I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

People nearby looked over, and 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 the people of Kazuo 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 eating lunch here that day, and then he disappeared that evening.”

The person almost fell into another cycle 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 him.

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 rice is 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 Uncertain Fog, then the real Uncertain 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 filth in the sea was blasted apart by the divine child's arrow from afar demonstrates that the priestess of the Kawai Island Shrine possesses the power to strike beyond visual range. She is undoubtedly the pinnacle of combat power in this world. If the Uncertain Mist 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 island shrine has betrayed us? What exactly is the 'cursed shrine maiden'?"

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's 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 Gedao.

The Kazushima Shrine is located on that mountain.

Chapter 102 Torii Gate, Corridor

It was just after nightfall, and the bamboo forest, shrouded in twilight, was quiet and secluded.

A babbling brook meanders deep into the forest, where something seems to be watching the human world from beneath the dim, swaying shadows. The chirping of insects and the calls of some other creature form the main melody of the forest, but sometimes, silence envelops everything.

Lu Ban looked at the night sky. Under the light mist, it was almost impossible to see any constellations. Only a few stars shone stubbornly.

The moon was hidden deeper in the clouds, and Lu Ban couldn't even tell if the moon in this world was round.

A festival is being held on the island. The whole street is decorated with lanterns, and there are all kinds of vendors along the street. Some sell candied apples, some sell goldfish, and some sell masks. Eerie music echoes in the street, but no one can be seen playing it.

Lu Ban walked through them, brushing past many men and women dressed in kimonos. Happiness belonged to them; he had nothing.

However, Lu Ban noticed that, apart from the artists who were indulging in pleasure, the children, girls, and elderly people who looked like locals all had a kind of indifference in their eyes, as if they were performing to match the atmosphere, and their clumsy acting skills could not make up for their essential indifference.

He came to the end of the street, where a path stretched into the bamboo forest, clearly leading up the mountain.

It seems that the Kazushima Shrine is not open to the public at night, and no one is going up or down the mountain.

Lu Ban saw that at the foot of the mountain, under the red torii gate, Hongye was standing there.

She was still wearing a kimono with arrow feather patterns, a navy blue long skirt, and long boots, but a fox mask hung next to her head, adding a touch of innocence.

"The bamboo forest is dangerous at night, especially now."

Upon seeing Lu Ban, Hongye did not exchange pleasantries, but turned and headed up the mountain. She carried a lantern in her hand, the dim yellow light illuminating the road, which was unsettling.

The road up the mountain was a bit bumpy, and the bamboo forest beside it was sparse and quiet.

"Strange, why is there no sound in the bamboo forest?"

It's the height of summer on the island, but there's not a sound in the forest. The festival streets have faded into the distance, and the whole world is shrouded in silence.

"Don't get lost in the shadows, walk in the light of the lanterns."

Hongye reminded him to raise the lantern slightly.

Lu Ban noticed that the bamboo seemed to have become denser.

This reminded him of the grasslands outside the ruined city, the plants and trees that were alive and growing wildly.

I couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity.

When the two reached the middle of the mountain, they saw a series of torii gates.

These structures, which are said to be gateways connecting two worlds, are ubiquitous along the mountain road, forming tunnels and making the road even darker.

As Lu Ban entered the torii gate, he seemed to hear a sound coming from behind him.

He looked back and, in the dark shadows, seemed to see a red skirt and white socks flashing by on wooden clogs.

"That is……"

Lu Ban couldn't help but stop, and the red leaves in front of him moved a little further away.

Lu Ban looked down when his trouser leg seemed to be tugged by something.

A pale hand retreated into the shadows.

He felt the darkness around him grow even deeper.

Music drifted into my ears.