“Go fetch a spoon and some water.”

“Yes, Elder!”

While I was still struggling with what kind of bastard could’ve done this to people, the Immortal of Herbs calmly asked the child’s mother to bring water and a spoon.

Once she returned, he broke the Boheoldan into eight pieces, stirred one of them into the water, and slowly poured it into the child’s mouth.

Gulp, gulp.

The medicine trickled down the child’s throat.

As four of the eight pieces went down, the child’s breath began to ease. The blackened fingers and toes gradually began regaining their color.

They didn’t return to normal completely, but the darkness noticeably faded, and the rest of the skin regained a healthy hue.

It all happened in the span of a single teacup’s time.

‘So this is why he’s called the Immortal of Herbs?’

The Boheoldan he crafted worked so well it might as well have been a blood transfusion pack.

“Oh... Their hands are regaining color!”

I couldn’t help but marvel as I watched the child’s symptoms improve in real-time.

The child’s mother, overwhelmed with emotion, grabbed the child and cried out,

“M-My Chusam!? Chusam, sweetheart! Can you hear me? Chusam!”

She seemed to be hoping her child would respond now that their condition had improved.

“Calm down. It’s still too early for them to regain consciousness.”

“Then... they’re not fully cured yet!?”

“We’ll have to wait and see. The child’s been in a state of blood deficiency for a while. But their life’s no longer in danger, so take a deep breath. If we’d been even a little later, it would’ve been fatal.”

“T-Thank you. Thank you, Elder!”

“Calm yourself and take this pill. Then go gather the rest of the villagers. We’ll prioritize the most urgent cases first.”

“Yes, Elder!”

The Immortal of Medicine handed her a Boheoldan and assured her safety. Apparently, he thought her symptoms weren’t minor either.

After she chewed the pill and swallowed, just like the child, the dark rings around her eyes faded, and her cheeks flushed with new color.

Wide-eyed, the woman exclaimed,

“My headache’s gone! And the ringing /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ in my ears is gone too!”

So—headache and tinnitus, both gone.

“It really was a matter of blood deficiency, then. Go now. Gather the villagers.”

“Yes, Elder. I’ll be back soon!”

Once she left, the Immortal of Herbs turned to me.

“So-ryong, I didn’t finish explaining earlier. About ischemia.”

“Oh, right. Please continue, Grandpa.”

“Ischemia refers to when the body lacks enough blood, so extremities like fingertips and toes turn black. That’s why the Boheoldan restored the child’s blood color.”

“So it’s a condition caused by a lack of blood in the body?”

“Not a disease, exactly. More like a symptom. You see it in people who’ve bled heavily—wounds from blades, for instance.

When there’s not enough blood circulating to reach the ends of the body, the fingers and toes start turning black.”

‘Ah, it’s like a form of oxygen deprivation at the extremities, right? That makes sense. If the blood supply is too low, oxygen can’t reach the tissues.’

From the explanation, ischemia seemed like localized hypoxia due to a lack of blood—meaning the darkening of fingers and toes was the sign of those tissues beginning to die from lack of oxygen.

While I was chewing over that explanation, the Immortal of Herbs suddenly said,

“But something’s strange, isn’t it?”

“Strange? What do you mean?”

We knew the symptoms. We knew the treatment. So what was odd?

“So many people showing ischemia—that’s what’s strange. This usually only appears in people with severe vascular damage or those who’ve suffered heavy trauma...

If there’s no other cause, then So-ryong... you might be right.”

“About what?”

“An intelligent beast.”

“...Ah.”

At that, the Immortal of Medicine nodded as well.

“I agree. There’s no way so many people suddenly became blood-deficient at the same time. We’ll need to check the others, but neither the child nor the mother shows signs of any other illness.

So something must be draining their blood.”

It seemed both elders were now convinced it wasn’t a disease or contagion.

There wasn’t a single known illness that could cause such widespread blood deficiency in a population.

When the Immortal of Herbs had brought out the Boheoldan, I’d already started suspecting it... so I nodded silently.

‘I’d guessed it might be a spirit beast...’

“Disciple, did you examine the corpse?”

“Yes, Elder Brother. There were no signs of livor mortis.”

“Livor... what?”

I tilted my head. I’d never heard that term before.

