Centipede Poison Fang Claw
—Chrr? Daddy called for Cho?
I had barely finished calling Cho’s name in my mind when the door to the family head’s residence cracked open. First her glittering antennae, then her head, poked straight inside.
Clearly she had dropped whatever she was doing and come running the instant I called her in a hurry. Not that Cho had much to do in the Tang household besides sleeping and playing with the others.
My gaze followed those antennae peeking from behind the door and landed on her face—specifically on the pair of venom fangs sparkling there. My heart started pounding.
Of course it did. How could it not, when I was about to show off our matching couple nails?
“Cho, Daddy’s going to say goodbye to Grandfather and come right out. Wait outside for a moment, okay?”
—Chht.
After asking her to wait a bit, I turned back to finish the conversation with Grandfather, the Divine Lord of Ten Thousand Poisons. No matter how badly I wanted to show Cho the nails, you finished talking with an elder first.
We had already agreed to test the power of the Ogongdokajo—the Centipede Poison Fang Claw—at dawn tomorrow.
“So we’ll prepare and check it at daybreak, then?”
“Yes. I’ll have the household warriors ready everything. Let’s examine its power in the morning.”
“Understood. Grandfather, may I take my leave?”
“Ah… y-yes…”
“I’ll see you tomorrow morning!”
I answered with bright, ringing energy. Grandfather saw me off with a slightly dazed look on his face. I bowed and stepped outside, where Cho was already waiting at the entrance and greeted me joyfully.
—Chrr!
“Hey there, Cho!”
I went over, stroked her warmly, then wiped the smile off my face and glanced around before asking,
“You’re sure you came alone?”
I couldn’t quite remember the exact words I’d shouted in my head earlier in my excitement, but I clearly remembered the one thing I had hammered home: come alone.
Matching couple nails with Cho was wonderful. The day the others found out, though, I had no idea how I’d survive their pestering. Bing and Hyang would throw tantrums demanding nails the color of their own bodies, and that would be a disaster. I might have to catch jaundice for Hyang or smash my nails with a rock until they bruised for Bing. Totally possible. My daughters are the incarnations of jealousy itself.
So I double-checked that she had come alone—and sure enough, Cho confirmed she had.
—Chrr.
Even after answering, I could feel her wondering why I’d insisted she come alone. I looked around, then pointed at the sky.
“Cho, come up into the sky with Daddy for a bit. We’ve got something private to talk about.”
—Chrrr.
We could have hidden somewhere on the ground, but the safest place was still the open sky, right? The moment I finished speaking, Cho wrapped her body around me, still full of questions, and slowly rose into the air.
Once we were floating, she tilted her head and asked again.
—Chrr?
How much higher? Or where were we going? I looked out across the sky and saw the sun sinking past the mountains in a lazy glow. Ahh… perfect atmosphere.
Instead of answering, I simply watched the sunset while circulating the inner energy I had drawn up with the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Divine Art, guiding it to my fingertips according to the principles of the Ogongdokajo.
A ticklish sensation bloomed at my fingertips. Then the nails lengthened and dyed themselves a brilliant emerald green—exactly the same color as Cho’s body.
“Heh heh. How about it, Cho? Daddy looks a little like you now.”
—Chrr?
At first she didn’t understand. Then her eyes locked onto the luminous tips of my fingers between us, and her gently waving antennae froze in place. A second later they shot straight up like a pair of exclamation marks.
How on earth had I done that? Her question poured in.
—Chrrrrrrrr!?
“I just wanted to look like my daughter, so Daddy put in a little effort. Kuhahaha!”
—Chrr chrr!
Joy crashed over me like a tidal wave. The body coiled around me tightened another two full loops, as if she never wanted to let go. This is the real love between father and daughter!
“That happy?”
—Chrr!
“Good. If Cho’s happy, this daddy’s happy too. But it’s a secret from the other kids, okay?”
—Chrrrrr!
Eventually someone would find out, but that was a problem for later. For now I simply enjoyed the moment with her.
—Chrrlp… chrrlp…
“Ahaha. You little… Daddy’s face is going to wear out.”
Unable to contain herself, she squeezed so hard my ribs creaked and licked my face all over. We were right in the middle of soaking up father-daughter love when—
—Tap-tap! Tap-tap-tap!
Tiny footsteps on my head. I flinched and looked up to find Hwa-yang’s presence, her front feet patting my scalp.
Oh no. I’d gotten so used to the soft weight that I’d completely forgotten she was riding up there. For a second I tensed, wondering if she was about to get jealous too—until Hwa-yang tapped me again and spoke for the first time about something other than food.
—Peep-peep!
That’s enough. Get down already so I can eat.
Turns out Hwa-yang was a little more chic than I’d expected.
—Cock-a-doodle-doo.
A rooster crowed faintly in the distance. The moment the first light of dawn touched the sky I rose from my bed and checked on my little poisons. Sleeping forms were scattered all over my room.
Bing and Cho lay sprawled on the straw. Hyang was stuck to my body; I carefully peeled her off and set her on the warm straw I’d just left. She burrowed into it with a contented wriggle, loving the leftover heat. I gently stroked Moji and Soji, who had gone stiff on the desk, then patted Dong-i—who had been sleeping between Seol and Bing and had opened her eyes at my presence—until she drifted off again.
Last of all I checked on Hwa-yang, who was buried in a mountain of straw in the corner, dead to the world.
