I infused even more power into the Myoa Amya Art that I had been drawing up.
At once, the moonlight took on the clarity of a dawn on the verge of breaking, and the creature’s form came clearly into view.
A round body. Long legs.
The creature had no head—just a spherical body from which eight long legs sprouted. An eerie, alien shape.
It looked like an octopus.
Bizarre in appearance—but I knew this type well.
The insect it was based on was likely from the arthropod order Opiliones.
A harvestman.
A harvestman spirit beast!
Also called daddy longlegs, these arachnids were classified under the order Opiliones. What made them distinct was their peculiar body structure.
Unlike the segmented body of typical insects—head, thorax, and abdomen—the harvestman had a single fused body. That’s why it earned the name “harvestman” or “pill spider.”
Despite the “spider” in its name, it wasn’t a true spider. It was closer to ticks, camel spiders, or even scorpions. The academic classification remained debated due to lack of research, but that was the general consensus.
At any rate, the creature below the tree—a spirit beast based on a harvestman—was leaping toward a boulder-strewn area.
It moved using only six legs, keeping the second pair raised—just like a real harvestman, which uses its second legs as antennae.
A textbook harvestman gait.
Its legs were long—maybe thirty centimeters—but its body was only about the size of a fist.
If it reached those rocks, it would slip into the crevices, and tracking it would become near impossible.
“Kids! Let’s catch that thing!”
Seeing the creature’s rapid strides, I shouted to Yeondu, Yo-hwa, and Cho to follow as I hurled myself toward it.
The rocks loomed in the direction it was heading. We had to catch it before it slipped in.
– Tsrrr! 『Got it, Dad!』
– Kishish!
– Shaaa! 『Yes, So-ryong-nim!』
As the kids and I gave chase, I finally understood why we hadn’t been able to find the practitioner all this time.
Ji-ryong had suspected soul-seizing arts were the cause of Gungbong’s behavior—but it wasn’t some practitioner’s magic. It was this creature.
So it really can take over a human body and perfectly mimic them? Incredible!
My heart pounded with adrenaline.
The Golden-Crowned Queen Cheong-yu could control people with venom, yes—but that was more like hypnosis, turning someone into a puppet who lost all will.
But this thing—it had completely taken over Gungbong’s body.
It had imitated his movements and mannerisms so naturally that it had fooled even his closest companions.
Granted, the fact that the person it imitated was Gungbong helped... but still.
The fact that it was a new species of spirit beast with such a unique ability was thrilling.
I have to catch it. No—this one has to join my warm little family.
Just as I leapt after it, the voices of the still-stunned group echoed behind me.
“W-What on earth is that?!”
“Wait... is that what took over Gungbong’s body?!”
“Right—Gungbong! Gungbong!”
They had been shocked by the bizarre creature and the realization it had come from Gungbong’s body.
But they quickly snapped out of it and rushed to check on Gungbong.
“Gungbong! Are you alright?!”
“Gungbong! Gungbong! Wake up! Gungbong!”
“Unnie, I’ll take care of him! Please follow So-ryong! He might do something reckless!”
“Got it! Leave it to me!”
Then I heard Hwa-eun’s voice—assigning Sister Seol to shadow me.
Since Hwa-eun had to stay behind to tend to Gungbong, she was probably sending Sister Seol in her place to... watch me.
Even now she doesn’t forget to assign a minder? Damn... she’s going to be one terrifying wife someday...
Even in this critical situation, Hwa-eun hadn’t forgotten to attach someone to keep an eye on me. I couldn’t help but admire her thoroughness.
Meanwhile, the creature had already reached the start of the rocky terrain—and just as I feared, it slipped under a large boulder.
“No!”
Were we going to lose it?
In this terrain, with all these rocks, it would be easy for the creature to disappear into crevices and vanish.
But as I rushed up to the spot where it had vanished and peered under the rock—I got lucky.
It was a dead end.
There was a narrow space under the overlapping rocks, but the sides and rear were completely blocked.
Deep within the shadowy gap beneath the stone—I saw it.
The creature looked around nervously, clearly panicking.
A rat in a trap.
It had tried to shake our pursuit by slipping through the rocks, but the first hiding spot it picked turned out to be a sealed crevice.
I could sense its frustration in the way its eyes darted.
“Heh... ah, wait. No, no. Let me rephrase...”
Grinning victoriously, I was about to call out to it with a modest tone to maintain my image, when—
– Psssshhhh!
A sound like a soda can being opened came from under the rock.
Yellow mist began to rise from the creature’s body, drifting out through the stone crevice.
Some harvestman species are known to emit foul odors when threatened—so this one must have been startled and released its own defense mechanism.
I jumped back, but a faint stench still reached my nose.
I shouted quickly to the kids behind me.
“Ugh—kids! Fall back!”
– Tsrrr! 『Yes, Dad!』
– Shiaa! 『Understood, So-ryong-nim!』
The kids were far enough back that they’d be okay, but the fact that I could smell it meant I had reacted a little too slowly.
“Kids, keep watch over the entrance.”
I asked them to monitor the gap while I sat down on a nearby rock and focused on channeling my inner energy.
If the stench carried poison, I needed to expel it from my system.
I directed my energy toward my lungs—but felt no burden or discomfort.
Apparently, the smell wasn’t toxic.
