Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang Novel - Chapter 488

Chapter 488
I might have been willing to overlook them stealing my name and producing counterfeit goods without any royalty payments.
Fine. That alone wasn’t something I’d murder anyone for.
The head of the Venom Elimination Unit or the Tang Clan itself may have held a grudge, but I was prepared to spare their lives.
Whatever came after that wasn’t really my concern.
But slaughtering a defenseless spirit beast?
None of them would escape. None would be shown mercy.

『“So-ryong!”』
Hwa-eun’s voice echoed in my head the instant I dropped from the sky like a character from a comic book.
—Kwa-rump! Crunch!
Darkness filled with a cloud of kicked-up dirt.
The brick-laid ground fractured, sending stone fragments flying like shrapnel.
The men butchering the spirit beast’s remains were thrown back or pierced by the flying debris.
As the dust began to settle on the wind, some of them, hurled into walls or crumbling towers from the force of my impact, were knocked out cold. Others were moaning, severely wounded on the ground.
“Aaaaargh!”
“Ugh!”
“M-My leg!”
Once the air cleared, those still standing stared at me and yelled.
“It’s a trap!”
“We’re being attacked!”
Then, martial artists began flooding out from the brickyard’s undamaged structures.
Between the guards and those inside, their numbers reached forty or fifty.
“Who are you!?”
“What is this!?”
They charged forward but then stopped short, horrified by the carnage.
No one ventured closer.
The earth was ruptured, and their allies were broken and scattered.
Just then, three individuals sprinted from the building where the spirit beast’s parts were being hauled out.
An elderly man, a young woman, and the younger man who had been overseeing the operation.
They had clearly been in the middle of carving up the spirit beast—both the woman and the old man wore gloves covered in insectoid fluids.
The sight turned my stomach.
The old man, appearing to be in charge, shouted at me.
“Just who do you think you are!?”
I gave my clothes a sharp flick, shaking off the dust, and took a step forward.
Then I yelled.
It was time they learned exactly whose wrath they had incurred.
If anyone had just cause for rage here, it was me.
“I am the genuine source of the fake remedies you’ve been selling. The son of the Beast Palace. Son-in-law to the Tang Clan of Sichuan. The singular Father of All Venomous Creatures—So-ryong! And I will pass judgment upon you by the laws of the Tang Clan!”
“The… The Sichuan Tang Clan!?”
The color drained from their faces at the name.
In the lantern light spilling from the nearby buildings, I watched their expressions contort in pure dread.
“Dammit! What are you all standing around for!?”
Classic Murim ruffians—when cornered, they mob you.
It seemed they planned to charge me all at once.
I don’t get much pleasure from disciplining worthless fools, but if they attacked?
Then I would be absolutely delighted to smash them to pieces.
I grinned.
Time for some justifiable assault.
Go on, then. You scum killed a spirit beast under my care. I’ll obliterate every one of you here today.
Every spirit beast in the Central Plains is mine—So-ryong’s name is branded on them as clearly as on a Goguryeo melon.
To hunt one without my consent?
Completely inexcusable.
I started gathering my energy, ready for a fight—but then heard something utterly unforeseen.
“Retreat! The Venom Elimination Unit has surely surrounded us! Everyone, scatter!”
“What!?”
I expected an assault.
Instead, the old man instantly screamed for a full retreat.
I was taken aback.
I’d just finished my introduction, and he was already ordering a retreat instead of a fight?
Perhaps the Tang Clan’s Venom Elimination Unit was even more dreaded than I realized.
Or maybe, caught in the act, running was their only option.
Capture would mean certain death for them all.
The moment the command left the old man’s lips, he, the woman, and the man moved as a single unit.
The rest, who had been frozen, immediately broke apart and fled in every direction.
I’ll admit, they were fast.
“Do you really think you can escape!?”
A fight would have been preferable. Now they were just scrambling away without a struggle.
I propelled myself toward the path taken by the old man, the woman, and the man and called out to Hwa-eun.
“Hwa-eun!”
“On it!”
As she answered, I heard the faint, high-pitched whistle of objects cutting through the air.
—Zing. Zing.
A sound like mosquitoes humming spread out in all directions.
Then came the shouts of those struck, collapsing as they ran.
“Ack!”
“Ughhh!”
—Thump.
Under the moonlight, glimmering needles became visible, fanning out everywhere.
They were the Tang Clan’s Flying Needles.
Slender, hair-thin darts launched from Hwa-eun’s hands flew in every direction.
Those hit managed only a few steps before dropping to the ground.
She hadn’t coated the needles in poison, but had clearly used poison arts to imbue them with a paralyzing agent.
Having reached the Flower Realm, she could now generate toxins within her own body like a true venomous being.
Yes—exactly what I’d expect from my beloved.
She was no longer merely human. She was a creature of venom now.
How could I not adore her?
The martial artists hadn’t even cleared the brickyard’s open yard.
The only ones still fleeing were those originally posted on the edges.
They had a longer head start and were getting further away.
“Cho, those ones are getting away over there! Can you take the three on your side? Mommy will cover the other flank.”
—Churururur. 『Understood. Leave it to me, Mom!』
I could trust the fleeing stragglers to Hwa-eun and Cho.
The three escaping together in one direction—likely believing they could punch through a perimeter—those were my targets.
After all, my light-body technique was my strongest skill. And with my enhanced internal energy, my qinggong was significantly quicker.
I closed the distance to them in moments.
“Stop right there!”
I shouted as I reached the man falling behind.
“Hell! He’s on us! There is no perimeter! Wound him and break past! Attack together!”
The old man ground his teeth, whirled around, and drove his palm toward me.
The woman and the man copied his move from behind.
