Chapter 74 Chapter 74 Double Update in One
After returning to the mountain residence, Lin Xinghuo realized to what extent the method of refining oneself required a large amount of refining materials. The entire mountain residence was as "clean" as if it had been peeled off a layer of skin.
The floors, siding, doors, and furniture that had been paved with spirit wood were all gone. If it weren't for the fear that a collapse would be too conspicuous, even the beams would have been lost. Needless to say, the spirit fruit trees in the backyard—while not yet at the point of being uprooted and burned—were all shaved bare. In March, a few thin branches sprouted from the bare trunks, giving them a rather desolate feeling, like a single seedling in a thousand acres of land.
The valley was even more thoroughly devastated than the mountain dwelling halfway up the slope. The spiritual rice paddy, first cultivated and longest-maintained, looked almost half as thin. The only two things in the house that hadn't been plucked by the passing geese were the treasured gourd vine in front of the house and the pure lotus in the jade basin. However, the lotus heart water had been taken so frequently that the pure lotus looked a little wilted. Lin Xinghuo hurriedly cast the Quanyu technique several times and even tried to pass a little wood spirit energy mixed with demonic power. As expected, the effect was very good.
Lin Xinghuo wasn't a stingy person. After all, the spirits had contributed all the spiritual materials they could. For the lives of the caracal and the fox, even destroying the entire mountain dwelling and the valley was worth it. The spirits were so understanding and restrained that it was heartbreaking. It was just another time of being "penniless," wasn't it? Lin Xinghuo was very familiar with this process. Using the abundant spiritual power she had gained after her advancement, she cast a spell and quickly produced a batch of ingredients. She would have a good meal on her first night back home.
Ling Hu, frightened by having his vitals touched today, had a boosted appetite and was eating more. Fang Hui, Yaoshou, and other spirits also saw their appetites increase to some degree. Lin Xinghuo looked at them one by one, noting that everyone had changed somewhat. For example, Qingji, the one she knew best, had a canopy on his cart, though it was broken. Don't underestimate this small, crude canopy; it signified a stronger bloodline.
The path of spirits differs somewhat from that of pure demon cultivators. They lack the specific realms inherited from demon cultivators, abandoning many methods and paths, and instead focusing on the pursuit of ancestral bloodline purity. As the saying goes, "A furry calf gives birth to a Yinglong, a Yinglong gives birth to a Jianma, a Jianma gives birth to a Qilin, a Qilin gives birth to a common beast, and all furry creatures are born from common beasts." Theoretically, spirits' bloodlines can achieve breakthroughs.
The twenty-odd spirits in his home were originally mostly of incomplete bloodlines, with the best being those of low bloodlines like Qingji. However, the great opportunity of the Golden Crow Stone, which had fallen from the sky, allowed the spirits to advance significantly, greatly enhancing their innate abilities. For example, Linghu's red tail, the Medicine Beast's smaller size, and its white fur now glowing white and radiating a medicinal aura... The same was true for Qingji's cart. With the restoration of the mao Anian and subsequent rituals, the cart's internal storage space would be even greater, bringing it one step closer to being able to carry items other than seafood.
Lin Xinghuo suddenly remembered something and took out a small wooden horse from her storage bag and gave it to Qingji. This was the New Year gift she had prepared for Qingji before, but she forgot about it because she didn't wait for Tuxun and Qingji during the whole first month of the year.
The pony was carved from the heart of a second-grade ginkgo tree. The horse's proud head was a little taller than Qingji's. The wooden horse was in a galloping posture, and was particularly strong and handsome. Qingji fell in love with it at first sight, and he hugged the horse's neck and rubbed it, unwilling to let go.
Lin Xinghuo felt a little sorry. After all, this was just a wooden horse, far from the pony that accompanied Qingji in the legend. She had heard of palm-sized black monkeys in the world, but she had never heard of a palm-sized living horse. There was no way to find a substitute.
