Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

We didn’t exactly lose the Five Venoms Sect Leader, but we inflicted a wound so grave that it left his life or death uncertain. On top of that, we slaughtered more than a third of the joint forces of the Five Venoms Sect and the Blood Cult.

So really, the Beast Palace, where the joint forces of the Murim Alliance and the Beast Palace were stationed, should’ve been celebrating.

After all, it was the biggest victory since the so-called Twin Evils Uprising.

That term—Twin Evils Uprising—was coined by the Murim people to refer to the recent reappearance of the Blood Cult and the Five Venoms Sect wreaking havoc across the martial world. Just like how the Blood Cult’s rampage thirty years ago was dubbed the Blood Cult Blood Rebellion, this was their way of labeling the current crisis.

I hadn’t known, but apparently, the word ”uprising” (jun-dong) itself refers to the wriggling of insects or similar creatures, so the name implied that the two evils—Blood Cult and Five Venoms Sect—had started squirming like bugs.

And it just so happened that the Five Venoms Sect dealt with poisonous insects and venomous beasts, too.

‘Bugs move so adorably and charmingly, you know. And yet they use the term in such a derogatory way!’

Why they’d use the cute, wiggly movements of insects in such a negative expression, I’ll never know. At any rate, even with such a major victory, the atmosphere was subdued.

And understandably so—because the Myeolse Poison had taken the lives of quite a few people.

Three from the Beast Palace and around twenty warriors from the Murim Alliance had perished in the poison’s sweep, their bodies unrecoverable.

In this era, the people of the Central Plains believe that the soul of the deceased traverses between this world and the afterlife through the body.

That’s why they go to great lengths to prepare and handle the body carefully during funeral rites—believing it brings peace to the dead and fortune to the living. So the fact that all those bodies were melted away was especially heartbreaking.

And that’s why they needed something to lift the mood.

Just in time, my wedding was held.

Father declared it publicly, starting with a reference to the Twin Evils Uprising:

“Following the Twin Evils Uprising, whether it was formulating the Mountain-Airing Poison to counter the Blood Cult bastards, or wiping out all the Blood Cult rats who infiltrated Sichuan, or wounding the Five Venoms Sect Leader so severely that his survival is unknown... my son has achieved the greatest martial accomplishment yet. I am honored to hold his wedding today.

Let us all eat and drink in celebration of this lone young hero finally gaining a family.”

Even if I’m adopted, calling me his son and painting me in such golden light...

My face burned from embarrassment, but I guess people here are wired differently—because at his words, the crowd erupted in madness.

“Waaah! Long live Young Master So!”

“Long live the Hero So!”

“Long live! Long live!”

Though spirits had been gloomy from the loss of those whose bodies couldn’t even be retrieved, the crowd cheered joyfully at Father’s speech.

The festival of eating and drinking lasted for three whole days.

And on the morning of the third day...

—Chirp, chirp. Chirp.

Birdsong filtered in through the window as I met Ji-ryong early in the morning.

This was after “Wedding Night Season 2” with Hwa-eun had played out for three straight days.

“Uhh... what happened to your face?”

Ji-ryong’s startled voice came from the guest room connected to my quarters.

He looked shocked at how haggard I appeared.

And who could blame him? I’d spent three days straight with Hwa-eun, and the night before I even fed Yo-hwa.

Ji-ryong’s reaction reminded me of last night.

I’d been about to sleep when Hwa-eun appeared in some kind of traditional Beast Palace dress—I had no idea where she’d gotten it.

It looked a lot like the kind of miniskirt that Sister Seol occasionally wore.

Flustered, I asked,

“W-we’re doing this again today?”

“Of course. The three-day wedding isn’t over yet, so our first night is still in progress.”

Back then, I still had enough yang energy to feed Yo-hwa, but since the wedding wasn’t officially over, Hwa-eun insisted our first night wasn’t over either.

So after feeding Yo-hwa, I got sucked right back in—and now I looked like this.

When I washed my face in the morning and looked into the copper mirror, I looked like a corpse.

I stared out at the distant mountains through the open window and spoke to Ji-ryong—my tone carrying the weight of someone asking whether he understood how difficult it was to make a wife happy.

“Hoho... Once you get married, Ji-ryong, you’ll understand why my face looks like this.”

“Heuuck! No way!? My lips are already chapped just thinking about it... I’m seriously worried now.”

