It was after the third time.
From the bed, Tang Hwa-eun spoke in a languid voice.
“Haa... haa... So-ryong. Today as well, you were truly not just Daeryong, but Georyong.”
Sunlight filtered in through the cracks of the curtained window, shining softly on Hwa-eun’s face.
Why had it turned into this from broad daylight?
Earlier, after speaking with my foster father, we headed back to our quarters to get some rest.
We had stayed up all night, so we were going to sleep.
Besides, the ribbon worm only appeared at night, and it was wounded—so it likely wouldn’t be active anytime soon.
Cheong-yu Sojeo had said that the Five Venoms Sect had a secret technique to boost healing ability, so there was a chance it could move again quickly. But up until now, it had never been active during the day. Even if it recovered, it wouldn’t move until nighttime.
So we were going to rest comfortably—but before lying down, we needed to bathe.
After all, Hwa-eun had not only been covered in dust, but also entangled by the creature’s bodily fluids and proboscis—even if she burned them away with Sammae True Flame.
It happened after we had bathed and met again in the quarters.
As Hwa-eun lay on the bed, I said:
“Hwa-eun, that creature left its saliva on you last night, right? Before we sleep, I should check the spot where it bit you. I got some Golden Wound Ointment medicine from Sister. So—where did it bite you?”
Last night, Hwa-eun had been bitten by the ribbon worm.
Though she expelled the poison using her poison arts, and the proboscis was burned away with Sammae True Flame, it was still good practice to recheck the wound.
There was a chance it could get worse, after all.
“I-I’m fine. I-I can apply it myself.”
Hwa-eun hesitated with a flustered look, even though I offered to apply the medicine.
I didn’t understand why—until she said:
“No, I’ll apply it.”
“But...”
“You said you’re embarrassed in front of Gun Sojeo, but not in front of me, right? We’re married—so what’s the problem?”
She had said it was embarrassing to be naked around Gun Hye-rin, but not around me—so what was with this reaction?
Seeing my confused expression, Hwa-eun blushed, then shut her eyes tightly and stretched out the wounded area.
Lying down, she raised her leg...
“I-It’s embarrassing... but here.”
Gyaaah!
Turns out, the wound was on the inside of her thigh.
Honestly, that was pretty embarrassing.
The pose—yeah, it was that pose.
But this was a medical process—healing her injury.
With a truly pure heart, I started treatment, looking at it only from a medical perspective. But the moment my hand, applying Golden Wound Ointment, touched her thigh—
A faint moan escaped.
“Hnn.”
From the sound of it, it definitely hurt a lot. Worried there might be more painful spots, I checked more thoroughly, which led to... this situation.
‘It really started as pure treatment...’
Feeling pleased by Hwa-eun’s praise, I shrugged my shoulders and lay down next to her.
I felt proud—because this was entirely my own ability.
People assumed that once someone reached the Flower Realm, their physical prowess improved and that’s why they were "exceptional"—but I had trained poison arts.
Poison arts were based on yin energy, and since I couldn’t channel internal energy into Georyong, this ability was completely separate from martial arts.
It was based on my own yang energy.
So this was purely a man’s pride.
And when a man’s pride gets complimented, of course it feels great.
We were newlyweds, so I gave it my all—but even I was impressed. Three times. That was quite something.
Honestly, I still had a bit of energy left.
Enough left ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) to keep feeding Yo-hwa.
‘No doubt. I did well. Still... how the hell did I do it three times? During the honeymoon, your body really does transcend human limits.’
I remembered something from my past life.
They said: "During the honeymoon, you put a bean in a jar every time you make love. And after the honeymoon, you take out one bean each time. Even until death, the jar will never be empty."
I never believed it before.
Now I understood.
At this rate, that proverb could be true.
‘Alright, time to rest. If I push it, Yo-hwa will scold me again.’
