Chapter 87: Twenty-Four Poison Branches (2)
Translator: bjgoofy
The adoption ceremony (?) reminded me of something from my previous life.
The process was simple - offering prayers at the ancestral shrine where the ancestral tablets were enshrined and sharing a cup of alcohol, but that cup of alcohol contained each other's blood mixed in, which made something from my previous life vaguely come to mind.
“Here, drink it.”
“Yes, Father.”
A cup of red alcohol handed to me.
I carefully poured the contents of the cup into my mouth.
-Gulp.
Soon, I tasted the sharpness of alcohol for the first time since my reincarnation, and within it, a fishy scent lingered.
As the taste of blood spread in my mouth, the thing that had been swirling in my head came to me clearly.
‘That's it! This feels just like a scene from some gangster movie.’
Something I had only seen in movies from my past life, this felt strikingly similar to a gangster initiation ritual.
But then again, becoming family is becoming family, whether in this way or any other, so I guess I could understand it? The essence feels the same, after all.
After we exchanged drinks, the adoption(?) into the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace was completed far more simply than I expected.
In other words, I had been officially distributed to the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace.
“From now on, Soryong, you are one of us in the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace and my son. Hahaha! And in our Beast Palace, we don’t use surnames, so you're no longer Wei Soryong, just Soryong. A dragon is still a beast, so it should be fine. A little dragon... that’s good. May you become a great dragon, as vast as the ocean.” (TL Note: Meaning of Soryong in english is Little Dragon)
“Kegh. Yes, Father.”
Father slapped my back with a hand as big as my head, offering his blessing.
As I answered with an awkward smile, the newly gained noona, Seolpyo noona, gently stroked my cheek and spoke.
“Soryong, you can call me Seolpyo noona or just Seol noona, alright? Let’s get along well, okay? Aww, you’re so cute.”
“Yes, Se, Seol noona. I look forward to it.”
When we were strangers, she had the image of a fierce cat with healthy, vibrant skin, but now that we’re family, Seol noona’s personality had softened like a gentle pet cat.
Seeing how happy the two new family members looked, I smiled awkwardly once more.
‘In my past life, I adopted countless animals, but being the one adopted myself is definitely a first. This is a very strange feeling.’
My first adoption experience across both my past and present lives.
I had only ever welcomed adopted ones; to be the one welcomed like this, it was incredibly awkward.
Was this how the children I adopted in my past life felt?
‘But, well... it's not a bad feeling.’
The strange yet pleasant feeling, seeing the satisfied faces of the adopters.
I knew very well why the people of the Beast Palace were so pleased.
From the Beast Palace's perspective, I was definitely an S-grade specimen, so of course they were happy.
‘By any standard, I’m definitely S-class. No doubt.’
Not long ago, I even ate the Royal Jelly of the Golden-Furred King Bee, which gave me great complexion(?), and since I wasn’t fully grown yet, there was still the fun of raising me. A specimen of this level would be hard to find anywhere.
After the brief adoption ceremony and welcoming, a modest banquet was held for the Tang Family members, and it wasn’t until late evening that the feast came to an end.
“This is your room, Soryong. What do you think? Do you like it?”
“Yes, it’s very luxurious.”
The place I was led to after the banquet was a room far more luxurious than the Tang Family’s typically modest style.
A cozy-looking room with a bed lined with leopard skin and a rug made of wolf fur.
It felt like a penthouse in the middle of a jungle.
And that was my living quarters in the Beast Palace.
“You’ll mostly stay with the Tang Family, but you need a place to stay when you come here.”
“Thank you, Seol noona.”
“Oh my, you don’t say thank you among family.”
“Ah, is that so.”
I smiled awkwardly, still not quite feeling like we were family.
“And now, just wait a little bit while I prepare and bring it?”
“Prepare? Bring?”
‘What? What is she preparing? What is she bringing?’
Seol noona suddenly said she was going to prepare and bring something.
Not knowing what was going on, I blinked in confusion, and just like that, Noona disappeared. I was about to lie down on the bed after changing into comfortable clothes when Seol noona entered the room dragging Hwa-eun along.
Hwa-eun was dressed in something like a thin nightgown, and her face was flushed bright red, while Seol noona looked oddly excited.
“Why are the two of you…?”
Startled by their sudden appearance, I asked, and then something unbelievable came out of Seol noona’s mouth.
