Evolution, Part Two
Grandfather, the Myriad Poison Divine Lord, and Hwa-eun stared blankly at the beautiful inner core as if entranced—but the moment I saw the creature that had spat it out and shrunk to about a meter, a scream tore from my mouth on its own.
"Gyaaaaah!"
And my legs gave out.
—Thud.
"Why! What's wrong? So-ryong? Are you hurt?"
"What happened!? So-ryong? Did a fragment hit you?"
Grandfather and Hwa-eun looked at me with startled eyes, certain some disaster had struck. Sitting on the floor, I stared down at the Flying Divine Snake with hollow eyes.
"My… F-Flying Divine Snake…"
"The Flying Divine Snake?"
"What about the Flying Divine Snake?"
"How could it become so pathetic… After all that work catching it…"
"…Eh…"
"…Ahem."
—Shaa?
The magnificent six-meter length. The blue sheen flowing from that enormous body. The hexagonal emerald horns that felt like crystal. All of that splendid Flying Divine Snake had vanished without a trace, and what remained before my eyes was a pathetic one-meter snake.
Its six-meter body had dwindled to a little over a meter. The glossy cobalt scales had faded to something closer to sky blue. The magnificent two-pronged horns were gone; only two pointed, cute little ogre horns remained on its head.
Looking at that pitiful form, every hard day of the chase rose up in me and emptiness welled. A party of nothing but thieves and hunters, trading extreme aggro while trying to learn the patterns, several sleepless nights spent hunting it down—and then my Flying Divine Snake suddenly shriveled up like a balloon losing air. The remarkable rare specimen that had matched days of suffering had dropped in rank to about uncommon.
"That beautiful form… I never even said I'd eat the core, so why!"
If I'd waited just a little longer I could have persuaded Grandfather! When I told Sister I'd think about it, it was because I was looking for the words to persuade her. You stupid thing!
"Haa…"
Behind my dejected self came Hwa-eun's sigh, then her warm hand settling on my shoulder. She patted me gently and tried to comfort me.
"So-ryong, can't we think of it as fortunate? You got the core out, and the Flying Divine Snake turned into a good size for raising, right? Now you can raise it splendidly like before. There are lots of baby fire carp in the Tang Family pond—it'd be good to feed it those."
"That's true, but…"
As Hwa-eun said, it was smaller now, easier to raise and cheaper to feed—but a six-meter python was a rare specimen you almost never met. As I stared blankly at it in regret, Sister quickly turned to Yo-hwa.
"Yo-hwa, could you take that bead out of the pouch for me?"
"Kish!"
There were only two ways to deal with Yo-hwa's tough, elastic spider silk: burn it with fire, or ask the one who made it to open it herself. At Hwa-eun's request, Yo-hwa used her front legs to make a small hole in the pouch and drew out the sparkling blue bead. Then she spun fresh silk and sealed the hole carefully.
—Kishit!
The inner core passed from Yo-hwa's hand into Hwa-eun's. Once free of the pouch, the core—about the size of a Clear Heart Pill—began scattering even more luminous light. Hwa-eun held the glowing core out in front of me.
"Look. If you just eat this, So-ryong, you might reach the same realm as me—no, maybe even higher. Then you'll surely be able to catch kids like this more easily. Come on. I'll leave it with Grandfather for now, so let's hurry and go sleep today."
"Grandfather, here. Please check it. Figure out exactly what kind of energy it is so So-ryong can gain as much inner power as possible."
"Yes, I understand. Of course. But… why are you grieving as if the sky fell? I thought a fragment had flown and hurt you earlier. This boy, really. Well, take him and put him to bed first."
"Yes, Grandfather. So-ryong, let's go."
Hwa-eun led me toward the bedding the warriors had prepared. Somehow I had no energy left at all.
So empty…
And for a moment a thought crossed my mind. Had this spicy Fabre, who was so sincere about poisonous creatures, been punished because he'd briefly considered eating the thing? That kind of thought.
But even so, it's too harsh a punishment…
I woke in the morning still holding those unbelievable memories—but what awaited me was even harsher news.