Just as I smiled in satisfaction at Hwa-eun’s praise and was about to lie next to her—
Light beamed through the window slit, and I reached out blindly—only to grab something soft.
Perhaps misinterpreting the gesture, Hwa-eun moaned again.
“Haa... I’m already satisfied, but... So-ryong wasn’t? Alright. It’s a wife’s duty to satisfy her husband. Still, you really do love breasts, So-ryong.”
A complete misunderstanding.
I quickly replied:
“No, I—I’ll get scolded by Yo-hwa if I go further.”
“Oh no!”
Four times? That would definitely make Yo-hwa sulk.
Come to think of it, she had just complained yesterday about my yang energy not feeling potent enough.
“Brother, your yang energy’s been kinda weak lately.”
“Weak?”
“Yes, not intense.”
“W-Why would that be...?”
Smiling faintly as if resigned, Hwa-eun wrapped her arms around my head and buried me in the safest place in the world.
Or maybe... the happiest?
“Mmm... It’s okay. Three times is still amazing. Now then, So-ryong, rest in your favorite place.”
Was that an invitation to die of pleasure in my favorite place?
I braced myself, wondering if she’d be cold if I declined—but instead, she led me to the happiest place on earth.
‘So this is heaven.’
The place I was led to—every man’s homeland.
I decided to fully relax in this happiest place, empty of all thoughts.
Breasts really are magical.
They’re soft, warm, and the moment a man holds them, all stray thoughts vanish.
As I quietly sang the praises of breasts in my mind and reveled in comfort—
A voice called from outside. It was Sister Seol.
Knock knock.
[So-ryong, come out for a moment.]
Her voice was gentle and low, coming from just outside.
Our bodies flinched like springs.
“M-My bra! Where is it?”
Hwa-eun immediately began searching for her undergarment—that one piece Central Plains women wear to cover their breasts.
It’s the first thing they put on.
I quickly gathered my clothes too and called out toward the door:
“J-Just a moment, Sister Seol!”
“Don’t panic—just poke your head out. I just came to give you something. Fufu.”
There was a faint laugh in her voice—as if she knew exactly what we’d been doing.
In a voice full of embarrassment, Tang Hwa-eun whispered to me.
[What should we do? Do you think the sound leaked? Was the soundproofing not good enough? Oh no... I’m so embarrassed, So-ryong.]
Hwa-eun was deeply embarrassed.
I was a little embarrassed too—but decided to play it shamelessly.
If it had been before marriage, maybe... but we were newlyweds. So what if we did it a little? What’s the big deal?
‘Come on, isn’t the whole point of being married that you can legally do it?’
[Hwa-eun, we’re married now. So what? We, uh, did it a bit? It’s not like it’s a crime. Just act like nothing happened.]
[H-Hah... You’re right. We are married now, huh? O-Okay.]
Creak.
Emboldened by my words, Hwa-eun forced herself to make a face like nothing had happened.
Moments later—
After quickly putting on our clothes and opening the door with totally neutral expressions—
We both froze at Sister Seol’s words.
“Whoa! Heat! And a lewd smell.”
“Huh?”
It wasn’t a reaction we’d expected at all.
Looking at our stiffened expressions, Sister Seol’s voice came again.
“Open a window, you two. Geez, look at all the heat pouring out of that room.”
After exchanging glances, Hwa-eun and I instantly realized what she meant.
Now that both of us had reached the Flower Realm, we were immune to heat and cold—thanks to the Hanseo Bulchim trait.
Which meant we’d become insensitive to temperature extremes. But since we were worried Hwa-eun’s moans might leak out, we’d closed all the windows tight.
Because of that, the heat we generated couldn’t escape through the small gaps.
With the two of us blazing with youthful energy, what do you think happened to the inside of that room?
Maybe not quite like a pressure cooker, but the room had been thoroughly saturated with heat—and when the door opened, it burst out all at once.
