Drops of water fell from the ceiling of the cave, plinking into the small underground lake below.
The torchlight flickered across the cave walls, casting ripples across the dark surface.
–Ponk.
A warrior standing guard near the waterway entrance shouted toward the cave interior.
“Paralyzing Cord is returning!”
Something long was swimming into the cave through the waterway.
Paralyzing Cord—Mabiseung—was a newly engineered spirit creature created by the Five Venoms Sect.
It had been raised from a segmented worm, and got its name from its ability to paralyze and restrain prey, like a living binding rope.
“Back a little late today, huh? Must’ve had a nice feast on those border patrol bastards.”
Hearing it was back, Gal Gi-ryang, commander of the Black Venom-Wukong Unit, walked to the lakeside with a pleased expression.
The original Black Venom Unit and Wukong Unit had both lost their elite forces and fallen into disgrace. Worse yet, they'd been forced to incorporate minor dregs from the Blood Cult.
But this creature, which they’d developed with painstaking care, had been producing real results lately—and that lifted morale.
If things kept going this well, they’d be recognized and supported again. Returning to the Five Venoms Sect’s elite force structure would be well within reach.
Just a few days earlier, they’d been praised directly by the Sect Leader for driving back the Martial Alliance near the border:
“To think such a lowly creature could rout Martial Alliance forces—I had my doubts, but this is impressive. We’ll monitor results for one more month and begin mass production.
And as for the commander of the Black Venom-Wukong Unit, a new title will be granted!”
“Thank you, sir!”
To be promised a promotion beyond his current post—only one step remained.
The Martial Alliance had returned to the border, but if Mabiseung continued killing and terrifying them into retreating again, that final step would arrive soon.
“Let’s see how much you ate today.”
Gal Gi-ryang stepped closer to the water and held his torch out to illuminate the surface.
Beneath the transparent waters of the underground lake, he could see the creature swimming in.
But today—oddly—it looked shorter than usual.
“Huh? What the...”
Sensing something ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ strange, Gal Gi-ryang ordered it.
“Come out here.”
It was a command to emerge so he could inspect its body. The creature slithered close and poked out its head—but refused to crawl fully onto land.
“Now what? Not listening again? Don’t tell me the needle’s loose again.”
Because of its flexible body, the control needle sometimes came loose in Mabiseung.
That’s why it occasionally stopped obeying commands—so Gal Gi-ryang pulled out a flute from his robe.
The flute was used to inflict pain through the Five Venoms Detonation-Submersion Technique, forcing obedience.
–Piiiiiiiii.
As he blew the note, Mabiseung twisted momentarily in pain.
Then, as the pain subsided, it quickly crawled ashore.
“That’s more like it.”
Gal Gi-ryang first examined its tail. It was definitely shorter.
“What is this...?”
The tail end looked blunt—stubby.
Still unsure of the cause, he moved to inspect the head, where the golden control needle should have been embedded.
If it had come loose, they’d need a specialist to reinsert it using the Five Venoms Detonation-Submersion Technique.
But the moment his eyes landed on the creature’s head—
Gal Gi-ryang froze.
There wasn’t a single control needle embedded in Mabiseung’s skull.
“What!? The... the needle!?”
And then—
Mabiseung turned toward him, mouth open.
–SHLAAAK!
Something like thread shot from its jaws, wrapping instantly around Gal Gi-ryang.
“W-What the—?!”
“Commander!”
“Commander! What’s happening!?”
Only four warriors were stationed here, including Gal Gi-ryang himself.
The others rushed forward to help—but just then, another Mabiseung burst from the water and sprayed a wide arc of sticky thread.
–SHLAAAK!
Thread blasted out from its jaws, and as they tried to dodge, the other Mabiseung sprayed from the opposite side.
Caught in a pincer attack, the remaining three warriors were quickly subdued.
“What the—there’s two of them!?”
“Guhk!”
Bound by the sticky threads, they collapsed to the cave floor.
Then the two Mabiseungs coiled together—driving sharp appendages into each other’s bodies.
