diymy Chapter 1389 - 944: Your Descendants Have Returned Again!
Chapter 1389 - 944: Your Descendants Have Returned Again!
The ancient Smoke God Mountain loomed majestically over the seaside under the moonlight, gradually receding southward. This extinct volcano, despite erupting only once in the distant myths of the seaside people, still holds a sacred and special place in their hearts.If the thousand-mile stretch of the seaside lands resembles a long water snake running from west to east, then the tail of the snake is the Feathered Serpent Ancient City. The head of the snake is the Hidden Serpent Holy City. And Smoke God Mountain is the slightly raised neck behind the snake head, guarding the most vital seven inches!
The Divine Descendant Priests in Hidden Serpent City realized early on the importance of this mountain’s location to the safety of Hidden Serpent Holy City. Thus, atop this dormant volcano, in addition to ancient altars and statues, there are also formidable stone forts and wooden stockades. At the foot of this Divine Mountain, there are stone-fort-like sacrificial altars and water villages. As for further west, the Lake Sacrifice City beneath the Great Lake and mountains serves as the outermost protection.
At the end of the last Era, four to five hundred years ago, during the Great Cold Era, which corresponds to the two Song periods of the Celestial Empire, Wilderness Tribes migrated south in large numbers, sparking waves of southern invasion! This terrifying migration wave, accompanied by brutal cold waves and famine, struck down the Toltec Empire of the Highland, and its aftershock reached the seaside lands, forming the Nava-Totonac Tribes.
Endless tribal slaughter, wave after wave of southern migration, endless blood and corpses, and ever-lacking food were the main themes of that time. And such a brutal Wilderness impact eventually halted at the foot of Smoke God Mountain, at the edge of Lake Sacrifice City, allowing the native priests of Hidden Serpent City to preserve the oldest Olmec legacy.
Then, the climate of the Wilderness gradually warmed, and the southward wave slowly subsided. The slaughter and bloodshed of the Wilderness Tribes gave way to intermarriage and proselytism among the tribes, eventually forming the East and West Totonac Tribes. Hidden Serpent City retained the remnants of Olmec civilization, integrating features of the Toltec and Maya civilizations, and thus became the only Holy City of the seaside in the East!
"In ancient myths, Smoke God Mountain was once the resting place of All Gods, always protecting the seaside tribes. And the Hidden Serpent City on the eastern side of the Divine Mountain was the center of the gods’ protection, the last Olmec legacy bearer! But this storm of impact is unlike any before! I have journeyed from the West and witnessed it all! Watching as it marks the end of the Sun, the tail end of an Era... In my view, even the sacred Smoke God Mountain can no longer protect them..."
"The Divine Descendants of Hidden Serpent Holy City are proud and confident. They firmly believe in their ancient divine heritage, as heirs to the Olmec gods! Here, High Priests also see themselves as the leaders of the seaside tribes, even looking down on the Feathered Serpent Ancient City in the west, considering us as the incompetent snake tail submitted to the Totonac and Mexica people... Haha! The snake head disdains the snake tail..."
On the Mayan oar-sail large ship, Papu Priest gazed solemnly towards the receding Divine Mountain and sighed. He narrated the ancient myths and then turned, looking at the slightly excited Tikalo. Then Papu Priest’s face blossomed with a sincere smile, standing shoulder to shoulder with the equally earnest Mayan merchant, as if they were intimate friends.
"May All God witness! So, the Divine Descendants and priests in Hidden Serpent Holy City are the most traditional and persistent. They cannot surrender to the Mexica Alliance on the Highland, their terms for autonomy are impossible for Death God Temple to agree to! What they demand is vast, and even with enemies at the gates, they hold onto unfeasible mythic fantasies, never letting go of any prestigious status... But I am different from them!..."
"Yes, honorable Papu Priest! You are like a water snake of the seaside, not soaring with feathers, yet still a fierce beast capable of hunting! And those Divine Descendants of the City-States are merely Chagel Birds with feathers, entranced by their former beauty... but if you cross the narrow channel at the entrance of the lagoon ahead, you can roam the vast sea freely!"
"Haha! Good, very good! May the Chief Divine bless! Tikalo, my ally! I have been thinking of journeying with you, heading for the vast Eastern Sea!"
"Yes! Yes! That’s exactly what I think too! Honorable Papu Priest, you are my ally, may the Chief Divine bless us!"
The night was falling, darkness enveloped the land, and clouds obscured the moonlight. On the coast, the tide slowly rose, devouring the gray and dark sands. Two months ago, this place was a cruel battlefield of water warfare. Now, on the coast, only a scattered few broken copper weapons remain, buried in the sand and mud, with some quickly decaying and others never decaying.
A Mayan oar-sail boat lay hidden in the offshore waters, and a single log war boat swiftly rowed to the shore, disembarking two men before departing again.
"Chief Divine bless! I finally stand once again on the Kingdom’s land!"
Mayan merchant Tikalo stepped onto the slippery beach, staggering slightly, before being stabilized by his sole remaining Mayan servant. He turned to look at the vast sea under the night, vaguely perceiving a figure standing at the boat’s bow. That figure waved and then, as the longship began rowing again, gradually disappeared into the dark East...
And when he rubbed his eyes and looked again, the sea was only filled with the undulating tide, everything vanished like a nightmare!
"Hahaha!... Hahaha!... Oh Heavenly Serpent Divine!... Ancestors!... Your descendant has returned!"
Tikalo stood by the sea, gazing blankly for a moment, then suddenly raised his hands high, laughing and shouting madly. His laughter echoed across the night sky, sounding like the mournful wails of an old fox, desolate, piercing, and urgent. After a long while, he ceased laughing, softly kneeling on the sand, pressing his forehead down heavily, leaving a long, perfect arc in the sand.
"Haha!... I have returned!"
"Master?... Will you leave?"
The Mayan servant hunched his back, waiting for a while before anxiously calling softly.
In the captured Mayan trading caravan, only he remained in the end, found by Papu Priest and handed over to Mayan merchant Tikalo. The others were either killed, sacrificed, or sent away to unknown labor as craftsmen or agricultural slaves.
Amid such chaotic war times, even noble Divine Descendants and priests could lose their heads and fall to dust, let alone someone as humble as him?
So he had no complaints, didn’t know what to complain about. He only knew that the only way to survive was to follow Master Tikalo and strive to regain the trading fleet’s ships!
"Haha! Go! Go! Let’s go now!"
Mayan merchant Tikalo laughed twice, wiping away the tears streaking across his face. Then he surveyed the desolate coastline, gazing toward the large fires to the south. That place was the location of Lake Sacrifice City, also the encampment of Black Wolf Torc.
"May Chief Divine witness! Light the torches! Light another, light two!"
"Ah?"
"I said, light the torches! Two!"
Mayan merchant Tikalo chuckled and gestured towards the faint fire in the woods. The flickering moving lights unmistakably belonged to the Kingdom’s patrolling sentries.
"May the Chief Divine bless! Let us return to the Kingdom openly, the more see us, the better!"
"Ah? Yes!... Master!"
The two torches blazed as they moved toward the fire in the woods. Soon, more lights were attracted, surrounding them. After a brief pause, a large array of flickering torches merged together, surging towards the depths of the sky beneath Lake Sacrifice City, as if entering a wolf pack’s lair.