Fabre in Sacheon's Tang-Chapter 109: Running Away (4)

Bini let out a series of furious chittering noises.

—Tsrurrrt! Tsrrrurrrt!

"You must have been really upset with Dad, huh? Alright, alright. That’s enough. Let’s go with Mom now. It’s already getting dark—time to sleep."

[So-ryong, let me handle this. If you try talking to him now, it won’t work no matter what you say.]

Hua-eun arrived after hearing about the situation from Yang Seong-hu and gently picked Bini up.

Since he was too furious at me, he had completely forgotten that he was supposed to be mad at Hua-eun too.

—Tsst!

With a final hmph! that screamed ‘You’re dead to me!’, Bini turned his head sharply away and climbed onto Mom’s shoulder.

Then, without so much as a backward glance, he disappeared into the distance.

And so, the storm named Bini had passed.

In its wake, it left behind only one mentally shattered man.

Or rather...

One mentally shattered man and six venomous creatures.

Since Cho was still drying his body after molting, and Hyang had followed Hua-eun along with Seol and Bing, the only ones left were Yo-hwa, the newly named Yeondu, and me.

As the moon rose high, I stared at it blankly for a moment before turning toward Yeondu and cautiously asking,

"Uh... Yeondu, not that I don’t trust you, but... you’re not hiding anything else, right?"

—Shaaa?

"I’m talking about Neidans."

—Shaaaa!

The reaction was instant.

Yeondu flinched like she had been struck by lightning, violently shaking her head.

I could practically feel her saying, ‘I swear, I don’t have any more! I wouldn’t even if I wanted to!’

And I hadn’t even formally registered her as mine yet.

"I mean, I do believe you, but... you saw how mad Bini was, right? I’m desperate here. I’m just grasping at straws."

—Shaaa. Shaa.

Having had two of her Neidans stolen already, she should have been even angrier than Bini.

But after watching everything unfold from start to finish, she just looked at me with pity and sighed in understanding.

'Maybe she’s not as bad-tempered as I thought?'

As I was mulling over Yeondu’s unexpectedly good personality, something else came to mind.

I still hadn’t given her a proper name.

Or even asked if she wanted to stay with us.

"Ah, right. I totally forgot. Have you decided?"

—Shaaa?

She tilted her head in confusion.

"About staying with us, I mean. Like I said before, the mountains are dangerous. There are hedgehogs, birds, and all kinds of things that hunt creatures like you. I know I was kinda rough earlier, but I promise I won’t treat you badly. The others can vouch for that."

At my words, she turned to the other venomous creatures, who immediately started pitching our way of life to her like seasoned salespeople.

—Kisit! Kishi-shishi. Kishii.

—Kuku! Kukku!

Watching her eyes widen in surprise and then in deep thought, I got the feeling she was actually considering it.

A few moments later, she slowly nodded.

—Shaa...

Well, if she had agreed to stay with us, then there was no need to keep her locked up anymore.

With Yo-hwa and the others around, there was nowhere she could escape to anyway.

Trying to act like a benevolent master, I loosened my grip on her container and reached inside to take her out.

Nothing built trust like freedom.

—Shaaa!?

But the moment I reached for her, she flinched and backed away.

"You just said you’re staying, didn’t you? I was gonna let you out."

—Shaaa!?

The way she reacted made it feel like she was asking if I was really dumb enough to believe a venomous creature’s words.

So I just nodded.

"Well, I can’t keep you locked up forever, can I? This is just how we do things."

When I finally set her down on the ground, she hesitantly coiled up, eyes darting around to properly take in the others.

I smiled at her and gave her a welcoming nod.

‘She’s probably thinking, ‘Let’s get along.’’

So I nodded back and said,

"Yeah, same here. Let’s get along, Yeondu. Oh—right. I need to give you an actual name. I can’t just keep calling you ‘Yeondu’ forever. What should I name you?"

Even as Bini’s tantrum lingered in my mind, I put that aside to focus on naming Yeondu first.

Hua-eun was right. There was no fixing Bini’s mood tonight.

But I also couldn’t leave Yeondu nameless now that she was officially part of our group.

Now that she was one of us, she needed a proper name.

