Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

A guy hanging upside down from one of the ceiling beams.

Yellow fur was gleaming softly under the faint lantern light.

It wasn’t just some ordinary bird.

It was a bat—a full-fledged mammal, with fluffy fur.

The yellow fur itself was pretty strange and exotic, but that was it.

There wasn’t the slightest trace of any further charm—let alone the poison aura or oppressive presence I’d been expecting.

After I screamed inside at the fact that it was a bat, a hollow, deflated feeling came rushing in.

I’d had my hopes up coming to this land of spirit creatures, but nothing was going right.

The reptile I’d gotten was a non-venomous rat snake, and the one I picked up was a single cat.

There wasn’t even a swarm of insects, and there weren’t any reptile or amphibian groups either.

I’d imagined that a place called the land of spirit creatures would be crawling with all kinds of venomous creatures and rare life forms, but reality was pathetically shabby.

‘You said venomous creatures! You said venomous creatures!’

I shot a resentful glare at the backs of Myoran and Mongyeong, sprawled out on the floor.

First, because that thing was a mammal that didn’t belong to any of the categories I liked—reptiles, amphibians, birds, insects, arthropods, fish, any of them.

Second, because there was a high chance it wasn’t even a real venomous creature.

On top of that, whenever I’d gotten a mammal up until now, I’d handed it off to Sister Seol, but I couldn’t even give this one to Sister Seol.

No—put every other reason aside, a bat was just a useless animal.

Not in the sense of good or bad, but truly useless.

Sure, bats eat pests and their droppings fertilize the soil, so they’re absolutely necessary in a natural ecosystem, but for someone raising them, they had no value.

And for good reason: bats had lived in dirty, gloomy environments like caves.

For a long span of time—65 million years—they’d evolved in strange ways to survive in places like that.

Normally, humans and other mammals trigger an immune response when a virus invades and fight it off, but bats choose a strategy of living with viruses rather than killing them, carrying all kinds of viruses inside their bodies.

Most mammals, including humans, recognize viruses as enemies and try to kill them aggressively, and in that process, if an excessive immune response damages the lungs or organs, it can lead to death.

But bats suppress replication to a certain degree with minimal immune activity and maintain an asymptomatic carrier state.

That way, with the immune response held back, they don’t get sick even while carrying the virus.

Which is why bats are disease hotbeds, carrying dozens or even hundreds of viruses.

Isn’t it a well-known fact that bats are hosts for SARS, MERS, Ebola, Nipah, Hendra, and coronaviruses?

So I couldn’t give it to Sister Seol either.

‘She’s a martial artist, and she’s even come up to the cultivation world, so she probably wouldn’t get sick, but judging by how Mongyeong called that thing a venomous creature, it feels like some kind of spirit creature that evolved alongside viruses too.’

Even if I thought it might be fine because this was the cultivation world and people didn’t get diseases, if that thing had evolved into a spirit creature and evolved the viruses it carried too, it felt disgusting to give it to Sister Seol.

No—if Sister Seol registered it through the Beast-Heart Technique, she’d gain immunity, so she’d be fine.

The real problem was the surroundings.

The other spirit creatures around Sister Seol, people, and even the venomous creatures I cherished—all of them could be put in danger.

It wouldn’t end just because Sister Seol alone was safe.

‘What the hell am I even supposed to use that for?’

It wasn’t even a dud. What I pulled was trash.

As that emptiness washed over me, the situation outside, seen through the crack of the keyhole, suddenly started flowing in a strange direction.

Originally, the plan was simple.

The moment it showed up, I’d jump out and subdue it in one go.

But because I’d been shocked by the fact it was a bat and sat there blankly, my reaction was slow—and in that gap, it pulled two talismans from its chest and used them on Mongyeong.

-Fwoosh.

The energy of the two talismans burning above its head shot toward Mongyeong.

Then Mongyeong stiffened, went rigid, and toppled over with a thud.

A binding talisman, and probably a speech-sealing talisman that made it impossible to use Law Arts.

It wasn’t something as grand as a barrier that prevents Law Arts, but it was a combo that Law Arts users often used after subduing a cultivator.

To use Law Arts, you either have to activate your talisman or your own energy with words, or form hand seals with your hands—some kind of casting—and this sealed that.

I’d heard it was slow to activate and fired in a straight line, so you couldn’t use it mid-fight, but it was good for making subdued targets behave.

‘What kind of situation is this now?’

If it was going to kill or capture, the talisman’s energy should’ve been fired at Myoran, but the target was Mongyeong.

When Mongyeong and I both widened our eyes in shock, it gave a greasy smile and spoke.

-Tsii. 『Hehe. Looks like you don’t understand, huh?』

Then the bat flicked its ear toward Myoran.

And the energy wrapped around Myoran dispersed with a soft whoosh.

It was clearly an action meant to release Myoran.

Freed, Myoran opened wide, startled eyes.

But it quickly retreated into the corner, took a heavily guarded posture, and snapped.

-Miyang. 『Th-this is what kind of stunt, nya?』

Myoran asked the bat while glancing sideways toward the box where I was hiding.

It was a look asking me when I was going to move.

It didn’t look like Myoran was in immediate danger, so I decided to watch how it played out a bit more, and at that question, the bat said irritably.

-Tsiiik. 『It’s not something I really want to do either, but what can I do? Looks like we serve the same master.』

-Miyayang? 『The same master?』

-Tsiii. 『Ha... To think you’d replant someone like that because you can’t trust them.』

Myoran still didn’t understand what it was talking about, but I got it in an instant.

That bat bastard was a Sry from the Flying Wing Gate.

‘Seriously, it’s one thing after another.’

As if being a bat wasn’t enough, it’s doing spy work too.

Looks like those fairy tales weren’t just baseless nonsense after all.

