Soon after, I asked in alarm:

“If you can eat that, you don’t mean you want to go around eating the others, right?”

Separate from thoughts about how incredible Hongbi’s poison might become, I worried he might feel hungry when he looked at the other kids.

Frogs are predators by nature.

They’re prime protein for birds and the like, but to our insect friends they’re an overwhelming force.

So I couldn’t help thinking he might feel an appetite toward the other insect-type spirit-beast kids—Cho, Hyang, Bini, and the rest.

From what Hongbi had told me, what he felt toward termites wasn’t exactly hunger, but something like a kind of urge.

But he cried out, as if he’d heard the most absurd thing:

“Kkwaa. ‘What a horrible thing to say! It’s just that shells like those seem tasty. And how would I even—could I possibly—catch someone that big...’”

Right, thinking it through, Hongbi is small for a spirit beast.

He’s not that quick, either.

Among spirit beasts are ones like Baekhwa and Heukhwa who surpass top Murim masters; Hongbi’s only faster than a normal frog, comparatively speaking.

A Hongbi like that isn’t going to be hunting the others; what he was eyeing were things like cast-off shells, shed teeth or hair—that sort of stuff.

Yo-hwa also needs human hair to perfectly transform into a desired person.

In that vein, it was plausible.

Even so, I couldn’t help worrying.

Not about the other kids—but about Hongbi himself.

I hesitated, then asked, concerned:

“But... will you be okay with this?”

Yes, if eating it let him exhale a stronger poison, it would be a huge help in the battles ahead—but more than anything, it was something Hongbi hated.

He cherishes life—any life—more than anyone.

If we got it wrong, he might end up killing a lot of living things he despises hurting.

Hongbi looked at me like it was only natural.

“Kkwaaa. ‘Isn’t it for the family? If “family” isn’t just a word, then this is right. If something dangerous happens, better this than hesitating and losing someone, isn’t it?

Losing is a hollow thing.’”

Moved, I grabbed Hongbi in a tight hug.

“Kh— Hongbi, you... you champ.”

“Kkwaa. ‘W-what is it, all of a sudden? Don’t. This is... embarrassing.’”

For the family, he’d step over his own scars—our Hongbi’s straight, sound spirit.

I praised him to the skies, then decided we should relocate.

“Then let’s move. Over there.”

“Kkwak. ‘You mean that rocky hill?’”

“Hm?”

The spot I had in mind overlooked the abandoned conduit—a rocky hill.

Right—just short of where we’d met Cho, Hyang, and Bini.

Now that I knew he could ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) eat Yo-hwa’s silk and the kids’ cast-off shells, I had no idea how strong his miasma would get—so we needed to move there.

To test it.

The breadth and potency of his poison.

And how well he could control it.

I chose that place because I couldn’t go far from Yeondu or take my eyes off her, and among the overlooks above the conduit, that was where I expected the fewest living things.

Hongbi said he could exhale poison right after eating, so we could test immediately.

I used lightfootwork to reach the base of the hill, set Hongbi down, and took off my clothes.

“Kkwaaa. ‘W-wait, why are you t-taking your clothes off?’”

When I suddenly undressed, Hongbi’s voice went bashful.

Do frogs feel embarrassed about a human’s naked body?

This from someone who goes around naked himself.

I snorted and answered:

“I don’t know how far your poison will spread, so I’ll leave my clothes here before going up. I’d hate for them to vanish.”

“Kkwaa. ‘If your clothes vanish, you’re already gone, So-ryong. Just stay well back.’”

He seemed to think if my clothes melted, I’d already be dissolved—but I saw it differently.

Depending on what he ate, his poison could present differently.

Not that erasing poison—something else.

“No, the poison may change with the diet.”

“Kkwak–kwaa? ‘Really?’”

“Yeah. The intensity can vary. Instead of that ‘erase everything’ poison, the miasma might seep out more subtly.”

“Kkwak. ‘Well, you’d know best. Got it.’”

I set my clothes on a nearby rock and wove some leaves into a sort of skirt.

Just as I finished, Hongbi turned his head away and muttered:

“Kkwaa. ‘Ahem. Still, how can a grown man strip so casually? Next time at least say something first.’”

Maybe living with humans has taught him a few things.

I chuckled.

“You’re naked too, Hongbi.”

He flinched, pointed at himself with his short forelimbs, and squawked:

“KkwAAk!? ‘W-what!? You were looking at me like that?’”

“No, not like that... How did the conversation get here?”

I am a man who gets excited about frogs, but not in that way.

Awkward as hell.

“Hongbi, absolutely not. Really. Really. I was just joking.”

After assuring him several times it wasn’t like that, I cut a bit of lining from the clothes and trimmed the wrist-guard portion from the knuckle-guard. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

The toothed front is where the fist goes in, so the part I removed was the back portion after a few segments—the tail section.

I took those bits from the clothes and the guard in hand and sped up the rocky hill.

I kept glancing back, worried something might disturb Yeondu.

