Chapter 43 - New Companions (2/2)

Taking Mi and wrapping her in the silk cloth, Hei climbed on Shui's back with Lian as his mother climbed onto his head, and Ye and Xing put themselves under his clothes. Their destination was the nearby forest to find the hive that would take care of Mi.

*

Once in the woods, Hei, his two little sisters, and Lian started a treasure hunt around. Only, they weren't looking for treasure but bees flying around. Given their small size, it was difficult to pinpoint them precisely.

Fortunately, Xing found some of them and stealthily followed them when they finished collecting the honey and were returning to their hive. Once the hive's position was discovered, the little spider returned quickly to the others to report her discovery.

'Hei, I found the beehive. This way, to here.'

Excited, the little spider led the others to the place she had found. There was a large hive built on a tree. From the outside, it was possible to see the frenetic activity of worker bees that were carrying honey inside. It was difficult to define their number since the swarm of bees was so dense as to obscure the portion of space they were occupying.

Caressing Xing as a reward for her discovery, Hei took a breath before stepping forward. In his years in the Multicolored Leaf Forest, he had noticed how insect colonies were very territorial and didn't appreciate intruders by immediately attacking those who had come too close.

Because the bites of so many bees could be lethal, he decided to activate his spirit power. Of course, it wouldn't have been necessary if he had reached the organ stage where he would increase his ability to resist poison and other substances that would typically hurt ordinary people.

When he activated it, the hive bees realized that something was wrong and started to come out one by one out of the hive. As soon as Hei began to advance towards their home, they swiftly snapped toward him, trying to prick him and send him away.

Unfortunately for them, their stingers didn't have enough strength to penetrate through his spirit power defense that was protecting Hei's body. He continued to advance towards the hive with firm steps as the bees had now covered his body.

Ye, Xing, Lian looked worried but remained in their places by Bao Bei's order. Shui was also standing in its place, but from the position of its legs, it could be seen that it was ready to charge and take away Hei if something serious happened. Mi instead looked curiously at the situation, she couldn't understand what was going on, but she was intrigued by the familiarity that came from those other bees.

The reason why Bao Bei prevented others from intervening was to allow Hei to gain experience. She could have used her presence to put pressure on those bees and force them to cooperate. However, she wanted Hei to earn their respect and loyalty.

She wanted Hei to surround himself with spirit beasts loyal to him and follow him on their own and not because he was her son. After all, having adopted him as her son, Hei was implicitly also the successor to the title of his father's, the Beast Emperor.

Meanwhile, Hei had come a step away from the hive. From there, he began to produce strange noises to the ears of ordinary people. It was the language of spiders learned from his mother.

In the world of animals and spirit beasts, although the various species communicated with each other using different sounds, somehow, there was a kind of shared understanding that allowed communication even between different beings.

His mother had told him that she didn't know why it was like that, but it was something that had happened since the birth of the first life forms. Strangely, only with creatures that used a spoken language, meaning human beings and demons, this common understanding didn't happen.

Furthermore, although spiders were different from bees, they also had common features, making communication even more straightforward.

”I want to talk to the queen. I have no bad intentions, please. I have a spirit queen bee here that needs a hive. We don't want to usurp your current domain. We just want your help. If you accept our Mi, there is a possibility that you and your future generations will become spirit bees.”

It was what Hei said when addressing the queen bee enclosed under strict protection within the hive. It was she who dictated orders to worker bees outside. So if he wanted to succeed in his goal, he had to convince her.

And indeed, he succeeded in piquing the queen bee's attention that ordered her worker bees to stop their attack momentarily. Becoming spirit beasts was a dream longed for by all the animals that wanted to rise from their initial condition. It was comparable to the desire of people to become martial artists so that they could aim towards the Heavens and become a dragon among men.

Usually, however, bees from one beehive followed a single queen bee, coming to reject and attack bees and queen bees from other hives. But, some hives contained more queen bees at the same time. If they didn't intend to usurp her domain and help her become a spirit beast, the queen bee would consider the proposal of that human being in front of her hive.

The queen bee inside the hive produced other noises to ask Hei to bring the queen bee he was talking about.

Seeing that she was showing interest, Hei took Mi that was still looking at the scene with curiosity and let herself be transported without problems. Then he headed back toward the hive.

The bees that buzzed in the air immediately emitted loud noises and began to get agitated. They could perceive that it was a queen bee, and their instinct was to attack their queen's enemy immediately. But somehow they couldn't convince themselves to attack - they could also sense that that queen bee was hiding something special.

When he was close enough, the hive's bee queen went outside, surrounded by a team of worker bees larger than those outside. They were probably designated as bodyguards of the queen.

The queen bee made a sign that she wanted to advance alone and stopped in front of Mi, who was looking at her with interest. As far as size was concerned, Mi, although she was just born, was slightly larger, perhaps because she was a spirit beast; for the other physical characteristics, instead, they were more or less identical.

The queen bee began a conversation with Mi. But Mi didn't know how to answer the questions that were being addressed to her. The reason was simple - normally, the queen bees, since larval stage to the hatching, lived inside the hive; Instead, she hadn't lived such a life as she had been locked up in a drawer and then freed and raised by Bao Bei. So she didn't know what life was like inside the hive.

Hei hastened to explain the situation to the queen bee, worried that she might get annoyed by Mi's vague answers. He also added another bet on the plate.

”I also grow spirit plants and flowers. If you accept to take care of Mi, I can leave you part of the pollen. I guess there's no need to tell you the difference from normal pollen. ”

Hearing about spirit plants and flowers, the bees became more excited. From time to time, they happened to come across these plants, and indeed, the pollen those produced didn't compare as a taste compared to the normal one. The annoyed queen bee signaled them to keep quiet and began to contemplate. She finally made her decision.

She would have consented to Hei's request, but he had to keep his word, meaning that they shouldn't try to usurp her power, and they also had to help her hive to become spirit bees.

Happy to finally come to an agreement, Hei set about introducing the other members of his family so that the queen bee would instruct her subordinates not to attack them.

The queen bee had already noticed their presence, but when she was in front of Bao Bei, she couldn't help but be stunned and start to tremble with fear. Bao Bei was legitimately an adult divine beast in all respects, so she placed enormous pressure on spirit beasts and normal animals when they became aware of her identity.

Fortunately for the queen bee, Bao Bei told her a few words of comfort, but also warned her that she would interact mainly with Hei.

Without wasting too much time on pleasantries, preparations began to move the hive near the cobweb house. Although at the time there were no flowers in the vicinity of spiderweb house and therefore the bees would be forced to make long journeys to the forest, for them it was a suitable price to pay if it meant becoming spirit beasts.

So new comrades came to live in that part of the land that had become Hei's home.