The lantern flickered violently inside the tent, as if mirroring the shock of those present.
A flurry of urgent questions followed.
“What… what is this? It doesn’t seem like the blood creature you ntioned!”
“So-ryong, what exactly is this? Do such bizarre insects really exist?”
“It looks absolutely grotesque!”
Elder Tang Mu-seong, Tang Cheolsan, and Taeheo all stared at , their eyes wide in disbelief as they looked at the drawing I had made.
Their expressions clearly conveyed the sa thought—Does such a thing even exist in this world?
Well, I couldn’t bla them. The cal spider’s appearance was truly monstrous.
It looked like sothing straight out of an alien horror movie.
With two pairs of pincers protruding from the sides of its face, an elongated oval-shaped abdon, and spindly legs, it resembled the kind of parasitic alien creature you’d expect to see in a sci-fi film.
If soone had told it was a creature from Mars and not Earth, I might have believed them.
But that wasn’t the problem.
The real issue was that my expert prediction had turned out to be slightly off, making look a little foolish.
Avoiding their stares, I coughed and rubbed my neck.
“Ahem… well, you see…”
I had confidently declared it was a scorpion, only for it to turn out to be a spider.
Those bastards from the Five # Nоvеlight # Venoms Clan really screwed over this ti. They had Deathstalkers, so why the hell would they send a cal spider?!
If you’re talking about iconic desert venomous creatures, the Deathstalker scorpion is the gold standard! These guys had no sense of grandeur.
And to make matters worse, the cal spider wasn’t even venomous!
My frustration spiked.
Never mind anything else—this was an outright crisis for my credibility as an expert.
Just then, Tang Hwa-eun’s voice ca from behind .
“Is it a Wind Venom?”
She entered the tent, shooting Bini a slight glare.
It seed Bini had sneaked out and brought sothing back.
But my ears perked up at the term Tang Hwa-eun had just used—the cal spider’s alternative na in the Central Plains.
That was interesting.
After all, this was a spider that wasn’t exactly a spider, and yet they were calling it a scorpion.
“Wind Venom?” I repeated.
“Yes. It’s called Wind Venom because it moves as fast as the wind. So regions in the west call it the ‘Sun-Avoiding Spider’ since it hides in the cracks of rocks and sand during the day.”
Oh-ho!
Since taxonomic classification wasn’t fully established in this world yet, the Tang Clan seed to have categorized the cal spider as a type of scorpion.
Honestly, given its resemblance to desert scorpions, I could understand how people in this era might see it that way.
At a glance, its appearance was different, but its exoskeleton and coloration were similar enough to scorpions to cause confusion.
Thanks to Tang Hwa-eun’s words, my credibility as an expert was salvaged just in ti.
With a completely composed expression, I nodded.
From now on, the cal spider would forever be known as Wind Venom—for the sake of my professional dignity.
“Yes, that’s right. Wind Venom. Fast as the wind. Indeed, incredibly fast. No doubt about it.”
There was a perfectly good reason why the Tang Clan called the cal spider Wind Venom.
It was one of the fastest creatures among arachnids—no, among all insects.
Despite living in the desert, the cal spider boasted astonishing speed.
A five-centiter-long cal spider could sprint up to twelve to fifteen tis its body length per second.
That ant a tiny five-centiter spider could cover 60 to 75 centiters in a single second.
With that kind of speed, it was only natural for it to be nad Wind Venom.
In fact, on average, a cal spider could travel 16 kiloters per hour across the desert.
Of course, it didn’t scale proportionally, but in theory, if the creature were to grow to one ter, it would be capable of moving at 320 kiloters per hour.
A racing car among arthropods—that was the cal spider.
Wait a minute… that sound I heard earlier—!?
Realizing this, I suddenly understood what that strange noise had been when I arrived here.
I had dismissed it as the wind rustling through the grass, but in reality, that eerie noise—
It must have been the sound of a cal spider running.
Due to seasonal winds that shift directions rapidly, gusts often blew strongly for a while before suddenly dying down.
A westward breeze had abruptly stopped…
Now, the mystery of the disappearing cals and missing people was starting to make sense.
The reason why no traces were left behind beca clear.
Oh-ho. I see it now…
This wasn’t just an attack—it was an abduction.
The creature must have rushed in at high speed, bitten its prey, and bolted away.
At night, cal spiders moved almost silently.
Their bodies were covered in fine hairs, and when they ran, these hairs made contact with the ground before their legs did.
Because of this, they left almost no tracks and could sprint across any terrain, be it sand, gravel, or even shallow water.
So, in the dead of night, if a cal spider had dashed in and snatched a person or a cal, it would have happened in an instant, leaving no evidence behind.
Furthermore, cal spiders didn’t leave behind bodies.
They used their razor-sharp pincers to crush their prey, then dissolved the flesh with digestive fluids—leaving no remains at all.
Just as I finished piecing together the mystery—
The voices of admiration rang out.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
“Oh! So it really was a blood creature! Incredible.”
“Amazing, So-ryong!”
“Incredible, So-ryong.”
“Haha… well, I am an expert, after all.”
I awkwardly responded to their praise, but then I noticed sothing…
The atmosphere in the tent had changed.
Everyone had an expectant look on their faces.
It was as if they assud the problem would be solved imdiately.
“Well, now that we know what it is and how to find it at night, we should be able to catch it in no ti.”
