ESTC Chapter 5

The problem was that I was too soft-hearted.

Given centipedes’ aversion to water, I’d thought I could definitely remove them by getting in water, and indeed when I entered the water, I could see them retreating to the top of my head.

So I just needed to dive slightly and collect them in the jar when they floated to the surface.

I thought I’d found relief, but as my head slowly submerged, they cried pitifully from my crown.

Tsurururu.

Tsuru.

Tsurururururu.

‘Big brother, why are you doing this? Why are you doing this to us? Big brother! Please! We hate water!’

It’s not that I could actually understand centipede language.

It was just my feeling, but somehow their sounds seemed to say that.

So what could I do…

They’ll detach on their own soon anyway. Should I just leave them for a few days?

At the centipedes’ pitiful sounds, my thoughts were solidifying toward just leaving them for a few days.

Starting with the question of whether it was right to separate them so coldly when they’d lost their mother.

Centipedes detach from their mother’s body after their second molt, and that period isn’t very long.

Moreover, they seemed to think I was their mother, and they had no venom at this stage so they weren’t dangerous.

Plus, though it might be a bit uncomfortable, having giant centipedes wrapped around your body might be every venomous creature lover’s dream.

Insects, arthropods, and reptiles don’t recognize their owners and aren’t considered pets, so there’s the drawback of limited bonding when raising them.

But having them wrapped around your body was almost like bonding with a pet.

“Alright, your brother will leave you be for a while. But you absolutely can’t bite or hurt brother, understood?”

Tsurururu!

Tsuru!

They made sounds as if answering my question, and after finishing my bath, I hurried back to the abandoned temple.

And just as I crossed the threshold at the temple entrance.

A middle-aged man sitting on the stone steps in front of the hall I used.

The clan head of that Tang clan or whatever greeted me with a pleased expression as he sat in front of the hall.

“Oh? Elder?”

“Oh! Young hero!”

Judging by his pleased expression, he seemed to be here to repay me for helping them hunt the mother centipede.

He had said he’d reward me if I helped find the centipede, after all.

They seemed wealthy – maybe they’ll give me some money? Should I ask them to catch me some deer? It would be nice to make some jerky. I am in my growing phase after all.

Just as the bright-faced man drew near me.

Along with a chilling sensation down my spine, something like wind flew toward the man, and he suddenly flew backward and slammed into the stone steps, coughing up several mouthfuls of blood.

Boom!

“Kuhup! Cough! Cough!”

“E-elder! Kek!”

Startled by this sight, I tried to run toward the man but my nape was grabbed.

My legs slowly rose into the air and began running through empty space.

Then came an old man’s voice.

“Having heard Tang clan members had entered Hainan, I came to find the Ten Thousand Poisons Divine Sovereign’s son alone and injured. I have never forgotten your face or your father’s face that I saw from afar, not for a single moment these past ten years! Today I shall send your head as a gift to your father, the Ten Thousand Poisons Divine Sovereign! Kahahahaha!”

Though I didn’t understand the details, he seemed to have a grudge against the Tang’s clan head’s father.

And judging by the title Ten Thousand Poisons Divine Sovereign, these people seemed to be involved with some kind of organization.

With nicknames like that, similar to Twin Blades or Twin Axes.

Hey, why are you doing this to me? Settle it among yourselves.

Then the middle-aged man rose, blood trickling from his mouth, and asked the old man holding me:

“Cough! Senior, who are you to persecute this young hero and myself?”

“Kahahahaha. Don’t you recognize this face and these blood-red fists? I am the Blood Hand Rakshasa Tak Unyang, who was made like this by your father!”

Along with maniacal laughter came a voice full of hatred – it seemed today might end very badly.

The old man’s grudge seemed immense.

But the Tang’s clan head pleaded in a grave voice to release me.

“That young hero is not even a martial artist and has nothing to do with us – would you release him? Your grudge is with our Tang clan, is it not? If you release him, I will willingly offer my neck.”

The feeling was not to involve civilians.

Though I thought he seemed like a better person than expected and nodded inwardly that gangsters should settle their grudges among themselves.

The old man with the nickname Blood Hand Rakshasa or whatever disease-like name sneered at those words.

“I will slaughter everyone who has even brushed sleeves with the Tang clan! Don’t they say in Buddhism that even brushing sleeves requires three thousand karmic connections from past lives? Kahaha!”

