Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

The moment she took the Venomous Water Crab’s hand to put its finger into her mouth,

something tingling met Cheongcheong.

And the instant she closed her mouth around the Venomous Water Crab’s finger, a venomous aura with a feeling completely different from when it seeped in through the skin—far more direct and blatant—burst into her mouth all at once.

From the tip of her tongue to her gums, the roof of her mouth, and the inside of her throat.

It spread with a numb yet pungent sensation, as if she were holding thin shards of glass and hot liquor in her mouth at the same time.

The invisible fine hairs covering the Venomous Water Crab’s skin, things like tiny down that had grown too subtly to be seen, were flowing into Cheongcheong’s mouth.

Every single one of those fine hairs was something steeped in venomous aura.

Cheongcheong’s reason was clearly recognizing it as venomous aura.

Even swallowing a single strand should have been enough to paralyze her body and make her collapse on the spot.

But strangely enough, her body did not take it that way.

Her flesh accepted it not as poison, but rather as a spiritual medicine it had long desperately awaited, like sweet rain falling on a drought.

It welcomed it like a farmer whose throat had dried up in a drought, begging for rain.

It was a taste, a scent, an energy she had never once tasted or felt before, yet it climbed through her mouth and nasal passages and filled her head completely.

She had thought that because it was deadly poison, she would feel some lethal kind of force, but instead, it felt somehow sweet and pleasant.

At this first-ever taste and feeling, her mind felt strangely exalted.

Soon, a breath filled with joy leaked from Cheongcheong’s lips without her even realizing it.

“Ahh...”

A low sound came out, impossible to tell whether it was a moan or an exclamation.

Her lips opened wider on their own and drew the finger in deeper, and the tip of her tongue traced along the joints of the finger steeped in venomous aura.

What flowed down into her stomach first seemed to settle once, then immediately began to melt hot from somewhere in the middle of her chest.

Somewhere between her heart and her dantian.

-Crack.

A moment later, it sounded as though a lump of ice that had been frozen for a very long time was breaking apart from the inside, and then that thing turned into thunder aura and spread throughout her body.

Not venomous aura, but energy. More precisely, the venomous aura was melting and flowing out as pure thunder aura.

The thunder aura ran thinly beneath her skin, racing over her capillaries and meridians.

Everywhere it touched, it felt as if thunder and lightning were skimming across her.

Along with the sensation of invisible lightning striking again and again, tiny grains scattered throughout her body began to tremble as if waking from a long sleep.

They had been things with no vigor, drained of strength, curled up in a corner like a sick woman.

Things that had been neglected for far too many years and withered almost to death.

And now they were starting to rampage savagely, like men before a woman, like wild bulls, like beasts that had starved for ages.

The energy spreading out from deep in her chest, from the space enveloping her lungs and heart.

Her body shuddered as it followed that roaming thunder aura.

It felt as though her fingertips, the tips of her toes, her scalp, even the insides of her ears were all opening cool and clear.

Every single part that made up Cheongcheong, who until now had not even known whether she had truly been alive, seemed to be waking as if crying out, I am here.

Everywhere that lightning touched, new changes followed one after another.

First, it was her bones.

The bones that had wasted away for decades and become riddled with holes like a honeycomb gradually regained their hardness as though swelling back up from within.

The energies that had been dispersing through those holes packed themselves firmly into the bones, and each rough, grating joint began to fit together smoothly.

Next were her muscles.

Her muscles, dried out until they were no thicker than threads and twisted with withering, slowly recovered their fullness as if new flesh were growing in.

They toughened into taut cords and gave birth to strong power.

Her skin changed too.

The flesh that had always been pale and cold gradually took on warmth, and a subtle healthy color began to rise from within.

It felt as though old, faded silk had been replaced with new silk.

Even the air brushing against her skin somehow felt different.

Her hair was even more obvious.

The fine strands that had been too soft and snapped too easily gradually began to shine and recover their strength one by one.

The hair roots that had been thinned out took hold as though rooting deep into the earth, and the thin strands slowly thickened.

She could feel the hair trailing below her shoulders gain weight in an instant.

Her bones filled in their holes and grew hard, her muscles became tougher and firmer, and even her skin and hair were reborn into something else.

