Father, Sister, and the Flying Divine Snake
The Five Poisons Sect? Wasn’t that the very place the Sichuan Tang Family and the Southern Savage Beast Palace had joined forces to wipe out a hundred years ago?
The Five Poisons Sect was the origin of the martial arts I had learned—the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Divine Art—and a name I had already heard once from Grandfather.
So when I heard they were still alive, I turned toward Grandfather with a startled expression. Instantly a murderous aura exploded from the side.
“Those… those utterly vicious bastards!”
Startled by the dense killing intent, I whipped my head around to find the Palace Lord of the Beast Palace scattering bloodlust in every direction, his face twisted with rage.
“Father, p-please calm down. Our benefactor and the guests are here.”
Seolpyo stepped forward and barely managed to soothe the Beast Palace Lord, whose dense killing intent had every hair on my body standing on end.
Once he had settled somewhat, the Palace Lord approached the queen ant again, examined its head, and ground his teeth as he spoke.
—Crack.
“If the Five Poisons Sect is involved, then this must have been done with our palace’s Beast Explosive Latent Great Art…”
“Beast Explosive Latent Great Art?”
At the unfamiliar name of the technique, every Tang family member turned to look at the Beast Palace Lord. Seolpyo stepped in to explain.
“It forcibly explodes the latent power of beasts and drives them into a frenzied rampage for a time. Afterward they have to lie sick for a long while, and if things go wrong the little ones can even die, so we’re forbidden from using it unless our lives are truly on the line.”
“So they improved upon that, then used Tang family golden needles and poisons as well, and somehow drew out a certain latent power from the queen ant?”
While Grandfather stroked his chin in thought and the Beast Palace Lord still seethed, I carefully offered my own opinion.
“I believe they made it keep eating and keep laying eggs without stop. Army ants don’t cannibalize their own kind, yet when we found the queen she was devouring her own kin—her own children.”
An ordinary army-ant queen was never that bloated. Because they were a migratory species, their queens usually looked a little sleeker than those of other ants. But this one’s body was abnormally swollen, its appetite endless, and the number of eggs absurd. Moreover, if ants that large had been sweeping across the Central Plains, nothing would have been left standing and they would have been spotted countless times. Yet everyone claimed this was their first time seeing them. That suggested their normal colonies numbered only a few dozen to a few hundred at most.
At my words the people of the Beast Palace wore expressions of disbelief—though what shocked them was slightly off the mark.
“The queen ant was eating… her own children?”
“Her children?!”
“They made her devour her own offspring!”
The Beast Palace Lord, Seolpyo, and the elders who had followed them all widened their eyes in horror at the revelation that she had been eating her own young. Since they knew nothing about ants, they clearly hadn’t realized the ones she was tearing into were her own children.
I nodded carefully amid their bewilderment.
“Yes. Every ant a queen ant leads is a child she herself has borne.”
Even Seolpyo, who had been restraining her father, now shouted with a face full of fury.
“Such a heinous act!”
“Just as the ancestors recorded—truly cruel fiends!”
“Aren’t they utterly vicious? How could anyone force a parent to devour her own children…?”
I had wondered why they were so enraged, but once we moved to the Palace Lord’s hall and heard the full explanation, I learned that behind the destruction of the Five Poisons Sect lay a truth never recorded in the Tang family histories.
“The Tang family may not know this, but our Beast Palace decided to eradicate the Five Poisons Sect for more than just their martial arts. Because we live in the jungle, we sometimes take sons- and daughters-in-law from Yunnan’s minority tribes, and we send our own out in marriage as well. So long as they keep their oaths, we are rather generous.”
“Oaths?”
“That they will not pass their martial arts to the next generation. If they practice only for themselves, we leave them be. Moreover, if they take our arts and greatly advance them, we even acknowledge the results as theirs. That is how the Five Poisons Sect was able to settle in Yunnan in the first place.”
Just as the Beast Palace Lord said, the Beast Palace was far more open-handed about martial arts than the Tang family. Letting the original author freely modify their own work is pretty generous, yeah.
“Then why…?”
“Because they violated the Beast Palace’s greatest taboo.”
“Taboo? What taboo?”
“Never treat the beasts you raise with cruelty. Cherish them as if they were family and flesh and blood.”
For people who were so sincere about animals, it was an understandable taboo. These were the same people who had praised me when I showed them my venomous creatures and called them “companion poisons.” But they wiped out an entire household over that?
It still felt excessive. Even for animal lovers, was that really enough? Yet once I heard the details, as a fellow enthusiast I had to admit it was beyond the pale.
