Lu Chen’s heart skipped a beat.
He hadn’t expected the head of the Zhao Family Temple to dare use force so openly!
Lu Chen’s face changed.
It seemed his gut feeling had been right!
There was indeed going to be some trouble today.
“What’s wrong, young brother? Are you too excited?”
Zhao Zhihong’s smile was radiant, his expression kind and friendly.
Only Lu Chen knew what kind of person this guy really was.
But circumstances were stronger than he was.
For now, Lu Chen had no choice but to play along. He replied flatly, “I’m very excited.”
Zhao Zhihong laughed. “Of course you’re excited! If I were you, I wouldn’t know how excited I’d be. Young brother, let me ask you one more thing: Is our Zhao Family Temple responsive or not?!”
Lu Chen smirked inwardly, watching the performance. “It’s responsive!”
Zhao Zhihong said loudly and cheerfully, “Everyone, see that? Our Zhao Family Temple has always had a great reputation. When it comes to making wishes and receiving blessings, we’re second to none! Some of you might not know this young brother’s background. Yesterday was his first time at our Zhao Family Temple. He worshipped Lord Jun, the God of Wealth, and with just one stick of incense, he achieved a 5% Divine Servant Degree!”
“What!”
Many of the worshippers burst into exclamations.
“That’s right! With just one stick of incense! But compared to today, yesterday was child’s play. As you can see, today he shot straight up to 43%. Isn’t that nothing short of a miracle, everyone?”
Zhao Zhihong raised his arm and called out.
You would have thought he was enthusiastically promoting Lu Chen and promoting Lord Jun, the God of Wealth.
“That’s right, exactly!”
“This is incredible! I’m going to give it a try later, too!”
“Me too!”
The worshippers were eager to try.
Zhao Zhihong raised his hand to signal for quiet and smiled. “Everyone is welcome to give it a try! However…”
Lu Chen noticed the shift in his tone and knew that after all that build-up, the main show was finally beginning.
Zhao Zhihong looked at Lu Chen and smiled. “Young brother, to be honest with you, after you came yesterday, your situation attracted a lot of attention from our temple. After careful discussion by our team of experts, we reached a conclusion at the time. And that conclusion has now been 100% verified by your performance today.
We all agree that there must be a destined connection between you and Lord Jun, the God of Wealth!”
“A destined connection?!”
As soon as he said this, the worshippers erupted again in exclamations.
Even Lu Chen frowned.
So that was the excuse they came up with…
What exactly is a “destined connection”?
Simply put, it means there is some kind of karmic bond from a past life between a spiritualist and a deity.
In such a case…
Once the spiritualist starts worshipping the relevant deity, they will receive the deity’s natural favor.
It will also greatly increase their Divine Servant Degree.
In plain language, it means they have an inborn “talent” in that particular area.
But this situation is a completely unrepeatable, unique case.
It’s purely “the heavens handing out a free meal”!
“Wow. To keep me from ruining their reputation, they even made up such a high-sounding excuse.”
Lu Chen sneered inwardly.
Obviously, their goal was exactly what he had guessed.
They were terrified that his skyrocketing Divine Servant Degree would cause all the worshippers to go and worship Lord Jun, thereby neglecting Zhao Gongming and ruining the Zhao Family Temple’s reputation.
“A bit too sensitive, don’t you think? I know full well that ruining someone’s livelihood is like murdering their parents. Do I need a lesson on that?”
Lu Chen was speechless.
But since it wasn’t a direct attack on him, Lu Chen didn’t mind playing along with the temple’s little act.
“A destined connection? So that’s it. I was wondering why my Divine Servant Degree was rising so fast.”
Lu Chen pretended to be surprised.
“Exactly. I imagine, young brother, that you must have had a deep connection with Lord Jun in a past life, which is why he has shown you such special favor.”
Seeing that Lu Chen was being quite cooperative, Zhao Zhihong let go of the hand he had placed on Lu Chen’s shoulder.
Sure enough, when the worshippers heard this, they looked at each other, and they were all bitterly disappointed.
“So that’s it. I thought this deity was really responsive. Turns out it was just a destined connection.”
“I knew it. How could an obscure deity be this responsive? What a waste of emotion.”
“Good thing I didn’t buy any offerings. Otherwise, I would have lost a fortune.”
