Lu Chen looked toward the sound.
The shrine before him could not conceal its dilapidation.
But compared to the utter desolation of the Zhao Clan Temple,
this place at least retained its basic form and was still presentable.
Without revealing anything, he took a deep breath, picked up the incense stick in his hand, and turned back to say quietly, "Could I trouble you all to step back a few paces and let me try first?"
Hearing this, Sun Dechang and the others immediately retreated, keeping more than three meters away from him.
Lu Chen lit the incense. As wisps of green smoke curled upward, the secret incantation for seeking the Kitchen God surfaced in his mind.
He calmed his mind and silently recited within his heart:
"Heaven and earth assume their stations, Lord of Fate, Kitchen God;
Revered by all beneath heaven, blessings and fortune shall wholly arrive;
Disasters shall be driven away, pestilence and plague shall flee in hiding;
Looking up and relying on vast guidance, all shall attain peace..."
Once he finished the silent incantation, Lu Chen respectfully planted the incense in the burner.
All that remained was to wait.
The incense tip flickered, green smoke coiled about, and time passed amid the silence.
Even when half the incense had burned away, the shrine remained silent, showing not the slightest anomaly.
Old Wu sighed softly, unsurprised by the result.
He himself had burned incense over three hundred times, every attempt vanishing like a stone sinking into the sea.
For this young man to hope to succeed in one go was rather wishful thinking.
Although Old Wu had heard from his son about Lu Chen's recent extraordinary feats,
this Household Immortal... was different, after all.
Back when its incense offerings had flourished, it had been a deity firmly