Smoke Peak, the sacred mountain, towered into the clouds. Its glaciers had not melted for ten thousand years, and cold pines had grown into forests over centuries. Farther down, steep cliffs and giant boulders lay everywhere, and pungent sulfur pits hid among them, linked to bottomless abysses.
Xolotl sat on a piece of volcanic rock, holding the Divine Staff of the Death God Skull. He gazed into the vast horizon and looked down over the magnificent mountains and rivers, his expression as calm and unwaving as the sacred mountain itself.
This was fifteen hundred meters above Shuigu City, at an altitude of three thousand five hundred meters. The mysterious, ancient Temple of Death stood behind the king. Before him stretched a broad basin clear at a glance, distant rolling mountains, and nearly a hundred li away, the Holy City of Cholula, faintly visible in the distance.
Priest elder Weizier lowered his head and sat beside the king. He cautiously sized up that ancient temple, carefully guessing why His Highness of the Mexica People had chosen to meet him here.
"Elder Weizier, this is Popocatepetl Mountain. Not far from here is the ancient Temple of Death."
After a long while, Xolotl spoke lightly, a smile on his face.
"The ancient volcanic death god is watching us here. It was here that I received the Divine Staff bestowed by the Death God. I prayed before the statue of the Death God and listened to the enlightenment of the ancient god. He granted me authority over the Tlaxcalan and also handed the Holy City of Cholula over to me to deal with!"
"...Praise the Death God."
Elder Weizier was silent for a while before he respectfully responded. He was a hereditary high priest of Cholula, and in truth, he did not believe in