Gripping the long saber tightly, Qi Ping started to move forward cautiously.
With his acute perception, Qi Ping avoided various thorns and dangers, advancing carefully.
Fortunately, it didn't take Qi Ping long. After just a while of moving forward, he discovered a golden marrow bee tucked at the root of a large oil pine.
This was thanks to the jungle druid's keen perception in the mountains and forests, otherwise, it would not have been certain to find this golden marrow bee in the dense woods.
"Found it!" Qi Ping was secretly thrilled.
Things were going smoothly, without any unexpected incidents.
Seeing the figure of the golden marrow bee, Qi Ping couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
If something unexpected appeared suddenly, his fragile first-layer of Qi Refining little frame would not withstand it.
At the same time, Qi Ping hurriedly put the saber into the small storage bag to avoid the killing intent from the saber disturbing the golden marrow bee.
The golden marrow bee was collecting the pine resin on the pine bark at the oil pine root.
Oil pines over a hundred years old produce a minimal amount of special pine resin, which can reach the quality of spiritual medicine.
However, the quantity is too scarce; for Qi Ping, it would take half a month to gather even a bottle and he also had to deal with the dangers in the mountains and forests. Its returns were far less than breeding black honeybees.
Golden marrow bees are a rather special breed of bees, quite different from ordinary bees.
They collect pine resin because their honey-making is not limited to nectar; many spiritual medicines also become their collection target, which they then mix with nectar to make honey.
This is one reason why the honey from golden marrow bees has a higher quality.
When Qi Ping discovered the golden marrow bee, the golden marrow bee also sensed Qi Ping's presence.
Qi Ping's mood became somewhat apprehensive at this moment.
Normally, golden marrow bees have two choices when they encounter human cultivators, these two-legged creatures:
Either choose to attack or choose to flee and hide!
Neither of these options was good news for Qi Ping.
The speed and toxicity of golden marrow bees are strong, their speed is no worse than mid-stage Qi Refining.
If they ran away, Qi Ping wouldn't be able to catch up.
If they fought, Qi Ping would fare even worse; even if it were just an ordinary worker bee, it would be more than Qi Ping could handle.
After Qi Ping's nervousness lasted for a while, he noticed the golden marrow bee didn't escape but instead stopped collecting pine resin and curiously observed Qi Ping, showing no hostility in its actions.
This made Qi Ping somewhat delighted.
"There's hope!"
So Qi Ping approached cautiously with a hopeful heart, and indeed the golden marrow bee did not flee.
"Buzz... (Who are you? Friendly!)"
Seeing Qi Ping approach, the golden marrow bee vaguely expressed its meaning, while circling around Qi Ping and observing him more curiously.
"I want to contract with you, to make you my animal companions. I can make your tribe stronger!" Qi Ping said frankly and directly.
For the bee tribe, their tribe's reproduction and growth are above the individual will. For matters beneficial to the tribe, they can choose to fearlessly sacrifice themselves.
This was something beekeeper Qi Ping was very familiar with.
When facing powerful enemies, they can risk their lives to attack the enemy; when encountering good spiritual medicine honey sources and spiritual medicines, they can labor tirelessly and persistently despite the danger.
As long as the tribe can survive and become stronger, even death is a glory to them.
Thus, Qi Ping chose to communicate using their tribe as the reason.
As a Beast King Druid, he was fully confident in doing this.
"Buzz... (Contract? Tribe strong?)"
"Yes, tribe strong..."
The golden marrow bee seemed a bit confused, so Qi Ping repeated it once more.
After several repetitions, the golden marrow bee finally understood Qi Ping's meaning and became excited.
"Buzz... (Two-legged creature, no malice, bee trusts you! Must tell companions... inform King Bee...)"
"Alright, lead me there then!"
Upon hearing the golden marrow bee's affirmative response, Qi Ping completely relaxed!
This was the hardest step!
Yes, the hardest step was here.
Because the character and temperament of the whole bee colony are generally consistent, if this golden marrow bee was willing to trust Qi Ping so easily, it meant its whole tribe would be similar.
Thus, the risks of Qi Ping's trip would decrease to the minimum, and the probability of successful contracting would be high.
If this golden marrow bee showed hostility and distrust toward Qi Ping, he would definitely run away.
Because that would indicate the whole bee colony likely showed hostility toward him.
Facing an entire earth cavity golden marrow bee colony, even mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators could fall, let alone Qi Ping who was merely a first-layer Qi Refining novice.
Fortunately, the hardest hurdle had already been crossed, the golden marrow bee not only did not show any hostility but exhibited an extraordinary degree of trust!
"The Beast King Druid is really amazing!"
Qi Ping couldn't help but exclaim.
Following the silhouette of this golden marrow bee, Qi Ping followed eagerly.
This time, Qi Ping walked more comfortably, as the life path of the golden marrow bees indicated relative safety.
...
Approximately two or three miles later, he finally reached the location of the golden marrow bee's nest.
It was a seemingly ordinary small grove, appearing no different from the other groves.
It didn't even seem to have any traces of golden marrow bee activity, which sufficiently depicted the cautious nature of golden marrow bees.
Inside the grove, there was a small hole covered by dead leaves. If he hadn't seen the golden marrow bee threading its way in from there with his own eyes, Qi Ping wouldn't have been able to identify that there was a golden marrow bee's nest there at all.
Scanning through the divine sense could only detect a cave akin to a mouse hole, and such caves filled the hills and woods.
A moment later, a large group of golden marrow bees buzzed out, surrounding and observing Qi Ping.
Some of the bolder ones even landed on Qi Ping.
If ordinary cultivators saw this scene, they would certainly be scared half to death.
But Qi Ping was not at all afraid facing this scene, as he could perceive that these golden marrow bees held no malice against him.
As time went on, eventually about a thousand golden marrow bees flew out.
This number was significantly smaller than the nearly ten thousand black honeybees, but for golden marrow bees, it was considered not few.
The higher the bloodline grade of the bee colony, the harder the reproduction process is, and they require more spirit flowers and spiritual medicines to sustain a large tribe.
The group of golden marrow bees in front of Qi Ping, at the center was a bee significantly larger in size than the others, almost half the size of a fist, about three times the size of other worker bees.
Entirely golden in color, with a black-golden ring on its abdomen and chest, its axe-shaped black-golden mandible looked extremely formidable, and its wings had a faint golden luster.
The male drones were smaller than the Bee King, with especially prominent sharp mandibles.
Once all the golden marrow bees flew out, they began communicating with Qi Ping, centered around the Bee King.
The process was much easier than Qi Ping anticipated, he simply repeated the previous conversation he had with the small worker bee, and the bee colony agreed to become his animal companions.
"Buzz... (We're willing to be your animal companions!)"