The Human-Faced Spider
His Excellency Bang Un.
He was one of the towering statesmen Sichuan had produced.
At the age of fifteen—the age of setting one’s will to learning—he had passed the highest imperial examination and begun his official career, rising in due course to posts of real consequence in the central court. Disgusted by the graft and corruption of the capital bureaucrats, he requested provincial postings instead, serving as Provincial Administration Commissioner, Judicial Commissioner, and finally as the Henan Circuit Judicial and Penal Commissioner, the man who held supreme responsibility for justice across Henan Province.
After that he retired, returned to his home region, and lived in quiet seclusion.
“In a word, he is an upright, incorruptible official of absolute integrity. He utterly detests the open custom of local magistrates fleecing the people and lining their own pockets with bribes.”
Listening to Ye-eun’s report inside the carriage bound for Bang Un’s residence, Soanche, Hwi-yeom tilted his head.
“For someone like that, his own house looked remarkably luxurious.”
“He was born into considerable ancestral wealth. A scion of a distinguished house, as they say.”
“Hmm…”
With a large fortune already in hand, he had been content with a modest official salary. That was precisely why he could never understand others taking bribes, and why he measured everyone by that rigid standard of integrity.
Well enough, Hwi-yeom thought, though his brow furrowed.
“Somehow I get the feeling he and I won’t get along.”
“He despises bureaucrats like the Provincial Administration Commissioner, so he hardly holds warm feelings toward the Sacheondang Family either, given how close we are to that man.”
“And yet he still commissioned us for the waterworks and sewerage project?”
“What he personally dislikes is one thing; he won’t ignore the comfort of his own household.”
“Then why didn’t he contact us sooner? If you’re looking for the finest medical skill in Sichuan, our main house should have been the first place that came to mind.”
“As a former official he has little natural affection for martial families, and our closeness to the Provincial Administration Commissioner certainly didn’t help.”
“The fact that he finally did reach out means he isn’t completely inflexible. A truly stiff-necked man would have let his family die—or himself—rather than swallow his pride and ask.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course. A pure stick-in-the-mud never climbs that high in the first place. I already have a rough idea how to handle him.”
“I see.”
“But for that to work, we need to be able to guarantee we can cure his youngest daughter’s illness… Ye-eun, isn’t it about time you told me? How exactly do you plan to heal her?”
At Hwi-yeom’s question Ye-eun nodded.
“Strictly speaking, the youngest daughter’s condition is not an illness. It is the result of a spirit beast draining her vital energy.”
“A spirit beast draining her life force?”
What kind of old fairy-tale nonsense is that? Hwi-yeom almost scoffed—then immediately accepted it. In a world where men lifted thousand-catty boulders with martial power and sliced iron plates like tofu with sword qi, why shouldn’t spirit beasts exist?
True enough. Even in the old wuxia stories, actual spirit beasts didn’t appear that often, but there were plenty of tales of people becoming peerless masters after swallowing a spirit beast’s inner core.
“Come to think of it, I heard stories of the nine-tailed fox when I was little. They transform into beautiful maidens, sleep with men, and suck out their vital essence, don’t they?”
“Similar. Though in this case it does not appear to be a nine-tailed fox.”
“Then what?”
“The place where he built his house and settled, Soanche, lies in Xiling Snow Mountain—a spirit mountain. Because it is a yin-cold place forever covered in snow, for all its beauty it is hardly suitable for human habitation. And there lives a spirit beast that feeds on human essence.”
“What is it?”
“The Human-Faced Spider.”
Ye-eun gazed into the distance, toward the direction of Xiling Snow Mountain, as she spoke.
“There dwells the spirit beast known as the Human-Faced Spider.”
Hwi-yeom’s eyes widened.
“How do you know that? Does even talk of yaoguai filter into Minjeongwon?”
“This did not come through Minjeongwon. It is a secret known only to a handful of people even within the Sacheondang Family.”
“…And how did you learn a secret like that?”
“The Family Head told me…”
“Hmm…”
Suspicion overflowed, yet Hwi-yeom chose not to press. Forcing someone to reveal what they wished to hide rarely produced good results. Instead he voiced the connection that had already formed in his mind.
