacred traditions, make the chieftains truly bow their heads! Their submission must not only manifest in the ceremony visible to all but also be ingrained in their hearts with the minimal binding force!…"
"Ah! Rebuilding the ancient Jiao rites? Bowing, submission, and constraint?... Hmm, I see!… Praise you, Prince of Divine Revelation, I understand your aning!…"
Thus, as the night fully enveloped, the chieftains passed through the corridor of torch-bearing warriors and arrived at the great hall amidst bonfires and shadows. They imdiately beheld the towering statue of the Chief Divine on the divine platform, and there beside the statue was the Death God's prince in xica ceremonial attire. Xiulote donned the feather crown, gripped the divine staff, seated on a stone Throne of the Gods, elevated above all others. He gazed expressionlessly at the chieftains below, nodding slightly. Upon witnessing his icy and rciless gaze and recalling the divine legend of the God of Death, many jungle tribe chieftains bowed their heads in awe.
"Chief Divine's protection! Alliance of tribes! Performing ancestral Jiao rites!…"
Soon, the chieftains were led by the Warriors of the Kingdom to the high divine platform of the Chief Divine. Symtrically on either side of the platform were two dark green stone ancient fire pots. These fire pots bore very ancient engravings, clearly Olc era ceremonial artifacts. Within the pots burned orange-red flas, coupled with a hint of death-symbolizing pale blue. And in the center of the blue-red fire pots, a large gold magic artifact symbolic of the xica Chief Divine stood, yet it was a bronze cauldron forged by the Kingdom of the Lake, unprecedented in Central Arica!
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