Thud! Thudududuk!

“Gyaaaaaaah!”

At my voice of amazement at the eggs and the torch, something the size of a fist began falling mercilessly from above.

Buzz! Buzz!

Thwack!

As I frantically swung the torch to smash some of them to the ground, I saw long antennae and curved backs.

Cockroaches!

Squish.

I quickly crushed one that was twitching its legs after being hit by the torch, then used the torch to drive the rest deeper into the cavity.

“G-get away! You bastards! What kinda crazy cockroaches are fist-sized!”

While I like most other insects, cockroaches are just…

I decided I should calm my startled heart and quickly grab the eggs and get out.

Cockroaches are cruel creatures that even eat meat.

I didn’t want to become food for fist-sized cockroaches.

So I quickly approached the pile of eggs with the torch held out front.

Whoosh.

The cockroaches retreated as the flames approached.

Seeing twenty or thirty cockroaches, I worried first about the eggs.

“Are the eggs okay?”

I worried about the eggs not just because of the cockroaches, but because centipedes are unique animals that guard their eggs until they hatch and become independent.

They even lick the eggs until they hatch to prevent mold growth.

With the mother already dead, I worried the eggs might have all died from mold after two days without care.

If I’d known there were eggs, I would have come earlier…

Approaching the pile of eggs like that.

When I shone the torch, a horrible sight met my eyes.

Though I’d thought they were lustrous yellow, most eggs showed signs of being gnawed on, probably by the baby cockroaches.

And the eggs near the bottom even had white, cotton candy-like mold growing on them.

“These damn cockroach creepers!”

Though the mold wasn’t the cockroaches’ doing, I still cursed at them before rushing to the eggs and using the unlit torch to sift through the pile.

Squelch.

Please, let just one be alive.

Sticky mucus and liquid dripped from the torch tip like slimy soup.

As I sifted through the sticky eggs from the top.

Three lustrous eggs appeared beneath eggs bearing cockroach teeth marks.

I quickly reached in and grabbed the three eggs.

Though some mucous substance made my hands sticky, I was too excited about finding giant centipede eggs to find it disgusting.

“F-found them!”

Of about fifty eggs, only three were undamaged and still maintained their lustrous yellow color.

They seemed to have avoided damage by being in the center of the pile, among the other eggs.

Though most of the egg pile was spoiled or damaged by the fist-sized cockroaches’ attack, wasn’t it fortunate to salvage even three?

“Shit. Should I be grateful to save even three? But this isn’t the time. I need to hurry back and clean these eggs!”

I quickly wiped the eggs roughly with my sleeve, put them in the jar, and crawled out of the cave.

Then I ran like mad toward the abandoned temple.

I needed to get back quickly to clean the eggs with boiled, sterilized cloth before the salvaged eggs rotted too.

“Just wait a bit, my little centipedes. This brother will give you a bath soon.”

Though the eggs looked slightly oval-shaped, I hurried my steps thinking it must be because they were a new species.

***

“W-what should I do…”

The next morning, I found myself in a somewhat – no, very awkward situation.

Slither.

After carefully cleaning the centipede eggs I’d found yesterday and placing them in a jar lined with slightly dampened cotton cloth for humidity maintenance by my pillow, I woke to find they had all hatched.

I never expected them to hatch so quickly.

I hadn’t anticipated the centipedes hatching at all because of their unique ecology.

Centipede hatching is quite unique – rather than larvae breaking out of eggs, the eggs themselves transform into larvae.

The yellow eggs transforming into larvae is how centipedes molt.

All three eggs had become larvae.

Centipedes belong to the subclass Homomorpha[1], meaning babies are born looking exactly like adults just smaller, so three cute yellow centipedes were clinging to my body.

Yes, I was awkward not because they’d hatched, but precisely because these little ones had crawled out of the jar and were wrapped around my body.

Centipedes live attached to their mother’s body until after their second molt, and these ones seemed to have mistaken me for their mother.

When I tried to remove them, they clung tightly and refused to let go.

Though I tried to forcibly remove them, they escaped to my back where I couldn’t reach them.

They don’t eat anything until after two molts so I didn’t need to feed them, but having them attached was awkward, to say the least.

