Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang Novel - Chapter 500

Chapter 500
Following their third round, Tang Hwa-eun’s voice was heavy with spent pleasure from the bed.
“Haa… haa… So-ryong. Today, you truly lived up to being Georyong, not just Daeryong.”
A sliver of sunlight cut through the gap in the curtained window, casting a soft glow on Hwa-eun’s features.
How had things escalated like this in the middle of the day?
It started after we returned from speaking with my foster father, intending to get some rest after being up all night.
Since the ribbon worm is nocturnal and had been injured, we assumed it would lie low for a while.
Cheong-yu Sojeo mentioned the Five Venoms Sect possesses a secret art that accelerates healing, so a swift recovery was possible. Yet, it had never been seen during daylight before. Even healed, it would likely wait for nightfall.
We planned to sleep, but first, we needed to wash up.
Hwa-eun was covered in grime and the creature’s fluids and proboscis, despite having burned the worst away with her Sammae True Flame.
The trouble began after we had bathed and reconvened in our room.
As Hwa-eun settled on the bed, I suggested,
“Hwa-eun, that thing left its saliva on you last night. Before we sleep, let me check the bite. I have some Golden Wound Ointment from Sister. Where exactly did it get you?”
She had been bitten by the ribbon worm during the encounter.
She’d used her poison arts to neutralize the venom and her Sammae True Flame to sear the proboscis away, but it was wise to inspect the wound again.
It could always fester.
“I-I’m alright. I can manage it myself.”
Hwa-eun seemed flustered, refusing my offer to help.
I was confused until she finally said,
“No, I’ll do it.”
“But…”
“You told me you’re too shy to be undressed near Gun Sojeo, but not with me, right? We’re husband and wife—what’s there to hesitate about?”
She had claimed embarrassment around Gun Hye-rin, but not me, so her reaction was puzzling.
Seeing my bewilderment, Hwa-eun flushed, then squeezed her eyes shut and presented the injured area.
Lying back, she lifted her leg…
“It’s… embarrassing… but it’s here.”
Good heavens!
The wound was high on her inner thigh.
That *was* an awkward location.
The position—yes, it was *that* position.
But this was purely medicinal—tending to her injury.
With entirely honorable intentions, I began the treatment, focusing only on the medical aspect. Yet, the instant my fingers, coated in Golden Wound Ointment, made contact with her skin—
A soft gasp slipped out.
“Hnn.”
It sounded like it pained her greatly. Concerned there might be other sore spots, I examined the area more carefully, and that… led directly to our current situation.
‘It genuinely began as simple first aid…’
Flattered by Hwa-eun’s compliment, I gave a satisfied shrug and lay beside her.
I felt a surge of pride—this was a skill entirely my own.
Many believe that reaching the Flower Realm naturally enhances one’s physical stamina, making one “exceptional,” but my training was in poison arts.
Poison arts draw on yin energy, and since I can’t channel internal energy into Georyong, this particular prowess is completely separate from martial arts.
It is powered by my innate yang energy.
This is a matter of masculine pride.
And when that pride is praised, it feels incredible.
As newlyweds, I had given my all—and even I was surprised. Three times. That was an accomplishment.
Truthfully, I still had some energy in reserve.
Enough to continue feeding Yo-hwa.
‘No question. I performed well. But still… how did I manage three times? It seems during a honeymoon, the body truly surpasses its normal limits.’
A saying from my past life came to mind.
They said: “On your honeymoon, place a bean in a jar for every time you make love. Afterwards, remove one bean each time you do. You will never empty the jar before you die.”
I never put stock in it before.
Now, I comprehend.
It might very well be true.
‘Alright, time to sleep. If I overdo it, Yo-hwa will lecture me again.’
Just as I smiled contentedly at Hwa-eun’s praise and prepared to settle down—
A beam of light from the window made me reach out absently—and my hand closed around something wonderfully soft.
Perhaps misreading the action, Hwa-eun let out another murmur.
“Haa… I am satisfied already, but… is So-ryong not? Very well. A wife’s duty is to please her husband. You certainly have a fondness for breasts, So-ryong.”
A total misunderstanding.
I quickly corrected her,
“No, I—I’ll receive a scolding from Yo-hwa if we continue.”
“Oh dear!”
A fourth time? That would undoubtedly make Yo-hwa upset.
Now that I thought of it, she had just complained yesterday that my yang energy seemed diluted.
“Brother, your yang energy has felt somewhat faint recently.”
“Faint?”
“Yes, not as potent.”
“W-Why would that be…?”
With a faint, resigned smile, Hwa-eun wrapped her arms around my head and drew me into the most secure place in the world.
Or perhaps… the most blissful?
“Mmm… It’s fine. Three times is still remarkable. Now, So-ryong, rest in your favorite spot.”
Was this an invitation to expire from joy in my preferred location?
I steeled myself, worried she might feel rejected if I refused—but she simply guided me to paradise.
‘So this is heaven.’
The place she brought me to—every man’s native land.
I decided to clear my mind and fully surrender to the comfort of this happiest place.
Breasts are truly miraculous.
They are soft, warm, and the moment a man embraces them, all distracting thoughts disappear.
As I silently extolled the virtues of breasts in my mind and basked in the sensation—
A voice called from outside. It was Sister Seol.
Knock knock.
[So-ryong, come out for a moment.]
Her tone was soft and hushed, right outside the door.
We jolted upright like startled animals.
“M-My bra! Where is it?”
Hwa-eun instantly began frantically searching for that specific undergarment—the piece worn by women of the Central Plains to cover their breasts.
It’s the foundational layer.
