Chapter 161: Mountain Stronghold (2)
Translator: bjgoofy
A book stamped with the Five Poisons Sect's emblem was, just as I'd suspected, clear and unmistakable proof that the Five Poisons Sect was either deeply involved in this affair, or the very party behind it.
At this irrefutable evidence, I immediately turned toward Hwa-eun.
"Hwa...."
'Ah, she looks busy.'
I'd turned to call out to her, but Hwa-eun was absorbed in examining something amid the heaped-up pills and medicinal ingredients.
So I decided to look through the book myself while she finished up.
The cover alone positively reeked of the Five Poisons Sect, sure, but the book wasn't going to run off anywhere while she was busy, and for all I knew the pages inside might be blank.
If I called her over for nothing and it turned out to be nothing, I'd only feel bad about it.
Sure, the mere fact that it bore the Five Poisons Sect's emblem meant something, but wouldn't its value depend on what was actually inside?
'Let's see now....'
-Flip.
「The Diary of Danmok Seo, Thousand Legs, Vice-Captain of the Five Poisons Sect's Centipede Squad.」
As I turned the first page of the book, which bore drawings of five venomous creatures, a single person's name caught my eye.
This seemed to be a diary written by the vice-captain of a unit called the Centipede Squad, named after the centipede, one of the Five Poisons Sect's five venomous creatures, much like the Toad Squad I'd run into before.
'Pfft, and here I thought it was some important book.... Good thing I didn't call Hwa-eun over?'
I'd gotten my hopes up because it bore the Five Poisons Sect's emblem, but the contents turned out to be nothing more than somebody's diary.
I wondered why a mere diary would be stamped with the sect's emblem, but to put it in terms of my past life, the book Cho had found was about the equivalent of a company-branded notebook handed out at the office.
'Bit of a letdown, I guess.... But then again, nothing's quite as entertaining as somebody else's diary. Heh heh heh.... Still, a Centipede Squad? The nerve of them.'
The fact that the book Cho had found was a diary was a touch disappointing where information was concerned, yet the fact that it was someone's diary stirred my curiosity all the same.
Judging by the name, it was a woman's diary.
Wasn't there a saying that the most entertaining of all books is somebody's diary, and that among diaries, the most entertaining of all are those of a younger or an older sister?
The woman was no sister of mine, younger or older, but I figured I could expect a similar sort of fun out of it.
That said, the fact that the book's owner belonged to something called the Centipede Squad rubbed me entirely the wrong way.
'The cheek of them, a bunch with no mascot of their own calling themselves the Centipede Squad.'
And no wonder, for even I, who possessed the Flying Celestial Centipede, one of the Ten Great Venomous Creatures, the Ink-Black Ghost Centipede, one of the Twenty-Four Poison Branches, and on top of that the Blue-Spotted Centipede that was the base form of them both, didn't go around calling myself a Centipede Squad.
These Five Poisons Sect bastards, who surely raised nothing but common centipedes, were using the name Centipede Squad, and I couldn't help thinking what an insolent lot they were.
A Centipede Squad, without so much as asking permission from me, who owned Cho of the Ten Great Venomous Creatures and Bin of the Twenty-Four Poison Branches?
The moment I ran into these little punks, I'd have to teach them a proper lesson, I thought.
After all, this was a kind of copyright infringement.
I didn't actually hold any copyright, but considering the centipedes I owned, surely the copyright ought to be acknowledged as mine?
'I'm telling you, the copyright on this obviously belongs to me.'
Thinking what insolent bastards they were, I turned the page, and the date written at the very top was the Awakening of Insects, this past spring. [TL Note: The diary marks its dates by the 24 traditional solar terms. Awakening of Insects (Gyeongchip) falls around early March, when hibernating creatures are said to stir.]
The diarist's record had begun.
「Awakening of Insects. Summoned by the Sect Leader, I went together with the Captain to attend upon him, and the Sect Leader handed down a new command.
Since we have continued to fail in our search for the First Poison Lord, he told us to set that matter aside for now, and bade our Centipede Squad to find a way to aid the Blood Cult in throwing the Central Plains into chaos.
Though our sect has built up its power working in the shadows, toppling the Tang Family single-handedly is, however one looks at it, simply impossible.
And no wonder, for the Tang Family belongs to both the Murim Alliance and the Seven Great Families, so to confront them it was vital to draw the attention of others away.
And so, just as the Black Scorpion Squad had used the Grand Method to transform the army ants into giants, we resolved to seek out a different insect of our own.」
'Hmm. This is surprisingly juicy intel.'
I'd assumed it wouldn't be worth much as intelligence, yet to my surprise, the diary opened with a goldmine of information.
Perhaps because she was a meticulous woman, the diary was packed with exactly the sort of things we needed.
It recorded that the army ants I'd suspected were their handiwork were indeed the doing of the Five Poisons Sect, and I was also able to confirm the names of the combat units within the sect.
Wondering how much more juicy material there might be, I turned the page.
-Flip.
「Two days before the Spring Equinox. [TL Note: Spring Equinox (Chunbun), a solar term around late March.]
