Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

Zihwa had told me to avoid people as much as possible.

Even just before we left Dokmul-hyang, she’d hammered it in once more.

“Beloved, you haven’t forgotten what I said, have you?”

“You mean the part about staying away from people?”

“That is correct.”

So why was it so hard to just fly past?

Because I was ignoring my wife’s words?

Some petty hero complex?

Because I was a saint?

No, it was none of those. It was for the same reason that came from something I’d heard from Zihwa as well.

Separate from what she’d taught my wives today, I had heard other explanations from her before.

About the detailed classifications of spirit creatures.

What I remembered now was the answer Zihwa had given when I asked her what a demonic beast was.

“All spirit creatures that use demonic energy are collectively called demonic beasts. Ah, right. Spirit creatures that use poison are usually demonic beasts.”

“Really?”

“Phantasmal beasts refers to a select few spirit creatures with outstanding bloodlines, spirit beasts are those that use spiritual energy, and divine beasts are those that use sacred energy. As for those that use poison, they’re mostly considered demonic beasts.

Because venomous energy falls under demonic energy. Well, there are exceptions, of course.”

If the one down there was a demonic beast, there was a high chance it was a venomous creature.

You couldn’t say it was absolutely certain, but the chance it was a venomous creature was high.

In other words, this wasn’t a random gacha—this was a selective gacha!

In collection-type games, pulling the character you want is called a random gacha, but sometimes a selective gacha appears.

If you hit the jackpot, you can pull a specific type of character—and this situation was exactly the same.

If there was a very high chance it was a venomous creature, there was no way I could just pass by.

And if Spicy Fabre just passed by a venomous creature in trouble, then that wouldn’t be Spicy Fabre at all, so I couldn’t just pass by.

If that thing down there really was a venomous creature and I just flew past?

Then I’d no longer have the right to use the name Spicy Fabre.

Because that would be shameful.

‘Obviously.’

I immediately notified everyone through the group chat.

To get permission.

Because every move a married man makes is fated to require his wife’s approval.

‘It’s kind of a hassle, though.’

Other married men might only have one approval stamp box, but I had four, didn’t I?

So getting approval was four times as hard.

Imagine a small company with one regular employee and four executives.

How hellish would that be?

『“Zihwa!”

“Why are you calling me so passionately?”

“No, it’s not that I’m passionate, it’s just—right now, on my way to the nearest city, there’s a demonic beast being chased down here.”

“A demonic beast being chased, you say?”

“Yeah, it looks like it’s in trouble. What should I do?”

“I clearly told you to avoid people as much as possible. Did my words go in one ear and out the other?”』

The moment I brought it up, Zihwa immediately scolded me, asking if I’d just ignored what she said.

I flinched and my voice shrank, when Hwa-eun’s voice came through.

『“Zihwa, seeing Lord acting like this, the one being chased is probably a venomous creature.”

“A venomous creature?”

“So-ryong just can’t walk past a venomous creature.”』

She understood me far too well.

At Hwa-eun’s words, Zihwa first reacted in disbelief, then spoke like she’d just realized something.

『“He can’t walk past a venomous creature... Hm? Surely not?”

“The fact that this place is called Dokmul-hyang, and that all the spirit creatures inside are venomous creatures—that’s because Lord is extremely fond of venomous creatures.”』

A brief silence followed.

It seemed Zihwa was mulling over what Hwa-eun had said, then she promptly picked out a flaw in it.

『“But you lot aren’t venomous creatures, are you?”』

The fact was, my wives, including Hwa-eun, weren’t venomous creatures.

‘No matter how much I like venomous creatures, marriage is a bit... It’s not like I’m Master Tang Hwa-seong. No, wait—come to think of it, Zihwa is a venomous creature too, isn’t she?’

I was thinking that no matter how much I liked venomous creatures, there was no way I’d take one as my wife—but then I remembered Zihwa was a venomous creature.

I flinched at that realization, and Hwa-eun explained.

『“Well, I am a venomous creature because I’ve trained in poison arts, and Ji-ryeon’s sword is basically the same as a venomous creature’s fangs, so she’s a venomous creature too, apparently.”』

“Then what about Hye-rin?”

『“I-I’m a venomous creature because I don’t have any fur.”

“Fur?”

“Not the hair on my head. Other places.”

“What kind of nonsense is that...?”』

‘I never said it like that!’

From what I remembered, I’d said Gun Hye-rin was a venomous creature because she had demonic qi, which was also a kind of poison.

But of course, Gun Hye-rin had misunderstood it as something else entirely.

At Hwa-eun’s explanation, Zihwa yelled that it was ridiculous.

『“Isn’t that just your own wishful thinking?”』

She was asking how anything could become a venomous creature just because I arbitrarily decided it was one, and I agreed with her on that point—but Hwa-eun said that wasn’t really the important part right now.

『“That aside, what matters is that Lord does like venomous creatures, and since a venomous creature is involved, he’s probably going to save the spirit creature outside no matter how much we try to stop him.

So-ryong is the kind of person who would jump out of bed if it’s for a venomous creature.”』

『“Grrr...”』

At Hwa-eun’s explanation, Zihwa let out a troubled groan.

Then she began interrogating me.

『“What kind of spirit creature is it?”』

“I haven’t been able to confirm for sure yet, but you’re the one who said it. That demonic beasts have a high chance of being venomous creatures. And the guys chasing it were shouting that it was a demonic beast.”

『“Is that so? Hm. How many pursuers are there?”』

“Feels like about twenty or so.”

『“Their realms?”』

“Most are at Qi Refining, with one or two at Foundation Establishment.”

『“If you ambush and take down one of the Foundation Establishment enforcers first, it’s not a headcount that’ll put you in danger. Fine. Then let’s do this.”』

“How?”

