Chapter 66: Five Poisons (1)

Translator: bjgoofy

"Human-Faced Spider! No, didn't you say you were going to get food for the lizards? How did you end up capturing a Human-Faced Spider!? And how is this ferocious Human-Faced Spider so docile!"

“Son-in-law, where in the world did you catch this Human-Faced Spider!? Moreover, the spider has taken on our Hwa-eun's appearance! What is going on here?”

“Oh my! This is the Human-Faced Spider! It really looks just like Hwa-eun.”

The surprised voices of the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons, the father-in-law, and the mother-in-law at the sight of Yohwa.

The numerous members of the Tang Family behind them also nodded their heads rapidly at the voices of the three.

It was only natural for them to be surprised when venomous creatures kept increasing in the family every time their son-in-law went out and returned.

My shoulders were already puffed up with pride.

With a strange mix of arrogance and modesty, I replied with a nonchalant expression.

“Well, it just turned out that way.”

I meant to imply, 'I just found it on the way,' or 'This is nothing for someone like me.'

Seemingly accepting such pride as acceptable when someone brings back one of the Ten Great Venomous Creatures, the elders nodded with pleased expressions.

“Indeed, if you've brought back the Human-Faced Spider, a man can puff up his chest with pride. Hahaha.”

“Soryong, you’ve done well.”

As we headed toward the inner courtyard used by the direct Tang family members in this warm atmosphere, Nunim, who was walking beside me, cautiously asked the elders.

“But Father, as far as I know, the Human-Faced Spider only has a human face. Why does it have a full human body?

At first, I was very unsure whether it really was a Human-Faced Spider.”

The name Human-Faced Spider implies a spider with a human face, but as Nunim pointed out, our Yohwa had a human body as well.

To refer to this child accurately, she should be called a Human-Bodied Spider or Human-Form Spider.

Nunim confessed that this was why she maintained a cautious attitude even though I had obtained one of the Ten Great Venomous Creatures. As I was curious myself, I waited for father-in-law’s response.

Then came the smiling answer of father-in-law.

“It seems you have only read martial arts manuals and not properly read The Compendium of Venomous Creatures Under Heaven. That is because this child is a female. What you know, Hwa-eun, is the male Human-Faced Spider. Seeing a female is far rarer than seeing a male, which is why the name Human-Faced Spider stuck. They are both the same kind. You could say you’ve caught an even rarer one.”

"I see. So Yohwa isn't just imitating a woman's appearance but is actually female?"

Nunim had just realized this now, but I already knew that our Yohwa was a female.

That was all because I had checked Yohwa’s pedipalp.

I had checked the pedipalp of Yohwa, who had transformed into Nunim, for two reasons. One was due to my curiosity about her mimicry ability, and the other was because I was curious about her sex.

It was understandable that Yohwa would transform into Nunim’s form after consuming my yang energy, but reproducing even the mole on Namgoong Seol’s chest or unseen parts after consuming yang energy couldn’t be explained.

If it was a mimicry based solely on the memories of the man whose yang energy was consumed, it should be impossible to perfectly mimic even such intimate features.

That was why I checked her pedipalp, and just as expected, the part I supposedly didn’t know wasn’t accurately replicated. When I asked Yohwa the reason, she didn’t answer but secretly picked up and ate a strand of Nunim’s hair.

And then, her mimicry became perfect.

That completely explained why she had been able to transform perfectly into Namgoong Seol.

It was because she had eaten a strand of hair that had fallen from Namgoong Seol while she was practicing her martial arts.

If she consumed yang energy, she could mimic the appearance of the person the one she consumed found beautiful, but perfect mimicry seemed to require a strand of hair.

And that was how I confirmed her gender as well.

In spiders, the male has reproductive organs developed in the pedipalp, a kind of foreleg.

That’s why, if a spider has reproductive organs on its pedipalp, which are its antenna-like legs, it’s a male, and if not, it’s a female.

But Yohwa's pedipalps, while mimicking a human body, lacked reproductive organs, so it was naturally assumed she was female.

