Fabre in Sacheon's Tang

“Myoran, open your mouth for me first.”

Sister Seol gave the order in a gentle but firm voice.

It looked like she planned to use saliva for the registration.

In the process of registering a spirit creature, bodily fluids like blood or saliva were essential, so she must have chosen saliva as the simplest, most reliable method.

There was anticipation and excitement in Sister Seol’s eyes, and she was so impatient I could even see her fingertips trembling slightly.

Myoran lifted its head and asked,

-Nyaong. 『Chief Steward Wang, is it a kiss?』

There was a faint hint of submission in its tone.

It seemed it had already submitted completely during the interrogation.

“I’m not from the Wang family, I’m Seolpyo, so call me Chief Steward Seol. And yes, it’s a kiss.”

“Wait a second. Sister Seol.”

“Hm? Why?”

I hurriedly raised my hand and stopped Sister Seol.

I couldn’t not make her pause for a moment when she was already charging ahead.

The registration process looked simple, but considering Sister Seol’s realm, it was absolutely not something to take lightly.

We had spirit stones prepared, and in this immortal cultivation world, the density of energy was so high it couldn’t even be compared to the lower world, so the moment Sister Seol registered Myoran, there was a high chance she would rise into the Transformation Realm.

If you asked which stage was the hardest out of the Transformation Realm, the Profound Realm, and the Life-and-Death Realm, it was the Transformation Realm without question.

Because that was when you underwent rebirth through tempering and remaking the body.

So during that process, the energy could flow backward and she could fall into qi deviation, so I needed to watch over her directly.

Hwa-eun and Ji-ryeon were here too, but she was still my big sister—shouldn’t I be the one protecting her?

Sister Seol was family, no different from my real older sister.

She’d thrown away all her ties, left the lower world, and followed me all the way here to this dangerous immortal cultivation world, so it was only right that I stayed by her side and protected her.

I couldn’t be careless with something that involved her safety.

“If Sister Seol registers Myoran, she could rise into the Transformation Realm, so I want to be right next to her and keep an eye on things. Before that, I’m going to check the situation outside.”

“Okay. Then I’ll wait. Wait a moment, Myoran.”

-Yaaang. 『Yes, Chief Steward Seol.』

I quickly checked the situation outside through the group chat.

I asked Cho, Hye-rin, and Jeokwol, who were guarding my main body, whether anything was happening, and whether there was any strange energy in the area.

『“Nothing going on outside, right?”

-Chii. (Yeah, So-ryong. Nothing’s happening here. Maybe because it’s late, everyone seems to be asleep. The energy is calm, and I’m not sensing any strange movement at all.)

“It’s fine, Master. We’re guarding you tightly, so don’t worry. We’re sweeping the area thoroughly.”

-Tsrrt. 『Don’t worry, Dad.』』

It seemed like nothing was happening outside either, so it felt like it would be fine to proceed with the registration.

“Sister Seol, you can go ahead again now.”

“Got it.”

Just as I was about to tell her to continue, this time Hwa-eun stepped forward and stopped Sister Seol.

Hwa-eun’s expression was extremely serious.

“Wait a moment, Sister Seol.”

“Why?”

After being stopped over and over, Sister Seol tilted her head and asked.

With her cheeks slightly puffed out, she looked like a kid bursting with anticipation.

Holding Sister Seol back, Hwa-eun looked at me and quietly suggested,

“Husband, how about teaching Sister Seol the Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art?”

“The Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art?”

“Yes. After thinking carefully about what Ancestor Cheongcheong said, I realized something. The Beast-Heart Technique without the Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art—in other words, the Heavenly Heart Deep Poison Martial Ridge Path—felt weaker than I expected. I think the difference between Ancestor and you might come from that Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art. So for her sake, I was thinking you could teach her the Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art first. What do you think, Husband?”

“Ah. So you think the difference between Senior Sister and me comes from the Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art.”

“Yes, Husband.”

I nodded at Hwa-eun’s words.

Senior Sister’s realm, even compared to mine, felt like the depth of her Heavenly Heart Deep Poison Martial Ridge Path was much shallower.

Like she hadn’t even properly opened her mental-image space—she was still stuck at the very entrance.

Master seemed similar, but the cause was still unclear.

The surest thing would be to ask Master directly, but he was missing, neither dead nor alive, and I didn’t even know where he was.

But it seemed Hwa-eun had found the cause in whether or not someone had the Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art.

