The tremors continued, accompanied by an ear-grating tearing sound. Yue Shi grabbed Bai Wanyang and retreated rapidly as the buildings on the street they were just on began to collapse like melting candy.
With the milk tea shop at the center, the ground within a fifty-meter radius was sinking. Paving stones buckled and heaved, and a series of muffled thuds echoed from deep underground, like the death throes of some massive creature.
With a final thunderous roar, a giant pit nearly a hundred meters in diameter appeared behind Yue Shi. The scene at the bottom of the pit was grotesque.
It was a semi-destroyed giant hive structure composed of countless hexagonal cells, with golden viscous liquid seeping from each one.
The corpse of the dead Queen Bee lay there silently. Her upper body still maintained a certain majestic posture, while her lower body was even more massive than what Yue Shi had seen before, with a bloated, worm-like abdomen buried deep in the earth.
“My God...” Bai Wanyang’s voice trembled slightly. “This nest is more than ten times bigger than I imagined.”
After his exclamation, he panted heavily, looking weak. “Is it all over?”
Yue Shi’s expression remained solemn. “I’m afraid not yet.”
“Huh?” Bai Wanyang was stunned.
“Listen if you don’t believe me,” Yue Shi said.
Bai Wanyang steadied his breathing and pricked up his ears. Aside from the residual sounds of collapsing buildings and some scattered, messy footsteps, he could faintly hear a strange melody echoing continuously.
He couldn't help but frown. “Is that the music that was playing in the milk tea shop? That can't be right. The shop is completely destroyed—is the player still working?”
“I suspect that melody is anything but ordinary.” Yue Shi stared at the giant pit ahead, suddenly noticing movement within the ruins of the hive.
He walked a short distance toward the pit, with Bai Wanyang following closely behind. Both of them looked down to the bottom.
Several figures were crawling out of the cells from all directions at the bottom of the pit. They all shared similarly beautiful faces, though some were more delicate in build while others had bodies with obvious insectoid mutations, appearing exceptionally strong.
They were all Bee Women, and there were many of them.
These Bee Women looked different from the ones Yue Shi had encountered before; they were larger, and their eyes glittered with a cunning, intelligent light.
Most strangely, they seemed to not notice Yue Shi and Bai Wanyang at all—or rather, they simply had no time to spare for them.
These Bee Women were confronting each other, emitting high-frequency buzzes. Some had already descended into physical conflict, fighting one another with extreme ferocity.
“Are they... fighting among themselves?” Bai Wanyang asked, looking shocked.
Yue Shi thought for a moment and said, “In a natural beehive, what does the rest of the swarm do once the Queen Bee dies?”
“They birth a new queen!” Bai Wanyang realized. “So they’re fighting for the throne?”
Yue Shi nodded. “Most likely.”
Bai Wanyang clicked his tongue. “Supernatural creatures really are supernatural. Even with high intelligence, they’re still different from humans.”
“When the Queen Bee was alive, they were so loyal. But the moment she dies, they immediately stop caring. They’ve all got their eyes on the throne, ignoring external dangers and not even bothering to collect the Queen’s corpse first.”
At that moment, the Bee Women in the ruins of the hive seemed to have split into several small groups, each wary of the others.
Suddenly, one Bee Woman took the lead and rushed toward the Queen Bee’s corpse. Her mouth opened wide, appearing as if she wanted to bite into a specific part of the Queen Bee’s chest.
The other Bee Women immediately let out furious, high-pitched shrieks and pounced on their bold kin. A chaotic brawl broke out instantly; severed limbs flew, golden fluids splashed everywhere, and the high-frequency buzzing pierced their eardrums.
“What are they fighting for?” Bai Wanyang narrowed his eyes, trying to see the details on the Queen Bee’s corpse.
“Perhaps it’s a core that can help them evolve into the new Queen Bee?” Yue Shi said tonelessly.
He didn't think there would be much of anything good left in the Queen Bee’s corpse after being devoured by his tentacles—at most, just some scraps.
On the black stone tablet in the mysterious space, the first animated tentacle had already opened eight eyes, granting Yue Shi eight complementary supernatural powers.
The newly acquired eighth ability—
【Death Sentence】
【Messenger of Eternal Sleep】
【Weaver of Life's Final Chapter】
【The Death Knell Raven that tolls the funeral bell】
【Those who hear shall perish; no mercy, no life】
【Soul extinguished by word, life ended by sound】
【“Your time has come!”】
Yue Shi had always felt he lacked a powerful killing ability, but this had directly filled that gap.
The essence of 【Death Sentence】 was a type of instant death curse. As long as he proclaimed the target’s time of death, the curse would erupt.
Earlier, Yue Shi had coordinated his various abilities to finally use this move to take down the Queen Bee.
As the source of all Bee Women, Yue Shi had thought that after killing the Queen Bee and devouring her source, he would be able to directly light up his ninth ability.
However, the reality was that even though he had killed the Queen Bee and many Bee Women, the eye on that tentacle representing the ninth ability still hadn't fully opened.
He estimated that the “energy” required to light up this ability was much greater, which meant its effect would likely be correspondingly stronger.
Yue Shi was looking forward to it immensely.
He couldn't help but turn his gaze toward the hive ruins at the bottom of the pit. Those Bee Women were all his experience packs!
By now, one Bee Woman had broken through her competitors’ obstructions. One of her hands pierced through the Queen Bee’s chest, digging desperately for something inside.
Soon, she pulled a fist-sized, glowing crystal from the Queen Bee’s chest cavity. Each of its faces was a perfect hexagon.
But the light was extremely dim, and the crystal was unusually cloudy. Even the Bee Woman who grabbed it was a bit surprised, but as the victor, she still held it high and let out a triumphant roar.
Then, her body began to twitch violently. Countless cracks appeared on the surface of her skin, with dim golden light leaking from the fissures. Her body expanded slightly, and her back bulged as if new insect wings were about to sprout.
All the other Bee Women stopped their attacks as if someone had pressed a pause button.
Theoretically, all the Bee Women should have shown their submission at this moment and welcomed the birth of the new queen.
But in reality, they felt no sense of pressure or majesty from this new queen.
The new queen who had seized the old king's core also sensed something was wrong. By all rights, she should have merged with this core and evolved into the Queen Bee form, leading the swarm away from danger to select a safe new hive location.
But now, she only felt that the evolution process was extremely feeble, and there wasn't even a hint of a merger with the core.
In fact, a few seconds later, the evolution simply stopped!
She seemed to have only grown slightly larger!
How could this be!
Every Bee Woman present was dumbfounded, and a strange silence filled the air.
“Pfft—”
The new queen suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground.
A figure suddenly rushed over, snatching the crystal from her hand with lightning speed!
Rate on N.U.
