Upon fully entering the peculiar floral space, Shen Yi felt an invisible force lift him. His entire body became weightless, effortlessly floating forward with just a slight flutter of his wings.

The small chamber was utterly empty, save for a pale green, spherical droplet suspended at its center. Shen Yi was instantly captivated; this droplet was what had been drawing him in all along.

He drifted closer, only then realizing it was a single drop of water.

Perfectly round and crystal clear, it resembled an elegant, mysterious gem, radiating an incredibly alluring aura.

Biological instinct whispered like a demon, relentlessly urging Shen Yi: consuming it would bring immense benefits.

Shen Yi struggled against the primal urge to hoard it for himself. Just as he was about to summon his underlings to share the discovery, a sudden, chilling coldness washed over him.

The hairs on his back bristled, and an intense sense of danger and foreboding surged within him—a feeling a hundred times more threatening than when the praying mantis had appeared.

Shen Yi had already noticed these occasional premonitions, or sixth sense, since becoming the Queen Bee.

Trusting his intuition, he swiftly darted forward, gulped down the droplet in one go, and without a second thought, burst out of the flower bud.

“Let’s go, now!”

As soon as he emerged, Shen Yi urged his underlings to flee without a moment’s pause. He had a premonition that if they lingered even a moment longer, something terrible would happen.

It was a shame about that miraculous flower—if only they could have built their hive inside it.

He hadn’t even had the chance to examine the other blossoms.

Shen Yi soared through the air, feeling euphoric. A warm current flowed down his esophagus into his stomach, spreading a comfortable warmth to every part of his body, especially his head. The dull ache that had plagued him since bonding with Little Seven gradually faded away.

He even felt as if his hearing and vision had sharpened, and his sight seemed clearer than before.

The effects of that dewdrop were directly influencing his spiritual energy. He could distinctly feel subtle changes taking place within it, and the transformation was ongoing.

Shen Yi mused to himself, *This can’t possibly be Earth, can it? That flower was no ordinary plant. I wonder if it will produce more of that dew? If my underlings had some, would they become smarter too?*

If this was a fantasy world, did that mean he could truly cultivate? Where should he even begin? With no techniques or guidance, would he have to figure it out on his own?

His imagination ran wild throughout the flight. His underlings hadn’t eaten in over thirty minutes, but untouched nectar sources were hard to come by. As they flew past a massive banyan tree, Little Seven suddenly turned and gave Shen Yi a food signal.

“Food? Where?”

They were still quite close to the valley, near the border between the valley and the forest. However, since Shen Yi no longer sensed any danger, he relaxed a little. The group gradually came to a stop—his underlings needed to eat immediately.

Among the towering trees, a wrist-thick vine stretched across several plants, its leaves resembling grape leaves. Peering through the dense tangle of vines, beneath layers of overlapping foliage, tender buds were covered with clusters of yellowish-green “fruits.” But Shen Yi detected life signals from these small fruits—they were living beings.

From a distance, they looked like unripe grapes clinging to the stems, with slender legs and two triangular, glowing yellow ornaments on one end of their bodies. At first glance, they appeared to have two triangular ears, and after a while, they seemed oddly cute.

Shen Yi searched under the leaves for a long time but found no flowers.

*Where is the food Little Seven mentioned?*

Just as he was puzzling over it, he saw the bumblebee underlings fly in unison onto these little creatures, using their antennae and forelegs to gently stroke their backs. Each movement was skilled, as if they were trained bathhouse attendants.

*They’re not going to…*

Soon, a few of the little green beans secreted a round, transparent droplet from their tails. The hardworking masseurs immediately bent down and sucked the droplets into their stomachs, their movements a seamless flow.

Shen Yi: “…”

“This? This is edible?” he asked, stating the obvious.

He knew that ants kept aphids to harvest their honeydew, but could bees do it too?

Watching his underlings enjoy the treat so eagerly, Shen Yi couldn’t resist his curiosity and finally reached out a tentative hand.

If things like flying squirrel feces and human urine could be used in medicine, Shen Yi, after some hesitation, accepted consuming the tiny honeydew secreted by these aphids.

Besides, the smell was actually quite appealing.

Unlike the rich aroma of honey, this was sweet with a herbal freshness. Its texture was watery, not as thick as honey, and the sweetness was just right.

It was suitable for bumblebees to consume and could also be used as raw material for fermenting honey, much like nectar.

The aphid colony here seemed to have just settled—it was small, with only about a dozen individuals. Perhaps that was why no other bees or ants had farmed them; the scale was pitifully small.

With their small numbers and no larvae to raise, Shen Yi’s group didn’t have a high demand for pollen.

As long as these aphids were around, they could scrape by even without finding nectar sources.

