An hour later, at Nanshan Residential Area, it was already late.
Lu Chen walked into the neighborhood carrying two large bags full of food.
Nanshan Residential Area was the poor district of Jiangdu City.
The look of the place was quite similar to the tube-shaped apartment buildings from his previous life – run-down and old.
But even in a neighborhood like this, the rent was still shockingly high!
For example, the two-bedroom apartment Lu Chen’s family rented required his mother’s entire full salary just to barely cover the rent.
This was the main reason why Lu Chen’s family conditions were always so tight.
“Hey, Xiao Chen, you’re back. Why did you buy so much stuff?”
“Hello, Auntie Zhang.”
Lu Chen just greeted the neighbor and walked on by, smiling.
He went up, step by step, all the way to the third floor.
Looking at this familiar yet unfamiliar iron door,
Lu Chen’s mood suddenly became a bit nervous. He took a deep breath before knocking.
The door opened quickly, and a small, thin but rather cute head poked out.
Seeing Lu Chen, the little girl’s eyes immediately sparkled.
“Brother, you’re back!”
“Yeah, I’m back. Open the door.”
Lu Wan pushed the door open. Seeing the two big bags full of stuff in her brother’s hands, she asked in surprise, “Brother, what are these?”
Lu Chen’s father and mother inside also looked over.
“Why are you so late today? Why did you buy so much stuff?”
Lu Chen didn’t answer right away. He carried the bags to the table and opened them.
Piece after piece of pork belly, with just the right amount of fat and lean, immediately gave the Lu family a very strong shock.
Lu Chen’s father swallowed hard. “You rascal, where did you get the money to buy so much meat? Could it be…”
“You guessed right, Dad!”
The great thing about this world of gods was that even getting rich overnight was completely reasonable and plausible.
So, Lu Chen didn’t hide anything. “Dad, Mom, I went to pray for blessings today. And I succeeded. I made a cool fifteen thousand!”
“Really? Oh my!” Lu Chen’s mother excitedly hugged him. “My son is so awesome!”
Lu Chen’s father, beyond his surprise, smiled with feigned annoyance. “You rascal, you make a little money and you start spending lavishly. Why did you buy so much meat?”
Lu Wan, who was only seven or eight, swallowed her saliva and said, “Meat is good. Wanwan wants to eat meat. We haven’t had it in so long.”
Lu Chen rubbed his sister’s head. “Don’t worry, Wanwan. From now on, our family will eat meat every single day!”
“Really, Brother?”
“Really!”
“Yay! Our family gets to eat meat every day from now on!”
The little girl was so happy she ran all over the house.
Lu Chen took out a piece of meat. “Mom, let’s have meat tonight. We haven’t had it in a long time.”
“Okay, Mom will go cook it.”
“I’ll go help your mother.”
Lu Chen’s father saw the meat and also found it hard to walk away.
Lu Chen stuffed the remaining meat into the fridge, then took a cloth doll out of his backpack and handed it to Lu Wan.
“Wanwan, this is for you.”
The little girl’s face flushed red with excitement. She hugged the doll tightly. “Thank you, Brother!”
Lu Chen rubbed his sister’s head. “Go play.”
Watching his sister run around happily with her new doll, and then looking at his parents busy in the kitchen,
Lu Chen suddenly felt a warm current rise in his heart.
In his previous life, he was an orphan, taken in and raised by the abbot of the Qingfeng Temple since childhood.
He had never experienced the feeling of having a family.
Now, having traveled to this different world, he had also fulfilled a dream.
So this is what a family feels like. It’s really nice~
Soon, steaming hot braised pork belly was brought to the table.
It was the first time in a month they had meat, and the whole family ate with so much satisfaction and happiness.
After the meal, Lu Chen also told his parents about his experience at the temple.
“What? This unpopular god is really that effective?!”
Lu Chen’s parents were both stunned.
And he had successfully communicated with the deity and received a blessing using only one incense stick.
Telling this to others, it would sound like a complete fantasy, totally unbelievable.
Lu Chen didn’t confirm or deny it. He took five thousand yuan out of his pocket.
“Mom, you keep this money.”
Originally, Lu Chen wanted to give his mom ten thousand, but on second thought, he decided to keep a little more for himself, just in case of emergencies.
After all, the expenses at the temple were indeed high.
He had succeeded on his first try, but next time, maybe not.
However, Lu Chen’s mother shook her head and pushed the money back. “Xiao Chen, your father and I can only give you a limited amount of money. We know that very well. You keep this money for yourself. You need to improve your Divine Servant Degree for your studies and exams. Your father and I can’t help you much, but we also don’t want to hold you back.”
“Yeah, you manage this money yourself. Your father and I might have limited ability to help in other areas, but we can support you kids without too much trouble.”
Seeing his parents be so supportive, Lu Chen’s eyes couldn’t help but sting a little. He pushed the money back again. “Dad, Mom, you keep this money without worry. Trust me. I can definitely earn more money, and I’ll become stronger too. Starting today, our Lu family is going to see better days!”
Seeing their son so confident,
Lu Chen’s parents chuckled. “You rascal, having confidence is a good thing, but don’t get cocky. You still need to keep your feet on the ground. Alright, we’ll save this money for you. If you need it, just ask your mother anytime.”
Seeing that his parents had finally accepted the money,
Lu Chen then broke into a smile and started planning his next steps…
Inside the cramped room,
Lu Chen lay on his bed, continuing to think. “Lord Jun Cai said my wave of financial luck would last for two days. That means I absolutely have to make a big score tomorrow!
“In my current situation, I need to earn my first pot of gold first, so I can lay a solid foundation for my path to becoming stronger.
“Otherwise, if I don’t even have money for incense, how can I get stronger?
