< Snow, Ice 4 >
When my older sister answered that she knew someone who had the ice jade, I was about to ask who that was.
-Kkuku.
The sound of a lizard croaking beneath your feet.
When I looked down at my feet, two yellow eyes were looking at me as if asking me to hurry up and get treatment.
Thinking about it, we were so caught up in the conversation among ourselves that we neglected the patient’s guardian.
I apologized to the guy looking up at me from below and told him that I had to hurry up and get him treated.
“I’m sorry I’m late. Did I keep you waiting? I’ll have to treat Seok-Cheok first and then we can talk about the rest. I’ve been waiting for you. This kid.”
“That’s really amazing. Seok-Cheok understands people so well.”
“Okay, Little Dragon. Let’s treat that child first. He looks like he’s in pain.”
First, I crouched down and showed the seeds to the guy and explained to him.
“I’ll plant this seed first. Okay?”
-Keep going.
Even if it doesn’t grow any further here, if it still has some energy, it would be right to replant it.
This should be enough for the two of them to survive until they can get the ice jade that could be their food.
So, I decided to plant the seeds of Seol-sam back under the rock for now, and then take a closer look at the sick guy.
I couldn’t look closely earlier because of the other guy.
When I briefly checked earlier, it definitely looked like a lizard that could cut off its tail, but I wasn’t able to confirm it properly.
The reason I checked the tail like this was because I said I was cutting the tail, but strictly speaking, I was planning to induce self-destruction and not cut it myself.
What this meant was that rather than me cutting off the tail with a knife, I was going to trick the lizard into cutting off its own tail.
When a lizard cuts off its own tail, it is called autapism, but some species cannot do this, and while most lizards are known to regenerate their tails, some cannot.
A creature that can self-mutilate but cannot regenerate.
A creature that cannot self-destruct or regenerate.
Because lizards have various characteristics, such as being able to self-mutilate and regenerate.
We commonly believe that all lizards lop off their own tails, but this is not actually the case.
That’s why we’re looking after our tails so diligently.
The tip of the tail was rotting away, so it definitely had to be amputated, but if it couldn’t be cut off, it would have to be cut off raw. That would be a dangerous thing to do, to be honest.
Self-truncation is a procedure that is done on one’s own, so there is relatively little burden when cutting it, but cutting off the tail of a sick child raw is a serious matter that can result in the death of the child, so it must be checked without fail.
As I was touching the tail of the sick guy here and there, I heard my sister’s questions.
“What are you doing, Little Dragon?”
“Oh, I was checking the part where the tail is cut off.”
“Is this the part that gets cut off?”
“Yes, it’s called the Talijeol (脫離節). There’s a part where the tail is supposed to be cut off, so we look for it.”
“Tallijeol? So you mean a part that breaks away?”
Lizards that can sever their tails have one thing in common: there is a segment on their tail that is meant to be cut off, called the talus.
The talus is thought to be a specific area on a lizard’s tail that is meant to be amputated, and when stimulated, the muscles there contract specifically to cause the amputation.
There is a septum to prevent bleeding, the blood vessels contract rapidly so no bleeding occurs, and the connective tissue itself is divided into segments so it is easy to separate.
“Yes, it may seem like the lizard’s tail breaks off anywhere, but that’s not true. The lizard’s tail has a set spot where it breaks off.”
“Ahhh… It wasn’t something that just broke off anywhere.”
I smiled at my sister’s answer and examined her tail for a moment to see which part was broken.
And after a while, I felt about three points on the guy’s tail.
‘Probably three places.’
“Did you find it? The little dragon?”
“Yes, I think there are about three. That’s fortunate.”
“I didn’t know much about lizards because they don’t have poison, but how does Soryong know so much about these things? It’s amazing.”
If the tail was a little rotten, I would have tried to save it as much as possible, but since it was almost half rotten, I planned to cut it off as close to the buttocks as possible in case the rotting part spreads.
‘It’s better to try to save your tail a little than to die.’
“Okay, then let’s begin.”
