Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!-Chapter 1517 - 1062: The Submission of the Zoque Tribes, King of the Volcano!

"The Chief Divine guides your soul! Aayin, the Crocodile King, depart with dignity to the Divine Kingdom, and leave a dignified verse!"

"Ah! The gods bear witness! On this doomsday of the Era's end, the divine souls of the Moon Water Divine Descendants will ascend to the glorious Divine Realm along the eternal ceiba tree! And I will linger at the top of the Divine Tree, watching you, the minions of these volcanic Evil Gods, witnessing how you erupt like a volcano, veiling the sky, destroying one ancient Divine Descendant Clan after another... I will continue to watch you, see how the volcano falls silent, how you plunge into the sea, ultimately destroyed by the mighty force of all gods!... Oh, gods! I will wait for you, the fierce and ruthless Mexica, and, even more so, for you, the God of Death ruling over the volcano!..."

"Oh? The eruption and subsequent calm of the volcano indeed presents a majestic and destructive image! And this fierce sweeping aligns with the structure of the Lake Military State!... Good, very good! Aayin, you are a remarkable poet. If not born into the family of Divine Descendants, you could have written poetry for the Kingdom... What a pity!..."

The morning sun rises amid the Priest's hymns, slowly reaching mid-sky. The golden sunlight falls on the towering Olmec Pyramid. It illuminates the turquoise stones, the black and white ritual robes, and makes the gilded Obsidian Dagger shimmer. As the golden light flows in precise arcs, the blood-red safflower blooms on the Sacrificial Stone. It is the flower of life, departed, and the vibrant demise of the Divine Descendants in everyone's eyes.

At this moment, the towering pyramid falls silent, leaving only the gaze of the spectators and the fear and astonishment of the Jungle Soc Tribes leaders. As a Jungle Tribe, a tapestry woven from Maya and Highland cultures, the Soc Tribes naturally hold ancient traditions of human sacrifice. The chieftains and envoys of various tribes were long accustomed to the decay and crimson of sacrifice.

But! But this time! The Mexica sacrificed a truly noble and ancient Divine Descendant, the supreme leader of a large City-State! Just a month ago, the Divine Descendant Aayin sat high in his palace by the lake, ruling over more than a hundred thousand tribes. Named after the ancient Crocodile King, he continued the Moon Water Divine Descendants' centuries-long rule, firmly commanding two thousand City-State Warriors and several thousand able-bodied Militia!...

But in just one month, as absurd rumors suggest, the Mexica legion conquered the seaside City-States of the Red Lake Tribes in merely ten days! All the Divine Descendants, Priests, and chieftains were rounded up, sacrificed like weed-like ants to the Chief Divine of the Mexica!

A Divine Descendant Clan that ruled for centuries or millennia was uprooted so easily, like falling leaves, suddenly and utterly perishing! The City-States and villages, hereditary to the Divine Descendants, were carved up and occupied by warriors of the Totonac Tribes, becoming fiefs of various sizes...

"Oh heavens! This is the utter inversion of the ancient order, a volcanic extinction of apocalypse! Do the gods intend to destroy the world once more? Is the ancient Era to reincarnate anew?..."

Precisely because of such dreadful news, the Jungle Soc Tribes, numbering four to five hundred thousand, along with over a dozen large and small City-States, and dozens of large tribes with over a thousand people, finally in fear, sent envoys of nobility. They ultimately all complied with the summons of the Mexica, participating in the Olmec Ancient Holy City's New Year Festival, facing their uncertain fate with apprehension!

In the pre-disclosed procedure, this grand New Year Festival would also become a sacred ritual of conversion to the Chief Divine. All tribal envoys were required to participate in the Chief Divine's conversion, engraving the Emblem of the Chief Divine upon their foreheads! Those unwilling to participate were to be sacrificed on the spot, and even their tribes would face annihilation by the Kingdom's legion... Facing the fearsome might of the Mexica, they had no choice but to submit.

"Thud!..."

Soon, under the reverent gaze of numerous leaders and envoys, the hollow corpse of Aayin, the Crocodile King, tumbles from the high tower's summit, once again staining the ancient pyramid steps in red. The sound of this fall imprints itself within the minds of all present, much like the "gaze of the Divine." Yet, this grand conversion, the mental shock prepared by the Kingdom Priests, was far from over!

On the pyramid, Xiulote lowered his gaze, along with his bloodstained hands. He watched the vibrant flames of the Sacred Fire, watching the red turn to charred blackness. Suddenly, he remembered his grandfather, the High Priest, who often washed his hands, once again feeling the destined fate of his own blood. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"Witnessed by the Chief Divine! In the festival of the Kingdom's counties, the prohibition of human sacrifice has been made clear, replacing it with the three sacrifices of wolf, deer, and fish... But in this festival and council with the Jungle Tribes, I must adhere to their tradition of human sacrifice, personally sacrificing the revered Divine Descendant... only then can the festival truly possess divinity, truly be awe-inspiring!"

"If one day, I completely control all of Central America, integrating all tribes under the heavens, can the millennia-old tradition of human sacrifice gradually become history... Before that day arrives, how many more nobles must I sacrifice, how many Divine Descendants?... Or, perhaps, how many more Western colonizers must I personally sacrifice?..."

