The vast sky light, the sun sets from the wilderness and rises from the highlands. The confrontations and sches of the various factions in the northeast of the world are hidden in endless swamps. anwhile, the Lake Capital City, at the center of the world, has just completed the grand ritual of the new year, thoroughly dyeing the sixty to seventy ters high Great Temple pyramid with the blood of the Mistec Divine Descendants.
Amid the cheers of hundreds of thousands of citizens in the capital, High Priest Uguel sat calmly, like a wooden carving or clay figure, high in the Great Temple. The elder priests of the three factions of the Chief Divine, War God, and Sun God were secretly contending with each other, with undercurrents surging beneath the pale red Lake Texcoco, with none gaining the upper hand.
In the Calcac University within the Lake Capital City, steles of the Book of Ama Colley and teachings were everywhere. Under the proposal of Xiulote and the orders of the God King, this alliance's priesthood university continually trained Chief God priests who were roughly literate and nurate. And Female Snake Gillim, temporarily managing the alliance's affairs, incorporated a large number of commoner priests into the War Priesthood, then dispatched them to transport logistics supplies to the three southern expeditionary armies of the alliance.
The purpose of the divine war's southern expedition against the Cloud People wasn't to subdue the Mistec and Zapotec people to obedience, but rather to sacrifice and destroy nations, convert them to new faiths, and thoroughly conquer by enfeoffing the royal bloodlines. The expeditions of the three armies t the desperate resistance of the Cloud People, resulting in brutally fierce battles, with not a single City-State of the Cloud Divine Descendants surrendering.
The upheaval of the tis had been incited by the xica's campaigns, with violent clashes impacting the entire world. Xiulote spread new ideas, rewarded commoner samurai for their military rits, and promoted talented low-level priests, constantly breaking the class barriers. Heroes of the era rushed forth and erged, marking the Great Struggle era of Central Arica's world!
Following the militia teams arduously transporting grain south, along the broadest valleys of the highlands, passing by the nearly abandoned Cholula Holy City, then southeast for three hundred miles, lay the main eastern force led by the God King, Mistec Alliance's Northern ancestral land, the Divine Stone City. This strategic highland Mistec town had now raised the banners of the Chief Divine and the Alliance. The marks of conquest on the city walls—slashes of knives, axe chisels, arrows embedded, stone bullets deeply lodged, even a collapsed segnt—silently narrated the recent bloody and brutal siege battle.
Not far east from the city walls of the Divine Stone City lie two newly dug mounds, faintly red. The large mound, massive in scale, could probably bury tens of thousands of people, yet was almost clean, with only a wooden emblem of the Chief Divine standing on top. The smaller mound, of probably thousands, had many wooden statues of deities, mostly in the image of the Chief Divine, and the Black Wolf of the God of Death next. Among the abstract and peculiar wood carvings were various xica-style wooden charms, bone charms, and even Obsidian ornants of the nobility and priests, commorating the esteed deceased.
The long wind blew by, carrying a faint scent of blood. The bones of the war dead were buried in the soil, while the sacrifices were exposed on the pyramid. A few miles away from the two mounds was the Mistec's Rain Divine Holy Land, the over thirty ters high Cloud Pyramid Temple!
At this mont, the Rain Divine statue of the Cloud Temple had already been toppled, with the new Chief Divine statue yet unfinished, and temporarily replaced by a golden emblem of the Chief Divine. From the topmost Temple downward, the entire pyramid glowed a deep dark red, awaiting the torrential rains of the rainy season to wash away all traces of the sacrifices.
In front of the Temple, at the highest point of the pyramid, several hundred skulls of the Cloud Divine Descendants were stacked as a grim display, shaking each Mistec tribesperson to their core. These were not ordinary tribespeople or samurai, but Cloud Divine Descendants, noble rulers for generations! Usually, one would have to kneel and worship upon encountering even a single one, yet now they all lay dead here, at the Rain God Temple that was supposed to bless the Divine Descendants...
War's blood and fire, sacrificial blood and skulls, seed to be the very undertone of the xica. Several miles north of the Cloud Temple lay the continuous camp of the xica's eastern army. Tens of thousands of samurai and even more militia spread over a camp stretching a dozen to twenty miles, with flags flying everywhere. From afar, it resembled a long-haired beast lying prone, having just feasted and preparing for its next "pounce."
At the most open center of the camp was the main tent of the xica God King, with a slightly smaller royal tent beside it. On the God King's main tent were erected a full four flags: the Chief God Banner with etched god images, the alliance banner encircled by a long snake, the Commander's Royal Banner of skull warriors, and the Divine Banner of blood and sun divinity.
On the sowhat smaller adjacent royal tent, there were only two flags: one of the Black Wolf God of Death with a blood tongue, and another extrely complex one, looking exceedingly divine and quite intimidating!
The center of that flag bore a mysterious black and white twin fish circle, followed by a first circle of eight incomprehensible divine and strange characters, and symbols of the eight directions. Then there was a second circle of traditional xica sacrificial pictograms, "Heaven Fire Thunder Earth Mountain Water Wind," which most of the nobility and priests could understand. The last was a densely packed third circle of tiny symbols, with a total of sixty-four, understood by none!
This peculiar and organized, mysterious, and seemingly profound flag, left the devout xica nobility shaken and reverent upon seeing it. Watching for too long could even induce dizziness, as if it possessed imnse mana capable of drawing one's spirit into the sky's Divine Kingdom! Even more terrifying is…
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