Spiritual Medicine 6
Bzzzzzzzz!
"Hold still for a bit, will you? You've had it rough—honey stolen every time, chased around by people. I'm taking you somewhere no one will bother you. A place where you can raise your kids in peace."
Whether it was the mugwort scent or something else, the queen bee had stayed quiet and still through the dark of night. The moment daylight hit, though, she started thrashing. Her strength was no joke, so I had no choice but to bind her up like a caterpillar with rope—carefully, so her wings wouldn't get hurt.
"Do you think she understands what you're saying?"
My fiancée's voice came from a couple of steps back. The Ohgongi she could manage, but bees were still a stretch for her.
A bee's tongue is ridiculously long—it can stretch out as far as its own head is long. The queen kept flicking hers in and out, and that was apparently enough to give Hwa-eun the creeps. Honestly, I thought it was adorable.
"Even the lower-grade Ohgongi understand speech. A mid-grade poisonous creature like the Golden-Haired Bee King queen? Of course she understands. Bees live in colonies, so they have social structure. If anything, that should make her even better at it."
I told Hwa-eun that as if it were obvious, but the truth was that centipedes and bees couldn't actually hear the sounds that came out of a human throat. No ears. Centipedes had organs that sensed vibration, and bees detected sound through the hairs on their bodies—that was about as far as the science went.
But if even the lowly Ohgongi could understand human speech, why wouldn't a mid-grade queen bee? Ordinary bees from my previous life felt pain, remembered patterns and scents, and could even recognize human faces. Their sense of smell was sharp and their intelligence high enough that people used them to detect cancer, drugs, and bombs. She was definitely getting the idea.
And even if she wasn't? I still wanted to keep a bee like this. No way I was giving up.
A bee the size of a small dog. A plump body that looked like someone had mixed a honeybee with a bumblebee, covered in fluffy golden fur. Too cute for words.
"Social structure?"
"Yes. Living in groups, communicating through pheromones—that sort of thing."
"Ah… I see. Oh, right! So-ryong, give me Cho, Hyang, and Bin. You'll have enough on your plate without looking after them too."
"Fair enough. Kids, go to your mom."
Tssrrr.
I'd been finding them a bit much myself, so I was handing the Ohgongi over to Hwa-eun when it happened. The queen bee, who had been thrashing nonstop even while tied up, caught sight of the Ohgongi and suddenly went completely still. Like a toy whose batteries had just died.
"Young Master So-ryong, this one just calmed right down."
Even Deputy Commander Gu Pae found it strange enough to report.
I wondered if she was hungry, but bees gorged themselves on honey before leaving the hive. Her abdomen was swollen tight—clearly full.
"You're right. Has she run out of steam?"
Curious, I took a closer look. In the queen's compound eyes, I could see the Ohgongi crossing from my body over to Hwa-eun's, reflected like a high-resolution mosaic camera.
Huh? Is it because of the Ohgongi?
Just in case, I took one Ohgongi and approached the queen. She flinched. Closer still, and the Ohgongi and the Golden-Haired Bee King queen pressed their antennae together. Then they started exchanging a series of strange little sounds, as if they were talking.
Tssrrr!
Bzzzz!
After that little conversation between the two poisonous creatures, the Ohgongi pulled its antennae back, whipped its head around, and looked toward Hwa-eun. Felt like the talk was over. I had no idea what they'd said to each other, but I handed over the last Ohgongi to Hwa-eun and decided to rest for a bit. We'd been running all night to put distance between us and the rest of the Golden-Haired Bee King swarm, after all.
Well—I hadn't been running. I couldn't use light-foot techniques, so the Commander and Deputy Commander had taken turns carrying me on their backs.
When we get back, first thing I'm doing is asking to learn light-foot. Throwing daggers is completely useless…
I resolved to make Grandfather Mandok Singun teach me light-foot the moment we returned, then suggested a rest to the still-tense Commander.
"Let's rest for now."
"Understood, Young Master So-ryong."
"Just in case, I'll have the warriors keep watch on the direction we came from."
"Good idea."
I scooped some water from a nearby stream and tried to get the queen to drink. Then I dozed off—and that was when it happened.
"Y-Young Master So-ryong! Wake up!"
Gu Pae's urgent voice drilled into my ear. I still felt exhausted, so I couldn't have been asleep long, but he hauled me onto his back without ceremony.
"W-What's going on?"
