Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang Novel - Chapter 502

Chapter 502
Water dripped from the cavern’s ceiling, each drop landing with a soft *plink* into the dark underground lake. The flickering light from torches danced over the wet walls, their reflections shimmering like ghosts on the water’s surface.

–Ponk.

A guard stationed near the underwater entrance called out into the depths of the cave.
“Paralyzing Cord has returned!”

A long, sinuous shape was gliding through the water passage into the cavern.
Paralyzing Cord—Mabiseung—was a newly designed spirit beast engineered by the Five Venoms Sect.
It had been cultivated from a segmented worm and earned its name from its capacity to paralyze and ensnare its victims, much like a living rope meant for binding.

“Returning a bit later than usual, aren’t you? I suppose you enjoyed a fine meal off those border patrol fools.”
Hearing of its return, Gal Gi-ryang, the leader of the Black Venom-Wukong Unit, approached the water’s edge with a satisfied look.
The original Black Venom Unit and Wukong Unit had each suffered devastating losses and fallen into disrepute. To make matters worse, they had been compelled to absorb inferior remnants from the Blood Cult.
However, this creature, developed through relentless effort, had recently been yielding significant results—greatly boosting the unit’s spirits.
If this success continued, they would regain recognition and support. Rejoining the ranks of the Five Venoms Sect’s elite forces would be practically assured.
Only a few days prior, the Sect Leader himself had commended them for repelling the Martial Alliance forces near the border:
“To imagine a creature so base could drive back the Martial Alliance—I was skeptical, but this is remarkable. We will observe the outcomes for another month and then commence mass production.
As for the commander of the Black Venom-Wukong Unit, a new rank shall be bestowed!”
“Thank you, sir!”
To be offered a promotion above his current position—only a single step was left.
The Martial Alliance had regrouped at the border, but if Mabiseung kept killing and frightening them into another retreat, that final step would be reached soon.

“Let’s have a look at how much you consumed today.”
Gal Gi-ryang moved nearer to the water, extending his torch to better light up the surface.
Through the clear water of the subterranean lake, he could make out the creature swimming inward.
But today—strangely—it appeared shorter than it normally did.
“Huh? What in the…”
Detecting something amiss, Gal Gi-ryang issued a command.
“Come out here.”
It was an order to come onto land for inspection. The beast slithered near and partially surfaced—but refused to haul itself completely out of the water.
“What now? Disobeying again? Don’t say the needle has worked loose again.”
Due to its pliable form, the control needle within Mabiseung occasionally became dislodged.
That was why it sometimes failed to follow orders—prompting Gal Gi-ryang to draw a flute from his robe.
This flute was used to administer pain via the Five Venoms Detonation-Submersion Technique, compelling compliance.
–Piiiiiiiii.
As the note sounded, Mabiseung contorted briefly in agony.
Then, as the pain faded, it hurriedly crawled onto the rocky shore.
“That’s better.”
Gal Gi-ryang first inspected its tail. It was unmistakably shorter.
“What is this…?”
The end of the tail seemed blunt—truncated.
Still puzzled, he shifted to examine the head, where the golden control needle should have been implanted.
If it had loosened, they would require a specialist to reinsert it using the Five Venoms Detonation-Submersion Technique.
But the instant his gaze fell upon the creature’s head—
Gal Gi-ryang stood motionless.
There was no control needle embedded in Mabiseung’s skull.
“What!? The… the needle!?”
And then—
Mabiseung pivoted toward him, jaws gaping.
–SHLAAAK!
A substance like thick thread erupted from its mouth, instantly enveloping Gal Gi-ryang.
“W-What is this—?!”
“Commander!”
“Commander! What’s going on!?”
Only four warriors were posted there, including Gal Gi-ryang himself.
The others charged forward to assist—but at that moment, a second Mabiseung exploded from the water and released a broad spray of viscous thread.
–SHLAAAK!
Thread shot from its maw, and as the warriors attempted to evade, the first Mabiseung sprayed from the other side.
Caught between the two, the remaining three warriors were rapidly overwhelmed.
“What in—there are two of them!?”
“Guhk!”
Entangled in the sticky threads, they fell to the cave floor.
Then the two Mabiseungs twisted together—driving sharp, pointed limbs into one another’s bodies.
And much later—
Their ritual finished, they gradually began to dissolve and consume the bodies of the paralyzed warriors.

