Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

Senior Sister’s body (Cheongcheong) was delicate, like a thin willow branch.

She was short, her shoulders narrow—so fragile she looked like she might sway even if a breeze merely brushed past.

Maybe because of that, even the moment she actually collapsed felt strangely natural.

As if it were only the proper order of things for a petal that had reached its time to wither to fall away—Senior Sister’s body slumped down onto the cold stone floor, and it was so natural that no one around her managed to react.

Normally, I would have reached out on instinct and caught her.

A master at the Life-and-Death realm could respond to sudden situations around them one hundred percent.

Within the range their martial prowess reached, it was absolute.

But this time was different.

Right up until the instant Senior Sister’s body tilted and crumbled toward the cold stone floor, not a single person nearby managed to support her.

-Thud.

“Young lady!”

“Ancestor!”

“Senior Sister!”

Sharp cries burst out from every direction.

As I quickly scooped Senior Sister up into my arms, Zihwa knit her brows and muttered low.

“Looks like a heart demon came. Take her somewhere and lay her down. I’ll go back inside for now.”

“Uh—yeah, got it! Other wives, you all go back in for now, too. Chief Steward Mong-a, please guide us to Senior Sister’s quarters.”

“Understood!”

Cradling Senior Sister carefully in a princess carry, I sprinted at full speed after Chief Steward Mong-a.

We were retracing the path we’d just taken.

When we broke out of the dark, damp underground passage, Blood Market Tower’s main structure appeared again.

Taking the stairs three at a time, we headed for the top floor.

We passed the office where I’d had that private conversation with Senior Sister earlier, and when Mong-a opened the door behind it, a single room appeared.

This seemed to be Senior Sister’s residence.

A simple, neat room where you couldn’t find a trace of extravagance.

The walls were covered with blue paper, and as for furniture, there was only a small desk, a bed, and a large bronze water tub set in one corner.

That tub stood out oddly.

It was bigger than an ordinary bath, and it was filled to about three-tenths with still water.

The briny smell suggested it was saltwater.

Thinking it was strange, I carefully laid Senior Sister down on the bed.

But Senior Sister’s condition was a little strange.

I hadn’t noticed while running, but once I laid her down, it was worse than I’d thought.

Her face was deathly pale, and her lips had a bluish cast like ice.

Her breathing was thin and weak, so precarious it seemed like it could stop at any moment.

“Hah... hah... haaah...”

It was strange to call it a heart demon.

When a heart demon struck during training, it was considered the stage before losing one’s composure and falling into deviation. But a heart demon in everyday life, or after a major shock, usually meant emotional grief or pain.

Unless she’d suddenly had a panic attack, there was no reason for her to look like this.

I looked at Chief Steward Mong-a and asked.

Was there some illness Senior Sister had?

“Does Senior Sister have a chronic condition?”

Chief Steward Mong-a let out a deep sigh, then gently swept aside the hair that had fallen across Senior Sister’s forehead. The tenderness in that touch spoke of loyal devotion built over long years at her side.

“The young lady has always been weak. And lately she’s been overexerting herself, constantly forcing herself to replenish the artifact’s energy...”

Only then did everything make sense.

Right after pouring everything she had into replenishing the artifact, her body—already pushed to its limit—had finally been unable to endure any longer.

I asked for permission and took her pulse.

“Then please excuse me for a moment.”

I, too, had learned the Heavenly Heart Linked Poison Peach Garden Map.

Just as I could inject energy into an artifact, I could also send pure true energy into Senior Sister’s body and soothe her blood vessels.

In the martial world, there was no better emergency measure for someone whose energy had been drained.

If ordinary people had CPR, then for martial artists, this was CPR.

Holding Senior Sister’s wrist, I first checked her condition.

I’d only looked on the surface earlier, but doing this let me examine her far more precisely.

When I sent a thread of true energy inside to probe, I felt thin blood vessels at my fingertips—but there was no trace anywhere of the bone-reforging transformation that a master at this realm ought to have undergone.

