Chapter 90: Chapter 78: Shadow Strangling Beast
Zheng Yufeng noticed Zhong Yi’s gaze land on the blood-red hive he was holding, a hive roughly two meters in diameter.
Assuming Zhong Yi was unfamiliar with what a Blood Enchanting Bee Queen truly was, Zheng Yufeng couldn’t help but start explaining.
"The value of the Blood Enchanting Bee Queen lies in its offspring. The offspring absorb pollen from a plant-type Guardian Beast called the Blood-Beauty Peony."
"The offspring then release a special substance from their bodies that fuses with the pollen, and together, they produce a type of Insect Honey."
"The Blood Enchanting Bee Queen resides in the center of this hive. Without a hive, she won’t produce any offspring."
"Instead, she will focus on building a new one, and constructing a hive this large would take close to thirty years at a minimum."
"This hive I’m holding is perfectly intact. As long as you meet the conditions for the Blood Enchanting Bee Queen to reproduce, the queen at its center can begin laying eggs immediately."
"I’ve also prepared fifty Blood-Beauty Peony saplings for you. Though they’re young, they have all already formed flower buds."
"Once the flowers bloom, the queen’s offspring can begin collecting pollen to create the Insect Honey."
Zheng Yufeng was not a Creator. While he was well aware of the Blood Enchanting Bee Queen’s value, he had no idea how to actually get her to produce offspring.
Zheng Yufeng had now told Zhong Yi everything he knew on the matter.
The reason for Zhong Yi’s surprise and delight was precisely that this Blood Enchanting Bee Queen came with a complete hive.
The Blood Enchanting Bee Queen was extremely particular about building her hive; the entire blood-red structure was made from a special wax secreted from her own body.
If one only managed to obtain a Blood Enchanting Bee Queen without her hive, then even if Zhong Yi knew how to make her produce offspring, he would have no way to help her build a new one.
Just as Zhong Yi was about to accept the blood-red hive from Zheng Yufeng, Zhao Kai’s voice sounded from behind him.
"Oh? A Blood Enchanting Bee Queen. These things are genuinely rare!"
"However, Young Master, the Blood Enchanting Bee Queen is a very neurotic Guardian Beast. Once the colony’s population exceeds thirty, the queen becomes afraid of a rebellion and will have the newborn members kill the older ones."
"A Five-finger Creator I used to know raised a Blood Enchanting Bee Queen and managed to harvest a few dozen globules of Insect Honey."
"But the cultivation cycle is incredibly long, and he had to spend a great deal of time every day just watching the hive."
"Otherwise, the moment the Insect Honey formed, the Blood Enchanting Bee Queen would eat it herself."
"I asked him why he didn’t just form a Contract with the Blood Enchanting Bee Queen and control her directly."
"That’s when I learned that the Blood Enchanting Bee Queen communicates with her offspring through their souls."
"During this process, the souls of the queen and her offspring resonate, synchronizing their frequencies."
"Once they enter this state, it’s as if the souls of the Blood Enchanting Bee Queen and her offspring are layered on top of each other."
"A Guardian Beast Master’s Soul Base simply cannot withstand a soul of that magnitude."
"I wouldn’t recommend you spend too much effort on the Blood Enchanting Bee Queen, Young Master. If obtaining the Blood Enchanting Bee’s Insect Honey were so easy, that old geezer wouldn’t have kept it all for himself."
"He refused to sell it, even when the wealthy, powerful clans he worked with offered exorbitant prices."
Zhao Kai had only just returned with Zhong Ling, so he didn’t understand the full situation.
He was merely commenting on the notorious difficulty of raising such a Production-type Guardian Beast after seeing the Blood Enchanting Bee Queen.
However, Zhao Kai’s comments put Zheng Yufeng in an extremely awkward position.
It made it seem as though Zheng Yufeng, in his attempt to repay Zhong Yi, had presented a subpar item as if it were a priceless treasure.
The Insect Honey of the Blood Enchanting Bee could be used by all Guardian Beasts, and it had the same effect on Deceit Beasts.
When Zheng Yufeng’s own Deceit Beast was advancing to the Fantasy Tier, he had used the Blood Enchanting Bee’s Insect Honey, along with a Potion concocted by a Creator, to elevate it to Gold Quality.
Back then, without the Blood Enchanting Bee’s Insect Honey, relying solely on the Creator-concocted Potion, his Deceit Beast’s Quality upgrade would very likely have failed during its advancement to the Fantasy Tier.
That would have drastically lowered Zheng Yufeng’s potential!
If the upgrade hadn’t succeeded back then, when he later faced that life-or-death crisis, Zheng Yufeng and his Deceit Beast would have most likely died. He never would have had the chance to survive as he did.
Having used it himself, Zheng Yufeng knew better than anyone just how precious the Insect Honey of the Blood Enchanting Bee was.
A Potion concocted by a Five-finger Creator could sell for as much as 5 million Federation Coins at auction.
This price included the cost of ingredients. The ingredients for a single Fifth Level Potion cost between 1.6 and 2.8 million Federation Coins.
Due to the risk of failure, a Five-finger Creator would only profit about 1.5 million Federation Coins from concocting a single Fifth Level Potion.
A single globule of the Blood Enchanting Bee’s Insect Honey, however, could sell for 3.5 million Federation Coins.
From a net profit perspective, one globule of the Blood Enchanting Bee’s Insect Honey was worth roughly the same as what a Five-finger Creator earned from selling three Potions.
This was why Zheng Yufeng had considered the Blood Enchanting Bee Queen to be extremely valuable; he just never imagined that obtaining the Insect Honey was such a hassle.
To think that even a Five-finger Creator had to expend so much effort just to raise one.
Zheng Yufeng was worried Zhong Yi would misunderstand his intentions. He was just about to speak when he saw Zhong Yi take the brilliant red hive from his hands.
"Brother Zhao, without a stroke of incredible luck, one would be fortunate to even catch a glimpse of a Foundation Level, resource-producing Guardian Beast like this, let alone acquire one."
