Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

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Runaway 1

At my words, Hua Eun’s eyes sparkled with joy.

In a situation where a strange woman was coveting me despite the danger, it was clear that showing a confident demeanor was what made her feel this way.

Isn’t this the strength of the younger man in a relationship?

Usually stirring the protective instinct, and in moments like this, loudly declaring, ‘You’re my woman, no matter what.’

“I may not know much about dating, but I can certainly read the situation.”

After all, with years of broadcasting experience, there’s no way I wouldn’t recognize what gets the viewers hooked.

My sole viewer seemed to like the angle, shooting me a barrage of ‘likes’ with her eyes.

While the warm ‘likes’ from Hua Eun were pouring down on me, a woman in black was dumbfoundedly repeating what I had just said.

“Adoptive son of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace and son-in-law of the Tang Clan…?”

The woman’s eyes gradually turned red.

She then shouted at Hua Eun with bloodshot eyes.

“You Tang Clan and Southern Barbarian scum! What on earth are you thinking!? Are you really going to repeat what happened a hundred years ago!? You filthy trash!”

It seemed she was questioning whether we were going to repeat the calamity that befell her own Five Poisons Sect.

I had heard that the Five Poisons Sect was founded by the sons and daughters of the Tang Clan and the Southern Barbarian Palace.

Although they were exterminated due to extreme animal abuse and leaks of martial arts secrets.

Yet, as the woman, furious to the point of bloodshot eyes, hurled her vitriol at Hua Eun, she suddenly looked at me with pitying eyes, as if I were a completely different person.

“So, you’re a pitiful person after all… I now have a reason to make you mine. I will save you from the filthy Tang Clan and Southern Barbarian hands.”

“What nonsense are you talking about…?”

“Right, right. You might be deceived by the Tang Clan and Southern Barbarian right now, so you might think that.”

I thought revealing my identity as the son of the Southern Barbarian Palace and son-in-law of the Tang Clan would make her want to kill me more than anyone else in the Five Poisons Sect. But it seemed that she was out of her mind, perceiving me as a destined victim walking the same path as them.

When I suggested that she was spouting gibberish, she assumed I had been brainwashed.

‘Definitely not normal.’

Just when I felt a chill at her words, she quickly brushed off the chunks of ice stuck to her chest and arms and charged at me.

“Come on! Let’s go together!”

‘Is she crazy or something!?’

I thought she’d be hurt by Seol-i and Bin-i, but the woman was closing in on me at a crazy speed.

It felt like my words had only provoked her further.

While it was nice to look cool, the situation was now becoming troublesome.

I felt like I’d be captured by a madwoman at this rate.

I couldn’t say how the fight between Yo-hwa and Chao would turn out, but if I got caught, everything would go to waste.

The kids might give up on the fight to save me, so I absolutely couldn’t get caught.

Thus, I quickly backed away and mentally prepared Hyang-i and Bin-i.

I needed them to spring into action the moment she grabbed me.

“Hyang, Bin! Get ready!”

Just as I was preparing to leap backward, Hua Eun jumped in front of me and shouted to Seol-i and Bin-i, who had leaped from her skirt and settled on her shoulders.

“Seol, Bin!”

– Kuckoo!

– Kuu!

Then, like missiles, Bin-i and Seol-i shot out from Hua Eun’s shoulders.

They were propelled with such force that Hua Eun, acting as their launching pad, was knocked backward into my arms.

“Guk…”

This time, they were heading toward the woman at a terrifying speed.

– Srrr.

The woman’s body became hazy and she slid right past Seol-i and Bin-i.

‘Lizard Wall-Crawler Technique!?’

The technique my grandfather taught me, which I at least knew the basics of.

Having seen a demonstration from Grandpa, I recognized it as the slow-moving technique of the Five Poisons Sect—a segment of their Lizard Wall-Crawler Technique.

Thinking back, it made sense that she would know the martial arts of the Five Poisons Sect.

– Crash!

As Seol-i and Bin-i crashed to the ground, Hua Eun, confirming their attack had failed, unleashed a double palm strike at the flying woman.

“Chit! Ink Dragon Palm!”

But again, the woman easily dodged Hua Eun’s double strike and swung her hand, sending her flying to the right.

