Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

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Chapter 1: The Ants Are Everywhere

“Thud! Thud!”

“Gyaaaaaaaaaah!”

In awe of the egg’s appearance, my voice barely escaped as something the size of my fist dropped from above without mercy.

“Whoosh! Whoosh!”

“Thwack!”

As I swung the torch madly, slamming one of those creatures into the ground, I saw long antennae and a crooked back.

Earwig!

“Ugh.”

Quickly, I stomped on the creature that twitched from the torch blow and swung it again, herding the remaining critters deeper inside.

“Get lost! You little brats! What kind of earwig is the size of my fist?!”

While I liked all kinds of insects, earwigs were just… No thank you.

I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart and thought about collecting the eggs before escaping.

These earwigs were vicious meat-eaters.

I had no desire to become a punching bag for earwigs the size of a fist while I lingered here.

So I marched forward with the torch leading the way towards the pile of eggs.

“Swoosh.”

Every time I approached, the earwigs crawled back in fear.

I counted about twenty or so of these wretched things, and concern for the eggs started nagging at me.

“Will the eggs be okay?”

My worry about the eggs stemmed not just from the earwigs, but because centipedes have a peculiar nesting behavior. They lay eggs and guard them until they hatch!

They even lick the eggs to prevent mold from forming until they hatch.

With their mother already dead, I was anxious that the unfettered eggs had grown moldy after two days of neglect.

“If I knew there were eggs, I would’ve come sooner…”

As I approached the heap of eggs, I aimed my torch to take a look, and an utterly devastating sight met my eyes.

What I had thought were radiant yellow eggs were mostly nibbled away, likely by the young earwigs.

Moreover, some of the eggs close to the ground were covered in white, cotton-candy-like mold.

“Damn it! Those little earwig brats!”

The mold wasn’t the earwigs’ fault, but I scolded them out of frustration. Quickly, I began to rummage through the pile of eggs with the unlit torch.

“Squish.”

“Please, let at least one of you be alive.”

Sticky mucus and dripping liquids clung to the torch’s tip, creating a sludgy mess.

Just then, as I dug deeper into the sticky eggs, three glimmering eggs caught my eye beneath bite marks.

I hastily grabbed the three eggs.

Something slimy covered my hands, but the fact that I found gigantic centipede eggs lifted my spirits, so it didn’t feel that disgusting.

“Ha! Found them!”

Out of about fifty eggs, only three remained unscathed and still vibrantly yellow.

It seemed they were in the center of the pile and had avoided damage.

Most of the pile was wrecked by the earwigs’ attack, yet three were recovered. That was still something, right?

“Damn! Is salvaging three good luck? But this isn’t the time to celebrate. I need to clean these eggs before heading out!”

I quickly wiped the eggs with my sleeve, stuffed them into a jar, and crawled out of the pit.

I then sprinted madly toward the exit.

I had to get back before even the recovered eggs rotted away. I needed to clean them in boiling water and wrap them in disinfected cloth quickly.

“Hang on, my cuties. I’ll give you a bath soon!”

The eggs looked slightly oval, but I thought nothing of it, simply rushing along.

*

“What to do…?”

The next morning, I found myself in an awkward, no, a very awkward situation.

To maintain humidity, I had placed the centipede eggs I snagged yesterday, well-cleaned, in a jar lined with a slightly wet cloth right by my head. But upon waking up, they had all hatched!

I never expected them to hatch so quickly.

I was completely clueless about centipede hatching because of their unique biology.

They have an odd way of hatching: instead of larvae breaking out of eggs, the egg itself transforms into a larva.

The yellow eggs morph into larvae, which is how centipedes come to life.

So now, three larvae made their appearance, all snuggled against me.

I wasn’t in a predicament because they hatched. No, it was because these little guys had decided to emerge from their jar and wrap around me!

Centipedes attach to their mother and live there until they molt twice, and it seemed these little ones mistook me for their mother.

I tried to shake them off, but they clung on tightly!

When I attempted to forcibly pry them off, they scurried to my back, avoiding my grasp.

They won’t need food till their second molt, so there’s no worry about feeding them, but just having them cling on felt embarrassing.

Three centipedes the size of old sausages clinging to me is quite uncomfortable.

