Chapter 1101 Tempting the Golden Bees
However, after the giant golden bees finished off the giant mosquitoes, they ignored Leon and turned their attention to the giant red bull ants crawling along the rocky walls.
In the earlier conflict, the giant golden bees were also attacked by giant red bull ants. As such, they directed their hostility at their next enemy, readying for a fight.
The giant red bull ants had enough intellect not to blindly leap off the rocky walls to catch Leon and the giant golden bees.
They could only camp on the rocky walls and wait for them to close within their attack range. Otherwise, nothing would happen.
However, the giant golden bees weren't so bright.
Even when they had no chance against the giant red bull ants due to their natural high defenses, the giant golden bees still flew at them with their stingers.
As a result, the giant golden bees had their stingers broken upon striking the giant red bull ants' hard shells.
At the same time, the giant red bull ants retaliated, catching them with their long mandibles. What awaited the golden bees were gruesome deaths.
The giant red bull ants absolutely crushed and tore the golden bees apart.
Nevertheless, the other giant golden bees didn't cower. They pressed on with their attacks, no matter futile their attempts were.
They weren't gifted for combat, but they were fearless.
'Looking back on the tunnels these insects came from, it is clear that they originated from different subterranean floors. The conflicts between them shouldn't be frequent, but at the same time, it doesn't seem uncommon either,' Leon thought.
Nevertheless, Leon wasn't interested in watching the giant golden bees throw away all their lives when there's a chance he could use them.
Furthermore, the giant red bull ants possessed excellent armor and weapon crafting materials, just like the black ants. He wasn't going to let them leave just like that.
Within a few passing breaths, Leon quickly joined the battle and assisted the giant golden bees in vanquishing the giant red bull ants.
Each giant red bull ant quickly died under a single clean and sharp shot of destruction bullet through their eyes, destroying their brains.
Shortly after, their bodies fell from the rocky walls—only for Leon to swoop in and collect them into his Worldspace.
As time went on, Goldenstride and Nightingale arrived from above.
When Leon saw them, he immediately knew that they had completed their task of cleaning up all the remaining Whitebone Fiends.
"My Lord, what's the situation?" Nightingale quickly inquired.
Goldenstride and Nightingale saw their Lord slaughtering the giant red bull ants while the giant red bull ants were slaughtering the giant golden bees.
"The golden bees are non-hostile unless attacked. They can become valuable assets once tamed. Thus, I am saving from the giant red bull ants."
"I see. Allow us to assist you, my Lord."
"No, the giant red bull ants are also valuable assets."
"They are…?"
Nightingale and Goldenstride were immediately stunned by their Lord's reason for refusing their help. They couldn't understand why their Lord was killing the giant red bull ants.
"The red bull ants are valuable assets when they are dead. Their carapaces are precious materials from manufacturing quality equipment, tools, and weapons," Leon casually explained without affecting his clean killing and quick looting.
"The both of you wield too much strength and can easily damage the carapaces beyond a usable state. Nevertheless, there are too many red bull ants for me to loot their materials while saving the golden bees at the same time."
"Thus, you have to prove you can secure their carapaces in good conditions if you both want to assist me. Otherwise, just try not to let too many golden bees die," Leon stated.
"Yes, my Lord!" Goldenstride and Nightingale answered.
Insects like ants and bees both had high reproduction rates. Thus, it didn't bother Leon too much if many golden bees died as long as some survived.
More importantly, there were only workers among the golden bees.
If Leon wanted to obtain a thriving colony of golden bees to produce high-quality spirit honey, he would have to secure their queen—or at the very least, a queen.
Nevertheless, Goldenstride and Nightingale proved their usefulness through their precise strength control.
Although incomplete and unperfected, Goldenstride was able to transform his golden flames into small fire arrows that were no large than normal threading needles to pierce the giant red bull ants' heads.
On the other hand, Nightingale shrunk into her human form and dominated the giant red bull ants with her brute strength, exploding their brains with punches through their huge eyes.
After taking down their prey, they collected the mostly-intact carapaces into their personal interspatial artifacts, which they learned to use with celestial energy in place of spirit energy.
Sometime later, the red bull ants were eliminated, and the golden bees survived, albeit with only a small fraction of their original numbers.
Buzz…
The giant golden bees buzzed around Leon, Goldenstride, and Nightingale with a strangely pleasant tune as if they were expressing their gratitude to them.
Afterward, Leon noticed they were preparing to leave and report back to the colony of their scouting mission.
However, Leon didn't plan on letting them leave just yet. That being said, he wasn't going to make them stay with force either.
Leon took out a sunflower seed and nurtured wood energy, accelerating its growth.
With the additional touch of life energy from the Divine Book of Life, the sunflower seed in Leon's hand bloomed wonderfully—or rather, it too bloomed too wonderfully.
The roots of the extended vines but thick like ginseng, the stem grew long and tall, and the main body became huge, bright, and beautiful like the sun.
To the golden bees that had never seen the sun or such a huge sunflower, it was their sun—their holy sunflower.
The huge sunflower attracted all the golden bees in the vicinity without surprise. They buzzed around it, worshipped it, and instinctively wanted to drink its nectar-rich contents.