Chương 27: Bees in Making

All the remaining items were for his beekeeping, except the metal box. In it was a tea set made out of spiritual materials. However, due to the low price of 100 Sect Points, they were mostly low-grade spiritual jade sets. In the other box, this time a wooden one, was the most central item, or better to say, a living being. Sealed in it was a queen bee.

Unfortunately, due to the other purchases he needed to make, Lin Yi was only able to buy the queen with the lowest kind of spiritual nature, though it was still classified as a spirit insect. The bee cost him another 100 Sect Points. The two bottles were resources for raising the bee and her descendants until they could gather them on their own. One bottle contained spiritual honey, and the other royal jelly, costing him a combined 50 Sect Points. The last and biggest item was the shelf-like box.

It was a rudimentary hive. Another 50 Sect Points vanished for that. Including the storage pouch for 200 Sect Points, he had only 50 left. Hah, but it's worth it. I hope at least. He shook his head and thought wryly. Never mind, I should start setting up everything. Lin Yi nodded to himself and put away the things he did not need, namely the tea set. First, he picked up the bamboo seed. It would be the quickest to plant. He walked out of the pavilion and chose a garden spot to his right.

At this spot, the spirit vein's branches were partially converging, making it a good position for planting special spiritual plants. As bamboos did not need much care to grow, Lin Yi buried it simply in the ground. There was no need to fear that animals, pests, or vermin would damage the seed. The courtyard's formation wouldn't let them in. But what he did was nurture and form a connection with the spiritual seed.

In his study of the immortal dao, he naturally also read about the five elements and farming of spiritual plants. Normal spiritual plants, herbs, or grains could be treated normally, but the special plants one needed for their own cultivation should be cultivated differently. To make them more compatible with oneself and ease their control in the future, when one uses wood control arts to regulate their growth and reproduction, one should regularly nourish them with one's own Essence, Qi, and/or Spirit.

Lin Yi did exactly that. Using his supernatural control over his body, he opened a small wound and dropped blood over the seed till the ground around it was wet. After that, he extended his Qi and spirituality through the ground, circulated them into the bamboo seed, nourishing it, and then back into his body. A few minutes had passed when he stopped. This process needed to be done regularly, preferably every day, to take proper effect.

Nodding to himself, he was satisfied with his work and returned to the pavilion for the next part. Setting up the bee queen would take a little more time. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. First, he needed to transport the beehive into the garden and onto his chosen spot. In contrast to the Solitary Yang Bamboo, the hive wouldn't be placed by him on a spirit vein node. There was no need for that.

The future colony wouldn't extract Spiritual Qi directly from the ground and spirit veins, but would mostly obtain it from the air and gathered resources. He picked up the hive, which was larger than his body. Fortunately, he could easily pick it up with his Qi-nourished body. Only grabbing it properly was a little troublesome, but after finding the right positions to grab it, it was seamless as well.

The beehive itself was not heavy, and Lin Yi moved it easily into the garden's rear parts, some distance away from the pavilion. The hive was created out of spiritual wood, compatible with the spirit bees. Once the bee colony grew larger, they would expand it on their own to meet their needs. Satisfied with the place where he positioned the hive, he returned to the pavilion. Before he could properly nurture the queen bee from its half-dormant, half-embryonic state, he needed to 'imprint' himself onto her.

The Myriad Insect Control Art had techniques for that. Normally, one would use one's magical power and divine soul to imprint a restriction into the insect's mind, but Lin Yi, with his low cultivation, could not do that yet. Depending on what kind of relationship one wanted, master-servant or a pet-like relationship, one had to do different things. Lin Yi wanted no slave. In his past life, he was a vegetarian, and he had no plans to change this in this life either.

Spirit beasts, once they reached a certain level of cultivation, slowly gained intelligence similar to humans, and once they reached the late stage of Qi Condensation, there was no difference at all. Lin Yi had no interest in enslaving any creature, let alone a future intelligent one. Everything could gain human wisdom in this world. Lin Yi reminded himself that the word "human" in "human wisdom" did not refer to the human race but to the human dao. From different plants to all kinds of animals and beasts.

Even the environment itself- the mountains, lakes, metals, fire and flames, clouds, or Qi itself could gain sentience. There was even the faint possibility that abstract concepts such as space, time, karma, fate, or destiny were enlightened by heaven and earth, and transformed into the innate dao body. Because of this, because of all these possibilities, Lin Yi liked the concept of inedia.

Essence Pills were still made out of spiritual herbs and materials, all of which could have had the chance of gaining sentience. To consume them would rob them of gaining future enlightenment of the immortal dao. Naturally, he was well aware that this thought could lead to an extreme mindset. He was still too weak, his cultivation was too low, and his wisdom not broad enough to truly understand the truths and mysteries behind these philosophies and the karmic possibilities.

I can worry about this once I have enough understanding of the workings of heaven and earth. Lin Yi shook his head and concentrated on his task again. He picked up the sole wooden box and opened it. In it lay a young queen bee enclosed in a transparent cocoon. In truth, it was not yet a true queen bee. Similar to their mortal counterparts, any worker bee could transform into a queen bee. The difference was that there was even a chance beyond their initial birth.

Another difference was that spirit bees are not divided into workers or drones. A spirit hive had only its queen and workers. The queen herself could reproduce asexually and raise a new queen if necessary. That trait was the innate talent of spirit bees.

Scholars of the beast tamer and insect controller profession argued for a long time before concluding that this was a forced evolution of spirit bees, so that their hive could exist independently of others, due to the highly varied predators of the cultivation world. That was in direct contrast to mortal bees who needed male drones from other hives to mate with their queen.

The larva worker bee Lin Yi purchased had already begun her transition into queenhood but had yet to fully complete it before she was sealed into dormancy by the cultivators who raised her. This was not done randomly but was specifically orchestrated. In this transition state, insect controllers had a much easier time building a connection or even directly enslaving the future queen.

However, in the Charging Bull Sect, as an orthodox lineage of the Profound Dao, the latter was frowned upon, though not actively banned. Lin Yi looked at the future queen bee and followed the instructions of the Myriad Insects Control Art. As he did not yet possess magic power and a divine soul, he could only use the preliminary technique. He extended his spirituality towards the larva, slowly into it, deeper and deeper, until he entered a new kind of spiritual world.

He did not plan to imprint a restriction or something similar on her. He wanted to harmonize his spirituality with the bee's own mind, building a familiar connection, and he communicated this intention to the insect. Lin Yi sank deep into meditation and let his spirituality flow freely through the queen bee. He followed no strictly required path but let himself be guided by nature itself.

Minutes, or even hours, had passed before he finally noticed a pattern, a pattern where his spirituality flowed most freely and allowed a deeper connection to be established with the queen bee. This is it.