The Sanctuary in the Flesh

Whenever his hand pulled away from my back, it inevitably moved to my head. Annoyed, I tried wriggling this way and that, but there was no escaping the confines of his sleeve pocket. I had already exhausted every attempt, and each one had ended in failure.

The hand caressing my body was leisurely to a fault, but the words spilling from his lips were anything but. After listening to a report, Hwangeon spoke icily.

“Are you telling me you simply backed down just because Grand-Disciple Ancestor Wonhyun acted in such a manner?”

“Forgive me, Master…”

“What has the Grand-Disciple Ancestor been doing since then?”

“He has remained strictly inside his quarters, refusing to budge.”

“Do you mean he does not even step past his door? Or does he at least come out into the courtyard?”

“He does come out into the courtyard.”

“Then he has not remained strictly inside without budging, has he?”

“…Forgive me, Master.”

“How many times must I tell you to mean precisely what you say? Whether intentional or not, you have lied to me.”

“…. Forgive me, Master.”

Just listening to this brief exchange made my own blood run cold. Serving a master like him seemed a guaranteed way to shorten one’s lifespan; I couldn’t help but wonder why these men had ever chosen to become his disciples. Had they been denied a choice, selected by Hwangeon against their will?

Once Hwangeon delivered that sharp rebuke, the remaining disciples tailored their reports with meticulous precision. Every unnecessary modifier vanished, replaced entirely by concise, accurate expressions. Thanks to this, I gained a rather detailed understanding of how Great Master Wonhyun was currently faring.

How terribly worried he must be right now.

“Is there anything else?”

“No, Master.”

“Did anyone visit the location where I was after my arrival?”

“No one, Master.”

“What of the Abbot and Gwangyeon?”

“Neither the Abbot nor Gwangyeon have shown any unusual behavior. Both are acting entirely as they normally do.”

“I see. Keep a continuous watch on Gwangyeon from now on. Do not take your eyes off him for a single instant.”

“Yes, Master.”

Dismissing them, Hwangeon pulled me out of his sleeve pocket and placed me on the table. He then stared intently at my face.

Every so often, I could see his pupils shift slightly. He was undoubtedly looking back and forth between my horn and my eyes. Watching him do this reminded me of how Gwangyeon had once looked at me in much the same way.

The action was identical, yet how could the warmth behind a gaze differ so drastically?

Gwangyeon must be safe, right? Did he manage to smooth things over by sticking to the story we planned?

Hwangeon didn’t seem to trust Gwangyeon at all. My mind was a turbulent whirlwind of anxieties. As I was frantically turning these thoughts over, an absurd laugh suddenly escaped Hwangeon.

I was utterly startled, never expecting him to laugh in such a manner.

“Your eyes truly look adorable. It is as if glass beads have been set into your head. I have never seen scales so smooth and lustrous. No matter what manner of jewel one were to hold against you, your eyes would still be the fairer.”

If Gwangyeon had said those words, I would have taken them as pure, unadulterated admiration, a poetic comparison of my eyes to glass beads. But coming from Hwangeon, it genuinely gave me goosebumps; I was struck by a sincere dread that he might gouge my eyes out to keep as a souvenir.

Is this man not busy? Does he really have time to sit here and dote on me like this?

I was dying of discomfort.

Yet, propping his chin on one hand, Hwangeon continuously stroked my head and back. He seemed to be deep in thought as he did so.

“It must have been Dang Sorin. She had grown quite a bit. What on earth has the Grand-Disciple Ancestor been doing with Dang Sorin all this time? You must belong to her. A Single-Horned Python.”

Hwangeon spoke with a face brimming with pride, clearly convinced of his own deductive prowess. He had no idea he had tripped up right at the finish line.

He was spot on about me being a Single-Horned Python, but to think I belonged to Dang Sorin?

I AM Dang Sorin.

I glared at Hwangeon with a expression full of utter mockery, but it seemed I failed to convey any sense of disdain.

“Is the Grand-Disciple Ancestor plotting something with the Sichuan Dang Clan…? Why the Dang Clan of all people? Does he intend to use their poison and hidden weapon techniques to achieve something?”

His thoughts seemed to grow progressively heavier.

“Since Dang Sorin will not be able to return to the Grand-Disciple Ancestor’s quarters, she will likely head toward the Sichuan Dang Clan now. In that case, should I dispatch men there?”

Eventually, he stood up, walked over to the window, and looked outside. He seemed to be doing so to clear his head, but to me, it felt like my one and only window of opportunity.

‘Now!’

Even if I were to be caught, I reasoned that escaping this room was the priority, and I slithered with every ounce of strength I possessed.

I had likely never slithered so fast since turning into a snake. Fortunately, Hwangeon did not yet seem to have noticed my flight.

I slipped through the gap beneath the door and kept moving without pause. It was a stroke of absolute heavenly luck that I ran into Gwangyeon not long after escaping the 전각 (hall) of the Discipline Head.

