101. Control Variables Method
"You also know about the Calamity Priestess?"
Lu Ban slowly added another piece of smoked fish from their lunchbox with his chopsticks. It had a slightly sweet taste and tasted very good.
"The Calamity Priestess is the ruler of this island. As long as you believe in the Calamity Priestess, you can obtain eternal life."
The two men's previously gloomy expressions vanished, and their tone suddenly became somewhat fervent.
"Then why don't you eat the food on the island?"
Lu Ban asked a question, then picked up another piece of seaweed rice roll and chewed it with a crunching sound.
". sorry."
The two hesitated for a moment, then suddenly bent down and apologized, slamming their heads on the table—a heartbreaking sight.
"I'm sorry!" "I'm sorry!"
The two kept apologizing and banging their heads on the table, even hitting their foreheads until they bled, but they still didn't stop.
People nearby looked over, Lu Ban's lips twitched as he stopped the two people who kept apologizing.
"You don't need to apologize. Tell me about Wan Ye."
Lu Ban was afraid they would turn into heartless "sorry" machines again, so he quickly changed the subject.
Judging from the conversation just now, Wan Ye was not the keyword that triggered the apology.
But then again, do people from Harmony Island really like apologizing?
When in doubt, apologize first. No matter what happened, an apology is all that's needed.
Apologies are such a convenient thing.
Lu Ban felt that this could definitely be used next time.
"No, uh, about Wan Ye, he arrived on this island about four days ago, and then he disappeared two days ago. He was having lunch here that day, and then he disappeared that evening."
The person almost fell into another Loop of apologizing before realizing what was happening.
"So, he seemed perfectly normal after lunch?"
Lu Ban silently crossed out the possibility of food in his mind.
His dishes were served, all seafood, a very generous spread that looked very appetizing.
He picked up a piece of boiled fish and looked at the two diners who had brought their own food.
Do you want to eat?
The two shook their heads repeatedly.
"I think there should be no problem with the food. If you don't want to eat it, I will."
Lu Ban put the fish piece into his mouth, chewed it, and swallowed it.
"The taste is alright, and I don't know what special seasoning they put in it, but it gives a slightly numbing sensation on the tip of the tongue, which is quite stimulating."
He quickly finished the food in the bowl.
As Lu Ban got up to go to the next place, he felt a tickle in his throat as soon as he stepped out of the restaurant. It was as if something was rising up, making him cough involuntarily.
"Cough cough cough"
Lu Ban coughed violently, as if he were coughing up his internal organs. He bent over and curled up like a shrimp, but the coughing still did not stop.
With the slight relief, Lu Ban removed his hand from his mouth, only to see a few specks of blood on his palm, seemingly caused by the cough earlier.
"That's pretty strong."
As Lu Ban spoke, he continued to cough, this time even more violently, drawing the attention of those around him who watched him from a distance, afraid of being infected by Lu Ban.
This time, there was something extra in Lu Ban's palm.
It was a black clump of grass covered in bruises.
Lu Ban felt something stuck in his throat. He reached out and probed his throat with two fingers, quickly finding a foreign object inside.
"Vomit--"
A wave of nausea rose in his throat, and Lu Ban's fingers pinched the thing.
He pulled hard.
A pain that pierced through his esophagus came, and the burning sensation that spread from his stomach to his throat and finally to his mouth made Lu Ban's vision go black.
Fortunately, he was fast enough.
The finger was pulled out of the throat, along with the slender vine.
The dark green vine was covered in black slime, and it was almost as if it had been pulled out of Lu Ban's stomach. He kept twisting it with his fingers, suppressing the urge to vomit, and finally managed to pull the whole thing out.
Lu Ban carefully examined the vine and found several fleshy growths on the branches.
These lumps are bulging, and it seems like something is growing inside them.
"Did I have this kind of thing in my body before?"
Lu Ban felt that although he sometimes grew grass, he wouldn't go so far as to create such a bizarre thing.
Moreover, the grass on one's body usually grows only after the body has been injured. The presence of these things now means that Lu Ban's body has been damaged.
Is it food?
Lu Ban decided to do his research while basking in the sun.
He ran back to the restaurant and, to the astonishment of the two men who had brought their own food, bought some more.
Under the sunlight, Lu Ban ate delicious food while spitting out dirty clumps of grass and vines. Soon, a lot of garbage piled up around him.
"When you eat vegetables, you usually vomit several spiky clumps about the size of a fingernail; when you eat beef or pork, you vomit palm-sized clumps of slimy grass; when you eat fish, you vomit vines with fleshy growths; and is rice made of seaweed-like leaves?"
Lu Ban simply used the controlled variable method to record the reactions to the food he ate.
Passersby saw this and avoided looking at him, hurrying away as if they felt that standing next to Lu Ban would bring bad luck.
A few moments later, as the sun set, Lu Ban finished his tasting.
"The food on the entire island was contaminated. This contamination was insidious. At first, it might just be a cough, but it would spread throughout the body as the blood flowed. Because of the detoxification effect of photosynthesis, my reaction was particularly strong."
Lu Ban reached a conclusion.
"If this is pollution from the Uncertainty Fog, then the real Uncertainty Fog is very likely still present on this island. But how did such a serious pollutant manage to hide itself from being detected at a glance?"
The fact that the enormous Corrupted Ones in the sea was blasted apart by the Divine Child's arrow from afar demonstrates that the priestess of the Kawai Wa Island Grand Shrine possesses the power to strike beyond visual range. She is undoubtedly the pinnacle of combat power in this world. If the Uncertainty Fog still exists on the island, the Divine Child should theoretically be able to see through it.
"Could it really be as Momiji said, that even the shrine maiden of the Harmony Island shrine has betrayed us? What exactly is the Calamity Priestess '?"
As Lu Ban pondered this, another thing came to mind.
He hurriedly returned to the restaurant and saw two men, who had brought their own food and were already full, drinking and chatting in a corner. Lu Ban approached the two men with a serious expression.
"There's something I forgot to remind you of earlier."
Seeing Lu Ban 'Lu Ban serious expression and recalling his strange behavior before, the two of them straightened their backs, just like students facing a demon teacher in class.
"Is there... is there something you need?"
One of them asked.
"Eating alcohol and seafood together can easily cause gout."
Lu Ban said earnestly, then took the pot of wine from their table and left.
After a moment, the two stunned people came to their senses.
"He just took our bar?"
It seems so.
On the other side, Lu Ban walked out of the restaurant and left Anxinyuan directly, heading towards the low mountains in the center of the island along the main street of Song Island.
The Harmony Island Shrine is located on that mountain.