The sea and sky stretched vast and boundless toward the endless east. Seven kingdom longships, crewed by nearly four hundred warriors and sailors, had replenished their food and water and were laden with ship timber, scriptures, gemstones, and weapons as they left the world of the Nahua peoples and headed for the Maya, where they had never before set foot.
Fifty li east by sail from Hidden Snake City lay the ruins of Second Ancient City, La Venta—ancient and glorious once, now long abandoned. The ancient city ruins sat on an island in a lake near the seacoast but slightly inland. Dozens of colossal god-head statues stood like dead deities, some tilted, some even fallen on their backs. Across the city-state on the island, timeworn brick-and-stone buildings could be seen everywhere, along with a half-domed observatory.
At the center of the ancient city ruins, in keeping with the custom of Mesoamerican city-states, stood a towering pyramid temple. The La Venta pyramid temple was more than thirty meters tall, located at the heart of the island in the lake, and could be seen clearly from several li away.
Though Second Ancient City had been abandoned, the ancient city's temple remained an important sacred site for rituals. Whenever spring plowing or autumn harvest came, or when divine descendants were born or died, sacred sacrificial rites would be held here. At this moment, several dozen Temple Warriors from the local city-state were leading over a hundred Militia in garrison around the temple. From afar, when they saw the longships in the river channel, along with the warriors and sailors aboard gripping spears and carrying great bows on their backs, they all grew somewhat wary.
Around the ancient city flowed a broad river, encircling the remnants of the ancient city-state before merging northward into