Cultivation begins with forming a bond with a spirit bee.

Back to the other side.

Qu Ye and the other person rode around in their magical artifacts for a while, and their magical power was quite depleted.

He had no choice but to fall from mid-air, put away his magical artifacts, and use a lightness technique to continue his journey.

Only then did Qu Ye have the energy to think about what had just happened.

Why would a member of the Sun family disguise himself and appear on the Hou family's territory in the dead of night?

What exactly is that fluctuation?

Just as Qu Ye was speculating, a flash of inspiration struck him, reminding him of the ambush he had committed several months ago.

During the interrogation of the burly man, it was learned that they had a mysterious force behind them, which intended to target the Hou family.

The scholar had spoken with the burly man and learned that he was most likely from one of the other two major families.

Although the two events were not obviously related, Qu Ye had a feeling that the mysterious force was the Sun family!

The three families had lived in peace for many years, so where did the Sun family get the confidence to deal with the Hou family?

The Yang family? Or has the Sun family secretly cultivated a second Foundation Establishment cultivator?

"These are turbulent times..."

Qu Ye's gaze was firm, and he began to plan his escape route as soon as he returned to the horse farm.

In the vast world of cultivation, traveling without a map or route is extremely dangerous.

But we won't run away now.

If he escapes immediately, the losses will be secondary; he now possesses the ability to gather spiritual energy, so he can simply start over in another place.

But the Sun family may have already received the news and begun a large-scale investigation of the market, especially of the Hou family's associates.

By abandoning the Queen Bee and Red Hare and running away, isn't he obviously telling everyone that he has a problem?

Moreover, I have dealt with the traces very cleanly and have not touched a single spiritual item belonging to that disciple, making it even more difficult for him to trace me back.

It would be better to remain calm and wait for the storm to pass before devising a plan for the map and route.

Having made up his mind, Qu Ye turned to look at Wang Meng: "Uncle Wang, after you return to the market, remember to act as if nothing is amiss and don't reveal any flaws."

Wang Meng had been harboring a lot of questions for a long time, and now that Qu Ye was speaking, he quickly nodded and asked, "Kid Qu, what exactly is going on?"

Qu Ye shook his head.

"I'm just guessing, I can't be sure. I only know that the person's identity must be extraordinary, and it will probably attract investigation."

"Better safe than sorry. We should keep this to ourselves and pretend nothing happened."

He didn't intentionally hide it from Wang Meng; rather, the fewer people who knew about it, the safer it would be.

Wang Meng said thoughtfully, "Okay, I won't tell anyone about this, not even your Aunt Chen."

"Shall we do it now?"

Qu Ye looked at the distant mountains.

"Let's hurry back now and treat this as just an ordinary monster hunt."

After that, the two stopped talking and quickened their pace.

……

The first light of dawn was breaking.

Qu Ye parted the bushes and could see the basin where the Spirit Horse Farm was located in the distance.

He and Wang Meng parted ways at a fork in the road and traveled for another quarter of an hour before finally returning to the vicinity of the horse farm.

He took a deep breath and strode towards the horse farm.

Several days had passed before the Hou family distributed the colts, and most of the spirit contract workers had not yet returned.

Qu Ye returned to his own field without anyone noticing him.

He first went to the fence to take a look. Red Hare was sleeping soundly, and there were some remnants of spirit herbs next to the manger, which Hou Youde must have fed it to him in the past few days.

Seeing that Red Hare was unharmed, Qu Ye returned to his courtyard, released the worker bees and the Iron Claw Crab, and gave a wry smile.

This trip was not as expected. After a fierce battle, a speed talisman was used up, and the White Light Sword also suffered several scratches.

Not only that, but they almost got caught up in the vortex for no reason.

"Our offensive capabilities are somewhat limited."

Through this battle, he also realized his own shortcomings.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Qu Ye killed Sun Shaoan without sustaining any injuries; that's because the latter dispersed his strength and controlled his spirit pets to chase after Wang Meng.

Coupled with his eagerness to kill the enemy, he lost his composure and was thus killed by Qu Ye's close-range attack.

Therefore, they are fine when facing rogue cultivators of the same level, but they pale in comparison when encountering well-equipped and highly skilled disciples of a clan.

