Spiritual Medicine 2
"Yes, Father."
My sister's reply drifted out from beyond the door, pure and luminous as a jade bead. Clear and lovely, that chime of a voice. In my past life I'd only ever heard people call a beautiful voice "like jade beads"—but hearing the real thing, the same sound those beads made when used as throwing weapons, I finally understood why.
It really was crystal-clear and exquisite.
Creeeak—
The doors of the Clan Head's Hall swung open. The moment my sister stepped out and spotted me standing right there, she nearly jumped out of her skin.
"So-So-ryong!? You were out here?"
"Yes, Miss. Cho, Hyang, and Bin just came to, so I was walking them around while they clung to me."
"They woke up!? Let me see!"
I rolled up my sleeves. The two little ones were coiled snugly around both arms. Whatever residual squeamishness my sister once felt seemed to have melted away; she stroked one of them with genuine delight.
Until now she'd simply sat in the pavilion with them on her person, legs crossed, cycling her energy and breathing. This molt, though, looked to have opened her heart to the Oh-gongi for real. Maybe fretting that they might die had brought them closer.
"They're definitely tougher now. A little rougher around the edges, too."
"And a whole lot bigger. Flatter as well—that's why they wrap around my arms so nicely."
"Still adorable, though. Ah, Grandfather asked the blacksmiths to make them gauntlets. Shall we go see how far along they are together...?"
The conversation blossomed around the Oh-gongi. We were chatting away like co-parents when a voice called from inside.
"Who's out there?"
My future father-in-law.
"Ah! It's me, Hwa-eun."
"I told you to fetch So-ryong. Why are you still standing there? Hwa-eun, is something the matter?"
Only then did the summons click into place. She covered her mouth, the classic "I just remembered" look on her face.
"Ah! Father asked me to bring you in, So-ryong. He has something to discuss."
"Yes, I heard him from outside. Shall we go in together, then?"
I'd heard the call myself earlier, but conversation with my sister had shoved it to the back of my mind. We pushed the doors open and stepped inside. My future father-in-law looked startled that I'd arrived so soon.
"How did you get here so quickly?"
"I happened to be passing nearby."
"Is that so? Well, perfect timing. Sit over there. Hwa-eun, would you prepare some tea?"
"Of course, Father."
I'd have preferred cool ice water, yet every single day it was scalding tea. The mere sight of another steaming cup was enough to make my blood pressure spike—but I set the offered tea in front of me and waited to hear what he wanted.
He began with a smile.
"I called you here because, while the household still hasn't fully returned and I haven't been able to gather everyone for a formal announcement, I trust you already know that no one inside the Tang Clan is unaware you've become family."
"Of course, Father-in-law."
"Father-in-law... I never tire of hearing that. At any rate, now that you're one of us—and because that medicine you prepared recently worked so splendidly for the Provincial Governor of Sichuan that he sent both his thanks and a rather generous reward—I wanted to speak with you."
So that was it. The erectile-dysfunction remedy delivered to the Sichuan Governor had proven its worth, and the clan head had summoned me to commend the achievement.
"I'm glad to hear it worked. You did warn him never to take too much at once, I hope?"
"Naturally. I also informed him not to take another dose until the previous one had completely subsided. Which brings me to the matter of a reward. Is there anything you need?"
A reward, of course. I waved both hands.
"A reward? You've already granted me the Poison Repository inside the Hall of Myriad Poisons. Just hurry the renovations I requested and I'll be more than satisfied."
The Poison Repository within the Hall of Myriad Poisons had already been decided as mine. A few construction projects were still needed, so rather than any prize I simply asked that the work proceed as quickly as possible. Handing out formal rewards among family felt a little awkward—and besides, not being able to raise any creatures besides the Oh-gongi lately was giving me vertigo. I was managing the withdrawal symptoms with the Oh-gongi alone, but I needed more children, and soon.
"Haha, I've already given orders to rush it, of course."
"Thank you, Father-in-law. That's all I need."
"No, no. That's separate. I suspected you'd say something like that, so I prepared a gift of my own. What do you say?"
"A gift?"