After weighing the pros and cons, Shen Yi decided to set up a nest nearby.

It would solve their food problem and give him a chance to revisit that flower.

The young worker bees’ wax glands weren’t fully developed and couldn’t secrete beeswax yet, so Shen Yi led his underlings in rolling leaves into makeshift shelters, hiding them among the foliage to rest.

Soon, darkness fell. Bumblebees cannot see in the dark, so once night came, the underlings returned to their nests to rest. Only Shen Yi remained perched on a branch. The forest at night was like an illusion. Gazing at the bioluminescent plankton floating in the air, he marveled at the sight, feeling like someone seeing it for the first time.

In the pitch-black night, transparent, faintly glowing umbrella-shaped organisms drifted everywhere. They were tiny, only slightly larger than sweet rice dumplings, resembling jellyfish swaying in the ocean. Their umbrella-like bodies pulsed, propelling them forward as they trailed several ribbon-like tails.

Although plankton generally refers to drifting organisms in water, Shen Yi felt the term fit perfectly here.

One drifted right in front of him. Mesmerized, he reached out a foreleg to gently touch its pulsating umbrella. The next moment, it darted away like a startled animal.

*It’s really alive.*

Shen Yi’s eyes followed it into the air and then into the distance. Suddenly, faint lights began to glow on the ground—mushrooms, flying insects, and plants he didn’t recognize (or perhaps not plants at all). They resembled a reactive carpet spread across the forest floor, lighting up wherever insects crawled, flickering on and off intermittently.

The faint glow wasn’t enough to dispel the darkness, but it was visible to the eye, adorning the night and perhaps even lighting the way for unknown insects.

The forest at night felt like an entirely new world. The ground, the vines and flowers clinging to the trees, even the tassel-like parasitic blossoms hanging from branches—all emitted a fantastical, multicolored glow. The kaleidoscopic sight left Shen Yi utterly spellbound.

*This really can’t be Earth, can it?*

Shen Yi felt both excitement and apprehension.

An unknown world meant his experience and common sense might be useless—or even contrary to reality—without him realizing it.

>

Driven by nature, the eleven bumblebees grew restless after filling their stomachs. They itched to fly out and scout for nectar sources.

Shen Yi didn’t stop them. The aphids’ honeydew could only barely satisfy their hunger, but pollen was essential for their growth, development, and wax production.

Through his bonded mental link, he could sense all his underlings’ locations and wasn’t worried about them getting lost.

With food and lodging issues sorted, Shen Yi finally had time to figure out how to cultivate. The system was still updating, so he had to explore on his own.

At first, he tried to calm his heart and mind and sense the surrounding “spiritual energy,” as described in novels.

He didn’t feel any multicolored specks of spiritual energy representing metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Instead, he unexpectedly found himself back in that mysterious world.

This time, there were no starry specks of light. The entire space contained only the mental points of his eleven subordinates—one large and ten small.

It felt as if it had separated from a complex public intersection, becoming his private domain—or rather, this was his Mental Sea.

Shen Yi tried poking the largest light sphere with a psychic tendril—it was Little Seven’s spiritual body. The sphere trembled slightly, and Shen Yi received feelings of confusion and affection. He gently stroked the small light sphere in response.

Above the Mental Sea, faint green mist hovered. Instinctively, Shen Yi knew it was the undigested flower dew. Once fully digested, the mist would turn golden, strengthening his mental energy.

Although he hadn’t figured out how to cultivate, he at least discovered one way to enhance his mental power—dietary supplementation.

>

His subordinates went out early and returned late every day. Whether they understood or not, Shen Yi gradually developed a habit of buzzing at them.

—Hey, have you learned to count today? Do you know how many of us there are? One, two, three, four, five… twelve. There are twelve of us.

—Third Brother, can you tone down the wing flapping? Little Seven is about to be blown away by you.

—Today, I’ll tell you the story of The Ugly Duckling. What’s an ugly duckling? Well… you can imagine it as a bee without wings. Because it’s different from other bees, it gets picked on by all of them…

Deep down, he still held onto a glimmer of hope and expectation—perhaps, over time, they might develop intelligence.

Isn’t that the kind of warmhearted tale often told in stories?

A small bee colony gradually took root there, and his subordinates settled into a carefree life with plenty to eat and drink.

Yet, Shen Yi was haunted by an indescribable, elusive sense of urgency.

That night, the system finally finished updating.

“The system update complete. Intelligent learning program loaded. Please explore additional new features.”

“Welcome to the new chapter—Rise of the Bee Colony.”

With the new chapter beginning, the Main Quest updated.

“Main Quest: Expand the Bee Colony—Colony size: 11/1000”

“Quest Reward: a Queen Bee Nest Seed”