Last Hunt Before Leaving the City

"Brother Wu Ji, since our trip is going to be quite dangerous this time, we rearrange our team last night. Except the six of us with the two celestial designers, we remove the cook and another celestial designer with two hunters. Their experience is rich enough, so it should be helpful to us." Bai Lang pointed his hand on the two new members.

Like how hunter dressed, the two, one male and one female, comes with the attire of full leather armor, a bow on their back and two small assembling crossbows. They're something custom-made in order to suits their requirement during hunting.

The main reason for the team changes is due to the matter Bai Lang explained, but also because the two hunters have more experience in handling the insects if any of them were targeted by the swarm. Plus, the Stone Bee is a very ferocious Wild Beast that needed to be handled with care.

As for their mission for this hunt, it was not because of their edible flesh, but instead, it was for their Fighter Qi Nectar Grains. Different from how the bees in his former world work, the 9th Stage Inner Qi Fighter's Stone Bee doesn't create honey by collecting the nectar around their nest, but instead, each of them comes with a very special suction mouth that feeds on the Natural Energy scatters in the atmosphere.

The Natural Energy they feeds is then sewn into the Nectar Grains, and then hardened by their saliva before it was collected in the top of their nest. When the Stone Bee Larva hatched from their eggs, they will start feeding themselves with the Qi Nectar Grains until the metamorphosis into a mature Stone Bee to repeat the similar process.

If the team successfully harvested over 1KG of the Fighter Qi Nectar Grains, the profit margin will be more than hunting for four days without stop. Reason? It was because the concocted version, Bee Nectar Pill is not only a Body Cleansing Pill that filled with impurities removal effect, it is also categorized as a cosmetic pill. Even female cultivators in their peak fighter tier or early Warrior tier purchase this pill to smoothen their skin from any blemishes or wrinkles.

A hundred grams of the Fighter Qi Nectar Grains can be concocted into ten Bee Nectar Pill, and each Bee Nectar Pill worth 10,000 Gold Coins! And these prices are only for those taken for cultivating and removal of impurities inside their body! Only the experienced Pill Master possess the skill to concoct the much more advanced kind of cosmetic pills, such as the Bee Lady Pill, with 100 grams of Nectar Grain essence inside, Bee Princess Pill, with 300 grams of Nectar Grain essence inside, and Bee Queen Pill, with 500 grams of Nectar Grain essence inside!

Their pricing is set at 200 Qi Sensing Pills, 600 Qi Sensing Pills, and 1,000 Qi Sensing Pills respectively, and one needed to queue for their turn before they can obtain their order! They even said that in a county located inside of the Lower South State, they're the main producer for the cosmetic purposes Bee Nectar Pills, which delivered to the Imperial County every year to supply the demand of the medicinal and cosmetic pill!

But... After hearing this, Zhang Wu Ji was turned speechless.

"Is this a part of the deed I have to fulfill before I get the Metal Bird Blueprint?" Zhang Wu Ji expectation on their hunt is slightly different from what he thought. After assuming that it will work as long he helps in eliminating the Stone Bees, it will be helpful to him anyway.

After entering the forest for a period of time, they finally reach the nest belonged to the Stone Bee. Like how they were called, the nest of the insect is made from using naturally tumbled stones that were collected from the side of the river. Their nest design is almost similar to how the bee made their nest in his former world, but only after approaching them, Zhang Wu Ji understood.

He wanted to scream the moment he looks at their nest. Positioned right on top of the trees, the nest is not supported by the strength of the branches, but the tree itself. This made the bamboo in the forest the best supporting pillar to make sure the nest is positioned above all the trees, leaving the landed predators aside. Although it may seem impossible for others to attack one of the strongest Wild Beast inside of the Northern Bamboo Forest.

Taking a golden retriever as an example, this was their size for the head until the tip of their needle. And that was excluding the width of their wings. Their needle came in the length of two full palms of an adult, and most importantly, they're poisonous and will keep regrowing like a magazine of bullets that can be fired many times before running empty.

"This is a bee?" Zhang Wu Ji was shocked with the golden retriever sized Stone Bee hovering around their nest. A crack came from the dried branches betrayed their location, before twenty to twenty-five Stone Bees fired their needles at the spot where the sound came from.

"What the hell, are you sure it's a bee!" barrage of poisonous needles in their strength of a Level 9 Wild Beast strikes at where they hide. Luckily their preparation includes a gigantic shield that strong enough to withstand their attack, so nobody in the team is hurt or poisoned by the attack.

Zhang Wu Ji put his head out from the shield, but that split moment, a needle that drilled along with the main body of the insect charged at his direction. Zhang Wu Ji is surprised by their attack, but the experienced hunted already expects their next more for long, thus, pulling Zhang Wu Ji back on the ground before his head is pierced by the incoming needle that might drill through his skull.

