Splitter Potion.
This was a new potion Chen Ye had created using planarians as the primary ingredient, supplemented by materials with similar concepts.
If the conceptual theory held true, this bottle of potion would give the Queen Bee the ability to split off followers from herself.
This was very important.
Whether the prerequisite for splitting was replenishing food or something else, it was still a concept of material conversion.
For the simplest example, suppose the Queen Bee could secrete bees from her body after drinking the potion.
If that secretion consumed bodily fluids, then she would only need to replenish fluids to produce bees endlessly.
That would mean she had converted water into bees, which was fairly consistent with alchemy's principle of equivalent material conversion.
Of course, that was secondary. What Chen Ye truly wanted was a Biological Factory.
If a person could endlessly split off all sorts of things, Chen Ye would no longer need to go to such lengths to search for materials.
If a person could split off new people, Chen Ye could use those people for experiments.
And if Chen Ye needed a certain material in large quantities, while someone could continuously produce that material by eating, then Chen Ye could achieve self-sufficiency in the rear.
That was the Biological Factory Chen Ye envisioned.
The Queen Bee's potion had been made with the Biological Factory as its premise.
But it clearly had not met Chen Ye's requirements.
The Queen Bee had no idea what Chen Ye was thinking.
From her perspective, Lord Aus had actually given her another chance!
She had thought Lord Aus would erase her without question, but now it seemed that great lord was merciful.
He was even generous!
The Queen Bee did not hesitate and drank the potion in one gulp!
"Thank you... for your grace."
Very soon, the Queen Bee began her second evolution!
Her body convulsed, but like last time, there were not many changes to her outward appearance.
However, a fissure appeared in her chest.
The fissure ran straight to her heart, and the heart within her turned golden!
Then, a chamber formed within that fissure. It was filled with viscous liquid, within which numerous octagonal crystals began to condense.
The Queen Bee tried reaching into the chamber in her chest, then took out an octagonal crystal.
What was this?
The Queen Bee's mind began racing. Just as before, she instantly understood her own ability.
This crystal was a Hive Crystal.
It had only one purpose: creating followers.
There were three kinds of these crystals.
One was white, one was pale yellow, and one was dazzling gold.
The white ones were lower-grade crystals. They could transform living beings into Worker Bees that obeyed orders, without causing any physical changes.
They were like the Worker Bees the Queen Bee had created with liquid, but those transformed by crystals were not mentally controlled.
Their consciousness would be killed in an instant, then a new consciousness would be implanted.
The pale yellow crystals were mid-grade crystals. They could transform living beings into Soldier Bees.
Soldier Bees could not only obey orders, but also possessed tremendous combat ability, and their bodies would develop many insect-like traits.
The golden crystals were high-grade crystals. They could transform living beings into Guardian Bees.
These Guardian Bees were extremely powerful. Not only were they impervious to blades and bullets, but all their abilities were several times greater than those of Soldier Bees.
At the same time, a new section of bone would grow inside their arms. This bone could pierce through their palms and turn into a sharp spear-like weapon.
This spear-like weapon could be fired, and its power was immense, comparable to a siege crossbow.
But once that bone was fired, the Guardian Bee would immediately die.
Besides that, Guardian Bees could fly, but they were extremely afraid of water. The moment they encountered water, their entire bodies would go limp and they would be unable to move.
Producing these three kinds of crystals consumed the Queen Bee's own energy, and that energy could only be replenished through eating.
The first two crystals consumed relatively little, but the last kind required the Queen Bee to expend a great deal of energy to produce.
Conservatively speaking, even if the Queen Bee ate heavily every day, she could only produce one every three days.
The only relatively good thing was that these crystals could be used on animals.
But animals were less intelligent than humans, so the Queen Bee would need to expend more mental energy to control them.
If she controlled enough of them, the Queen Bee would have no choice but to spend most of her time sleeping, controlling the creatures' mental network while asleep, just as before.
In order to control those people, her mind had endured a considerable burden.
However, these crystals were more effective than liquid conversion, and using them on humans placed less strain on the Queen Bee.
In other words, the Queen Bee could now command a greater number of followers.
The existence of Guardian Bees in particular delighted the Queen Bee.
Even countless bullets striking a Guardian Bee would find it difficult to kill one.
From that point alone, a single Guardian Bee could rival a fully armed human squad.
Of course, that was assuming it did not encounter water.
The Queen Bee told Chen Ye about the abilities she had gained after her second evolution.
Chen Ye shook his head after hearing it.
It was still lacking.
The Queen Bee could indeed produce materials herself now, but those materials were still meant for transformation.
To fulfill the Biological Factory hypothesis, it would probably need to be refined and broken through once more.
Afterward, Chen Ye took several octagonal crystals from the Queen Bee and returned to study them.
The Queen Bee collapsed onto the ground. This feeling of surviving a disaster was something she had experienced for the first time...
Yet this feeling of surviving a disaster had not been brought to her by those Nine-Tailed Fox soldiers.
This sensation of brushing past death had been brought to her by Chen Ye!
Haa...
In the end, this happened because I could not let go of everything I once had. I even wanted more money, more land, and greater authority.
I thought those things could repay that great lord.
But that great lord never cared about such things from the very beginning. Money, power—if he wanted them, he could easily obtain everything. Why would he need others to offer them to him?
Clearly, that great lord simply did not care for such things.
His gaze had long been fixed upon heights beyond human reach, above life itself. His sole aspiration was to become a god.
The Queen Bee took a deep breath. Since that was the case...
Then she would abandon everything she once possessed and devote herself solely to assisting that great lord, helping him ascend to godhood!
It is not that I must give them up. It is that I must choose what to keep.
The Queen Bee had come to terms with it. Whether money, power, or territory, they were all merely attachments to superficial appearances.
Nothing in this world belonged to her.
Even a house you bought was only temporarily yours. After you died, no one could say who it would belong to.
Everything in the world was like this. Human lives were finite; we had merely come into this world for a time.
Everything was only temporary.
Only that great lord held the concept known as eternity in his hands.
Chen Ye returned home and opened a cabinet.
Hm?
Why does it seem like there's one less bottle of potion?
Strange... Did I remember wrong?
No, there really is one missing. The Thief's unfinished product is gone.
I remember, I had originally planned to give that bottle to Sequence 001, but it was still missing one thing. Forget it, I'll deal with it next time.
Before you continue