The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Chapter 73: (2): The Rise of the Queen Bee

As he was happily counting his spoils, Fire clone sensed his presence and finally arrived. Without a word, he threw a insect breeding bag to Long Xuan.

Curious, Long Xuan took it and opened it. His eyes squinted, and he immediately burst into a smile.

Good heavens, there was actually a camel corpse inside, another Beast King, with a peak-grade spirit insect parasitizing its spirit core.

A dragon's head resembling a camel's! Now, the dragon's head is complete, isn't it?

Six out of nine Beast King materials have been collected. Just three more to go. Double happiness, indeed double the happiness.

"Good! Good! Well done!"

Long Xuan couldn't stop smiling, patting Fire clone on the shoulder, and simultaneously synchronizing their memories.

By checking the memories, he finally understood where Fire clone got the camel king's corpse from.

In the battle between the Gu Cultivator Alliance and the beast tide, not only did the Gu Cultivator Alliance suffer heavy casualties, but a large number of spirit beasts also died, including many Beast Kings.

Thus, the surviving Gu cultivators basically became wealthy, each reaping considerable rewards on the battlefield. Unused materials naturally had to be dealt with.

So, every day, large and small trade fairs were held in the camp, too many to count.

Peak-grade spirit insects, which were rarely seen, frequently appeared at the trade fairs. Various rare beast materials were abundant, and many Gu cultivators made a fortune.

This entire camel king beast material was acquired by Fire clone at a trade fair through bidding from a large Clan's Gu cultivator.

The price was not small either. With all the Gu cultivators in the camp wealthy, Fire clone spent twenty million spirit stones plus a bottle of Spirit Gathering Pills to get the entire camel king corpse and the peak-grade spirit insect sold with it.

Of course, the trade was completed in disguise, and just this transaction alone exhausted Fire clone's spirit stones.

As for Fire clone's safety, Long Xuan, after checking his memory, was no longer worried.

Long Qilin remembered past favors. Without Long Xuan's help in that battle, Long Qilin would have been dead for sure.

So, in this beast tide, Long Qilin took good care of Fire clone, preventing him from being used as cannon fodder by the large Clans.

With this, Long Xuan was more reassured to invest resources in Fire clone.

He rummaged through his storage bag. He had only spent a small portion of the spirit stones from selling the fossil mine, and his wealth was still abundant, not to mention the mountain of spirit stones in Lei Guang's storage bag.

So, without hesitation, he waved his hand and allocated two hundred million spirit stones to Fire clone, along with many bottles of pills, including a large number of Spirit Gathering Pills.

Various unused treasures were also divided, with a portion handed to Fire clone.

"Trade! Trade as hard as you can! Trade to death!"

In just two months, Yan's clone collected a set of Beast King materials. Given a year, who knows how much more he could gather.

Collecting the nine kinds of Beast King materials needed for Dragon Gu seemed promising. Very promising, indeed. Long Xuan spared no expense, pouring a large amount of resources into Fire clone, aiming for him to use all means to gather the remaining three kinds of Beast King materials.

...

After meeting with Fire clone, Long Xuan immediately returned to his little home, not lingering for a moment longer.

Such a great danger had just occurred; who knows what might happen if he stayed longer? As the main character, there was some sort of aura that brought danger wherever he went. Only staying at home was the safest.

As for dealing with the beast tide, that was entirely left to Fire clone, who would also collect the materials needed for Dragon Gu.

Long Xuan himself had important matters to attend to. With Fire clone around, it was as if Long Xuan was contributing to the battle against the beast tide.

After three days of travel back home, Long Xuan ran into his small pavilion in the medicine garden, brewed some tea, heated some tea eggs, and enjoyed the fragrant tea eggs. After tasting a bite, he sat on the stone chair, focused on his Gu recipes, occasionally sipping his tea. If it got cold, he would switch to warm wine, fully enjoying himself.

He once again entered a state of seclusion, but the life of seclusion didn't feel boring to him.

His storage bag was filled with fresh and delicious Beast King meat, and the vegetable garden was ripe, producing high-grade fruits and vegetables, far more delicious than in his previous life.

Researching Gu recipes and enjoying gourmet food became his greatest pleasure, leading the life of a homebody with its own joys. Being a homebody with little interaction with the outside world didn't necessarily mean a low happiness index.

Long Xuan either researched Gu recipes or food every day, enjoying delicacies, and only went out every two months to meet with Fire clone.

While synchronizing their memories, he also brought back the materials collected by Fire clone. Every trip yielded gains, and the materials needed for Dragon Gu were gradually being gathered.

He repeated this simple and unpretentious lifestyle, and before he knew it, a year had passed.

During this year, Long Xuan had a burst of inspiration, greatly shortening the Creation period. In just a year, he had completed 90% of the Dragon Gu recipe, and it was close to being finished.

One day, he put down his pen and, after placing it on the stone table, took a sip of juice made from Grade Four spirit fruits.

The juice made from Grade Four spirit fruits was not only delicious but also rich in various spiritual attributes. Drinking a sip made his whole body feel comfortable. It would have been even better with some ice cubes.

After a satisfying burp, Long Xuan strolled towards the beehive hanging on the cherry blossom tree.

This was also the reason he suddenly got up. Observing the progress, he realized that the little glutton was not far from evolving into a queen bee, probably just a few days away.

So he frequently got up to check, full of anticipation.

With a nervous heart, Long Xuan slowly approached the beehive on the cherry blossom tree.

As soon as he got close, he saw a huge round hole in the beehive, far exceeding the normal size of a spirit bee, as if something had suddenly squeezed out from the inside.

