In the back courtyard.
The golden-threaded box gradually turned to ashes in the flames. The rolling hot wind carried the embers up into the sky, forming a spiraling tornado that shot straight into the heavens.
Lu Chen stood quietly to the side, waiting patiently.
If everything went smoothly, then over on Lord Wealth’s end, he should be receiving this special “offering” very soon.
As long as this worked out.
Then what lay before Lu Chen would be a broad and open road—one without any predecessors or successors.
When that time came, forget about the Jade Emperor and the Queen Mother of the West, and all that…
He’d beat the Jade Emperor into submission!
He’d make all of them step aside for this humble Taoist.
At the same time, inside the divine statue, there was a small, self-contained space.
Lord Wealth stood in mid-air, not understanding what kind of game Lu Chen was playing, so he decided to just watch for now.
As the fire in the golden-threaded box grew fiercer, more and more ashes swirled upward.
Inside the divine statue’s space, the dim surroundings suddenly burst forth with ten thousand rays of golden light.
Lord Wealth’s expression turned serious, and he looked around in astonishment.
“This is… incense offering?!”
But upon closer inspection, he realized that wasn’t quite right.
Those ten thousand rays of golden light rapidly gathered together, first transforming into stacks of paper currency that swirled before his eyes.
Lord Wealth stared at this stack of gold-glowing paper money, and his divine pupils suddenly contracted. He exclaimed in shock, “No, this is… Heavenly Gold?!”
Just as the underworld has its own spirit money.
And the mortal world has its banknotes.
The Heavenly Court naturally has its own form of currency in circulation.
“How does this kid have Heavenly Gold? Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!”
Heavenly Gold only circulates within the Heavenly Court.
How could an ordinary mortal possess something that belongs to immortals and gods?
Lord Wealth didn’t believe it. But after checking repeatedly and confirming beyond doubt that it was indeed Heavenly Gold…
A storm of shock erupted in his heart.
An ordinary mortal had actually offered him the currency of the Heavenly Court?
How could this not shake him to his core?
What’s more terrifying is that the amount of this Heavenly Gold was a whopping ten thousand taels!
As a god in the Heavenly Court’s “finance department,” his monthly salary was only about seven or eight hundred gold pieces at most.
What Lu Chen had burned for him amounted to a year and a half of his salary!
For a moment, Lord Wealth even felt a sense of disorientation.
“Who’s the real god of wealth here—me or him?”
Before Lord Wealth could calm his emotions, the golden light gathered once again.
What condensed this time wasn’t Heavenly Gold.
Instead, it was several exquisitely made embroidered robes.
One look and you could tell they were priceless.
He could even offer divine robes as a tribute?!
Lord Wealth was dumbfounded.
Only now did he suddenly remember what Lu Chen had said earlier: this kind of gold, silver, and fine goods were not the ordinary kind.
“Who is this kid, really? How does he have such abilities?”
Lord Wealth was utterly astonished, barely able to believe it.
He himself was an immortal god, yet he had never even heard of or seen such secret arts before.
Where on earth did an ordinary mortal learn something like this?
In just an instant, countless thoughts flashed through Lord Wealth’s mind as he rapidly weighed the pros and cons.
But then his face suddenly turned ashen.
“How dare you, you insolent brat! You dare to bribe me?!”
In his past life, Lord Wealth had been Emperor Chai Rong, a ruler who worked diligently to strengthen his kingdom, punished corruption severely, and advocated for honest officials.
Though he didn’t know what methods Lu Chen had used,
The fact of the bribe was as solid as a nail on a board—undeniable!
If he actually accepted this money, how would he be any different from those corrupt officials he had beheaded back in the day?
Pride welled up in Lord Wealth’s heart: “No! Even if I starve to death and my divine status crumbles, I will never accept this charity and let myself be tainted by filthy lucre!”
He immediately prepared to punish Lu Chen severely and teach him a lesson.
But just then, all of a sudden!
The entire divine statue space blazed with ten thousand rays of golden light!
These rays of light transformed into golden lotus flowers.
And they kept flowing into Lord Wealth’s body.
“This is… merit?!”
Feeling the divine power surging within him,
At that moment, Lord Wealth stood dumbfounded, completely bewildered.
Heavenly Gold!
Divine robes!
Merit!!!
That small packet of yellow paper contained a whole hidden world of wonders, so miraculous!
“Ah~”
Blessed with this great merit, Lord Wealth couldn’t help but let out a groan.
An unprecedented sense of comfort wrapped around his entire being.
It was like a long drought finally seeing rain!
Even his divine consciousness suddenly condensed and grew a bit stronger.
“How is this possible? He can directly offer merit as a tribute! And this small packet of yellow paper contains merit equivalent to the incense offerings of ten thousand people!”
Lord Wealth was so shocked that he lost his composure.
For a god like him, who achieved sainthood through merit,
Merit is the very foundation of existence!
Without merit, over time, a merit-based god wouldn’t just lose their magical powers—even their lifespan would one day run out.
Only those primordial spirits could live as long as the heavens themselves, immortal and undying.
