This time, they hadn't gone far.
Jiang Yuan soon caught a strange, sweet scent.
It smelled unbelievably good—rich and sweet, like a delicacy that could reach straight into the depths of his soul.
Curious, he followed the scent.
A golden hive, as large as a villa, hung from a giant tree and came into view.
A swarm of enormous bees, each as big as a water vat, flew and circled around it. Their sharp stingers gleamed with a chilling light.
[Abyssal Beast]: Yellow-Striped Poison Bee.
[Grade]: Common.
[Level]: Lv. 6.
[Skills]: Poison Sting, Summon Companions.
[Evaluation]: Weak in one-on-one combat, but they attack in swarms. Once they set their sights on a target, they won't give up. Above all, don't touch their honey, or the entire swarm will attack. Their stingers can pierce steel, making them extremely dangerous and troublesome.
Jiang Yuan used Appraisal on the golden hive.
[The hive where the Yellow-Striped Poison Bee Queen lives]
[Topaz Honey]: Mid-tier ingredient. Besides its silky-smooth texture and rich, incredibly delicious aroma, it can also strengthen the consumer's constitution, restore their vigor, and prolong their lifespan.
Jiang Yuan's eyes lit up.
Just as he'd thought—it was good stuff.
Now he had to get his hands on it.
Not far away.
A girl dressed in black from head to toe, wearing an Assassin's outfit and hiding her face, was concealed behind a giant tree. She wiped at her forehead, though there wasn't a bead of sweat there, and sighed in relief.
"I can't believe there's a swarm of Yellow-Striped Poison Bees here. Good thing they didn't spot me, or I'd be in trouble."
"I'd better get out of here while I can."
Just as she was about to leave, she heard a branch snap behind her.
She turned to look, curious.
A boy in a black-and-white school uniform, carrying a green sickle over his shoulder, was swaggering toward the hive.
The sight nearly scared the life out of her.
"What's he trying to do? Is he planning to provoke that swarm of Yellow-Striped Poison Bees?! Is he crazy?"
"Wait, that can't be right."
The Assassin girl looked around.
"Of course—he must have teammates hiding nearby."
[Detect Presence]
"No. There's no one else here!"
"He really is alone. How is he this bold?!"
The Assassin girl was shaken to the core. She watched the figure heading toward the hive as if he were an idiot.
"If he keeps going and draws the swarm's ire, he'll definitely be eliminated."
"If he can hold out for a few seconds, I might have a chance to get a jar of Topaz Honey."
"But..."
After a few seconds of inner struggle, the Assassin girl still couldn't bring herself to let it happen.
By then, Jiang Yuan had reached the Yellow-Striped Poison Bees' territory. One flying low to the ground buzzed toward him in warning.
"Conceal Presence."
"Flash Step!"
A shadow flashed, and she appeared in front of Jiang Yuan, grabbing his hand.
"Shared Invisibility!"
The two of them instantly turned transparent and vanished. The approaching Yellow-Striped Poison Bee flew over their heads without noticing the intruders. It buzzed in confusion a couple of times, then flew back toward the hive.
The Assassin girl sighed in relief.
Jiang Yuan couldn't help asking, "What are you doing?"
If he hadn't wanted to see whether the Assassin hiding nearby was planning to steal his kills or something else, he would have acted already.
Her move had genuinely caught him off guard.
The Assassin girl planted one hand on her hip and snapped at him:
"You're asking me what I'm doing? Are you an idiot?"
"If you provoke even one Yellow-Striped Poison Bee, the whole swarm will come after you without stopping. Even a group of Yellow-Striped Poison Bees can take down a Tier-Two Class-Transferred Warrior. Are you that eager to be eliminated? You should think about your family and parents cheering you on outside, too. Honestly!"
Jiang Yuan realized what was going on, and was a little surprised.
She... was trying to save him?
The Assassin girl rested a hand on Jiang Yuan's shoulder and warned him, "You seem pretty capable, so don't do anything stupid."
"..."
"Got it?"
When she saw Jiang Yuan nod, she smiled as if pleased that he was a quick learner.
"At least you're not completely thickheaded. I'm Pei Jia, from Beijiang No. 1 High School. What's your name?"
He looked at the hand she held out and shook it.
"Jiang Yuan, from Nanjiang No. 1 High School."
