Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!-Chapter 1782 - 1276: Awakening, Mysterious Prayers!

"He wants half? He hasn't done anything, and he wants half of the Canine Barbarians?... This was my strategy, it was I who sent the envoy to contact the Red Crow, it was I who finalized the agreement!... Black Wolf just asks for half?!"

The swift boat carried the letter from the Maya Coast where Black Wolf was campaigning back to the Seaside Alliance of the Totonac. More than twenty days had passed, and it was already the end of May. When Miyava, draped in a white robe, lazily lay on a bamboo mat and opened the letter, the bold reply of four large characters leapt into view, leaving her both shocked and furious.

"Serpent Mother... besides this letter, Black Wolf Marshal also sacrificed the noble lady of the tribe you sent to him... right in front of the legion, offering her to the Chief Divine by drowning her in the lake!"

"What?! I painstakingly trained her for so long and sent such a beauty over a thousand miles to him... He actually sacrificed her in the lake! Damn it! That fierce and stubborn Black Wolf, that wolf who only knows how to kill!"

Miyava sprang up in shock, displaying surprising flexibility, like a beautiful king cobra. She clenched the reply in her hand, gritting her teeth in hatred, her eyes flashing with dangerous light, like a short-tailed cat ready to bite. Yet behind this fury lay a faint fear as she recalled the Black Wolf's vanguard that breached Golden Bay City. Whether she was a serpent or a cat, facing such an uncompromising beast, she was ultimately helpless.

"Alas! For the sake of His Highness... send one thousand of the first batch of two thousand Barbarian Tribe members just exchanged to the Maya Coast, accompanying the supply fleet as well!"

After a while, Miyava reluctantly gave the order, waving her confidant away in frustration. She returned to her bamboo mat, clutching a small wooden carving of a person, and whispered resentfully.

"You heartless one! You ruthless man! I painstakingly managed the Seaside Alliance for you, plotting for Silver Raven's succession, and even connected with the Red Crow for you... I also bore you a wise and noble daughter! Yet you still don't trust me!"

"Damn it! Those low-born commoner generals, you can grant them the title of Great Chief, some governor, to fully control the military and political affairs of a region... But when it comes to me, you set up such a prison! What is this 'one commander, three councils'? Bertaude oversees the Eastern Sea, Chief Priest Yitai handles religious affairs, Black Wolf commands the army and naval forces... And I, your woman who loves you most, am bound hand and foot to deal with governmental affairs, only having some useless tribal militia at my disposal!"

"Oh, Ancestor's Serpent Mother! I worked hard to establish contact with the Red Crow, communicated to you... yet you instructed me to follow the Seaside decision-making system, and I must first obtain Bertaude's approval, as well as the suggestions and agreement of the Chief Priest and Black Wolf... In the end, one wants me to keep the food supply stable, another wants to establish a direct priest within the exchanged Barbarian Tribe, and the last one just opens his mouth wide to take half of the people! It's driving me mad!"

As she spoke, Miyava's eyes were reddened with anger, even tearing up in rage. In truth, the purpose of her direct communication to Xiulote wasn't really about exchanging Barbarian Tribe members, but rather to bypass the current Seaside power constraints and directly gain permission from Xiulote to handle various affairs. Once such a precedent was set, Xiulote, being absent from the Seaside, wouldn't be able to constantly supervise everything… She would then gradually leverage the man's name to extend her influence everywhere, grasping real, more substantial power and strength!

However, Xiulote's return letter lacked any form of permission or denial, strictly admonishing her to always return the decision-making power to the Seaside "Council of Four." This was a clear warning signal forbidding her from overstepping her bounds!

Being subject to the "Council of Four" in all matters, with Bertaude having the supreme veto power, even if she did establish some kind of Canine Battle Group or Barbarian Escort with the exchanged Barbarian Tribe, she feared her influence and control would not be significant...

"Damn it! Crush you! Crush you!... Crush you, you heartless man! Not giving me even a bit of freedom to operate! ... Ah! Do you so enjoy binding my hands and feet, shackling my body, and ravaging me to your heart's content?"

Miyava's eyes were red, her neck slightly flushed. She tightly gripped the small wooden carving of Xiulote's face, wishing she could bite it twice and snap the neck. As she caressed the rough face of the carving, her breathing quickened, her eyes moistening. Finally, unable to help herself, she issued a threat, yowling defiantly at the carving like a wildcat.

