"The game only says to complete it with your eyes closed, but doesn't mention the consequences of opening your eyes."

"And if I continue to recite the poem, I should be able to leave this space, but it might put Hongye in danger?"

Lu Ban thought about it and decided to open his eyes.

However, when he tried to do so, his eyelids were extremely heavy and he couldn't open them.

It was like being possessed by a ghost in his own bed. No matter how hard Lu Ban wanted to open his eyes, he couldn't do it.

"So, in this game of Hyakunin Isshu, it's not that you shouldn't open your eyes, but that you can't open your eyes?"

Lu Ban roughly understood it.

"Thinking from another angle, if we use some method to forcefully open our eyes or probe the outside world at this time, will it lead to some unexpected results for the game designer?"

He opened his mouth.

A sound that is inaudible to humans came out of Lu Ban's mouth, and high-frequency ultrasonic waves echoed in the space. Lu Ban was originally prepared to listen to these echoes to determine his current location. However, a moment later, Lu Ban discovered something.

No response.

Apart from the ground beneath his feet, there were no walls, no rooms, and no Hongye or others. Lu Ban was in an empty and silent area.

“That’s very strange.”

Lu Ban thought so and continued to move forward. At this point, he could only recite poetry.

"Look down and think of my hometown..."

As Lu Ban recited this sentence, he felt his tense body suddenly relax.

He felt as if there was light and heat coming in front of his eyes. When his hand touched Hongye's hand, Lu Ban opened his eyes.

At least, the witch in front of him still looked like a human.

As he lit his candle, he whispered something in Hongye's ear.

"There's something wrong with the game. You can get out of it by reciting the poem."

Hongye glanced at Lu Ban and nodded silently.

She blew out the candle and quickly left the range of Lu Ban's candlelight and disappeared into the darkness.

"Youyou God is doing this..."

The crisp sound of red leaves came from in front of Lu Ban, giving people a unique and elegant feeling.

If Chihaya dressed as a shrine maiden and strolled in the courtyard where cherry blossoms were falling, accompanied by this line of speech, it would definitely be a beautiful picture.

Lu Ban took the opportunity to look at the others.

At the end of the wall on his left was Ginpei, whose body was becoming increasingly festering, and diagonally across from him was Tachibana Masamune, whose eyes were filled with blood.

Both of them remained silent, looking straight ahead, without fear.

Lu Ban turned his gaze forward.

Then he saw that there was a person standing on the other side of the wall extending from where he was.

The person was wearing a shrine maiden costume of white clothes and scarlet hakama. She had black hair, a pale face, and eyes that were a deep, dark red. She just stood in the corner, holding a lit candle in her hand. The light shone on her face, reflecting a bleak picture.

Wait a minute.

Lu Ban thought.

The wall is straight. Logically, Hongye should be walking beside the wall at this moment. There should be a Hongye between herself and the unknown thing on the opposite side.

However, I can see the person opposite me without any obstruction!

So Hongye has entered the different space?

After she finished reciting the four lines of poetry, she should have been able to leave that strange space, but she was about to reach the location of the monster.

Lighting the candle from the monster, Lu Ban didn't know what would happen.

"I have never heard of it..."

The crisp sound of Hongye has now turned into a kind of countdown. Lu Ban wanted to remind Hongye, but found that he could not make any sound.

He seemed to be able to see a hazy shadow between himself and the monster in the shrine maiden's costume. As Hongye read out these words one by one, she would get closer and closer to reality.

"Maple-colored Ryuta River..."

By the third sentence, Hongye's figure was already vaguely visible, right next to the witch.

Lu Ban took a deep breath and saw that the witch was motionless, with only a pair of eyes staring at Hongye, as if she wanted to kill her with her eyes.

"The waters flow deep..."

After Hongye finished reading the last sentence, she also walked in front of the witch.

The moment before she opened her eyes, a voice sounded in her ears.

It was a sharp buzzing sound, enough to pierce the eardrum and make people dizzy. Moreover, Hongye had no time to cover her ears. The sound penetrated her brain, making her dazed and unable to stand.

Almost at the same time, Ginpei and Tachibana Masamune also heard the sound, dropped the candles in their hands, and covered their ears.

Lu Ban saw that the strange witch's gaze fell from Hongye to himself. That look that made people feel resentful and desperate was like a needle, piercing into Lu Ban's chest, making him feel an unnatural pain and winter-like coldness.

However, the witch did not take any further action. The candle in her hand slowly went out, and she was completely immersed in the darkness.

"careful."

Lu Ban was finally able to speak. He did not immediately remove the verbal bullets from the other three people, but instead lit the lantern on the table with a candle and then helped Hongye who had fallen to the ground.

He glanced at the corner in front of Hongye. There was no one there, except for a little stain in the corner, like blood that could not be washed off.

"This game looks like it's going to summon something really bad."

Lu Ban said, he looked at the other two, the degree of monsterization of Tachibana Masamune and Ginpei was increasing, maybe by tomorrow morning, these two people would become a pile of rotten meat.

After exchanging glances and saying goodbye to the two frightened people, Lu Ban and Hongye left the living room and walked towards the room.

"Can you heal both of them and make them back to normal?"

Under the misty moonlight, Lu Ban asked.

"For those who have already begun to alienate, we cannot purify the filth."

Hongye seemed to be feeling emotional and recalling something, she said.

"This world is like this. Once it is polluted, eroded, and alienated, it will continue to crash into the abyss, with no way back."

"Ginpei and Tachibana Masamune have only been on this island for half a day, and they have already become alienated like this. So, have the island's residents and the artists who came here before also..."

Lu Ban had a bad feeling.

"It is very likely..."

Hongye and Lu Ban thought the same thing. She bit her lower lip lightly and thought for a long time before she opened her mouth and continued.

"Even the most pollution-resistant Kazushima Shrine has fallen. No mortal can survive on this island. I will find a chance to inform the great god Kazushima tomorrow. Please, Lord Godson, send down the pure fire."

"Does this mean that the whole island will be burned?"

Lu Ban thought of the fire that had been burning on the seabed for a long time.

How is this approach different from destroying an entire town with a bomb when the spread of an infectious disease cannot be controlled?

Of course, in a sense, if the son of God of the Washima Taisha Shrine really destroyed this place completely, then Lu Ban's mission could be completed successfully.

Unexpectedly, the joke he made before the mission started turned out to be a prophecy. Lu Ban didn't know whether to be happy or sad.

only.

Lu Ban thought of what Du Danping had told Trist.

If you cannot maintain your humanity in the Land of Silence, you will inevitably lose your life here.

"If, I mean if, I can find a way to find the remaining people who have not been contaminated and can still be saved, do you have a way to restore them?"

Lu Ban asked.

Hongye was startled. The black-haired priestess looked at Lu Ban. The hazy moonlight shining on his face reminded people of the poem he had recited earlier.

"Maybe, yes."

She responded with a complicated expression.