Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!

The blood-red sun rises, flames, blood, sacrifices, and people are all gathered in the ancient wilderness. The blood-red sun sets, and there are more sacrifices, but fewer people in the crowd. Blood stains the ground, and Xiulote’s hands are also stained with blood. Further onwards, there are burial mounds at the northern mountain edge of Silver Peak City, and the heads of the Divine Descendants hang from the southern city walls, with many tribes bearing the emblem of the Hummingbird, crouching and weeping bitterly.

The old Zapotec era has gone, never to return; the dawn of the Hummingbird is a blaze of fire and red. Then, the alliance’s great army continues southward, arriving in a day at Monte Albán, the ancient sanctuary of the Zapotec people for two thousand years.

"Oh Chief Divine! A four hundred meter high mound stands on the highland. The entire mountain top is flat, built with pyramid temples several meters high... Is this the Alban Holy Mountain? A hiss! Such terrain is indeed similar to White Snake Hill City and Cloud Serpent Mountain City!..."

"Yes, Xiulote, Alban Holy Mountain is indeed steep. In the Zapotec’s Classical Period a thousand years ago, this Divine Mountain itself was practically an indomitable fortress! And when the Classical Period declined, this Holy Mountain gradually fell, transforming from a mountain-top city-state into a shrine of the Pseudo-God Cocijo, though on normal days its size is only around a thousand people. Currently, only a hundred or so of the priesthood and temple guards remain here. It’s likely that those cowardly Sacrificial Elders have all fled deep into the valley..."

"May the Chief Divine protect! If the Zapotecs really built a stone fortress here and stationed a thousand samurais, it wouldn’t be easy to conquer!"

"Haha! These Zapotec City-States are each fighting their own battles, and no city-state will send its last samurais to defend this Holy Mountain. Moreover, the sacrificial priesthood of the shrine doesn’t have the determination to resist... Hmm, some old priests stayed behind?"

Two kings stand beneath the Alban Holy Mountain, together holding Divine Eye Glasses, gazing up at the peak of the Holy Mountain.

The sun has not yet risen to the mountain top, and the pyramid group of Alban Mountain is shrouded in a golden mist, towering over the high summit platform. This mountain summit platform is roughly half a square kilometer, with a temple square 300m long and 200m wide at its center.

Then, on the northern side of the square are the ancestor spirit altar and tombs. The southern side features several meters high pyramid temples of All Gods, exceptionally grand. Among them, the tallest and largest temple undoubtedly enshrines the Zapotec’s Chief Divine, the Rain God Cocijo.

As for the western side of the square, there is an astronomical observatory corresponding with the celestial stars, with at least a dozen locations. This is the most common structure in ancient shrines, also appearing in Maya city-states.

Further outward, there are many red brick dwellings and palaces, as well as reservoirs and drainage channels, although many are clearly abandoned, showing signs of collapse. The most baffling aspect is the absence of defensive stone walls around the towering pyramid group and instead, broad stone paths leading up from the north and south for easier ascent.

Xiulote squints his eyes, observing carefully for a long time. From his decades of military experience, he can instantly recognize the immense military value of this Holy Mountain itself! It’s akin to a permanent Ping Shan City fortress, and the Zapotecs dug extensively, even creating a reservoir and water channels on the summit. However, such a steep terrain currently lacks any military reinforcements or sufficient defensive forces.

There’s only one explanation for such circumstances: that is, in the past two thousand years, as the supreme religious and cultural sanctuary of the Zapotecs, this Alban Mountain Pyramid Temple has never experienced the flames of war and thus had no need for defense!

"Woo! Woo!..."

The low horn sounds beneath the flag of the Divine King. Over a thousand alliance warriors climb along the broad mountain path toward the four hundred meter summit. From this angle, the majestic pyramid on the mountain top appears as a dwelling place for divine spirits, so solemn and grand, not to be infringed upon in the slightest.

In fact, this Alban Mountain Pyramid is indeed the most magnificent pyramid in the realm of Central America! It covers the largest area, between sixty to a hundred thousand square meters. Although its height is only a little over twenty meters, standing on the four hundred meter high mountain, it overlooks the entire Tlacolula Valley! And to construct this pyramid, the ancient Zapotec tribes worked tirelessly, like ants, leveling even the mountain top, possibly building it over several centuries!

"You have arrived, but this Holy Mountain has existed a thousand years before you!"

As the alliance warriors ascend the four hundred meter mountain path, attacking the majestic pyramid at the summit, the besieged Holy Mountain Priests begin their final sacrifice. They raise their obsidian daggers and present an obsidian bowl filled with corn kernels and rainwater, inserted with a bundle of withered yellow corn leaves and a late-blooming Twenty Flowers Gold Cup. These are symbols of death, offered to the Rain God Cocijo, right on the Rain God’s altar.

