Cultivation begins with forming a bond with a spirit bee.

This connection is like a candle flickering in the wind, extremely shallow and hidden.

It was with the help of the animal skin book that Qu Ye was able to pinpoint the location accurately.

A thought struck him, and he used his divine sense to probe along that faint connection.

In an instant, he sensed a vague consciousness connecting to his divine sense.

Looking down, I saw that the worker bee had folded its wings and its six legs were firmly gripping my skin, as if it were waiting for something.

Qu Ye was overjoyed; there was hope!

He tried to silently repeat in his mind, "Fly."

The worker bees did not react; they remained in a waiting state.

"Hmm, it seems that instructions with such specific meanings are indeed difficult to understand..."

Let's try this.

Qu Ye stopped reciting silently and instead sketched out the image of the Jade Spirit Bee flying in his mind, sending it along that connection.

This finally started to have some effect.

The worker bee's wings fluttered slightly, and its head was raised, as if it was about to take flight, but then it stopped.

"It's still a bit complicated."

He tried again.

This time, the connection was established faster and more stable than before.

Qu Ye simplified things, keeping only the image of the Jade Spirit Bee flapping its wings and taking flight in his mind.

at last!

The worker bee rapidly vibrated its wings, left Qu Ye's palm, and flew up, hovering in mid-air, seemingly waiting for the next instruction.

Qu Ye stared at it for two seconds, a slight smile playing on his lips.

Although the process was rather troublesome, the result was good.

However, to avoid it being a coincidence, he tried four or five more times, making the worker bee fly up and land in his palm.

Over these five occasions, the connections were established faster and became more and more stable.

Qu Ye's proficiency is also increasing visibly.

Finally, he withdrew his consciousness, rubbed his temples, and let out a long breath.

"That's quite a drain on resources."

Qu Ye put the worker bee back on the outer wall of the hive.

After closing his eyes and regulating his breathing for a while, he opened his eyes and extended his consciousness again.

"Next, let's try controlling multiple bees simultaneously."

He first surveyed the surroundings and, finding no trace of anyone else, his divine sense spread like a giant net, enveloping all the worker bees in the vicinity.

In an instant, dozens of faint connections surged into his sea of ​​consciousness, like dozens of thin threads tangled together in a chaotic mess.

Qu Ye frowned and immediately withdrew most of his divine sense, leaving only the five or six closest to him.

You can't get fat in one bite.

He took a deep breath and readjusted himself.

This time, he didn't rush to give orders. Instead, he first used his divine sense to "touch" each of the five or six connections, preparing to stabilize them.

The process was faster than he had anticipated.

After a short while, the worker bees stopped moving and remained still, waiting for Qu Ye's instructions.

"Is it because of the special characteristics of bee colonies?"

Qu Ye seemed to be deep in thought.

In my past life memories, mortal bee colonies and ant colonies all had similar structures, all revolving around the queen bee and queen ant.

The entire group operates like a sophisticated machine.

Although the Jade Spirit Bee cannot be equated with ordinary creatures, they do share some commonalities.

"That's a good thing, it saves us some trouble."

Immediately, he steadily locked onto the five or six worker bees with his divine sense and transmitted the images to them one by one.

Thanks to their improved proficiency, there were no failures this time, and all the worker bees took off following Qu Ye's command.

However, problems soon followed.

Because Qu Ye transmitted the images individually multiple times, there were slight gaps between the worker bees receiving the instructions.

The first one and the last one were separated by a full half breath!

This will definitely not work.

If there's such a long delay with just five or six, what about thirty? Fifty?

Qu Ye thought for a moment and came up with a solution.

At this moment, the connection between the worker bees and Qu Ye can be seen as several lines connecting to his consciousness.

If we connect these wires to the same location, can we complete multiple commands at once?

He closed his eyes and forcibly converged the many connections in his mind onto one place.

Next, I visualized them taking flight in my mind and sent it out along all the connections.

