Evolution 3
The sheer absurdity of it left everyone speechless — that the tiny centipede So-ryong raised had swallowed the Flying Divine Snake's enormous inner elixir.
Then So-ryong suddenly blacked out, and only then did they cry out in alarm.
"So— So-ryong!"
"So-ryong!"
"Ryong!"
At first they had assumed the shock of watching Cho devour an inner elixir packed with two full cycles of internal energy had simply overwhelmed him. But what they were seeing now was nothing like ordinary shock.
So-ryong collapsed without warning, crumpling straight across the table. Hwa-eun, standing beside him, caught him in an instant — yet he sagged against the wood like a wilted stalk of grass, limp and lifeless.
His eyes had rolled white. His body began to tremble.
Still sprawled across the table, So-ryong started to shake violently. Hyang and Bin, still clutched in his hands, let out startled cries and scrambled up Hwa-eun's body at once. They seized the hem of her clothes in their jaws and tugged, urging her to check on him.
Chrrrt!
Chrrt!
"A-all right, I understand."
Their behavior was nothing like the aggressive snapping of moments before. Hwa-eun laid a hand on So-ryong's body.
Fwoosh.
A sudden explosion of light.
The Flying Divine Snake's inner elixir had clearly been swallowed by Cho — and yet, from beneath So-ryong's collapsed head, the same blue radiance that had poured from that elixir erupted once more. Brighter than before. So blinding that the light spilling sideways threatened to burn their eyes.
Startled, Hwa-eun let go of him — then collected herself and reached to pull him upright again.
That was when the voice struck like thunder.
"Th-this is—!? Daughter-in-law, do not touch Ryong's body! You must not touch him now!"
The Beast Palace Lord's roar cracked through the hall. The force of it drove Hwa-eun back from So-ryong, and Seolpyo — who had been rushing toward him in a panic — froze mid-step.
"Father, why!? Why can't we touch him!? The boy looks like he's choking to death!"
Seolpyo shielded her eyes against the blasting light and stared at her father, unable to understand why he would forbid them from helping an unconscious So-ryong. She stamped her feet and shouted. The Beast Palace Lord answered with a face full of disbelief.
"Feel it! This is the energy of the Beast Heart Technique! Beast Heart Technique energy is pouring out of that child! Something — something we do not understand — is happening inside his body! So you must not touch him. One wrong move and he could fall into qi deviation!"
"Beast Heart Technique?"
Seolpyo tilted her head at her father's words, then quickly shut her eyes and focused on the energy around her. She could sense something, but her realm was lower than her father's — she needed deeper concentration to grasp it fully.
And once she did, she felt it. The energy of the Beast Heart Technique was swirling through the Beast Palace Lord's hall like a storm. Something beneath So-ryong's head was pouring out power that surged into his body and out again in endless cycles. Just as her father had said — a familiar energy, rough and heavy with the force of the earth.
This was unmistakably the Beast Heart Technique.
"H-how!? Why the Beast Heart Technique?"
So-ryong had learned the Beast Heart Technique, so of course he could circulate it. But no one had ever heard of someone operating it while unconscious — and never with power this vast. Even more astonishing was the fact that the same energy was flowing from the centipede he raised.
The Beast Heart Technique allowed a practitioner to build internal power and share their mind with their beast. That was the full extent of its known abilities.
Seolpyo looked at her father in disbelief. The Beast Palace Lord, staring blankly at So-ryong, spoke like a man whose soul had left his body.
"What in the world… Why from the centipede and from Ryong…"
"Beast Palace Lord, what is going on here? What are we supposed to do!?"
Unable to simply stand and watch, the Lord of Ten Thousand Poisons demanded answers in a rush of urgency — but the Beast Palace Lord had none to give.
Everyone stood frozen, at a complete loss.
And then, just when they thought they could not be more shocked, something even more astonishing unfolded.
Crack. Crrrack.
From beneath So-ryong's body, something began to push out — no, to grow — and slowly coil around him.