I scrambled for my own clothes and called out toward the door:
“J-Just a minute, Sister Seol!”
“Don’t rush—just peek out. I merely have something for you. Fufu.”
A light laugh tinged her words—as if she knew precisely what we had been up to.
In a mortified whisper, Tang Hwa-eun spoke to me.
[What do we do? Do you think the noise escaped? Was the room not sealed well enough? Oh no… This is so humiliating, So-ryong.]
Hwa-eun was deeply ashamed.
I felt a bit embarrassed myself—but resolved to be brazen about it.
Before marriage, perhaps, but we were newlyweds. So what if we engaged in a little ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt)? What was the issue?
‘Honestly, isn’t the entire purpose of marriage to make this lawful?’
[Hwa-eun, we’re married. It’s fine. We, well, were intimate? It’s not a transgression. Just behave normally.]
[H-Hah… You’re correct. We are married now, aren’t we? O-Okay.]
Creak.
Bolstered by my words, Hwa-eun strained to compose her expression into one of nonchalance.
A moment later—
After hurriedly dressing and opening the door with perfectly neutral faces—
We both stood frozen by Sister Seol’s remark.
“Whoa! The heat! And that… amorous scent.”
“Huh?”
It was not the reaction we had anticipated.
Observing our rigid expressions, Sister Seol spoke again.
“You should open a window. Goodness, feel all that heat rushing out.”
After a quick shared glance, Hwa-eun and I understood immediately.
Having both ascended to the Flower Realm, we were impervious to temperature extremes due to the Hanseo Bulchim trait.
This meant we were numb to the heat we’d generated. Anxious that Hwa-eun’s sounds might be overheard, we’d sealed the windows shut.
Consequently, the heat from our exertions had been trapped, with only the smallest gaps for escape.
With the two of us radiating youthful vigor, imagine the state of the room.
Perhaps not a pressure cooker, but the space was thoroughly steamy—and upon opening the door, it all billowed out at once.
I recalled a fact from my past life: when people are intimate in a car, the windows fog up from the inside. That exact effect had just occurred in our chamber.
I had intended to face Sister Seol with impudence, but both mine and Hwa-eun’s faces burned crimson.
The room itself had betrayed our activities.
Seeing our expressions, Sister Seol gave a wry grin, patted my shoulder, and said:
“Why so shy? That’s what newlyweds are meant to do. But if you’re going to be at it—take these.”
“W-What is this?”
‘Wait, do they have birth control here? Impossible—this is the Tang Clan and the Beast Palace. Children are valued.’
Sister Seol was broad-minded, so my first thought was that she offered contraceptives.
But both the Tang Clan and Beast Palace are lineages where offspring are rare.
They encourage procreation, not prevent it.
Something was amiss. I looked at what she handed me—three pieces of paper.
“Well, you two were clearly idle and lounging about. My room is adjacent, and I felt the floor shaking. It jogged my memory about these. Isn’t it dull to just carry on normally? They are talismans.”
“Talismans?”
“Indeed. For conceiving a son. This one is from the abbot of Shaolin, this from the Kunlun Sect, and this from the leader of the Cheongseong Sect.”
I hadn’t considered it, but Sister Seol’s room was next door—and lying down, she had felt the vibrations.
Her reason for visiting? To deliver these son-conceiving talismans.
I don’t know when she acquired them, but she pressed them into our hands, saying:
“Alright then. Give it your all. Cheers for a little sibling!”
Receive these… and then go back to wriggling together like slugs?
As my mind produced an image of mating slugs, a thought I had entirely forgotten suddenly resurfaced.
“Wait. Slugs? Huuuh?!”
‘It can’t be! That could actually be a possibility!’
I cried out in alarm—making both Sister Seol and Hwa-eun jump.
“W-What? Why the panic? Are we not to use these? Is it inauspicious? Will Hwa-eun become even more formidable if she conceives?”
“O-Older sister! T-That’s not it!”
They had misunderstood completely—but my shock was for another reason.
“N-No! That’s not it! It’s the offspring!”
“Offspring? Well, yes, she gave you talismans to help create one.”
At my words, Sister Seol’s eyes dropped to Hwa-eun’s stomach.
Hwa-eun blushed fiercely—and I immediately exclaimed:
“No—I’m not referring to our child! I mean the sachung!”
“Ah, the thing that bit Hwa-eun yesterday? What of it?”
“If there are two of them, they could breed!”
Ribbon worms can be either dioecious or hermaphroditic.
Particularly the freshwater varieties—they are often hermaphrodites.
Some can even change sex, so with two present, reproduction is certainly possible.
The thought of slugs made me remember.
“What!?”
Both Sister Seol and Hwa-eun stiffened and asked simultaneously.
“How many can they birth at one time?”
“How many eggs can a single one lay?”
Ribbon worms act as secondary predators in water-based ecosystems.
They control primary predator populations by reproducing in vast numbers.
This means—they breed like primary predators themselves.
You know what that implies?
Massive reproduction.
Just as cats, which hunt mice, also have large litters to match their prey’s numbers—these worms can multiply explosively.
“T-Thousands?”
“What!?”
“Truly?”
Ribbon worm fecundity increases with their length. The one we lost last night was roughly the size of Cho.
Meaning it could produce thousands of eggs.
Tens of thousands, potentially.
And that meant—
Even a standard ribbon worm, when it blooms in numbers, can devastate smaller prey populations—like fish or annelids.
In my previous life, ribbon worm blooms in river mouths caused massive casualties among juvenile eels migrating upstream in spring.
But this giant ribbon worm? Its prey is humans—or creatures of a similar size.
If we are not cautious, this could escalate into an unparalleled biological catastrophe.