Sunshine Boy glanced at the Weird Mother fate mold and the chains of light high overhead. After carefully working through his calculations, he left the fate mansion.
Sunshine Boy expended another two fate molds to make two Life-Replacement Wooden Children.
He kept one on him and gave the other to Book-Listener.
Only six Bait Fate Molds remained.
Sunshine Boy focused his mind on his spirit platform and recovered his magical power, then took out the Iron Armor Talisman paper figure he had made earlier and wrote two characters on it.
Then, using the incomplete Life-Division Technique, he refined the Iron Armor Talisman into a life-sharing substitute.
Next, he used Good Fortune Born's blood, hair, and a clipping of his fingernail to make a drop of life-linking liquid, which he dripped onto a Spirit-Awakening Talisman.
With everything ready, Sunshine Boy left the East Courtyard with Book-Listener and Foodie. Looking up, he saw that only eight white lanterns on the White Building were lit.
A long incense altar had been laid out before the entrance to the Fifth Lady's main hall beneath the White Building.
Five black memorial tablets with gold borders and red lettering stood tall on the altar, each a full three feet high.
They bore the names Goddess of Birth, Midwife Mother, Birth-Protection Mother, Birth-Celebration Mother, and Longevity Mother.
Before the five tablets sat five censers packed with incense sticks. Wisps of fragrant smoke curled into the sky.
Between the tablets and the censers sat five enormous round blue-and-white porcelain platters.
The four platters farther back held a pig's head, a whole chicken, a sheep's head, and an ox's head respectively. The platter in the middle, set closer to the front, was completely empty.
Sunshine Boy stared at the empty platter in the middle, and an inexplicable tremor ran