A strength she had never felt before was filling her body to the brim.

‘This... is my body...’

Without realizing it, Cheongcheong looked inward around her chest.

The area around her heart, which had long felt empty, was filled heavily now.

She could hear the sound of her heart beating with her own ears.

-Thump, thump, thump.

It was a vigorous pulse, like an old drum that had been newly covered in fresh hide.

She could also clearly feel energy gathering in her dantian.

Until now she had never been able to hold it there for long, but this was different.

As though a clear spring had formed deep within her dantian, the venomous aura and thunder aura were mixing and forming a new pool of energy.

It felt as though if she drew that energy up even a little, her body would float lightly.

Without even moving her limbs, it felt as though she could leap across a space several times wider than usual in a single bound.

Before, if she overexerted herself even a little, her vision would darken and her ears would ring, but now even with this mighty surge of energy whipping through her, her chest did not hurt.

Rather, it felt as though she could move more energy, more strongly, more vigorously, more abundantly.

The senses that had long grown used to a sick body even felt confused.

‘Ahh...’

The changes rising throughout her body showed no sign of ending. From the tips of her toes to the crown of her head, her bones and muscles, blood and meridians, skin and hair, even her eyes and the insides of her ears—

The thunder aura that had begun from deadly poison only stopped after it had rewoven her entire existence.

It was when all the changes had finally ended.

Cheongcheong realized that she was standing at the entrance to the state she had dreamed of all her life.

Primordial Infant Stage.

She was now standing shoulder to shoulder with her junior martial brother—no, Lord So-ryong.

***

Unlike the upper floor, where transformation was taking place, an entirely different tension filled the room on the lower floor.

So-ryong’s wives sat in a circle, quietly watching the flow of energy roiling above them.

“It’s not over yet, right?”

Hwa-eun was the first to speak.

She had closed her eyes tightly and was reading the waves being transmitted downward, then she asked with a slight furrow in her brow.

“It seems not.”

“It isn’t over yet, but... it’s almost there.”

Ji-ryeon answered softly.

Her gaze was turned toward the ceiling, but what she was looking at was not the wooden ceiling itself, but Cheongcheong’s energy seated above it.

Beside her, Ji-ryeon slowly let out a breath and continued,

“Her body is almost completely aligned now.”

“Her skeleton and meridians have already stabilized, and the energy is in the final stage of being gathered in.”

The changes were now almost finished.

The rough waves surrounding the upper floor were gradually subsiding, and in their place a stillness like a deep lake was settling in.

As they were thinking the transformation would soon be completely finished, Hwa-eun suddenly showed a worried expression.

“But will it be all right?”

The reason Hwa-eun raised this question was not because of the breakthrough in realm or the treatment of Cheongcheong’s body.

What she was asking about now was the training.

So-ryong did not know it, but his wives had trained Senior Sister Cheongcheong through the chatroom.

“We trained her properly, so it should be all right.”

“That’s right. I helped too, so it’s certain. I even used a special Soul-Binding Art from the Heavenly Demon Cult, so it’ll be fine.”

“Exactly. It’s a secret art handed down in the imperial family. When civil and military officials get caught by this method, they work like their lives depend on it.”

The ones in charge of the training had been Ji-ryeon and Hye-rin.

Ji-ryeon had used the imperial family’s way of handling its civil and military ministers like limbs of the body, while Hye-rin had trained her with one of the Heavenly Demon Cult’s mind-controlling arts.

“Wasn’t that a little too harsh?”

Hwa-eun, who knew the contents of the training, looked slightly worried, and that was because of what it had involved.

“It was truly shameless behavior. So-ryong and we all bestowed such grace on you, and yet you dared desire So-ryong like a thieving cat.”

“I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“Does it end just because you say you’re sorry?”

“Th-then what should I do?”

“You should apologize properly.”

“I will apologize! I will apologize.”

“Only with your mouth?”

“Th-then...?”

Ji-ryeon, who had gone through something similar, and Gun Hye-rin, who had experience using the Heavenly Demon Cult’s mind-handling arts, had said the same thing.

That Senior Sister Cheongcheong was in a very dangerous state right now.

Not physically, but mentally, she was like a sandcastle on the verge of collapse.

