Chapter 121: Poisoning (1)
Translator: bjgoofy
"Keh heh heh heh.... I'd heard you were very fond of venomous creatures, and sure enough, that's a wish worthy of you."
The Divine Thief, who had been wearing a puzzled look at the Beggar Emperor's laughter, suddenly widened his eyes as if the situation had finally clicked.
Then he shouted toward me.
"Don't tell me you're asking for the Heavenly Silkworm eggs!?"
The Divine Thief stared at me with an incredulous expression.
When he demanded confirmation again, I nodded clearly enough to leave no room for misunderstanding and answered.
"Yes, Elder. All three of them. What a magnificent name, too. Heavenly Silkworm. Heavenly Silkworm...."
'Silkworms bestowed from the heavens.... To me it feels more like they dropped right out of the sky. The name fits perfectly, doesn't it?'
At my follow-up answer, the Divine Thief turned to the Beggar Emperor with a blank expression.
He seemed to be looking for some kind of help, but when the Beggar Emperor saw that face, he doubled over in a fit of roaring laughter, clutching his belly and rolling on the ground.
They said he was one of the greatest elders in the murim, yet he showed not the slightest concern for his dignity.
Then again, well, he was a beggar, and in a way, that was part of his charm.
"Keh heh heh.... Look at that bastard's face. The greatest thief in the Central Plains, getting robbed by a bandit. Keh heh heh...."
Bandit was a Chinese term meaning a robber or highwayman.
So what the Beggar Emperor meant was that I was committing highway robbery against the Divine Thief.
A brazen mugging, something along those lines?
'What do you mean, mugging? How hurtful! He's already let several of them starve to death because he couldn't even feed them. If you want to be precise, this is an animal rescue, no, a venomous creature rescue.'
But calling it robbery was unfair.
I was carrying out this venomous creature rescue with a heart full of selfless love, after all.
Hadn't he said that several of the moth larvae had already died because he couldn't feed them?
If that was the case, he had no right to call himself their owner, and confiscation was entirely justified.
Was this not, in every sense of the word, venomous creature abuse?
'Exactly. An owner who can't even feed them has no right to be an owner.'
Wondering which eggs would emerge, I fixed the Divine Thief with a look that said, "Hand them over already."
Then came the Sound Transmission from Grandfather Man of Ten Thousand Poisons.
[To see a look like that on that old man's face. Well done, Soryong! Take every last one of them! Ka ha ha.]
I was grinning from ear to ear at the thought of obtaining the Heavenly Silkworm eggs.
The Beggar Emperor was grinning from ear to ear watching me and the Divine Thief.
Grandfather Man of Ten Thousand Poisons was grinning from ear to ear at the sight of the Divine Thief.
Everyone was having a grand time, except for the Divine Thief.
Apparently taken aback, the Divine Thief even stuttered as he shouted.
"N-now see here. Did you actually hear me when I said I need the thread the Heavenly Silkworms produce? If I give them to you, what am I supposed to do!? They're my Divine Token!"
"Is that not acceptable? You clearly said that if I caught the Divine Thief, you'd grant any wish I asked for.... Just a moment ago, when I caught your disciple, you said you'd grant any wish. Didn't you?"
"N-no, well, that is...."
He seemed not to have registered the part about giving him the cocoons, and since he couldn't deny his own words, the Divine Thief floundered helplessly at my question.
From the side, the Beggar Emperor chimed in with a delighted expression.
"I heard what this fool said, so don't you worry, Soryong. This Beggar Emperor will personally guarantee it."
"Hyung-nim! Whose side are you on!?"
The Divine Thief made a face of utter betrayal, but after shouting at him, the Beggar Emperor took my side.
"Shut it! You fool! Sides.... A murim elder like me must be fair and impartial. Didn't you say with your own mouth that you'd grant anything?"
"Ngh...."
I figured the Divine Thief might actually burst into tears at this rate, so I decided to explain things step by step.
He honestly looked like he was on the verge of crying.
'A grown man about to blubber over a few measly eggs....'
"Divine Thief, Elder, please hear my explanation first. I'm not saying I'll snatch them from you by force. You clearly told me yourself: to obtain the Heavenly Silkworm Thread you use as your Divine Token, the thread must be drawn from the Heavenly Silkworms. Isn't that right?"
"Y-yes, that's right. That's why I asked how I could possibly give them up."
"Yes, but I'm not sure how much you know about silkworms. Are you aware that when you draw thread from a silkworm, the silkworm invariably dies?"
The rearing of silkworms was an ancient industry.
According to research I had done in my previous life while looking into moths, which were among my venomous creatures, there were estimates suggesting it may have begun as far back as 2,500 years before the common era.
It was believed to have started with the Wild Silkworm (Bombyx mandarina) moth, a pest of mulberry trees, and through continued domestication, the practice had evolved into what it was today....
The problem was that while silkworms had grown docile and even cute-looking through centuries of breeding, the method of harvesting their thread had remained unchanged since those earliest days, 2,500 years ago.
The reason I was trying to obtain the eggs from the Divine Thief was partly, of course, because they were venomous creatures and I coveted them.
