NOVEL WEB Chapter 135
Chapter 135: The Shimmering Cocoon
“That’s a brilliant cocoon!”
Unlike the pure white cocoons, this one shimmered with a radiant silver light.
Its size was approximately 25 centimeters, oval in shape.
On the outside, it looked just like a Heavenly Silkworm cocoon, but it felt completely different!
Did it reflect light on its own, or was that just my imagination? Either way, it sparkled brightly.
“W-what’s going on? Is it a different species?”
Though the cocoon’s size was nearly identical to the Heavenly Silkworm’s, the striking color immediately led me to think it might belong to an entirely different species.
Even with the already established symbiotic relationship with the Heavenly Silkworm, I couldn’t shake off the thought since, in a typical White Ant colony, there were usually countless guests around.
Just the ordinary White Ants provide a food source for about 80 different species of birds and beasts, and the insects that benefit from direct or indirect assistance from those ants are in the dozens.
Many insects sneakily munch on White Ant eggs, mushrooms, or take shelter within the sturdy ant mounds.
White Ants have plenty of predators, yet their nests are like lavish banquets, bustling with guests.
But unlike the Tang Clan, which only hosts beneficial guests, White Ants could almost be seen as suckers!
Hoping that it might be another rare moth with similar traits to the Heavenly Silkworm, I quickly reached out to gently press the cocoon.
I needed to make sure there wasn’t a caterpillar inside.
However, when I carefully pressed the cocoon, it didn’t budge an inch.
The shiny silver cocoon felt as solid as if it were wrapped in wire.
Just to be sure, I also pressed on the nearby Heavenly Silkworm cocoon, but it too remained stone-still.
Thinking about it, I figured if it needed to protect itself from soldier ants, it should be this sturdy!
So I decided to hold the cocoon in my hands to check it out.
“Please be unhatched… Please!”
But as soon as I gripped the cocoon, I felt an odd lack of weight in my fingertips.
When I turned it upside down, I discovered a round hole at the end.
A sign that an adult had already emerged!
“Dang it!”
Initially, I held a glimmer of hope that perhaps it was just a cocoon that hadn’t finished molting, but what I had in my hands was an empty cocoon.
One that had already hatched and lost its owner!
Just as I was feeling disappointed, I heard Shin Tu’s voice coming from the direction of the tunnel entrance, curious if the ruckus I caused meant I found the Heavenly Silkworm.
“Did you find the Heavenly Silkworm?”
I turned my head to see the vague figure of Shin Tu way down near the tunnel entrance.
Since the hole Bin had made wasn’t very big, Shin Tu, with his larger build, couldn’t fit through.
So, to respond to his question, I decided to bring out what I had found.
As I shoved the cocoons into the pouch I brought, I shouted over to the entrance.
“Yes, I’ve found about thirty of them!”
“What!? Thirty!?”
Shin Tu’s voice exploded in shock at the mention of thirty cocoons.
Given that they were large, it seemed I would need to make at least two trips, so I first took half of the cocoons out.
Shin Tu, seeing a Heavenly Silkworm cocoon among those I brought out, gasped in surprise along with his disciple, Yeongryeon.
“Oooh! So, it’s true! You really found this many Heavenly Silkworm cocoons! I heard the previous master collected about ten!”
“Master, this is precisely the cocoon needed to cultivate Heavenly Silkworms!”
While those two checked the Heavenly Silkworms in the pouch, I slipped back into the tunnel to retrieve the remaining Heavenly Silkworms and the shiny silver cocoon, then asked Shin Tu,
“By any chance, have you seen this?”
I pointed at the silver cocoon, curious if he might know anything about it.
“W-what is this!?”
“Ah, you know of it!?”
Shin Tu’s eyes widened as he glared at it.
But to my surprise, Shin Tu shook his head and replied.
“No, this is new to me. Is it also a Heavenly Silkworm?”
‘No way, is this guy really that clueless!?’
His response was indeed one of not knowing, but, just then, I heard Bin’s distressed cries from behind again.
-Whirr!
Dust began to rise from the entrance with a loud sound.
-Boom!
-Thud.
“Bin! Are you okay!?”
Fearing the tunnel might have collapsed, I rushed over to the entrance where the dust was billowing and shouted inside, while the worry from Bin came flooding back along with her cries.
Moments later, Bin emerged, lugging a large, flat stone that was easily as wide as two human torsos.
-Whirr!
A smooth, oval, reddish stone.
She had clearly found the Queen Ant’s chamber!
“Oh, you found it!”
-Oh!
Bin seemed to suggest there was something inside.
After inspecting the side of the stone, I searched for the entrance.
The number of entrances can differ among White Ants depending on their species, so I checked the oval stone’s edges and spotted a single hole.
