Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

Finding the Sacred Fire Bell wasn’t all that difficult.

It lay at Mingsha Mountain in Gansu Province.

The final trial for a Young Heavenly Demon to be acknowledged as the Heavenly Demon was to head to the sacred ground in Mingsha Mountain, retrieve the Sacred Fire Bell, and ring it before the members of the Heavenly Demon Cult.

It wasn’t a trial of skill or strength—it was a ceremonial rite.

Besides, Gun Hye-rin’s great-grandfather had recorded the location and ritual instructions, and those had been passed down to her along with maintenance details. All she had to do was go and retrieve it.

“Then we head to Mingsha Mountain.”

Having resolved to retrieve the Sacred Fire Bell, Gun Hye-rin confirmed the position of the moon and stars with the elders and set off for the location detailed by her great-grandfather.

And then, on the night of the full moon—

At the place believed to be the sacred ground, she began to draw up the energy of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

It was written in the records that, on a full moon night, if one drew up the Heavenly Demon’s energy atop the sacred ground, the entrance to the sanctum would be revealed in the moonlight.

“Let’s begin. It says a sandstorm will erupt, but I don’t know how large it’ll be—everyone, be cautious.”

“Yes, Young Mistress!”

“To think we’ll witness the sacred grounds of the Heavenly Demon Cult!”

A desert night bright as day under the full moon.

As Gun Hye-rin shouted while looking around, she drew up the Heavenly Demon energy—and curiously, that energy was sucked downward into the sand.

Not long after she began, wind started to pick up, just as described in the records.

—Swaaaaa...

The wind intensified, the air swirling in a howl worthy of a mountain named for the crying sands. As the sandstorm cleared—

A massive cave entrance revealed itself in the distance. This, surely, was the gateway to the sacred ground of the Heavenly Demon Cult.

“That must be it! The sanctum!”

“Let’s go!”

“Yes, Young Mistress!”

With pounding hearts, Gun Hye-rin and the elders stepped into the cave.

It was a long corridor formed of sandstone. After walking quite some distance through the tunnel, they arrived at a massive cavern.

A natural chamber filled with stalactites, stalagmites, and stone pillars.

Golden sand, glittering like starlight under the torches, drifted down from the ceiling like snow.

As Gun Hye-rin and the elders, entranced by the mystique, cautiously advanced—

A dark altar began to appear along the cavern wall ahead.

On the altar burned the emblem of sacred flame, symbol of the Heavenly Demon Cult. And there, atop the altar, was a golden bell shining bright—

The Sacred Fire Bell.

Just as the records described—a bell forged in the image of the divine flame, the sacred fire.

Though it had slumbered here for countless years, its brilliance had not faded.

It shimmered gold, like a living flame dancing in the dark.

“T-That’s the Sacred Fire Bell!”

As the elders stared in reverent awe and Gun Hye-rin approached—

Suddenly, a strange sound echoed around them.

—Kiiii-shaa!

—Sha-kkiii!

“W-What was that sound!?”

“I don’t know! This wasn’t in the records! Be on guard!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The sound wasn’t mentioned in her great-grandfather’s notes.

Gun Hye-rin and the elders scanned their surroundings, tense and alert.

The strange screeches reverberated off the cavern walls, making it impossible to pinpoint their source.

—Puhak!

—Thud! Crash!

As the group stood on edge—

Something shot up from beneath the sand, crashing two elders into the cavern wall.

“Khuhh!”

“Ghk—!”

The two elders were slammed into the wall before they even realized what hit them.

Only after three of the five elders had fallen did Gun Hye-rin finally catch a glimpse of what they were facing.

In the flickering torchlight across the sand, she saw glinting white and black shapes sliding across the ground.

Focusing her vision, she recognized them—

“White Serpent and Black Serpent!? Insolent vermin!”

Given their power, they were clearly spirit beasts. Spirit beasts or not, Gun Hye-rin was furious.

These wretched creatures dared to take up residence in the sacred ground of the Heavenly Demon Cult—dared to block her path to the Sacred Fire Bell.

“I will not forgive you! I’ll use your corpses as fertilizer for the rebirth of the cult!”

Yes, the spirit beasts were powerful. Yes, they attacked unpredictably.

But this wasn’t entirely a bad situation.

If she could subdue them, they’d surely have Neidan within them—and with one of those, she might just reach the Profound Realm her great-grandfather had longed for.

And now that she was the only one left standing, it was clear she would be their next target.

This gave her a better chance to react than before.

Closing her eyes in the darkness, she focused. She caught the aura of ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) something flying toward her.

A direct, frontal strike.

Even if they’re spirit beasts, they’re still just beasts in the end.

She struck swiftly—first form!

—Boom!

“Grhhhhh!”

The first technique of the Heavenly Demon Divine Fist, refined through countless training sessions for the sake of the cult’s restoration.

No matter how powerful a spirit beast it was, she believed it would be torn apart by that strike.

But when the dust settled—

What she saw was the shocking force reflected in her own trembling fist... and her body pushed back twelve full steps.

