I Have Not Tasted Incense Fire for Years, Yet Someone Still Remembers Me!

Song Hao laughed heartily. "Nonsense. The reason He isn't responsive is precisely because people tried before, found it didn't work, and stopped trying. You don't even understand that?"

"Indeed." The pilgrims chimed in one after another.

Song Hao continued with a cold snort, "Do you think you're the only smart person in the world and everyone else is a fool?"

Li Ruoyi agreed with Song Hao's point this time. "Lu Chen, these gods with flourishing Incense Fire have been verified by countless people over countless years, which is why their Incense Fire is so prosperous. Conversely, the type of deity you want to worship—to put it bluntly—they are the gods who have been filtered out. You... should understand what I mean, right?"

Lu Chen couldn't be bothered to argue with them. "Forget it. I've already purchased the incense; let's talk after I finish the ritual."

"Still going to worship? This deity can't even protect himself, and you still want to squeeze benefits out of Him? Lu Chen, oh Lu Chen, your 'divine move' today truly left me stunned! Hahaha!"

Song Hao laughed so hard he could barely stand straight, looking at Lu Chen as if he were looking at an idiot.

Seeing this guy acting so lawless, Lu Chen was amused and pointed to the sky. "Song Hao, you dare to blaspheme a deity inside a God Temple? You really have some nerve. Aren't you afraid of divine retribution?"

"Boom!"

A low, muffled rumble of thunder suddenly echoed in the sky.

It seemed to be echoing Lu Chen's words.

Song Hao's smile stiffened abruptly on his face.

The surrounding pilgrims also withdrew their smiles, their expressions turning solemn.

Clearly, they realized that their previous behavior was indeed inappropriate.

Regardless of anything else, the other party was, after all, a deity.

No matter how weak the Incense Fire, crushing them mortals would be no different than crushing ants.

Lu Chen gave Song Hao a provocative nod. "Come on, keep talking. Why did you stop? Scared?"

Song Hao's face turned a shade of green and white. He snorted coldly, "You don't actually think that with just this one stick of pathetic incense, this Lord God of Wealth will bestow blessings upon you, do you?"

Lu Chen curled his lip. "Hard to say."

Song Hao: "Then let's make a bet. Do you dare?"

"A bet?"

Song Hao: "If you can truly obtain a blessing from this Wealth God, I'll pay you one thousand. Conversely, if you can't, then you kneel down, kowtow to me a few times, and admit you were wrong. Do you dare?"

Li Ruoyi's expression turned cold. "Song Hao, what are you saying?!"

Lu Chen was truly amused to the point of laughter by this idiot Song Hao. "How about this, Song Hao? You go offer ten sticks of incense to the Zhao God of Wealth right now. If you can receive a blessing, I'll be your servant for the next month. If you can't, your family's entire fortune belongs to me. Do you dare to bet?"

Song Hao was stunned. "Are you sick?"

Lu Chen's face darkened. "You're finally aware that you're sick. With your kind of quality and brain capacity, you still want to pursue Li Ruoyi? Honestly, if you don't find it disgusting, I do."

Lu Chen shook his head at Li Ruoyi as he said the latter half of the sentence.

Li Ruoyi looked embarrassed and shot an angry glare at Song Hao.

The people around couldn't listen anymore either.

"Young man, the bet you proposed just now is completely unfair. Who bets like that?"

"Exactly. He said it was 'hard to say,' not that it was certain. As long as one performs the ritual, there is theoretically a chance."

"That's right. You want to make someone kowtow for a thousand bucks? You're quite the businessman."

Hearing the mocking voices around him, Song Hao was furious, but he didn't dare provoke the public's anger. He could only say with a gloomy face, "Fine, then I'll wait right here. I want to see if you can actually pull it off."

At this moment, the ticket collector began to urge them, "Alright, the next group can go in now. Hurry up."

Lu Chen stopped paying attention to Song Hao and walked straight toward the inner courtyard.

Song Hao crossed his arms. "Ruoyi, we're not in a hurry, right? If not, let's wait for him a while. I really want to see how he succeeds."

Li Ruoyi looked at Song Hao speechlessly, but after thinking about it, she didn't refuse.

The two of them waited at the exit.

On the other side, Lu Chen followed the signs and made his way to the backyard.

The pilgrims from his previous group had already headed to the various God Temples they intended to worship, leaving him alone on the desolate, deserted path.

"What you cannot do, this humble priest might not necessarily fail at!"

But the moment he stepped into the backyard, Lu Chen was dumbfounded.

Compared to the pavilions and halls of the front yard, which were solemn and magnificent, this backyard could only be described as dilapidated.

Weeds grew everywhere, and even the buildings were broken.

