“I’m afraid that’s all the information I have. I don’t know exactly where in Sichuan it was found. Will that be alright?”
General Maeng of the Iron Cavalry looked a little apologetic, as if he felt that his knowledge wasn’t enough to properly repay the value of the elixir.
It was true that he lacked specific details on the salamander’s habitat. But even this much was valuable—after all, having a confird sighting was already leagues better than having no information at all.
Up until now, I had asked countless people for information on spiritual beasts, yet the only person who had ever given a useful answer was the princess.
“Yes, sir. Thank you. This information is a trendous help to .”
“You’re sure that’s enough? It still feels like an inadequate repaynt for the elixir.”
“No, it’s more than enough. I truly appreciate it.”
‘Starting tomorrow, I’ll have to pester my father-in-law into putting out so feelers for information.’
First, I’d check with the fishern and those who hunted Crying Salamanders to see if anyone had heard anything about the Tiger Salamander.
If that wasn’t enough, I could always ask Beggars’ Sect for help.
I rembered hearing from Geolhwang that the Beggars’ Sect had the best intelligence network in the Central Plains. And since I had been sending him a steady supply of locusts lately, I doubted he’d refuse a favor.
As I finalized my plans, an uncontrollable grin spread across my face. Seeing this, General Maeng let out a hearty chuckle.
“Hah! Do you really like this kind of thing that much? I thought it was just a trivial story, but look at you—beaming like a child.”
His expression showed that he didn’t quite understand why I was so excited.
But how could I not be?
I may have already been raising three lizards, but lizards and salamanders were two completely different creatures.
To be honest, in Korean, both were called domaebam or dorongnyong, which didn’t sound all that impressive. But in English, salamander had much more appeal.
After all, in fantasy stories, salamanders were depicted as fire spirits—blazing, mystical lizards that embodied flas. They had a completely different aesthetic.
And more importantly, these fire lizards weren’t just fictional creatures—they actually existed.
They belonged to the newt family, a species of amphibians with sleek black bodies and striking yellow spots.
Even in my past life, fire salamanders were one of the most popular exotic pets in Europe.
Now, if this Tiger Salamander was anything like that—only much larger, with a bright yellow body and tiger stripes—then it would basically be a giant fire salamander.
‘A massive fire salamander with tiger stripes? Hell yes.’
Just imagining it made even more eager to start my search.
Right as I was grinning from ear to ear, the Governor of Sichuan suddenly spoke up.
“Hmm… If we’re talking about that kind of story, I actually know sothing, too.”
“Ooooh?! Really?!”
The Governor had information on the sa level as General Maeng?
This was turning out to be an incredible day. I perked up my ears, hanging onto his every word.
‘As expected, high-ranking people have access to high-quality information.’
Their status alone ant they had heard all sorts of things over the years.
Determined to listen closely, I straightened my posture.
The Governor chuckled as he noticed my sharp focus.
“Haha! Look at you, so eager and attentive. If you studied like this, you’d surely pass the imperial exams with flying colors.”
“Haha, indeed.”
“…”
That was a comnt I had heard countless tis in my past life.
My parents used to say the sa thing when they saw how much effort I put into studying venomous creatures.
"If you studied this hard, you could get into SNU!"
It seed that no matter the era or the world, adults always said the sa things.
As I was reminiscing, the Governor furrowed his brows in thought, recalling the details of his story.
“Let’s see… Was it two years ago? There’s a place on the border of Sichuan and Qinghai called Seokjip. Near that village, sothing strange happened.”
“Sothing strange?”
“Yes, I rember it clearly because it was such an unusual incident.”
“What kind of incident?”
I tilted my head. If he described it as strange, it had to be sothing beyond the ordinary.
The Governor’s expression turned serious as he recalled the details.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
“The livestock in the village started disappearing. One by one.”
“Livestock?”
“Yes. At first, it was just the rats. Then the chickens. Then cats, dogs… even pigs. The strange thing was that they all vanished so quietly that no one even realized they were gone.”
“That is unusual.”
It was one thing for large predators like tigers or leopards to snatch up chickens, dogs, or pigs. But rats?
That was unheard of.
Rats bred so quickly that they never simply disappeared on their own. If all the rats in a village had vanished overnight, then sothing had either scared them off or wiped them out in a way that defied explanation.
Nodding in understanding, I said, “So it wasn’t the work of a tiger or wolf.”
“As expected of soone who knows venomous creatures well—you understood imdiately.”
The Governor smiled before turning to my father-in-law.
“Tang Clan Leader, may I borrow so paper and ink?”
Hearing his request, my father-in-law nodded and had his attendants bring over a writing set.
Once the paper arrived, the Governor quickly began sketching sothing. Then, after finishing his drawing, he pushed it toward .
“This is what the military officers found near the village—a mark left in the mud by the water’s edge.”
I took the paper and examined the drawing.
It looked… vaguely like a peace symbol, except missing one of the middle branches.
More like a Y-shaped footprint.
The base of the Y seed unusually long…
‘What is this supposed to be? It looks like a ss…’
To be honest, the Governor’s drawing skills were awful.
I couldn’t tell what he was trying to depict, so I examined it more closely.
For so reason, the shape felt strangely familiar.
‘It does look like sothing I’ve seen before… But where?’
As I turned the paper around in my hands, an idea suddenly struck .
I gasped and looked up at the Governor.
“How… How big was this?!”
“That sketch is to scale.”
“W-WHAT?!”
The footprint the Governor of Sichuan had drawn was about the size of an adult’s palm.
I imdiately grabbed the paper, rushed outside, and placed it on the ground. Then, using a stick, I started estimating the full size of the creature based on the footprint.
