Cultivation begins with forming a bond with a spirit bee.

The sun shines brightly, casting its rays across the treetops.

In the southwest of Yun Kingdom, outside the Yumen Market, vast fields of ripe spiritual rice swayed in the breeze, their fragrance permeating the surrounding area.

The sunlight shone brightly, creating a hazy glow.

In the distant woods, a jade spirit bee was clinging to a spirit flower, its wings fluttering as it continuously absorbed the pollen into its belly.

After a long while, seemingly having eaten its fill, the Jade Spirit Bee stretched its body and slowly flew into the depths of the forest.

Click.

The faint sound of footsteps crunching on fallen leaves.

As the spirit bee flew away, a young man emerged from the forest and looked up in the direction the spirit bee had gone.

The man was dressed in a black Taoist robe, with a calm expression and a slender figure.

Qu Ye, a Qi Refining Level 3, is a Spirit Contract Worker hired by the Hou family.

"Not bad, the bees are still quite healthy."

He withdrew his gaze, slowly stepped forward, approached the spirit flower, and squatted down to examine it closely.

A slight smile appeared on his face.

"If we collect this much as usual, we'll definitely be able to collect the spiritual tax for this year."

Standing up, Qu Ye didn't rush to leave. Instead, he took out a porcelain bottle from his pocket, poured out some medicinal powder, and sprinkled it evenly on himself.

This is a medicine specially made from spirit flower pollen, which can effectively remove messy smells from the body and make the jade spirit bees feel close to it.

Then, he carefully followed the path the bee had taken.

Along the way, many jade spirit bees were flying leisurely, having eaten and drunk their fill. From a distance, they looked like a streak of jade-yellow light.

They sensed Qu Ye's presence and were initially wary, but then relaxed and allowed Qu Ye to travel with them.

After walking several thousand more steps, we rounded a hillside, and suddenly the view opened up before us.

The forest was lush and green, and on the shady side of the hillside, huge beehives, each about two people tall, stood close together, and the fresh, damp scent of earth filled the air.

Qu Ye approached the beehive, gently tapped the outer wall, and released his spiritual energy.

A moment later, a rustling crawling sound came from inside the hive, and a bee that was clearly different from the other jade spirit bees poked its head out.

This bee has a swollen abdomen, and its head is covered with long, thin antennae instead of sharp pincers. It has white spots on its body and emits a faint glow.

It was the queen bee of the bee swarm in front of them, a first-tier low-grade spirit insect, capable of absorbing the spiritual energy from the pollen brought back by the worker bees and condensing it into spiritual essence.

Sensing the familiar presence, the queen bee gently stroked Qu Ye's palm with her antennae, seemingly delighted.

Qu Ye stroked the queen bee's head while using his spiritual energy to check on her condition.

In no time, he figured it out, stopped channeling spiritual energy, poured some medicinal powder from the porcelain bottle into his palm, and handed it to the queen bee.

Watching the queen bee eat with relish, Qu Ye paused, his gaze darkening.

"It's been three years..."

He was originally an ordinary college student on Earth. He was abandoned by his parents in his early years due to a hereditary disease and grew up in an orphanage before finally being admitted to a university with great difficulty.

Before he could even begin to enjoy life, he died slowly and painfully in his rented room bed due to a sudden onset of illness.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself possessing the body of a boy with the same name in Yumen Market.

Three years have passed since he transmigrated and signed a spiritual contract with the Hou family steward, and the lifespan of a Jade Spirit Bee Queen is only three years.

Having just examined the bee, he discovered that it was already somewhat weak, meaning that this queen bee, whom he had carefully tended, could only produce one last spiritual essence before passing away peacefully.

"There are four days left until the day of paying the spirit tax. With this batch, it should be enough."

After the queen bee finished eating the medicinal powder in his hand, Qu Ye made a hand seal and used the Gengjin Sword Technique. A pale golden light appeared and cut a hole in the hive.

Reaching in with his right hand, he pulled out two thumb-sized, glistening crystals from the center of the honeycomb.

Once the essence is extracted, the queen bee will instinctively accelerate the consumption of pollen, condensing the last batch of essence in a short time, and then die from exhaustion.

This is the habit of the Jade Spirit Bee, and it's a rule that every beekeeper knows.

As the crystals were removed, the queen bee shuddered, darted back into the hive, and began to devour the collected pollen.

The other jade bees around also began to become restless, flying up and down and hissing continuously.

Qu Ye watched the scene before him calmly, unmoved.

Two hours later.

Sensing that the signs of life inside the nest had dissipated, Qu Ye silently cast a spell to create an even larger opening.

The queen bee lay quietly in the middle, with three pieces of spiritual essence beside her.

Suppressing a surge of emotion, Qu Ye took the spirit essence and the corpse, and put the remaining pollen into an empty bottle.