“Just get out of my way!”

– Puhak!

“Gyaaah…”

“Hua Eun!”

In the next moment, she grabbed my wrist.

With a fervor and madness swirling in her eyes, she declared, “Come on! Let’s go together!”

At that moment, I unleashed the Viper’s Life-Seeking Hand and wrapped my hand around the woman’s, following it with the Viper’s Life-Seeking Technique aimed straight for her chest.

Seeing the woman activate the Lizard Wall-Crawler Technique triggered my memory of the Viper’s Life-Seeking Hand I had learned from the Five Poisons Sect.

You could definitely tell Hyang-i and Bin-i to aim for her heart and provide a bite closer to the pulse.

If it were anyone else, I might have told them to bite her arm or leg, but since Bin-i appeared to have suffered no damage from Chao’s poison earlier, I figured she might have an antidote or something, so I aimed for the chest, as it was closest to the heart.

Then the woman’s eyes widened in shock.

“Viper’s Life-Seeking Hand? You know the Five Poisons Technique!?”

As her eyes widened in surprise again, I shouted toward Hyang-i and Bin-i for the first time in a while.

“Hyang, Bin! Bite her!”

– Tsurerur!

Hyang-i shot forward towards the woman’s chest in a flash.

The moment that sprung to my mind was that I’d clearly told them both to bite, yet only Hyang-i had leaped out.

‘What the!? Where’s Bin!?’

As I turned to check where Bin was, I saw her quickly crawling up my shoulder, shaking her antennae vigorously.

– Tsurerurur.

‘No… Bin, don’t get the urge to kill…’

She had meant to attack more efficiently, trying to shoot out her killing intent instead.

If it were any other time, it would have been an adorable act, but now was not the time.

The woman still had a free hand.

In the end, even though I aimed for the chest, Bin’s sudden action allowed the woman’s hand that hadn’t caught me to fend off Hyang-i, causing Hyang-i to bite the back of her hand instead of her chest.

“Cough. C-Cheong Yoo!?”

I needed to inject the poison deeply, but it seems this woman, who knew the Five Poisons well, quickly shook Hyang-i off.

Her hand swelled rapidly, but that was all that happened.

Since she was from the Five Poisons Sect, she probably had some form of resistance to the centipede’s poison.

Just as I had feared, the poison from Cheong Yoo was no different from a regular centipede’s to her.

“I thought you were hiding the Cheong Spotted Centipede too. How much are you going to surprise me? But I like it even more. This is like a dream come true for our Five Poisons Sect!”

Her eyes gleamed with madness, scanning me again.

It seemed I gave off the impression of being a talented recruit for the Five Poisons Sect.

Just as I was viewed as a valuable asset by both the Tang Clan and Southern Barbarian, I seemed to be seen in high regard by the Five Poisons Sect as well.

I was just a venom-loving YouTuber, yet here in the Martial Forest, my stock was strangely high.

“Oh, and don’t worry. It’ll be painful, but there’s no way a baby Cheong Spotted Centipede’s poison could kill me. Hehe.”

The woman slowly pressed on the blood vessels on her shoulder to halt the poison’s progression and pierced a needle-studded tube into the back of her hand.

Instantly, her hand began to sink.

For the others, if two or three of the centipedes bit, they’d melt away, but damn this Five Poisons Sect.

Even Hua Eun fell, unable to get back up, and just when I wondered if I’d be dragged along like this, a sudden roar of a wild beast echoed from afar.

– Kaarng!

The woman startled and widened her eyes in shock.

“T-This is the Lion’s Roar of the Southern Barbarian!?”

Turning my head, rushing toward us from the direction of the Southern Dragon Mountain were none other than my adoptive father.

Beside him was Mandok God, my grandfather, who was also soaring toward us like a madman.

“Who dares to oppress my son!”

“Who dares to oppress the son-in-law of the Tang Clan!”

The thunderous voices shot out almost simultaneously.

– Crunch.

The woman gritted her teeth and shouted.

“Of all people, the Southern Barbarian King and that old fool! Come on over here!”

Then, from somewhere we had forgotten about, the sound of wasp wings could be heard as a wasp swiftly flew beside the woman.

– Woowww!

