Twenty-Four Poison Branches 3: Centipede Chain Formation
“Centipede Chain Formation!”
Srrrrr!
At my shout, Cho, Hyang, and Bin let out warning chirps and wriggled across the ground, latching onto the bamboo stalks ahead as if embracing them. Then they daintily bit into the bamboo.
Crunch.
Crack.
Admiring exclamations followed at once.
“Oh my, how cute!”
“Aww, so adorable.”
Hwa-eun and Sister Seol wore expressions of pure delight at the centipedes’ performance, looking as if they simply could not handle the cuteness.
I had adapted the Beast Heart Technique learned from my adoptive father and the Beast Linked Formation taught by Sister Seolpyo into this Centipede Chain Formation. Originally the technique used beasts linked to you through the Beast Heart Technique to strike an opponent in continuous succession. When our little centipedes performed it, though, the whole thing somehow came out adorable.
The moment they launched from my body to bite a person their speed was plenty fast, yet crawling across the ground made them look slow—or perhaps my incomplete mastery of the Centipede Chain Formation left the command transmission a little sluggish. Either way, their wriggling approach and tiny bites were ridiculously cute.
Hwa-eun and Sister Seol looked ready to die of cuteness, but this dad felt a bit disappointed. I had been hoping for a cooler display. I had pictured something like Big Sis’s Fierce Wolf Linked Formation—a dazzling chain of continuous attacks. Why did this have to turn out so adorable…?
Which was why the words slipped out unbidden.
“This isn’t quite it…”
Srrt?
Churrt?
Tsst?
Their little “Did we do something wrong?” feelings came through clearly, so I waved my hands at once.
“Ah, no, no. You did great. Aigoo, my babies, well done.”
I had imagined them moving with sharp style, snapping at their targets one after another. Apparently our centipedes still needed more growing time. A little regret lingered, but I called them back into my arms. Come to think of it, they were not even a year old yet.
Someday they’ll grow. This dad believes you’ll become giant centipedes just like your mother.
“All right, come back now. Good job.”
Churrt!
Srrrrr!
They crawled over, proudly sending the feeling that they had carried out Dad’s request perfectly. I gave each of their little heads a light stroke as they climbed up.
What we were doing was nothing particularly grand. It had been only half a month since I received the Beast Heart Technique from my adoptive father and registered the centipedes. The core principles of the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Divine Art were derived from the Beast Heart Technique itself, so setting the pure poison arts aside and accepting the original form of the Beast Heart Technique had not taken long to settle. On top of that I could carry over every realm I had already cultivated, so my proficiency shot up at once.
Thus, to test the link with the three centipedes I had registered on the first day, I had run through the Beast Linked Formation Sister Seol taught me. Of course I had not followed my adoptive father’s instructions for registration—lying down and letting them drink saliva. Even I could not do that with a clear head. It somehow made me feel less than human. So I had them suck on my little finger instead and finished the registration that way.
No matter how I look at it, that other method was really not happening.
Remembering that day made me shudder. I turned to Sister Seol.
“Sister Seol, still no word on that?”
“Mm, the warriors went to check a place three days from here, so news should come soon. Just wait a little longer. Honestly, you ask every single day without missing one.”
“Ha, haha. Just curious…”
Sister Seol narrowed her eyes at me for asking every day. What I was asking about was news of the Flying Divine Snake, yet she looked rather put out.
“Anyway, So-ryong, I’m a little hurt.”
“Pardon? Hurt?”
“I mean, I know you love poisonous creatures, but it kind of feels like if that Flying Divine Snake weren’t involved you never would have become my little brother.”
“N-no way! How could that be?”
“Hnnngh… doesn’t seem like it.”
A few days of knowing me and she already had my whole measure. I shook my head quickly.
“That’s not it. What I was worrying about back then was whether someone as lacking as me could really become Sister Seol’s younger brother. That was all.”
“Really?”
“Of course!”
Whew. Getting a warm big sister is this scary? Honestly, like in my past life, a “Hey, you little punk” kind of sister might be less pressure.
Having never had an older sister I couldn’t say for sure, but the gap between the ideal big sisters I had seen in my previous life and the Sister Seol in front of me felt enormous. I had started wondering if every big sister in the Central Plains was like this, yet from Hwa-eun’s stories that did not seem to be the case either.
