Chapter 139: Love (1)
Translator: bjgoofy
When I wrote the name Soryong's Record of Venomous Creatures in front of my father-in-law and the rest of the family, praise poured in.
"Soryong's Record of Venomous Creatures. A book in which Soryong records his knowledge of venomous creatures. Something like that, I take it. It may sound plain at first, but for a man to stake his own name on it means he is that sincere. Excellent. Truly excellent."
"Hmm.... Staking your own name? How bold. Son-in-law. You really are something, aren't you?"
As expected, it was a matter where men's hearts were in accord.
Putting my name on the book was partly because I thought that if I were writing a book like Fabre's Book of Insects, it was only natural to include my name. But more than that, putting one's name on a book was an expression of confidence.
Was it not also a declaration that I would pour my whole heart into the writing?
If a book turned out poorly, the author could be cursed for generations upon generations, so staking one's name on it was something one could not do lightly.
That was why, when I smiled and answered in response to the two elders' praise, they smiled back at me in kind.
"Yes, I will stake my name on it and do my very best."
And once the naming ceremony for Soryong's Record of Venomous Creatures was over, I was granted a rest after a full fortnight away.
"Well then, you've been sleeping under the open sky for a whole fortnight, so go back and rest well, son-in-law. I'll see you around suppertime."
"Understood, Father-in-law."
"Son-in-law, I'll have the maids prepare warm water for you, so please stop by the Bathing Pavilion and wash up first."
"Yes, understood. Then I shall take my leave."
I paid my respects in the Family Head's Hall and stepped outside, quickening my pace.
But the place I was heading was not the Bathing Pavilion my mother-in-law had directed me to. It was somewhere else entirely.
I had answered my mother-in-law with a "yes", but the place I headed for was not the Bathing Pavilion but the Venomous Creatures Garden.
The reason was that I had made a request ahead of time to Captain Gu Pae, whom I had met at the Tang Family's Nine Progress Gate before stopping by the Family Head's Hall on my way back from the basin.
Having camped outdoors for a full fortnight, warm bathwater and a soft bed were more desperately needed than ever, but this was an urgent matter that could not be put off.
"Is what I asked for ready?"
I rushed headlong into the Venomous Creatures Garden and asked Captain Gu Pae for a progress report, and he stepped slightly to the side as he answered.
"Yes, Soryong. Will this do?"
It seemed he had prepared what I requested in the box behind him, so I checked it immediately.
"You've drilled plenty of holes. What about the cloth?"
"Yes, I prepared the black cloth separately, just as you instructed. And when I ground the soil finely, the powder kept scattering, so as you said, I mixed it with the termite secretions and packed it down, and it hardened right away."
What Captain Gu Pae had prepared was a large box with its lid riddled with holes.
Inside the box, a familiar red soil had been thickly plastered across the sides and walls.
The red soil was made from rock harvested from inside the Pagoda Termite nest, which I had Bin bring back, then crushed again into red sand and mixed with the termites' bodily fluids in the manner of the termites themselves before being left to harden.
-Tap tap.
When I knocked on the soil, the sound that came back was the kind you would expect from solid rock.
"This should be more than enough."
"So this will be the Silver Silkworms' new quarters, then?"
"Yes."
The reason I had Captain Gu Pae prepare all of this was entirely for the Silver Silkworms.
It was to recreate an environment similar to the interior of the Pagoda Termite nest where they had been reared.
With animals, it was easy to tell when the rearing conditions were not right because they would show obvious signs, but insects, especially larvae, were slow in their movements and rarely showed clear reactions even when something was off, so their environment needed to be tended with extra care.
If the temperature was too low, insects could suffer stunted growth or fail to reach their maximum size, and that simply would not do.
'Maximum size, that's something I absolutely can't give up. No way.'
The bigger the insect, the higher its value among enthusiasts. In my previous life, the stag beetle was common enough that even children raised them, and an entry-level specimen went for about twenty thousand won, but individuals exceeding nine centimeters had been known to sell for as much as ten million won.
That was why, even though I had carried the Silver Silkworms on my shoulders during the journey, I had taken care to let them spend the nights inside Yohwa's warm silk pouch. Now that I was back at the estate, I intended to match their environment as closely as possible.
If I was going to raise them, bigger was better, and since I only had two of them, failure was not an option.
"All right, shall I set them down?"
I lifted the two of them from my shoulder and placed them on my open palm.
And there it was again, that impossibly soft sensation.