“They melted down the beasts and venomous creatures they raised to make spirit pills, stripped them of their intellect and made them obey like living corpses, or fed the young to the mothers to make the mothers stronger. They did such things without end. That is why we helped the Tang family destroy the Five Poisons Sect.”
Melting down the ones you raised to make pills…
Weren’t they just the worst kind of scum?
It would be like melting down my Cho, Hyang, Bin, Seol, Bing, or Yo-hwa to make medicine. Just imagining it made my skin crawl.
When the Beast Palace Lord’s explanation ended, I finally understood why the mere mention of a mother being forced to eat her children had driven them into such rage.
It was a violation of every ethical line. Even in certain Islamic cultures, cooking a kid in its mother’s milk was forbidden by religious law for much the same reason.
“Must we once again repeat what happened a hundred years ago…?”
The Beast Palace Lord muttered with a grave expression, and Mandok Singun Grandfather’s face grew equally serious.
After all, they were the common enemy of both houses.
The conclusion was reached that the culprit behind the army-ant incident was the Five Poisons Sect, and that everything had been planned from the start. They had captured the ones living in Poisonous Insect Valley, forced them into mad breeding, and—because the upper reaches were blocked terrain—the ants could only follow the river downward. As they moved along the river they swelled their numbers, all so they would eventually strike the Beast Palace. That was the deduction.
Even I, the expert, found myself nodding along. And if the calamity reached the Beast Palace, it would not be long before a similar disaster struck the Tang family as well. Grandfather and the Beast Palace Lord therefore pledged once more to cooperate closely.
A hundred years ago they had been enemies of the same foe; now they were re-forming the old alliance. Because of me the two powers were already on good terms, so the decision was made with impressive speed.
“Here and now, as acting family head, I swear that our Tang family will aid the Beast Palace.”
“The pact of a hundred years ago is not yet finished. Our Beast Palace will without fail aid the Tang family as well.”
The moment the political talk ended, conversation turned to my reward.
“We have received a great favor this time, so of course we will express our gratitude to the Tang family. But I would also like to grant you whatever you desire. Is there anything you need?”
In this culture, when someone did you a good turn, such a grand offer seemed to be the default. While I was pondering what to request under the “anything you want” promise, Grandfather’s sound transmission reached me.
[So-ryong, the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Divine Art. Ask about the part connected to your little ones. No matter how important it is, the Palace Lord will not be able to refuse you.]
The Five Poisons Returning to Origin Divine Art? Ah! Right—there was Cho!
Grandfather’s words brought back an earlier incident. The last time I confirmed that Cho understood my speech, I had asked Grandfather whether we might obtain some information from the Beast Palace. He had snidely replied that they would never grant such a request unless I first saved the Beast Palace from destruction. Now that I had done exactly that, he was telling me to ask.
Heh. You never saw this coming, did you?
I gave a slight nod in answer to Grandfather’s transmission, then carefully addressed the Beast Palace Lord.
“There is one rather difficult request… I do not know whether it is possible.”
“My good man, you saved this palace from annihilation! What could I possibly refuse you? Speak freely!”
At his hearty reply I first called Cho out onto the table.
Cho, come out.
At my command, Cho—who had been coiled around my torso—poked her head out from between my chest and crawled forward.
—Churuk?
She looked up at me from the tabletop as if asking why she had been summoned. I ordered her to demonstrate a few basic actions: circling on the table, climbing my arm and crossing to the other, then ascending to the top of my head.
I privately called these her Three Basic Tricks. At the cry of my heart, Cho performed them before everyone present. Antennae waving, she zipped in rapid circles across the table, rode up one arm and over to the other, and finally climbed onto my head, peeking out as if to ask whether that was enough.
—Churruk?
The Beast Palace Lord and Seolpyo both cried out in astonishment.
“You—surely that is…?!”
“Young hero, that is…?!”
They clearly recognized the origin, so I nodded and answered.
“Yes. Unlike the other members of the Tang family, I learned a martial art left behind by the Five Poisons Sect a hundred years ago—the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Divine Art. As its great method I took the poison of this centipede into my body, and ever since I have been able to give her commands like this.”
“Hoh… so a fragment of the Beast Heart Technique was contained within it? I was certain we checked thoroughly when the Tang family and the Five Poisons Sect divided the arts a hundred years ago…”
The Beast Palace Lord stroked his chin with a grave expression. I told him what I wished to ask.
“I would like to know how this came about, and whether it is possible with my other little ones as well.”
At my question the Palace Lord and Seolpyo looked at each other. Then the Palace Lord spoke with an extremely serious and solemn face.
“Do you remember I said our palace is not particularly stingy with martial arts?”
“Yes, of course, Palace Lord.”
