Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

—Myuuu!

—Tsrurrrt! 『That way, Dad!』

At Moji’s cry, Cho pointed with his antenna in a direction.

I pointed the same way and spoke to the group.

“They say it’s that way. Let’s get moving.”

“Right, So-ryong.”

“Y-Yeah. Let’s go.”

With the pact now sealed with Gun Hye-rin, the Young Mistress of the Heavenly Demon Cult, and the final negotiations complete, she was now part of our group.

But before we could set off to find the Thousand-Year Black and White Serpents, we had one task left—taking care of the demonic cultivators still roaming about.

If we just left now, the remaining demonic ones could wreak havoc on the martial artists of Sichuan. We had to clean them up first.

Gun Hye-rin had come after the remnants of the Blood Cult for a reason: if those lunatics caused a major incident, it would expose her hidden forces and bring disaster to their efforts to rebuild.

She barely had any survivors left after the collapse, and only recently grew their numbers sixfold. Any blow now would be fatal—so she acted.

In that sense, our goals aligned.

“Kids, let’s go!”

—Tsrurrr. 『Got it, Dad! Let’s go, Yeondu unni!』

—Shaaa. 『Right, let’s go, Cho.』

I gave the direction to Hwa-eun and Gun Hye-rin, then issued the command. Immediately, Yeondu and Cho lifted into the air.

As we ascended, the five masked cultists below looked up at us, calling out nervously.

“Young Mistress! A-Are you sure you’ll be alright?!”

“This... this much is nothing.”

Maybe they were worried because their Young Mistress was flying wrapped in a giant snake. Or maybe it was trauma from all the beatings they took from snake spirit beasts earlier. Or maybe they were just scared she was going off with Central Plains martial artists.

Or maybe Gun Hye-rin just had a fear of heights.

Because as soon as we took off, her face went pale and she looked one breath away from vomiting.

“You okay?”

Swallowing hard, she nodded with forced dignity.

“I-I’m fine. Kyaaahh—!”

But the moment the wind started whipping past her ears and the snakes picked up speed, she screamed like a girl riding a rollercoaster for the first time.

“Kyaaaaaaaa—!”

“Hey, maybe try keeping it down a little...”

“Ggggh... o-okay...”

She barely managed to stifle her voice, biting her lip and gritting through the nausea.

But just as the screaming seemed to stop—another shriek tore through the sky.

“Hyiii-kyyaaaaa!!”

...This one sounded strangely obscene.

‘Lady, are you trying to announce to all of Sichuan that the Young Mistress of the Heavenly Demon Cult is up here?!’

We’d just agreed to keep this whole deal between our side’s four people and their side’s six. But at this rate, she was going to wake the whole damn province.

I frowned and turned my head toward her—only to realize something about her flawless white skin looked... off.

‘Hmm? What’s this... all bumpy?’

Goosebumps.

Her whole body was covered in them.

But a simple flight wouldn’t cause this, so I tilted my head—and saw the reason.

Moji and Soji were clinging to her.

The two gluttons were cuddled up against Gun Hye-rin’s body... licking her neck.

‘...Huh? What the hell is this?’ I suddenly remembered how Yeondu hadn’t shown any resistance when she let Gun Hye-rin ride her.

The kids usually only allowed me, Hwa-eun, Sister Seol, Gungbong, and Unmirang near them.

They were wary of anyone else—but here they were, clinging to Gun Hye-rin without hesitation.

And licking her, no less?

I asked Yeondu silently.

‘Yeondu, why’d you let her ride you earlier?’

—Shaaa. Ah, Moji and Soji asked me to. The two of them...

Before she could finish, a pitiful cry rang out.

“Huwaaaah! C-Can you do something about these things?!”

Turning my head, I saw Gun Hye-rin practically in tears.

I called out to the two clingy troublemakers.

“Guys?”

—Myuuu.

—Myuuuu.

They whined in response.