The Immortal of Medicine explained,

“Livor mortis is the purplish or dark red mottling that appears when someone dies. Normally, people think a corpse turns pale all over, right?”

He had once said I had talent for medicine and offered to teach me. I told him I was only interested in treating animals and spirit beasts, not humans.

The two elders had been visibly disappointed.

So instead, they’d started casually teaching me little things in conversation—just like this.

I pretended not to notice and responded,

“Yes, isn’t that what usually happens? The face turns pale after death.”

That’s what most people believed—death causes the heart to stop, and the face loses color.

That’s why pale faces are often compared to corpses.

“That’s only the upper half of the body.”

“The upper half?”

“Yes. When a person dies, the blood stops circulating and drains from the upper body—but where do you think that blood goes?”

“Ah...”

Right. Just because circulation stops doesn’t mean the blood disappears.

It remains inside the body, and over time it pools and coagulates, turning dark red or purple.

“The lower part of the body becomes mottled with a purplish color. That’s what livor mortis is. Most people only see the upper body and assume the whole corpse is pale.

But if a body dies hanging upside-down, the face turns dark red or purple.”

So now I understood what livor mortis was. Which meant—if there were no signs of it...

Then there wasn’t a single drop of blood left in the body.

Without blood, there was nothing to settle and create those telltale stains.

That meant something had continued sucking blood even after death.

Until nothing was left.

‘That’s... not good.’

Of all the spirit beasts I’d encountered, none had ever been this cruel.

Most spirit beasts were innocent by nature.

Just look at my own kids—pure, cute little things.

At first, I thought this might’ve been a case of bad intel from Lee Tae, but after what happened with Geumdo, I’d realized it might be a spirit beast who had no other option.

When I heard villagers were suffering from anemia, I thought maybe it was like Hwayang’s case—stranded and desperate, with no choice but to feed on human blood to survive.

Even when I learned someone had died, I wondered if it was accidental—maybe they overfed due to hunger.

But I was wrong.

This wasn’t desperation. This was intentional.

The creature knew humans died when drained. It likely understood death. And still... it didn’t stop.

It had sucked every drop, knowingly.

That wasn’t something a spirit beast would do.

‘This bastard’s just like the bedbug thing from the Five Poisons Sect... Wait a sec. No... maybe it’s not even a spirit beast?’

Just as I was branding it the worst kind of creature...

It occurred to me—it might not be a natural-born spirit beast at all.

It could be an artificial one—like the ones created by the Five Poisons Sect.

Considering the intelligence and behavior of the spirit beasts I’ve met so far, there’s no way they could be this vicious.

‘No way my spirit beasts would do something like that. If this keeps up, spirit beasts might end up with a bad image. I’ve got to resolve this.’

My dream is for spirit beasts, venomous creatures, and humans to live happily together.

But because of how they look, their size, and people’s prejudices, my kids still had to avoid human eyes and only roam around at night.

If something this serious—where a person has died—were blamed on a spirit beast, then the time when my kids could openly walk around the world would only be pushed further back.

‘I need to figure out what kind of bastard it is—start by finding clues.’

So first, I decided to look for clues to figure out what kind of bastard it was.

“Grandfathers, I’m beginning to think it might not be a spirit beast after all.”

“You think there might not be a spirit beast? Why’s that?”

“Yeah, something this bizarre wouldn’t happen unless it was a spirit beast, don’t you think?”

The two of them tilted their heads, confused, since I’d said earlier it might be a spirit beast, and now I was saying it wasn’t.

I explained to them why I thought otherwise.

“Spirit beasts are highly intelligent and don’t harm humans unless absolutely necessary. But sucking someone’s blood until they die? That doesn’t make sense.”

-Sssrrrt. 『That’s right!』

Even Hyang, who was disguised in armor and listening to our conversation, seemed to agree.

“Hmm...”

“That so, huh?”

The two of them stroked their chins and fell into thought. In the meantime, I decided to check the child to clear up the misunderstanding.

“Let’s check the child’s body first. If blood was sucked, there should be a wound. Just by looking at it, I can roughly tell what kind of venomous creature or spirit beast it was.”

“Understood.”

“We’ll assist. Figuring out the cause of the illness is our job too.”

