Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

The preliminary coordination was complete, and without a moment to rest, So-ryong spoke in a confident voice to Ji-ryong, Taeheo, the elder of Kunlun, Sister Seol, Hwa-eun, and the Five Dragon Peaks.

He was trying to piece together information and outline what kind of creature they were dealing with.

"Since it’s clear that the Five Venoms Sect is raising some kind of spiritual or venomous creature, we need to focus on identifying exactly what it is."

Speaking like a seasoned expert, he caught the attention of the Kunlun elder, who asked with a surprised expression,

"Oh? You can even determine that?"

"Yes. It won’t be perfect, but we do have a significant amount of information."

"Information?"

"You’re saying you have a lot of information?"

Taeheo and the Kunlun elder seemed unable to comprehend how he could claim to have so much information. However, even without direct traces of the creature, they possessed more clues than they realized. The observations made by the Kunlun sect thus far contained valuable insights—perhaps overlooked due to a lack of expert analysis.

"Of course. Don’t we already know what it eats? That alone is crucial information. The fact that people and camels have disappeared means that it’s a carnivorous creature. It must be large enough to devour humans and camels whole, or it’s a smaller species that hunts in large numbers. However, I highly doubt it’s the latter."

Even from a single detail like its diet, he could infer numerous things.

"I understand the part about it being large, but why do you think it wouldn’t be small?" Taeheo asked, tilting his head in curiosity.

So-ryong wagged his finger as if to emphasize his point, relishing in the rare opportunity to deliver such an excellent lecture.

"This kind of lecture is rare. You won’t get to hear something this insightful anywhere else."

He continued his explanation,

"One person or one camel has been disappearing per day. Now, if it were a small creature hunting in large numbers, that would mean they were swarming a single target at a time, ignoring all others. But that’s not how it works.

Merchants are constantly coming and going, so if it were a swarm of small creatures, they wouldn’t attack just one target and then retreat. Some would break off to attack others. That would be inevitable.

This scenario is simply impossible."

The Kunlun elder nodded in agreement, clearly impressed.

"Ohh, that makes sense. Even trained soldiers charging toward a fortress wouldn’t be able to maintain such perfect coordination. And yet, for mere creatures to do so…"

Though there was a particular phrase in his words that slightly irked So-ryong, he chose to nod in response for now.

Among social insects, ants were one of the best at maintaining order within a group. However, even ants and bees, which were highly disciplined in their colonies, acted based on individual instincts when it came to hunting or battle.

Once an attack command was given, they would engage indiscriminately with everything around them. They wouldn't single out one specific target and ignore the rest.