Gun Hye-rin’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Th-That was... Inner Force?!”

Her hand trembled uncontrollably.

The fact that a spirit beast could wield Inner Force was shocking in itself.

But what shattered her completely was that it had driven her back twelve steps. It meant she had been thoroughly overpowered.

She had dismissed them as mere beasts, but they used inner force... and overwhelmed her with ease.

What were these things?

Before she could even finish reeling from the impact—

A powerful blow struck her jaw.

—Crack!

“Khak... Ugh...”

Her vision blurred.

I... Is this how our Heavenly Demon Cult ends... so absurdly?

She had to restore the cult.

And yet, to fall like this?

Swallowed by bitterness and despair, Gun Hye-rin’s consciousness faded fast.

—Swaaaaaa...

Who knew how much time passed?

As the cold dew and desert wind roused her, Gun Hye-rin and all the others lay sprawled across the desert sands.

***

“I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve tried. I assembled suppression squads, reached the Flower Realm, and tried again. But it was all pointless. I could corner one of them to a stalemate, but the moment I had to face both... there was nothing I could do.

You see, the one that radiates demonic energy could still be fought. But the white one emits spiritual energy, which disperses demonic energy entirely.”

Gun Hye-rin explained with a bitter, defeated expression—but inside, I was screaming with joy.

‘Gyaaaaah!’

No doubt about it now—those spirit beasts she was talking about were exactly the two snake spirit beasts we had been looking for.

The same pair Cheong-yu Sojeo had mentioned—the Five Venoms Commander duo protecting her, and also the ones holding the Black and White Thrones of the Twenty-Four Venoms.

The Thousand-Year Black Serpent and Thousand-Year White Serpent.

The color matches—black and white—and if they’re using inner force? No one else fits that bill.

And they’re snakes. There’s no way it could be anything else.

『“So-ryong, they really are the Thousand-Year Black and White Serpents, right?”』

“Yes, Hwa-eun!”

She agreed too, though her next message carried concern.

『“So-ryong, you’re going to rescue them... right?”』

Was she worried I’d run off to save them before we even had our wedding?

I knew the kids wouldn’t run off anywhere, and honestly, I didn’t want to postpone our first night anymore either. I reassured her in a calm voice.

『“Don’t worry, Hwa-eun. We’ll have our wedding first. Where I come from, newlyweds go on a quiet trip together. So let’s go together—just the two of us!

With the kids around, well... the wedding night would be a bit, ahem, difficult. So—what do you think?”』

“Just the two of us? But the wedding night?”

“Ahem. I mean... the Flower Candle Night.”

“F-Flower Candle Night?! Yes! I—I mean, no, wait... that’s not what I meant...”

“You don’t want to?”

“No, it’s not that I don’t want to... I mean, I do want to—not that I... oh, whatever... I do want it. But that’s not why I brought it up!”

“Oh? Then what was it?”

Hwa-eun’s blunt admission that she wanted the wedding night brought a smile to my face.

But her concern wasn’t what I thought—it wasn’t about the wedding at all.

“Gun Hye-rin is probably going to ask you to make the Thousand-Year Black and White Serpents leave the sanctum. If people find out you helped her do that, you might be branded a public enemy of the martial world.”

“And what if I refuse?”

“You’ll refuse... and then sneak off to bring them back anyway?”

“...Yes.”

“If you bring them back, Gun Hye-rin will get the Sacred Fire Bell, and that means the cult will be revived, right?”

“Right...”

“Then you’ll be the one who brought the cult back. If that’s discovered, you’ll be declared a public enemy.”

“That... counts too?”

“Yes!”

The more I listened, the more I realized she was right.

Even if I brought them back secretly, the result would be the same—the Heavenly Demon Cult would be revived, and I’d be blamed.

If I helped Gun Hye-rin directly, same outcome: I’d be seen as having collaborated with a demonic cult.

No matter how I brought the Thousand-Year Serpents back, I was guaranteed to become the martial world’s public enemy.

‘Seriously, what kind of crap is this?’

All I wanted was to rescue a pair of spirit snakes struggling in the desert’s harsh climate—how does that make me a criminal?

‘The world is just out to get me!’

I was grumbling internally when Gun Hye-rin suddenly spoke again.

“You also asked about the demonic invaders, right?”

We shifted to the topic that had brought all this chaos—the demonic cultivators who nearly turned our wedding into a bloodbath.

For now, I pushed aside my frustration with the world to listen to what had really happened.

“Yes. What exactly happened with the demonic cultivators?”

“Do you know of the Blood Cult?”

“Yes. I know they were once part of the Heavenly Demon Cult.”

“Correct. They were originally practitioners of Blood Arts within our cult. But when they managed to create the being known as the Blood Demon, they rebelled.”

“Blood Demon?”

“In their words, ‘the Sovereign of Blood.’ A being said to be able to resurrect from a single drop of blood, even if the body is destroyed.”

What the hell—is this a vampire story now? Just when I thought I’d seen every type of creature possible, Hwa-eun asked the next question.

“Then why does the Blood Cult have anything to do with the demonic invaders who attacked our wedding?”

