I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

He turned around and asked Lu Ban the same question.

"Do you know about the Divine Cherry Blossom? What about the Pure Fire and the Impurities?"

Lu Ban vaguely guessed something, and he confirmed it.

Is this something from a legend or story?

The captain glanced at Lu Ban.

"...That's true."

Lu Ban responded and did not ask any further questions.

He has almost figured it out.

Although this is He Island, it is not the He Island that Lu Ban is familiar with.

There is no island here, no poetry festival, no island shrine, no sacred cherry blossoms.

There was not even any clean fire or filth.

Although this ocean is vast, it is not the entirety of the world; on the other side of the ocean lies the continent.

This is the ancient island of He.

Lu Ban bid farewell to the captain and then had several sailors open their heads to check their memories, finally confirming the matter.

At least in the minds of these sailors, there was no impurity here, so there was no need for the purification fire. Without the divine cherry blossoms, the Kazushima Shrine would cease to exist, and there would be no shrine maiden to control the purification fire.

The mainland still exists, vast in territory, and now it is the Age of Exploration, everyone yearns for the sea, trying to find their own wealth in the endless ocean.

Captain Nagamasa was one of them.

These men usually serve as escorts on the high seas, protecting merchant ships from pirates. Sometimes they also take on exploration missions. The first half of this voyage is to escort a merchant ship, while the second half, which is now, is the captain's journey to the location marked on a "treasure map" he has obtained, in search of the legendary treasure.

Having grasped this, Lu Ban roughly guessed the objective of this mission: to witness the budding of something.

They wanted to witness the budding of the divine cherry blossoms.

Chapter 804 Curiosity

The island of Heji, devoid of filth, divine cherry blossoms, and pure fire, was unimaginable to Lu Ban.

Every alien realm he has visited so far has been polluted to some extent, or rather, the rulers of the Silent Lands seem to have little interest in alien realms that have not yet been seriously polluted. Perhaps there is no need to send chosen ones to change alien realms that have not shown any abnormalities.

So, Lu Ban and Xi Ya came to this island that has not yet been polluted by filth, surely they need to change something, to stop something.

"Our mission this time is to witness the budding of the divine cherry blossoms, but the island has not yet seen the divine cherry blossoms. It seems that our goal is to witness the budding of the divine cherry blossoms, and the appearance of the divine cherry blossoms means that this world has been corrupted by impurities..."

Lu Ban thought for a moment and quickly came up with an answer.

It's possible that their journey might even witness the birth of filth.

This mission is not a confrontation mission. Either the Silent Lands do not know the source of the filth, or the filth here was not created by other gods who commanded their chosen ones.

The first possibility is unlikely. The filth here is clearly not at the level of surpassing the Great Old Ones. The ruler of the Silent Lands, as a god who can control many other realms and is the god above gods, should not be completely unaware of these things.

The latter possibility is more intriguing.

Since Lu Ban and Xi Ya's mission is to witness the budding rather than to prevent the filth from appearing in this world, it means that the appearance of the filth is inevitable, and even the one in the Silent Land cannot prevent it from happening.

"Before we, there may have already been a struggle here."

Xia quickly understood the origin of their mission.

"The gaze and direct intervention of those great beings can cause the history of other realms to freeze. It is likely that before our mission, different forces had already visited this place and clashed many times. The victors left behind filth, which was observed by those great beings who are independent of time and space, thus making that period of history unchangeable."

In other words, their mission this time was to make up for their previous failures.

Since Lu Ban had visited He Island before, the budding of the Divine Cherry Blossom was inevitable; the only difference was which chosen one of the gods would witness it.

Since Xia had previously encountered Du Danping from the wasteland who told Lu Ban that this mission might be dangerous, it was still unknown whether the mission would be successful.

"This ship is powered by wind. How will it navigate in the calm zone?"

She glanced again at the sails and at Captain Nagamasa, who was looking around with great interest, referring to an old parchment map.

“We can talk to that Ah Xiang; he seems more normal.”

Lu Ban then pointed to the scholar A Xiang, who was sitting on a box to the side, flipping through his notes.

"normal?"

Xia gave Lu Ban a strange look.

There was always something slightly off about the way he said that word.

But this opinion is quite reasonable.

Captain Nagamasa is clearly a daydreamer who is immersed in fantasy and wants to turn his life around by relying on the treasure. Communicating directly with him will probably only yield some irrelevant delusions and unreliable rumors.

Why not ask Ah Xiang, who seems quite intelligent?

When she came to the scholar's side, Xia didn't make a sound, but looked at his notes for a while.

Ah Xiang was holding a slender calligraphy brush and writing on a thread-bound notebook. The text described the ecological habits of a type of fish. The format was neat and the content was complete, making him look like a researcher who had undergone systematic study.