"Yes. I thought I might bestow a spiritual medicine. How does that sound?"
"Spiritual medicine?"
Grandfather had already explained that spiritual medicines were elixirs that boosted one's internal energy. Since the sheer volume of internal energy was one of the prerequisites for becoming a true master, accepting one wouldn't be a bad idea. Still, I couldn't just snatch it without a second thought. First I glanced at my sister.
I'd promised her I would fill my Ten Poisons with the venom of the Ten Great Poisonous Creatures through my own efforts. Receiving this kind of help might feel, to her, like I was cheating. That worry made me study her face carefully—but she only nodded, looking thoroughly pleased.
So this level of support is fine. Thank goodness.
"What sort of spiritual medicine, exactly?"
There were many varieties, so I asked. The clan head wore a faintly apologetic expression.
"Well, nothing terribly grand. It would be the honey of the Golden-Furred Bee King. The reason I chose that one is..."
"Golden-Furred Bee King honey?"
I didn't know precisely what a Golden-Furred Bee King was, but "bee" meant bee and "honey" meant honey.
Bee honey?
I was about to thank him anyway when my sister's voice cut in ahead of mine.
"Thank yo—"
"Father, if you're giving a reward, why the honey of the Golden-Furred Bee King? What So-ryong accomplished was no small feat. Even if the Golden-Furred Bee King is only a mid-grade poisonous creature, its honey ranks among the very lowest of spiritual medicines, doesn't it?
You shouldn't be stingy with someone who has rendered such service. At the very least it ought to be a year's worth of internal energy—two months is simply...!"
Her tone dripped with disappointment. Here I'd been fretting that she might see any external help as breaking our promise, and instead she was complaining that if he was going to give me something, he should at least give me a decent one instead of the cheapest scrap.
My future father-in-law stared at her, aghast.
This is why daughters...
He muttered something under his breath, then raised one hand to soothe her and answered in a wounded voice.
"It's not that at all. Do you truly think I would skimp? There is a reason..."
"What reason could possibly justify something that low-grade... no, that lowest-grade...?"
"Just listen for a moment..."
The conversation was starting to feel like an actual argument. I asked what on earth about Golden-Furred Bee King honey could set father and daughter at each other's throats.
"Just what is Golden-Furred Bee King honey that it warrants all this?"
"Well, you see..."
"I'll explain, So-ryong."
My sister volunteered in place of the clan head, looking thoroughly unimpressed.
"The Golden-Furred Bee King is one of the mid-grade poisonous creatures—an enormous bee occasionally found in the jungles. It's about the size of a small dog, and eating its honey is said to grant you the equivalent of two full months of wall-facing cultivation."
"Two months?"
Whoa. Two whole months of wall-facing cultivation in one go? That's pure profit.
I'd already been told that circulating energy even while resting was the fastest way to grow stronger, so I spent every free moment sitting cross-legged and cycling qi until I wanted to crawl out of my skin. Shaving two months off that sentence sounded heavenly.
Still, my future father-in-law had called it nothing special, and my sister's reaction made it clear the medicine was comically unimpressive by local standards. Before the two of them could bicker any further I quickly offered my thanks. One month or two—what did it matter? Better than nothing.
"Thank you, Father-in-law."
But my sister thrust out a hand to stop me and fixed the clan head with an even more wounded look.
"No, So-ryong, wait. Golden-Furred Bee King honey? This is ridiculous. Even I'm offended on your behalf."
Looking still more aggrieved, my future father-in-law protested.
"That isn't it at all. I am looking into better spiritual medicines separately. I only chose this one because I thought So-ryong would want to see a mid-grade poisonous creature like the Golden-Furred Bee King..."
Huh? He wants me to see a mid-grade poisonous creature?
The moment the words "mid-grade poisonous creature" left his mouth, whether the honey granted two months or three became irrelevant. My entire attention locked onto the Golden-Furred Bee King itself. From the way he spoke, he wasn't merely giving me the honey—he was offering to show me the creature.
The Oh-gongi were adorable, sure, but they were still low-grade scraps. Getting a look at a mid-grade specimen would be fantastic.
I immediately pressed him.