"Aha! Now, I hold you in my grasp! Not only will I crush you tightly... I will even devour you wholly! Aha!!"

With a sharp declaration, the carving of Xiulote vanished. On the bamboo mat, only the Serpent Woman's gleeful, triumphant laughter remained, resounding high above... 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"Hmm!"

Nearly a thousand miles away, Xiulote suddenly awoke, as if hearing some sound. He calmly rose, donned a clean, solemn black ceremonial dress, adjusted the feather crown towering half a meter high before slinging on a bamboo basket containing divination tools, and walked out of his tent slowly.

The Mistec people's Cloud Mountain City and Cloud Altar were only a few miles south. One stood on a terrace halfway up the mountain, while the other majestically occupied a higher mountain top, jointly controlling an area of over a dozen square kilometers surrounding them. This area was also the last piece of territory held by the Mistec people in the entire Cloud Mountain City Valley.

Further south, the valleys behind Cloud Mountain City had already been swept clean by the surging Mexica army. With thirty thousand troops overseeing them, tens of thousands of captured tribal able-bodied men worked day and night, roughly excavating two trenches to encircle Cloud Mountain City and Cloud Altar separately. The Mistec defending army in the city had attempted to raid but after two attempts and suffering hundreds of losses, they remained motionless.

Looking ahead, atop Cloud Mountain City, over a thousand Mistec warriors and militia were gathered, shouting curses beyond the city, continuing for days, with their morale seemingly intact. The fences below were broken, and the pits and bamboo stakes filled in, leaving the last terrain advantage of the Terrace City. Lying densely across the plateau of Cloud Mountain, thousands of corpses rested there, some whitened with lime, others blackened by smoke, some with feathered arrows through their necks, others heads crushed by falling stones...

Among these bodies, the vast majority were able-bodied men seized by the Alliance and driven to assault the city, interspersed with several hundred Mexica legion warriors. The outcome of the final assault was like the bodies strewn across the plateau, with the meager losses from the city attesting to the folly of the strong attacks...

"Chief Divine bless them! May their souls ascend to the Divine Kingdom, whether they are the Cloud People of the Mistec or the Warriors of the Mexica."

Xiulote observed for a moment, then bowed his head in a sincere prayer, guiding the wandering souls of the deceased towards the sky.

Currently, the eastern route army of the Southern Expedition had completely severed the connections between Cloud Mountain City and the surrounding areas, even capturing the northern half of the southeast valley path communicating with the Zapotecs. Aweit had intentionally split off a legion to establish an encampment at the valley entrance, confronting the Zapotec reinforcements from the southeast to avoid unnecessary skirmishes. What remained was to intensify the siege of Cloud Mountain City. However, such a formidable Terrace City, cultivated as the ancestral land of the Mistec people for hundreds of years, could not be easily taken by force. Even with the aid of cannons, their efficacy proved limited...

"The cost of a forcible assault on the Terrace City, the casualties among tens of thousands in a siege, is something the Alliance cannot bear, leaving starving them out as the only option... The damp rainy season is approaching, and this protracted siege, who knows how long it will last... Can the resolve of the Mistec people be as resilient as that of the Tlaxcalans?"

Xiulote had no answer to this question. In a battlefield of tens of thousands, bolstered by treacherous terrain, individual bravery or wisdom often changes little. What the army could do was continue the siege! Continue until the rainy season came and went, until the Mistec ran out of food, until they surrendered, until the Terrace City fell completely!

"The Chief Divine bear witness! May is about to end... To maintain the legion's morale, every Chief Divine Day of the month, I must preside over a sacrificial rite with prisoners to invigorate the whole army!"

Thinking of this, Xiulote shook his head slightly. He glanced at his clean hands, understanding more of his grandfather's feelings. Then, looking at the hill where the altar was, where he presided over the rites, his gaze suddenly sharpened.

"Huh! Who are those people?"

On the hill's altar, the mysterious Eight Trigrams flag, alongside the traditional Chief Divine flag, flapped fiercely in the breeze. Around the altar, nobles and warriors knelt, muttering prayers of some sort. The familiar whispers floated over, startling Xiulote with their inexplicable sounds...

"Hmm? It's not time for a sacrificial rite yet! Those praying, whom they knelt towards... it appears to be directed at the Eight Trigrams flag? Some even seem to be facing this direction… are they directing their prayers at me?!"

Xiulote observed for a moment, his gaze shifted, seemingly comprehending something.