Though he had no idea what methods this kid had used to directly generate merit,
This merit was undeniably real.
For a moment, Lord Wealth’s expression suddenly became complicated.
His earlier anger had also, without him even noticing, mostly dissipated.
…
Meanwhile, in front of the divine statue,
Seeing that the offering had almost finished burning,
Lu Chen’s heartbeat was getting faster and faster.
“Why isn’t there any response yet? Could it be that Lord Wealth didn’t receive my offering? Did the plan fail?”
The golden light shimmering around the statue showed that he hadn’t left yet.
Lu Chen decided not to wait any longer. He immediately clasped his hands and took the initiative to ask, “Lord Wealth, have you received this younger generation’s humble tribute?”
Still no response.
“Lord Wealth?”
Lu Chen called out softly again.
“I am here!”
That ethereal, sacred voice finally sounded.
Lu Chen breathed a sigh of relief.
But then Lord Wealth’s voice turned cold: “Kid, who exactly were your ancestors? How do you possess so many miraculous secret arts? Tell me the truth, right now.”
Lu Chen’s pupils suddenly contracted.
Did this mean… he received the stuff?!
Joy surged in his heart.
It worked!
Oh my Boundless Heavenly Venerable, it actually worked.
Lu Chen tried hard to keep himself calm.
He could already hear the strong suspicion in Lord Wealth’s words, even a hint of wariness.
If he didn’t clear that up,
He might end up doing a good deed that backfired.
So Lu Chen spoke with the utmost sincerity: “In response to you, my lord, I truly don’t know what background my ancestors had. But I believe that if they didn’t have some skills, my Lu family line would have long since been lost to the river of time and wouldn’t have survived to this day.”
“As for the methods I used, to be honest with you, my lord, I learned them all from an ancestral secret manual. At the time, I had only read a few pages when the scroll burned up on its own. All the knowledge within was poured directly into my mind and etched into my memory.”
“I wonder if that too was some kind of secret art deliberately designed by my ancestors?”
To avoid Lord Wealth asking for that non-existent ancestral manual, Lu Chen smoothly added a patch—saying the scroll had already been destroyed.
That way, he wouldn’t have to face an awkward situation if the other party suddenly said, “Bring the thing here so I can take a look.”
“To be honest, my lord, I made this offering to you for three reasons. First, I did have the idea of taking a shortcut. Second, I wanted to test whether these secret arts really worked. And third: a drop of water in need shall be returned as a gushing spring—if you hadn’t blessed me, my lord, I’d still be going hungry right now.”
As he spoke, Lu Chen even forced a glimmer of tears into his eyes.
He pushed the emotion of repaying kindness a hundredfold to its absolute peak.
Inside the divine statue, Lord Wealth watched Lu Chen’s performance and couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth.
He could clearly tell whether those tears were real or fake.
But at least the kid’s answer was consistent and fairly sincere.
At the very least… it let Chai Rong get past that hurdle in his own heart.
“Oh well, it seems that meeting him is also a part of my own karma.”
Lord Wealth slowly spoke: “It appears that you, young friend, are also someone blessed with opportunity. Your ancestors were definitely not ordinary. For you to have fallen to this state, there must have been a great calamity.”
Young friend?
He’d gone from “kid” to “young friend”?
Wow, his divine favor score was skyrocketing again!
Lu Chen quickly agreed: “Exactly, exactly! You see right through it, Lord Wealth!”
Lord Wealth let out a long sigh: “In that case, considering your filial devotion, I… will not refuse.”
Lu Chen clasped his hands: “Please, my lord, accept it all. If it helps you, I’m honored to do my part. Oh, and I just remembered—the secret manual also recorded another method. If performed, it could equal the incense offerings of a hundred thousand people!”
What!
Equal to a hundred thousand incense offerings?
He had another such heaven-defying secret art?
Inside the temple space, Lord Wealth’s expression was deeply moved.
He was about to ask if that was really true, but he swallowed the words before they came out.
“Chai Rong, get a grip. You’re a god after all. How can you be so easily tempted by a mortal?”
But then he thought again: this was a hundred thousand incense offerings!
Who could resist that?
Not even a hydraulic jack could hold up against that!
“My lord?”
Hearing the call, Lord Wealth snapped back to attention. He cleared his throat, unable to hide the coaxing smile in his voice: “Young friend, let’s put the matter of merit aside for a moment. A thought has suddenly occurred to me, and I wonder if you’d be willing to hear me out?”
“You flatter me, my lord. Please, speak!”
Lord Wealth laughed heartily: “I find that I hit it off with you, young friend, the moment we met. It truly delights me. Why don’t the two of us become sworn brothers? What do you say, young friend?”
Lu Chen said loudly, “Of course I’m willing!”
The words had barely left his mouth.
Lu Chen sensed something off. His body jolted.
He stared wide-eyed at the divine statue.
“Wait… Sworn… sworn brothers?!”
“That’s right!”
Is anyone reading this? I’m begging for your collections, your data, your follows!
This directly affects how long this book will live! I’m counting on you!
