Proud Goddess Falls in Love with Me
Chapter 436 - 436 416 Offering Incense_1

436: Chapter 416 Offering Incense_1 436: Chapter 416 Offering Incense_1 The next morning.

Lu Chuan shook off the clingy Ning Xin and, having asked Ning Siquan for the location of the mountain god temple, headed alone towards the outskirts of Capital City.

He boarded a bus bound for the suburbs, and along the way, people on the bus all talked about how effective the Mountain God of the temple was.

Most of the passengers were on their way to worship at the mountain god temple.

Listening to their descriptions, he grew increasingly skeptical that this so-called Mountain God was nothing more than a Nascent Soul skillful expert whose physical body had been destroyed, surviving by absorbing the Power of Incense Offering from people.

This was precisely why he took the initiative to go to the mountain god temple to investigate: a Nascent Soul is formed from a Divine Soul, and the power it amasses is naturally the power of Divine Soul.

If the Mountain God was indeed a Nascent Soul whose body had been destroyed, even though it absorbed the Power of Incense Offering from people, it would ultimately transform into the power of Divine Soul to sustain itself.

This meant that the Mountain God was a walking source of Divine Soul power, and Lu Chuan, who was worried about where to find the power of Divine Soul to make a breakthrough, naturally wouldn’t miss such an opportunity.

If the Mountain God turned out to be no good, he certainly wouldn’t mind refining it to make his breakthrough.

Upon arriving in the suburbs, Lu Chuan simply followed those heading to the mountain god temple to worship, saving time on searching.

What surprised him was that there was only one rough path to the mountain god temple, which required passing through forests and climbing over a mountain—a place that would certainly have been deserted in the past, but now this small path was crowded with people all heading to worship at the mountain god temple.

“It seems, in people’s hearts, the effect of making wishes far outweighs the efforts of oneself,” Lu Chuan thought with some emotion.

After following the crowd for a while, he finally saw a grand and imposing temple—it was the later renovated mountain god temple.

In the past, this mountain god temple consisted of only one small temple with a divine statue.

As more and more people started to worship the Mountain God, they built a large temple with three entrances and exits around the small one.

Lu Chuan followed the crowd into the temple and saw many people kneeling in front of the Mountain God’s statue, making wishes.

Even those who didn’t wish would take some free incense sticks, light them, and offer their worship.

Upon entering the temple, he sensed many forces different from Spiritual Energy or Inner Strength, continually converging into the statue of the Mountain God.

This force was precisely the Power of Incense Offering.

After sensing these forces, Lu Chuan confirmed that this so-called Mountain God was a Nascent Soul skillful expert whose physical body had been destroyed.

For a Nascent Soul expert with a destroyed body, relying on collecting the Power of Incense Offering to maintain one’s power was indeed a good choice, especially in the current era of scarce Spiritual Energy.

However, this method had some flaws: it could only accept the patronage of ordinary people.

If someone with strength above it or of a far higher status than this divine spirit came to worship, not only would it not provide the person with the Power of Incense Offering, but it would also cause the individual unbearable harm, leading to significant injury.

Observing for a while in the temple, Lu Chuan roughly estimated the strength of this Mountain God to be around that of a Grade 4 Saint by the speed at which the statue absorbed the Power of Incense Offering.

With his current strength, facing a Grade 4 Saint was still somewhat challenging.

However, the opponent was not a normal Grade 4 Saint but a Nascent Soul.

Possessing the Indestructible Golden Eye Pupil, Lu Chuan had an absolute suppressive advantage over things like Divine Soul and Nascent Soul, so if he really started a fight, he might not lose to this Mountain God.

Just as he was thinking of confronting the Mountain God to settle the score for Ning Xin, a God servant came up to him and said, “Hey, you’ve been standing here for so long, are you going to worship Lord Mountain God or not?

Even if you don’t plan to make a wish, at least light a few sticks of incense to show some respect to Lord Mountain God.

I’ve been watching you for a long time, and you seem disdainful when you look at Lord Mountain God’s statue.

You wouldn’t be thinking of disrespecting Lord Mountain God, would you?”

Upon hearing this, everyone looked over at Lu Chuan with unfriendly gazes; they were all fervent devotees of the Mountain God and naturally could not tolerate any disrespect towards Him.

Lu Chuan smiled and said, “I was just curious and came to have a look.

Is it disrespectful to not worship when visiting this place?

Your Mountain God seems to be rather petty.”

The God servant said, “I’m not forcing you to worship, nor to make a wish to the Mountain God.

But since you’re here, the least you can do is burn an incense stick, right?”

The people around also began discussing.

“This guy is just unbelievable, daring to say the Mountain God is stingy.

It’s just a stick of incense he’s being asked to offer, yet he acts as if it would put him at such a loss.”

“Exactly, offering incense to the Mountain God doesn’t cost anything.

It’s clearly just a way to show respect, and it won’t make him lose anything.

Yet he’s making a big deal out of it.”

“I can’t stand people like him.

If you don’t believe, then don’t come here, right?

He clearly came all the way here and yet refused to even offer a stick of incense.

Why bother coming at all if not to deliberately make oneself uncomfortable?”

“Lord Mountain God is extremely efficacious.

Some people wish but can’t even get the opportunity to worship, while I will definitely be a faithful devotee to Lord Mountain God.

Those who disrespect Lord Mountain God like him will certainly not receive the divine spirit’s blessing.”

…

Lu Chuan, listening to the people’s harsh criticisms as if not offering incense to this Mountain God was a grave sin, felt somewhat helpless.

Not wanting to cause more trouble, he spoke up, “All right then, I’ll offer incense to your Mountain God.

Happy now?”

The God servant then showed a satisfied look and took a few sticks of incense to hand to Lu Chuan, saying, “When offering incense, it’s best to be devout.

Lord Mountain God can sense it all.”

Lu Chuan took the incense sticks, lit them in front of a candle, then walked to the statue, thinking to himself that this fellow was just absorbing some Power of Incense Offering.

How could he possibly feel whether someone is devout in their heart or not?

These simple folk are just too easily deceived.

He then inserted the sticks of incense into the censer.

Just at that moment, a strange force emanated from the incense sticks, dispelling all the Power of Incense Offering around the statue.

Soon after, the Mountain God’s statue began to violently shake, and a few seconds later, with a loud crack, a huge fissure appeared on the statue.

Everyone was taken aback by this sudden turn of events.

Even Lu Chuan was puzzled by what was happening, his face showing a hint of confusion.

He looked at the God servant and said, “It seems your statue is a bit worse for wear, eh?

It just cracked out of the blue.”

The God servant looked at Lu Chuan with a face full of terror, shouting, “You did this on purpose, didn’t you?”

Lu Chuan looked innocent and hurriedly said, “What do you mean ‘on purpose’?

This has nothing to do with me; don’t even think about making me compensate for the statue.”

Meanwhile,

In the back courtyard of the mountain god temple, Mountain God Gao Tong was leisurely reclined in a chair, comfortably absorbing the Power of Incense Offering provided by the people.

He relished the method of gaining power and levelling up even while lying down.

However, at that moment, he suddenly felt a premonition of danger and opened his eyes abruptly.

His face then twisted in agony, as if bearing some insupportable force, his whole body convulsing.

After a long while, he barely recovered, but compared to before, his complexion turned deathly pale, breath weak, as though he had suffered a grave injury.

He turned to look in the direction of the front courtyard, full of wariness, and said, “Which big shot has come to my humble temple to offer incense?

That one act of devotion almost cost me my life…”