"Seriously? This Zhao family is too much. They are gods, after all; they could at least renovate the backyard. Just because they can't sell Incense Fire, they treat them with such discrimination?"

As the old saying goes, people rely on clothes and gods rely on gold.

With the backyard in such a state of ruin, it would be a miracle if any pilgrims were willing to come here.

When pilgrims refuse to come, these deities become even less responsive, causing the God Temple to fall into further disrepair and eventually forming a vicious cycle.

Lu Chen shook his head.

He could not help but gain a deeper understanding of the reality of the God Temple.

He bent down and searched for quite a while, finally finding the spirit tablet of Chai Rong in front of a dilapidated shrine.

At a glance, he saw that the tiles of the shrine were already shattered.

The clay-sculpted golden body of Chai Rong had also lost its paint.

The entire spirit tablet appeared extremely desolate.

Lu Chen could not bear to see this. Without rushing to offer his respects, he first picked up a few intact tiles from the ground nearby to replace the ones on the shrine, then cleared away the surrounding weeds.

Only after tidying up did he light the three sticks of incense in his hand.

Holding them before him with the orthodox Taoist incense-offering ritual, he began to chant the Taoist scripture for invoking deities—the Incense-Blessing Divine Mantra.

"The Dao is learned through the heart, the heart conveys through incense; incense rises from the jade censer, the heart rests before the Emperor; the true spirit looks down from above, the immortal pendant descends to the pavilion; today I, your subject, report this, reaching far to the Nine Heavens. As urgent as the law and command!"

After finishing the mantra, Lu Chen waited devoutly for a response.

Time ticked by second by second, yet the statue remained unresponsive.

Could it be that once is not enough?

Lu Chen chanted it again.

After waiting for a long time, there was still no reaction.

Now, Lu Chen began to feel nervous.

Although no gods manifested in my past life, this Incense-Blessing Divine Mantra is a deity-invocation spell passed down by the Taoist school for thousands of years; how could it not work? Could it be that the Taoist mantras of the previous dynasty cannot summon the gods of the current one?

Lu Chen tried his best to remain calm.

Don't be impatient, sincerity brings spiritual response, wait a little longer!

Lu Chen simply knelt down before the statue, holding the incense high with both hands.

Little did he know that as the smoke swirled, a wisp of vital energy emerged from the incense, rising ethereally and crossing the nine heavens to arrive at a palace shimmering with brilliant golden light!

Heavenly Court, Lord God of Wealth Hall.

Chai Rong, the Lord God of Wealth, who was sitting cross-legged on a meditation cushion, suddenly opened his eyes and said in surprise, "Eh, a mortal is actually offering sacrifices to me?"

At this moment, the hall door was suddenly pushed open.

A temple attendant hurried in and said joyfully, "My Lord, a wisp of Incense Fire has flown into our Wealth God Hall."

The Lord God of Wealth nodded. "I have already received it. I did not expect that after so much time, there would still be someone in the mortal world who remembers me. This person even knows the secret arts of communication; it seems his background is not simple!"

Chai Rong nodded. "I shall descend to the mortal realm and take a look!"

Meanwhile, in the backyard of the God Temple.

Having knelt on the ground for a long time, Lu Chen only looked up abruptly when he felt a scorching heat on his fingers.

He discovered that the incense had almost burned out.

"It seems once is still not enough. I will need to try a few more times to make a more definitive judgment."

Lu Chen was not discouraged.

After all, succeeding on the first try was merely his wishful thinking.

Failure was within reason and expectation.

"Forget it, I'll come back next time."

Inserting the incense into the censer, Lu Chen stood up and bowed. "Lord God of Wealth, I shall come to disturb you again next time."

With that, he turned to leave.

"Stop!"

Just then, an ethereal and sacred voice rang out from behind him.

Lu Chen's feet were instantly nailed to the ground, his pupils constricted, and he whipped his head around.

He saw that the clay-sculpted golden body within the shrine was faintly shimmering with golden light.

Lu Chen asked tentatively, "Lord God of Wealth? Is, is that you?"

The Lord God of Wealth replied, "If it is not me, who else could it be?"

Holy crap, it actually worked!!

Lu Chen's heart was churning like the sea. He immediately bowed and said, "Greetings, Lord God of Wealth. I am Lu Chen, I pay my respects to you!"

The Lord God of Wealth said, "Forget it, skip the formalities. I have not consumed the Incense Fire of the human world for many years; I did not expect that there would still be a mortal who remembers me today. Young man, you offered sacrifices to me today, is it to seek wealth?"

Lu Chen nodded frankly. "Yes!"

The Lord God of Wealth's tone became slightly playful. "Since you seek wealth, why do you not worship that Zhao God of Wealth, but instead come to worship me? Do you people of the world not all say that the Zhao God of Wealth is far superior to me?"