"You mean we're going to see a Golden-Furred Bee King in person!?"
"Earlier some visitors sold me information that a Golden-Furred Bee King nest has been discovered not far from here. I intended for us to go harvest it together. The reason things turned out this way is that Hwa-eun..."
Listening to his explanation, I had to admit the man had a right to feel hard done by.
After Hwa-eun collapsed from qi deviation, the Tang Clan had publicly announced it would purchase information on poisonous creatures scattered across the realm. They'd spread word to the Beggars' Sect, the Haoma Sect, even the Black Path underworld. But this era lacked modern transportation and communication; some intelligence arrived late, and with no way to announce that my sister had recovered they simply left the offer standing. As a result, people like the two blocky-looking fellows I'd seen earlier were still turning up belatedly to sell tips.
Ordinarily he would never have bought information on a mid-grade creature that possessed neither an inner core nor anything better than the lowest-grade spiritual medicine—yet he had paid a not-inconsiderable sum purely with me in mind. That was his defense.
"So you're saying we should go harvest the Golden-Furred Bee King honey ourselves?"
"Exactly."
Holy—! In other words... a wood-honey expedition!?
What the clan head was proposing was a trip to harvest wood honey. Honey taken from wild bees that nest inside trees is called wood honey; honey from nests built in rock is called stone honey. Both have been regarded as medicine since ancient times. Bees store nectar gathered from flowers, and the longer it ages the higher its sugar content and vitamin concentration become. Honey from colonies that have nested for years inside trees or stone is therefore prized as a medicinal treasure.
Insane. An actual wood-honey tour.
In my previous life I'd once gone on a wood-honey expedition for a broadcast. It had been exhausting, but the memory of how sweet that final harvest tasted still lingered. And a bee the size of a small dog? That was something this spicy Fabre absolutely had to see.
"Let's go, Father-in-law! When it comes to bees, I'm the expert!"
"I knew you'd like the idea!"
My sister looked back and forth between the two of us and heaved a long, weary sigh.
Sichuan Province is plains to the east and mountains to the west. The Tang Clan's mountain seat sat in a basin among those western ranges, so our honey-gathering party traveled through Chengdu and headed southwest.
Our destination was a place called Muli, near the border with Yunnan. The tropical jungle there was where the Golden-Furred Bee King had supposedly been sighted.
"What if we can't find it easily? Or if the information turns out to be false?"
"Don't worry, Miss. The tip came from the Red Blood Gang when they disbanded. Even if Black Path types are generally untrustworthy, intelligence that leaked from the Red Blood Gang can be relied on—those men made their living selling information across Sichuan.
And who would be mad enough to sell the Sichuan Tang Clan false intelligence? Besides, with Young Master So-ryong here we'll find it in no time."
My future father-in-law, who had originally wanted to come, was forced to stay behind. Grandfather, the Divine Lord of Myriad Poisons, and the elders of the collateral lines had all protested that he couldn't abandon the mountain of piled-up work for yet another outing, so he had no choice but to abandon the idea.
Thus the wood-honey expedition consisted of the Tang Clan's Poison Blood Unit, my sister, and me. Even though the bees were mid-grade, they were said to be weak individually and only dangerous in swarms; our numbers should be more than enough. Sichuan was Tang territory, after all.
We arrived at a forested cliff not far from Muli. Contrary to our initial doubts, we located the Golden-Furred Bee King's lair far more quickly than expected.
What awaited us there, however, was not the bee itself—but a situation that instantly infuriated both the Poison Blood Unit commander and my sister.
"We arrived first, so the Golden-Furred Bee King honey is ours by right."
"Nonsense! We purchased the information legitimately—it belongs to us!"
"You bought it? So did we!"
"Was it that fellow with the bushy hair and a mole about this big on one side of his face?"
"We bought it from the same man!"
The information had been genuine—but the bastard had sold it to multiple parties.
"Those damned scoundrels dare insult the Tang Clan!"
The Poison Blood Unit commander's fury erupted the instant he grasped the situation. The first-comers stared at us with startled eyes.
"Th-the Sichuan Tang Clan!"
Apparently there really were lunatics everywhere you went.