"Th-this is!?"
"The centipede!? Why is So-ryong's centipede— like that…?"
What was wrapping around So-ryong was unmistakably Cho. The small centipede he had raised. Its yellow body, dotted with blue spots, was swelling larger and larger, winding itself around him completely. Then the yellow shell with its blue speckles began to peel away — color and size transforming into something entirely different.
Gone was the small, adorable creature with a yellow body and blue spots.
In its place: a deep azure body. Jade-green legs. A flattened but massive frame.
The Lord of Ten Thousand Poisons took one look and cried out in a voice of pure disbelief — taking over where the Beast Palace Lord had fallen silent.
"A-a blue body. Legs like jade! Th-this is— could it be!? The Flying Centipede!"
Even Hwa-eun had heard that name at least once. It was recorded in the final section of the Secret Record of the World's Poisons — the chapter on the Ten Great Poisons. The so-called king of all centipedes…
"The Flying Centipede? If it's the Flying Centipede, then surely…"
Hwa-eun asked in disbelief. The Lord of Ten Thousand Poisons answered as if in a daze.
"O-one of the Ten Great Poisons — the king of every centipede that walks the earth. A calamity among calamities that soars through the heavens, raining down mists and storms of death. The Flying Centipede!
An Azure-Spotted Centipede that ate the Flying Divine Snake's inner elixir… becoming a Flying Centipede! Wh-what an extraordinary thing!"
It was a tale no book had ever recorded, no ear had ever heard. Even the Tang Clan's secret text, the Secret Record of the World's Poisons, held no such account. And yet right before their eyes, an Azure-Spotted Centipede was devouring the Flying Divine Snake's inner elixir and transforming into a Flying Centipede.
"Cho… Cho is becoming a Flying Centipede?"
While the Lord of Ten Thousand Poisons and Hwa-eun reeled at that revelation, they were not the only ones struck by a staggering realization. The shocked voices of the Beast Palace's father and daughter rang out as well.
"C-could it be… When they said a martial art that grows alongside one's beast… they meant that if the beast grows, its master grows too!?"
"The hidden meaning of the Beast Heart Technique, passed down from our ancestors — that it truly meant growing together with one's beast!"
A single line written at the very head of the Beast Heart Technique manual, one they had never taken seriously: The Beast Heart Technique is a martial art that grows alongside one's beast; when either of the two who are bound together advances, the other may advance as well. Grasping its true meaning at last, the Beast Palace Lord and Seolpyo trembled — while beside them, the Lord of Ten Thousand Poisons and Hwa-eun trembled at the sight of an Azure-Spotted Centipede becoming a Flying Centipede.
All of them standing around So-ryong, who was now so thoroughly coiled in the Flying Centipede's body that he looked like nothing more than a blue sphere.
My head. My head felt like it was going to split open.
The moment Cho swallowed the Flying Divine Snake's inner elixir — the one that was supposed to be mine — something inside my skull had swollen as if it were about to burst. I thought my consciousness had simply cut out. It hadn't.
The pain went on without end.
I wanted to cut my own head off and throw it away. Clutching my skull through the agony, I groaned.
"Urrgh… H-help…"
Every time something pulsed deep inside my mind, the pain ballooned. The strange part was that pain this severe should have knocked me out cold — yet my mind was perfectly clear. No. Being clear only made the pain sharper.
If the first wave had been something you could simply call "hurt," this was different. I felt as though I could describe every facet of the agony — which part, what kind, what quality — in thousands upon thousands of words.
Why wasn't anyone helping me? The Lord of Ten Thousand Poisons, my adoptive father, Sister Seol, Hwa-eun — none of them. It was strange. Between groans, I kept calling for help.
"…H-help me…"
Ssshh.
A soft hand brushed through my hair. Gentle fingers stroking my head. The touch was vivid and unmistakably soft.
Hwa-eun? Sister Seol?
