Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

The panicked cry of Gu Cheon-ak, the Blood Talon Eagle Claw and elder of the Blood Cult, rang out. Yet, despite his distress, the pale-faced boy cradled in Hwa-eun’s arms let out a smile and shouted,

"What did I do? I’m your natural predator!"

"Natural predator?"

The term implied an inescapable enemy, ordained by the heavens themselves.

Gu Cheon-ak attempted to take another step forward, but an overwhelming weakness coursed through his body.

It felt as though his blood was scattering and disintegrating throughout his veins.

"Urgh...!"

The internal cultivation technique he had mastered, Ghost Blood Torrent Divine Art, was one of the most advanced techniques of the Blood Cult, second only to that of the Blood Demon himself.

This supreme technique amplified the flow of blood, enabling explosive bursts of strength and allowing practitioners to absorb qi and vitality from their victims’ blood to replenish their own stamina and power.

As long as Gu Cheon-ak continued to drain blood, he could fight indefinitely, even if his limbs were worn down to stumps.

And yet, after circulating the boy’s blood through his body, his control over his own blood had suddenly vanished.

The Blood Cult’s techniques relied on controlling blood flow, blending qi with the bloodstream, and rapidly channeling it throughout the body. Complete dominance over one’s blood was essential to their power, yet his blood was now rebelling against him.

"This... this makes no sense," Gu Cheon-ak muttered, his voice trembling.

Ordinary Scattered Energy Poison should not affect the Ghost Blood Torrent Divine Art. That poison disrupted the flow of qi through acupoints, but the Blood Cult’s techniques bypassed acupoints entirely, relying on blood vessels instead.

It was precisely this immunity to conventional methods that had allowed the Blood Cult to wreak havoc during the Blood Demon Rebellion thirty years ago.

But now, Gu Cheon-ak’s body felt as though his blood was shattering into fragments, scattering uncontrollably throughout his veins.

"What... what did you do to me, you brat?!"

Soryong, still pale but grinning weakly, turned to Hwa-eun and shouted, "Sister! He’s vulnerable! Attack him now!"

"S-sister?"

Startled by his sudden command, Hwa-eun hesitated for a moment before regaining her composure. She unfurled her whip, the Flood Dragon Whip, and aimed it directly at Gu Cheon-ak.

The whip, lined with razor-sharp steel blades, was designed to tear through limbs and bodies with a single strike.

-Snap!

The whip lashed out at lightning speed, coiling around Gu Cheon-ak’s neck.

In his current state, there was no chance of avoiding it. The once-formidable elder could only watch in horror as the whip tightened around his throat.

"Urgh!"

The whip bit into his flesh, and though he desperately grabbed at it, his hands were soon slick with dark red blood.

Hwa-eun’s cold, unyielding expression pierced through his fading vision.

"This... this cannot be! The Blood Cult’s return... the reign of blood..."

"Shut up and just die already!"

Before he could finish his final declaration, Hwa-eun yanked the whip free with a swift motion.

-Slash!

Gu Cheon-ak’s vision spun as his head separated from his body.

The once-feared Blood Talon Eagle Claw, elder of the Blood Cult, met his end in utter futility.

***

Honestly, I wasn’t sure this would work.

But in a situation like this, it was the only plan I could believe in, so I went for it. To think it would actually work this well.

I had hoped that the venom might poison him or at least force him to retreat, but the results far exceeded my expectations.

As the monster’s head fell to the ground, a crimson fountain erupted from his neck.

-Thud.

His body collapsed backward, hitting the wet ground with a dull sound.

The dark red blood flowing from his lifeless form spread across the rain-soaked earth, staining it a deep crimson.

A heavy silence followed.

No one dared to speak.

The creature that had rampaged like a tiger in a pack of wolves had fallen so suddenly, so anticlimactically.

Then, a voice pierced the quiet.

“He’s dead! The young lady has slain the Blood Cult elder!”

“““Hooray!”””

Cheers erupted as the warriors processed what had happened.

“The young lady has taken the head of the Blood Cult elder!”
“Glory to the Tang Clan!”
“Long live the Tang Clan!”

-Shriek!

A signal dagger soared into the now-clear skies, summoning the scattered Tang warriors back to the clearing where the bloody battle had taken place.

Amid the growing celebration, Hwa-eun cradled me, her expression dazed. She stared at me, her voice trembling as she asked,

“Soryong, what did you do? How did you... defeat the Blood Cult elder?”

Drops of water fell from her hair, landing on my forehead.

Despite being drenched, her embrace felt warm.

Maybe it was the warmth, or maybe it was the blood loss combined with the venom, but my vision began to blur.

Looking up at her, I replied weakly,

“Sister, I... I think I need to be treated for tiger keelback venom...”

“T-tiger keelback? But that venom is... it’s...”

Her eyes widened in shock, and her voice, panicked, echoed faintly in my ears as the world started to fade.

“Someone bring the antidote pearl! Soryong’s been poisoned by a tiger keelback!”

“Soryong! Soryong!”

The last thing I saw before everything went dark was Cho, Hyang, and Bini crawling up onto my sister’s trembling shoulders.@@novelbin@@

***

A familiar feeling beneath me.

The floor?

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the ground, and I blinked in confusion.

