Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!
Chapter 769 - 418: The Red Altar, The Eye of the Chief Divine_2

Chapter 769: Chapter 418: The Red Altar, The Eye of the Chief Divine_2

"Ah! I shall follow your decree! I will follow in your footsteps to the ends of the earth!"

Bravo suppressed the excitement in his heart and solemnly prostrated himself. Then, he rose and stepped back, leaving the center of the altar for the King alone.

"Whizz~Bang~Pop!"

A red firework blossomed in the sky, emitting a strange noise! The cheering from below the altar gradually subsided, and the apprentices looked up at the stage, reassuming their silence.

Xiulote put down the hollow bamboo tube he was holding and collected his thoughts, then spoke out loud again.

"My students, lift your heads and look to the sky! What do you see?"

"Strange red fireworks..."

A few apprentice Priests mustered their courage and spoke softly.

Xiulote had good hearing. He looked at those who had spoken and nodded with a smile.

"Right! These red fireworks are both fire and light, they are Divine Might! The divine power from burning gunpowder changes the state of the Divine Particles. Divine power transfers through the added divine particles, which absorb and then release divine energy. Different divine particles will emit light in different colors—red, yellow, blue, green... according to their own properties!... Just burning certain divine particles will release fixed Divine Light!..."

The King organized his words, explaining how in the atoms, electrons absorb energy from heat to jump to an unstable state, then release photons of fixed frequency as they return to the ground state. This process is the flame color reaction used to identify different elements.

In the crowd, Yilian blinked. She was somewhat confused, yet also intrigued.

"Burning certain divine particles releases fixed Divine Light... Does it mean that the Priests can create various strange flames without communicating with the deities?"

On the altar, Bravo bowed his head, his body trembling slightly. Hearing the King’s narration, he was sweating all over. The light blue flame was a standard of the Priests of the Lake Region, used to "communicate with the realm of the dead."

"The spring sun is really scorching!... Let me think, let me think well, how to annotate the teachings..."

Xiulote looked at the many apprentices, patiently explaining.

"Divine particles constitute everything in the world, and since all things are different, the types of divine particles are naturally also different. Metals and stones, flowing water and air, the earth and the sky... They contain different types, different combinations of divine particles... And the most fundamental difference of divine particles lies in their core! Divine particles are too minuscule to touch. By looking at the color of the burning Divine Light, we can see through the complex appearance to the core of the divine particles, thereby identifying their type!..."

As she listened, question marks filled Yilian’s eyes. She tried to follow along for a while but eventually decided to give up. The girl’s gaze gradually shifted and finally rested on the red altar.

There, the Divine Revelation Priests and Craftsmen were almost done with their work. A strange sphere, several meters in diameter, had gradually been inflated, and then was tied down with ropes, floating above the altar.

The sphere seemed to be made of the Kingdom’s special tree bark paper and was painted with a terrifying red eye on its surface, as if the cold gaze of a deity was staring intently at everyone in the field.

The brave Tekos girl shivered. She tilted her head slightly, guessing at the power of the deities, not daring to directly gaze upon the mysterious and fearsome sphere.

Xiulote stopped his lecture on the yellow altar. Seeing the apprentices distracted, he smiled, descended from the yellow altar, and walked toward the red altar.

As he approached, the hot air balloon on the altar became clearly visible. Under the King’s guidance, the Craftsmen’s trial hot air balloon had been meticulously made of durable tree bark paper, the connections carefully glued with fish glue, then reinforced with expensive rubber juice to prevent leakage.

The hot air balloon, painted with a huge red eyeball on its surface, is named "Eye of the Chief Divine." Its diameter is six meters, with a volume of over 100 cubic meters, qualifying it as a small hot air balloon or, alternatively, a large Kongming Lantern. Similar to a Kongming Lantern, the "Eye of the Chief Divine" at the bottom has a simple wooden frame, to which a thin and light ceramic fire bowl is hooked and secured with ropes.

Inside the fire bowl are several pounds of top-quality charcoal, burning fiercely! The flames rising from the fire bowl heat the air inside, causing the whole hot air balloon to inflate. Beneath the hot air balloon, connected by ropes, is a light bamboo basket.

