The fact that the small O-gong raised by So-ryong had swallowed the incredible Neidan of the Bi-cheon Shin-sa left everyone speechless.
When So-ryong suddenly lost consciousness, only then did the people around him snap out of their shock and cry out.
"So-ryong!"
"So-ryong!"
"Ryong!"
At first, they thought he had simply fainted from the shock of seeing the O-gong devour such a precious Neidan containing two Gapja worth of internal energy.
But his condition was clearly different from someone merely fainting in disbelief.
He collapsed onto the table without any sign of awareness.
Hwa-eun, standing beside him, quickly caught him, but his body was limp, like a withering blade of grass, and he slid down onto the table.
His eyes had rolled back, and his body was trembling uncontrollably.
As his hands twitched, the two O-gong he had been holding—Hyang and Bin—let out panicked cries and scrambled onto Hwa-eun, climbing up her clothes in a hurry.
They bit at the edge of her robes, tugging insistently, as if urging her to check on So-ryong.
—Ssshh!
—Ssshh!
"Ah, alright, alright!"
Their reaction was completely different from the aggressive display they had shown just moments earlier.
Realizing the urgency, Hwa-eun reached out and placed her hand on So-ryong's body.
—Fwoosh!
But suddenly, an explosion of light erupted.
The Neidan of the Bi-cheon Shin-sa had definitely been swallowed by the O-gong.
Yet now, beneath So-ryong’s collapsed form, the same brilliant blue light that had radiated from the Neidan began to flare up once more.
The glow was even brighter than before—so intense that it felt like it could blind those nearby.
Startled by the flash, Hwa-eun instinctively let go of So-ryong.
As she regained her senses and reached out to pull him back, a thunderous voice rang out.
"Stop! Do not touch him, daughter-in-law! You must not touch him right now!"
It was the Beast Palace Lord.
His voice was sharp and commanding as he shouted at Hwa-eun to keep her hands off So-ryong.
His tone was so firm that Hwa-eun immediately backed away.
Even Seol, who had been rushing forward in a panic, stopped in her tracks.
"Father, why?! Why can’t I touch him!? He looks like he’s about to die!"
Seol shielded her eyes against the brilliant light, her face twisted with confusion and frustration.
She couldn't understand why her father was preventing them from helping So-ryong.
Stamping her foot in desperation, she shouted again, her tone demanding an answer.
The Beast Palace Lord, his expression still disbelieving, responded.
"Feel it! That energy—it's Beast Heart Technique! Right now, his body is radiating the aura of the Beast Heart Technique! Something... something we cannot comprehend is happening to him!"
His voice trembled with both excitement and unease.
"If we interfere carelessly, he could fall into deviation!"
"Beast Heart Technique?"
Hearing her father’s words, Seol frowned, then quickly closed her eyes, focusing on the energy in the room.
She could sense something.
But because her level of mastery was lower than her father’s, she had to concentrate much harder to truly perceive it.
And once she did—
She felt it.
The energy surging within the hall.
The powerful aura bursting from beneath So-ryong’s head, pouring into his body, then flowing back out—over and over again.
It was, without a doubt, the energy of the Beast Heart Technique.
"But... why?! Why would the Beast Heart Technique...?"
So-ryong had indeed been practicing the Beast Heart Technique.
But to have it activate on its own while he was unconscious?
She had never heard of such a thing before.
And to make matters worse—
She could feel the same energy radiating from the O-gong he had raised.
It was as if they were connected, sharing the flow of energy between them.
The Beast Heart Technique allowed its users to form bonds with their beasts, strengthening both through their connection.
But its power was never supposed to go beyond that.
Seol turned to her father, her face filled with disbelief.
The Beast Palace Lord, still staring blankly at So-ryong, murmured like a man in a trance.
"What is this...? How can both the O-gong and So-ryong be..."
"Beast Palace Lord, what is happening here?! What should we do?!"
Mandok Shingun, unable to just stand and watch, spoke urgently.
But the Beast Palace Lord had no answer.
Everyone was frozen, unable to act, unable to understand what was unfolding before their eyes.
And then—
Something even more shocking occurred.
—Creak... Crack...
Beneath So-ryong’s body, something began to grow.
No—it was emerging.
Slowly, it coiled around his body.
"What—what is this?!"
