Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

When a dangerous sound flowed out from the ornament on the tassel hanging at her waist, Senior Sister jumped up from her seat.

Her complexion had turned completely pale.

As if the sound leaking from the ornament were an ominous sign.

“Th-this! Already!?”

“Young lady!”

Chief Steward Mong-a also kicked up from her seat, unable to hide her urgency.

When I instinctively rose along with them, Senior Sister’s voice continued in a rush.

“It looks like the energy is disappearing even faster! Junior Brother, can you help me? Hurry, we have to replenish the energy. If you inherited Father’s progress, you should be able to help with replenishing the energy.

Here in White Night City, people with weak arts gather and make a living. If the barrier breaks, jackal-like people will come swarming in.

You couldn’t understand why someone like me, Father’s child, would buy and sell people or spirit creatures, right? It’s all to protect the barrier.

Originally, Blood Market Tower wasn’t a place that just bought and sold people indiscriminately. It was a place that connected those who wanted to raise people with potential to the people with potential.

Originally, we even took a death oath so that the ones who bought them couldn’t harm those they bought. But to protect the barrier, we needed spirit stones, so we had no choice but to end up like this.”

Listening to her, Blood Market Tower wasn’t just a market that bought and sold people, but more like a kind of pet shop.

Since this was a place where there was no difference between people and spirit creatures, it seemed like a huge pet shop with a structure where spirit creatures “adopted” people, and people “adopted” spirit creatures.

But because there was a problem with the barrier and they needed a lot of spirit stones, they had broken a taboo.

At that earnest gaze and trembling voice, a corner of my chest started to ache.

“So that was the reason...”

I had thought Senior Sister had no resistance to turning people into spirit pills or buying and selling them just because she was someone born here.

But if Senior Sister, who grew up under the real Tang Hwa-seong, had to make that decision, how severe must that pain have been?

With Senior Sister’s request this desperate, I couldn’t turn away.

And it wasn’t some stranger asking—Senior Sister was asking, and it was for the sake of protecting innocent lives.

I quickly nodded and answered.

“Of course I should help.”

“Thank you!”

Following Senior Sister, we headed back down to the basement of this building.

-Gugugung.

As we arrived, the heavy-looking door opened on its own, revealing {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} a dark corridor.

The path, with faint spiritual energy lingering in it, was filled with a cold, damp presence.

“This way!”

“Understood!”

Running quickly through the corridor, we reached a place where a steep staircase continued upward.

When we sprinted up it, a wide-open pavilion appeared before my eyes.

Inside the pavilion, a huge boulder stood tall, and on top of it a flying dagger tied with a green silk cord was stabbed deep.

It was a flying dagger with a familiar design.

Its sharp curves and intricate patterns were a unique craftsmanship only seen in the Sichuan Tang Clan.

On the handle, the Tang mark symbolizing the Tang Clan was engraved clearly.

However, it didn’t feel like an item from the lower realm, but like something newly made here.

Because with ordinary iron, you couldn’t make energy stay inside like that.

The energy inside was almost emptied out, but there was definitely still energy in there.

“A Tang Clan flying dagger. This is an artifact?”

“Yes. I’ll show you how I infuse energy.”

Senior Sister quickly sat on the boulder, put her hand on the flying dagger, and began carefully injecting energy into it.

That flow was smooth and familiar.

It was energy born from the same root as mine, originating from Master’s martial arts.

Watching the flow of energy closely, it wasn’t that difficult.

It was a simple task of sending the true energy of the dantian into the artifact, like infusing internal power into a weapon.

“Hah. Hah. Ju-Junior Brother, please.”

After about the time it would take to drink a cup of tea, Senior Sister, with sweat beading on her forehead, weakly leaned her body against a pavilion pillar.

At that slender figure, I suddenly understood, painfully, why Master had left his daughter here alone and departed.

Senior Sister’s amount of stored energy was remarkably small.

