Gods of the Nation: You worship the God of Longevity, I worship the King of Hell!

Chapter 3 I have not eaten incense for many years, yet there are still people who remember me!
Song Hao laughed loudly: "Nonsense, the reason it doesn't work is because people tried it before and found it didn't work, so no one tried it anymore. Don't you understand?"

"Yes," the worshippers echoed.

Song Hao then sneered, "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 of view this time: "Lu Chen, these gods with thriving incense offerings have been verified by countless people and countless years, which is why they are so popular. On the other hand, the kind of gods you want to worship, to put it bluntly, are all gods who have been selected. You... should understand what I mean, right?"

Lu Chen was too lazy to argue with them: "Forget it, we've already offered incense, let's talk about it after we've finished the worship."

"Still offering sacrifices? Even the gods are struggling to survive, and you still want to skim profits from them? Lu Chen, Lu Chen, your divine move today truly stunned me! Hahaha!"

Song Hao was laughing so hard he could barely stand up straight, and the way he looked at Lu Chen was no different from looking at an idiot.

Seeing how lawless this guy was, Lu Chen laughed and pointed to the sky: "Song Hao, you dare to blaspheme the gods in the temple, you're really bold, aren't you afraid of divine retribution?"

"Boom!"

A muffled thunderclap, neither too loud nor too soft, suddenly echoed in the sky.

They seemed to be echoing Lu Chen's words.

Song Hao's smile suddenly froze on his face.

The surrounding worshippers also stopped smiling and became solemn.

He clearly realized that his behavior just now was inappropriate.

No matter what, they are gods after all.

Even if the incense offerings are weak, crushing them mortals is as easy as crushing ants.

Lu Chen nodded provocatively at Song Hao: "Come on, keep talking. Why did you stop? Are you scared?"

Song Hao's face turned pale and then red, and he sneered, "You don't really think that this God of Wealth will bestow blessings upon you just because of a stick of incense, do you?"

Lu Chen pursed his lips: "Hard to say."

Song Hao: "Then let's make a bet, are you in?"

"bet?"

Song Hao: "If you can really get this God of Wealth's blessing, I'll give you a thousand. Otherwise, if you can't, then kneel down and kowtow to me a few times to admit your mistake. Do you dare?"

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

Lu Chen was so angry at Song Hao that he laughed: "How about this, Song Hao, you go and offer ten sticks of incense to Zhao Caishen now. If you are blessed, I will be your slave for the next month. If you are not, all your family's property will belong to me. Shall we bet?"

Song Hao was taken aback: "Are you sick?"

Lu Chen's face darkened: "You know you're sick? With your kind of brain, you still want to pursue Li Ruoyi? Honestly, I feel disgusted, even if you don't find it disgusting."

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

Li Ruoyi looked embarrassed and glared angrily at Song Hao.

The people around couldn't stand it anymore.

"Young man, your bet was completely unfair. How can you make a bet like that?"

"That's right, they said 'it's hard to say,' not 'definite.' As long as you offer sacrifices, theoretically there's always a chance."

"Yeah, you think you can get people to kowtow for a thousand yuan? You're pretty good at business."

Listening to the teasing voices around me.

Song Hao was furious, but dared not provoke the crowd, so he could only say with a gloomy face, "Fine, then I'll wait here and see if you can really do it."

At this moment, the ticket inspector began to urge, "Alright, the new batch can go in now, hurry up."

Lu Chen ignored Song Hao and walked straight into the inner courtyard.

Song Hao crossed his arms and said, "Ruoyi, there's no rush. If there's no rush, let's wait for him. I want to see how he succeeds."

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

The two then waited at the exit.

And the other side.

Following the signs, Lu Chen arrived at the backyard.

The other pilgrims from the same group had already gone to their respective temples to worship, but he was the only one walking alone on the deserted path.

"What you can't do, I might be able to do!"

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

It is only because the pavilions and towers in the front yard are so majestic and solemn.

The backyard could only be described as dilapidated.

Everywhere was overgrown with weeds, and even the houses were dilapidated.

"Damn, the Zhao family is really despicable. They're gods, after all. They could at least fix up their backyard. Why are they being treated so differently just because they can't sell incense?"

As the old saying goes, clothes make the man, and gold makes the god.