"We need to find an offensive spell as soon as possible, and also replace the White Light Sword."

After thinking it over, he took out the corpse of the spirit worm. The worm's body was pale green, and the patterns on its back had faded.

"Fortunately, it wasn't a complete loss; at least we got the Spirit Worm."

He nodded, walked out of the yard, and came to the beehive.

Seemingly sensing the presence of the spirit insects, the queen bee, who usually prefers to stay in the nest, surprisingly crawled out on her own initiative, quite eagerly.

Qu Ye smiled and placed the insect corpse in his hand in front of the queen bee.

The queen bee twitched her antennae a few times, opened her mouthparts, clamped down on the worm, brought it to her mouth, and slowly began to swallow it.

In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the queen bee devoured the entire spirit worm.

After finishing eating, the queen bee emitted a rapid buzzing sound. Sensing something, the worker bees around the hive gathered around, on guard.

Apart from Qu Ye, any creature that gets close will be desperately blocked by the worker bees.

In the very center of the swarm, the queen bee trembled, curled up, and the lines on her abdomen lit up, with a thin layer of white threads gradually appearing on the surface.

The silk threads kept seeping out, wrapping it up layer by layer.

Qu Ye stood quietly to the side, observing the scene. He knew that the queen bee was purifying her bloodline, and she could only do it on her own; he couldn't help her much.

About half an hour later, the queen bee was completely wrapped in a white silk cocoon, like a silkworm cocoon the size of a fist, and quietly lay on the honeycomb.

Qu Ye reached out and gently touched the cocoon. The cocoon shell was hard, and there was a subtle spiritual light flowing on its surface.

When one probes with their divine sense, they can perceive that the queen bee's aura inside the cocoon is weak but stable, as if she is asleep.

"Now all we have to do is wait."

Qu Ye thought for a moment, then took out another spirit stone and placed it next to the bee cocoon, just in case.

After doing all this, he turned around and went back to the courtyard, bathed and changed his clothes, and began to cultivate diligently.

In the following days, he did not choose to run around at this critical juncture, and like an ordinary spiritual worker, his life returned to its usual routine.

Gradually, many monks from the horse farm returned from their holidays and often gathered together for pleasant conversations.

Qu Ye took the opportunity to blend in, chatting and laughing, subtly inquiring about the latest developments in the market.

He was slightly taken aback when he learned that the Sun family was conducting a large-scale investigation of cultivators above the fifth level of Qi Refining under the pretext of the theft of a spiritual object.

"Has the Sun family misjudged my cultivation level?"

He then breathed a sigh of relief.

No matter how the Sun family investigates behind the scenes, at least on the surface, he and Wang Meng are safe.

……

Two days later, Qu Ye, who was feeding the iron-clawed crab, suddenly sensed a fluctuation of spiritual energy coming from the woods behind the courtyard.

He immediately stopped what he was doing and quickened his pace toward the woods.

The iron-clawed crab in the pool raised its head, waited for a long time but didn't get a second piece of meat, and reluctantly returned to the crevice in the rock.

When Qu Ye arrived at the woods, he saw the cocoons on the beehive emitting a faint light, with worker bees quietly guarding the area.

"Is this... going to be a success?"

Qu Ye felt a surge of joy and walked to the beehive, extending his divine sense.

The aura inside the cocoon was steadily rising, without disturbing the spirit stones beside it.

Finally, he steadily progressed from the lower-grade first rank to the middle-grade first rank.

Realizing that the queen bee was about to emerge from the cocoon, Qu Ye quickly used the White Light Sword to cut his palm, squeeze out a drop of blood essence, and drip it onto the surface of the cocoon.

He nodded in satisfaction as he watched the essence blood slowly merge into the cocoon.

This is the simplest way to tame beasts, widely known in the cultivation world. Infusing them with essence and blood makes the beast instinctively feel a sense of familiarity with the aura.

The queen bee has now advanced to the mid-grade level, and her strength has greatly increased. Just in case, it would be better to strengthen our connection.

There was no other way; Qu Ye didn't have any beast-taming inheritance, so he could only resort to this clumsy method.