Chapter 128: Heavenly Silkworm 2
Translator: bjgoofy
"Th-then you mean?"
"Yes. The fact that they need to wrap themselves in such tough silk means, in other words, that there's something nearby they need to protect themselves from, something that only silk that strong could withstand.
It means that somewhere near where they spin their thread, there must be something that poses a danger to them.
And if we find that dangerous thing, wouldn't it also be easier to figure out what they eat?"
When I finished my explanation, the sericulture artisans nodded along, their expressions acknowledging the logic of my reasoning.
"Indeed. If the Heavenly Silkworm Thread is meant to protect their bodies, then what you say makes sense, young hero."
"I simply assumed they were building a home, but it seems there's a reason behind it all. After all, even human dwellings exist to shield people from the cold, the heat, and wild beasts.
You're saying that even for a lowly insect, that truth doesn't change?"
The Divine Thief clearly looked impressed as well, but true to the nature of his profession, he seemed to be an extremely cautious type.
He wiped the surprise from his face and asked again.
"But can you be sure of that based on a single observation? It's not as if you've confirmed it firsthand."
'As expected, his profession makes him very careful. Well, if he weren't careful, he'd get caught.'
I hadn't drawn my conclusion from a single observation either, so I nodded.
This Fabre, too, was an exceedingly careful person.
If one weren't careful, one could never handle venomous creatures.
"Of course, I didn't reach this conclusion from a single fact alone. I have one more piece of evidence to support my reasoning. Your disciple's name was Yeong-ryeon, was it?"
"Oh, yes, Yeong-ryeon. What about her all of a sudden?"
"Could you ask her to go find some caterpillars for me, if there are any Sichuan pepper trees, trifoliate orange trees, or Amur cork trees nearby? They'd be caterpillars the color of grass."
The best way to explain this would be to show them.
When I asked him to have his disciple catch some caterpillars for my demonstration, one of the sericulture artisans stepped forward hesitantly.
"Um... young hero?"
"Yes?"
"There happens to be a Sichuan pepper tree in the backyard here."
A Sichuan pepper tree happened to be right nearby.
I decided to take everyone along to the tree and check if what I was looking for was there.
"Then let's all go have a look. This is important."
When I led the group toward the backyard of the abandoned Taoist temple where the tree supposedly stood, an untended, wildly overgrown tree came into view, and as we drew closer, the fresh, sharp scent of Sichuan pepper wafted through the air.
"Let's see. Where might they be hiding?"
The first place to check was below the tree.
As I examined the ground around the base here and there, I soon spotted small pellet-like droppings scattered about on one side.
'I knew it!'
I had worried there might not be any, but since this wasn't an era where pesticides were used like in my previous life, the signs of their presence were plain to see.
I immediately looked up at the tender young leaves growing above, and sure enough, near the gnawed leaves, I spotted several caterpillars crouched on the branches, clad in green camouflage.
One pupa was visible, too.
The others looked like they would pupate soon as well.
'Fortunately, they're fifth instar larvae, exactly what I need.'
When these creatures first hatch from their eggs, they disguise themselves as bird droppings to protect themselves. It isn't until they reach the fifth instar that they take on the form I wanted to show.
Pointing to the plumpest and largest one among them, I said,
"Now, everyone, look here. Can you see them?"
As I pointed the caterpillars out, the sericulture artisans nodded.
Being commoners, they seemed to have encountered them at least once before.
"Green caterpillars, yes? We see them on citrus trees sometimes."
"I've seen similar ones on trifoliate orange trees too."
"Yes, they gnaw through citrus leaves and are quite the nuisance. The ones you've seen on trifoliate orange trees are the same species."
Just as they said, these creatures were pests that fed on the leaves of citrus, trifoliate orange, and Sichuan pepper trees.
But it was also true that once they underwent emergence, they became one of the most beautiful insects in existence.
The name of the creature I was pointing to was, in Central Plains parlance, swallowtail butterfly.
In Korean, they were called horangnabi, tiger butterflies, and these were their larvae.
"So why did you bring us here to look at this?"
The Divine Thief, unable to contain himself, asked why I had wanted to come see these caterpillars.
I smiled and prodded the caterpillar's body with my finger.
-Tap.
The swallowtail caterpillar jerked its head up sharply.
A pair of yellow horns shot out from its head, then disappeared again.
"Oh! What's that?"
"Doesn't it look familiar?"
"Oh, yes, I've seen something like that on the Heavenly Silkworm larvae too. Is this yellow thing the other piece of evidence you mentioned?"
"Yes. Now, try smelling this."
In response to the Divine Thief's question, I prodded the swallowtail caterpillar again.