"I... I almost died under an attack of a bee..." Zhang Wu Ji is completely shocked. If an adult dog size insect is a bee, why not call the Phoenix a chicken instead? No wonder the place the master chef cultivates the Jining Freshwater Trout is called the river, although it was supposed to be called as a sea instead.

"Alright, everyone saw how they attacked. Our main target is not to kill all the Stone Bees, but to plunder their storage with Fighter Qi Nectar Grains. Just try your best to get rid those aggressive Stone Bees and no the escaping one." the hunter gave them a few directions to proceed before taking the lead.

As a newbie in hunting, his mind has a few questions. Noticing that the youth have a few questions in his mind, Bai Lu, the more sensitive between the three brothers approached Zhang Wu Ji to explain the reason for not eliminating the Stone Bees and their nest.

To preserve the ecosystem of the forest, sometimes, one cannot completely destroy the tribe of a Wild Beast because the results from the action might cause a different catastrophe to happen. This is also why the people living close to Northern Bamboo Forest did not completely slaughter the population of Stone Bees. As the most neutral Wild Beast residing in the forest, they're more docile and passive and only attack if somebody or beast get closer to their nest.

This is also why the residents of the Lotus Flower City supports their growth, but controls their numbers once a while through random hunting or luring other Wild Beast to attack the nest instead. Throughout the Northern Bamboo Forest, estimated four nests are exposed to the human, while maybe one to two nests remain hidden from the public eyes.

"Fire at their wings, when losing the wings will cause the Stone Bee to remain in faking death situation, using this natural instinct of the Stone Bees, we can control them from attacking us too much!" one of the hunters fired a bolt from his crossbow and pierce through the wings. Like what he said, the Stone Bee that fallen to the ground fake its death to escape from enemy pursuit.

"Without wings on their back, won't that equal to killing them?" Zhang Wu Ji asked. But looking back at him, the female hunter explained to him to make sure he understands what they're doing.

"Losing their wings, the Stone Bee will go into metamorphosis again. When they crawl out from their outer cocoon again, a new pair of wings is grown by then. This might take between one day to recover." she said while firing on another Stone Bee that tries to fire a poison needle.

"Oh, so we won't be killing too much of them through this way, right?" Zhang Wu Ji took his Longfeng Jade Ruler and randomly swings as he approached the nest. The air blades he produces might not be strong enough for him to injure the Stone Bees flying around them, but randomly destroying their wings is still possible.

Added with the percentages of 20 air blades flying around them, the success rate is higher than a normal Willow Crossbow by multiple times. Not even ten minutes pass, Zhang Wu Ji and the team already standing by the side of the nest and prepares to climb to the top to open their storage chamber.

A few quick slashes took the cover away and exposing all the stored Nectar Grains inside. With the Spatial Stone is buried deep into the treasures, Bai Lang and the male hunter quickly starts to stores the Nectar Grains into the stone one after another, until only a quarter remained in the storing chamber.

Decided to call that a success, the team cut some bamboo leaves to cover the top that was destroyed by them before proceeds to leave the nest. But before they did, Bai Lang noticed three Fire Spitting Lizard is sneaking at the side of the nest, eating the wingless Stone Bees lying on the ground.

"Brother Hu, Sister Hu, do you think we should kill the lizards before we go? If any of them calls for their companion, this nest is going to be destroyed before midnight." Bai Lang asked the two hunters for their suggestion. After all, the damage on this nest is done by the cultivators, which is a fact. But still, the attitude of [Kicking the Monk out after the Ceremonial Prayers is conducted] is an absolutely unforgivable behavior.

We will protect the nest for half a day. After that, anything happens to this nest will no longer be related to us." the female hunter replied. Although her action is nothing too gentle, at least, she kicked the wingless Stone Bees closer to the nest, which will make their protection of the recovering bees easier.

"Eh?" Zhang Wu Ji noticed something unusual on the hardened shell beside him and went down to inspect it while defending against the reckless attackers.

Dead Stone Queen's essence shell

-Usage: when fed to another insect beast (Same Gene or Different), it will increase the amount of gene in their body for further evolution

-Durability: 2/2

-Special: Increase the bond if fed to Wild Beast directly.

"A treasure! Nice!" Zhang Wu Ji stored the item into his spatial ring and continue to defend against the attacking Wild Beast that tries to take advantages on the defenseless nest to increase their strength. For the Wild Beast, the core and flesh of a 9th Stage Inner Qi Fighter are extremely nourishing.

"Half a day is over, let us leave!" their task is complete. As for the remaining safety for the Stone Bees, it will be up to their own fate. Under Bai Lang's leadership, the team of eleven members charged outwards and escaped as fast as they could before they were surrounded by the incoming attack from other Wild Beast.

