Second Day.
The field beyond stretched differently. Between the pale rock columns, the air no longer stayed still.
Deeper within, the hive had already opened.
And they were coming out of it.
"Steady," Chen Wu shouted while he and the others hid behind cover.
A breath later—
"Wait—"
The cave bees burst from the hive without pause.
"Attack!"
The disciples reacted immediately. Weapons rose as spiritual energy flared in a synchronized response.
The first wave met them mid-air. Then I saw the bees clearly.
They were large, each one nearly the length of a forearm. Heavier and denser, with yellow and black stripes across their bodies.
Their wings moved at a frequency that produced a grinding sound instead of a normal buzz. Even from a distance, their poisonous stingers were visible.
Hou Zi moved on the right flank, his short blade cutting through the swarm in tight arcs. While Wei Peng held a wooden shield at an angle, redirecting bees that tried to flank him.
Chen Wu had moved to the center, his presence anchoring the formation the way it always did, his instructions brief and precise and immediately followed.
Zzzzzz.
Zzzzzz.
Tens of bees surrounded the disciples. Struck down or repelled, they returned again and again as if unaffected.
And still more poured out of the hive.
"There are too many!" one disciple shouted.
"Hold!" Hou Zi barked. "Don't let them split us."
Wei Peng braced his shield as another cluster slammed into it. "These things don't stop coming!"
Su ling's voice cut through the noise. "Aim for the wings. Bring them down first."
Blades shifted direction immediately.
A sword cut through the air. One bee lost a wing and dropped hard onto the stone, skidding across the ground.
Another disciple followed the same instruction.
But the swarm did not thin.
"They're replacing themselves faster than we can kill them," Wei Peng said through his teeth.
"Just don't STOP!"
The clash continued at the center of the field.
I watched it for a moment. "What a heart-touching show," I murmured.
But foolish.
There had been no plan. All had rushed the hive and started killing whatever came out.
At first, when Chen Wu and Hou Zi separated from the group, I thought they were drawing part of the swarm away so the others could deal with it in smaller numbers.
But no. I shook my head slightly. And now all were surrounded by bees.
That's when I noticed some of the bees peeling away from the main swarm and drifting toward the outer edge of the field.
Stragglers.
They had broken away from the main fight and were moving outward in loose, wandering lines, searching for new targets.
I considered the swarm at the center of the field once more, where Chen Wu's group was struggling.
For me there was no particular reason to join them at the center. The bees that reached the outer edge were more than enough.
One bee turned in my direction and I met it with an open palm strike that caught it mid-flight and drove it into the stone beside me.
"Essence Palm."
The second came from above. I stepped aside and caught it from behind before it understood the flight was already over. I tightened my grip, crushing its hard body.
CRUNCH.
When I opened my hand, the stinger was still there, but slightly bent.
"Tch." It was now useless.
I dropped the broken husk to the ground. More shadows were already drifting toward me and I met them without pause.
The main swarm roared somewhere to my left. The disciples were holding for now, but the pressure never eased, and the bees breaking from the outer edge of the swarm kept drifting toward the field's perimeter.
Where I was waiting for them.
Time passed unnoticed in the stillness of the underground. While I stayed in place, handling each one that came.
I had lost count of how many I had killed. Then the hive began to pull them back.
Zzzzzz.
It happened gradually. One section of the swarm thinned, then another. The bees that had broken away turned and began moving back toward the hive.
Within a few breaths the field went from deafening to quiet. What remained was the sound of the disciples catching their breath and the faint settling of wings against stone.
I crouched beside the nearest body.
The stinger had lodged into the bee's own abdomen from the force of the impact. I worked it loose carefully, pinching just below the venom sac before drawing it free.
I set it aside and moved to the next.
Six. Seven. I checked each one before keeping it, making sure the tip was intact and the sac unruptured.
Then I walked back to where the group had gathered away from the hive and sat on a flat stone at the edge.
Hou Zi was wrapping cloth around his forearm where a sting had caught him. He glanced up when I sat down.
His eyes moved to the stings in my hand.
"Humph, coward."
Chen Wu stood next to him. Manual closed in one hand, looking at the middle distance.
The group rested in pieces. Some tended small wounds. A few disciples brushed dead bees from their robes.
Someone laughed tiredly, then went quiet again.
After a while, Chen Wu spoke.
"I know where the crystal might be."
Every head turned toward him.
Even mine. "Heh, as expected. The system at work."
He did not elaborate immediately, letting the statement settle.
"Follow me." He turned and took the lead.
The group rose without discussion and followed. The fatigue from the bee hunt was set aside at once, replaced by the quiet focus.
I picked up the stings and stood up. This was going to be easy.
The terrain shifted.
The rocky section of the field gave way to lower ground where the cavern ceiling hung closer above us.
Chen Wu led us toward a wide depression. The edges sloped downward, forming a natural basin in the earth.
Dark stone walls rose around it, turning the hollow into something that felt almost like a cave.
The group had already entered it. I paused at the cave entrance for a moment before going in.
The spiritual essence inside the depression moved differently than it did in the open field.
"Have they already gone deeper?" I said, and was just about to continue when suddenly, a faint disturbance shifted through my senses.
My eyes lifted slightly. Beside me, a vibration more than a sound spread through the wall.
I stepped closer and pressed my hand against the stone, holding it there for a moment to trace where the vibration was coming from.
But the next second, Chen Wu and his entire group burst out of the depression at full speed, as if running for their lives.
They shot past me without slowing.
"What the…?"
I turned back toward the slope. The opening above was narrow enough that they would have to funnel through in pairs.
But right then, something came flying toward me.
SPLASH.
A thick dark liquid burst across my upper back and neck in a cold impact, carrying a sharp stench.
But I didn't stop. The exit was only a few meters ahead, and the others had already left.
I was still on the way when I heard it—many heavy legs striking the stone at once.
The sound didn't stay behind me. It spread across the stone surfaces, as something gathered above the passage.
My senses screamed.
A long body emerged, crawling along the upper stone before landing ahead of me.
It slid into place between me and the exit, blocking the path.
From outside the passage, shouts echoed in.
"Die you demonic bastard.. haha.."
"Go on—try following now! Let's see you crawl out of that hole!"
"Tear him apart! Don't leave anything intact!"
The voices faded instantly, swallowed by the stone and distance.
Behind me the scraping intensified.
I turned, not taking my eyes off the creature at the exit.
"This…"
The floor of the depression was dark and… moving! Even the walls were.
My gaze sharpened.
Thousands of centipedes crawled upward, all converging toward one point—the creature blocking the exit.
"Dark shelled centipede."