Bai Wanyang's skin on the back of his hand had already been stung a few times by the venomous bees, but his unique constitution prevented the toxin from taking him down.
Yue Shi slashed through several Bee Women in quick succession. Ethereal, invisible tentacles swept over their corpses, and the golden eyes on the tentacles slowly opened.
In Peace Alley, everyone contaminated by the Bee Women seemed to hear a call, swarming toward the milk tea shop from every corner. The number of venomous bees continued to grow.
Seeing the situation fall into a stalemate, Bai Wanyang found it increasingly difficult to cope. He was about to ask Yue Shi for his opinion when he turned and saw Yue Shi wearing a manic smile. The short sword in his hand blurred into afterimages, brutally slicing the heads of two Bee Women into six pieces.
Bai Wanyang shuddered at the sight, and that shudder caused his Energy Cannon to miss.
The energy ball shot out and struck the wall of the milk tea shop with a bang. The wall cracked, and perhaps due to the heavy rain outside, a significant amount of liquid began to seep through the fissures.
Missing one shot with an Energy Cannon was a trivial matter in Bai Wanyang's eyes.
However, in the next second, the swarm of bees and the half-human, half-bee monsters in the shop seemed to lock onto him, lunging toward him all at once.
Even the Bee Women who had intended to ambush Yue Shi immediately changed targets and charged at Bai Wanyang.
"Dammit!" Bai Wanyang cursed. He had no idea what was happening and couldn't understand why all the enemies were suddenly attacking him.
Yue Shi was also somewhat puzzled. What had Bai Wanyang done to provoke such a collective assault?
"Brother, don't just stand there daydreaming! Help me!" Bai Wanyang shouted for assistance. As soon as he spoke, a large flock of ravens flew out from the shadows to relieve him, finally giving him a moment to catch his breath.
Yue Shi's gaze, however, had already landed on the wall of the milk tea shop.
It was strange. The conflict inside the shop was incredibly intense; limbs were flying, and brains and blood were splattering everywhere.
But... the architectural structure of the milk tea shop itself hadn't sustained any damage—except for the single Energy Cannon shot Bai Wanyang had missed earlier.
Yue Shi looked back at Bai Wanyang, who was firing indiscriminately at his surroundings.
He watched as an Energy Cannon shot flew upward. It should have hit the ceiling, but the nearby venomous bees didn't dodge. Instead, they swarmed together to meet the energy ball head-on, neutralizing it.
The same happened with another shot about to hit a wall; a monster leaped out to block it with its own body.
Realization dawned on Yue Shi. Without hesitation, he activated 【Decaying Talons】, his sharp fingertips piercing into the nearest wall.
Starting from the marks he left, the originally off-white wall began to change color. It turned yellow, then a sickly brownish-gray, and cracks began to appear.
These cracks radiated outward, oozing a strangely colored slime that gave off a rancid stench—a mix of fermented fruit and rust.
The plaster on the entire wall began to peel away, followed by the appearance of mold spots.
Because Yue Shi kept his fingers embedded in the wall, the decay spread exceptionally fast this time.
"No!" Seeing this, almost all the Bee Women present let out a scream of furious rage.
Unfortunately, it was too late to turn back. The decay reached the windows, the glass shattered, and the torrential rain and thick fog from outside poured in. Then, the lights in the milk tea shop flickered, and every half-human, half-bee monster froze for a second.
"Haha, I guessed right." Yue Shi withdrew his hand.
Before Bai Wanyang could realize what was happening, he suddenly felt the ground vibrate slightly. Thin cracks appeared in the floorboards, and a pale yellow, viscous liquid seeped from the gaps.
The vibrations grew more intense. Under the combined effects of the decay and the tremors, the entire milk tea shop rapidly collapsed, revealing numerous hexagonal structures beneath.
"My god..." Bai Wanyang looked on in shock. "This shop is actually..."
Yue Shi was also surprised. "It looks like a Hive was disguised as a milk tea shop."
As the tremors intensified, Yue Shi and Bai Wanyang retreated outside. At that moment, the floor of the milk tea shop completely caved in, revealing a massive, writhing... body below.
It was an indescribable creature—it had the upper body of a human female, but its head possessed three pairs of compound eyes, and its mouthparts consisted of constantly opening and closing mandibles that dripped golden liquid from the gaps.
Numerous tentacles extended from its body. These tentacles, like nerves, connected upward to the milk tea shop and downward to the Hive beneath the ground.
Its lower body was a massive, bloated abdomen covered in fine fuzz, constantly contracting and expanding.
All the Bee Women, venomous bees, and half-human, half-bee monsters surrounded it, refusing to leave its side.
"Is this the Queen Bee?" Yue Shi whispered.
The bizarre creature before them was so large it occupied nearly the entire underground space of the milk tea shop. The pillars supporting the shop were actually tentacles connected to its body; Yue Shi had been fighting while standing right on top of it.
The Queen Bee emitted a low-frequency hum that caused the surrounding space to resonate. The Demon Feather Barrier protecting Yue Shi was instantly shattered by a layer.
Bai Wanyang's teeth felt on edge and his eardrums throbbed with pain; the scene before him seemed to warp and distort.
He extended his right hand, and an enhanced Energy Cannon condensed in his palm as he aimed at the Queen Bee.
"With a size like that, she's just a sitting duck..."
Just as he finished speaking, Bai Wanyang suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood with a "poof" and collapsed to the ground. The Energy Cannon he had just condensed dissipated.
"What happened to you?" Yue Shi quickly helped him up. Immediately after, he felt the Demon Feather Barrier protecting him mysteriously break by another layer.
"Someone's ambushing us!" the two said almost in unison.
After glancing at each other, Yue Shi said, "Find a way to kill the Queen Bee first!"
"That thing is huge. How are we supposed to kill it?" Bai Wanyang asked with difficulty, wiping the blood from his face.
Yue Shi seemed to zone out for a moment. Although it was only for a brief second, Bai Wanyang caught it. He couldn't help but feel a surge of anger, but it was mostly out of concern.
"Brother, are you sick or just not feeling well? Why do you keep spacing out?"
He spaced out while driving, spaced out while fighting small mobs, and now that they were about to take on the boss, he was freaking spacing out again!
"Sorry, I was thinking of a way to kill the Queen Bee," Yue Shi apologized, though his tone held a hint of cheerfulness.
"You thought of something?" Bai Wanyang's eyes lit up.
Yue Shi nodded and reached into his inner coat pocket to take something out.
"What's this?" Bai Wanyang reached out casually to touch the egg-shaped gem resting in Yue Shi's palm. Even in the torrential rain, the gem remained incredibly brilliant.
Seeing that Yue Shi didn't stop him, Bai Wanyang seemed happy and simply took the gem into his own hand to look at it up close.
Yue Shi explained, "This is 'Purification.' It's a one-time-use supernatural object produced by a religious organization called the 'Radiant Church.' It's very powerful."
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