Qingji grinned with delight: "This is my pony!" As he spoke, he pierced his eyebrows with his sharp nails and used the blood from his eyebrows to paint the pony's eyes. A yellow light flashed on the pony's body, and it became more lively.
In fact, when Lin Xinghuo took out this little wooden horse just now, he discovered that it had a bit more charm than when it was first carved. Now after Qingji added the finishing touch, it became even more spiritual.
The caracal, who had turned back into a mountain cat, withdrew his gaze from the pony and reluctantly said that he would refine the wooden horse for Qingji later and asked Qingji to be prepared.
"Prepare?" Lin Xinghuo was curious: "What preparations should be made?" Isn't it just like the caracal refining weapons in the past?
After Qingji's excited and disjointed explanation and Mr. Mao's supplement, Lin Xinghuo finally understood what was going on: the companion of the monster can actually be "raised"!
For example, Qingji was born in a place where the water source remained uninterrupted within a centuries-old, dry marsh. Upon his birth, the spirit received a gift from heaven and earth. He could select the soil with the highest spiritual energy from this location and mix it with the water, similar to the legendary "Nuwa creating humans," to form a pony and a cart, which became his companions. Unfortunately, Qingji was born with a deficiency of spiritual energy, a congenital deficiency. Forgetting the heavenly gift of creating a companion horse and cart, he would have nearly dissipated again without the help of the Feathered People. However, companions are not irreparable. For example, the clothes, hat, and shoes he wears were originally crafted for him by a caracal. With continued wear, they are imbued with the spirit's aura and gradually become his own, like the fur of a spirit beast. A closer look at the yellow robe reveals that the originally plain hem has been given a riverbank pattern, further complementing his personality. The same applies to this pony. Although not a direct creation of nature, as long as Qingji identifies it as his companion, it will eventually become his.
Lin Xinghuo's eyes lit up, and she began to quickly take things out of her storage bag: there was a collar for Ling Hu, with two pieces of embroidered Ruyi-shaped pieces with gourds and lotus on the collar to cover the tumor on his neck; there were eighteen kinds of medicine tools of suitable sizes for medicinal beasts, including knives, pestles, bowls, rollers, scales, etc.... There was also a complete set of gold-inlaid gemstone head ornaments suitable for Fang Hui's bun and hairpins. Legend has it that Fang Hui had a bun, hairpins and earrings. Lin Xinghuo had no shortage of luxurious jewelry. There were more than ten boxes of Jin family property that she had indirectly obtained from Huangpi Zi, but these were all made by Lin Xinghuo herself according to the model. Although she was not as good at refining tools as the caracal, this kind of goldsmith work could not be difficult for a cultivator - only the bun was given to her by an old wig maker she found in the capital, and she secretly exchanged it for food.
These were the gifts Lin Xinghuo had prepared for the spirits, but she didn't share them with the others. Instead, she placed them one by one in front of Mr. Mao, looking at him expectantly. The spirits also stared at Ah Nian with their eyes shining brightly.
What else could Ah Nian do? He pulled the items from the pile one by one, finally dividing them into two piles, one large and one small. The large pile contained items that had been re-refined and were useful to spirits. Only a few were picked out by the caracal, which showed how much care Lin Xinghuo put into preparing the gift. The more Ah Nian picked, the angrier he became. In the end, he even felt a little aggrieved. Of all the things, not a single one was meant for him! In the end, he had to go through the trouble of refining them. Uncle Ah Nian was filled with bitterness. Even a patriarch like him couldn't stand such an injustice!
"These are for you, but they're probably inappropriate now..." Lin Xinghuo was quite perceptive. The moment Anian's pressure suddenly dropped, she unleashed a large bundle without hesitation. Inside were all the things Lin Xinghuo had saved up to make for the caracal during her time in the capital. There were the little vests and scarves, as well as the oddities she'd stumbled across: a Beijing-style cat bed, cute rice bowls, dough figurines shaped like caracals, sugar paintings of family portraits, and fox-headed rabbit statues. She'd often make them at home and stuff them into the bundle, unknowingly amassing a vast collection. It was just that after the caracal successfully transformed, its true form suddenly grew considerably, the size of a half-grown tiger, making these things seem a bit too small.