"Guirá Cocijo, guendaui yaa, Becha bido naa, nisa chi guendaui, Yaallá dani, guirá guirá!"

"Open your eyes! Master of wind and thunder, the husker of grains, the gatekeeper of the clouds, Rain God Cocijo! We Holy Mountain priests wish to offer blood and mist together to you. We sacrifice ourselves in hopes of your thunderbolt, to destroy the barbaric Aztecs!"

Dark green tides approach the summit, sparse stones and spears are thrown down from high above, occasionally claiming the lives of several alliance warriors. Under such advantageous terrain, even alliance warriors in heavy armor find it difficult to withstand the force of the throws.

Fortunately, there were only about a hundred defenders on this mountain. Their desperate resistance was not truly aimed at holding the Holy Mountain, but at buying time for the remaining twenty Holy Mountain Priests to complete the sacrifice of blood and mist, allowing their souls to soar to the Divine Kingdom of the Rain Divine.

"O Supreme Cocijo! Presently, blood and mist are offered to you together! We shall die upon your altar, please guide our souls..."

With this final pronouncement, twenty Holy Mountain Priests drank the rainwater from the Obsidian Bowl, chewed the flower of death, and stabbed themselves with the sacrificial Stone Dagger. Afterwards, their eyes widened suddenly, and they slowly collapsed at the heights of the pyramid, beneath them the Obsidian Bowl gradually filled with crimson, flowing down from the pyramid.

The lines of flowing red formed petals, visible from afar. Together, the twenty petals resembled the red Twenty Flowers Gold Cup, the red death flower.

"..."

At the foot of the Holy Mountain, Aweit and Xiulote simultaneously put down the Divine Eye Glasses. The two kings exchanged glances, both silent for a moment. Yet soon, cheers from the Alliance Warriors erupted from the summit of Alban Holy Mountain!

"The Chief Divine blesses! We have conquered Alban Holy Mountain! From today forth, this sacred mountain of Oaxaca belongs to the Chief Divine!..."

"The Chief Divine is watching over us! Quick, raise the Chief Divine’s flag, dedicate the Holy Mountain to the Chief Divine! He will surely be pleased and bless us!..."

Having seen the Holy Mountain Priests sacrifice themselves, the last dozen Temple Guards ended their lives using their Obsidian War Clubs. Alliance Warriors swarmed up, planting more than ten flags of the Hummingbird Chief Divine upon the Alban Mountain Pyramid, the Ancestor Spirit Altar, and the Observatory, upon the most ancient and sacred Holy Land of the Zapotec people!

"O Chief Divine! These Zapotec people, truly... meet their end facing the Divine Spirit..."

Xiulote sighed softly, his tone tinged with bitterness. Though lacking in martial power, these Zapotec people indeed held an innate resistance towards the Alliance’s faith and conquest.

The extremely conservative tribal characteristics formed by two thousand years of closed heritage would likely make spreading the Chief Divine’s teachings here incredibly challenging. As for how long it would take the Alliance to fully win the hearts of the Zapotec Tribes, no one knows how many years and much effort this would entail?

"Xiulote, do not worry. As long as we eliminate the godly descendants, priests, and nobility of the Zapotec people, their roots will be severed. The gap between their nobility and the lower class is even greater than that in Mixteco Tribes. It’s nothing more than spilling a bit more blood and sweeping the valley a bit cleaner!"

Aweit shook his head, showing confidence and indifference. Once again, he raised his head, gazing at the ancient stone steps of Mount Alban, gazing at the magnificent Holy Mountain pyramid, grander than any Pyramid Temple... The face of the Divine King gradually revealed a smile, a smile of conquest delight!

"Come! Xiulote, ascend the Holy Mountain with me!"

Aweit said thus, smiling from the heart, lifted the corners of his mouth, and beckoned to Xiulote.

"Let us tread upon the Zapotec Priests’ blood... go up and see! How does the Zapotec people’s Holy Temple, the Chief Divine’s new sanctum in Oaxaca, truly appear?!..."

"The Chief Divine blesses! I shall erect His divine image and emblem, offer prayers to the Chief Divine, and inscribe our names on the stone tablet of the epoch!"

"When we conquer all Zapotec Tribes, conquer the farthest Deer Mountain City... I shall return again, once more offer prayers to the Chief Divine! Report to him that I have accomplished my grand exploits in the Southern Expedition within the Cloud!..."

"Haha! Come! To the Alban Holy Mountain!..."

Xiulote nodded, and thus, the two kings, one after the other, set foot upon the stone steps of Alban Holy Mountain. Their figures grew ever smaller, until reaching the summit, transforming into indistinct ants. Turning to look back, what transformed into ants became the Alliance Warriors and the deceased multitudes at the mountain’s base.