After calming his restless subordinates one by one, Shen Yi glanced at the beautiful Flower Elf leaning against a tree branch, its face dark. Seeing its unfriendly gaze fixed in his direction, he assumed it was growing impatient.

Fearing that this unpredictable Little Madman might lash out at his subordinates in another fit of madness, Shen Yi quickly issued the command to the enthusiastic bumblebees swarming around him: build nests.

At the same time, the system suddenly chimed with a task alert.

Shen Yi opened the system interface and saw that, besides the unfinished Main Quest, a new Side Quest had appeared on the task panel.

“Side Quest: Build a Beehive. The colony’s survival and reproduction depend on a safe hive. Please construct no fewer than 10 nest cells for the upcoming larvae.”

“Quest Reward: Queen Bee Inheritance Fragment*1”

Since the last update, the system’s style had undergone a complete makeover. Likely due to absorbing elements from Earth’s online games, the quest descriptions had shifted from their previous concise style to more detailed explanations, making it feel increasingly like a game.

Looking at the quest requirements, Shen Yi’s eyes flashed with excitement. He had been planning to build a hive anyway—this quest was a windfall. Moreover, building 10 nest cells was much easier than summoning 1,000 players. Even if the outer structure was rough, it could be completed in two days at most.

The Queen Bee Inheritance and the previous quest reward—the Royal Spirit Core of the Bee Monarch Clan—seemed like a matching set. Could it be that this world also had a cultivatable Bee Monarch Clan? Or was the system specifically creating a series of rewards for him out of nothing?

This thought only crossed Shen Yi’s mind for a second before fading. Regardless of its origin, obtaining it was what mattered. Shen Yi didn’t dwell on it, his mind filled with the urgency to complete the quest and claim the reward.

However, to Shen Yi’s surprise, after he issued the nest-building command, his subordinates suddenly grew excited, buzzing around him joyfully. Little Seven pointed its antennae toward the right front, eagerly and anxiously conveying a message.

“Build—nest—”

Little Seven was learning more and more words. Shen Yi was happy about it but didn’t quite grasp its meaning. The two chubby bumblebees communicated antenna-to-antenna for a long time but still couldn’t understand each other.

Finally, Xi Ye impatiently interrupted their futile exchange: “It says it has already found a suitable place to build the nest.”

Shen Yi looked at it in surprise. “You can understand them?”

Xi Ye snorted dismissively and didn’t answer, instead urging him impatiently to hurry up and return.

Flower Elves could listen to the voices of all things—a little bee was nothing.

Ordinary, non-sentient creatures had no conscious thoughts and could only express vague, instinctual needs. Yet, the thoughts conveyed by this bee were quite coherent.

Still, with Shen Yi—a talking bee—already existing, the appearance of another bee with conscious thoughts wasn’t all that strange.

With Xi Ye acting as translator, Shen Yi finally understood: his subordinates had already found a suitable nesting spot earlier that day and had begun preparations. They were only waiting for their king’s inspection and approval before starting work but had waited in vain for Shen Yi’s return.

He hadn’t expected his subordinates to be so capable. Shen Yi patted each of their bellies approvingly, indicating that they would start building the nest the next day.

Before Xi Ye completely lost its patience, Shen Yi told his subordinates that he would be leaving the nest that night and would return to see them tomorrow.

The little bumblebees didn’t understand at first, but when Shen Yi prepared to fly away with Xi Ye, they suddenly began buzzing in panic.

Shen Yi’s bee colony was different from others—they were all marked as his possessions, all their will and actions centered entirely around Shen Yi. If they couldn’t sense his presence in the hive, the colony would grow restless.

In the end, Shen Yi had to release his mental energy, soothing the glowing dots representing his bound subordinates one by one in his Mental Sea. Only when the colony sensed the presence of their Queen Bee did they gradually calm down.

After leaving the colony, Shen Yi first went in the direction Little Seven had indicated. Following the signals left by the bees, he found an abandoned tree hollow in a giant tree. The space inside was about the size of a basin—more than spacious enough for the bumblebees.

Moreover, with a tree hollow available, they wouldn’t need to build an outer structure—only the honeycomb cells. Perhaps the quest could be completed as early as tomorrow.

Excited, Shen Yi circled inside the tree hollow, fantasizing about the colony expanding and summoning players to work for him. Finally, under the impatient gaze of the dark-faced elf, he reluctantly left.

On the way back, Xi Ye had no patience for his slow flying and simply tucked him under its arm, its fingers restlessly playing with the soft, chubby insect.

Discovering that every time it touched the antennae, the plump bee would shiver and go limp in its arms, Xi Ye seemed to have found a fascinating toy and began poking the bee’s antennae even more vigorously.

Shen Yi finally couldn’t take it anymore and protested, “Can you stop touching my antennae? It feels weird.”

Xi Ye snorted. “It was weird when you burrowed into my flower too.”

The Destiny Flower was part of it. Logically, no other creature besides the born flower spirit should be able to sense the flower spirit dimension—let alone enter it. When it was in the Elf Valley, it had never heard of any flower spirit dimension being invaded by a random insect.

Yet, it had encountered Shen Yi, an exception.

Having a foreign creature enter its flower spirit dimension felt like an insect burrowing under its skin—an indescribable itch that couldn’t be scratched, itching all the way to its heart.

It was strange.

Xi Ye lifted Shen Yi a little higher and patted his head. “Are you really a bee?”

Then it felt the question was pointless and couldn’t help adding, “You’re a drone. What about those other bees? Did you give birth to them?”

