Chapter 122: The Hive

Mayor Lu and Leader Jing, having endured numerous hardships, finally managed to gather most of their members. However, both sides were pained to discover that the Sunlit Town contingent and the caravan had suffered varying degrees of losses.

It was confirmed that four post-natal martial artists from Sunlit Town had perished, with two others missing. The caravan had lost two guards, and three were missing: Fang Rui, Wei Yi, and Yun Qing.

The only reason Yun Qing was counted among the missing was that the Lion-Horse beast that had brought her arrived, covered in wounds, to find its master. Through the somewhat disjointed communication with the creature, the leader gained a rough understanding of what had transpired at the inn.

Having witnessed many of their companions perish after entering the underground, the survivors no longer dared to be careless. The group gathered around the late-stage Qi Refinement experts, searching for their missing companions, the brood mother, and a way out.

...

Yun Qing harvested batch after batch of mosquito nutrient fluid, repeatedly entering and exiting her grotto-heaven to catch her breath. The quantity of nutrient fluid already doubled that of the venom stings.

One venom sting, two units of mosquito nutrient fluid, and some level one and level two energy were enough to produce two Anti-Mosquito Venom Pills.

There were two ways to obtain venom stings: either by killing mosquitoes and picking up the drops, or by manually pulling the stingers out of the mosquitoes. The former had a lower drop rate, while the latter was more difficult.

Yun Qing did not intend to refine all the nutrient fluid into pills. After all, these energy-rich items could be fed into an energy converter to provide power for her grotto-heaven even if they weren't used for alchemy.

An hour passed, then two, and Yun Qing was still harvesting.

It did not matter that her system inventory could only stack one hundred units of nutrient fluid; her apothecary station could process the pills. It did not matter if she lacked enough stingers or had too much nutrient fluid; her villa was equipped with simple wooden cabinets that could store plenty, and if those filled up, she still had the vast capacity of her energy converter.

While her apothecary station automatically refined the pills, her crafting level rose to 40. However, once she reached proficiency in automatic production, she stopped gaining experience points. Since there was plenty of experience to be earned elsewhere, Yun Qing was unwilling to waste time on manual alchemy. She stopped refining the pills and began dumping the excess nutrient fluid into her energy converter.

She had earned every achievement from novice to expert in harvesting, gaining several skill points along the way. Once her harvesting skill broke through to level 40, however, she stopped gaining experience from collecting the fluid.

"Liuliu, I fear this transition from 40 to 41 is a bottleneck, much like the jump from 30 to 31!"

"That is true. In the cultivation system of the Central Plains Continent, reaching level 41 marks the true entry into the Qi Refinement stage."

Yun Qing had thought reaching level 40 was the hard part, assuming it was the threshold from post-natal to innate, but it seemed level 41 was the real challenge.

Even without the experience points, Yun Qing was determined to collect all the nutrient fluid for the sake of energy.

The mosquitoes had come to a clear realization: their nest had been invaded by pests. The least destructive were the caravan leader’s group, who killed few mosquitoes while providing fresh blood and food. The duo of Fang Rui and Wei Yi were a moderate nuisance, having killed many mosquitoes as they stumbled blindly through the fog, though their impact remained limited.

The true menace, however, was the one brought by the Lion-Horse beast—the post-natal level seven, no, level eight individual. They had first slaughtered countless mosquitoes, then ravaged patches of larvae, and were now even plundering the Queen's rations.

The food was vanishing in swathes, disappearing faster than the Queen could consume it and faster than the mosquitoes could gather it. This could not continue; at this rate, the Queen’s nutrition would be compromised. If the Queen lacked food, the quantity and quality of her eggs would suffer, and if she grew hungry enough, she would resort to cannibalism.

Yet, because of the defensive arrays surrounding the rations, no mosquito could get close. Furthermore, the intruder was elusive—appearing to steal food and then vanishing—leaving the dim-witted mosquitoes at a loss. They needed to report this to the Queen, whose intellect far surpassed their own.

To prevent the extinction of their race, a level 43 mosquito entered the brood chamber with a death-defying resolve. It communicated with the Queen using a specific frequency, but the Queen seemed impatient. With a swift movement of her long legs, she seized the mosquito and shoved it into her maw.

As her mouthparts churned, consuming the mosquito to convert its energy into egg production, she exhaled a cloud of toxic gas, acknowledging the report.

"Why, why must I consume these disgusting things? Why must I keep laying eggs? Is it you, brother, deceiving me? Or is it that vicious woman? I hate you all! You make my life a living hell!"

The Queen cursed her circumstances, yet her body’s instincts relentlessly extended her legs to snatch the nutrient fluid flowing toward her on the current and shove it into her mouth. Despite her lack of desire to deal with the thief, her body forced her to act. Driven by fury, she swept the nutrient fluid into her nest; she would devour the person stealing her rations.

Deep underwater, Yun Qing had just finished harvesting a unit of nutrient fluid when she noticed the supply in front of her disappearing for no apparent reason.

Something was wrong.

Knowing her own limits, Yun Qing did not intend to investigate the anomaly. Instead, she planned to retreat into her grotto-heaven to wait out the danger. However, when she attempted to enter, she found she could not. A new status effect had appeared on her character profile:

Gaze: A negative status triggered by the intense scrutiny of a high-level entity. It makes it difficult to cast skills, move, or enter the grotto-heaven.

A high-level monster!

This negative status again—being unable to enter the grotto-heaven was truly dire. She had to leave this place immediately. Fortunately, her system inventory was still functional. Yun Qing forced her body to move, stowed her hammer, and prepared to float upward, away from the area suppressed by the monster's divine sense.

Just as she began to ascend, she felt herself enveloped by an irresistible force. A second later, she materialized inside a chamber.

The space was illuminated by strange blue stones that Yun Qing did not recognize. In the center sat a monster the size of a table, possessing a head the size of a bowl and a body a hundred times larger, equipped with three legs on each side. Its purple-black hide radiated a sense of potent toxicity.

Its massive torso pulsed like a heartbeat, and with every throb, it expelled an egg the size of a soybean from its rear. Beneath it flowed the water, bringing nutrient fluid to the front and carrying away the freshly laid eggs from the back.

Above it hovered red text: Name Unknown, Level Unknown.