“But the financial luck only lasts two days. That’s way too short.
“I’d be better off having the financial luck attached to me all the time!”
Lu Chen looked around the small, stuffy room and silently clenched his fist.
“Money isn’t everything, but in any world, not having money is absolutely not okay!”
“I need to build a good relationship with Lord Jun Cai and increase my Divine Servant Degree!”
“But the key question is, how can I quickly increase my Divine Servant Degree?”
Lu Chen then searched through his memories for information.
The first method: without a doubt, is to continuously spend money by making offerings and praying.
But the downside of this is that it consumes way too many resources.
Moreover, the higher your Divine Servant Degree gets, the harder it is to increase.
You could say that purely spending money is like throwing it into a bottomless pit.
This obviously wasn’t suitable for Lu Chen.
The second method: Help the deity increase their fame and gain more incense offerings.
But this is also difficult. Unpopular gods are already considered not very effective, and that impression is already fixed in people’s minds.
Who would keep spending money on incense for a god they think doesn’t work?
The objective conditions are too hard.
This also wasn’t very suitable.
The third method: Complete some tasks given by the deity. This can also greatly increase your Divine Servant Degree.
This method is the simplest and most effective.
But there’s a catch: you must first reach a certain level of Divine Servant Degree to have a chance at receiving tasks from the deity.
In other words, for Lu Chen to receive a task from Lord Jun Cai, he first needs to earn the deity’s trust.
And if you convert that trust into Divine Servant Degree, you’d probably need 20% or even 30% to meet the requirement.
But Lu Chen currently only has 5%.
He’s still far from 20%.
So this obviously isn’t easy either.
The fourth method: Invite the deity to a household shrine, or build a temple.
“Inviting a deity” means bringing the deity from a public temple to be enshrined in your own home.
Unlike in his previous life, where you could invite a god for just a few hundred or thousand,
in this world, you can’t do it for less than a million.
And you can’t do it privately. A private invitation not only won’t work, but it will also backfire on you, and it’s a serious crime!
As for building a temple, it’s exactly what it sounds like: building a temple for the deity and creating a golden statue.
Both of these methods require immense wealth.
And for ordinary people, building a temple is completely out of the question.
Because that’s a privilege reserved for big families ranked [New Rich] and above.
“Damn, so many rules. If all else fails… this humble Daoist will just have to use his secret weapon.”
But after “reviewing the information,” Lu Chen wasn’t panicking. In fact, he was calm as could be.
Since the deity summoning spell worked,
then what he was best at, the [Zhai Jiao Rituals], would most likely also be applicable.
What is the essence of incense offerings?
It’s the power of prayer!
It’s the support of the people!
With these, there will be requests for blessings.
Then the deities can eliminate disasters and hardships for the people, creating good outcomes.
In this way, they can achieve merits.
And those merits are exactly the foundation that allows deities who achieved sainthood through merits to protect their divine status.
But if we’re talking about which method can quickly allow a deity to gain merits?
If Daoist rituals claim to be second,
then no one dares to claim first!
The most powerful ritual in Daoism – the Luotian Grand Ritual –
is a grand feast of merits for all the gods in the heavens.
A single Luotian Grand Ritual can satisfy all the gods, while also blessing the mortal world with favorable weather, peace, and prosperity for the nation.
The reason is that both sides work together to create a century’s worth of great merits.
This shows just how powerful and great the merits from rituals can be!
Of course, Lu Chen couldn’t even dream of a top-level ritual like the Luotian Grand Ritual.
But performing some smaller rituals was more than enough for Lu Chen.
Back at the Qingfeng Temple, Lu Chen participated in all sorts of rituals, big and small.
In fact, he had personally presided over many of them himself.
So he was very experienced and skilled at it.
Thinking of this, Lu Chen smiled slightly and murmured, “Which god doesn’t love merits? Just like which mortal doesn’t love money.”
Lu Chen made a decision. When he went back to fulfill his vow, he would try it out with Lord Jun Cai.
To see if performing rituals could truly become the leverage point to boost his Divine Servant Degree!
…
Meanwhile, on the other side, at the temple entrance.
“Damn it, damn it! How could I be so stupid as to actually believe that idiot Lu Chen?”
Song Hao was so angry he punched the temple wall.
He had not only waited in line for two hours,
but also spent a full three thousand yuan on incense.
That was all of his allowance for this month.
And the result? Like throwing a meat bun to a dog – it was gone forever.
And not only did he get nothing, but the seven or eight people who had all rushed in at the same time also got nothing.
Only one lucky person had barely managed to increase his Divine Servant Degree to 1%.
But what use was a Divine Servant Degree for a useless, unpopular god like that?
A bunch of them were so angry they cursed Lu Chen out.
But no matter how much he cursed, Song Hao didn’t feel satisfied.
After all, he had wasted three thousand yuan.
Song Hao leaned against the wall and said viciously, “You bastard with the surname Lu, just you wait. The Divine Servant Degree competition is coming up next Monday! You definitely didn’t expect that my father spent a lot of money to get me a spot for the ‘Heavenly Official’s Blessing.’ Once I receive that blessing and officially become a first-grade spiritualist, crushing you will be like crushing an ant. Then I’ll settle all old and new scores at once!”
After saying that, with a bang, Song Hao punched the wall again!
But he was unlucky this time. He punched something hard, and the pain made him howl.
His hatred for Lu Chen in his heart intensified even more!
…
Early the next morning.
After eating breakfast, Lu Chen left home to look for a nearby lottery shop.
Since he had financial luck attached to him, and this kind of luck was considered “unexpected wealth,”
then Lu Chen naturally needed to find the easiest way to get rich overnight.
Buying lottery tickets and scratch-off cards seemed like a very good choice!