Moreover, since in spiders the female is much larger than the male, if Yohwa were male, the female would be even more gigantic, which would be unreasonable.

Nunim now wore a face that showed her doubts had finally been cleared.

Father-in-law, who had explained Yohwa’s identity, patted my shoulder and laughed.

“Kuhaha. Then, you are now truly our son-in-law, aren't you?”

“Oh my, now that you mention it, that's true. That means the promise between the two of you has been fulfilled too, right?”

“Gasp! H-how do you know about that!?”

Their expressions and remarks revealed they already knew about the deal between Nunim and me.

As I widened my eyes in surprise, father-in-law answered with a familiar smile on his face.

“What does it matter? What matters now is that you are truly one of our family.”

When I turned my head, Nunim was avoiding my gaze.

She was looking up at the moon with blushing cheeks for no reason at all.

While I had been worrying endlessly about what to do, it seemed Nunim had already told the family everything about our arrangement.

Then came grandfather’s words.

“Hehehe. Then, Soryong, starting tomorrow, go down to the river and catch a live goose.”

Grandfather suddenly asking me to catch a goose specifically, a live one, came out of nowhere.

I blinked in confusion at the request to catch a live goose, and grandfather, in his usual cheerful tone, explained.

“You rascal. The goose to be used for the betrothal ceremony must be prepared by yourself, mustn't it? We can’t hold the wedding just yet since you're not of age, but we can have the betrothal ceremony.”

“Young Master, a betrothal ceremony is a vow before many people that the wedding will be held in the future. And as for why you have to catch a goose yourself…”

After listening to mother-in-law’s explanation, everything became clear.

I had wondered why the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons had asked me to catch a goose, and it was all due to the symbolic meaning behind the bird.

Geese are creatures that mate for life once they’ve chosen a partner, making them an indispensable bride’s gift for a betrothal ceremony.

Since they migrate north in the spring and return in the fall, they are also widely seen as birds that understand the harmony of yin and yang, which is why they are a necessary element in a betrothal ceremony.

Following that was father-in-law’s playful voice.

“Once you have the betrothal ceremony, even if one day you start disliking our Hwa-eun, you won’t be able to run away.”

So according to the elders, my engagement ceremony would soon take place.

It really did feel like there was no going back, and I was now firmly established as the son-in-law of the Sichuan's Tang Family.

***

Yohwa seemed to really like the large tree planted by the well in the middle of Tang Family Mountain.

I had been wondering where to give her a home, but the moment I told her this mountain would be her new residence, she ran straight toward the distant well.

She climbed up and down the big tree planted beside the well a few times, then settled on it.

I had thought that despite her size and stationary nature, she lived on the ground like a ground spider, but it seemed that was just because she hadn’t found a tree she liked.

She immediately began building her webbed home atop the tree.

It wasn’t a typical wide-spread spiderweb but rather a cocoon-like structure.

“Do you like it here?”

-Kishi!

Yohwa nodded her head in response to my question.

“I’ll show you where I sleep, so come with me for now.”

After taking her to my room and showing her the location, I told her to come find me there if she got hungry. Then she attached an almost invisible strand of silk to the window frame of my room.

“What’s this for, Yohwa?”

-Kishit!

When I asked what the thread meant, she bounced it with her leg.

“If you bounce it, I come?”

When I asked if that was what she meant, Yohwa nodded.

Yohwa really was a clever creature in many ways.

With her new home now decided, the only ones left were the Lizards.

The Lizards couldn’t be placed in the Venomous Creatures Garden or the Pavilion, so for the time being, I had them settle in my room.

They were just too much like puppies to keep separately.

Only after assigning homes to all the new members of the household was I finally able to wash up and get some sleep.

***

The betrothal ceremony itself wasn’t anything fancy.

Except for the part where Yohwa secretly caught a goose at night in my place after I failed to catch a live one over two days.

It was a simple ceremony in which I made a vow of marriage to Nunim before the elders of the family and presented the ceremonial gifts.

However, there was a small hiccup when it came to preparing the gifts.

There are three required items for a betrothal ceremony: one is a goose, another is a handwritten letter from me, and the last is a gift I prepared myself.

