Yama Rising

After a brief silence, Tezcatlipoca continued, "The Fifth Sun did exist, but even if you read through all of the legends on the new continent, you wouldn't be able to find out what happened during that era. That's because..."

A wry smile appeared on his face as he continued, "There is no sun god in the Fifth Sun. At the top of Aconcagua is a set of ancient ruins. If you perform a certain ancient ritual at the right time, there will appear a staircase that leads up to the sky. That is the divine nation of the new continent, the divine palace of San Juan Teotihuacán. The Fifth Sun is a new beginning, and also the final conclusion. The first sun god election was held there."

He paused momentarily as he heaved a faint sigh, then turned to Qin Ye as he continued, "This is the biggest secret on the entire new continent, and it's directly related to what you're trying to do. I can help you achieve your objective in exchange for your mercy."

Qin Ye flicked his wrist, and his beaded bracelet fell into his grasp. He gently massaged the bracelet as his black hair rose up around him amid the gusts of Yin wind like the wings of a crow, and only after a long while did he ask, "What am I trying to do?"

Tezcatlipoca licked his own lips before replying in a confident voice, "You're trying to intercept the Freemasonry's grand script of death!"

"Oh? Is that right?" Qin Ye asked in an ambiguous manner.

"Otherwise, there's no way to explain why you would want to know the most confidential secrets of the new continent's main religions!" Tezcatlipoca said in an assured voice. "All grand scripts of death are directly related to the myths and legends of the place where the script is unfolding. In order to create a religion from nothing, centuries are required, and it's far simpler to isolate a certain god in history before bringing their legend into the mortal realm. What they've done is take the ambiguous and broken records from history to fabricate a counterfeit god and forge a legend related to this god. After that, they're going to create divine miracles in order to win followers. At the conclusion of their preparation, they're going to release an official announcement in the mortal realm, stating that after extensive research, so-and-so has been determined to be the true death god of a certain religion, and that death god is given proselytization rights. This is the whole process. During this process, if one is familiar with the most obscure secrets of a religion, then they'll be able to trace all of the legends that have been created back to the grand script of death, allowing one to even predict the final outcome of the script. That would give you everything you need to intercept the grand script of death, would it not?"

Qin Ye smiled as he asked, "Why can't it just be out of pure curiosity?"

Tezcatlipoca chuckled in response. "No Yama-King from the Cathayan Underworld would be bored enough to come all the way to the new continent just to listen to its myths and legends. On top of that, with the vast knowledge that the Cathayan Underworld has accrued during its long existence, there would be no need for me to recount the history of my religion. That would be an insult to the four pillars."

Well, please accept my sincerest apologies and feel free to insult me to your heart's content, I really am just that ignorant!

Qin Ye cleared his throat in response, not denying this notion nor choosing to confirm it. In reality, Tezcatlipoca was only partially right.

He did indeed want to intercept the grand script of death. He was well aware of just how massive the gap between a nascent Yama-King and an advanced Yama-King was, and perhaps intercepting the grand script of death would allow him to take another important step in his cultivation.

However, this was going to be very dangerous.

The new continent wasn't some tiny place like Daehan, it was the joint name for the two massive continents of Northern Usonia and Southern Usonia! Many years ago, Christopher Columbus discovered a brand new continent during a voyage and named it the new continent. These two continents made up a third of the entire world's landmass, housing many religions and Yama-Kings, all of which were extremely belligerent, and a single misstep could spell death!

Hence, he was only planning to listen to some details. As for whether he was going to actually execute the interception, that would depend on the situation unfolding in the future. After obtaining Xu Fu's notes, he had already alerted the opposition, so in the future, their defenses were only going to be tighter than before. As such, his chances of intercepting the grand script of death were already very slim.

His true objective was actually to establish control over Tezcatlipoca!

There was a collaborative relationship between him and the Plumed Serpent God, but that was a collaboration between nation and nation, and he had to be wary of a potential betrayal in the future. In that case, what better trump card to have up his sleeve than Tezcatlipoca?

Regardless of which side betrayed him, he could immediately forge an alliance with the other side. Thus, he never planned to kill Tezcatlipoca from the very beginning. In his current state, all of Tezcatlipoca's important organs had already been removed from his body. If he didn't turn to the Cathayan Underworld for refuge, it would be very difficult just for him to survive in the future, and Qin Ye was certainly more than happy to take such a useful pawn under his wing.

"Continue," he instructed in an indifferent voice.

Tezcatlipoca did as he was told. "There are records of this in human literature: during the divine conference in the divine palace of San Juan Teotihuacán, Nanauatzin and Tecuciztecatl leaped into a fire together, following which they became the powerful sun god, Tonatiuh..."

He paused here momentarily before continuing, "This is incorrect. In reality, we didn't allow any god to adopt the position of sun god. Thus, we created an artificial god, which was Tonatiuh! He possesses divinity and divine duty, but no consciousness. This was a situation that all of us gods could accept. However, in order to make Tonatiuh into the sun, he needed the hearts of all of the gods. The four sun gods were responsible for harvesting the hearts from their respective cohorts of gods. I recall that at the time, Xolotl didn't want to die for the new sun and refused to give up his heart, so he ran away. After that, all of the gods who gave up their hearts perished, and Xolotl was so saddened by this that he bawled out one of his eyeballs. That was how the Eye of the Night Star at Xolotl's Screen came into existence, it's a true eyeball of his. You must be wondering how we can be resurrected after our deaths, right? In reality, we don't actually die. Instead, we return to the embrace of our parent god instead of entering the underworld ruled over by Mictlantecutli. Our parent god would reform our bodies and we would return to our original state. Unfortunately for Xolotl, he was too scared to sacrifice himself, so his eyeball was unable to return to his body, and he lost his chance to become whole again."

