The Queen Bee

Half-past midnight

~

"What's that?" asked Da Xia as she stared at the little honeybee that was glaring back at her. Yep! Glaring... a little honeybee was glaring at her!

"It's a bee. A queen bee." The little kitty answered as it too kept staring at the bee whom its Master had somehow succeeded in kidnapping without alerting the rest of the swarm.

Da Xia let out a deep sigh as she turned her cold gaze toward the kitty as she spoke through gritted teeth, "I can see that it's a bee. But what is it doing here?"

"Master, you are the one who brought it here with those Purple Spirit Grasses. That's why it is here," replied the kitty while rolling its big cartoonish eyes at its Master's stupid question.

"I did not know that it was trapped inside the flower. If not for your message that I received in the middle of the night, I would have never found out about its presence. Now, what are we supposed to do? Should we release it?" Da Xia asked as she kept her eyes fixed on the bee.

The kitty was silent for a few seconds but then it suddenly flicked its wings, a screen appeared in front of the bee, and immediately started scanning it.

Both Da Xia and the poor queen bee were left dumbfounded and confused by whatever was happening. Before either of them could react, the scanning was complete, and a box with data written in it appeared on the screen.

"Look here. The system says that it's a queen bee but a special one. It's a spirit bee. Its body has consumed spiritual energy for over ten years and it is almost about to reach the third spirit circle." The kitty informed as it read through the data displayed on the screen.

"Third Spirit Circle? Wow!"

To say that Da Xia was left amazed by this discovery about the little bee would be an understatement. A bee that was supposed to live for only a few years had already lived for over a decade and was about to break through the third spirit circle!

The Cultivation levels were different for both humans and animals/beasts. While humans cultivated in levels and ranks, plants and animals of this world cultivated in spirit circles.

There were a total of nine ranks in cultivation-

- Primary

- Intermediate

- Advanced

- Master

- Overlord

- Saint

- Divine

- Sage

- Supreme

Each rank was further divided into four stages/levels - low, middle, late, and peak.

On the other hand, the beasts and plants cultivated in spirit circles. There were a total of seven spirit circles each with four different stages - beginner, intermediate, high, and master.

Any plant or beast who had reached the seventh circle of the spirit cultivation could receive the power of gaining a human form. But it happened only once or twice in a century.

At current, the Jia Province did not have a single cultivator, not even someone at the Primary Rank. It was not because the people of this province were not capable of cultivating the spirit energy, rather, it was because these people were more focused on earning their livelihoods and staying alive.

Jia Province was the poorest out of all the provinces on the mainland and the people here could barely afford to spend on earning two meals a day. Learning the cultivation skills was not even something that they wanted to think about.

"You should keep it. A friend with a lot of benefits."

Da Xia was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard the little kitty speaking nonsense.

"What are you talking about? How am I supposed to keep it? It's even more powerful than me. And what about the rest of its family? I'm sure they would be looking for it," she immediately responded with reluctance.

She could already imagine the Queen bee attacking her with the rest of its swarm to punish her for kidnapping it.

"Master, be sensible. It's a queen bee with two-spirit circles and will soon reach the third circle in less than a year. There is a very high chance that the rest of its swarm is also carrying at least one spirit circle. The honey and wax produced by them are going to be filled with a lot of spiritual energy. Can't you imagine the tons of benefits that you will receive from that?" asked the kitty-cub as it stared at its master, waiting for her to realize that she had received a rare treasure.

Da Xia remained silent as she contemplated about what the kitty had just said. Of course, she could see the benefits of keeping the bee and its swarm. Since she had spent all her mortal life in a farmhouse, she was sure that she could have handled the situation if it had been normal bees. But how was she going to handle spirit bees?

"We can't keep them here. That means we will need to keep them at my husbands'.....my house! But do you think they will not fly away at the first chance they would get?" she voiced out her concern to the kitty which immediately smirked as it turned toward the screen and typed something on it with its little paws.

"The rest of the swarm isn't a problem. They will eagerly stay here if their queen decides to accept our offer," replied the kitty as it kept working on the system screen.

"Do we even have an offer?" Da Xia asked as she tried to peek at the screen, only to find her stats filled with zeroes except for the Prowess points where instead of zero - ten was written.

Yep! After working for over an hour collecting those Purple Spirit Grasses, she only got ten prowess points. The system was definitely a miser.

"Nope. We don't have one at the moment but I think I can sort out something for you. Right now you need to return. It's already past two in the morning and you have a lot of work to do after waking up. Leave this little bee here for me to play with." The kitty reminded her as it flicked its wings once again and the screen disappeared.

The dawn was approaching in just a few hours and Da Xia was really tired. So she decided to accept the kitty's offer and rest for the remaining few hours.