But the greatest reason was what one might call the preservation of the species.
'I swear, my personal motives are only a tiny part of it....'
Just as I had said, in the process of extracting silk thread, the silkworm invariably died.
A fully grown silkworm larva, preparing for emergence, would draw thread from the spinneret beneath its mouth and spin an oval cocoon. The thread pulled from this cocoon was the raw material for silk.
However, to draw thread from a cocoon, one had to submerge it in boiling water and stir it with something like a pair of chopsticks.
Only then would the starting end of the thread the silkworm had originally spun catch on the chopstick, and from that point, the thread could be unwound. This was the traditional method, passed down to the present day.
The problem was that soaking the cocoon in boiling water was essentially the same as boiling the silkworm alive, so the larva would die inside its cocoon, never completing its emergence into a moth.
Of course, since the Heavenly Silkworm was a Spiritual Creature, the material composition of its thread would certainly be different. But the protein holding the cocoon's shape would not be fundamentally different, so the method would be much the same.
The Divine Thief seemed to have taken this in, because he nodded at my question.
"Yes, I was told as much by the master sericulturists."
"Exactly. Normally, to draw thread from a silkworm, it must be boiled."
There was a reason this method had been passed down through the ages. Silkworm thread was, remarkably, one hundred percent protein.
It was composed of two proteins: fibroin and sericin. Fibroin was the thread itself, while sericin could be thought of as the glue that held the threads together to maintain the cocoon's shape.
Since sericin, the glue that held the cocoon in its round form, dissolved readily in hot water, this method had become standard practice.
The glue was dissolved, leaving only the thread behind to be harvested.
One might ask why the thread couldn't simply be collected after the moth completed its emergence and tore its way out of the cocoon, but the thread on the side where the moth broke through would inevitably be severed. To obtain the longest possible thread, this boiling method had become entrenched.
And so, the silkworm pupae sold in Korea during my previous life were the remains of silkworms left after the thread had been drawn out in boiling water, the tragic vestiges of poor silkworms who had met pitiable deaths.
"Then the precious Spiritual Creatures would die, wouldn't they?"
"Well, yes, but if we don't kill them, there's no way to extract the thread. What else am I supposed to do?"
'This man is essentially sentencing silkworms to Boiling Execution, and he doesn't even see the problem....'
The Divine Thief had no idea he was doing something akin to the ancient punishment of boiling someone alive. [TL Note: Boiling Execution (烹刑) was a real punishment in ancient China.]
Setting that aside, I decided to correct his shortsighted way of thinking.
"Tsk tsk, it seems you don't realize you're standing at a critical crossroads."
"A crossroads?"
"Yes. You said only three eggs remain. I don't know how much thread you need, but three silkworms will produce, at most, three cocoons. What do you plan to do after that?"
"After that?"
The Divine Thief blinked at my question.
I smiled and continued.
"Let's say, fortunately, that the amount of thread from three cocoons is generous enough to pass on to your disciple. Then what about your disciple's disciple? What about the disciple of your disciple's disciple? Your disciple's disciple would likely end up being a Divine Thief without a Divine Token."
"Good heavens! Y-you're right!"
As if finally grasping the problem, the Divine Thief's eyes went wide as a startled rabbit's.
It seemed the Divine Thief had not considered it, but as a master, he had not only the immediate task of obtaining Heavenly Silkworm Thread, but also the duty of breeding the Heavenly Silkworms to secure their eggs.
For the sake of future generations.
Their durability was unknown, but without doing so, the next generation's Divine Thief was guaranteed to be one without a Divine Token.
"Th-then what am I to do!?"
His voice turned urgent as the gravity of the situation finally dawned on him.
'He's almost there. Why does my IQ seem to shoot through the roof whenever venomous creatures are involved?'
Strangely, whenever venomous creatures entered the picture, my intellect surged like a cockroach's survival instinct in a crisis.
The words flowed effortlessly as I explained to Divine Thief.
"That's exactly why I'm asking for the eggs. If we take a mating pair and breed them, increasing their numbers through their eggs, wouldn't that benefit not only the next Divine Thief but the one after that as well?
From what I've heard, you, Elder, keep no fixed abode and wander the Central Plains like the wind. Do you have a place to secretly breed them? It could take years, perhaps even longer.
And even if you can't do it yourself and entrust it to someone else, can you trust those people?
What about the chances of success?"
Keeping such a secret required power, and the place that held such power was our Sichuan's Tang Family.
Granted, we would end up sharing the Heavenly Silkworm Thread, but the Divine Thief would gain access to a reliable supply of Heavenly Silkworm Thread whenever he needed it, and our Sichuan's Tang Family would gain both the thread and a venomous creature called the Heavenly Silkworm. A win-win deal for both sides.
'Honestly, this is something that shouldn't even count as a wish. I'm being incredibly generous here.'
As if steeling himself for a decision, the Divine Thief let out a deep breath, then fixed on me with an expression far more serious than any he had shown before.
"Can you truly succeed?"
He seemed a little worried, but at a moment like this, the line that came next was, naturally, already decided.
"Elder, have you ever heard the word 'expert'?"
