Upon entering the vineyard, Odis dismounted from the carriage, squatted down, grabbed a handful of soil, and examined it.
The soil in the vineyard was so dry that it was almost like sand; you couldn't hold it in your hand, and it would leak through your fingers.
Odis, who was squatting on the ground, said, "Fetch a bucket of water."
Without the Earl of Brandon giving any orders, his personal valet immediately went to instruct the vineyard steward to send someone to fetch water.
Soon, two farmers brought over a large bucket of water.
Odis scooped up a ladleful and poured it onto the ground; the water quickly seeped in and disappeared without a trace.
When Odis squatted down again to grab the soil, it had become so dry that it slipped through his fingers like sand.
According to Count Brandon, not only this spoonful of water, but also the fact that the "Punisher" had rained here all day, yet not a single drop of water remained on the land.
Odis clapped his hands, stood up, took the staff from Lord Rick, and said to Earl Brandon, "The curse here started more than half a month ago, didn't it?"
Earl Brandon nodded: "Yes."
Odis hummed in agreement and then said, "Then, about half a month ago, something magical and strange must have grown in this vineyard."
"Count, please send someone to search for it. If we can find that thing, I am confident that I can solve the soil problem here."
Earl Brandon asked, "What exactly does that thing look like?"
"I don't know either," Odis said. "It has no fixed shape, but it must emit a soft, pure white light."
Earl Brandon nodded and immediately ordered his butler to search for it.
But half an hour later, the butler replied that the wizard was not looking for anything in the vineyard. He had asked the local farmers, and they had never found anything like it either.
Brandon, a nobleman with a keen understanding of human nature, pondered for a moment and said, "Whoever finds that item will be rewarded with 200 pounds!"
£200 was a huge sum for the farmers working in the vineyard, so soon someone brought Odis what he was looking for.
It was a bright green grape leaf, but now it was winter, and all the grape leaves had long since fallen. In this era without greenhouses, the color of this grape leaf looked very abnormal.
At the same time, this grape leaf also emitted a pure white light, making it look very sacred.
Count Brandon breathed a sigh of relief; finding such a thing would prove the wizard's judgment correct.
Odis took the leaf and asked, "Who found this?"
The vineyard manager nudged a man in his forties who looked like a fruit farmer.
The fruit farmer nervously straightened his clothes and said, "It's me, sir."
Odis then said, "Tell me how you discovered it."
"That night, I went out to pee and saw it," the fruit farmer said. "It was very conspicuous in the vineyard. I didn't know what it was, but I thought it was something good, so I picked it off the vine and took it home."
"Yes, there wasn't a single leaf on the vine before dark."
Odis smiled and said, "He is indeed a good thing, and he has earned you a bonus of 200 pounds."
Lord Brandon, standing nearby, said, "I'll give you 300 pounds, but I'm also firing you because you didn't bring it out immediately when I first ordered the search for this leaf."
The fruit farmer was suddenly unsure whether to be happy or frustrated.
Although £300 is a huge sum of money, in recent years, it has not provided the same sense of security as a stable job.
Odis thought to himself: This count does have some tricks up his sleeve.
Brandon then waved his hand, signaling everyone to step back a bit: "Mr. Wizard, have you found the problem?"
"Found it," Odis said. "Please have someone find a basket of wood ash and a few dozen pieces of perilla leaves."
"There probably aren't any fresh perilla leaves left. You can go to the nearest herbal medicine shop and buy some dried perilla leaves."
The Earl of Brandon immediately ordered his personal valet and the vineyard steward to prepare these things, and then the earl looked at the wizard Gandalf.
Lord Brad Rick also looked at the wizard with curiosity.
Odis smiled and explained, "There are many kinds of curses, among which the curses of demons are the most vicious and insidious. Of course, the curses of demons are also relatively rare."
"As far as I know, those curses include, but are not limited to, turning food and grain in front of the cursed area or person into stone, or turning clear water into sand, so that the cursed person can never eat a bite of food or drink a drop of water."
"And another thing is to make the land dry up."
