Chapter 3: . The Bird That Drinks Poison (3)

A strange standoff continued.

The frog seemed wary of the mother bird watching from behind.

Dang Sobaek pondered for a moment what exactly this situation was.

There was no way the mother bird would have brought back a living creature without reason.

In other words, ‘So this is hunting training.’

It was meant to give the chicks experience in advance, so that they would one day be able to survive on their own in the wild.

From what he had observed so far, the mother bird possessed a certain degree of intelligence.

This sort of training alone was proof enough.

Ordinary beasts did not teach hunting in such a manner.

‘If we cooperate to a reasonable degree, then it must be prey we are capable of hunting.’

That meant this poison frog, for all its fierce appearance, was likely less formidable than it looked.

The problem was that the chicks merely watched one another and waited. Not a single one of them moved.

The frog was larger than their own bodies, so it seemed they had been seized by fear.

Even the one that fancied itself the leader had gone rigid.

Just as Dang Sobaek decided that he would have to move first,

PATTER PATTER PATTER—!!!

Jim-Sam was the first to dash toward the frog.

His momentum was quite fierce.

Startled, the frog leapt up instinctively. The attack came to nothing, and at the same instant, the frog lashed out with its tongue.

Jim-Sam’s head whipped sideways as though he had been struck across the face. A small patch of his feathers had slightly changed color.

The shock had clearly been considerable, but he did not appear poisoned. As befitted a Jim Bird, his resistance to poison was remarkable.

‘There is poison on its tongue.’

Dang Sobaek coolly analyzed the frog. Its movements were swift, and its jumping power was impressive.

When he glanced at Jim-Sam, he saw that the look in his eyes had changed.

‘Even this resembles that fellow Danu.’

Having been struck once, Jim-Sam had now kindled a fierce competitive spirit against the poison frog.

Perhaps he had judged it to be a foe worth facing.

The leader, who had only been watching, and Jim-I also began to move. They surrounded the frog at the center and attacked it.

They flapped their wings and struggled desperately to peck it with their beaks.

It was a battle pitiful almost to the point of absurdity.

The poison frog sprang this way and that with its characteristic leaps and retaliated with its tongue.

Then the frog suddenly slammed its body into Jim-O.

Thrown by the difference in size, Jim-O went flying into the wall. Blood ran down from his head. Through that wound, the frog’s poison seeped in.

‘Hah...’

Jim-O staggered back to his feet. His body swayed. He did not look well.

Even a Jim Bird was not perfectly invincible to poison.

Without showing the slightest sign of fatigue, the frog lashed out once more with its tongue toward the chicks.

Jim-Sam, struck again, toppled backward, only to spring upright again like a tumbler.

‘I will have to use poison.’

Of course, because the poisons he had consumed thus far were of too low a grade, using a truly lethal venom was impossible.

Most of what he had were merely the paralysis venom of centipedes and the corrosive venom of nameless insects.

Dang Sobaek sank into thought.

The reason the chicks were being toyed with by nothing more than a frog was that they could not keep up with its movements.

Even in the martial world, there were always those whose footwork was particularly swift and nimble.

The way to deal with such opponents was simple.

‘Restrict their movement.’

Naturally, that was easier said than done. Trying to bind the legs of something fast was much like hanging a bell around a cat’s neck.

But Dang Sobaek could do it.

The key was how to poison it.

Without joining the battle, Dang Sobaek lay in wait with his presence hidden. He quietly took position behind the frog.

As he remained still, the leader’s gaze turned savage.

“Cheep!!!”

It was as though he were demanding to know what Dang Sobaek thought he was doing just standing there.

‘Tch, you fool.’

Because of that, the frog’s attention shifted toward Dang Sobaek. It had just made a high leap and was descending for its landing.

‘Now.’

The frog had already noticed him. If he let this moment pass, he would have to wait a long time before another opportunity presented itself.

Dang Sobaek precisely calculated the instant the frog touched the ground and drove his beak into its back.

SSSSIZZLE—!

