Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!-Chapter 1696 - 1208: King Wen Composes the Zhou Yi in Captivity, Xiulote’s Yarrow Divination! (Part 2)

"The Sun of the Chief Divine watches over us! The Divine War of the Chief Divine is to conquer the Land Amidst the Clouds! All the nobility and samurai must fight for the Chief Divine, and after death, they will ascend to the Divine Kingdom! But those who dare fear and flee, unable to fight to the end, must face the judgment of the Chief Divine, seeking a slim chance of mercy from destined death!..."

God King Avit wore copper armor beneath his king's robe, standing impassively on the constructed Divine Platform. Three thousand Tonsured Guards, armored and spear-bearing, surrounded the outer area of the Divine Platform where the sacrificial rite was held. Meanwhile, hundreds of Mexican nobility and Warrior Camp Chiefs gathered solemnly under the Divine Platform, respectfully listening to the god king's command.

The eastern army was about to march southward again, along the narrow Cloud Valley, to assault the stronger and more perilous southern ancestral land of the Mistec, Cloud Mountain City, blessed by all gods. During these days before the expedition, the God King convened the generals, once again setting up this ritual for the gods... The generals immediately guessed the reason, their hearts turning cold, lowering their heads in awe.

"The Chief Divine bears witness! Bring forth those generals who failed in the siege!"

With a fierce command from God King Avit, a company of twenty Tonsured Guards, indifferent in expression, brought eight unarmed alliance military nobles up. Seeing the formation before the Divine Platform, these eight military nobles trembled, their faces showing evident shame and fear.

"Ah! Honored God King, please give us another chance to atone through merit..."

God King Avit waved a large hand, leaving no opportunity for these nobles to speak in defense. He turned authoritatively, looking towards Xiulote, who wore priestly garb and carried a basket of sunflower stalks, and instructed sternly.

"The Chief Divine judges all! Supreme High Priest Xiulote, conduct the Divination Deciding Cases, seek the Divine Will of the Chief Divine, and determine their life or death!..."

"As you command, God King!"

"May the Chief Divine protect us! Ignite the Divine Smoke and pray, may the Chief Divine behold what is seen!..."

Xiulote nodded respectfully, then solemnly ascended the nearby small divine platform. He first lit the Divine Smoke, praying to the Chief Divine. Then, he took out the meticulously painted, mysteriously intimidating "Tai Chi Two Aspects, Original Eight Trigrams, and Sixty-Four Hexagrams Map," displaying it high on the sacrificial platform for all the Mexican nobility to see.

"May the Chief Divine protect us! Grant me the Divine Map, to foreshadow human affairs with hexagram images!..."

Xiulote prayed a second time, then turned to glance at the eight pale-faced military nobles. He sighed inwardly, recognizing all eight; five were from various city-state armies, three from the royal legion, all generally considered valiant and capable alliance nobles.

However, Divine Stone City, as the northern ancestral land of the Mistec, was quite fortified, and the Cloud Divine Race within, along with the samurai, defended tenaciously, almost all fighting to the death. The alliance army besieged Divine Stone City for months, repeatedly attacking without success, losing over four thousand alliance warriors, with militia for filling the trenches countless! Not until the Kingdom's God of Thunder mortar cannon collapsed the walls, did Avit personally lead the Tonsured Guards to the front line, finally breaking the large city in one stroke!

And these eight military nobles, during previous assaults, led their respective troops to scale the walls, suffering heavy losses before ultimately faltering and retreating. God King Avit dispatched guards, detaining these defeated nobles until the next southward march, when he brought them all forth. Now, before the entire army, these nobles were to be sacrificed, ensuring that in the coming attack on Cloud Mountain City, all nobles and samurai would fight to their utmost, fighting to the death on the siege walls, not retreating an inch!

"Strive for the city through battle, filling the city with the slain! Completely annihilate the Cloud Divine Race, erase the ruling class of the Mistec and Zapotecs, whitening each faction to a blank slate, forcefully converting hundreds of thousands amid the clouds to the Chief Divine, and finally allowing the Mexican royal family and nobility to enter the Cloud Land... This time, the conquest war of the Land Amidst the Clouds is far more brutal and challenging than Avit's previous southward campaigns of subjugations and tributes, even harder than the Spaniards' conquests! If it weren't for the alliance's exceptionally strong military force, if it weren't for the God of Thunder mortar cannon breaching the city, this type of annihilation of nobles, centralized conversion, and conquest wouldn't even be conceivable!..."