"Look at the sky!"
I rubbed my eyes and asked what the fuss was about. Gu Pae pointed into the distance. I blinked, following the tip of his finger, and through the blur I saw a yellow mass in the sky drawing steadily closer.
"Already?!"
Something flashed through my head. Sleep vanished in an instant. The sun was still only a little past noon, yet the Golden-Haired Bee Kings had already caught up.
We scrambled for our gear and took off running like madmen again. The one silver lining: they weren't that fast. Honeybees could put on bursts of speed, but over long distances they averaged only about twenty kilometers an hour. With their bellies stuffed full of honey, they'd be even slower now.
"Everyone, use light-foot and run!"
"We keep going until we've completely shaken them! Tang Family warriors don't fall behind, do they?!"
"Yes, Commander!"
Hwa-eun and the Commander's shouts rang out. The warriors answered with grim determination and charged toward Mount Tang.
Is the Commander actually planning to lose them?
From the Deputy Commander's back as we raced through the forest, I watched the bees coming in from far behind. I pressed the queen's antennae to my forehead and whispered quietly.
It's all right. We're taking them with us too.
The Commander seemed to think I was only bringing the queen and meant to ditch the rest completely. I had no intention of shaking them off—and no reason to. The pheromones a queen released lasted about a day. Even if we tried, we couldn't lose them. Bees could smell the scent from kilometers away; they would follow no matter what. When bees swarmed and split a colony in half around a new queen, the worker bees still flew after her to the very end.
"Young Master So-ryong, we can get clear of them, right?"
The Deputy Commander racing ahead glanced back, anxiety plain in his voice.
"Probably?"
At my answer, I felt cold sweat soak through the back of the man carrying me.
Straight ahead lay Mount Emei, home of the Emei Sect. Take the left fork and the official road to Yunnan appeared. Yeonsu, senior disciple of the Emei Sect, had been carrying the alms received in Zigong and paused at the crossroads between Mount Emei and Mount Leshan.
They had walked the whole way from Zigong, and the junior sisters whose martial arts were still weak had started complaining of exhaustion.
"Whew. Mount Emei isn't far now. The journey so far has already been hard enough—just thinking about climbing Golden Summit Peak makes it feel endless."
"Junior sisters, that is exactly why I told you to put effort into your light-foot techniques."
"But Senior Sister, the masters keep us running errands all day. We never have a spare hour."
"She's right. Laundry, tea service—when are we supposed to practice martial arts?"
"And that's not all. We have to attend the Buddhist services as well, don't we?"
The young junior sisters grumbled. They had taken their vows long ago, yet the dust of the secular world still clung to them. Yeonsu remembered that she herself had been the same not so long ago, and a private smile touched her lips as she offered a gentle sermon.
"Other sects and great families endure far harsher labors while still dedicating themselves to martial arts. Under the great compassion of the Buddha, should we not strive even harder?"
The juniors' sharp rebuttal came at once.
"Other sects and families have servants who do everything for them, don't they? And how hard can they really work? They're all young ladies and young masters from noble houses…"
Their complaints were still going when a cloud of dust rose in the distance from the Yunnan direction. Moments later, five or six figures appeared at the Yunnan fork, racing along the road with light-foot techniques as if their lives depended on it. One woman, the rest men.
"Why are those people running like lunatics?"
"Are they being chased by something?"
The Emei disciples blinked in puzzlement at the approaching figures. Then Yeonsu's eyes locked onto the woman's face. A face she had seen somewhere before. She tilted her head—then her eyes flew wide and she cried out.
"P-Poison Flower of the Monthly Rose? Young Lady Hwa-eun?!"
"What? Young Lady Hwa-eun—as in Dang Hwa-eun?"
Hair streaming loose, shoulders coated in dust, clothes filthy, a strand of hair clenched between her teeth. She looked like someone fleeing disaster. Yeonsu sprinted forward to intercept her.
"Young Lady Hwa-eun!"
"Yeonsu… nun?"
"What has happened?! You look as though something is chasing you! Is everything all right?"
At Yeonsu's urgent cry, Dang Hwa-eun answered with unfocused eyes.
"W-Water…"
"Water?"
Yeonsu pulled out her own gourd bottle and handed it over. Hwa-eun guzzled it down like a madwoman. The junior sisters' bottles followed, passed around to the men as well. When every last bottle had been emptied, a young man slid down from the back of the man Yeonsu recognized as the Commander of the Tang Family's Poison Blood Squad. He smiled.