Jiang Yuan could tell that the Assassin girl before him was already a Tier-One Martial Artist. She was probably a well-known genius in Beijiang City. Most Assassins didn't have the skill she'd just used to turn someone else invisible along with herself.
And, most importantly...
She seemed like... a pretty decent person.
"Jiang Yuan... I'll remember that. You seem like a decent guy, just a little reckless. Be more careful from now on."
As she spoke, the Assassin girl, Pei Jia, turned to leave.
Just then,
the swarm of Yellow-Striped Poison Bees stirred and gathered together, as though they sensed danger. They formed a barrier in front of the giant hive.
"What's going on?"
The Assassin girl looked over.
A giant spider, its body as black as cast iron but its back snow-white, exuding a fierce metallic aura, slowly crawled down the trunk above the tree where the hive hung.
[Abyssal Beast]: Black Iron Poison Spider.
[Grade]: Common
[Level]: Lv. 16 (Tier Two)
[Skills]: Eight-Spider Sting, Venom Spray, Web Bind.
[Evaluation]: Its exterior is harder than steel, and it has sharp stingers. It deals tremendous damage and is highly poisonous, but killing it yields a large amount of materials. Every part of it is valuable.
"Hiss..."
The Assassin girl sucked in a sharp breath. She hadn't expected to encounter a Tier-Two Beast even this close to the outskirts.
"What are you standing around for? Run!" she shouted at Jiang Yuan.
A Tier-Two Beast was incredibly fast.
Jiang Yuan didn't move. Looking over at it, he said, "It seems to be after the honey."
"They're probably about to fight."
The Assassin girl froze and looked more closely.
The Bee Queen, noticeably larger than the other Yellow-Striped Poison Bees, flew out of the hive and let out a shrill warning at the Black Iron Poison Spider crawling down from above.
"Ts-ts-ts!!"
But the Black Iron Poison Spider wasn't affected at all. It continued down on its eight legs and sprayed a web at the swarm. Two Yellow-Striped Poison Bees were hit and fell to the ground not far from Jiang Yuan and the girl, struggling desperately in the incredibly sticky web.
Before the Assassin girl could react, the figure beside her flashed away.
Jiang Yuan was already beside the two Yellow-Striped Poison Bees struggling on the ground. He swung down the green sickle in his hand.
"Swish!"
A flash of green light.
The Yellow-Striped Poison Bee, as big as a water vat and covered in fur, was instantly cut apart, its health bar emptied.
[ Ding! You killed Yellow-Striped Poison Bee (LV9), experience +90 ]
[ Ding! You killed Yellow-Striped Poison Bee (LV7), experience +70 ]
[ Ding! You obtained Yellow-Striped Poison Bee Stinger *1 ]
[ Ding! You obtained Yellow-Striped Poison Bee Stinger *1 ]
[ Ding! Points +1 ]
[ Ding! Points +1 ]
"That damage is insane!"
The Assassin girl was shocked.
"Wait, the poison bee swarm..."
She looked up and saw that the swarm had no time to respond to what was happening over here. They were attacking the Black Iron Poison Spider in wave after wave.
Their spear-like stingers rained down on its back, but they couldn't pierce its hard shell. Under the spider's web and stinger attacks, they fell one after another.
Every time one fell, a flash of green light followed.
Only then did the Assassin girl realize:
This was the perfect chance to level up!
"Leave a few for me!"
She drew her dagger, flashed beside an injured Yellow-Striped Poison Bee, and emptied its health bar with a single Thrust.
Jiang Yuan didn't stop her.
The two of them kept picking off the fallen bees, wantonly killing them.
Jiang Yuan would kill four for every one the Assassin girl managed to finish off.
Before long,
more than thirty Yellow-Striped Poison Bee corpses littered the ground.
"Whoosh!"
White light flashed as the Assassin girl leveled up, unable to hide her delight.
"Finally, I'm LV5. This was totally worth it!"
"That's enough," the boy's voice came from beside her.
The Assassin girl looked at him in confusion.
Jiang Yuan picked up the last stinger and looked up at the fight.
The Black Iron Poison Spider's health bar was only half full, while the Bee Queen's was down to two-thirds. Only a little over thirty Yellow-Striped Poison Bees remained to guard her.
It was time to wipe them all out.
"What are you planning to do?"
Seeing the boy bend his knees, Pei Jia felt a bad premonition.
"Don't tell me you're going to—"
"Boom!"
The ground shook, and a blast of air erupted as the boy shot skyward like a cannonball.
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