"Now that we've become family, let's chat and sleep together!"
“You don’t mean the three of us!?”
“Yep, I’ve always been alone, so I really wanted to try this once I had a younger sibling. Can’t we?”
I asked again in surprise, and Seol noona replied with a face that said, "What’s the problem?"
I understood why Noona had come, but looking at Hwa-eun, I silently asked with my expression why she had come too. Her neck was flushed red as she replied.
“I-In the Beast Palace, u-um, it’s customary for engaged couples to s-sleep together…”
‘Wait, such a lovely tradition… No, wait…’
From what I could piece together, Hwa-eun and I were supposed to sleep together, but Seol noona was suggesting we all sleep together.
In other words, if I turned down Seol noona’s suggestion, Hwa-eun and I would end up alone together.
[Just say yes. I think it’s better than the two of us alone.]
As expected, a trembling voice reached my ears, and when I looked at Hwa-eun, she was giving me a pleading look.
It seemed like she’d feel too awkward if left alone with me.
I cautiously asked Seol noona in a soft voice.
“Wait, do I have to s-sleep in the middle?”
“Of course!”
At that point, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to sleep at all that night.
***
Seol noona had an endless number of questions.
While I was sitting at the breakfast table, picking at some dumplings with tired eyes, she spoke up.
“Ryong-ah, I’ll tell you what you’ve been most curious about after breakfast, so come with me right after you eat, okay?”
“What I’ve been curious about?”
“The centipede.”
“Ah.”
After breakfast, Noona said she’d help me figure out the reason why Cho and I were able to communicate telepathically.
I nodded and finished eating, and then she led me to the cliff behind the Beast Palace.
There, my adoptive father, who had finished eating with us, was already waiting. After seating me, he said we would begin by examining my internal energy technique.
“We confirmed that the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Technique has traces of our Beast Palace’s Beast Heart Technique mixed in, so the Elder Man of Ten Thousand Poisons has allowed me to examine your martial arts. Why don't you go ahead and try a Greater Circulation once?”
“Yes, understood.”
Since the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Technique hides the greatest secret of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, my adoptive father said we should first check how much of it was included.
Following his instructions, I sat and began a Greater Circulation, and my adoptive father placed his hand on my back to observe the flow of my internal energy.
Once the Greater Circulation ended, he nodded and spoke.
“So that’s how it was hidden. No wonder we didn’t notice back then. Though it imitates the Beast Heart Technique, it falls far short of the original. We won’t need to discuss this separately with Elder Man of Ten Thousand Poisons.”
He looked somewhat relieved.
I cautiously asked what the Beast Heart Technique actually was.
“What exactly is this Beast Heart Technique?”
Seol noona stepped in to explain.
“I’ll explain that. The Beast Heart Technique is an internal energy technique that only the direct line of our Southern Barbarian Beast Palace can learn. It’s a technique that allows you to grow together with a beast.”
The idea of growing together with a beast immediately caught my interest.
I quickly asked again.
“Grow together with a beast?”
“Yep. The Beast Heart Technique has a unique function. It lets you feel the heart of a beast and give it commands. You could say it’s an internal energy technique that allows you to become one with a beast and fight together.
Being able to grow together with beasts means how much you can fight as one with beasts. Something like that."
‘So, growing together means... how well you can handle the beast?’
“You said you can feel her heart and give her commands?”
I could give commands, but I was not yet able to feel Cho’s heart.
As I tilted my head in puzzlement, Seol noona smiled and said,
“Yep. Just wait a moment.”
-Dudududu.
At her words, I waited briefly, and from a distance, a cloud of dust rose as ten wolves came running toward us.
The wolves arrived at the edge of the cliff and bared their teeth at me.
-Grrrrr...
Then Seol noona shouted sharply.
“Hey! Soryong is now my little brother, so you shouldn’t be so wary!”
-Kiiing.
At her scolding, the wolves immediately laid their ears back, curled their tails, and acted cute toward her as if to apologize.
“Fierce Wolf Chain Formation!”
When noona gave the command a moment later, the wolves suddenly charged at my adoptive father with fierce momentum.
-Arooo!
The ten wolves coordinated as they attacked like a spinning windmill.
Two would leap at him simultaneously, or four would come from four directions, their attacks were sharp and deadly.
Even to a martial arts novice like me, it looked like any regular expert would be torn apart by them.
