Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

When I turned my head, sister Jeokwol flew down onto the windowsill.

She folded her red wings softly and came down to rest by the window.

The light streaming over her wings met the scales on them and scattered in glittering sparks.

“Ah, this? They say it’s the true blood of an azure dragon, and if you cut the flesh and put it into the body, you can become a dragon.”

When I answered her question, sister sprang up and flew over to cling to my back, then gently tickled my ear with her antennae.

The touch of her antennae was light and delicate, but there was no helping how ticklish it was, so I reflexively hunched my shoulders.

-Chiiii. “Really? That looks tasty. Can’t you give it to me, So-ryong?”

A voice full of coquettish charm came from her.

Sister was the type whose voice already had a lot of natural sweetness in it, but she almost never acted cute this directly.

Feeling a bit amazed, I looked at the azure dragon’s true blood.

“This?”

“Mm. It looks tasty.”

I could understand why sister wanted this.

Wasn’t sister the one who had swallowed that Blood Demon’s blood crystal, or whatever it was?

Even if this was the true blood of an azure dragon, in the end it was still blood.

Even if it was said to be the blood of the noblest dragon under heaven, was its essence not still blood?

So for sister, who gained power and energy from blood, saying it looked tasty was, in a way, only natural.

Because sister was someone who gained strength and energy from blood.

But I could not decide right away.

I had already been worrying over what to do with this because Zihwa’s warning made me uneasy about it.

And the most important problem was something else.

If sister Jeokwol became a dragon, I felt like that would be genuinely tragic.

The dragon race might be rare, but in the cultivation world it was still a relatively common race.

You could not really call it especially precious.

But sister Jeokwol was irreplaceable, wasn’t she?

A being of whom there was only one in this world.

A poisonous butterfly with wings as red as blood?

Or some lousy dragon without even any poison?

If I had to choose one of the two, it was the former without question.

This was not a matter with any room for choice.

A dragon sounds like some incredible creature, but [N O V E L I G H T] Eastern dragons are basically a kind of chimera.

Pig nose, deer antlers on the head, snake scales, something with that sort of messy feel.

In other words, it was a thing patched together a little from here and there, not a creature possessing complete beauty from beginning to end.

But sister Jeokwol was uniqueness itself.

She was my very own red butterfly sister.

The only one of her kind anywhere in this world.

For now, I decided to explain it to her.

To sister, it probably looked like a kind of food, and the most disappointing thing was making someone feel bad over food, wasn’t it?

If I just said no without any explanation, sister might end up getting hurt for no reason.

It was originally a secret I had not intended to share with anyone besides Soto, but I could not make sister feel bad, so I decided to tell her.

“I’m worried right now because this seems like a rather dangerous item···.”

-Chii? “A dangerous item?”

“Yes. There are circumstances behind it······.”

I explained it to sister.

How I had originally received this item, and what kind of thing Zihwa had said.

Sister listened all the way to the end, lightly swaying her antennae as she did.

I already knew that movement of her antennae was one of sister’s habits whenever she was thinking hard about something.

When I finished explaining, sister said,

-Chiiiii. “Then shouldn’t I be the one to eat it even more?”

I had just explained that it was a dangerous item, so how in the world had she reached that conclusion?

Flustered, I blinked and asked,

“Why?”

A cry came from sister that sounded like a smiling laugh.

-Chii. “Because if I eat it, it’ll be gone.”

It was dangerous, so it had to be removed, and the best way to remove it was to eat it.

It was simple, clear logic, but was that not missing the heart of the problem?

“No, but if you eat it, you’ll become a dragon···. I don’t want you turning into some ugly dragon-like thing, sister. Your current form is beautiful and pretty.”

-Chiiii. “S-So-ryong too, honestly···. So that’s how you’ve been thinking of this sister···.”

Sister smacked me all over with her antennae from my shoulder.

Apparently she was embarrassed.

Ah, damn it.

