Fabre in Sacheondangga Episode 158
Inhale 6
Hwa-eun initially agreed with my opinion that she doubted the O-dok-mun.
Although it was simply due to geographical characteristics.
Assuming that it was really the work of the Odukmun, if you throw a few lice into the many ships passing through the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River on a dark night, you can quickly spread the lice throughout the Central Plains.
‘Delivery of bedbug in the Central Plains by boat… That’s possible. After all, boats are one of the main means of transmission of infectious diseases and pests.’
Even based on past lives, it was a valid opinion, as the ship was one of the best means of spreading pests and infectious diseases.
But it was a completely different story that I thought Odukmun was involved in this matter.
As the thoughts that came to mind became more concrete, Seol’s sister cried out in surprise when she heard Hwa-eun agree.
“Really!? Then shouldn’t I report this to the Tang family and the Murim Alliance right away!?
No, man, there has to be some concrete evidence.
“Even if Hwa-eun is like that, why does Ryong think that way? Explain why quickly!”
Seol’s sister asked her to explain why she was suspicious.
I began to explain to my sister Seol, who was gasping for breath as she asked me why I suspected the Odukmun.
“Sister Seol, calm down and listen carefully so I can explain why I think that way. The small bugs we know are originally bugs that parasitize the bodies of flying mice bats and suck their blood.”
“Secretary? Flying? The secretary I saw in the cave?”
“Yes, but as people began living in caves or eating secretaries, the worms moved to humans and began sucking the blood of people larger than the secretaries.”
Bedbug is a general term for blood-sucking insects in the Cimicidae group, but when people usually refer to bedbugs, they are referring to the scientific name Cimex lectularius.
These bedbugs originally originated as parasites of bats, and scientists speculate that they jumped from bats to humans and became parasites of humans, just as I explained to my sister-in-law.
Since these creatures do not eat any other food and only feed on blood, humans would have been a much better prey than bats.
“Hmm… I guess so. It would definitely be better to live among people who are bigger and have more blood than bats.”
“Yes, that’s the reason, just as Sister Seol said. People are much more attractive than small bats to those who can’t eat anything else but blood. Those who jumped from bats to humans, although they sometimes drink the blood of other animals, ended up eating mostly human blood.”
“The lice mainly feed on human blood, huh? They are very small and don’t have any poison, so the family hasn’t done much research on them, but I’ll have to listen carefully and write it down in the family register.”
Seol-niu listened to my explanation with an amused expression, unlike before when she was anxious.
He looked back and forth between Hwa-eun and Seol, then turned his gaze to the large dead lice in the village and continued his explanation.
“And now this big bug is not much different from the small ones we usually find at home. In fact, it’s the same guy.”
“Huh? No way? You’re saying they’re the same guy?”
“Yes, maybe. Hwa-eun.”
“No, Ryong-ah, why is there such a difference in size?”
Hwa-eun and Seol blinked in surprise at the mention of the two guys being the same.
There was such a huge difference in size that it was hard to believe it was the same guy.
But it was clear that the two were the same.
I checked it carefully, and the difference was so minimal that it was completely identical.
There were only differences between individuals in the length of the antennae, body length, and shape of the needle, but there was no difference in proportion or shape at all.
“They’re the same guys, just bigger. And that means their food is blood. Human blood, to be precise.”
“I know that because I confirmed that it was crawling around at night trying to suck people’s blood···.”
Even after telling her this much, Seol still hasn’t noticed anything strange.
I asked them both again.
“Think about it. Have you ever seen or heard of such a big bug?”
“No, I’ve never seen or heard of it.”
“Me too. Little Dragon.”
The two looked at each other and shook their heads together.
He asked the last question with a smile.
“I said that these guys mainly feed on human or animal blood, right? But if these big guys were in the Central Plains from the beginning, how did they survive all this time?
“They feed on human blood and are so big, so why is this the first time we’ve seen them?”
“ah!”
“Ah! I see!”
Now that the stones had figured out what I meant, they looked at each other and nodded, so I gave them a little more explanation.