Thinking of this, Xiulote lowered his eyes slightly, glancing at the two large burial mounds in the distance. He understood in his heart that the reason this southern war was fought so brutally was precisely because of the centralized ideology he imparted to Avit, showing the god king what a truly stable and enduring conquest looked like!

This conquest Divine War of the god king was not merely about making the opposing city-states pay tribute, surrender hostages and sacrifices, burn old temples and convert. It was about obliterating the ruling bodies and legal systems of the Divine Descendants, transforming all stubborn nobles and samurai into relics and corpses of the old age, and destroying the faith of the tribespeople at the bottom, rebranding them with the Chief Divine's mark! Only thus can a battle ensure long-term stability, enabling the Mexican nobility to migrate in and assimilate these long-inherited, conservative, and stubborn southern tribes...

"Sun Supreme God bless! Grant me kui grass, so I may divine and receive the will of the Sun Supreme God!"

Xiulote prayed three times, took down the basket from his back, and removed the 50 sunflower stems inside.

In Navajo, sunflowers that pursue the sun are called "Chilamacatl", regarded as "long grass of Sun Divinity". This herbaceous crop cultivated in Central America is still very small, similar to the milfoil grass used for divination in the Celestial Empire's Shang and Zhou periods. Their initial cultivation indeed carried significant religious symbolic meaning and was used in Aztec medicine for fever treatment, "absorbing excess solar heat." Undoubtedly, using this religious plant as a tool for divination can better express the sacredness of divination, "communicating with the Sun God"! 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"Take one, not use it, offer it to the Sun Supreme God! Hold it left for heaven, right for earth. Take one from earth, to verify human fate..."

Under the awe-filled gaze of hundreds of Mexica nobles, Xiulote chanted incomprehensible divine words, while manipulating the "kui grass". He first took out one to leave idle, then randomly divided the remaining 49 stems into two groups, held in both hands. Then, he drew one stem from the right hand, clamping it between the little finger and the ring finger, symbolizing human fate.

After this ritualistic act that appeared "divine", "high-end", and "deceptive", he paused slightly, considering he needed eight divinations, and decided to use a simplified milfoil divination.

"Eight stems... Eight stems..."

Xiulote counted the kui grass in his left hand with his right, taking out one stem each time he counted eight, leaving only three stems at the end. Then, he transferred this remainder of three stems to the right hand and merged it with the one clamped in his little finger, obtaining the divination result, "four".

"Sun Supreme God bless! The divination result is four! Zhen Gua!"

With a solemn expression, Xiulote held the four stems from the first divination, first showing them to the God King, then to the Mexica nobles. The God King nodded slightly, and many Mexica nobles gasped in shock. Everyone stared intently at the pattern and script on the "Eight Trigrams Divine Banner", seeing "four" correspond to "Zhen Gua", and behind it the etched traditional sacrificial graphic was an image of twisted lightning.

"The Sun of the Sun Supreme God delivers the divine will!"

On the Divine Platform, God King Avit waved his hand expressionlessly, and solemnly declared in a low voice.

"Someone! Execute the Thunder Punishment! Send him to the Divine Kingdom, purifying all sins, to forever enjoy the beauty of peace!"...

"Yes! God King!"

"Ah!..."

The first judged military noble was about thirty years old, adorned with splendid war clothes, visibly of hereditary noble descent. Seeing the result of the divination deciding cases, his complexion instantly turned pale, his knees weakened, causing him to kneel on the ground. Yet, as a devout Mexica noble, facing such a sacred and mysterious priest ritual, facing this solemnly divined "divine will", he felt completely devoid of resistance, even more submissive than when confronted with strict military law.

"Sun Supreme God! Will you use the sky's thunder to lead my spirit, to ascend to the realm of the Sun Supreme God? Praise be to my God... Vizilopo..."

At this moment, the middle-aged military noble merely knelt dazedly, muttering something under his breath, without any struggle, he was dragged by two Tonsured Guards to a Tiger Squat Cannon. Subsequently, many nobles bowed their heads in fear, hearing the "boom" of the cannon! The Thunder Punishment of the Sun Supreme God had descended, and no sound emanated from the execution site...