Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

The one that got drunk on catnip was practically a cat under hypnosis.

With a dazed, woozy expression, the thing couldn’t pull itself together.

Sister Seol, who’d been watching that with satisfaction, smiled faintly and said,

“So-ryong, release its pressure points.”

“Pressure points? Wouldn’t that be dangerous? It could be pretending to be drunk.”

“No. Cats can never do that. And you need to release them to interrogate it properly.”

I raised concerns because there was always the variable that it could be pretending to be drunk, or snap back to its senses in the middle and take Sister Seol hostage or attack her, but how could I possibly beat Sister Seol?

“Hurry up and release them. I’m telling you it’s fine. And the others can watch and protect us.”

“Okay...”

At her repeated request, I carefully started withdrawing the energy that had been sealing off its meridians.

As the energy drained out, its body twitched slightly, but there was still no movement.

Strangely, its body was the same as before I released the points I’d sealed.

Its eyes were unfocused and dreamy, and all tension had drained from its body, slumping down like a soft bundle of fur melting.

Even its ears, which would normally be sharply perked up, were half-folded, flopping weakly, and its tail lay loose on the ground, only giving a tiny twitch now and then.

It was completely out of it, fully disarmed.

Sister Seol walked up to it.

She bent her knees slightly and sat in front of it, then lifted her slender index finger and gently set it on the tip of its chin.

When her fingertip touched, its body flinched slightly, but there was still no resistance.

After placing her index finger under its chin, Sister Seol said,

“Alright, be good. Why did you come looking for our So-ryong?”

-Miyaaa. 『...S-so, I mean.』

“You need to answer quickly, okay?”

Its reply was slow, like it was mumbling in a dream.

It seemed the scent of catnip was still lingering at the tip of its nose, making its mind hazy.

Seeing that sluggish reaction, Sister Seol put on a mischievous smile and slowly, very slowly, slid the finger that had been on its chin upward.

Then something shocking happened.

Its whole body started trembling like it had been struck by lightning.

Every single hair stood on end, its tail shot up, and shivers ran all the way to its toes.

-Miyang! 『Huhk!』

She only brushed it slightly, but it trembled and let out a moan that sounded like it was ringing up from deep in its chest.

It was so intense that even I had no choice but to stare for a moment, stunned.

Sister Seol looked at it like she was amused by the reaction, then pinched a little of the catnip leaf again and rubbed it into her palm.

A faint scent spread and seeped into her fingertips, and she gently brought that hand right up to its nose.

As the scent tickled its nostrils, its eyes grew even more dreamy, and it started speaking, opening its mouth like someone falling into deep hypnosis.

-Miyaaa. 『Heuuung. I-I’m a spy from the Black Night Palace. I was passing nearby, and I saw the bird-heads from the Flying Wing Gate... Hheuk. So I came in to snoop, to see what it was about... I saw Baek-a come out of here... and I waited for the sun to set, then came in to take a look.』

“Black Night Palace?”

-Mia. 『An information group that splits the spirit creatures’ land with the Flying Wing Gate. Heeung.』

It seemed like the Flying Wing Gate and the Black Night Palace were, in murim terms, something like the Beggars’ Union and the Hao Sect.

It probably watched a rival organization’s scouts moving around, slipped in, and then found me.

If you catch a competitor’s movements, isn’t tailing them to dig up information or sabotage them basic protocol for an intel organization?

As I nodded, Sister Seol looked at me and asked,

“What should I ask next, So-ryong?”

Her gaze was mixed with teasing and curiosity, and that smile was still on her lips.

She looked like she was having so much fun interrogating it she could die.

I gathered my thoughts for a moment, then said what I was curious about next.

“Ah. Please ask what it meant when it said Baek-a might be plotting something behind my back.”

That part—the thing it threw at me, calling Baek-a someone I couldn’t trust—was what I most wanted to confirm.

Was it just a threat, or was Baek-a actually plotting something behind the scenes?

“Got it. Hey, you heard that, right? You have to answer.”

Sister Seol slipped the catnip leaf between her fingers again and lightly rubbed it at the tip of its nose, urging it gently, but threateningly.

As the scent thickened, it sniffed hard, then started panting so much its chest visibly heaved.

Its eyes went even blurrier, and I could see its whole body shudder again.

Right away, like it was exhaling its breath out, it began pouring out an answer in a long, drawn-out voice.

-Miyayaayaang. 『B-bow-wows tend to follow the will of the pack more than their own will. Haaang... Even if not right now. They’ll probably report it to the head of the family up in the upper holy city, and depending on what decision that family head makes, the way they t-treat you can change.』

“Change? How is it going to change? Be specific.”

Sister Seol lifted its chin slightly and pressed further. At that touch, its body shivered again.

-Miyang. 『E-Elder, you probably ascended at the Ascension Platform around here recently, right? Heeuk.』

It didn’t seem like Myoran had gotten the detailed information about the persona I’d cooked up to infiltrate the spirit creatures’ territory.

So it seemed to be mistaking me for a high-ranked cultivator who’d recently come up at the nearby Ascension Platform.

Thinking that misunderstanding might actually make it easier to draw out information, I deliberately played dumb and prompted it.

“And?”

-Miyayang. 『The bow-wows probably told you to wait, saying they’ll serve you, protect you, all sorts of reasons...

But in reality, I know a male cultivator who ascended a few years ago got dragged to the holy city, locked up under a powerful bow-wow family’s underground, used for breeding only, and in the end, consumed into spirit stones. Hawoong...

This spirit creatures’ land looks on the surface like different spirit creatures are living together in peace, but in truth it’s split into multiple factions, fiercely competing.

Factions that want strong bloodlines especially target high-ranked cultivators. They use their bloodline to make descendants stronger, or they try to use them directly as spirit pills to raise their realm.』

The moment I heard that, my spine went cold.