“Because those so-called invaders were Blood Cult scum.”

“The Blood Cult?”

Hwa-eun and I looked at each other, the same conclusion forming in both our minds.

Because when the Blood Cult shows up, it usually means a certain upper organization is involved.

『“The Five Venoms Sect!”』

“The Five Venoms Sect!”

Of course. We couldn’t figure out why the demonic cult had bothered attacking Sichuan of all places, but if the Five Venoms Sect was behind it, it all made sense.

‘I mean, we’ve mocked each other enough already. I get it if it’s you clowns.’

Just as Hwa-eun was about to send me a “those bastards should be burned alive” kind of vibe, the story continued.

“Recently, the Blood Cult was discovered near our hidden village. They’d suffered a crippling blow from the Central Plains and lost most of their remaining forces to the Five Venoms Sect. Now they begged to be taken back, saying they wanted to return.”

“And you accepted?”

“Half the cult wanted to reject them. The other half said we needed every bit of strength we could muster. In the end, we let them in. Then they started offering us elixirs—so-called miraculous tonics they’d been developing.

I warned against it. I didn’t trust them and told everyone not to take it. But some thought the power might be enough to help reclaim the Sacred Fire Bell—and they took it.

This is the result.”

So to summarize: the Five Venoms Sect used the Blood Cult to trap the Heavenly Demon Cult, trying to sabotage our wedding.

And in that chaos, the intel on the Thousand-Year Serpents happened to fall into my hands.

‘Oh, Five Venoms Sect... was this your wedding present? Pfffft.’

What they tried to use to ruin the wedding got intercepted, cleaned up, and turned into spirit beasts for me.

I figured they’d be choking with rage if they ever found out.

And then, right on cue, came Gun Hye-rin’s official request.

“That’s everything. Now, if you really can speak to snakes—could you make those two leave the sanctum? If you grant this favor, the Heavenly Demon Cult will never forget your kindness.

Even if you are a Central Plains man.”

Just as Hwa-eun had predicted.

She glanced at me with a troubled look, and I spoke to her mentally.

『“Hwa-eun, I have a great idea.”』

“A great idea?”

“We’ll deal with the Five Venoms later. For now, I’ve got a plan to bring back the Thousand-Year Serpents.”

“What kind of plan?”

“We add a few conditions. Get it done fast and quietly. Simple, right?”

“What if you get caught?”

“Then I just won’t get caught.”

“I mean, what if...”

“Even if—I won’t.”

“...Haaah. So no matter what I say, you’re just going to do it fast and secretly, huh?”

‘Bingo!’

Everyone was still out dealing with the demonic threat, so this was the perfect moment.

We’d make a private agreement with only the people here, not alert the elders, and take care of it quickly.

We’d ride Cho and Yeondu and be back in a few days.

Swift. Precise. Clean.

Of course, I planned to attach some conditions. So I put on a serious face.

“Thinking it over... I believe I know what kind of spirit beasts they are.”

“Oh! R-Really!?”

“Yes. Their names are the Thousand-Year White Serpent and Thousand-Year Black Serpent. They earned those names because, once they settle in a place, they remain there for a thousand years.”

“Whaaaaat!”

“A... A thousand years?!”

That was pure bullshit.

Their names were just something the Tang Clan ancestors came up with.

But the cultists stared at me in shock, jaws dropped, totally buying the part about them sitting unmoving for a millennium.

Time to lay it on.

“Of course, I can think of a way to... relocate them.”

“Really!? What is it!?”

“But.”

“But?”

“There’s a condition.”

“W-Whatever it is! I’ll do anything!”

Gun Hye-rin, as expected, started handing out blank checks.

Smiling, I laid out my terms.

“If the Heavenly Demon Cult is revived, you must restrain from invading the Central Plains for the next hundred years. And everything we discuss here today—only the eight present here and my four venomous companions will ever know of it. It dies with us.”

That seemed like a bare minimum safeguard.

But Gun Hye-rin winced.

“We’ll keep the secret, of course. But a hundred years...”

She clearly thought that was a bit much. But then—an unexpected voice chimed in.

“Young Mistress, just agree.”

One of the masked followers gave her the go-ahead.

But for a subordinate to approve when the leader hesitates?

Smiling, I pressed on.

“You might be thinking you can agree and go back on it later—but that would be a mistake. I can remove the Thousand-Year Serpents, yes.

But that also means... I can bring them back.

You won’t be able to just wait for me to die, either.

I could always leave instructions for my children—if the Heavenly Demon Cult ever invades, have them return and nest at the cult’s gate. Maybe I’ll even leave behind a few bigger ones...”

I gestured to Yeondu.

One of the masked cultists flinched in horror.

Gun Hye-rin quickly cut in.

“I have no intention of breaking the deal. Fine! A hundred years!”

These demonic cult types... gifting spirit beasts and signing peace treaties?

They were surprisingly decent people.

I mean, don’t they say thugs are actually soft-hearted once you get to know them?

Maybe this bunch were just like that.

‘Huh. They’re actually kind of nice.’