Building up a less popular shrine, as the name suggests, means finding some less mainstream deities to worship.
Take the God of Wealth as an example.
The Gods of Wealth that the public knows well are none other than the main God of Wealth, Zhao Gongming, and the martial God of Wealth, Guan Yu.
In reality, within the pantheon of deities, there are actually five Gods of Wealth, collectively known as the “Five Paths God of Wealth.”
Zhao Gongming and Guan Yu are just two of them, respectively the North Path God of Wealth and the West Path God of Wealth.
The other three are:
East Path God of Wealth: Bi Gan.
South Path God of Wealth: Chai Rong.
Central Path God of Wealth: Chai Rong. (Note: The text repeats Chai Rong, but likely one is a different deity or a typo; I’ll keep as is but flag it.)
Except for Bi Gan, many people probably don’t recognize the other two at all.
So, even among the most popular Gods of Wealth, there are still less mainstream ones.
Not to mention other types of deities.
Therefore, this was Lu Chen’s thinking.
Since the popular deities don’t lack offerings and take the incense without delivering results,
It might be better to focus heavily on these less popular deities. Maybe there will be unexpected results.
Of course, this was just the pantheon from his past life.
Whether the Five Paths God of Wealth exists in this world, Lu Chen couldn’t confirm yet.
“First, I need to confirm the system!”
Without further hesitation, Lu Chen immediately went to the temple hall, found the diagram of deity positions, and began to observe.
“This temple really enshrines quite a few deities. The Hall of the God of Wealth is one of the main halls here, enshrining the God of Wealth Zhao Gongming… That makes sense, since it’s the Zhao Family Temple, they naturally enshrine a deity with their own surname.”
Lu Chen rested his chin on his hand, thinking to himself.
The vast Zhao Family Temple was filled with dozens of temple halls of various sizes, a dazzling array.
“Wenchang Emperor, the Five Great Emperors… Wow! They even have the Thunder Ancestor! Looks like this Zhao Family Temple is no joke.”
According to his original body’s memories.
The deity positions in a temple aren’t placed arbitrarily.
You must obtain the deity’s consent before they can be enshrined there.
In other words, for the Zhao family to be able to enshrine the Thunder Ancestor, there must be a descendant in the family with a very high Degree of Serving the Gods for the Thunder Ancestor.
Only then did they obtain his consent to be enshrined in the Zhao Family Temple.
“From a quick look, it seems there’s no difference from the pantheon in my past life. And their identities and stories are exactly the same as before.”
Lu Chen couldn’t help but curl his lips into a smile.
It seemed that his identity as a Taoist priest from his past life was indeed a huge advantage in this world!
However, after looking for a while, Lu Chen noticed something off.
“Strange, why doesn’t the Zhao Family Temple set up a side hall to enshrine less popular deities?”
At his Qingfeng Temple, besides enshrining popular deities, they had also built several side halls to enshrine second-tier deities like the Four Value Officials and the Twenty-Eight Mansions.
But in this Zhao Family Temple, aside from the main deities, you hardly ever saw second-tier deities.
“Geez, could my grand plan of building up a less popular shrine be about to fail halfway?”
Just as Lu Chen’s heart was filled with anxiety,
He caught something from the corner of his eye — the words “Back Courtyard” on a map.
On this small map, densely packed with many characters.
Lu Chen leaned in for a closer look.
“Music Goddess Su Nu, Household Immortal Zhang Xian, Purple Maiden Goddess… There are actually this many deities in the back courtyard. Geez, the font for these is way too small! If I hadn’t leaned in, I wouldn’t have been able to read them.”
Lu Chen muttered, “This is such discrimination!”
His gaze swept over this group of minor deities.
Among them suddenly appeared a name that made Lu Chen’s pupils contract.
— Lord God of Wealth Chai Rong.
“There really is one! And it’s Chai Rong!”
Lu Chen got excited for a moment and couldn’t help but pump his fist vigorously.
This immediately drew curious looks from the people around him.
Seeing this, Lu Chen quickly composed himself, memorized the general location of Chai Rong’s deity position, and then headed to the incense counter.
“Hello, please let me request a set of incense sticks.”
“What’s your Degree of Serving the Gods? What type do you want?”
The staff member pointed behind them.
On the counter, there was a dazzling array of different [incense sticks] in many colors.
There were earthy yellow ones, pitch-black ones, and purple ones.
Each color of incense stick came in different sizes.
The small incense sticks were the regular size.
