“This is not for those beasts. Rather, I use it to prevent us from freezing.” Wu Qing said that while the ground, the trunks, and branches around them started to turn into ice.

“Just look at Li Ling! You know it when you see her!” commented Manstein who shot another arrow. He felt the presence of the bees all around them and from their direction, they did not even allow them to have any path to escape.

But the sudden change in the field turned the tide for the better.

Manstein already knew from Alice and as for the other, they also wanted to see the reason for the drop in the temperature as well!

“Everyone, watch yourself!” Li Ling warned them as she swung her saber followed by icy winds. If the fragments of her ice shards were like projectile then this winds was like a snowstorm.

Other bees fell down from the winds. Ye Qingcheng kept hitting them with his punch while the most notable change could be seen on Ye Xiaobai. He did not let out his weapon, he only used his own cultivation base to fight them.

A ball formed in his palm before he threw it to the crowd that formed from ten to fifty bees, instantly razed the area filled with bees and the trees to the ground level.

“Explosive Chaos Ball. Derived from that technique and the effect is quite decent.” Said Ye Xiaobai proudly.

“What are you doing, fool!?” Manstein barked at him. It was not like Ye Xiaobai did that to destroy other things in the forest but his way of doing it that made Manstein felt an urge to teach him properly!

Manstein then filled his bow with two arrows this time, tried to shoot two targets simultaneously.

“Why are you suddenly shouting at me, Brother?” Ye Xiaobai felt wronged and could not help but asked. After he heard the arrows were shot that he finally heard the response.

“We come here to extract the item, not to fight to the death! This swarm of bees is just the part of the beasts around here and we will only let the scouts die here.”

Manstein had a reason, a scary one at that. It was because they had to face the entire army of the scout from yellow bees before they could proceed further to the deeper part of the forest.

“Almost done. Don’t let them escape!” said Ye Yingyuan that hurriedly slashed his sword towards the bees around him. As each slash he made, he started to feel something that he had never felt before.

And as for Manstein, he looked to everyone that currently fight against the bees.

‘At the current pace, there is no movement from another beast. Then what caused them to move like in the past? Is it that item. Alice?’

Even if he was powerless alone but when he became the support, Manstein could provide them better coordination.

“Watch out for its sting! It’s like an arrow too.” Manstein warned Ye Yingyuan who freely slashed another two bees. When he heard the warning, a flying object was directed to him.

Thanks to the warning, Ye Yingyuan moved to the side. He flew while avoiding the stings that the bees launched. He could fly because of his cultivation base.

“Thank you!” Ye Yingyuan only used his swordplay without his flame. He wanted to test just how strong he was when he ascended to the higher stage of cultivation.

But the star of this first encounter with the swarm of the bees right now was no other than Li Ling. She reduced the burden for the whole group by distracting the swarm. She directly turned those bees into ice sculpture without much effort!

After that, she used her saber to destroy those that were turned into sculptures, half dead or the disabled ones.

“I never expect that this comes from me...” Li Ling muttered with a surprise on her face. She initially thought that the cold was caused by her energy and habit of training in the night. But seeing this made her think again about that and also the words that Alice had said.

“But I’m also tired now.” She looked around before went back to the group’s position carefully.

When the first wave of bees had been defeated, they finally heaved a sigh of relief. It was true especially for Ye Xiaobai who was dead tired and laid his body to the ground without minding the others.

“Why do you think we doing this seemingly pointless slaughter to those swarm?” Ye Qingcheng asked to Ye Xiaobai who already closed his eyes and started to feel nature take its course.

“Ask Elder Brother instead. Uhm, is that fine if we call and positioned him as our eldest brother here?” doubting his way of calling, Ye Xiaobai then also called Ye Yingyuan to come to their side.

But what they saw was the scene that they felt hard to describe.

“Don’t lean to my body!” grunted Ye Yingyuan. He was disturbed by the act that made him annoyed. No matter how good Ye Yingyuan was when he fight but this time he could not avoid the person that currently leaned on his body.

“If you tire yourself like that again, I will not do this again.” In the end, he had to give up his emotion and opinion regarding the matter and let Li Ling do as she pleased.

“Elder Sister, please give Li Ling some restoration pill. Just this time, okay.” Ye Yingyuan pleaded Wu Qing. The problem was, besides Li Ling leaned on him she also looked really tired. This made him feel useless because he had not used his flame.

“If you insist. But you have to remember not to use your fire recklessly or any attack like your cousin did.” Said Wu Qing reminded Ye Yingyuan while using her energy to send the pill to Ye Yingyuan’s hand.

He opened his palm and then a circular-shaped pill was landed. The color and smell of the pill showed the mid-grade restoration pill.

“Here, don’t lean on me for too long or else someone will talk about it.” Said Ye Yingyuan to Li Ling. He just did not like a girl to act so intimately especially when that particular person was such a beauty.

“Why? Did you not satisfied with me?” said Li Ling. She looked at Ye Yingyuan with her cute eyes and that received a sympathy from anyone around.

“Please, it’s not like what you said. I just...” Ye Yingyuan did not prepare for this yet so he could only answer it from the bottom of his heart.

“Don’t worry.” Manstein then came to his side while adjusting his bow and quiver. Then he looked to everyone around him, from Ye Xiaobai that did not care for his current position, lying on the ground, Wu Qing that swept her gaze around the group, Ye Qingcheng who positioned himself beside Ye Xiaobai and the two children.

