Spider Puppet

Song Wen carefully examined the spider puppet.

The spider's body was covered with mysterious and intricate patterns.

"This item must be quite valuable, right?"

Zhu Yin laughed, "Fellow Daoist has excellent eyesight. I spent a full ten Superior Spirit Stones to obtain it."

"Ten Superior Spirit Stones! Fellow Daoist, you're really generous," Song Wen said.

"As long as we can get rid of the Bloodthirsty Bees, this amount of Spirit Stone is nothing," Zhu Yin said magnanimously.

Changing the subject, Zhu Yin added, "Allow me to rest for half a day. Then, we'll set off for the Bloodthirsty Bees Hive. What do you think, fellow Daoist?"

"I will follow your arrangements, fellow Daoist."

When Song Wen and Zhu Yin arrived at the mountains where the Bloodthirsty Bees were located, they discovered something unusual.

In a valley nestled among the mountains, there is a newly opened cave entrance, about three feet in size, which extends vertically downwards, leading deep underground.

Zhu Yin frowned and asked, "Who made this Vertical Tunnel?"

Song Wen asked, "Could it be Fellow Yuan Qing?"

A look of realization flashed across Zhu Yin's face. "It must be him. To be able to dig out this hole without fear of the threat of so many Bloodthirsty Bees, he must be a Golden Core cultivator. On Sheep Island, besides the two of us, he is the only Golden Core cultivator."

Song Wen asked, "Why is Yuan Qing doing this? Is it also to wipe out the Bloodthirsty Bees?"

Zhu Yin sneered, "He wouldn't be so kind! He must have ulterior motives."

Song Wen asked, "Could there be some treasure in the hive of the Bloodthirsty Bees?"

After a moment's thought, Zhu Yin guessed uncertainly, "Perhaps he's after the Blood King Honey produced by the third-tier queen bee?"

Song Wen asked, "Blood King Honey! What is the purpose of this? Is it any different from the Blood King Honey produced by the second-order queen bee?"

Zhu Yin shook her head. "I don't know either. Second-tier Blood King Honey only has the effect of restoring Qi and Blood. But apart from third-tier Blood King Honey, I really can't think of any other treasure in this Bloodthirsty Bees hive that could attract Yuan Qing here."

Song Wen said, "This is a good thing for both of us. With Fellow Yuan Qing's help, eliminating the Bloodthirsty Bees will be much easier. Perhaps Fellow Daoist Yuan Qing has already killed the queen bee."

Zhu Yin said, "Fellow Daoist, you are mistaken. If the Queen Bee were truly dead, the remaining Bloodthirsty Bees would surely have gone berserk. But right now, these mountains are calm and peaceful. This shows that the Queen Bee is definitely not dead."

Song Wen nodded, finding Zhu Yin's words quite reasonable. Then, he suddenly thought of a possibility and asked.

Why did Yuan Qing choose this location to dig Vertical Tunnel? Could it be that he has some method to precisely locate the queen bee's position?

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yin's expression faltered slightly.

This Vertical Tunnel is dozens of miles deep. Digging it would be time-consuming and laborious. Yuan Qing couldn't have just dug a tunnel anywhere without a clear purpose.

"It seems that what you said is true, Fellow Daoist, Yuan Qing does indeed have a way to find the Queen Bee's location."

Zhu Yin's gaze wandered among the mountains, and then she suddenly shouted.

"Yuan Qing, come out."

"Can you pinpoint the queen bee's exact location?"

Her voice echoed through the mountains, but received no response, as if Yuan Qing had already left.

After calling out several times without seeing Yuan Qing, Zhu Yin had no choice but to give up in frustration.

"Fellow Daoist, what should we do now? Should we follow the previous plan, refine the Demon-Luring Powder to deplete the number of low-level Bloodthirsty Bees, or should we first explore the Vertical Tunnel?" Song Wen asked.

After pondering for a moment, Zhu Yin said, "Let's enter the Vertical Tunnel first, explore its interior, and then make a decision."

After saying that, she lowered herself and fell into the Vertical Tunnel.

Song Wen followed Zhu Yin for about a hundred feet and also fell into the Vertical Tunnel.

The two descended smoothly and reached the bottom of the Vertical Tunnel.

This is a large cave, with the stone walls covered with countless caves of varying sizes, from as small as a fist to as large as two feet.

These caves are the intricate internal passageways of Bloodthirsty Bees hive.

"This should have been the queen bee's nest, so why isn't there even a single Bloodthirsty Bees here?" Zhu Yin asked in surprise.

"The queen bee must have been disturbed by Yuan Qing, and abandoned the nest," Song Wen said.

Zhu Yin said, "That's the only possibility."

The mountains occupied by the Bloodthirsty Bees stretch for thousands of miles; abandoning a few peaks would not diminish their living space at all.

After searching for a while without finding anything, the two returned to the ground.

After a brief discussion, the two decided to proceed according to the original plan.

Song Wen found Cave and concocted Demon-Luring Powder.

Zhu Yin, meanwhile, was searching around to find out about the Bloodthirsty Bees.

Three days later, Song Wen found Zhu Yin with the newly refined Demon-Luring Incense.

"Fellow Daoist, your Demon-Luring Powder came at just the right time. I just happened to find the trail of the Bloodthirsty Bees," Zhu Yin said.

She took the Demon-Luring Incense from Song Wen and flew to a mountainside dozens of miles away.

On the rocks halfway up the mountain, there is a crevice. The crevice is wider at the outside and narrower at the inside, and deep inside, there is a hole about the size of a bowl.

"For some reason, the Bloodthirsty Bees have been rarely out and about. But this morning, I saw a few Bloodthirsty Bees going in and out of this hole."

As Zhu Yin spoke, she took out the spider puppet.

She placed the Demon-Luring Incense into a jade box and then tied it to the spider's back.

The spider leaped up and landed in the crevice.

With its eight legs moving nimbly, the spider quickly slipped through the crevice and entered the hole.

The spider is a puppet and cannot act autonomously like a spirit beast or Gu Worm; it must be controlled by Zhu Yin's Divine Sense.

In order to allow the puppet to go deeper underground, Zhu Yin came to the foot of the mountain.

Half an hour later, Zhu Yin suddenly spoke.

"The spider puppet has already traveled about seven or eight miles underground, and my Divine Sense is no longer sufficient to extend further downwards."

Within the beehive, caves crisscrossed, and due to the layers of rocks blocking the way, Zhu Yin's Divine Sense could only probe seven or eight miles underground, which was already the limit.

"It's deep enough. Let's find a side path and pour out the Demon-Luring Incense," Song Wen said.

Under Zhu Yin's control, the spider puppet removed the jade box from its body, opened it, and released the Demon-Luring Incense inside.

Then, the spider quickly moved its legs and retreated rapidly towards the exit.

After several dozen breaths, the spider puppet appeared in the crack of the entrance and jumped into the hands of Zhu Yin, who was already waiting there.

The spider's metallic body was mottled and covered with a layer of bloody slime.

Clearly, while inside the hive, it encountered many Bloodthirsty Bees and went through a fierce battle.

As soon as the spider puppet flew out of the gap, dozens of Bloodthirsty Bees followed, all of which died at Zhu Yin's hands.

Zhu Yin used her Divine Sense to observe the activity within the beehive. As time passed, a smile gradually appeared on her lips. Clearly, she was quite satisfied with everything that was happening within the beehive.

"Fellow Daoist of the Extreme Yin, I will have to trouble you to refine two more batches of Demon-Luring Incense."