"Okay, since you’re one of the Twenty-Four Venomous Earthly Creatures, and you hold the ‘Heaven’ position, I should include ‘Cheon’ in your name... If you were male, I’d go with something like ‘Ilcheon’ to mean First Heaven..."

Then a thought hit me.

"Wait, are you male or female? Should I... check?"

The moment I muttered about examining her, Yeondu’s entire body flared up.

—SHYAAAAAA!

"So, you’re a female?"

Judging from her flustered reaction, that was definitely a yes.

When I asked, she nodded shyly.

Originally, I had been thinking of naming her Ilcheon, but now that she was confirmed female, that wouldn’t work.

I needed something softer.

Something that fits her better...

Looking at her emerald-green mane, an idea struck me.

"If I translate ‘emerald’ into Chinese-style characters, it becomes Yeondu. Yeondu... Oh! That actually sounds nice!"

The more I thought about it, the more I liked it.

I turned to her.

"How about Yeondu? Your emerald-green mane is beautiful, so I think Yeondu suits you. It matches your blue scales perfectly too."

When I pronounced Yeondu with a Central Plains accent, it sounded like Randou.

Yeondu wriggled shyly at the name, then quickly nodded.

—Shaaaa!

She liked it.

"Alright, from now on, your name is Yeondu."

With that, Yeondu’s name was officially set.

And then... I realized something.

I had completely forgotten to include Cheon in her name.

She was the first among the Twenty-Four Venomous Creatures, and her designation was ‘Heaven’.

Leaving out Cheon felt wrong.

"Wait, I forgot to add Cheon to your name. Should I just treat it like a family name? Let’s see... If I include it, your full name would be... Cheon Yeondu..."

And then I froze.

Because I had just accidentally named her Cheonnyeondu.

Or in other words...

Smallpox.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

Yeondu, completely oblivious, happily nodded.

—Shaaaa!

In the Central Plains, they called smallpox ‘Cheonhwa’ instead of ‘Cheonnyeondu’, so maybe no one would notice.

"Y-yeah... Let’s just call you Yeondu most of the time, okay?"

And that was how Yeondu—no, Cheonnyeondu—got her name.

***

The next day, I tried to mend things with Bini, but I never even got the chance.

Because something much bigger was waiting for us.

The moment Hua-eun and Seol-noona were well enough to move, it was decided—we were leaving.

They hadn’t fully recovered yet, but they had to go.

There was no choice.

"It’s our mission, but we’re leaving it to you... I’m really sorry, Lord Mandok Divine Elder."

Seon-hwa, still lying in bed, apologetically bowed her head as she handed over a blood-stained piece of paper.

Both Seon-hwa and Yang Seong-hu would be stuck in the Beast Palace for months.

At least three months for Seon-hwa and a minimum of two for my hyung.

And to make things worse, Seon-hwa had overexerted herself yesterday, causing her injuries to reopen, and she developed a fever overnight.

Which meant we had no choice but to deliver the information on our own.

The intel passed to Seon-hwa by Bang Sun, the vice master of Flying Dragon Pavilion, had to be handed over to the Murim Alliance.

Originally, if even one of them had been in good enough condition to travel, we would’ve taken them along.

Even if we were trustworthy, it was still awkward to deliver information when not even one of the original recipients was present.

But since that wasn’t possible, we had to go alone.

Which is why Seon-hwa looked so guilty.

"There’s no need for that. We’re part of the alliance, too—handling important missions is natural for us. So don’t apologize. Just focus on recovering. We’ll take care of it."

Mandok Divine Elder’s response was firm.

"Besides, I was planning on heading to the Murim Alliance anyway. Those Blood Cult bastards teamed up with Oh Cheong-yu’s faction, and I need to report it.

On top of that, they’ve started producing antidotes—we need countermeasures."

"Thank you, Lord Mandok Divine Elder."

"Thank you, Elder."

Both my hyung and Seon-hwa bowed deeply.

Though, there was no need to.

We were going to the Murim Alliance anyway.

During our fight with Oh Cheong-yu, we overheard that the Blood Cult had formed an alliance with the Five Poisons Sect.

The Blood Cult had slaughtered our Tang Clan warriors, so we couldn’t forgive them.