His beak sank in and fixed itself firmly. The corrosive venom melted the tender flesh, and immediately after, he expelled a stream of paralysis venom.

The frog’s pupils widened, and its movements gradually stiffened.

The opening was brief, but—

“CHEEEAAAK—!!!”

It was more than enough for a hunt.

At Dang Sobaek’s signal, all the chicks rushed in and savagely pecked at the frog.

Its body was torn apart with almost cruel brutality. Its legs were ripped away, and its flesh split open. Before long, it stopped breathing altogether.

Their first hunt had succeeded.

Outwardly, Dang Sobaek had done little more than peck it once with his beak, but the mother bird’s gaze grew deep.

The way she looked at Dang Sobaek had changed.

She seemed to have noticed that he had used poison.

The mother bird approached and shoved the chicks aside. Then she personally divided the frog into five portions and handed them out.

The largest share went to Dang Sobaek, and the smallest to Jim-I.

‘Hah, so the portions are distributed according to merit...’

Dang Sobaek let out a quiet murmur of admiration.

Was this not much like the way of the Dang Family?

Differential treatment according to ability. That had been one of the ways the Dang Family had grown, and one of the forces that drove it forward.

The Jim Bird and the Dang Family had strangely many similarities. For a fleeting moment, he even wondered whether that was why the family had chosen the Jim Bird as its symbol.

“Cheeak—! Cheep!”

Jim-I cried out in dissatisfaction. Apparently she thought her portion was far too small.

But what came back to her was nothing but the mother bird’s merciless punishment.

After a light peck to the head, Jim-I retreated sorrowfully into a corner.

“Cheeak....”

Then she quietly ate her share.

Watching that, Dang Sobaek quietly tore into the frog and ate.

It tasted similar to chicken. It had not been seasoned in any way, nor had it even been cooked, yet it was excellent all the same.

And more than that,

WHOOOOSH—the portion Dang Sobaek had eaten contained the frog’s venom gland. Poisonous energy surged into his body like a rising tide.

‘Kuh—!!’

Dang Sobaek suppressed a groan. The poison was stronger than he had expected, and there was a considerable amount of it as well.

His body staggered, unable to fully contain the force.

The mother bird was watching Dang Sobaek with shining eyes.

‘Had she thought even this far ahead?’

He was briefly flustered, but it was fine.

Over time, he had come to grasp the blood vessels and meridians of the Jim Bird to some extent.

Dang Sobaek calmly circulated the Myriad Poisons Ghost Art. He guided the energy according to the formula and meticulously removed its impurities.

The dregs were expelled outward through his skin. After that, he left the remainder to flow naturally through his blood vessels and meridians.

The drawback to this method was that a great deal of poison was lost in the process, ‘but forcing control over it is still impossible at my current level.’

For now, this was the best he could hope for.

Poisonous energy spread throughout his body. It was the same sharp ecstasy he had come to know well. His body trembled.

At last, the refined poison settled within the Poison Sac.

‘Barely one-tenth, is it?’

There was still an absurd amount of empty space left.

If he was to continue devouring countless poisonous creatures and refining their venom through the Myriad Poisons Ghost Art, it would take a very long time.

At the very least, ten years. Perhaps more.

‘Whew...’

Once he had completed every step, Dang Sobaek let out a sigh. The mother bird flapped her wings, wearing a pleased expression.

That made sense. Even a Jim Bird could not control every poison from the very beginning.

If the others had eaten this, one or two of them might well have died of poisoning.

They still did not know how to handle poison.

‘I am beginning to adapt to this body as well.’

At first, the thought of living in the body of a bird had filled him with despair, but now it was not as bad as he had imagined.

There was also the fact that he could investigate the Jim Bird’s venom, which he had never encountered before, and the poisonous creatures his mother brought back were filled with species even Dang Sobaek had never seen in his former life.

Dang Sobaek felt all the more keenly that he needed to study the Jim Bird as a creature, and poison itself, in greater depth.

***

Another month passed.