His spirit stirred, and he immediately looked inside the beehive through the hole. Indeed, a large spirit bee was inside, happily enjoying honey.

There was no doubt that the hole was made by this guy. No one else could have done it.

Its body had grown so large that the small bee hole could no longer accommodate it, forcing it to squeeze out with brute force.

But this squeezing caused trouble for the other spirit bees. Their homes were demolished, leaving them homeless overnight.

Each spirit bee had its own private chamber, which served as their home and personal territory, within a maze-like beehive they all shared.

Each spirit bee made honey for itself, hiding different flavors in its private chamber to enjoy quietly at night.

Some spirit bees even developed a collecting habit, gathering all kinds of honey and filling their small homes.

The rarest Grade Four honey was hidden most securely, guarded against passing neighbors for fear of theft.

Thus, each chamber in the beehive was crucial to the resident spirit bees, storing their treasured honey. Now, with their homes destroyed, wouldn't the honey-loving bees go mad and attack the intruder?

Long Xuan worriedly thought that this big guy might have incurred the wrath of the bees and could be beaten to death.

But on closer inspection, he found this wasn't the case.

The big guy seemed to be distributing compensation. All the displaced spirit bees were satisfied and left to expand the hive, preparing to rebuild their homes on the edges.

The compensation was an ice-blue substance, which the other spirit bees looked at with great desire.

Many spirit bees even brought out their cherished Grade Four honey to exchange.

The big guy kept shaking its head, refusing to trade.

What was this substance? Its value surpassed Grade Four honey, Long Xuan wondered in astonishment.

But it was certain that this substance was extremely beneficial to the spirit bees, irresistibly tempting.

"Royal jelly!"

Long Xuan suddenly exclaimed.

There was only one explanation for this blue substance: royal jelly.

Don't equate royal jelly from the previous world with that of this world. The royal jelly here had numerous magical effects. Worker bee-produced royal jelly was common, but royal jelly from the bee Queen could evolve ordinary spirit bees, even causing transformations, making it irresistibly attractive to all spirit bees.

Long Xuan's breath quickened. Just from its size, he knew the little glutton had evolved into a bee Queen.

The path to nurturing a bee Queen had finally succeeded.

He had waited so long for this day, craving honey for so long. Now that the bee Queen was finally born, he felt a wave of satisfaction.

Elated, Long Xuan eagerly reached into the large hole, pulled out the enlarged glutton, and bit his finger to establish a blood contract as quickly as possible.

The little glutton, only knowing how to eat, didn't resist and was quickly bound by the blood contract.

Through the blood contract, Long Xuan soon understood its abilities.

Without a doubt, the little glutton unexpectedly evolved into a new bee species after consuming honey made from the nectar of a ten thousand year old iceberg snow lotus honey. This new bee species is the first of its kind in this world.

Previously, Long Xuan had never figured out what species they were and had always referred to this group collectively as spirit bees. But now, it no longer mattered what species they were before, and Long Xuan didn't bother to investigate further.

Because the little glutton had evolved into a new bee species, the ordinary spirit bees also experienced a dramatic increase in power after consuming its royal jelly, evolving into this new species.

Long Xuan quickly gave this new bee species a brand-new name: ice bees. And he decided to name the little glutton Bingbing.[1]

Through their blood contract, Long Xuan had a rough understanding of the ice bees' abilities.

In both his previous life and this one, bees had a fatal weakness that all Gu cultivators found intolerable. The bee's stinger had barbs, and once it penetrated the enemy's body, it couldn't be pulled out.

As a result, after a bee stings someone, the stinger remains in the enemy's skin, along with part of the bee's intestines, causing the bee to die soon after stinging. Ultimately, the enemy would suffer only minor injuries, while the bee would die, making it a completely meaningless suicidal attack.

However, the ice bees he unintentionally created had evolved perfectly, without this fatal flaw.

The ice bees' stingers were ice needles, formed by condensed ice. They had no barbs and were smooth, making them easy to penetrate the enemy's body.

Furthermore, the ice needles were consumable and could be produced indefinitely. They could be shot in mid-air for long-range attacks. After an ice needle was fired, another would quickly grow at the ice bee's tail, allowing for continuous regeneration, completely avoiding the deadly drawback of other bees' stingers.

Additionally, the ice needles contained a potent toxin. Once an ice needle penetrated the body, it would defy logic by instantly melting, turning into liquid and rapidly being absorbed by the body.

Long Xuan didn't know exactly how terrifying the ice bee's venom was, but it was clear that in this world, it was currently an incurable poison.

A poison never before seen by anyone in the world, with no known antidote, could be considered incurable from a certain perspective.

Long Xuan was very satisfied with the ice bees' combat capabilities. Although their individual combat ability couldn't compare to peak-grade Gu insects, ice bees were social spirit insects and had strength in numbers.

Led by the queen bee, tens of thousands of ice bees could create a rain of needles, covering the ground with a dense needle shower, attacking indiscriminately.

Imagine who wouldn't be troubled by such an attack method? Each ice needle was highly toxic, and being hit by even one would be unbearable.

However, there was currently only one ice bee, far from reaching the scale of tens of thousands. Cultivating such a large number of ice bees would take an unknown amount of time and require him to continue expanding the planting of flower-type spiritual herbs.

Long Xuan will not be able to see the terrifying scene of needles raining from the sky in the short term, and the ice bees will not be able to form combat power in a short period of time.

For now, he could only place the ice bee in the medicinal garden to nurture it for a long period. Once they reached a certain scale, he would make further arrangements.

1. Bingbing (??) translates to ice ice. But I thought Bingbing sounded more appropriate and like a name rather than 'ice ice' lol.

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