I remembered the earlier remark that it was more like limited permission than free copyright use, so I nodded. The Beast Palace Lord nodded back.
“There is an exception, however. That exception is the Beast Heart Technique. It is our palace’s greatest secret art, allowing one to share minds with beasts. Because it is transmitted only within the direct line of the Beast Palace, its export is strictly forbidden.”
If it was forbidden to take outside, I might end up having to spit out the art I had already learned just for bringing it up. I suddenly found myself resenting Grandfather. Couldn’t you have looked into it first before telling me to ask…?
While I was fretting that they might demand I cough up even the martial art I had already mastered, a cautious question arrived.
“You said you are a live-in son-in-law of the Tang family. Then… what of your original family?”
At the sudden inquiry about my birth family I tilted my head. This Wi So-ryong was an orphan, after all.
“I am utterly alone and without anyone to rely upon.”
—Clap!
A sudden round of applause rang out. When I turned, Seolpyo was clapping her palms together with a delighted expression. What? I just said I’m an orphan—why is she happy?
I glanced sideways and found the Beast Palace Lord nodding with a brightened face as well.
“Is that so? Then everything is perfect! Your name is So-ryong, correct? Even the name fits exactly—no need to change a single character. And the heart you hold toward the venomous creatures you raise is purer than anyone’s in our Beast Palace.”
“That’s right, Father. He fits perfectly.”
The two of them nodded in perfect agreement, and then the Beast Palace Lord suddenly made an utterly unexpected proposal.
“Would you become my son? If you become my adoptive son, you will of course be able to keep the martial art you already learned, and you will also be able to learn every martial art of our Beast Palace. Moreover, with the enemy of a hundred years ago reappearing, our two houses must grow even closer. Will you not serve as that bridge?”
“Wha—adoptive son?!”
“I think it’s a wonderful idea too, Father. If it’s So-ryong, I like him as well. A kind little brother who loves the children he raises… I’ve always wanted a younger sibling so I could try so many things! So-ryong, please become my little brother, won’t you?”
Faced with the sudden offer of adoption, I turned a blank look toward Grandfather and my elder sister-in-law. Both of them looked rather taken aback as well.
“What do you think, Elder Mandok Singun? Two hundred years ago we failed once, but with a child like So-ryong who is so sincere toward the ones he raises, would he not correct the past failure of the Southern Savage Beast Palace and the Sichuan Tang Family and forge a fine relationship between us?”
Grandfather seemed to find the Beast Palace Lord’s proposal not entirely bad. After a moment’s thought he spoke.
“So long as the live-in son-in-law status is maintained, it is not a bad proposal…”
“Then the family has no objection, and the decision rests with you alone. What do you say?”
“So-ryong, what do you think?”
Once even Grandfather said it was not bad, the two of them urged me for an answer. The Beast Palace Lord and Seolpyo began listing the many benefits I would gain if I became the Palace Lord’s son.
“You said you currently share minds with only one centipede, correct? Become my adoptive son and I will make it so you can share minds with all three. No—more than that. I will do the same for every other spider and lizard as well. How does that sound?”
“So-ryong, don’t you want to stay up all night with this noona talking about the children we raise? And when they have babies, we can even share them?”
But this was suddenly gaining a father and an older sister, so I hesitated without answering. Seolpyo and the Palace Lord began conferring about something.
“This much does not seem to move him. Is there nothing that would stir So-ryong’s heart?”
“Ah! Father—the Flying Snake! He said he loves venomous creatures, so the Flying Snake would do it!”
“Oh! That’s right—the Flying Snake!”
Flying Snake? A snake that flies?
At the sudden mention of a flying snake I tilted my head, and Seolpyo explained.
“Deep in the southern jungles there is a Flying Snake that truly flies through the air. It’s an incredible creature. Since you love venomous beasts, how about it? If you become this noona’s little brother, I’ll help you catch it.”
That was the moment.
Grandfather, who had been listening, suddenly widened his eyes and demanded,
“By Flying Snake, do you mean the snake the color of grass, with two horns on its brow, that flies through the heavens?!”
“Exactly, Elder! You know of it?!”
Grandfather clearly recognized it. He turned straight to me and declared,
“So-ryong, beneath the Ten Great Poisons there exist the Twenty-Four Poison Branches—twenty-four high-grade venomous creatures carefully selected. A flying snake would without doubt be the foremost among them: the Flying Divine Snake!”
“The Flying Divine Snake!”
That name is insane.
It flew through the sky and even the name was ridiculously cool.
I immediately bowed my head to my new father and older sister.
“Wi So-ryong greets Father and Older Sister!”
I just couldn’t hold back.