The Captain and I had spent a full month agonizing over which insect to use, when Young Miss Qingyu, who had stopped by briefly, recommended the bed bug to us. The moment I heard her words, it was as if a bolt of lightning had struck my head.
The bed bug would surely torment the people of the Central Plains with relentless persistence.
It's already so vicious even at its small size, so how much more formidable would it be once enlarged? My heart pounded.」
「The day after Pure Brightness had passed. [TL Note: Pure Brightness (Cheongmyeong; Qingming in Chinese), a solar term around early April.]
We succeeded in enlarging the bed bugs using the Grand Method, but there was a problem. The first eggs they laid hatched, but the hatchlings would not grow into adults. Why might that be? Even after I infused them with qi directly through the Grand Method, why won't they grow?
If I had infused them with qi through the Grand Method, they should have become adults without ever needing to feed. What could be the matter?」
「Grain Rain. [TL Note: Grain Rain (Gogu), a solar term around late April, named for the rains that nourish young grain.]
One of my subordinates handled the bed bugs foolishly and, through his blunder, was bled by several of them until he collapsed. The fool. He had lost so much blood that he had to take a Blood Replenishing Pill.」
「Two days after Grain Rain.
We discovered that several of them were shedding their shells. So suddenly? Why had they molted all at once? It seems the Captain and I will have to stay up the whole night to find the cause.」
「Five days after Grain Rain.
At last we have uncovered the secret! They will only shed their shells if they feed on blood! We seized people from the border and let the bed bugs feed to their hearts' content.」
「Grain Rain.......
We came to learn that they must feed on blood a total of five times to become adults. But upon discovering that they have to feed a total of six times in order to become adults and lay eggs, we realized this posed a grave problem.
To raise them into adults, we'd had to seize more than a hundred people from two villages near the border, so just how many people would we need to multiply their numbers further still?」
「Grain Rain.......
Young Miss Qingyu, as ever. When the Captain went to her seeking advice, the Young Miss recommended that we use Blood Replenishing Pills. Indeed, rather than letting them feed once and then killing the person, if we let them drain only enough blood to leave the person barely breathing and then fed him a Blood Replenishing Pill, we could have them feed again and again.
To think we had fed a Blood Replenishing Pill to a subordinate ourselves and never once thought to use it this way. The Young Miss truly is a prodigy of the Five Poisons Sect.」
Having read this far, I stopped for a moment and sorted out in my head what I'd learned.
The contents were so grotesque that I felt I had to put them in order.
First, what I'd gleaned so far concerned Wu Qingyu's identity and how exactly they had bred the bed bugs.
The Qingyu who kept appearing in the diary had to be Wu Qingyu, that goth-fashion psycho woman who'd run the Sword Phoenix through the side and tried to traffic me, and given that she was addressed as Young Miss, it seemed the woman was of the Five Poisons Sect's bloodline.
And as I pieced together how they'd enlarged the bed bugs and how they'd bred them, I was reminded once again that the Five Poisons Sect bastards were clearly out of their minds.
'They don't hesitate one bit to serve up people as feed, do they?'
After all, they possessed a deranged madness that didn't balk even at serving up human beings as feed.
That was when it happened.
Hwa-eun's voice came from beside me.
"These are all Blood Replenishing Pills? Why are there so many of them?"
When I turned my head, boxes had piled up in front of and around Hwa-eun, and the large open crates near her were brimming with pills as well.
From the way Hwa-eun was cocking her head at the pills laid out around her, it seemed she'd just worked out what they were.
Apparently every pill Hwa-eun had examined so far was the Blood Replenishing Pill mentioned in the book.
'I should probably ask her to go through the book with me.'
It seemed best to look through this book together.
After all, it would clear up her questions in a single stroke.
So I promptly invited Hwa-eun to read the book with me.
"Hwa-eun, would you care to look this over here with me?"
"Did you find something?"
"It's the diary of the Vice-Captain of the Centipede Squad, one of the Five Poisons Sect's combat units."
"The Five Poisons Sect?! But a diary?"
At the mention that I'd found a Five Poisons Sect member's diary, Hwa-eun came scrambling over.
When I had her look over what I'd already read, Hwa-eun took in all the earlier passages, and her eyes flew wide open.
"Th-this is...."
It seemed she'd realized what the Blood Replenishing Pills she'd been examining really were, because with a shocked look she quickly turned to the page following the part I'd been reading.
「Beginning of Summer. [TL Note: Beginning of Summer (Ipha), a solar term around early May.]
Now that we have raised the entire first brood into adults, it is time to look for a good location. I intend to go to the Blood Cult and have them scout out a spot for us.」
「A day not long before Grain in Ear. [TL Note: Grain in Ear (Mangjong), a solar term around early June, when grain crops form their ears.]
With the Blood Cult's help, we raided a Green Forest stronghold near the Three Gorges of the Yangtze. The Three Gorges are the best place to spread the bed bugs, and we needed human blood; surely, if a pack of Green Forest brigands went missing, no one would come looking for them.」
「Grain in Ear.
