At Hwa-eun’s words, I couldn’t help but feel a surge of anticipation.
I didn’t know exactly how she was going to do it, but she said she’d detoxify me, after all.
Still, it felt awkward to just open my eyes right away like I’d been waiting for that.
‘Wouldn’t it be weird to just snap my eyes open like I was waiting for it?’
So instead, I pretended to circulate my qi for a moment, then acted like it wasn’t working and faked some discomfort—just enough to accept Hwa-eun’s help without looking too eager.
But when I didn’t stop the circulation of the Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art, I suddenly felt the poison in my body evaporate and disappear at a rapid pace.
In an instant, Big Dragon turned into Great Dragon, and then back into Little Dragon—my body rapidly returning to normal.
‘No! Damn! Is this because I ascended to the Fire Realm?’
Or was it because, like Hwa-eun said, I’d accepted the poisons of six of the Ten Great Venomous Creatures?
A moment later, when I opened my eyes in disappointment, Hwa-eun was gone.
Hyang and Hongdan were nowhere to be seen either.
They had withdrawn from my body earlier when I started circulating my qi—likely to cling to Hwa-eun instead—and Cho was loosely coiled around me at a slight distance, standing guard.
I asked Cho where Hwa-eun had gone.
After all, I hadn’t heard her leave.
“Cho, where’s Mom?”
—Tsk. 『Mom was watching you, then she clicked her tongue and went off to gather the fallen people.』
“I-I see.”
No wonder the two we captured last weren’t around either.
It looked like Hwa-eun had realized my body was stabilized and went off to collect the ones we’d knocked out.
But from the way Cho spoke, it seemed I wasn’t the only one who was disappointed. Still smacking my lips in regret, I turned toward the inner area of the abandoned pipeline.
We were deep in the jungle.
Even though it had only been a short while, the three attackers had run for their lives, and I’d chased them down past the crumbling wall of the pipeline—several hundred meters away.
“Come on, Cho, let’s go too.”
—Slither. 『Dad, are you okay now?』
“Yeah.”
—Tsk. 『Earlier, when Mom left with Hyang, she suddenly asked why you didn’t take the snake out... What was that about?』
“Haha... Hyang must’ve misunderstood something.”
I was caught off guard by Cho’s sudden mention of a snake, but I brushed it off vaguely and stepped into the abandoned pipeline. There, in a clearing to one side, I saw people strewn about.
They were still unconscious, small needles stuck in various parts of their bodies.
As Cho said, it seemed Hwa-eun had rounded up all the scattered enemies who’d been subdued while trying to flee.
I approached her and asked,
“Hwa-eun, are these all of them? You should’ve waited. I’d have helped.”
“Yes, So-ryong. But it wasn’t that hard. I just had to toss them over my shoulder. More importantly... it looks like your body... is fine now...”
As she said “body,” her eyes flicked downward briefly before she smiled awkwardly.
I quickly shook my head.
“Ah, no. I’ve calmed down, but the—uh, the poison energy. Still, I can’t be sure it’s all gone. Hwa-eun, could you check me again tonight?
You know how poison can seem gone but still linger and cause sudden seizures, right?”
I knew for a fact no such poison existed, but Hwa-eun seemed to catch on to what I meant. She gave me a look that said “Fine, I get it,” and took my hand.
“So-ryong, really... This is what happens when you neglect your martial training. You’ve ascended to the Fire Realm and still can’t detoxify properly. I’ll extract it thoroughly for you tonight. The poison, of course.”
An intimate conversation only a couple could have, laced with other meanings.
But Cho, looking concerned, turned to Hwa-eun and asked:
—Slither. 『Mom, is Dad still sick? You said he was fine just now.』
Hwa-eun answered in a very sweet voice, completely concealing her other intent.
『No, Cho. Just in case, I’m going to check him tonight. So you all need to go to bed early, okay?』
—Tsk. 『Why?』
“Because Mommy and Daddy need to check if Daddy’s body is okay in the empty room. We’ll be circulating qi, and we can’t have anyone making noise or moving nearby.”
