Honeycomb (Part 1)

Zhang Chen quickly crushed the thought in his mind, muttering to himself, "This thought is too dangerous. If it gets out, I'm afraid I won't have a good end!"

Thinking of this, Zhang Chen scratched his head, his eyes watching the two arrogant stewards leave, a hint of thought in his gaze: "Raising the rent to Five Taels of Silver a year is simply excessive! Many people hunt in the mountains for a year and might not even sell for three taels of silver. How are people supposed to live? This is forcing the common people to revolt!"

If the common people can't survive, why would they care about so much?

Zhang Chen, carrying his Luoyang Shovel, was full of unhappiness as he shouldered the shovel and walked towards the mountains.

"Damn Rich Man Li, he's practically a skinflint! And those two stewards, they're truly hateful! Each one of them is a bully relying on others' power, I really wish I could pull out their tendons and skin them alive." Zhang Chen walked through the mountains carrying his Luoyang Shovel when suddenly a sound of flapping wings rang out, and then a Hornet flew past his eyes.

"It's a Hornet. I was just about to look for a Hornet's Honeycomb today, and then raise a Hornet army. By then, I'll at least have the ability to protect myself in the small village. Even if I really discover some danger, with the Hornets delaying for me, I'll have time to run into the deep mountains and old forests." Zhang Chen watched the Hornet's flight path, his heart stirred, and he followed.

Zhang Chen roughly knew where the Hornets' nests were in the mountains. After all, he had been hunting in the deep mountains and old forests for a long time, so he knew where he could see Hornets and had a general direction.

Zhang Chen followed for five miles in the mountains when his steps suddenly stopped, and his eyes looked at an old pine tree that had been growing for who knows how many years.

There was no Honeycomb on the pine tree. At the base of the old pine tree, in the soil, there was an egg-sized hole, with Hornets constantly going in and out of the hole.

That's right, Hornet nests are not built on large trees, but in the soil.

Zhang Chen closed his eyes and activated his Beast Control skill to sense. The next moment, countless lives were projected into his mind.

"So many Hornets, probably seven or eight hundred! This is an extra-large Honeycomb!" Zhang Chen sensed the dense Hornets in the soil, a hint of seriousness in his eyes.

It was strange to say, but at this moment, with the Dragon Qi flowing within his body, he felt a strange closeness towards the Hornets in front of him, without any fear in his heart. That feeling was as if he had an intuition in the dark that the Hornets would never harm him.

At this moment, some Hornets noticed Zhang Chen's presence and buzzed out of the nest, circling around Zhang Chen but not daring to approach. Zhang Chen didn't know why, but he actually sensed a hint of goodwill from the Hornets. So, Zhang Chen carefully reached out his hand, and the Hornet actually gently landed in Zhang Chen's hand, happily crawling around, making Zhang Chen's heart itch.

"Huh, interesting! Interesting! A bit interesting!" Zhang Chen's eyes looked at the Hornet. The Hornet was very large, as big as a baby's finger, looking very intimidating. At this moment, it was lying in Zhang Chen's palm like a well-behaved baby.

"I have Dragon Qi on me, so I can be close to the beasts in the world? That's right, the dragon is the king of beasts. Even if I only have a wisp of Dragon Qi, I still possess dragon might." Zhang Chen's thoughts flickered. He gently extended his finger and pinched the Hornet, picking it up and examining it in front of his eyes: "If an ordinary person is stung by a Hornet, it will take at least seven or eight days for the swelling to go down. Hornets are small and fast. Without preparing a net-like tool in advance, there is no way to defend against them."

At this moment, Hornets kept flying out of the Honeycomb, like little children,扑向 Zhang Chen's body, crawling and playing on him.

"Later, I'll go into the mountains to check the traps, and then get some meat to feed the Hornets. I guarantee I'll raise them fat and healthy." Zhang Chen picked off the Hornets one by one, but the Hornets clung to Zhang Chen and refused to leave. Zhang Chen could only shake his sleeves to make a shooing motion, driving the Hornets off his body, before turning around and walking towards the mountain traps.

Today's traps yielded two Wild chickens and one Wild duck.

Looking at the bound prey, Zhang Chen didn't show much happiness on his face, but rather a sense of indescribable helplessness: "Wild chickens and Wild ducks are not worth much. Trying to collect enough rent money with these small things is simply wishful thinking. Unless I hunt large prey, I can't sell them for a good price."

Zhang Chen carried the Wild chickens and Wild duck all the way to the tomb and then looked at the Stone Tablet. As expected, he saw that the Stone Tablet had dropped Experience Points again, but today's Experience Points were relatively few, only one red light cluster with '+100' written on it.

"Although it's little, the quantity is large!" Zhang Chen looked at the light cluster under the Stone Tablet and collected the Experience Points without thinking.

[Name: Zhang Chen]

[1 Skill (Second Tier): Light of the Righteous God (0/5000)]

[2 Skill (Unranked): Dragon Qi (0/2000)]

[Points: 2850]

"Almost there! This time it's fast!" Zhang Chen looked at the Experience Points, the corners of his mouth slightly curved. Today's Experience Points would definitely exceed three thousand, and it wasn't far from the five thousand Experience Points needed for upgrading.

"A bit interesting." Zhang Chen's eyes looked into the distance, a hint of joy in his gaze, and then the next moment he was full of energy, rolling up his sleeves and working hard. He first killed the chickens and ducks, and directly used the blood to water the Stone Tablet. As Zhang Chen watered it with blood, the Stone Tablet was like a blood-absorbing sponge, directly absorbing all the blood.

"Speaking of which, could this Stone Tablet be some great demon? Or is the Stone Tablet itself a great demon? If I keep watering it like this, will I release the demon? Or will I cultivate the demon? But I really need Experience Points now!" Zhang Chen muttered to himself, but his hands didn't slow down.

Who cares what kind of demon it is, can it be faster than his own speed of accumulating Experience Points and upgrading?

Even if it's a demon, what then? As long as it can continuously provide him with Experience Points, Zhang Chen dares to raise a demon.

After feeding the Stone Tablet, Zhang Chen examined it up and down, and after not finding any harm from the Stone Tablet, he turned around contentedly and picked up the chisel to begin the great task of chiseling the frozen soil.

The chisel was clanging, making Zhang Chen's palms numb. He couldn't help but curse: "It's getting harder and harder to chisel down below, it's even harder than chiseling stone. At this rate, when will I be able to chisel open that damn tomb? But the more it is like this, the more it proves that this Great Tomb is extraordinary and has good things inside."

The cave was filled with cold air, and the clanging continued. After digging for an unknown amount of time, Zhang Chen only dug out half a frame of soil, and then his body was numb with cold, so he could only put the soil away and go outside to bask in the sun.

[Experience Points +6]

[Experience Points +55]