Senior Sister and I had both learned the same Heavenly Heart Deep Poison Martial Ridge Path, but if there was one decisive difference, it was whether or not we had the Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art.

And now that I thought about it, Sister Seol was in a similar state to Senior Sister.

Sister Seol had learned the Beast-Heart Technique too—in other words, the Heavenly Heart Deep Poison Martial Ridge Path—hadn’t she?

But she hadn’t opened her mental image either, and she couldn’t even use the abilities of the children she’d registered.

‘Yeah. Hwa-eun’s idea makes sense too.’

Unlike the lower world, this immortal cultivation world was full of danger. If I upgraded Sister Seol and made her even a little stronger, I’d feel much more at ease.

And even if Hwa-eun was wrong, she could still make use of Myoran’s physical strength through some other martial art.

Didn’t you use the martial arts you learned to use the abilities of the spirit creatures you registered?

That might mean cosplay like cat ears or a tail, or it might mean claws and a cat’s insane reflexes, but it was better than nothing.

After thinking that far, I realized I needed to properly introduce Sister Seol to Senior Sister again.

‘Ah. Come to think of it, I never properly introduced Sister Seol to Senior Sister.’

I hadn’t thought of it, so I hadn’t introduced her, but now that I thought about it, Sister Seol was basically like a collateral branch of our sect.

Master had taught the martial art he created to Sister Seol’s ancestor, and that became the foundation of the Beast Palace’s martial arts.

Thinking I should introduce Sister Seol again later, I asked Hwa-eun.

Because I couldn’t not ask it.

“Uh, is it okay?”

The Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art had originally been the Five Poisons Sect’s martial art, but now it was the Tang Clan’s martial art.

It was originally a secret art that wasn’t taught outside the sect, so I was asking if it was really okay, but Hwa-eun nodded with a look like it was obvious.

“We also gained insight into the Beast-Heart Technique through you, so how could we say Sister Seol can’t. And besides, this is the immortal cultivation world. The promises from the lower world and the sect rules are already cut ties. No one here is going to say anything if you pass on a martial art, and there’s no one who even could.”

Sure enough, this was the immortal cultivation world, a place where all ties to the lower world were cut.

Nobody was going to complain if you taught martial arts here and there.

I’d even taken Soyeon as a disciple.

It was reasonable.

“Alright. It’s a good idea, Hwa-eun. Sister Seol, then let’s start with the Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art. Learning it before registration will be safer and more effective.”

“Got it! I’m excited! Thanks, Hwa-eun. So-ryong, thank you so much!”

“Here, eat the spirit stone.”

“Yeah, yeah!”

I transmitted the formulas of the Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art to Sister Seol, explaining each line in detail.

And outside Dokmul-hyang, I injected energy to match her blood vessels and ran a full circulation cycle for her once, setting up the basic framework.

Sister Seol absorbed it shockingly fast and circulated her energy, and soon she began learning the martial art in a stable state.

After that process ended, I brought Sister Seol back into Dokmul-hyang and resumed the registration process for Myoran.

“Alright. Now do it.”

“Okay. Then I’m starting.”

When she swallowed the spirit stone I handed her in one gulp, Sister Seol’s eyes became even clearer.

Sister Seol carefully slipped her finger into Myoran’s open mouth to get its saliva on it, then quickly put that finger into her own mouth.

The moment that happened, Myoran’s eyes started to go blank, little by little, and Sister Seol’s eyes also blurred, turning hazy.

Had she become able to bring spirit creatures into her mental image?

As I was thinking that, the air inside Dokmul-hyang vibrated heavily around them, and a blue current began wrapping around the two of them like a swirling vortex.

***

Two days later, Sister Seol underwent rebirth through tempering and remaking the body.

I checked Sister Seol’s condition after she washed off the impurities that had seeped out and came back, and her realm had already gone beyond the Transformation Realm to just before the Profound Realm.

It really was a world with a high density of energy.

In the lower world, the wives had barely managed to rise one stage by feeding them spirit medicines, but Sister Seol was just about to jump two stages in one shot.

With an excited expression, Sister Seol shouted,

“Now I’m in the Transformation Realm too!”

“Not just the Transformation Realm. You’re right before the Profound Realm.”

“Thanks, So-ryong.”

“What are you thanking me for. It’s only natural. More importantly, what happened with your mental image?”

“That didn’t come out.”

The biggest point of interest with this rise in realm was whether she could visualize her mental image and enter it.

But Sister Seol said she couldn’t confirm her own mental image.