As expected from someone so sharp—Ji-ryong picked up on my meaning immediately.

I poured him some warm tea to lift our spirits, then asked,

“So then, is the plan ready?”

“Of course. Here, take a look.”

Ji-ryong pulled out a large sheet of paper from his robe and laid it out before me.

It was a map of the Central Plains.

Seven red dots were marked on the map.

And lines ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) connecting them.

What is this?

The red dots were the locations Ji-ryong had marked as potential habitats for the Myeolse Golden Frog.

The lines were a route drawn to travel through all seven locations in the shortest path starting from the Beast Palace.

You can’t just rush through all seven places at once.

That’s why I’d asked Ji-ryong to help plan it.

Even in my past life, when planning a collecting trip, I would always try to visit multiple places in one go.

Since I couldn’t leave my venomous creatures unattended for long, I had to make each trip count by hitting several spots.

I’d take into account local transportation and lodging to optimize my route—but since I didn’t know the lay of the land here, I left it to Ji-ryong.

“Hmm. Looks like I won’t be able to do all this in one trip—we’ll have to split it in two?”

“Correct, Young Master So—ah, sorry. I keep slipping. I’ve gotten used to calling you that after traveling together so long.”

He cut himself off mid-explanation to apologize for a mere honorific slip.

I responded casually.

“Well, what does it matter if it’s Young Master or Great Master? Call me whatever you’re comfortable with. You can even use my name at this point.”

Whether it’s Young Master or Great Master, who cares? If what should be big is big, isn’t that a great master already?

Like your heart, for instance.

So I told him he could just use my name, but Ji-ryong gave me an apologetic look.

“Then... how about your nickname instead? I feel too ashamed to casually call you by your real name.”

“Hmm, not a bad idea, but it’s a bit long...”

“You could just shorten it, couldn’t you?”

“What, like ‘Papa,’ from ‘King of Venoms Papa’?”

My nickname was King of Venoms Papa.

So I asked if he meant to shorten it to Papa, and Ji-ryong flinched before replying,

“Ahaha... that sounds a bit weird. How about Cheon-dok instead? It means Heavenly Poison. The Tang Clan folk often use poison-related nicknames anyway...”

Cheon-dok, huh.

Didn’t love it, but didn’t hate it either.

It had a nice ring to it—like “Heavenly Poison”—and reminded me a bit of Grandpa Mandok Shingun.

I nodded and got back on topic.

“Alright, that works. So anyway, looking at this map, we’ll need to split the trip in two, right?”

“Yes, first we should cover the southern side of the Yangtze River, and the rest are in the north, so it’s best to divide it that way.”

The route Ji-ryong brought was split into two segments.

Three locations were south of the Yangtze River.

Four were to the north.

It seemed he had grouped the locations based on which side of the river they were more accessible from.

“Let me see... could you walk me through which places exactly? It was late the other night, and I didn’t catch the details.”

Last time, it was too late at night to go into detail.

Hwa-eun had sensed that the conversation might get long and gave me a pointed look.

That’s why I asked Ji-ryong for a proper explanation now, and he began pointing to the map and said:

“Of course. First off, the three southern locations are quite close together. The first is Ten Thousand Great Mountains—Sipmandae-san.”

“Sipmandae-san?”

I flinched at the name Sipmandae-san.

And for good reason—it was the sacred ground of the Demonic Cult.

It may be a ruin now, but it used to be their homeland.

I thought I must have misheard.

He had said south of the Yangtze, but that Sipmandae-san I knew was north of the Yangtze—and in foreign territory at that.

Sensing my reaction, Ji-ryong shook his head and answered:

“Ah, it’s understandable you’re surprised. But despite the name, this is a completely different mountain.”

“A different mountain?”

“Yes. The Sipmandae-san I’m talking about is in Guangxi Province.”

“Phew... that’s a relief.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh, nothing.”

Apparently, there were similarly named regions, and just as I was feeling relieved, Ji-ryong continued his explanation.

“That Sipmandae-san, along with Daeyosan and Wolseong Ridge, make up the three southern spots.”

It seemed all our destinations were deep in mountain ranges. Only one of them had a slightly different naming convention, so I asked:

“But isn’t one of these named a little differently?”

“Young Master So—ah, Cheon-dok, have you ever heard of the Yeongnam region?”

