Chapter 120: Chapter 121: Feeding the Five Venom Bees
In the Ye Family courtyard of Ye Haiyun, heavy spirit shadows hung from the trees, occasionally drooping, emitting the fragrance of apricots.
Beneath, on the stone table, now rose a large table of spiritual cuisine.
A Red Section Fish with two red sections had already been split in half, sprinkled with some spirit medicine and specially cooked, adding some golden-red spirit luster, its aroma wafting several miles away.
A whole pot of Blood Jade Spirit Rice was cooked full, resembling tiny red crystal-like grains, exceptionally lustrous.
Ye Jingcheng took out some Red Fragrant Tea and poured a cup for Ye Haiyun, looking at the crimson tea within, witnessing it forming an almost imperceptible small vortex of spiritual energy in the air.
At this moment, his nose, even his throat and lungs, were enveloped in the pervasive ancient tea aroma.
Without drinking, it was as if he saw an ancient tea tree deep in the mountains, carrying the sense of countless years of vicissitudes.
Seeing this, Ye Haiyun unceremoniously picked up the tea and started sipping. A mouthful of spirit tea went down, seemingly lightening Ye Haiyun’s body considerably.
Then he began to taste the spiritual cuisine.
His actions were always so calm and composed, unruffled yet content.
After drinking for a while, he spoke:
"This Red Fragrant Tea is somewhat strong, and the two-sectioned Red Section Fish is slightly tough!"
"Fourth Grandfather teaches well!" Ye Jingcheng responded with a smile, but his heart was clear.
Ye Haiyun was merely concerned about his lack of spirit stones, after all, he now reared four spirit beasts, three of which pertained to his cultivation.
He felt somewhat touched.
"You join too, eat well, and later I’ll review your alchemy lesson!" Ye Haiyun said.
Ye Jingcheng nodded, then followed along, sipping, feeling a hint of anticipation as a mouthful of Red Fragrant Tea entered, akin to a rich surge of spiritual energy entering his mouth.
Accompanied by the fragrance of spirit tea, his body felt a pound lighter, a truly indescribable sensation.
Moreover, this mouthful of spiritual energy was notably extraordinary, lingering in the air, not absorbed by the Four Phase Celestial Essence Scripture for a long while, yet with each absorption, he felt the spiritual energy growing more robust and refined.
Compared to Cyan Spirit Tea, truly much stronger.
Ye Jingcheng sampled the spirit fish once more.
It was his first time tasting the two-sectioned Red Section Fish, picking a small portion with chopsticks, putting it into his mouth, immediately sensing its tenderness like willow silk, exquisitely smooth.
Moreover, the contained spiritual energy exceeded a one-sectioned Red Section Fish by far.
Sure enough, the only flaw of good things is their expense.
After enjoying the spiritual cuisine, both appeared radiant and filled with spiritual energy.
Especially the Blood Jade Spirit Rice, which could augment blood qi.
More important for Ye Haiyun.
"Try these spiritual almonds!" Ye Haiyun took the largest spiritual almond from the plate, handing it to Ye Jingcheng.
"This apricot tree was planted during my prime, occasionally tilled by Earthworms, quite fine, give it a try!"
"Thank you, Fourth Grandfather!" Ye Jingcheng was no longer restrained, accepting and tasting it.
He had eyed these spiritual almonds for a long time, but it was his first time eating them.
The taste of spiritual almonds was sweeter and juicier than ordinary wild apricots.
"Do you still recall the refining of the Tier One Top-Grade Spirit Nurturing Pill?" After eating and drinking, Ye Haiyun indeed began assessing Ye Jingcheng.
Moreover, he assessed Ye Jingcheng on the once-encountered Tier One Top-Grade Spirit Nurturing Pill.
In the Ye Family, among spirit-feeding pills, there were two pill formulas, one being the Tier One Lower Grade Spirit Feeding Pill, costing two spirit stones each, and the other the Tier One Top-Grade Spirit Nurturing Pill, worth eighty spirit stones each.