And much later—
Their act complete, they slowly began melting and absorbing the corpses of the immobilized warriors.
***
We sprinted to Father as fast as we could.
We had to report what we’d learned—to him and the Martial Alliance leadership.
We’d already passed on a warning earlier, but that clearly wasn’t enough.
The situation had changed—and we needed to act now.
Better to move early than be caught unprepared.
“Is Father in!?”
We rushed to his office. As we tried to enter, the guards stepped in front of us.
“He’s in a meeting with the Alliance elders—”
“There’s no time for that. Move!”
Sister Seol shoved past them and threw open the door—inside were Father and several of the Martial Alliance elders.
The guards had said a meeting was in progress. Father must’ve convened it after hearing our earlier report.
“Father!”
“Father!”
Both Seol and I called out in unison as we burst in—all eyes turned to us.
Even Ji-ryong was present, and Father frowned.
“Must you barge in so rudely with guests present?”
“Forgive us, Father. It’s urgent.”
“This is more important right now, Father.”
Hearing the desperation in our voices, Father turned to the elders and bowed slightly.
“My apologies. It appears there’s an emergency from the palace.”
He must have assumed something major had happened, given how all three of us—Seol, Hwa-eun, and I—came rushing in.
It wasn’t like us to cause a scene without reason.
And clearly, they knew that too.
The elders of the Martial Alliance responded with surprisingly warm smiles.
“No need to apologize. If it’s urgent for the young lord—no, great lord—then by all means, speak.”
“Indeed. If it’s urgent, we’re all ears. Please, go on.”
...Have I always had this good a reputation in the Martial Alliance?
Even though we had barged into a meeting, the elders of the Martial Alliance were being incredibly lenient with me.
When I thought about it, they should be lenient with me.
I inherited the martial arts of the Alliance Leader, I developed and shared the poison of Blood-Eye Executioner that could neutralize the Blood Cult, and I had revealed the secrets of the Blood Cult’s business fronts—hadn’t I?
‘Yeah. As long as I didn’t kill their parents, they should treat me well.’
Just as I was thinking that as long as I didn’t kill the elders’ parents, they had every reason to be kind to me, Father turned to us and asked,
“What’s the urgent matter?”
“It’s about what I told you earlier.”
“You? We were just discussing that now, actually. Is there something you forgot to mention?”
I told him that I had come to correct—or rather, to add something important to what I’d said earlier, and Father confirmed they had already been discussing it.
That saved me from having to repeat things multiple times. I figured I’d just explain it to everyone now.
“Yes. Actually, Father, after we spoke, I learned something else...”
I carefully and thoroughly explained everything that Cheong-yu Sojeo and I had discovered.
That the stickyworm had been split in two while escaping, and that one half would likely be freed from the Five Venoms Sect’s control—and would start indiscriminately attacking and consuming anything edible, including people.
And if the two halves met and managed to reproduce, the consequences would be unimaginable.
“Is that true?”
“Is that really true, Young Lord So?”
“Yes.”
The atmosphere inside the office instantly turned to shock.
Ji-ryong, who had been listening, quickly asked me,
“Then what should we do now?”
“Do we have a map that shows the water routes?”
“Wait one moment. Someone bring me a map of the area, now!”
“Yes, Lord!”
Father sent the warriors to fetch the map. A few minutes later, he spread it out over the table and said,
“This waterway here is where the creature appeared. It flows down this way and eventually meets the Lanchang River.”
“So this is a tributary of the Lanchang River?”
“Correct. It starts between two mountains inside Daewolguk’s borders, then gradually widens and flows into the Lanchang.”
“That’s a relief. If the opposite had happened—if it had started from the Lanchang and flowed into our land—it would’ve been a disaster.”
According to Father, the waterway where the creature had appeared originated deep inside Daewolguk, and it eventually joined with the Lanchang River—also known as the Mekong River.
I pointed to three places on the map.
“Here, here, and here. What’s the width of the stream in these three spots?”
