Chapter 43 - New Companions

The whole family, including Lian, were busy watching the egg showing signs of movement. With all that had happened after its discovery, they had forgotten to check it until now.

Bao Bei, fortunately, had always given periodic checks to make sure that the creature inside was fine and there were no problems with its birth.

But while they were all concentrated, there was a knock from outside. It was a sign that the people outside had left and it was time to go home.

At that point, Hei quickly took the egg and placed it carefully in his hands. To avoid disturbing the little bee that was being born, he had his mother create a kind of small silk cloth with which to wrap the egg.

Bao Bei then went back to her small size and jumped on Hei's head while Ye and Xing climbed his body and looked curiously at the struggling little creature coming out. Lian was also interested but just watched from afar.

Returning home was rather rapid and without inconvenience. Hei wasn’t a guy who liked to talk to strangers, and the guards in the regulation division were instructed to stay quiet during their duties.

Obviously, this wasn’t a rule applicable to all its members since, from time to time, there would be some animated members who loved to make noise during their service.

Once the guards left, Hei had finally reached his home. It was late afternoon, and since they had skipped breakfast, hunger was building up in his stomach as well as in the others present. However, he didn't care about it for now. There was a much more urgent issue at the moment.

Outside the spiderweb house, there was Shui, the albino buffalo, along with his other eight buffaloes companions. They had been on guard during the morning, taking time off from time to time.

Hei thanked the buffaloes for their work and then approached Shui and placed the egg next to it so that they could see it. Shui instantly recognized what it was about and uttered an excited bellow. Even if it hadn’t yet been born on that occasion, Shui considered the creature inside a companion. A companion of the period in which they were in the merchant’s residence.

Without delay, Hei put the silk cloth on the floor while the others placed themselves in a circle around it, waiting.

Unlike the eggs that contained Ye and Xing, which were hard and resistant, the egg in question was much softer. It had a whitish color similar to a grain of rice but larger. It also had an amber tinge in some places.

After a while, that soft egg was smashed, and from inside came out a 3cm-sized honey bee. It was bigger than a normal honey bee, and maybe that was the reason for its awkward movements as it went outside.

Once it freed itself from the egg, it looked around - there were only creatures much bigger around, but it didn't seem worried.

Suddenly, it turned its gaze to Hei's head and looked intently at that position. Bao Bei, therefore, descended from her son's head and elegantly landed on the silk cloth on which the egg was held.

The honey bee started making excited noises as it tried to get closer to Bao Bei, who raised one of her legs and told it to calm down.

Hei intrigued, couldn't help but ask his mother for explanations.

"Mother, what's going on? Why does the little bee behave like this? "

‘It's because she recognized me. Usually, honey bees destined to be queen bees are fed from the larval age with a substance called royal jelly produced by worker bees. Since that merchant was not an expert, she remained malnourished for a long time. Once taken with us, I gave her some of the milk I produce as a substitute for royal jelly. That, combined with the fact that I gave her a bit spirit power to help her grow, allowed her to recognize me.’ Bao Bei explained as she examined the little bee.

This one was still producing a loud buzz, but it remained steady in its place, letting Bao Bei make her examination.

During its stay in the merchant's stable in Green City, it had experienced severe difficulties and was about to die. But with the help of Bao Bei, it could finally be born. So it was very grateful for that.

At one point, the little bee noticed something and turned to Shui and produced an excited buzz again. It also had recognized Shui. It was normal since Shui lived in the same stable together with the other buffaloes.

Once recognizing who it knew, the bee then turned to Hei, who had Ye and Xing on him and Lian behind him. Everyone was watching that little newborn that was full of vigor.

The bee could somehow notice something belonging to Bao Bei inside Hei, Ye, and Xing while Lian was a stranger. Not knowing what it was, it cutely inclined its head slightly, not understanding what the bond was.

While the bee was busy formulating her thoughts, Hei asked his mother what to do.

"What are we going to do with her now?"

Bao Bei thought for a while before answering,

‘What do you say about giving her a name first? So you can call her more easily. We should also look for a hive to take care of her. Queen bees need a lot of attention and are protected by other bees. Also, since this one is a spirit queen bee, when she would be old enough to produce eggs, her future bees children will likely be spirit bees that will produce spirit honey.’

“Spirit honey? What is that?”

‘It's like normal honey but containing spirit power. By comparison, it is like spirit wheat. However, its properties are more concentrated and have more effects depending on the level of the spirit bees that produce the honey.’

Hearing the word honey, Ye and Xing started having their mouth water with their growling stomach. During their residence with Lei Lei and Lei Bai, they had tasted honey, and that sweet and sticky substance had much pleased them. Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to eat it again after their departure. But now they could finally taste it again.

Hei was also happy to try honey again but remained focused on the task given to him by his mother in finding a name for the little bee.

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"Mi." At one point, Hei came up with that word. Because they were talking about honey, he chose that name; moreover, it was a cute and short name suitable for a newborn queen bee.

Mi?

The bee tried to pronounce the word Hei said, but only a buzzing sound came out. However, it seemed that she didn’t mind at all, given the cheerful noises she was making.

Happy that she liked her name, Hei then moved on to the other task left - to find a hive of bees for Mi. In the vicinity of the spiderweb house, he hadn’t seen any hive, but in the woods further on, he recalled to have met several bees that roamed in search of pollen.

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.