I glanced at Cho to translate, and saw her trying to stifle laughter. Yeondu added helpfully:

—Tsrurrrt. 『Dad, they’re asking you to tell the food box to shut up. Pfffft.』

—Shaaa. They said, “She’s a food box, so we wanted to ride her...”

“Food box?”

In the Central Plains, sik-hap usually referred to a box for storing food during travel—like a lunchbox or picnic case.

In other words... they saw her as a literal meal.

Looking between Moji, Soji, and poor Gun Hye-rin, who was now sobbing quietly, I burst out laughing.

“Pfft!”

I got it.

Moji and Soji were calling the esteemed Young Mistress of the Heavenly Demon Cult... their lunchbox.

The licking wasn’t affection. They were feeding on her demonic energy.

‘Yeah, well... I guess to my kids, a Young Mistress-level demonic cultivator is just a convenient snack.’

Still, they’d need to conserve their strength for the mission ahead. So I sent a message to Cho.

‘Cho, tell Moji and Soji not to suck too much energy from the lunchbox. We’ll need them to be ready later. Kekeke.’

—Tsrurt. Got it, Dad.

Soon after, the two of them reluctantly peeled themselves off her, sulking.

And I started to think—maybe we needed a wet nurse for them.

‘These kids must be starving. Maybe it’s time we found a feeder.’

I’d assumed Moji and Soji were absorbing ambient energy, but it seemed what they needed was demonic qi.

And I had no way of producing that.

Learning demonic arts just for them would make me a public enemy.

I did have some ma-dan pellets, but... those were literally their own waste—pressed poop nuggets from before.

No way they’d eat that again.

So we needed someone to provide qi. A living battery, basically.

‘It’s not like we need those pellets anymore anyway. I could always draft someone into a servant contract...’

Honestly, it was worth considering.

‘Just don’t get caught, and it’s fine.’

As I thought about how positively I should live my life—

Because, you know, always worrying “What if I get caught? What if I fail?” doesn’t get you anywhere.

***

There were thirty-three demonic cultivators who had been deceived by the Blood Cult, fed unknown pills, and dragged into Sichuan under false pretenses.

Twelve had already been eliminated by martial artists in Sichuan, and of the remaining twenty-one, Hwa-eun and Gun Hye-rin had rapidly taken care of eighteen.

It became a routine: Moji and Soji would locate the targets, and the two women would clean them up—sometimes within a single day.

Frankly, finding them was more tedious than killing them.

“Starting to feel like killing them quickly is too much of a luxury. Next time, I might drag it out.”

“I agree. After everything they’ve done, they don’t deserve a painless death. But we’re short on time—if you torture them, keep it efficient.”

“Heh. I’m starting to think we really get along.”

Their shared fury—one whose cult had been mocked, and the other whose wedding had been ruined—was unstoppable.

“Aaaargh!”

We were deep in the northeastern forests of Sichuan.

Three demonic cultivators and five Blood Cult bastards remained—the last of them.

It had taken three sleepless days to get to this point.

The three demonic cultivators were already dead. The remaining five from the Blood Cult were now being interrogated.

They were told to spill everything they knew.

“Guh...”

“Another one dead?”

“Hye-rin, I told you we need to keep the ones who talk alive.”

“Sorry, Hwa-eun. I stepped on him without thinking. He felt too much like a maggot.”

The two had grown so close over the past few days they were on a first-name basis.

Hard to believe this was the same Hwa-eun who once warned me to stay away from demonic cultists.

“Tell the rest they’ll be spared if they talk.”

“Got it. Though I can’t promise I won’t crush them if they take too long.”

As Gun Hye-rin applied some sort of torture method supposedly passed down through the Heavenly Demon Cult, one cultist after another died.

Or maybe they were dead before they had a chance to choose.

Eventually, the fifth and final man, trembling and broken, spilled everything he knew.

“...T-That’s all of it! I-I swear, I don’t know anything more!”

“Is that so? Then die.”

“W-Wait! You promised—!”

“That was her promise. I didn’t say a thing.”