“If I may explain in more detail······.”
First of all, the reason why we can’t help but think that they didn’t come from nature is because, as explained to the two of you earlier, bedbugs are parasites that only feed on blood.
Although they do occasionally feed on animal blood, bedbugs are parasites that primarily feed on human blood, so it was inevitable that they would go unnoticed by people if they were that big.
If it were a parasite that threatened human life, it would have already been known to people.
No, maybe I didn’t know.
This is possible for ordinary people who do not know much about insects in this day and age.
But still, one of the three of us had to know.
What kind of people are the three of us gathered here?
I am the spicy Fabre, who was called the walking encyclopedia of poison, the snow leopard of the Nanman Beast Palace, and the Tang Hua-eun of the Sichuan Tang family.
Perhaps this is the dream team of our time, related to animals, insects and poisons?
‘You could say they’re the best team of experts of this era. Of course.’
I’m a newbie in this martial arts world, so I might not know anything, but don’t you know that there’s Seol-Pyo Nui of the Nanman Beast Palace, who has the most encounters with wild beasts in this world, and Tang Hwa-Eun of the Sichuan Tang Family, who is the best at dealing with poison?
This was ridiculous.
If it had grown that large, human blood alone wouldn’t be enough, and then beasts would have to attack it as well, so Seol Nui should have known about it, and if it had that kind of paralyzing poison, Hwa Eun should have known about it.
Is that all?
There was another strange thing.
Even if bedbugs of that size really existed, they would be ridiculously large.
It wasn’t simply a matter of it being too big.
Leaving aside genetics, a bedbug is a parasite that feeds on human blood.
But what do you call a parasite that is large enough to kill its host?
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From an evolutionary perspective, parasites need to stick to their hosts as secretly as possible, suck their nutrients, reproduce, and leave behind offspring, but they kill their hosts?
This is already evidence of evolutionary failure beyond the category of parasites.
How can it be natural for them to kill their own means of survival?
Even viruses that are fatal to humans usually have a higher infection rate but lower toxicity if they keep killing their hosts.
So, such a huge lice could not have happened without human intervention.
“······For this reason, it was inevitable that a person would intervene, and it would be impossible for someone in the Central Plains to do something like that···.”
The correct answer comes out when you let your luck run wild at the end.
“It’s a misreading.”
“As expected, it’s just those guys who read the wrong language.”
Hwa-eun and Seol’s eyes light up as they listen to my scientifically-based reasoning.
They both praised me and said I was great.
“As expected, it’s a little dragon.”
“Little Dragon, you’re amazing! This sister sometimes thinks you’re a prodigy.”
‘No, what, a prodigy… By the way, if you include my past life, I’m a 40-year-old prodigy. Is that right? And I’m still in the middle of my growth spurt, but I’m only fifteen… Wait a minute. Growth? Huh!’
That was when.
As I awkwardly laughed at the compliments from the two, one thing occurred to me.
He spoke with a serious expression, as it seemed that something unimaginable had happened.
“But if it was the work of Odokmun, then something even more terrible than we thought might have happened.”
“It’s a terrible thing. Little Dragon?”
“Something terrible? It already happened? Aside from the bugs swarming?”
The two of them opened their eyes wide and asked again at the words, “What’s the terrible thing?”
I nodded to both of their questions.
“Weren’t all the bugs that came yesterday adults?”
“Those guys were all adults? What does that have to do with anything horrible?”
“Is it an adult? A dragon?”
Seol’s sister continued to ask what being an adult had to do with something terrible, but I had reasons to suspect that something terrible had happened.
“The adult of the cicada······.”
Bedbugs can suck blood as soon as they hatch, but they do not die if they do not suck blood.
The subadults of insects that undergo incomplete metamorphosis are called nymphs. Nymphs can survive for two to three months without feeding on blood, while adults can live for up to a year without feeding on blood.
However, bed bugs must molt five times to become adults, and to do so, they must feed on blood.
