This heretic cannot be burned, he must be hung up and whipped!

PS: The smallpox epidemic in America in the 16th century killed almost tens of millions of indigenous people, and KD is almost catching up with the Black Death.

Neos didn't notice these details. He first comforted the crew and walked to the railing at the bow. The Crusaders guarding behind him were worried about accidents, so they were armed from head to toe, wearing heavy combat armor and holding large shields to protect Neos.

"Hello! Hello? Guten nachmittag? Bonjour?"

The Aztec warriors and priests kneeling under the boat looked at Neos silently, as if they didn't understand what he was saying.

"Ciao? Ciallo?" The Englishman and Italian guy behind him looked at each other with complicated emotions after hearing this.

Neos also put the Italian and Italian English he had learned to use. Europe had fought wars for more than 800 years, and with the integration of various ethnic groups, the language barrier problem on the entire European continent was not serious, but this was America.

“Woo——” “Awoo——” “”

Suddenly, on an Aztec ship, a priest wearing human skin and covered with chalk suddenly fell to the ground, making a humming sound that was difficult to understand to the many mortals around him.

"He—what language is this?" asked the boatswain curiously.

"No, this is not human language. I can feel that something from the Warp has taken over this native."

Neos felt something very clearly, that a certain existence in the ether sea had established a connection with the priest in front of him.

"Then—Saint, you have great powers. Can you understand what that being is saying?" asked a technical priest who was constantly taking notes.

"I'm not a creature from the subspace, so how would I know?" Neos complained in dialect.

"But I can roughly guess what it's going to say. We have cats on the boat, right? I remember one is called Ginger and the other is called Fishcake." "Yes."

"You can think of it as this thing breathing down my neck." "?"

"Click!"

Neos loaded his gun and aimed it at the strange-behaving Aztec priest, saying, "I understand now. Let me translate it for you."

What He meant was that He wanted to die."

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Red Tide: 1921: Chapter 55: The Exchange and Clash of Two Civilizations

"Da da da da da!"

Neos pulled the trigger of the automatic rifle without hesitation, and a volley of bullets whizzed out!

To the Aztecs, the bullets streaked across the sea like invisible fingers of death, shattering the altar before the priest. Obsidian vessels and human remains from the altar scatter amidst a shower of wood chips. The bullets continued to penetrate the fragile wooden bottom of the boat, puncturing the hull in a row of neat holes.

"Eliminate these heretics!!" Some soldiers shouted and wanted to open fire on the natives.

"Wait! Don't shoot yet!" Neos raised his hand to stop the Crusader soldiers behind him who had raised their automatic rifles and were ready to fire.

"This is just a warning shot to calm them down. When you see someone uncooperative during law enforcement, do you always skip the warning process and open fire directly?" Neos asked.

"Wait, this place seems to be America. Anyway, no firing without my order, unless the enemy wants to board the ship with weapons, understand?!"

The Aztec warriors witnessed a miracle they had never seen before - these white-skinned messengers of gods standing on the "Iron Mountain", holding strange black sticks, just waved them lightly, and thunder light burst out from the tip of the stick, accompanied by a deafening sound, and their priest ship began to sink!

"The gods are angry!" "Quetzalcoatl is punishing us!"

Cries of terror spread throughout the Aztec fleet, and many warriors knelt on the ship, not daring to look up at these terrifying messengers of the gods. However, the priest's body twisted in an unnatural way, and he muttered unrecognizable syllables, those words were not even Nahuatl.

As the ship sank, the priest was forced to adjust his stance. He arched his back, and the feather decorations on his face rose along with his emotions. He roared threateningly at Neos:

"ha--!"

The boatswain looked at Neos in surprise. "Saint, has this primitive man gone mad? How dare he speak so rudely to you? This is truly heretical!"

The tech-priest who had been furiously documenting the great exploration of America wrote in his notebook: "At 6 p.m., the native people of America openly insulted the Saint, committing the ultimate heresy in the Church..."

