The Bai Clan's Martial Saint ritual would never be exposed to the public eye.
Yet there were countless Jun Shuang General Temples throughout Hantai Prefecture, comparable to the temples of the Jianghuai Dragon King—offerings from the masses naturally carried the power of wishes, nourishing and strengthening rituals. The one beneath Ice Mirror Mountain outside Hantai Prefecture City was the largest. Even deep into the night, it remained brilliantly lit, with crowds stretching along the steps. There were even wealthy gentlemen with neatly groomed mustaches, which from afar looked like two strokes of smeared ink, riding sedan chairs up the mountain as the common folk yielded on both sides.
"Such vivid colors."
Liang Qu stood atop a rooftop and gazed into the distance.
Though the Jun Shuang General Temple looked somewhat dim beneath the night sky, its colors could still be clearly seen.
Its style was utterly different from the temples of the Central Plains and Jiangnan. The General Temple was "painted in gaudy splendor"; even the plaque had an extraordinarily bright, eye-catching blue background, and the entire gatehouse could be called a riot of colors.
Not just their places of worship.
The residential architecture of Pingyang and Hantai was also vastly different.
Pingyang had mostly sloped roofs to prevent standing water and mold, horse-head walls on both sides, and walls mostly built of brick and stone. Hantai mostly had flat roofs, covered with a layer of thatch for storing grain—cool in summer, storing grain in winter, and serving as a platform for rolling stones in wartime.
The walls were not brick or stone either, but rammed earth mixed with camel hair. There were ceramic jars on the ridges of the roofs; out of curiosity, Liang Qu dug into one and found dried hair and grains inside. As someone from a