Chương 28: Companion

As Lin Yi found the right pattern, he actively circulated his spirituality along those paths. His spirituality wove and flowed through the spiritual world of the future queen bee. Again and again he followed the circulation paths. Minute after minute passed until he noticed the growth of the connection had lessened. Lin Yi did not directly stop the flow but slowly let go of his old over it, trying not to break and damage it forcefully.

Only when his spirituality rested naturally did he recall it and return his perspective to his own. Lin Yi blinked a few times, making himself familiar again with his own eyesight. His gaze landed on the still sealed larva. Outwardly, nothing looked changed, and he wouldn't see anything amiss himself if he couldn't feel the slight connection with the future queen bee. This connection was something he had never experienced before.

It was not one where they shared each other's thoughts and feelings, or even life and death. The connection, while faint, was not exactly shallow. It wasn't a connection between a pet and its owner, but more like between companions, a mutual understanding of friendship and collaboration. Lin Yi felt it suited him. This is much better than servitude, ownership, or even enslavement.

The queen bee will have her own life and decisions, but in return for my protection, initial investment, and nourishment, she will provide me with a continuous flow of resources. It was like an investment in a company. Lin Yi invested in the bee colony from the very beginning, even co-founded it, and thus was eligible for a certain amount of shares. Lin Yi smiled in contentment. Naturally, the spiritual connection between them was not yet complete.

Similar to the bond he wished to form with the Solitary Yang Bamboo, the bond with the queen bee must be attended to regularly. For maximum efficiency, even daily. Lin Yi intended to do this. Fortunately, he had enough time to strengthen the bond. The queen bee, while already having started its transformation into queenhood, was still some time away from that goal. In that time frame, he could gradually perfect the bond. Speaking of her growth, I should properly prepare her new home.

The queen bee was still in her transformation and needed proper nourishment. He could always feed her himself, but that would be another time-consuming task, and he could get the doses wrong. Why do something himself when there was a working solution? Lin Yi closed the wooden box and picked it up along with the two remaining bottles. He walked back again towards the rear of the garden and the empty hive. He set the box and the two bottles aside for the moment, and tried to open the beehive. Ughh! Lin Yi grimaced.

Of course, nature wouldn't just let him. While his hands could easily reach the top of the big box and likely even remove it, he would never be able to look inside. His body's height betrayed him in this regard. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Not defeated by the brief failure, he looked around the garden for a possible elevation. In no time, he found a relatively large rock on which he could stand without much problem.

He walked towards it, easily picked it up, and dragged it back towards the hive where he put it down just before it. Stepping on the rock, he finally opened the top of the hive. He put the top aside and looked into the artificial bee home. Different than the normal mortal hives, this one had a round area excavated in the center. Atop it were two containers with wooden pipes extending to the center's middle points. The end points were small, as if only a small part of its contents should steadily escape.

Lin Yi knew that the container apparatus was detachable when it was no longer needed. Around the open center were the normal hive frames that existed also in the hive's mortal counterpart. Lin Yi picked up the wooden box he had set aside earlier and opened it. The larva of the future queen be still laid in the box, slumbering uninterrupted. His finger enclosed the cocoon, not strong enough to break it but enough to lift it from the wooden material.

Lin Yi's expression flickered for a moment as he accustomed himself to the texture. He never really liked most insects, in both of his lives, and this sticky, rough, and slightly wet texture didn't help in that regard. Nevertheless, he picked the cocoon out from the small box and laid it down on the small elevated middle points of the hive's center. After making sure the larva was placed correctly, he looked back at the wooden box. It's not worth much, but it is still made out of spiritual wood.

I can likely find a need for it. Nodding to himself, he stored the box in his storage pouch. His focus returned to the beehive. The center where he laid down the larva would be the new home of the bee queen. That was another trait that transcended spirit bees from their mortal cousins. The spirit bee queen always had her own relatively large space compared to the hive itself. The queen was not just queen but the complete absolute master of the colony.

Adding sentient intelligence to that, it was no wonder she needed a private domain. The structure, however, of her future home would be built by herself and her workers. Lin Yi picked up the remaining two bottle containers. They respectively contained spirit honey and royal jelly. Both were needed to nurture the transitioning queen bee into full queenhood and to provide resources for the initial growth of workers into adulthood.

After these workers reached maturity, they could gather spores and pollen of their own, no longer needing external help. At that point Lin Yi would also see the first results for this project. He opened the bottle that contained the spirit honey and poured it completely into one of the containers above the center. Once he had emptied every last drop, he picked up the second bottle, containing royal jelly, and poured it into the other container.

Due to their rise into spiritual resources, both gained a few more traits. Besides the obvious help in cultivation, another was the seamless flow of the liquid. For example, unlike the residual normal honey, spirit honey didn't get stuck at its container's boundaries. Both thick liquids slowly flowed down their pipes and accumulated there. Because of the small, designed end-opening, it would take several minutes for the first drop to descend. For the immature queen, royal jelly would be the primary nutrient.

It would push her last transformation to completion. The spirit honey was there as extra help, and later the main product for the first bee workers' growth. Because of that, the container designed for the spirit honey would take much longer to allow the first drops of its contents to fall. After double-checking that everything was in the right position and that no mistakes could occur, Lin Yi closed the top of the hive. Nodding again to himself, satisfied, he rubbed his hands and cleaned up.

Which was not much, to be honest. He stored the two bottles in his storage pouch and looked at the rock placed before the hive for a moment, then decided to leave it there. I will still need in the next days. He thought and looked around the rear part of the garden one last time. After finding everything to his satisfaction, he returned to the pavilion, intending to undergo his daily cultivation. During the next week, Lin Yi followed his normal schedule.

He completed his assigned sect duties, cultivated the Classic of Qi Refinement as well as the Locking Yang Nourishing Art, studied further into the immortal dao, and cared for his extracurriculars. He watered the Solitary Yang Bamboo daily with his blood and nourished it with his Qi and spirituality. Not only did his bond with the spiritual plant grow, but so did his bond with the slowly transforming queen bee, which he cultivated regularly.

On the tenth day after he purchased and set up the queen bee, he could feel their connection snapping firmly into place when he cultivated in the garden pavilion. His head turned around fast and looked towards the hive's direction. He instinctively knew what happened. She finally hatched, huh!