Shen Yi perched on the comb, instinctively spreading his wings and giving them a light flutter.

The damp fuzz on his body quickly dried and fluffed up in the airflow, making the entire bumblebee appear a full size larger and rounder.

The yellow stripes on his abdomen were almost dazzlingly golden, and his size was three to four times that of other bumblebees, making him stand out like a crane among chickens in the colony.

The sensation was incredible.

He now had six legs, two wings on his back, and the tibiae of his legs, antennae, and even the fuzz on the back of his head seemed to possess keen sensory abilities.

Unbeknownst to him, his sensory systems had already begun operating autonomously, exploring the wondrous micro-world for him.

Subtle changes in scent, vibrations in the air, exceptionally vibrant colors, unique pheromones within the colony, even shifts in the magnetic field…

It felt as though he was rediscovering the world from an entirely new perspective—one that humans could never perceive.

Shen Yi was mesmerized by everything around him, utterly enchanted. How miraculous it was! Who could have imagined that just a few days ago, he was nothing but a worm in a gray world that only knew how to eat.

In just a few short days, he had transformed from a worm, melted down, and metamorphosed into a completely different life form. It was nothing short of a miracle.

Shen Yi felt as though he had experienced rebirth once again.

He was lost in this fantastical, colorful world, like a mischievous boy who had stumbled upon a treasure chest full of endlessly fascinating toys. There were too many to take in at once, and he didn’t know which one to play with first.

An eager, restless impulse surged within him. The new toys waiting to be explored dangled like bait before his heart, continuously evoking anticipation and joy that overflowed within him.

If only his head didn’t hurt so much, everything would be perfect.

The dull, persistent ache in his head forced Shen Yi to suppress his excitement and itching curiosity for the moment and seek a way to alleviate the pain.

If those points of light represented the spiritual forms of other lives, then it went without saying—they were the bumblebees in the hive.

Shen Yi recalled the sensation of controlling the golden threads and tried to sense his own spiritual energy.

Soon, an additional layer of imagery appeared before his eyes—the starry, dotted spiritual realm overlapping with reality. He found all the connection points of the threads.

Shen Yi had only bound pupae that had not yet emerged. Following the spiritual threads one by one, he surprisingly discovered that one thread was connected to a queen cell.

It was that glowing sphere!

If the faint points of light indicated weaker spiritual energy and represented ordinary worker bees, then the noticeably larger one must be a queen bee candidate.

He still didn’t know what binding these young bees with spiritual energy meant. Although he had some guesses, none were certain.

But since he could bind worker bees and also bind a queen bee candidate, it indicated that his spiritual energy was stronger than that of the queen bee candidate. Considering his current headache, he estimated conservatively that he couldn’t be much stronger.

If he could bind them, then he should also be able to unbind them. However, after weighing the pros and cons, Shen Yi decided to wait it out for now. The pain was bearable.

The emergence of the new queen bee caused no ripples in the hive. The bumblebees moved about the hive, carrying out their tasks methodically. Several passed by Shen Yi, brushing against him as they crawled past, not even glancing sideways. There was no reaction at all—this was different from what he had imagined.

—Had his evolution failed? Had he not evolved into a queen bee?

Shen Yi quickly dismissed this thought. He had already developed the spiritual energy and pheromones unique to a queen bee.

Shen Yi called up the system interface. The side quest showed as completed, and the reward “Probability of Spiritual Energy Mutation” had been distributed. Had his spiritual energy mutated? Shen Yi felt absolutely no different.

“Main Quest: Become a queen bee”

“Quest Reward: System Update”

Quest Status: Incomplete.

Shen Yi vaguely remembered that the previous main quest was to become a queen bee candidate. So, he was still just a candidate, not yet the full queen bee.

The bumblebees around him busily crawled back and forth. He tentatively greeted the passing bees.

“Hi, how—are you?”

Damn it, how was he supposed to greet a bee?

“When will those young bees metamorphose?” Shen Yi was eager to find out what differences there were between the young bees he had bound and the unbound bumblebees.

The bumblebees clumsily halted near him, showing no reaction to his words.

Shen Yi tried using pheromones to convey the signal “I’m hungry.” The bumblebee at the front immediately approached and extended its mandibles toward him.

“…”

Shen Yi was disappointed to find that these bumblebees lacked intelligence and couldn’t understand complex expressions like humans. They could only perceive simple demand signals.