I had been trying to stop her because she could not become a dragon, and now I had said something that could easily be misunderstood.

Wasn’t sister also on the list of spirit-creatures aiming for me?

Startled, I hurriedly tried to explain myself.

“Ah, n-no, that’s not what I meant···.”

But without even listening to me, sister said,

-Chii. “Ah, I understand. But, you know, So-ryong. Even if this sister eats it, there’s no way I’ll become a dragon.”

“?”

At sister’s words, spoken with complete certainty, I tilted my head.

Then she explained why she thought so.

-Chiiii. “You said earlier that to turn into a dragon, you have to cut the skin and put it into the body, right?”

“Right?”

-Chii. “Last time, I was fine even when I ate that blood crystal, or whatever it was, the one that turns you into a Blood Demon, right? But if eating it doesn’t make you transform, and you have to put it directly into the body, then how would eating it make you transform?”

‘No, come to think of it, that’s true?’

When I thought carefully about what sister was saying, it actually made sense.

At first, just listening to it, it sounded like she was forcing the logic because she wanted to eat it, but once I followed the reasoning, it was actually a pretty sound argument.

This thing called the azure dragon’s true blood was used sort of like an injection.

Because they said you had to cut the skin and put it inside the body.

In the end, that was the same thing as saying it had to be injected into the body like a shot, so there was a high chance it would have little to no effect if eaten, that is, if taken orally.

And that made sense too, if you thought about snake venom.

Snake venom is a substance made up of proteins and enzymes.

People think that if they drink snake venom, they will be poisoned, but that is absolutely not the case.

In the end, it is still protein, so in terms of composition it is no different from meat.

When you are bitten, the snake’s fangs act like a syringe and administer it directly into the body, which makes it poison, but when you eat it, it is just liquid protein and cannot act as venom.

Because it gets broken down during digestion.

In other words, eating it would not make someone turn into a dragon.

“Certainly, you might be right, sister.”

There was a high chance sister was right, but her species might still change, so I had to be careful.

So I was just about to say that I would confirm a little more before giving it to her, when suddenly sister leaped down from my shoulder.

She landed on top of the table, and before I even had time to stop her, she stuck a straw into the azure dragon’s true blood.

Then came a cheerful sound.

-Jjooooook.

“Gyaaaah!”

The thought that sister might still turn into a dragon made a scream burst out of me.

The image of those beautiful red wings disappearing, replaced with a pig nose and deer antlers sprouting from her head, was so horrifying I wanted to die just imagining it.

But sister’s drinking did not stop.

Apparently she was not the least bit paying attention to my scream.

The jewel shrank in an instant.

When it disappeared completely, light exploded out from sister’s body.

-Puhwaaak!

***

[Grrrgh.]

It should have been no more than the pain of having a fingertip cut off, yet that exalted being above was groaning as if making a huge fuss.

I thought I might be held accountable later, but Sua’s attention had already drifted away from that being.

And no wonder.

That being’s anger was not something that would descend here right this instant, so it was not an immediate concern, but the cultivators right before her were another matter.

No matter how furious that being was, it was not in a position to come here in person right now.

She could accept that anger later.

If she was still alive later.

But the cultivators before her could do something to Sua right now.

Did not the fact that that being’s true blood had been extinguished mean that So-ryong, the one who had been given it, had realized something and dealt with it?

So the arrival of these people could not be a coincidence.

They said they had come to offer greetings, but really?

At the exact moment the true blood was extinguished, and of all places, right here? And with three of them together?

What kind of coincidence in the world would that be?

For coincidence, the timing was far too clean.

There was absolutely no way they had come purely to greet her.

At the same time, a large wave of energy spread from far away.

An energy of unknown identity began spreading from the very place Sua had come from earlier.

It was a huge, heavy energy.

It felt as though something that had long been sealed away had burst all at once.

“Hm? What kind of energy is this?”

“Who knows? It’s So-ryong’s office, though?”

