Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang Novel - Chapter 492

Chapter 492
“Gyaaaah! How in the world did you manage to find them!? That’s incredible! Hold on, wait a minute. Don’t say… you didn’t bring me here to get rid of them or have them killed, did you?”
My initial thrill swiftly shifted into apprehension. Was it possible that Ranghu had led me here to request that I eliminate the young creatures?
This fear wasn’t without foundation—garoe larvae are notorious for being destructive pests that can wipe out entire colonies of bumblebees.
The entire reproductive approach of the garoe species is based on sheer chance.
The mother provides no care for her offspring, nor does she deposit her eggs in a location that has a food source.
Rather, she buries two to five thousand eggs underground in a seemingly careless fashion. Once they hatch, the larvae make their way to the surface, then ascend plants or trees and take on the appearance of blossoms.
Their objective is to latch onto bumblebees or honeybees, sneak into their hives, and feed on nectar, honey, and other larvae—until they eventually reach adulthood.
However, bumblebees and honeybees are not especially plentiful. And even if a bee does come near one of the disguised larvae, the likelihood of success remains extremely low.
And even if they successfully infiltrate a hive, their survival is far from certain.
Worker bees frequently eliminate or consume garoe larvae on the spot.
Yet if they do succeed in maturing, they will undoubtedly devastate the hive—which is why my immediate suspicion was: Had Ranghu brought me here to report this discovery and request their destruction?
Ranghu instantly answered with a sharp, decisive buzz of her wings.
—Bzzzzzz!
“No? Is that true?”
When I asked this, Ranghu trembled as if to express, How could you think such a thing?
She then retrieved fresh honey and pollen from a storage area close to the larvae and placed the mixture into their cell.
The young must have exhausted their food supply, so she was providing them with another meal.
After checking for any further need, she inserted another portion of honey-pollen blend into the chamber—and the baby Qing Ji-dams eagerly dug in to eat, wriggling with pleasure.
It gave the distinct impression that Ranghu was… caring for them.
Wait… is she genuinely raising Qinggaroes?
Despite being known as the Poison-Father of the Martial World—and having been Fabre in a previous life—I had not immediately recognized that this spirit creature was a type of Qinggaroe.
There was a specific reason I had not been suspicious of the Golden-Furred Wasp Queen.
First, I reasoned: They could never possibly have sufficient honey or pollen to sustain garoe larvae.
Based on the size of the mother and her underdeveloped egg, the larvae should be approximately the size of a man’s index finger.
If beings that large were to feed in a typical bee colony? They would demolish it long before reaching maturity.
This implied that for them to successfully parasitize a hive, it would need to be a spirit creature hive like Ranghu’s.
However, there was another issue: Golden-Furred Wasp Queens possess high intelligence.
Ordinary bees might be considered ‘clever’ for insects, but that is a relatively low standard. Garoe larvae can develop undetected in their hives.
After all, they don’t cry out when they are being consumed.
But these wasp queens have intelligence comparable to humans. If an intruder slipped in and began eating their young? They would notice instantly and tear it to pieces.
Additionally, spirit creatures typically don’t consume ordinary food. I had assumed the Qinggaroe larvae would simply absorb energy from their surroundings like other spiritual beasts.
So what would be the point of seeking refuge in a hive?
And yet… these infants were residing in a spirit hive, and they were being tended to by the queen herself.
It appeared to be… a mutually beneficial relationship.
I couldn’t suppress a grin at the sight.
This kind of symbiotic partnership between different insect species is exceedingly uncommon.
“Wow… why are they so adorable?”
I observed the little ones feeding, utterly captivated.
Their pale yellow bodies brought to mind saffron rice—like that scarce golden ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ rice served in India or the Middle East, which is rumored to be more valuable than gold.
—Bzzzz!
Lured by their color, I automatically extended a hand to touch them—but Ranghu swiftly moved in front of me, gesturing with her forelegs.
She normally allowed me to do as I pleased, but now her demeanor was severe: Under no circumstances.
“I’m not allowed?”
—Bzz!
She was communicating something, but I couldn’t comprehend it.
So I called for Dong-i.
