Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

The night was pitch black, with thick clouds covering the sky.

As I stepped outside with Cho and Hyang, Sister Seol followed behind, her face full of concern.

"So-ryong, be careful. Scorpions are savage, ruthless, and cunning."

Behind her, Hwa-eun also nodded with the same worried expression.

"Huh? Cunning? Ruthless?"

I was taken aback by the sudden hostility towards scorpions. It wasn’t like Sister Seol or Hwa-eun to have such prejudices, so I tilted my head in confusion. Seeing my reaction, my sister spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well, haven’t you heard the saying about scorpions? That’s why you need to be cautious.

And considering that the Five Venoms Sect raised this one, it’s already proven dangerous enough to eat people."

"She’s right, So-ryong."

It was just a scouting mission, so their concern felt excessive. But more than that, Sister Seol’s words made me think.

This wasn’t just a problem with the Kunlun Sect’s prejudices—our own family had its own deeply ingrained misconceptions.

I had been thinking that the Central Plains needed a serious shift in perception regarding venomous creatures, but now I realized my own family wasn’t any better.

‘Sister Seol… you’ve been deceived by baseless rumors.’

I could understand where she was coming from.

Scorpions had a terrible reputation since ancient times.

They were often associated with snakes and other venomous creatures, labeled as cruel, malicious, and treacherous.

And this reputation stemmed from their behavior.

Scorpions tended to live in places that overlapped with human habitats—hiding under rocks or near homes.

Unlike more dangerous venomous creatures, most scorpions didn’t carry lethal venom, but their stings caused days of pain and discomfort.

From a human perspective, that made them the worst kind of nuisance—creatures that appeared out of nowhere and inflicted suffering for seemingly no reason.

That perception had solidified over time.

A lurking monster, appearing suddenly in the dead of night to terrorize people.

But from a scorpion’s point of view, this was completely unfair.

In the world of arthropods, scorpions belonged to the order Scorpiones, which was often mistaken for lobsters or crayfish due to their appearance.

But in truth, they were more closely related to spiders.

Unlike insects, which had antennae, scorpions were part of the class Arachnida, just like spiders.

One of the easiest ways to tell them apart from crustaceans was by looking at the placement of their pincers.

Crustaceans had pincers attached to their main body.

But in scorpions, their pincers were attached to their head—an extension of their chelicerae.

And compared to spiders, there was one key difference: their temperament.