Last time, the subordinate who attacked me after I had ascended to the immortal cultivation realm said that the lord of Blood Market Tower was a Core Formation cultivator. But the depth of Senior Sister’s internal power wasn’t much different from Hwa-eun or Ji-ryeon, who had entered the Transformation stage.

Despite having reached the Profound stage, her true energy was only staying at about the very beginning of the Transformation stage.

On top of that, even the meridians that injected energy were narrow, so she couldn’t send a lot of energy at once, and it was taking a long time.

“Is that even possible?”

It was a state I couldn’t understand.

Feeling something strange, I put my hand on the flying dagger and immediately infused energy.

All at once, whoosh.

Maybe because the artifact itself was something Master made, it had been built sturdy enough that it was fine even if I shoved energy into it all at once.

When I touched it for an even shorter time than Senior Sister and then pulled my hand away, Senior Sister’s eyes widened in shock.

“S-surely it didn’t work?”

It seemed Senior Sister thought I had failed to infuse energy.

Since I had only touched it briefly and then let go, it was a natural suspicion.

“No. I infused it all. Completely full.”

“Full?”

Senior Sister, with a disbelieving expression, put her hand on the artifact, and after a moment she spoke with the same disbelieving expression.

“I-I can’t believe it. It’s really completely full...”

“To fill an artifact completely in such a short period of time...”

Chief Steward Mong-a beside her also looked appalled.

The two of them were staring at me like they had seen a monster.

But I didn’t even have the leisure to savor their reaction, and stared at the artifact with a worried expression.

Because the artifact wasn’t normal.

Senior Sister had told me the artifact wasn’t normal, but that only meant the energy was being consumed quickly.

It didn’t mean it was in a broken state, but to my eyes, this artifact clearly looked damaged.

Because if the artifact consumed energy on its own, it would be right for the energy to decrease by the amount it consumed, yet above the flying dagger, true energy was dispersing faintly like heat haze.

As if blood were seeping out from an injured blood vessel.

After watching that scene carefully for a moment, I spoke cautiously to Senior Sister.

“But Senior Sister, at this rate, it seems like this artifact won’t last very long.”

“W-why?”

“It looks like the artifact is damaged—energy is dispersing upward.”

“Th-that... Is that really true?”

“Yes.”

Senior Sister made a shocked expression, as if she hadn’t known that even for a high-grade artifact, energy could disperse like that.

Thinking of a way to fix it, I asked Zihwa through the group chat.

『”Zihwa.”

”Why is that?”

”I met Senior Sister, and it seems like she’s in a difficult situation because the artifact in White Night City is damaged. Could you take a look at this artifact once?

I mean, whether it can be fixed. It seems like it’s a high-grade artifact because Master made it, but I don’t really know about artifacts, and it seems like there’s no one here who can check its condition since it’s a high-grade artifact.”

”Ah, that artifact that makes it impossible to use arts—are you talking about that one?”

”Yeah.”

”So it was the artifact of the master you serve. Understood.”』

Among my wives, the one most knowledgeable about artifacts was, without question, Zihwa.

If it was her, with both a high realm and vast knowledge, she would surely find a clue.

If we found a way to fix it, it would help Senior Sister.

『”I’ll have to come out in transformed form. But not under the sun. Cover the top with something, anything.”

”We’re under a pavilion, so it should be fine.”

”Understood. I’ll tell you when I’m ready.”

”Then have the other wives get ready too. We’ll greet her together.”

”Okay. So-ryong.”

”Okay. Husband.”』

It seemed Zihwa was going to borrow that artifact from So-yeon again to come out.

And Zihwa even asked for the sunlight to be blocked.

“She isn’t even a child of darkness.”

For some reason, today, I became a little more curious about Zihwa’s true identity.

She didn’t seem like some bad creature, but she said she had to avoid light.

But that thought didn’t last long.

I decided I would interrogate her while dual cultivating at night, and first solve the problem in front of me.

For that reason, I decided to introduce my wives first.