"The O-gong?! So-ryong’s O-gong—why is it doing that?!"
It was the O-gong.
The very same small O-gong that So-ryong had raised.
Its yellow body, patterned with blue spots, was growing larger.
It wrapped itself around So-ryong’s body, its form expanding at an alarming rate.
The blue-spotted, yellow carapace began to shed—
Its color, its entire structure was changing.
It was no longer small.
No longer the cute, tiny creature it had once been.
Its body had turned a deep, rich blue.
Its legs had become jade-like in color.
And its once-small frame had expanded into something massive, flat, and wide.
Seeing this, Mandok Shingun gasped in utter disbelief.
"A blue body... jade-like legs... No... No, it can’t be!"
His voice trembled.
"That’s... that’s a Flying Centipede!"
The name struck everyone like a bolt of lightning.
Even Hwa-eun, though unfamiliar with many things, knew that name.
It was recorded in the final section of The Compendium of the World’s Most Venomous Creatures.
The undisputed King of All Centipedes—
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"The Flying Centipede!?"
Hwa-eun whispered in shock.
She turned to Mandok Shingun, who was still staring at the transformation with wide eyes.
"The Flying Centipede... It’s one of the Ten Deadly Venoms! A calamity that soars through the sky, bringing death in its wake! An unstoppable force that rains down a toxic mist!"
"A blue-spotted O-gong devouring the Neidan of the Bi-cheon Shin-sa—transforming into the Flying Centipede! This... this is unbelievable!"
No written record had ever mentioned such a thing happening before.
Even The Compendium of the World’s Most Venomous Creatures, a treasure trove of knowledge within the Tang Clan, contained no accounts of this phenomenon.
Yet it was happening before their very eyes.
"Cho... Cho is becoming a Flying Centipede?"
As Mandok Shingun and Hwa-eun reeled in astonishment, another pair of voices rose in shock.
The Beast Palace Lord and Seol.
"No way... Does this mean...?"
"The phrase ‘a martial art that grows alongside its beast’... It was literal all along?!"
A passage from the Beast Heart Technique’s teachings.
A sentence that had always been overlooked.
"The Beast Heart Technique allows one to grow alongside their beast. When one grows, so too does the other."
Realizing its true meaning, the Beast Palace Lord and Seol trembled in awe.
While beside them, Mandok Shingun and Hwa-eun stood equally shaken by the fact that a blue-spotted O-gong had just evolved into the legendary Flying Centipede.
All the while, at the very center of the room—
So-ryong, now fully encased in the coils of the glowing centipede, lay motionless, completely enveloped in a sphere of brilliant blue light.
***
My head—my head felt like it was going to split open.
The moment Cho swallowed the Neidan of the Bi-cheon Shin-sa, something inside my skull swelled as if it were about to explode.
I thought I was going to pass out immediately, but I didn’t.
Instead, the pain just kept going.
I wanted to cut off my own head and be done with it.
Groaning in agony, I clutched my skull.
“Urgh... s-someone, help...”
Every time something pulsed deep inside my mind, a fresh wave of unbearable pressure surged through me.
It was strange. Normally, this level of pain would have made me black out.
But my consciousness remained crystal clear.
No, it was worse than that—because I was fully aware, the pain was even sharper. It was as if every detail of the suffering was being etched into my mind.
At first, the pain was just pain, something indescribable.
But now, it felt as though I could list out every nuance of it in excruciating detail—what kind of pain it was, which parts of my brain it was affecting, how it was pulsing through my body—as if I had to write an entire thesis on agony.
Why wasn’t anyone helping me?
Grandfather Mandok Shingun, the Beast Palace Lord, Seol, Hwa-eun—they were all right here.
I kept groaning, my voice barely forming words, desperate for anyone to respond.
“S-someone... help...”
—Shhh...
A soft touch swept through my hair.
Gentle fingers brushed against my scalp.
The sensation was so clear, I could tell exactly how delicate and careful the touch was.
‘H-Hwa-eun? Seol?’
The touch was undoubtedly that of a woman.
For a brief moment, I wondered whose hand it was—but that thought didn’t matter right now.
What mattered was that every time those fingers ran through my hair, the searing pain in my skull melted away.
It wasn’t like drinking something cool—it was like applying the coolness directly to the pain itself.
With each pass of those fingers, my head felt lighter, fresher.