Feeling their velvety texture against my skin, I lowered my hand to the floor of the box.
I would be taking this box to my quarters to continue looking after them myself, but since I had to bathe anyway, I figured I might as well test whether they took to this environment in the meantime.
It was just as I set the two of them down on the floor.
The two of them slowly lifted their heads and hastily clung to my retreating fingers.
They had been so docile until now, showing no particular reaction to anything, yet the moment I set them down on the soil floor, they grabbed onto my fingers with those stubby little legs of theirs.
"Hm?"
One latched onto my thumb, the other onto my pinky.
But being insects, and larvae at that, it was a bit ambiguous whether this really counted as a reaction.
"Come on, let go of Daddy's hand. You two stay home."
I thought nothing of it and was about to pry their short legs off and pull my hand away.
"Oh? Soryong, their horns!"
At Captain Gu Pae's words, I checked on the two of them, which had been hidden behind my hand, and saw that their antenna-like horns were turning black from the roots.
"Gaah!"
What they were showing right now was the signs of Turning Dark.
It was the same thing the first one I had hatched had shown when it was spewing Turbid Energy everywhere.
No matter how I looked at it, this was clearly an expression of displeasure.
I called out to them urgently.
"Hey, hey, no! I'm not leaving you behind!"
And fearing that these two might Turn Dark just like the first one I had hatched, I quickly brought my hand back before they could start spraying Turbid Energy. The two of them grabbed onto my thumb and pinky as fast as their little bodies could manage and crawled back up onto my palm.
Then the black color slowly faded from their horns.
'Phew.... That could have been a disaster.'
Relieved, I was wiping the sweat from my brow.
That was when a faint light began blooming from my palm.
"Wh-what is this!?"
I stared at my palm with wide eyes. A bright glow was flowing from the roots of their yellow antennae.
It was a tiny light, like a candle stuck in a birthday cake, but the strange thing was that at the same time, a cool, refreshing sensation began spreading through my palm.
At the sight, Captain Gu Pae's eyes went round and he cried out.
"Th-that's pure energy!?"
It was clear now. When these little ones were unhappy, they blasted out Turbid Energy, and when they were happy, they radiated pure energy.
"Q-quickly, bring Grandfather Man of Ten Thousand Poisons and Father-in-law!"
"Y-yes, understood!"
The fact that they could emit pure energy was an extraordinary discovery.
Startled out of my wits, I immediately sent Captain Gu Pae to fetch the two elders, then stared at the pair with dazed eyes.
Their leaf-shaped horns swayed in a languid, contented motion.
Drawn by the cool sensation at my fingertips, I placed them on my hand almost without thinking and began Qi Circulation Meditation. From my fingertips, my Internal Strength began recovering so clearly I could feel every bit of it.
The Internal Strength I had drained dry using Qinggong to race back to the Tang Family started filling up as if someone had plugged in a fuel pump.
I could not help but shudder at the realization.
'Th-these little guys were healers all along!'
When they channeled bright energy, they were like priests; when they channeled dark energy, they were like dark priests. Something along those lines.
Right, now that I thought about it, I had been a fool.
If the first one I had hatched could selectively emit only Turbid Energy, then I should have considered that the opposite was also possible, that it could selectively emit pure energy too. Yet the thought had never even crossed my mind.
The Heavenly Silkworm and the Silver Silkworm could be called the same species, yet also a different one entirely.
The sweet fragrance and honeydew they had emitted when devouring the queen ant or luring other ants must have evolved in this different species into the ability to emit two types of energy: pure energy and Turbid Energy.
As I marveled at having uncovered another facet of their ecology, my Internal Strength finished refilling completely. When I opened my eyes, two people were staring at me with astonished expressions.
My father-in-law and Grandfather Man of Ten Thousand Poisons stood with their eyes wide in shock.
"Wh-what is this!?"
"Soryong, what in the world is this now?"
I seriously deliberated over how to answer their questions.
'Should I just tell them I got a healer?'
***
"Sleep well, everyone?"
-Tsururut.
-Tsurut.
-Kkukku!
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, rose from the straw bedding, checked on the children, and then checked on the two stuck to the wall as well.
"Moji, Soji, did you two sleep well?"
In response to my question, the light in their horns flared briefly before fading away.
The day before, I had been able to confirm that the two of them could emit pure energy capable of restoring Internal Strength and aiding Qi Circulation Meditation, and so they had been given names.
It was entirely thanks to the elders insisting I name them quickly, seeing as they were so precious.
And so the two Silver Silkworms were hastily named.