Zhang Wu Ji knows that it will be pointless for him to stay. Hesitates and worried, he bends down when Bai Lang ordered the team to escape and activated the Small Nourishment Art on two of the hardened shell of the 9th Stage Stone Bee to increase the speed of their recovery. After he did, Zhang Wu Ji activates two Fire Lizard's Touch and fired them out on the most vulnerable direction.

The sixteen explosions caught the team by surprise as they look at the fire spreading around the nest, indirectly forming a shield of protection against the attacking wild beast. Knowing that this is the final deed Zhang Wu Ji did to protects the nest from destroyed, they kept themselves quiet and continue until they were out from the Northern Bamboo Forest.

No longer in a hurry, the eleven of them walked their way until they reach the gathering spot of the Ash Wolves Chaser Team. After examining the number of Fighter Qi Nectar Grains they collected from the hunt, it was an amazing 4KG in their hand! The participating team agreed that they will distribute the loot evenly with 300 grams each person, with the remaining 700 grams is stored in the team's treasury for their future team financial support.

Having no uses on them, Bai Lu and Bai Hu exchange the 300 grams of their portion for a weapon from Zhang Wu Ji. Taken in their consideration and generosity, Zhang Wu Ji did not reject them. After inquiring about their need in the weapon they requested, Zhang Wu Ji headed to the City Forge without delaying to quickly forge them their weapons.

The weapon requested by Bai Lu is a broadsword with an attachment of the Iron Thrusting Dirk Zhang Wu Ji used during his hunt for the first three days. As for Bai Hu, he was a brawler and not a proper fighter, so, forging a set of Iron Destroyer Gauntlets is the best weapon that suits his fighting style.

By using only Sentient Iron on Bai Lu's weapon and Pure Iron on Bai Hu's weapon, Zhang Wu Ji crafted them in no time. But because the effort he did with the two weapons is not comparable to the effort he put in making Zhang Wu Chou's Four Season Swords, the two weapons did not happen to house any spirits on the moment of their completion.

Happily, he delivered the two weapons to them in the next morning, but at the same time, the instruction from Headmaster Windchaser came from the Peony Flower City.

"Head to the Chrysanthemum Flower City and help them in reconstructing the City Wall." the instruction is simple, and within the letter delivered by his personal assistant, two pieces of cards is included.

[Establishment Commanding Plate]

-

[City Lord Temporal Replacement Plate]

"Alright... Now he wants me to go become a temporary City Lord, and to repair the City Wall for god sake!" Zhang Wu Ji complained, but after meeting up with Meng Ran and informed her about his encounters with Meng Hao, he decided to bring her there to clarify her question before they leave.

This is also where Zhang Wu Ji has to bid his farewell to the others, after doing so much hunting together with the others.

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Side Story

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Suddenly, a flash of golden light envelops my body. My initially lightly injured body was miraculously healed without myself knowing the reason. Of course, with my body is healed and regrows a pair of wings, I struggle to crawl out from my cocoon.

Before I managed to force open a crack on my cocoon, I was shocked by the explosion happened outside of my cocoon! It was so scary I almost excreted in my own cocoon! Luckily, it did not affect where I am, so I'm literally safe from that sudden explosion.

When I finally crawled out from the cocoon, fire is burning all around our nest. I fly up to see where did the fire encompassed, and felt relief after I know it did not disturb the safety of our nest. If it was destroyed or burnt, how can our nest continue to thrive?

Wait. Why is there so many bamboo leaves on the top? Stupid workers. I bring myself over to the stack of bamboo leaves and tried to remove them, but then, I noticed a big opening in our storage chamber! Oh, Sh*t! We've been robbed! The human just robbed us before they left!

Filled with anxiety and anger, I entered the chamber and checked our resources. Luckily, there is still enough for the larvae to feed themselves, else how are we going to continue to expand? Only the repairing works are going to cost the life of few workers before the hole is covered.

I won't be bothered by them first. The most important thing is to protect my nest. These Fire Spitting Lizards, how dare they come and surround my nest! Let me skewer them with... Eh! This... What happened to my body? My strength is now a 10th Stage Inner Qi Warrior. I advanced!

I am no longer the 9th Stage Peak Inner Qi Fighter! I am a complete rebirth of our ancestor, the Silver Carapace Bee! This is amazing! Is that because of the light that healed me earlier? I promise myself If I managed to find the person that gave me the healing lights, I will make sure to follow him as my lord!

But before I managed to settle my enemies, a similar Silver Carapace Bee like me appeared. This is impossible, how can two Silver Carapace Bee appear in this nest without a reason? Did he got healed by the light as well? Then that's great. We can plan our rebuilding of the nest immediately.

Wait. Hey! What are you trying to do! Damn! You went overboard! What are you trying to do by pressing me down on the... Ah!!!

...

...

I forget I'm the queen bee... no wonder...

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The End of Queen Bee's Side Story EP1

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