He took a deep breath, used his lightness technique, glanced at the beehive one last time, and turned to leave.

Only a swarm of worker bees remained, hovering there for a long time, unwilling to leave.

.........

On the wide road through the fields.

Qu Ye moved nimbly and ran several meters in an instant.

As he ran, he kept calculating the amount of spirit essence.

"Including the ones I collected before, I have a total of sixty-one pieces, and there's one left over, which can be exchanged for a spirit stone."

As a beekeeper for the Hou family, he is required to deliver sixty blocks of Lingcui to the Hou family every year.

As for the extra portion, the Hou family allowed them to keep it as they saw fit, which could be considered an incentive.

After walking for a while, the buildings of Yumen Market came into view in the distance, with thousands of houses standing tall and the sounds of bustling people faintly emanating from them.

The Yumen Market covers a vast area, divided into inner and outer cities, and reinforced by a second-tier grand formation, deterring ordinary people from acting recklessly.

Qu Ye skillfully presented her identification and returned to the street where she lived.

This street is located in the eastern district of the outer city of Fangshi, where many independent cultivators live. These low-level cultivators with meager resources come and go, often toiling away for a few spirit stones for rent.

He hadn't walked two steps when a cultivator in yellow robes passed by, greeting him with a smile: "Fellow Daoist Qu, just finished your work?"

He had an ordinary appearance, but when he smiled, he revealed a tiger tooth. His aura was even lower than Qu Ye's, around the second level of Qi Refining.

This is Qu Ye's neighbor, Zhou Ming.

Qu Ye didn't know much about him, but they saw each other all the time, so they had developed a certain relationship.

So he nodded: "Just got back."

Zhou Ming leaned closer and said with a grin, "Brother Qu, would you like to come with me to the Wonderful Sound Pavilion and exchange techniques with the fairies?"

To exchange ideas on Taoist principles?

Is that supposed to be a friendly exchange of Taoist techniques? I'm almost embarrassed to call you out on it... Qu Ye shook his head. "I won't go. I have some important matters to attend to these next few days."

"Alright, let's reschedule for another day." Zhou Ming wasn't annoyed. He grinned and turned to walk towards the other side of the market.

Turning her gaze away, Qu Ye returned to her courtyard and opened the door.

His room was quite large, divided into a bedroom, a living room, a cultivation room, and other smaller rooms... Some cultivators would even grow some spiritual vegetables in their courtyards, which would save them some expenses.

He first went to the kitchen, took out some spirit rice, steamed it with his magic, and ate it whole.

After digesting the spiritual rice, he went to the cultivation room, sat down cross-legged, and began to practice his cultivation technique.

Half an hour later, Qu Ye opened his eyes, a bitter look in them: "My aptitude is still too poor. This Gold Refining Technique is progressing so slowly. When will I be able to break through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining..."

After transmigrating and merging his memories, he learned that this body had poor spiritual roots, possessing only the four elements of metal, wood, water, and fire. The original owner's parents had also died in a hunt for demonic beasts, leaving behind only two spirit stones and a rudimentary cultivation manual.

After that, he cultivated alone for more than ten years until he was injured and his magic power was disrupted, causing his qi to become disordered and his meridians to become chaotic, leading to his death. He was then possessed by Qu Ye.

Including the years since he transmigrated, he is now twenty-one years old!

It's less than forty years before my blood and energy begin to decline at sixty.

With his current cultivation speed and resources, and without the help of elders, it would be nothing short of a pipe dream for him to reach the Qi Refining Perfection stage before the age of sixty.

Having finally been given a second chance at life and ascended to the path of immortality, how can I let it all slip by so easily?

Taking a deep breath, Qu Ye's gaze hardened as he took the queen bee's corpse from his bosom.

Then, he took out a talisman and pasted it on the inside of the quiet room wall.

This is a low-grade protective talisman, which can provide some defense and sound insulation. It is the best defensive measure he can buy.

Then, he closed his eyes and calmed his mind, letting his thoughts sink into his sea of ​​consciousness.

Within the seemingly empty sea of ​​consciousness, a book with an animal hide cover floated in mid-air, its spine bearing a blurry, inconspicuous animal head pattern.

Qu Ye moved his divine sense slightly and touched the animal skin book. The next moment, the pages of the animal skin book slowly turned.

The book opens to the first yellowed blank page, where a blurry image gradually emerges: a tiny jade bee is happily rubbing against someone's palm.

After a long while, the image froze.

At the same time, the Daoist aura surrounding the bee corpse in front of Qu Ye was permeating the air, and something was about to be drawn out.

Qu Ye opened his eyes, looked at the scene before him, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

This is his greatest source of confidence in pursuing immortality.

As a time traveler, how can you not have a cheat code?