To ordinary people, they only saw a strangely adorned native, unafraid of gunfire, daring to challenge their steel warships. But Neos could sense something more in the warp—a being connected to reality through the medium of the priests, emitting complex emotional fluctuations, a mixture of fear, anger, and intimidation.

This was completely different from the demons of Hell he had encountered before. Neos didn't sense any greed or endless thirst for human souls, but rather... a rage at having their territory invaded? This convinced him that this Warp being was most likely a deity worshipped by the native humans themselves!

Finally encountering a relatively benevolent local deity—er... well, given their weak power, they should be called "Warp Elf." Neos didn't want to cause further bloodshed. Making more friends and fewer enemies, rather than burning everyone they saw like those crazy people in the church, was the key to humanity's solution to its current predicament.

"I'm going to the Subspace to meet that thing!" Neos ordered the Crusaders behind him, "Don't fire recklessly. If they attack—only fire warning shots and don't cause too many casualties."

The soldiers looked at each other in bewilderment, but still obeyed. Neos knew the principle of capturing the leader first. This cowardly Warp being didn't even have the courage to manifest its true form into the mortal world, yet it dared to challenge him?

Damn it, even the demons of Hell and the Lord of Hell didn't dare to yell at him when they saw him. What kind of person was this? He, Neos, was shouting "For the mankind!" and "Kill the aliens!" before they even met. Killing him with such words would be a mercy to him.

He didn't even thank Neos for this.

Neos waved his hand, opening a crack in reality and entering the Warp. Here, he saw a thin thread extending from the priest's body to somewhere in Chaos. He summoned a sword burning with blue-white flames and followed the thread.

On the Aztec ship, they were horrified to see that the "incarnation of Quetzalcoatl" disappeared with a wave of his hand. At the same time, the high priest felt that the power of the North God began to fade from them.

"Great Tezcapolipoca, bless us..." the high priest prayed.

At the same time, Neos chased the being hiding in the chaos in the warp. The thing sensed Neos's approach and fled in panic, but was finally trapped in a magic pocket array under the pursuit of Neos's spell.

"Why is it a leopard?"

Neos finally saw the form of this subspace being - if an Aztec priest was present, he would definitely recognize that this was Tezcapolipoca, the northern god who defeated Quetzalcoatl in their mythology. His body was like a giant jaguar, and his eyes sparkled with obsidian light.

"Hello, I mean no harm," Neos said calmly, casting a spell to vaguely demonstrate his good intentions. "I come with peace and development."

Bei Shen arched his back and made a threatening sound: "Ha-!"

Neos tried to continue the conversation: "I am not here to destroy your faith in America and force you to convert. You don't have to worry about your own demise."

"Ha——!" Beishen still made the same sound.

Neos put away his weapon and the blue-white flames, and condensed a small ball of emotional fragments in his hand - in theory, gods born in the warp should also be able to feed on emotional fragments.

"Humanity is facing a crisis, and my power alone is limited. I came here hoping that we can help each other." Neos said earnestly, holding out the emotional fragments in his hand as a gift.

"Ha——!" Bei Shen still just repeated the same response.

Neos's patience finally ran out. This conversation was like a debate: no matter how much you cited historical evidence or analyzed your arguments, the other person would just respond with, "So what?!"

"I just gave you too much face!" The emotional fragment in Neos's hand instantly transformed into a trench stick burning with blue and white flames. "Breathe! I'll make you fly!"

“Boom!” “Ouch!”

Beishen finally made a different sound, this time a howl of pain.

Strangely, Neos's blue-white flames, which were invincible against Warp demons, failed to incinerate it, leaving only a burn mark on the North God's fur. It seemed that this was indeed a native being shaped by human beliefs, not an alien Warp demon like those in Heaven and Hell.

Neos held the North God by the scruff of his neck with one hand and a trench stick with the other, and headed towards the real world.

On the deck of the Kilkenny, the Aztecs witnessed an even more shocking scene.

The air in front of the giant steel ship's turret shattered like a mirror. A massive jaguar, studded with obsidian shards and various stripes, was dragged from the crack by Neos, struggling to remain suspended in the air. Its form was three times larger than the largest jaguar, its fur gleaming with star-like light, and its eyes were like two burning pieces of obsidian.