"Expert?"
"Expert, meaning one who devotes oneself solely to a single pursuit and masters it completely, referring to both the family and the person.
For example, well, Sichuan's Tang Family could be called experts in poison."
"Oh ho.... And?"
"From the moment I became the live-in son-in-law of Sichuan's Tang Family, the Tang Family became experts in both poison and venomous creatures. Without me, breeding the Heavenly Silkworms would be an impossible task."
At my confident words, the family elders and the Beggar Emperor nodded approvingly, wearing pleased smiles.
And at my self-assured declaration, Hwa-eun's mouth hung half-open, unable to close.
'Ahh. That wide-eyed look of hers, the kind that stirs every protective instinct, and then the flashes of professional authority. Absolutely devastating!'
Just as I was thinking I had once again shown Hwa-eun my charm without even trying, I felt another gaze upon me.
I turned my head to find the Divine Thief wearing the exact same expression as Hwa-eun.
'No, old man, please contain yourself.'
It was a deeply unsettling gaze.
***
"Very well. Here they are."
-Click.
The Divine Thief turned out to be a more decisive man than expected. Once he had made up his mind, he said nothing more, simply pulled a rather large medicine box from inside his robe, and set it on the table.
-Whoosh.
Whether he had used martial arts or not, the box slid smoothly across to my side.
With trembling hands, I opened the lid. Inside were three eggs, each the size of a ping-pong ball.
"Oh, oh, so these are...!"
'This is insane! How are they this big!?'
Judging by the size of these eggs, the adults had to be enormous.
A rough calculation suggested the adult moths would be anywhere from the size of a human head to the size of a torso, or even larger.
[Soryong!?]
Startled by the sudden Sound Transmission from Hwa-eun, I came to my senses and realized I had been nuzzling the eggs against my cheek without even knowing it.
I flinched, set the eggs down, and shifted back into my solemn-and-serious mode.
"Ahem. The eggs were so beautiful I lost myself for a moment.... Ah, would you also give me the ones that died? Examining what kind of creatures they were would help me assess the situation."
"R-really? You can tell that sort of thing just from the insects' remains? H-here they are."
I emptied the small pouch that slid over to me, and out tumbled seven pitiful silkworms.
They were white-bodied, and though they must have shriveled from drying, the creatures that spilled out were remarkably cute and delicate.
'Let me see. Hm? They have osmeteria?'
Osmeteria were horn-like organs found on certain butterfly larvae. When disturbed, they would protrude and emit a foul odor.
I was marveling at the fact that moth larvae possessed them when it came.
[Soryong, come to think of it, I need to put that old man to work. Tell him you can't help right away.]
A Sound Transmission from Grandfather, telling me to say I could not help right away.
I pretended to study the dead Heavenly Silkworms while shifting my gaze toward Grandfather. He spoke again.
[We need to get to the Murim Alliance now, but because of that fool, we're already three days behind, aren't we? So he needs to take responsibility. With the Beggar Emperor here, if you bring it up, they'll certainly help. It's a matter of importance to the murim, after all. Go ahead and tell them.]
While it had already been decided that I would not be going, it was true that the others' journey had been delayed.
At Grandfather's words, I slipped the medicine box and the Heavenly Silkworm remains into my pouch and nodded.
"Hmm.... I see...."
"Did you figure something out!?"
When I dropped a hint as though I had discovered something, the Divine Thief pressed me urgently.
Following Grandfather's lead, I spoke in a regretful tone.
"No. I'll look into it gradually, but I'm afraid I won't be able to help you right away."
"Huh? Wh-what do you mean, man! I gave you the Heavenly Silkworms you asked for, and now you're telling me this!?"
To the Divine Thief, shouting as if outraged, I explained the circumstances as Grandfather had instructed.
"The truth is, because of the letters you sent, Elder, the trip to the Murim Alliance has been delayed by three days."
"The Murim Alliance?"
At the mention of the Murim Alliance, even the Beggar Emperor fixed his attention on me.
When I explained what we had experienced in Yunnan and why we needed to reach the Murim Alliance, the Beggar Emperor shot to his feet.
"Something like that happened!?"
"Yes, and so the matter of the Blood Cult must be reported urgently, but with the delay caused by your letters, Elder...."
"Then this is no time to be sitting around! I was already aware that men and warriors of the Murim Alliance had crossed the borders of Yunnan searching for the Blood Cult's stronghold. But all of them are dead!?"
The Beggar Emperor slapped the Divine Thief hard across the back.
-Slap!
"Aargh! Why are you hitting my back!?"
"It's your fault they've been delayed, isn't it!? The moment your disciple has recovered, you take Soryong and the Beast Palace girl to Wuhan! For someone like you, three days should be more than enough!"
"Tch, so it's a matter for the murim. I suppose I have no choice but to help. Fine, fine. Ten days to get there and back should be plenty. I'll take responsibility for the trip to Wuhan and back, so don't worry about that. Just focus on those Heavenly Silkworms."
'Wait, he can get from here to Wuhan in three days!?'
Along with three Heavenly Silkworm eggs, I had just scored a ride on the murim's express courier service.
*****
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