—Crack.

Without hesitation, Gun Hye-rin crushed his skull underfoot.

Then she turned to her masked subordinates.

“Clean this place up.”

“Yes, Young Mistress!”

As the five masked men began clearing the site, Hwa-eun spoke up.

“He wasn’t lying.”

I turned to look.

From the corpses of the dead demonic cultivators, reddish parasite-like creatures were crawling out.

“Ah, those rotten bastards from the Five Venoms Sect.”

That explained how they’d kept exuding demonic energy even after losing their limbs.

They looked like massive parasites—comparable to tapeworms that could grow over ten meters long—but modified.

The real difference was in how they fed.

Whereas regular tapeworms absorbed nutrients from the intestines, these monsters fed solely on demonic qi, growing inside the host and amplifying their internal energy.

Once they reached the brain, they transmitted the demonic qi straight into it, turning the host into a mindless berserker.

We’d failed to notice them earlier because we hadn’t bothered examining such corrupted corpses thoroughly.

Who would willingly examine bodies reeking of dark energy?

Only by channeling pure qi deep into the corpse would these things crawl out.

“Unbelievable. The Five Venoms Sect actually engineered this crap.”

As I shuddered at the thought, I realized the sky had darkened around us.

Then one of the masked subordinates called out:

“All done, Young Mistress.”

I looked around. Using Bone-Fire Powder, they’d dissolved the corpses and erased the evidence. The sun had set during the process.

With the cleanup complete, Gun Hye-rin turned to me.

“Your party hasn’t arrived yet?”

“Oh, they’ll be here soon.”

“By the way... we agreed only we would know about this. Are you sure it’s ★ ★ okay to add someone else?”

“Oh, it’s not a person, so it’s fine.”

“...?”

As if on cue, the nearby bushes rustled. Alarmed, Gun Hye-rin and her men reached for their weapons.

Then from within the shrubbery emerged a massive twin-headed serpent.

It was Hwanji and Hwana.

—Shuu. 『So-ryong-nim, we’ve arrived.』

—Shhh. 『We’re here.』

“Gaaah!”

“W-What the—!”

Then Cheong-yu Sojeo revealed herself atop the serpent’s back.

The six cultists fell completely silent, jaws hanging open.

A moment later, Gun Hye-rin, regaining her senses, asked:

“Is... is that the giant snake? And that... is that a snake or a human?”

I guessed the first question referred to the threat I’d made about planting a giant serpent at the gates of the Heavenly Demon Cult if they broke their promise. The second must be about Cheong-yu Sojeo.

I smiled.

“That’s Hwanji and Hwana. And this is Cheong-yu Sojeo, Queen of All Serpents.”

“Q-Queen?”

“All snakes?”

As the six stared, dazed and speechless, I dismissed Hwanji and Hwana.

We were keeping the group small for this next part.

The team heading to the sacred ground at Mingsha Mountain in Gansu: myself, Hwa-eun, and Gun Hye-rin.

Plus Cho, Yeondu, Cheong-yu Sojeo, Moji, Soji, and stealth-mode Jeokwol, who was clinging quietly to my back.

“Snap out of it. Let’s go.”

“A-Alright.”

With Cheong-yu Sojeo’s arrival still leaving Gun Hye-rin in shock, I had to nudge her into action.

She turned to her subordinates and gave the order:

“Carry out your mission until we return!”

“Yes, Young Mistress!”

You might wonder what mission remained when everything in Sichuan was wrapped up.

But they still had a crucial role.

If the demonic cultivators suddenly vanished, the martial world would get suspicious. People might start looking for me or Hwa-eun.

So these cultists would occasionally show themselves to the martial artists, keeping up the illusion that the purge was still ongoing.

A bit of hide-and-seek.

“Flawless strategy.”

As Cho and Yeondu lifted us into the sky—me, Cheong-yu Sojeo, Hwa-eun, and Gun Hye-rin—the five masked cultists scattered to their designated locations.