The reason they were all sleeping so hard even at dawn was simple. Most of the base creatures my poisons came from were nocturnal—centipedes, lizards, toads, the lot. Captive-raised ones sometimes shifted their schedules to match their master’s, and for that reason my kids had mostly become diurnal. But they still fell asleep at first light, so this hour was when they were at their most vulnerable. Even their sleeping faces are ridiculously cute.
I looked over them once more with a full heart. I would have loved to let them sleep longer, but I went over to the limp Cho, tickled her under the chin, and spoke in my mind. Cho, wake up. We’ve got to go see Grandfather.
The reason I was waking her: today we were testing the Ogongdokajo with Grandfather, and I had promised to let Cho watch. Since we were using her venom, of course she had to be there.
—Ch… chht?
She made a sleepy sound, then snapped awake and quickly scanned the room, checking whether anyone else had stirred. Everyone was still deep under. I felt her relief, gave the sleeping kids one last look, and slipped out the door with her as quietly as possible.
—Creeeak.
I closed the door with extreme care. The moment we stepped outside, a presence approached from afar. Even from the faint outline I knew it was Hwa-eun. The only young women in this courtyard compound were the maids or Hwa-eun, and I would never mistake her.
I quickened my pace. She spotted me just as fast, ran over, and caught my sleeve with a bright smile. Ever since that declaration inside the bedbug cave that she was my woman, we had grown a little closer. People of this era didn’t hold hands, so grabbing a sleeve was practically the same as interlacing fingers, wasn’t it?
I looked at her face with open fondness. She smiled back and said,
“So-ryong, let’s go together.”
“If you’re tired, Hwa-eun, you can rest more…”
“No. I’m too curious. After seeing that last night, how could I possibly wait?”
Before bed I had sought her out and given her a quick look at the Ogongdokajo. A woman as serious about poison arts as Hwa-eun naturally couldn’t stand the suspense.
“All right, then.”
So Hwa-eun, Cho, and I arrived at the training ground together. Grandfather was already finished with preparations and waiting for us.
“Did you rest well through the night?”
“Did you rest well through the night?”
—Chrrr chrr!
Cho politely copied the greeting. Grandfather nodded.
“Yes. Did you children sleep well too?”
“Yes.”
“Then shall we begin?”
Apparently Grandfather was just as curious; the moment greetings were over he wanted to see the power. He stepped aside, and a wooden training dummy came into view.
It was the usual hard-wood dummy used for martial practice—except this one was anything but ordinary. Something had been bound over it. What is that?
I stepped closer. A pig—gutted and skinned—had been stretched over the dummy like a suit of leather.
“This is…?”
“In the Tang family, this is how we test the power of poison arts.”
That made sense. Cho’s venom had no effect on wood; a pig carcass was necessary. I nodded at Hwa-eun’s explanation and took my place in front of the dummy.
“Then I’ll begin at once.”
“Go ahead.”
I drew a deep breath and circulated the energy raised by the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Divine Art, sending it to my fingertips according to the formulas of the Ogongdokajo. My nails lengthened and turned emerald green once more.
Without delay I executed the first form of the Centipede Poison Fang Claw.
The first form of the Centipede Poison Fang Claw — a centipede’s venom fangs leaving their mark upon stone.
My thumb and the tightly pressed index and middle fingers punched two neat holes into the pork covering the dummy. Because the Ogongdokajo was shaped after a centipede’s fangs, the claw technique bit with two fangs rather than three.
—Crack!
A sound like a branding iron searing flesh hissed from the buried fingertips.
—Sizzle!
When I pulled my hand free, walnut-sized holes remained where the fangs had sunk in. Grandfather hurried over at once, prodding the wounds with a silver needle as he assessed the power.
“Hmm… the force is weaker than I expected. Being nails rather than a true centipede’s jaws, they can’t spray large amounts of venom at once. And you simply don’t carry that much of Cho’s poison inside you yet.”
He was right. I had taken only about a drop of Cho’s venom, which then mixed with my internal energy; of course the effect would be limited. A little disappointing.
Grandfather continued.
“Still, while it may not be enough to take a life outright, it can inflict serious wounds. And don’t look so crestfallen. The technique I’m currently creating should be able to make up for the shortfall.”
“Make up for it?”
I tilted my head. He dropped his voice to a conspiratorial murmur.
“The Blood Water Poison Claw. If we apply the same principle that evil art uses—soaking the claws in brain and blood to raise their power—we should be able to draw in more of Cho’s venom and increase the force.”
“Ooooh!”
The Blood Water Poison Claw I had practically delivered myself was going to be used this way? Damn, that build-up is beautiful.
While I was privately impressed, Grandfather turned my hand this way and that and kept speaking.
“Draw the energy again. Hmm… still, for nails to become this efficient at projecting a poison beast’s venom… the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Divine Art has probably reached the Two Poisons Realm and evolved so that it can load venom into the Ogongdokajo. Once you reach the Three Poisons Realm, you might even be able to load Hwa-yang’s venom into the Seomseobokryeoljang—the Toad Explosive Palm.”
“Really, Grandfather?”
“Really. That would become a truly terrifying palm technique.”
A palm loaded with Hwa-yang’s venom—the kind that burned a martial artist’s internal energy, which was basically the same as mana. Wasn’t that straight-up mana burn out of a fantasy game?
I was still shivering with excitement when a startled sound cut through the air.
—Kish!?
Everyone turned. Yo-hwa was staring at my fingertips with an expression of pure disbelief, her pedipalps shaped like Hwa-eun’s upper body frozen in shock.
Looks like my nails had just been caught by Yo-hwa.