Gripping the long saber in his hand tightly, Qi Ping began to advance cautiously.
With the help of keen perception, Qi Ping avoided various thorns and dangers, carefully moving forward.
Fortunately, it did not take Qi Ping long; after advancing a little, he discovered a golden marrow bee hidden at the root of a large oil pine tree.
This was thanks to the Jungle Druid's keen perception in the mountains and forests; otherwise, it might not have been possible to discover this golden marrow bee in the dense forest.
"Found it!" Qi Ping was pleasantly surprised.
Things were going smoothly without any unexpected incidents.
The sight of the golden marrow bee made Qi Ping breathe a huge sigh of relief.
If something had jumped out halfway, his small body in the First-Layer of Qi Refining wouldn't have been able to withstand it.
At the same time, Qi Ping hurriedly put the saber back into the small space storage bag, lest the murderous intent from the saber alarm the golden marrow bee.
The golden marrow bee was collecting pine oil from the pine bark at the root of the oil pine.
An oil pine tree that is over a hundred years old will produce a very small amount of special pine oil, which can reach the quality of spiritual medicine.
However, the quantity was too scarce; for Qi Ping, it took half a month just to fill one bottle, and he had to deal with the dangers of the forest, so the yield was far less than raising black small bees.
The golden marrow bee is a rather special type of bee, quite different from ordinary bees.
The reason they collect pine oil is that they do not restrict their honey-making to nectar; many spiritual medicines become their collection targets, which they then mix with nectar to make honey.
This is one reason why the honey of the golden marrow bee is of higher quality.
When Qi Ping discovered the golden marrow bee, the bee also sensed Qi Ping's presence.
Qi Ping's mood became a bit anxious at this moment.
Normally, when a golden marrow bee encounters a human cultivator, these bipedal creatures, there are generally two choices:
Either choose to attack or choose to flee and hide!
Neither option was good news for Qi Ping.
The speed and toxicity of the golden marrow bee were very strong, not a bit inferior to mid-stage Qi Refining.
If it fled, Qi Ping would not be able to catch up.
In a fight, Qi Ping would be in even worse shape; even if it was just an ordinary little worker bee, it would be enough to give Qi Ping a hard time.
After Qi Ping was anxious for a while, he found that the golden marrow bee did not flee; instead, it stopped collecting pine oil, curiously looking at Qi Ping, with its actions showing no hostility.
This made Qi Ping somewhat happy.
"There's hope!"
So Qi Ping, full of expectation, cautiously approached, and as expected, the golden marrow bee did not flee.
"Buzz buzz... (Who are you? Friendly!...)"
The golden marrow bee, seeing Qi Ping approach, crudely expressed its meaning, circling around Qi Ping, becoming increasingly curious about him.
"I want to make a contract with you, to make you my animal companions. I can make your group stronger!" Qi Ping said candidly and directly.
For the bee group, their propagation and growth as a group are above the will of the individual. For things beneficial to the group, they would choose to sacrifice themselves without fear.
For Beekeeper Qi Ping, this was nothing new.
When facing strong enemies, they could sacrifice their lives to attack the enemy. When encountering good spiritual medicine nectar sources and spiritual medicines, they could tirelessly and fearlessly collect them.
As long as the group could continue and become stronger, even if they died, it was an honor for them.
That's why Qi Ping chose to communicate with them using the reason of their group.
As a Beast King Druid, he was fully confident in doing this.
"Buzz buzz... (Contract...? Group stronger...?)"
"Yes, the group will be stronger..."
The golden marrow bee seemed a bit confused, so Qi Ping repeated it again.
After repeating it several times, the golden marrow bee finally understood Qi Ping's meaning, and the whole bee became excited.
"Buzz buzz... (Bipedal creature... No malice... Bee trusts you! Need to tell companions... Inform the Bee King...)"
"Okay, then take me with you!"
Hearing the golden marrow bee's affirmative response, Qi Ping completely breathed a sigh of relief!
This was the hardest step!
Yes, the hardest step was here.
Because the character and temperament of the entire swarm were basically consistent. If this golden marrow bee was willing to trust Qi Ping so simply, then basically its entire group would also feel the same.
In this way, the risk of Qi Ping's trip would be minimized, and the probability of contracting successfully would be very high.
If the golden marrow bee had shown hostility and distrust towards Qi Ping, he would certainly have turned around and ran.
Because that would indicate the entire swarm was likely to be hostile towards him.
Facing an entire Earth Cavity Golden Marrow Bee swarm, even a mid-stage Qi Refiner could fall, let alone Qi Ping, a rookie at the First-Layer of Qi Refining.
Fortunately, the hardest hurdle had passed. Not only was the golden marrow bee not hostile towards him, but it also showed an extraordinary level of trust!
"The Beast King Druid is indeed amazing!"
Qi Ping couldn't help but sigh.
Following the figure of the golden marrow bee, Qi Ping followed along with great expectations.
This time, Qi Ping felt more at ease, as the presence of the golden marrow bee indicated relative safety.
...
After walking for about two or three miles, they finally reached the location of the golden marrow bee's nest.
It was an ordinary-looking small shrub, seemingly no different from any other shrubs.
There was not even a visible trace of golden marrow bee habitation, demonstrating the caution of the golden marrow bee.
Inside the shrub was a small hole covered by dead leaves. If he hadn't seen the golden marrow bee drill into it, Qi Ping wouldn't have been able to find the golden marrow bee's nest.
Even scanning with Divine Sense could only perceive a hole similar to a mouse hole, a type of hole common throughout the forest.
Moments later, a large swarm of golden marrow bees buzzed out, surrounding and inspecting Qi Ping.
Some bold ones even landed on Qi Ping's body.
If an ordinary cultivator saw this scene, they would probably be scared to death.
But Qi Ping was not afraid in the face of this situation, because he could sense that these golden marrow bees harbored no malice towards him.
As time went on, eventually about a thousand golden marrow bees emerged.
This number was much less than the nearly ten thousand of the black small bees but was considerable for golden marrow bees.
The higher the bloodline grade of the swarm, the more difficult it was to reproduce, and they would require more spirit flowers and spiritual medicines to sustain a large group.
The group of golden marrow bees in front of Qi Ping was centered around the largest golden marrow bee, almost half the size of a fist, about three times the size of the other worker bees.
The entire bee was golden, with black and gold rings on the segments of its abdomen and a menacing black-gold ax-shaped mandible. The wings had a layer of light gilding.
The drones were slightly smaller than the Bee King, with particularly sharp mandibles.
After all the golden marrow bees came out, they centered around the Bee King and communicated with Qi Ping in buzzing sounds.
The process was much easier than Qi Ping imagined. He merely repeated the dialogue he had with the little worker bee before, and the swarm agreed to be his animal companions.
"Buzz buzz... (We... are willing... to be your animal companions!)"