Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang Novel - Chapter 91

Chapter 91

“Are you all right, Hwa-eun?”
“It’s only a scratch. Please don’t be concerned. Once the bleeding ceases, we can use some hemostatic powder.”
Hwa-eun answered while cradling her cloth-wrapped hand, clearly trying to ease my mind.
Unsure if she was downplaying her injury, I softly took her wrist to see for myself.
“Allow me to look.”
“S-So-ryong…”
Having shared sleeping quarters near me for several nights due to Seol, Hwa-eun seemed slightly flustered by my grip on her wrist. I unwound the cloth gently to examine the cut. It was indeed minor, just as she had described.
“Good. It’s nothing serious.”
“I told you it was fine…”
The bleeding had nearly ceased. I offered her a comforting smile before turning to check on the rest of our group.
“Is anyone else injured?”
Tsuruut!
Kkuk-koo!
Kiss!
The little ones chorused noisily in response.
Hwa-eun was the only one in our immediate circle who was hurt, but many others had not been so fortunate. Grandfather, Mandok Shingun, was moving among them, attending to their wounds.
“Ugh…”
“We’ve set the broken arm and splinted it.”
“My apologies, Patriarch. I have become a burden.”
“Do not apologize. This was no one’s fault. Who could have foreseen a stone ricocheting in such a manner? Concentrate on healing.”
“Thank you.”
A warrior from the Tang Clan had suffered a broken arm from a large rock, and a fighter from the Beast Palace had a deep gash in his leg, rendering him unable to fight.
I followed the sound of Grandfather’s voice and saw the injured warriors assisting one another.
Seol, who had been observing the Beast Palace warriors, came over to us wearing a look of stunned respect.
“Incredible… Their strength is real. So this is the leader of the Twenty-Four Poisons?”
“Yes, Seol. It was merely a graze; it’s nothing.”
Our first effort to capture the Bicheon Snake began when it plunged into the water after a Hwa-ri.
The valley was extensive, but only three locations were deep enough to support Hwa-ri.
We had stationed ourselves at one of these points, lying in wait for the serpent to emerge.
The strategy was to entangle it with vines and a net woven from Yo-hwa’s silk, confining it to the water so we could weaken it for capture.
We understood the vines might break; they were only a delay tactic. The true trap was Yo-hwa’s silk net.
Yet, we never anticipated the snake would take flight, net and all, despite the stones we had used to weigh it down.
I had assumed a netted creature couldn’t fly, but this one’s method of flight was different—it felt almost supernatural.
“This… it can fly like this?”
“It’s flying!?”
I expected it to flee, but instead, it soared into the air and then dove into the earth with devastating force.
Bang!
The massive serpent, over six meters long, shot skyward and then hurtled toward us, forcing everyone to leap back. The real danger came when its enormous body struck the ground, sending stones flying in every direction.
I could evade its dive, but the shrapnel of rocks was another matter.
Even the seasoned warriors of the Tang Clan, experts in swift movement, were unprepared for projectiles moving at such speed.
After three such impacts, Grandfather swiftly called for a retreat.
“Everyone, fall back!”
By the third impact, the warriors had grown adept at dodging the rocks, but our formation was shattered, and many were injured. Capturing the snake under these conditions seemed impossible.
Killing it was an option—Grandfather could likely manage it despite the casualties—but capturing it alive at such a cost seemed wasteful.
As Grandfather tended to the wounded, he spoke in a contemplative tone.
“After observing the snake’s behavior these past few days, we were overconfident. Recalling the Cheongban snake, even a low-level one possessed great strength. We should have exercised far more caution with a top-tier specimen.”
I nodded in agreement.
Grandfather’s words were logical. Understanding his meaning, I met his gaze thoughtfully.
He then turned to me with a question.
“What is your counsel now, So-ryong? Do you have any ideas?”
It appeared that after our initial failure, he was seeking my professional assessment.
But what was needed now wasn’t the perspective of a venom specialist.
This snake was unlike any creature I had previously encountered.
My established expertise seemed irrelevant.
We required a completely new strategy.
“Give me a moment to think.”
‘We must think beyond conventional knowledge, correct?’
Flight, crashing like a missile, scattering debris—no creature from my past life or studies behaved this way. This situation was unprecedented.
“This is… unorthodox.”
As I pondered, a realization suddenly struck me.
‘Wait, I’ve never captured a creature like this… Its behavior so far is to fly up and crash down… A pattern? That’s it! This is like a boss raid in a game!’
The situation felt exactly like a raid against a newly introduced boss. In such a scenario, there was only one course of action.
I emerged from my thoughts and addressed Grandfather quickly.
“It appears we must analyze it more thoroughly.”
“Analyze? Break it down? What do you mean?”
The term seemed unfamiliar here.
“By studying its combat behavior—its movements, its methods of attack, and so on. Once we comprehend its patterns, we can devise a counter.”
“Hm. You mean ‘know your enemy and know yourself,’ is that it?”
“Yes, but more precisely. Today, when it flew up entangled in the net, we must determine how it accomplished that.”
“Go on.”
“How did it ascend while wrapped in the net? What are its habitual actions when it attacks? We need to decipher the sequence of its movements and how we can evade them.”
“That sounds like the reasoning needed in a battle for survival.”
“Precisely. We must learn everything possible about this creature.”
What we needed was a full analysis of its attack patterns.
After hearing my thoughts, Grandfather nodded with understanding and continued.
“Ah, regarding its flight… I have a theory.”
“A theory? What do you mean, Grandfather?”
When Hwa-eun asked, Grandfather replied thoughtfully.
“I suspect it may be employing Ogi Chungso…”
“Ogi Chungso?”
