Cultivation begins with forming a bond with a spirit bee.

Chapter 60 The Queen Bee's Secret

Thinking of this, Qu Ye turned around.

Hou Fangping asked, somewhat puzzled, "What's wrong? Is there something else important?"

Qu Ye waved his hand: "It's nothing, I just haven't seen Brother Yan Ke in a long time, and I was thinking of catching up with him."

You definitely can't ask Hou Fangping to get information out of him; he's an old fox, and he might see through your scheme.

Hou Fangping nodded and continued to count the number of spiritual items in the wooden box.

Seeing that Hou Fangping did not object, Qu Ye slowly approached Hou Yanke, who was on duty.

At this moment, Hou Yanke was leaning against the stone platform, looking bored. When he saw him coming, a smile appeared on his face: "Fellow Daoist Qu, are you done?"

"It's done." Qu Ye nodded and stood beside him. "How have you been lately, fellow Daoist?"

"It's just so-so, not good enough for high-end jobs but not good enough for low-end ones."

Hou Yanke sighed softly.

"And you, Fellow Daoist Qu?"

"Don't even mention it." Qu Ye waved his hand. "You saw it yourself, once the queen bee dies, there's no income from beekeeping anymore."

"Sigh, I wonder when I'll be able to break through to the fifth level of Qi Refining."

Hou Yanke was initially somewhat distressed, but for some reason, after hearing about Qu Ye's experience, he couldn't help but feel a sense of superiority.

Although he was not valued in the Hou family, at least he had more cultivation resources than these rogue cultivators and spirit contract workers!

And that was precisely Qu Ye's goal.

The key is to make yourself sound slightly worse off than the other person.

This allows the other person to unintentionally tell you something in a "giving pointers" or "showing off" manner.

Taking this opportunity, Qu Ye said, "By the way, Fellow Daoist Hou, there's something I'd like to ask you."

Hou Yanke became somewhat wary and straightened up slightly: "Fellow Daoist, please speak."

"It's that Fiery Cloud Steed I raised at the Spirit Horse Farm. After the clan took it away, there was no news of it. Fellow Daoist Hou also knows that I raised it for two years, so I'm somewhat worried about it."

This is actually true; humans are not plants or trees, how can they be without feelings?

Qu Ye did indeed harbor a lingering attachment to Red Hare deep down.

After listening, Hou Yanke's expression relaxed a bit: "I thought it was something serious. It just so happens that I'm on duty that day."

Qu Ye's eyes flickered: "How is it?"

"It was assigned to the guards," Hou Yanke said. "It was five feet nine inches tall at the shoulder, with a pure coat color and even cloud-like markings. It was almost a top-grade coat, what a pity."

"That's good." Qu Ye nodded, his tone calm.

Hou Yanke thought he was relieved, so he casually reassured him, "Although raising jade spirit bees and fierce cloud steeds are both jobs of serving spirit beasts."

"However, the Fierce Cloud Steed is at least a mid-grade spirit beast, so the rewards are not bad. But the Jade Spirit Bee is much harder to obtain; even after a whole year of hard work, you can only get ten spirit stones."

"So, Fellow Daoist Qu, you should just focus on raising the Fiery Cloud Steed. It's much better than raising the Jade Spirit Bee."

That's how the topic came up.

Upon hearing this, Qu Ye seemed to have been reminded of something from the past, and smiled: "What you say is absolutely right, fellow Daoist. Raising jade spirit bees is not only low-yielding, but also very troublesome, and there are frequent bee swarms."

"Bees swarming?"

"Occasionally, there will be one or two worker bees in the hive, which are a size larger than the others." Qu Ye's tone was as if he were talking about ordinary trivial matters: "They don't collect pollen from spirit flowers, they just circle around the hive all day long, and beekeepers will be bitten if they get close."

Hou Yanke said, "Oh, I actually know that. Is it true that there are only one or two at a time?"

There is a play!

"That's right." Qu Ye nodded, then asked with a hint of curiosity, "I thought this kind of bee would be very rare."

"It's not rare; every bee colony will have baby bees."

Qu Ye raised an eyebrow slightly, his surprise perfectly timed: "Fetal bees? Those things have a name?"

Seemingly realizing that he had said something he shouldn't have, Hou Yanke hesitated.

He turned to look at Hou Fangping, who was some distance away and was intently writing something in a booklet.

With no worries about the future, and given that Qu Ye truly had no more bees to raise, and even the queen bee's corpse had been examined by Hou Fangping.

