(Bonus chapter for 75 monthly votes...)
As Tang Changsheng explained things to Little Pearl, he kept working. Before he knew it, the moon had dimmed and sunk toward the west.
By then, the Corpse-Soul Pearl's glow had gradually faded, so Tang Changsheng put it away.
"Go back to sleep. You've been up all night..." Seeing the little thing's eyes grow hazy, so heavy she could barely keep them open, Tang Changsheng laughed despite himself.
The xinyou day of the bingshen month was auspicious for setting beds, making offerings, demolition, construction, and breaking ground, but inauspicious for marriage, travel, lighting a cooking fire, moving into a home, or relocating.
It was not an especially auspicious day, but if they did not insist on perfection, it was good enough to consecrate the new temple and hang its plaque.
The new Deity Statue was carved from wood. A cavity had been cut into its back as far as the chest. Unlike the new statue of the Protector King Divine General, this cavity was stuffed with agarwood, cinnabar, and realgar to ward off evil.
Tang Changsheng performed the consecration. With a new brush, he dipped into divine ink mixed from cinnabar, bletilla, and golden rooster's blood, then dotted the statue's pupils and seven orifices.
Ordinarily, a Daoist priest would take a bronze mirror and direct sunlight onto the spot between the statue's brows to open its Spirit Terrace.
But Tang Changsheng had the Primordial Yang Divine Lamp, so he had no need for that. At a thought, the Divine Lamp shone between the statue's brows. A flash of spiritual light, and it was done.
As the light shone between the statue's brows, a hazy ball of light the size of a peanut appeared.
If the deity worshipped in this temple had been a genuine