The Bird That Drinks Poison (III)
A bizarre standoff ensued.
The frog seemed wary of Mother Jimjo, who was watching from behind.
Dang Sobaek pondered the situation for a moment.
Mother Jimjo would not have brought back a live creature without reason.
Which meant,
‘This is a hunting trial.’
She was giving them early experience so they could survive on their own in the wild.
From what he had observed so far, Mother Jimjo possessed a fair degree of intelligence.
This trial alone was proof.
Ordinary beasts did not teach their young to hunt in such a structured manner.
‘She must have deemed it a foe we can defeat if we cooperate reasonably well.’
Therefore, despite its grotesque appearance, this poison frog was likely a trivial opponent.
The problem was that the chicks were merely eyeing each other; none of them dared to make a move.
Since the frog was larger than their own bodies, they seemed utterly terrified.
Even the one who acted like their leader—Jim-il—was frozen stiff.
Just as Sobaek decided he should make the first move,
Pitter-patter, pitter-patter—!
Jim-sam was the first to charge at the frog.
His momentum was surprisingly fierce.
Startled, the frog instinctively leaped into the air. As Jim-sam's attack missed, the frog whipped out its tongue.
Jim-sam's head snapped back as if he had been slapped. A small patch of his downy feathers discolored slightly.
Though the impact was significant, he did not appear poisoned. True to his nature as a Jimjo, his resistance to toxins was remarkable.
‘There is poison on its tongue.’
Sobaek calmly analyzed the frog. Its movements were swift, and its leaping ability was formidable.
Glancing at Jim-sam, Sobaek noticed a change in his eyes.
‘Even in this, he resembles Danwu.’
Having taken a hit, Jim-sam was now burning with a competitive urge to defeat the poison frog.
Perhaps emboldened by his charge, the leader and Jim-i, who had only been watching, began to move as well. They surrounded the frog and launched a coordinated assault.
They flapped their wings and strained to peck at it with their beaks.
It was an utterly pathetic battle.
The poison frog utilized its natural leaping ability to hop around, counterattacking with its tongue.
Then, the frog slammed its body directly into Jim-o.
Due to the difference in weight, Jim-o was sent flying into the cave wall. Blood trickled from his head, and the frog's poison began to seep into the wound.
‘My word...’
Jim-o stumbled to his feet, his body swaying unsteadily. He did not look well.
Even a Jimjo was not entirely immune to all poisons.
Tireless, the frog lashed its tongue out at the chicks once more.
Jim-sam, struck again, tumbled backward onto his rear before popping back up like a roly-poly toy.
‘I must use poison.’
Of course, because the toxins he had consumed so far were of low quality, wielding a lethal poison was out of the question.
Most of what he possessed was merely the paralytic venom of centipedes and the corrosive poison of nameless insects.
Sobaek fell into deep thought.
The reason the chicks were being toyed with by a mere frog was that they could not keep up with its speed.
Even in the Murim, there were always those who were exceptionally swift and light on their feet.
The method to deal with such opponents was simple.
‘Restrict their movement.’
Of course, while easy to say, binding the legs of a swift opponent was akin to belling the cat.
However, Sobaek could do it.
The key lay in how to deliver the poison.
Sobaek refrained from joining the fray, concealing his presence as he waited. He calmly positioned himself behind the frog.
As he stood motionless, the leader's gaze turned fierce.
"Cheep!"
It was as if he were demanding to know what Sobaek was doing.
‘Tsk, fool.’
Because of that cry, the frog's attention shifted to Sobaek. It leaped high into the air, and the moment of its landing drew near.
‘It must be now.’
Since the beast was now aware of him, he would have to wait a long time for another opening if he missed this one.
Sobaek calculated the exact millisecond the frog would touch the ground and drove his beak deep into its back.
Sssssss—
His beak lodged firmly into the flesh. Corrosive poison melted the tender skin, immediately followed by a surge of paralytic venom.
The frog's pupils dilated, and its movements grew stiff.
Though the paralysis would only last a brief moment,
"Screeech!"
it was more than enough to secure the kill.
As Sobaek gave the signal, the chicks swarmed the frog, pecking at it relentlessly.
The frog's body was dismantled with brutal efficiency. Its legs were torn off, its torso ripped apart. Finally, its breath ceased entirely.
Their first hunt was a success.
To an outside observer, Sobaek had done nothing more than peck the frog once.
Yet, Mother Jimjo's eyes grew profound.
The way she looked at Sobaek had changed.
She seemed to realize that he had utilized poison.
Mother Jimjo stepped forward, nudging the chicks aside. She then personally tore the frog into five portions and distributed them.
Sobaek received the largest share, while Jim-i received the smallest.
‘Ho, distribution based on merit...’
Sobaek let out a quiet hum of admiration.
Was this not remarkably similar to the way of the Tang Clan?
Differential treatment based on capability. That was how the Tang Clan grew, and it was one of their driving forces.
The Tang Clan and the Jimjo shared an uncanny number of similarities. Sobaek even wondered if that was why the clan had chosen the Jimjo as their symbol in the first place.