From that hole, startled ants peeked out, only to retreat again.
“Bin, bite here, on this side.”
To open the Queen Ant’s chamber, one must split it horizontally.
Despite the chamber’s firmness, the horizontal might be its weak point.
Thus, this flat, oval-shaped chamber would split cleanly in half if punctured horizontally.
As I prompted Bin to bite down on the entrance, there was a cracking sound as the stone split.
“Alright, let’s see what’s inside!”
The White Ants had mixed their saliva and soil to create a sort of concrete, so it wasn’t overly heavy, allowing me to pry open the chamber’s ceiling with Shin Tu’s help.
Inside, the floor and the lid were swarming with bustling White Ants.
And right in the middle lay a colossal Queen Ant, comfortably sprawled out.
Although the body size of the worker ants was significantly smaller, when measuring the Queen Ant’s size against that of a regular ant, she was much larger.
This is because the Queen Ant typically grows to be several dozen times larger than an ordinary ant, with her lower half resembling a giant caterpillar rather than an ant!
The Queen Ant can live over fifty years depending on its species, spending its entire life cooped up in this chamber, solely laying eggs.
That’s why her ovaries develop into a somewhat monstrous size.
Though she has just two ovaries, she possesses over 2,000 oviducts, which gives her that caterpillar-like appearance.
I also spotted another ant, clearly marked as a peculiar King Ant, distinctly different from the other worker ants.
Its body was white, but rather than resembling a White Ant, it was more like a cockroach.
Well, it’s understandable considering White Ants are closer to cockroaches than regular ants!
“Eek! What is this!?”
Shin Tu’s disciple, Yeongryeon, was taken aback.
Seeing the Queen Ant’s grotesque sight, Seol Noona frowned and asked,
“Y-yikes, this is a bit creepy, isn’t it? What is it, Wei So-ryong? Is that the same creature from last time?”
“Yes, that’s the infamous White Queen and King.”
I swiftly closed the lid again after showing everyone the White Ant Queen and sought out Yo-hwa for repackaging.
“Yo-hwa, tie this up tight with your thread. We need to take it back to the Tang Clan. Bin, we just need to find the caterpillars inside.”
-Kish!
-Whirr!
While Yo-hwa took care of resealing the White Ant Queen’s chamber,
I led Bin and Shin Tu’s disciple, Yeongryeon, back inside to look for the caterpillars of the Heavenly Silkworm I previously hatched.
The last time, I hatched it to verify the symbiotic relationship; since it was not in the Queen Ant’s chamber, it must surely be somewhere in the food storage chamber, where mushrooms are cultivated.
I needed to find that caterpillar to confirm its diet.
While I initially thought it fed on nutrient exchanges provided by the White Ants, if it turns out it consumes mushrooms, I’d have to revise my plans.
“Eek! Me too!”
“Are you saying you’re bringing Sir Shin Tu along?”
“No, that’s not it…”
“Even if you went, Sir would struggle to fit, so Little One must go. It’s alright! Bin chased away all the White Ones, so you’re safe for now.”
“But what about the other Little Ones…?”
“They can’t all wear such attire and crawl in.”
Pointing to Hua Eun and Seol Noona, Yeongryeon frowned.
Only Yeongryeon had on stealth wear that clung snugly to her body, while Seol Noona wore the short skirts favored by Yunnan ethnic women, and Hua Eun’s attire was a flowy traditional outfit from the Central Plains, making it difficult for them to crawl inside.
After a while of gearing up the distressed-looking Yeongryeon and searching through the White Ant’s mushroom storage, I finally spotted the Heavenly Silkworm munching away on a mushroom along the wall!
“There it is!”
“Oh! I see it now!”
Yeongryeon’s voice rang out as she spotted the Heavenly Silkworm first.
As I looked up, I saw the two-stage caterpillar of the Heavenly Silkworm busily devouring White Ant larvae next to the bruised mushroom.
“Aha, this one eats mushrooms as well?”
It was clear it had been tearing into the mushroom.
At my words, Yeongryeon tilted her head in confusion.
“But it’s eating insects right now?”
“I bet once it finishes that, it’ll move on to the mushroom.”
“Really?”
“Yes, those bite marks on the mushroom look exactly like its doing!”
Soon it scarfed down the larvae with remarkable speed before, just as I predicted, it began munching on the mushroom!
“Oh! For real!”
To Yeongryeon, the fact that my words were coming to fruition was astonishing, but witnessing the worm devouring the mushroom led me to realize it wouldn’t be easy to bring it home.
Given the impression that it seemed to prefer mushrooms as its staple diet, substituting White Ant larvae for lacking protein.
