Crystal Silkworm

The Crystal Silkworm is a rare poisonous creature encountered by A'Zi and You TanZhi while they are searching for venomous creatures. Its crystalline appearance, lethal effects on a giant python, and ability to leave a scorched trail transform the search into a chase; when it escapes into a stream, the episode ends without either pursuer securing it.

Appearance and Physical Effects

The creature is described as pure white jade tinged with green, transparent and crystal-like, and roughly twice the size of an ordinary silkworm. It moves among vegetation, but its passage has effects opposite to what its burning marks might suggest: grass dries and chars where it touches, while the air around it grows colder. The contrast between scorching plants and intensifying cold gives the silkworm a distinctive, unsettling presence without requiring the narrative to identify a mechanism for its powers.

Its speed is also central to the scene. Though small, it moves like the wind, covering several zhang in a blink. Its blackened trail becomes the only practical means of following it once it leaves the immediate encounter.

Encounter with the Python

The Crystal Silkworm appears while A'Zi and You TanZhi are near the Divine Wood King Cauldron and a giant python. The python has been threatening, but its behavior changes as the silkworm approaches: it withdraws its head and hides it within its coils. The arrival reverses the apparent balance of danger. The python had seemed the dominant threat; now it is the creature that retreats.

The silkworm climbs onto the python and leaves a scorched line as it travels over its body. Reaching the head, it moves to the venom gland and feeds on the venom. Afterward, its body swells and appears like a crystal vessel filled with purple liquid. The episode establishes both its capacity to overpower a much larger animal and its connection to venom, making it a particularly significant find for those seeking poisonous creatures.

The Cauldron and the Pursuit

After feeding, the silkworm circles the wooden cauldron and climbs onto it, leaving a burn mark. It then descends rather than entering the vessel. The narration presents this choice as though the creature recognizes that going inside would put it in danger, though it does not explain whether this is instinct or some other form of awareness.

A'Zi covers the cauldron with brocade, picks it up, and urges pursuit. She and You TanZhi follow the scorched marks through the vegetation. They keep the trail despite the silkworm’s speed, but after chasing it for three or four li reach a small stream, where the marks stop. With no scorch marks visible on the opposite bank, they conclude that the silkworm has fallen into the water and been carried away.

Significance and Unresolved Outcome

The Crystal Silkworm is defined in the episode through observable effects rather than explanation: it chars grass and the cauldron, chills the surrounding air, frightens the python, and feeds on its venom. The creature’s combination of fiery traces and cold, as well as its apparent refusal to enter the cauldron, sustains uncertainty about how it behaves while keeping the scene grounded in events its pursuers can see.

The pursuit also makes the silkworm a source of tension between the two characters. A'Zi is delighted by its apparent power and quickly commits to capturing it; You TanZhi, by contrast, worries that it may feed on his blood and kill him. He nevertheless follows her. When the trail vanishes at the stream, A'Zi blames him for not urging her to go faster, orders him to find the creature, and finally leaves for the city alone after the search has continued for more than two hours. The encounter ends with the silkworm’s fate unknown and the capture still unresolved.