As soon as the big bag was taken out, Anian calmed down instantly. When Lin Xinghuo took out an even bigger bag for the kids at home, he was also generous and didn't care.
The frustrating thing was that nearly all of Lin Xinghuo's meticulously crafted embroidery was unusable by spirits, even though the patterns contained hidden runes, surpassing those made with paper. However, due to limited raw materials, low-grade spiritual cotton was of little use. Unless they were remade, like Qingji's robe, using sumac wood and gold essence spun into stinking orchid leaves, neither Linghu's collar patch nor Fang Hui's wig would work.
However, after the stinking orchid healed and reached the stage of Tongzhi, its leaf shedding rate slowed significantly. Furthermore, several hundred kilograms of gold could only produce a ball of golden essence the size of a hawthorn. Even if Lin Xinghuo were willing to unearth all the gold buried beneath his mountain retreat, the caracal wouldn't have the energy to do so. Remember, Qingji had only just assembled his robes. This was precisely why Lin Xinghuo had noticed Qingji's robes had changed in the capital. Even if the caracal transformed its earth-digging dragon into a thunder dragon, it would have struggled to break Qingji's shoes.
Fang Hui walked up to Lin Xinghuo and shook the beast gently. A lot of long hair rustled off. Lin Xinghuo picked up a strand and suddenly had an idea: "You want me to make thread with it?" Fang Hui nodded. All the monsters with hands came forward to help and smoothed Fang Hui's long hair into a bunch. Lin Xinghuo looked at the hair on Fang Hui's head that could just curl into a small bun. He thought it would be better to make a bun with this hair, so that it could wear more jewelry and one day it would be able to assimilate into more companions, and Fang Hui's ability to bestow life would be stronger.
At this moment, a pair of gray moths that looked like dry leaves flew to the tip of Lin Xinghuo's finger and stopped. The moths were extremely ugly. According to Qingji, they were not like other monsters whose blood was low, but whose blood was mixed and incompatible with each other. That was why they were neither as black as the ice silkworms, nor as colorful as the Luofu fairy butterflies with five or six-inch long wings.
According to legend, the Luofu Fairy Butterfly was transformed from the clothing of the immortal Magu, and the mountain dwellers viewed the large butterfly as a miniature phoenix. The ice silkworm, however, possesses horns and scales. Covered in ice and snow, it can create a cocoon, a multicolored silk cocoon that remains impervious to water and unburned by fire, comparable to shark silk. These two creatures, one fire and the other water, are incompatible. Fortunately, the withered moth possessed the blood of the "Silkworm King," allowing this lucky birth.
The so-called silkworm king refers to the silkworm seeds that have survived steaming, boiling and roasting. The silkworm seeds can grow to the size of a cow in ten days. If you hit the silkworm king with a stick, it will spit out several kilograms of silk with one hit.
The mixture of three extraordinary bloodlines caused this pair of withered moths to become the weakest monsters rescued by the Feather People. When Lin Xinghuo first saw them, even their wings were broken and they could not fly but could only crawl. Later, Lin Xinghuo fed them a bucket of lotus heart water mixed with spiritual honey every day, and their condition improved a little.
This time, when the Golden Crow Stone was in danger, even the weakest withered moths contributed. They lay on Fox Three's head and spun silk to stick to the stones that Fox Three threw that looked like Golden Crow Stones, turning the 'catapult' into a recyclable 'meteor hammer'.
When a withered butterfly landed on Lin Xinghuo's fingertips, the spirits fell silent. Just as Lin Xinghuo was puzzled, he saw the pair of withered butterflies suddenly ignite, one sparking with fire, the other climbing onto the frost and snow. In the blink of an eye, the fire moth was reduced to ash, and the ice moth fragmented. Lin Xinghuo's palm caught the black ash and ice fragments, and a rich green energy reflexively gathered in his palm. The pure wood spirit energy cast a turquoise on the spirits' faces.
