The Eighth King had a lot of concubines, and one of them was from the Ni family of the Lin State.
Just as the Battle of Dragon was about to commence, the Dao Cheng Division learned that a demonic being was hiding in the Ni family.
They didn’t care if it would anger the Eighth King and just sent out a group of Foundation Establishment Plane cultivators to surround the Ni family’s estate.
The detail of that day was not known to people, but it ended up with the destruction of the Ni family. Yet, the demonic being still managed to escape.
After learning that from the rat beast, most members of the party had mocking expressions on their faces.
They didn’t need to hear the detail to know how ugly the battle was.
Nonetheless, ironically, the result of that battle was the downfall of the Ni family while the demonic beast was completely unharmed.
“Looks like you are quite a sharp-witted one,” Chen Jingzhai said. “What treasures do you possess now?”
“Most of them are spirit herbs and plants,” Ni Honger answered without any hesitation. “Because of my mutation, the aroma on my body would leave traces of where I’ve been, so I’ve been keeping them with me.”
She then opened her mouth to spit out a rare storage ring.
Chen Jingzhai scanned the contents of the ring with his divine mind and retrieved some of them.
“Aren’t you an inferior Grade 3 demonic beast who is one step away from being able to change your form? Why do you only have these many things?” Chen Jingzhai asked.
“Because my body aroma is considered as a unique spirit herb to most demonic beasts and barbarians, I had spent most of my days running away from them, and I’ve only returned to this forest less than 100 years ago…” Ni Honger looked a little sad as she felt like her master was looking down on her.
“Aroma?” Chen Jingzhai raised a brown and took a sniff.
That made the demonic beast blush. She struggled out of her master’s hand and hid in his robe.
Chen Jingzhai felt refreshed after taking a sniff and chuckled since that wasn’t the only thing that changed. A certain part of him was now as stiff as a rod. He had never expected that Ni Honger had such an ability as well.
“Alright.” Chen Jingzhai coughed. “What happened to Celestial Maiden Han and Miao Fa? Why did you pretend to be them and approached us? What was your goal?”
“The two cultivators you are talking about have stumbled into Venemous Bee Formation. The Venomous Bee Empress threatened me to help her,” Ni Honger replied. “This land belongs to the Giant Rhino King. The king has learned that cultivators will be traveling through this part of the forest and has ordered all Grade 3 beasts to kill the cultivators.”
Everyone’s expression changed once again after they heard that.
“How strong is the Venomous Bee Empress?” Chen Jingzhai asked with a serious expression.
“She can change her form already. She has the head of a human,” Ni Honger answered. “She leads a group of Green Flame Venomous Bees and has more than 100 Grade 2 bees as generals.”
“Green Flame Venomous Bees?” Sage Xu exclaimed. “They are Advanced Grade 2 demonic beasts that are compatible with poison, wood, and fire elements. They are extremely hard to deal with.”
“The problem is that they always travel in groups,” Sage Lu Tao added. “Sage Xu, Miao Yun, and I will take the lead. All of you follow behind us and stay hidden. Remember to avoid poisonous clouds and traps.”
“Okay!” Everyone nodded.
This time, more people might lead to a defeat as the Green Flame Venomous Bees weren’t afraid of facing multiple enemies at once. They could spit out poisonous flames and combine them into one large attack. That attack was strong enough to even pierce the defense of multiple Golden Core Sages.
The poison had no antidote as well. Thus, going in with a huge party was just a mindless sacrifice.
That was why tactics were more important in this rescue mission rather than pushing their way through with brute force. They also had a few Foundation Establishment Plane disciples with them, which only make it even harder if they tried the latter method.
Chen Jingzhai did not cancel Ni Honger’s summon and let her stay in his pocket instead.
He used an escape method to follow Sage Xu and Miao Yun to rescue their companions.
It didn’t take long for them to spot a part of the forest being surrounded by green poisonous fog.
Bees as big as a human fist were buzzing around the two captured celestial maidens.
“Miao Fa, how are you doing?” Celestial Maiden Han asked as an elixir cauldron floated above her head. She had used the cauldron’s fire to surround them so that the bees would be wary from approaching them.
“Not good.” Miao Fa’s face was pale. “I’ve managed to use the Golden Core magic power to seal my veins, but the poison is too strong and it’s burning me from the inside. What’s worse is that it’s moving towards my Golden Core.”
