Talking as they went, the party came up to the halfway mark and walked into the Spirit Roaming Temple.

The buildings had some years on them, and the paint had gone patchy in places.

"My lord prince, have a look around. I'll go and announce you to the Heavenly Master, then come find you."

Ning Chen inclined his head. "Much obliged. Old Pan, give Daoist Master Qingfeng the things."

Daoist Master Qingfeng took the wine and the pig's head, made a bow, and went.

Ning Chen walked the others around the temple.

The incense burned thick inside, and the worshippers came in an unbroken stream.

Ning Chen went into one of the great halls and looked up at the tall, holy image. This world had no Three Pure Ones, and he couldn't tell which god it was they had enshrined here. (TL Note: The three highest deities of Daoism, and the figures a Daoist temple's main hall would ordinarily house. Ning Chen is a man from another world noticing that the pantheon here is not the one he grew up with.)

He knelt, with real reverence on his face, and prayed for His Majesty and Old General Chen.

"Bless me with a great fortune, and make Miss Yue so shameless about it she'll have nobody but me..."

Ning Chen finished his bows and heard Feng Qizheng muttering away beside him. He shook his head and laughed in spite of himself.

That wasn't worshipping a god. That was worshipping what he wanted.

He got up and came out of the hall just in time to see Qingfeng looking around with a bamboo basket on his back.

Qingfeng saw him and came over fast.

"My lord prince."

Ning Chen got straight to it. "Has Heavenly Master Bingchen agreed to see me?"

Qingfeng swung the basket off his back and set it down. It was full of beans, half of them red, half of them green.

"The Heavenly Master says my lord prince should stay a while. When you have the red beans and the green beans separated, that's when he'll see you."