『“Let’s observe first, and only get involved if it’s something you can step into. If we get tangled up in something troublesome, it’ll be a mess, and no matter how much you like venomous creatures, it’s possible the one out there is a bad one, isn’t it?”』

“Mhm. That’s true. I get what you’re saying.”

She wasn’t wrong.

The one being chased was a demonic beast, but if it was a criminal or being hunted for doing something bad, it would be awkward to step in.

No matter how much of a Spicy Fabre I was, it wasn’t like I had to save those who’d harmed people or done evil things.

With that half-approval in hand, I quickly called one person—no, one spirit creature.

Or tried to.

『“Jeo—”』

“I was already getting ready, So-ryong!”

“As expected, big sis!”

The moment a single syllable of her name left my mouth, I heard Big Sis Jeokwol’s voice, saying she’d been ready.

It seemed she now instinctively knew when she needed to make an entrance.

Smoke puffed from my nostrils, and Big Sis Jeokwol appeared.

From behind me, she wrapped her arms around me and spoke.

—Chiii. 『There, right?』

In the direction Big Sis pointed, people with glowing spheres floating above them were sprinting at high speed.

***

“Huff... huff...”

Soyeon’s breath was rising all the way up to her throat.

It had been two days since she escaped the human city.

She had not rested for a single moment in that time, and now her demonic power was nearly exhausted.

As she ran forward and glanced back,

Human cultivators with dozens of glowing orbs floating over them were rapidly closing the distance.

‘If they catch me again, I’m really dead.’

A month ago, Soyeon had ascended to the Nine Heavens through the Ascension Platform.

But the ones waiting for her the moment she ascended had been five or six human cultivators.

“How is a demonic beast using the human Ascension Platform?”

“This is a windfall!”

Her human form had unraveled in the process of ascending, and she was subdued in an instant.

With her human form undone by the ascension, she had been an easy prey for them.

Later, ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) she learned that the reason she’d arrived in the Nine Heavens ruled by humans had been entirely her own mistake.

Originally, the Ascension Platforms used were different depending on the race, and for that reason, the arrival points were different too, but she had ended up at the human Ascension Platform because she had used the human Ascension Platform.

As a spirit creature who had been secretly moving among humans in human form, she’d thoughtlessly picked the nearest Ascension Platform, and that was why she’d dropped into the human territory.

In the end, Soyeon was dragged off to White Night City and put up for auction,

and she was purchased as ingredient for a city lord’s spiritual medicine.

Soyeon was soon shoved into a cauldron to be made into an elixir—but there was one mistake the human cultivators had made.

They hadn’t known that she possessed a body capable of withstanding high heat, and they’d simply left her in the cauldron.

The humans had no idea she could survive in extreme heat.

So they’d probably thought she would melt and die the moment she went into the cauldron—but she didn’t melt.

She was simply waiting for her opportunity inside the boiling cauldron.

Watching and waiting in the boiling cauldron, Soyeon found her moment, transformed into human form, and escaped.

She took advantage of the opening when the cultivators guarding the cauldron for three days dozed off, and fled.

However, as she slipped out of the city, she was detected by the formation encircling it, which had led to this chase.

Harsh shouts from the cultivators rang out from behind her.

“Stop!”

“Halt, you monster!”

If she stopped, she would die.

She thought to herself that if she stopped at those shouts from behind, she would die, when—

The Magic Treasure on her left arm began to glitter.

“N-no...!”

The bracelet-shaped Magic Treasure on her left arm glittering like that meant her demonic energy was completely gone.

It was the signal that her demonic energy had been depleted.

When demonic power ran low, the first thing to unravel would be the human form maintained by the Magic Treasure.

At that realization, Soyeon’s expression darkened rapidly.

Once her demonic energy ran out, the human form maintained by the Magic Treasure would vanish first. Due to her racial traits, without a human form maintained by the Magic Treasure, Soyeon simply had no way to escape.

With every step she took, the glittering grew faster.

The light spilling from her wrist seemed to herald her end.

The moment the increasing flicker reached its peak—

“The lord may be eating this, but this won’t be enough to kill it! Karmic Fireball!”

With a shout from behind, a mass of fire flew at her.

Soyeon gasped in shock and threw herself aside, but the fireball curved toward her and struck her back dead-on.

It seemed to be a spell with some kind of ability to home in on its target.

—Boom!

When she diverted her demonic energy to protect her body, her human form unraveled at once.

Flames surged around Soyeon’s true form.

—Fwoooosh.

As the scorching flames swallowed her, the surroundings were engulfed in a raging blaze.

The trees and grass around her turned to white ash in an instant.

Curled up, Soyeon herself was fine, but with her human form undone, she could no longer run.

Despair wrapped around her.

She didn’t want to die like this.

After hundreds of years of cultivation, she had finally managed to ascend, and yet to end her life as someone’s food—it was too sad.

She had lived as a lowly creature for a long time, then comprehended the laws and become a spirit creature, and cultivated for an even longer span.

After all that, she’d ascended—and if the end of that journey was to become someone’s meal, wasn’t that far too tragic?

As the fierce flames died away and Soyeon, scorched and despairing, emerged from within—suddenly, a voice rang out from the empty air.

“As expected! A venomous creature!”

It was the joyous voice of a relatively young man.

Something scooped her up in an instant.

Soyeon was seized by someone’s hand and carried soaring into the distant sky.

As she rose high into the sky, Soyeon was overcome by intense terror.

Because it felt like she’d escaped a pack of jackals only to leap into a tiger’s jaws.

They said high-level cultivators weren’t quite right in the head, and judging from the fact that he’d plucked her out from amidst so many cultivators, he was clearly a high-level cultivator.

And from the sound of his voice, he didn’t seem sane at all.