‘Dong-i, grandpa is over at Ranghu’s hive. Can you come here? She’s trying to tell me something and I’m not understanding.’
Dong-i replied in my mind immediately:
‘–Kkyuit! Okay! Grandpa, I’m on my way!’
I had a specific reason for summoning Dong-i.
All the children are dear to me, but the others are too large—if they entered, the worker bees might become agitated.
Dong-i is the smallest and also capable of translation.
—Bzz, bzzz.
“Just a moment, I’ve called for Dong-i.”
As I waited, observing the larvae eat, I detected a light skittering from above—
and suddenly Dong-i dropped directly onto my face.
‘–Kkyuu! Grandpa!’
“Oof, you rascal…”
She had crept along the ceiling and launched herself onto my head.
She is only as big as two fists, a tiny gecko, so it wasn’t painful—but if she were an actual granddaughter?
My neck would have broken.
I recalled a news story from my previous life: grandparents often sustain injuries from their grandchildren, who don’t grasp their own strength or the risks of leaping onto them from furniture.
In any case, now that she was here, I reminded her of the mission.
She is young and might have forgotten during her journey.
“Dong-i, stay nearby and translate what Ranghu is saying for me.”
Kkyut! 『Alright!』
As Dong-i moved from my head to my shoulder, I asked what had been on my mind.
“Ranghu, are you… raising them?”
—Bzz.
Kkyuit. 『She says yes. She believes their poison may be of use.』
“Poison?”
So she was raising them for their venom?
It truly seemed like a symbiotic arrangement.
Suddenly, I recalled the Red-Wing Beetle.
The world of insects is filled with wonders.
It is true that garoe larvae parasitize bumblebees and destroy hives.
From a human standpoint, that makes them terrible beings.
But even they are not at the apex of the food chain.
There exists another insect that preys on the garoe.
That is the Red-Wing Beetle—minuscule, with vivid red wings, just a fraction of the garoe’s size.
When it locates a garoe, it bites from a safe distance where the garoe cannot retaliate, wounding it.
Then it secures itself with its mandibles and waits—not to consume the garoe, but to force it to exude cantharidin.
Why?
Because cantharidin is a potent poison, and Red-Wing Beetles use it to coat their eggs as a defense against predators.
Kkyuit. 『That’s what she told us.』
I still didn’t know the precise way Ranghu intended to utilize their venom.
Perhaps similarly to the red-wings—to safeguard her own eggs.
Or possibly… evolution?
I have never known of a Golden-Furred Wasp Queen evolving, but what if…?
The mere idea made me feel thrilled.
Then I heard Hwa-eun’s voice from the entrance to the deck.
“So-ryong? Are you okay? The crew mentioned you were carried off, so I came to see.”
“Ah, come in, Hwa-eun.”
She must have heard that I was taken by the wasps and came to find me.
“What is going on here? Ranghu, why did you take So-ryong away?”
Hwa-eun entered the hive and walked directly to me.
I pointed toward the honeycomb.
“Come and see over here, Hwa-eun. Ranghu located them!”
“Huh? Located what?”
“Just look.”
She moved nearer and gazed at where I was pointing—then let out a shocked gasp.
“W-What are these little things? Are they Ranghu’s children? They look exactly like Cho, Hyang, and Bini did when they were small!”
It seemed I was the only one who had been inside the hive, so it was natural she thought they were Golden-Furred Wasp larvae. Their similarity to our previous young made her sentimental.
I smiled and clarified.
“No, these are the offspring of the Jade Armored Water Beetle.”
“These are!? H-How did you discover them!?”
“Oh! That’s right! I hadn’t even asked that yet!”
I had become so absorbed in watching the squirming larvae that I forgot to inquire about their origin.
That was a question I absolutely needed answered—given their size, there could be more elsewhere.
I turned quickly to Ranghu and asked:
“Ranghu, where did you find them?”
—Bzzzz.
“You collected them?”
—Bzz.
In reply, Ranghu called over one of her worker bees and had her present herself before me.
So this was the one who had found them while gathering nectar.
“Where exactly did you— Actually, never mind. I’ll go personally. Can you take me to where you found them? There might be others remaining.”