The debris in her palm suddenly moved, blocking her scream. Two sesame-sized eggs absorbed the greenness and grew rapidly. Soon they were the size of sparrow eggs. One was dark black, and the other was almost transparent, but both had a faint green halo.
The monsters breathed a sigh of relief at this moment, and some of the weaker ones even cast envious glances.
"Your spiritual power," the caracal, also relieved, pondered for a moment before saying, "seems... to be even more effective." Pure wood spiritual power naturally has a growth-enhancing effect, but it's far more effective on spiritual plants than on spiritual beasts and spirits. Since Lin Xinghuo's spiritual power was infused with the golden silk demonic energy, its vitality has surprisingly intensified, even affecting spirits. The withered moth's chance of rebirth from an egg was previously less than 50%, but after absorbing Lin Xinghuo's spiritual power, it actually succeeded. Furthermore, judging by the color of the eggs, one of the withered butterflies chose the Luofu Immortal Butterfly bloodline, while the other was an Ice Silkworm egg. Rebirth from death is already difficult, and these two, each rejecting a mixed bloodline, are even more rare.
After seeing that his friend understood, the caracal didn't say much, but kept the matter in his heart. He secretly sent a message to Lin Xinghuo to try to separate the demonic power and spiritual energy. It would be best if he could quickly reach the state where he could use spiritual power whenever he wanted, and could also release the demonic power alone whenever he wanted.
Anian patted the embroidered pieces with his paws, especially the pile of gifts he had made that he could no longer wear. A delighted smile curved his cat lips. "Now I have top-grade yellow silk thread!" At least it was top-grade yellow silk. With the improvement of the two spirits, the quality of the spiritual silk would be even higher. The caracal felt that his decision to transform into a human form was a wise one: he could wear clothes made by his humans from head to toe! How could that palm-sized vest from before compare to the clothes needed for a human form? The caracal simply didn't want to transform his fur into clothes anymore.
Glancing at the black fox ears that Lin Xinghuo firmly forbade him to touch, the caracal thought, well, not exactly a human, but a little friend like this made the caracal unable to take his eyes off.
With Lin Xinghuo's generous help, the Luofu Butterfly and the Ice Silkworm hatched that very night. True to legend, the Luofu Butterfly was a multicolored butterfly no bigger than a palm. Its flight was a dazzling display of light, and the fluttering scales on its wings cast shadows reminiscent of phoenix feathers, lingering for a moment before dissipating – a truly magnificent sight. The Ice Silkworm, on the other hand, was as long as a chopstick, its entire body akin to crystal-clear black ice, and it even had a pair of adorably round, plump, and adorable antlers on its head.
The Luofu butterfly's call was like the chirping of an oriole, while the ice silkworm's was like the clashing of red jade. Perhaps it had something to do with Lin Xinghuo's help in hatching their eggs, but Lin Xinghuo, who never understood the spirits' calls, could vaguely understand their meaning. The two spirits claimed that if they were given spirit leaves, they would spin silk. The diligent spirits even claimed that they could adjust the color of the silk thread based on the spirit leaves!
The caracal watched from the side for a long time, and suddenly took out a piece of stinky orchid leaf from Lin Xinghuo's storage bag and gently puffed the Luofu butterfly and the ice silkworm. The two little guys immediately started to spit out silk with a "puff puff" small motor, and stopped only after a large pile had accumulated.
"Sure enough, it still retains the bloodline of the Silkworm King." Uncle Mao licked his paw and nodded with satisfaction.
Lin Xinghuo looked at the magnificent butterfly and the black ice silkworm that were leaning against each other after spinning silk. He snatched the last piece of stinky orchid leaf from the caracal's hand in a bad mood and fed it to these two "child laborers" who were "exploited" by their unscrupulous parents as soon as they were born.