A not-so-fat turkey "gobbled" as it was tied by its wings and feet and stuffed into the small yet tough bamboo basket. At this moment, the turkey was unaware that it was about to become the first terrestrial creature to ride a hot air balloon high into the sky. It merely struggled uncomfortably, shaking loose feathers and also causing the balloon above to sway.

The inflated hot air balloon hovered in midair, tethered by the ropes the priests had tied, allowing it only to sway helplessly, akin to a giant Divine Beast with a life of its own, emitting awe-inspiring breaths.

Watching this scene, Xiulote nodded in satisfaction. For the Kingdom of the Lake, the preliminary technology for creating small hot air balloons was already mature. The making of the hot air balloon was conducted in the name of creating a Divine Object. Dozens of outstanding craftsmen worked diligently to perfect every detail, with abundant human and material resources. Compared to explorers from the Old World, he also had the unique rubber from America for sealing and reinforcement.

Apprentice priests gazed at the suspended giant "Eye of the Chief Divine," unable to suppress their awe and wonder. Amidst the reverent stares of the crowd, the King approached the bottom of the hot air balloon. He raised his hand, touched the rubber coating on the underside of the balloon, then glanced at the thin fire bowl emitting heat waves, and inspected the fixed frame. Afterward, the King looked up silently, fixating on the colossal skyborne creation.

The construction of the "Eye of the Chief Divine" was the result of Xiulote’s meticulous calculations.

With a diameter of six meters and a volume of over one hundred cubic meters, when one cubic meter of air is heated from 20 degrees to 80 degrees, its weight is reduced by 200 grams, roughly providing a lift of 2N. In other words, a hot air balloon with a volume of 5 cubic meters, when sufficiently heated, is estimated to be able to lift an object weighing about 2 jin (1 jin = 0.5 kg). The one hundred or so cubic meters of heated air inside the whole balloon can carry a weight of about 40 jin.

Inside the hot air balloon, the thin ceramic fire bowl weighs about 4 jin, and the charcoal about 4 jin, and can burn for just over an hour. The paper balloon, frame, ropes, and bamboo basket together weigh a little over 10 jin. Added up, the weight of the hot air balloon itself is just over 20 jin, capable of providing half of its lift for the payload.

The turkey inside the bamboo basket weighs around 10 jin, and the remaining 10 or so jin of weight capacity are used to carry the hemp rope. Indeed, Xiulote had no intention of releasing this oversized "Kongming Lantern" and had attached a 200-meter-long hemp rope. After the experiment concluded, he planned to use another rope to pull the hot air balloon down for recovery.

A hemp rope with a thickness of 6 millimeters weighs about 1 jin per 10 meters. Roughly calculated, if everything goes as planned, the "Eye of the Chief Divine" is expected to rise to a height of a hundred or two meters, then will hover suspended with the rope, until the heat from the charcoal weakens and the balloon slowly descends.

Xiulote gazed intently, his longing and desire for the sky surging in the heart of the King. The "Eye of the Divine" before him would be the starting point of all human civilization in exploring the sky!

After waiting for 418 quarters, he finally asked the Divine Revelation Priest in charge of the hot air balloon with a smile.

"Scholar Chimere, is everything ready?"

The Second Level Divine Revelation Priest Chimere pursed his lips, trying to maintain his composure. Yet, his trembling voice revealed his inner excitement.

"Respected Supreme High Priest, everything is ready!"

"Good! May the Chief Divine bless us!"

Xiulote nodded solemnly. He looked toward the reverent apprentices below the altar and announced loudly.

"Priests and apprentices of the Kingdom, my students! Let us together witness this great and immortal moment! The Chief Divine ordained the order of the world, and all things follow the principle of nature. Always remember, as long as we grasp the secrets of the Divine, even the most insignificant mortals can ascend to the lofty skies!"

Below the altar, hundreds of apprentices listened solemnly, watching, anticipating. The King smiled faintly, proudly commanding.

"Chimere, release the ropes, let the Eye of the Chief Divine ascend!"

"At your command, great Supreme High Priest of Divine Revelation!"

With trembling fingers, Chimere untied the tethering ropes. Then, under the watchful eyes of the apprentice priests and the Imperial Guard Warriors, amid countless shocked and awestruck gazes, the "Eye of the Chief Divine" finally broke free from all constraints, lifting with the turkey in the bamboo basket, and flew toward the sky of the Divine Kingdom!