Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang Novel - Chapter 86

Chapter 86

The Five Poison Clan—a name uttered with loathing and dread.
A century ago, the Tang Clan and the Beast Palace had annihilated them, erasing their very presence from the world.
Or so everyone had thought.
‘The Five Poison Clan… They are the source of the Five Poison Returning to the Origin Art, the very root of my martial arts. Grandfather spoke of them, but… I never imagined they could still be active.’
I looked over at Grandfather, completely stunned by this disclosure.
Then—
An overwhelming wave of killing intent erupted right next to me.
“Their filthy hands are still moving in the darkness?!”
The Beast Palace Lord, Meng Hu, was trembling with rage. His murderous aura was so intense it made the hairs on my neck stand on end.
“Father! P-Please, control yourself! We are not alone!”
Even his daughter, Seolpyo, had to step in, struggling to hold him back.
Meng Hu gritted his teeth, his gaze snapping toward the dead Queen Demon Ant as he let out a low growl.
Crunch.
The sound of his teeth grinding together was audible.
“If the Five Poison Clan is behind this… then they must have employed our Beast Berserk Submersion Technique.”
“The Beast Berserk… what was that?”
The warriors from the Tang Clan, Grandfather among them, stared at Meng Hu in bewilderment.
Seolpyo seized the moment to clarify.
“It’s a method that violently draws out a beast’s hidden power, pushing it into a short-lived state of madness. The consequence is that the beast will be weakened for days afterward, and sometimes it can be fatal. It’s reserved solely for desperate situations.”
Grandfather stroked his beard, lost in thought.
“In that case, they must have altered it, merging it with the Tang Clan’s golden needles and toxins to induce the Queen Demon Ant’s insanity.”
I carefully offered my own deduction.
“I believe… they forced her to consume food endlessly and lay eggs without rest. Ants do not normally eat their own, but when we discovered her, she was consuming her own young.”
The room filled with shocked exclamations.
“What?!”
“The Queen was eating her offspring?”
“How is that possible?”
Even the battle-hardened warriors of the Beast Palace were visibly shaken.
They had thought the Queen was feeding on random carcasses, not her own progeny.
I gave a grim nod.
“Correct. Every ant in that swarm was her child.”
Seolpyo’s face paled with horror.
“That’s… utterly vile!”
“What kind of monstrosity is this!”
“To make a mother devour her own children…!”
I expected them to be disturbed, but the depth of their fury took me by surprise.
Later, after we had relocated to the Beast Palace’s main hall, they explained the reason for their extreme reaction.
“The Tang Clan might not be aware of this, but the real reason the Beast Palace resolved to wipe out the Five Poison Clan went beyond their martial arts.”
Meng Hu’s voice was thick with revulsion.
“We are a sect that believes in living in harmony with beasts. We accept those from Yunnan’s minority tribes, welcome sons-in-law, and allow our daughters to marry into their clans. We are tolerant, provided one upholds their vow.”
“What vow is that?”
“That they will not teach their martial arts to the next generation. If they keep their knowledge to themselves, we do not intervene. In fact, if they develop something new based on our techniques, we recognize it as their own.
That is how the Five Poison Clan originally established themselves within Yunnan.”
I nodded.
That sounded consistent with the Beast Palace’s reputation.
They were considerably more permissive than the Tang Clan.
“So what caused that to change?”
“They violated our most sacred law.”
Meng Hu’s tone grew grim.
“They committed acts of unspeakable cruelty against the very animals they raised.”
A sense of dread settled in my stomach.
“What… did they do?”
“They liquefied their own creatures to create elixirs.
They used drugs to transform them into obedient, mindless corpses, like zombies.
They even fed the young to their own mothers in a twisted attempt to ‘fortify’ them.
We could not stand idly by and permit such atrocities to continue.”
My blood turned to ice.
They melted their own animals?
That would be like taking Bin-ah, Cho, Hyang, or Bini, grinding them into a potion, and consuming them.
The thought turned my stomach.
The Five Poison Clan had perverted devotion into a form of cannibalism.
This was why they had reacted with such visceral outrage when I described the Queen Ant eating her children.
It wasn’t merely about cruelty.
It was an abomination.
Even among humans, such acts are forbidden—similar to how Islamic law forbids boiling a calf in its mother’s milk.
Some taboos are universal.