The goose was taken care of, and I had no trouble writing the letter on the spot, but the issue was with the final gift.

I had planned to use a norigae made from the knot that Namgoong Seol had given me in exchange, but Nunim suddenly and unexpectedly proposed using the Lizards as the gift.

“Soryong, about the gift. Could we… maybe use the Lizards instead?”

I had known she had her eyes on the Lizards for a while now, but I didn’t expect her to say it outright like this.

It felt like a sucker punch to the back of my head.

My brain raced like mad as I searched for an answer. If I were to reject her here, especially when it’s the betrothal gift she’s talking about, I’d never hear the end of it from her.

“Hwa-eun, a betrothal gift is supposed to be something enduring. The goose is meant to symbolize an unchanging bond, and the handwritten letter is a vow of unwavering commitment, so shouldn’t the final gift also be something unchanging, like Ice Jade?

A-and besides, once the betrothal ceremony is complete, everything I have will be yours anyway...”

At my response, Nunim’s cheeks turned red.

She averted her gaze as if embarrassed and answered in a trembling voice.

“I-I see. Then, I’ll follow your wishes, Soryong.”

‘Nice! Well done, me!’

And just like that, I successfully pacified Nunim and prevented the Lizards from being stolen, bringing the betrothal ceremony to a close.

Once it ended, father-in-law and the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons grandfather called Nunim and me to the Family Head’s Pavilion.

It seemed they had some kind of words of wisdom to share.

As we entered the Family Head’s Pavilion, father-in-law and grandfather spoke.

“The reason we’ve called you two here to the Family Head’s Pavilion is because of the Great Ritual.”

“Great Ritual?”

Hearing the word “Ritual”, I tilted my head, wondering if this was something like a marriage registration that had to be reported to some authority, but Nunim’s explanation followed.

“In the Tang Sect, we call the internal energy cultivation method and the acceptance of poison the Great Ritual.”

“Oh, you mean the process of accepting the Ten Poisons?”

“That’s right, Soryong.”

Right. Now that I had captured one of the Ten Great Venomous Creatures, the next step was to go through the process of accepting poison into my internal energy cultivation method.

As I nodded, the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons grandfather continued his explanation.

“This time, Soryong, the fact that you brought back the Human-Faced Spider can truly be considered a good thing. Among the Ten Great Venomous Creatures, the Human-Faced Spider is considered to have the weakest poison, so it is well-suited for initiating the poison-acceptance process.

Had you brought back one with a stronger toxicity, we would have had to dilute the poison and perform the Great Ritual multiple times.”

He was saying that Yohwa’s venom was mild, making it easier to begin the acceptance process.

At this point, I began to feel as though Heaven itself might be helping me.

"From what I hear, that's really fortunate. So, do we proceed with the Great Ritual right away?"

Seeing how impatient the Tang family members seemed, I wondered if we would start the ritual immediately, but both elders shook their heads.

Grandfather Man of Ten Thousand Poisons grandfather spoke again.

“Listen carefully, Soryong. If you hadn’t brought back the Human-Faced Spider, the Family Head and I were actually planning to make you another proposal.”

“Another proposal?”

“Yes, as we were reviewing the venomous creatures you have and those you’re likely to bring, we recalled something the family had long forgotten.”

I looked to Nunim to ask for an explanation, but she wore a face that said this was her first time hearing of it, too.

Grandfather Man of Ten Thousand Poisons opened a book and asked,

“Do you know the precise meaning of the term Five Poisons?”

He asked if I knew what the Five Poisons referred to.

I assumed it was the same ‘Five Poisons’ from the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Technique I had learned, but I didn’t know the exact definition.

Nunim spoke up beside me to explain.

“Soryong, the Five Poisons refer to the centipede, snake, scorpion, lizard, and toad. These five venomous creatures are collectively called the Five Poisons.”

The explanation was that these five, centipede, snake, scorpion, lizard, and toad were referred to as the Five Poisons.

Hearing that two of the creatures I currently possessed were included among them, I became even more curious about what this other proposal could be.