But despite that, the wolves couldn’t even brush the clothes of my adoptive father, who had a massive build. After a few rounds of fierce engagement, noona gave the order.
“Stop.”
At her command, the wolves, panting heavily after attacking my adoptive father, ran to Seol noona and rubbed against her cheeks, as if asking for praise.
-Kiiing.
“Yes, well done. Did you see that, Ryong? Like this.”
“Incredible! Ten wolves at once?”
To control ten wolves at once like one’s own limbs.
At my compliment, Seol noona responded with a proud expression.
“If you master the Beast Heart Technique, you can control five hundred or even a thousand at once. But if you get greedy beyond your level, the hearts of countless beasts could flood into you, leading to qi deviation and madness, so you must be very careful.”
I could barely manage one, and she was talking about five hundred to a thousand at once.
I looked at noona with admiration and asked,
“Ho-how can I feel the hearts of the beasts? And how can I give commands to the others too!?”
Then my adoptive father and noona smiled and answered my question.
“After examining the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Technique, I noticed that since it accepts poison into the body, it imposes a burden on your body. That’s why one’s level is determined by one’s innate talent, whether it’s five poisons or ten poisons. But the Beast Heart Technique was never made to accept poison.”
“Then what does it accept?”
I perked up, thinking it meant I could converse mentally with my pet venomous creatures without involving poison.
But the answer I heard was a bit shocking.
“It’s originally meant to accept things like blood.”
“Wait, blood!?”
They spoke so fondly about animals, and now they were talking about accepting blood?
Startled by the mention of accepting blood, I saw both of them smiling.
“Just a drop of blood, of course. Or bodily fluids like saliva. That’s how you were able to accept poison and give commands to the centipede.”
“Oh! I see!”
So, accepting body fluids like saliva or blood registered a new creature.
That wouldn’t hurt as much as poison, so it wasn’t bad. And since it wasn’t poison, it wouldn’t interfere with filling the ten poisons quota either, so that was great.
I’d have to separately gather poisons to advance along the Five Poisons path, but since the centipedes could all be registered together, I asked excitedly.
It seemed the centipedes weren’t counted as separate slots but as a stack.
‘Three-stack centipedes, that’s insane.’
“Please, teach me the Beast Heart Technique!”
“Of course! You’re my son, so it’s only right I pass it on. Sit down. I’ll pass on the Beast Heart Technique properly.”
“Thank you! Father! Thank you, Noona!”
The awkward words "Father" and "Nunim" just flowed out like dialect.
Immediately, modifications began to be made to my Five Poisons Returning to Origin Technique, and I felt the activation of several additional acupoints leading toward my head. Soon, I began to feel Cho’s emotions, wrapped around my waist.
'This is!'
Cho’s heart was filled with boundless love and affection for her father.
Even now, she was agonizing over whether or not to bite the big man who had placed his hand on her daddy’s head, her conflicted emotions clearly transmitted into my chest.
'Keuk! Cho!'
Then, as the incomplete Beast Heart Technique hidden within the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Technique became complete, my adoptive father spoke.
"Hand over all your centipedes to me for a moment and lie down."
“They might bite…”
“Do not worry. If they try, I’ll surround myself with Protective Qi. And besides, can’t you just tell them not to bite?”
He told me to hand over the centipedes and lie down.
He certainly had a knack for handling animals, so it would probably be fine. But still, aside from nunim and me, I had never handed them over to anyone.
I mentally instructed Cho to make sure the others didn’t bite Grandpa, then handed the centipedes to my adoptive father.
“Kids, go to Grandpa for a bit.”
“Like this?”
And just as I lay down on the floor...
“Now, open your mouth and stay still.”
“My mouth?”
Suddenly, darkness covered my face.
My adoptive father looked down at me, holding the centipedes above my head, and said,
“Now, each of you spit out one drop of saliva, not poison, into your master’s mouth. Soryong, while operating the Beast Heart Technique, focus on sensing the energy mixed into the centipedes’ saliva entering your body.”
So the reason I was to lie down was to receive the centipedes’ saliva directly into my mouth. Startled, I sat up and asked,
“Wait, F-Father, hold on a moment.”
“What is it?”
“Am I the only one who thinks this is weird?”
“?”
At that, both of them tilted their heads in confusion.
Neither Father nor Seol noona seemed to find anything strange about it.
*****
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