—Kkuukku. 『Father, what’s going on?』

—Kkyuit? 『Grandpa, why?』

Seol, Bing, and Dong all poked their heads out from Hwa-eun’s collar, looking at me.

I had only called for Seol, but I guess since they were family, they all popped out together.

“Ah, nothing serious. I just wanted you guys to shoot some cold energy into this friend here.”

—Kkoot? 『To the sick one?』

—Kkuukkuu? 『Excuse me!?』

—Kkyuit? 『A-Are we hitting them?』

As soon as I finished speaking, the three lizards’ vertical pupils widened in unison, then slowly returned to normal.

They’d all been shocked, eyes wide, just because I said “shoot cold energy.”

It made sense, since it sounded like I wanted them to attack something that looked like it could die today or tomorrow, using their newly learned cold beam.

Without context, Dong’s cute question wasn’t so far off—they probably thought I was asking them to hit a helpless patient.

‘Come on, kids. Dad’s not that cruel. How could I hit such cute little creatures?’

This dad’s never hit a single spirit beast or venomous creature.

In my past life, I never even hit a person. I was practically a law-abiding saint.

Sure, I’ve roughed up a few folks since coming to the martial world—but they were bad guys, okay?

So how did things end up in this misunderstanding?

Just as I was feeling a little hurt, Sister Seol’s voice cut in.

“Ah! So it’s like this—their energy’s depleted from exhaustion, and the best way to help with that is to replenish what’s missing.

And since the little one here seems to use cold energy, you’re saying we should infuse it with some cold, right?”

“Exactly, Sister Seol.”

She got it immediately.

Of course. That’s Sister Seol for you.

Unlike the kids, she understood my meaning without any confusion.

As she explained it clearly, Seol, Bing, and Dong nodded along.

—Kkuu. 『Ah, so that’s what it was. I was startled. I figured there must be a reason, but I was worried it might be dangerous for them.』

—Kkuukkuu. 『This is why Mother gets startled sometimes. Father, please explain first next time. Asking us to blast a sick spirit beast out of nowhere is going to shock us.』

“R-Right...”

I had been feeling a bit slighted, but now I felt like I owed them an apology.

And honestly, Bing had a point—it was my fault.

This was all due to my occupational habits from being a YouTuber in my past life.

I always led with the headline before explaining anything.

‘It’s all the viewers’ fault!’

That kind of baited dialogue was how you caught attention.

After years of doing that, I couldn’t easily change how I communicated.

Hwa-eun gave me an earful about that once too, but I guess I still haven’t learned.

As I scratched my head with an apologetic look, Sister Seol continued.

“It really does sound like a good method.”

“Right?”

“Yeah. Thinking of how your kids handle things, it makes sense.

Most of the spirit beasts you raise—except for a few—absorb natural energy the way martial artists cultivate internal energy. And among that natural energy, they only absorb the types that suit them.”

Just like she said—aside from outliers like Yeolbi or Jeokwol, most of the spirit beasts rely on energy rather than food.

Every living thing in this world needs to eat something to survive, and for these creatures, energy is their food.

“Judging from how they’ve been freezing the area, it’s clear these ones use cold energy. If we give them Seol’s energy, they might be able to recover.

But we need to make sure the type of energy matches.”

“We have to check if it matches?”

I tilted my head. Isn’t cold energy just cold energy?

Sister Seol explained.

“You know that the energy they absorb is called natural qi, right?”

“Come on, Sister Seol. Of course I know that.”

I nodded quickly.

Back when I learned martial arts from Grandpa Mandok Shingun, he told me that heaven and earth are full of natural qi.

It’s the life force that sustains everything in the world, and it’s generally divided into yin and yang. More specifically, into the Five Elements—metal, water, wood, fire, and earth.

“And you know the Five Elements, right?”

“Of course, Sister Seol. I’m in the Three Flower Gathering Essence stage.”

“Oh, that’s right. Our So-ryong is a Three Flower boy now. But why do you still look like you’re in Late Qi Gathering to my eyes?”

“Excuse me?”

“Hehe. Anyway, just listen.”

“Okaaay...”

She lightly dismissed me, but I could understand why.

For most people, reaching the Three Flower stage takes decades of painful training, pills, and specialized techniques.

Me? I got there by treating it as a hobby, absorbing poison from venomous beasts like it was a game of jacks.

Of course she found it hard to believe I reached this level in such a short time.

Still, knowledge-wise, I had all the basics down.

So I nodded along, and Sister Seol continued.

“I learned this from taking care of your beasts—each child absorbs only the elemental energies that suit them. And sometimes, they don’t just stick to one element.”

“They don’t?”

“Yeah. Listen. Seol, Bing, and Dong absorb cold energy from Ice Jade, but that cold is made up of water and metal qi. Metal corresponds to late autumn, early winter, and dusk. Water corresponds to winter, the north, water, and night.

On the other hand, Hwayang absorbs pure yang fire energy from the Fire Well.

As for Cho, Hyang, and Bini—they used to just absorb general natural energy. But after they matured, they each started to favor specific types.

Cho takes in water and metal, Hyang absorbs fire and wood, and Bini pulls in earth and metal.”

I used to think it was just a matter of yin and yang, but I hadn’t expected it to be this detailed.

Now I understood why Sister Seol said we needed to check compatibility.

If a spirit beast’s preferred qi is like its blood type, then feeding it the wrong type—no matter how similar—might not be effective.

‘Whew... I hope this goes well.’

Even within cold energy, there were apparently many subtypes. That gave me reason to worry.

Then, a question popped into my mind.

“But wait, didn’t you say Cho and Seol, Bing, Dong all absorb the same types—metal and water?

Then how come Cho never showed interest in Ice Jade?”

