1481

It was already mid-October in the blink of an eye, and the siege of Otopan had lasted for a month.

The long rainy season finally showed signs of departing, and long-missed clear sunlight returned to the sky.

During this time, Xolotl and Avet compiled nearly a thousand commonly used Chinese Characters and drew corresponding pictographs. At the same time, Xolotl taught these characters to the Samurai who followed him.

These characters began with objects from daily life. They were linked through their radicals, explaining one another's meanings, before gradually extending into basic abstract concepts. For example, the formal government office "Temple," built from "inch" and "earth"; then the concept of time, "hour," derived from studying the Sun, "day," within a Temple.

Then Xolotl had a flash of inspiration and pulled the Artisan over to make the simplest and clearest timekeeping device: a Sundial. He proudly showed it to Avet afterward.

Avet merely smiled and told him that the Maya ancestors had invented such a toy two thousand years ago. It was only because Xolotl had not undergone long-term formal Priest training that he still knew very little about astronomy.

"According to the calendar we learned from the Maya People, a year has eighteen months, each month has twenty days, and at the end of every year there are five unlucky days. Every four years, one additional unlucky day is added."

Three hundred sixty-five and a quarter days a year. Xolotl thought, I knew that much too.

What came next was something Xolotl did not know.

"The world was created by the gods, and the gods came from the night sky where the seven stars gathered, from a distant place whose home was unknown." As Avet spoke, he began to sing a ritual song.

"Twenty years make one katun, twenty katuns make one baktun, and after sixty-four and a half baktuns comes the end of all things' cycle, when the Sun God returns to the origin of the seven stars."

One era was 25,800 years? Xolotl calculated silently. Seven stars gathered? The Big Dipper? No, that could not be right. What the Maya observed should have been the Pleiades. The Sun God returning to the seven stars? The Sun took roughly 25,800 years to orbit the Pleiades once!

Xolotl could not help covering his forehead with one hand. A Civilization with such an advanced calendar did not even have writing—what kind of tech tree was that?

"The Sun was born and the Sun died; one cycle contained five eras. The First Era's protagonists were giants, who ate Acorns; it was the age of Four Jaguars. The Second Era belonged to humans, who ate Pine Nuts; it was the age of Four Winds. The Third Era belonged to humans, who ate lotus seeds; it was the age of Four Rains. The Fourth Era belonged to humans, who ate cattails; it was the age of Four Waters."

What was all this supposed to be? Xolotl rubbed his forehead as he listened to the lesson on astronomy and mythology.

"The fifth era is the present. Its protagonists are still humans, who eat Corn; it is the age of Four Movements. At the end of the era comes the return of all things to the void. The world is destroyed in earthquakes, living beings perish in floods, and the Sun God returns to the Divine Kingdom. That is the end of the world." Avet chanted solemnly and mysteriously.

"The end of the world?" For some reason, Xolotl found the phrase deeply familiar. "The Maya end of the world? 2012!"

Xolotl sprang up excitedly and seized Avet, who was immersed in mythological prophecy. "How many years are left until the end of the world?"

"Let me calculate. Don't worry, the end of the world is still far away." Avet smiled, slightly surprised by Xolotl's reaction. "There are still one baktun, six katuns, and eleven years until the end of the world."

Four hundred plus one hundred twenty plus eleven—five hundred thirty-one years? This year was 1481 AD!

Xolotl was so moved that tears nearly streamed down his face. At last, he knew the current year. His memories of history—of Europa Universalis—could finally connect with this age.

In 1481 AD, there were still eleven years until Columbus discovered the Americas, and thirty-eight years until the Spanish invaded Mexico.

In this era, the center of the world was still in the Far East and the Near East. There lay the densest populations, the grandest cities, the busiest markets, and the mightiest empires!

In the Far East, Great Ming was at the height of its power, still enjoying the flourishing age of Chenghua's new spirit. It had crushed the Mongols of the Northern Desert in the north, launched an Eastern Expedition against the Jianzhou Jurchen, and cowed East Asia. It was unquestionably the protagonist of this world; the Joseon Kingdom was caught in fierce internal struggles, as the Four Scholar Disasters ushered in a tide of factional conflict; Japan had only just endured the Onin War, the Warring States period had begun, and the age of chaos had arrived.

In Southeast Asia, the Ayutthaya Kingdom was in a prosperous age under the White Elephant King and had begun a series of reforms; on the Java Islands, the Hindu Majapahit Empire had begun to decline, while the Star and Moon Sect's Demak Sultanate had begun to rise.

