Qi Ping began to move forward carefully, holding the long knife tightly in his hand.
With his keen perception, Qi Ping avoided various thorns and dangers and proceeded with caution.
Fortunately, it didn't take Qi Ping long. After just a while, he found a golden marrow bee hiding at the root of a large pine tree.
This was due to the jungle druid's keen perception in the mountains and forests. Otherwise, it would not have been possible to find this golden marrow bee in the dense forest.
"Found it!" Qi Ping was pleasantly surprised.
Things went smoothly without any accidents.
Seeing the figure of the golden marrow bee, Qi Ping couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
If something came out halfway, his small body at the first level of Qi Refining would not be able to withstand it.
At the same time, Qi Ping also hurriedly put the knife into the small storage bag, so as not to disturb the golden marrow bee with the murderous intent from the knife.
The golden marrow bee was collecting pine oil from the pine bark at the root of the pine tree.
A pine tree with a century-old age will produce a very small amount of special pine oil, which can reach the quality of spiritual medicine.
However, the quantity is too small. It takes Qi Ping half a month to collect a bottle. He also has to deal with the dangers in the mountains and forests. The benefits are far less than raising black bees.
Golden marrow bees are a special species of bee, quite different from ordinary bees.
The reason why they collect pine oil is that they are not limited to nectar when brewing honey. Many spiritual medicines also become their collection targets, and they mix them with nectar to brew honey.
This is also one of the reasons why the quality of honey produced by golden marrow bees is higher.
Just when Qi Ping discovered the golden marrow bee, the golden marrow bee also sensed Qi Ping's appearance.
Qi Ping's mood also became a little uneasy at this moment.
Under normal circumstances, golden marrow bees that encounter human practitioners—such as bipedal beasts—generally have two choices:
Either choose to attack or choose to escape and hide.
Either way, it is not good news for Qi Ping.
The speed and toxicity of golden marrow bees are very strong, and their speed is no worse than that of the middle stage of Qi Refining.
Qi Ping can't catch up with them if they run away.
Qi Ping would be even more miserable in a fight. Even if this is just the most ordinary little worker bee, it is enough to put Qi Ping in serious danger.
After Qi Ping was anxious for a while, he found that the golden marrow bee did not run away. Instead, it stopped collecting pine oil and looked at Qi Ping curiously, without showing any hostility in its actions.
This made Qi Ping a little happy.
"There's a chance!"
So Qi Ping approached cautiously with expectation, and the golden marrow bee did not run away.
"Buzz buzz. (Who are you? Friendly!)"
The golden marrow bee saw Qi Ping coming and expressed its meaning vaguely. At the same time, it circled around Qi Ping and looked at him with more curiosity.
"I want to contract you and let you be my animal partners. I can make your tribe stronger!" Qi Ping said honestly and directly.
For the bee tribe, the reproduction and growth of their tribe are more important than individual will. For things that benefit the tribe, they will choose to sacrifice themselves without fear.
This is very familiar to Qi Ping, a beekeeper.
When facing a strong enemy, they can sacrifice their life to attack. When they encounter a good source of nectar and elixir, they will collect it regardless of danger.
As long as the tribe can survive and become stronger, even if they die, it is an honor for them.
That's why Qi Ping chose to communicate with it on the grounds of their tribe.
As a Beast King Druid, he is also fully confident in doing this.
"Buzz. (Contract? The tribe becomes stronger?)"
"Well, the colony has become stronger."
The golden marrow bee seemed to be a little confused, so Qi Ping continued to repeat it.
After several times, the golden marrow bee finally understood what Qi Ping meant, and the whole bee became excited.
"Buzz. (The two-legged beast has no ill intentions. The bee trusts you! Tell your companions. Tell the Queen Bee.)"
"Okay, then take me there!"
Hearing the golden marrow bee's affirmative answer, Qi Ping was completely relieved.
This is the most difficult step.
Yes, the most difficult step is here.
Because the character and temperament of the entire bee colony are basically the same, this golden marrow bee's willingness to trust Qi Ping so easily means that its entire colony will likely feel the same.
In this way, the risk of Qi Ping's trip will be minimized, and the probability of the contract being successful is also very high.
If this golden marrow bee had shown hostility and distrust towards Qi Ping, he would definitely have run away.
Because that would mean the entire bee colony is likely to be hostile to him.
Facing an entire underground golden marrow bee colony, there is a probability that even a mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator would perish, not to mention Qi Ping, a rookie at the first level of Qi Refining.
Fortunately, the most difficult stage has passed. The golden marrow bee not only did not show any hostility towards him, but also showed extraordinary trust.
"The Beast King Druid is really awesome!"
Qi Ping couldn't help but sigh.
Following the figure of the golden bee, Qi Ping proceeded with full expectation.
This time, Qi Ping walked more at ease. The golden bee's life path proved to be relatively safe.
After walking about two or three miles, he finally arrived at the location of the golden bee's nest.
It was a small bush that looked ordinary and was no different from other bushes.
There was not even any trace of the golden bee's presence, which showed their caution.
There was a small hole covered by dead leaves in the bush. If Qi Ping hadn't seen the golden bee enter from there, he would not have found that there was a golden bee cave.
Using divine sense to scan it, he could only sense a cave similar to a mouse hole—common in these forests.
After a while, a large group of golden bees buzzed out and surrounded Qi Ping to observe him.
Some of the brave ones even landed on Qi Ping.
If ordinary monks saw this scene, they would be scared to death.
But Qi Ping did not feel any fear when facing this scene, because he could sense that these golden bees had no ill will towards him.
As time went on, about a thousand golden bees finally flew out.
This number is much smaller than the nearly ten thousand black bees, but it is already a lot for golden marrow bees.
The higher the bloodline grade of the bee colony, the more difficult it is to reproduce, and more spiritual flowers and spiritual medicines are needed to support a large colony.
In the center of the group of golden bees in front of Qi Ping was the largest golden bee, almost half the size of a fist and about three times the size of other worker bees.
It was entirely golden, with a black-gold ring on the dorsal plate of the abdominal segment. The knife-axe-shaped black-gold upper jaw looked extremely powerful, and the wings had a layer of light gilded gold.
The size of the drones was smaller than that of the queen bee, but the sharp upper jaw was particularly prominent.
After all the golden bees flew out, they began to communicate with Qi Ping, with the queen bee at the center.
The process was much easier than Qi Ping imagined. He just repeated the conversation with the little worker bee from before, and the bee colony agreed to be his animal companions.
"Buzz. (We. Are willing to be your animal companions!)"
(End of this chapter)