Then a thought struck me.

“Ah! If I go into water, they will just fall off!”

Taking my long-overdue bath idea into account, I grabbed the jar and bolted towards the water.

*

“Junior Hero, are you there?”

Dang Cheolsan shouted towards the private chamber where the Junior Hero was said to be resting, arriving at the atmosphere of the ventilation system.

But silence answered him, not even a peep.

“Junior Hero?”

After calling a few more times without a response, Dang Cheolsan stood at the entrance and pondered.

‘Is he out? Or did he catch a cold with all this rain?’

The reason Dang Cheolsan appeared at the ventilation system after several days lay in his urgent request to his father, Mandok God, after he had arrived at the port of Hainan Island.

“Father, please leave with the unharmed warriors for Sichuan first.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

His father, baffled, questioned the request to leave first.

With a smile, Dang Cheolsan answered to reassure him.

“If I take the Inner Dan now, Hua Eun will be saved. If I push forward with my injuries and join you, this will slow us down. So I’ll accompany the wounded warriors instead, while you lead the able-bodied men and hasten your journey.”

“Are you suggesting splitting into two groups? Even so, wouldn’t it be better to split after boarding the ship and reaching land?”

His father’s response was sensible enough; however, Dang Cheolsan had a different plan.

“Isn’t there still a task left to fulfill here?”

“A task?”

When his father cocked his head at the mention of a task still remaining, Dang Cheolsan smiled and answered again.

“Grudging Blood and Gracious Stone.”

The phrase that the wise men spoke; to etch enmity in blood and kindness in stone.

Upon hearing his son’s words, Mandok God’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Oh! I completely forgot about the great favor I owe to save my Hua Eun! Yes, indeed! I would’ve made a grave mistake without you!”

“Yes, Father. Even though she is just a Junior Hero, she has helped us tremendously. How could our Tang Clan just let that go?”

Indeed, they had received significant assistance in saving a daughter’s life and could not simply disregard such kindness.

If they neglected that, how would others view the Tang Clan of Sichuan?

Mandok God nodded, agreeing with Dang Cheolsan’s sentiments.

“It would be challenging for a young Junior Hero to live alone in the mountains of Hainan Island, eating snakes. We should welcome her as part of our family and ensure she has no worries regarding her sustenance. It’s only right to grant her any requests she may have.”

“Yes, I think that’s appropriate as well.”

For these reasons, they allowed the injured family warriors to stay at an inn near the harbor for recuperation, and he came alone to fetch the Junior Hero, yet there was no sign of her.

Dang Cheolsan carefully opened the door to the chamber, fearing that perhaps she had fallen ill from the rain.

“Junior Hero, I’m coming in.”

As he stepped into the chamber, the sight inside struck him as peculiar.

The walls were lined with numerous medicine cabinets, and various jars filled the space.

‘Is the Junior Hero studying medicine?’

Upon seeing the cabinet and jars, the first thought that crossed his mind was the possibility that she might have studied medicine.

However, not spotting the Junior Hero, he felt it was rude to intrude any further into the empty space, intending to close the door when—

—Crunch, crunch.

—Chirp, chirp. Chirp, chirp.

—Srrr!

Suddenly, strange sounds erupted from the jars and cabinets.

The noises caught Dang Cheolsan’s attention as he attempted to leave the chamber.

It was oddly familiar.

Drawn to the sound, Dang Cheolsan forgot about the rudeness and stepped further inside the Junior Hero’s space, cautiously lifting the lid off one intriguing jar.

‘What on earth could it be?’

What awaited him inside was a large black spider.

A massive black spider sat calmly inside the jar.

“Th-this is!”

Dang Cheolsan’s eyes widened in shock.

He quickly glanced through the other jars and cabinets, his expression turning into sheer disbelief.

Every time he opened a jar, he found a lizard, spider, snake, or cricket.

Seeing crickets still remaining in jars with the lizards and spiders indicated they were likely kept as food for the other venomous creatures.

When he spotted the shells of the lizards and spiders in one of the jars, it was evident that these creatures had been nurtured for a long time.

Moreover, he observed some of the spiders were even guarding eggs, and near a cozy-looking stove, he saw buried lizard eggs within the sand.

