Heavenly Dao Engine
Chapter 1628 - 1628 0960 Couldnt Help But Give a Like_2

Chapter 1628: Chapter 0960 Couldn’t Help But Give a Like_2 Chapter 1628: Chapter 0960 Couldn’t Help But Give a Like_2 Fortunately, none of that happened, and every time it was a close call. As time went by, the number of Tiger Baby Bees rushing out of the beehive decreased, both in quantity and scale. It appeared that not many combat-ready Tiger Baby Bees were left—almost all had died in battle. Without the threat of the Tiger Baby Bees, getting the Infant Fruit became much easier.

Gao Yuqiu excitedly shouted, “Everyone, put in a bit more effort, try a little harder, and the Infant Fruit Tree is right before our eyes. This opportunity is ours for the taking!”

Before Gao Yuqiu could finish, the beehive hanging on the Infant Fruit Tree suddenly began to tremble, then several cracks appeared on the hive, and soon after, a head as big as a fighting cock burst forth from within.

Gao Yuqiu’s face changed as he said, “Everyone be careful, the Bee Queen is coming out.”

The Bee Queen emerged quickly—in just a matter of seconds—and before Qi Tian and the others could make a preemptive attack, the Bee Queen had already burst from the hive. Flapping its wings, it pounced towards Xiu Zhengyu, who was closest to the Infant Fruit Tree.

This Bee Queen was exceptionally large, about a meter in length, and despite its size, its speed was astonishing. As it flew, a trembling sound filled the air.

With a buzz, the Bee Queen was already in front of Xiu Zhengyu, its tail needle over a meter long whipping towards Xiu Zhengyu’s eyes.

Xiu Zhengyu was prepared, but the Bee Queen’s speed still exceeded his expectations. Frightened, he hurriedly used his Flight Sword to retreat, while simultaneously controlling another Flying Sword to slash at the Bee Queen.

The Bee Queen’s perception was incredibly sharp, and it effortlessly dodged the attack by fluttering its wings. Then, relentless, the Bee Queen charged at Xiu Zhengyu once again.

At that moment, Xiu Zhengyu wasn’t only battling the Bee Queen—another dozen Tiger Baby Bees were circling around him, seeking an opportunity to exploit any weakness, ready to deliver a fatal blow.

Xiu Zhengyu had just commanded his Flying Sword to slay some Tiger Baby Bees, now he could barely attend to anything else, and quickly summoned back all his Flying Swords. Under his command, they together fended off the attacks from the Bee Queen and the other Tiger Baby Bees.

The Tiger Baby Bees attacking Gao Yuqiu, Qi Tian, and others became extremely agitated when the Bee Queen appeared; their attacks grew even more fierce and relentless.

Xiu Zhengyu’s mastery of sword flight was indeed extraordinary, but having been pierced too many times by the Tiger Baby Bees’ tail needles, he had been able to suppress the effects at first. After tangling with the Bee Queen for a while, however, he had to activate the True Essence restraining the bee poison to cope with the Bee Queen’s attacks. Consequently, the poison started taking effect on Xiu Zhengyu’s body. Unable to hold out any longer, his movements began to slow, and he couldn’t cast the Spirit Rune commands for the Flying Swords timely or accurately. Eventually, the Bee Queen spotted an opening and immediately dove in, aiming for Xiu Zhengyu’s eyes.

Xiu Zhengyu instinctively maneuvered a Flying Sword in between him and the Bee Queen. The Bee Queen’s tail needle struck, not reaching Xiu Zhengyu’s eye but landing on the sword’s spine instead. With a “bang”, the Flying Sword was actually snapped by the Bee Queen’s sting.

The broken Flying Sword didn’t completely negate the Bee Queen’s attack, which maintained its high speed and aimed for the closely situated Xiu Zhengyu. With the bee poison hampering him, Xiu Zhengyu couldn’t dodge in time. Just as the Bee Queen’s tail needle was about to pierce Xiu Zhengyu’s eye, a Tiger Baby Bee, like a baseball knocked out of the park, flew towards them. The Tiger Baby Bee slammed into Xiu Zhengyu’s body first, causing him, positioned on the Flying Sword, to stagger. The Bee Queen’s tail needle didn’t hit Xiu Zhengyu’s eye but instead stabbed into his shoulder.