The Five Poisons Sect had been our mortal enemy for over a century.

And now, with this incident, our enmity had become absolute.

Our relationship was now one of complete and utter irreconcilability.

Which meant we needed the full support of the Murim Alliance.

From what we saw during the chase, the enemy’s forces were far larger than we initially expected.

The Tang Clan and the Beast Palace alone wouldn’t be enough.

And that wasn’t all.

The antidote for the Tiger Squad’s poison had likely been created by the Five Poisons Sect.

The Murim Alliance needed to be informed so we could prepare countermeasures.

We had already confirmed that hornet venom worked as a substitute, but hornet venom couldn’t be mass-produced.

We needed an alternative.

And since we had already decided to integrate the Beast Palace into the Murim Alliance, this was the perfect opportunity to do so.

"All of you should focus on recovering. We’ll see you when we return."

"Be careful, So-ryong."

"Understood, hyung. Once you’re healed, please visit the Tang Clan."

"Of course. I have to see my little sister, Yeong-yeong, too."

After saying my final goodbyes to hyung, I turned to Seon-hwa, who bowed her head again.

"So-So-hyeop... I truly can’t thank you enough. I don’t know what would have happened if not for you..."

She looked deeply grateful.

Which, of course, activated my inner troublemaker.

With a fake guilty expression, I said,

"You’ll recover soon, but... I hope I haven’t added more suffering to your heart..."

At that, Seon-hwa turned bright red and stole a glance at Yang Seong-hu.

"W-Well... It was my choice, so... I have to take responsibility..."

Poor guy.

He looked completely clueless as I patted his shoulder and whispered in his ear.

[Don’t forget, Seong-hu. I saved your life three times.]

And with that, we left the room.

Outside, Hua-eun and Seol-noona were already waiting.

Since Seol-noona would be representing the Beast Palace, she was accompanying us to the Murim Alliance.

"Let’s go, Ryong-ah."

"Yes, Seol-noona. Let’s move out, Elder."

"Alright. First, we’ll head to Sichuan.

We need to check if anything has happened at the Tang Clan while we were away.

And more importantly, we need to prepare more poisons before heading to the Alliance."

Technically, we could travel directly from Yunnan to Wuhan by boat.

The Yangtze River flowed from Tibet, through Yunnan, and all the way to the East Sea.

If we stopped at Panzhihua, we could catch a boat to Wuhan.

But we chose to return to the Tang Clan first.

Because we needed to prepare venom samples before reporting to the Alliance.

Since we already knew that serpent’s blood poison was ineffective, we had to test other poisons and figure out which ones worked.

And who else would be producing those poisons but our Tang Clan?

So, even if it delayed us slightly, we had no choice.

With that, we hurried our pace, reaching Sichuan in just under a month.

And when we finally arrived, Seol-noona’s eyes widened in amazement.

"So this is the Tang Clan’s territory!? The entire mountain belongs to you!?"

It was a natural reaction.

She was a country girl from Yunnan, after all.

She had probably never seen anything like this.

—Buuuuung. Buuuuung.

But before she could even finish her sentence, a familiar buzzing filled the air.

The Golden-Furred Peak Wasps were already swarming above.

They had noticed my return.

And, judging from their reaction, they had come to greet me.

"The—T-The Golden-Furred Peak Wasps!?"

"They’re mine."

"You—YOU RAISE THOSE, TOO!?"

"This is all of them. You guys doing well?"

—Buuung! Buuuung!

They whined about me being gone for so long, dragged me to the hive for a mandatory meeting with the queen, and only let me go after I had eaten a spoonful of honey.

And that night...

The long-awaited peace of being home in the Tang Clan was shattered by an unexpected event.

Bini ran away.

"Wh-What!? He’s already hitting his rebellious phase!?"

"His what?"

"Y’know, rebellious phase. Anyway—where the hell did he go!?"

"Hurry up and send him a message!"

I frantically reached out to him with my thoughts, only to get a cold, stubborn response:

"I’m not coming home until I’m bigger than my sister."

"I—He says he’s not coming back until he’s bigger than Hyang."

"Ah..."

Hua-eun groaned, rubbing her temples.

Her youngest had run away from home.