That was why, if they wanted to treat her, the best thing would be to have her embraced by So-ryong, the one she loved, and let him hold and comfort her little by little—but because she also thought her feelings for So-ryong were a sin, making her let herself be embraced was a distant hope.

It would only deepen her guilt.

So if they wanted to somehow get her to let herself be held, they had to change the way she thought.

That was the training.

The training that said this was not simple union, but a ritual of apology.

“You will apologize to So-ryong with your body.”

“M-my body?”

“Yes. So-ryong’s yang energy overflows, so it has to be drawn out regularly. So you’ll use that body to help draw out So-ryong’s yang energy.”

“Th-that’s just sharing the bedchamber—”

“Ahem! What nonsense are you saying! This is a ritual of apology!”

“Exactly!”

“But that... it’s no different from...”

“Ahem! A ritual of apology!”

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid? Did you say you would become a servant without even that much resolve!?”

“N-no. Th-that’s true. Apology... apology...”

“Yes, apology. The more devotedly you serve him, the greater the apology becomes.”

As Hwa-eun thought back over the contents of the training, Gun Hye-rin spoke in a tone telling her not to worry.

“If we’d just left Senior Sister Cheongcheong alone like this, she would’ve simply collapsed. She kept receiving grace without paying any price, while believing she was secretly desiring So-ryong like a thieving cat behind our backs. It’s the same as the pillar of her mind having collapsed, so it’s better to hold her together by giving her orders like this instead.

Once So-ryong comforts her for a while, she’ll get better.”

“I hope it goes well.”

Just as they were thinking that they truly hoped it would go well, the energy from above began to subside.

Apparently the repair of her body and the rise in her realm were coming to an end.

“Oh, it looks like it’s over.”

“It does.”

***

For a while, energy had raged through Senior Sister’s body like mad.

It felt as though her bones, skin, and muscles were practically being made anew.

Every single cell was being changed from the very root.

And when all of that energy spread through her entire body, Senior Sister shrank as though melting down.

She had returned to the body of a blue sea slug.

‘Ooh.’

I admired the sight.

Because Senior Sister’s glittering body was still the most beautiful venomous creature in the world.

But that was only the beginning.

Water carrying a strong scent of the sea flowed down from Senior Sister’s body, and new tentacles grew out.

Those newly grown tentacles looked almost like wings, and when Senior Sister’s transformation ended, she had become a splendid figure with not three pairs of wings, but seven pairs.

At the same time, the blue of her body deepened further, and the white parts became even whiter.

‘Damn...’

That was when I was still marveling.

Senior Sister, changing slowly,

became the figure of a woman with nothing on over her own clothes.

It was a very healthy appearance, unlike her former frail self.

Her body had filled out just enough, and it was overflowing with mature womanhood.

“S-Senior Sister, I’m sorry.”

I had gotten so absorbed in Senior Sister’s sea slug form for a moment that I failed to turn my head away in time, and I ended up taking in the sight of her body.

I hurriedly turned my head and apologized, but—

that was when it happened.

Senior Sister’s hand touched my back.

“Junior Brother.”

At that sudden contact, I flinched.

“Yes?”

“I’ll help you.”

“Yes? H-help me with what?”

“The wives told me. They said your yang energy overflows and has to be drawn out often. So from now on, they told me to help with that.”

“What?”

At Senior Sister’s unbelievable words, I immediately checked with my wives to see whether this was true, and my wives informed me of a shocking fact.

[”Hwa-eun, Ji-ryeon, Hye-rin, Yo-hwa, Senior Sister is saying something strange to me right now...”

”So-ryong, Senior Sister is in a mentally cornered state right now. If you don’t hold and comfort her properly, she could even go mad.”

”You have to comfort her well. You must not refuse. If you do, something really bad could happen to Senior Sister.”]

In the brief moment while I still couldn’t get my head around my wives’ words,

Senior Sister, who had been sitting in meditation, pushed me down and said,

“Junior Brother, a blue sea slug? You said that was me, right? Have you ever done it before? With a blue sea slug spirit-creature like me?”

As if I would have ever done something like that.

When I shook my head hard, Senior Sister pressed herself against me and whispered,

“I... might be a little sticky...”