Chapter 20: The Power of Ice Bees

The queen bee and the empress bee both possessed the strength of a six-star Earth Soul Demon, and they only knew soul control techniques. After releasing the queen bee and the empress bee, Qu Yi immediately set free one hundred thousand ice bees. These ice bees were only at the level of higher-tier Human Soul Demons. Naturally, Qu Yi wouldn’t release all one billion ice bees—ten thousand of them were enough to eliminate those hundred Earth Soul Demon-level warriors.

“You… what kind of bees are these?”
The leader man screamed in terror, staring at the swarm of ice bees flying everywhere. A chill filled his heart, and he began to consider retreating.
The other nearly sixty Earth Soul Demon warriors with combat capabilities also watched in horror as the overwhelming swarm of ice bees surrounded them. Their bodies froze as they stared in panic, too frightened to flee.

Under the command of the queen bee and the empress bee, the one hundred thousand ice bees quickly divided into sixty groups, each heading toward one of those sixty still-combat-capable Earth Soul Demon warriors. Meanwhile, Qu Yi, Jin Zun, Mu Zun, and Tu Zun also took off immediately, following the swarm of ice bees, and attacked the forty Earth Soul Demon warriors who had already lost their strength.

These forty warriors were trying to restore their strength by using Origin Stones. However, for Earth Soul Demon-level warriors to recover their bodies using Origin Stones, they needed a huge quantity and plenty of time. In the short term, their bodies remained weak and had not yet formed a physical form at the Earth Soul Demon level.

Qu Yi and his three companions arrived swiftly. Their swords—Wu Xi Sword, Shang Jin Sword, Xia Feng Drum, and Yong Chang Sword—moved like lightning, cutting those forty warriors’ bodies into pieces, turning them into Origin Energy that scattered throughout the space.

Their forty heads still rolled on the grass, being further ravaged by the battle grass.

Meanwhile, the sixty groups of ice bees attacked the other sixty Earth Soul Demon warriors one after another. Each ice bee was about the size of a human, and nearly twenty thousand ice bees surrounded one Earth Soul Demon warrior. Now, those warriors could no longer utilize their speed advantage, as they were trapped within the ice bees’ encirclement no matter where they flew.

“You damned ice bees! I’ll kill you all!”
One Earth Soul Demon warrior was pierced by ice spikes emitted by the ice bees, causing unbearable pain and driving him to fury. But before he could raise his sword and launch a magic attack, a hundred higher-tier Human Soul Demon ice bees exploded simultaneously!

Their explosions were no less powerful than a single strike from a two-star Earth Soul Demon warrior.

Suddenly, the powerful warrior who had been roaring in anger moments earlier had dozens of blood holes all over his body. The magic energy he had just used had to be withdrawn back into his body to heal his wounds, forcing him to flee in panic once again.
Fleeing wasn’t a solution!
As one wave of ice bees exploded, another hundred ice bees at the higher-level Human Soul Demon rank also exploded immediately!
A chain of explosions!
Waves of violent energy immediately disrupted the energy flow throughout space, tearing everything apart as chaotic spatial currents surged, reducing the speed of that Earth Soul Demon warrior to a crawl.
Another hundred ice bees at the higher-level Human Soul Demon rank were already ready.
Explosion!
Boom!
Thin spatial gaps appeared instantly, cutting through the body of that Earth Soul Demon warrior. With each pull and push, his body was torn into several pieces, and his head was also severed by the spatial gaps.
The Soul Flower, the most vital substance for a cultivator, was also attacked by the spatial gaps and shattered instantly.
Since the Soul Flower was destroyed, that Earth Soul Demon warrior died as well.
The same thing was happening in other directions.
One after another, Earth Soul Demon warriors were overwhelmed by the collective attacks of the ice bee swarms, with waves of ice bees exploding continuously, leaving them unable to react or find a way to defend themselves.
Damage after damage.
One after another, Earth Soul Demon warriors fell.
In the end, there were still ten warriors at the six-star Earth Soul Demon level struggling to resist the attacks of the ice bee swarms. At that point, sixty thousand ice bees remained, with each group of six thousand surrounding those ten warriors.
These warriors, who had once had an advantage in speed, could no longer use it at all. With chaotic spatial currents everywhere, spatial gaps could easily form. They feared using their speed techniques, as moving too fast might cause them to collide with those gaps, resulting in their bodies being torn apart and leaving them unable to withstand further attacks from the ice bees.
So, those ten warriors slowly moved closer together, combining their forces to resist the attacks of the ice bee swarms.
Suddenly, the queen bee and the queen bee that had been lying on the ground buzzed three times, seemingly issuing another attack command.
Suddenly, from among the ten groups of ice bees, three hundred ice bees at the higher-level Human Soul Demon rank formed a spherical shape and rolled straight toward one of the six-star Earth Soul Demon warriors in the encirclement.