Five or six worker bees vibrated their wings almost simultaneously and hovered in mid-air.

"It's done."

Qu Ye breathed a sigh of relief, but did not rush to expand the scale.

He made these worker bees take off and land repeatedly until they could respond in sync each time, before slowly adding new worker bees.

Seven, eight, nine...

He didn't stop until he caught the fortieth one.

At this moment, the numerous connections within my sea of ​​consciousness were already showing signs of becoming unstable.

Qu Ye rubbed his temples.

"Is your spiritual strength only enough to control forty?"

However, he was already quite satisfied. If trained properly, the forty Jade Spirit Bees could be considered his trump card.

Once he breaks through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining, his divine soul will become stronger, and he will be able to control even more.

For the next hour, he repeatedly trained the forty worker bees.

Takeoff, landing, left turn, right turn—more complex maneuvers are broken down into several simple sequences.

The worker bees are executing their tasks faster and more efficiently.

Watching the palm-sized worker bees fly around as one, creating a sense of beauty, is quite moving.

Qu Ye was quite satisfied, and couldn't help but make a joke about himself.

"Would I qualify as a second-generation insect demon?"

He stopped training and withdrew his divine sense to nurture it only when he felt a slight swelling pain in his soul, a sign of overuse of his divine sense.

Forty worker bees scattered.

"Looks like we'll have to stop here for today."

He looked up at the sky; the sunlight was filtering through the gaps in the tree canopy, and it was much dimmer than before.

He had been at the Spirit Bee Field for at least three hours.

It's time to head back.

"We were originally planning to let the worker bees get acquainted with the new queen, but we'll have to wait until later."

Just as Qu Ye looked up at the sky, a worker bee carrying some pollen flew to his shoulder and poured the pollen all over his clothes.

"I don't eat this..."

Qu Ye was both amused and exasperated.

I reached out and touched the enthusiastic worker bee.

He glanced at the swarm of bees again, then used his lightness technique to walk back the way he came.

The worker bees followed for a while, but turned back when they reached the edge, and the buzzing gradually faded away.

As Qu Ye walked out of the woods, he saw the two Hou family disciples still sitting outside.

One of them saw him come out, stood up, dusted himself off, and walked over with the booklet in his hand.

"It's out?" The disciple opened the booklet, ready to take notes.

Qu Ye hummed in agreement and waited quietly for a moment until the disciple finished recording before returning to his residence.

By the time I got back to my lodgings, the sun was already setting.

Zhou Ming's courtyard next door was quiet; he hadn't returned yet, most likely he was off seeking enlightenment from the fairies again.

After grabbing a quick bite in the kitchen, Qu Ye went to the cultivation room and sat down cross-legged.

He took out the new queen bee, and she curled up in a ball, her abdomen rising and falling slightly.

Qu Ye poured a little powder into his palm, brought it to the queen bee's mouth, and watched as she unconsciously absorbed the pollen, lost in thought.

Being able to control the Jade Spirit Bees is certainly a good thing, but how to integrate the new queen bee into the colony has become a problem.

This is a sensitive time, and he suspects that the reason the bees are all gathered near the hive is because the Hou family sent people in to search it.

Only when they sense an unfamiliar presence will the worker bees be on high alert and gather together to defend the hive.

If the new queen bee cannot integrate into the group, she will have a hard time explaining the origin of the spiritual essence if she is discovered by the patrol one day.

Most importantly, without the queen bee, the Jade Spirit Bees cannot increase their numbers; each one that dies reduces their numbers, and their trump card becomes a one-time use item.

We can't rely on Qu Ye to lay eggs, can we?

He doesn't have that ability either.

Shaking his head, Qu Ye didn't think any further.

"Take your time."

After the new queen bee had absorbed all the medicinal powder from Qu Ye's hand, he put the new queen bee back into his storage bag.

"We can only try to control the bees to accept the new queen bee once we are able to control all the spirit bees..."