"Thank you, nun. Nothing serious. Ah… right. We're just training our light-foot techniques."
"Training light-foot?"
"Yes. Giving it everything we have. As you can see, we look a bit ridiculous."
"And what is that in your hands?"
Her eyes went wide at the bizarre creature bound in rope with only its head sticking out. The young man hurriedly hid it behind his back and grinned like a mischievous boy.
"It's nothing, nun. Ah—thank you for the water. We'll be on our way, so please don't let us delay you either. Everyone, let's go! Young Lady Hwa-eun, hurry. A little more running and the sun will set—then we can rest."
The cheeky young man and the Tang Family people vanished again in a burst of light-foot. The junior sisters still looked stunned as they turned to Yeonsu with apologies.
"S-So the Tang Family trains light-foot that brutally? To reduce even Young Lady Hwa-eun—one of the Three Flowers of the Martial World—to such a wretched state…"
"I thought Senior Sister Yeonsu was just telling us stories. I'm sorry, Senior Sister."
Even Yeonsu had never seen training that harsh. Yet just when her juniors needed a lesson, Dang Hwa-eun—praised as one of the Three Flowers of the Martial World—had appeared looking exactly like that. Surely this was the compassion of the Buddha. Yeonsu pressed her palms together toward the direction the Tang people and the young man had gone.
"Amitabha."
And after Yeonsu herself had left, a golden cloud approaching from the Yunnan side began to follow the path the Tang Family had taken.
"I-I'm sorry, Y-Young Master So-ryong… Th-This is as far as I go… Haaah… haaah…"
The Commander collapsed straight into the undergrowth. Within moments he was snoring like the dead. The Deputy Commander had already gone down somewhere back along the road. Our breathless chase with the Golden-Haired Bee Kings was entering its final stretch. Mount Tang was no longer far.
"Young Lady, just let me run—"
"I-I can do it!"
With even the Commander down, I offered to run on my own feet, but Hwa-eun shook her head with vacant eyes. My words weren't reaching her; she'd been half-checked-out for the past two days. She had at least managed to run this far on her own, and with the inner dan she'd swallowed earlier she still had a scrap of stamina left. She clamped me against her hip and forced out one last surge of strength.
But the moment we crossed the river and reached the front of Gujin Gate, Hwa-eun toppled over just like the rest of the Tang warriors.
Thud.
"Young Lady!"
Wheeeeet! Wheeeeet! Wheeeeet!
The guards at Gujin Gate took one look at Hwa-eun and launched signal daggers toward the Tang Family. In the next breath, my father-in-law and Grandfather Mandok Singun appeared before the gate like a whirlwind. Three signals meant a direct call for the main bloodline.
"Hwa-eun! What in the world has happened?!"
"Hwa-eun! So-ryong, what is going on?!"
Father-in-law scooped the fallen Hwa-eun into his arms in shock. Grandfather shook me like a rag doll. I answered while rattling in his grip.
"Young Lady Hwa-eun has only slept the bare minimum and run with light-foot techniques for ten straight days. She's simply exhausted. But this is no time for that. To the training grounds—quickly!"
"The training grounds? Why the training grounds?"
"What for?"
Instead of answering, I held out the queen bee still bound in rope.
"This is the queen of the Golden-Haired Bee Kings. The rest of the swarm will be here any moment. To the training grounds!"
"What?! I told you to gather honey, and you brought back a Golden-Haired Bee King?!"
"Wahahaha! This So-ryong boy is going to be something else! Let's go!"
Father-in-law looked as if he couldn't believe his ears, but Grandfather broke into a huge grin and dragged me straight to the training grounds where I used to throw daggers.
My destination was an ancient tree—hundreds of years old, long since dead and dry. I set the Golden-Haired Bee King queen free in front of the hollow and spoke.
"This is your home now."
She shook herself a few times, clearly glad to be free of the ropes, then inspected the inside and outside of the hollow. Apparently it met her standards. She tapped my head lightly with her antennae, then slipped straight into the tree.
At the same instant, the sound of countless wings filled the air above us. Grandfather and I scrambled clear just as the golden storm that had tracked us all the way from the borders of Yunnan poured into the hollow of the ancient tree.
Bwoooom. Bwoom.
Shaaaaaa!
Golden-Haired Bee King capture: success.
Jackpot.