Instead, it was like that of a frail ordinary person from birth—no, even more delicate than that.

It felt so weak that a single wrong flow of energy could rupture her vessels.

“This won’t work if I just feed her true energy.”

If her blood vessels had simply been overworked, injecting true energy would help her regain herself to some extent.

After that, the rest would be for the person herself to recuperate.

But for Senior Sister, that wasn’t enough.

No matter how finely I controlled it, her vessels were so thin I couldn’t tell where they might burst.

In this state, I couldn’t simply pour energy into her.

After finishing my examination, I asked Chief Steward Mong-a for help.

“First, we need to sit her up.”

“Sit her up?”

“I’m going to send her true energy, but it’s impossible in this position. Chief Steward Mong-a, help me. Even if you have to hold her—please stabilize her body.”

“O-okay.”

Chief Steward Mong-a respectfully lifted Senior Sister’s upper body and propped her up as if sitting on the bed.

I steadied my breathing and moved behind Senior Sister.

While she remained unconscious, breathing in thin, shallow gasps, I carefully tore only the back of her collar.

-Rip.

The sound of thin silk tearing rang clearly in the room, and a pale, slender back was revealed.

Her skin was white as snow, and her shoulder blades rose like the fragile wings of a baby bird.

Her skin was so clear and translucent it even looked faintly bluish.

I drew a deep breath and lightly placed my palm over her life-gate point.

Then, as I gathered my true energy, warm power rose faintly from my palm.

Now, not even the slightest mistake was allowed.

As if threading an impossibly fine needle, I began to let out an extremely tiny stream of true energy—slowly, endlessly, with absolute care.

On top of that, I used the healing technique I’d learned from that medicinal-immortal grandfather.

Adding the power of my thumb and little finger.

It was to gently smooth out and release even Senior Sister’s tiny capillary channels.

Senior Sister’s body trembled faintly.

That tremor felt like a small flame blooming in cold darkness.

Her breathing began to settle.

Soon, Senior Sister’s breaths turned soft and even.

After finishing the treatment, I checked her acupoints and helped her fall into a deep sleep.

I could circulate her true energy and treat even the smallest channels until she woke, but her body needed rest.

“For now, I’ll let her sleep.”

“Thank you. Elder.”

“It’s nothing. She’s like an older sister to me, so of course I should take good care of her.”

“Thank you for saying that.”

After being guided to a guest room on the same floor and resting for a while, I received word the next morning that Senior Sister was looking for me.

“So-ryong, the young lady is asking for you.”

“Understood.”

Hurrying after Chief Steward Mong-a to Senior Sister’s quarters, I found Senior Sister half-raised on the bed.

“I heard what happened, Junior Brother. Thank you.”

“It’s nothing. It’s what I should do. I’m glad you’re safe. How is your body?”

“Yes, I feel much better. I want to get up, but Mong-a won’t let me.”

Senior Sister gave a bitter smile as she looked at Mong-a.

When that smile faded, our conversation broke for a moment and only silence flowed through the room. Then, in that silence, Senior Sister asked quietly—and burst into tears.

“Th-that... what your wife said... it must be true, right? Hic....”

Startled, I hurriedly waved my hands and spoke.

“S-Senior Sister—didn’t my wife say that when a true body artifact reaches that state, it’s only when the person who made it has died or suffered an injury close to that? So it hasn’t been decided that Master has passed away.”

Yesterday, Senior Sister hadn’t been able to properly hear it in the shock, but Zihwa had also clearly said there was a possibility he hadn’t died.

It was practically no different from death, but if he were alive in a vegetative state, alive was still alive, wasn’t it?

But Senior Sister was smart, and my comfort didn’t work.

“Hic... but that’s no different from being dead....”

Senior Sister already understood that there wasn’t much difference between death and a state close to death.

She must have collapsed yesterday from the shock.

Senior Sister cried like that for quite a while.

Her father was gone—of course she would.

Then, all of a sudden, she began to rake at her own arm with her other hand, viciously scratching herself.

