Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang Novel - Chapter 201

Chapter 201Hwa-eun and Sister Seol rushed toward me using their light footwork, but before long, their shapes shrank into the distance until they were nothing more than specks.
“So-ryong!”
“Ryong!”
“So-ryong!”
Only their cries reached me, carried over the wide-open plains, dissolving into the wind until all I could hear was the rasp of my back against the grass and the relentless thumping of the camel spider’s legs.
• Zwaaaaah!
• Zwaaaah!
Amid the turmoil, as my thoughts briefly scattered, a clear, sharp voice rang inside my head.
• Tsrrr! 「Dad, hold on! Hyang will break it!」
Struggling to raise my head, I glanced down at my leg.
There was Hyang, holding on desperately, fighting to snap Yoha’s silk strand.
Her antennae whipped about frantically as her small limbs clamped down on the thread.
She was chewing at Yoha’s silk, trying with all her might to use her little body to save her father.
• 「Aaaah! My girl!」
The surge of affection was so strong it felt like my heart had turned to water.
But Yoha’s silk was vulnerable only to flames. It was harder than the strongest steel.
Hyang’s small, blunt venom fangs and the jaws of a centipede weren’t nearly enough.
Not even an expert with a Ten-Poison Body or a Twenty-Four Venom Master could break it easily.
Since Hyang hadn’t yet learned to share information, she couldn’t have known.
• Zwaaaaah!
We were moving unbelievably fast, quicker than when I used to slide down sacks of fertilizer in the fields as a child.
The wind swept me along as though I weighed nothing.
It was hard to catch my breath at this pace, but I knew I had to think quickly.
For now, being pulled through grassland wasn’t the worst.
But Qinghai was a region of mixed landscapes—grasslands, harsh barren grounds, and desert.
The grass here came up to my knees, and being dragged over desert sand might be survivable.
But if I was pulled across the solid, rocky barrens at this speed, my clothes and skin would be torn to shreds.
• 「At this rate, I’ll be worn down to nothing…」
Worse, this spider was a creature of the Five Venoms Sect.
Even if I lived through this, being taken straight into their domain could mean only one thing—
A face-to-face encounter with those fanatics.
Which meant I might end up right in the clutches of that madwoman, Oh Cheong-yu.
The memory of her unsettling stare made me gulp.
• 「I have to do something. Now.」
I pushed myself to concentrate, straightened my body, and reached for my leg.
I needed to get a grip on Yoha’s silk and pull myself onto the spider’s back.
• 「Hyang, climb up to my chest! Hold on tightly!」
Hyang, who was still attached to my leg trying to gnaw through the thread, quickly scrambled up to my chest.
Once I felt her secure against me, I drew my knees in tight.
Resisting the rushing force demanded tremendous effort, but I channeled all my inner energy to push back.
Then, I bent my knees inward.
I rolled into a ball, grasping for the silk tangled around my legs.
“Khhhaaaah!”
I roared through clenched teeth, gradually hauling my knees toward my chest.
• Zwaaaak!
Just as my fingers brushed the silk—
Thud!
Something solid was concealed in the grass. A stone?
My body snagged on it and hurtled upward.
‘No!’
Landing like this would be like a frog splattering from a great height.
Swiftly, I remembered the martial art bestowed upon me by the Murim Lord.
Iron Fist Art.
If I could solidify my body in an instant, I might withstand the crash.
I concentrated all my inner energy throughout my limbs—
The moment my soaring body smashed into the earth, a heavy, explosive sound echoed.
• Thud! Zwaaaaaah!
“Ughh….”
A powerful jolt rattled through me.
Even after using every bit of my energy to perform Iron Fist Art,
the pain was intense.
Maybe my Iron Fist Art still needed refinement.
A bitter taste rose in my throat.
Grandfather Mandok Shingun had explained—
That sensation meant internal injury.
But that wasn’t the main problem.
My tucked-in form had come completely undone.
If another rock lay ahead, I was finished.
I had to reach the spider’s back before that happened.
One more impact, and I’d black out.
If I were alone, maybe I could risk it.
But Hyang was here with me.
If I kept being dragged, yes, I’d be battered.
But Hyang—she could be preserved in alcohol and converted into medicinal ingredients.
The Five Venoms Sect wouldn’t hesitate.
They were precisely that kind of organization.
Mustering every last bit of strength, I inhaled deeply and shouted again.
“Khhhaaaaah!”
• Tsrrr! 「Dad!」
Hyang cried out in fear.
‘It’s alright, Hyang. Dad’s okay.’
I comforted her in my thoughts and tugged my legs up once more, finally seizing the silk.
Slowly, bit by bit, I hauled myself forward, coiling the thread around my arms.
The circulation in my arms and hands was nearly gone, but I had to persist.
If I let myself be pulled all the way, I’d be devoured.
I tightened my grip on the silk and began dragging myself forward.
Hand over hand.
Crawling toward the spider.
I was midway.
My hands were asleep; my energy was fading.
Could I really make it?
Twenty meters remained.
Was I really going to be hauled to the end?
Then—
Hyang suddenly emerged from my embrace, scaled my head, and scampered down to my hands.
She seized the silk.
And then—
• Tsrr! 「I’ll climb up and bite it!」
Hyang announced, filled with resolve.
• 「What?! No, Hyang! It’s too risky!」
She intended to climb all the way to the camel spider’s head and sink her fangs in?
One misstep, one capture, and it would mean instant death.
I longed to stop her, but I was powerless.
• Zwaaaaah!
The barren land.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
A terrain that brought to mind America’s Grand Canyon.
A blend of soil and sharp, fragmented stone.
I could feel my abdomen grinding against the earth.
My garments were on the verge of giving way.