"Great Tezcapolipoca!" All the priests knelt on the boat. "God of war in the north!"

The surrounding Aztec warriors all prostrated themselves on the boat, not daring to look directly at this scene. Some even jumped into the sea from the boat, thinking that the end had come. The lucky Mayans who had been captured and not yet sacrificed were almost laughing at this scene.

"Our god has been captured by that white-skinned god!" "What white-skinned god? That's our Quetzalcoatl!" "Is this the end of the world as predicted?"

The Mayan prisoners and Aztec warriors whispered to each other privately. The high priest, Tezozomoc, seemed unwilling to accept this reality. He took a deep gulp of the hallucinogenic drink used for the ritual, stood up, and shouted in a trance, "The North God has been captured. This is a sign! This is a sign! The gods have returned and are redistributing the world!"

The captain approached Neos and asked quietly, "Saint, what is this?"

"This is their god," Neos replied calmly, "He is very weak, but his brain is not very smart."

He turned to the crusaders on the deck and said, "Prepare the boats. We are going to that coast—I don't even know where I am now. Remember to bring gifts—no, not machine guns and cannons, a gun will do. We are not going on a crusade!"

You can bring some food, tools, and medicine, or some cheap industrial products like glass balls, maybe someone will want them."

"Yes!"

Neos dragged the North God onto the ship, and the North God obediently shrank in size, not daring to act rashly. Neos didn't notice the strange glint in the captain's eyes when he said, "The American gods are very weak."

--------

The boat slowly sailed towards the Aztec flagship.

Sitting at the bow, linguist Edgar Hollis nervously gripped his thick notebook. As Cambridge University's most distinguished linguistics PhD holder, he had studied more than twenty languages ​​in Africa and Northern Europe, but the challenge he faced was far greater than any he had ever faced.

The slight shaking of the ship made him feel a little uncomfortable, but more excited - he was about to become the first European to communicate with the mysterious civilization on this continent and decipher their civilization!

"Relax, Doctor," said William, the fully armed Crusader Captain beside him. "The ten of us will ensure your safety. The Saints are watching you on the ship. Besides, the Kilkenny's 6-inch main guns are still capable of firing."

Edgar nodded and sorted through the toolbox he had brought with him. Inside was the "Universal Communication Toolkit" that the church's linguistics department had prepared specifically for this expedition.

Dozens of cards featured simple images, such as the sun, moon, fire, flowers, women, and men, as well as simple drawings of people performing actions, such as eating, lying down, and giving birth. Several technical priests quickly recorded the Aztec pronunciations. They also brought a small tape recorder, which could record brief sounds through a simple mechanical device for later research.

When the boat approached the flagship, dozens of Aztecs had already gathered beside the ship. They kept a certain distance and looked at these pale-skinned messengers of the gods in awe.

The North God has been defeated by Quetzalcoatl. Since the benevolent Quetzalcoatl does not like living sacrifices, they must also change their lifestyle.

Edgar noticed that the priests standing in the front row were wearing bright feather cloaks, with glittering gold ornaments hanging on their chests, and holding wooden-handled obsidian daggers. They should be the leaders of the welcoming team.

"Go ahead, Doctor," William urged in a low voice. "Go talk to them! Everything you say now will go into history books!"

Edgar became even more nervous. He took a deep breath and walked forward as calmly as possible. He first made a gesture that he believed was universally accepted - smiling and raising his hands to show that he had no weapons.

The Aztec priests exchanged glances, as if considering how to respond. Finally, the one in the middle—apparently the chief priest—raised his hands, imitating Edgar's gesture.

This was a good sign. Edgar reached out and shook the priest's hand, reaffirming his unarmed nature. He then opened his toolbox, took out a card with a sun image on it, pointed to the setting sun in the sky, and pronounced clearly, "Sun. Sun."

The priest looked at the card, then looked up at the sky, then nodded and said, "Tonatiuh."

"Tonatiuh," Edgar repeated immediately, motioning for his assistant to write down the word. "Tonatiuh—it should be the word for drinking wine and getting up to drink wine and get up to drink wine."

