Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

The Blood Demon’s head scattered under the Toad Explosive Palm.

Strangely, blood splattered outward in all directions.

’My feel for it is off.’

But the feel was off.

With any other foe that would have been the end, but not with the Blood Demon.

I was certain I had landed the Toad Explosive Palm squarely on Baihui (Hundred Convergences), yet the feedback in my hand was strange.

It felt like hitting water.

It was also like striking jelly or soft tofu.

What’s more, the toxic effect from Hwayang’s poison didn’t appear.

By now I can load Hwayang’s poison into the Toad Explosive Palm, making Hwayang’s flame bloom on the head of whoever gets hit.

Then it should burn their inner energy and, once that qi is exhausted, set the whole body ablaze; but maybe because the head vanished as if it exploded, Hwayang’s poison wasn’t burning on the Blood Demon’s head.

I had heard from Gun Hye-rin that the Blood Demon could regenerate infinitely, so I figured it was because of that and thrust the next palm at once—when suddenly I felt a killing intent.

Even with the head gone, a viscous killing intent welled up from the Blood Demon’s body.

Judging by my senses reacting, a barrage was coming, but peculiarly, the points where the attack was beginning were all over the Blood Demon’s entire body.

With my senses sharpened upon reaching the Manifestation Realm, I could feel malice toward me gushing from here and there across the Blood Demon’s headless body.

The instant I snapped back and flung myself backward—

Blood spears surged up on all sides from the Blood Demon’s body.

—Shraaaak! Shraaaak!

“Whoa! What is this, a hedgehog?”

Spears of blood erupting from the whole body.

Apparently, if she could make spears rise from a pool of blood, she could make them rise from her body as well.

If I’d been even a little late, I felt like I would have been skewered.

It seemed close combat would be impossible, so I withdrew and was about to fire palm arts when my wives’ warning cries came.

“So-ryong, be careful. Spears shoot up even from the blood spread on the ground!”

“Master, beware!”

“Lord, you must be careful.”

I’d seen that from the sky earlier, so I nodded and asked.

“Got it. Are you all okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“I’m okay.”

“I’m fine, So-ryong.”

It was in the instant I confirmed my wives’ condition—

—Siiing.

With a keen sound, Senior Heo Muha’s wheel grazed the Blood Demon’s neck where a head was just starting to grow back.

The Blood Demon’s fist clenched tight.

Then the neck was not severed, and the head simply began to regrow as-is.

The wheel that had split when it took a hit from the Blood Demon was shot into the Blood Demon’s body, but in response, spears sprang up again.

—Shraaaak. Shraaaak.

—Clang.

Dozens of spears sprang up and caromed the wheel away, whereupon the two wheels were sucked with a whoosh into Senior Heo Muha’s hands after she landed near my wives.

They say wheel arts are a bit hard to use against a master, and that was being shown plainly.

“Tch.”

Following behind disappointed Senior Heo Muha, Senior Axe Lady Seop Biyu and Senior Staff King Gam Muncheong came down, and my wives quickly warned again of the danger.

“Be careful. Spears shoot up even from the blood on the ground!”

“Understood!”

“But that girl—what is she?”

“That’s certainly demonic qi, isn’t it?”

They nodded at my wives’ warning, kept their guard toward the Blood Demon, and at the same time raised doubts about Gun Hye-rin.

It seemed to be because fierce demonic qi was surging hard from Gun Hye-rin’s body.

Not quite the Manifestation Realm, but more ominous than before we parted.

Just in case, I had told them to take medicinal pellets before the battle started, and it felt like she had probably taken them.

It looked like there had been an urgent situation where Gun Hye-rin had no choice but to step forward.

I’d told her to use martial arts to protect herself whenever I was in danger, and I was about to explain that she was my wife when Gun Hye-rin spoke in a laughing voice.

“I am Gun Hye-rin, Heavenly Demon, Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult. The Alliance Leader of the Martial Alliance said he would lift the designation of martial crime pertaining to the Heavenly Demon Cult on the condition that I cooperate in subduing the Blood Demon.

This lady is cooperating with that proposal.”

“Th-the Heavenly Demon!?”

“The Heavenly Demon?”

At Gun Hye-rin’s voice, the seniors’ eyes went round.

I couldn’t help being surprised either.

I’d told her to reveal her martial arts and protect herself if there was danger, but instead, it seemed the Alliance Leader had simply asked her to help and she stepped up.

I hadn’t imagined he’d ask for help so openly, and even more, I never expected the Alliance Leader to make such a pledge in a way that so many would all know, so I hurriedly asked in the group chat.

『“I-is that really true?”

“Yes, he definitely said so.”

