Fabre in Sacheon's Tang

The reason female mantises eat the male after mating is believed to be behavior meant to secure additional protein needed for reproduction, so they can lay more eggs and healthier eggs.

But that’s just scientists assigning meaning to mantis behavior.

Basically, mantises are extremely aggressive insects, so you could say they grab anything moving in front of them and try putting it in their mouth.

These mantis bastards are so belligerent they’ll even lunge at people, after all.

Even during the breeding season when reproduction is needed, that aggressive nature doesn’t disappear, so male mantises usually sneak up from behind, subdue the female mantis from behind, mate, and then run away.

That’s why, in the natural environment, the probability of a male being eaten after mating is 20 percent.

Not that high a probability.

So until I could confirm whether Hwa-eun had inherited even the mantis instincts, I was thinking I’d have to use a rear position for the time being.

And make sure she ate well before dual cultivation, too.

Even though the aggression doesn’t drop during mating, the moment they’re full, a mantis’s aggression falls somewhat.

‘Feed her well and from behind. Don’t forget.’

I was thinking through the precautions for the future.

Hwa-eun, wearing a rose-petal skirt and a petal top, slowly opened her eyes and stepped down onto the floor.

I hurried over, intending to scoop Hwa-eun up in a princess carry.

Since it wasn’t during mating, even if it was instinct, the chance of getting eaten right now was low.

But I was a mental body.

When Hwa-eun passed through me, Hye-rin quickly ran over and held Hwa-eun in her arms instead of me.

“It seems like she got the body of some insect, but her body is soft. And there’s some kind of nice, sweet scent.”

Then she described her sensation to me.

I asked Hwa-eun, who was being held in a princess carry in Hye-rin’s arms.

“Hwa-eun? Are you conscious?”

At my question, Hwa-eun moved her head, tilting it like an insect, and opened her mouth.

But no voice came out.

“Your voice won’t come out?”

“...”

“Don’t tell me your vocal organ disappeared?”

I thought it was a big problem that I might not be able to hear Hwa-eun’s beautiful voice anymore, but thankfully, Hwa-eun opened and closed her mouth a few times like a baby speaking for the first time, then spoke in the same voice as before.

“...Ah. Aah. Mm. So this is how you do it. Yeah. I’m fine. It’s a feeling I’ve never felt before, but my body feels light and full of strength.”

“Whew. You startled me.”

Even her head movement returned to a human-like state.

It seemed it took some time to adjust to the new body.

I let out a sigh of relief at Hwa-eun’s answer that her voice came out fine and there was nothing wrong with her body, but there was still anxiety that hadn’t been resolved.

In case her mind was okay too, questions continued.

They were questions to check whether she was being affected by mantis instincts.

“You don’t feel anything weird?”

“Weird?”

“Just, you know, maybe you’re hungry or something?”

Even though we hadn’t done dual cultivation, a mantis’s behavior of eating the male is based on hunger.

So I asked indirectly rather than directly.

If some other reaction came out when I asked whether she was hungry, that would mean it was turning into an impulse.

Right now was shortly after molting, when the feeling of emptiness would be strong.

When she’d feel hunger the most, so there could be some other reaction, and that was what I was trying to confirm.

At my question, Hwa-eun looked down at her own stomach, then shook her head.

“No. I’m fine. So-ryong. I can take in the energy of heaven and earth and all things into my body now, so I don’t think I’m that hungry.”

At Hwa-eun’s answer, my heart eased a little.

A mantis becomes especially violent when it’s hungry.

In the wild, the probability of a male mantis being eaten is about 20 percent, but in the case of mantises being raised, it’s 50 percent.

Because the owner can’t always provide food, but I’d have to confirm precisely during dual cultivation—still, for now, it didn’t seem like there was anything seriously wrong.

‘Whew. Thank goodness.’

I let out a sigh of relief inside.

But soon the matter with Sister Seol came to mind, and my heart became unsettled again.

Because there isn’t a single quiet day.

***

When I opened my eyes the next morning, no light was leaking in, but I could tell it was morning.

A Golden Core Stage cultivator’s senses don’t lie.

When I turned my head, there was no one beside me.

Yesterday’s turn was Zihwa, but Zihwa was currently absorbing Mother-in-law’s energy.