"Young Master So-ryong, it seems the Flying Divine Snake can no longer fly."
The shocking report that the Flying Divine Snake could no longer fly had come from Commander Gu Pae.
"What!? It can't fly?"
"Yes. It was very quiet all night."
"Couldn't it just have become a bit calmer?"
Yesterday I'd seen it was more timid than expected. I spun happy circuits, telling myself it might simply have settled down because it didn't want to die—but Grandfather, the Myriad Poison Divine Lord, who happened to be passing nearby, threw the red pill of reality straight in my face.
"That creature's flight was unfolding Qi-Riding Ascent with the energy of its core, then wriggling and moving through midair. With the core gone, of course it can no longer fly."
At Grandfather's words I thought it over, and he was right. Using a core that held two cycles of inner power to unfold Qi-Riding Ascent, then moving its body to travel—that had been its flight. The fuel that made flight possible had vanished, so flight was gone with it.
"Gyaaah!"
"Y-Young Master So-ryong! What's the matter?"
When a scream burst out of me again without thinking, Commander Gu Pae grabbed me, face full of alarm. Grandfather only chuckled and drifted away.
"Haha. Leave him be. It's nothing special. That boy, really…"
The creature whose rank kept dropping. The stock I'd bought was hitting rock bottom.
I thought it was a blue-chip, but what I bought was a penny stock…
I was still wearing a blank look at the creature that was now hard to call even uncommon except for its appearance when Hwa-eun, having heard from Commander Gu Pae, came over, pressed the pouch into my hand, and soothed me.
"So-ryong, cheer up. You can raise it hard like me and the Ohgongi kids, right? If you feed it well it'll grow big quick and fly again soon. Come on, pull yourself together and let's go. People are about to set out."
Hwa-eun supported her fiancé's hobby and looked after his mental health on top of it. Bolstered by her care, I decided to set out again for the Beast Palace with the Flying Divine Snake that could no longer fly—no, since it couldn't fly, it wasn't a Flying Divine Snake anymore, just a uniquely shaped snake. Shock was shock, but we still had to return to the Beast Palace first.
Not long after we started for the Beast Palace, the pouch—too big for the creature to enter alone overnight—had been adjusted again by Yo-hwa's hands for easier management. Sister, who had come up at some point, looked at the Flying Divine Snake, now small enough to hold in one hand, and asked,
"This is that Flying Divine Snake? What on earth happened overnight?"
—Shaa!
At Sister's words the Flying Divine Snake flinched inside the pouch with uneasy eyes. Hwa-eun nodded and answered.
"It spat out its inner core and changed like this."
"Spat out its core?"
"Yes, Unnie. It understood human speech. When we said we'd kill it and cut open its belly, it must not have wanted to die, so it spat it right out."
Sister Seol's eyes went round. She widened them further and asked after the core.
"Really!? Th-the core?"
"I left it with Grandfather for now. I'll show you when we arrive at the Beast Palace. It gave off a luminous pretty light."
"It glows? Pretty?"
"Yes."
After a stretch of Sister Seol, who was extremely curious about the core, grilling Hwa-eun about every detail, she finally seemed to remember me walking beside her. She tilted her head and asked,
"But why does So-ryong look so drained? He should be in a good mood."
She must have sensed my sunken spirits. At Sister Seol's question Hwa-eun looked at me steadily, then carefully whispered something in Sister Seol's ear. A moment later Sister Seol was giggling.
"Really? Ahaha. That's so like So-ryong."
"Don't laugh, Unnie. So-ryong is serious."
Sister Seol nodded at Hwa-eun's don't-laugh—but not laughing didn't mean get angry. She put on a deliberately angry face and pulled my nape into a hug.
"I get it. But that means you really let everything we said go in one ear and out the other, right? You little So-ryong! This Sister Seol and your fiancée held onto you and persuaded you so hard, and you just kept saying yes, yes? Right? Right?"
"N-no, Sister Seol. L-let go of this…"
The scolding from Hwa-eun and Sister that I'd thought was over started up all over again.
—Hwaaak.