-dream!
I’m sure you also got consent from the patient’s guardian.
I informed the guy looking at me that the surgery was starting and started performing the surgery.
Even if you call it a surgery, it’s only as simple as taking out your thumb and index finger.
First, I found a location where I thought the teardrop was and pressed it firmly with my thumb and index finger.
If you apply enough pressure like this during the talus lizard’s life, it will break off its own tail.
This happens almost automatically, which is why you have to be very careful when raising lizards.
Sometimes, the tail breaks off when you grab it without thinking, or it breaks off when the male touches it during mating.
It is said that lizard tails can regenerate, but that does not mean that they are completely restored.
First of all, the regrown tail has no bones and is usually smaller than the original tail.
There are also some that don’t grow.
As I focused on the sensation at my fingertips while applying a little force, I began to feel a strange sensation from inside the lizard’s skin.
It feels like my pulse is pounding.
Something seemed to be pulsating inside the tail skin, and then a sound of something tearing was heard.
-Squeak.
And then immediately, the tail began to fall off the body, as if it were being pulled out by the roots from the inside.
Muscles visible through the gaps in the lizard’s slowly spreading skin.
Eventually, the leather completely fell off.
There was almost no blood and it came off very cleanly.
The house was also a success.
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The motionless guy opened his eyes slightly, then closed them again, as if he felt no pain.
-Padadak
A lizard’s tail wiggling on the ground as soon as it falls.
I noticed muscles rising up from the same cut section, almost like a magic wand.
If it had been healthy, it would have been shaking like crazy for a while, but since it was half rotten, its tail soon wagged weakly.
I lifted the wagging, severed tail and examined its cross-section.
To see how far the tail rot has progressed.
If it had progressed any further inward, it would have been a big problem.
This was because when the surface was half-rotten, it often progressed farther inside along the bone.
When we look at the cut cross-section, we see that the muscle has already turned gray all the way to the root of the last joint.
The original cut tail’s cross-section should be a translucent pink with a hint of blood, but it has already turned gray.
If I had been just a little bit later, it would have eaten into my body.
“Okay. It’s nothing, right? Just lick the tail well so it doesn’t rot. We’ll be over there, so if anything happens, come call me.”
-Keep going!
We asked Bing-i, who we couldn’t call by her name yet, to take care of Seol-i, and we turned around and quickly headed back to the campsite.
Now that the inflammation in his eyes and tail has been removed, he’ll slowly start to recover, and I needed to get that ice jade to ensure he’ll have enough nutrients to regenerate his tail.
“So, Miss Hwa-eun, who has that ice jade?”
I asked my sister, who was walking, before I even reached the campfire.
Then, from my smiling older sister’s mouth, I heard an answer that made me feel embarrassed.
“Um… What should I say? Oh, right. Maybe I should say another kind of grass?”
“yes!?”
“The Bingok belongs to Lady Namgung Seol, the daughter of Namgung Ga, the Flower King Moran, one of the Three Flowers of the Murim.”
“hmm···.”
Sister, it seems like you have more of a lingering aftertaste than I thought.
Why on earth would a craftsman tell you that···.
***
After two days, the guy who had been lying down finally came to his senses.
It seemed that the inflammation that had caused him to lose consciousness had been removed and his condition had recovered.
-Kkuku!
-Kkuk!
Let’s go to the rock shaped like a human, which is the guys’ treasure trove. The guys happily welcome my sister and me.
One of them, which had become accustomed to us for a few days, ran towards the rock like a puppy.
‘Crazy, a lizard puppy. If this was a past life, the views would explode.’
This guy’s overall appearance is similar to that of a fat-tailed lizard or gecko, but because it is quite large, it also resembles a pine cone lizard.
The sick guy reached out to the healthy guy, as he was not fully recovered yet.
Then, a cold sensation is felt along with the roughness of the bumps on the head.
‘Ah, this is the charm of lizards.’
I asked the guy, delighted at the sensation of my lizard for the first time in a long time.
“How have you been?”
