The vicious cycle finally ended once Li's stomach stopped growling uncontrollably. A sense of relief enveloped Xuan Li as he finally stopped eating berries and regained some self control.
"Its...*huff*...finally...*huff* over..." Tears started dripping down Xuan Li's face as a smile morphed with pain formed on his face making himself look quite ugly and crazy.
Qi Yuan looked at him and closed his notebook after jotting down his last notes from Li's berry eating period.
"So would you like actual food now?" With a wave of his hand, four plates appeared on their wooden table. Each plate had a variety of food, one had a steamed and cooked chicken, another was filled with dumplings, one had a salad mix and one was filled with bread.
The dishes made Xuan Li unconsciously drool but he quickly regained his senses and whipped it off "As if I'll fall for your schemes again!" He turned his head away from the food.
"Suit yourself" Qi Yuan began to take a piece of the chicken and ate it with a smile of fulfilment. He summoned some chopsticks and used them to eat the steamy dumplings, giving a face of happiness. It was clear to anyone that the food tasted good.
Li, watching Qi Yuan eat, couldn't resist any more and began to eat with him.
Soon enough, with both these hungry monsters, the dishes on the four plates were quickly devoured and the table was left empty once again.
"Ah, that was delicious" Qi Yuan wiped his face with a napkin while voicing his thoughts.
Li rubbed his stomach in satisfaction "That was amazing"
The two men seemed, for a moment in satisfaction, good friends that just had a meal together. Of course, that's not really the case as straight after, Qi Yuan said "Alright, let's proceed to the next test!"
"Wha-what??? Test???" Li was snapped out of his satisfaction and looked at Qi Yuan with caution.
"Of course, we just did the berry test and now that you're happy and full we can proceed onwards with my experiments!"
"Fuck off! I am not a lab rat! What do you mean by berry test!?" Li abruptly stood up with his hands clenched in rage 'I am already suffering, why do I have to suffer even more' was what he wanted to shout to Qi Yuan but kept it to himself.
"Those berries you ate, I had you eat them to understand your body's unique healing properties" Qi Yuan noticing Li's anger and with his insight he could tell there were a lot of emotions stirring inside him, he decided to explain.
"The first batch of berries I had you eat causes the person to experience great hunger that can't be quenched for a certain time limit. So no matter how much you ate during its time limit, you would still feel hungry even though in reality, your body would have been full. Now you ate tons of them, hence the effects lasted longer for you."
"The red berries I fed you, they cause stomach cramps and diarrhea. However, if one ate a lot like you did it also causes a corrosion effect to your intestines which would spread across your inner organs and eventually kill you."
Li's eyes widened in surprise.
"From my observation, you only experienced the stomach cramps and before you could experience diarrhoea, you vomited everything out."
"Next, I gave you some orange berries. When eaten enough, they cause blindness which is why your vision began to distort, it was a sign that the berries have begun having an effect on you. After blindness, you would slowly lose your sense of taste then smell and then hearing and finally touch. After losing all your senses, you would be dead."
" You had a lot of green berries which increased your body's temperature, causing that horrible headache you experienced. Afterwards, if left untreated, you would have died from overheating."
"Next, I gave you pink berries which mess with the mind, giving you horrible hallucinations and confuses your mind. If it proceeded, you would have had a seizure from shock and died as the poison of the berry invaded your brain."
"I remember you had some black berries and they caused you to feel drowsy. That's all that berry did to you, your life was not at risk."
"Those grey berries, you felt a weird sensation on your throat and felt you couldn't breath. When eaten enough, those berries immediately close your airways, making you suffocate and there are no other effects to it other than completely killing the person."
"After that-"
Qi Yuan explained each and every berry that Li painstakingly ate without self control and the variety of effects they had. Some had harmless effects while others were only dangerous to his life and there were a lot with a mixture between the two, where if left untreated, Xuan Li would have died.
Li only nodded his head while listening to Qi Yuan's explanation.
"So, what did you figure out?" Once Qi Yuan finished his explanation, Li wanted to find out the conclusion he had as he wondered about his body's property as it continuously prevented him from death.
"Haven't you figured it out? Ah, this generation is truly stupid." Qi Yuan looked down with exaggerated disappointment, earning a frown from Li.
"Your body's healing properties are truly unique. From my berry experiment, your body only heals when your life is in danger. Your body only dispels the poison once it begins to show signs that your life is in danger. Your body never dispelled or fought against the berries' effects which doesn't endanger your life but is still unpleasant to you yet the moment it feels danger, it immediately gets rid of it hence why you began to throw up."
"If my guess is right, the reason your body is very tough is to protect your life and if it gets damaged from even a cut, it restores itself because it thinks your life is in danger. What a special body type you have! It's truly special!"
"I don't even know if it's considered to have regenerative properties and great immunity for someone so weak since it's so selective. Ah, this is very interesting. You understand why I need to conduct more tests right?"
Xuan Li's mouth was left wide open in surprise 'My body only reacts when my life is in danger? So I can be affected by poisons or other forms of attack as long as it doesn't endanger my life? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!'
Xuan Li, at this moment, wanted to bang his head on the rocks of the cave but knew it's useless to do so.
"Take me back to the dorms" Li finally answered Qi Yuan.