Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

“Ahhhhhhh.”

I exaggerated a bit, pretending to be in pain just because it felt nice to be held in Hwa-eun’s arms.

From behind, Hwa-eun gently brushed my forehead and asked with concern in her voice,

“So-ryong, does it hurt? Should I apply more Golden Wound Balm? Or use some more Paralysis Powder? If the wound is serious, you might get a fever. Do you feel any heat?”

And the kids, riled up by my pretend moaning, went up to the heads of the Blood Cult’s squad leader and deputy leader, tapping them with their antennae and front legs to scare them.

– Tssrrrr!

– Kisha!

Hyang had wrapped itself around them like a rope, jaws wide open as if ready to bite down at any second.

Yoha placed one of her dejected-looking front legs on top of one woman’s head.

Blood trickled from the squad deputy’s forehead.

“Hiiieeek!”

Maybe the kids were upset about me getting hurt—taking turns scaring the two women senseless.

“You can’t actually bite them just because you’re mad, okay? Not that it’d be a big deal if you did... but we need to keep them alive, at least until Father-in-law—well, your grandfather—gets here.”

‘Just scare them, don’t bite. Scare, not kill.’

They weren’t going to bite them, not after we’d already won. But just in case, I warned the kids again in my head, chuckling.

– Tssrrt! Got it, Dad!

– Tssrrr. Got it, Dad! Dad! Until she pees herself, right?

– Tssrrt!

– Tssrrrrrr!

The kids’ furious hissing made the two women shriek in terror.

“Please! P-please have mercy, great beasts!”

“We’re sorry! We’re truly sorry!”

They were supposedly the squad leader and deputy leader of the Blood Cult’s Blood Flame Unit, a force said to be elite.

But their subordinates had been wiped out instantly by the swarm of venomous creatures, and the shock had clearly broken them. They’d been like that since waking up among the mangled, blood-soaked remains of their comrades.

Utterly terrified.

So much for being an elite unit of the Blood Cult. They hadn’t even been able to take down a single Golden-Furred Wasp King before being completely overrun. No wonder they were in shock.

I mean, when the sky and ground swarm with venomous creatures, fear is only natural. But these people hadn’t even put up a proper fight. They just collapsed under the onslaught.

They fell so pathetically that even Sister Seol had been left speechless.

“Are these really Blood Cult members?”

Grandfather Tang Mu-seong’s response to that question echoed my own thoughts.

“Their martial arts might work against humans or beasts, but against insects, they’re useless. These things have hard exoskeletons and don’t bleed red blood.”

That’s the thing with martial arts—they’re built around the assumption of human anatomy. Pressure points, vital spots—those apply to people.

Everything martial arts teaches about where to strike applies to human bodies.

But what are you supposed to do when a seven-meter centipede is lying in front of you? Or a spider over a meter tall?

Or a five-meter centipede?

How do you even fight something like that?

A punch would just swing through the air, and where would you even aim your kicks?

On top of that, Blood Cult martial arts are particularly deadly against people who bleed red.

But our kids? They’re arthropods—hard shells, not flesh and blood.

Even if you manage to injure them, there’s no red blood flowing, so the Blood Cult’s techniques lose their edge.

And that’s not all—they’re way faster than humans, with hard armor and venom to boot.

In the end, the enemy had just collapsed, overwhelmed and mumbling in fear.

Once I confirmed the two of them were crying and begging for their lives, I turned my head and replied to Hwa-eun in a soft voice.

“It just stung a bit for a second, but I’m fine now.”

“Are you sure you don’t need more Paralysis Powder? I mean, seriously... to get hurt this badly... I’m so upset.”

She had been sticking close to me lately, and now I realized why—because the distance between us had been uncertain. Now that she was just staying by my side without hesitation, everything was perfectly fine.

‘It’s that vague in-between that causes problems. Just stay with me, don’t leave.’

Her hug from behind now felt like a declaration that she was never letting go.

Even if the ambush had given me a serious injury on the sole of my foot, it had been worth it.

Because Hwa-eun was hugging me from behind like this.

Besides, there was no training for a while now.

What I got out of this injury more than made up for the pain.

‘Hoo... I really want to get that coming-of-age ceremony over with.’

Back in Joseon times, they had child grooms, right? This coming-of-age thing seemed to be a big deal. Even though I was already an adult.

That was the thought in my head as I kept playing up the pain a little.

Then a commotion rose from the entrance of the training yard, and before I could react, my father-in-law came running in with martial artists from Sichuan.

“My son-in-law—what happened?”

And then he saw me and Hwa-eun together and froze on the spot.