We settled into the stronghold and began multiplying their numbers in earnest. We severed the muscle meridians in the limbs of the bandits we'd subdued with poison, attached a suitable number of bed bugs to each, and had them feed without pause. Taking care to give the bandits Blood Replenishing Pills and food now and then, we found the numbers grew remarkably fast.
I began to think we might just be able to carry out the task entrusted to us successfully.」
「Minor Heat. [TL Note: Minor Heat (Soseo), a solar term around early July, just before the height of summer.]
Within a single month, the bed bugs' numbers had swelled far too greatly. The madly multiplying numbers were beginning to slip beyond our control. We decided to kill off a portion of them with poison.
At this rate, there was no way we could keep them in check.」
「Grain in Ear.......
We poured poison into three of the four breeding chambers and killed every bed bug inside them.
As for the bed bugs in the one remaining chamber, we caught them one by one, kept only the adults, killed all the rest, and separated the females from the males. The females too, save for a small number, were all put to death.
And to keep them from breeding, we decided that what we released into the Central Plains would be limited to males only.
What we were ordered to bring about is chaos in the Central Plains, not its annihilation. Were those things ever set loose, even we would not survive.」
「Grain in Ear....... Bed bugs were still alive in the three breeding chambers we had thought were entirely dead. Four subordinates who went in to clean lost their lives. To think they survived even that poison. Using several different poisons in turn, we killed off even the ones that still clung to life.」
「Minor Heat.
We were right on the verge of completing the mission when the door of the breeding chamber that held only the males was opened by the hand of a bandit whose limb meridians we'd severed.
To think he could pull off something like this even with his limb meridians cut. Were the meridians not completely severed after all?
Most of the subordinates who had come here for the mission are dead.
Of all times, this had to happen while the Captain was away. The bed bugs have only barely made it out of the cave so far, so I think we ought to flee, but if we go back having failed the mission, will we even survive?」
That was where the contents ended.
The woman who lay dead, collapsed in this log cabin, had likely taken her own life.
I closed the book, rose to my feet, and decided to go and inspect the breeding facility nearby.
I needed to see how large it was and how many bed bugs remained.
And above all, the females said to be left had to be eliminated without fail.
"Let's start by checking the place where they were breeding the bed bugs."
"Understood, Soryong."
And as we headed outside, I asked Cho to go and bring Seol noona.
"Cho, won't you go and bring Seol noona here? I really think it'd help to have your auntie come."
-Tssrit!
This affair was clearly tied to the Five Poisons Sect, and there was a considerable amount of supplies and medicines and the like left in the stronghold.
However much of a daughter of the Tang Family Hwa-eun might be, when it came to handling something like this, Seol noona, who held the post of Elder, would be far more help, which was why I'd asked Cho to go and fetch her.
Tucking the book I'd found into my robes, I walked outside, and Cho took to the sky and vanished down the mountain to run her errand.
"The diary mentioned a cave, so it must be over that way."
"Then let's head over there."
Once Cho had gone, the spot Hwa-eun pointed to was the mountainside.
Walking a short way toward where Hwa-eun pointed, we found a cave set into the mountainside, and sure enough, a faint smell of coriander came drifting out from within.
It seemed there were still quite a few bed bugs left inside.
At the scent wafting out, Hwa-eun looked at me, asking what we should do.
"What should we do?"
"Let's get torches ready and go in. The bed bugs wouldn't come near anyone carrying a torch. The males that got out will all die before the year is over, but just in case, we absolutely have to deal with the females. As we confirmed in the Five Poisons Sect's diary, even one of them getting away would spell disaster."
Even if we didn't wipe them all out, the males that had spilled outside wouldn't be able to breed, so they'd all be gone within a year.
But there was no telling what state the supposedly confined females were in, so we had to check on them and deal with them ourselves, no matter what.
And so, lighting the torches stocked at the stronghold, we stepped cautiously inside.
I could feel bed bugs all through the dark cave.
Cowed by the blazing torches, the bed bugs kept to the shadows and couldn't easily draw near, and after a few steps, corpses now dried and withered, strewn here and there, came into view, along with four doors that opened downward into the floor.
"It looks like they dug pits and covered them over with wooden doors to raise them."
Evidently, the Five Poisons Sect's bed bug pens were nothing more than large pits dug into the floor and covered over with wooden doors.
But every one of the doors stood wide open, and I was glancing around, wondering where on earth the females could be.
Further in, a single large chest came into view at the back of the breeding area.
The bed bugs that had been swarming around it scattered swiftly in every direction as we drew near with the torches.
"It looks like they're inside here."
"In here?"
I was in the middle of resting my foot on the chest where the female bed bugs were likely to be and saying as much to Hwa-eun.
A man's voice came from the direction of the cave entrance.
"Who the hell are you?!"
A man holding a torch stood at the cave entrance, staring at us.
'No way.... That diary said the Centipede Squad's Captain had stepped away.... Don't tell me that's him?'
The timing really was shit.
*****
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