“I should go find Father this instant, and yet... to be born with a wretched body like this, unable to do it. Hic... today this body feels especially cursed.”

“Senior Sister!”

She probably wanted to go searching for Master immediately, but she was furious at the reality that her own body wouldn’t allow it.

I grabbed her arm and quickly healed it with the power of my thumb and little finger as I spoke.

“Senior Sister, you can’t do this! If Master knew you were doing this, how heartbroken would he be?

And this Junior Brother will do whatever it takes to find traces of Master, so until then, please set your grief aside.”

Crying, Senior Sister said,

“Please... I’m begging you, Junior Brother. Find anything Father left behind... anything....”

Here in the immortal cultivation world, when a person dies, they become spirit stones.

So if he was dead, what would remain would be spirit stones.

For that reason, it sounded like Senior Sister meant something like that—spirit stones instead of a body.

I silently nodded and waited for Senior Sister to compose herself.

And when her crying stopped, I asked her quietly.

“By the way, Senior Sister—normally, at your realm, you should have gone through bone-reforging transformation, but there were no traces of that in your body. Is there a reason?”

Senior Sister was a Core Formation cultivator.

Core Formation corresponded to the Profound stage, so she should definitely have undergone bone-reforging transformation.

But since I had seen no trace of it yesterday, I asked.

Senior Sister nodded and said,

“Junior Brother, can you swear you won’t tell anyone what you’re about to see?”

“Of course. No matter what secret it is, I, So-ryong, will take it to my grave.”

It felt like she was about to tell me something secret.

When I nodded, Senior Sister rose from the bed and said to Chief Steward Mong-a,

“Mong-a.”

“Step outside for a moment.”

“B-but...”

“It’s Junior Brother. He’s basically my only family now, so I want him to know at least.”

Chief Steward Mong-a looked worried, as if it was an important secret.

But maybe because Senior Sister’s will was firm, Chief Steward Mong-a lowered her head and withdrew.

It was after Mong-a retreated and only Senior Sister and I were left in the room.

Senior Sister stood up and faced me.

Then she turned around and suddenly shoved her shoulder garments aside to either side, letting her outer robe fall at her feet.

“Huhhh—!”

Her delicate back and those fragile shoulder blades like a baby bird’s wings were revealed.

Even her thin hips, which I hadn’t seen yesterday.

It was a bony, naked body.

I immediately shut my eyes.

Because I remembered what happened with Gun Hye-rin and Ji-ryeon.

Even in the immortal cultivation world, this era was close to ancient times—if you saw a woman naked, you could end up losing your nose.

“S-Senior Sister, wh-why are you doing this?”

She’d said she was going to show me a secret, and then suddenly she was naked.

All sorts of thoughts raced through my head.

“I... I’m a man with four wives.”

Had she decided to make me family because of the fact that her father was gone, and I had inherited his martial arts?

Or was it something else?

As those thoughts churned, I heard Senior Sister’s voice.

“Junior Brother, open your eyes. It’s not like that.”

“N-no. How could I look at Senior Sister’s naked body? I... I absolutely can’t.”

“No. It really isn’t like that.”

Senior Sister’s voice sounded flustered.

I didn’t even dare spread my senses.

At my level, I could release my energy like a radar and confirm what was happening in the room—but that would mean sweeping over Senior Sister’s body with my energy.

-Slosh.

Then came the sound of water.

I thought maybe she was getting into the tub, and I cracked my eyes open slightly.

But Senior Sister had vanished, leaving only her clothes behind, and I couldn’t see her anywhere.

“W-where did she go?”

Opening my eyes, I looked around and called out.

“Senior Sister?”

Then Senior Sister’s voice came from inside the tub.

“I’m here, Junior Brother.”

I looked into the tub.

A single white-and-blue living creature was floating on the surface, and the moment I saw it, I clapped a hand over my mouth and couldn’t help but scream.

Inside the bronze tub, a beautiful poison creature—a blue sea slug—was swimming.

The one called the most beautiful mollusk in the world.

“Gyaaaaaaah!”