“A century ago, we vowed we would never let them resurface,” Meng Hu muttered, his voice low and serious.
Grandfather, standing beside him, gave a solemn nod.
“Their line should have been severed. If they have returned, it means our task was left incomplete.”
The Tang Clan and Beast Palace had destroyed the Five Poison Clan once.
Now, they would have to do it again.
***
The Demon Ant Swarm—the creation of the Five Poison Clan.
We arrived at a definitive conclusion:
This entire catastrophe had been orchestrated.
Someone had seized the Demon Ants of Venomous Valley, subjecting them to forced, unnatural breeding to expand their numbers.
The valley’s natural boundaries prevented their spread, so they were intentionally driven toward the Beast Palace.
The Five Poison Clan’s true objective was the Beast Palace.
But if they had returned, then an attack on the Tang Clan was also inevitable.
Both sects were now in peril.
And so—
Grandfather and Meng Hu revived their century-old pact.
“I speak as the acting leader of the Tang Clan,” Grandfather announced. “And I swear we will stand with the Beast Palace in this battle.”
“The oath sworn a hundred years ago remains unbroken,” Meng Hu affirmed. “The Beast Palace will stand with the Tang Clan, just as we did then.”
With a single handshake, the Tang Clan and the Beast Palace were once again allies.
With that matter concluded, their focus shifted to…
Me.
“You saved our sect from destruction,” Meng Hu stated. “Name your reward. Whatever you wish for, we will provide.”
A blank check.
‘Damn. This place certainly believes in grand offers.’
I considered what to ask for.
Then—
A voice resonated in my head.
[So-ryong, request information on the Five Poison Returning to the Origin Art and your centipedes. After what you’ve done, the Beast Palace Lord would not refuse you.]
‘Ah—that’s right! Cho!’
It suddenly came back to me—
When I first realized Cho could comprehend my words, I had questioned whether the Beast Palace possessed knowledge about creatures like him.
Back then, Grandfather had waved off my interest, saying,
“Save the Beast Palace first. After that, perhaps they will be inclined to answer you.”
Well—
I had saved them.
Now it was time to collect.
I gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod to Grandfather, then turned to Meng Hu and chose my words with care.
“There is one matter I wish to inquire about… though I am unsure if it is permissible.”
Meng Hu let out a hearty laugh.
“You saved my people! What could possibly be forbidden? Name it, and it will be granted!”
I paused for a brief moment—
Then, I reached into my robes.
‘Cho, come out.’
Slither.
From the warmth against my chest, Cho unwound itself and moved forward, slithering out onto the table between us.
Tsrrt?
As Cho coiled on the table, tilting its head as if questioning why I had summoned it, I gave a silent command.
I had three simple tricks I referred to as Cho’s Three Classic Moves.
First, circling the perimeter of the table.
Second, crawling up one of my arms and then crossing over to the other.
Finally, climbing onto my head and peering out curiously.
Tsrut?
Cho flicked its antennae and then performed the routine flawlessly.
The moment it finished—
“Y-You can’t possibly mean…!?”
“That movement—!?”
Both Meng Hu and Seolpyo cried out in astonishment.
Their reactions said everything.
I nodded.
“Yes, unlike the rest of the Tang Clan, I practice an art inherited from the Five Poison Clan—the Five Poison Returning to the Origin Art.
As a result, I accepted this centipede’s venom into my body, which formed a bond between us.”
Meng Hu’s expression grew somber.
“So… it contained the Wild Beast Mind Art all along? I was informed the Tang Clan had inspected the Five Poison Clan’s martial arts before the schism, but…”
The Beast Palace Lord stroked his beard, thinking deeply.
I didn’t want to overstep, but this was undoubtedly my best opportunity.
“Therefore, I wished to ask… how this connection was formed. And if it might be possible to extend it to my other creatures as well.”
Meng Hu and Seolpyo exchanged a long look before he turned back to me, his expression grave.
“You remember that I said we are not possessive with our martial arts, correct?”
“Yes, Palace Lord, of course.”
Meng Hu nodded solemnly.
“But there is one exception.
That exception…
Is the Wild Beast Mind Art.”
My heart sank.
“The most guarded secret of the Beast Palace.
It allows us to share our hearts with beasts.
And it is absolutely forbidden to be transmitted outside our direct bloodline.”
For a moment, I was speechless.
