The Right to Interpret the Classics

The sound of morning prayers drifted through the skies of the Lake Capital. It flew into the rain-season clouds, becoming thunder above the ninth heaven, singing praise to the glory of the Main God. Atop the magnificent Great Temple, hundreds of priests chanted at once. Burning incense sent up pleasing blue smoke, coiling before the Sacred Fire before spreading over and beneath the pyramid. At this moment, the Great Temple pyramid wreathed in Divine Smoke was like the Main God's Snake Mountain, and the Lake Capital was the Divine Kingdom descended to earth!

Xolotl lightly sniffed the fragrance in the Divine Smoke, and comfort flowed through his whole body, lifting his spirits. The incense used in the Great Temple was blended from many different aromatics, and an enormous amount was consumed every day.

He carefully distinguished them. The base was relatively inexpensive Pine Resin, carrying the fragrance of a pine forest and easing the mind. Then came Red Sandalwood, called Balsam Bean, sweet with a cooling note, able to make one feel joy from the heart. Within the rich sweetness was also a trace of fresh elegance—that was calming Agarwood. And when he took a deep breath, the last thing he detected was Rosewood, hidden amid all the other scents. When Rosewood burned on its own, its fragrance was not especially strong, but when it burned together with other aromatics, it could make the other scents purer and exquisitely beautiful.

The voices of prayer gradually subsided, but the curling Divine Smoke lingered for a long time. Xolotl watched as lower-ranking priests approached the Sacred Fire and continued adding bag after bag of incense, and he could not help sighing inwardly.

*The incense used in a single prayer alone would be enough to make the kings of Europe envious to the