Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

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Chapter 7: Twisted Fates

“How on earth did the raid turn out to be this insane?”

With the difficulty levels spiking like crazy, what could I do? As the party leader, it was my job to manage the aggro ping-pong of my team like a hawk.

But here I was, still a newbie in martial arts, unable to direct them while joining in the damage. So, I decided to keep my distance, observe the situation, and signal when the timing felt just right.

One little slip, and it could lead straight to doom!

“Man, I thought being a party leader would be a fun ride, but it’s actually the most intense thing ever.”

I was nervously directing the aggro order when it was Seol’s turn to make her move.

“Seol! Get out!”

After Hua Eun, it was time for Seol to slip away, right before a top-class warrior from the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace had to jump in.

Just as I ordered her to step back—

“Ugh!”

Seol slipped awkwardly on a rock that had popped up bizarrely due to the struggles with the Flying Heavenly Snake, stumbling as she struggled to maintain her balance.

The moment Seol launched herself backward, her exit got delayed by a split second.

“Damn it! Everyone knows to watch their step in raids!”

Seol had completely forgotten the basic rule of watching the floor. Although she regained her balance swiftly because she was skilled, that one moment of slip could be fatal.

-Whish!

-Crunch.

The Flying Heavenly Snake twisted its body around and ensnared Seol, tightening its grip like a cable tie around her slender waist.

As it quickly started to spin around her, a pained groan erupted from Seol.

“Gah!”

“Seol!”

“Elder!”

“Seol Unnie!”

People were frantically shouting.

The snake raised its head right above Seol’s.

Its mouth started to open wide.

This was a terrifying moment where Seol could be severely injured or worse!

Droplets of drool fell from the gaping mouth of the snake, landing right above Seol’s head.

-Plop. Plop.

“No way! Step back!”

-BOOM!

Grandfather shot out a massive wave of energy, looking as though he had nothing to lose, but as the dust settled, what we saw was that the snake was still perfectly fine, jaws wide open, still targeting Seol.

It seemed like the reptile’s scales were tougher than we’d anticipated, barely stopping for a moment.

-Whish!

After getting smacked by Grandfather’s energy strike, the creature glared at him briefly before slowly aiming to devour Seol again.

“Seol!”

Without a moment’s delay, I grabbed the bag that Yo-hwa had made for me and leaped from the rock toward the snake’s head.

It was an indestructible pouch, and I thought maybe it could prevent Seol from being bitten if I draped it over the snake’s head.

-Flap.

Like deploying a parachute, I unfurled the bag and jumped down from the rock.

As my feet hit the ground, the snake’s jaws swiped by dangerously close, but just in the nick of time, I managed to flip the bag over its head!

“Got it!”

-CRASH!

With the bag now over its head, the snake thrashed around wildly.

Hanging onto it with all my might, I couldn’t hold on much longer as it bucked me off onto the ground.

“Cough!”

-Whish!

-Whish!

However, the moment I got the bag on the snake’s head, something strange happened.

The pouch made by Yo-hwa was semi-transparent, thin enough to see through, yet the creature was hurling warnings everywhere while swinging its head like a maniac.

It was acting as if it had completely lost its sense of direction.

Then, the snake flung Seol away and lifted its head up high.

“Are you okay, Seol?”

“I’m fine!”

While I checked on Seol, the creature, still shaking off the bag, rapidly began retreating toward the other side of the valley.

“My body feels sore, but I’m alright. What about you, Long? You took quite the hit.”

“Ugh. I’m fine too.”

My shoulder ached, but nothing serious had happened.

The bag that had fallen from the sky landed on my head.

Another attempt, number 21, had failed.

*

“That was a close call earlier. Are you alright, Elder Seol?”

“I’m fine, Elder. Long saved me, so thank you, Long.”

“Don’t mention it. We’re family.”

“Oh, look at our Long making me feel emotional today. He saved my life… We are family after all.”

“I appreciate it, Unnie, but we shouldn’t be getting all clingy like this.”

“But we’re family, right?”

It was the end of yet another failed raid attempt number 21, but the atmosphere was surprisingly good.

Isn’t it through repeated failures that camaraderie blossoms?

“Long saved the Elder from a near miss today.”

“Long?”

“He saved her from the Flying Heavenly Snake just as she stumbled on a rock.”

“Oooh, that’s our Long.”

Moreover, because I helped Seol, even the warriors from the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace viewed me more favorably than before.

Gathered around the bonfire, we roasted wild boar that the warriors had caught and began discussing the reasons behind our 21 failures, as custom dictated.

“Today, we did reasonably well in distracting its attention.”

“By the way, from now on we need to be careful about the ground too.”

“Right. Hua Eun, the stones that sprang up from that creature’s surprise attacks really made it hard for us to focus on our techniques.”

But while everyone was chatting, my mind was elsewhere.

In one hand, I held a piece of wild boar meat, and in the other, the pouch made by Yo-hwa.

I couldn’t shake the bizarre incident from earlier out of my head; why had the snake panicked when I flipped that pouch over its head? It remained a mystery that kept nagging at me.

I placed the piece of pork back on a hot stone and tried flipping the pouch over my head.

It was slightly hazy, but I could still see through it well.

“What could it be?”

It didn’t seem logical for such an aggressive creature to freak out over wearing something like this, so I decided to dig into its peculiar behavior.

“I definitely felt like it couldn’t see.”

Snakes have about three primary ways of perceiving their surroundings.

First, there’s sound.

Snakes have generally evolved to the point where they can’t hear the way we do—half-truth, half-lie. They can’t actually hear but can feel vibrations, allowing them to react.

