Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang Novel - Chapter 92

Chapter 92

The challenge of the raid was immense, and the question of how to overcome it weighed heavily on us.
As the leader, my responsibility was to perfectly manage the constant shifting of the creature’s aggression between the team members.
However, because my own combat skills were still developing, I couldn’t contribute to dealing damage while also issuing commands. I made the choice to remain on the sidelines during the offensive phase, staying vigilant and prepared to give signals at the precise instant.
A single error in this delicate balance would result in immediate death.
“In my previous life, I assumed a raid leader just lounged around, but it’s actually the most demanding role imaginable!”
My concentration was absolute as I called out the order for controlling the beast’s enmity, all while slowly depleting its stamina.
Then it was Seol’s time to act.
“Seol, fall back now!”
Seol, who had entered the fray after Hwa-eun, needed to withdraw, and the next in the sequence was a premier warrior from the Beast Palace.
The instant I shouted for Seol to retreat…
“Ah!”
Seol’s foot landed on an uneven, protruding stone, causing her to lose her balance momentarily.
As she was in mid-leap, she faltered, which delayed her escape.
“Damn it! The most fundamental rule of any raid is to watch your footing!”
By neglecting this basic tenet, Seol nearly committed a catastrophic error.
Her high level of skill allowed her to quickly recover her footing, but that brief moment of misjudgment was enough to create a crisis.

