Just then.
Up in the heavens, inside the Temple of Lord Jun of Wealth.
A ray of golden light flew into the inner hall.
“My lord, you’ve returned!”
The several temple attendants who had been dozing off immediately snapped awake and hurried over to greet him.
Lord Jun of Wealth nodded slightly, then reached out to straighten his robe.
The temple attendants looked confused. “My lord, if I remember correctly, you weren’t wearing this when you went down to the mortal world… or did this servant remember wrong?”
“Yeah, I also remember you weren’t wearing this, my lord.”
Lord Jun of Wealth smiled. “What do you all think of this outfit I’m wearing?”
“Beautiful! This celestial robe suits you perfectly, my lord!”
“Absolutely right! Wearing this, my lord, you look truly magnificent and awe-inspiring!”
“You lot sure know how to sweet-talk. Here, this is for you.”
Lord Jun of Wealth was quite pleased and flicked his divine sleeve.
In each attendant’s hand appeared a hundred taels of heavenly gold.
Altogether, that was at least four or five hundred taels.
“My lord, this?!”
The attendants were all stunned.
Although Lord Jun of Wealth would occasionally reward them with a few taels of heavenly gold, it was never more than a few taels at most.
After all, my lord’s own monthly salary was only about six or seven hundred taels.
A gesture like today’s—it had been a very, very long time since they’d seen anything like this!
If they traced it back, it seemed the last time was during a period when the incense offerings were much more prosperous.
Lord Jun of Wealth could easily guess what they were thinking. He sighed with emotion. “Ever since my incense offerings declined, this temple has gotten colder and colder day by day. So many attendants left, yet you few stayed behind to serve me. Keep this heavenly gold—consider it a small token of my appreciation.”
“But my lord, your monthly salary is only…”
Lord Jun of Wealth raised his hand to cut him off. “No need to worry. I’m not using my salary. Just go ahead and use it without concern!”
“Then this servant thanks you for your generosity, my lord!”
The attendants were overjoyed to receive so much gold. Grinning from ear to ear, they bounced and skipped out of the main hall.
Feeling this vitality he hadn’t seen for so long, Lord Jun of Wealth grew even more emotional.
“I’m the God of Wealth, yet I never thought I’d meet someone even more like a God of Wealth than me. And on top of that, he’s just a mortal.”
Lord Jun of Wealth was still puzzled. What secret art had his sworn brother used to be able to offer heavenly gold directly—and even offer spiritual merit?
In his view, that was almost nonsense.
“No matter how powerful a secret art is, it couldn’t break through the heavenly law between the two realms. Unless…”
A bold guess arose in Lord Jun of Wealth’s heart.
His sworn brother was extremely likely to be a person of immense fortune or immense spiritual merit.
As two natural products of the universe’s operation—
Such a person could naturally ignore the restrictions between the three realms and move freely.
“Could my sworn brother be one of those legendary ‘Nine-Life Benevolent Ones’? Or a ‘Mandated One’?”
Just as Lord Jun of Wealth was pondering this—
He suddenly felt something.
A new connection had appeared above his divine status.
“This is… someone has requested my statue? Who? Could it be my sworn brother?!”
Lord Jun of Wealth was shocked.
He had only just returned. In this short span of time—which, in the human world, was just a few hours—
“How could my sworn brother have invited me into his home so quickly? What exactly happened in between?”
Lord Jun of Wealth’s curiosity burned intensely, but since he hadn’t received a summons from Lu Chen, he couldn’t descend to the mortal world.
Just then, he sniffed the air and immediately frowned. “How strange—why do I smell the stench of the underworld’s nether realm?…”
…
Nanshan Neighborhood.
“Thanks!”
Lu Chen waved at the departing car, then hoisted his backpack and headed into the neighborhood.
Inside his backpack, the statue of Lord Jun of Wealth and the spirit tablet of Lord Yama bumped against each other, making a bit of noise and digging uncomfortably into Lu Chen’s back.
Within the neighborhood, the usual gossip and chatter drifted through the air, punctuated by hearty laughter.
Lu Chen went straight up to the third floor and opened the door.
“Dad, Mom, I’m home!”
“Why are you back so late again? I called you several times, and you didn’t pick up.”
“I had something going on, Mom. I didn’t hear it.”
Lu’s mother clicked her tongue. “From now on, when it gets late, you have to send us a message. Don’t make your parents worry, you hear?”
“I hear you, Mom. I’m hungry.”
“Wait right there. I’ll heat up some food for you.”
“Awesome!”
“Big bro!” His little sister Lu Wan heard the commotion and ran out of her room.
“Wanwan, did you eat properly today?”
“I did! I ate several big pieces of meat! Meat is so delicious! Wanwan wants to eat meat every day from now on!”
Lu Chen chuckled and patted his sister’s head.
“Don’t worry. Big bro promised you—we’ll have meat every single day!”
“Yay!” Just then, Lu Wan noticed the bulging backpack behind Lu Chen. “Big bro, did you bring back something good again today?”
“Not really anything today. You go back to your room and watch TV for now.”
“Oh, okay!”
The little girl ran back to her room barefoot.
Lu Chen put his backpack down. “Mom, where’s Dad?”
Lu’s mother came out carrying food. “Your dad went out for a walk. What’s in your backpack? It’s so bulging.”
“Well…”
Lu Chen wasn’t sure how to broach the topic.
“Here, Mom, sit down first.”
“What are you doing, you silly kid? I’ve still got a bowl of soup in the kitchen. Let me go get that first.”
“The soup can wait. Hand me your phone first.”
Lu’s mother sensed something was up and quickly handed her phone to Lu Chen. “Did you finish all that money from yesterday already?”
