Fortune God Yuanbao

[The rules of Wangcai Pawnshop: As long as you're willing to pay the price, you can obtain wealth. The higher the price, the greater the wealth.]

In the mortal realm, there was a pawnshop called Wangcai. You might spend your whole life unable to find it, yet still long for it and fear it: longing to find it, and afraid of the desires in your own heart.

If you found it, all you had to do was pay the price, and you could obtain wealth you'd otherwise never get in your lifetime.

One person sought wealth and offered his safety in exchange. He was promptly hit by a carriage belonging to a prince or noble, and received a massive compensation payout.

Another offered his wife and child. His wife promptly took their son and went to live with a rich landowner, and he received a substantial payout.

In short, wealth came about in very unexpected ways. Even so, people still wanted to go inside and trade for good fortune.

Jin Yao was the golden ingot ritual artifact that the God of Wealth held aloft at all times. Since mortals were so fond of including him when they sculpted statues of the God of Wealth, he received plenty of merit and incense offerings just by tagging along, and eventually gained sentience.

The God of Wealth said that a golden ingot was, after all, a vulgar worldly trinket and the source of mortals' greed, anger, delusion, arrogance, and doubt. Only after descending to the mortal realm and passing through the trials of the Five Poisons of the Heart could he truly awaken, take form, and cultivate into a low-ranking immortal in the celestial realm.

Jin Yao was a little unconvinced. Wasn't the God of Wealth only able to win the celestial realm's annual award for most beloved by mortals because he bestowed good fortune? Why was a golden ingot suddenly a vulgar trinket when it came to him?

After the God of Wealth casually tossed him down from the celestial realm, Jin Yao thought it over for a long time and decided to open a pawnshop in the mortal realm.

As the God of Wealth's ingot artifact, he was well-versed in bestowing good fortune, and his specialty was windfall wealth and unexpected riches!

Sheng Siyue descended to the mortal realm to seek enlightenment, but unexpectedly stumbled across a little golden ingot doing business in violation of the heavenly laws. He transformed into a mortal and made a deal with it, only to discover that it granted wishes in the most unexpected ways.

The Celestial Emperor, intrigued, stayed on as a shop assistant so he could keep an eye on the little ingot.

But he never expected to end up enabling its misdeeds, helping it branch out into services beyond dispensing good fortune.

"..." This is beyond ridiculous.

*

Later, the God of Wealth came to claim his artifact after learning it had taken human form. Instead, he discovered that the other had become the God of Windfall Wealth, with more offerings from the mortal realm than he had!!!

It's not that regular income isn't good, it's that windfall wealth offers better value!

Theme: May wealth come rolling in