It was to properly do that thing we had missed the timing for earlier, when the artifact’s energy had abruptly been consumed during an important conversation.

I spoke gently to Senior Sister, who was staring at the artifact with worried eyes.

“Senior Sister, one of my wives knows a bit about artifacts. Would it be alright if she takes a look?”

“R-really!? Of course. If it can be fixed, of course that’s good! How lucky it is that I met you, Junior Brother.”

At those words, Senior Sister’s face brightened in an instant, coloring with joy.

Even though I told her I couldn’t be sure it could be fixed, it seemed hope alone was overwhelming her.

“I can’t be sure it can be fixed.”

“It’s fine! Even just finding out what’s wrong—how could that not be something?”

A little later, Zihwa’s voice came through.

『”I’m ready.”』

At those words, I quickly brought my wives out inside the pavilion.

-Puhwak.

Among those who appeared as smoke rose, the first to step forward and bow deeply was Hwa-eun.

As a direct-line blood of the Tang Clan, the joy of meeting an ancestor filled her face.

“Nice to meet you. Ancestor. My name is Tang Hwa-eun.”

“Tang Hwa-eun? Are you Junior Brother’s younger sister?”

“No. I’m direct-line Tang Clan blood, and So-ryong is the live-in son-in-law.”

“Ah, I see. Junior Brother was a live-in son-in-law. Nice to meet you. Treat me as an older sister. To think you would be the bloodline of the main family. That doubles the joy.”

“Nice to meet you, Senior Sister. My name is Yu Ji-ryeon.”

“Nice to meet you. Senior Sister.”

“I am Zihwa.”

“These two are a bit clumsy with speech. They aren’t people from the Central Plains.”

As if making excuses for Gun Hye-rin speaking informally and Zihwa’s overbearing tone, I added that explanation, and Zihwa immediately walked toward the artifact.

When she tried to place her hand on the flying dagger, Senior Sister shouted urgently.

“B-be careful. If you aren’t Tang Clan blood or someone who learned the same martial arts, you can’t touch it.”

“I know.”

Zihwa brought her hand over with a calm expression despite Senior Sister’s warning.

Zihwa stretched out both hands, placed the flying dagger between her palms, and began examining the flying dagger using energy.

After examining it for about half an hour, Zihwa spoke in a slightly admiring voice.

“It was the same with the Heavenly Heart Linked Poison Peach Garden Map, but the one who made this is definitely an unspoken genius. They are making something they cannot make at their own realm.

They created a garden map at the mere Life-and-Death realm and even figured out a way to separate a Nascent Soul and leave a story behind, and now this is a true body artifact.”

“A true body artifact?”

At a term I was hearing for the first time, I tilted my head, and the explanation continued.

“It’s an artifact made using one’s own body. If the person themselves uses it, or their bloodline uses it, it exerts tremendous power.”

“Then you’re saying this was made from Master’s body?”

“More precisely, it was made by separating innate qi.”

Innate qi was the primordial life force a person received from the heavens at birth, a precious energy that led to death if it ran out.

If he separated that to make an artifact, I couldn’t even begin to gauge how deep his love for his daughter was.

“Ah, Father...”

At that fact, Senior Sister was moved, her eyes reddening as she choked up.

It seemed she was learning for the first time that it was a true body artifact in the first place.

However, before Senior Sister’s emotion could even fade, Zihwa’s next words froze everyone.

“Then what part is broken?”

“It isn’t broken.”

It was an answer that it wasn’t broken.

When everyone made puzzled expressions, Zihwa’s calm but heavy voice echoed through the pavilion.

“If a true body artifact isn’t destroyed by an overwhelming force, it doesn’t ‘break’ in the first place. There is only one reason the artifact isn’t moving properly.

Only when the one who made the artifact has died, or entered a state close to death. The innate qi is dispersing.”

“What?”

“Yes!?”

Zihwa’s words meant Master might be dead.

“Hah...”

Senior Sister clutched her head at that fact and collapsed on the spot.