—Thump, thump, thump!
Lu Chen’s heartbeat suddenly skipped a beat.
He unconsciously swallowed, steadied himself, and only then walked step by step toward that thatched cottage.
Stepping inside, he saw that the furnishings were simple and crude.
From the corner of his eye, Lu Chen immediately spotted a white-haired young man sitting calmly at a wooden table beside the stove.
The man wore a brocade robe, his features extraordinarily handsome, and he was just picking up a piece of candy from a bowl on the table and leisurely placing it into his mouth.
“You… you’re the Kitchen God?” Lu Chen was stunned on the spot.
In his impression, the Kitchen God should have been a kindly old man with a big belly. How could he be this dashing and handsome?
Wait!
Lu Chen really did remember now.
It was said that in earlier times, the Kitchen God had always followed the handsome-man route.
But as folk worship spread more widely, in order to better reflect the Kitchen God’s identity as a “common household deity,”
he had gradually been transformed into the image of an old man.
Clearly, this handsome man before him was the Kitchen God’s true appearance.
“Young friend, since you make offerings to the Kitchen God, if I am not the Kitchen God, then who else could I be?”
The Kitchen God raised his eyes to look over, his divine gaze like stars.
“Sit.”
“Yes, thank you, Kitchen God!” Lu Chen bowed deeply and sat down across from him as instructed.
The Kitchen God picked up another piece of candy, savored it carefully, but shook his head slightly. “The candy of this present world, though novel in flavor, is ultimately not as mellow and sweet as it was in the past.”
Lu Chen quickly responded, “If you like it, Kitchen God, this junior will surely prepare more varieties in the future for you to taste. Whatever you enjoy, I will buy more.”
The young and handsome Kitchen God swallowed the candy and nodded with a smile. “You do have a thoughtful heart. Speak, then. What matter required such great effort to summon me here?”
Lu Chen pondered briefly, then said seriously, “To be honest, this junior came today to ask for help with an urgent matter. Recently, Jiangdu City has seen two consecutive ‘corpse-liberation ascension’ murder cases. In just one month, over a hundred lives have been lost.”
—The S-rank red-clothed fierce ghost at the Academy of Rebirth had slaughtered nearly a hundred people, plus the four lives lost to the Five Hells Ascension.
Thinking carefully, those who achieved corpse-liberation ascension had indeed harmed many lives.
“And yet the mastermind behind it all is still at large. This junior dares to ask you, Kitchen God, to take action and capture this villain!”
“This matter—you should have sought the Spirit Official, not come to me.” The Kitchen God’s tone was calm, revealing no emotion.
—The Spirit Official?
Lu Chen’s heart stirred.
That was right.
The Spirit Official’s duty was to inspect the Three Realms, ward off evil, and avert disasters.
By reason, this matter could indeed be brought to the Spirit Official.
But Yu Feng had only told him to find the culprit…
He suddenly understood something and quickly said, “Replying to the Kitchen God, although the Spirit Official is charged with inspection, he only kills and does not save. Once he acts, it is surely with thunderous force, annihilating both the form and spirit of the evil being. But the mortal world has its own laws. Whether human, demon, or ghost, since they have committed crimes in the mortal realm, they should be judged by mortal law. That is why this junior came to seek an audience with you, Kitchen God—you understand all matters of the mortal world, and all earthly affairs are within your sight and hearing.”
“Then why do you not go and pay respects to the Four Time Merit Officers? I see you carry a token of underworld divine office, and also a heavenly [Plague Division] edict. Even that ingot pendant on your chest, if I am not mistaken, should be the magic treasure of the Lord Wealth God among the Five Directions Wealth Gods. Oh, you even carry the aura of the Four Rivers Dragon God!”
The Kitchen God looked slightly surprised, but it vanished in an instant. His gaze was leisurely as he said, “At such a young age, you have formed bonds with so many great beings from the Heavenly Court, the Underworld, and the Dragon Palace. You are no simple person.”
Bearing that invisible pressure, Lu Chen cupped his hands and spoke frankly, “Kitchen God, you see clearly. This junior only had the good fortune to form bonds with several high immortals. As for the Four Time Merit Officers…”
He paused and smiled bitterly. “To be honest, this junior did go to pay respects, but…”
“But you were driven out by them?” The Kitchen God, now holding a cup of clear tea that had appeared in his hand at some point, gently blew on the steam and finished his sentence for him.
“Uh…” Lu Chen was speechless and could only nod.
“Hmph. Those fellows spend all day buried in documents. How would they ever care about the suffering of the mortal world?”