This is because bed bugs cannot grow from juveniles to adults if they do not feed on blood every time they shed their skin.
If all the guys that came yesterday were adults, that means they sucked blood five times somewhere, which means there may have been a mass slaughter of animals and people.
Judging by the amount of food the guys ate and the number of people that came yesterday, they probably need more than one or two people or animals.
“······So, in order to raise them into adults, you’ll need quite a bit of human or animal blood, which means···.”
The expressions of Hwa-eun and Seol, who could not bear to continue the terrible story, frowned as they trailed off.
Both of them agreed with what I said.
“If it’s those Odokmun guys, then they’ll just stay like that.”
“If I think about it now, I guess there’s still more to come.”
And then Hwa-eun’s question followed.
“By the way, where did they come from? They don’t look like they were grown and planted anywhere.”
“Um… Well. There’s a mountain in the back and a river in the front. I don’t think there will be any houses nearby.”
That’s when we kept asking each other questions like, “Where did those guys come from? Where did the blood come from?”
I heard a cautious voice calling me from the side.
“Hey, Little Dragon?”
When I turned my head, Itaewon, who had approached me without me noticing, was looking at me with a cautious expression.
“Oh, do you have anything to say?”
“Hey, that···. That’s not what I was trying to hear···.”
Itaewon, who can’t speak rashly even though he’s just crying.
Sister Seol said angrily, as if she was frustrated.
“Ah! Tell me quickly! I’m so frustrated!”
Then, the frightened Lee Tae stammered and answered.
“Poem, didn’t I say that we belong to the Jang Gangsu River?”
“Oh, you heard that?”
“Yes, in fact, the heroes of the Central Plains···.”
“What kind of thieves are the heroes···”
Seol’s sister, who is quick to snap at those who call themselves heroes.
At those words, Itaewon’s expression became like he had chewed shit, and he continued speaking with a pout.
“Yes, that… The bandits can be broadly divided into three groups. There’s the Dongting Eighteenth Group (洞庭十八寨) based in Dongting Lake, our Changjiang Shuiluchai Group (長江水路寨), and the Green Forest Seventy-Two Group (綠林七十二寨).”
‘No, why are there so many thieves? Is it because the land is so big that there are so many thieves?’
I was very shocked to hear that there were ninety bandit leaders, excluding the Jang Gangsu River.
This wasn’t about the security of the Central Plains.
“Well, what about that?”
“Here, beyond the mountain behind us, don’t you see that mountain over there? Ha… This is right… Is this okay?”
Itae refers to the large mountain beyond the small mountain from which the bedbugs came down.
As he nodded, Lee Tae muttered something that seemed like an unbecoming loyalty, and Seol Nui’s eyes burned once again at those words.
“Tch!”
Itaewon’s words continued again at Seol’s sister’s tongue clicking sound.
“Yes, that’s a place called Seok Hwang San (石黃山). There’s one of the seventy-two green forests, San Chae! If you go over one more mountain and cross a narrow river, there’s a government office. They’re the ones who operate there.
“A large group of bandits, about three hundred in number, were looking for something like a house nearby…”
Judging from the number of bedbugs that came yesterday, it doesn’t seem like there are even three hundred of them, but anyway, it’s not like there aren’t any places where people live, like houses.
“I think we should investigate it anyway···.”
As I muttered that I probably should look into that place, Seol said with a gloomy expression.
“Where are you going? I have to stop the guys who are coming tonight… Ha… I don’t want to.”
It seemed like he was worried about the guys who would come tonight, but he was planning on having some quiet time today.
“You don’t have to worry too much today, Sister Seol.”
“Why!? What good idea do you have?”
Sister Seol is delighted by my words.
He replied with a smile.
“It’s not a spirit, it’s just a bed bug. It can’t swim and it can’t cross water.”
The terrain we are in is a protruding terrain.
When Bin returned, he planned to construct a waterway across the protruding terrain from the mountain.
And come to think of it, we had a natural pesticide.
If you sprinkle that water that Hwayang is splashing, what will happen to that bedbug?
