Cultivation begins with forming a bond with a spirit bee.

After leaving the market, Qu Ye used his lightness technique.

He moved with light steps, his mid-stage Qi Refining power flowing through his meridians, making each step much less strenuous than before.

He tried to channel more magic power into his legs, and with a leap, he covered several feet.

"The mid-term is truly different."

After the test was completed, he nodded to himself, withdrew his magic power, and continued traveling at a normal speed.

Most of the leaves on the trees lining the road have fallen, and the withered yellow leaves cover the ground, rustling underfoot.

Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the Spirit Bee Farm.

Qu Ye walked into the woods and followed the familiar path deeper into the forest.

The further in you go, the denser the canopy of trees overhead becomes, and sunlight filters through the gaps, dappling the ground.

The buzzing sound could be heard from afar in the area where the hive was located.

Qu Ye approached and looked up. The beehive had expanded to nearly twice its previous size. The newly built combs on the surface were layered and pale gold, shimmering in the sunlight.

The worker bees went in and out, some carrying pollen, some carrying resin, busy but orderly.

"Things are going pretty well." He nodded.

He has been coming every few days for the past three months and has long been aware of the changes in the bee colony.

After the new queen bee was introduced, the egg production stabilized, and with Qu Ye's deliberate intervention, the number of worker bees gradually increased from forty or fifty to over one hundred.

The worker bees sensed his presence and swarmed around him, buzzing even louder than before.

Qu Ye smiled and took out the medicinal powder from the storage bag, feeding it to them.

At the same time, he extended his divine sense and gently touched the swarm of bees.

In an instant, countless weak connections were established. Excluding a dozen or so old, weak, sick, and disabled workers, Qu Ye counted that there were a total of one hundred and three worker bees that could establish stable connections.

"Around a hundred." He opened his eyes, a slight smile playing on his lips.

Three months ago, he could only control forty, but now, having broken through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining and strengthened his divine soul, coupled with three months of continuous training, the number he can control has more than doubled.

Instead of immediately training the hundred worker bees, he first checked the spiritual essence production within the hive.

The new queen bee lived up to expectations, producing four pieces of exquisite essence, all of excellent quality.

"We can harvest another batch in a few days." He collected the spirit essence, cleaned the outer wall of the hive, and then evenly sprinkled the medicinal powder in front of the queen bee as a supplementary meal.

After doing all this, he retreated back to the clearing in the woods to test the swarm's ability to synchronize control after the breakthrough.

His divine sense, like a net, enveloped the nearest forty worker bees, controlling their takeoff, landing, leftward rotation, and rightward circling. He slowly increased the number of bees under his control, striving to achieve mastery.

As a hundred worker bees hovered in the air at the same time, Qu Ye's sea of ​​consciousness began to swell faintly.

He calmed himself down and arranged them into a simple formation: thirty in the front row, forty in the middle row, and thirty in the back row.

Organizing a queue is much more effective than rushing in blindly.

The worker bees buzzed as they adjusted their positions, and although the formation was somewhat loose, it was roughly taking shape.

"Alright." Qu Ye withdrew his divine sense and rubbed his temples.

"Let's rest for a bit; my spiritual energy is quite depleted."

He closed his eyes and began to regulate his breathing.

……

Just as Qu Ye was resting, on a secluded mountain path on the outskirts of the market.

A figure was fleeing in a panic, clutching his shoulder with his right hand, blood uncontrollably flowing from between his fingers.

During his escape, he kept looking back, as if he was afraid of something.

"Hurry up, we're almost at the main road, maybe we'll run into other people then!"

The idea popped into his mind, and he quickened his pace.

After running for a while longer, his magic power was about to be exhausted, and his steps became unsteady due to excessive blood loss, when he finally saw the road in the distance.

Just as he was feeling a sense of relief after surviving a disaster, he suddenly heard a whooshing sound in his ear.

The next moment, a tremendous force struck him from behind, knocking him to the ground.

"puff!"

He coughed up a mouthful of blood and looked down to see a long sword piercing his chest.

His eyes were lifeless, he opened his mouth but said nothing, his head lolled to the side, and he died.

A moment later, two figures, one muscular and one thin, emerged from the woods behind them.

They arrived at the body of the dead monk.

The leading cultivator made a hand seal with his left hand, let out a cold snort, and the longsword from the chest of the dead cultivator flew up and surrounded him.

The robust cultivator reached out to check the dead cultivator's breath, just in case, and then plunged his large sword into the heart before beginning to loot the spiritual items.

After looting the body, the burly man straightened up and spat on it: "Pah, you poor wretch!"

He then walked up to the leading cultivator and handed him the spiritual items he had looted: "Brother, this kid is really poor, he only has three spirit stones on him."

The leading cultivator took the spirit stones, put them into his storage bag, and sneered, "Normal, most of the rest are kept in my room."

"I underestimated these spirit contract workers. They even had a teleportation talisman, which almost allowed him to escape."

The Swiftness Talisman is a mid-grade first-tier talisman that can increase a cultivator's movement speed.

If his magic weapon hadn't pierced the man's shoulder in one strike, causing him to bleed profusely, the outcome would have been very uncertain.

The two burned the body on the spot, hastily buried it, exchanged a glance, and left.

Walking through the woods, the burly man, with a hint of lingering satisfaction on his face, turned and asked:

"Big brother, how long should we rest before we start working on raising those spirit bees?"

The leading cultivator pondered for a moment, "Let's hurry. That person just died near the road, and the smell of blood might attract the enforcement team. Let's rest for a bit and then go and keep watch."

"Anyway, he's only at the third level of Qi Refining. Let's quickly take care of him, then kill the other two, and escape far away."

"become."

The burly man nodded.

After resting for a while, the two changed their clothes and proceeded along the route they had scouted out, where they camouflaged themselves in a dense thicket.

.........

After training for a while, Qu Ye finally stopped when the sun was setting.

He took a deep breath, regained his composure, and then fed the remaining powder to the worker bees as a reward.

"Come again in a few days."

Qu Ye clapped his hands and turned to leave.

He walked back along the path, his steps light, his mind still preoccupied with thoughts.

"I'll need to buy a spirit beast pouch later."

As the number of spirit bees that I can control increases, I will need an item to carry them.

Otherwise, this trump card would only be useful in the Spirit Bee Field, which would make it less significant.

"I'll ask about it next time I sell Lingcui."

Just as he left the hive, crossed a treetop, and was about to exert his strength again.

He suddenly realized something, stopped abruptly, and instantly formed hand seals, looking ahead warily.

"Who goes there?!"

Seeing no reaction from his surroundings for a long time, Qu Ye remained vigilant and motionless, spreading his divine sense in all directions like a net.

He quietly placed his left hand on the storage bag, ready to take out the talisman to fight if anything went wrong.

At that moment, the branches and leaves of the bushes, which were about the same height as a person, swayed slightly in the distance.

Two men walked out, one after the other.

One of the men was quite muscular, at the early stage of Qi Refining, wearing a tattered hemp shirt, and had a scar on his face; the other man was rather thin, at the mid-stage of Qi Refining, dressed as a scholar, and gave off a gentle and refined feeling.

The two seemed to have traveled for a long time, their faces were covered in dust, and some leaves clung to their bodies.