“What in the world is my junior martial brother doing?”

Sua sharpened all her senses and examined the three before her.

Judging by the glittering energy inside their bodies, it definitely felt like they were from the Central Plains murim.

Two Golden Core Stages, one Primordial Infant Stage.

The three were speaking as though they knew nothing, but their bodies said otherwise.

They were in a state of complete readiness.

A state in which they had finished preparing to react instantly to any situation.

‘So I really have been exposed.’

Sua thought.

Those three had clearly come to capture her.

Otherwise, why would three of them, not just one, have come to greet her?

It seemed she would have to flee this place somehow, but it did not feel possible.

Because escaping from three cultivators from the Central Plains murim was impossible.

It depended on the situation, but usually cultivators from the Central Plains murim were considered equal to cultivators who had learned Dao Techniques and Law Arts one stage above them, which meant that if she wanted to escape those three, she would have to break free from the grasp of one Transformation Realm and two Primordial Infant Stage cultivators.

First, Sua decided to ask the exalted being above for help.

She spoke to the groaning exalted being.

[Elder, it seems our intentions have been discovered. Three cultivators from the Central Plains murim have arrived before me. P-please help me!]

She begged desperately, but what came back was a roar of abuse.

[You worthless thing! It was outrageous enough that you failed even to deliver the true blood properly and let it be exposed and waste my true blood, and now you ask me to help you!? Is that really what you should be saying right now! Damn it!

Say nothing and die just like that!]

Along with the roar, the scale fastened behind her ear seemed to turn to ash and crumble away.

Apparently the connection had been cut off unilaterally.

The exalted being had simply abandoned Sua.

Now only one path remained for her.

To put up one last glorious struggle befitting a noble dragon.

Sua ran through the battle in her head.

‘Suddenly scatter lightning energy all around, tear through the ceiling, and soar upward. At the same time, return to my true form and gather dark clouds, and my body will be concealed. The three will come swarming like gnats, but if I scatter lightning energy in all directions and hide inside the dark clouds? No, no. That’s not it. They say cultivators from the Central Plains murim have better qi-sense than dragons···.’

A tactic of hiding one’s body in dark clouds was fairly effective against ordinary cultivators.

But those from murim were different.

Unlike cultivators who relied on Law Arts or Dao Techniques to sense qi, murim warriors read the flow of qi with their entire bodies.

Even if clouds obscured their eyes, they could not hide the flow of qi itself.

On the contrary, if she hid inside the dark clouds and started scattering lightning energy wildly, it might only end up drawing all three of them to her.

‘Then break through from the front from the start? No, that’s not it either. Setting aside the one Primordial Infant Stage, there are also two Golden Core Stages. If I try a frontal breakthrough, I’ll be subdued in an instant. And if I try to dominate the area by spraying lightning energy indiscriminately, this indoor space is far too cramped···.’

No matter which way she extended her thoughts, the conclusion was the same.

There was no way to get out of here alive.

Deep in her heart, Sua admitted that fact.

After agonizing over it, Sua clenched her fist tightly and rose from her seat.

The final battle.

The last gamble of a noble dragon. With that grim resolve, she stood up.

“Oh my, just look at us, losing ourselves like this with a guest before us.”

“Seriously. I’m sorry, guest.”

“Guest?”

When she stood, the three tilted their heads.

Taking them in one by one, Sua stepped back slightly, then suddenly dropped to the floor and said,

“S-spare me!”

A noble and exalted dragon was afraid of dying.

Where had the dragon’s nobility gone, you ask?

Nobility was something one could only possess while alive to begin with.

What use was pride after death?

You had to be alive to have pride, and you had to be alive for the chance to fight gloriously again later, didn’t you?

Sua was a realistic dragon.

Staying alive came before a dragon’s pride.

Pressing her forehead deep to the floor, Sua thought,

‘Live somehow first. I can think after I survive.’

And so today as well, the noble and exalted dragon was supremely realistic.