“Ogi Chungso?”
Grandfather’s mention of Ogi Chungso surprised everyone.
Seeing their reactions, Grandfather nodded and explained.
“When it ascended, I could sense the flow of energy surrounding it. It rose without any physical movement. There is no other explanation.”
I glanced at Hwa-eun, curious about what Ogi Chungso was.
Hwa-eun nodded and explained it to me.
“Ogi Chungso is a technique related to lightness kung fu, or… well, it’s not exactly lightness kung fu. Typically, lightness techniques channel energy through the legs and muscles to leap higher or farther. Correct?”
“Yes.”
Indeed, the lightness kung fu I had learned functioned that way.
It was akin to a rhythm game, syncing internal energy with movement.
“But Ogi Chungso uses the body’s total internal energy to lift itself using power alone. Simply put, it is like grabbing your own collar and lifting yourself with your inner force.”
“How is that possible…?”
“It requires a tremendous reserve of internal energy to perform.”
Hwa-eun’s explanation described using internal energy to levitate without physical motion—lifting oneself by one’s own energetic collar. Even as a novice in martial arts, I grasped how extraordinary that was, so I asked, astonished:
“So, the snake possesses immense internal energy?”
At my question, Grandfather Mandok Shingun, Seol, and Hwa-eun all shook their heads and answered in unison:
“No, it is not internal energy, So-ryong. It is Neidan.”
“It must be Neidan.”
“It is Neidan for sure, Ryong.”
“Neidan?”
If it was Neidan, then it was the essence stored within the body of the Cheongban O-gong mother, the same substance Hwa-eun had consumed to rapidly advance her martial arts.
‘Hwa-eun broke through her limits by consuming a lower-level Neidan. If this creature’s Neidan is of a higher grade…’
At the mention of Neidan, everyone’s attention shifted toward the valley where the creature had vanished, their eyes alight with anticipation. The voices around me continued.
“Hmm… It seems we now have an additional reason to capture it.”
“So-ryong, we must capture it without fail.”
I could understand their excitement over Neidan, but internal energy can be cultivated over time. Why slaughter a rare creature for it?
‘That is not a decision to be made lightly.’
However, outright rejecting the idea would be difficult to justify.
Just as it seemed they might suggest killing it immediately, I interjected cautiously.
“We should still aim to capture it alive.”
“Why, So-ryong?”
“Why? So-ryong?”
“Do we not know little about spiritual creatures? If we wish to learn how it produces Neidan and other secrets, we must take it alive. Perhaps there is a method to extract Neidan without killing it, or we can harvest it periodically.”
I was suggesting it might be a goose that lays golden eggs.
Hearing my words, Grandfather nodded thoughtfully.
“Ah, I see. So, So-ryong, what is our next step?”
The conversation had been sidetracked by Neidan, but our immediate goal for analyzing its pattern remained clear.
‘When raiding a new boss, the strategy is always the same: engage repeatedly until the pattern is understood.’
“We must continue our attempts to capture it while closely observing all its habits and attack patterns.”
The approach was straightforward.
When a new boss appears, you keep attacking until you learn its patterns.
***
Our 21st attempt on the Bicheon Snake.
‘Collision pattern analysis.’
“Evade now!”
Shhhaaa!
Kwang!
The creature emitted a warning hiss and smashed into the stony ground, hurling rocks in all directions.
Everyone created distance before the impact, dodging the debris, as the creature shook its head and prepared to ascend again.
We could not allow it to take flight, so I immediately shouted toward Gu Pae Daju.
“Gu Pae Daju!”
Yelling toward the rocks, Gu Pae Daju instantly charged toward the creature as we had planned.
As Gu Pae Daju closed in, the creature halted its ascent and dove directly at him.
Shoooosh!
Its body uncoiled like a spring, shooting past Gu Pae Daju, who narrowly avoided it.
‘Now the constriction pattern should begin.’
“Clear the area!”
I had managed to keep the creature grounded, but this was the critical moment. If we did not act swiftly, it would turn and coil around anyone it passed.
We learned from twenty previous attempts that this creature was not venomous; it was a constrictor.
It killed by strangulation with its powerful body, not by biting.
Therefore, the moment it brushed past was the most perilous.
I hadn’t realized this initially and had nearly lost Gu Pae Daju because of it.
“Dok-hyeol Daju!”
“Yes!”
Gu Pae Daju darted away, and I signaled to Dok-hyeol Daju.
As the creature’s head turned toward Gu Pae Daju, Dok-hyeol Daju swiftly approached from behind and delivered a kick.
Pweeeek!
Shaaaa!
The creature immediately redirected its focus toward Dok-hyeol Daju.
Next, the task of holding its attention would rotate between Grandfather, Hwa-eun, and Seol.
As the raid leader, I climbed onto a high rock to direct the operation.
I might have seemed like I was taking the easy role, but it was necessary.
Our raid party had no tank, no healer, no buffer, no debuffer.
We were composed entirely of damage dealers.
‘Who in the world formed this party?’
Feeling the urge to curse the party leader, I remembered that I was the one who had gathered everyone, so the responsibility fell to me.
‘My luck with party composition is abysmal.’
Grandfather Mandok Shingun, Hwa-eun, Gu Pae Daju, and the rest of the Dok-hyeol Daju were damage-dealer types specializing in poison, while Seol and the other high-level warriors from the Beast Palace were hunter-type damage dealers.
It was a party full of thieves and close-range hunters.
An 8-person party, balanced on a knife’s edge, relying entirely on our fragile dealers, exchanging extreme aggro in a deadly game of ping-pong.
That was the reality of the Bicheon Snake raid and our analysis of its attack patterns.