Given the times, he was clearly startled by how physically close we were.

Shocked, Hwa-eun quickly recoiled—and I ended up falling backward.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“Urgh...”

“Ah!”

“S-So-ryong, are you okay?!”

I had been sitting on a stone step, and now I’d banged the back of my head on its edge, tearing up slightly.

As I rubbed the back of my head, Hwa-eun did the same and tried to explain to her father and the Sichuan martial artists.

“S-So-ryong was hurt, so I-I was just taking care of him...”

The martial artists, awkward as ever, pretended not to have seen anything and turned their heads away.

That only made Hwa-eun blush even harder.

Honestly, doing nothing would’ve been better, but anyway...

Noticing the gazes, my father-in-law quickly stepped over to me, grabbed my leg, and asked,

“Ah, r-right. But are you okay? Are you seriously hurt? What happened to your leg?”

My foot was covered in Golden Wound Balm, so thick it looked like dough. With that much on it, he couldn’t quite tell where the actual injury was.

So I rested my weight against him and stretched my foot out with a slightly exaggerated expression.

“A bead went clean through my sole. The rest of me is fine. Heh.”

“What! Your foot got pierced by a bead?!”

His eyes widened in shock.

Even the martial artists behind him winced.

“Did you get treatment?”

“Yes, as you can see.”

He looked at the scent of the balm wafting off my foot, then at the bandaging, then turned to Hwa-eun with a half-exasperated smile.

“Hwa-eun. Later, make sure to scrape off some of that. Too much ointment can do more harm than good.”

“Yes, Father.”

Then he turned back to me and asked,

“So what on earth happened here? I got a report saying two hundred Blood Cult bastards ambushed you, so I rushed here in shock. How did you repel them? And those women—are they the ones who attacked you? Did they retreat to the Tang Clan?”

The martial artists nodded at his question.

I looked at them, then suggested to my father-in-law,

“Since we have guests, why don’t we head inside and talk? It’s a long story, and we can’t just have everyone standing here.”

“Yes, right. Let’s do that. Come, come in.”

I sent Hyang to go drag the two prisoners inside, then guided the guests into the Clan Leader’s Hall.

Once we were inside, with support from Hwa-eun, I explained everything we’d learned from the two women.

“First off, they say they’re the squad leader and deputy leader of the Blood Flame Unit, a militant force within the Blood Cult.”

“The Blood Flame Unit?!”

“If it’s the Blood Flame Unit, then aren’t they the infamous she-devils who raised hell thirty years ago during the former Blood Cult era?”

“They’re said to be demon-like women who roamed the martial world seducing martial artists and draining their blood to increase their power!”

The martial artists from Sichuan widened their eyes in shock at the name “Blood Flame Unit.”

No wonder I thought their faces looked oddly refined.

So that’s the dark little secret hiding behind those pretty features.

“To think they were such wicked women... But you don’t have to worry anymore. The Blood Flame Unit was here—and now, they’re gone.”

“Here and gone?”

“What do you mean by—?”

The ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) phrase was a trendy expression from my past life, but apparently unfamiliar in this martial arts world. The confused blinking from everyone made that clear.

Smiling, I continued.

“According to what they said, there were about two hundred who attacked me today, and that was the entirety of the Blood Flame Unit. All but these two were killed. Which means... the Blood Flame Unit of the Blood Cult no longer exists.”

“Y-you mean... you wiped them out?”

“Ooooh... So that’s what you meant by ‘they were here and now they’re gone’? That phrase really rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?”

“They were here... and now they’re not? That’s pretty clever!”

Turns out, trendy slang from my world still had universal appeal. People started mimicking it right away.

Amid the chatter, my father-in-law’s voice came through.

“So, was it Father who personally stepped in to defeat the attackers, just like he handled those injured in the Tang Clan? The scene I passed on the way here was... quite gruesome. Did Father lose his temper?”

It seemed he’d assumed that Tang Mu-seong had rushed to the battlefield after reading the emergency report. I shook my head and corrected him.

“No, Father-in-law. The ones who made the Blood Flame Unit ‘here and gone’... were my kids.”

“By kids, you mean the spirit beasts?”

“Yes. They realized I was in danger and all came running.”

“I see. So it was the kids... Well done, little ones.”

• Tssrrr.

• Kisha.

He came up beside me and patted the kids on their heads in praise.

Then, stroking Cho’s head, he asked,

“So, did you figure out why they attacked you?”

“Ah, yes. They tried to abduct me to obtain the Parasite-Dissolving Pellet.”

“The Parasite-Dissolving Pellet?”

A murmur rippled through the Sichuan martial artists at that name.