“I’ve heard it refers to the southern regions of the Central Plains.”

“Correct. The name Yeongnam refers to the southern side of the Five Ridges mountain range. That includes Wolseong Ridge, Dobang Ridge, Maengjeo Ridge, Gijeon Ridge, and Daeyu Ridge. What we’re talking about is a mountain located at the northernmost edge of Guangxi Province.”

“Ah, I see.”

I was checking the marked locations on the map to see how far they were from the Murim Alliance, when Ji-ryong asked with a cautious expression:

“Cheon-dok, we were originally going to leave tomorrow, right?”

“Yes, that’s right?”

“Shall we rest another three days before we go?”

I turned my head and saw Ji-ryong scanning my face up and down.

We had originally planned to leave the day after finalizing the route.

But judging from my condition, he must have thought that departing tomorrow would be pushing it.

I didn’t want to appear weak, so I straightened my expression and answered:

“Come now! What do you take me for?”

“M-my apologies. It’s just that... your face really doesn’t look good...”

Ji-ryong apologized quickly.

I stared out the open window and said faintly,

“L-let’s just rest two more days.”

Honestly, my legs still felt too wobbly to handle traveling tomorrow.

***

Two days later, at dawn, we departed just as planned.

On the surface, our mission wasn’t to track the Myeolse Golden Frog, but to capture another venomous creature.

We’d once acquired a map from the Five Venoms Sect that supposedly marked the location of one of the Twenty-Four Venoms, so that was our official objective.

“I’ll be off, Father.”

“Alright. They say the Five Venoms Sect bastards fled deeper into Daewol Nation and the area’s safer now, but stay alert.”

“Yes, of course.”

Had this been just a while earlier, getting permission might’ve been difficult.

After all, Guangxi Province had been considered a danger zone until recently.

Like Yunnan, Guangxi borders Daewol Nation, and was a potential infiltration route for the Five Venoms Sect and Blood Cult.

In fact, there had been previous infiltrations.

The Blood Cult forces that attacked Sichuan had snuck into the Central Plains through this route.

The mountain we were heading for, Sipmandae-san, was right on the border between Daewol and Guangxi.

So under normal circumstances, getting approval would’ve been tough—but after recent events, the risk level dropped, and we received the adults’ permission more easily than expected.

Following the border skirmish, the Murim Alliance had finally dispatched reconnaissance units past the frontier.

They wanted to know what had happened after the battle.

And what became of that Five Venoms Sect bastard.

What they discovered was that the sect had abandoned their base and vanished.

Under normal circumstances, patrols would have been intercepted near the outer perimeter, but this time, there was no reaction at all. As the scouts pushed in cautiously, they were able to approach a vantage point overlooking the Five Venoms base—and found it completely empty.

According to Ji-ryong, they’d likely retreated further into Daewol territory.

He speculated that it might be due to my capture of Нoja—that they feared a continued onslaught of spiritual beasts and ran.

Even if they didn’t know I’d healed Нoja, the only way to stop attacks from Cho and Yeondu would have been with another spiritual beast.

And since spiritual beasts are an asymmetric force, you can’t fight them off without one of your own.

Now that they no longer had Нoja, they couldn’t hold their position due to the power gap.

Come to think of it, once I’d bonded with Mama, I could’ve launched nightly raids on their camp... but I hadn’t thought of that at the time.

‘If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve just kept ambushing them every night.’

I set off with a hint of regret lingering in my expression.

Our first destination: Daeyosan in Guangxi Province.

It was a great mountain visible from the waterway that branched off from the Zhu River, one of the three major rivers of the Central Plains.

I was looking forward to this place.

Because, like Yunnan, Guangxi is mostly home to minority tribes—and according to Sister Seol, who’s from such a tribe and knows the region well, Daeyosan is the perfect place for frogs to thrive.

A great mountain bordered by a large winding river.

—Splash!

Just as I imagined the stories Sister Seol had told me, my expression brightened with anticipation, and Hwanji and Hwana slid into a tributary of the Zhu River branching off from the Lancang River.

They carried me on their heads and began gliding downstream with the current.

‘It’d be great if we found it on the first try.’

Heading downstream, I hoped that by some stroke of luck, we’d locate it right away.

Like scratching a lottery ticket—it might be fun to check each one, but nothing beats hitting the jackpot on the first go, does it?