“Human-Faced Spider—a Sacheondang secret. It rather calls to mind the ‘Spider’ of the Three Great Demons, doesn’t it? There’s a connection, I take it?”
“Yes.”
Ye-eun nodded.
“According to the Family Head, Xiling Snow Mountain is the place where the last descendants of the ‘Spider’ who remained for the sake of the Dang Family still live.”
After racing the carriage to His Excellency Bang Un’s Soanche and waiting a short while, Bang Un himself came out to receive Hwi-yeom. Expecting a sharp-featured, irritable old man to match the reputation of a rigid incorruptible, Hwi-yeom was mildly surprised when a neat, refined scholar-like figure appeared instead.
“I am Bang Un.”
“It is an honor to meet Your Excellency. I am Hwi-yeom, a son of the Dang Family.”
He neither flaunted the name of the Sacheondang Family nor brandished the title of Young Master. At that extreme humility Bang Un’s brows curved gently.
“I have already heard much of the young dragon who labors harder than anyone for the sake of Sichuan.”
“You flatter me.”
“Yet it is a pity that you curry favor with that greedy swine and reap this and that profit thereby. Is there not a saying that one who touches pitch is defiled? For a pillar of the state such as yourself, would it not be better to study and become a proper shepherd of the people?”
Smiling as he casually flung a blade, Bang Un waited. Hwi-yeom answered without the slightest tremor.
“The official household has the duties of the official household; the people’s households have the duties of the people’s households, do they not? Were I to enter the bureaucracy I might be able to do more than I can now—but at the same time there would arise many things I could no longer do.”
“…Is that so?”
Bang Un’s eyes lit with interest at the young man who parried his open thrust as fluently as flowing water. He nodded, then without another word bowed his head to Hwi-yeom.
“Your Excellency, no—!”
“Enough talk. I beg of you. Save my youngest daughter. There is nowhere left to turn but the medical arts of the Sacheondang Family.”
However upright the official, however lifelong the rectitude that earned him the name of incorruptible, before the life of his own child he was nothing more than a father who could make himself as small as needed and bend his waist.
Hwi-yeom waved both hands at the sight.
“You must not do this. Please raise your head.”
Only after Hwi-yeom urged him a second and third time did Bang Un lift his face.
“Then I leave it to you.”
“Do not worry.”
“Good. But… where is the physician?”
Expecting a visit from some aged doctor, Bang Un asked. Hwi-yeom shook his head.
“Your Excellency, a physician can be dispatched at any time. However, the Dang Family has determined that your youngest daughter’s affliction is not a simple disease, but the work of a spirit beast.”
“A spirit beast?”
The words sounded absurd, yet Bang Un was willing to listen.
“Yes. My first secretary, Ye-eun here, will explain the details.”
“I am Han Ye-eun.”
Ye-eun briefly laid out the circumstances for Bang Un and proposed they first examine the youngest daughter’s quarters. Those quarters occupied the innermost spot of Soanche—a bright, well-sited place of excellent feng shui and fine scenery.
“When I first chose the site for the manor, I fell in love with this view at first sight.”
Bang Un pointed to a small plum tree standing in the courtyard.
“Though small in stature, this plum has stood on this very spot for more than a thousand years. Even through the harsh winters of Xiling Snow Mountain it blossoms—a plum of the snow. Its spirit is so like that of an incorruptible scholar that I was determined to keep it within my walls.”
“From your daughter’s rooms one need only open the window to see it at once. You must cherish her deeply.”
“I obtained the child in my twilight years, past fifty. Naturally one frets over her all the more.”
“….”
While Hwi-yeom and Bang Un conversed, Ye-eun silently studied the plum tree. Its blossoms brimmed with vitality, and the fruits hanging upon it were unlike ordinary plums—translucent, as though carved from tinted ice. Truly no common tree: it was protected like a village shrine tree, with stakes driven all around and ropes strung between them, charms dangling from the cords.
Hwi-yeom noticed as well.
“That does not look like an ordinary plum. Flowers and fruit at the same time? And the plums resemble ice.”
“That is the proof it is a spirit tree. Yet those plums cannot be picked, nor eaten, unlike common fruit.”