If my hunch was right, this would be an absolutely massive find.
-Swipe, swish.
‘This must be the last segnt and the claw… If it’s this large, then depending on the species, the total length must be at least… The middle segnt should be about this big…’
As I sketched, the shape of an unidentified leg began to erge.
When I finished, the result was a grotesquely massive insect leg, roughly as thick as a human forearm.
The Governor of Sichuan’s eyes widened in shock.
“W-what is this?!”
Clearly, he hadn’t expected the owner of the footprint to have such enormous legs.
‘Well, unless you’re an expert, there’s no way you’d know.’
“This is most likely the footprint of a massive arthropod, Your Excellency.”
“An arthropod?!”
“You an… a bug?”
“You’re telling a bug has legs that big?!”
Their shock was understandable.
The leg I had drawn was about the sa size as an adult human’s arm.
Even bigger than Cho and Bini’s legs.
“It’s just a rough estimate, so there might be so variations. But it should be close to that size.”
“And since the footprint was found near water, it likely prefers humid environnts. Judging by the leg structure, it’s adapted for grasping, but not necessarily for hunting directly…
Which ans it might use venom or another thod to silently take down its prey.
And considering that it never attacked people, it might have the intelligence to differentiate between humans and animals… aning it could be a spiritual beast.”
“Hoho! So you don’t just like raising bugs—you’re completely imrsed in them, aren’t you?”
“Indeed. Just as a swordsman learns to wield a sword and understand its nature, he has mastered the nature of insects and venomous creatures.”
“Haha! I’ve never seen a talent like this before.”
The elders were openly impressed by my skills.
Feeling slightly embarrassed, I scratched the back of my head.
“Anyway, the disappearances lasted for about a month before suddenly stopping.
But by then, every single animal in the village was gone.”
“That’s terrible… The villagers must have suffered greatly.”
“Yes, it was quite a hardship for them.
So, what do you think? Is this information worth the elixir?”
The Governor smiled as he asked.
I returned the smile.
Who cared what this thing was—this was definitely more than enough paynt for the elixir.
“Yes, sir. More than enough. This is invaluable.”
Now I had two major targets—one giant insect and one giant salamander.
The real dilemma?
‘Where the hell do I go first?’
Both were way too tempting.
The giant arthropod was a complete mystery—I needed to know what it was.
But the Tiger Salamander? That thing was basically a real-life Fire Salamander, and there was no way I could ignore that.
Just as I was deeply engrossed in my wonderful dilemma, the Head of Qingcheng Sect, who had remained silent until now, suddenly clapped his hands.
-Clap!
“That’s right! There’s one more thing!”
“?”
Everyone turned to look at him.
General Maeng raised an eyebrow.
“Did you rember sothing worth an elixir as well?”
“Yes, yes! I just now recalled it.”
‘Hah! Another one?!’
When I desperately needed information, nothing ever ca up.
And now, suddenly, I was getting three leads at once?
Was today so kind of special occasion?
‘Wait… It’s not even my birthday… Maybe I should just declare today my birthday.’
I hadn’t celebrated a birthday since being reborn in this world anyway.
Might as well make today the day.
Just as I decided to ntally mark this day as my new birthday, the Head of Qingcheng Sect continued.
“A little while ago, I was asked to lend an expert tracker to the Kunlun Sect.”
“Tracking?”
“You an soone skilled in tracking?”
“Yes. Our Qingcheng tracking techniques are renowned, after all.”
“I see… It’s true that Qingcheng’s tracking skills are unparalleled in the martial world.
But why did the Kunlun Sect need a tracker?”
I hadn’t known Qingcheng was famous for tracking, but the way the elders nodded in agreent confird it. So, I just went along with it and nodded as well.
“In Qinghai Province, where the Kunlun Sect is located, there’s a desert called Badain Jaran Desert.”
“The Badain Jaran Desert?”
“Yes, it’s a unique desert filled with over a hundred lakes. So of them are even salt lakes.”
‘Oh? That’s an interesting environnt.’
A desert… but with lakes? And so of them were salt lakes?
A desert and lakes? That combination sounded incredibly unique.
Environnts like that tended to produce highly specialized creatures, so my curiosity was piqued.
Isolated ecosystems like deserts often led to bizarre evolutionary adaptations.
Barely holding back my excitent, I asked, “Is there sothing living in those lakes?”
But the Head of Qingcheng shook his head.
“No, it’s not about that.
The reason the Kunlun Sect asked for a tracker is that rchants traveling through the Badain Jaran Desert—along with their cals—have been disappearing at night.
Disappearing? In the desert?”
“Yes.
People do go missing in deserts from ti to ti. But recently, the number of disappearances has risen dramatically.
The Kunlun Sect, being stationed in Qinghai Province, had no choice but to step in.
But tracking in a shifting desert is no easy task, so they requested assistance from us at Qingcheng.”
‘rchants disappearing with their cals in the middle of the desert…’
There were no confird traces of an animal or insect yet, but if sothing was responsible…
And if it had evolved in the isolated conditions of a desert?
Then whatever it was, it had to be sothing unique.
Now, I had three paths in front of .
I sighed in deep contemplation.
Of course, I was going to investigate all of them.
But the real question was: Where do I go first?
It was like choosing between black bean noodles and spicy seafood soup.
Like deciding between Mom or Dad.
I was obviously going to enjoy all of them in the end, but picking the order was torture.
‘It’s like choosing between Hwa-eun, Cho, or Bini… This is an impossibly difficult choice.’
My head felt like it was about to explode from sheer happiness.
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