Xiu Zhengyu managed to avoid a skull-piercing death, but the bee queen’s stinger still plunged into his shoulder, eliciting a scream of agony. Not only did the stinger penetrate his shoulder, but it also injected into his body an even more poisonous venom from the bee queen.

Xiu Zhengyu could no longer hold on; his figure wavered, and he fell from his flying sword. Moments later, he crashed heavily to the ground, his survival uncertain.

Qi Tian shook his head with a tinge of regret. He had just detected the peril Xiu Zhengyu was in, hence he struck at a Tiger Baby Bee, hoping to help Xiu Zhengyu extricate himself from danger. However, in the rush, he overlooked the fact that Xiu Zhengyu’s body, which had been severely poisoned, had become extraordinarily heavy, which meant that Xiu Zhengyu couldn’t entirely follow through with his plan. If Xiu Zhengyu had been struck by even a little less bee venom, he might not have gotten stung by the bee queen. But now it was too late for regrets, and Qi Tian once again focused on dealing with the Tiger Baby Bees surrounding him.

After dealing with Xiu Zhengyu, the bee queen turned its deadly weapon—a stinger that, unlike those of the common Tiger Baby Bees, did not fall off but remained on its body—toward another team member.

Gao Yuqiu promptly called out, “Sir, be careful. Let’s focus on taking down this Tiger Baby Bee queen first. We must not give it any more opportunities.”

Qi Tian suddenly furrowed his brows. He quickly sent a message to Gao Yuqiu, “Sir, be cautious. I sense someone is about to steal our peaches.”

Gao Yuqiu looked around and saw that the two minor squads that had been engaged in fierce combat were still at it. Besides them, there were no other people around. Who could be coming to steal their peaches?

However, Gao Yuqiu knew that Qi Tian was not one to speak without basis, and with a mindset of better safe than sorry, she nodded and replied, “I will be cautious.”

Qi Tian didn’t say anything more. He turned his gaze to a certain point in the sky. He hadn’t been paying special attention to that area before, even when using the Heavenly Dao Engine to explore his surroundings, focusing his search on the ground and its immediate vicinity. He hadn’t concerned himself with higher altitudes.

But just then, when the bee queen appeared and knocked Xiu Zhengyu off his flying sword, a slight spiritual force fluctuation emerged from that spot in the sky, catching the ever-vigilant Qi Tian’s attention.

Others might have dismissed this slight fluctuation of spiritual force, or not taken it seriously—after all, in the Cultivation World, such fluctuations were commonplace, and no one had the energy to treat every such anomaly as significant. They were mostly ignored, unless the issue was of great importance and sufficient energy at hand. Otherwise, it would be easily let go.

However, now that Qi Tian had sensed it, he would not ignore it. The matter involved an Infant Fruit, which was significant enough, and while such investigations might be problematic for others, they were rather simple for him. He only needed to slightly adjust the direction of the Heavenly Dao Engine’s search to quickly obtain accurate information.

That’s what Qi Tian thought, and that’s what he did. He immediately changed the direction of the Heavenly Dao Engine’s search toward the location of the spiritual force fluctuation and its surrounding area. In the next instant, the Heavenly Dao Engine sent back to him a highly detailed three-dimensional image.

Upon seeing this three-dimensional image, Qi Tian couldn’t help but give a thumbs-up, thinking, “What a talent.”

From the three-dimensional image, Qi Tian saw his suspicions were correct. Beneath this expanse of sky, there indeed lurked another group of people—more precisely, one person—who used an extremely sophisticated stealth spell to quietly hide in the air.

If that had been the extent of it, it wouldn’t have been enough to earn Qi Tian’s approval. What really piqued his interest and earned his praise was a series of arrangements by this cultivator, so impressive that even Qi Tian couldn’t help but be astounded.