Having three creatures as thick as old-style sausages clinging to you is rather uncomfortable.

Then a thought occurred.

“Ah, right! They’ll detach on their own if I get in water!”

I quickly ran to the water with my jar, planning to take a much-needed bath too.

***

“Young hero, are you here?”

Tang Cheolsan called toward the abandoned hall where the young hero was staying after arriving at the temple.

But only silence answered from the quiet hall.

“Young hero?”

Though he called several more times to check if anyone was inside, there was no answer from the young hero.

Tang Cheolsan pondered for a while at the hall’s entrance.

Is he away? Or perhaps caught a cold from all the rain these past days?

The reason Tang Cheolsan had appeared at this abandoned temple after several days.

Having arrived at Hainan’s port yesterday after rushing through the rain, Tang Cheolsan had made a request to his father, the Ten Thousand Poisons Divine Sovereign.

「”Father, please depart for Sichuan first with the uninjured warriors.”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

The Ten Thousand Poisons Divine Sovereign asked with a puzzled expression at being told to leave first.

To his question, Tang Cheolsan replied with a smile.

“Now that we have the inner core, we can save Hwa-eun’s life. Since I’m injured and would slow us down if I moved with you, I’ll travel with the wounded warriors.

Father, please lead the uninjured warriors ahead and hurry on the road.”

“You’re suggesting we split into two groups? Even so, wouldn’t it be better to divide after taking the ship to the mainland?”

Though his father was right that even if they split into two groups, it would be better to divide after reaching the mainland, Tang Cheolsan had other thoughts.

“Don’t we have something left to do here?”

“Something to do?”

As his father tilted his head at Tang Cheolsan’s question about remaining tasks, Tang Cheolsan smiled again and replied:

“Carve grudges in blood, carve gratitude in stone[2].”

The sage’s words to carve grudges in blood and gratitude in stone.

At Tang Cheolsan’s answer, the Ten Thousand Poisons Divine Sovereign responded with a startled expression.

“Ah! Thinking only of saving my dear Hwa-eun, I completely forgot the great debt of gratitude we owe. Yes, that’s right! If not for you, I would have made a great mistake.”

“Yes, Father. Though he’s just a young hero, we received great help – how could our Sichuan Tang clan simply pass by?”

Yes, having received such great help from the young hero, they couldn’t just pass by.

Having received crucial aid in saving his daughter’s life, how would the world view the Sichuan Tang clan if they simply ignored this?

To Tang Cheolsan’s question, the Ten Thousand Poisons Divine Sovereign nodded and said:

“It must be difficult for the young hero to live alone in these mountains of Hainan catching snakes. We should take him in as our clan’s retainer[3] so he need not worry about sustenance, and grant any wishes he may have.”

“Yes, I think so too.”」

For this reason, he had let the injured clan warriors rest at an inn near the port and come alone to meet the young hero, but the young hero was nowhere to be seen.

After contemplating, Tang Cheolsan carefully opened the hall’s door.

He thought perhaps the young hero had fallen seriously ill from the rain these past days.

“Young hero, I’m coming in.”

As he stepped into the hall, he found a strange interior.

Numerous medicine cabinets lined the walls, and jars of all shapes and sizes filled the hall.

Is he trained in medicine?

Seeing the medicine cabinets and jars, his first thought was to wonder if the young hero might be trained in medicine.

But as the young hero wasn’t visible and it would be rude to enter an empty residence uninvited, he was about to close the door when.

Rustle rustle.

Chirp chirp.

Tsurururu.

Suddenly strange sounds came from the jars and medicine drawers.

The strange sounds stopped Tang Cheolsan’s feet as he was about to close the door and leave.

Somehow familiar sounds.

Led by these somehow familiar sounds, Tang Cheolsan forgot about propriety and stepped into the young hero’s quarters, and as if entranced, opened the lid of one jar.

What could be in here?

What appeared from inside the jar was a large Black Spider[4].

A pitch-black spider sat docilely inside the jar.

“Th-this is!”

Tang Cheolsan’s eyes widened in shock.

Then with an incredulous expression, he checked the other jars and medicine drawers.