Their names were Moji and Soji.
In the language of the Central Plains, they meant "thumb" and "pinky finger".
Because those were the fingers they always clung to whenever they climbed onto my hand.
'Pretty good naming sense, right?'
Names aside, these two really did possess wonderful abilities, but after hearing my full account, the family elders judged their practical usefulness to be somewhat ambiguous.
For one thing, their energy was limited to exactly one person at a time.
It was a single-target heal.
On top of that, communication with them still was not exactly precise, so I could not make them use their ability on demand. And it would have been morally unconscionable to deliberately upset them and then soothe them just to trigger the ability.
Sure, a place like the Five Poisons Sect might do something like that, but could this Fabre really subject the children he was raising to that kind of emotional abuse?
With other pets, I could at least scratch their heads or chins, but Moji and Soji were larvae.
There was nowhere to scratch, and I could not guarantee that something so minor would produce a significant glow anyway.
For those reasons, the decision was to observe them further until they matured into their adult forms.
"All right then, shall we wash up and go grab some breakfast?"
I stuck Soji and Moji onto my shoulder and coiled Hyang around it as well.
Then, leaving behind Bin, who had been sleeping far more since evolving, and Cho, who had grown too large to bring along, I headed out of my quarters.
By now the maids should have drawn wash water and be waiting.
-Creeeak.
When I opened the door and stepped outside, the person waiting for me was someone unexpected.
It was Hwa-eun.
"Hwa-eun?"
Normally the maids attended to me, but there was Hwa-eun, standing with a towel in her hands.
When I gave her a puzzled look, Hwa-eun answered with an awkward expression.
"The maids said they were too scared to come.... With all the large venomous creatures multiplying, they must be frightened."
Good grief. There were no children more gentle than mine, and yet they dared say such things?
I made a mental note to advise that next time they hired maids, they should cast a wider net for candidates who were 'capable', and just as I finished washing my face, it happened.
A warrior from the Family Head's Hall came running and delivered a message.
"Sir Soryong, you have been summoned to the Family Head's Hall briefly before your meal."
Being called to the Family Head's Hall first thing in the morning.
Wondering if it was because of the special ability I had discovered in Moji and Soji the day before, I nodded for the time being.
"Understood."
After finishing washing up, I arrived at the Family Head's Hall.
Inside, an unexpected person was waiting.
'No way, the king of beggars, this early in the morning....'
It was the Beggar Emperor, the Elder, who had been waiting.
"Good to see you again, Beggar Emperor, Elder."
"Aye, have you been well?"
"Yes, but what brings you here at this hour? Then, it was you who summoned me, Elder?"
It seemed it was not my father-in-law but the Beggar Emperor who had called for me.
When I tilted my head wondering why he would seek me out so early in the morning, the Beggar Emperor nodded and answered.
"I sought you urgently on behalf of the Murim Alliance."
"The Murim Alliance, you say?"
The answer from the Beggar Emperor's lips was, as expected, that he had come looking for me on Murim Alliance business.
Wondering what it could be this time, I listened attentively as the Beggar Emperor began his explanation.
"You know the intelligence you handed over to the Murim Alliance last time? After reviewing it, the Murim Alliance......."
The intelligence we had brought back from the Great Viet Kingdom on their behalf.
Having received it, the Murim Alliance investigated the materials and identified two locations suspected to be Blood Cult strongholds.
One was, predictably, beyond the Great Viet Kingdom, but the other was near the border of Guangxi, on the Central Plains side.
Or more precisely, in a place where it was ambiguous whose territory it actually was.
It seemed to be because borders were not clearly defined in this era, and for that reason, the Alliance had planned to move troops covertly and raid the location.
Hit hard and pull out fast, after all.
But the problem was that the government had put the brakes on the operation.
There was a principle called Government-Murim Non-Interference, which held that the government and the martial world did not meddle in each other's affairs, but a private armed organization repeatedly moving large numbers of troops had drawn an official warning.
For that reason, the Murim Alliance had been stuck twiddling their thumbs, until an opportunity presented itself in the form of a mysterious string of deaths in Yueyang.
"They said that if we uncover or resolve the cause of the mysterious deaths in Yueyang, they'll turn a blind eye to the troop movements."
"Mysterious deaths? But why come to me about it?"
When I asked, my tone implying I did not see why mysterious deaths had anything to do with me, the Beggar Emperor smiled.
He borrowed my own line without so much as asking permission.
"Because you are an expert, of course."
*****
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