The priest looked surprised, then smiled, pointed to the sun and repeated, "Tonatiuh!"

Edgar quickly took out the moon card and pointed to the crescent moon rising on the other side: "Moon."

“Metztli,” the priest replied.

For the next few hours, Edgar and his team immersed themselves in this primitive yet effective communication with the Aztec priests. Through the tuca, they learned dozens of basic words: water (atl), fire (tletl), man (tlacatl), woman (cihuatl), eat (tlacua), sleep (cochi), and so on.

Despite the difficulty in pronunciation, Edgar was surprised to find that the Aztec language (Nahuatl) had a strict grammatical structure, which was by no means as complex as the original language should be.

By the time the moon rose, he was able to form the simplest sentences.

"We're here... on friendly terms," ​​Edgar stammered in Nahuatl. "Where... can we stay?"

The chief priest was clearly surprised and awed that this white-skinned messenger of the gods could speak their language. He saluted William and the other Crusaders, then replied slowly, "Messengers of the great Quetzalcoatl, please follow us to the city of Muisca, where there is a palace fit for the gods to reside."

Edgar tried his best to translate. Although he could only understand about one-third of the words, combined with the priest's gestures and tone, he roughly understood what he meant.

"They should be inviting us to their city," Edgar turned to William. "It seems they regard us as messengers from some kind of god."

William pointed at the Kilkenny and smiled slyly, "Isn't it?"

...

News quickly reached the Kilkenny. After a brief discussion with the ship's senior officers, Neos decided to leave one-third of the crew to guard the ship, while the remainder, armed with weapons and gifts, would follow the Aztecs ashore. The captain wanted to send more troops, but Neos insisted that this should be a peaceful engagement, not a military operation.

The boat soon arrived at the coast, and hundreds of Crusader soldiers lined up in an orderly manner, with cargo boxes filled with various European goods behind them.

The Aztecs had already prepared torches to illuminate the road to the city. As the Crusaders advanced by flashlight, more and more local residents emerged from the bushes and paths, curiously following behind to observe these mythical visitors.

The outline of Muisca gradually emerged into the night. Built on a high plateau, its stone and timber buildings, stacked one upon another, appeared majestic and mysterious in the light of the fire. Most striking was the towering pyramid temple in the city's center, its steps ablaze with countless torches, resembling a flaming mountain.

"Look, gentlemen," William whispered to the crusaders around him, "I feel like I'm living in an adventure novel!"

As the troops entered the city, the Crusaders could hardly conceal their surprise and curiosity. The city was far grander and more organized than they had imagined. The streets were neat and clean, and the houses, though simple, were well-structured, their walls adorned with vibrant murals and featherwork. Along the streets, Aztecs knelt to greet these "messengers of the gods," women scattered flower petals, and children, fearful yet curious, hid behind their parents to peek.

"This doesn't look like a barbarian city," a young Crusader whispered to his companion. "Look at those buildings and streets. They have engineers and planners. Their math skills must be pretty good."

"But they can't even forge iron!" another replied, "Look at their weapons, made of wood, stone, bronze..."

Neos walked at the front of the procession, carefully observing every detail of the city. Although primitive compared to the great cities of Europe, Muisca displayed a unique civilization. Copper vessels and ornaments were everywhere on the streets, and the exquisite ornaments worn by some priests and nobles showed a highly developed level of craftsmanship.

"Is that a bronze bell?" Neos asked, pointing to a metal object hanging in front of a small shrine.

After a brief exchange with the local priests, Edgar replied, "Yes, they call it 'teponaztli,' a ritual instrument. They have mastered the art of smelting copper and can even make some copper-tin alloys."

The procession arrived at the city's central plaza, where hundreds of Aztecs were already waiting. A temporary platform had been erected, covered with brightly colored fabrics and flowers. The chief priest, Quetzalcoatl, motioned for Neos and the main officials to ascend the platform.

After friendly greetings exchanged through Edgar's translator, the conversation quickly shifted from words to goods. The Crusaders opened their chests and began to display the European goods they had brought.