“It’s about one jang in most places. The widest spot won’t exceed three jang.”
He explained that the stream wasn’t wide enough to be called a river—just around three to nine meters wide.
The nine-meter section was where it met the Lanchang, and the outpost that had been attacked was near the three-meter mark.
That matched my memory.
‘Ah, yeah... I think it was about three meters.’
“And the depth?”
“At most, waist-deep.”
“That’s perfect.”
I confirmed the depth too, and that gave us some hope.
“First, here, here, and here. We need to layer multiple nets at these three points. To make sure the one that escaped the Five Venoms Sect doesn’t make it to the Lanchang.
If it gets into the Lanchang, civilians downstream in other countries will suffer greatly. And if it gets injured again and splits into two, then it could multiply endlessly.”
The Lanchang River is the Chinese name for the Mekong River.
It’s the 12th-longest river in the world, stretching nearly 4,000 kilometers.
It flows from China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
If the creature got into the main river, the damage to civilians would be catastrophic.
So our plan was to block its path with nets at key points leading into the Lanchang—and catch it in the meantime.
“Nets? Got it. But how soon do we need them?”
“As soon as possible.”
It wouldn’t take long for the creature’s head to regenerate.
So we needed to act fast.
“Nets will take some time to prepare...”
It seemed mass-producing nets would take too long.
That’s when Ji-ryong spoke up.
“Nets might be slow, but we can plant bamboo posts and hang fencing instead.”
“Oh! That’ll work!”
Of course. This was Yunnan—bamboo was everywhere.
Orders were immediately dispatched, and warriors from the Beast Palace and the Martial Alliance began driving bamboo stakes into the water and building barriers strong enough to keep the creature from escaping.
***
Perhaps because regeneration took time, the stickyworms remained dormant for a while.
They hadn’t shown themselves for several days.
It was expected, but the longer it went on, the more nervous we got.
We couldn’t tell when the head half might become active again, but someone suggested using bait.
Since we had Hwa-eun, a master of poison arts, she could at least treat paralysis as long as the target didn’t get fully digested.
The creature used a cocktail of tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin that could kill people almost instantly—but if Hwa-eun could expel the toxins fast enough, lives could be saved.
So starting on the third day, we began placing human bait along the riverbanks.
With Hwa-eun waiting nearby, just in case.
Some argued that it was too cruel to use people like that—this wasn’t the Demonic Sect, after all—but we had perfect candidates for the job.
The scumbags who had sold fake versions of my Ji-dam Pill.
They were serving their sentences through labor anyway, so we put them to use.
But even after ten days, there was no sign of the stickyworms.
On the tenth night, when I went out scouting with Cho, Yeondu, and Hwa-eun, she asked me,
“Could it be taking longer than expected for them to regenerate?”
“Maybe. I honestly don’t know much about segmented worms...”
“I hope the wound was fatal.”
“That would be ideal, yeah...”
There were so few studies or papers on stickyworms.
Even in Europe and the U.S., barely any research existed—only Japan had a few scraps of data.
And these ones had been turned into spirit creatures, so nothing could be guaranteed.
Another ten days passed after that, and we finally decided that, dangerous or not, we needed to send Heukjeom and Cho to scout the Five Venoms Sect’s territory.
Their silence had gone on for too long.
“Heukjeom, Cho—if it gets dangerous, retreat immediately, okay?”
–Zzzt.
–Tzrut. 『Got it, Daddy.』
Right as we were about to send them off—
Almost as if to confirm our worst fears, one of the warriors clearing the nets and bamboo fences returned holding something unthinkable.
The fences and nets had to be cleared regularly—branches, leaves, even trapped fish floated in from upstream.
But the warrior who had been clearing branches had found something that should not have existed.
“This was stuck in the bamboo fence?”
“Yes.”
He’d hooked it with a branch and brought it over.
A soggy, slack clump of flesh, water dripping off it.
But it was instantly recognizable.
It was a dead stickyworm—thick as an adult’s forearm.
Apparently, the stickyworms had already reproduced.
