Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

The moment I saw the black cat, that thought hit me.

Is this hell?

‘Is this hell?’

A situation where I just kept running into nothing but fuzzy-haired bastards.

Because it made me think this spirit creatures’ land was a place filled with nothing but guys like that.

At least when I was in the human lands, even if I ran into Hwangwoo with a fuzzy-haired chest, I got my mind and body healed by meeting Soyeon, my disciple, and the beautiful spirit creature, the snail Sojeo.

Every time I touched Soyeon’s glossy, sturdy shell, it made me feel a solid life force, and Sojeo’s slick figure—those soft, flexible curves—was a feast for the eyes.

That slickness was pure natural beauty, the kind that made you imagine the texture, too.

Every time Sojeo’s body slid as it moved, that soft sheen and moist aura you could feel completely captivated my heart as a venom-creature enthusiast.

‘It’s literally slick. It’s a snail. It absolutely doesn’t mean anything else.’

But here in the spirit creatures’ land, it started with a brown wolf named Oran, then I met a white wolf named Baek-a, and now it was Myo—what was it again?

Anyway, even a kitten had come looking for me.

It was nothing but mammals—spirit creatures—with fuzz everywhere.

What I wanted was for the ones with cold eyes and cold body temperatures to greet me with haughty expressions,

but I kept meeting nothing but fur-shedding bastards whose hair would probably blow around and tickle your nose whenever the wind blew.

The spirit creatures’ land I’d dreamed of was a place teeming with venom creatures, where cold, slick, mysterious lifeforms lived.

Maybe it was because this was territory of mammal spirit creatures, but either way, it was furry hell.

I sighed inwardly and said,

“Baek-a said this was a place no one could enter freely, so how did you get in?”

At my words, the cat bastard walked up near me and sat down, then spoke in a tone that was polite, yet somehow gave off a dangerous vibe.

-Meow. 『There’s no place us cat spirit creatures can’t go.』

A willful answer that was exactly like a cat. My brow furrowed.

Not only did I not like the answer, but because the animal I hated the most was a cat.

To be honest, saying I hate furry bastards is just because I like non-furry animals more, so even if I say I dislike furry animals, I don’t actually loathe furry animals themselves.

It was just a way of talking. More than hatred, it was a difference in preference.

But there was one animal I uniquely loathed, and that was cats.

Because the natural enemy of lizards and snakes is cats.

My beloved cute lizards and snakes—do you have any idea how much danger they’re under because of cats?

I’d seen plenty of scenes of cats hunting lizards in the wild, and I’d witnessed countless times that even house cats instinctively target snakes or lizards.

The way they slash-scratch with those sharp claws, then bite and tear with nimble movements looked like the descent of a demon.

Usually, when you say a cat is the natural enemy of snakes, most people ask back how a cat could be the natural enemy of snakes or lizards.

Because it doesn’t seem like a match.

Cats have an image of being small and cute, while snakes have an image of being scary and dangerous.

Also, cats are animals that mostly live around human homes, and while snakes and lizards can be found near homes too, they’re mainly in the mountains.

Except for some species, it’s hard for them to even meet each other, and for a venomous snake, it feels like a cat wouldn’t be able to do anything and would just get bitten to death.

A lot of people think that if it’s a venomous snake, the cat would jump it, get bitten, and end up in danger instead.

And on top of that, most people see cats and mistakenly think they’re cute and innocent.

They get fooled by those big, round eyes, that soft fur, and the meowing sounds.

But cats are vicious little bastards with cute faces.

The kind of cruel, ruthless bastards that hunt the moment they see a snake or lizard.

They don’t just leave a snake or lizard passing by alone.

They toy with it like a plaything and slowly kill it—so cruel it makes your teeth grind.

You could ask how a cat hunts a snake, but there’s a reason: a cat’s absolute reaction speed.

A snake’s reaction speed is usually 44–70 ms.

But a cat is 20–70 ms.

It doesn’t seem like much of a difference, but in reality the cat is 20% to 50% faster.

That tiny difference becomes the decisive factor that splits life and death.

Also, as predators and hunters, cats evolved to react instantly to visual and auditory stimuli.