***

We ran to Father as quickly as our legs could carry us.
We needed to report our discovery—to him and to the leadership of the Martial Alliance.
We had sent a warning earlier, but it was evidently insufficient.
The circumstances had shifted—and we had to act immediately.
It was wiser to be proactive than to be taken by surprise.
“Is Father inside!?”
We hurried to his office. As we moved to enter, the guards blocked our path.
“He is in conference with the Alliance elders—”
“This can’t wait. Step aside!”
Sister Seol pushed past them and swung the door open—inside, Father and a number of Martial Alliance elders were gathered.
The guards had mentioned a meeting was underway. Father must have called it after receiving our initial report.
“Father!”
“Father!”
Both Seol and I shouted out together as we entered—every pair of eyes in the room turned toward us.
Ji-ryong was also there, and Father scowled.
“Must you interrupt so abruptly while we have guests?”
“Please excuse us, Father. It’s critical.”
“This matter cannot wait, Father.”
Hearing the intensity in our voices, Father turned to the elders and gave a slight bow.
“My apologies. It seems an urgent matter has arisen from the palace.”
He likely assumed something serious had occurred, given that all three of us—Seol, Hwa-eun, and I—had arrived in such a rush.
We were not known for causing disturbances without cause.
And evidently, they understood that as well.
The elders of the Martial Alliance answered with unexpectedly gracious smiles.
“No apology is needed. If it is urgent for the young lord—no, the great lord—then please, speak.”
“Indeed. If it is pressing, we are all listening. Please, proceed.”
…Have I always been held in such high esteem within the Martial Alliance?
Even though we had disrupted a meeting, the Alliance elders were being exceedingly accommodating toward me.
When I considered it, they had good reason to be.
I inherited the martial arts of the Alliance Leader, I created and distributed the Blood-Eye Executioner poison that counteracts the Blood Cult, and I exposed the secrets of the Blood Cult’s commercial operations—had I not?
‘Yes. Unless I murdered their parents, they ought to treat me favorably.’
Just as I was thinking that, so long as I hadn’t killed the elders’ parents, they had every cause to be generous, Father turned to us and inquired,
“What is the urgent matter?”
“It concerns what I mentioned to you before.”
“You? We were in the midst of discussing that very topic. Was there something you omitted?”
I explained that I had come to amend—or more accurately, to add vital information to my prior report, and Father confirmed they were already reviewing the situation.
That spared me from having to explain everything again. I decided to lay it all out for everyone present.
“Yes. Actually, Father, after we spoke, I uncovered something further…”
I proceeded to explain meticulously everything that Cheong-yu Sojeo and I had found.
That the stickyworm had been severed in two during its escape, and that one half was likely now free from the Five Venoms Sect’s domination—and would begin attacking and devouring any edible thing it encountered, including humans.
And should the two halves reunite and succeed in reproducing, the results would be dire beyond imagination.
“Is this true?”
“Can this be true, Young Lord So?”
“Yes.”
The mood in the room instantly shifted to one of alarm.
Ji-ryong, who had been listening, promptly asked me,
“What must we do now?”
“Do we have a map detailing the waterways?”
“Wait a moment. Someone fetch a map of the region, immediately!”
“Yes, Lord!”
Father sent guards to retrieve the map. Minutes later, he unrolled it across the table and stated,
“This watercourse here is where the creature was sighted. It runs in this direction and finally joins the Lanchang River.”
“So this is a feeder stream of the Lanchang River?”
“Correct. It begins between two mountains # Nоvеlight # within the borders of Daewolguk, then slowly broadens until it meets the Lanchang.”
“That is a relief. Had the opposite been true—if it started from the Lanchang and flowed into our territory—it would have been catastrophic.”
According to Father, the waterway where the creature had appeared started deep inside Daewolguk, and it eventually converged with the Lanchang River—also called the Mekong River.
I indicated three locations on the map.
“Here, here, and here. How wide is the stream at these three points?”
“It is roughly one jang in most areas. The broadest section will not surpass three jang.”
He clarified that the stream was too narrow to be considered a true river—only about three to nine meters across.
The nine-meter span was where it met the Lanchang, and the outpost that was attacked was close to the three-meter section.
That aligned with my recollection.
‘Ah, yes… I believe it was around three meters.’
“And the depth?”
“At most, waist-deep.”
“That’s ideal.”
I verified the depth as well, and that offered us a measure of hope.
“First, here, here, and here. We need to place multiple layers of netting at these three locations. To ensure the one that escaped the Five Venoms Sect cannot reach the Lanchang.
If it enters the Lanchang, civilians living downstream in other nations will endure terrible suffering. And if it is wounded again and divides, then it could multiply without end.”
The Lanchang River is the Chinese name for the Mekong River.
It is the 12th longest river globally, extending nearly 4,000 kilometers.
It travels from China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
If the creature reached the main river, the harm to civilians would be enormous.
So our strategy was to obstruct its route with nets at crucial points before the Lanchang—and capture it in the process.
“Nets? Understood. But how quickly are they needed?”
“Immediately.”
It would not take long for the creature’s head to regenerate.
So we had to move swiftly.
“Nets will require some time to manufacture…”
It appeared producing nets in large numbers would be too slow.
That was when Ji-ryong interjected.
“Nets may take time, but we can set bamboo poles and attach fencing between them.”
“Oh! That could work!”
Naturally. This was Yunnan—bamboo grew in abundance.
Orders were promptly issued, and warriors from the Beast Palace and the Martial Alliance started hammering bamboo stakes into the water and constructing barriers robust enough to prevent the creature’s escape.