The Luofu butterfly chirped twice, then dropped its antennae in shame. The Xuanbing silkworm quickly nudged it with its soft little deer antlers. The butterfly and the silkworm were surprisingly affectionate.
"Poisonous?" Lin Xinghuo glanced at the pile of colorful silk threads in awe. It turned out that not only were the Luofu Fairy Butterfly's beautiful scales highly poisonous, but it could also spit out poisonous silk. Unskillfully, he used a Foundation Establishment Stage identification technique. The Luofu Fairy Butterfly's silk was surprisingly a step higher than the Xuanbing Silkworm's transparent threads, transcending the vast barrier between Xuan and Huang, and ranking at the bottom of the Xuan rank.
It was also due to the strange magical power of the Silkworm King's bloodline - as long as it was hit, it would spin silk uncontrollably - Luofu Butterfly was caught off guard and failed to close the poison sac in its body.
Qingji came running over and leaned on his little wooden horse to start winding the ball of thread in an orderly manner. Other monsters also came to help. Those with clumsy fingers like Linghu and Fanghui contributed their horns as winding stakes... but no one dared to touch the pile of silk spitted out by Luofu Butterfly.
Lin Xinghuo finally managed to take care of it using his Item Control technique. Fortunately, Luofu Butterfly explained that wrapping it in a piece of cloth woven from ice silkworm silk would isolate the poison. If poisoned, the ice crystals condensed by the Black Ice Silkworm could be used as a detoxifier. This beautiful large butterfly turned out to be a henpecked henpecked person, completely controlled by the flightless Black Ice Silkworm.
*
The next day, Lin Xinghuo asked Wei Chunfeng to distribute the things she brought from Beijing to the members, and she knocked on the door of the old branch secretary's office herself.
The group that arrived early for work, expecting to see the man the fairy had brought back to the village, was somewhat disappointed, especially Jin Zhaodi, who was watching the fun with her daughter in her arms. She bumped into the fairy and her group halfway. They were running so fast that Jin Zhaodi couldn't see them clearly, only their large figures. To avoid missing them, she arrived at the brigade headquarters an hour early.
"He looks so energetic, why hasn't he shown up?" said the worm mother.
"Maybe he's tired?" Someone guessed while calculating the distance from the forest farm railway station to his own village.
Everyone thought Lin Xinghuo was brought from Beijing. The only way back from Beijing was by train, which wasn't close. Even people in the village had to take a car to get to the forest farm, and using just two feet would tire them out. But everyone couldn't help but wonder if this man was a little too delicate. Their little fairy was still full of energy.
It wasn't that the caracal didn't want to show up; it was that Anian was eager to show off in the village, letting everyone know that he was the one who belonged to Lin Xinghuo's family halfway up the southern slopes of the mountain. But last night, after reeling so much silk, Anian, who had been urging the first piece of spiritual clothing to be given to him, transformed into human form to help. He discovered that refining in human form was much easier, and his collaboration with Lin Xinghuo, who was using the control technique to weave, was a perfect match. This immersion inevitably exhausted his demonic power to the point where he couldn't even transform into his juvenile form. The only good news was that, after pushing himself to the limit, the caracal's human form had been extended to an hour.
I believe that once he has sorted out all the liquefied demonic energy, he will be able to maintain his human form for a longer time.
Fortunately, with this carrot hanging on his side, Uncle Mao agreed to hand over the matter of "household registration" to Lin Xinghuo, and he stayed in the mountain residence to preside over the reconstruction of the mountain residence.
In addition to discussing the registration of the caracal and Fox with the old branch secretary and others, Lin Xinghuo also had to inform the team that her house was about to be expanded.
"Do you want to register your household registration in our village?" The old branch secretary and the team leader were a little surprised. Xiaolin ran too fast yesterday, and they missed the village entrance to pick him up. But they heard from the people in the village that the young man Xiaolin brought back was from Beijing?
