Just imagining what kind of ant might be inside that hole made me chuckle without realizing it.
And for good reason—among all the spirit beasts I’d obtained so far, there hadn’t been a single ant.
An insect breeder without an ant in their collection?
That’s practically a failure in the basic qualifications of being a venomous-creature enthusiast, isn’t it?
Ants are the foundation, the starter pack, the ABCs of all basic insect rearing. They’re also the baseline of venomous creatures.
It’s like being a coin collector and not having ten-won, fifty-won, one-hundred-won, or five-hundred-won coins.
No base currency?
I had managed to get some termites in Sacheon Tang, but those fellas were more like roaches than ants—barely sentient, and way too low-tier to interact with. So I’d felt the absence. But now that ants were showing up, I couldn’t stop the corners of my mouth from rising.
At this size, it had to be a spirit beast. And in my mind, a particular name had already started to form.
‘It’s definitely the 𝒄h...’
“Hehehehehe...”
As I grinned while thinking of the name, Hwa-eun and Sister Seol recoiled and blurted out in disgust.
“S-So-ryong, why are you smiling so creepily again?”
“Seriously. It’s like a middle-aged man with a dirty laugh!”
I had been in a good mood, and now suddenly—insulted.
Sure, if you count my past life, I’m in my forties, but “creepy”? That’s just rude.
This was the pure, fluttering joy of a venomous-creature lover anticipating a new encounter!
Fresh and radiant—like morning sunlight!
Calling that “creepy” was downright slander.
“Creepy? This is a smile of excitement—thinking about meeting a new friend!”
I waved my hands in protest, but the two exchanged baffled glances.
Like they couldn’t believe what they were hearing.
“A smile?”
“Ryong, if you made that face while looking at a woman, you’d definitely be accused of having... impure thoughts.”
“Impure thoughts!? Now hold on!”
Come now. This So-ryong is not a man who harbors impure thoughts. This is serious.
I’d just smiled for a moment at the thought of meeting a new spirit beast—and now they were accusing me of lechery?
Just as I was thinking how unfair that was, Sister Seol pressed the point.
“Anyway, why were you making that creepy smile? What’s with the dirt?”
Still being misunderstood, I pouted as I answered with all the seriousness of a venomous creature maniac.
“It seems this burrow is occupied by Ma-ui—ants.”
“Ma-ui?”
“Yes. If you look closely, the soil inside is all clumped like this.”
I dug further into the dirt at my feet. Sure enough, the inside was full of small, chestnut-sized dirt pellets.
As I pointed it out and explained, everyone nodded in agreement.
Because the lumps were all roughly the same size.
“Yeah, we saw that earlier. I even said it looked artificial.”
“That’s right, So-ryong.”
Ordinary ants don’t create dirt clumps like these.
Even a single grain of sand is big for them, and just carrying one is a huge task.
But larger ants can’t efficiently carry single grains. So they gather moist soil and spit it out in clumps near the burrow.
The result? Uniform dirt clumps forming mounds around the burrow entrance—the classic ant hill.
These mounds regulate humidity and prevent water overflow during rain.
Some species add chopped branches too, but regardless, these soil clumps were unmistakably the work of ants.
“Yes, while the surface is dry and crumbly like sand, the moist, uniform-sized clumps around the burrow are evidence Ma-ui have been using it.
These clumps were made from the soil they dug up inside and spit out nearby.”
“So what? Just ants moved in? That’s nothing special.”
Sister Seol brushed it off as no big deal, probably assuming they were just ordinary ants.
But while she dismissed it, Hwa-eun—who had picked up one of the chestnut-sized clumps—began to murmur as if realizing something.
“Wait, aren’t these clumps way too big for ants to carry? How big must the ants be?”
That casual observation made me beam proudly.
Would I really get excited over a regular ant nest?
This So-ryong only deals with big names.
“As expected of you, Hwa-eun. Yes, they’re large. So the ants must be big too, right? Based on my estimation... they’re probably at least five chi in size.”
