Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

“A martial contest for marriage?”

“Yes, Elder.”

For a moment, my head started to hurt.

To treat Senior Sister, the poison of that Fierce Poison Water Louse was essential.

And on top of that, we did not know how much would be needed.

Continuous administration might even be necessary.

Which made sense, really. A blue sea slug like Senior Sister is originally a creature that eats jellyfish venom and stores it in the body.

A creature that protects itself with that.

But aside from Cheonhae’s venom, Senior Sister had never once properly eaten jellyfish venom after being born, so there was no way to know how much would be necessary.

You might harden your heart a little and think, could I not just roughly chop off a leg or two and bring them back, but this was not something that would be solved by roughly cutting off a few legs and bringing them back.

So I might have had to bring that spirit-creature here and keep giving Senior Sister venom until Senior Sister recovered, but if I wanted help, I was being told to defeat that one in a martial contest and take that one as my wife.

A butterfly, a snake, a scorpion, a toad, a frog, a millipede, a wasp.

There were already many spirit-creatures lined up here, so there was no choice but for my head to hurt.

“Couldn’t this be a slightly more normal development or something!”

Why did it feel like the world was trying to use me as breeding stock?

I pulled myself together first and said,

“For now, I understand. Could you tell me things like information about the location and how to find it?”

“I brought that in a letter, Elder.”

After receiving the letter, I decided to call a family meeting for now.

Saving Senior Sister was something that had to be done, but if it was a martial contest for marriage, how could I not discuss it?

“‘Hwa-eun, Ji-ryeon, Hye-rin, could you all gather in the Lord’s Chamber for a bit?’

‘What is it, Husband?’

‘I have something to discuss.’

‘Understood, Master.’

‘All right. So-ryong.’”

I gathered my wives through the group chat room, and I also called Yo-hwa through a private chat room.

The other spirit-creatures could eavesdrop on the group chat room, so I called Yo-hwa, my secret wife, through a private chat room.

Yo-hwa was a wife now too, so Yo-hwa had the right to participate in the wives’ meeting.

‘Yo-hwa, could you come to the Lord’s Chamber for a bit?’

‘Yes, Oppa.’

- Slurp, slurp.

In the meantime, I could hear the children sucking on the candied fruit, so I took out a spirit stone from Jeomul-do and held it out to the shopkeeper.

“Here, shopkeeper, the spirit stone.”

“Oh my, no, absolutely not, Lord So-ryong. We are all living off Lord So-ryong’s grace...”

“Even so, that will not do. Even if the Jade Emperor came, in White Night City it is right to pay the price.”

“Ah, you really mustn’t...”

I pressed one low-grade spirit stone into the hand of the shopkeeper, who was saying no, and looked at the children.

Cho, Hyang, and Bini were all diligently licking their candied fruit.

But when Bini’s eyes met mine, Bini pouted.

“We only just got here...”

It seemed Bini had realized from the conversation just now that I had to go.

I bent my waist a little and was about to stroke Bini’s head, but Cho put a hand on Bini’s shoulder and said,

“Dad, I’ll take care of Hyang and Bini, so Dad should go back. Dad’s busy, so don’t throw a fit.”

“I know, Unni.”

As expected of my eldest daughter.

With an apologetic expression, I stroked the heads of Bini and Hyang and said,

“I’m sorry. Something urgent came up. Dad will give spirit stones to big sister Cho before leaving, so could you go buy something tasty and eat it together?”

“Tch... well, it can’t be helped. You have to come with us again next time.”

“Of course.”

“Dad, then see you later. I was going to ask what a martial contest for marriage is...”

Hyang seemed less upset than Bini, so that lightened my burden a little.

After parting with the children like that, I quickly flew to the Lord’s Chamber.

When I jumped in through the window, Hwa-eun, Ji-ryeon, and Gun Hye-rin had already arrived inside and were waiting.

Yo-hwa also came in through the window right behind me.

- Kisit. “Oppa, what is it?”

“So-ryong, what is it?”

“Master, what did you call me for? I was just on my way back after locking up some bastard who was making a scene at the inn in the underground lightning prison, so I think I need to go back. I ought to scare him so badly that he will never do something like that again.”

