Cultivation begins with forming a bond with a spirit bee.

We left Cicada Mountain.

Qu Ye put the old bee carcass into his storage bag and casually picked up the new queen bee, placing it in his palm.

The new queen bee looks smaller than the previous one, so it must have just been bred.

He looked up at the sky again.

It was only noon, so it was a good time to go to the bee farm and check on the worker bees.

After determining the direction, Qu Ye used his lightness technique to head towards the Spirit Bee Field.

We passed a mountain stream, where the trees were shady and the pool was crystal clear, with several small fish swimming happily.

Qu Ye stopped and looked around, sensing that no one was around.

He then subtly communicated with the animal skin book through his divine sense.

Within his sea of ​​consciousness, the animal skin book was quickly flipped open, stopping at the first page, but no other unusual phenomena were revealed.

"really…"

A glint of light flashed in Qu Ye's eyes.

Because the animal skin book remained unchanged, he was certain of one thing:

You cannot form a bond with the same kind of monster.

This means that he can only have one Jade Spirit Bee among his nine choices, and he cannot obtain the "Fragrance Seeking" talent.

Furthermore, due to the limitation that only one talent can be enhanced at a time, he was unable to obtain nine "Spirit Gathering" items to quickly accumulate resources.

"I must be extremely careful when choosing talents in the future."

If you get a useless talent, you'll be truly devastated.

"However, if the Jade Spirit Bee Queen can break through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining, things might change..."

Gathering his spiritual senses, Qu Ye quickened his pace and left the mountain stream.

……

Fifteen minutes later.

When Qu Ye arrived at Lingfeng Field, he saw two young men dressed as Hou family disciples standing outside the woods in the distance.

These must be the disciples who sealed off this place.

Qu Ye remained expressionless and continued walking forward, stopping about ten meters in front of the two.

Both of them looked relatively young, around the early stage of Qi Refining. When one of them saw Qu Ye, he became wary and secretly put his hand on his storage bag.

"What do you do?"

"Beekeeper, come and check on the bee colony."

"Don't move."

The man remained vigilant, taking out two portraits from his robes. He looked Qu Ye up and down, comparing him to the person in the portraits, before finally relaxing a little.

Another person asked:

"You said you came to see the bees, do you have a token?"

Qu Ye took out a palm-sized special token from his storage bag and handed it to the person.

This token was issued when the spiritual contract was signed with the Hou family; it's similar to an identity document.

The disciple took the token, examined it carefully, nodded, and returned it.

"Fellow Daoist, please forgive me; it is my duty."

Qu Ye clasped his hands in response, then walked into the woods.

After crossing several more hillsides and dense forests, he finally breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the familiar scenery.

"I thought it would be quite complicated."

"Hopefully the worker bees are alright."

Stepping into his own territory, Qu Ye began searching for traces of worker bees in the woods.

After searching for a long time, not a single worker bee was seen.

"What happened?"

Qu Ye was filled with doubt.

When he signed the spiritual contract, Hou Fangping told him that even if the queen bee died, the worker bees would still collect pollen and eat it themselves.

He decided to stop searching and headed towards the hive along the path he had walked before.

Soon, the enormous beehive appeared before Qu Ye's eyes—

Fifty or sixty worker bees were hovering around, flying up and down, their thin wings vibrating the air and making a buzzing sound.

"So they were all here."

He felt relieved, took out the powder, spread it evenly on his body, and slowly approached.

Don't underestimate worker bees just because they are low-level monsters; Qu Ye could easily kill them with a single spell.

But even ants can kill an elephant if they are numerous. If so many worker bees attack at once, Qu Ye can only kill up to thirty. Once his magic power is exhausted, he will inevitably perish.

This is still the ideal situation.

So it's always good to be careful and cautious.

As Qu Ye approached the bee swarm, he discovered that the situation seemed to be somewhat different from what he had expected.

Upon sensing Qu Ye's presence, the previously calm bee swarm became somewhat restless and flew over in unison.

"broken!"

Qu Ye frowned, his protective spiritual shield instantly activated, and his magical power surged forth, ready to use his lightness technique to escape at any moment.

Where there is life, there is hope.

But he quickly stopped what he was doing, and his brow relaxed.

With his divine sense, he could feel that the worker bees were not acting with hostility, but rather with a sense of intimacy that was several times stronger than before.

The worker bees flew to Qu Ye's side, fluttering their wings around him, seemingly quite delighted.

"Is the medicine powder really that effective?"

Qu Ye scratched his head.

"Or did they sense the presence of the new queen bee?"

Thinking it over, he took out the sleeping new queen bee from his storage bag.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he took out the new queen bee, the worker bees became wary and seemed to dislike him.

Qu Ye quickly put the new queen bee back into the storage bag.

"Strange...why is this?"

He was puzzled.

At that moment, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind:

"Could it be because of the gathering of spirits?"

After figuring this out, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that was indeed the case.

The beast skin book recorded and extracted the queen bee's talent and added it to himself, along with his bond with the queen bee.

In that case, it's understandable that some subtle qualities are also included.

Perhaps, in the Jade Spirit Bee's perception, I am currently a giant queen bee... or even the queen bee?

Qu Ye smiled.

He strode toward the hive, and the worker bees followed him, forming a yellow tide.

As he walked, he pondered what benefits this change in worker bees could bring him.

Leaving aside the fact that collecting spirit essence will be safer in the future, this can only be considered the most basic change.

Is it possible for me to command the Jade Spirit Bees to fight against enemies?

Thinking of this, Qu Ye felt a surge of passion in her heart.

As we all know, under normal circumstances, it takes special methods to control spirit insects.

Although spirit insects are a type of demon beast, they are quite special.

Compared to other demonic beasts, spirit insects are generally more ferocious and volatile, and harder to control.

Even the gentler spirit insects like the Jade Spirit Bee have ferocious heads and horns, showing no mercy to any prey that comes their way.

Especially once it's cultivated to a certain scale, it can definitely be considered a trump card!

However, such methods are extremely rare, and he had never heard of anyone possessing them even in the open in the entire Yumen Market.

After thinking it over, Qu Ye raised his hand and held up a worker bee, trying to give it a command using language.

The worker bee flapped its wings in his palm, but remained unmoved.

"It's not that simple after all."

Qu Ye was not surprised; on the contrary, she was eager to continue trying.

If the queen bee can command the jade spirit bees, then there's no reason why he, who can barely be considered half a queen bee, couldn't command them.

It seems they haven't found the right method yet.

Having recalled some knowledge from his previous life, Qu Ye believed that the most important thing in order to make the Jade Spirit Bee obey him was to make the other party "understand" his commands.

This "understanding" is not the same as that understanding.

Instead, it allows it to establish a connection with the worker bees, enabling it to accurately transmit its commands to each worker bee.

"Try it with your divine sense."

Qu Ye extended his divine sense, covering the worker bees in front of him.

A faint glow flashed in his mind from the image on the first page of the animal skin book, and the queen bee's antennae on it seemed to tremble slightly.

Immediately, he sensed a very faint connection coming from the worker bee in his hand.