“Five chi!?”
If a Chinese zhang is about 30 centimeters, one chi is around 3 centimeters—so five chi would be 15 centimeters.
A stunned Hwa-eun suddenly seemed to put two and two together.
“Oh! And didn’t we say there was Azure Steel Stone inside? Then—!?”
“Yes, most likely.”
And then she said it—exactly what I’d been thinking.
“Azure Steel Immortal Ant!”
Bingo. Azure Steel Immortal Ant.
The Celestial Azure Steel Ant. Its name shares the word Azure Steel with the ultra-hard Azure Steel Stone.
One of the Twenty-Four Venoms—specifically, the Blue Seat of the Red-Blue-White-Black group.
Said to emit a corrosive venom that can dissolve metal when approached—likely an acid-type toxin.
In the Secret Compendium of Venomous Creatures, it’s drawn in blue and described as “bluer than the sky.”
I’d assumed it was a vividly blue ant.
And now, it seemed that very creature lived inside this rocky mountain.
Come to think of it, the compendium mentioned it was found in a rocky mountain. Turns out it wasn’t just any rocky mountain, but one with a Azure Steel Stone vein.
“Most likely, yes. The Secret Compendium said the name came from its similarity to Azure Steel Stone—but now I think it was named because it lives in Azure Steel-rich areas.”
As I finished explaining, Hwa-eun beamed.
“Wow! Another of the Twenty-Four Venoms?! At this rate, you’ll collect the full set—including the Ten Great Venomous Beasts! Honestly, I didn’t think you’d manage even the Ten...”
Then she gave me a look—
A gaze that clearly said she’d fallen for me again.
...This is troubling.
That look made me think—I’m truly a sinner.
I should be winning her heart slowly and steadily, not sending it fluttering every other moment.
Surely this can’t be good for her heart.
“Aha... well then.”
Amitabha. But wait—if I pray to Buddha to forgive my sins... then isn’t that just me praying to myself?
As I spiraled into that oddly philosophical thought, Sister Seol asked from the side:
“But if there are Ma-ui here, shouldn’t we be seeing them? Ants are active day and night, right? Could this be an abandoned nest?”
A fair question from a beast expert like her.
After all, the entrance was just dirt—no ants in sight.
If this were an animal den, that would strongly suggest it was abandoned.
But ant nests were different.
Ordinary ants are nearly 24-hour workers.
They only rest for about a minute at a time—and do that around 250 times a day, which is why they seem constantly active.
So if there were ants in the burrow, we should’ve seen them.
However, when the temperature drops below 10 degrees Celsius, ants cease activity.
And though Sichuan is warm, it’s early winter now. That meant the ants would all be hunkered down inside.
Even spirit beasts like them could probably endure the cold longer—but unless something urgent came up, like with my kids, sleeping through the cold was the smarter move.
“It’s because of the cold. Ants stop moving around this time of year. If this nest had been abandoned, all the dirt would’ve crumbled into dry sand by now. The fact that it’s still moist clumps proves that Ma-ui have been active here recently.”
Only then did Sister Seol nod in understanding.
But soon, her voice turned anxious.
“Still... I’m a little nervous hearing that it’s Ma-ui...”
“Why?”
“I was just reminded of the Army Ant Incident...”
“Ah...”
She shuddered, recalling the time when the Beast Palace was nearly wiped out by modified army ants.
But that had been the work of the Five Venoms Clan. This was a natural spirit beast. It wouldn’t be dangerous.
Because we could reason with it.
“Don’t worry, Sister Seol. These are spirit beasts. They’ll understand us.”
“I hope you’re right...”
“Besides, it’s not like before. We’ve got plenty of our own little ones now. What’s to worry? Anyway—shall we start climbing?”
At my words, everyone turned to look up at the cliff face, toward the rock jutting out of the mountain’s side.
We had to climb up there next.
Well—everyone but me, that is.
***
“Thank you, Yohwa.”
—Kii-sit!