“Amitabha... Young hero, the Parasite-Dissolving Pellet—isn’t that the medicine that dissolves internal parasites? Why would the Blood Cult target that?”

The question came from the head of the Emei Sect. Understandably, he was curious why these people were after something not even created by the Tang Clan.

“Well, that’s...”

I was just about to explain when—

“It’s because of this.”

Grandfather and Sister Seol entered the Clan Leader’s Hall, and I immediately noticed the large snake-like thing Sister Seol was carrying in her hands.

“Mandok Shingun, it’s been a long time.”

“It’s an honor to have Master Ja-hee visiting the Tang Clan.”

• Clatter.

While the two exchanged greetings, Sister Seol placed the thing she brought at the center of the round table.

Master Ja-hee tilted her head and asked,

“What is that?”

At her question, Sister Seol opened the lid of the container.

What leapt out was a mass of wriggling black larvae.

The black, blood-splotched larvae squirmed among themselves inside the container.

“T-these are—!”

“Blood Parasites.”

“As I suspected! These vile things—where did they come from?”

“They were each lodged inside the heads of those women.”

At Grandfather’s words, everyone’s eyes turned toward the two Blood Cult women we had captured.

“You’re saying they were harboring Blood Parasites?”

“Yes. Every single one of them, without exception.”

“But how could they...?”

As everyone gaped in shock at the revelation that these Blood Cult members were carrying Blood Parasites, they turned back to Grandfather, waiting for an explanation.

With a grave expression, he finally spoke.

“It seems the Blood Cult was... here, and now it’s gone.”

Our grandfather wasted no time using the same “here and gone” phrase he’d told me before the Sichuan martial artists arrived.

A man eager to become an MZ-generation martial artist, clearly.

He went on.

“It appears the Five Venoms Sect has absorbed the Blood Cult.”

As word spread that the Blood Cult and the Five Venoms Sect—previously assumed to be allies—had in fact merged, the hall grew loud with rising commotion.

“The Blood Cult... got absorbed by the Five Venoms Sect?!”

“But the Five Venoms Sect is...”

It seemed the showdown between the Central Plains and the Blood Cult had now become a confrontation between the Central Plains and the Five Venoms Sect.

***

The meeting that had started in the capital of Sichuan had moved to the Tang Clan and continued there. While the guests and family elders carried on their discussion, Hwa-eun and I slipped away to her residence.

I was still shaken, and in pain, so I needed to rest. But as everyone knew, my own quarters were basically a straw mat on dirt.

Hwa-eun had insisted on giving me her bed, saying she would sleep with Sister Seol instead.

She said she couldn’t bear the thought of me lying injured on straw.

“Daddy needs to rest today, so you’re not allowed to bother him, okay?”

• Tssrrt!

• Kisha!

• Guk guk!

The kids each licked my cheek once as if in agreement, then filed out the door.

Since Hwa-eun’s room was filled with furniture, there wasn’t space for them here. They all headed to my quarters instead.

It was blissfully quiet for once.

As she carefully applied more Golden Wound Balm to my foot, Hwa-eun spoke in a voice full of emotion.

“When I saw that you were hurt earlier, I felt so awful.”

“I’m sorry. I keep getting injured...”

“No... It’s just... all the kids heard you calling for help—but I didn’t. That’s what hurts the most.”

It wasn’t the injury that upset her. It was that she hadn’t heard my cry, even though all the others had.

Without thinking, I took her hand in mine.

She tilted her head to the side, as if bashfully avoiding my gaze.

I looked around—no kids nearby.

We’d done plenty of mouth-to-mouth, but never a proper kiss.

As I gently pulled her toward me, she let herself fall into my arms, as if surrendering.

Maybe this was why Ji-ryong had kissed Eunbong until he got poisoned by her flute techniques.

Once you try it, it’s the kind of thing that sticks in your mind.

I wrapped her in my arms again, thinking maybe I understood why someone might get addicted to kissing.

• Smack.

Our lips met.

And in that moment, her earlier words flashed through my mind.

“No... All the kids heard So-ryong’s cry, but I didn’t. That’s what hurts the most.”

The fact that she’d been upset for not hearing the voice of my heart.

That thought spiraled, one idea leading to the next, until it landed on... Beast Heart Art.

The technique had originally been created to share one’s heart with beasts.

And beasts, according to the legends, meant wild animals, forest animals, and flying creatures—in other words, including mammals.

And humans were mammals too, weren’t they?

So... could it possibly work on people too?

That strange thought came to me out of nowhere.

And the moment it did, Beast Heart Art reacted—and a blinding white light filled my vision.

‘What the—?!’