Green-tailed Spirit Bees

Following the sound, they searched and indeed found a beehive three feet in diameter hanging from the trunk of a flowering hibiscus tree. Spirit Bees the size of fingers crawled all around it, with more flying in and out from time to time.

The group stood beneath the tree, gazing upward with greedy expressions. Spirit Honey was good stuff. It contained abundant spiritual power, and that power was mild enough to be consumed directly, easily refined and absorbed, with no toxic side effects.

Moreover, it was more widely applicable than medicinal pills and could be used at any cultivation realm.

Spirit Bee Royal Jelly was an even greater favorite among female cultivators. It could beautify the complexion and delay aging.

Wang Hong remembered a book at Skinny Stick's stall, One Hundred Ways to Pursue Female Cultivators. The book called Youth-Preserving Pills and Spirit Bee Royal Jelly the ultimate deadly weapons for pursuing female cultivators.

Yet in the eyes of many alchemists, female cultivators consuming Spirit Bee Royal Jelly solely for beauty and youthfulness was simply a reckless waste of Heaven's gifts.

If a few drops were added during pill refinement, the success rate could be raised by ten percent. This was especially valuable for more precious pills, whose spiritual herbs were already difficult to find. Raising the success rate by ten percent carried enormous value.

Good as this stuff was, however, it was difficult to collect. The Spirit Bees would not watch helplessly as cultivators took away the spirit honey they had painstakingly brewed.

They did not consider themselves humanity's good friends, much less possess the lofty awareness of diligently gathering nectar to contribute to mankind.

The key was that these Spirit Bees were extremely difficult to handle. Though a single one was weaker than a first-level Qi Refinement cultivator, their numbers were vast, and they possessed a certain resistance to spells.

The beehive before them was only three feet wide, making it merely a very small colony among Spirit Bees. Even so, it was not something the few of them could deal with easily.

"Why don't we wait until night, when they return to the hive, and set the whole thing on fire?" the Lei cultivator suggested.

"No. These Spirit Bees have a certain resistance to spells, so the Fireball Spell will have little effect on them. Ordinary mortal fire will be even more useless and may instead anger the swarm," Old Man Ge objected.

The group discussed matters for a while longer but found no good solution. At last, Cultivator Ding, who usually did not speak much, proposed a clumsy method.

They would lure the Spirit Bees away in batches and kill them at a distance, then collect the honey after all the Spirit Bees had been killed.

Unable to think of a better method, everyone nodded in agreement. They discussed a few more details and how the spoils would be divided.

The group retreated over three hundred feet. Old Man Ge took out a bow and arrow, aimed at the hive, and shot an arrow with a whoosh. The arrow struck the hive dead on, punching a small hole through it. Then a black mass flew out of the hive.

Seeing this, the five immediately scattered and fled in different directions. Wang Hong slapped a Swiftness Talisman onto himself and ran at top speed. Before the swarm had pursued very far, some of them began returning. In the end, only several hundred stubbornly continued chasing him.

Wang Hong ran to a relatively open area and stopped, slapping an Earth Armor Talisman onto himself.

When the Spirit Bees drew close, he threw a Fireball Talisman into the swarm. It exploded amid them with a bang, but it did not accomplish much. Only four or five had their wings burned off and fell to the ground, while several more suffered minor injuries.

Wang Hong then tried Wind Blade Talismans, Wood Thorn Talismans, Ice Spike Talismans, Water Arrow Talismans, and other talismans of various elements. Their effects were even worse than that of the Fireball Talisman.

The various spells released by the talismans met a layer of green light emanating from the Spirit Bees' bodies and were rapidly melted away, like ice and snow meeting boiling water.

Wang Hong marveled that such a miraculous species existed in the world. Unfortunately, their rank was too low. Before absolute power, they were still somewhat insignificant. Otherwise, there truly would have been no way to deal with them.

In this short time, the Spirit Bees had already closed to within a few feet.

Wang Hong raised his long spear and spun it in a flourish. With several sharp smacks, he shattered several Spirit Bees. Though these Spirit Bees resisted spells, their bodies were frail. A touch from Wang Hong's spear meant death; a grazing blow meant injury.

The Spirit Bees fully exploited their numerical advantage, swarming in from all directions. Some had already landed on the barrier formed by the Earth Armor Talisman.

A layer of green light shone from the Spirit Bees' bodies. That green light gradually merged with the defensive barrier, and then the entire bees followed it through the barrier.

The Spirit Bees that entered the barrier swiftly crawled into his clothes. Whenever they found exposed skin, they viciously drove down their stingers. Yet those forceful stings failed to pierce his skin, leaving only small red dots behind.

When the Spirit Bees found one move ineffective, they changed tactics and bit directly with their teeth. Their teeth repeatedly scraped across his skin, removing only a little dead skin.

Though Wang Hong had been continuously swinging his spear to kill the Spirit Bees, everything remained under the close watch of his Spiritual Sense. Just as expected, these Spirit Bees truly could not pierce his skin.

Still, although they could not puncture his skin, the venom carried on their stingers made the affected areas feel numb. Being stung too many times was exceedingly uncomfortable as well.