Then I rubbed the osmeterium it had thrust out against my fingertip.
A sticky sensation, followed by a pungent aroma rising from my fingertip.
When I held it out, the Divine Thief recoiled in shock, pinching his nose and crying out.
"Gah! Wh-what is that smell?"
The horn-shaped osmeterium observed in fifth instar larvae of swallowtail species like the common swallowtail and the Asian swallowtail is an organ that concentrates and releases the distinctive scents from the citrus, Sichuan pepper, and trifoliate orange trees the caterpillars have consumed.
To humans, it smells like a strong citrus vinegar, but to fellow insects or animals like birds, the scent is powerful enough to send them fleeing.
In other words, I had hypothesized, based on the horns visible on the heads of the dead Heavenly Silkworm larvae, that their horns might serve the same defensive purpose.
In swallowtail species, the osmeterium only develops at the fifth instar, but the Heavenly Silkworm larvae had osmeterium-like protrusions from the moment they hatched. That suggested dangerous predators lurked nearby from the very instant of birth.
This was the second piece of evidence that led me to believe something dangerous existed in the Heavenly Silkworm's habitat.
"The swallowtail larva emits a foul odor from its horns like this, and it's entirely for the purpose of defending itself against predatory beasts and insects.
Given that the Heavenly Silkworm larvae possess the same organ on top of their incredibly strong silk, wouldn't it naturally follow that these traits exist to protect themselves from something?
That is why I arrived at this conclusion."
Once I had presented both pieces of evidence, the Divine Thief finally gazed at me with eyes full of admiration.
His suspicious nature apparently cured, the Divine Thief, now a fervent convert, exclaimed with a delighted expression,
"I've spent my entire life handling Heavenly Silkworm Thread, yet I never once thought about it that way. Hyung-nim said you'd be something special, and sure enough, Soryong, you really do think differently!
S-so then. What do you think they eat?"
But my next words immediately drained the admiration from his eyes, replacing it with disappointment.
"Well..."
"Well!?"
"We'll have to start looking from here."
"..."
Come now, I wasn't a god. How was I supposed to figure it all out in one go?
***
The Divine Thief's expression was steeped in disappointment, but it was too early for that.
It was simply that I didn't know just yet. Once this seasoned Fabre was on the case, figuring out what they ate would only be a matter of time.
"It's too early to be disappointed."
"D-disappointed? Who said anything about being disappointed?"
"Oh, I thought you were.... In any case, I should be able to find the answer quickly."
"Really!?"
'His build is big enough to steal a cow, yet his mood is light as a feather. Is that why his qinggong is so fast?'
At my assurance that I could find the answer quickly, the Divine Thief's face lit up with renewed expectation.
Feeling as though I had caught a glimpse of the secret behind the Divine Thief's qinggong, I asked him a question.
"Do you happen to know where the Heavenly Silkworms were originally found?"
"The Heavenly Silkworms? I don't know the exact spot, but I have a rough idea...."
"You see, the best way to identify what a creature eats is usually to examine the place where it was collected. Let's start by going there."
Frankly, the Divine Thief's ordeal was entirely of his own making.
Whether collecting insects or animals, if one carefully observed their ecology at the time of collection, one would never need to struggle like this.
Why had I traveled all the way to Mount Huang, where the Namgung Family resides, when I took in Snow and Ice?
It was all to confirm what they ate and to secure a supply of it.
So all of this was the result of whichever previous, or perhaps the one before that, generation of Divine Thieves having been so dazzled by the Heavenly Silkworm Thread's capabilities that they had rushed to snatch it up without any further thought.
That was why I had suggested we at least visit the habitat they roughly knew of and examine it. But the Divine Thief responded with a reluctant expression.
"Even if we went, there wouldn't be anything to find there."
"Nothing to see?"
"I went there myself once, hoping I might find more eggs. But there was nothing. Just a bare rocky mountain."
"A rocky mountain?"
"That's right. A place called Red Rock Forest, a mountainous area full of towering red rocks. I searched it thoroughly, but I couldn't find a thing."
'A rocky mountain...'
If what he said was true, that was strange.
I had been sure that some kind of predator would be lurking nearby, yet he was describing a barren rocky mountain with nothing at all.
But it was also possible that ordinary people had simply failed to notice anything unusual.
From an expert's perspective, things might look entirely different, so I decided to check on a few other details.
"Was the original find a mature specimen? Or was it eggs?"
The first thing to confirm was whether the original discovery had been a mature insect or eggs.
"A mature specimen? If you mean a fully grown Heavenly Silkworm, then as far as I know, none was ever seen. They found eggs and Heavenly Silkworm Thread together."