At my wives’ questions, I took out the letter I had received from Galma, set it on the table, and said,

“In truth, a message came from the Ink Shadow Altar just now.”

“The Ink Shadow Altar?”

“They said they found the Fierce Poison Water Louse that can treat Ancestor’s body?”

Gun Hye-rin and Ji-ryeon were tilting their heads, but since it was the matter of Hwa-eun’s family, Hwa-eun immediately caught on.

I nodded at Hwa-eun’s question.

“That’s right. I just got the message. They said the spirit-creature we are looking for is in the Dark Sea of the Sixth Heaven, which is managed by the Jet-Black Sea.”

“That is good. At last Ancestor will be able to heal the body.”

“That’s good news, So-ryong.”

My wives were pleased.

But as expected of my wives, they noticed that my expression was not good, and tilted their heads as they asked,

“This is something Husband wanted so badly, so why is the face so dark?”

“Master, is something wrong?”

- Kishishi. “Oppa, what is it?”

With an extremely serious expression, I said,

“In truth, the Ink Shadow Altar first asked this Fierce Poison Water Louse for venom so that we could treat the patient, but it seems a condition was attached.”

“A condition?”

“If it is a condition?”

I let out a deep sigh and answered,

“A martial contest for marriage.”

At my words, my wives’ mouths fell open.

It seemed they were flustered.

Because if that Fierce Poison Water Louse was essential to treating Senior Sister, then in order to obtain that one, my number of wives would increase by one.

In the brief silence that followed, Gun Hye-rin smiled with an expression telling me not to worry.

“Hmph. Do not worry, Master. I will fight in Master’s place. What realm is the opponent?”

“Gun Hye-rin? For now, it is written that the other side is also at the Golden Core Stage...”

“Then that is good. If I win, it is a woman, so there will be no need to hold a wedding, and thus there will be no problem.”

The opponent’s realm was the Golden Core Stage.

Gun Hye-rin’s realm was also the Golden Core Stage.

But by our standards, cultivators from the Zhongyuan martial world were counted as a level above.

So Gun Hye-rin was saying that she would fight in my place.

It was not as though I had never thought of this either.

That it would work out if one of my wives, or someone who was not a man, fought in my place.

If the one who fought and won was a woman, at the very least that side would not ask to be married.

However, in this cultivation world, it was troublesome to think normally.

Was this not exactly the cultivation world, a place where it would not be strange for some sudden, nonsensical incident to happen at any moment?

I wagged a finger and spoke.

“I did think of that too, but I do not think it is a good method.”

“And why is that?”

Gun Hye-rin looked as if she did not understand why the opinion was not a good one, but at my next words, the mouth shut.

“What if, like Bulsiho forms ties with female spirit-creatures, the other side says it does not matter even if it is a woman?”

“......”

If the other side lost to Gun Hye-rin and then came clinging on, saying being female did not matter at all, then that would be a huge problem in its own way.

Another wife appearing for my wife?

No, should I call it another same-sex partner?

There was no train wreck among train wrecks quite like this one.

“I never thought of that at all...”

At Gun Hye-rin’s expression, as if struck in an unexpected place, all my wives nodded.

It was then.

Suddenly, the door of the Lord’s Chamber banged open and Senior Sister came running inside.

“Junior Brother!”

The one who came running in was Senior Sister.

The face was mixed with all kinds of emotions.

Senior Sister shouted,

“A martial contest for marriage because of me? That is nonsense.”

It did not seem like Senior Sister had been eavesdropping outside, but Senior Sister knew about the martial contest for marriage.

“How did you...?”

“I heard it from Hyang while I was out at the market. I ran into the children at the market and greeted them, and then Hyang asked what a martial contest for marriage was. So I asked where Hyang heard it...”

Ah, damn it.

That little rascal Hyang had said while we were parting that Hyang had wanted to ask what a martial contest for marriage was, and it seemed Hyang had asked Senior Sister while passing by.

So now even Senior Sister knew everything.

Senior Sister had a firm expression that said it was nonsense.

“The grace I have already received from Junior Brother is not small, and if you make a sacrifice like that too, I will have no face to look at Junior Brother’s wives.”