So they’re optimized to sense a prey’s movement or a threat, then dodge or capture it.

When a cat’s sharp eyesight and hearing combine with fast muscle response, it can read a snake’s movements in advance and respond.

But snakes only feel stimuli through heat detection and vibration, and they even need a preparatory motion to attack.

Coil.

That curled-up posture is called a coil, and unless that movement is set up, a snake can’t attack anyone.

That’s because to launch its body forward, it has to coil up so it can fire out extra body length.

On top of that, most snake attacks are ambushes, and if it doesn’t ambush, the success rate drops drastically.

In the split second a snake uncoils and re-adjusts, the cat has already counterattacked or dodged away.

So if a real fight breaks out, it’s basically snakes losing 100 out of 100 times.

It just passed near a human settlement by mistake, but if a cat spots it, it gets pounded by kitty punches and meets its end—that’s a snake.

Knowing that fact, the moment I saw Myoran, my expression soured.

This thing was the natural enemy of my beloved reptiles itself.

Even if it was a spirit creature, that instinctive hunter nature wouldn’t change.

Inside the earthen cave, the way her vertical pupils glittered looked extremely dangerous.

Quietly drawing up my energy, I watched her warily and thought about what I should do.

From what I’d heard, she didn’t feel like Baek-a’s family.

She felt like some stray thief cat, and if I just let her go, there was a chance word would spread all over that I was here.

At my reaction, the cat answered in a voice that sounded deeply hurt.

-Miaow. 『Elder, why are you so wary? Don’t hate Myoran so much. I just came in because that White-Night bow-wow got excited and went out from here...』

It was a voice like there was no seductress in the world besides her.

That soft tone mixed with a cooing lilt seemed to warm up the cool air inside the cave just a little.

That cat-unique, cutesy cry tickled my ears as it seeped in, but I raised my guard even more.

Because cats are the kind of bastards who act cute to make you let your guard down, then suddenly pop their claws.

-Miaowng! 『If you keep doing this, I’m going to run around telling everyone that the bow-wows hid a male!』

When I didn’t react at all, she shouted in a sulky voice.

The dissatisfaction mixed into her voice was so clear it felt like I could see her tail trembling.

In that instant, I made my decision.

I lunged and stretched out my hand to grab her.

If I left her be any longer, the rumor really would spread and all of Changrang Fortress would go into an uproar. In this place with a 1000:1 sex ratio, if the rumor of a “hidden male” started going around, it was obvious the female spirit creatures would come swarming in packs.

Just imagining that scene made my spine go cold.

In the darkness, I sensed her presence and tried to snatch her with the technique of the Golden Clawed Hand, but even though she reacted after my hand moved, she still slipped out with a slick motion.

Her body moved like a spring, bouncing in the opposite direction from where my left hand was reaching.

It was an elastic cat’s movement.

That flexible, explosive agility—I felt it clearly, following the gleam of her eyes in the faint darkness of the cave.

The sensation of a cat’s muscles contracting and relaxing in an instant brushed past my fingertips.

-Miaang. 『Ah, what a passionate gesture.』

A bastard that even threw out a joke like it was nothing.

Along with playfulness, there was a faint provocation mixed into her voice.

This thing had clearly dodged with leisure even after seeing my movement.

But I was someone who’d seen snakes fail to hunt cats thousands of times, and more.

Countless videos from my past life and wild scenes I’d witnessed in the lower world flashed through my mind.

Just because a cat’s reaction speed is fast doesn’t mean it’s invincible.

Especially because once it moves in midair, it has a weakness: it’s hard to change direction.

I swung my right hand that I’d hidden behind my back and quickly grabbed the scruff of her back.

Since she’d already moved once in midair, she couldn’t change direction again in midair.

A cat’s explosive agility hits its peak when it springs off a foothold on the ground, but the moment it’s floating in the air, inertia acts and it’s hard to immediately turn.

My left hand became bait to lure her movement, and then my right hand precisely snatched her scruff.

The feel of soft, warm fur at my fingertips, and beneath that, the taut tension of writhing muscles came through.

-Miyaaaang!

She let out a startled coo and struggled.