“He shouted it very loud. So everyone here could hear.”

“What on earth is that person...”』

It was so shockingly audacious an offer that I couldn’t help being flustered, and in that moment the Blood Demon’s head finished growing, eyes snapping open with a glitter.

Sharp blood-edged blades surged up again and the attack began.

“New arrivals? You wench of the Demonic Cult, your luck is good. You’ve bought yourself a little reprieve.”

—Chajajajak!

Now, instead of sharp spears, sharp cones were surging up from the ground and attacking us.

We took flight with body techniques and fired palm arts, but there was little effect.

The Princess cut down the cones with her sword and shouted.

“Looks like slashes are useless! I keep cutting, but it doesn’t seem to be taking much damage.”

Indeed, if the Blood Demon’s body was made of blood, then slashing had little meaning.

Blood is composed of red blood cells, plasma, platelets and so on, but its main component is water.

It’s the same as trying to cut water with a blade.

Which meant that, among us, the attacks of the three—Axe Lady Seop Biyu, the Princess, and Wheel Lady Heo Muha—had no meaning at all.

Since the three use cold weapons to deliver cutting attacks, they would be of little significance.

That wasn’t all. It was obvious Senior Staff King Gam Muncheong’s staff techniques wouldn’t inflict great damage either.

Isn’t that the same as poking chopsticks toward water?

—Bang!

Gun Hye-rin, who made the cones pressing from the side vanish with a fist strike, shouted to me.

“Fist and palm techniques don’t seem to be dealing heavy damage either. The blood scatters when struck, but then it soon returns!”

Watching her fight as she flew, I could see that the blood she burst apart was indeed gathering back into the blood pit.

You could call it something like a fantasy slime.

It was as if all the blood pouring out of the corpses lying all around was under the Blood Demon’s control.

’What is she, a queen slime? What do I even do about this?’

In this state, we could keep bursting the Blood Demon but couldn’t deal heavy damage.

How should we take on the Blood Demon?

Just as I was worrying that—

“Not so fast!”

Pressed by the cones of blood, Hwa-eun retreated and fired a knife-hand. A portion of the cone that was cut by Hwa-eun’s knife-hand turned into jet-black dead blood.

“So-ryong! Looks like venom arts work!”

’They work? No way?’

At the words that venom arts worked, I decided to test it.

It seemed that once the blood was contaminated, she lost dominion over that blood; and while we thought the Blood Demon had elevated blood arts to another stage and would be different from the others, maybe she wasn’t.

I quickly called for Madam Hoja in the group chat.

『“Mama! Mama!”』

[Yes, So-ryong. Mama is watching from above.]

When I looked up, far up in the sky, Mama was looking down.

It was a fairly high position, when Hwa-eun’s voice came.

『“I asked her to stay high in case she might get hit by spears.”』

It felt like our Hwa-eun was attentively looking after her mother-in-law.

A daughter-in-law who looks after her elders so well deserves praise. Thinking I would scold that Blood Demon bastard and pour out my all tonight, I spoke.

『“Well done, Hwa-eun.

Mama, could you drop some poison onto this blood pool here? Please don’t come down—just drop it from above.”』

[All right, So-ryong.]

Watching for a chance, we waited a bit, and then big drops fell here and there, tok tok—

—Hoodoodoodook.

The blood that the drops hit mixed with them, and after a moment, holes began to open here and there across the ground made of blood.

“Grrrk! Wh-what is this!?”

At the same time came the Blood Demon’s flustered voice.

Until now she hadn’t let out even a groan, and for the first time she let out a startled moan.

’Ah, it works.’

It was the function of phospholipase A2 found in hornet venom.

That somewhat long-named substance, phospholipase A2, breaks down the phospholipids of cell membranes, causing cell damage and inflammation.

It can hemolyze and destroy red blood cells, or activate platelets and induce thrombus formation.

So the blood-soaked earth here and there started riddling with holes in an instant.

Because red blood cells were breaking.

『“Mama! More, more!”』

I shouted for Mama to sprinkle more—to shower far more drops like holy water.

But an apologetic voice came.

[I’m sorry, So-ryong. I used it up catching that Wind-hewer earlier, so I don’t have any poison left now.]

Drat.

It seemed the Blood Cult bastards had loosed a camel spider created with the Five Venoms Sect’s artificial spirit-beast technique they’d absorbed, and she had already spent a lot of venom to catch it.

But it didn’t matter.

If you have no teeth, use your gums.

If there’s no hemolytic toxin, then a coagulant toxin.

『“Cheong-yu Sojeo! If there are any Mangshan Ironheads nearby, please summon them all!”

