Fabre in Sacheon's Tang-Chapter 161: Mountain Hideout (2)

A book bearing the emblem of the Five Poison Clan. That alone was undeniable proof—whether the Five Poison Clan was deeply involved in this matter or if they were directly responsible, my suspicions had just turned into a certainty.

Faced with such indisputable evidence, I instinctively turned toward Hwa-eun.

"Hwa—"

Ah, she looks busy.

I was about to call out to her, but she was deeply focused on examining a pile of medicinal pills and herbs. She was checking something intently.

Since she was preoccupied, I decided to take a look at the book myself first.

Just from the cover, it reeked of the Five Poison Clan, but it wasn't like the book was going to run away while Hwa-eun was busy. Besides, there was always the possibility that it was just an empty notebook.

If I called her over and it turned out to be nothing important, I’d feel bad about disturbing her.

Of course, the fact that it bore the emblem of the Five Poison Clan meant it had some significance, but the true value depended on the contents.

Let's see...

—Flip.

"Journal of Dan Mok-seo, Vice Captain of the Five Poison Centipede Squad of the Five Poison Clan."

The first name that caught my eye as I turned the page was that of an individual.

Judging by the title, this person was likely the vice-captain of the Five Poison Centipede Squad—one of the Five Poison Clan’s specialized units, much like the Five Poison Scorpion Squad we had encountered before.

Oh, I thought this would be something important... Guess it’s just a journal? Maybe it was a good call not to interrupt Hwa-eun after all.

Since the Five Poison Clan’s emblem was imprinted on it, I had high expectations, but it turned out to be nothing more than someone's personal diary.

Why would a mere journal bear an official emblem? Then again, thinking about it in modern terms, this was probably like a company-issued notebook with the company logo printed on the cover.

A little disappointing... but then again, nothing beats the thrill of reading someone else's diary. Heh heh...

The name suggested the author was a woman.

And everyone knows the most entertaining books to read are diaries—especially those of younger sisters or older sisters.

Of course, she wasn’t my sister, but I figured I could expect something equally amusing.

However, what truly irked me was the fact that this diary belonged to a member of the so-called Five Poison Centipede Squad.

How dare they call themselves the Centipede Squad without even having a proper mascot?

I had every right to be offended.

I possessed Cho, one of the Ten Great Venomous Beasts. I had Bina, one of the Twenty-Four Venomous Insects. And I even had the original version, the Blue-Spotted Centipede.

And yet, these Five Poison Clan fools, who probably raised nothing but ordinary centipedes, dared to call themselves the Centipede Squad? How insolent.

For someone like me, who had actual legendary centipedes, this was nothing short of intellectual property theft.

This is an outrageous violation of copyright laws!

Of course, I didn’t actually own the rights to the name, but if you considered the creatures in my possession, I absolutely deserved recognition for it.

They should be paying me royalties.

Scoffing at their audacity, I turned the first page. The date at the top marked the beginning of the diary.

"Start of Spring. Called upon by the Clan Lord, I accompanied the Captain to meet him. The Lord has given us a new order.

Since our attempts to locate the One Poison Master have continuously failed, we have been instructed to set that mission aside for now. Instead, the Centipede Squad must aid the Blood Cult in sowing chaos across the Central Plains.

The Blood Cult has been expanding its influence in the shadows, but it is impossible for them to single-handedly bring down the Tang Clan.

After all, the Tang Clan is allied with both the Martial Alliance and the Seven Great Houses. If we wish to take on the Tang Clan, we must first divert their attention elsewhere.

Just as the Five Poison Scorpion Squad used their Grand Poison Technique to transform the Army Demonic Soldiers into monstrous beings, we, too, must find another species to weaponize."

Huh. This is unexpectedly valuable information.

I had assumed a personal diary wouldn’t have much strategic value, but it turned out to be a gold mine.

Whoever wrote this was thorough. The journal was packed with precisely the kind of intel we needed.

Not only did it confirm my suspicions—the Army Demonic Soldiers were indeed the work of the Five Poison Clan—but it also listed the names of their various combat squads.

Curious to see what other valuable tidbits were inside, I eagerly flipped to the next page.

"Two days before the Spring Equinox.

For the past month, the Captain and I have been deliberating over which creature to use. Today, Lady Cheongyu paid us a brief visit and suggested the Blood-Sucking Parasite.

The moment she mentioned it, it was as if a bolt of lightning struck my mind.

