In the Main Hall, Luo Muye sat in his usual seat.
The wooden fish made from Lama Agong's skull lay before him. He struck it over and over, its soft knocking echoing through the hall.
With his other hand, he rolled the Gau Bone Beads made from a Living Buddha's shinbones and brow bones, their crisp clacking mingling with the wooden fish's rhythm.
Shangguan Xingyue stood beside him, studying all the statues of deities in the temple.
In truth, they had been careful with their conversations inside this Black City Monastery.
Luo Muye and Luo Bin had revealed almost nothing.
Shangguan Xingyue was perceptive. She remained quiet, looking without speaking.
This place was larger and more complete than Kong An's Black City Monastery, and just as surely, more dangerous.
Although Luo Muye was a Sinpo, Shangguan Xingyue knew the danger here was greater. Otherwise, he would not have been treading so carefully.
On closer inspection, Shangguan Xingyue discovered that many of the deity statues here did not exist in New Black City Monastery.
Were some deities from Old Black City Monastery, while others had been newly created?
Of course, some deities here also existed in New Black City Monastery.
Were those deities shared between them?
Did they manifest in whichever temple summoned them?
Were only the ones brought into being unique?
Such as the Chief Seat Deity, the Bright Consort, the Dibe Yum Deity, and Gua Kuo, the Six-Eared, Six-Eyed Deity?
It was quiet here, yet it was not.
The silence was only a facade. It felt as though someone stood wailing in every dark corner.
The walls of New Black City Monastery mostly carried a cloying sweetness. The walls here held more of the stench of decay. The sweetness could no longer mask it, and that foul odor clung