Ye Jingcheng responded fluently, having observed meticulously and recorded using a jade talisman, thus it posed little challenge.
Yet concerning details, it was somewhat obscure.
"This is my insight into refining Tier One Top-Grade Spirit Nurturing Pill, take it for study. When your spirit beast reaches approximately the ninth layer of Qi cultivation, it will require a higher-tier nurturing pill!" Ye Haiyun took out a jade talisman.
Ye Jingcheng received the jade talisman, expressed gratitude again, then exchanged pleasantries before taking his leave.
At that moment, the sky above Lingyun Peak, stars scattered across, the hanging light made the mountain stone path luminous.
Returning to his own courtyard, Ye Jingcheng released four spirit beasts.
The Jade Ring Rat remained in the corner, the Jade Qilin Snake crawled towards his spirit array, while the Red Flame Fox habitually stayed at the edge of his bed, quietly prone, its fiery red glow illuminating the room, rendering moonlight stone unnecessary.
The Golden Scale Beast brought itself out of the courtyard, having been confined in the spirit beast bag for long, felt restless.
Ye Jingcheng ignored the four beasts, instead took out a jade box from the spirit beast bag, within were ten Five Poison Bees.
Among these ten Five Poison Bees, only one had egg-laying capability—the Queen Bee, lacking an adult Xiong Feng, yet had three juvenile Xiong Fengs, seemingly forcibly matured.
The remaining six worker bees also bore significant injuries, listless, two even had crippled legs.
This was why Ye Xingqun discarded these Five Poison Bees, after all, he would similarly abandon senile and infirm Black Wood Ants.
Moreover, spirit insects inherently depended on numbers for victory, expending extravagant resources didn’t align with a cultivator’s original intent.
Furthermore, newly bred Five Poison Bees were far more vigorous than these.
Ye Jingcheng infused the Queen Bee of the Five Poison Bees with Spiritual Energy.
For him, the restoration of the Queen Bee’s strength wasn’t as crucial as the recovery of her reproductive capability.
As the Spiritual Energy was steadily infused, it was noticeably apparent that the dull, five-colored body of the Queen Bee began to improve gradually.
Upon witnessing this, Ye Jingcheng quickly stopped, taking out a Spirit Talisman and attaching it to the Jade Box to prevent the Queen Bee from running amok or even attacking.
After all, this Queen Bee of the Five Poison Bees was a late-stage Tier One Spirit Insect. Though individual Spirit Insects couldn’t compare to Spirit Beasts, they shouldn’t be underestimated, particularly its poison needle.
The deeper the ghostly light, the more dangerous it is.
Ye Jingcheng definitely didn’t want to test the needle on himself.
He began slowly condensing the Blood Contract, and finally, as a drop of Essence Blood fell into the Queen Bee’s body,
A violent and resistant thought appeared as if to expel the essence blood, but the Queen Bee was too frail, and the essence blood didn’t seep out. A faint blood-colored Spirit Shadow emerged.
The tenuous Blood Contract connection was completely formed.
Like the Jade Ring Rat, without the Spirit Shadow, the Treasure Book wouldn’t automatically elevate to a Soul Contract.
Controlling it posed no issues, but it was impossible to freely understand the thoughts of the Five Poison Bees at any moment.
Furthermore, Ye Jingcheng used his own Essence Blood to condense a Child Blood Contract, which he divided into nine parts and infused into the other nine Five Poison Bees.
In the Ye Family, controlling Spirit Insects generally involved two Blood Contracts, a Child Blood Contract and a Master Blood Contract, with the Master Blood Contract controlling the Insect King, while the Child Blood Contract formed connections with other Spirit Insects.
Although it wasn’t as effective as the Master Blood Contract, combined with the Insect King’s control, it worked just fine.
Moreover, this method had the benefit of not consuming too much Essence Blood.
Even with numerous Spirit Insects, it wouldn’t cause mental disturbance from excessive fluctuations transmitted by the Spirit Insects.