Blood-Sucking Parasites are relentless. They torment their hosts persistently.

If they are already so troublesome at their normal size, imagine what they could do if we enlarged them. The thought alone made my heart race with excitement."

"The day after the Qingming Festival.

We successfully used the Grand Poison Technique to enlarge the Blood-Sucking Parasites. However, we encountered a problem.

The first batch of eggs hatched, but the larvae refused to mature into adults. Why?

We directly infused them with energy using the Grand Poison Technique, so logically, they should have reached adulthood without needing to feed.

What went wrong?"

"Grain Rain Festival.

One of my subordinates foolishly mishandled the parasites and was attacked. He collapsed after losing too much blood. Idiot.

He had to take a Blood Restoration Pill to # Nоvеlight # recover."

"Two days after the Grain Rain Festival.

We discovered several parasites molting.

Why all of a sudden? What triggered this rapid transformation?

The Captain and I will have to stay up all night to figure it out."

"Five days after the Grain Rain Festival.

We finally uncovered the secret!

They must consume blood in order to molt!

We captured villagers from the border and let the parasites feed on them."

"Later that same day.

We learned that the parasites must consume blood five times to reach adulthood.

But if they want to lay eggs, they need to feed six times.

The problem is, raising just one batch to adulthood already required us to capture over a hundred villagers from two border towns.

If we want to multiply their numbers even further, how many more people will we need?"

"Still during the Grain Rain period.

As expected of Lady Cheongyu.

The Captain sought her counsel, and she advised using Blood Restoration Pills.

Her logic was impeccable—rather than killing our captives outright, we should let the parasites feed on them just enough to keep them barely alive, then force-feed them Blood Restoration Pills.

That way, the same captives could be drained over and over again."

At this point, I stopped reading and took a moment to process everything.

The contents were so grotesque that I needed to reorganize my thoughts.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

From what I had gathered, this confirmed the true identity of Oh Cheongyu and the method they had used to raise the Blood-Sucking Parasites.

If this "Lady Cheongyu" mentioned in the diary was the same Oh Cheongyu—the psycho goth who had tried to kidnap me after stabbing Geombong—then that meant she was from the direct bloodline of the Five Poison Clan.

And judging by their methods, these Five Poison Clan bastards were completely unhinged.

Feeding people to bugs like it’s nothing?

They didn’t even hesitate to treat human lives as disposable livestock.

At that moment, I heard Hwa-eun’s voice from beside me.

"This is all Blood Restoration Pills? Why are there so many of them?"

Turning my head, I saw boxes stacked around Hwa-eun. Even the large open containers surrounding her were filled with medicinal pills.

Judging by the way she tilted her head while inspecting them, she must have figured out their identity.

From the looks of it, all the pills she had checked so far matched the Blood Restoration Pills mentioned in the book.

I should probably suggest reading this together.

It seemed like a good idea to go through the book with her.

It would clear up her questions in an instant.

So, I immediately called her over.

"Hwa-eun, would you like to take a look at this with me?"

"Did you find something?"

"It's the journal of the vice captain of the Five Poison Centipede Squad, one of the combat units of the Five Poison Clan."

"The Five Poison Clan!? A journal?"

As soon as I mentioned that I had found a Five Poison Clan member’s diary, Hwa-eun rushed over.

Once she caught up with what I had already read, her eyes widened in shock.

"T-this is..."

Clearly, she had realized the true nature of the Blood Restoration Pills she had been examining. With a startled expression, she quickly flipped to the next page of the journal I had been reading.

"Start of Summer.

Now that we’ve successfully raised the first batch to adulthood, it’s time to find an ideal location. I plan to contact the Blood Cult and have them scout a suitable area."

"A few days before the Grain in Ear period.

With the help of the Blood Cult, we launched a raid on a Green Forest stronghold near the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. The Three Gorges is the perfect location to spread the Blood-Sucking Parasites, and we needed human blood. The Green Forest bandits were an ideal choice—no one would notice if they disappeared."

"Grain in Ear.

We settled into the stronghold and began breeding them in earnest. We severed the tendons of the captured bandits and assigned a set number of parasites to continuously feed on them.

We made sure to provide the bandits with Blood Restoration Pills and food at regular intervals, and as a result, the parasite numbers are increasing rapidly.

I have a feeling we’ll be able to accomplish the task we’ve been given."

"Lesser Heat.