I remembered hearing in my past life that when people do it in a car, the windows fog up from the inside. That exact phenomenon had now happened in our room.
I’d meant to greet Sister Seol shamelessly, but both my and Hwa-eun’s faces flushed bright red.
It was as if the room had told her exactly what we’d been doing.
Seeing our faces, Sister Seol smirked, patted my shoulder, and said:
“What are you so embarrassed about? Newlyweds are supposed to do that. But if you’re gonna do it—take these.”
“W-What’s this?”
‘Wait, do they have contraception here too? No way—this is the Tang Clan and Beast Palace. Kids are precious.’
Sister Seol was an open-minded woman, so at first, I thought she was handing us contraceptives.
But both the Tang Clan and Beast Palace were families where children were rare.
Rather than stopping pregnancy, they actively encouraged it.
So something felt off. I looked at what she was handing me—and it was three sheets of paper.
“I mean, you two clearly had nothing better to do and were lying around. My room’s right next door, so I heard the floor rumble. That reminded me of these. Isn’t it a bit boring to just do it normally? They’re talismans.”
“Talismans?”
“Yup. For conceiving a son. This one I got from the abbot at Shaolin, this one from the Kunlun Sect, and this one from the head of the Cheongseong Sect.”
I hadn’t thought about it, but apparently Sister Seol’s room was right next door—and when she laid down, she could feel the floor tremble.
And the reason she came to our room? To hand us talismans for conceiving a son.
I had no idea when she even got these, but she pressed them into our hands and said:
“Alright, then. Go all out. Root for the little sibling!”
Getting this... and then squirming together like slugs again?
As my brain conjured images of slugs mating, something I had completely forgotten suddenly popped into my mind.
“Wait a second. Slugs? Huuuh?!”
‘No way! That might actually happen!’
I yelped in shock—causing both Sister Seol and Hwa-eun to flinch in surprise.
“W-What? Why are you freaking out? Are we not supposed to use these? Is it bad luck? Is Hwa-eun going to get even scarier if she gets pregnant?”
“O-Older sister! T-That’s not it!”
The two of them clearly misunderstood—but that wasn’t the reason I was shocked.
“N-No! That’s not why! It’s the offspring!”
“Offspring? Well yeah, she gave you the talismans to help make one.”
At my words, Sister Seol glanced down at Hwa-eun’s belly.
Hwa-eun blushed with embarrassment—and I immediately shouted:
“No—I’m not calling our baby an offspring! I’m talking about the sachung!”
“Oh, that thing that bit Hwa-eun yesterday? What about it?”
“If there are two of them, they might reproduce!”
Ribbon worms include both dioecious species and hermaphroditic ones.
And especially those that live in freshwater—they’re hermaphrodites.
Some can even switch sexes, so if you have two, they can definitely reproduce.
Thinking about slugs reminded me of that.
“What!?”
Both Sister Seol and Hwa-eun froze and asked at once.
“How many do they give birth to at once?”
“How many can they lay in one go?”
Ribbon worms are secondary predators in aquatic ecosystems.
They regulate the population of primary predators when they reproduce in large numbers.
Which means—they also reproduce like primary predators.
You know what that means?
Mass reproduction.
Just like cats, which hunt mice and also give birth to many kittens to keep up with their prey—these worms reproduce explosively.
“T-Thousands?”
“What!?”
“Seriously?”
Ribbon worms tend to produce more eggs the longer their bodies are. And the one we lost last night was about as big as Cho.
Which meant it could lay thousands of eggs.
Tens of thousands, even.
And that meant—
Even a normal ribbon worm, when it reproduces in large numbers, can cause massive damage to smaller prey—like fish or annelids.
In my past life, ribbon worms used to bloom in estuarine regions, and when they did, baby eels trying to swim upstream in spring would take massive damage.
But this giant ribbon worm? Its prey was humans—or animals about the same size.
If we were careless, this could become an unprecedented biological disaster.
