August drew to its end, and the heavy rains of the rainy season gradually eased. In the Temple of Hidden Snake City, the compilation of the epic had already entered its proper course, and the many Coastal Priests' discussions were extraordinarily heated.
As the one who controlled Hidden Snake City, however, the Black Wolf, Toltec, had none of that patience to sit in the Temple listening to the Priests' cloud-wreathed, fog-shrouded rambling. As soon as the rain lessened a little, he slung his longsword across his back, took several hundred Red-hair Tribe personal guards, and rushed east out of the city.
"The Main God bears witness! This tattered, broken-down place is Hidden Snake City's Shipyard? Those big Maya ships you built before—don't tell me they came out of this wreck of a place?..."
The Black Wolf led his personal guards across the Hidden Snake River by boat. The group hurried all the way, traveling several li upstream before arriving at the mouth of a river bend. The waters in this bend were gentle, and many villages could clearly be seen around it, able to provide labor and grain.
Below a small hill in the middle of the bend stood a broad sprawl of thatched huts, stone houses, wooden frames, and timber poles—this was Hidden Snake City's Shipyard. Over a hundred damp logs were piled on the riverside mudflats, visibly mildewed in the rainy season. As the group drew closer, the wooden machinery and buildings in the Shipyard showed marks of axe cuts and Stone Hammer blows, and even charred black traces where a great fire had burned through. The whole crude, dilapidated Shipyard was utterly empty; even the flocks of crows were too lazy to land, making it look like an abandoned ruin.
"Chuchut, I'm asking you a question! How