In a moment of reflection, Xiulote, with his bloodstained hands, once more raised high the Divine Staff and Dagger. He lifted his head, embracing the solar sky with his arms, and let out a roaring shout.

"Witnessed by the Heaven Fire of the Chief Divine! Witnessed by the Thunderbolt of the Chief Divine!... The Blood Oath of Conversion begins now!"

"Whoosh! Pow! Whoosh! Pow!..."

On the stone steps of the various pyramids, the kingdom's priests lit bamboo tubes, releasing fireworks of all colors. The fireworks exploded in the sky, like heavenly fire descending, once again causing the crowd to gasp, fear, and prostrate themselves. Meanwhile, at the base of the pyramid, ten golden copper cannons were ignited in succession, their barrels aimed at the sky, unleashing the roaring thunder!

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!..."

At this moment, the ultimate and mystical blood-soaked sensory feast finally reached its peak with the grand ceremony! The temple guards, clad in platinum armor, "guided" the leaders of the various chiefs towards the kingdom's priests, who had long been prepared.

A row of kingdom priests, standing before the burning flames, was ready with blood wine and stone daggers, wearing kind yet solemn smiles. Soon, they would introduce the belief in the Chief Divine for the first time into the inland jungle tribes, deeply imprinting it on the foreheads of these noble tribe members!...

"Praise the Chief Divine! He is supreme and great, reigning over the coast and rivers, controlling the land and jungle! In one hand, He holds the burning heavenly fire, in the other, the majestic thunderbolt... He casts down his blood-red gaze, watching over the jungle tribes!... He says, those who believe in me shall live, those who do not shall die!!..."

"Come, drink the blood wine, and recite with me! I pledge my faith in Huitzilopochtli, and I shall lead my tribe to convert to the supreme new Chief Divine, following His will and turning away from the feeble ancient gods..."

"Ah! I pledge my faith in Huitzilopochtli, and I shall lead my tribe to convert to the supreme Chief Divine!"

Burning hair turned into blue smoke, carrying the scorched smell of protein, drifting up to the top of the pyramid. As one of the Chief Divine's incarnations on earth, Xiulote gazed expressionlessly down at the blood oath and conversion below, as if observing a painting he had created himself.

He watched the newly elevated Totonac priests converting the chiefs of the Totonac jungle tribes and the noble envoys of the Soc jungle tribes. He watched the moving obsidian daggers carving the dark red Hummingbird emblems and the indelible divine seals of the Chief Divine upon the foreheads of the leaders and envoys...

"The sun shines, the hummingbird flies far, heading towards the jungle to the East!... Beyond that lies the declining Central Maya, the Southern Maya in the towering mountains, and the Northern Maya in the lowland jungle!... I shall guide everyone, moving from north to south, from the Northern Coast to the inland jungle, and finally to the southern mountains..."

A moment later, Xiulote's mouth curled into a smile atop the pyramid, his heart flowing with an intense thrill and a cold determination. Because, under his personal witness, a newly-born bond, a bond of spirit and faith, had, for the first time, extended beyond the highland and seaside, penetrating the fearful and obedient Soc jungle tribes, reaching deep into the Maya cultural sphere.

And next, the integration of the Maya tribes will accompany the destruction and slaughter by the Black Wolf, extending along the coast all the way to the most prosperous Yucatan lowland Maya!

"May the Chief Divine protect! By converting the Soc jungle tribes, once the inland jungle and mountains are mostly stabilized, the focus will shift to missionary work and trade. Meanwhile, the Black Wolf's forces and the kingdom's legion will be freed to continue along the coast, bypassing the large shrimp lake, reaching the nomadic Putun barbarian tribe!..."

"And after subduing the Putun barbarian tribe, it will be the Campeche tribes, Canul Clan, Xiu Clan, Kapul Clan, Ekab Chiefdom... all the numerous lowland Maya clan nations! The Mexica's volcano will erupt, covering the sky and earth, surging eastward with deathly thunder and flame!..."

"The old and decaying Maya countries need repeated slaughter, destruction, and rebirth to completely break the traditions of the Divine Descendants that have lasted for thousands of years and gradually be assimilated by the Mexica tribes... Before this long-term goal, breaking through the Maya tribes' coast and connecting the rich Cuba Snake Island is a small goal that must be quickly accomplished!... And any clan daring to obstruct will become the military achievements of the kingdom's legion, the target of the army's destruction!..."

The scorching sun burned, and the Sacred Fire blazed fiercely. The priests praised the Chief Divine, and the chiefs of the tribes recited the divine name. Blood, flame, and blue smoke surrounded the base of the pyramid. And Xiulote stood atop the tower, like standing on blood clouds and volcanoes, gazing at the distant East. It was the Maya land he once knew, yet a frontier he had never reached. Who knows when or on what day he would once again ascend the future Chichen Itza, witnessing the Kukulkan Pyramid of a millennium ago.

"Praise the Chief Divine! I shall rule over the volcano, leading all tribes under heaven. I shall unify the tribes' faith, converging into the god-blessed Jiao People!... And I shall ultimately reach the tower top, under the certain protection of the Chief Divine, just like this moment, just like the destined future!"