Signs of regret could be seen on Celestial Maiden Han’s face when she heard that.
Miao Fa would not have fallen into the Venomous Bee Empress’s trap if she hadn’t tried to save Celestial Maiden Han. She was hit by the poisonous flame of the bee. Although she had put the flame out, the poison was slowly seeping into her body despite the magic apparel she was wearing.
However, there wasn’t time for them to continue their conversation as the hundreds of bees attacked them again. A huge group of green flames merged into formation and was launched towards the two celestial maidens. No one could tell how many bees were hiding among the huge flame.
Celestial Maiden Han’s expression turned serious. She tapped her elixir cauldron, and the fire in it exploded like a volcano. The fire met the green flame and a lot of bees dropped to the ground, completely burnt.
It was clear that the fire in the elixir cauldron was stronger than the green flame, but the bee empress wasn’t fazed by it.
The Venomous Bee Empress floated in mid-air as she stared at the two humans trapped inside the Venomous Bee Formation while a light growl could be heard from her.
The growl slowly spread throughout the area, and the bees which were reluctant to approach the celestial maidens were encouraged to attack their enemies as if their lives didn’t matter anymore. Other than spitting out poisonous flames, they also attacked with their stingers.
Stingers were shot at the two ladies as if it was raining. Their faces turned pale with their eyes filled with desperation. Celestial Maiden Han bit her lip as she was ready to fight for her dear life.
However, a wave of energy suddenly surged around them. In the next instance, Miao Fa disappeared from where she was and Chen Jingzhai replaced her place.
The sound of him unsheathing his sword echoed throughout the area.
A wave of Soaring Sword’s Will was shot up into the sky from the young man and thunderstrike came down from above.
The stingers were all brought down by the thunderstrike.
Then, the razor-sharp sword’s will split all the bees in half, breaking the Venomous Bee Formation in an instant.
That wasn’t the end of it. Chen Jingzhai then threw three golden tiger seals out.
The moment these mini tigers left his hand, they expanded into full-size tigers in mere seconds and charged toward the Venemous Bee Empress.
The demonic bee shot a beautiful green flame from her mouth. However, before the flame could explode, another wave of energy was aimed at her and the three tigers suddenly disappeared.
The flame was then put out with an unknown power while the queen was trapped by something that could not be seen.
“Are you hurt?” Chen Jingzhai asked Celestial Maiden Han.
“No, but I’ve exhausted way too much of my energy.” The celestial maiden looked at Chen Jingzhai a little dumbfoundedly.
“Good. Do you have elixirs that can cure poisons?” the young man then asked.
“Y-yes!” The celestial maiden’s face turned pale and quickly ran towards Miao Fa.
Chen Jingzhai grinned and sheathed the Five Bamboo Sword. With a wave of his arm, the divine light absorbed all the remaining bees that were alive and their queen as well.
The Venomous Bee Empress that was trapped by Chen Jingzhai’s formation could not do anything against the Grotto-heavens divine light and was absorbed into the Primordial Essence World before getting locked up in a tower.
The Starlight Demon Subduing Tower was placed behind the jade statue in the plaza. The tower boy was in charge of handling all the demonic beasts locked in the tower, and the bee queen and her bees were enough to fill empty spots.
Once everything was done, Chen Jingzhai approached the party with the golden tiger seals.
The poisonous gas in the air had been taken care of by Miao Yun, and the corpses of the bees had been carefully stored by Sage Xu. Miao Fa was now in meditation mode trying to get rid of the poison from her body.
Sage Lu Tao and the rest soon arrived, and everyone let out a sigh of relief after learning about the situation. They were glad that they didn’t lose a party member to the beast.
“This is all my fault. I’ve underestimated our opponents…” Celestial Maiden Han blamed herself. “I thought I could handle a few bugs on my own, but who knew they were there to lure us into a bigger trap. Miao Fa got hit because of me…”
“There’s no point in blaming yourself now that things have happened. Celestial Maiden Miao Fa protected you out of her own will,” Chen Jingzhai said. “However, we should never underestimate anything that this forest has to throw at us. Remember, we’ll have to be extra careful as long as we are in here.”
“Yes, Master-Uncle!” everyone replied.