‘This means I can’t take it back now…’
Although the twin-tailed butterfly initially eats the food handed to them by the ants, when they later face a protein shortage, they start to munch on the ant larvae as well, so I could understand that.
But seeing this two-stage caterpillar simultaneously devouring both mushrooms and larvae made me think it would be difficult to take it back to the Tang Clan.
My initial intent was to entrust it to the early colony for rearing, but it seemed it would devour the mushrooms and larvae that made up the early colony’s food supply!
Since they would be short on their sustenance, it would likely wither away without a proper setup!
Sure, it would lay more eggs eventually, but if I took the Queen’s chamber back to the Tang Clan, providing the remaining minimal larvae would mean they’d die out without enough support.
It was initially thought that the twin-tailed butterfly would only start eating larvae after reaching the fourth stage of its development, making this seemingly carnivorous trait a bit early.
To truly cultivate the Heavenly Silkworm, I needed to expand both White Ants and mushrooms, but if it gobbled down food at its current speed, I feared the colony wouldn’t survive.
As disappointing as it was, I understood I’d have to leave it behind for now.
“Is there no choice?”
“Let’s leave it here for now.”
“Why not?”
Yeongryon’s eyes widened in astonishment at the mention of parting with the Heavenly Silkworm.
“I think it looks like it eats mushrooms and ant larvae, but until we expand the colony, I doubt we could keep up with its appetite.”
“Ah…”
‘Well, returning one might not be such a crime. I just hope those two remaining eggs are a male and a female…’
Feeling a bit worried, I wriggled out of the cave, and as the gas cleared, the ants poured out rapidly as they began restoring their mound.
*
I buried the White Ants I brought back to the Tang Clan in a rich area full of dead wood.
Most folks consider White Ants pests, but in reality, they’re beneficial insects.
They help recycle dead wood into fertile soil!
While I cannot say much about the red dirt, it was clear that if crops were grown in the soil enriched with their contributions, they would thrive!
In any case, once I planted the White Ants, a mound sprouted prominently just a day later.
Concerned there might be a food shortage until mushrooms sprouted, I asked them to start mushroom cultivation for me at the Tang Clan and requested the Venomous Insect Team to ensure the mushrooms they collected were fed well.
Shin Tu seemed satisfied with only the cocoons we had obtained for now, as he and the artisans at the Tang Clan began weaving the threads.
They mentioned that only the skilled could weave, and both Shin Tu and the artisans had to work together.
While they were occupied, I delved into the mystery of the shimmering cocoon.
-Splash.
“I’ve poured it all in, Wei So-ryong.”
“Thank you. Now, let’s give it a try!”
Into a large tub, Shin Tu had brought lukewarm water, where I placed the cocoon I named Silver Silkworm (은잠) along with a Heavenly Silkworm cocoon.
This wasn’t to extract silk but rather to observe the appearance of its owner.
Cocoons are crafted by moths to protect themselves before they molt.
Inside, the shell of the pupa remains, allowing me to restore the pupae’s forms to see what kind of insect it is and how it differs from the Heavenly Silkworm.
The reason for soaking the cocoons in lukewarm water was to loosen the molted shell, which had shrunk and stuck to them during the molting process.
Two cocoons, a silver one and a white one, floated half-submerged in the lukewarm water.
After a moment’s wait, the shells detached!
I cautiously retrieved them, dried them off, and began the restoration process.
Using two pins, I gradually shaped them back to their original appearance, applying glue and paste to reconnect any parts that might have fallen off.
After stuffing them with cotton and securely attaching the bursting backs from which the moths had emerged, the two grand pupae made their appearance.
One was translucent white, and the other was silver.
“Oooh! Amazing! I’ve never seen such craftsmanship before, Wei So-ryong!”
The warriors marveled at my remarkable restoration efforts.
I wiped the sweat from my brow while maintaining a humble demeanor.
“It’s nothing much.”
In my previous life, those who raised venomous insects or creatures would often craft them into taxidermy to commemorate their size or other features; this skill I had learned was not lost on me.
I carefully examined the two completed specimens to discern their differences.
After scrutinizing them, the conclusion struck me.
‘Wait, they’re identical except for the color!’
Ironically, the Silver Silkworm and the Heavenly Silkworm differed only in color, showing no other variances.
As I was left flabbergasted by the realization that they belonged to the same species and only differed in hue, Hua Eun, who had been tasked with handling paperwork, rushed in to reveal something astonishing.
“Hey, Wei So-ryong! You asked me to check if it might be in the Tang Clan’s Secret Record of Venomous Creatures? Look over here!”
Excitedly, Hua Eun swung open the book, and just a few pages in, one entry caught my eye:
‘Silver Silkworm Moth ( 은잠아 ) – One of the Ten Great Venoms (십대독물)…’