Chapter 370 - 368: Bee King

Chapter 370: Chapter 368: Bee King

Stepping out of the cave, the brilliant sunlight instantly brightened Gu Nuan Nuan’s mood. She looked around. Not far away, swarms of bees buzzed around several tall longan trees, busily collecting nectar from the fragrant, pale yellow blossoms. They immediately captured her attention.

"Have the longan flowers bloomed already?" Gu Nuan Nuan watched the bees collect nectar with great interest for a long while. Her mouth watering, she turned to Cao Cao, who had just appeared before her. "I’m craving honey so badly. What do you say we follow them and just raid their hive?"

"Why go through all the trouble of following them? Master, if you want to find a beehive, you just have to say the word. I guarantee you can have as many as you want." A proud look appeared on Cao Cao’s youthful face.

"Haha, I get it, you’re amazing, alright?" Gu Nuan Nuan reached out and pinched Cao Cao’s cheeks. Seeing his face turn bright red like an apple, she chuckled for a moment before shaking her head. "No, let’s forget it. They have it hard enough as it is. I can’t bear the thought of destroying their home just to satisfy a passing craving."

After she spoke, she stared at the bees for a good while longer, then smacked her lips. "But I still really want some honey... What should I do? A beehive is a valuable thing, too, especially a wild one. They’re so rare. Tell me, should I take it or not? I’m so torn..."

Cao Cao couldn’t help but roll his eyes. "Master, as long as we’re careful and the bees don’t discover us, they can build a new hive very quickly." ’Does Master have too much time on her hands? To actually start wrestling with a question like this? Isn’t survival of the fittest the law of nature? When did she become so sentimental, taking pity on a few little bees?’

"...Cao Cao, do you think these bees would like the Hundred Herbs Rejuvenating Ointment? Can you communicate with the Bee King? How about we use the Hundred Herbs Rejuvenating Ointment to trade with them?" Gu Nuan Nuan ignored Cao Cao, thinking to herself for a moment before asking with excitement.

Cao Cao: "..."

"It won’t work?" Gu Nuan Nuan sounded a little disappointed. ’If not, I’ll just have to take it by force. I was actually getting excited about starting a long-term "business" relationship. I believe all living things have a spirit. Compared to just plundering their home, a mutually beneficial exchange just feels better.’

"I can try," Cao Cao said, hesitating slightly. "But I can’t guarantee it’ll work. After all, these bees have very limited spiritual wisdom. I’m not sure I can communicate with them properly."

"Limited spiritual wisdom?" Gu Nuan Nuan frowned. Suddenly, her eyes lit up. She took out a small jade bottle and poured out a medicine pill the size of a longan pit. "What if we use this Wisdom Opening Pill?"

"Master..." Cao Cao rolled his eyes. "A Wisdom Opening Pill might not be a big deal in the Cultivation World, but this is the Mortal World. It’s still very precious here. Are you sure it’s worth using on a Bee King?"

"It’s not a matter of ’worth it’ or not. Besides, there are still several dozen more in this bottle. If they just sit there, it’s a bigger waste not to use them," Gu Nuan Nuan said nonchalantly.

"Alright." ’It’s not like it’s something irreplaceable, anyway. And even if it were, all that matters is that Master is happy.’ Cao Cao nodded. "In that case, I’ll go find the Bee King by myself. You don’t need to make the trip, Master."

"Alright." Gu Nuan Nuan nodded, beaming. She took out a jar of Hundred Herbs Rejuvenating Ointment and handed it to Cao Cao along with the Enlightenment Pill. "You can decide how much of each to use. I’ll wait here for the good news."

One of the benefits of spending so much time cultivating in a place rich with Spiritual Energy was that Cao Cao could now finally touch physical objects, which naturally meant he could help Gu Nuan Nuan in many more ways.

"Mhm." Cao Cao stowed the Hundred Herbs Rejuvenating Ointment and the Enlightenment Pill, gave a sound of assent, and then vanished in a flash, leaving only an afterimage behind. His true speed was much faster than Gu Nuan Nuan’s, which was why she preferred to send him on errands.

Cao Cao swept the area with his spiritual power, located a large, nearby beehive, and teleported directly to it. He then concealed his presence and shrank himself down to the size of an ordinary worker bee before slipping inside.

In a colony, though called the Bee King, it isn’t actually the leader. Instead, its primary role is reproduction; most of the bees in the colony are its offspring. The Bee King almost never ventures outside, so Cao Cao had to go in to find it.

The Bee King was easy to spot, as it was much larger than the other bees.

Cao Cao easily found the Bee King. Without revealing himself, he tossed half a Wisdom Opening Pill in front of it. The allure of a Wisdom Opening Pill to a creature without spiritual wisdom is irresistible. The sudden appearance of the half-pill didn’t arouse the Bee King’s suspicion. Instead, a greedy look appeared on its face, and without a moment’s hesitation, it swallowed the pill in one gulp.

Seeing the Bee King’s muddled gaze clear up after it swallowed the half Wisdom Opening Pill, he revealed himself and offered a greeting. "Hey, little bee. Let’s get acquainted. I’m Cao Cao."

"You? Who are you? How did you get in here?"

The Bee King jumped, startled by Cao Cao’s sudden appearance. It instinctively felt a surge of fear and took a step back, but then it remembered this was its own territory. Forcing itself to stand its ground, it asked timidly. At the same time, it wondered why the other bees flying past seemed completely oblivious to this strange creature.

"Who I am isn’t important. What’s important is... no, that’s not right. My master wants to make a deal with you," Cao Cao said, floating opposite the Bee King and looking down on it with an air of superiority.

"What kind of deal?" Alarm bells went off in the Bee King’s mind. It had a gut feeling that this unknown creature before it was extremely dangerous. If it didn’t agree to this "deal," its entire colony could be in peril. Nerves taut, it asked with extreme caution.

"My master wants this hive and all your honey," Cao Cao stated matter-of-factly.

’It wants my hive and my honey?!!!’

A rush of blood went to the Bee King’s head. Forgetting its fear of the powerful "thing" before it, its eyes widened and turned bloodshot. But just as its fury was about to erupt, its expression suddenly changed.

Its gaze fell upon a dollop of pale green ointment that Cao Cao had suddenly produced—a lump as large as a worker bee. The Bee King gulped. Instinct told it that this substance would be of immense benefit. Desire overcame all else, and it lunged forward to devour it. But in a flash, the green ointment vanished just as suddenly as it had appeared—