But I was a high-ranked cultivator—would those bastards really do something that crazy and try to subdue me?

“I’m a high-ranked cultivator. You think they can even catch me?”

Then, just like I’d feared, it seemed there was a method.

-Miyang. 『You just use the Golden Shackles spell to make you unable to use spells.』

It seemed like the thing my master had made into a law-art treasure that suppressed Law Arts could be applied to an individual, too.

In a shocked voice, I asked Zihwa.

『“Zihwa, there was something like that?”

“If it can be used as a law-art treasure, then of course it can be used as a spell too, right?”

“Why didn’t you say—”』

Zihwa’s voice came out calm, but a little mischievous.

When I spoke like I was asking why she hadn’t told me, Zihwa answered like it was obvious.

『“If you get caught, Gun Hye-rin or the other wives will step in, and if that’s not enough, I’ll step in myself. What is there to worry about? It’s not like you’d get taken down so emptily on your own.”

“I-is that so?”』

Well, Gun Hye-rin had reached the Life-and-Death Realm too, so she was as strong as me, and there were my other wives, and Zihwa too—so maybe I didn’t need to worry?

It was while I was nodding that Sister Seol looked at me and asked,

“So-ryong, if the interrogation’s done, can I keep this one? I want to raise it.”

-Miyayang. 『W-what are you saying! I-I’m not some little creature. Heuuung. As a spy of the Black Night Palace, my pride—』

It shouted, face stiffening.

But when Sister Seol’s touch brushed its chin one more time, it lifted one leg and shuddered.

The shiver was so intense I could practically see it ripple through its whole body.

Still, maybe it had the pride of a cultivator and an ascended spirit creature, because it barely managed to pull itself together and shouted again.

-Miyaaa! 『No matter how you toy with me using catnip and lewd hands, I will never accept that!』

Myoran wasn’t just an ordinary cat—it was an almost-immortal that had suffered like a dog in the lower world, gained spirituality, and even ascended.

So when Sister Seol said she wanted to raise it like some kitten she’d picked up on the street, it wasn’t surprising its pride was getting shattered to pieces.

Even I thought Sister Seol was being a little too much, but Sister Seol looked at it and gently curled up the corner of her lips.

That smile was somehow sly and attractive.

“But you liked my touch, didn’t you?”

Myoran froze in fluster.

-Miya! 『W-what—th-that’s because of c-c-c... catnip!』

It argued that it wasn’t being toyed with by Sister Seol’s touch, it was just reacting helplessly because of catnip.

Right up until Sister Seol’s next words threw it into shock.

“Hm. No, though? I only used catnip the first time.”

-Miyat!? 『What!?』

“I only used catnip the first time. After that, you kept reacting just to a blade of grass and my hands.”

Its eyes widened and its pupils shook.

Everyone covered their mouths slightly as they watched.

They thought it was because of catnip, but it turned out it had shown something that embarrassing because of Sister Seol’s touch, and everyone was dumbfounded.

Under everyone’s gaze, it rolled its eyes and rolled them, and in the end, unable to withstand the mental shock, it burst into tears.

And then came the slave declaration.

-Miyawoong. 『M-Myoran can’t do anything without a Wang Chief Steward. I-I’m from a house-cat background. I-I want to be raised... Hwaaang...』

‘Huhhhk!’

Seriously. I told her to do an interrogation, and she even got a slave declaration out of it.

In front of Sister Seol’s soft touch and crafty interrogation techniques, its pride crumbled completely and it was making a slave declaration.

It might be limited to beasts, but looking at it now, Sister Seol was a truly terrifying person.

At the thought that followed, goosebumps rose up along my back.

‘Wait. Humans are animals too, in the end...’

Humans are mammals, too.

***

Since we’d gotten information from Myoran, we held a countermeasure meeting right away.

“Then what do we do?”

“Let’s wait for now. She might actually bring back real information. And the Golden Shackles spell isn’t a big problem for me.”

“If anything happens, I can step in too, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

We were thinking maybe we should wait a bit since Baek-a might actually bring back real information, but Sister Seol, holding Myoran in her arms, said,

“Do we really need to?”

“Sorry?”

“No, why do we need to do something risky like that? We can just ask Myoran here for the information. This one’s from that Black... what? Place, right? You said they deal in information too.”

-Miyaong. 『Black Night Palace.』

“Right, Black Night Palace. You can get it, right?”

-Miyaang. 『Of course!』

“Ah, right.”

Yeah. Thinking about it, Myoran was also from an information organization.

There was no need to ask somewhere else.

If it was the Flying Wing Gate’s competitor group that Baek-a had called, their capabilities would be similar.

But there was still a problem.

“Even if Myoran goes to get information, we need a place to wait until it brings it back.”

They said the spirit creatures’ land was woven together like a spiderweb, and if you entered someone’s territory carelessly, troublesome things would happen.

So we couldn’t move around freely, and we needed a safe place to wait until it returned with information.

At my words, Myoran immediately stepped up.

In a bright voice, it answered.

-Nyaaong. 『I know a place where you can stay safely!』

“There’s a safe place?”

-Nyaong. 『Yes, Elder. It’s a secret branch of the Black Night Palace, and only I and my subordinates use it, so you should be able to stay safely for a while.』

It was saying we should go to its own base, but I’m the type to tap even a stone bridge before crossing.

I told Sister Seol,

“Big sister, let’s register it first.”

“Got it!”

If it was registered, it couldn’t betray us, so it would be safer, and if we registered that spirit creature, wouldn’t Sister Seol get stronger too?

My wives would grow stronger if I kept doing dual cultivation day and night, but Sister Seol was tricky because I couldn’t really do anything for her—so this was the perfect opportunity.