Ding! Your PayPay account has received a transfer of one million yuan!
The cold, robotic voice echoed through the entire living room.
Lu’s mother’s face, which had been full of surprise, suddenly shifted into an expression of pure astonishment.
She shot up from her seat. “Xiao Chen, where did you get so much money?”
Lu Chen said, “Mom, hear me out. What happened today is a bit unbelievable. Don’t get worked up—just let me explain slowly.”
Lu’s mother guessed that her son had almost certainly stumbled into another huge stroke of fortune. She nodded repeatedly. “Alright, Mom won’t get worked up. Take your time.”
With that mental groundwork laid—
Lu Chen gave her a rough summary of his day: winning the lottery in the morning, going to worship Lord Jun of Wealth, running into Sun Qingcang and his family, and finally stepping up like a divine hero descending from the heavens to save the life of the Sun family’s elderly patriarch.
Of course, he left out the parts about buying materials, making underworld currency, becoming sworn brothers with Lord Chai of the Hearth, and the minor conflict with the Zhao family temple.
He left out the first part because it was too hard to explain, and the latter because he didn’t want his mom to worry.
After all, offending one of Jiangdu City’s four great families was almost unthinkable for an ordinary person.
But even so—
When Lu’s mother heard about worshipping Lord Yama, she still turned pale with fright.
For ordinary folks, the underworld was something unspeakable, something beyond description.
“Son, are you okay? I’ve heard that worshipping nether deities from the underworld brings their evil energy upon you!”
“Mom, don’t listen to those people. Lord Yama is a legitimate deity appointed by the Heavenly Court. There’s no evil energy at all. It’s just that those people are scared out of their wits, then they blame Lord Yama for their own fears.”
Lu Chen curled his lip.
Did he know whether there was evil energy? Of course he did!
Was the world’s perspective really that shallow?
Just because someone looks ugly, radiates black energy, and doesn’t bathe very often—does that make them evil?
If that’s what you think, then all Lu Chen could say was: Kid, you’re completely missing the point!
“Alright, Mom doesn’t really understand all this, but she trusts you. My son is the best!”
“You bet I am!” With that, Lu Chen pulled out the statue of Lord Jun of Wealth from his backpack. “Mom, I’ve invited Lord Jun of Wealth into our home.”
Lu’s mother’s face lit up with joy. “Inviting the God of Wealth into our home—that’s wonderful! My son is so capable! At such a young age, already inviting deities into the household! I need to call your father right now and have him come back.”
“Hold on, Mom. I also invited another…”
Lu Chen pulled Lord Yama’s spirit tablet out of his backpack.
Lu’s mother’s smile instantly froze.
“You little rascal! It’s fine to worship Him in the temple, but why did you bring Him into our home?!”
Lu’s mother lowered her voice, while her body instinctively stepped back—clearly, she felt a natural resistance to this nether deity.
“Mom, I really had no choice. This was my deal with Lord Yama. Otherwise, He wouldn’t have agreed to extend the old gentleman’s life.”
“But… what if the neighbors find out? That would be bad.”
“No worries. Worst case, we move out. Oh, I forgot to tell you—the Sun family also gave me a villa. It’s in Yunding Mountain Villa, not far from here. They haven’t given me the keys yet, but it’ll probably be tomorrow or the day after.”
“They gave you a villa? Yunding Mountain Villa?”
Lu’s mother’s mouth dropped open, her expression shifting again as she looked at Lu Chen with a strange gaze.
“Xiao Chen, have you been experiencing anything unusual lately? How did you suddenly…”
“How did I suddenly change so much, right?” Lu Chen laughed. He leaned in closer. “Mom, what if I told you that your son has found a secret trick to worshipping deities? Would you believe me?”
“A secret trick? What secret trick?”
Lu Chen grinned and said each word slowly: “Worship — the — unpopular — ones.”
“Worship the unpopular ones? You mean worship obscure deities?”
“Exactly! I don’t know about other people, but for your son, it’s worked every single time. My track record so far? Perfect. No failures.”
Lu’s mother gave Lu Chen a long, deep look. “Alright. It seems you’ve found your destiny, son.”
Lu Chen nodded. “I think so too.”
“In that case… you can’t go around telling people about this. Don’t even tell your father—he can be a blabbermouth sometimes.”
“Got it. I’ll listen to you, Mom!”
Mother and son shared a smile. Lu’s mother patted Lu Chen’s head, her eyes full of pride. “Our little Chen has grown up! Suddenly so capable, so impressive. I never would have dared to imagine this before! Fine. If you want to worship Him at home, go ahead. Just don’t let outsiders know. But just to be safe, you’d better move Him to that villa. After all, people occasionally come by to visit us here. Lord Jun of Wealth is fine, but Lord Yama could easily cause misunderstandings and trouble.”
Lu Chen nodded. “Got it. I was thinking the same thing. So, about Dad… should I leave that conversation to you?”
Lu’s mother nodded. “Don’t worry. Since I’ve already agreed, your father won’t have any objections. I’ll talk to him.”
“Awesome!”
After that, Lu Chen devoured his food like a storm.
Once he’d satisfied his stomach and saw that his father still hadn’t returned—
“I’m not waiting any longer!”
Lu Chen cleared a space and set up the two deity statues.
Then he placed an incense burner in front of each one.
“Brother, wait just a moment. Let me discuss something with Lord Yama first.”
Lu Chen lit a stick of incense and stuck it in the burner.
Then he activated the [Yama’s Heart Mantra] again.
Whether he could become the underworld’s representative in the human world—
Depended entirely on whether his soon-to-be godfather would support him…
