Chapter 745: A Dangerous Scent (8)

The pieces I had only been suspecting started falling into place one by one, until in the end they pointed to a single conclusion.

Now that I had a result, I decided to explain the current situation to my wives and work out countermeasures together.

If what I was thinking was true, then there were far too many things we would need to watch out for, so making preparations was essential.

And even if my guess turned out to be wrong, the same still applied.

This was not something I could casually ignore even if there was only the slightest chance.

As long as it concerned the people I loved, it was something that had to be addressed no matter what, and even if it ultimately turned out to be groundless worry, there was no harm in being careful.

<“Everyone, gather up. Hwa-eun, Ji-ryeon, Hye-rin, Yo-hwa, and senior sister, all five of you. Ah, Soto, you come too.”>

“Do you have something to say, my husband?”

“So-ryong, did you figure something out?”

Kishit. (Yo-hwa is ready to listen too, brother.)

“Junior brother, is there something you want to talk about?”

Other than Yo-hwa and Soto, they were all nearby, so if I wanted to, I could have called them together in person.

But what I was about to discuss was not idle chatter or a routine report.

It was the sort of conversation that could not be allowed to be overheard and, if possible, was best left without any record at all.

On top of that, Sua was still nearby, and I still did not fully trust her. And there was no knowing whether some higher existence might be listening in somehow.

The cultivation world was vast, and there were plenty of abilities within it that we knew nothing about.

So first I gathered my wives and Soto, my purse-spider, into our group chat, briefly explained to Soto what had happened, and then told them the conclusion I had reached.

<“...That’s how it is.”>

After I finished explaining, silence hung in the air for a moment.

It seemed each of them was taking time to digest what I had said, because no one spoke right away.

The first to break the silence was Soto.

“So then?”

“Yeah. I think I figured out why Sua’s acting like that. It looks like Jayo and Zihwa are probably natural enemies of dragons.”

“Natural enemies?”

“You mean enemies sent down by heaven?”

“If they’re natural enemies, then is it like the relationship between So-ryong and the Blood Cult?”

At the mention of natural enemies, Hwa-eun immediately thought of the Blood Cult.

She was talking about what had happened with the Blood Cult back in the lower world. Apparently, she still remembered what I had said about being the Blood Cult bastards’ natural enemy.

Well, there was no way that would be something Hwa-eun could forget.

A man throwing away his life for her and her clan—what woman wouldn’t fall for that?

And on top of that, I had barely been a newbie to martial arts, yet I still took down a Blood Cult elder, an old monster so steeped in experience he had gone past ripened and straight into rotten. That multiplied the effect several times over.

And the way I had shouted I am your natural enemy! at the end? That had really been the finishing touch.

Any woman would have been done for in a situation like that.

‘Ah, So-ryong, you devastating man. Your sins run deep.’

Feeling my shoulders lift slightly with pride over my past achievements, I continued the explanation.

<“Hmm. That’s not exactly wrong, but more precisely, a natural enemy is the kind of predator a mouse cannot fight back against when hunted by a hawk, or a small insect cannot resist when hunted by a mouse.”>

“A predator!?”

“Then you’re saying our cute little Jayo eats dragons!?”

The one most shocked by my explanation was Gun Hye-rin.

Her voice was thick with bewilderment, and apparently she cared for Jayo much more than I had realized.

Judging by how horrified she sounded at the thought that Jayo might eat something like a dragon, she looked like she wanted to say, Our baby only feeds on morning dew.

I snorted and shook my head.

<“No. Well, this is the cultivation world, so it probably isn’t a matter of literally eating them and drawing strength from that. It’ll probably become clearer once Zihwa wakes up, but for now, think of it as dragons being afraid of them.

Judging by how terrified Sua was even though this was her first time seeing Jayo, dragons probably won’t be able to do a thing in front of Jayo or Zihwa. This kind of fear only forms after being subjected to something over a very long time.”>

“So Jayo is cute and strong enough to make dragons tremble. That suits the eldest child of our Wei family perfectly.”

Gun Hye-rin said that in a happy voice after hearing my explanation.

As someone from the Heavenly Demon Cult, a place that worshiped strength, the fact that Jayo could make even dragons shake in fear seemed to please her immensely.

