I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 102 - 102 Control Variable Method 1

Chapter 102: Control Variable Method 1 Chapter 102: Control Variable Method 1 “You also know about the Calamitous Shrine Maiden?”

Lu Ban leisurely picked up another piece of smoked fish from their lunchbox with his chopsticks, which had a touch of sweetness and tasted very good.

“The Calamitous Shrine Maiden is the ruler of this island; as long as one venerates her, one can obtain eternal life.”

The gloomy expressions of the two people vanished, and their tone suddenly became somewhat fervent.

“Then why don’t you eat the food from this island?”

Lu Ban asked a question while picking up a piece of seaweed-wrapped rice and crunching loudly as he chewed.

“…I’m sorry.”

The two men hesitated for a moment, then suddenly bowed their heads to apologize, banging their heads on the table so hard it was heartbreaking to hear.

“I’m sorry!” “I’m sorry!”

The two kept apologizing and banging their heads against the table, even as blood began to trickle from their foreheads, yet they did not stop.

Onlookers turned their gazes toward the scene, and Lu Ban’s mouth twitched as he held down the two who kept apologizing.

“You don’t need to apologize, just tell me about Wan Ye?”

Lu Ban, fearing they would revert to unfeeling “sorry” machines, quickly changed the subject.

From the earlier conversation, it was clear that Wan Ye was not a trigger for their apologies.

But then again, do the people of Harmony Island love to apologize so much?

When uncertain what to do, do they begin with an apology, and regardless of what happens, everything is resolved with an apology?

An apology appears to be such a convenient thing.

Lu Ban thought this could definitely be put to good use next time.

“Not to… uh, if you’re talking about Wan Ye, he arrived on this island about four days ago and then he disappeared two days later. He was eating here at noon that day, and in the evening he was gone.”

The man almost stumbled back into the cycle of apologies but caught himself in time.

“So, you’re saying he seemed normal after lunch?”

Lu Ban quietly ruled out food as a possibility.

His meal was served, an abundant seafood feast that immediately whetted one’s appetite.

He picked up a piece of boiled fish and looked toward the two diners who had brought their own provisions.

“Do you want some?”

The two shook their heads continuously.

“I think the food should be fine, if you don’t eat it, I will.”

Lu Ban put the piece of fish into his mouth, chewed for a while, and swallowed it down.

“The taste isn’t bad, and there seems to be some special seasoning that gives a slight tingling sensation on the tongue, quite stimulating.”

He rapidly cleared the food from his bowl.

Getting up, ready to move to the next location, Lu Ban had just walked out the door of the restaurant when he felt an itch in his throat as if something was surging up, causing him to cough uncontrollably.

“Cough, cough, cough…”

Lu Ban’s coughing was violent, as if his insides were about to come out; he bent over, curling his body like a shrimp, but the coughing didn’t stop.

With a slight ease, Lu Ban removed his hand from his mouth and saw traces of blood in his palm, apparently caused by the coughing.

“That’s a bit strong…”

Lu Ban said, coughing even more fiercely while the people around him watched from a distance, as if fearful of catching something from him.

This time, there was something more in Lu Ban’s palm.

It was a clump of black, bruised grass.

Lu Ban felt something stuck in his throat, he reached in with two fingers toward his throat and soon felt a foreign object.

“Ugh—”

A wave of nausea surged up his throat, and Lu Ban’s fingers pinched onto that thing.

He pulled hard.

A kind of pain that pierced through the esophagus struck him, and the burning sensation that spread from his stomach to his throat, and finally to his mouth, caused Lu Ban’s vision to darken.

But fortunately, he was quick.

His fingers pulled out from his throat, bringing with them a slender vine.

This dark green vine was covered in black mucus, almost as if it was extracted right from Lu Ban’s stomach. His fingers kept twirling, enduring the urge to vomit, until finally he managed to pull out the entire thing.

Lu Ban examined the vine carefully and noticed several flesh-like tumors growing on the branches.

These tumors looked swollen, as if something was being nurtured inside them.

“I had this thing inside me before?”

Lu Ban felt that although he occasionally sprouted grass, he wouldn’t produce such a creepy thing.

Moreover, the grass on his body usually only grew after he sustained injuries, which meant that these substances indicated his body had been damaged.

“Is it the food?”

Lu Ban decided to do some research while soaking up the sun.

He ran back to the restaurant and, under the astonished gaze of the two men who had brought their own provisions, bought some more food.

In the sunlight, Lu Ban ate the delicious food while spitting out dirty clumps of grass and vines. Soon, there was a considerable amount of trash piled up around him.

“Intake of vegetable-type food generally results in me vomiting small, fingernail-sized clumps of grass with spikes, beef and pork lead to palm-sized clumps with mucus, fish leads to tumor-bearing vines, and rice to seaweed-like leaves, huh…”

Lu Ban simply recorded the reactions caused by the food he consumed using a method of controlling variables.

Passersby who saw this all averted their eyes and hurried away, as if standing next to Lu Ban would bring them bad luck.

Moments later, as the sun set, Lu Ban ended his food trial.

“The entire island’s ingredients have been contaminated. This pollution is insidious; at first, it might just cause coughing, but as blood circulates, it will spread throughout the body. Due to my detoxifying effect of photosynthesis, my reactions are especially severe.”

Lu Ban concluded.

“If this is pollution from the Undefined Fog, then the real Undefined Fog might still exist on this island. But how could such a serious pollutant hide without being detected at first glance?”

Before, the huge impurity in the sea was destroyed by the Shrine Maiden’s arrow from a great distance, which showed that the Shrine Maiden at the Great Shrine of Harmony Island possessed the power to strike beyond visual range, one of the world’s most powerful combat capabilities. If the Undefined Fog still existed on the island, logically, that Shrine Maiden should be able to see through it.

“Could it be true as Red Leaf said, that even the Shrine Maidens of the He Island Shrine have defected? What exactly is a Calamitous Shrine Maiden?”

At this thought, Lu Ban remembered something else.

He hurried back to the restaurant where the two men who had brought their own provisions were now contentedly drinking and chatting in a corner. Lu Ban approached them with a serious expression.

“There’s something I forgot to remind you of earlier.”

Seeing Lu Ban’s serious look, and remembering his bizarre behavior from earlier, the two men couldn’t help but straighten up, just like students facing a terrifying teacher in class.

“Is there a problem?”

One of them asked.

“Drinking alcohol with seafood can cause gout.”

Lu Ban seriously said and then took the jug of wine from their table, promptly leaving.

A moment later, the stunned men snapped back to reality.

“He just took our wine, right?”

“Seems like it…”

Meanwhile, Lu Ban walked out of the restaurant and left Anxin Court. He continued along the streets of Song Island, heading toward the low-lying hills at the center of the island.

The He Island Shrine was located atop those hills.