Within a month, the parasites multiplied at an uncontrollable rate. Their numbers were growing too quickly for us to manage. We decided to cull a portion of them with poison.

At this rate, we won’t be able to keep them under control."

"Grain in Ear...

We poisoned three out of the four breeding chambers, killing all the parasites inside.

In the last chamber, we manually culled all but the fully matured adults, separating the males and females. Most of the females were also eliminated.

To ensure they don’t overpopulate, only male parasites will be released into the Central Plains.

After all, our goal is to create chaos, not total destruction. If too many are released, we won’t survive either."

"Grain in Ear...

We thought we had exterminated all the parasites in the three breeding chambers, but some survived.

Four of our subordinates who entered to clean up ended up dead.

They managed to survive even after being exposed to multiple poisons. We had to cycle through different toxins to finally kill the remaining ones."

"Lesser Heat.

The mission was almost complete, but then the door to the breeding chamber holding the male parasites was opened by one of the crippled bandits.

We had severed their tendons, yet they still managed to do this? Did we fail to cut them properly?

Most of our subordinates stationed here have been wiped out.

And of all times, this had to happen while the captain was away.

The parasites have only just started emerging from the cave, so we still have a chance to escape.

But if we return having failed our mission... will we even survive?"

That was the last entry.

Judging by the state of the corpse in this log cabin, the woman who wrote this had likely taken her own life.

Closing the book, I stood up and decided to inspect the breeding facility nearby.

I needed to check the scale of the operation and see how many parasites were still left.

Most importantly, I had to eliminate any remaining females.

"Let's check the place where they were breeding the parasites."

"Understood, So-ryong."

As we headed outside, I turned to Cho and gave him an instruction.

"Cho, could you go fetch Lady Seol? I think we're going to need her help here."

—Tsk!

Since the Five Poison Clan’s involvement had been confirmed, and the stronghold still contained a significant amount of supplies and medicine, it made sense to bring in someone with authority.

Even though Hwa-eun was the daughter of the Tang Clan, someone with a higher position, like Lady Seol, would be better suited to handling this situation.

Tucking the book into my clothes, I stepped outside. Cho took off, soaring down the mountain to carry out his errand.

"They mentioned a cave, so it must be over there."

"Then let's head that way."

Hwa-eun pointed towards a slope.

Walking in that direction, we soon came across a cave entrance partially hidden behind trees.

As we approached, a faint but distinct scent wafted out from within.

It seemed there were still plenty of parasites inside.

"What should we do?"

Hwa-eun glanced at me, waiting for my decision.

"Let's prepare torches and go in. The males that escaped will die within a year, but we can't take any chances. The females have to be eliminated no matter what.

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As the journal stated, even a single one escaping could be disastrous."

"Will we be alright?"

Even if we didn’t manage to kill them all, the males that got out wouldn’t be able to reproduce, meaning they would naturally disappear within a year.

However, if the captive females managed to escape, there was no telling what could happen.

I convinced Hwa-eun, and we grabbed some torches from the stronghold, lighting them before carefully stepping inside.

—Step, step.

As we moved deeper into the cave, I could feel the presence of the parasites lurking in the shadows.

Because of the torches, they hesitated to approach and remained hidden in the darkness.

After a short walk, we came across dried-up corpses sprawled across the floor, as well as four massive wooden doors embedded in the cave floor.

"They must have dug pits into the ground and covered them with wooden doors to keep the parasites inside."

It seemed like this was how the Five Poison Clan had built their breeding facility.

But now, all the doors were wide open.

The females that were supposedly kept inside were nowhere to be seen.

Where did they go?

This cave wasn’t that deep, and the ceiling was relatively high.

If they had been locked up here, they should still be inside.

As Hwa-eun and I scanned the area, searching for clues, a suspicious mound of parasites caught my eye in one of the breeding pits.

"Wait, what's that!?"

Holding up my torch, I approached, and the swarm of parasites scattered rapidly.

"It looks like they were hiding in there."

"Here?"

That was when it happened.

"Who the hell are you!?"

Just as we were about to inspect the mound, a sharp male voice rang out from the cave entrance.

Startled, I turned my head and saw a man standing there, glaring at us with piercing eyes.

He held a torch, his gaze filled with hostility.

No way... In the journal, it said the captain of the Five Poison Centipede Squad had been away at the time...

Don’t tell me... it’s him?

The timing couldn’t have been worse.