Curious, it started feeling around the plump bee’s rear. It was the first time it had seen a drone that could lay eggs, and Xi Ye found it quite novel.

Since being captured by this dog-thing, Shen Yi had been touched all over—poked, stroked, and even leashed. How was he any different from a pet?

Shen Yi gritted his mandibles. Well, there was a difference—he wasn’t pampered, only tormented.

Though a bee under the eaves must lower its head, as a human at heart, Shen Yi wouldn’t get used to this treatment even in eight hundred years. Struggling to evade the dog-thing’s mischievous hands, and afraid of angering it, he deliberately brought up interesting topics to distract it.

“I didn’t give birth to them. I’m a drone; I don’t lay eggs. But I have another way to create bee eggs.”

“Create?” Xi Ye was sharp at picking up keywords. “How?”

“I can’t really explain it. You’ll see when the time comes.”

Shen Yi knew this answer wouldn’t satisfy it—on the contrary, it would pique its interest. It might even resort to torture to force an answer. So, hiding the system’s existence, Shen Yi disclosed what he could.

“It’s also part of my Talent. After the hive is built and we’ve stored some food, I can summon larvae. I haven’t tried it yet, so whether it works or not will only be clear when I attempt it.”

Since he was leashed by the dog-thing anyway, summoning players would inevitably involve it. Rather than hiding what couldn’t be concealed, it was better to voluntarily disclose some information to ease its vigilance, gain some goodwill, and gain more freedom.

Xi Ye hummed ambiguously. “You certainly have many Talents.”

They didn’t speak for the rest of the journey. In the latter half, the Little Madman switched to carrying him by the wings. Though the position wasn’t comfortable, at least he wasn’t being manhandled anymore. Shen Yi obediently allowed himself to be carried without resistance.

After returning to the valley, the dog-thing retreated into its flower, leaving Shen Yi outside to find his own place to sleep.

A slender thread extended from his body into the flower. Shen Yi was certain that if he moved even slightly, the guy holding the other end inside would notice.

If that little demon found out he wanted to escape, there was no telling how he would be tortured.

Shen Yi shivered involuntarily. After enduring for a while, still unwilling to accept it, he tried using his sharpest mandibles to gnaw through the thin thread.

After five minutes of biting, the thread showed no signs of damage. He had no idea what material it was made of. After all, this was a fantasy world—it was perfectly normal for things beyond his understanding to exist.

Shen Yi simply gave up.

As Shen Yi sighed and settled under a flower leaf to sleep, he didn’t know that Xi Ye, after hurriedly entering the flower spirit dimension, had coughed up a mouthful of blood.

The Thousand Strand Vine was a rare two-star spirit plant suitable for contracts—the same rank as it.

The vine threads were tough and indestructible. When cultivated to a higher level, they could even absorb the flesh and blood of prey to sustain themselves. Because of this vicious nature, flower spirits generally disliked them. But Xi Ye was an anomaly among flower spirits.

As long as it could get stronger, what did drinking blood and eating flesh matter?

Fortunately, other flower spirits disliked it, allowing Xi Ye to unexpectedly snag a seed. He had been nurturing this seed within his own body all along.

Originally, he had planned to wait until it evolved to three stars before force-growing it.

But yesterday, enraged by the thief who dared to repeatedly intrude into his flower spirit space, he took the risk of accelerating its growth.

The bloodthirsty Thousand-Thorn Vine, upon sprouting, immediately went wild inside him, attempting to devour its host. Xi Ye had to use most of his energy to suppress it.

Luckily, the vine’s violent edge had worn off over years of nurturing within its body; otherwise, he might have ended up as fertilizer for the vine today.

Even so, he had to endure the excruciating pain of the vine’s restless piercing inside his body until he could fully subdue it.

He could tell that that fat bee was shady, so he couldn’t afford to reveal any weakness in front of him. Instead, he had to play it cool to thoroughly intimidate him and prevent any thoughts of rebellion.

Enduring the pain all the way, he finally returned to the flower spirit space.

The flower spirit space was the companion domain of a flower spirit. Here, the restless Thousand-Thorn Vine was temporarily suppressed. With his mind relaxed, Xi Ye could no longer hold back the blood that had been choking his chest the entire journey, and he coughed it up.

The emerald-green blood scattered in the space before gradually coalescing into a floating green bead, its color much deeper than the usual flower dew produced in the space.

Exhausted from overexertion, Xi Ye instinctively curled up. Crashing out within the flower spirit space was the best way for a flower spirit to recover. In his drowsy state, he thought of the plump bee with many secrets.

While he slept, the Thousand-Thorn Vine would also lie dormant. Would the plump bee try to escape?

In his final conscious thought, Xi Ye viciously resolved that even if the bee escaped, he would track him down and drag him back.

Having spent most of the day catching insects and then being worked half to death by the ruthless spirit, Shen Yi was utterly exhausted. Forcing himself to stay awake, he checked one more time at the system interface but passed out before he even got to the “Earth Port” section, his antennae drooping.

At this very moment, one good tug would’ve been all it took to pull out the other end of the Thousand-Thorn Vine, which seemed to grow from the heart of the flower.

If he had just taken his little followers and booked it far away and hid out, the end tied to him would naturally fall off once the Thousand-Thorn Vine exhausted its spiritual energy without replenishment, and Xi Ye would have no way to find him.

Unfortunately, Shen Yi, sound asleep in the crevices of the companion flower’s leaves, was clueless—and would never get the chance to find out.