“I was wondering how this kid was so ridiculously lucky. Turns out it’s merit accumulated from a past life. No wonder I went to pray to Lord Jun yesterday and got absolutely nothing. Wasted two thousand bucks of mine.”
“When buying a car, don’t buy an obscure model. When worshipping gods, don’t worship obscure deities. That’s an unbreakable truth.”
Lu Chen saw that these same worshippers who had been thrilled just moments ago had now completely changed their tune because of a flimsy excuse.
He couldn’t help but sneer repeatedly.
To be honest, worshippers like these? They weren’t worth having.
“Come on, young man, let’s take a group photo as a souvenir. Thank you for choosing our Zhao Family Temple!”
Now that the threat had been nipped in the bud, Zhao Zhihong was in a great mood. He took the initiative to have a staff member take some photos.
As the two of them stood shoulder to shoulder and smiled toward the camera…
Zhao Zhihong’s voice transmission entered Lu Chen’s mind again.
“Young man, since you’ve performed well, you’re welcome to come to our Zhao Family Temple to worship other deities in the future. But as for Lord Jun, the God of Wealth? No.”
The smile on Lu Chen’s face instantly froze.
He didn’t know the voice transmission technique, so he could only whisper, “Why?”
Zhao Zhihong didn’t use the voice transmission technique this time either. He also spoke softly. “You’re a smart man. You shouldn’t need me to explain.”
Lu Chen said, “I don’t get it. Even if Lord Jun and Lord Zhao are in competition, he’s still a deity enshrined in your temple. If his incense offerings flourish, your temple doesn’t lose anything!”
Zhao Zhihong pulled Lu Chen into a different angle for another photo and said coldly, “Your analysis isn’t wrong, but you missed the most important point. What is our surname?”
Lu Chen was taken aback. He understood there was no room for negotiation. Not wanting to argue any further, he asked, “And what if I insist on coming anyway?”
Zhao Zhihong let out a dismissive laugh. “Do you really think you can worship here if I don’t want you to?”
Lu Chen said coldly, “The law clearly states that unless a worshipper has a bad record, temples cannot stop them from making offerings. Are you planning to break the law knowingly?”
The photo session ended.
Most of the worshippers around them had already left.
Zhao Zhihong stopped pretending and sneered, “Don’t put labels on me. The Zhao Family Group operates legally. We never break the law. I’m not stopping you from coming to our temple to worship. But I have plenty of ways to make sure you can’t worship Lord Jun.”
Lu Chen frowned. “What do you mean?”
Zhao Zhihong said, “The temple has the right to manage its own deity altars as it sees fit. We can introduce new deities, and we also have the right to remove a batch of deities whose incense offerings don’t meet the standard. If I remove Lord Jun’s altar, then tell me, how will you worship him? Oh, and let me tell you one more thing. In all of Jiangdu City—no, in fact, in the entire Jiang Province—our Zhao Family Temple is the only one that enshrines obscure deities like Lord Jun. If we remove his altar, I’m afraid you won’t be able to find a second place to worship him anywhere in Jiang Province.”
Zhao Zhihong didn’t bother to hide his mocking smile.
Lu Chen’s face turned livid. He really hadn’t expected the Zhao Family to be so shameless and so sensitive.
He had only exchanged with Lord Jun twice so far.
Sure, the speed at which his Divine Servant Degree had risen was a bit fast.
But that alone had already made the Zhao Family wary, to the point where they were acting as if they wanted to completely strangle the threat in the cradle.
He had to admit, they moved way too fast.
Aren’t villains supposed to be brainless?
These guys were way too smart.
“It seems a tall tree catches the wind!” Lu Chen concluded to himself.
To be fair, if he were allowed to continue developing unchecked, he really would become a major headache for the Zhao Family.
After all, the very foundation of the Zhao Family Temple’s business was Zhao Gongming.
The incense offerings to Lord Zhao alone probably accounted for more than 50% of the Zhao Family’s annual revenue.
No wonder the Zhao Family reacted so strongly.
But Zhao Zhihong thought he had all the answers. Little did he know that Lu Chen also had his own tricks up his sleeve!
You want to remove the altar?
Fine, no problem!
Then I’ll just invite the deity to come to me!