“Anyway. Ah, Hwa-eun, shall we take the little lizards to that flower field today? Lots of mushrooms grow there—if we pick them and stir-fry them they’re delicious.”
“Shall we? Okay.”
The moment Hwa-eun and Sister Seol’s attention shifted elsewhere I watched for an opening, slipped out of the training ground, and headed for where the Tang Family warriors were staying. I had a strong feeling I would get dragged all the way to the flower field if I stayed, so I made an early escape. Left alone, Sister Seol would cheerfully haul me around all day.
Still, it was not exactly a blatant getaway. While I had spent the past half-month adapting to the original form of the Beast Heart Technique mixed into the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Divine Art, the Tang Family warriors had been using the Beast Palace as a base to capture poisonous creatures in the surroundings. Checking on that progress gave me a perfectly good excuse. I checked every day, after all—so I had a ready alibi.
“All right, the young master told us to keep things clean, so let’s finish clearing this by today.”
“Understood, Commander!”
“By the way, where did we put those scorpions the Poison Blood Squad brought in yesterday?”
“Over here, Commander.”
I made my way to the guest quarters inside Beast Valley and heard Commander Gu Pae and the warriors talking out in the courtyard. When I stepped inside, Commander Gu Pae greeted me with a bright voice.
“You’ve come, Young Master So-ryong?”
“You’ve been working hard, Commander Gu Pae.”
He promptly reported on the several points I had raised the day before.
“Not at all, Young Master. Just as you said yesterday, we decided to clean thoroughly, and we’ve been catching rats and locusts outside to try as feed.”
“Are they eating well?”
“Some of the snakes still won’t touch it, but the spiders eat well.”
“Snakes often go days without eating, so that isn’t a big problem.”
I received a few more reports and was checking the bamboo cages when a familiar voice called out.
“So-ryong, is that you?”
I turned to see Grandfather, the Lord of Ten Thousand Poisons, entering the courtyard. The Commander of the Poison Blood Squad and several of his men followed behind. He had gone out collecting nearby five days ago; it seemed the expedition was finished and he was returning.
“Welcome back, Grandfather. You must have had a hard time.”
“Mm. Has there been any progress with the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Divine Art?”
“Yes, I’ve been diligent.”
“Good, as you should. Ah, and take a look at this for me. Poison Blood Commander, bring it here.”
Apparently he had caught something interesting, for he ordered the commander to fetch it. I rubbed my hands together, waiting with full expectation of what sort of creature would appear. The Poison Blood Commander returned carrying a small bamboo tray and lifted the lid.
What was revealed was a single spider. Yet it was no ordinary spider. Its abdomen looked as if it had been sliced clean through with a knife, and the cut surface showed a coin-like pattern.
“This is—! The Golden Coin Trapdoor Spider!”
“Golden Coin Trapdoor Spider?”
Grandfather looked at me with open curiosity at the name. Still astonished, I pointed at the spider.
“Yes, this one’s name is the Golden Coin Trapdoor Spider.”
The Golden Coin Trapdoor Spider was a kind of ancient spider known in the West as the Chinese Hourglass Spider. Its scientific name was Cyclocosmia ricketti. Its oddly shaped abdomen was the distinctive feature; these spiders possessed a flat cross-section that looked as if the rear half had been cut clean off. Because that surface resembled a coin, they were called the Golden Coin Trapdoor Spider—or Coin Door Spider—in China. In the West the abdomen’s resemblance to an hourglass earned them the name Hourglass Spider. It was an extremely rare species. In my previous life you could not even obtain one in Korea.
There were stories that they blocked the entrance of their burrows with their rears, but that was not quite accurate. Spiders of this type were trapdoor spiders that lived in underground burrows. Living in vertical tunnels had likely flattened the rear of the abdomen over time—that was the usual theory.
“It looked so unusual I thought you would like it. I was right, wasn’t I?”
“Hehe…”
I scratched my head sheepishly at Grandfather’s words. He asked another question, clearly curious himself.
“So, has the Beast Palace found the location of the Flying Divine Snake?”