According to her, they all absorbed metal and water qi.

Yet Cho had never once shown interest in Ice Jade.

To this, Sister Seol nodded and answered.

“Ah, that’s because even within the same elemental types, the ratio they absorb varies. Cho takes in about seven parts water to three parts metal. But Seol, Bing, and Dong absorb five of each.”

“Ahh...”

At the mention of qi ratio differences, I glanced at the creature lying there, panting.

If we got this wrong, the qi might not align and we wouldn’t even be able to try healing it.

“Ah, it has to match.”

“Hold on. I’ll check it right now.”

“Understood, Sister Seol.”

Sister Seol placed her hand on the panting creature’s body to confirm the qi, while I used the time to infuse qi from Beast-Heart Art into Seol.

In case the qi Seol had matched that of the creature, we’d be ready to start treatment immediately.

“Seol, come here. It’s urgent, so I’ll give you qi right away. If Sister Seol says it matches, we’ll begin treatment right after.”

—Kkuuoo. 『Okay, Father.』

Seol slipped out of Hwa-eun’s embrace and dashed across the cold floor into my arms.

Though they used cold qi, Seol, Bing, and Dong didn’t actually like the cold.

“Alright, here we go.”

I placed my hand on her chest and closed my eyes.

As before, I focused and transmitted qi from the Beast-Heart Art into Seol.

After a bit of time passed, I felt a bit of resistance through my hand.

When I opened my eyes, I saw Hwa-eun looking at me with concern.

She probably came over in case I collapsed again, like last time.

“You okay, So-ryong?”

“I’m fine.”

As always, Hwa-eun was the first to ask if I was alright.

After I nodded to reassure her, Sister Seol smiled and spoke.

“We’re good. If Seol, Bing, and Dong are fifty-fifty on water and metal, this one here feels about fifty-five percent water and forty-five percent metal.

That’s not a big difference, so it should be okay, right?”

Thankfully, the qi matched closely enough.

Relieved, I turned to Seol.

“Seol, you can release your qi gently, right?”

—Kkuu. 『I’ve never done that before, so I’ll have to try.』

“Ah, right.”

She’d only shot out cold beams once before in a test, so this would be her first time doing it gently.

Seol climbed down to the floor to try aiming her cold qi elsewhere first.

“Wait a sec!”

—Kkuu? 『Yes, Father?』

Her tail had started to glow ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) just before releasing qi, but she stopped when I called out.

I quickly took off my outer robe and spread it across the floor.

“Do it on this, Seol.”

The kids didn’t like standing on the cold ground. I couldn’t have them catching a cold from the floor.

Seol immediately expressed her gratitude with a soft, grateful voice—then turned and scolded Bing out of nowhere.

—Kkuu. 『Oh my, Father, thank you so much. As expected.』

“That’s nothing. It’s what a dad should do.”

—Kkuukkuu. 『Would you take notes already?』

—Kkoot? 『Me?』

Bing blinked blankly, caught off guard by the sudden jab.

While Seol began gently practicing her cold qi, Bing sent me a discreet mental message.

『—Kkuukku. Father, would it kill you to discuss these things with us first? If you keep doing this, I’m the one who’s going to have a rough time later...』

Even in the world of spirit beasts, married life wasn’t so different from humans.

I remembered how in my past life, whenever a celebrity couple showed up on a variety show all lovey-dovey, half the viewers ended up arguing with their spouses.

‘I screwed up again.’

***

After one full discharge of her qi, Seol finally got the hang of it.

Instead of a laser beam, she now emitted a soft, steady glow—like a heat lamp for reptiles.

—Kkuu. 『Father, is this enough?』

“Yes, Seol, that should be just fine.”

After recharging her qi again, we prepared to begin treatment.

“Okay, I’m going to give you more qi now.”

—Kkuu. 『Alright, Father.』

I charged her up once more and set her down in front of the white-scaled creature.

Then, Bing jumped down from Hwa-eun’s arms and grabbed my outer robe to spread it neatly in front of the creature.

Her droopy tail seemed to say she wasn’t exactly thrilled about this.

Once my robe was laid out, Seol stepped onto it with a very satisfied smile.

“Let’s hope this goes well.”

Bing was giving me a grumbly look, so I pretended not to notice.

Then Sister Seol spoke up.

“Wait, shouldn’t we take that little one away first?”

“Oh, right.”

I’d completely forgotten, since it was clinging to its mother so tightly.

But yes—better to separate them.

That little one wasn’t ready to absorb qi directly yet and was still nursing.

If we blasted it with energy now, it’d be like grilling a steak for a baby who couldn’t even eat solids yet.

“Good point. Okay, baby, let’s come to Grandpa for a second. We’re just going to help Mama, okay?”

I tried gently coaxing it away, but it wouldn’t budge from its mother’s side.

Too young to understand words, probably.

And if we forced it, we might traumatize it.

“What do we do?”

“Yeah... should we just pull it off anyway?”

—Bbaaaeeh!

As we all wore troubled expressions, the little one suddenly cried out.

Then, with a soft thud, Dong jumped down from Hwa-eun’s arms.

—Kkyut! Kkyukyut! 『Grandpa’s trying to help your mom, okay? So come over here and stay with me.』

At Dong’s voice, the little one finally lifted its head and looked at her blankly.

—Churp

Dong licked its face once, and the baby—who had hidden its head again—peeked back up and slowly stretched out one paw toward her.

Kids understand each other somehow.

Soon, it clung to Dong.

They were almost the same size, and the two of them cuddling up together looked so painfully cute it was like being stabbed in the heart.

—Kkyutkkyut.

While Dong gently licked the younger one, Seol’s tail began to glow softly.