If the art was that severely restricted, then…
Would I be compelled to abandon what I’d learned?
I felt a sudden, powerful urge to curse Grandfather.
‘You old fool, you could have at least warned me before I opened my mouth…!’
Then—
Meng Hu’s next words completely surprised me.
“Boy, you are the Tang Clan’s son-in-law, is that right?”
I blinked.
“…Yes?”
His following question was even more unexpected.
“Then, do you have a birth family?”
I frowned, confused by the sudden personal turn.
“I am an orphan. I have no ties to any other family.”
Clap!
A sharp clap echoed through the hall.
I turned—
Seolpyo was beaming as she clapped her hands.
“Perfect! Absolutely perfect!”
‘…What in the world is going on?’
Then I saw the look on Meng Hu’s face—
Utterly satisfied.
“Your name is So-ryong, correct?”
“Uh… yes?”
Meng Hu gave a firm nod.
“Then it’s decided! Your name is already suitable, so no change is needed.
And judging by how deeply you care for your creatures, you are more aligned with the Beast Palace than anyone I’ve met.”
‘Wait a minute. What are these two plotting—’
Then Meng Hu said the last thing I ever expected to hear.
“So-ryong, what would you think…
About becoming my son?”
I almost choked on nothing.
“W-What?!”
Meng Hu laughed.
“If you become my adopted son, you will be permitted to learn all of the Beast Palace’s martial arts—including the Wild Beast Mind Art.
Furthermore, with the reappearance of the Five Poison Clan, the Tang Clan and Beast Palace must reinforce our alliance.
You would be the perfect bridge between our two factions!”
“W-Wait, hold on—adoption?!”
Before I could even begin to process it, Seolpyo grinned and seized my hands.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea!
I’ve always wanted a younger brother to dote on!”
I looked desperately toward Grandfather and Hwa-eun.
Both of them appeared just as stunned.
“Great Poison God, what is your opinion?” Meng Hu asked. “Two hundred years ago, we failed to secure our alliance. But if we rectify that error now, we can achieve true unity between our sects.”
Grandfather rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“As long as he retains his position as son-in-law of the Tang Clan…
I perceive no issue with it.”
“Then the decision is yours, boy!” Meng Hu declared.
“So-ryong, what is your answer?”
I hesitated—
But then Meng Hu and Seolpyo began listing the advantages.
“If you become my son, you’ll be able to bond with all three of your centipedes—not just a single one.
In fact, I will personally assist you in extending the bond to your other creatures!”
Seolpyo added eagerly.
“Plus! I’ve always wanted a younger sibling to share stories about my creatures with!
And if any of our beasts have offspring, we can share them with you!”
The two of them continued.
I was still trying to make sense of the situation when they suddenly began whispering to each other.
“Are these incentives not sufficient to persuade him?”
“Hmm… perhaps we need something more enticing?”
Then—
Seolpyo’s eyes lit up with an idea.
“Father! What about Bi Sa!?”
Meng Hu clapped his hands together.
“Yes! The Flying Serpent!”
‘…Flying what?’
Noting my confusion, Seolpyo explained with excitement.
“Deep within the most remote jungle, there is a mythical serpent known as Bi Sa! It can glide through the air!
Given your fondness for venomous creatures, doesn’t that sound incredible?
If you agree to become my little brother, I will personally help you capture one!”
Before I could formulate a response, Grandfather’s face darkened.
“Wait.
When you say ‘Bi Sa’…
Are you referring to a green, vine-colored snake with two horns upon its head?!”
Seolpyo’s eyes widened.
“Yes! You know of it?!”
Grandfather turned to me, his expression utterly serious.
“So-ryong.
Beneath the Ten Great Venomous Beasts, there exists a classification known as the Twenty-Four Venomous Subspecies—a catalog of high-grade poisonous creatures.
And among them…
One stands above all others.”
I swallowed hard.
“What is it called?”
Grandfather’s voice was solemn.
“The Flying Heavenly Divine Serpent.”
“…The what?”
Even the name was intimidating.
A serpent that flies through the heavens… called the Flying Heavenly Divine Serpent?
I looked back at Meng Hu and Seolpyo.
Then—
Without a single moment of hesitation—
I bowed deeply.
“So-ryong pays his respects to his father and sister!”
‘There was absolutely no way I was turning this down.’