On the summit, the first thing I did was flood the area with killing intent.

I had to drive off even a single ant.

If anything got caught up here and died, it would scar Hongbi.

Even so, not a single ant showed.

Traces of Cho, Hyang, and Bini’s mother still lingered here; it seemed other animals avoided the place.

Relieved, I checked what I’d brought.

A scrap of cloth, and Hyang’s cast-off shell.

The thread was Yo-hwa’s—spun before she became the Gold-Faced Weaver—and the guard piece I’d cut came from the left glove, which meant the shell was Hyang’s.

“All right, let’s try a bite.”

“Kkwaaa. ‘Understood.’”

Two spirit-beast shells at once felt too strong, so I offered what seemed milder first: Yo-hwa’s spider silk.

Yo-hwa’s venom is paralysis.

After becoming a Gold-Faced Weaver, I haven’t tested it thoroughly, but even as young centipedes, the kids had stronger toxins than Yo-hwa’s—so hers should be milder.

“Here.”

Hongbi gulped down the silk I handed over.

I sprang away on lightfootwork.

About a hundred meters.

Termites gave him a few meters of radius; this should be safe.

A short while later?

Perched on the rock, Hongbi shuddered.

He was about to exhale it in earnest.

Just as I expected, poison burst out from him in a rush.

“Pink?”

The energy pouring off his body was, peculiarly, pink.

A candy-pink aura spread outward.

Roughly ten meters.

“It’s definitely potent.”

I didn’t know why it was that color, but the range was clearly wider.

And another thing I could tell: it wasn’t that terrifying erasing poison.

The grasses, the soil, the rocks around us were all perfectly fine.

I stepped closer and stuck a twig into the pink haze.

Time to identify the toxin.

“What venom is this to be this color?”

Even poking in the twig, it stayed intact.

After a moment’s thought, I plucked a hair and pushed it into the haze.

No change there either.

No discoloration, no melting, no alteration.

Thinking it over, I touched it with the tip of my index finger.

I had to know what this pink miasma was.

I had a suspicion, and I wanted to confirm it.

'I hope I’m right.'

Heart thumping, I touched the pink aura.

The instant my fingertip brushed it, I knew.

It was Yo-hwa’s paralysis venom.

A very powerful paralysis venom.

The moment my fingertip touched it, the sensation vanished as if I’d had local anesthesia.

A superb toxin absorbed right through the skin.

But it wasn’t exactly Yo-hwa’s venom.

If it were, my hand shouldn’t have gone numb.

I’ve learned the Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art, and its core derivative—Beast-Heart Technique—and I’ve registered the kids.

With mind-cultivation and poison-cultivation combined, registration alone grants absolute immunity to a registered venomous creature’s poison. If Yo-hwa’s venom matched in composition, I shouldn’t have been paralyzed.

This must have been a refined venom produced inside Hongbi.

Like extracting an alkaloid from a plant toxin and making it lethal.

It was a little different from my initial imagining.

If a termite diet gave that kind of power, then eating Yo-hwa’s or the centipede kids’ shells should have produced an apocalyptic poison.

But I was happy with this.

Paralysis won’t kill people; even if control slipped, it would avoid the sort of situation Hongbi hates.

“Hongbi, pull the aura back a bit.”

“Kkwaa. ‘Understood.’”

At my word, the haze slowly receded.

When it cleared and I came closer, the yellow patches on Hongbi’s body had turned pink.

It felt like his body color was indicating what toxin he currently carried.

Perfect.

Both the color and the poison were exactly to my liking.

“Can you hide the aura well?”

“Kkwaa. ‘Yes—much easier than the last poison.’”

I wanted to see whether only Yo-hwa’s poison worked this way or if others would too—but for now, this was fine.

The babies could hatch nearby any time; better a strong deterrent than something lethal.

We couldn’t let poison reach the eggs.

And this was only Yo-hwa’s silk; once he ate other kids’ cast-off shells—post-evolution shells—the venom would grow stronger.

More importantly, it was clear he could stack a variety of venoms.

Not just one kind of cast-off or body piece—if he consumed a diverse diet, he might exhale the overwhelming poison I’d imagined at first.

Poison dart frogs create complex poisons by eating varied prey; of course our Hongbi could do the same.

“We’ll figure the rest out later. For now, this is enough.”

“Kkwak. ‘Got it.’”

I took him to the water so he could rinse off, then set him to guard the pavilion where Yeondu was.

“If anyone comes, block them. If something urgent happens, tell Yeondu to alert me. Okay?”

“Kkwak. ‘Understood. Go without worry.’”

And before Cho arrived, I immediately launched into lightfootwork to search for Zimjo.

The place I suspected to be Zimjo’s habitat—the one-time base of the heretical sect where I learned Blood-Water Venom Claw.

“Wait right there, Zimjo. I’m coming for you.”

My body skimmed through trees, over rocks and streams, fast as thought.

To find the king of the Central Plains’ venomous creatures.

To find Zimjo.