Gods of the Nation: You worship the God of Longevity, I worship the King of Hell!

Chapter 1: Lighting a Cold Stove!
(Foreword: The beginning of this book was somewhat affected by the author watching a lot of short dramas during that period, but the quality of the content improved significantly after it was published. With less than 4,000 favorites on Qidian, the book was published with 50,000 words and still managed to get nearly 900 average subscriptions. On Qread, the popularity exceeded 10,000, making it the strongest book recently. There is a reason for this. Readers who like to read fantasy books with a different style should not miss it!)
…………

Jiangcheng No. 3 Middle School is on holiday on Friday.

Students were coming and going in a steady stream at the school gate.

Amidst the crowd, Lu Chen, looking somewhat bewildered and wary, surveyed his surroundings, muttering to himself:

"I'm speechless! One second I was burning incense and praying for blessings in a Taoist temple; how did I end up here in the next second?"
Moreover, this is a world where everyone is a deity. As long as you offer incense, you can communicate with the gods and receive blessings.
"What a great thing!"

As his memories reached this point, Lu Chen's eyes lit up.

In his previous life, he was a junior Taoist priest at Qingfeng Temple, and praying and worshipping were his daily tasks.

His forte is performing religious ceremonies and rituals.

I learned from my memories that the profession of Taoist priest does not exist in parallel worlds at all.

So, does that mean my identity gives me a buff right from the start?!
As he was muttering to himself, Lu Chen felt a tap on the shoulder from behind.

"Lu Chen, what are you doing?"

Turn around and look.

A beautiful woman with delicate features and outstanding looks was standing behind him, smiling at him.

—Li Ruoyi.

His classmate was also the recognized school beauty of Jiangcheng No. 3 Middle School.

The relationship between the two is pretty good.

But what if you get hit on by the school beauty right from the start?

Lu Chen's heart tightened, and he vaguely felt a sense of familiar melodrama.

Sure enough, as expected, the unexpected happened...

"Ruoyi, what are you doing?"

Before Lu Chen could speak, a noisy voice rang out from the side.

A blond-haired man with an arrogant and domineering gait had already arrived in front of them.

—Song Hao.

Li Ruoyi's loyal admirer, and also Lu Chen's classmate.

"Nothing, I just saw Lu Chen standing here in a daze and asked him out of curiosity."

Li Ruoyi's smile faded slightly.

Song Hao looked Lu Chen up and down, just about to start a sarcastic remark.

Lu Chen spoke first, spitting out, "Where are you looking after your dad?"

Song Hao's eyes widened in disbelief: "You brat, you dare to insult me?"

Lu Chen didn't bother with any more words, simply rolled up his sleeves, and took a step forward.

Taoists emphasize clear thinking and prefer action to words.

Song Hao was also startled by Lu Chen's posture and subconsciously took a step back: "What, what are you doing?"

Lu Chen clenched his fists tightly: "What do you think?"

Li Ruoyi quickly tried to calm things down, "Alright, alright, stop arguing. Lu Chen, what's wrong? Are you in a bad mood today?"

Lu Chen said coldly, "No, I've just disliked him for a long time and want to mess with him!"

Song Hao retorted, "Hey, you surnamed Lu, are you crazy? I haven't offended you."

"I'll mess with you even if I haven't offended you!"

"what?!"

"Let's all keep quiet for a bit." Li Ruoyi changed the subject: "Lu, are you going to the temple? If you are, let's go together."

A temple is a place for worshipping gods.

Lu Chen originally planned to try going to the temple.

However, upon seeing Song Hao standing to the side, he immediately lost interest.

"Forget it, go ahead."

"Ruoyi, if he won't go, I will. You ride in my car, and we'll go together."

Upon hearing that the goddess was going to the temple, Song Hao immediately showed the car keys clipped to his waist.

Li Ruoyi ignored Song Hao and instead looked at Lu Chen with concern: "Lu Chen, the [Servant God Degree] competition is about to begin. If you don't hurry, I'm afraid..."

——Serving God?

Related memories automatically surfaced in my mind.

To put it simply, this thing is an important indicator for measuring the connection between [spirituals] and [deities].

The higher one's level of service to the gods, the greater the probability of receiving blessings and the closer one's relationship with the deities.

In this world where everyone is a deity, serving the gods is undoubtedly the most valuable "diploma".

Once you reach a certain level, you'll have no worries about food and clothing, and may even enjoy great wealth and prosperity.

He was treated as an honored guest by various prominent families.

Of course, the premise is that this deity's abilities cannot be too useless.

The only deity the original owner has ever worshipped is Emperor Wenchang.

The divine favor is a mere 0.5%.

In theory, one would need to pray two hundred times for a chance of success once.

Of course, this is only in theory, and it is extremely difficult to achieve this probability in practice.

This data would put them at the bottom of their class.

"Thank you for your concern, Li. I will do my best with the matter of serving the gods. If you want to go to the temple, you should hurry up and go."

Lu Chen thanked him for his kindness.

Li Ruoyi had more to say.

Song Hao urged from the side, "Let's go, Ruoyi. This guy obviously doesn't have any money, so don't force him."