“No. The warriors who went to confirm the place where it was previously sighted still haven’t returned.”
“Is that so? Well, they know Yunnan’s jungles better than anyone, so they will find it soon enough. I brought some of the Beast Palace people with me when I went out this time, and they were a great help.”
“Is that so?”
Of course—Yunnan was practically their front yard. Not knowing it would have been stranger. I nodded, and Grandfather continued.
“I only ever saw one of the Twenty-Four Poison Branches when I was young. It has been so long that even I am looking forward to it.”
There was that term again—Twenty-Four Poison Branches. Last time I had not received a proper explanation, so I asked at once.
“Grandfather, what exactly are the Twenty-Four Poison Branches?”
They were said to be twenty-four carefully selected upper-grade poisonous creatures ranked just below the Ten Great Poisons. It felt as if a side quest had appeared beside the main quest, so I could not help checking.
Twenty-four poisonous creatures, huh? Collecting them is going to be fun.
Honestly, Yo-hwa had been raised by a human and thus held little hostility toward people; I had only gotten her by pure chance. The other Ten Great Poisons would clearly be final-boss tier. Even Yo-hwa alone possessed hallucinogenic mist, powerful physical abilities, and the power to transform her body. Catching her the normal way would never have been easy. The rest of the Ten Great Poisons would be difficult from discovery all the way through capture. They were the main quest, after all.
For that reason, rather than simply waiting around for news of the Ten Great Poisons to fall into my lap like fruit from a tree, I thought it might be better to treat the Twenty-Four Poison Branches—one tier lower, composed of upper-grade poisonous creatures—as a side quest and go after them in between the main quest of the Ten Great Poisons. That was the thinking behind my question.
Grandfather answered.
“Ah, come to think of it I never explained the Twenty-Four Poison Branches. Listen carefully.”
“Yes, Grandfather.”
“First I should explain the name itself. Just as the Twelve Hours divide a day into twelve and attach the twelve animals of the Earthly Branches, our Tang Family divides a day into twenty-four hours and assigns a poisonous creature to each hour. That is what we call the Twenty-Four Poison Branches.”
Oh, so it’s like the Tang Family’s own time system?
They had divided the day into twenty-four hours like the Earthly Branches and attached one poisonous creature to each. It sounded plausible. I nodded, and the explanation continued.
“In addition, the Twenty-Four Poison Branches refer to upper-grade poisonous creatures classified by the Tang Family that do not quite rank among the Ten Great Poisons, yet are stronger than ordinary upper-grade poisonous creatures and only a little inferior to the Ten Great Poisons.”
“Ohh. Stronger than upper-grade yet just short of the Ten Great Poisons. That’s impressive.”
“Yes. There is even a story that our ancestors created the Twenty-Four Poison Branches out of mild regret after ranking the Ten Great Poisons.”
The idea that they had gathered the friends who just missed the ranking set my expectations exploding. At my sparkling eyes Grandfather gave a small smile and went on.
“And if we are speaking of a flying snake, that would be the Flying Divine Snake. It corresponds to the early part of the Zi hour among the Twelve Hours, and it is the very first of the Twenty-Four Poison Branches when they are divided into six groups—the first of Heaven-Earth-Dark-Yellow. In short, it means Heaven.”
“Heaven!”
Damn, that’s cool. First place so they stuck Heaven on it. And the creature’s name is Flying Divine Snake.
The first of the Twenty-Four Poison Branches—Heaven. The name, the meaning, and the explanation sent a thrill through me.
Just as Grandfather finished speaking, another voice rang out.
“Ah, So-ryong’s over there! I knew he’d be here!”
Sister Seol’s voice. Had she really chased me all the way here? She approached, greeted Grandfather, then smiled at me.
“Ryong, news finally came.”
“News?”
“The news you’ve been waiting for most. The flying snake. Ah, the Tang Family calls it the Flying Divine Snake, right? The warriors who went into the jungle spotted the flying one in Hyeopsu Valley. Father said you’re fretting yourself to death over it, so we’re leaving first thing tomorrow. Hehe.”
“Ooooooh!”
At last the long-awaited confirmation of the Flying Divine Snake had arrived. The time had come to capture the very first of the Twenty-Four Poison Branches—Heaven.