Frost Silkworm

The Frost Silkworm is a rare creature associated with the Kunlun Mountains, valued both as a living poison-bearing treasure and as the source of a lethal cold force. Its capture sets in motion You TanZhi’s transformation: stolen from the Shaolin monk HuiJing, it is eventually used to train A'Zi’s poison palm, but its bite transfers its cold poison into You TanZhi, where it combines with the effects of his Yijin Jing practice.

Appearance and Capture

At MinZhong Temple, You TanZhi sees the Frost Silkworm confined within a yellow circle drawn with medicinal material. It moves rapidly along the ground but cannot cross the boundary. The scene presents it as both an unusual animal and a carefully contained medicinal or martial resource: HuiJing watches over it closely, and You TanZhi recognizes that stealing it will require care.

When HuiJing leaves for a prayer session, You TanZhi lures the creature into a gourd by moving its rim past the circle. He seals the gourd and escapes. Soon after leaving the temple, he finds that it has grown so cold he cannot hold it directly. He uses his belt to carry it, while frost forms on the gourd. The cold is therefore not merely a danger to anyone bitten; even containment and transport expose its unusual power.

A'Zi's Experiment

You TanZhi returns to Nanjing and tells A'Zi that he has captured the silkworm. She orders him to keep it in a clay urn. Though it is midsummer, the palace grows colder, and the teapots, cups, and tea freeze. The effect makes the creature’s presence unmistakable even before A'Zi puts it to use.

A'Zi tests the silkworm against several poisonous snakes and insects. They freeze and die, while it feeds on their juices; this continues for ten days without any of the other creatures surviving. She then orders You TanZhi to put his hand into the urn so the silkworm can feed on his blood, intending to use the encounter in the development of her poison palm.

You TanZhi fears this order, but A'Zi’s praise of his loyalty briefly gives him comfort. As he puts his hand into the urn, he adopts an inverted posture and concentrates on the directional markings he remembers from a Yijin Jing illustration. When the silkworm bites his index finger, a cold current moves through his body along the meridian route he directs with his thoughts.

A'Zi sees blood enter the transparent, crystal-like silkworm and circulate through its body before returning to You TanZhi’s finger. Frost forms on You TanZhi’s mask, clothing, and limbs, and A'Zi assumes he is dead. The silkworm eventually releases him, gives off wisps of steam, and falls into the urn. A'Zi strikes it with a stick; it remains belly-up, and the blow crushes it.

Poison, Survival, and Transformation

A'Zi has You TanZhi’s apparently frozen body taken away for burial. The attendant instead leaves it in a small brook. This unintended decision allows the water to carry him about ten li before reeds catch his body. The surrounding water freezes around him, but continued flow gradually removes the cold. Because his iron mask transfers heat and cold quickly, the ice around it melts first; water reaches his head, and he regains consciousness and climbs from the brook.

The account explains that You TanZhi has used a Yijin Jing method to guide the silkworm’s poison through his body. His blood is drawn out and returned by the creature, while its deadly Frost poison is absorbed into him. The attendant’s failure to bury him saves his life, but the poison has frozen him solid. He has learned only one method from the sutra, not enough to expel the poison; with complete mastery, he could have neutralized it gradually and greatly increased his internal energy.

After recovering, You TanZhi no longer dares to seek revenge on Qiao Feng. Wandering in the wilderness, he later studies the water-soaked Sanskrit Yijin Jing. The illustrations appear on the wet pages, and by following their changing postures and arrow markings, he can make the cold presence in his body seem to move through his limbs and bones. He discovers that this practice makes him feel more agile; after several months, his hands and feet are lighter, his leaps longer, and his running faster.

When a wolf attacks, You TanZhi strikes it with an unplanned palm blow and kills it. He attributes the result to the silkworm’s spirit, but the narrative supplies a different explanation: the Yijin Jing has cultivated his internal energy, and the silkworm’s Yin poison has combined with it to produce exceptionally powerful cold strength. The creature is thus destroyed as an animal but persists as a force within the person who survived its bite.

Later Consequences

You TanZhi does not explain the full source of his abilities when he later becomes Ding Chunqiu’s disciple. He says he encountered HuiJing and the Frost Silkworm, but falsely claims that he was bitten by accident and leaves out A'Zi’s role and the Yijin Jing drawings. Ding Chunqiu is interested in the silkworm and believes it was absorbed into You TanZhi by coincidence; he does not know the martial method behind You TanZhi’s cold internal energy.

Ding Chunqiu’s interest in the creature later leads him to seek HuiJing, whom he wants to take to the Kunlun Mountains as a guide in finding more Frost Silkworms. During the later confrontation, Ding Chunqiu says that he himself captured a Frost Silkworm in the mountains, but HuiJing protests that he found the creature there after great effort and accuses Ding Chunqiu of stealing it. Their conflicting claims establish that the silkworm is not only a source of power but also the object of a dispute over its capture and possession.

The creature’s poison remains consequential after its death. When You TanZhi’s cold internal energy injures Feng BoE, ordinary detoxification treatment has no effect, and the frost poison leaves Feng BoE in grave condition. Ding Chunqiu has no antidote to provide. Later, HuiJing is described as gravely ill after prolonged contact with a powerful poison object identified as the Frost Silkworm, and Xue MuHua treats him with acupuncture, moxibustion, and two crimson pills. Across these episodes, the Frost Silkworm’s significance lies in the chain of effects it sets in motion: its capture prompts pursuit, its bite changes You TanZhi, and its poison continues to threaten others even after the creature itself has been crushed.