Snakes can perceive sound waves through their entire bodies.

They use these sound waves as a secondary means for detecting living creatures.

Well, except for some large snakes, most tend to be skittish and will slither away from any noise.

Next is the sense of smell.

Snakes also process things through their sense of smell; the reason their tongues are forked and flick out is for this process.

With their split tongue, they capture scent particles from the air and send them to an organ called Jacobson’s organ to identify the source of those smells.

The forked tongue is an evolutionary adaptation for detecting the direction of the scent.

Finally, vision.

Snakes aren’t known for their great eyesight.

They can barely distinguish nearby objects, but they have special abilities.

There are special cells in the holes beneath a snake’s eyes that can detect infrared signals.

They can sense and feel the infrared radiation emitted by creatures, like something out of a horror movie with aliens.

“Wait a sec, could this be it?”

Just as the thoughts about a snake’s infrared vision arose, I recalled how the creature appeared to be flustered while I flipped the pouch over it, which reminded me of a scene from a movie I had seen in my past life.

“What’s your take, Long? Long?”

Seol and Hua Eun were shaking me, realizing I’d fallen deep into my thoughts. I quickly ran over to Yo-hwa, who was perched high up in a nearby tree, shouting, “Yo-hwa, come down!”

Yo-hwa slid down a web, hanging upside down, looking puzzled at Hua Eun’s face.

-Kit?

“What’s wrong?”

I grabbed Yo-hwa with a quizzical expression.

“Can you wrap me up in some spider silk?”

-Kit, kit?

“You want me to wrap you up?”

“Long, are you really asking for that? Why the sudden request?”

My request left Yo-hwa, Seol, and Hua Eun stunned, unable to comprehend.

*

“Is this really going to work?”

“So, we’re going to check it out now, right?”

“It’s the first time I’ve seen the Mandok God looking like this in my life.”

Under the cover of darkness, Mandok God and I were leaping up the valley, practicing our lightness skills to approach the Flying Heavenly Snake.

Glancing down at our appearance, both Grandfather and I shook our heads in disbelief.

The reason for our bewilderment was that we were both covered from head to toe in Yo-hwa’s spider silk, looking comically ridiculous.

I had asked Yo-hwa to wrap me in the silk, but for the test, we needed someone else, and who better than the strongest among us, Grandfather, to join me in this state?

As we moved silently above the valley, I spotted the Flying Heavenly Snake coiled up on a rock on a high cliff in the distance.

[There it is!]

[I see it too, let’s go!]

We swiftly moved towards the creature as we arrived within maximum detection range.

The snake raised its head and gazed in our direction.

[Looks like we’ve been spotted?]

After twenty-one failed raids, we found that the creature could identify us from about 300 meters away.

Knowing this was a crucial moment, Mandok God whispered in surprise, but soon the snake tilted its head, burying it back into its body.

And as we cautiously moved closer, it occasionally lifted its head but didn’t notice us, even as we closed in within ten meters.

Several times, our eyes met, and yet it still failed to recognize our presence.

[So it really does work!]

Mandok God exclaimed in astonishment.

We both exchanged glances, and then I picked up a stone from the ground, signaling for him to step back a bit.

I threw the stone towards the snake’s head.

Having mastered the Tang Clan’s Secret Techniques at a basic level, a target at this distance was just fish in a barrel.

-THUD.

The stone hit right on its head, causing it to jerk in surprise, flicking its tongue wildly.

-Hiss!

-Hiss!

But what good would that do? The creature was effectively blind.

Although it looked around for a while, it didn’t spot us, only tilting its head curiously before pressing it back down onto the ground.

And as it settled, Mandok God, perhaps irritated by the previous attacks, picked up another stone and hurled it at the creature’s head.

-THWACK!

-AAAAAAH!

The sound of the stone hitting echoed through the valley, along with the creature’s angry screech.

After enduring a couple more stones thrown at it, the creature couldn’t take it anymore and fled to another location.

With its absence, we heard the long-suppressed laughter of Mandok God.

“Ha ha ha! What a thrill! You rascal!”

It seemed like he had found great amusement in teasing the Flying Heavenly Snake, and after a hearty laugh, he turned to me.

“So, how did you come up with this idea?”

“Well, snakes like the Flying Heavenly Snake don’t really have good eyesight. Because of that, they possess the ability to detect the heat emitted by living beings. I figured that this Yo-hwa’s spider silk might obstruct that ability.”

“How on earth did you figure that out?”

“When Seol was in danger, and I flipped the pouch over the snake’s head, it panicked and dashed away, right? That moment triggered the thought.”

I recalled a film where the main character covered themselves in mud to evade infrared vision from aliens, wondering if Yo-hwa’s spider silk functioned similarly.

“Then how do we catch it now?”

Smiling, I answered Mandok God’s question.

“By wrapping spider silk around every warrior and shadowing it, we can deprive the creature of food and sleep. Just see how long it can withstand that.”

“I’ll be stalking you until I catch you, making you suffer until then.”

Mandok God grinned dangerously in agreement with my plan.

“What a brilliant approach! Ha ha!”

*

-THUD!

The stumbling creature finally collapsed by the valley’s edge.

After six days of following it, draped in spider silk, what choice did it have?

Whenever it tried to drink or hunt, we’d throw stones to keep it at bay, preventing it from feeding, drinking, or sleeping. Every creature, no matter how strong, must consume food, drink, and rest.

In the end, it lay there, pitifully sipping a few drops of water before collapsing by the riverbank.

It looked like it fainted.

As I approached, nudging it with my hand, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Ha ha ha!”

The head of the Flying Heavenly Snake was now mine!