If it were, I’d have started showing symptoms of poisoning. But nothing happened. Even when I activated Five Poisons Returning to the Origin, I felt no trace of venom.
Good. It’s not poison.
Come to think of it, when we’d first found Gungbong during the hunt, we’d smelled something awful too—but no one got sick.
That must have been the same odor—released unconsciously when the creature panicked.
Judging by the way Yeondu had said Gungbong smelled like Yeolbi earlier, I now realized this foul stench was likely the same kind of chemical odor released by some harvestman species when they feel threatened.
At the time, I’d thought Yeondu was just throwing shade—but now it was clear that the scent she picked up really did resemble the smell of Yeolbi’s farts.
That made sense, since both Yeolbi’s emissions and this harvestman’s defensive spray were based on the same compound: quinones.
– Tsrrr! 『It can’t escape!』
As I settled the inner energy I had been channeling, I spotted Cho and Yo-hwa glaring into the crevice at the creature, baring their teeth and growling threats.
I had asked them to keep watch—and they were now intimidating the harvestman.
– Tsrrr! 『Stay still! Don’t even try it!』
– Kishiii!
“Guys, don’t scare it too much.”
It wasn’t venomous, but still, we didn’t want to be hit with that stench again. I gently patted Cho’s neck and pulled her back.
This thing was going to be part of our family anyway—there was no need to terrify it.
I was about to stop Yo-hwa too when—
– Psssshhh.
As the stench began to dissipate, perhaps fearing the others would rush in, the creature clung to the stone wall in panic and started releasing the smell again.
Just then, Sister Seol arrived and asked if we had caught it.
“So-ryong, did you catch it?”
“No. But we’ve got it cornered in a dead end.”
“Then you basically caught it, huh?”
“Well, you could say that.”
We hadn’t officially caught it yet, but with it stuck in a dead-end crevice, it was already halfway mine.
Sister Seol seemed to agree, nodding as she approached.
She peered into the crevice at the terrified creature and asked in amazement,
“What the heck is that thing? It doesn’t even have a head?”
It looked so strange that I gave her a quick rundown of what it was.
“It’s probably a spirit beast based on what they call Mangju—‘Blind Spider’ in the Central Plains dialect. But it’s not a true spider. It’s more like a cousin to the scorpion or that camel spider we saw back in Qinghai.”
She paused for a moment, thinking, then gave me a stern look.
“Really? Still... isn’t it dangerous if it mimicked Gungbong? I know you like venomous creatures, but don’t keep anything that can harm people, okay? You understand?”
The Beast Palace, like me, loved animals—especially mammals. But they only considered tame, docile beasts acceptable.
Tigers that eat humans or wolves that attack livestock were off-limits—even in the Beast Palace.
So if this harvestman was something that could harm people, it wasn’t pet material.
Mimicking humans by parasitizing their bodies made it extremely dangerous.
But if it were truly malicious, wouldn’t it have harmed Gungbong when it left his body—or held him hostage?
“I don’t think it’s evil. It seems more scared than anything... And if it were malicious, wouldn’t it have hurt Gungbong?”
“Yeah... I suppose that’s true.”
Just as I finished explaining, Sister Seol glanced toward the crevice—now less pungent—and asked,
“So how do we get it out? Should we light a fire and smoke it out like a rabbit in a burrow?”
She meant well, but this wasn’t some dumb animal. This was a spirit beast—one capable of understanding speech.
I brought Cho to the entrance and crouched down, speaking gently.
“Can we talk for a bit?”
“...”
“You don’t need to be afraid. I’m not here to hurt you. Can you speak, by any chance?”
“...”
No response.
So I asked Cho to try.
Maybe the creature was wary of humans, but it might respond to another spirit beast.
“Cho, could you try talking to it?”
– Tsrrr. 『Sure, Dad. Hey! Can you answer us?』
But the harvestman still said nothing.
Cho and I exchanged glances. Could it be that... it couldn’t speak?
Most of my other spirit beasts, even those not naturally vocal, had developed resonance chambers to make sounds.
But if this one hadn’t responded, maybe it didn’t have that ability at all.
Just like how Ranghyang was blind, maybe this one was simply mute.
“If you can’t speak... could you wiggle your front legs?”
I stared into the crevice. A moment passed—then the second pair of legs, the ones used as feelers, twitched.
That confirmed it.
It really can’t speak.
But it seemed to understand language just fine—so I decided to try communicating more.
“I told you—I don’t intend to hurt you. I know you used Gungbong’s body, but you didn’t injure him or anything...”
Just as I was beginning to speak in earnest—
A voice rang out behind me.
“Young Master... w-where’s that thing? Hrk... Gungbong... Gungbong...”
I turned and saw Eunbong.
Her lips were bitten, smearing the rouge I had applied earlier. Her face was streaked with tears.
In her hand was her flute—something she rarely ever took out.
“What’s wrong, Eunbong? What happened?”
Sister Seol rushed over, visibly alarmed.
Then Elder Brother arrived, carrying Gungbong in his arms like a princess. His voice was grim.
“Gungbong isn’t breathing... «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» So-ryong...”
“What!?”
His face pale. His body limp.
Gungbong looked completely lifeless in Elder Brother’s arms.
Behind them, Hwa-eun followed—and gave a tiny nod.
He really wasn’t breathing.
I looked back at the crevice.
The harvestman was flailing its second legs furiously, as if to say—
That’s not right!