“Got it.”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

The two elders removed the child’s clothes and examined him thoroughly.

Starting from the feet, then the legs, abdomen, arms—checking everything in order. But when they got to the child’s neck, they seemed to notice something and pointed.

“So-ryong, look here.”

The spot the Immortal of Medicine was pointing to was just above the child’s clavicle, on the nape of the neck.

There was a single thin slash, about one centimeter long.

It wasn’t a straight line, but a curve.

“There weren’t any other wounds, but there is this one.”

‘I knew it.’

“This definitely doesn’t look like a wound caused by a spirit beast or venomous creature.”

“Even we can tell—it looks like it was cut by something sharp.”

“What could’ve caused a wound like this?”

If it were an insect or venomous creature, the wound should be from a bite or a stab from a stinger.

And when sucking blood, they’d need to inject an anticoagulant to stop clotting, which would cause swelling or some kind of reaction at the wound site. But no matter how you looked at this—it was a strange wound.

As I stared carefully at the thin slash that looked like it was made by something sharp, a woman’s voice rang out from outside.

“Elders! I’ve gathered all the villagers!”

It seemed she’d brought everyone from the village, and at her words, the Immortal of Herbs spoke.

“Let’s check on the patients first. And we’ll need to confirm if anyone else has similar wounds.”

“Yes, understood.”

Surely, someone else might be in critical condition like the child—so it made sense to start with the patients.

And it was necessary to see if others had similar wounds.

I headed outside to help the two elders with their medical checks.

“Alright, everyone line up and come over one at a time.”

But the more we examined people, the stranger things became.

The villagers definitely had wounds—but they were all in just two places: the wrist and the nape of the neck.

On top of that, not a single villager knew where the wounds had come from.

“Huh? Did I always have this wound?”

“This is the first time I’ve seen a wound like this.”

‘This is seriously weird. Blood-sucking creatures specifically picking wrists and necks? That makes no damn sense.’

Just as I was thinking this probably wasn’t the work of some artificial spirit beast either, the Immortal of Medicine called out to me.

“So-ryong, I think we’ll run out of medicine. We’ll need to get the medicinal ingredients we left with the Dragon Fangs. Can you go fetch them?”

“Yes, Grandfather.”

We hadn’t prepared a large supply of medicine in advance.

That’s probably why more ingredients were needed, and as I was about to head out, the village chief assigned three people to come with me.

“Young Master, please take these three with you. You’ll have to carry some heavy things.”

Two men and one woman.

The chief continued.

“My daughter-in-law and my two sons.”

It wasn’t a real illness, so I could’ve just brought the Dragon Fangs, but since they were offering help, I had no reason to refuse.

“Ah, understood.”

As the four of us set out and stepped onto the forest path, I kept thinking about the wounds.

They kept popping into my head because of their unusual shape and location.

‘A curved wound, one centimeter long... But if it wasn’t a spirit beast, how did it manage to suck people’s blood without getting caught?’

And then—

A voice echoed in my mind. Hwa-eun.

She must’ve been curious whether I’d arrived.

『‘So-ryong, have you arrived?’

‘Ah, yes, Hwa-eun. I’m in the village now, checking on the patients. I’m heading out now to get more medicinal ingredients.’

‘It’s not a plague, right?’

‘No, just a lack of blood.’

‘That’s a relief. Please, don’t do anything dangerous.’

‘Of course.’

As I responded to Hwa-eun’s repeated concern, the voices of the kids, Cheongwol, and Cheongyu chimed in like they’d been waiting.

-Sssrt. (Dad, you have to be careful.)

-Sssrrrt. (Don’t make Mom scold you. Be careful, Dad.)

-Krrrt. (Hwa-eun’s worried, so seriously, be careful.)

-Shiaa. (That’s right. Be careful.)

‘Y-yeah, I get it. You make it sound like I’m constantly causing trouble...’』

Just as I was about to make excuses under their bombardment of nagging, a voice came from beside me.

“Young Master?”

When I turned my head at the voice, the woman walking beside me was smiling brightly at me.

And the moment I saw her face—my mind started to go hazy.

“Uh...”

The woman’s voice echoed in my ear like a whisper.

“You’ve fallen under my Soul-Entrancing Spell. You won’t be able to escape, fufu.”