Sword Ancestor Jin looked over the battlefield with calm eyes, taking in all the fighting with mild curiosity.

His Sect's disciples were beginning to grow, not only in cultivation but in battle mentality. Even the weakest outer disciples had stopped puking their guts at the gruesome sights of eviscerated people or beasts. The near-constant fighting had broken something inside them, perhaps.

Either way, the Sect Elders had an easier time now, without having to constantly watch over them and drag them out before they got surrounded and overwhelmed by far superior numbers. They weren't yet at the standards of their allies, but perhaps close to those Devils or ghouls.

Furthermore, distributing the Divine Wine and the burgers did increase the disciples' cultivation ranks and Dao insights, both helping increase their combat ability.

But Jin was more curious about those of the Celestial Restaurant, those so-called waiters. He watched as they jumped ranks and realms with every enemy killed, until all of them achieved Immortal Silver Realm and then kept growing.

While his Sect had obtained over 100 Silver Immortals via the cloud Silver burgers the Legion gained over 1000 of them without using any. Sure, they did have and eat normal Silver Burgers or drank Divine Wine to replenish their qi reserves, but otherwise they gained their cultivation only through combat.

After one waiter managed to defeat a few Bee Commanders and entered Silver Realm, they simply withdrew into those defense arrays and sent others out, while the strongest in the Legion merely kept watch with their Spirit Beasts. Or more likely it was a single Bronze Realm beast, sharing its powers with the ring users.

He glanced at the Divine Cook, finding the man slurping meat-and-sauce noodles with a concentrated look.

"What is it, Master Jin? You want some noodles?" the Divine Cook asked in a careless voice.

"Perhaps later. What are we actually doing here?" he answered with his own question.

But the blonde man simply shrugged. "We are baby-sitting the troops until they reach sufficient strength."

Master Jin nodded, catching the untold story from what was not said. They will need stronger troops for what was coming.

A Legion's regiment advanced and fired an attack Formation at a nearby Bee Hive, killing every single bee inside with a strange killing array, Death and Devour as the main components, but also Fire and Metal among other Dao components.

Thousands of weaker Legion Ants ascended into new realms, and a single Golden Realm Ant also achieved Silver Realm.

The regiment skipped back, and another one advanced, doing the same. Over and over, the Legion ground the bees with constant small pushes, gaining in strength in relative safety.

Even so, the Royal Bees continued their relentless assault, uncaring about loses. Millions of Bee Hives jumped in, and deployed their bee soldiers, sometimes carrying Immortal Bees, but most often not.

"They attempt to drain our qi. Throw in sacrifice troops that we have to kill, and expend our qi." the Sword Ancestor realized with a frown.

"Also stall us, until their stronger Bee Queens assemble. They study us, trying to find a weakness." the Divine Cook agreed in a mild voice.

Master Jin nodded, as he looked back as his own disciples. "My people are the weak link."

"Not so much anymore, but yes. Your Sword disciples never fought in a large scale war, and rarely had to pace themselves or manage their qi for the long term. But this is not a ten-minute duel." the Cook answered with a nod towards the newest suit user, a teenager recruited by Elder Ming right in the Celestial Restaurant.

The Gundam suit skipped over the battlefield, rushing to intercept Bee Immortals before they could massacre weaker disciples, then blurred into thousands of Void Swords and wing-blades, swiftly butchering the threat into nail-sized bits.

"If we had a hundred such suits..." Master Jin mused almost wistfully.

"We are building them. But they are complex devices, and we lack a key component. More Tier 9 weapons, like the Copper bee wings." the Cook answered in a calm tone.

Master Jin found his own student, little Zen taking part in the defense of a Legion starfort, with his old Soul River in hand. She had already reached Saint Realm, and seemingly had no problem holding off four entire Bee Hives by herself.

The display shattered more preconceptions he had about cultivation, as he knew the girl had been a mere Nascent Soul Realm only years ago, and only a Sky Realm when the war started. Soon enough, Zen would enter Divinity Realm without cultivating a single day.

"...Copper Realm bee wings. I'll go find some then." Master Jin answered with a far-away voice.

"That way." The Cook pointed carelessly, and the Sword Ancestor flew out, following the finger's trajectory.

Folding the void and speeding himself up, Master Jin rushed through a hundred bee-filled universes until he reached a large Bee Hive, constructed around an entire star. His Heaven-Splitting Sword felt quite appropriate to demolish the giant Bee Hive, and it did, although the star-sized construct resisted for a few seconds, to his surprise.

As the Bee Hive split open like a melon, five Copper Bee Queens flew out, and fired their Bee Stings from their tails.

As he dodged the beasts' weapons by reflex, he analyzed the stings passing by, finding them imbued with a dozen Daos, including Penetration, Soul, Mind and Gravity.

Quite dangerous for his disciples, if he was fair. Before the Bee Stings could curve around and re-acquire their target, he was already among the Bee Queens and slicing off heads and wings, taking care to avoid damage to the precious wings.

Several mind-screams splashed over him, then bounced off his silver-metal collar. Even more dangerous then. He even doubted his stronger Sect Elders could withstand more than a single such mind attack.

Finishing his fight in a few seconds he collected the loot and began flying back, when 19 more star-sized Bee Hives translated all around.

Master Jin cursed inward and he launched more Heaven Splitters at the new targets. Perhaps he shouldn't have volunteered for this mission. He didn't survive the Tree Wars by being a fool.

Jin only managed to destroy a dozen constructs when 20 more Bee Hives jumped in, disgorging billions of bees and thousands of Immortal Bee Warriors. Master Jin cursed again. This would be one of those days then. His qi was already a quarter depleted from the draining Heaven Splitters, and he was now fully surrounded. He might still win, simply by the fortune of being a higher realm and harder to damage, but it would suck.

All the sudden, the universe itself froze, glowing in golden amber.

"Nice work, Master Jin. We have 67 Tier 9 Bees here, plus those you killed already. The General wants the large things intact though, so please stop breaking them." he heard the Cook's relaxed voice at his side.

Turning cautiously, Jin saw the Cook holding hands with Lady Yue, his Bronze Realm wife who mastered Time Dao. He kinda forgot about her, for some reason. But the woman was possibly even more dangerous than the Cook.

The glow vanished and so did their enemies, leaving only empty void instead.

"You tested me?" Jin growled in annoyance.

"We need the Starfield intact, as much as possible. You have already destroyed a dozen universes with your overpowered sword strikes, Master Jin." Lady Yue answered instead, her indigo eyes tracing the expanding cones of his Heaven Splitters. True enough, the aftershocks of the Splitters verged out and burned into a dozen universes, extinguishing stars and galaxies by the billions.

"Also true, we didn't know the bees could construct Dyson Spheres. They might be more intelligent than we thought." the Cook mused out loud, already flying back towards the Legion lines.

The Sword Ancestor jumped on his sword and flew after the pair, while his mind reviewed the short battle again and again.

There were more lessons to be learned from this experience, not only about the bees but himself as well.