—Shiaa. (Mangshan Ironheads? Got it!)

“And Mountain Vipers too!”

—Shiaaa. (Understood!)』

Mangshan Ironhead is a snake native to southern China, also called the Mangshan pit viper.

First discovered on China’s Mount Mang, it got that name; this viper carries a powerful venom that induces blood coagulation and destroys muscle tissue.

“Mountain Viper” is the English “Russell’s viper.”

Likewise, it’s a dangerous viper that turns human blood to jelly.

I quickly shouted to the others.

“Give me a window! I’ve found a way!”

“Understood!”

“Got it!”

While the three seniors and my wives kept attacking the Blood Demon without letup, the snakes gathered.

Snakes converged and started dripping venom from the rim of the blood pool into the pool.

“Grhh! You, base vermin! You’re doing something very amusing!”

—Shraaaak!

The Blood Demon swung a blade of blood, and dozens of snakes died.

I fired palm arts to keep the Blood Demon in check and hurried the snakes back.

“Kids! Fall back! Fall back!”

“Die!”

Even in the middle of that, the Blood Demon persisted in attacking the snakes. She’d realized what I was doing, and any snake that approached was dying.

It seemed I’d have to think of another way, and then a thought popped into my head.

I opened the Five Gates, ascended to the state of “subscription,” and marked the Manifestation Realm.

And whether it’s due to venom arts or the Beast-Heart Technique, I’m not entirely sure, but as a result I’ve been able to use the abilities of other spirit beasts I’ve registered.

There were poisons among those, and abilities as well—but could I intentionally use the poisons rather than the abilities?

To have resistance to a venom means the information about that venom is dissolved into my body, and in other words, doesn’t that mean I have the possibility of producing the venom myself?

What’s more, before, I had to learn a specific martial art to use the spirit beasts’ abilities.

But upon reaching Manifestation, forms and techniques lost their meaning, and I’m in a state where I can load the principle of intent into every movement.

When I spread Centipede Poison Fang Claw with my right hand, Cho’s poison beaded at my fingernails.

With my left hand I thought of Hyang’s poison and drew up my energy.

Then the tips of my fingers tinged slightly red.

A completely different feel from Cho’s poison.

“It works!”

It works! It works! It was working!

Shouting, I darted at the Blood Demon.

—Chajajak!

Cleaving through the blood lances shooting up from the ground, I charged the Blood Demon.

I drove in the Centipede Poison Fang Claw of my left hand.

—Pook!

Confident in her regeneration, she didn’t even think to evade; she wrapped my burrowed-in hand with blood to pin me in place and shouted.

“You think I’ll be done in by such a petty claw art!?”

It was in the instant the Blood Demon gave a fishy grin—

—Fwoooosh!

From the Blood Demon’s chest, where my claw art was rammed in, a rough flame flared.

Hyang’s poison is a poison that makes blood burn.

“Th-this is!?”

“It’s the attack of love, between a father and his daughter!”

As the Blood Demon faltered, I shouted that this was a blow containing the hearts of a father and his beloved daughter.

And I rammed in the strike of my right hand as well.

—Kwaduk.

Cho’s poison is a poison that dissolves the body.

Which means it dissolves cells, and that means it can dissolve the blood’s red blood cells and plasma.

One side of her body collapsed right away.

The Blood Demon spewed blood from the collapsing body and wrapped me.

But when I exhaled the poisons of Seol, Bing, and Dong through my pores, it froze solid as-is.

Thinking of Scorpion Tail Swift Kick, I fired a leg technique, and as the ice shattered, the Blood Demon’s body turned to stone dust.

The spit I cast became Mama’s venom, and the energy I expelled from my fists carried the venom of Hongbi, the World-Destroying Golden Toad.

With every punch I threw, chunks of the Blood Demon vanished.

’What the—so I was scared for nothing? This bastard was my meal, wasn’t she?’

I felt I’d been frightened for nothing.

Come to think of it, this Blood Demon bastard hadn’t stepped far outside the framework of blood arts.

She was just a slightly stronger Blood Cult bastard.

So long as the children’s energy is in me, it was a matchup I can’t lose.

“Gyaaaah! Wh-what are you!?”

It was the moment the Blood Demon let out a cry of pain.

’What if I bind all these venoms into one and unleash it?’

That thought occurred in the instant—

The spirit beasts I’d registered rose before my eyes.

Cho to start, then Hyang, Bini, Yo-hwa, and Cheong-yu Sojeo swept through my mind.

My vision blurred, and a pure-white venom energy suddenly poured out of my body.

—Fwoooosh!

A pure-white venom sphere blasted out from me and enveloped me.