The hierarchy changed.

Jim-O died.

He seemed to have survived the frog’s poison, but his wound festered beyond all measure, until maggots boiled within it, and he died from the resulting complications.

It was a truly absurd death.

There was another major change as well.

Jim-I now followed Dang Sobaek alone with complete loyalty.

There were several reasons for that.

Dang Sobaek shared food with her each time, and he protected her whenever the leader bullied her.

There had been such an incident.

As always, the mother bird made them undergo hunting training and distributed the prey according to their contribution.

But then,

“Cheep!!!”

The leader, believing his own share too small, tried to snatch away Jim-I’s portion.

Presumably because she seemed the easiest target.

What he did was no different from a pack of mountain bandits. Once cornered, his mask had come off.

Dang Sobaek silently watched the scene. The ecology of these insignificant beasts was little different from a miniature version of the martial world.

After that, Jim-I had her food stolen every single time. She resisted in her own way and fought back, but all of it was useless.

As her share was taken from her again and again, she wasted away with each passing day.

Even then, the mother bird did not interfere. This too followed the law of the strong devouring the weak.

‘Tch.’

Jim-I spent her time crouched in a corner like a person sunk in deep melancholy.

She no longer participated actively in the hunting exercises. After all, it was obvious her share would only be stolen again, so she had no will to try.

At most, she wandered now and then through the corners of the cave, or opened her mouth to catch the droplets that fell from the ceiling.

Drip— drip.

‘Hah... you are making me pay attention to you.’

Dang Sobaek watched her for the better part of seven days and nights, then approached her while carrying food in his beak.

She was all but skin and bone.

Dang Sobaek looked at Jim-I and, finding her overlapped with the memory of his own childhood, hesitated. In the end, he tore off a portion of his own share and gave it to her. Jim-I stared at him with startled eyes.

‘Hmph. Though whether a beast can truly understand a debt of gratitude is another matter.’

There was more than pity and sympathy behind Dang Sobaek’s action.

He also had a plan of his own.

He intended to reorganize the hierarchy.

He would make Jim-I his subordinate and seize the leader’s place.

It was, in a sense, a political act.

If he left her alone, Jim-I was certain to starve to death. No, before that, her strength would fail, and she might lose her life to prey during the hunt.

As always, the leader came forward to steal the food, and Dang Sobaek stepped directly into his path.

“Cheep? CHEEEAAK???”

The creature let out a cry of complete confusion. Dang Sobaek was still smaller than the leader in size.

But during every hunt, he had proven his ability. He handled poison freely and attacked the prey’s weaknesses with his beak.

The leader knew that fact very well.

That was precisely why he had not provoked Dang Sobaek until now. If he lost, he would lose far too much.

“Begone.”

Whether it would truly be understood or not, Dang Sobaek cried out with that intent.

What came out in actual sound was, as always, little more than a series of chirps, yet the leader seemed to understand.

A savage scowl twisted his face.

He stamped his feet and flapped his wings. Several of his silver feathers, now far deeper in color than before, scattered through the air.

“Cheep! Cheep! CHEEEAAAK!!!!”

After huffing and raging for quite some time, the leader finally turned away.

That was how Jim-I became Dang Sobaek’s subordinate. Because of that, the leader’s standing became exceedingly ambiguous. In effect, he had become something outside the hierarchy, much like Jim-Sam.

Jim-I yielded the sunny spot to Dang Sobaek, and whenever she caught insects in the cave, she shared them with him.

Even today, she brought him a locust-like insect.

She had likely developed her own means of survival while having her food stolen by the leader all this time.

It was not the mother bird’s ‘hunting training,’ but real ‘hunting.’

‘Jim-I must have particularly keen senses of smell and hearing.’

Swallowing the prey, Dang Sobaek thought as much.

To catch insects in a cave like this, that had to be the case.

‘It is not a poisonous creature, but...’

A strange energy was mixed within it.

It was unlike the prey he had eaten up to this point. It was not even as large as one of his feathers, and yet an odd sense of fullness welled up within him.