And the large incense sticks, also called tall incense sticks, were as tall as a person, thick and big!
They certainly didn’t look cheap.
“A hundred-yuan one will do.”
Lu Chen directly pulled out a hundred-yuan bill.
Given Lu Chen’s current Degree of Serving the Gods and financial situation, he could only afford the most basic incense sticks.
Hearing this, the staff member gave Lu Chen a look of contempt, then reluctantly pulled out three incense sticks and asked coldly, “Which deity are you worshipping?”
“Lord God of Wealth Chai Rong.”
“Huh?” The staff member was stunned, clearly having heard something unbelievable. “Why wouldn’t you worship the real God of Wealth Zhao? You want to worship that deity? I haven’t encountered a single worshipper for this kind of unpopular god in years. Are you sure you want to worship him?”
“I’m sure!” Lu Chen nodded.
The staff member let out a scornful laugh, shook her head, and pointed at the incense sticks. Instantly, the characters “Lord God of Wealth Chai Rong” appeared on them.
After doing that, she simply tossed the incense sticks onto the counter and lowered her head to continue playing with her phone, looking completely uninterested in dealing with Lu Chen.
Lu Chen wasn’t about to bother with that kind of person.
He picked up the incense sticks and headed towards the security passage.
“I hope for a sure hit!”
Just as he was waiting in line to enter,
Lu Chen suddenly heard a familiar conversation.
“I’m so annoyed. I really thought I could raise my Degree of Serving the Gods to 3% today, but I still fell a bit short.”
“Ruoyi, don’t be too disappointed. Good things come to those who wait.”
Following the sound, he saw Li Ruoyi and Song Hao just walking out of the exit.
“Geez, even after forty minutes have passed, I still run into them?”
Lu Chen was speechless.
He instinctively stepped aside a bit to avoid being spotted by that idiot Song Hao.
But, of course, the more he tried to avoid something, the more it happened.
“Hey, Lu Chen, how come you’re here?”
Li Ruoyi turned her head and was surprised to find Lu Chen waiting in line at the entrance. She immediately ran over happily.
Song Hao followed right behind her.
Lu Chen: “…”
What a small world, and an annoying one at that.
“Oh, didn’t someone say he wasn’t coming? How come he still snuck his way here? Wait a minute, did you only buy one set of incense sticks? Geez, Lu Chen, you’re way too generous!”
When Song Hao saw the three lonely incense sticks in Lu Chen’s hands, he immediately burst out laughing.
Everyone else bought at least bundles of incense sticks. Only Lu Chen bought them stick by stick.
Li Ruoyi frowned. “Song Hao, can’t you restrain yourself a little?”
Song Hao waved his hands repeatedly. “Sorry, I really couldn’t help it.”
A cold, mocking smile curled on Lu Chen’s lips.
If it weren’t for the strict rules of the temple,
where fighting would get you blacklisted from the temple,
he swore that Song Hao wouldn’t have been able to avoid a beating today.
For now, he could only ignore this jerk and continue waiting in line.
Li Ruoyi looked at the incense sticks in Lu Chen’s hand and asked curiously, “Lu Chen, which deity are you going to worship?”
“Well…”
Just then, Song Hao abruptly leaned in, and with his sharp eyes, he saw the characters on the incense sticks and immediately let out a strange yell: “What? Lord God of Wealth Chai Rong? What kind of deity is that you’re worshipping? I’ve never even heard of him.”
“Lord God of Wealth?”
Li Ruoyi was also stunned. She had never heard of this deity either.
“Lu Chen, I can understand you wanting to worship the God of Wealth… but why wouldn’t you worship the authentic God of Wealth?”
Li Ruoyi was puzzled.
By now, the worshippers waiting in line around them had also gotten curious and started asking questions.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t you worship God of Wealth Zhao?”
“Kid, aren’t you just wasting your incense money by worshipping such an unpopular God of Wealth?”
“Right, when you worship deities, you have to worship the mainstream ones. These unpopular ones just aren’t effective.”
“The most effective deity in this Zhao temple is the God of Wealth, but you just had to pick the least effective one. What a genius!”
Hearing everyone chattering around him,
Lu Chen couldn’t help but ask back, “Have you tried worshipping him?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“Who would worship that God of Wealth?”
“Exactly. If it were me, I’d definitely worship God of Wealth Zhao.”
Lu Chen smiled. “Since none of you have tried, on what basis do you claim… that he definitely won’t be effective?”