***

Perhaps because regeneration was a lengthy process, the stickyworms stayed inactive for some time.
They did not reveal themselves for several days.
This was anticipated, but the prolonged silence made us increasingly anxious.
We could not know when the head portion might become active again, but someone proposed using bait.
Since we had Hwa-eun, an expert in poison arts, she could provide treatment for paralysis provided the victim was not entirely digested.
The creature employed a blend of tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin that could kill nearly instantly—but if Hwa-eun could neutralize the toxins rapidly enough, lives might be preserved.
So beginning on the third day, we started positioning human bait along the banks of the stream.
With Hwa-eun standing by nearby, ready to act.
Some contended that it was too harsh to use people in this manner—this was not the Demonic Sect, after all—but we had ideal volunteers for the task.
The wretched individuals who had peddled counterfeit versions of my Ji-dam Pill.
They were already serving labor sentences, so we put them to use.
But after ten days, there was still no indication of the stickyworms.
On the tenth night, while I was scouting with Cho, Yeondu, and Hwa-eun, she asked me,
“Might it be taking them longer than we thought to regenerate?”
“Possibly. I truly don’t know a great deal about segmented worms…”
“I hope the injury was lethal.”
“That would be best, certainly…”
There was a scarcity of studies or documents on stickyworms.
Even in Europe and the U.S., hardly any research was available—only Japan had fragments of data.
And these particular ones had been transformed into spirit creatures, so nothing could be taken for granted.
Another ten days went by after that, and we ultimately resolved that, regardless of the danger, we needed to dispatch Heukjeom and Cho to scout the territory of the Five Venoms Sect.
Their silence had persisted for too long.
“Heukjeom, Cho—if it becomes perilous, withdraw right away, understood?”
–Zzzt.
–Tzrut. 『Understood, Daddy.』
Just as we were preparing to send them off—
As if to affirm our deepest fears, one of the warriors responsible for maintaining the nets and bamboo fences returned carrying something unimaginable.
The fences and nets needed regular clearing—debris, leaves, and even ensnared fish drifted in from upstream.
But the warrior who had been removing branches had discovered something that should not exist.
“This was caught in the bamboo fence?”
“Yes.”
He had snagged it with a branch and brought it back.
A sodden, limp piece of flesh, water trickling from it.
But it was immediately identifiable.
It was a dead stickyworm—as thick as a grown man’s forearm.
Evidently, the stickyworms had already multiplied.