The powerful Earth Soul Demon was about to raise his sword to shatter that ice bee sphere when he noticed a faint water-elemental energy membrane surrounding it as it rolled. Just as his demonic weapon managed to pierce through the membrane, its force was depleted by the time it struck the ice bee. At that moment, the ice bee sphere exploded violently! Three hundred ice bees detonated simultaneously! In an instant, as the six-star Earth Soul Demon stepped forward, a circular spatial rift appeared and swept straight toward him. The demon let out a cry before his entire body was swallowed by the rift. In the other nine directions, similar ice bee spheres exploded, injuring or killing the nine six-star Earth Soul Demons with spatial rifts. Three more six-star Earth Soul Demons, though severely injured and having dodged the rifts, were slowed to a crawl by the chaotic ice spikes emitted by the surrounding swarm. Qu Yi watched quietly from the side, finally understanding why that swarm of a billion ice bees had been able to conquer Qingchi Star so quickly. The ice bees’ self-destructive ability made it impossible for Earth Soul Immortals, or Earth Soul Demons, to resist—unless they avoided being surrounded by the swarm from the start and used their speed to escape. Otherwise, once trapped, even Earth Soul Demon-level warriors were doomed to death. Sure enough, the remaining three six-star Earth Soul Demons were eventually exhausted by the explosions from three more ice bee spheres and reduced to dust by the swarm’s collective ice spike attacks. Thus, the hundreds of Earth Soul Demons who had aimed to kill Longhu Wei were all killed, none left, under the attack of the ice bee swarm. Qu Yi quickly recalled the swarm, along with the queen bees, back into his Dimensional Sphere. “Brother Qu Yi, where did you get these ice bees? They’re truly amazing,” Longhu Wei exclaimed in awe after watching Qu Yi recall the bees. Everyone looked at Qu Yi with great interest. Qu Yi gazed into the distance and smiled, saying, “Everyone, in this battle, we killed over a hundred Earth Soul Demons. The adventurers in the vicinity have detected the energy fluctuations and are coming this way. Let’s clean up the scene first, then we can ask questions.” With that, Qu Yi, Jin Zun, Mu Zun, and Tu Zun rushed to the corpses of the Earth Soul Demons, using their immortal energy to completely destroy them.

The corpses of the Ice Bees were also completely destroyed. The scene was nothing but devastation from a fierce battle; no other items remained. Even if adventurers came, they could only infer that a battle had taken place here, but no one could guess which two sides were involved. Soon after, Qu Yi, Long Hu Wei, and the others immediately took off and flew far away from the Wanli Gorge.
※※※
Tens of millions of adventurers entered the Wanli Gorge and reached its bottom. Everywhere was bare ground. All the adventurers were utterly puzzled by what they saw, with anger evident on their faces.
“What’s going on? All the spiritual herbs at the bottom of the gorge are gone!”
“It seems someone got there first and took all the spiritual herbs, not even sparing the soil. How greedy!”
“We may not be part of any adventuring group, but we came from the Jinzhan Star Region after fifty years of travel. How is it that we get nothing?! This makes no sense!!!”
“That’s impossible. The aura of the Five-Light Fruits was still so strong ten days ago. In just ten days, who could have taken everything from the bottom of the gorge?”
“Damn it! What the hell is this? I rushed here in such a hurry, only to get not even a piece of bark. I’d rather die!”
“I don’t want to live either. Don’t stop me—just let me die.”
……
Throughout the bottom of the gorge, countless adventurers voiced their frustration. Even more were bewildered and confused by the fact that all the treasures there had vanished.
On Huotian Star, countless rumors spread instantly.
“A certain invincible demon secretly entered the bottom of the Wanli Gorge and took all the treasures.”
“A deeply hidden organization possessed treasures that made them immune to the Wanli mist, allowing them to reach the bottom of the gorge and collect everything.”
“There were already countless monsters in the bottom of the Wanli Gorge, which devoured all the spiritual herbs in an instant and even disturbed the soil.”
……
As the tens of millions of adventurers grew more frustrated, the rumors grew more absurd. They spread not only in the Huotu Star Region but throughout the entire Demon Realm.
Meanwhile, Qu Yi, who had actually obtained all the treasures of the Wanli Gorge, had already taken Long Hu Wei and the others deep into the Huotu Star Region. On a planet called Huozhuo Star, Qu Yi and the others stopped using the space teleportation array to take a brief rest. The twelve of them went into an inn.

“Brother Qu Yi, what’s with those ice bees?” As Long Hu Wei entered the inn room, he finally asked the question he had been curious about for a long time.
Qu Yi looked at Long Hu Wei, then at the others, seeing that they were all looking at him curiously, he could only smile.
“Guys, this is a secret. You shouldn’t ask.”