"Your notes are very good."

Xia commented.

Her voice caught Ah Xiang's attention, and he quickly sat up straight, subconsciously covering his notes at the same time.

"They are just some personal hobbies."

Ah Xiang said somewhat shyly.

"You enjoy studying fish?"

Xia was, after all, a top student at Gray Tower Academy and was very interested in research. So, seeing A Xiang's notes, she was naturally curious.

"To be precise, it's the ecological environment of this sea."

When the conversation turned to topics he was good at, Ah Xiang became less shy and started talking at length.

“We have lived with this sea for thousands of years. Our ancestors lived by the sea since ancient times and developed civilization by relying on the resources of the sea. But we know very little about this sea. We don’t know where the storms and lightning, the tides and waves, and the sea creatures come from. So I want to understand this place.”

"curiosity."

Xia commented briefly.

“That’s right. I’ve met many elderly people who have lived by the sea their whole lives. They’ve been fishing since they were teenagers and have accumulated a lot of experience. But they only have awe for the sea and dare not try to understand it. They even think that trying to understand the sea is a sin. I don’t agree with that.”

Ah-Xiang put the notebook aside, letting the ink dry in the sea breeze, and then spoke.

"Thousands of years ago, humans could only fish by sticking fish into the sand with cheap wooden sticks or by relying on schools of fish swept in by a typhoon. But now, we can build large ships that can brave the wind and waves, go deep into the ocean, and navigate through storms. I believe that one day, we will be able to master the secrets of this sea."

Hia remained silent.

She didn't think Ah Xiang was wrong. Such ideas can appear at any stage of civilization, or rather, they are one of the driving forces that keep civilization moving forward. It is curiosity and this spirit of conquering the unknown that have brought civilization from barbarism to the present day.

In a foreign land, knowledge is pollution, and human progress is inevitably accompanied by the spread of pollution. People like Ah Xiang may become heroes who change the course of civilization, or they may become sinners who cause the destruction of civilization.

Judging from the future of the island, Ah Xiang's ideal has not been realized, and he may even one day in the future perish in the sea he tried to understand.

"What, Miss Sia, do you think I'm wrong?"

When Ah-Xiang saw that Xi-Ya didn't react, he became a little uneasy again, wondering if he had been too presumptuous. After all, it was rare to have a conversation with such a beautiful woman, but the topics were all inexplicable and really old-fashioned.

Sometimes he would envy his good friend Nagamasa, who was very popular with women on land and could win the favor of all kinds of people—as long as Nagamasa's treasure was not mentioned.

“You’re absolutely right. So here’s the question.”

Lu Ban interjected at this moment, picking up the notebook whose ink was almost dried out and glancing at the fish drawn on it.

"Is this fish delicious?"

"what?"

Ah Xiang was stunned.

Chapter 805 Never an Air Force

The notebook depicts a spindle-shaped fish that looks plump, with a smooth surface and a streamlined dorsal fin. Although it is a simple sketch drawn with a brush, the key details are lifelike. Even with just a few strokes, the fish's appearance can be discerned.

"Eating... I haven't thought about that."

Ah Xiang scratched his head, not understanding what Lu Ban meant.

"I saw this fish in the water a few days ago when it was raining. There were no conditions to catch it, so I could only record its appearance. It swam very fast, almost as fast as our boat. It was huge and very conspicuous."

He gestured to indicate the size of the fish, which was about the size of a six or seven-year-old child. Such a large fish, swimming so fast, was indeed a rare sight.

"That must taste delicious."

Lu Ban said another sentence.

"Think about it, it's so fat, it must have a lot of meat, and it swims so fast, which means it exercises a lot. All that meat will turn into well-trained muscles, especially on its back. If you could catch one and slice the meat off its back, it would be absolutely delicious!"

His words made Ah Xiang swallow hard, but the scholar immediately realized his lapse in composure and quickly added something else.

"No, how can you eat this?"

"Why can't we eat things from the sea? Isn't the purpose of your research to understand these creatures? Whether they are edible and whether they taste good are definitely part of the research. What's wrong with eating one?"

Lu Ban spoke in a very serious tone, leaving A Xiang completely bewildered.

"That seems to make a lot of sense."

"Why don't we go and catch one now?"

Lu Ban added.

"what?"

Before Ah Xiang could react, Lu Ban grabbed a stick of unknown purpose next to the box.

His right hand materialized into a silver fountain pen [last words], which he wrote on the stick.

[Highly efficient fishing rod, hooks fish in one minute, never come back empty-handed]

The next moment, Lu Ban pulled out a line from somewhere, wrapped it around the stick, and then threw it into the sea.

A moment later, the stick in Lu Ban's hand trembled slightly.