“Kyaaa! S-save…”

Then he turned my body to face him and slowly applied force to the hand gripping my nape.

The powerful grip of a predator.

And separate from that, my body trembled at a strange sensation that made my knees weak.

Tsurururu!

Kwaddeuk!

My centipede siblings who had been hiding in my clothes suddenly made sharp sounds and shot out from both sleeves and my nape to bite the old man holding my neck.

“Kuhuk!”

The old man’s bulging eyes before me.

His eyes filled with disbelief filled my vision.

And slowly the strength began leaving the old man’s hands.

Quickly slipping from the old man’s hands, I looked at his face to see him now dyed pitch black as he collapsed to the ground.

Thud.

Good lord! Weren’t they supposed to be venomless at this stage!?

The awkward situation of my pets killing someone.

I slowly turned to look at the middle-aged man and asked:

“Um… This was a bad person, right? He… seems dead?”

Though he was certainly a bad guy, I asked with a blank expression at the fact that my pets had killed someone.

It was my first time seeing someone die.

Except for my own death.

However, the middle-aged man seemed oddly pleased at my question.

Despite someone having died.

Is… is he a psychopath?

***

The fact that my centipedes had venom.

And the fact that their venom was potent enough to kill a person sent chills through my heart, but I first calmed down and hurried to provide aid.

One was already dead, and if I delayed, another might die too.

The middle-aged man had coughed up an enormous amount of blood, so it seemed there might be multiple deaths if something wasn’t done quickly.

Of course, I couldn’t support him directly.

Because I worried the centipedes might jump out and bite him too.

So I first guided him inside the hall I used.

It had a bed and was the most intact building in this abandoned temple, so it was the only place to lay down this Tang’s clan head.

Though the door was somewhat damaged from stone fragments that flew up when the man slammed into the steps, the interior was still intact.

“P-please lie down over here.”

“Cough. Thank you, young hero.”

“But the village is far and we can’t call a doctor – if you could tell me where your companions are, I could go get them. No, I can’t just leave you here either.”

As I stamped my feet worrying what to do, the man said with a kindly smiling face:

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine after a few days of rest.”

When someone coughs blood it means internal injury, which would mean intestinal rupture or stomach perforation or something like that, yet he says he’ll be fine after a few days of rest.

I responded seriously to the man making such carefree statements when he wasn’t even a doctor.

“Don’t say such things. Coughing up blood like this. You’re in critical condition!”

But the man still smiled as he replied to my words.

“I’m a martial artist, so I’ll be fine.”

“A martial artist?”

“Yes. A martial artist.”

Come to think of it, even in that urgent situation earlier, the man had said I wasn’t a martial artist so let me go, and those words reminded me of martial arts movies from my past life.

No way…

I asked again with a doubtful expression at the man’s words.

“Um… When you say martial artist, do you mean like flying around and shooting air blasts, that kind of martial artist?”

“Not everyone can do that, but you could say that’s correct.”

Thinking about it carefully, then what sent this middle-aged man flying earlier must have been like being hit by an air blast.

Holy crap!

Now I could understand why such giant centipedes existed.

This seemed to be not the past but some kind of different world.

As I shuddered at the realization I had fallen into a strange world.

“I owe my life to you, young hero. I’m grateful for saving my life. Let me properly introduce myself. I am Tang Cheolsan, Clan Head of the Sichuan Tang clan of Sichuan.”

“Ah, I’m Wi Soryong^[1].”

Though I didn’t originally have a name in this world, when he mentioned martial arts, I thought of a famous martial arts actor from my past life and quickly made up a name.

When I introduced myself as Wi Soryong, the man nodded.

“Little Dragon^[2]. A good name.”

“Thank you, elder. But with your condition, should I go to the village to bring other members of your clan? That old man…”

That should be enough for introductions, and thinking I should call other people from his clan, I asked the man, but he shook his head.

“No need. My father has already departed for Sichuan with the other warriors. And the warriors remaining in the village will all come here in two or three days anyway.”

“Oh, then what should I do? Some water… ah, you coughed blood so water won’t do… porridge… no, that won’t work either.”

As I made a troubled expression having nothing I could do, the man smiled and asked:

“I’ll be fine after a few days of circulating qi and resting, so don’t worry. I’ll tell you if I need food.”

“I understand, elder. Um… Then let me at least wet a cloth to wipe your mouth.”

“No, before that, I have many questions, if you don’t mind?”

“Shouldn’t you rest?”