Lin Xinghuo had once hesitated whether to tell the few people who had signed the contract about the true identity of the human-rabbit caracal, but when she thought about her own experience, she overturned this idea: when she first entered the Tao, even with the popular science knowledge about the human-rabbit caracal, Lin Xinghuo still worried for a long time whether the first "demon pig" she ate would become spiritual and whether it would have the potential to become a spiritual beast?
After that, Lin Xinghuo didn't dare eat demon beast meat for a year or two. Even low-grade demon beasts like demon pigs didn't dare eat them, fearing they'd encounter the same situation as sable and rhubarb before they'd awakened their spirits. Even when the caracal told her how difficult it was for demon beasts to awaken, and that unawakened demon beasts had always been the food of spirit beasts and cultivators, she still refused. This fact almost became a mental barrier, and was one of the reasons why Lin Xinghuo's cultivation hadn't increased as fast as the caracal's in recent years. It wasn't until the spirit beasts in her family became pig herders, sheep herders, chicken and duck herders, and fish farmers that Lin Xinghuo opened her mind and gradually adjusted. She had to adjust. If she kept getting stuck in this dead end, wouldn't she even be able to eat spiritual grains and plants? After all, demon cultivators whose bodies were spiritual plants were rare, but they still appeared in the caracal's inherited memories...
But if this were put into the mind of the old branch secretary and his companions, it would be even more terrifying: this was a leap from livestock to human! Even if the past was not mentioned, would they consciously or unconsciously think of this every time they ate a bite of meat in the future? For example, the bowl of greasy old hen on the table, if they didn't eat it, would they be able to become human one day?
Such a dead end that can make people's hearts beat fast is unbearable for even the most tolerant person.
After keeping this secret, the caracal's household registration was actually very easy to solve. Lin Xinghuo only said: "He has the same background as me, but he hid deeper before..." After saying this, the old branch secretary showed an understanding expression on his face, and Accountant Wang also nodded. When the wave of destroying the four olds arose, there were indeed many people who were unwilling to return to secular life, and there were often rumors that some people with real abilities had escaped into the mountains.
Household registration is not strictly managed now, especially in remote mountain villages like Bushantun. Most of the couples over 40 in the village do not have a marriage certificate, and many children have to wait until they go to school to get their household registration. This is because the brigade in Bushantun is willing to take care of it. Otherwise, there would be a lot of people in other villages who are in their twenties and have married and have children but are still unregistered.
As long as the village has issued a certificate, you just need to take the certificate to the commune office to handle it. If you don’t want to spend a few cents, you can also wait until the end of the year. At the end of each year, the old branch secretary will take a stack of materials to the commune to register your household registration and apply for a marriage certificate. That’s right, in the countryside, young people think they are married as long as they have a wedding. Old rural people don’t really care whether they get a marriage certificate or not. The reason why Buxian Village has a good secretary who likes to care about it is that they have developed the habit of getting a marriage certificate.
"Wu, Nian?" The old branch secretary filled in the two words properly. After hearing Lin Xinghuo's age, he did some mental calculations and found that he was just twenty.
The old man looked up at Lin Xinghuo and couldn't help but say, "Where is the baby?" The old branch secretary didn't think the members' outrageous speculations were true. Either the baby was picked up, or it was Wu Nian's child.
Before they even met, the three big men in the brigade who considered themselves his mother's family had a bad impression of Wu Nian: Is he just a pretty boy?
Otherwise, why would it be like they had been drugged with some magic potion by some fairy lady?
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The author has something to say: Note:
"A furry calf gave birth to a Yinglong, a Yinglong gave birth to a Jianma, a Jianma gave birth to a Qilin, a Qilin gave birth to common beasts, and all furry creatures were born from common beasts." - Huainanzi, Han Dynasty
Luofu Butterfly: A large butterfly, which is said to have been transformed from Magu's clothes.