Noticing Lu Chen's gaze, Song Hao puffed out his chest and said defiantly, "It's no use glaring at me. Did I say something wrong? Even the most ordinary incense stick costs a hundred yuan. How many incense sticks do you burn in a month?"

Lu Chen's face darkened, but he couldn't refute it.

Compared to Song Hao and Li Ruoyi's families, his family's conditions were a bit worse.

Seeing Lu Chen's embarrassment, Li Ruoyi quickly pushed Song Hao away, saying, "Alright, alright, you take me to the temple. Lu Chen, see you next week!"

"Okay, bye!"

Lu Chen waved.

"By the way, Ruoyi! Which deity do you want to worship?" "Emperor Wenchang. I plan to increase my divine service level to 3% today."

"How much incense money have you prepared?"

"Five thousand."

"Five thousand? That might be possible!"

The sound of their conversation gradually faded and became indistinct.

Lu Chen secretly loosened his other clenched fist.

Song Hao was right; he was indeed short of money.

In essence, the "Samurai God Level" is the "spending level".

The more money you spend, the higher your "sacred spirit level" will be, and the greater your chances of winning in gacha pulls.

The key is that incense is not cheap; even the cheapest incense costs 100 yuan per stick.

The most expensive incense for merit is so rare that it is priced but unavailable.

Lu Chen sighed and took out the last hundred yuan from his pocket.

"I can just afford one stick of incense; it looks like I'll have to walk to the temple."

"The nearest temple to the school is a forty-minute walk away."

"I estimate that by the time I arrive, Li Ruoyi and Song Hao will have already finished spending their money and left."

No more hesitation.

Lu Chen set off for the temple.

On the way, Lu Chen was also pondering which deity he should spend his hundred yuan on.

Wenchang Dijun is one of the most worshipped deities because he is in charge of academic pursuits.

You can make offerings to Him and pray for blessings for anything related to "learning".

Therefore, He is also one of the most worshipped deities among students!

But for now, Lu Chen feels that studying can be put on hold for the time being, it won't hurt.

Because he has a more urgent need!
--money!

"The original owner's family was too poor; they couldn't even afford meat. Wouldn't it be more practical to seek wealth than to pursue education?"

Touching his empty stomach, Lu Chen decided to use the hundred yuan to make offerings to the God of Wealth.

Let's try out what we learned in our past lives and see if we can put it into practice here.

If he could, Lu Chen desperately wanted to make some unexpected money and buy some meat!

After all, the original owner of this body hadn't eaten meat for a month, and her body was already malnourished.

……

Forty minutes later.

Lu Chen arrived at the temple, panting.

Looking up, the four large golden characters on the plaque—"Zhao Family Temple"—came into view.

"I never imagined that the temples of this world would be privately controlled by powerful families. Even if these families have no other businesses, they can make a fortune every year just from the incense money."

Lu Chen couldn't help but feel envious: "If one day I could have my own temple, I would be truly rich."

Even at the time when school ends, the temple is still bustling with worshippers.

It was even more bustling than a shopping mall.

Looking around, some are happy while others are sad.

Some people even sat at the door, weeping bitterly, full of regret, cursing themselves for spending too much money.

Lu Chen shook his head and sighed: "It looks like a temple, but to put it bluntly, it's just a huge casino."

Just then, a conversation reached his ears, catching Lu Chen's attention.

……

"Sigh, it's really hard to get the God of Wealth. I've burned incense hundreds of times, and my God-serving level has already increased to 2%, but I still haven't received a single response."

"You're only at 2%, what are you barking about? I'm already at 3%, I prayed five hundred times today and still didn't get anything."

"What! You prayed five hundred times a day and still didn't get anything? How much money did you spend on incense offerings?"

"Nearly 50,000! And ten of those times were when they burned really expensive incense!"

"Holy crap, 50,000?! You're ruthless! And if that doesn't work, you're really pathetic."

"Sigh, I can only say that the God of Wealth is rich and powerful, he doesn't need our offerings at all. Let's go, let's go."

……

I listened to the conversation between two disheartened pilgrims beside me.

Lu Chen stood still, his brows slightly furrowed.

"Five hundred attempts and still no luck? Then my hundred yuan is like throwing a meat bun to a dog—gone forever?"

Come to think of it.

In this dimension, the God of Wealth is also one of the deities who receives the most incense offerings.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the person just spent 50,000, which seems like a lot.

But compared to truly wealthy people.

Fifty thousand is just a drop in the ocean.

Those large families probably offer tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars every day.

If you were the God of Wealth, which one would you favor?

The answer speaks for itself.

"It seems that the popularity of incense offerings to deities is not all a good thing. With my meager incense stick, expecting to succeed in one go is just wishful thinking."

For a moment, Lu Chen also hesitated.

Although his hundred yuan was also an attempt.

But to be fair, Lu Chen definitely hoped to hit the bullseye with one strike.

After all, given their family's circumstances, Lu Chen really didn't have much money to squander.

"and many more!"

Just then, a thought suddenly popped into Lu Chen's mind.

"Since the great deities are so popular and have no shortage of offerings, why should I keep an eye on them? Why don't I... light a candle for them instead?"

(End of this chapter)