Chapter 3 – Blue-Spotted Centipede (3)

-Boom!

-Kaboom!

“What a disaster…”

The world-shaking noise that woke me up in the middle of the night.

It was the fourth night since the guests had left for the search.

From far away, in the direction of the rocky mountains, sounds of rocks colliding and breaking were beginning to be heard, accompanied by loud noises.

“Just told them to search slowly, and they’re breaking rocks and throwing them? Don’t these people know about environmental protection? They should protect the habitat so others can also collect!”

Collection meant borrowing temporarily from nature, and especially, the habitat must always be protected.

No matter how urgent it was because of his daughter, it seemed like about thirty people were set on completely destroying the habitat.

“But, did they have explosives or dynamite?”

In this small village on Haenam Island, after waking up from a coma, to make a living, I settled down in an abandoned pipe in these mountains and lived by catching and selling snakes, so I knew nothing about this era.

I just assumed it was one of the Song, Yuan, Ming, or Qing dynasties.

That’s why the sounds I was hearing now were a bit surprising.

Sounds of breaking and exploding that couldn’t naturally occur were being heard.

The sounds that were coming now seemed like they couldn’t be made without gunpowder.

‘When was gunpowder developed in the Central Plains?’

So, I was starting to think that maybe this wasn’t too far in the past compared to my previous life.

Really, if there were centipedes bigger than humans like the men said, it would be a different world.

And between such thoughts, I felt like I should check out the habitat once the day broke.

I thought I should see how much the habitat had been destroyed.

Someone who knows should protect the habitat, as habitat protection might be a distant concept for people of this era.

Well, even if there’s a small one, I should pick it up…

Centipedes are very fascinating creatures.

Though it was said they were big enough to eat me, I couldn’t be scared after having gone after a Black Mamba.

About an hour must have passed?

-Swishhh.

Suddenly, a downpour began.

With the falling rain, the sounds of something exploding and breaking in the distance began to quiet down.

The rain probably made it impossible to use more gunpowder, hence the quietness.

Now, it seemed like I could finally fall asleep to the lullaby of the pouring rain.

“Is it over?”

-Tick tick.

Soon, the sound of crickets chirping from a jar started, and I decided to go back to the bed to fall into a deep sleep again.

Soon, a heavy rain poured down, and another quiet night in the remote mountains, no different from yesterday, began again.

***
-Huff Huff.

The exhausted warriors of the Tang family were lying on the ground.

The surviving warriors were sprawled on rocks, drinking the rain pouring down, and Tang Cheol-san, the Heavenly Poison Scholar, was fixing his broken arm with cut bamboo.

“Is your arm alright?”

The owner of the voice that asked was Tang Cheol-san’s father, the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons.

Tang Cheol-san smiled in the rain and replied.

His arm was broken, but now that they had caught the Blue-Spotted Centipede, he was smiling with the hope that his daughter could be saved.

“Yes, it’s just broken.”

“To think a low-grade Blue-Spotted Centipede would be this much trouble. If the rain hadn’t slowed it down, we all might have lost our lives.”

His father’s words made his smile fade.

His father was right.

Incredible speed and strength.

The ability to precisely detect the warriors’ positions even in the dark night.

And the powerful poison that melted everything it touched.

Although recorded as low-grade in The Compendium of Venomous Creatures Under Heaven, the Blue-Spotted Centipede was an extraordinary venomous creature, making the term ‘low-grade’ seem inappropriate.

Despite warnings to be careful, two of the family’s warriors met their ends, unable to adapt to its speed, and three more were poisoned.

Fortunately, the three who were poisoned could save their lives by driving out the poison with Realgar and my father’s poison techniques, but if the fight had dragged on, not just those three, but the fate of the rest would have been uncertain.

Despite being enveloped in protective qi, my arm broke instantly when I threw myself to save a warrior who was ambushed during the fight.

The secret blades and hidden weapons of the Tang family didn’t work at all against its tough shell, and we barely managed to kill it by crushing its head when it slowed down due to the rain.

“At least we caught it, that’s good. Now, we need to see how substantial the inner core we can save our Hwa-eun with is.”

Beyond the exhausted warriors of our family,

the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons was smiling as he approached the giant centipede, lying upside down on a rock and twitching its legs.

***

-Swishhh.

When I woke up in the morning, the rain hadn’t stopped.

Based on what I had observed over the past few years, this period is the rainy season with a lot of precipitation.

Occasionally there are downpours, and sometimes it rains for days, but the rain that started last night seemed like it would last for a while.

The sky was packed with dark clouds, and the raindrops were quite heavy.

This meant I might have to postpone my plan to check the habitat.

I had intended to inspect the habitat that people had destroyed after breakfast, but with this rain, it seemed best to avoid going out.

Living alone, if I caught a cold, I would have to suffer alone for several days, and then who would feed my little darlings?

Breeders must take meticulous care of their health.

Because breeders are responsible for the creatures they raise.

Two more days passed, and then one morning.

-Tap. Tap.

An unidentified tropical bird was chirping beautifully from the roof of the abandoned pipe, and droplets of water were falling from the broken eaves.