This meant that there might not be a single bee in the entire colony capable of communicating with him.

Shen Yi felt somewhat lost. This was completely different from what he had imagined. What was he supposed to do now?

The operational mechanisms of the bee colony also seemed entirely different from what he had expected.

He could only convey demand signals to the worker bees but couldn’t issue commands.

Was the status of the queen bee not as important as he thought? Or was it because he was still just a candidate?

As Shen Yi pondered, he unconsciously began circling around this level of the comb. The bumblebees tirelessly crawled over the comb, tending to the larvae. Their plump, round bodies were each quite endearing.

He stopped near one bumblebee and extended his antennae to gently touch its abdomen. Well, at least he got to satisfy his urge to pet something fluffy. His mood improved slightly.

Had these bumblebees already been bound by the old queen bee? Just like he had bound those young bees?

If so, did the succession of queen bees in the colony require rebinding as well?

Shen Yi thought about how binding just over ten bees had given him a headache. Extrapolating from that, how powerful must the old queen bee be to bind the entire colony…

Shen Yi worriedly fluttered his wings. Had something gone wrong, causing him to develop inadequately?

Even if abilities differed between new and old queen bees, it shouldn’t be this extreme.

But the old queen bee probably wouldn’t bind other queen bees of the same level, right? So, could he comfort himself by thinking he wasn’t that incompetent after all?

Shen Yi decided to observe quietly for now. Generally, a colony would only have one queen bee. Since the colony had built queen cells to nurture new queens, it indicated plans to split the colony or replace the old queen bee.

But there were six queen cells on his level alone. Who would claim the throne?

If he encountered the old queen bee, would they have to fight first? Could he win?

Weighing all these considerations, he refrained from rashly venturing to other comb levels. After marking all the pupae he had bound, he looked forward to the surprises they would bring after metamorphosis. Then he would determine his next course of action.

In the crowded, dim hive, time seemed to stretch out slowly.

The bumblebees occasionally fanned their wings to cool down the hive or lay on the comb to warm the larvae. Shen Yi moved among them like an outside observer, feeling out of place. Yet, with each new thing he learned, he marvelled at this vast and miraculous micro-world.

Shen Yi’s amusement came from observing the honeybees in the hive. After wandering around the comb for two days, he noticed that aside from being two or three times larger than the other bees, the color of the abdominal fuzz was also different from the typical yellow, black, and white pattern of the other honeybees.

So far, every honeybee he had seen had silvery-white edges on their tails, but his own tail edges were golden yellow. Could this be a color unique to the queen bee?

As he pondered this, a faint commotion stirred somewhere in the comb. Shen Yi realized it was coming from the queen cell of the candidate queen he had bound, and assuming it had emerged, he eagerly rushed over.

From a distance, he saw a large honeybee crouched over the queen cell, gnawing at the cap. Shen Yi was momentarily stunned and instinctively signalled: “What are you doing?”

In the time it took to speak, the large bee had already torn open the cap and was biting at his bound, yet-to-emerge larva inside.

Shocked, Shen Yi practically flew over and slammed into it, knocking it away. Inside the chewed-open queen cell, the developing young queen larva was a pale brown color, clearly not yet mature. Panicking, Shen Yi hurriedly chewed on beeswax, trying to reseal the exposed cell.

But the one he had knocked away charged back, ignoring Shen Yi who was blocking the queen cell, and went straight for the young queen larva inside.

Shen Yi moved forward again to block it, and as he confronted the bee, a sudden insight hit him—he realized what this rival candidate was doing.

In ancient times, princes had to overcome numerous obstacles and engage in bloody power struggles to claim the throne. These little bees were even more ruthless, eliminating rivals preemptively right from the source. As soon as they emerged, they patrolled the hive, seeking out unemerged new queen bees to eliminate potential rivals in their cradle.

But why was it ignoring him? Wasn’t he one of the candidate queens too?

Shen Yi couldn’t figure it out, but then he noticed that this rival candidate’s tail edges were also silvery-white, unlike his own.

A benefit of transmigration? Or was there something wrong with him?

His thoughts in disarray, Shen Yi continued to block this persistent individual. “I won’t interfere with your natural laws, but this one is my bound larva. Go find someone else.”

The blocked rival candidate couldn’t understand Shen Yi’s words, simply thinking: Is this troublesome drone insane?

In the midst of their shoving, tempers escalated, and the rival candidate finally lost patience and bit at Shen Yi.