The worker bee, as if she had been preparing to dance to indicate the spot, remembered I was human and instead gestured toward the exit.
She intended to guide me there directly.
What a confident and practical little worker.
“Excellent. Let’s go! Hwa-eun, I’ll return shortly!”
As I exited the hive and employed my lightfoot technique to depart, Hwa-eun’s voice called out to me in a rush.
“So-ryong! Wait for me!”
***
It was astonishing—we had been looking in the entirely wrong area this whole time.
The spot where the baby Qing Ji-dams were discovered was in the total opposite direction from where the mother had been found.
The Golden-Furred Wasp worker guided us to a broad field.
A meadow of wildflowers in full bloom.
The mother must have laid her eggs here before traveling elsewhere, maybe in search of a final place to rest.
“Everyone, comb this area carefully!”
“Understood, Little Hero So! Or, excuse me—you’re a Great Hero now, correct? I keep mixing that up. Hahaha!”
“Got it, So-ryong.”
Even the Three Peaks of the Five Dragons participated, searching the vicinity. Roughly an hour later, we at last found where the eggs had been deposited.
“Over here, Great Hero So!”
“Where!?”
At Ji-ryong’s call, I hurried over—and there it was. A small burrow in the middle of a flowerbed.
When we excavated it, we discovered one egg that had not hatched.
“What, just one more?”
It was the same yellow color as the ones that had hatched.
What was intriguing was this: Ordinary garoes lay two to five thousand eggs. But this spirit creature, the Qing Ji-dam, had produced only five.
Four empty egg casings, and one still intact.
I could see laying fewer eggs due to being a spirit beast, but even so—how could the species possibly continue like this?
It wasn’t as if you could anticipate when they would encounter a Golden-Furred Wasp hive again.
I gathered the egg, still finding it hard to believe. We searched more thoroughly, in case additional eggs had been dispersed nearby, but found nothing else.
On our return to the ship.
We were almost at the dock when Hwa-eun inquired:
“But why didn’t this one hatch?”
“Hmm… I’ll have to investigate that.”
I placed the yellow egg on a soft cloth in my cupped hands as we proceeded toward the ship.
As we approached, we heard the sound of Golden-Furred Wasp Queen wings beating.
—Bzzzz.
It was evening now, and many were just coming back to the hive.
I heard Gungbong’s voice close by.
“So-ryong-nim, it shifted!”
“It did?”
Or it might have been Soto speaking. I looked down at my palm.
The egg was motionless.
“Maybe it only seemed to move because I was walking?”
But then—
—Bzzzz.
As a wasp queen flew nearby, the egg gave a slight jerk.
“It moved!”
“Really!?”
But then it became still once more.
As we neared the ship, the explanation became evident.
The egg was responding to the wingbeats of the wasp queens.
Ohhh… so that’s the mechanism.
It seemed these Qing Ji-dam eggs were fashioned like overwintering insect eggs—remaining inactive until an external signal activates them.
Specifically, the vibrational frequency of the Golden-Furred Wasp Queen’s wings.
As we drew closer and the sound of wingbeats persisted, the egg’s shell split open, and the final baby Qing Ji-dam came out.
Without even pausing to dry itself, it instantly started to crawl—directly up my body, all the way to the crown of my head.
There, it wriggled and emitted a sweet aroma that permeated the air.
A scent that would attract bees.
“So-ryong, I smell something sweet.”
“I know, I smell it too.”
A worker bee approached tenderly, carefully gathered the baby, and transported it into the hive.
In that instant, the reproductive biology of the Qing Ji-dam spirit creature became clear.
So this is how they reproduce! Incredible! They are activated by the sound of wings! Nature is truly marvelous…
As I stood there, absorbed in the wonder of the Qing Ji-dam’s life cycle—
A voice resonated in my mind. It was Hwa-eun.
So-ryong, you’ve seemed somewhat distant these last few days, so I didn’t want to push… But now that the mystery of the Qing Ji-dam’s reproduction is settled…
…Yes?
Shouldn’t we… begin considering our own reproduction now…?
We were meant to address that three days ago.
But the search for the baby Qing Ji-dams had postponed that particular duty.