Ultimately, the urge to confide in someone prevailed.

He leaned closer to Qu Ye and lowered his voice: "Fellow Daoist Qu, I'm telling you this, but please don't tell anyone else."

"If Uncle Fang Ping finds out, I'll be fine, but you might be in trouble."

Qu Ye laughed and said, "Fellow Daoist, don't worry. I'm still counting on raising the Fiery Cloud Steed to earn spirit stones. Why would I dig my own grave?"

Hou Yanke thought about it and agreed, so he didn't keep her in suspense any longer.

"That fetal bee, Fellow Daoist Qu, you can probably guess from the name that it's related to the queen bee."

"How so?" Qu Ye asked.

"Let me explain it more clearly. In fact, the larvae of the queen bee are just the young of the queen bee."

Qu Ye's heart skipped a beat, but she remained calm on the surface, waiting for Hou Yanke to continue.

"Once the queen bee dies, the calf bee can become the new queen bee of the colony."

"But," Qu Ye seemed somewhat confused, "after my queen bee died, those baby bees didn't turn into new queen bees."

Hou Yanke was about to continue speaking when he suddenly realized that he had already said enough.

If we continue, our method for cultivating Jade Spirit Bees will be completely revealed.

He chuckled and said he didn't know anything more.

At this point, Hou Yanke was already somewhat regretful, but he dared not tell his family about it.

He didn't know what would happen to Qu Ye if he told his family; all he knew was that he would never be able to break through to the late stage of Qi Refining in his lifetime.

Qu Ye didn't press the matter, acting as if she had heard some gossip that couldn't be revealed, and chatted normally with Hou Yanke about other topics.

It is enough to know that the surrogate bee, also known as the fetal bee, is indeed the key to the reproduction of the queen bee.

Hou Yanke only said goodbye to Qu Ye after Hou Fangping finished counting all the spirit taxes.

Before leaving, he repeatedly instructed that the conversation must not be revealed.

Qu Ye naturally gave his assurances repeatedly.

Of course, he wouldn't leak it.

When the Hou family returned to Cicada Cry Mountain, Qu Ye glanced at them from afar, and after confirming that no one was around, he took out an item.

It is the array plate of the Mysterious Killing Array.

However, he did not set up the formation in public. Instead, he held the formation plate tightly and slowly poured magic power into it.

Seeing the wisps of mist appearing on the array plate, Qu Ye frowned, made a decision, put away the array plate, and turned to leave Cicada Cry Mountain.

Walk a distance.

Qu Ye was lost in thought.

Through Hou Yanke's words, he confirmed that the reproduction of the queen bee was closely related to the guardian bee.

But how exactly do they reproduce?

-

Clearing his mind of the jumbled thoughts, Qu Ye began to seriously consider the problem.

First of all, there is certainly no need for any very precious spiritual objects.

Otherwise, wild jade bees would have difficulty reproducing, and the species would not be able to exist for long.

The Hou family would never treat the Jade Spirit Bee as a domesticated spirit beast.

Secondly, the method of reproduction must not be complicated.

Just as Qu Ye was pondering, he suddenly realized a crucial point.

My bee colony shows absolutely no signs of producing a queen bee.

Then compare a wild Jade Spirit Bee colony with a colony you have raised yourself.

What is missing between the queen bee and the bee when the queen bee dies?

Qu Ye had a flash of inspiration.

Spirit Essence!

That's right. The queen bee constantly expends her life force to condense spiritual essence, which must be useful to the bee colony.

However, since spirit essence can be exchanged for spirit stones, no spirit contract guild is luxurious enough to use this to feed jade spirit bees.

Including Qu Ye.

But in the end, Lingcui is just a spiritual object rich in spiritual energy. So what is it that allows Weifeng to have a body structure and even instincts like a queen bee?

He thought of the Hou family's rule.

After the queen bee died, her body was returned to the Hou family to verify whether she had died of natural causes.

The rule itself makes sense.

But when Qu Ye thought about Hou Fangping's probing earlier, he felt something was wrong.

If that's the case, then one of the prerequisites for a wasp to become a queen bee is eating the queen bee's corpse, right?

That's probably the case.

Qu Ye thought about it more and more clearly. As things stand, the Wei Bee is born a small rank lower than the Queen Bee. The Queen Bee can gather spiritual essence to help the Wei Bee break through to the same rank as herself.

Having a rank is not enough; one must also consume the corpse of the queen bee to obtain bloodline in order to become a qualified new queen bee.