In fairy tales, isn’t the bat the one who goes back and forth between the birds and the mammals, gets found out, and gets chased out?

It looked like it was using that to do spy work.

The Flying Wing Gate was a sect made up of birds.

In this era, even bats were considered birds, so it probably had an easy time siding with the “bird” side.

And since it gave birth to babies and had fur, it could side with the “mammal” side too.

Then I heard the answer that confirmed my suspicion.

-Tsii. 『Two years ago, I achieved a major result by turning a scouting unit, but after that, surveillance tightened and my activity dwindled—so it seems you’ve been trying to pull that one back in. This is truly troublesome. It’s like you doubt my abilities.

And to get caught the moment you’re pulled in—have you no shame?』

Two years ago.

That was a story I’d heard from Mongyeong too.

That famous incident where a scouting party gathering information got recruited by the Flying Wing Gate and went over completely.

And I clearly remembered saying that if there was a Sry, that bat bastard would come running all excited to rack up merit.

It felt like it was the very culprit behind that incident.

Only then did Myoran fully grasp the situation, its eyes widening as it shouted like it couldn’t believe it.

-Miyang!? 『D-don’t tell me!? A Sry from the Flying Wing Gate!?』

The bat lifted the corners of its mouth slightly and smiled.

That smile was greasy, and somehow looked confident.

-Tsiiik. 『A Sry? We serve the same master. I heard you serve O-a—the crow—too, under that rat snake.』

At those words, I felt like I understood why it had tried to help Myoran.

Normally, even if there were multiple Sry, if one got caught, they didn’t help each other.

If you help and get exposed too, both of you get wiped out, and that’s huge damage to the organization.

Even so, it tried to help Myoran because we’d chosen “serving a crow of the Flying Wing Gate” to secure plausibility for this job, and by coincidence, it overlapped with the one it served.

Since someone serving the same spirit creature as the one it served seemed to have been caught, it came running to smooth it over.

That way, it could show off its competence and further solidify its position inside the organization.

It was quick on the draw.

At the bat’s words, Myoran cried out as if it were wronged.

-Miyayang. 『To think I’ve been tormented all this time by a Sry bitch like that!』

It had disliked our plan so much when we explained it, but it looked like it really had been tormented quite a bit.

But wasn’t it tormented because it acted however it wanted in the first place?

Even judging by Mongyeong’s evaluation, Myoran didn’t seem like the type to be loved by superiors at all.

At Myoran’s resentful outcry, the bat gave another greasy smile and opened its mouth again.

Its voice was soaked with leisure and mockery.

-Tsiii. 『Well, if you weren’t serving the same one, I was planning to take care of you soon anyway, but from now on I’ll treat you well, so don’t be like that. Hehe.

Shouldn’t we join forces and bring down Black Night Palace?』

Trash existence, trash mouth.

It was a truly useless bastard.

Even if it had been some other venomous creature, how could you trust something that worked as a Sry like that?

It was an existence forever far from the word trust.

My mind, which had been agonizing over what to use it for, now chose its direction completely.

I took a deep breath and opened the box just a crack, silently.

Then I fired a sharp blast of wind right into the center of its back.

-Tsiiik! 『Kyaaak!』

When I hit its vital point dead-on, it let out a miserable scream and slipped off the beam, dropping to the floor with a thud.

Looking down at the unconscious thing, I slowly walked toward Myoran.

Then, gently—very slowly—I stroked Myoran’s head and said.

”Myoran, go throw that away somewhere. Don’t touch it, and float it with your energy and toss it in some corner.”

Myoran opened its eyes wide.

It was staring at my hand.

It looked flustered that I was treating it kindly.

Well, I hadn’t treated it badly until now, but I’d never petted it or anything like that.

‘Ah, crap. Without even thinking.’

After seeing the absolute worst, Myoran looked like a fairy to me, and I’d stroked its head without realizing it.

I clasped my hands behind my back and looked out the window for no reason.

”Ahem.”

***

I told it to throw it out in some corner, but Myoran used it thoroughly.

It told me to wait just a few days, then offered that thing up to Black Night Palace and came back with a pile of spirit stones and spirit liquor.

It said it had caught a Sry from the Flying Wing Gate and brought back a reward.

Three big boxes were packed with spirit stones, and there were ten bottles of spirit liquor in a small box.

And in another box, three more bottles of spirit liquor.

-Miyaong. 『Elder, look at this!』

”Heh. They say even dog shit can be used as medicine.”

-Miyang? 『Dog shit?』

”I’m saying it was as useless as dog shit.”

-Myangmyang. 『Hehe. That’s right. Dog shit. Kya-ha-ha.』

The operation we’d done got packaged as Myoran happening to learn, by chance, that it was a Sry during its activities, and trying to test it.

In the process, Myoran said it had been the one to plan the operation to test it at first, and no one believed it, so it said it had ended up in a huge crisis—but when it said it wasn’t Myoran’s plan, it was Mongyeong’s plan, everyone nodded along.

I handed each of them a fistful of spirit stones and one bottle of spirit liquor.

If the kids brought it back, I had to give them a bonus.

-Miyang? 『Us too?』

”Of course. I give big rewards to kids who do well.”

After stuffing all the spirit stones and spirit liquor they brought into Dokmul-hyang, we decided to head back to White Night City, where Miss Cheong-yu was waiting.

”Everyone worked hard. Then let’s head back.”

-Miyang. 『Okay, Elder.』

-Shiik. 『Understood.』

I put the two of them into Dokmul-hyang and immediately used the talisman I’d received from Miss Cheong-yu.

A talisman that moved you in one go to underground White Night City.

When I held the talisman in my hand and breathed energy into it, it burned up with a fwoosh, and I felt like my body was stretching out.

Now it was time to head for Palcheon.