“This much is fine.”

At the man’s insistence, I stopped preparing to get a wet cloth and sat back down beside him.

Then the man began pouring out questions as if he’d been holding them back with difficulty.

“Those venomous creatures wrapped around you, are they centipedes? Where did you get them, how did you tame them like that? And while waiting for you, I saw without permission, but are all those numerous venomous creatures inside raised by you?”

“Um… Well…”

I answered the man’s questions sincerely for now.

That the centipedes came from eggs of the Blue-spotted Centipede they had taken, and the venomous creatures inside were ones I raised.

“Oho! You hatched the eggs!?”

“Well, they were almost ready to hatch anyway…”

“You could tell that too?”

“Huh? Well, sort of.”

“Amazing!”

The man praised my breeding skills.

Having had no one to show off to until now, pleased by the praise from this man called Tang Cheolsan, I decided to show off the results of my years of breeding.

“Please wait a moment, elder.”

I quickly went to the medicine cabinet and took out a Bawangling Cave Gecko.

While normal Bawangling Cave Geckos have distinctive yellow stripes on their body and white stripes on their tail, this one had a yellow body and white tail.

Made up of just those two colors.

In my past life, it would have been worth tens of millions, no, hundreds of millions of won – the crystallization of my breeding efforts.

“Ahem. Well, they can be raised like this.”

Though I held it out to the middle-aged man as if to show my skill was this level, the man just blinked.

Since he didn’t seem to understand how amazing this was, I brought another one and explained.

Guess I have to spoon-feed the explanation.

“Um… This is a normal Cave Lizard^[3]. Among these, I selected ones with large yellow stripes on their body and white stripes on their tail, paired them repeatedly, and created this one with just two colors.”

“Y-you produced the colors!?”

The man finally showed surprise at my achievement.

He asked urgently:

“Then p-perhaps by selecting and pairing only ones with strong poison, could you create ones with even stronger poison!?”

Theoretically possible, but impossible without a way to confirm poison strength.

I shook my head and answered.

“If we could tell which ones had stronger poison, it would naturally be possible. But that would be difficult…”

“Th-that’s it! That’s what it means!”

“Eek! You scared me!”

When the seemingly dying man suddenly shouted as if he’d eaten a train furnace, I jumped in surprise, and he grabbed my hand and said with passionate eyes:

“Become our family member!”

“What!?”

Family member seemed to mean becoming a member of his clan.

Like being raised as a subordinate or follower…

If I could fly around with lightness skills or shoot air blasts that might be good, but the problem was that being a martial artist seemed somewhat dangerous from what I’d seen earlier.

Since it seemed like crazy people would come trying to kill you, I hesitated to answer, and the man began listing various benefits.

“First, if you become our family member, we’ll pass down all our clan’s martial arts without reserve, and you can obtain any elixirs, spiritual herbs, and whatever poisons you desire.

With your ability, you might even be able to catch or raise the legendary Central Plains’ Ten Great Venomous Creatures^[4].

And though I shouldn’t boast, with my daughter who is one of the Three Flowers of the Central Plains^[5]…”

“W-wait!”

I made him stop listing benefits that were passing by quickly.

Because something unbelievable had just passed by.

“What did you just say!?”

“Hm? Ah, though you’re young you’re still a man? That’s right! My daughter who is one of the Three Flowers…”

The Tang’s clan head kept trying to present some flower or other.

Since I had no interest in such plants, I shook my head and asked again.

“No, not that weed stuff. Before that.”

“Hm? The martial arts?”

“No, after that.”

“The elixirs and spiritual herbs?”

“After that.”

“The Ten Great Venomous Creatures?”

Having died in my past life while searching for the world’s ten deadliest snakes, the words “Central Plains’ Ten Great Venomous Creatures” resonated in my heart.

So I grabbed the Tang’s clan head and asked:

“Are they as amazing as the Blue-spotted Centipede!?”

Then the Tang’s clan head answered with a sly smile:

“Why, of course. The Blue-spotted Centipede is just a low-level venomous creature that doesn’t even make it into the Ten Great Venomous Creatures. From Scorpions^[6] as big as houses to Golden Frogs^[7] that shine like gold. Whatever you’re imagining, they’re even more than that.”

At the words “Ten Great Venomous Creatures,” I was starting to think I wanted to try this family member thing.

Should I do it?

Aren’t the Ten Great Venomous Creatures every man’s romance?

Or is that just me?