Hyang must have sensed the peril.
She didn’t glance back.
She just kept climbing along the silk, moving forward.
‘Stop, Hyang! Don’t go! Just stay small and safe with your dad! I never should have wished for you to evolve!’
She held fast to the silk, her little antennae shaking vigorously.
Climbing.
To rescue her father.
What father wouldn’t be moved by a daughter like this?
My heart had already turned tender.
Now, my very spirit was warming and softening because of my dear Hyang.
• Tadatak.
Flying grit struck me, making me slide, and whirling dust enveloped me as I was pulled onward, onward.
Hyang finally arrived at her goal—clinging to the body of the camel spider.
And with all the rage she possessed, she bit down into the joint where its rear leg met its body.
At first, nothing seemed different, even with her fangs buried deep.
For an instant, I worried the beast was too large for Hyang’s venom to matter.
But then, one of its back legs began to slow—then suddenly fell slack.
Its right hind leg was numb.
The leg beside it也开始 to move oddly.
Because of its circulatory difference, the venom was spreading slower.
But it was working.
The spider’s pace decreased, its straight path now bending to the right.
Its speed was halved from before.
Eventually, as it moved into the desert, the camel spider finally halted.
My inner energy was almost completely spent.
***
The moment it stopped, I shook off my daze and unwound Yo-hwa’s silk from my arms.
But as I tried to free it from my legs—
My leg tugged.
With a sudden jerk, I was flung forward onto the sand.
• Thud!
“Ugh….”
I coiled my body to cushion the blow as best I could and instantly looked toward the camel spider.
Under the moonlight, I saw its front legs digging into the sand.
Then, as it swept its forelimbs, something was hurled into the air amid the sand—
Hyang.
Her small form was tossed high into the dark sky.
• “Hyang!”
Drawing on the dregs of my energy, I used my light footwork to intercept her.
I asked at once, “Hyang, are you alright?!”
• Tsrrrt!
She responded with a spirited chirp.
She hadn’t taken a direct hit.
Relieved, I turned my attention to the camel spider.
It was already storming toward us.
• “Zwaaaaaah!”
Even with two disabled legs, its speed was fearsome.
Normally, camel spiders aren’t built for long pursuits.
So how did this one possess both velocity and staying power?
Remarkable—
But that wasn’t my immediate worry.
I pressed myself low to the ground.
• “Iron Defense! Iron Defense!”
The spider’s huge pincers sliced through the air just inches from my side.
Camel spiders have scissor-like jaws, similar to interlocking crab claws.
I recalled reading that if such a creature reached two meters, its bite could approach sixty tons.
‘Damn.’
A hippopotamus, one of the strongest biters among mammals, has a force of about one ton.
That made this thing’s bite sixty times more powerful.
A single bite would be the end.
I stayed alert as it attacked again.
• “Zwaaaaak!”
• “Hah…!”
I evaded repeatedly.
But complete escape was impossible.
Yo-hwa’s silk was still lashed around my legs and the spider’s limbs.
I was tethered.
I reached out to Hyang mentally.
• “Hyang, do you have any venom remaining?”
• “Tsrrrt!”
A little—enough for one more bite.
This fight would only end with a death.
‘Take this as payback for all the harm you’ve caused.’
Cradling Hyang, I whispered to her in my mind.
• “Hyang, don’t be afraid. When I say bite, you bite. Understand?”
• “Tsrrt!”
I watched for the right opportunity.
Bathed in moonlight, the camel spider charged again.
• “Zwaaaaaah!”
This time, instead of dodging aside, I slid beneath it.
• “Iron Kick! Iron Kick!”
Its pincers swiped erratically, but I slipped under its abdomen.
The instant I saw its underside—
I seized its jaw with one hand and drove my other fist forward.
• “Thud!”
A solid, deep impact.
My strike landed directly on one of its breathing openings.
Three respiratory orifices lined its body, and my blow hit the center one.
Immediately, I yelled,
• “Hyang! Bite now!”
• Tsrrrt!
For the first time in a while, Hyang cried out with excitement.
She buried her fangs deep.
The spider thrashed violently, its body shaking—
Then it fell, legs quivering in the sand.
Camel spiders have an open circulatory system.
Unlike beings with veins, their bodily fluids flow freely around their organs.
Earlier, when Hyang bit its leg, the venom spread slowly due to limited flow.
But now—she had delivered poison straight into its respiratory tract.
The toxin spread immediately.
The enormous creature lay on its back, trembling.
I moved closer, examining it one last time.
Its massive form.
Its characteristic, terrifying pincers.
And—
A silver needle implanted in its forehead.
This was no natural being, like my other venomous partners.
This creature had been altered.
And worse—it had been dispatched to hunt people.
• “Forgive me, creature. May your next life be a gentler one.”
Removing the silver needles would grant it peace, just as it had for the army spider queen.
I extracted the three embedded needles.
The creature’s trembling ceased.
And then—
A round object rolled from its mouth.
• “Roll…”
• “Hm? What’s this?”
I’d never seen anything like it.
Even with the army spiders, nothing similar occurred.
I picked it up.
From my shoulder, Hyang’s voice grew urgent.
• Tsrrrt!
• “A bad feeling?”
The nearest comparison was a Neidan—a martial core.
But this object was man-made.
• “Can a Neidan be manufactured?”
Hyang and I exchanged puzzled glances.
And then—
• Clap. Clap. Clap.
A slow, deliberate clapping echoed from the shadows.
A woman’s voice followed.
“Just as I expected, So-ryong. To think you’d handle a Wind Cavity with such ease.”
I turned toward the sound.
There, under the moonlight, smiling at me—stood Oh Cheong-yu.
And, unmistakably, the Five Venoms Sect accompanied her.