NOVPUBThis was a battle without any suspense.
Birds are the natural predators of bees, and even the weakest of sparrows holds an overwhelming advantage against bees, posing no threat to them until their strength is exhausted. No matter how numerous the bees may be, they cannot threaten the birds until their energy is depleted.
More than four hundred birds of various kinds formed a flying force, plunging into the forest and launching a one-sided slaughter against the Bee Allied Army, which outnumbered them by a thousandfold.
Just an hour later, the Bee Allied Army in the large forest had completely disintegrated, and ten large hives housing Queen Bees were brought before Suming by the flock of birds, neatly lined up on the ground in a row.
Considering that the Bee Allied Army would become his subordinates in the future, and that the strategy of beheading had already succeeded, there was no need to kill the ordinary bees. Suming sounded the retreat to have the flock of birds temporarily leave the woods and stand guard near the hives to prevent the Bee Allied Army from attempting a recapture.
Two Diamond Parrots tore open the hives with a peck and a bite, easily exposing the Queen Bees inside.
The ordinary Queen Bees were entirely outclassed by Suming’s Queen Bee, with the largest of the allied Queen Bees not exceeding the length of a cigarette pack, and the smallest about the size of a USB drive. Next to them, Suming’s Queen Bee seemed a giant compared to dwarves.
Suming tested them with his spiritual power and found these wild Queen Bees to indeed lack intelligence, reacting very weakly to the spiritual power and not even as evolved as the ordinary bees of the Su Army.
In light of this, he had no intention of keeping these Queen Bees, to avoid future troubles, so he asked his own Queen Bee, "It’s up to you, how do you plan to deal with them?"
The Queen Bee’s tiny mandibles clacked together a few times. The mandibles of ordinary bees have almost completely evolved to be invisible, and though this Queen Bee, due to the spiritual power, has regrown some, they remained very small, appearing not at all ferocious but rather comical when waved around.
"Eat them?" Suming was mildly surprised. Queen Bees feed on royal jelly, belonging to the herbivore category. When had this creature changed its diet and started eating meat?
A few slightly larger Asian Giant Hornets buzzed over, circling above the allied Queen Bees, and Suming then understood what his Queen Bee meant. It wasn’t that she wanted to eat the rival Queen Bees herself but rather wanted the Asian Giant Hornets to eat them.
Before Suming’s arrival, the Asian Giant Hornets had played a significant role in the battle against the Bee Allied Army. Although they had not participated directly in all the fights, they staunchly defended the hives housing the Queen Bee, and had it not been for them, the numerically superior Bee Allied Army might have wiped out the Queen Bee long ago.
Within the bee population, the Queen Bee holds the highest status, growing by consuming royal jelly. Consequently, the ’nutritional value’ of a Queen Bee is the highest. The Su Army Queen Bee, by allowing the robust Asian Giant Hornets to eat these enemy Queen Bees, was rewarding them.
The social structure of the Asian Giant Hornets is even more complex than that of bees; they too have a Queen Bee, followed by drones and worker bees. When Suming subdued this group of Asian Giant Hornets, his experience with spiritual power was still limited. Due to an oversight, he killed their Queen Bee and later, to ensure a supply of royal jelly for the large blue bees, gave all the royal jelly to the bee colony for quick recovery and production of a new Queen Bee, neglecting the Asian Giant Hornets’ development.
As a result, this group of Asian Giant Hornets has yet to produce a new Queen Bee. Originally numbering only a few hundred, the swarm was powerful in combat but, lacking a Queen Bee, was unable to reproduce, dwindling with the death of each hornet. After several fierce battles, now fewer than a hundred and some Asian Giant Hornets remained, perilously close to extinction.
The intention of the Su Army Queen Bee was to give all the rival Queen Bees and the royal jelly from the hives to the Asian Giant Hornets, allowing them to quickly produce a new Asian Giant Hornet Queen Bee. In the future, the hornets would continuously grow in numbers, staving off the danger of extinction.
If there had been tens of thousands of Asian Giant Hornets at that time, maybe the Queen Bee could have slowly devoured the Bee Allied Army without Suming’s help.
"Huh, you’re quite clever! Let’s do exactly that!"
After getting Suming’s approval, the returning Asian Giant Hornets carried the captured Bee Allied Army’s queen bees and the broken bee combs full of royal jelly back to their nests.
Er Gouzi had been following Suming closely, busying himself before and after the saddle, and he also received a Bee Allied Army queen and a large chunk of the beehive as a reward. Usually harmless and docile in front of Suming, he now revealed his ferocious side. Pouncing on the queen bee the size of a lighter, he snapped the queen’s waist with a crunch and began to devour her rapidly.
In the forest on the opposite side, the scattered Bee Allied Army showed signs of rallying. Their Queen Bees had been captured by Suming, and the remaining bees seemed to want to come to the rescue. However, with several hundred birds waiting sternly on Suming’s side, the leaderless Bee Allied Army was simply a mess and could not organize an effective attack. After several futile charges, they were easily defeated by Suming’s flock of birds.
By the afternoon of the next day, the Bee Queen sent a message: a new Queen Bee had finally emerged among the Hornet Swarm.
Perhaps inheriting traits from the Su Army Queen Bee, the new Asian Giant Hornet Queen Bee was about ten centimeters in length. Though not as terrifyingly sized as the original hornet queen, she was still much larger than the average hornet queen.
On the chest of the Hornet Queen was a large patch of jet-like black, and along her round waist were rings of dark, bizarre patterns, deep in color as if ink.
Such Asian Giant Hornets, with darker black on their bodies, are more venomous. The patterns on ordinary hornets are merely dark brown, while the newly-born Hornet Queen clearly possesses a toxicity far superior to her kind.
It can be foreseen that the offspring she will produce will also possess shocking venom.
Suming tested her with his spiritual power and, unsurprisingly, the Hornet Queen’s intelligence exceeded that of ordinary hornets. It was on par with that of the newly-born Bee Queen, capable of simple communication.
Given this, he simply stayed in the valley for another day, nurturing the new Hornet Queen with his spiritual power.
By doing so, he inadvertently resolved the issues troubling the Bee Queen.
The biggest problem for the Bee Queen was not finding anyone to communicate with, leaving her lonely and isolated. Now, the Hornet Queen was her equal in ’social status’ and also possessed an intelligence not inferior to hers, making for suitable companionship.
Suming had been worried that the two queens might have conflicts due to their different species. Unexpectedly, after just half a day, the two queens commanded their subordinates to move their hives together. They even built a corridor between the entrances of each other’s hives, allowing direct access to each other’s ’bedrooms’, clearly displaying a tight-knit friendship.
"Good, very good. You two sisters should get along well. As the saying goes, harmony in the family leads to prosperity in all things!" Suming said with heartfelt emphasis.