—Sssslither. 『Okay, Mom. Don’t worry. I’ll explain it to the others and my sisters properly.』
Cho had been drilled by Hwa-eun on how no one should disturb me when I’m circulating qi—no loud noises or touching my body. So he swallowed her lie without a second thought.
But it wasn’t a complete lie.
Even if the poison energy was gone, if I’d been affected at all, it was only right to check if my body was functioning properly.
After all, I had briefly turned into Great Dragon under the poison’s effect. Functionality needed to be confirmed.
‘Sometimes the outside looks fine, but the inside could be rotting, right?’
Just as we held hands and were enjoying this rare opportunity—
A voice came down from above the pipeline.
“What, I thought I’d finally get to stretch my muscles again, but you two already handled everything? I was gonna ask when to strike once we got everyone into place...”
Looking up, I saw Geombong descending quickly, riding on Yeondu, with a disappointed expression.
From what she said, she had brought reinforcements and set up an ambush around the area, waiting to ask us when to attack—but the situation had already been resolved.
I apologized with an awkward smile.
Martial artists live for battles like this. I’d probably robbed her of a good time.
Would the Commander of the Venom Elimination Unit be just as disappointed?
“Ah, sorry about that.”
“It’s okay. It was your task, anyway, Young Hero. I’ll go bring the others now.”
Geombong waved off the apology, saying it wasn’t necessary since it was my job anyway.
She seemed to be enjoying traveling around with Yeondu, because she gave her a request.
“Yeondu, let’s go once more.”
—Shaah. 『Got it.』
Geombong vanished with Yeondu again, and after about 15 minutes, she returned to the pipeline clearing with the others.
“So the Young Hero and Hwa-eun handled everything?”
“Whoa... That shock in the center—was that you, So-ryong?”
“Yes, Commander.”
I thought the Commander of the Venom Elimination Unit would be disappointed that I did it all myself, but when he checked the site, he actually looked extremely pleased.
Was it because his Tang Clan’s son-in-law had personally handled things?
“Still, why didn’t you wait for us?”
“I was angry...”
“Angry? Little Master?”
“So-ryong?”
Geombong and the others gave me incredulous looks, like they couldn’t believe I had done anything in anger.
It made sense.
I was the textbook definition of a good-natured guy—someone who wouldn’t break the law even if there were none.
For me to have gotten mad? They found it impossible to believe.
Understanding their skepticism, I explained.
“I mean, these bastards were killing a spirit beast! The moment I saw it, I lost it. I swear, even grinding them into paste wouldn’t be enough.”
“I... I see. I figured it must’ve been something unusual if Little Hero got angry. And this certainly isn’t ordinary...”
“But wait—did you say spirit beast?”
“Oh! Right, the spirit beast!”
We’d been talking about the attackers, and it finally hit me—what about the spirit beast?
I quickly scanned the area.
The last guy to emerge from the most intact building of the pipeline had been holding its severed head...
“Where did it go?”
“What are you looking for, Young Hero?”
“Ah, earlier, when I was looking from above, I saw those bastards carrying the severed head of a spirit beast.”
“A h-head?”
“Yeah. They’re really scum, aren’t they?”
“...They really are. I’ll help. Seonhak, tell the juniors to check the area.”
“Yes, Senior Sister.”
—Sssslither. 『Let’s go too, Yeondu unni.』
—Shaah. 『Alright.』
“Wait!”
Just as Geombong’s request had the Dianchang Sect disciples starting to scatter, and Cho and Yeondu looked ready to follow along, I stopped them and turned to Hwa-eun.
“Hwa-eun, please keep the kids from coming this way.”
“Alright, So-ryong.”
Even if they were used to seeing dead people, the sight of a spirit beast from their own kind lying dead would be too traumatic for them.
I made sure the kids couldn’t come close and started searching the area. Near the crater from my impact with the ground, I found what looked like the beast’s internal organs.
“Found it.”
It looked a bit squashed from the impact.
Geombong approached and examined the organs, grimacing.
“Ugh. That’s hideous... But kind of unusual, too.”