The only drawback was that if the Queen Bee died, most control over the insect swarm would be lost.
This is why Ye Xingqun never released the Black Wood Ant Queen when using the Black Wood Ants.
Even though his Black Wood Ant Queen was the strongest.
Once the Blood Contracts were arranged, Ye Jingcheng continued to infuse Spiritual Energy.
Initially, the ten Five Poison Bees glared fiercely, their slender and eerie poison needles itching to strike at Ye Jingcheng.
Now, however, they were as docile as little bees; with the connection of the Blood Contract and the Spiritual Energy from the Treasure Book, these ten Five Poison Bees couldn’t resist at all.
Yet, their increasingly withered bodies began to exhibit Spiritual Shine, and the five-colored poison rings no longer appeared as dull as before, looking much more vibrant.
The slender poison needles also became more ghostly and translucent, with the tips seemingly ready to drip poison at any moment.
Ye Jingcheng didn’t continue infusing Spiritual Energy but instead took out a few Spirit Nourishing Pills, grinding them into small granules and feeding them to a few Five Poison Bees. Subsequently, he retrieved some Spiritual Honey.
These Five Poison Bees also fed on Spiritual Honey, moreover, the kind derived from Poison Flowers.
However, the Ye Family couldn’t acquire such honey, and Ye Jingcheng didn’t have enough Spirit Stones, only managing to exchange for some Tier One Lower Grade Spiritual Honey.
Even so, it cost several dozen Contribution Points.
Pouring the Spiritual Honey into the Jade Box, the Queen Bee began slowly consuming it.
Meanwhile, the other male and worker bees simply watched.
Once the Queen Bee finished eating, the other male and worker bees started to feed.
After observing this scene, Ye Jingcheng began to worry again. Although there were several Spirit Flowers on Lingyun Peak, they were all within the Ye Family’s Spirit Medicine Garden.
Besides, Ye Haiyun’s Spirit Medicine Garden also had them, but Poison Flowers were rare, except for those used in alchemy.
For Ye Jingcheng’s Five Poison Bees to grow normally, they still needed to consume a substantial amount of Poison Flowers’ venom.
Otherwise, even the larvae hatched from the eggs would lose the characteristics of Five Poison Bees.
Fortunately, with these ten Five Poison Bees, he didn’t intend to cultivate them heavily, merely restoring them to normal state with Spiritual Energy, then encouraging them to lay eggs.
Thus, planting some Tier One Lower Grade Spirit Flowers would suffice—something relatively easy to find.
After handling the Five Poison Bees, Ye Jingcheng fed several Spirit Beasts once more, giving the Jade Ring Rat two Spirit Nourishing Pills for its role with the Spirit Talisman Launcher at Five Poison Peak.
In contrast, the Golden Scale Beast and the Red Flame Fox received a Red Ganoderma Pill and a Lotus Yellow Pill, respectively.
However, the Jade Qilin Snake wasn’t interested in elixirs—it preferred sizable meals, consuming fifty pounds of Lush Forest Boar Pork.
In the end, Ye Jingcheng reluctantly forced a Cyan Spirit Pill upon it.
The Jade Qilin Snake had greater potential than the Red Flame Fox and the Golden Scale Beast. Despite being newly born, its breakthrough to the late stage of Tier One wasn’t far off.
Moreover, Ye Jingcheng planned that once the Jade Qilin Snake broke through, it would be the time for Communication Beast—the completion of three out of four phases—which greatly increased his chances of reaching Qi Cultivation Eighth Layer.
Besides, his future cultivation speed would not be slow, with the possibility of achieving Foundation Establishment in his early forties.
This prospect filled Ye Jingcheng with anticipation, but following the excitement came caution, as he currently needed more Spirit Stones.
He drew out a stool and sat in the courtyard, with the moonlight still bright and the starry sky boundless.
He took out a Jade Talisman and began studying the Tier One Top-Grade Spirit Nurturing Pill.