"Eggs and thread together?"
Finding eggs and thread together probably meant that eggs and a cocoon had been discovered at the same time.
When I asked again to confirm, the Divine Thief nodded just as I expected.
"Was the cocoon empty?"
"It was. That empty cocoon is what was used to make the very Heavenly Silkworm Thread I use today."
Piecing the situation together, it meant a mature silkworm had emerged from its cocoon, mated, and laid its eggs right there on the spot.
If that was the case, then whatever food source I couldn't yet identify must certainly exist in that location.
I suggested we go together.
"Let's go have a look regardless. From an expert's perspective, things might appear quite different."
"An expert's perspective?"
But the Divine Thief didn't grasp what I meant by an expert's perspective.
I had explained to him before what an expert was, but apparently the concept of an expert's perspective was still lost on him.
"How should I explain this.... Ah, I know."
The best way to explain an expert's perspective was, naturally, to put it at eye level with the listener.
I pointed to the ornamental pendant hanging from my clothing and asked him,
"Can you tell how valuable this is?"
The pendant was the one with the Ice Jade that Namgoong Seol had given me.
The Divine Thief gave a casual glance over the pendant with its Ice Jade and answered dismissively.
"Ice Jade, is it. A bit small, but easily worth a thousand silver nyang. Not the sort of thing this Divine Thief would bother stealing, though."
"What!?"
'Wait, it's that expensive!?'
Namgoong Seol had handed it over so casually that I never imagined it would be worth that much. What an extraordinary price.
Setting aside my surprise for the moment, I proceeded with my explanation.
"Th-that is precisely what an expert's perspective means. Who besides you, Elder, could have easily recognized this as Ice Jade? Anyone else would just think it was a piece of jade with a slightly different color. And who could have appraised its value so quickly?
In the same way, if I go there in person, what I see may be very different from what ordinary people see."
"Oh-ho!"
Having pitched the explanation at a thief's eye level seemed to have done the trick; the Divine Thief nodded in understanding.
His eyes alight with renewed anticipation, the Divine Thief answered.
"Very well, let's go at once!"
He looked ready to drag me off that very instant.
I calmed him down and asked,
"By the way, is it far?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Well, if it's far, I don't think she'll let me go. This, you see. This...."
"Ah...."
When I pointed to the two strands of silk tied around my ankle, the Divine Thief nodded in understanding.
Yohwa's nagging was nothing short of fierce, and the Divine Thief had witnessed it firsthand.
'She's scarier than a wife, I tell you.'
***
Fortunately, the Divine Thief's answer was that it was about a day's journey away.
He had chosen to hatch the Heavenly Silkworms here because the eggs had been obtained somewhere in this vicinity.
The Divine Thief looked over at the sericulture artisans and asked,
"What should we do about the sericulture artisans? If they're still useful I'll keep them around, otherwise I was thinking of sending them home."
Before going to get Yohwa's permission, it made sense to wrap things up at the Taoist temple.
Keeping them around wouldn't be of any help to me.
"Send them all home. I won't be needing them."
"Understood. They've worked hard, so I'll divide up the gold I set aside and have Yeong-ryeon see them off."
Just as we were about to leave, the old man who had earlier been introduced as the head of the sericulture artisans approached me and asked,
"Young master, might I have a look at that for a moment?"
"At what?"
I thought perhaps he wanted to examine the Ice Jade, but the old man's gaze was directed at my ankle.
He was staring at the silk Yohwa had tied around it.
Come to think of it, the old man was a sericulture artisan.
Which meant he possessed an expert's perspective when it came to silk.
'I'd been thinking that weaving Yohwa's silk into fabric would be wonderful. Why not show it to these people and see what they think?'
I nodded, and the old man promptly crouched down to examine my leg.
"Might I touch it as well?"
"Go ahead."
When I granted his request to touch it, that was when it happened.
"Th-this is!"
The old man's eyes went wide with shock.
"E-everyone, come look at this!"
He called the other sericulture artisans over, and they crowded around my leg, clutching at it as they exclaimed,
"Th-this... what kind of silk is this!?"
"It's light and tough, and it stretches then snaps right back!"
"It's more lustrous and beautiful than silkworm thread!"
"I've never seen silk like this in all my years!"
It seemed Yohwa's silk was of extraordinarily high value.
Even to my eyes, Yohwa's silk was soft yet strong and remarkably elastic.
'Maybe I should make something like stab-proof vests for martial artists and sell them?'
In the Central Plains murim, getting cut by a blade was a daily occurrence.
If I made and sold these, wouldn't they fly off the shelves? The thought flickered briefly through my mind.
*****
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