The pain began to fade, like mist dissipating in the morning sun.
I still couldn’t open my eyes, but I surrendered myself to that comforting touch.
There was no other way to endure this.
Before long, after no more than ten strokes of that hand, the pain was nearly gone.
There was only a faint afterimage of it, like a lingering ghost.
Slowly, I opened my eyes, trying to regain my senses.
But I saw nothing.
Darkness.
Was it nighttime?
No... as my mind cleared, I realized—
I was being held in someone’s arms.
Yet, unlike the warmth of that gentle hand, the embrace itself was cool.
‘What...?’
It was soft, but cold.
Slowly, I lifted my head to see who was holding me.
‘...Blue?’
The first thing I saw was deep cobalt-colored hair.
Not black, like Hwa-eun’s or Seol’s.
And, come to think of it, no woman in this world should have blue hair.
That thought jolted me.
Panicked, I tried to pull away from the embrace—but my body wouldn’t move properly.
I was still sluggish from the lingering pain.
With great effort, I tilted my head up to look at the person holding me.
A woman.
A woman I had never seen before.
Her deep blue eyes locked onto mine.
She was somewhere between a young girl and a grown woman, right on the boundary of maturity.
And when our eyes met—she smiled.
“W-who...?”
As I stammered out the question, she didn’t answer.
Instead, she leaned in.
Her lips pressed against my forehead.
—Chuup.
The moment she kissed me, my vision blacked out again.
***
‘Right. That was ridiculous.’
The memory had felt so real, I almost believed it.
But it had to have been a dream.
When I came to, an overwhelming sensation washed over me.
“Urgh...”
—Lick. Chuup.
Something wet was pressing against my forehead.
As I opened my eyes, I was met with a massive pair of blue eyes staring right at me.
Unlike the ones from my dream, these were not human.
Instead of irises, they were simple dots—four of them.
“Wh-what... O-gong?”
There was no mistaking them.
I had seen those thousands of times in various guides and illustrations.
The unmistakable compound eyes of a centipede.
Blinking, I struggled to understand what was happening.
Then, I realized—
A massive centipede was licking my forehead with its venomous fangs.
“GAAAHHH!!!”
I screamed in sheer terror.
Even though I was known as Spicy Fabre, even I wasn’t immune to panic when a giant centipede was licking my forehead!
At my scream, the enormous centipede flinched.
And from nearby, Hwa-eun and Seol’s voices called out in alarm.
“So-ryong! You’re awake?!”
“So-ryong! Are you okay?!”
“S-save me...! O-O-gong...”
I tried to escape, but my body was still too weak to move.
Desperately, I called for help.
Hwa-eun’s voice, gentle yet firm, reassured me.
“It’s okay, So-ryong. It’s Cho.”
“Cho...?”
Cho?
Our eldest daughter?
I hesitated, then slowly turned my gaze back to the massive centipede.
It was looking at me.
And when our eyes met—it nodded.
Then, the pressure pinning me down disappeared, and my body was released.
—Ssshhh...
“You... you’re Cho? What the hell...?”
—Ssshh!
Her voice was louder than before.
Cho had always been small and adorable.
But this creature before me was at least six meters long.
Its body, now a deep, vibrant blue.
Its legs, shimmering like jade.
And something about its transformed form triggered a realization in my mind.
Staggering off the table, I muttered in disbelief.
“This... this isn’t Cho. It’s more like a Bi-cheon Shin-sa...”
At that, Seol and Hwa-eun both smiled.
“That’s right, So-ryong. After swallowing the Neidan of the Bi-cheon Shin-sa, Cho evolved into a Flying Centipede—one of the Ten Deadly Venoms.”
“Cho has become a Flying Centipede, So-ryong.”
“A Flying Centipede...?! One of the Ten Deadly Venoms!?”
The weight of those words hit me like a thunderbolt.
I turned back to Cho.
Floating in mid-air, she chirped happily.
—Sssshhh!
‘Holy shit...!’
My daughter—my firstborn—had literally become a flying monster.
I had no idea how this had happened.
But as soon as reality sank in, my lips parted—and a scream burst out.
Not from fear.
Not from shock.
But from pure, unfiltered excitement.
“GYAAAAAHHHH! HELL YES!!! MY FIRSTBORN!!!”