It was a morning where the sun finally showed itself through the clouds, with noisy sounds of birds and insects.

I had been eager to visit the habitat, and it seemed like a good opportunity.

‘A new species!’

An adventure to find a centipede with blue spots on its body, referred to as the Blue-Spotted Centipede.

It seemed possible today.

I hadn’t just been idling around the last two days.

I had prepared thoroughly.

First, I put a relatively intact small jar in a sack made of twine so I could carry it on my back. I also prepared ropes made of straw, fire starters, and two torches made of branches.

Just in case I had to enter a place like a cave.

The centipede species called Scolopendra gigantea, also known as the Amazonian giant centipede or Peruvian giant centipede, was one of the largest centipede species in the world in my previous life.

These gigantea centipedes were known for climbing cave ceilings to catch birds or bats, so I prepared ropes and torches for this reason.

I thought the large centipede might have similar habits.

“Everything is ready. So, shall I go and check it out?”

I slung the jar on my back and quickly headed towards the rocky mountains in the west.

After crossing several swollen streams due to the rain, I arrived at the not-so-high rocky mountain.

Although the rain had washed away many traces, as soon as I reached the base of the rocky mountain, I could instantly tell what kind of mess these people had made in the habitat.

From afar, a part of the mountainside looked like it had been hit by a bomb.

The rocks had tumbled down from the middle of the mountain to the bottom, and even now, muddy water that started from a hollowed-out part on the mountainside was flowing down to the base.

“Good grief! They’ve practically done a major construction job here.”

Since it was still wet, I carefully climbed the mountain, making sure not to slip on the rocks.

First of all, even if I searched for the new species later, it was necessary to check how much they had destroyed the habitat.

After about thirty minutes of climbing to the middle of the mountain, I couldn’t help but shudder.

Reaching the middle of the mountain, I extracted something bright red stuck between the rocks…

It seemed to be a leg of a centipede.

A bright red leg about 40 centimeters long.

It was a gigantic leg, about as thick as a hundred-won coin.

‘Was it real!?’

Honestly, I was skeptical about it being large enough to eat a person.

It’s common knowledge that for insects or arthropods to grow larger, a high oxygen concentration is necessary.

That’s why, in eras like the Carboniferous Period of the Paleozoic Era with high oxygen levels, mayflies as big as sparrows or cockroaches the size of cats, and dragonflies as large as eagles could exist.

The oxygen concentration of this era didn’t seem that high.

It was similar to my previous life when lighting a fire.

But seeing this leg, I understood.

If the leg was this size, surely the centipede would be big enough to eat me and more.

I was overwhelmed by the size of the leg, and goosebumps rose on my skin.

I wondered just how big the creature with such legs would be.

-Gulp.

‘Should I go back?’

Even though it’s a new species, the size was enough to give me the creeps and consider turning back.

However, after a moment of hesitation, I thought it was right to check if there were any smaller ones since I had come this far.

It seemed impossible to keep one, but I at least wanted to see it alive and moving.

Today might be the best chance to see it alive.

Centipedes have a thin cuticle, so when it rains, their bodies get wet easily. When wet, centipedes struggle to breathe.

Therefore, the most docile moment for a centipede is right after the rain stops.

Now is the relatively safest time to search for a centipede.

So, I thoroughly searched the area around where I found the leg and the dug-up ground.

After a brief search, beyond the collapsed dirt inside the dug-up area, I found a hole big enough for a person to crawl into.

“It seems like this is the place…”

I couldn’t help but hesitate in front of the burrow.

Centipedes usually lead solitary lives.

They have territories and typically fight when they encounter each other.

But not all species are like that.

The only exception, the Korean King Centipede.

Those creatures, when housed together, rarely fight.

Therefore, if the owner of the leg I picked up came from this burrow, there might be other centipedes inside.

Or it could be completely empty.

If it’s empty, it’s not a problem.

It’s a bit disappointing, but I did pick up a leg anyway.

However, if there are other centipedes inside…

That would be slightly, no, significantly dangerous.

But my hesitation didn’t last long.

-Huhu.

Soon, I found myself taking out a fire starter and lighting a torch.

In my previous life, I died while searching for the ten great venomous snakes, and I thought to myself that it would take a while for me to really come to my senses.

‘This damn curiosity. No, the curiosity of a dead man.’

-Whooosh.

I lit the torch and carefully crawled into the hole.

Holding the torch in front of me, I hoped that it would be safe enough.

Crawling through the damp tunnel soaked from the rain, about five meters?

The tunnel widened.

Just as the tunnel seemed to expand, a cavern appeared, along with a musty, moldy smell.

I stood up and checked the ceiling first, worried that a centipede might jump down on me.

Honestly, I was quite nervous after seeing that leg.

After inspecting the ceiling, I pushed the torch forward to illuminate the inside of the cavern.

Then, far inside the cavern, I started to see something yellow, about the size of a handball, piled up in heaps.

“Jackpot!”

An exclamation burst out uncontrollably.

Shiny and round in shape.

Those handball-sized objects were undoubtedly the eggs of the gigantic Blue-Spotted Centipede.

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – 에르훗]

[Translator – Roshi]