With the backyard in such a dilapidated state, it would be a miracle if any worshippers wanted to come.

If worshippers are unwilling to come, these deities become even less effective, the temples become more dilapidated, and a vicious cycle is formed.

Lu Chen shook his head. He couldn't help but gain a deeper understanding of the reality of the temple.

He bent down and searched for a long time before finally finding Chai Rong's shrine in front of a dilapidated shrine.

Upon inspection, the tiles of the shrine were all broken.

The paint on Chai Rong's clay sculpture with gold leaf has also peeled off.

The entire divine position appeared extremely dilapidated.

Lu Chen couldn't bear it, so he didn't rush to worship. He first picked up a few intact tiles from the ground and replaced them on the shrine, and then cleared away the weeds around it.

After finishing the preparations, he lit the three sticks of incense in his hand.

Hold the incense in front of you in the orthodox Taoist ritual.

He began reciting the Taoist mantra for invoking the gods—the Incense Offering Mantra.

"The Way is learned through the heart, and the heart transmits it through incense; incense burns in the jade censer, and the heart dwells before the Emperor; the true spirits look down, and the immortals grace the hall; now your subject reports this, reaching the heavens afar. So be it!"

After reciting the incantation, Lu Chen waited devoutly for a response.

Time passed second by second, but the statue remained unresponsive.

"Isn't once enough?"

Lu Chen read it again.

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

Now, Lu Chen became a little nervous.

"Although there were no divine interventions in my previous life, this Incense Offering Incantation is a Taoist incantation passed down for thousands of years. How could it not work? Could it be that the Taoist incantations of the previous dynasty cannot summon the gods of this dynasty?"

Lu Chen tried her best to remain calm.

"Don't rush, sincerity is key, just wait a little longer!"

Lu Chen simply knelt down in front of the statue, holding incense sticks in both hands.

Little did they know that as the smoke swirled, a wisp of essence emerged from the incense, rising gently and having already traversed the heavens to arrive at a magnificent golden palace!

Heavenly Court, the Temple of the God of Wealth.

Chai Rong, the God of Wealth, who was sitting upright on a prayer mat, suddenly opened his eyes and exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? There are actually mortals worshipping me?"

Suddenly, the palace doors were pushed open.

A temple attendant rushed in, excitedly saying, "My lord, a wisp of incense has flown into our God of Wealth Temple."

The God of Wealth nodded: "I have received it. I didn't expect that after so much time, there would still be someone in the mortal realm who remembers me. This person also knows mysterious arts; it seems their background is not simple!"

Chai Rong nodded: "Let me go down to the mortal realm and take a look!"

……

Meanwhile, in the temple's backyard.

He knelt on the ground for a long time until his fingers felt burning hot, then he suddenly looked up.

They discovered that the incense had almost burned out.

"It seems that one attempt won't be enough; we need to try several more times to make a more definitive judgment."

Lu Chen was not discouraged.

After all, one success was just wishful thinking on his part.

It's understandable and expected that it wouldn't succeed.

"Never mind, let's come again next time."

Inserting the incense into the incense burner, Lu Chen stood up and bowed, saying, "Lord Juncai, I will trouble you again next time."

After saying that, he turned and left.

"stop!"

But at that moment, a clear and ethereal voice rang out from behind.

Lu Chen's feet instantly rooted to the ground, his pupils contracted sharply, and he turned around abruptly.

Inside the shrine, the clay sculpture of a golden body shimmered faintly with golden light.

Lu Chen tentatively asked, "Lord Juncai? Is that you?"

The God of Wealth: "If it weren't me, who else could it be?"

I tapped it, and it worked!
Lu Chen's heart was in turmoil, and he immediately bowed and said, "Welcome, Lord Jun Cai! I am Lu Chen, and I pay my respects!"

The God of Wealth said, "Never mind, no need for formalities. I haven't eaten human offerings for many years, yet I never expected that a mortal would still remember me today. Young man, are you worshipping me today to pray for wealth?"

Lu Chen nodded frankly: "Yes!"

Jun Caishen's tone became slightly amused: "Since you are seeking wealth, why don't you worship Zhao Caishen instead of me? Don't you all say that Zhao Caishen is far superior to me?"

(End of this chapter)