“At the least, you should remember what you had done to her.” Manstein then coughed before winking to Ye Yingyuan. He also knew about the plan that Yu Feng and Li Dian had prepared.

‘But really, they even entrusted me with this too! Is this what they call pairing the couple?’ Manstein thought in his mind.

“...” Ye Yingyuan fell silent, not utter a single word. At first, he felt satisfied when he did that when he did that to Li Ling but after their relationship had improved, Ye Yingyuan felt guilty about it. It was because everyone would talk about it even until now.

“Mm.” Li Ling nodded enthusiastically. She kept her eyes on Ye Yingyuan as if she had been wronged for everything that he had done.

“Senior, have a moment?” Alice then asked Manstein. Manstein then looked to her direction and then she began explaining something that was of importance to their journey.

“Probably you also know the reason for our direction as well as those swarm of bees. Even we still find the bodies from that yellow creature scattered around. But when the swarm finally end, we did not meet anything right?”

Alice said those words to see the reaction from Manstein. He also wondered about it but he had the answer for himself.

“It’s winter. I judge those bees as a living being that also has their own needs. Because this was the scout, I only thought of a possibility. It is that currently, they entered their hive somewhere right?” Manstein sighed. He knew the direction the group went into.

‘To the hive. How dare Alice to say that she can do this because that item is still at that place. Coincidentally from the information that I gathered, that location is where the hive of the yellow bees currently resides and no other beast will active at this season.’

Other than wolves and some Windwalker Deer, no other beasts were seen in the forest.

“It’s true. They are the yellow bees that every beast will tremble in fear at their presence. But actually, they are not so aggressive because they act just like what honey bees do even if their body was two to four times larger than normal.” Said Alice.

“They stocked their supplies of food in their nest for this winter. But will this be alright? I mean, everyone here is still new in this matter of battle. Just look at their first reaction to the opponent.” Manstein only commented about the youngster's reaction.

“Indeed and it’s not wrong. But they have something in their mind and that is to become stronger.” Alice could see more than Manstein and that made her abilities to read the thought of those young people appeared.

“Here, only those that proved themselves with their strength can dictate anything they want. This is the unwritten rule that circulated around.” Added Alice.

While Manstein and Alice had a serious conversation, Ye Yingyuan then came to the place where Ye Xiaobai and Ye Qingcheng currently was.

“Thank you for calling me.” Ye Yingyuan used this chance to shake off Li Ling from him. This made both his brother and cousin almost laughed out loud but suppressed their urge to do that.

“Say, Little Yuan, what is your opinion about this journey?” Ye Qingcheng asked. He did not know what his little brother had thought during their journey and short battle but one thing that he was really sure about his brother.

‘He should have thought of something about this unexplainable thing that lingering in my mind. He definitely feels this too.’ Thought Ye Qingcheng.

“Other than to retrieve a certain item, I think this journey let us train in a real battle.” Answered Ye Yingyuan serious.

“Train our battle experience, I see.” Only Ye Xiaobai could understand the importance of this. But his face turned solemn as he looked towards the sky above.

The two brothers also saw the facial expression that Ye Xiaobai had shown. They then realized that what they had currently is not enough. The expression of sadness, frustration, loneliness, and separation was all there for them to see.

Therefore, they placed themselves beside Ye Xiaobai. They stretched their hands and then placed it on Ye Xiaobai’s shoulders. This made him exclaimed in surprise but soon when Ye Xiaobai saw the face of those two, he could not brace himself to shake them.

“Sorry, I really don’t know about your circumstances.” Said Ye Qingcheng. Then it was followed by Ye Yingyuan.

“Yes, maybe you want to tell us about your experience outside but refrained yourself from doing that.” Then Ye Yingyuan looked back once again to Ye Xiaobai.

“So can you tell us? We...definitely need it sooner or late.” That was what Ye Yingyuan had wanted to say since the first time they arrived at the forest.

“Are you sure?” Ye Xiaobai asked in a doubtful manner. He wanted to see whether his cousin really determined to learn about another side that cold and merciless.

But of course, both Ye Yingyuan and Ye Qingcheng agreed.

-

While the group was moving, on another side in a hive far above in the trees that have the diameter equivalent of hundreds of people, a sudden sound reverberated throughout the entire hive.

That was the yellow bees’ hive. Because the season currently entered the winter season, most of those bees stayed inside the hive while the scouts and guards were sent to the outside perimeter in case something happened.

But then a yellow bee which size was thrice the normal slowly move to the hive.

Its destination was a large and majestic chamber inside. There were thousand of bees inside that chamber and at the end of the chamber, a throne and a figure could be seen. That bee then came in front of the throne.

“What is this?” that figure whose appearance was humanoid now shot its glance to every bee around.

“Please..calm..Your Majesty...”

“Your development is good already. I know what you want to say.” The figure wore a crown around its head. Not only that but its dress also looked good and form a certain pattern in it.

“Whoever dares to enter our territory will be punished. This is what Your Queen, Theresa have promised to you! Whatever reason they have, we will visit them!” said the queen.

‘I hope they get rid of that item! Three years ago was a matter that I can’t even solve. But there is some sort of familiar feelings from afar.’

“Did..you..all hear that!?” the large bee was actually the leader of all the fighter bees both the scouts and the guards. This particular bee then started to release a blinding light before turning into another form.

It was the human form and then a weapon appeared before him.

Then he grabbed the weapon, which formed from his own sting before he pointed it at the direction where the intruder currently was. But before he said the order, the queen then said something that made all of them shocked.

“I think that this time, I will personally greet them.”