What an unbelievable sight!

Dang Cheolsan felt a chill run down his spine at the sight inside this chamber.

It was no wonder; even the Tang Clan, skilled with poisons, never imagined nurturing their venomous creatures would yield offsprings!

No! They had kept them, but managing poisons was solely for extraction, never something as extreme as nurturing them for breeding!

‘All this time I thought my daughter’s life was saved by some minor twist of fate, but the real twist of fate is the Junior Hero herself!?’

Dang Cheolsan promptly replaced the jars back where they belonged and exited the chamber.

He sat on the stone steps outside, working to calm his astonished heart.

With her ability to cultivate poisons, she could elevate the clan’s venomous power to an even greater height!

Outside the chamber, while he organized questions for when the Junior Hero returned—

“Eh? Elder?”

She appeared, droplets falling from her head likely from a recent wash, cheerfully entering the ventilation system.

“Oh! Junior Hero!”

At the sight of the Junior Hero, eager joy filled Dang Cheolsan as he stood and swiftly approached her.

And then—

‘What’s this!?’

A sudden surge of malevolence swept over him.

—Bam!

He raised one hand instinctively to block an intense force attacking him, but he was still violently flung backward into the Junior Hero’s chamber.

“Gah! Cough! Cough!”

A considerable amount of blood trickled from his mouth.

It was a serious injury, without a doubt!

He had faced someone at a level akin to his father.

Clearly, the one hand he raised to block the attack wasn’t enough; he should have been using both!

“Elder! Cough!”

As the Junior Hero cried out, a cold voice from an old man gripped her by the neck.

“I’ve come to check on the Tang Clan’s little one after hearing about your arrival in Hainan Island, only to find Mandok God’s son nursing wounds all alone.

I’ve not forgotten the faces of you and your father, which became imprinted in my mind over the last decade! Today, I will send your head to your father, Mandok God! Bwahahaha!”

His left face melted in an unsightly manner, the same cold red-gloved hand extended toward him.

A faintly familiar figure floated in his mind, though that person had long passed.

“My apologies, who might you be that tortures this Junior Hero and me?” Dang Cheolsan managed to ask as he struggled to rise.

The old man cackled, pointing at his own face.

“Bwahaha! What, can’t you recognize me from this face or the red glove? I am Tak Woon-yang, the Blood Hand Demon!”

Indeed, the Blood Hand Demon, Tak Woon-yang.

He was the dark overlord who wreaked havoc in Guizhou and Guangxi over a decade ago, and after suffering defeat from Mandok God, he had fallen off a cliff along the coast and presumably vanished, only to appear right here on Hainan Island, hidden away.

He had been on the same level as Dang Cheolsan back then, but the aura emanating from him now was unimaginably fierce.

It felt like he wouldn’t see another morning if he pressed on, so Dang Cheolsan tried to plead.

“Please, that Junior Hero is not part of our world and holds no relation to us! Your grievance concerns our Tang Clan only! Spare the Junior Hero, and I’ll offer my head willingly.”

Though he had wished to repay kindness, it appeared he had stepped into a situation where he would have to repay kindness with enmity to save the Junior Hero.

However, the Blood Hand Demon laughed wickedly and replied.

“I will slaughter anyone who has brushed against the Tang Clan’s garments! In the world of control, even a brush of clothing means you are bound by karmic ties of thousand lifetimes, right!? Bwahahaha!”

‘This dark overlord doesn’t seem to have any intention of sparing the Junior Hero!’

Despair gripped Dang Cheolsan’s heart as the Blood Hand Demon tightened his grip around the Junior Hero’s neck.

“Gah! S-save me…”

—Srrr!

With a peculiar sound, a yellow something burst forth from the Junior Hero’s neck and sleeves, leaping towards the Blood Hand Demon, biting at his neck and wrists.

“Gah!”

Almost instantly, the Blood Hand Demon’s flesh turned black, spreading like a stain.

With disbelief in his eyes, he felt the power slowly draining from him as his form crumpled downward.

Even the Junior Hero, with a stupendous look on her face, asked.

“Um… is this guy definitely a bad guy? Is he, um, dead?”

In Dang Cheolsan’s mind, the characters for “guest” slowly morphed into those for “family.”