“Exactly! We spent months chasing shadows, but in just a single day… As expected of an expert!”
“As expected of my brother!”
But… the cal spider wasn’t a scorpion.
It was not an easy target at night.
I let out an awkward cough and explained,
“Ahem. We’ve identified it, but… catching it might take a few days.”
“Hm? Why is that?”
“Is there a problem?”
Their expectant smiles faltered slightly.
I nodded.
“Most blood creatures glow in the dark, making them easy to track at night. But Wind Venom doesn’t emit any light, which ans… it will take a lot more ti to find it.”
“So… Wind Venom doesn’t glow?”
“No, at least not to human eyes.”
The group hesitated for a mont.
But Tang Mu-seong’s people were rational optimists, and they quickly adapted to the new situation.
“Well, there’s got to be a way, right?”
“So-ryong is an expert. Surely, he has a plan!”
Wait… is my credibility rising this fast?!
This was turning into a real challenge.
I needed to co up with a thod quickly—
My professional reputation depended on it.
***
After the commotion of the night had settled, I woke up early in the morning and walked alone to the plains outside the village.
I needed to figure out how to catch the cal spider that sprinted across the open fields like a locomotive.
If it were a small one, I could just craft a net and capture it. But to catch a giant spider that moves like a sports car, I needed a different approach.
First, I analyzed my surroundings.
Alright, this is a high-altitude plateau. Knee-high grass everywhere. Dry climate, but with scattered lakes and puddles. A wide, open field.
It seed that Qinghai had a much higher elevation than I initially thought.
Even so of the Kunlun Sect mbers had asked if I was feeling lightheaded.
Of course, since we were martial artists, we weren’t as affected by it, but ordinary people here suffered from altitude sickness.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t useful information for catching the cal spider.
Altitude sickness is an acute reaction caused by moving to a low-oxygen environnt.
But cal spiders were highly efficient oxygen users, aning this had no effect on them.
Their grotesque speed ca from their highly efficient respiratory system.
Humans breathe through their noses, sending oxygen down the airway into the lungs, where oxygen is exchanged with carbon dioxide in the red blood cells before being transported throughout the body.
It’s a complex and indirect process.
However, cal spiders had three breathing holes on the underside of their abdons, which directly injected oxygen into their muscles.
By inhaling through these openings and delivering oxygen straight to their muscles, they could utilize oxygen much more efficiently than humans, enabling their insane speed.
So high altitude only affects us, not them…
If the terrain had a canyon or so other natural bottleneck, I could try herding it into a trap.
But this was an open field, covered in knee-high grass—hardly useful for trapping such a fast creature.
As I stood alone, staring at the vast plains, deep in thought, Tang Hwa-eun’s voice called out from behind .
“So-ryong, are you thinking about how to catch it?”
After spending so much ti together, she could tell just from my expression that I had yet to co up with a solid plan.
But she smiled reassuringly.
“Well, we’ll just have to think of sothing.”
I glanced around and noticed sothing.
The children were nowhere to be seen.
I had co out quietly, and no one else had followed .
“What about the kids?” I asked.
“Oh, Sister Seol is watching them.”
At that mont, my mind flashed.
Now’s my chance!
The cal spider was important, sure.
But wasn’t I also a man in the middle of a budding romance?
I an, I can think about sothing else for a mont, right?
We weren’t married yet, but with the kids constantly around, we never had the chance to act like a proper couple.
Slowly, I moved closer to Tang Hwa-eun.
“W-why? S-So-ryong, your f-face looks strange….”
What do you an strange?
This was the face of a love-starved man!
As I crept forward, trying to take her hand—
Suddenly, my ankle got caught on sothing.
And I toppled right onto her.
“Ugh.”
“Kyaa!”
When I ca to my senses, I realized I was pinning her down.
She lay beneath , her face red as she turned her head to the side.
“So-ryong… y-you’re so impatient…”
No!
It was a misunderstanding!
I had just been trying to hold her hand, but my foot had gotten caught on sothing!
But from her flustered expression, she looked like she was expecting sothing.
As I was contemplating whether young n should really take things slow—
–Sluuurp?!
A voice suddenly echoed behind .
Startled, I looked up.
Cho had crawled out, his eyes gleaming with curiosity.
He was staring at Tang Hwa-eun and as if he had just caught us doing sothing scandalous.
His bright, sparkling gaze practically scread, What are you two doing?
“N-no, it’s nothing! Ah, um… Daddy tripped, and Mommy caught him!”
“Y-yes, Cho, that’s exactly what happened!”
Tang Hwa-eun quickly nodded, scrambling to her feet.
Still feeling flustered, I turned to see what had tripped .
Sothing was odd about the grass.
I crouched down and examined it.
The ends of the grass were tied together.
“What the…?”
“Oh! U-uh, nomadic tribes do this sotis to tie up their horses. It’s just a temporary thod.”
Tang Hwa-eun seed flustered as well, speaking a little too eagerly to cover up her embarrassnt.
And at that mont—
A brilliant idea struck .
I just need to trip the damn thing!
If I tied the grass together in a spot where the cal spider was likely to pass, then reinforced it with Yo-hwa’s silk, I could set up a perfect trap.
What if it tripped at full speed?
That would hurt a lot.
Yes, that sounded like a very painful fall.
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