He paused for a moment and then said, "These curses are very rare. I've only read about them in books, and even fewer people know how to break them."
Earl Brandon frowned and asked, "Why is the demon targeting me?"
"It's not that they're targeting you," Odis said, waving the grape leaf in his hand. "It's about their relationship."
Lord Rick, who was standing nearby, asked, "Sir Wizard, what is this?"
"This is what demons hate most," Odis explained. "Where there is evil, there is purity; where there are demons, there are things that can restrain them."
"This leaf is such a thing. I don't know the mechanism of its growth. I only know that there is a very small probability that such a pure thing will grow naturally."
"Every demon hates it, yet no one wants to get close to it."
"So demons usually curse the land where such things grow, causing it to dry up and become barren for years."
Demons represent the most evil part of this world, and the "abyss" is the physical embodiment of evil and depravity.
The leaf in Odis's hand is another extreme; such things tend to grow when the world is dark and filthy.
Earl Brandon remarked, "The extraordinary world is always so magical."
Lord Rick smiled and said, "Fortunately, we found the learned wizard Gandalf, otherwise we would still be searching for a solution."
Earl Brandon replied, "I am more grateful for your recommendation."
Lord Rick quickly replied, "It is my honor to be of help to you."
Odis ignored the two noblemen's pleasantries and instead looked closely at the surrounding grapevines. Just as Count Brandon had said, they were still alive in such dry land!
It seems that the people of the Church of Mother Earth Goddess have indeed put in a lot of effort, but they have not been able to solve the problem at its root.
When no one was looking, he put a handful of dry soil into his pocket and then picked up a small twig and put it into his pocket as well.
At this time, the wood ash and perilla arrived one after the other. Odis poured a third of a basket of wood ash into the large bucket of water, and then crushed a dozen or so dried perilla leaves and sprinkled them into the water.
After stirring the water with a ladle and waiting for a minute or two, Odis used the ladle to scoop up water and sprinkled it evenly on the ground in front of him.
A miraculous scene unfolded: the ladle of water didn't leak out as before, but instead remained on the ground, slowly seeping into it.
That small patch of land became moist and returned to normal.
Odis sprinkled it out ladle by ladle, and soon a large area of land returned to normal.
Earl Brandon was overjoyed at the sight; the problem was finally solved!
After Odis poured out the whole bucket of water, he said to Earl Brandon, "This method is effective. It allows fruit farmers to evenly sprinkle water containing wood ash and perilla leaves onto the ground."
"I just demonstrated the approximate proportions. You can use a little more wood ash and perilla leaves, but not less. You can sprinkle more or sprinkle it repeatedly, but don't miss any spots."
"Very well, very well." Earl Brandon smiled and said, "Sir Wizard, how can I thank you?"
"Give me this leaf. You have no use for it. I might be able to use it to fight demons in the future." Odis raised the grape leaf in his hand again and said, "Also, I need Earl Brandon's help."
"What favor?" Count Brandon really didn't need the leaf, and to avoid being targeted by the devil again, he was happy to give it to the wizard Gandalf.
Odis then smiled and said, "I will write to the Count around the New Year."
Not a single mistake, not a single poem, not a single post, not a single piece of content, not a single look!
"If I haven't written to you, it means I don't need your help anymore, and you don't need to pay me any further compensation."
"No problem," Earl Brandon readily agreed, "as long as it's not beyond my capabilities."
Odis smiled, put away the grape leaves that emitted a soft glow, and took his leave.
Count Brandon immediately sent a carriage to take Odice back.
Back at No. 66 Rose Street, Odis first put the leaf into the "Wilderness of Knowledge," then wrote a letter explaining the matter of the demon's curse. She found a rental carriage and delivered the letter to the Backlund Mechanical Research Society to report to the "Heart of the Machines."
If they can get a clue from this and find the demon, that would be ideal.
After finishing all that, Odis made herself a cup of coffee, but as she drank it, her lips felt as if they had touched a hard solid.
He found it strange, so he held the cup up to his eyes and shook it. It was liquid, and it could be shaken.