The last of our group to be lifted up on Yohwa’s thread expressed his gratitude.
While Hwa-eun, Sister Seol, Gungbong, and I were brought up to the rock by Cho or Yeondu—probably because of Soto’s parasitic possession—the rest had to ride up on Yohwa’s silk.
“I thought I was going to die...”
My sister-in-law collapsed inside the rock alcove, gasping for breath, her face pale as a sheet.
She’d screamed every time Yohwa’s silk swayed in the wind—this was clearly her first time scaling a cliff like this.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes...”
I gave my brother a nudge and a look that clearly said go comfort her already, then walked toward the wide stone wall near the back of the platform.
I turned to Senior Yeoncheon.
“So... how do we get inside from here?”
Senior Yeoncheon rolled his eyes around, scanning for something.
After a moment, his eyes stopped and he gestured with one eyeball toward the stone wall.
[Over there. There, Benefactor.]
I followed the direction he indicated, and he added,
[Tear off that mushroom.]
“Understood.”
The cliff face was covered in rock mushrooms—stone ear fungus.
As I pulled one away, a constellation was revealed underneath.
It looked as though someone had taken the night sky and engraved it straight into the rock wall.
Beneath the stars was a single line of text:
"Destroy the Five Stars."
“Destroy five stars?”
Oseong Paheo—literally, “Destroy the Five Stars.”
I turned to Senior Yeoncheon, unsure which stars I was meant to destroy.
The rock wall was covered with countless constellations. How ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) was I supposed to know which stars?
“Senior, which ones do we break?”
Senior Yeoncheon scratched his head with his eyeball and answered with a vague tone.
[I don’t know that either, Benefactor...]
“...Excuse me?”
Wait—he was the one who suggested we enter through the Nine-Gate Trial. I thought he knew everything...
He had said:
[If I recall correctly, the first six gates assess one’s basic qualities. The remaining three evaluate whether the challenger can inherit Hwamu-jin’s martial arts. Hwamu-jin didn’t like people getting hurt, so it probably won’t be life-threatening.]
Recalling that now, I realized he hadn’t sounded confident even then.
He hadn’t said “it won’t be,” but “probably won’t be.”
He wasn’t sure at all.
And just as I was starting to worry that this might be a serious problem—
Ji-ryong spoke up beside me.
“Young warrior, even if Senior doesn’t know, there’s no need to worry. I understand this part.”
“Really?!”
“Yes. The term ‘five stars’ here doesn’t literally mean five separate stars. It refers to Bukshin—the Northern Star.”
“The Northern Star?”
“Exactly. This one right here.”
He pointed to a particular star—the brightest one in the constellation.
Polaris.
“I’ve read that in ancient times, this star was also called Oseong—the Five Star.”
“Oooh.”
Of course Ji-ryong knew this. I nodded, impressed.
Then the men—including my brother—began rolling up their sleeves.
“Should we wager on who gets to smash it?”
“Sounds good.”
“Let’s take turns, then.”
As expected of martial artists, they seemed to love this kind of trial.
A casual bet was placed on who would succeed.
Nothing particularly valuable was at stake, but suddenly everyone’s eyes were full of competitive fire.
One by one, our group began striking the carved Polaris on the rock wall.
—BANG!
But despite the noise, the star didn’t even budge.
After everyone had gone once, voices of disbelief filled the air.
“Wait... could this be Azure Steel Stone too?”
“But it’s not blue?”
“How is it that our full-strength blows didn’t even leave a crack? Is this made of some special kind of stone?”
No one could believe they’d failed to damage it.
Then, as the Three Peaks of the Five Dragons, Hu-gae, and Jaheo watched in silence, Bini stepped forward with a deep sigh.
—Tch. 『Sigh...』
She walked between the people, opened her mandibles, and bit down on Polaris.
—Crunch! CRACK!
Right before everyone’s stunned eyes, the carved star shattered.
And then...
—Drrrrrrumble...
Centered on the broken Polaris, the gate to the tomb began to open.