"Cheep! Cheep!"
Jim-i cried out in protest, clearly displeased with her meager portion.
However, the only response she received was a swift, harsh punishment from Mother Jimjo.
Pecked lightly on the head, Jim-i retreated dejectedly to a corner.
"Cheep..."
And then she quietly ate her share.
Watching her, Sobaek quietly began to tear into his own portion of the frog.
It tasted somewhat like chicken. Though completely unseasoned and uncooked, it was excellent in its own right.
But more importantly,
Whoosh—
The portion Sobaek had eaten contained the frog's poison glands. A rush of toxic energy flooded his body like a rising tide.
‘Ugh...!’
Sobaek swallowed a groan. The poison was stronger than expected, and the quantity was substantial.
Unable to withstand the sudden surge of energy, his small body swayed.
Mother Jimjo watched him, her eyes gleaming.
‘Did she anticipate even this?’
He was momentarily startled, but he was fine.
He had already mapped out the meridians of this Jimjo body to some extent.
Guiding the toxic energy through the newly mapped meridians, thoroughly purging the impurities.
The impurities were expelled through his skin. Afterward, he allowed the purified energy to flow naturally along his meridians.
The downside to this method was a high loss of toxic potency,
‘but since I cannot forcibly control it yet, this is the best I can do.’
Satisfying himself with this much was his only option.
The toxic energy spread throughout his entire body. A familiar, thrilling ecstasy washed over him, causing his frame to shudder.
Soon, the refined poison settled within his poison core.
‘Is it barely ten percent full?’
There was still an excessive amount of empty space.
It would take a long time to consume countless poisonous creatures and refine them through the Mandok-gwigong.
It would take at least ten years, if not more.
‘Whew...’
Having completed the process, Sobaek let out a long breath. Mother Jimjo flapped her wings with a pleased expression.
‘Indeed, even a Jimjo cannot control all poisons from birth.’
Had the other chicks consumed this portion, one or two of them might have lost their lives to the poison.
The others did not yet know how to manage toxins.
‘I am gradually adapting to this body.’
At first, the prospect of living as a bird had been despairing, but now it did not seem so bad.
He could delve into the secrets of Jimjo poison, which he had never encountered before,
and the poisonous creatures Mother Jimjo brought back were full of species Sobaek had never seen in his past life.
Sobaek felt the need to study the Jimjo species and poison even further.
Another month passed.
The hierarchy changed.
Jim-o died.
He seemed to have overcome the frog's poison, but his wounds festered until they crawled with maggots, and he ultimately succumbed to the resulting complications.
It was a truly absurd death.
Furthermore, there was another major change.
Jim-i now followed Sobaek with absolute loyalty.
There were several reasons for this.
Sobaek shared his food with her every time and protected her from being bullied by the leader.
It had started like this.
As usual, Mother Jimjo conducted a hunting trial and distributed food according to their performance.
However,
"Cheep!"
the leader, believing his share was too small, tried to steal Jim-i's portion.
It was likely because she was the easiest target.
His behavior was no different from a common bandit. Pushed into a corner, his true colors had been revealed.
Sobaek watched the scene silently. The ecology of these trivial beasts was nothing less than a miniature version of the Murim.
Even after that, Jim-i was robbed of her food every single time. She resisted and fought back in her own way, but it was all in vain.
Deprived of food day after day, Jim-i grew visibly emaciated.
Once again, Mother Jimjo did not intervene. This, too, was in accordance with the law of the jungle.
‘Tsk.’
Jim-i spent her time huddled in a corner, looking like a human suffering from deep depression.
She no longer actively participated in the hunting trials. Knowing her food would only be stolen anyway, she had lost all motivation.
Her only activities consisted of wandering aimlessly around the corners of the cave or catching water droplets dripping from the ceiling with an open beak.
‘Sigh... she is becoming a distraction.’
After observing her for about seven days, Sobaek approached Jim-i with food in his beak.
She was skin and bones.
Sobaek saw a reflection of his own childhood in Jim-i and hesitated. Ultimately, he tore off a piece of his share and offered it to her. Jim-i stared at him with wide, startled eyes.
‘Hmph. I do not know if a beast can comprehend gratitude, but...’
Sobaek's actions were driven not only by pity and sympathy but also by a calculated plan.
He intended to reorganize the hierarchy.
By taking Jim-i under his wing, he would usurp the leader's position.
It was, in essence, a political move.
Left alone, Jim-i would surely starve to death. Or perhaps, lacking strength, she would lose her life to their prey first.
Sobaek blocked the path of the leader, who approached to steal food as usual.
"Cheep? Cheeeep?!"
The leader let out an utterly bewildered cry. Sobaek's physical size was still smaller than his.
However, Sobaek had proven his capabilities during every hunt. He manipulated poison at will and targeted the prey's weak points with his beak.
The leader was well aware of this.
Thus, the leader had avoided provoking Sobaek. If he were to lose, he stood to lose far too much.
"Get lost."
Sobaek projected his intent into his cry, though he doubted the beast would truly understand.