They must have thought that since capture was inevitable, and I appeared isolated, they could hurt me and get away.
I instantly countered with my own palm strike.
The only one I knew—the Toad Explosive Palm.
It was lethal if I struck first, but different if they attacked me.
As I channeled Hwayang’s energy into the Toad Explosive Palm, blue flames erupted from both my hands.
In the instant the blue flames illuminated the area—
–KABOOM!
–SNAP-CRACK-CRACK.
My unperfected palm technique met the old man’s, and when the clash subsided, I could only stare in astonishment.
‘Hold on… am I actually this powerful now?’
We were too close for energy projection, so it was a direct palm-to-palm collision—and the old man had been reduced to a pulp.
The place he’d been standing looked like it had been hit by an explosion.
–WHOOSH.
The blue flames, emblematic of Hwayang, swelled enormously and incinerated even the scattered flesh until nothing was left.
I’d channeled a great deal of energy, concerned my unfinished technique might be weak, but perhaps I overdid it.
‘Right… that was probably excessive.’
Abruptly, I recalled what Grandpa had told me.
“Now that you’ve attained the Flower Realm, you must handle your energy with finesse. Not only has your internal energy grown, but your meridians have also adjusted to complement your martial arts. You can now unleash far greater power with much less energy.”
Now that I considered it, Grandpa Mandok Shingun had cautioned me that reaching the Flower Realm would vastly increase both my internal energy reserves and my control over it.
He’d advised me to study my martial arts and assess my body after my transformation was complete, but I’d been too absorbed in my new life with Hwa-eun to bother—so I’d completely misgauged my strength.
‘I only tested the stamina in my hips…’
Likely because all I did was core exercises to check my hip endurance, I overlooked everything else.
Thinking back, my landing earlier also seemed a bit excessive.
I’d created a crater and sent stone fragments flying everywhere, hadn’t I?
The ones hit looked like they’d been peppered with shotgun pellets.
–THUD. WHUMP.
That’s when it occurred.
The man’s fist connected hard with my side.
His punch landed squarely on my ribs.
Simultaneously, the woman’s dagger swept toward my face.
I jerked back to awareness just in time to move my head, but the edge still scratched my cheek.
Even though their attacks hit, the two looked dazed—probably because their master, the sect leader, had just been obliterated.
“S-Sa… Master…”
“The Master… he’s gone…”
Distracted, I’d allowed the blows to land, which would have been deadly to an ordinary person. But I felt nothing out of the ordinary.
In fact, the man who punched me stumbled backward, gripping his hand in pain.
“Keugh!”
Because he hadn’t struck my ribs—he had hit Hyang.
And Hyang possessed one of the most durable bodies among all spirit creatures.
The man’s wrist was dangling limply, clearly broken.
–HSS. 『Father, may I bite?』
Apparently irritated at being touched, Hyang raised his head like a serpent and glared at the two, inquiring if he should bite.
“No, it’s alright. If you do, they’ll die. I need information from them first, so just hold on.”
Even if I planned to execute them later, I needed to discover how this rubbish managed to capture a spirit beast, and what kind of spirit beast it was. I meant to keep one alive.
After soothing Hyang, I addressed them.
“If you surrender quietly, I’ll let you live for now.”
The woman shrieked in rage.
“Don’t mock us, you vile Tang scum! How dare you kill our Master so brutally! My blade was envenomed with spirit beast toxin! You’re already dead! Keuk—!”
“Gack—!”
Spirit beast venom?
My eyes widened in shock as the two suddenly clutched their throats and fell.
In the moonlight, their necks shone with a faint wetness.
Hwa-eun must have dealt with the other martial artists and caught up—her voice cried out in surprise.
“What!?”
She landed hastily beside me and urgently exclaimed.
“So-ryong! Sit down immediately and circulate your energy to expel the poison! You’ve integrated six of the Ten Great Venoms—unless this is also one of them, you should purge it without much trouble!”
Though briefly shocked, Hwa-eun was correct. My body had already absorbed six of the Ten Great Venoms.
And the spirit beast these people caught—it was impossible for it to be one of the ten. So I quickly sat cross-legged and summoned the energy of the Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art.
That alone granted me innate poison resistance.
But perhaps I was slightly too late—the poison qi had already circulated quite far.
I began internal meditation to drive out the toxin, but then something bizarre happened.
As I activated the energy of the Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art, the poison did begin to recede quickly… but a portion of it started moving independently, beyond my control.
Without any direction from me—it coalesced and rushed rapidly through my veins toward my dantian.
If it reached my dantian, the consequences would be severe.
I concentrated fiercely, attempting to divert the energy—but the poison continued racing toward my dantian.
‘No! Stop—!?’
I cried out internally, panicked.
But the poison didn’t enter the dantian.
It went straight through and descended lower.
Suddenly, a warmth bloomed in my lower abdomen—and Hwa-eun’s flustered voice spoke up.
“So-So-ryong…”
Her embarrassed tone made me open one eye to look.
Something was unquestionably wrong.
And there it was.
The manifestation of the Great Dragon, in its full glory.
Now that I thought about it, this poison—they must have been using it in the counterfeit drugs they sold.
That was the only explanation. Otherwise, it made no sense for So-ryong to suddenly transform from a Great Dragon into a Colossal Dragon.
Then it happened.
Right by my ear, I heard Hyang’s alarmed voice.
–HSS! 『Mother! A snake just crawled into Father’s trousers!』
The little one must have thought it was one of the snakes I often handled, slithering into my pants.
Hwa-eun, gazing at me in a daze, flushed red and replied.
“Y-Yes, it seems so. I-I suppose Mommy will have to remove it.”
It appeared she would be the one to draw out the venom.
Or something along those lines.