Her tail trembled, and her claws raked the air, but she was already in my grip.

When I injected a bit of energy to seal her movement, Myoran’s body stiffened instantly.

“Give up on running.”

It was the moment I felt proud, chest swelling like I’d repaid the grudge of all reptiles.

Her pupils went round in the darkness.

And then a single line slipped out.

-Miya? 『Wang Chief Steward?』

“?”

I wasn’t a Wang, and I wasn’t a chief steward, so I tilted my head at her words, but she explained quickly.

-Miyayaang. 『Ah—Elder, you’re human, right? We cats call humans “Wang Chief Steward.” Because you dote on us and take care of us.』

There was a saying in my past life.

Dogs worship their owner as a god, and cats think the owner is a butler.

They think of you as a servant who takes care of them.

So they call the people who raise them their butlers in a belittling way, and it seemed that wasn’t completely wrong.

So the reason this thing called humans “Wang Chief Steward” was probably because it was a compound word: Wang, the most common surname among humans, plus “chief steward,” a position similar to a butler.

If it was Korea, it’d be like calling you “Kim Butler”?

Something like that.

‘This arrogant little kitty bastard.’

I’d already thrown up an energy barrier when I lunged, so sound couldn’t spread out.

I shook her left and right and said,

“You shameless little bastard. How dare you call a person ‘Wang Chief Steward.’ And I don’t know how you figured out I’m human, but... today you need to get taught a lesson.”

Then I heard a desperate voice.

She begged in an earnest voice.

-Nyaaang. 『O-of course, how could cats like us not recognize the touch of a chief steward? That would mean we lived our cat lives for nothing.

Elder, c-calm down. If you’re a chief steward, then Myoran isn’t hostile to you.

How could a cat ever harm a chief steward?

A-and besides, Baek-a—Baek-a, that bitch—might be plotting something behind your back, so let’s get out of here fast. Those rangs are extremely sly. Myo—Myoran will help you.』

“Hmm?”

I’m not an idiot.

No matter how high-ranked a cultivator I am, I’m the type who’s wary of kindness at first meeting.

So I wasn’t in a state of fully trusting Baek-a, and hearing something like this from Myoran made me a little worried.

But that didn’t mean I could completely trust Myoran, someone I’d just met, either.

As I hesitated, a good idea came to me.

“Yeah. I’ll need to see whether your words are trustworthy.”

-Nyaong. 『Elder, don’t tell me you’re going to torture me or something? Even without that, Myoran will answer only the truth...』

I shoved the chattering bastard into Dokmul-hyang for now.

And then I called an expert right away.

It wasn’t Cheong-yu Sojeo.

Because I knew cultivators had ways to dodge answers.

『“Hwa-eun, tell Sister Seol that I caught a cat spirit creature and I need to interrogate it.”

“A cat spirit creature out of nowhere?”

“It slipped into my quarters.”

“Got it.”』

After asking Jeokwol-noona and Cho and Gun Hye-rin to come protect my body, I went into Dokmul-hyang, and Sister Seol was holding up the cat with an excited expression.

“So-ryong. What’s this cute little thing?”

“It, uh... slipped into my quarters.”

“Yeah? So we need to interrogate it?”

“Yes.”

“Hehe. Do you want your big sister to handle it without hurting it?”

-Miyaya! 『Ha, what can I do? I’ll endure it as much as it takes for Elder to be satisfied.』

Even though there might be torture, Myoran had a surprisingly calm expression.

It seemed like she thought it was an unavoidable process, but when Sister Seol—who’d disappeared for a moment—came back holding some kind of grass, her face turned to horror.

-Myaaah! 『W-wait! Th-that can’t happen! P-please! I—I won’t be me anymore!』

She screamed like it was a shriek, and when Sister Seol rubbed it on her nose, she went limp like some kind of liquid.

-Mya. 『Heuuung...』

It felt like her mind completely shattered.

I asked Sister Seol with startled eyes.

“Sister Seol, what is that? How did she end up like that in one shot?”

“Ah, this? Catnip. For interrogating cats, this is the best. It feels good, so they end up telling you everything.”

Using catnip as a confession drug—yeah, I really did pick the right expert.