Membership Points System

For Zhang San, researching flying brooms was merely a side gig he poked at during his spare time. What truly benefited his cultivation was running his little shrine.

The Incense Divinity Path could help Zhang San safely muddle through the weak early stages of ghost cultivation. At this stage, Zhang San was only slightly stronger than a goose in combat. Unless he possessed someone else, he could barely bring any fighting power to bear.

He might have shattered Malfoy's resolve and sent him fleeing to transfer schools at light speed last time, but that had actually been Hermione's doing. The body was Hermione's, the magic was Hermione's—he was merely a weak "Gundam pilot."

Only after getting through the utterly pathetic Yin Gathering Realm of ghost cultivation could Zhang San truly possess independent combat power.

His eldest senior brother had considered Zhang San's weakness in the early stages, so he had equipped him with the Incense Divinity Path as an auxiliary cultivation method. Once Zhang San changed jobs into Hogwarts's Earth God, Mountain God, and Water Lord, he would have divine offices and thus gain a basic ability to protect himself.

The power of incense had endless uses. It could attack when advancing, defend when retreating, and provide support in between. It was the ultimate jack-of-all-trades. To say nothing else, Zhang San had earned more than two hundred thousand Galleons by selling incense power to ghosts.

With those Galleons, Zhang San could hold all sorts of major promotional events for his little shrine.

For example, buy ten incense offerings and get one free; make an offering and receive a gift; or hold temple fair performances... No matter what kind of event it was, it required money. If he was unwilling to spend Galleons, he would never draw in incense offerings.

Although the arcade remained popular, its customer flow was nowhere near as overwhelming as it had been on opening day. Zhang San therefore had to devise new ways to encourage young wizards to visit his little shrine, burn incense, make offerings, and give him incense power.

To make it easier to quantify the total amount of incense each person contributed, Zhang San specially refined a batch of membership cards using incense power. Every young wizard who entered the shrine to burn incense could receive their own Incense Membership Card, which recorded the amount of incense they had offered.

These things were extremely magical, accurately reflecting the total amount of incense the cardholder had contributed to Zhang San. Even when burning incense, some people contributed more and others less. Zhang San quantified the amount of incense as membership points.

Membership points could be exchanged for all kinds of exquisite gifts in the little shrine. From Weasley Brothers-brand improved extra-stinky Dungbombs to a premium flying broom like the Nimbus 2000, everything could be redeemed with membership points.

The instant this system was introduced, it caused a huge uproar throughout Hogwarts. Membership points could be exchanged for gifts? Even flying brooms were available? Good heavens, that was a Nimbus 2000!

That was right. The Nimbus 2000 Zhang San had put up for point redemption was the very broom Harry Potter had used when trading for the Bamboo Mark I. Zhang San had no physical body and no use for the thing, so he tossed it into the prize pool to catch customers' attention.

The advertising effect of the Nimbus 2000 was simply incredible. It was the best flying broom in the wizarding world. With Zhang San using something like that as bait, he truly reeled in a huge crowd of worshippers.

Although the little shrine was closed on weekdays, Zhang San's statue at Hogwarts could still absorb incense power. So, in order to accumulate membership points quickly, young wizards would come before Zhang San's statue to pray devoutly whenever they had free time.

Most wizards were nonbelievers. The god of magic, Merlin, was more of a symbolic expression in their speech. Things like "Merlin's beard," "Merlin's socks," and "Merlin's slippers"... But when it came time to actually worship a god, they had no idea what to do.

At times like this, the young wizards from the Muggle world appeared remarkably professional. Worshipping Zhang San followed much the same process as worshipping God—reciting scriptures, singing hymns, praying... The greater the sense of ritual in the ceremony, and the more emotionally invested the participants were, the faster the points on their membership cards rose.

No scriptures? That was fine. They could modify the prayers of other gods and make do. No hymns? That was fine too. They could swap out the name of the main god and scrape by.

As the saying went, effort never betrayed the determined. The unorthodox methods the young wizards had figured out really did improve their membership point gains. The students' enthusiasm was immediately ignited, and a vigorous Zhang San worship movement swept through the school.

He lay in the shrine while incense rained down from the heavens. Ever since the points shop event had gone live, Zhang San's incense power had been growing at an outrageously rapid rate every day, making him grin so hard his back teeth showed.

With enough incense power, Zhang San could also use quite a few divine arts to demonstrate his abilities.

Before the Quidditch match, Zhang San's little shrine introduced the "Warm Hogwarts" event. After offering incense, young wizards could receive a warmth buff lasting twenty-four hours. This buff could ward off cold winds and keep people from freezing outdoors.

The fierce winter winds of the Scottish Highlands stung people's faces, and it also happened to be Quidditch season. In previous years, Quidditch fans could only endure the bitter cold while watching matches. But with the Warm Incense Offering event, young wizards could watch happily without fearing the cold, even in thin clothing.

Thus, a strange sight appeared at the Quidditch pitch—a large group of young wizards sat in the stands wearing light clothes, cheering excitedly without feeling cold at all.

"It really isn't cold at all."

"Yeah, yeah! We don't have to wrap ourselves into balls anymore."

"That one silver Sickle was so worth it."

"And it also gives us membership points..."

The young wizards chatted animatedly, their conversations revolving tightly around the little shrine outside Hogwarts Castle.

Zhang San had already become a familiar figure to everyone. Even some upper-year students who did not know him had worshipped him in the common rooms.

Now, the common rooms of all four Houses had Zhang San's statues. Not even the generations-long enmity between Slytherin and Gryffindor could stop students from making offerings to Zhang San.

The main reason was simply that worshipping Zhang San came with too many benefits. They could play games at the arcade, get discounts while shopping, summon Zhang San for homework help from a top student, and ask Zhang San to bless things with sparkling visual effects...

"Hello? Hello!"

"Testing, testing."

"Ladies and gentlemen... and Peeves, who snuck in to watch the match!"

"Welcome to this year's most thrilling Quidditch showdown! I'm your beloved match commentator, Lee Jordan, who has been threatened three times by Professor McGonagall that she'll confiscate his loudspeaker!"

The Black kid sprayed spit with fiery enthusiasm. Living up to his heritage, his gift for rapid-fire talk was truly profound. Every match, he commentated with the resolve of staking his entire career on it. Although his stance was always wildly biased toward Gryffindor, listening to him ramble was undeniably a blast.

"Let us welcome this Quidditch match's mascot—Third Zhang!" Lee Jordan announced.

Draped in golden light, Zhang San flew into the sky and declared the match open. He expanded his form to an immense size, like a colossal giant standing proudly in the heavens.

The young wizards cheered, the young wizards shouted, the young wizards prayed devoutly... and then the membership points rose again.

He had no idea why he had become the Quidditch match mascot. Apparently, this was a new thing the school had introduced this year to align with the Quidditch World Cup. Then, after a student vote, Zhang San was elected the mascot of the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup by an overwhelming margin.

It was a thoroughly baffling voting result. As expected, even wizards' terrible ideas could be absurd in their own unique way.