The wasp had some spiderwebs and scratches on it, but thankfully it didn’t seem to have any major injuries.

The woman mounted the wasp and said, “Because of the interference, I can’t take you now. I can’t use all my energy to expel the Cheong Spotted Centipede’s poison, and I can’t take Ugyeong by myself, so don’t feel too sad. I’ll definitely come back for you.”

“Let’s go! I can’t get caught here!”

– Woowww.

As the wasp flapped its wings and flew up into the sky, something sparkled on the heads of the woman and the wasp.

‘Golden Stings!?’

Surprised to see that they had golden stings stuck in their heads like an army ant, I widened my eyes. A sound whispered into my ear.

[Remember. My name is Oh Cheong Yu.]

This was my first encounter with the Five Poisons Sect.

*

Thanks to the rescue from my adoptive father and Mandok God, we were thankfully saved.

Moved to the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, everyone except me was recovering in bed.

As you know, my older brother suffered a massive injury to his side, and Sword Phoenix, who we thought had died, miraculously survived.

However, the diagnosis was that he would need several months of recuperation due to internal injuries.

And Spear Dragon seemed to have suffered a fracture in his neck from the impact.

According to the elder skilled in Southern Barbarian medicine, he needed to remain as stable as possible.

Older Sister Seol had learned a martial art that sharpened her hearing from the Southern Barbarian, but the strange beast’s roar had caused her serious internal injuries, and Hua Eun had bruises and internal injuries from getting hit.

Yet, besides everyone being hurt, what was most infuriating was that Chao had lost two legs.

It was a disaster that occurred during the battle with the wasp.

I glared at Chao, fuming. “You bad beast! How much pain do you think Chao went through after losing two legs? Chao, are you alright?”

– Tsuruut.

Chao conveyed that she was fine in spirit, but that was probably just her way of saying it so I wouldn’t worry too much.

Thus, it was inevitable for me to be angry.

Well, since Chao was a centipede, it could regenerate her legs after molting, but as a father, I couldn’t possibly wait indefinitely.

Still marooned without the route properly cleared, I spoke so Chao could hear, lying there within Yo-hwa’s web.

“Chao, what are we going to do about your injury? You need nutritious food to molt, but where can we find something nutritious… Losing two legs must hurt a lot…”

At that moment, a creature that had been observing quietly suddenly had sad eyes and started to cough violently.

– Cough! Cough!

Then it spit out a tiny piece of Inner Dan.

‘What the, you’ve been hiding this Inner Dan all along, huh? I figured you hadn’t spit it all out before.’

Like I had suspected, it had been harboring a fragment of Inner Dan.

The creature that spit out the Inner Dan had not changed dramatically from before, but if Hyang-i and Bin-i knew, there would be trouble. So, I quickly fed it to Chao.

After all, treating Chao’s injuries was urgent.

Moreover, since Hyang-i and Bin-i were with Mandok God, this was my chance.

The reason Hyang-i and Bin-i had gone to Mandok God was that they were sulking over me and Hua Eun.

They’d been upset that I tricked them with the killing intent and had gone to the grandfather out of spite.

They found it strange that Bin-i had not been hit by any killing intent from the woman of the Five Poisons Sect, and having returned to the Southern Barbarian Palace, it seemed she’d tried to shoot killing intent at various beasts but found nothing unusual.

This morning, the atmosphere had been icy since dawn. When I looked to my side, I found Hyang-i and Bin-i staring down at me, clearly sulking after I had slept with Hua Eun last night.

Since I noticed that both were totally upset, I could only sigh about how they suddenly disappeared.

“Chao, eat up and recover quickly.”

– Tsurerur.

As soon as Chao swallowed the Inner Dan, she curled up.

Just as I expected, her lower body opened up and Chao began to molt.

The lost legs would be restored in no time.

In fact, she’ll probably grow a bit larger too.

‘Next time we meet, I’ll make that wasp pay.’

I managed to take care of Chao’s treatment by squeezing something from the Flying Heavenly Snake, and now all that was left was to figure out how to appease the daughters.

‘Ah, last time I barely got away with getting them to give me a break, but how the heck am I going to calm them down this time?’

If only there was the internet, I’d look up how to placate daughters when they’re in a sulk.