It took almost a year to organize such a large campaign, a quite stressful for those in charge of the work, mainly the General and Sword Immortal Ming. The logistics of preparing billions of troops for transport and war were not simple, thus Pef left those capable to deal with it.

Pef did not stay idle either, using his restaurant waiters to recruit poor but talented people for the war, then inducting them into the Legion via the Ten Element Method. His worries came true when a percent of the willing recruits were found to be infiltrators from various provinces and sects, even household guards from certain Nobles.

Then again, the Fate strands and the Legion loyalty protocols made sure the traitors converted to his cause anyways. They will be the frontline even so, but cultivation was equally skill and luck. Some of them will survive the bees.

And when it came the time to depart, Lady Yue froze the entire combined army into Temporal Amber, and just flew at Pef's side as they flew towards the distant Royal Nest.

The third party member was the Sword Ancestor, who flew on a dark grey sword like on a hoverboard.

Anyways, the travel time was compressed by Yue such that the journey took only hours, even if bypassing known Transport Junctions. It wasn't only the Legion that monitored who traveled through the Transport Arrays.

Soon enough, Yue unfroze the combined armies at the edge of the Royal Nest Starfield, while Pef consulted with his glove about the main opponent.

'That spike of qi just now? That's the Old Queen.' the glove pointed out once their presence was detected.

"Deploy into Formations, by regiments!" the General ordered with loud Words, assembling the army into reinforced Formations, both as battlefield units and array foci.

Pef began to envelop each army Phalanx with his protective and offensive arrays, mainly using Devils and Ants as Formation Stones, linking their qi and life with the arrays themselves.

The Sword Ancestor stood aside and watched the Legion prepare for battle, their ranks fitting precisely like clockwork into bigger and bigger supporting structures, like a castle being built with bodies instead of bricks.

In contrast, his own disciples stood around like sheep, some waving swords, others meditating or just staring fearfully at the ominous Starfield in front of them. Also true, most disciples lived a sheltered life inside the Sect, and only fought their peers or instructors in practice duels. It didn't bode well for their safety, milling around like this.

"Try to organize your people, Master Jin. The bees are coming." Pef said with a mild voice, and a pity glance at his disciples.

"Form up! Void Shields at the front!" the Sword Ancestor began to shout, waking the Sword disciples from their illusions.

With barely a minute to spare, the Sword Soul Sect arranged themselves in a semblance of order, while Sword Elders took charge of smaller groups, somewhat trying to emulate the disciplined Legion at their side.

And then a hurricane of stings and spells filled the sky, as uncountable numbers of bees, large and small but mainly small bees, formed huge clouds of death and tried to disintegrate the invaders of their nest.

Jin kept an eye on Zen, watching her demolish entire swarms of bees with her Void Swords, dying and respawning instantly just to continue the massacre undisturbed. Compared to the almost panicked strikes of his much stronger disciples, the girl was a miracle.

Meanwhile, the Legion regiments launched barrage after barrage of elemental and Sword strikes, each volley pulverizing the incoming bee swarms, only to reveal more and more behind them. The entire bee Starfield was waking up and mobilizing for war, darkening the skies with their numbers.

This wasn't the worst though, among the new arrivals higher ranks of bees began to appear, Tier 6 and 7s even a few Tier 8s. The Immortal Bees didn't die so easily, managing to withstand a hundred times more than a human cultivator would.

Pef began to frown, suspecting something. 'These aren't simple Voracious Beasts, are they?' he mused as he needed three Void Swords to kill a Tier 8 Bee Leader.

The glove drew the carcass inside its glove pocket and discovered the truth almost immediately. 'A type of Godbeast, almost. Durable yes, but without a special attack.'

Pef flew forward into the swarm, and smacked a live Tier 8 bee into his Violet Portal, all while enduring millions of bee stings and Wind slashes with his Preservation Arrays. So far, he didn't even feel in danger, but the war had barely begun. There would be stronger bees, and then their Queen.

'This one didn't taste the Royal Honey. It seems they transform after that. Bring me a stronger one.' the Taotie demanded after crunching the Silver Bee between his teeth.

'Right away...' Pef mumbled as he slashed around with a storm of Void Swords, clearing his way a second for a Blink.

Then he jumped back with a Tier 9 Bee in tow, extracted from the core of a large honeycomb structure filled with trillions of dormant bees.

It seemed the Nest wasn't fully awake yet, if they didn't even wake up the dormant bees. These huge numbers were only the border guards.

Pef gulped at the thought, and then pushed the Copper Realm Bee into the Violet Realm, with quite some effort. The Tier 9 Bee was extraordinarily strong, perhaps on par with the White Tiger.

'Oh? This one is feisty. I'll save the wings for you, Master. You may craft some nice Artifacts from them.' the Taotie commented as he began to Devour the prey that Pef had just gifted him.

Pef glanced around, using his senses to gather a comprehensive view of the battlefield. Already many Soldiers in the Legion had began Ascending, especially those who were already at the peak of their realm. Thousands of Golden Realm Ants became Silver Immortal Ants, and thus significantly boosting their own Formations.

He had a feeling they will need those higher realms soon, if more of the bees began to wake up.

"Deploy the Spirits!" he ordered when a new wave of bees filled the horizon.

A dozen giant Taotie Spirits appeared above the Legion Formations, and they rushed ahead to Devour swarm after swarm of bees before they could reach the frontline. In mere seconds, the frontline became empty of enemies, as the Spirits feasted of the numerous but weaker bees.

He glanced at the General, who opened her eyes to reveal a silver glint. "Legion, begin the advance!" the General spoke with glowing Words.

Moving together in formation, the Veritas Legion began to advance, with looming Taotie Spirits over their heads.

The Sword Ancestor gulped for a second, then waved his sword onwards as well. 'This is the Way' he murmured inward.