Usually, after collapsing and waking up, the first thing you’d expect to see was the ceiling—not the floor.

But sure enough, I was sprawled face down, as if I’d been tied to some kind of punishment rack straight out of a historical drama.

As I tried to move, urgent voices rang out around me.

“Don’t move, Soryong!”
“Soryong, you mustn’t move!”
“Stay still, boy.”

All three voices were familiar.

One belonged to the family elder who oversaw the Medical Hall, another to my sister, and the last to Grandfather, the Mandok Shingun himself.

“Where am I?” I managed to ask.

“You’re awake? Soryong, you’ve been unconscious for ten days,” my sister said, crouching beside me, concern etched on her face.

“Ten days?”

As I processed her words, she dipped a cloth in water and wiped my forehead, her expression softening.

“Yes, it’s been ten days since you collapsed. Do you remember anything?”

“Yeah... I remember the Blood Cult elder falling...” I replied weakly.

My sister nodded. “Thanks to you, we managed to take his head. After you fainted, we rushed you back to the estate. The venom was so severe that if Grandfather hadn’t returned early, things might have ended badly.”

Grandfather chimed in, his voice firm. “Tell me, boy—what happened? They said you were poisoned by a tiger keelback. Does that snake truly have venom?”

“Yes, Grandfather. The tiger keelback has not one, but two types of venom,” I replied, still lying prone.

“Two types?”
“Two kinds? But I thought tiger keelbacks weren’t venomous...” my sister added, echoing a common misconception.

It was true. Tiger keelbacks, which were found across Korea, China, and Japan, were long considered harmless. Even when caught, they typically chose to flee rather than bite, their docile nature reinforcing the belief.

The Tang Clan, it seemed, had never studied the snake closely enough to discover its venomous capabilities.

“No, it has two types of venom. It’s just very passive, which is why it’s rarely seen as dangerous.”

Grandfather leaned closer, his sharp gaze fixed on me. “I also heard you used Scattered Energy Poison on the Blood Cult elder. Explain yourself—was the tiger keelback’s venom truly responsible for this?”

As expected of the clan’s poison master, Grandfather had pieced together the situation with little more than observation.

“Yes, I believe so,” I said. “Though it seems to only affect members of the Blood Cult. I didn’t expect it to work so effectively, either.”

“Remarkable!” Grandfather exclaimed, his tone a mix of awe and regret. “Do you realize how many lives were lost during the Blood Demon Rebellion thirty years ago? If we’d known this back then...”

He trailed off, his voice heavy with emotion. Then, as if unable to contain his curiosity, he asked, “Why does the tiger keelback’s venom affect them so severely? Explain it to me.”

I explained as best I could.

Venoms are generally categorized by their effects:

• Neurotoxic venom attacks the nervous system, paralyzing sensory and motor functions, ultimately leading to cardiac arrest or asphyxiation.
• Hemotoxic venom targets blood and muscle, destroying cell walls and causing internal bleeding, organ failure, or brain hemorrhages.

Most people might assume that hemotoxic venom shouldn’t spread quickly because the body’s fibrin—a protein produced by platelets—helps form clots to seal wounds.

But snake venom contains anticoagulants, which inhibit the clotting process, allowing the venom to spread rapidly. When combined with its ability to break down red blood cells and prevent coagulation, the result is catastrophic organ failure or fatal brain hemorrhages.

“The venom prevents the blood from clotting?” Grandfather asked.

“Yes, precisely,” I replied.

In that desperate moment, I had connected the dots.

The Blood Cult’s name implied a reverence for blood, and their techniques seemed to rely heavily on manipulating it.

Their vampiric methods—draining blood directly from living or recently dead bodies—had made them seem like parasitic creatures.

So I wondered: what would happen if I introduced hemotoxic venom into their bloodstream?

The result had exceeded my expectations. The elder himself had described it as Scattered Energy Poison, implying that his internal energy had fragmented and become uncontrollable.

The gamble had paid off. If it hadn’t, I would have likely been on my third life by now.

“...So, I believe their martial arts rely on their blood to function. That’s why the venom had such a devastating effect,” I concluded.

Grandfather burst into hearty laughter, the sound filling the room.

“Haha! I heard from Hwa-eun that you called yourself the natural predator of the Blood Cult. Is that true?”

“Y-yes, Grandfather...” I admitted cautiously, wondering if I’d sounded too much like a melodramatic teenager.

But Grandfather only laughed louder.

“Haha! Well said, boy! If this venom disrupts their techniques so thoroughly, then the Tang Clan truly is their natural predator! The Blood Cult has reemerged after thirty years, but this time, we’ll uproot them completely!

“They dared harm our family while I was away. But as you said, Soryong, the Tang Clan will be their ultimate nemesis!”

The room buzzed with a renewed sense of determination.

With the tiger keelback venom now identified as their weakness, mass harvesting the venom would spell the end for the Blood Cult’s mosquito-like existence.

Grandfather’s words resonated deeply.

“Yes,” I said firmly. “Those who harm the Tang Clan will face swift retribution. They must pay for what they’ve done.”

You messed with the wrong family, you leeching bastards.

I silently vowed to develop my own arsenal of poisons to annihilate them completely.

Even if it left scars on my arm... it would be worth it.