So for once, I slept alone comfortably and woke up.

There had been talk of pulling the order forward, but Hwa-eun’s body hadn’t dried completely, and since Gun Hye-rin was the next turn, if we skipped Hwa-eun the order would get tangled, so I ended up sleeping alone.

After sleeping soundly alone and waking up, I could completely understand why, in a previous life, solo people said that if you want to watch a movie, you have to watch it alone to fully enjoy the story.

Sleeping alone is this comfortable.

It was really a honey-sweet sleep.

“To think the difference between having someone next to you and not having someone next to you affects sleep quality this much.”

I got dressed and called Gun Hye-rin.

‘Hye-rin, can you watch over my body for me?’

‘Understood. Looks like you’re trying to enter Dokmul-hyang?’

‘Yes, everyone’s realm has risen now, and Zihwa just has to wait, so I’m going to raise the other kids’ realms a bit.’

‘Understood. I’ll head out right away.’

Hwa-eun, Gun Hye-rin, and Ji-ryeon had all, for now, reached the Golden Core Stage, the Life-and-Death Realm.

As for how far Zihwa would rise with Mother-in-law’s energy, I couldn’t know, but since Zihwa said she was already a high realm, Mother-in-law was expected to be an extremely high-level person as well.

And since she received the energy of someone like that, she’d be higher than us.

If so, then for now, the wives’ realm increases were all finished.

Hwa-eun, Gun Hye-rin, and Ji-ryeon had all risen to the Golden Core Stage, the Life-and-Death Realm, and Zihwa still had to wait for her energy to stabilize, but we had raised them all as far as they could be raised right now.

Then what remained was the kids.

I heard that if we leave this place, the Nine Heavens, this newbie protection village, and rise to the Eight Heavens, the wilderness truly unfolds in earnest.

This place had relatively few high-realm people, and there was a structure where high-realm people couldn’t come down, but up above, from the First Heaven to the Eight Heavens, I heard high and low realms were completely mixed together.

So to prepare for that, everyone had to raise their realms as much as they could, but the wives were all done, so I was going to raise the kids.

I had decided to raise them one by one with the Spirit Stones we had.

This was a safe place, but just in case, I called Gun Hye-rin, asked her to protect my body, and entered Dokmul-hyang.

When I arrived at the entrance, Sister Seol and Myoran were guarding Zihwa, and when their eyes met mine, they flinched.

Both of them looked like they’d been stealing something.

‘No, why are both of them here.’

At first I wondered why both of them were here.

But when I thought about it, yesterday I called Sister Seol to protect Zihwa, but Sister Seol had followed us and left her post.

So being here was right.

Because I asked.

For now, I greeted them with a calm expression.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Uh, uh-huh.”

“Thanks for guarding Zihwa.”

“Uh-huh.”

Sister Seol, maybe because she confessed yesterday and it was awkward, couldn’t even answer properly.

I told Sister Seol why I came into Dokmul-hyang.

She didn’t ask, but so it wouldn’t get awkward.

“I came to raise the kids’ realms. Nothing happened with Zihwa, right?”

“Th, that’s right. Yeah, of, of course.”

“Yeah, then I’ll see you later.”

I thought it would be more awkward if we stayed together, so I quickly moved with space movement.

Inside Dokmul-hyang, my mind could move anywhere quickly.

My vision slid into darkness, then when my eyes brightened again, I was in the middle of the village.

It should have been a peaceful village, but the village was in an uproar.

-Piiiiii.

Jayo was in Hwa-eun’s arms, continuing to wail loudly, and everyone around them didn’t know what to do.

“Uh, you can’t go meet Mom right now.”

-Pii.

“What do we do. She’s crying even more.”

“She cried all night and she doesn’t even get tired.”

From the look of it, it seemed Jayo was looking for Zihwa.

Since Mom suddenly disappeared, of course the kid was looking.

When you’re young, if Mom isn’t by your side, it’s a big deal.

The beginner moms couldn’t handle what was happening.

Normally, they would have brought her right away, but since they couldn’t touch Zihwa’s body, they couldn’t do that.

I hurried over and soothed Jayo.