Wang Hong changed his Spear Techniques. He danced the spear around himself into a blur of light, so watertight that not even water could pass through, completely protecting himself. This was a defensive spear technique he had mastered back when he was still a mortal.

The Spirit Bees rushing in from all around struck the curtain of light formed by his spear and were smashed to pieces. Wielding his spear like a pulverizer, Wang Hong charged straight into the swarm.

The Spirit Bees' intelligence was ultimately extremely low. They did not know to evade and continued swarming toward him without fear of death.

The sound of smack smack smack rang out without end. After the time it took an incense stick to burn, the great swarm of Spirit Bees had been reduced to barely more than a dozen, which then flew away separately.

After killing this small group of Spirit Bees, Wang Hong had expended more than half his strength. He drank a few mouthfuls of spirit wine, meditated to recover for a moment, and only then headed back. Continuously using Spear Techniques like this consumed a great deal of stamina.

When Wang Hong returned beneath the Spirit Bee hive, he waited for a while before the others returned one after another, looking somewhat bedraggled.

The five continued with their previous method, luring away small groups of Spirit Bees and exterminating them in batches.

A day later, the five stood beneath the small tree again. All of them had suffered injuries of varying severity. Most noticeably, every one of their faces had swollen by a full circle.

Cultivator Shi's originally delicate and pretty face was now swollen, one side large and the other small, with her mouth twisted to one side as well. For a female cultivator born to love beauty, this was truly no small blow.

The group had not expected that these Spirit Bees would not only resist spell attacks but could also ignore spell-based defenses. Every kind of defensive spiritual barrier was easily passed through by them.

With Wang Hong's body-refining cultivation, these Spirit Bees naturally could do nothing to him. However, since his face had been transformed by the Mist Illusion Mask anyway, he also made several red, swollen welts appear on it.

Only a sparse few Spirit Bees still flew around the hive. Old Man Ge sent out a flying sword and cut the entire hive down.

They harvested only ten drops of Spirit Bee Royal Jelly in total, exactly two drops for each person.

With several swift slashes, the hive and its honey were divided into five equal portions. The five had contributed roughly equally to this operation, so they divided the spoils evenly. Each took one portion and put it into their storage bag. Wang Hong casually stored his in his space.

By then, it was already late. The five decided to spend the night in Hundred Flowers Valley, since the surrounding area was relatively safe.

They had fought continuously for nearly two days and were already exhausted, with their spiritual power entirely depleted. They urgently needed rest and recovery. They did not have Wang Hong's wealth to drink spirit wine as though it were water.

A bottle of spirit wine cost at least several dozen Spirit Stones. They had prepared some as well, but unless they were at the end of their rope, they could not bear to drink it.

Wang Hong found a relatively flat stone and sat down. He took a clay jar from his storage bag. The jar in his hand was the size of a human head and sealed with a type of leaf.

This was a kind of Spirit Meal Wang Hong had recently devised. He took three hundred pounds of Demonic Beast meat, removed the dross and extracted the essence, then supplemented it with several spiritual herbs. Finally, he condensed it all into this small jar of meat broth.

Stored in small sealed jars, it could be preserved for a long time. Wang Hong had made some and carried it in his storage bag in place of Grain Abstinence Pills.

Grain Abstinence Pills tasted like chewing wax, and their only effect was keeping one from starving to death without food for several days. They were merely convenient for cultivation, saving trouble and time, with no other benefit.

Wang Hong had feared hunger ever since childhood. Now that he was cultivating immortality, if he still could not even have a meal, that would be unbearable to him. Were not all things under Heaven born to be eaten?

The Lei cultivator sat cross-legged and took out a Grain Abstinence Pill, preparing to consume it when he suddenly smelled a strange fragrance.

Following the scent, he saw Wang Hong holding a clay jar in his left hand. It was filled with milky-white liquid, with bits of emerald-green chopped scallion floating on top. It appeared to be some kind of meat broth. In his right hand, Wang Hong held a huge flatbread and was biting into it. The flatbread looked rather chewy.

Wang Hong was hungry as well. After taking two bites of flatbread and swallowing a great mouthful of meat broth, he immediately felt comfortable all over.

"Fellow Daoist Wang certainly knows how to enjoy himself!" the Lei cultivator said with a smile. "Watching you eat so deliciously has drawn out my cravings. I wonder whether Fellow Daoist Wang would be willing to sell me a portion?"

The Lei cultivator's words drew the others' attention as well. They thought that if it was not too expensive, they would buy a portion too. With fine food before them, who would willingly eat those wretched Grain Abstinence Pills?

Wang Hong considered it. He had only just met these people and had no prior friendship with them. If he acted overly generous, others might instead see him as a fat sheep. "Certainly, but each jar costs twenty Spirit Stones. I can give you the flatbread for free."

The others were startled upon hearing the price. A Grain Abstinence Pill cost only one Spirit Stone, while a serving of Spirit Meals in Qingxu City generally cost only a few Spirit Stones. Ten-odd Spirit Stones could already buy a signature dish in many restaurants. They could not help sighing that Wang Hong was black-hearted.

The Lei cultivator was considered modestly wealthy among Rogue Cultivators. In addition, today's harvest had been quite good, leaving him in excellent spirits. He decided to buy a portion and see what gave Wang Hong the nerve to charge twenty Spirit Stones.