Dang Sobaek stroked his beak with his wing and considered the reason.

‘It contains qi?’

The insect Jim-I had caught possessed a faint trace of qi. Could a mere insect, no larger than a fingernail, truly carry the very qi that formed the source of inner power?

According to the old texts, beasts that possessed qi were called demon beasts, or spirit beasts.

In other words, this insect was a creature with the aptitude to grow into a demon beast.

The Jim Bird likewise accumulated, together with poison, the qi of the natural world within its Poison Sac. In that regard, it was not so very different.

Perhaps the reason the mother bird possessed such intelligence was not merely because she had lived long, but because, compared with the chicks, she had accumulated far more qi.

Of course, that was still only speculation.

Dang Sobaek finished his meal in satisfaction and stared fixedly at Jim-I.

Perhaps burdened by that gaze, Jim-I scratched at her head with a wing.

And so, another year passed.

***

Every single day, the mother bird brought back living poisonous creatures.

Spiders, scorpions, vipers. She did not discriminate by species.

Four times a day, they fought battles that placed life and death on the line.

At first, it was frogs.

That had not been especially difficult.

They had already hunted them once before, and their skin itself had been soft.

But after that, each fight truly demanded their lives.

The webs spat out by the spiders were stickier than pine resin, and the scorpions’ carapaces were so hard that their beaks could not pierce them.

Most of all, the tail strikes of the vipers were powerful enough to shatter bone.

They lashed their bodies like whips and smashed the ground. Each time, pits were gouged into the earth.

And yet, the more surely they overcame those trials, the more they grew.

As they grew, however, their outward forms changed little by little as well.

First, there was Jim-Il, the one who had originally been the leader.

True to his underhanded disposition, he mainly handled nerve poison. He fought by making appropriate use of both his natural physical strength and his poison, which was not a poor approach.

Then there was Jim-I, who had become Dang Sobaek’s subordinate.

Unexpectedly enough, her talent awakened toward lethal poison. Since she was timid by nature, she likely sought to subdue her opponents through poison itself.

Accordingly, the color of her feathers gradually deepened, until they became a dark violet that looked dangerous even at a glance.

Jim-Sam was somewhat peculiar. The nature of his poison resembled Blood Poison, one of the Dang Family’s secret arts. Once inflicted, it caused continuous bleeding.

By contrast,

Dang Sobaek possessed no single distinguishing characteristic.

That was only natural, because unlike the other Jim Birds, he could process and use poison in different ways.

At times, nerve poison.

At times, lethal poison.

At times, Blood Poison.

He used each according to the demands of the moment.

On top of that, he had even refined White Bone Powder, Seven Nights Sand, and Bloodsea Powder.

The materials were insufficient, so they were still little more than degraded versions, but they were more than enough for hunting.

Lately, he had been considering whether there might be a way to use poison by means other than his beak.

At that moment, the mother flew into the cave.

“?”

There was neither prey in her beak, nor a beast meant for hunting training.

Her air was strangely different from usual.

She came further inside and herded them toward the cave mouth where the light streamed in.

Dang Sobaek looked down from the cave.

It was magnificent.

A forest stretched endlessly below.

It was a feast of green.

‘Namman?’

But he soon shook his head. It could not be Namman. The vegetation was different.

Quite apart from that, the cave itself was near the summit of the mountain.

Below it yawned a sheer cliff thousands of zhang deep.

If one fell, death was certain.

Suppressing a groan, Dang Sobaek took a step backward.

He still had not learned how to fly.

But then,

THUD—!!

As Dang Sobaek retreated, the mother shoved him forward.

“?”

In an instant, he lost his balance and plunged over the cliff. There was nothing beneath his feet.

‘Y-you damned creature—’

A savage curse burst from Dang Sobaek in his panic.

The resistance of the air pressed hard against him.

The ground was drawing nearer.

That day, Dang Sobaek made a vow.

If he ever regained his power, he would commit the gravest act of filial impiety.