Chapter 28: Advancing Comfortably in Cultivation

Ambushed, the hive erupted into chaos once more, swarming toward him with furious buzzing. Yet as Xiao Wenzi swiftly retreated, the bees did not pursue him relentlessly; clearly, the darkness interfered with their senses, preventing them from locking onto their target. They could only remain clustered within the area thick with the scent of their fallen kin.

Having discerned this pattern, Xiao Wenzi would often dart just a few meters away, then hide behind a tree to await another opportunity before sneaking close again to strike down the enemy with thunderous force.

With a soft slicing sound, one bee after another fell, cleaved apart by his Wingblade Technique. Only when his demon spirit energy was depleted would he withdraw to a nearby leaf and consume Spirit Dew to recover.

Strangely, as the number of bees rapidly dwindled, the queen bee still failed to appear.

By dawn, the vast swarm that had numbered in the thousands was reduced to fewer than five hundred.

Repeatedly provoked, and with her forces decimated, the queen bee at last flew out from within the flower’s heart in a rage at daybreak. She commanded the remaining bees to search for Xiao Wenzi, but he had long since vanished into hiding, and the hive’s efforts were fruitless.

Though not highly intelligent, the queen bee vaguely sensed her foe’s intent. Hiding by day, it was obvious he meant to strike again at night. Having lost seventy to eighty percent of her swarm in a single evening, she realized that she might have no followers left after tonight. The queen was torn, but could not bear to abandon the hard-won Cloudlily.

After all, the Cloudlily was the key to her advancement, and after last night’s cultivation, the bottleneck hindering her evolution had already begun to loosen. The queen resolved to stay, hoping to advance soon and then tear that damned little thing to pieces.

As for her lost followers, the bees’ reproductive powers were immense; as long as she survived, the fallen numbers could be replenished in no time.

Xiao Wenzi’s plan was precisely this. After the success of the previous night, only a fool would confront the hive openly in daylight.

Now, he hid inside a hollow at the treetop, happily absorbing spiritual energy from the world as he cultivated. Time slipped by, and soon night fell again.

With his spirit and energy restored, Xiao Wenzi left the tree hollow, spreading his wings as he flew toward the patch where the Cloudlilies grew.

The bees were still there, but two or three of the Cloudlilies looked wilted, as though all their essence had been drained—a work clearly done by the queen bee.

The sap of the Cloudlily was far superior to that of the Purple Swallowgrass, and yet nearly half of it had been stolen by the enemy’s overwhelming numbers. Xiao Wenzi seethed with anger, and without hesitation, he beat his wings and launched an assault on the hive.

A sharp slicing sound filled the air.

Practice makes perfect, as the saying goes. Having already slain thousands of bees with the edge of his wing blades, Xiao Wenzi was even more adept tonight. At his first strike, a dozen bees were ripped apart, dead before they hit the ground.

A furious buzzing erupted. The bees searched frantically, but could not pinpoint Xiao Wenzi, whose small body and faded scent made him all but invisible. As the previous night, they could only endure passively as he struck.

Throughout the long night, the sound of slicing through the air rang out intermittently, and the swarm’s numbers shrank at a rapid pace.

An hour later, fewer than two hundred bees remained by the queen’s side.

Pausing briefly to replenish his power, Xiao Wenzi was delighted to discover that repeatedly exhausting his demon spiritual energy, then restoring it while using his techniques to slay foes, actually accelerated his cultivation beyond his usual speed.

This was especially true for his perception; even in darkness, every movement of a bee several meters away was as clear as day—he could even see the queen bee, who was undergoing her transformation in the heart of the flower.

“No, this isn’t my old infrared sense—this is spiritual sense, or rather, demon sense… Wait, it seems that creature is undergoing some kind of metamorphosis. But I won't give you the chance.”

Suddenly, Xiao Wenzi realized he had awakened his demon sense after all—just as the Blood Spirit Method claimed. There was no need for surprise; the Blood Spirit Method was a supreme ancient technique, perfectly suited for blood-feeding creatures like insects. Typically, after reaching the late stage of the second level, one would develop a demon sense akin to a cultivator’s divine sense.

Though Xiao Wenzi hadn’t quite reached that stage, he was a transmigrator, his soul inherently stronger than most demon cultivators of his rank. After two days of high-intensity combat and repeated depletion of his energy, his demon sense had naturally emerged.

Its range, however, was only about three zhang—roughly ten meters—considerably less than his eyesight or well-honed infrared perception.

But, like a cultivator’s divine sense, within its range, every subtle movement—the fall of a petal, the crawl of an ant, the twitch of an insect’s antenna—was revealed in exquisite detail.

Through this demon sense, Xiao Wenzi could clearly observe everything about the queen bee within the flower, even sensing the fluctuations of demon power within her body. It was no wonder he knew she was at a critical point in her transformation.

In truth, ordinary venomous insects or beasts, even if they stumbled upon heavenly treasures and began to evolve toward demonhood, would face a long and arduous journey without proper cultivation methods—most would perish before succeeding.

Xiao Wenzi had no fear that the queen bee would truly become a demon insect. Without an art like the Blood Spirit Method, nor a system that could easily revive its life, even if it reached the early stage of the first rank, it would not be difficult to slay.

However, his nature was such that he never made things difficult for himself if he could avoid it.

Now, while the opponent’s transformation was still incomplete, it would be easiest and most efficient to kill her. Why take unnecessary risks? If he stumbled and failed, he would regret it deeply.

Utilizing his demon sense to lock onto his targets was far superior to relying on spiritual vision, as it also saved a great deal of demon spirit energy.

Therefore, to deal with the remaining bees, Xiao Wenzi needed only a single dose of Spirit Dew to restore his strength.

As the last few dozen bees were cut apart by the edge of his wing blades, the frantic buzzing grew weaker, and the queen bee still did not emerge from the heart of the flower.

At last, the bees guarding the flower were all annihilated. His blade sliced through the blossom, petals falling in pieces, and the injured queen bee, her wings and back wounded, tumbled out.

Seeing her followers all destroyed and her transformation unfinished, the queen bee let out a cry of despair. She beat her wings, intent on fleeing.

She was so close to completing her transformation—her hatred for the little mosquito before her was beyond words. But she knew she was no match for him and chose to escape, biding her time for the future.

Xiao Wenzi would not allow it. His wing blade flashed, and the queen bee’s eyes were instantly shattered. Next came a searing pain in her abdomen, and as consciousness faded from her, she spiraled downward.

Heaving a long sigh, Xiao Wenzi finally relaxed after exterminating the last troublesome bee. He couldn’t be bothered with the corpses of the queen or the bees and flew directly to the three or four undamaged Cloudlilies.

Having wiped out thousands of bees, with no frogs or spiders in the vicinity that could be a match for him, and with the Venomous Scale Python still recovering from its wounds, Xiao Wenzi now stood unchallenged in this part of the forest.

Thus, for a time, he enjoyed a life of absorbing the essence of spiritual grasses and flowers, cultivating and advancing in comfort.

After several fruitless days, the young cultivators on the outskirts gradually left. None dared venture into the beast-infested depths of the mountains, and unable to find the demon mosquito to exchange for spirit stones, they could not afford to linger.

As for Zhou Ruoyu, who had left earlier, she did not return with reinforcements. It wasn’t that she didn’t wish to harvest the remaining Purple Swallowgrass and Cloudlilies, but rather that her abandonment of her senior brother in battle was too disgraceful to admit—she dared not mention it to her sect elders or peers in the Falling Feather Sect.