Had things gone slightly awry, Hwangeon might have caught Gwangyeon discovering me. However, we happened to spot each other just as we entered a blind spot.

Gwangyeon had been walking with an expression as though he had lost the entire world when he happened to look down and see me.

“Gwa-Gwang-eum…!”

He instinctively started to call out the name Gwangeum, but hastily clamped his mouth shut. I slithered up to Gwangyeon, climbed onto his foot, and coiled myself around his ankle.

I worried that Gwangyeon’s senior disciples, acting under Hwangeon’s orders, might be watching him from the shadows. Gwangyeon, seemingly guessing that he was under surveillance as well, maintained his stride as if nothing were amiss. Had that not been the case, he would have at least picked me up and tucked me into his pocket.

It was just after Gwangyeon had passed the Hall of Discipline that Hwangeon emerged from it to search for me. The frantic pounding of Gwangyeon’s heart felt loud enough to echo across the entire temple grounds.

He still had no idea that I was actually Sorin. Therefore, his desire to hide me stemmed purely from his wish to protect Great Master Wonhyun’s Single-Horned Python.

He hurried straight to his quarters, appearing deeply conflicted over where to hide me. Hwangeon was notoriously elusive; it felt entirely possible that he might catch me before I could escape.

My only desire was to return to Great Master Wonhyun as quickly as possible. Of all people, why did I have to get caught by Hwangeon?

Not knowing where to conceal me, Gwangyeon flustered about in a panic. He placed me inside a basket, but feeling uneasy, he took me out again to search for a better hiding spot. It was then that a terribly familiar presence registered.

I felt dying of fright, as though an invisible hand were reaching out to choke the life from my throat. Moments later, Gwangyeon also seemed to realize that Hwangeon was approaching.

Gwangyeon couldn’t even slip away from the room. He was too innocent; there was no way he could mask his expression before his shrewd master.

Hwangeon would look at Gwangyeon and instantly see right through whatever he was plotting.

“What do I do?”

Staring up at Gwangyeon as he asked me this, I launched my body straight through the air. Gwangyeon could not have anticipated what I intended to do. Truthfully, even I couldn’t be certain at first whether my desperate gamble would succeed.

Among the tales I had heard from snake catchers in my past life, there was one particular story:

“A close acquaintance of mine died in the strangest way, you see. For days, he kept complaining that his stomach felt bloated, unable to eat a single bite, just wasting away in agony. For a good while, he wallowed on the floor, clutching his belly as if it were tearing apart. He was perfectly fine before that, so when he suddenly dropped dead, his wife went straight to the magistrate’s office begging for the truth. In the end, they performed an autopsy.”

The man performing the autopsy allegedly sliced open the corpse and bolted from the room screaming bloody murder on the spot. He had been utterly horrified to see a massive serpent coiled and writhing inside the dead man’s belly.

When I first heard that story, I had laughed out loud. I asked him what kind of fool he took humans for to spin such a yarn.

When I argued that it made no sense, he countered that I was simply ignorant, insisting it was an entirely plausible occurrence. He explained that snakes possess an innate instinct to crawl into any dark, damp cavity they happen to spot.

Watching Gwangyeon speak, it struck me that I could escape danger by sliding straight into his mouth.

The consequences afterward?

I had absolutely no luxury to ponder such things.

I placed my faith entirely in the fact that my current form was exceedingly small. I reasoned that a creature of my size could easily slide inside for a brief moment and slip back out later. In my mind, it felt entirely feasible.

Never imagining that I would launch myself directly at him, Gwangyeon let out a startled, breathless gasp, and through that wide-open mouth, I plunged right in.

From that moment on, I experienced an entirely new world.

Gwangyeon writhed in agony as I slid down his throat in a flash, but he eventually seemed to realize that there was no alternative. Suppressing the violent urge to vomit, he endured the sensation and held his ground.

From deep within Gwangyeon’s body, Hwangeon’s voice reached my ears.

“What were you doing here alone?”

“I was engaged in meditation, Master.”

It seemed to me that every monk I knew lied as easily as breathing.

“Yet your complexion is dreadfully pale. Are you unwell?”

“No, Master.”

Following that, I heard the sounds of Hwangeon moving about the room, searching through various spots. It occurred to me that his arrival here wasn’t a mere coincidence; perhaps he had tracked my scent or presence.

Could he actually sense something from me even when I’m a snake? Regardless, he did not appear to realize that I was currently inside Gwangyeon’s body.

“Master… what is the meaning of this?”

Gwangyeon’s urgent voice rang out. Hwangeon seemed to be checking the pockets of Gwangyeon’s robes. Even after that, Hwangeon lingered in the room for a long while, thoroughly searching the space. Given his persistence, it felt safe to assume he had come here with a fair amount of certainty.