Shhhaaa!
Crack.
The Beast God contorted its body, and the rocky serpent swiftly coiled around Seol, constricting her waist like a tightening tie.
As it spun, Seol cried out in agony.
“Gyaaaah!”
“Seol!”
“Elder!”
“Seol unnie!”
A chorus of alarmed shouts erupted.
The beast reared its head directly above Seol, its jaws opening wide.
Seol was in a mortal peril.
Drool dripped from its gaping maw onto her head.
Drip. Drip.
“This cannot stand! Everyone, pull back!”
Boom!
Grandfather unleashed a devastating strike, but when the dust settled, the creature remained, its mouth still wide open and ready to consume Seol.
Its scales were apparently far more resilient than we had anticipated, and the powerful blow had little effect.
Shhhaaa!
Aggravated by the attack, the creature shot a glare at grandfather before slowly lowering its mouth toward Seol’s head for the final strike.
“Seol!”
Acting on pure instinct, I snatched the bag crafted by Yo-hwa and leaped from the rocks toward the creature’s head.
The bag was made of a tear-resistant material, and I hoped it could shield Seol from the bite.
Whoosh.
I descended, using Yo-hwa’s bag to slow my fall. As I dropped, the creature’s mouth was about to close on Seol. At the very last second, I succeeded in throwing the bag over the beast’s head.
“Yes!”
Kyaaah!
Now blinded by the bag, the creature thrashed about wildly in a frantic struggle.
I held onto the bag for as long as I could, but soon lost my grip and crashed to the ground.
“Ugh!”
Shhhaaa!
Shhhaaa!
Yet, the moment the bag settled over its head, an unexpected change occurred.
The bag Yo-hwa had made was semi-transparent and thin, offering a blurred view. As the creature jerked its head violently, I recognized something was wrong—it was completely bewildered, acting as if it could see nothing at all.
Abruptly, the serpent tossed Seol aside and shot vertically into the air.
“Are you okay, Seol?”
“Unnie!”
While the others rushed to check on Seol, the creature managed to shake the bag from its head and swiftly retreated across the canyon.
“My body is sore, but I’ll be fine. What about you? That was a hard landing.”
“Cough. I’m alright as well.”
My shoulder ached, but the injury wasn’t serious.
The bag that had fallen from the sky now landed on my head.
We had failed the raid for the twenty-first time.
***
“That was too close. Are you unharmed, Elder Seol?”
“I am fine, Elder. Long is the one who saved me. Thank you, Long.”
“It was nothing. We are family.”
“My, Long, you’ve touched my heart multiple times today. Saving my life and all… Yes, we are most certainly family.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but isn’t it a bit improper for family to be clinging to each other like this?”
“But we are family, aren’t we?”
Back at our camp, after I gently detached Seol from me, we continued our conversation.
Even though we had failed the twenty-first attempt, the overall mood was not somber.
Doesn’t a shared sense of fellowship develop through repeated failures?
“Long, you saved the Elder from what could have been a severe injury.”
“Long?”
“Long rescued the Elder after she slipped on a stone and was almost taken by the creature.”
“Oh, right, it was Long.”
Furthermore, after my intervention to save Seol, the warriors from the Beast Palace regarded me with even greater favor than before.
Gathered around the campfire and sharing roasted boar, we began a thorough analysis of what caused our twenty-first failure.
It was our established custom to debrief after a failed raid, discussing our mistakes and formulating a better strategy for the next attempt.
“The initial phase of luring the creature to a new location proceeded smoothly.”
“Nevertheless, we must now be exceedingly cautious of the terrain.”
“You’re right, Hwa-eun. That creature caused stones to rise from the ground, making it much more difficult to employ our martial arts.”
As the discussion continued, I drifted into my own thoughts.
In one hand I held a piece of roasted boar meat, and in the other, the bag made by Yo-hwa.
I couldn’t let go of the puzzle of the creature’s strange reaction when the bag was on its head.
I set the meat down on a hot rock and began to experiment, pulling the bag over my own head.
My vision was slightly blurred, but I could still see.
‘What is the reason for this?’
The creature had no logical reason to panic with the bag on, so I was determined to discover the source of its disorientation.
‘I am certain it acted as if it was blind…’
I recalled that snakes primarily perceive the world in three ways.
First, through sound.
It is a common misconception that snakes cannot hear; this is only partially true.
They do not hear sounds in the conventional way, but they sense vibrations transmitted through the air and the ground, detecting sound waves with their bodies.
The second method is through smell.
A snake’s forked tongue collects scent particles from the air, delivering them to a specialized organ known as the Jacobsen’s organ.
The third is vision, but snakes possess very poor eyesight.
They can only vaguely perceive objects that are close, which is why they have evolved a unique ability to detect infrared radiation.
They can sense the body heat emitted by living creatures, much like the monsters in those science fiction horror films.
‘Wait… could it be this?’
Just as I connected this to the infrared vision of snakes, a vivid memory from my past life surfaced.
“Long, what is your opinion? Long?”
“Long, are you alright?”
Noticing my deep distraction, Seol and Hwa-eun snapped me out of it. I immediately sprinted to a nearby tree where Yo-hwa was suspended upside down.
“Yo-hwa, come down here!”
Yo-hwa tilted her head, still hanging from her web.
Kishish?
She seemed to be asking why I was calling her.
I caught her as she dropped, landing upside down on Hwa-eun’s face.
“Can you wrap me up in your web?”
Kish, kishish?
“Long, you want me to do that?”
“Long, why the sudden request?”
Yo-hwa, Seol, and Hwa-eun all looked at me with confused expressions after I made my unusual appeal.
***
“Are you genuinely convinced this will be effective?”
“That is precisely what we are going to verify right now.”
“I have never in all my years found myself in a situation quite like this.”
In the deepest hours of the night, Mandok Shingun and I were employing our light-foot techniques to scale the valley walls in search of the Flying Sky Serpent.
He glanced down at his own body, shaking his head in disbelief.
The reason for Mandok Shingun’s bewildered expression was that both of us were now encased from head to toe in a thick layer of webbing, giving us the appearance of white, human-shaped mannequins.
I had requested that Yo-hwa cover me in her silk, and once I was wrapped, we required another person to test the theory. The strongest member of our group, Grandfather, was consequently also swathed in webs.
As I accompanied the grumbling Mandok Shingun, we swiftly arrived at a jagged rocky outcrop at the valley’s summit.
There, coiled upon the stone, was the Flying Sky Serpent.
[It’s there!]
[I see it. Let’s proceed.]
We moved quickly toward the rock where the serpent rested.
Once we entered its typical detection radius, the serpent lifted its head and stared in our direction.
[Has it detected us?]
From the data gathered during the twenty-first raid, we knew the serpent could sense presence from roughly thirty meters away.
Mandok Shingun whispered with a hint of panic, but the serpent merely tilted its head curiously before burying its face back into its coils.
We continued our cautious approach. Each time we moved, it occasionally raised its head, but even when we closed the distance to a mere ten meters, it completely failed to notice us.
We made direct visual contact several times, yet the creature remained oblivious.
[It truly cannot perceive us!]
Mandok Shingun transmitted his astonishment.
I signaled for him to retreat, then picked up a stone from the ground and hurled it at the serpent’s head.
Having mastered the foundational secrets of the Tang Clan’s techniques, hitting a target at this range was effortless.
Thud.
The stone connected with the serpent’s head, causing it to flinch and hiss as it looked around in utter confusion.
Sssss!
Hiss!
But what did it matter?
The creature was completely blind to us.
It continued to search aimlessly, utterly failing to locate us, and after a few moments, it tilted its head in puzzlement and settled back down.
Frustrated and emboldened, Mandok Shingun grabbed another stone and launched it at the serpent’s head.
Bang!
Kyaaah!
The sound of the impact and the serpent’s infuriated shriek echoed through the silent valley late at night.
After enduring a few more projectiles, the serpent could take no more and took flight, seeking refuge elsewhere.
As it vanished from sight, Mandok Shingun erupted into laughter.
“Hahaha! That was immensely satisfying! You wretched beast!”
He seemed to relish the opportunity to torment the Flying Sky Serpent. After his laughter subsided, he turned to me and asked, “So, what is the explanation for all this?”
“The Flying Sky Serpent, like other snakes, has inadequate vision. It relies on sensing the heat from animals and humans, but I believe Yo-hwa’s webs are blocking that particular sense.”
“Is that so? How did you deduce that?”
“When Seol was in danger, I covered the serpent’s head with the bag, and it fled in a blind panic. I reflected on its behavior and remembered a scene from a film about aliens—they used mud to evade infrared detection. It occurred to me that Yo-hwa’s webs might function in a similar manner.”
“Certain materials can block infrared sensors, so I suppose this is a natural equivalent.”
“So, what is our plan for capturing it now?”
I smiled and provided the answer. “After webbing all the warriors, we will stalk it relentlessly, denying it any opportunity to eat, drink, or sleep. We will see how long it can endure under such pressure.”
“You mean to harass it until it breaks from exhaustion? A brilliant strategy. Hahaha!”
***
Thud!
After six full days of being bombarded with stones, the serpent finally collapsed by the edge of the river.
We had enveloped every warrior in Yo-hwa’s silk and had shadowed the serpent’s every move.
It found no escape.
Whenever it attempted to hunt, we drove it away with stones. When it tried to drink, we prevented it with stones. When it sought sleep, we kept it awake with stones. Even the most powerful creature must eventually eat, drink, and rest.
Finally, battered by a relentless hail of stones, the serpent managed only a few desperate sips of water before collapsing by the riverbank, seemingly fainting from sheer exhaustion.
I approached carefully and gave it a gentle poke. It did not react.
I leaned in closer and tapped its head, a laugh of triumph escaping me.
“Hahaha!”
The Flying Sky Serpent was finally mine.