“Is that so?”
“When I tried to force one free the branch itself threatened to snap. So I have left them, thinking they must simply not yet be ripe. One day when those plums ripen and fall of their own accord, brewing wine from them will be one of the pleasures of my old age.”
“Ah… But Your Excellency, what are the stakes driven around the tree and the charms hanging from the sacred rope?”
“Ah, those? A geomancer who examined the site put them up to ward off calamity. Well, the tree had no fence before, so it works out rather neatly, doesn’t it?”
Ye-eun let out a soft sigh.
“I would like to see inside your daughter’s quarters.”
“Yes, yes, this way.”
A short while later they entered the youngest daughter’s room. The girl lay with a deathly pale face, her breath coming in labored, whistling gasps.
“Pardon me.”
Ye-eun laid hands upon the girl’s body, examining her carefully, until she found two small puncture marks on the right wrist and nodded.
“Traces of vital energy being drained. It would seem that at regular intervals the creature descends from Xiling Snow Mountain and secretly feeds upon your daughter’s essence.”
“What?! The thrice-damned thing—!”
The calm, scholarly demeanor vanished; Bang Un’s eyes bulged as he exploded in rage.
“What manner of spirit beast dares suck the life from a human being! Tell me—what exactly has been coveting my daughter’s essence?!”
“In this humble one’s judgment, it is the work of the Human-Faced Spider.”
“Human-Faced Spider? I shall mobilize every servant and house soldier I possess and put it to death without fail!”
“Your Excellency, please abandon that intention. A spirit beast is not called a spirit beast for nothing. Those untrained in martial arts will only fill the spiders’ bellies, and even a highly accomplished martial artist would find it far from easy.”
“Then am I simply to sit with folded hands and watch?”
“Do not worry. The Dang Family is the ancestral house of poisons and hidden weapons. To be skilled with poisons is also to be familiar with the handling of venomous creatures. This girl will take care of it. Tonight I shall exterminate the spirit beast, so please withdraw all people from this place. Until this night has passed, no one—no one at all—must set foot here.”
Bang Un’s brow creased at Ye-eun’s words.
“That is difficult. At the very least she will need soldiers to protect her, will she not?”
“Better still, move your daughter elsewhere. That will suffice.”
“Hmm…”
Bang Un looked between Ye-eun and Hwi-yeom as though wrestling with the decision. Hwi-yeom smiled brightly.
“Young she may be, yet when it comes to spirit beasts she is the finest the Dang Family possesses. Please trust her just this once.”
“…Very well. Considering the talent that has set all of Sichuan abuzz, I shall trust you once.”
Bang Un ordered the servants to move his youngest daughter to the inner residence.
That night, beneath a brilliant full moon, only Hwi-yeom and Ye-eun remained.
Hwi-yeom asked,
“Am I allowed to watch?”
“Of course.”
Seeing Ye-eun nod so readily, Hwi-yeom’s eyes gleamed with interest.
Just who was Ye-eun, really?
What exactly was she hiding from him?
He had watched her for a long time now, and she had been assigned by his father; she could not be some suspicious outsider. She must have her own reasons for silence. Still, curiosity was curiosity.
But even if I asked now, she wouldn’t answer.
Hwi-yeom simply resolved to stay put. If he saw how she dealt with this spirit beast called the Human-Faced Spider, he might at least gain some small clue about her.
“Will it be finished before sunrise?”
“It should be.”
“Then let’s talk. Even if we don’t bare our souls, there are plenty of things we can discuss.”
“Yes. Personally I have had a great many things I wished to say.”
“Oh? Is that so?”
“I have far too much work.”
“….”
“Other than that… well…”
“My duties are excessively heavy.”
“….”
“Apart from work-related matters…”
“I don’t get enough sleep.”
“….”
“Fine. While we’re at it, tell me everything. I’ll listen.”
And so, to keep themselves awake and to air the usual grievances, they talked of this and that. Yet even as the moon rose and began its descent, the awaited Human-Faced Spider never appeared.
“Perhaps not tonight?”
Just as Hwi-yeom said that and stifled a yawn, red lights appeared beyond the darkness, atop the walls of Soanche.