To Lu Chen’s surprise, the Kitchen God did not hide his contempt for the Four Time Merit Officers at all.
“These gods in heaven all fear karma like snakes and scorpions, terrified of being tainted even a little, yet they greedily enjoy mortal incense offerings, complaining only of too little and never of too much. It is truly laughable…”
He stopped there, lowered his head, took a sip of tea, and only then set down the cup.
—Damn!!
Lu Chen was secretly astonished.
He had not expected this Kitchen God to be so fierce, immediately roasting the heavenly gods.
Truly full of personality!
“Young friend, considering your sincerity, I may as well speak frankly. In former days, if you asked this of me, I would have helped. Even if you had not spoken, for anyone who makes offerings to me, the Kitchen God who governs destiny, I would never sit by and watch evil harm their lives.”
He paused, his expression slightly grave. “Unfortunately, times are different now. Now, even if I have the heart, I no longer have the power to intervene.”
Lu Chen’s heart tightened. He asked solemnly, “Kitchen God, have you encountered difficulties? Is it related to entering the temple?”
The Kitchen God’s gaze shifted slightly. He was silent for a moment, then finally sighed softly and nodded. “Since you understand the meaning of a household deity, then you should understand—a household deity protects the peace of one family. But ever since the Heavenly Court established new rules, ordering all gods to enter temples and receive offerings, I have completely lost my foundation. Think about it: a household deity, yet invited into a temple to receive worship. Is that not putting the cart before the horse?”
“I am not complaining that the heavenly rules are harsh. This is the general trend, and also the karma of heaven and earth.
But once I entered the temple, my divine office was destined to be restricted. It became hard to protect thousands of households at every moment as I once did.
Over time, my divine power grew dusty, and my divine strength naturally waned day by day… Such a cycle brought me to where I am today.”
At this point, his brows were full of helplessness.
“If not for the fact that in former days my incense offerings were abundant and some foundation still remained, I fear that today I would not even be able to draw your soul into this consciousness sea.”
Hearing this, Lu Chen was not surprised.
As expected, what the Kitchen God worried about was that after the decline of incense offerings, his magic power had shrunk greatly.
This was also a common ailment of unpopular gods.
At present, only King Yan and the Plague Emperor were somewhat better off.
The former belonged to a powerful authority department, so he was less dragged down by incense offerings.
As for the latter, after all, as one of the orthodox gods of the [Eight Divisions], his position was high and his power heavy.
By comparison, whether it was the Lord Wealth God or the Well Dragon King, their situations were exactly the same as this Kitchen God’s.
And yet… the one he had run into was Lu Chen!
He was familiar with this kind of thing!
—Extremely familiar!
Even if it was not easy as pie, it was still a piece of cake for him!
With the great stone in his heart finally landing, Lu Chen cupped his hands again and said, “Kitchen God, your heart is tied to all living beings. Truly worthy of being the good deity of ten thousand households. This junior is untalented, but I do have some ancestral secret arts that can, in the short term, renew a portion of merit for you.”
The Kitchen God’s divine eyes narrowed. “Renew merit? Young friend, you have it backward, have you not? I only know that incense offerings can be renewed. How can there be such a thing as ‘renewing merit’?”
Lu Chen smiled slightly. “What this junior speaks of is indeed merit.”
“Oh?” The Kitchen God looked at him deeply. “It seems you are truly extraordinary, young friend. No wonder you could form bonds with so many deities. I suppose it is thanks to these ‘ancestral secret arts’?”
Lu Chen smiled without answering, which was as good as admitting it.
He lowered his head, cupped his hands, and said, “If you do not disdain it, Kitchen God, this junior is willing to do what little I can.”
Whoosh—
The lamp on the table flickered gently.
Behind him, the sound of firewood in the stove grew louder.
Instead, it made the room seem even quieter.
Lu Chen had thought that when the Kitchen God heard this news, he would be like the Lord Wealth God back then, delighted upon hearing it.
But after waiting for quite a while, there was still no response.
“Kitchen God?” He looked up, only to see the Kitchen God’s expression still calm, even… carrying a hint of indifference.
“Young friend, though you possess extraordinary arts, my core problem is actually not the amount of magic power.”
“What do you mean, Kitchen God?”
This sudden turn left Lu Chen stunned on the spot.
The Kitchen God gave a long sigh, the helplessness on his brow even more evident. “Actually, the reason I do not receive incense offerings is not that I am unwilling, but that there is a… dead knot that simply cannot be untied.”
Hearing this, Lu Chen’s brows shot up sharply.
The great stone that had just landed in his heart was suddenly lifted high again!
—”A dead knot?!”