It was clearly a woman's hand, and for a moment I wondered whose — but whose it was didn't matter. Because every time those fingers swept through my hair, my shattering skull cooled with unbelievable relief. Not like drinking soda — like rubbing it directly onto the pain. With each stroke, the inside of my head grew clearer and fresher. I couldn't open my eyes through the agony, but I surrendered my head to that gentle touch.
Every pass of her hand cut the pain down fast. If I wanted to live, this was the only way.
Before those strokes had even numbered ten, the pain was almost entirely gone. The agony had vanished, leaving only a faint afterimage of ache. Slowly, I opened my eyes to check my surroundings.
But my vision showed me nothing.
I thought it might be night — it wasn't. As my mind sharpened further, I finally registered that I was being held in someone's arms. And unlike those soft hands, the embrace itself was cool.
What is this?
Soft… but cold. I carefully lifted my head, trying to look up and see whose arms I was in.
Blue?
The first thing that filled my sight was blue hair. Deep cobalt hair.
Hwa-eun and Sister Seol both had black hair. For that matter — was there even a woman with blue hair in this world?
I startled and tried to pull free of her arms, but the lingering pain kept my body from moving properly. I managed to raise my head enough to see her face — and the woman looking down at me with blue eyes was someone I had never seen before.
A woman on the border between girl and adult. When our eyes met, she smiled.
"W-who are you?"
Instead of answering, her lips drifted toward my forehead.
Chup.
The moment her lips touched my brow, my vision went dark again.
Yeah… blue hair was ridiculous.
The memory had been so vivid I'd taken it for reality, but it must have been a dream.
As consciousness returned, a crushing pressure settled over me.
"Ugh…"
Slurp. Chup.
Something strange was happening against my forehead. When I opened my eyes, what I saw was a massive blue eye.
Except — if the woman in the dream had had blue eyes, what I was looking at now were four dotted eyes.
"C-Cho?"
Those dotted eyes were unmistakably a centipede's — the kind I'd seen in field guides a thousand times. I blinked, trying to make sense of the situation, and realized a giant centipede had its fangs spread wide and was licking my head.
"Gyaaah!"
I screamed in pure shock. Even a man they called Spicy Fabre was going to freak out when a giant centipede started licking his forehead.
At my scream the huge centipede flinched, and from beside me came Hwa-eun's and Sister Seol's voices.
"So- So-ryong! Are you awake?"
"Ryong, you with us?"
"S-save me… Th-the centipede…"
I tried to get away from it, but I couldn't move an inch. When I cried for help, Hwa-eun's reassuring voice reached me.
"It's all right, So-ryong. It's Cho."
"Cho?"
Cho — that was definitely our eldest daughter's name. I froze for a second, then locked eyes with the creature again at the sound of that name. She nodded, as if to say, Yes, it's me.
Then the pressure on my body vanished, and I was released.
Sssllk.
"Cho… you're Cho? Wh-what on earth…"
Chrrrt!
Even her voice was bigger. Our Cho had been small and cute — but the big sister currently claiming to be Cho was a good six meters long, her body a vivid blue, her antennae and legs the color of emerald.
Something about her form tugged at a memory. I slid down from the table in the Beast Palace Lord's hall where I'd been slumped and spoke in a voice thick with disbelief.
"This isn't Cho — this is practically the Flying Divine Snake…"
Hwa-eun and Sister Seol both smiled as they answered.
"That's right, So-ryong. After eating the Flying Divine Snake's inner elixir, Cho became one of the Ten Great Poisons — the Flying Centipede."
"Cho grew into a Flying Centipede, Ryong."
"A F-Flying Centipede? One of the Ten Great Poisons!?"
I turned toward Cho at those words. She was floating in midair, looking down at me and making a thoroughly pleased sound.
Chrrrrrr.
Holy… Our daughter! Our daughter! She became a flying girl!
I had no idea how it had happened, but the moment I came to, my eldest daughter had turned into a flying girl.
An unstoppable scream tore out of me.
Because this was pure jackpot.
"Gyaaaaaah! That's my girl! That's my eldest daughter!"