“I thought so. That’s the insect gut.”
“Insect?”
“Yeah.”
It was definitely insect innards.
More specifically, it looked like the digestive system—foregut, midgut, and hindgut—common in insects.
Insects typically have their digestive tracts separated into three parts: the foregut for storing and breaking down food, the midgut for absorbing nutrients, and the hindgut for excretion.
The organs I’d found were long and coiled, just like that.
“But the head should be nearby too.”
I wrapped the intestines in one of the unconscious bastards’ shirts and kept looking for the head. But it was nowhere in sight.
Must’ve been blown away by the force of my crash into the ground. As the search continued, one of the Venom Elimination Unit warriors pointed to a rooftop.
“Young Hero So-ryong! Over there!”
“Hm?”
Looking where he pointed, I saw a pair of antennae sticking out of a roof tile.
“What the hell—how’d it get all the way up there?”
I used lightfoot technique to get up to the roof and pulled the embedded head out.
What immediately caught my eye was the enamel-like shell, shimmering in shades of blue and green under the moonlight.
‘Ha... If it were alive, it would’ve been magnificent.’
The head was composed of six fused segments, like typical beetles. The mouth was in a straight line with the digestive tract—characteristic of beetle-type insects.
This kind of head structure is called orthognathous—the kind where the mouth aligns straight with the esophagus—and that matched this thing exactly.
‘A venomous beetle, huh?’
Carrying the head, I climbed down and entered the building where the three attackers had first emerged.
“Y-Young Hero, what kind of spirit beast is this? Urgh...”
Geombong had followed me in and recoiled at the sight.
Inside, the insect spirit beast had been completely dismantled.
Two outer wings, inner wings, the abdomen, and legs.
I offered a silent prayer for the creature’s soul, then flipped its body over on the table, laid its wings on top, then closed it with the outer shell. I roughly arranged the legs around it and placed the head last.
And there it was—the beautiful gleam of green and blue shining forth.
So that’s why So-ryong had turned into Great Dragon for a moment.
“There’s no doubt. This was a Blue Blister Beetle.”
“Blue Blister Beetle?”
This was a Blue Blister Beetle spirit beast.
There are many kinds of blister beetles, but Blue Blister Beetle are distinguished by their green and blue enamel sheen.
Just like a jewel beetle—absolutely stunning.
‘Wait a sec...’
Suddenly, one of the Twenty-Four Venoms came to mind.
Exploding Jade Water Beetle.
Its name included the character for “water” and ended with “beetle,” so the clan always assumed it was a water-dwelling beetle species.
But strangely, its full description and illustration had been completely blacked out with ink in the Secret Compendium of Venomous Creatures.
Now it made sense—if this creature was that “watery color,” then the name tracks. Murky pondwater and deep river water have that bluish-green tint.
And then there’s the “Exploding Jade” part.
I never quite understood what that was referring to, but now that I think about its venom—it fits perfectly.
In the Central Plains, the refined terms used to refer to a man’s private parts include “Jade Stem or “Jade Root,” though the more clinical word is “yin stem.”
On the internet in my past life, people used cutesy euphemisms like “treasure” to refer to their junk. This is similar.
To explain bluntly, it’s like calling it “precious thing” or “valuable rod.”
So the name “Exploding Jade” in the beetle’s name—
If its venom causes that to explode, then the name makes perfect sense.
An explosion... of your treasured parts.
That’s the meaning of the name.
And maybe that’s why the original record in the Secret Compendium was blacked out—some ancestor in the Tang Clan must’ve realized what a horrifying threat this thing posed to men and decided to censor it entirely.
Imagine dying because your “precious rod” exploded—that’s pure nightmare fuel.
‘Yeah, that tracks. And dammit, the rage is bubbling up now...’
The more I realized what we’d lost, the more furious I became.
Especially since collecting the Five Elements—Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth—was a near-impossible task.
This thing was probably the only living specimen left of the Water element among the spirit beasts. And now it was dead.
How the hell was I supposed to find another ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) living one?
The bastards Hwa-eun subdued... their sins were unforgivable.