Now, he’s a guy who stays still even when you stroke his head.
My sister cautiously reached out her hand to me, but strangely, the boy flinched and looked at her.
-dream!?
“Why… are you avoiding my hand?”
Although the older sister spoke as if she was upset, it seemed like Bing-yi was searching for something with his eyes.
I mainly looked around my sister’s shoulders, but since I saw my sister holding Wukong a few days ago, I rolled up my sleeves and showed her Wukong.
-Kyaaah!
Then the guy got startled and backed away from my hand.
As expected, the guy was surprised when he saw Wukong and stepped back.
“Maybe the Wukongs thought that Lady Hwaeun was there.”
“I don’t have it. It’s something that Soryong originally had.”
My sister who sold me out just to touch herself so fatally.
When his older sister rolled up her sleeves and reached out again, the boy put his head in her hand.
And when his older sister gently scratched his chin, the boy closed his eyes tightly as if he felt good.
Now, human hands have become somewhat familiar and all their wariness toward us has disappeared.
I told the guys that I had to get Bingok as soon as possible.
“We should go back now.”
-Huh!?
-dream!?
Then the guys opened their eyes wide in surprise.
The sick guy looked so surprised that his eyes widened, so I smiled at him and explained.
“Of course, I’m not going completely, I’m going to go get something to eat for you guys. Seol-sam, I told you that you won’t grow any more.
So what I’m saying is, you probably won’t be able to continue living here. If we get you something to eat, would you like to come with us?”
The two blue lizards looked at each other at my question.
***
Sacheondangga returned, leaving Bingi and Seol-i behind.
While we were away, quite a few pieces of news arrived at the party.
The biggest incident, of course, is the one related to the Blood Cult.
There was news that they had caught Sibi, a spy of the Blood Cult who had infiltrated the Murim Alliance, and raided the hideout that the Blood Cult members had made right in front of the Murim Alliance.
Even under severe torture, the spy did not open his mouth, but followed the owl that the concubine was raising and found the hiding place.
And the news also included information about the use of poison by Hobanyusha that I had discovered.
We first extracted the poison from the bloodthirsty beasts we captured and sent it to the military. When we raided the hideouts of the Bloodthirsty beasts, the poison from the bloodthirsty beasts produced significant results.
There was also news that the decree of the leader had been dropped and a proclamation had been spread to the blood cultists throughout the Central Plains.
“The leader sent a personal letter of thanks. I am very proud of you, So-ryong.”
And what arrived at Sacheondangga was a letter of thanks from the leader.
I thought the military had delivered the compensation they had promised, but they said it would take some time to gather the data.
After the rough conversation was over, the craftsman asked.
“By the way, did you catch the stone? I should go to the poison tank and see what it looks like.”
“Actually, I caught it, but should I say I only caught half of it?”
“Halfway?”
“Yes, and here’s how it happened······.”
I explained to the craftsman the story about Bing-i and Seol-i and about Bing-ok.
Then, the father-in-law, like a well-to-do family, tries to save her somehow.
“It’s a Bing-ok. It’s hard to get, but I’ll look into it. Don’t worry.”
The older sister spoke in a cautious voice at the craftsman’s words.
“Father, I have something to tell you about Bing-ok. Actually, I know someone who has Bing-ok.”
“Are you talking?”
“Yes, Father. So I’m thinking of going with Little Dragon. Is that okay?”
“The timing is not good. Where are you planning to go?”
The older sister answered the craftsman’s question with a charming smile.
“It’s Anhui Province where the Nanggong family is located.”
“Namgung Se-ga?”
“Yes, I saw Lady Namgung Seol holding the ice jade.”
The father-in-law, who was slightly troubled by his sister’s answer, made a suggestion to us after a while.
“Hmm… Then would you like to run an errand for me on the way? I have something to deliver on the way.”
A craftsman who asks you to run an errand on the way.
At first I thought it was going well, but then I had a slight thought at the craftsman’s request.
‘Are you paying for the errand?’
I’m still old enough to be paid for running errands.