Senior Sister was saying that it absolutely could not happen that I had to go get married again in order to save Senior Sister.

That then not only would Senior Sister feel sorry to me, but also to my wives.

Because the number of rivals would increase because of Senior Sister.

Senior Sister spoke in an earnest voice.

“The Fierce Poison Water Louse surely cannot be only that woman, so let us wait. Yes, let us do that. We are not even ascending to the Middle Heavens yet. And there could be a Fierce Poison Water Louse in the Middle Heavens too, couldn’t there?”

The opinion was that that one woman might not be the only poisonous jellyfish, and there might also be one in the Middle Heavens, so we should wait and see.

Senior Sister’s opinion was so firm that I could not say anything at all.

But two or three months later, we had no choice but to think about the martial contest for marriage again.

“Don’t do that, Junior Brother. Absolutely not.”

Because Chief Steward Mong-a found out that Senior Sister’s condition was getting worse, perhaps because the venomous energy of Cheonhae that Senior Sister had taken into the body was beginning to diminish.

Senior Sister had been hiding the pain in case I might answer the martial contest for marriage.

No matter what, the longer we dragged things out, the more Senior Sister’s body would worsen again like before.

We had to come up with some kind of method.

I gathered my wives again and held another meeting, and Ji-ryeon scratched the head roughly and said,

“What about Geumdo, if we tell Geumdo to fight... that would not work, right?”

That instead of me, we should tell Geumdo to fight in my place.

But perhaps Ji-ryeon also thought it sounded absurd, because the end came out as a question.

There was a reason that kind of remark came out.

It was not as though we had been sitting around doing nothing during that time.

We had already found out in advance things like what the conditions of the martial contest for marriage were.

The condition the other side had set was that the opponent absolutely had to be a male.

Attacks meant to kill each other were forbidden.

So the one to do the martial contest for marriage absolutely had to be a male, or a man.

That was why Geumdo was mentioned.

Among our family, the only single males were Geumdo and Changcheon, excluding Bing and Orange, who had already gone through weddings.

And among those, the only one that looked able to fight in the sea was Geumdo.

However, while it was indeed a problem that Geumdo’s realm was low, the decisive problem was that Geumdo had never fought even once.

The other side, seeing how it was proposing a martial contest for marriage, seemed confident in fighting, so this was difficult.

To be honest, if Geumdo had been a sea turtle, then even if the realm was a little low, it might have been worth trying.

Because the natural enemy of the Fierce Poison Water Louse is precisely the sea turtle.

The ones that close their eyes, take bite after bite, and eat all the jellyfish up are precisely turtles.

But Geumdo was neither a sea turtle nor of a high realm, so there was no advantage in compatibility.

“If only Soyeon, the scale-foot conch, had been male.”

“Exactly. But Soyeon is female.”

Honestly, the best option would have been if Soyeon, my one and only disciple, had been male.

The opponent was apparently something like a deep-sea jellyfish, and Soyeon was also a deep-sea creature.

It would have been a fight worth trying.

The deep sea has tremendous pressure.

That is why deep-sea creatures have to endure that pressure, so their bodies feel soft.

Otherwise, they would be crushed to death by the pressure.

Even if the battlefield happened to be the deep sea, Soyeon had a body that could withstand it, and even if Soyeon could not win, at the very least Soyeon would not lose.

Just as I was thinking how truly regrettable that was.

One thought brushed past my mind.

“Wait a minute?”

That thought occurred to me.

Would it not be enough as long as it was a male, to begin with?

“But as long as it is a male, that is enough, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“No, even if the current body is female, as long as it is a male, that is enough. What that side demanded was a ‘male,’ not whether that male had a female body or what kind of body it had.”

“Huh?”

“Then?”

What rose in my mind was Yubing.

A reef crab like Yubing also eats jellyfish washed up onto the shore and stores the venom in the body, so Yubing was immune to poison too.

On top of that, the realm was the same.

I felt a little sorry toward Bulsiho, but that side probably would not take it too badly.

Probably?

If the three rubbed together, the extinction of polar bears would probably speed up a little more.

I decided to contact Bulsiho right away.