Wei Bo chose a quiet mountain path with relatively few pilgrims. Passing a small shrine, he saw that its incense offerings were quite substantial. Outside stood an Old Osmanthus Tree, its trunk as thick as a bucket, its branches and leaves extraordinarily lush, shading more than an acre of ground. A large group of sedan-chair porters were resting beneath it. Some held water flasks and chewed dry rations; others clustered together in idle chatter. Among them was an elderly man nearing sixty, presumably a local, who was talking about Chen Ping'an of Luopo Mountain—what Mud Bottle Alley had been like in his early years, how unwelcome he had been as a child, and how the old man's family had helped him out, allowing that unfortunate child to survive some bitter New Year long ago... Someone else teased him, asking why Mountain Lord Chen, now an Immortal Lord, had never repaid him. Would it really have been too much to reward him with a pile of Immortal Money? Converted into silver, it could buy any fine residence in the prefectural city. Why keep doing hard labor here every day? The old man looked embarrassed and offered a strained explanation. Didn't the books say that once people went up the mountain, they no longer remembered matters below it? What was that called again? Right, severing mortal ties. It was beyond the understanding of people like them...
Wei Bo stopped to listen to the marketplace gossip. Chen Lingjun glanced at this shrine, one he had never even heard of before. Its main hall bore the plaque "Department of Lingering Affection." Golden bricks paved the floor, while incense smoke curled upward. Within yellow silk curtains sat three clay-and-gilt statues, their golden bodies radiant and their majesty imposing. One master and two attendants. In the