“Jayo, Dad’s here. Why are you crying like this? Mom is sleeping right now, and we can’t touch her body, so that’s why. That’s why you can’t see her. So stop crying.”

Hwa-eun or the other wives must have explained the situation, but as I soothed her, I said it again, and at my words, Jayo, who had been crying wildly in Hwa-eun’s arms, stopped her tears.

The kid wiped her tears and asked.

-Piyo?

It seemed like she was asking if it was true, so I nodded and answered.

“Yeah. It’s because Mom is sleeping. Want to go look at her sleeping? But you can’t touch Mom. Just look. How about it?”

It seemed the wives hadn’t shown Zihwa because they thought if they showed her, Jayo would rush in or cry more, but I decided to show Jayo what Zihwa looked like.

Then Jayo nodded.

-Piyo!

At the kid’s reaction, the wives made dumbfounded expressions.

“She just kept crying no matter what the moms said. But when So-ryong says it, she listens?”

“If it was going to be like this, we should’ve just shown her Zihwa. She cried so much, and we couldn’t because we thought if we showed her Zihwa she’d rush in right away or cry even more.”

For now, I brought Jayo to the entrance and showed her Zihwa.

Zihwa was sitting cross-legged, floating in the air.

Light was still sparkling in her chest.

“Mom is raising her realm right now... Ah, would she not understand if I say it like that? Ah, right. Mom is growing like you right now, Jayo. She grows a lot when she sleeps and wakes up. But if you touch her, it hurts, so you can only look.”

-Piyo!

Since Jayo said she’d look at Mom more, I left Jayo with Hwa-eun at the entrance and returned to the village.

Because I was going to raise the kids’ realms.

“So-ryong, but what brings you here so early in the morning?”

“Ah, since we raised all the wives’ realms, I’m going to raise the kids’ realms.”

“Ah, you said you were going to do that last time, right?”

“Yes.”

I answered Ji-ryeon’s question and looked around, but the spirit creature I was looking for wasn’t visible.

I asked the kids.

“Guys, by the way, where did Cheongwol go?”

-Tsrut. 『Cheongwol Unni is in the desert.』

“Desert?”

-Tsrur. 『Yes, these days she spends most of her time lying down on a rock there.』

A desert rock?

I closed my eyes and imagined the desert inside Dokmul-hyang.

Then the desert appeared right away.

In the middle of the desert there were stone mountains, and I could see the figure of a woman lying at the very top.

She looked like a warrior with a scar on her face.

It was Cheongwol.

When I moved right away, the sight of Cheongwol lying on the rock, wiggling her feet, came into view.

She looked extremely relaxed and idle.

I quietly approached and suddenly shouted into Cheongwol’s ear.

“Waaah!”

-Krrrng! 『What! What is it!?』

Cheongwol, startled, rolled off the rock.

When I looked at that and chuckled, Cheongwol tried to grab me, then said with an irritated expression.

-Krng! 『What kind of childish prank is this!?』

I chuckled, then stopped laughing and said.

“Heh heh. Sorry, I just felt like messing with you.”

-Kreuk. 『Kgh.』

Cheongwol had an aggrieved expression, but then she grumbled and asked.

-Krrrng. 『But what brings you here?』

“What else, I came to raise your realm.”

-Krng. 『Realm?』

The Spirit Stones I had were quite a lot.

I got some from Hwangwoo, and I also got some from Myoran and Mongyeong.

On top of that, I stripped the storage pouches of the guys I captured, and Senior Sister also took care of some.

Now it didn’t take murderous amounts of Spirit Stones to protect White Night City.

But I didn’t know the kids’ realms precisely.

I didn’t know how many Spirit Stones it would take to raise one kid’s realm.

So with the Spirit Stones I had, I had to raise the realm of the spirit creature most likely to become fighting power first, in order, and the first was Cheongwol.

Offense? Defense? When you’re torn between them, you’re supposed to go defense first, so I was going to raise the realm of Cheongwol, who had the best defensive power among the spirit creatures.

So she could protect the other kids if something happened.

It was at the moment my words ended.

Cheongwol climbed back up onto the rock, carefully lay down, then turned her head the other way and said.

-Krng. 『I don’t know if it will be possible with this body, but, f, for the first time, I ask for your care.』

“?”

A question mark rose up in my head.