From Gun Hye-rin’s point of view, it was basically no different from hearing that our child was a genius.

Everyone was sending the sort of warm amusement only adults could feel, and then, at that moment—

Soto, who had been quietly listening to the whole conversation, spoke.

<“So-ryong, though... if we think about it only that way, doesn’t something feel a little off?”>

Apparently she thought something was strange.

<“Strange? What is?”

“From what Lady Zihwa told me, she said she alone was born looking like that among her kind. That means she’s something that never existed before.

You said fear like this only develops after enduring something for a long time, but Lady Zihwa is a spirit-creature that only came into existence not that long ago, and didn’t she say she spent her whole life trapped inside a cage? It doesn’t seem like she would ever have met anything like a dragon.”

“Ah...”>

When Zihwa had spoken about her mother before, she had definitely said it.

That she alone had been born looking like that among her kind.

And because of that very reason, she had no choice but to live trapped inside a cage.

It had been explained that, born in a form unprecedented among her species, she had become an object of fear and endured a long stretch of time cut off from the world inside a tiny cage.

If that was the case, then it meant Zihwa had never even had the opportunity to encounter dragons and instill fear in them in the first place.

A spirit-creature that had spent its entire life inside a cage could not possibly have left behind any memory strong enough to become imprinted in dragons.

Even so, that did not make the possibility vanish completely.

There was still the possibility that Zihwa’s father or mother—or ancestors before them—had been natural enemies of dragons.

Zihwa may have been the only one born looking different, but even if the appearance was different, wouldn’t the abilities or traits inherited from her parents still be able to pass down through the bloodline?

Even if appearance changes, temperament can still resemble one’s parents, and even if outward form changes, the power held in a bloodline does not disappear so easily. That was only natural.

I calmly organized my thoughts and spoke to Soto.

<“Couldn’t Zihwa’s father or mother originally have been that kind of spirit-creature?”

“No, junior brother. I’ve never heard of a spirit-creature like that.”

“I’ve been reading books about the Middle Heavens and Upper Heavens too, and I’ve never seen any mention of spirit-creatures that dragons fear.”>

Senior sister had lived here for a long time.

And Soto said that none of the books she had read mentioned any such spirit-creature either, so I grabbed my chin and fell into thought.

I had heard that Soto had been gathering information about the Middle Heavens and Upper Heavens lately.

Since those were places we would be heading to eventually, she wanted to be helpful.

But if neither senior sister nor Soto knew anything about it, then something really was strange.

<“Then what the hell is it?”>

That was while I was brooding over it for a moment.

Ji-ryeon’s voice came.

<“I’ll ask Plain Maiden, Dark Maiden, and Rainbow Maiden. Just because the two of them don’t know doesn’t mean everyone doesn’t.”

“Ah, right. There was that option.”>

She was right.

Senior sister specialized in the Nine Heavens, and the books Soto had read could only ever remain within the boundaries of knowledge that someone had written down and left behind.

If something had never been recorded—or had been deliberately erased—then it would have been impossible to find it in books from the start.

Plain Maiden, Dark Maiden, and Rainbow Maiden, on the other hand, were beings on an entirely different level.

Their knowledge did not come from books. It came from memories and experience accumulated over the years they had actually lived.

They were beings whose eyes and ears encompassed the cultivation world as a whole, so there was no way they would not know stories that had never made it into books.

So Ji-ryeon said she would ask Plain Maiden, Dark Maiden, and Rainbow Maiden about the details, and as she finished speaking, Hwa-eun spoke in a careful voice.

<“Even so, we should still be careful regardless.”

“That’s right. Quite apart from whether this really is because that dragon named Sua is frightened of Jayo, the strangest thing is still that Lady Zihwa’s down feather came out of the pouch that dragon said she received from above. It is definitely Lady Zihwa’s feather, right, So-ryong?”

“Yeah. Judging by the scent, it’s definitely Zihwa’s.”>

Soto agreed with Hwa-eun’s opinion that we had to be careful no matter what the reason was.

Whether they really were natural enemies, where Zihwa’s bloodline originated from, whether any of these suspicions were true—none of that had been settled yet, so there was nothing we could afford to be optimistic about.