Odis tried to drink again, but still couldn't swallow a single drop.
He seemed to understand something, turned on the water tap, and glanced at the "splashing" water.
Odis reached out to touch the tap water, but the flowing water suddenly froze, and not a single drop of water got on his hand.
This did not surprise Odis too much, because he broke the demon's curse and obtained the leaves that the demons hated, so the curse was transferred to him, and he could never touch the water again.
Even if they jump into a river or even the sea, they cannot escape the fate of dying of thirst.
Odis remained calm, knowing that when she agreed to help Earl Brandon, she might also be cursed by the devil.
For him, lifting the curse was not difficult. Odis had previously studied the curse of demons, and on Tuesday, the "Hidden Sage" had also "instilled" some knowledge about the curse of demons in him.
Of course, this is only easy for Odis. For others, the demon's curse is very difficult to deal with, and the only way to remove the curse is to kill the demon.
But Odis knew more than one way to break the demon's curse. He went to the shelf where the herbs were kept and mixed several kinds of herbal powder together in a certain proportion.
Then Odis locked the door from the inside, took off all her clothes, and came to the center of the living room, where she scattered the powder.
Whew~
The powder ignited into black flames, which, as if alive, enveloped Odis.
Odis was grimacing from the heat, and at the same time he saw a black mist seemingly being baked out of his skin.
The flames burned for four or five seconds, and the black mist emanating from Odis's body formed a symbol in mid-air with goat horn elements, representing a demon.
The symbol then vanished quickly, and the black flames surrounding Odis disappeared as well.
Odis didn't have time to get dressed before going to the kitchen, picking up a coffee cup and gulping down half of it.
He put down his cup and smiled, saying, "Knowledge is power."
Then he went to the bathroom to wipe his blackened body and put on his clothes.
Back in the living room, Odis sipped his coffee and pondered: as long as the "demon" who cursed the vineyard is still alive, similar curses might still find me; I can't just sit here and wait to die.
Odis's original idea was to report the matter to the "Mechanical Heart" to get their attention and have them resolve the issue.
However, the "Mechanical Heart" might not be able to find the demon's whereabouts in a short time, so Odis decided to help the "Mechanical Heart" one more time and help them find the person.
Since Odis is now quite familiar with Sherlock Holmes, who is "good at finding people," she can ask him for help.
The key is to use the "Source Castle" for divination without alerting the demon.
As for how "Mechanical Heart" avoids the demon's "malicious perception" and eliminates it, that's up to "Mechanical Heart".
Odis then wrote another letter to the Backlund Mechanical Research Society, explaining that he was cursed by a "demon" and that he must find and defeat the demon as soon as possible.
He also told "Mechanical Heart" that he knew a very powerful "fortune teller" and would ask that "fortune teller" to find the demon.
The implication is that you should be prepared to strike immediately once you find traces of that "demon".
After sending the letter, Odes used the "teleportation array" in the basement to return to 77 Hailin Avenue, transforming back into the herbalist shop owner. He then went to Gar's Herbal Shop, changed into Mr. Gar's clothes, and used the "teleportation array" to arrive at the "Nanmu Ballroom".
Odis had Mandy prepare the carriage, and by the time he rode it to Minsk Street, it was already completely dark.
...
"The Forsaken Land," Silver City.
The exploration team returned to Silver City. Today's exploration yielded a demigod-level sealed artifact, as well as many extraordinary properties and several sealed artifacts comparable to Sequence 8 to Sequence 6. This brought a smile to the faces of each team member.
Back at the Round Tower, Chief Colin announced the rewards for the expedition before disbanding the exploration team.
"Derrick," Colin suddenly called out to Derrick, "come here for a second."
After saying that, he led Derrick to the upper floors of the Round Tower, seemingly wanting to discuss something with Derrick privately.
Upon reaching the top of the round tower, Colin took out a Sequence Level 6 sealed artifact he had acquired that day and solemnly said, "This is another reward for you. Keep it safe!"
Derrick was taken aback. Wasn't he supposed to be rewarded with merit? And the chief's tone seemed a little strange.