"Guangdong Xinyu" (New Language of Guangdong) states: "The giant butterfly is a fairy species that lives in caves. Legend has it that it was transformed from the remains of Magu's clothes. It emerges from the cave in February and March, and the mountain dwellers seek its young and hide them. In June and July, like a silkworm cocooning, it emerges as a moth, and then transforms into a butterfly. When it first hatches, it's five or six inches across, and the male and female pair up, never alone. If the female stays, the male stays; if the male stays, the female leaves and comes back. After several months, it gives birth to its young, which hatch half a month later. The eggs are like sparrow eggs, varying in size, and their hatching and development also correspond to their size." At the turn of spring and summer in Guangzhou, vendors sell giant butterflies in the market. Each one costs a few dozen coins, only about five or six inches across. They hang on bamboo poles for ten days without flying or eating. After laying more than ten eggs, they gradually become unable to move, and are thought to have died of dehydration. Touching them causes them to wriggle, and after several months, they hatch. My poem goes: "In February, giant butterflies emerge from their cocoons in every household. Children scramble for the eggs, buying them just as the flowers bloom."
The people of Luofu Mountain see nothing but phoenixes. They identify not only red and green pheasants, blue pheasants, and five-colored birds as phoenixes, but also large butterflies as small phoenixes. Wang Shuo composed a poem: "The butterflies of Luofu have wings like dustpans, soaring towards the sky on a sunny day with colorful clouds. Their golden rays scatter, like the immortals of a flourishing age. Butterflies fly in pairs like phoenixes, and an immortal rides into a Taoist's room. Within the room, phoenix chicks are born, and the aura on the four hundred mountaintops is purple."
Ice Silkworm: In the Song Dynasty's "Taiping Yulan" (Taiping Yulan), volume 825, "Five Silkworms in the Assets Section," Wang Jia of the Jin Dynasty's "Shiyi Lu" records: "In Yuanjiao, a mountain called Huanqiu, there are ice silkworms seven inches long, black in color, with horns and scales. They are covered with frost and snow, then they make cocoons one foot long, with five colors. They are woven into brocade, which remains undamaged in water and remains unburned even after being thrown into fire for a night. The people of the sea presented it to Emperor Yao as a brocade."
The Silkworm King: There was a nobleman named Jin Ge in Silla. His distant ancestor was named Pang, and he had a younger brother who was very wealthy. Because his elder brother Pang lived apart, he begged for food and clothing. A local gave him an acre of vacant land. He asked his younger brother to plant silkworms, and the younger brother steamed it and gave it to him without knowing it. When the silkworm season came, a silkworm was born. Its eyes were more than an inch long, and it was as big as an ox after ten days. It could not eat a few leaves. His younger brother knew about it and waited for an opportunity to kill the silkworm. After a few days, silkworms from a hundred miles away flew to his house. The local people called him the Giant Silkworm, thinking that he was the king of silkworms. The neighbors reeled it together, but they did not offer it as food. There was only one stalk of silkworm planted there, and its ear was more than a foot long. "Youyang Zazu Zhinuo Gao Shang"
"Yijian Zhijia": A Silla man asked his brother for silkworm seeds. His brother steamed them and gave them to him, unbeknownst to him. When the silkworms were about to fall, a single silkworm was born. It grew an inch a day, and after ten days, it was as big as an ox. His brother waited for an opportunity to kill it, and silkworms from a hundred miles away flocked to his home, thinking it was the king. Near Suzhou, Fuli, there was a man named Wang Youwen who lived with his brother Liang. Youwen married a woman named Qin, who was naturally cruel. Liang once asked his brother for silkworm seeds, but Qin roasted them over a fire before giving them to him. When the silkworms fell, only one was born. It grew larger, weighing nearly a hundred kilograms. Qin, jealous, waited for Liang and his wife to go out and struck the silkworms with a huge stick. Each strike produced several kilograms of silk. Frightened, Qin returned home and died of a heart attack. When Liang's silkworms formed cocoons, they were as white as jars. Reeling them, they yielded a hundred kilograms of silk.
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