But caution, at least, was necessary.

The down feather of Zihwa that Sua had been carrying.

That was basically the same thing as a wanted notice.

A montage.

Back in the Central Plains of the lower world, they called it a montage when the authorities recorded a criminal’s face and distinguishing features in picture and writing, and the Zihwa down feather that some high-ranking dragon had given Sua felt as though it served a remarkably similar role.

Just as the authorities would draw a face on paper and scatter it through the marketplace, someone had likely put Zihwa’s down feather in Sua’s hand and ordered her to find the owner of that scent.

The form might differ—drawing versus feather—but the purpose was clearly the same: to track someone down and find them.

There was no way Sua was the only one ordered to report it to those above if she detected a similar scent.

The dragons were basically living wanted posters.

<“We need to keep Jayo from being exposed outside.”

“Definitely. If they’re handing out down feathers in place of wanted notices, then Jayo absolutely cannot be exposed outside. She’s still just a small child.”

“That’s right.”>

We still were not certain whether Jayo or Zihwa were truly natural enemies of dragons.

But before even getting into that question, everyone agreed that hiding the two of them came first.

Natural enemies or not, the fact that someone was searching for Zihwa had already been confirmed.

She had never told me the exact reason, but Zihwa absolutely refused to stand beneath the open sky.

She always stayed indoors, in the shade, or in spaces heavily covered by a roof, and every time she turned her back on the open sky, there had been a strange edge to her expression.

Up until now, I had thought that was because of others of her own kind, or because of the other birds Nine Heavens Hyeonnyeo had mentioned.

I had assumed that Zihwa, who had lived in a cage after being treated as something alien by her own species, hid herself in order to avoid the eyes of her own kind.

That had been the most natural interpretation.

But although we still needed to confirm the facts further, it was possible that it was not only her own kind she had been hiding from, but dragons too.

Gun Hye-rin, who had been listening to our discussion, spoke up.

<“But there’s something I don’t understand. If they’re clearly afraid of Zihwa or Jayo, why are they trying to find them?”>

That was definitely a strange point.

To be honest, that part had been bothering me too.

Judging from Sua’s reaction, Zihwa and Jayo were clearly beings dragons feared.

The moment she saw Jayo for the first time in her life, Sua had gone rigid all over and become terrified.

That fear had not been acted out, nor exaggerated.

It was the reaction of an instinctive memory built up over a very long time.

So why would they deliberately try to find beings they feared?

From everything revealed so far, the most likely conclusion was that dragons and Jayo or Zihwa stood in the relationship of natural enemies. Like mice and cats.

But then mice were the ones looking for cats?

That was not something that would happen unless they had gone insane—or had a reason.

Why would they deliberately search for something that would make them piss themselves just by standing in front of it?

The more I thought about it, the less sense it made.

‘Unless they’re trying to put a bell around the cat’s neck. Wait.’

The moment I thought of putting a bell on a cat’s neck—

a thought occurred to me.

Not avoiding something fearsome, but instead finding it first in order to control it or eliminate it.

It was not impossible, even in nature, for prey to track down its predator in reverse.

Just as a small venomous creature might strike at the predator hunting it before it is attacked, they might have been trying to get rid of Zihwa while she was still weakened after falling to the lower world and crawling her way back up.

A time when her strength had not yet fully returned would be the best possible moment for them to make a move.

“Hmm. We could think of it this way.”

“Think of what?”

“They might be searching for fallen Zihwa in order to deal with her before she regains her strength, in case she crawls back up.”

“...”

Silence flowed through the group chat.

And a moment later, Hwa-eun’s calm voice rang out.

<“For now, Jayo should stay only in Dokmul-hyang. The rest of us and the other children can take turns watching over her in small groups.”

“I’m counting on you, Hwa-eun.”

“Yes. Don’t worry about the household, my husband.”>

We needed to make everything more certain, but for now, the point was that we had to hide Zihwa and Jayo somehow.

Until we learned why they were being searched for, what this was really about, and whether they truly were natural enemies, we absolutely could not let dragons discover either Zihwa or Jayo.

Just in case.