"The Main God bears witness! I, Xolotl, entrust the governance of the Cuba Plague to her, and grant her the sacred surname 'Xiu,' which represents light—Xiu Caishan! And from this day forth, she will become a hereditary noble who passes down medicine. Governing the Plague will be her lifelong mission, ending only with death!"
Before the brazier in the great tent, Xolotl made the proclamation in a ringing voice, extending his large, callused hand and tightly gripping the medical woman Caishan's hair. Then he took out a small Obsidian knife, personally cut off a lock of her black hair, pricked his own little finger, and dripped his blood into a cup of wine.
"Ah! My lord?"
"Don't move! This is the Main God's sacrificial rite!"
Xolotl's expression was solemn. He gazed at the medical woman Caishan from Joseon as a god might gaze upon a sacrificer, and commanded her sternly.
"Drink this cup of Blood Wine! From now on, only by receiving my blood can you bear my surname! And only this way will the other nobles acknowledge you!"
"This? Yes! Yes, my lord. This lowly servant will do as you say!"
Under the incomparably envious gazes of Ao Bao and the guards, Caishan trembled with fear, her whole body shuddering, and picked up this cup of the "Lord Prophet's" Blood Wine. She drank it in quivering terror, as if drinking down some dreadful "witchcraft." In this moment, she could no longer understand at all where events were going, or what this blood-oath ritual meant. After all, a sacred and solemn sacrificial investiture was so strange and distant to a woman from East Asia, something that had long since vanished more than a thousand years ago!
"O supreme Main God! Please remember the smoke of her hair, remember her soul,