In Central Asia, the empire founded by Timur the Lame had already fallen apart, while Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, was about to burst onto the scene and conquer the Delhi Sultanate amid the chaos of North India; meanwhile, on the Deccan Plateau in South Asia, Vijayanagara, history's second-to-last Hindu empire, stood at the end of its first dynasty. Internal strife was approaching, and it would lose its final chance to unify South India.

In the Near East, another protagonist of the world—the dazzling Ottoman Empire—was about to enter its age of greatest splendor. This year, Sultan Mehmed II, conqueror of the Byzantine Empire, had just died. He had already conquered half the Balkan Peninsula, controlled the Crimean Khanate, and invaded northern Iraq.

Over the next hundred years, the expansion of the Star and Moon Sect would never cease. The Ottoman Empire would continue conquering Iraq, Syria, the Holy City of Palestine, Mamluk Egypt, and the entire Red Sea coast, until it fully controlled trade between East and West and forced Europe to explore and open new sea routes.

The tide of the Ottoman Western Expedition would surge forward again and again, conquering Romania and Wallachia until the entire Balkan Peninsula was subdued. Then it would conquer Hungary, invade Austria, and encircle Vienna, bringing Europe an enduring terror it could not suppress.

On the steppes of Eastern Europe, the Grand Duchy of Moscow had just broken free from its status as a vassal of the Golden Horde, and the Slavic people had finally glimpsed the dawn of rebirth. After absorbing Tatar culture and blood, the Slavs' expansion eastward would continue for half a millennium, crossing the boundless grass seas of Central Asia, climbing over limitless Siberia, until they reached the frigid shores of the Sea of Japan.

In Central Europe, the Kingdom of Poland was in the "Golden Age" of the Jagiellonian Dynasty. The prosperity of noble estates accompanied the development of noble assemblies, preserving the Kingdom's loosely knit strength from then on; in the Holy Roman Empire, Maximilian I the Great was about to become emperor. He planned difficult, long-lasting imperial reforms, and through carefully arranged political marriages, opened a vast future for the Habsburg Dynasty.

In Western Europe, the Spanish Empire was born from the union of the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, and the devout Catholic Fernando II became its first king. The eight-hundred-year Reconquista was nearing its end, and the Moors had already been driven back to North Africa. Together with Columbus, the Spanish gaze would soon turn toward the primitive, fertile Americas, full of promise—and carrying limitless greed for gold.

Though Prince Henry had already died, Portuguese exploration continued onward. They would soon discover Congo, round the Cape of Good Hope, colonize South Africa, establish trading posts in East Africa, encounter the Ottomans again at the Red Sea, and finally reach rich yet fragmented India, building a colonial empire with a population of only two million.

At this time, through the lifelong efforts of Louis XI the Prudent, the Kingdom of France had finally annexed the Duchy of Burgundy and achieved its hard-won unification. The Spider King was about to die, leaving the French the embryonic form of absolute monarchy.

As for the English, isolated from the continent, the Wars of the Roses, which had lasted thirty years, had not yet ended, and England's unification still seemed distant. Wales, Ireland, and Scotland remained on that small island. No one foresaw that a future empire would rise there.

In West Africa, after capturing Timbuktu from Mali, the Songhai finally established an empire in Black Africa along the Niger River, then had their first encounter with Portuguese Explorers on the West African Coast.

In East Africa, Ethiopia was still ruled by the Solomonic Dynasty. That long reign would continue for another five hundred years, preserving the only Cross amid the ocean of the Star and Moon Sect.

"This year is 1481 AD, an era in which nothing has yet happened, an era brimming with possibilities!" Xolotl thought. "At this moment, the center of the world lies in the East. Europeans have not yet gained the wealth and lands of the Americas, nor have they begun their path of resurgence through the Americas, Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and even China. They have not yet grown powerful!"

"I still have thirty years to unify Mesoamerica and welcome the colonizers arriving from afar."

Xolotl finally cast aside his fear of the unknown. The spark of conquest burned into a flame.

"Since I came here, I am destined to change everything!"

"Xolotl? What are you thinking about?"

Avet looked at Xolotl, who had stood there for a long while, somewhat puzzled.

After his long train of thought, the youth finally returned to reality and burst into delighted laughter. Unable to contain his excitement, he enthusiastically hugged his teacher.

Avet's smile instantly froze. With a look of utter distaste, he reached out and touched Xolotl's forehead. Hmm, no fever. He looked at the innocent twelve- or thirteen-year-old boy before him, about the same age as his eldest daughter. Unknowingly, beneath his identity as a teacher, there was now a trace more of fatherly love.

"You brat, what came over you all of a sudden? That is only mythology. The end of the world will not come."

"Yes, Teacher."

Xolotl's face overflowed with an excitement he had never shown before, while from his lips came a low, resolute vow.

"The end of the world will not come. We will change all of this! We will!"