Qin Ye raised a hand as he interjected, "This doesn't seem to have anything to do with the grand script of death."

Tezcatlipoca licked his own lips as he replied, "That's only the background information to set the scene, this is where the story truly begins! Tonatiuh rose up into the sky and acted as the sun for a year. Everything was very normal, and at that point, our parent god decided that the fifth sun was already stable and began to reform our bodies inside the divine nation above Aconcagua. Our bodies and souls were transferred into a massive statue, and as the first sun, I was placed at the foot of the staircase to the divine nation above Aconcagua to guard the entrance."

The netherfire in his eyes slowly began to take on a red hue as he continued, "However, no one could've anticipated that the fifth sun would suddenly explode after operating for 10 years! No one knew the reason behind this. The entire new continent was plunged into darkness for five days, and even our parent god was caught in the explosion. Tonatiuh was a culmination of all of the gods' powers, and his divine power was immense beyond imagination. Thus, our esteemed parent god fell into an eternal slumber, and our bodies were being reformed at the time, so we naturally fell into a slumber as well. That was a very intriguing state to be in. My soul could hear and sense everything in the outside world, and I could even travel across the entire new continent in a day, but I couldn't move and was completely defenseless."

A grim look appeared on Qin Ye's face upon hearing this. He finally understood how Tezcatlipoca had been captured.

As if to confirm Qin Ye's suspicions, Tezcatlipoca continued, "Of course, all of them were safe in the divine nation, while I was the only one who was vulnerable as I was guarding the entrance above Aconcagua. There was also the Plumed Serpent God, who was banished from the new continent after the Second Sun. Do you know what this entails?"

A cold look appeared in Qin Ye's eyes as he replied, "It entails that if someone finds your statue, they would have essentially captured the sun god and you would be completely vulnerable and at their mercy. As a result, you fell into the hands of the Freemasonry, is that correct?"

Tezcatlipoca nodded in response with a forced smile.

Qin Ye was silent for a few seconds upon hearing this. He suddenly thought of something that sent chills running down his spine.

The Freemasonry and the three death gods of the Caribbean were planning to use Tezcatlipoca's body and power to create a new death god, but how had they become aware of such a closely guarded secret?

How did they know that Aconcagua would lead to the divine nation of the Aztecs?

How did they know that a statue, covered in several hundred years of snow and ice, was hiding the final god remaining in the new continent of the mortal realm?

There was only one possible answer: someone had tipped them off.

Xolotl could be eliminated from the list of potential candidates. He definitely didn't want to see a new foe arise to challenge him for power over the new continent following the demise of Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa. Even if he wanted to do this, he would've done so himself rather than recruiting the assistance of the Freemasonry, and he definitely wouldn't have leaked this secret. However, he didn't do this and that was most likely because there was an extremely powerful seal on the statue that he wasn't confident in being able to undo. That was something that Qin Ye was going to consider later.

The main question he was considering now was the identity of the informant.

He stroked his own chin in a contemplative manner.

Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa could be eliminated from the list as well. If they had known that Tezcatlipoca was here, they would've definitely already devoured him. As for Supay and Ah Puch, they weren't even death gods of the Aztec religion. Instead, they were the death gods of the Mayans and the Incas, so there was no way they would know about the secret of Aconcagua...

A cold smile appeared on his face as the answer rose to the surface. Following the process of elimination, there was only one final candidate: the Plumed Serpent God!

He was the only Aztec god who knew of the location of the divine nation and had an incentive to do this.

Qin Ye clicked his own tongue as he murmured to himself, "I really didn't think that he would be doing something like this. What a cruel, cruel man he is, he's certainly far more cruel than he lets on. No wonder he hasn't been in a hurry to seek me out even though he's only just partially detached himself from the Heavenly Dao."

He turned to Tezcatlipoca as he continued, "It turns out that he's too busy trying to kill his own brother once and for all..."

On the international political stage, everyone was wearing a facade, but never did Qin Ye think that the Plumed Serpent God's facade would be hiding such a sinister and terrifying persona.

This further strengthened Qin Ye's resolve to spare Tezcatlipoca's life.

He needed someone capable of countering the Plumed Serpent God on the new continent, and what better figure to use to counter the second sun than the first sun? Seeing as the new continent was going to descend into chaos, then why not stoke the flames a little?

After a long silence, Qin Ye's brows suddenly furrowed slightly as a thought occurred to him. "Hold on, if they're planning to use your body as part of their grand script of death, then the hype that they were building up in the early stages of the script would be focused on you. As a result, the power of worship from the followers of the Slumber of the Sea and the Stars would be instilled into you. In that case, there's no way that you wouldn't have recovered even a little from your injuries! Also, I was considering this before: if the Plumed Serpent God wanted to kill you, why hasn't he already done so? Why did he disclose all of this information to the Freemasonry to kill you through them instead?"

He slowly strode over to Tezcatlipoca as he spoke. "Is it because of an extremely powerful restriction? Are you being protected by something, or are you hiding something from me?"

Tezcatlipoca looked straight into his eyes, and after several seconds of silence, he finally replied, "That's not important. All of the conditions I stated prior to this were building up to the final step. Only at this point in the story are we reaching the true climax. The grand script of death isn't finished, and the insanity of the new continent religions in ancient times is definitely beyond your wildest imaginations. I guarantee you that this will be far more impactful than any secret you've ever heard about the religions on the new continent!"