I kept thinking the Heavenly Heart Deep Poison Martial Ridge Path was a really strange martial art, but Sister Seol explained,

“I just came to my senses and it felt like I was connected to Myoran somehow. My mental image didn’t come out.”

“You still can’t use Myoran’s abilities? Try thinking about using Myoran’s abilities while using another martial art.”

“Uh, wait a second.”

We checked whether she could use Myoran’s abilities through another martial art she was learning, and strangely enough, that part was possible.

-Chwak.

“This works!”

I didn’t know what she did, but sharp claws like a cat’s claws popped out from her fingertips.

And not only that, it seemed she’d also gained reflexes about on the level of a cat.

“And I feel like I got more nimble too.”

“Oh, that’s good then, right?”

“Is it?”

“Yes, cats react fast. You might be able to snatch a flying dagger out of the air, or see an attack coming and dodge it.”

“That really is good.”

“Right?”

But then, in that moment, I noticed translucent cat ears perking up on top of Sister Seol’s head.

There was even a translucent tail swaying around her butt.

It felt like a cat’s soul was overlapping her from behind.

Startled, I asked,

“W-what martial art is that!?”

It was a form I’d never seen even once.

When I asked what it was, Sister Seol answered with a grin,

“Fierce Beast Descent Art. Normally you’re not supposed to accept the fierce beast you registered too deeply, right?”

“Right. You said the consciousness could get you.”

“Yeah. But this one deliberately loosens it and fights by accepting the ferocity of the fierce beast you registered.”

“Ah. So that’s why you look like that?”

“Look like what?”

“You have ears and a tail.”

“W-what!? I-I really do?”

Sister Seol frowned. She said normally only your mood changes, but she had ears and a tail.

I frowned too.

They weren’t real fur and a real tail, but still—wasn’t that basically a furry cosplay?

A succubus had reptile eyes and all that, so that was fine, but Sister Seol doing furry cosplay as a goddamn cat—the natural enemy of reptiles—was extremely inconvenient.

***

I wanted a possession-like appearance too, like the children’s souls had possessed me, so I learned Fierce Beast Descent Art from Sister Seol.

I was also a child of the Beast Palace, so I was qualified to learn it, and even if I wasn’t, it was Sister Seol.

If I asked her to teach me, she was the kind of person who’d even leak family secrets.

“Isn’t it easier than you thought?”

“It is. I just have to let my mind go.”

“But you can’t let it go completely.”

“Got it.”

It was right after I’d just finished learning Fierce Beast Descent Art from Sister Seol inside the cave.

I felt the surrounding energy ripple.

“Huh?”

“This is...”

“You feel it too, Sister Seol?”

“Yeah.”

A clearly noticeable strange feeling.

It started to feel like I’d [N O V E L I G H T] stepped into a sterile room.

I couldn’t feel any of the dense energy I’d been sensing around us.

I didn’t panic.

Because it was familiar.

I grinned and said,

“This feels like when we went to White Night City.”

It really did feel like when we went to White Night City, Senior Sister’s base.

Then I felt Baek-a’s energy from far away.

But Baek-a wasn’t alone.

Behind her were Oran and three cultivators stronger than Baek-a.

They were Core Formation Stage cultivators.

And there were even over ten Qi Refining Stage cultivators.

Myoran, who’d been lying on the grass behind Sister Seol licking its front paw, must have felt it too, because it spoke in an enraged voice.

-Miyang! 『Golden Shackles spell!? And over an area this wide!? Those bitches in heat. Just how many spirit stones did they pour into this? I knew it! Elder! Take Myoran out of the spell zone! That way you can use a movement talisman!』

“Then should we start moving?”

I shoved Sister Seol and the other children who were with me—except Cho—into my mental image, then immediately slammed Toad Explosive Palm into the ceiling.

-Kwa-gwang!

The ceiling exploded.

Dust rose thickly.

At the same time, after I shot up into the air with Cho and looked down, the wolves were staring up at me with flustered faces.

-Grrr. 『Th-this is!?』

-Grreung. 『Cat!?』

-Kkiing. 『E-Elder. I don’t know what that cat bitch said, but it’s a m-misunderstanding.』

They rushed up toward me in a panic.

Since they were spirit creature wolves, they leaped over ten meters in a single jump.

Even if they couldn’t use spells, wild beasts had superior physical abilities, so they must have been planning to win with that.

But Cho’s ascent was faster.

When their faces turned blank, I pulled Myoran out and shouted,

“Let’s go!”

In front of Myoran, a talisman flared up in flames.