What appeared each time he opened a medicine drawer or jar were Lizards[5], Spiders[6], Snakes[7], Crickets[8].

Seeing crickets remaining in jars with lizards and spiders, the crickets seemed to be raised as food for other venomous insects and creatures.

Seeing the molted shells of spiders and lizards in one medicine drawer, he had clearly been raising spiders and lizards for quite some time.

Moreover, several spiders were brooding eggs, and lizard eggs were buried in sand near what appeared to be a warm brazier.

An unbelievably amazing sight.

Tang Cheolsan shuddered at the sight inside this hall.

And for good reason – even the Tang clan, known for their expertise with poisons and venomous creatures, had never imagined breeding venomous creatures to produce offspring like this.

No, while they did raise them, the Tang clan’s venomous creature husbandry was limited to managing creatures until extracting their poison, not breeding them to increase their numbers like this.

I thought meeting him was a small chance that saved my daughter’s life, but was the real chance the young hero himself!?

Tang Cheolsan carefully replaced the jars and stepped outside the hall.

He sat on the stone steps outside the hall to calm his shocked mind.

That secret art of raising venomous creatures that the young hero possessed.

With that ability, it seemed possible to elevate the Tang clan’s poison arts to an even higher level.

As he was organizing questions to ask when the young hero returned while sitting outside the hall.

“Oh? Elder?”

The young hero entered the abandoned temple with a pleased voice, water drops falling from his hair as if he’d just bathed.

“Oh! Young hero!”

As Tang Cheolsan rose happily from his seat and quickly approached the young hero.

This is!?

A sudden surge of killing intent.

Boom!

Though he raised one hand to block the fierce energy suddenly flying toward him, Tang Cheolsan was still pushed back and slammed into the wall in front of the young hero’s hall.

“Kuhup! Cough! Cough!”

Not a small amount of blood flowed from his mouth.

It was definitely not a light internal injury.

A clan head similar to his father.

The impact of blocking with just one hand when he should have used both was clearly significant.

“E-elder! Kek!”

And with the young hero’s cry, the chilling voice of an old man who held the young hero’s nape began to sound.

“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!”

A hideous appearance with the left face melted away and hands dyed bright red.

A figure vaguely came to mind, but he was supposed to be dead.

Tang Cheolsan asked as he stood up:

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

The old man pointed to his own face with a maniacal laugh.

“Kahahahaha. Don’t you recognize this face and these blood-red fists? I am the Blood Hand Rakshasa[9] Tak Unyang[10], who was made like this by your father!”

Indeed, the Blood Hand Rakshasa Tak Unyang.

A great demon[11] who operated in the Guizhou and Guangxi regions over ten years ago, he had encountered Tang Cheolsan’s father the Ten Thousand Poisons Divine Sovereign in Qinzhou, been hit in the head with a poison palm, and fallen from a coastal cliff – it seemed he had somehow survived and drifted here to Hainan Island to live in seclusion.

He was said to have been at a similar level to Tang Cheolsan at the time, but his current internal energy was terrifyingly powerful.

Thinking he likely wouldn’t live to see tomorrow morning, Tang Cheolsan stood and made a request.

“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.”

Having come to repay kindness, only to repay it with enmity instead – he tried to at least save the young hero.

But the Blood Hand Rakshasa laughed sinisterly and replied:

“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!”

Curses, it seems this great demon has no intention of releasing the young hero!

As Tang Cheolsan despaired at the Blood Hand Rakshasa’s answer, and the Blood Hand Rakshasa slowly began applying force to his hand gripping the young hero’s nape.

“Kyaaa! S-save…”

Tsurururu!

With a strange sound, something yellow shot out from the young hero’s nape and both sleeves, rushing at the Blood Hand Rakshasa and biting into his nape and both wrists.

“Kuhuk!”

The Blood Hand Rakshasa’s skin instantly turned black.

His form slowly crumbled downward with a look of disbelief and despair in his eyes.

And the young hero asked with a very awkward expression:

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

In Tang Cheolsan’s mind, the two characters for “retainer”[3] slowly transformed into the two characters for “family member”[12].