The sound that actually escaped his beak was a mere high-pitched chirp, but the leader seemed to grasp the meaning.
His expression contorted fiercely.
He stomped his feet and flapped his wings. A few of his silver feathers, which had grown much darker than before, fluttered into the air.
"Cheep! Cheep! Cheeeep!"
After huffing and puffing for a long while, the leader finally turned away.
Thus, Jim-i became Sobaek's subordinate. Consequently, the leader's standing became highly ambiguous, rendering him an outsider to the hierarchy, much like Jim-sam.
Jim-i yielded the sunny spots in the cave to Sobaek and shared any insects she managed to catch.
Even today, she offered him a grasshopper-like insect.
She had likely developed her own survival methods while being deprived of food by the leader.
She was conducting actual "hunting," independent of Mother Jimjo's trials.
‘Jim-i must have exceptional senses of smell and hearing.’
Sobaek thought to himself as he swallowed the insect.
To catch insects in a dark cave like this, such senses were indispensable.
‘It is not a poisonous creature, but...’
There was a strange energy mixed within it.
It was different from the prey he had eaten before. Though it was barely the size of a feather, it filled him with an odd sense of satiety.
Sobaek stroked his beak with his wing, pondering the reason.
‘Does it contain qi?’
The insect Jim-i had caught possessed an incredibly faint trace of qi. How could a mere fingernail-sized insect harbor qi, the very source of internal energy?
As the ancient texts said:
Beasts that harbored qi were called spiritual beasts or demonic beasts.
In other words, this insect possessed the potential to grow into a spiritual beast.
Since the Jimjo also accumulated the qi of nature alongside poison in their poison cores, it was not entirely different.
The reason Mother Jimjo possessed such high intelligence was likely not just because she had lived a long time,
but because she had accumulated a vast amount of qi compared to her offspring.
Of course, this was still in the realm of speculation.
Sobaek finished his meal with satisfaction and stared intently at Jim-i.
Feeling burdened by his gaze, Jim-i scratched her head vigorously with her wing.
And so, another year passed.
Mother Jimjo brought back live poisonous creatures every single day.
Spiders, scorpions, vipers—she did not discriminate by species.
They fought life-and-death battles four times a day.
At first, it was frogs.
That was not particularly difficult.
They already had experience hunting them, and the frogs' skin was soft.
However, after that, they truly had to risk their lives.
The webs spun by the spiders were stickier than pine resin, and the scorpions' carapaces were so hard that their beaks could not pierce them.
Especially, the whip-like tail strikes of the vipers were powerful enough to shatter bone.
They lashed their bodies like whips against the ground, leaving deep craters in their wake.
Yet, as they overcame these trials, they grew.
However, as they matured, their appearances began to diverge.
First, Jim-il, who had originally been the leader.
True to his underhanded nature, he primarily wielded neurotoxins. He fought by balancing his physical strength with his poison, which was a decent strategy.
Next, Jim-i, Sobaek's subordinate.
Surprisingly, she developed a talent for highly lethal poisons. Being naturally timid, she likely sought to subdue her opponents through sheer toxicity.
Accordingly, her feathers gradually darkened until they became a deep, ominous purple that screamed danger to anyone who looked.
Jim-sam was somewhat unique. His poison was similar to the Blood Poison, one of the secret arts of the Tang Clan, which caused continuous hemorrhaging once inflicted.
In contrast,
Sobaek had no single defining trait.
This was because, unlike the other Jimjo, he could process and manipulate his poison at will.
Sometimes neurotoxins,
sometimes lethal poisons,
sometimes blood poisons.
He deployed them precisely as the situation demanded.
Furthermore, he had even refined crude versions of the Tang Clan's secret formulas, such as the White Bone Powder, Seven Nights Sand, and Blood-Corroding Powder.
Though they were merely degraded versions due to the lack of proper ingredients, they were more than sufficient for hunting.
Lately, he had been pondering whether there was a way to utilize his poison through means other than his beak.
Just then, Mother Jimjo flew into the cave.
"?"
There was no prey in her beak, nor any beast for a hunting trial.
The atmosphere was strangely different from usual.
She stepped inside and herded them toward the mouth of the cave, where the light filtered in.
Sobaek looked down from the cave entrance.
It was magnificent.
An endless forest stretched out before them.
A vast feast of green.
‘Is this the Southern Border?’
But he quickly shook his head. It could not be the Southern Border; the vegetation was entirely different.
Regardless, the cave was situated near the very peak of the mountain.
Below them lay a thousand-foot abyss.
Falling meant certain death.
Sobaek swallowed a lump in his throat and took a step back.
He had not yet learned how to fly.
However,
Thud—!
Mother Jimjo nudged Sobaek forward as he tried to retreat.
"?"
In an instant, his balance shattered, and he plunged off the cliff. There was nothing beneath his feet.
‘You—you absolute bastard—!’
A stream of curses erupted from Sobaek's panicked mind.
The wind rushed past him with immense resistance.
The ground was rapidly rushing up to meet him.
On that day,
Sobaek made a solemn vow.
If I ever regain my strength, I will commit matricide.