Near instantly, the universe froze as Lady Yue stepped in front of the Taotie, her eyes cycling through numerous emotions, from relief to confusion.

"Grandpa, you're out ?!?" she finally managed to ask.

The old beast preened like a peacock, and flashed her a toothy smile. "What? You doubted my awesome self? Aren't I..."

But Yue ignored the old beast and turned towards her husband. "It was you, Pef! Somehow, you managed to twist the timeline and freed Grandpa 700 years too soon."

Pef just shrugged and smiled kindly. "It was an accident, mostly. I didn't know I could do this, when I stored the Royal Bee Queen..." he explained in a soft voice.

Yue blinked, then opened a Violet Portal to peek inside the dimensional prison. "Errr?" she wondered in a wordless tone.

Pef nodded. "Exactly my thoughts. On the other hand, it should be much easier to deal with the Mercy Seat now. Just toss the stronger Nobles to the Old Queen."

Yue sighed and tapped her chin in deep thought. "They switched places...The Seven Color Pagoda should have this ability, but it is still too soon. You aren't even at the peak of Tier 10. Strange."

Pef nodded again, agreeing completely. He didn't actually have such an ability, not as an internal power anyways. His wife was quite correct, but Yue didn't know about external aids. "I did visit the Sword River just now. There was a strong person waiting there, probably at Tier 12. He seemed quite amazed at my presence though."

The Time Goddess measured Pef with concerned eyes for a second. "I hope you didn't beat him up."

"I'm not that kind of person!" Pef protested weakly, making even the Taotie chuckle.

"I remember you declaring war on the Shin Navy and murdering trillions of Shins to rescue me, including Admirals in 5th and 6th Tier. And you were only a Tier 4 then." Yue muttered with a scowl.

Pef sighed and simply shut up. He used to be such a violent young man, blowing up entire galaxies just to rescue his wife.

Then again, in the cultivation world powerful people were more similar to powerful nations back home. Nuclear weapons held back only by threats and diplomacy. Every meeting with another cultivator could result in conflict, and at the realm they operated now, entire universes could get obliterated with a swing of a sword.

"Be back soon, love. Keep watch over the troops." Pef said after a minute, then jumped onto Taotie's back.

In a blink they were gone, flying at great speed towards the center of the Royal Bee Starfield.

Unlike Pef who teleported forward at a rapid rate, the old beast moved by momentum, almost like swimming through space and dimensions, but despite that the Taotie was still much faster than Pef. And from what the fisherman in the Sword River said, the Bee Queen was far faster as well.

'Try to learn what my pet does to move so fast.' Pef ordered his glove, as he normally did. The glove was perfectly suited and able to analyze and understand various cultivator techniques or abilities, mostly due to its immense computation powers. Those 10000 Intellect and Wisdom points weren't there just to pad its stats on a character sheet.

After a few hours of fast travelling through the Bee Starfield, the Taotie slammed through a powerful dimensional wall and entered the final Bee Hive, finding an entire universe flattened into a wide field of spirit trees and rare flowers, and also many bees. Lots and lots of bees.

The curvature of the universe was so minute that the terrain appeared perfectly flat, even for Pef's powerful senses.

"What now? Should I kill all these bees?" the Taotie asked curious.

Pef slapped the Taotie's head gently. "It is the bees that make honey." he explained patiently.

"I see. This our private farm then. Found it!" The Taotie exclaimed and flew forward into the center of the universe, where stars were collected and hang together into a honeycomb structure, possibly for warmth or decoration.

In a few seconds, Pef and the Taotie stopped as they arrived at a hexagonal vat the size of a battleship, filled with precious honey. Liquid gold honey with thin blue strands blue, smelling divine.

Gulp!

Without waiting for permission, the beast Devoured the entire precious vat, including its walls.

Steam and heat blew from the Taoties mouth and ears, as his cultivation rose rapidly and entered the 5th Star of the Bronze realm.

"Master...there are millions of these honey vats! Taste good too!"

Pef sighed and clenched his gloved hand, collecting 99% of the available honey into the Glove's inventory. It wouldn't do to completely loot the honey, as the bees would need it to feed their next generations.

'Wait! See that blue tree?' the glove pointed while marking a vector on Pef's retina.

Pef took a small step, traversing the universe until he stood at the feet of a giant mulberry tree, filled with many dark blue fruits and billions of breath-takingly smelling flowers.

Simply breathing in the scents made his fatigue vanish, and his cultivation circuits flow faster.

Also, sitting or sleeping in this tree were numerous high realm bees, including hundreds of Tier 9 Bees.

Deciding quickly, Pef sank his consciousness into the gift bottle he received from the fisherman, and imprisoned the stronger bees into his Violet Realm, while the mulberry tree itself was moved into the Blue Realm, beside the Bamboo and Peach trees.

Thinking a bit more, he also stored the entire Garden universe into the small bottle, signaling towards the fisherman above that he had accomplished his goals. Using the bottle was quite risky, as it would indicate towards the fisherman what his actions were.

It was what Pef would have done while giving away such a powerful artifact, and the old master was certainly less of an idiot than Pef himself.

Although Pef wasn't quite certain what tests the old master had prepared for his surprise visitor in the Sword River, the glove did have some ideas.

Using the Demon Speed Pills was excluded as a fool's game. Or maybe they were intended to direct him towards Alchemy.

Using the bottle to directly attack or kill people was probably out as well, although self-defense might work.

Revealing its existence or abilities was likely out as well. The bottle was a prize for his personal achievement of reaching the Sword River, not something to be studied by unworthy people.

The Formations on the bottle were most likely a teaching aid for his Formation Dao. It was likely that as he understood more, the bottle would reveal further abilities.

The Taotie came and nudged him gently, waking Pef from his meditation. "What now, Master?"

"We can return to our restaurant now." Pef said calmly.

"But the war?" the old beast asked while gesturing at the ongoing battle-lines clashing in the distance.

"That's the General's business. I'm mostly a cook." Pef explained with a shrug. He had a lot of cooking to do.

"As you say, Master. Hold on tight!" the Taotie exclaimed as it began flying at speed towards home.

---------

As Pef departed from the Bee Starfield at speed, the General's eyes glinted with silver light. With the Old Bee Queen taken out of the war, she had a perfect playground to increase her martial skills, as well as convert more and more bees to the Legion Method.

Plus, the Veritas Legion was growing in strength quite rapidly, and even the allies were starting to become more like soldiers than mere individual warriors. Now it was her time to shine. After all, war was her Domain.