Inside the Beast Palace Lord's hall, Grandfather took out the core and set it on the table. Luminous blue light flooded outward. The hall was instantly dyed blue, and people gazed at that light as if entranced and marveled.
"Remarkable, Myriad Poison Divine Lord. Such refreshing energy."
"This is the Flying Divine Snake's inner core."
"Amazing!"
"An inner core of such energy. I understand your words of two cycles."
Grandfather nodded and explained to my amazed father-in-law.
"As befits the name Flying Divine Snake, what it held was the energy of the heavens."
"Energy of the heavens?"
"Indeed."
"Hmm… a bit of a pity."
"Seems so…"
The atmosphere had been good, but at the words of pity I tilted my head—and Sister Seol's transmission reached me.
Not all inner power energy is the same. Most of the Beast Palace's inner power heart methods hold the energy of the earth. The Tang Family's poison arts, being poison, are basically of the earth's energy too, so he must mean it's a pity. The amount of energy that can be absorbed drops.
I hadn't known, but it felt like inner power had attributes as well. The core from the Flying Divine Snake held the energy of the heavens as befit its name, and the story was that it didn't have good compatibility with the inner power heart method I was currently cultivating.
"Then at most about half?"
"It seems it will be so."
Over the several days returning to the Beast Palace, my mental state had recovered a lot under Hwa-eun and Sister Seol's care and scolding, so it was a bit regrettable—but okay. Sixty years of inner power was still remarkable.
"I'm fine. Even that much is a great opportunity, isn't it?"
Grandfather smiled.
"Haha, have you recovered your spirits now? For several days you were as sunk as a boy who'd lost his parents."
"A-ahem…"
"Then since you're the owner, keep it well for now. I'll look for ways to raise the energy a bit more."
"Understood, Grandfather."
"So-ryong has obtained a great opportunity. Good. If he eats that, his Beast Heart Technique will rise in realm much faster too."
Apparently when two factions obtain something like a core together the division is very thorough—but there was no disagreement that this core was mine. The Beast Palace had given up rights since we'd obtained it with information received for saving the Beast Palace, and the Tang Family also recognized my ownership since their son-in-law had earned it through effort. For me, since I was a person of both factions anyway, me eating it was the same as the two factions sharing it.
So the core, placed in a medicine case that had held other medicines, was pushed toward me. I stood and drew the light-radiating case closer—
—Tsurur!
—Tsur!
Suddenly the three Ohgongi sisters shot out of my sleeve, and with the medicine case in the center they started spinning round and round, checking one another. They were usually so well-behaved that the sight was strange.
"Girls?"
I was still flustered at this first-time behavior when Sister rose from her seat, reached a hand toward them, and said,
"Cho, Hyang, Bin, you can't do this here. There are adults present. Come here."
—Tsurit!
—Tsururut!
The three threatened as if they would bite her hand. When Sister startled and quickly withdrew, they suddenly tangled and started fighting.
"Girls?"
—Tsurit!
—Tsurur!
"Daddy's getting mad? You little things! Talking back to Mom—and why are you doing this where there are so many guests?"
When you're raising kids, fighting happens; maybe that's natural. But why was the first fight on top of the table in the Beast Palace Lord's hall full of people? Moreover their sisterhood had always been quite good, so the whole thing looked wrong. Thinking I should break it up, the moment I grabbed two of them—one in each hand—the remaining one dashed out like an arrow and hugged the Flying Divine Snake's core.
It was Cho.
—Gulp.
With that sound, the Flying Divine Snake's core and the light it radiated vanished without a trace.
"Cho-ya?"
I looked at Cho with a blank expression. Cho looked at me too. The moment I thought our eyes had locked, something seemed to swell inside my head, and somehow I began to feel as if the vanished blue light was flickering from Cho's body. It wasn't that light was really coming out—but it felt that way. A moment later I realized it wasn't blue light coming from Cho's body at all. My vision itself had been dyed blue.
In that instant my consciousness also vanished, as if someone had turned out the lights.
"So—So-ryong!"
Only Sister's urgent voice was left echoing in my receding ears.