The second visit to the Treasure Bee hive was received with considerably more enthusiasm than Shen Cong would have preferred.
Every bee in the colony that could fly launched itself at him the moment he came into range. The fist-sized Treasure Bees layered around him, stacked thick, biting and stinging with complete commitment.
They were simply too weak to matter. Even a moderately equipped evolved person with decent coverage would have been fine. Shen Cong, wearing the Half-Activated Armor, felt it as ambient noise.
He brushed the bees off his visor, left the ones on his body where they were, and walked directly to the hive.
The sections he’d cut out on his previous visit had been repaired. The bees had been diligent — the Bee Treasure reserves were fully replenished. He tore open a new section, confirmed what he was looking at, and pulled out the carrying satchel he’d made from Golden Jiao hide.
The faint trace of Golden Jiao scent hit the colony like a command. Every bee peeled away and scattered in seconds.
Silence.
“Should have brought this out immediately.” He watched the last few bees retreat. “The Golden Jiao has reach even in death.”
He cut away half of the Bee Treasure-filled comb sections as before and packed them into the satchel. But this visit had a second objective — he wanted Treasure Bees and larvae to bring back for research.
“Pupae should be at the top sections — yes, there they are.” White bee pupae, densely packed, many of them. He cut away a section of comb with the pupae intact and packaged it carefully.
The third item on his list was Royal Treasure Jelly — the Treasure Bee equivalent of royal jelly.
In ordinary bee colonies, worker bees produce royal jelly from their hypopharyngeal glands. Any larva fed exclusively on royal jelly develops into a queen; larvae switched to honey and pollen after three days become workers. The queen eats royal jelly for life.
“Royal jelly is stored in the queen cells — the queen cells are where the current queen lives. Cut some queen cell sections, check for larvae inside… get enough Royal Treasure Jelly… I want to try some myself.”
The queen cells weren’t large. He cut away most of them. The slightly larger queen — visibly distinguished from the workers by her size — dove into the deepest part of the hive and didn’t come out.
Inside the queen cells he’d cut were several larvae. They were clearly being raised as queen candidates. What puzzled him was the timing — bee colonies only raise replacement queens when the existing queen is aging, preparing for the colony to split, with the old queen taking a swarm to found a new hive. Five months wasn’t long enough for a Treasure Bee queen to age out under normal circumstances.
Maybe this queen was already old when the colony formed.
Not a question worth pursuing. He packaged the queen cells carefully, sealed the sections, and applied a scent-masking spray — camp-produced, developed to prevent evolved beast tracking — to both the Golden Jiao satchel and himself. He wasn’t going to repeat the Furious Sparrow incident.
Pack secured, he moved quickly back to the road.
Great Vajra caught the convoy without difficulty — the column had been moving at reduced speed.
Around Miaogang Township, he stopped again. The Traffic Light Persimmon tree — he’d been meaning to check it. The tree had fruited, but a species of evolved bird had gotten there first. Only small, unripe persimmons remained.
He moved on without picking.
The convoy reached Hefei in good order. Morning departure, afternoon return. No significant incidents.
The Fenghuang Mountain Vineyard Camp’s survivors received a warm welcome at the Mingfa Camp. Zhao Weiliang and the leadership moved immediately to absorb the arriving management structure, assigning housing and work roles, recording names and backgrounds, integrating everything into the camp’s unified military administration.
After dinner, Wang Yingying found him.
His dual identity was effectively an open secret now — Boss Huang in Juchao District, Colonel Hu Ge in Hefei. The names were clearly aliases, but the name no longer mattered. He was still Colonel Hu Ge.
“Boss Huang. My parents’ names aren’t on the camp roster.” She said it simply.
Shen Cong returned a pendant to her — he’d been holding it for the search. “The Blue-Face group isn’t here either.”
Wang Yingying contained whatever she was feeling. “Thank you.”
“What are your plans now?” The question came out flat, without warmth.
“I’m not sure. Commander Zhao said to wait until the new city is formally established and the organizational restructuring happens. For now I’m helping settle the Fenghuang Mountain survivors.”
“Alright.”
He’d already turned back to Great Vajra’s armor plating, wiping road mud from the surfaces. His care for the vehicle exceeded his care for most things, and the conversation had reached its natural end.
“I’ll be going, then. Boss Huang — I mean, Colonel Hu.”
Wang Yingying had barely left when Li Aiping arrived with Zhang Kan and several other Research Institute specialists in tow.
“Colonel, Director Zhang and his team are here.”
Shen Cong had asked Li Aiping to bring them for the Bee Treasure research. He dismissed her and invited the group — all ordinary people, no evolved persons — into Great Vajra’s aft cabin, specifically the butchery area. He wouldn’t have allowed it otherwise. Bee Treasure’s scent needed to be contained; letting it disperse would attract unwanted attention.
“Director Zhang — here are your specimens. Ten mature worker bees. This section is comb containing Bee Treasure and pupae. This smaller piece is queen cell comb with larvae inside. I want the Research Institute to analyze Bee Treasure’s composition and investigate whether Treasure Bees can be bred in captivity as a camp husbandry project.”
“Remarkable creatures.” Zhang Kan examined the comb with visible excitement. “Colonel Hu always manages to bring the camp something significant. We’ll establish a dedicated Bee Treasure Laboratory immediately — I’ll have Vice Director Xu Changde lead it personally. His specialty is biology.”
Xu Changde was the Research Institute’s biology-focused vice director, a former associate professor at the University of Science and Technology of China. He weighed his words carefully. “I’ve done research into bee breeding techniques. If Treasure Bees share enough behavioral traits with ordinary bees, successful captive breeding should be achievable.”
“Good. The comb sections are yours. Bee Treasure’s direct physical enhancement effect has limits, but as a catalyst for Activity fruit — amplifying the enhancement from other sources — it’s genuinely valuable. The contribution to human evolutionary development could be substantial.”
“We’ll treat the Bee Treasure project as one of the Research Institute’s priority research initiatives, Colonel. You have our word.”
After Zhang Kan’s team left, Shen Cong prepared his own private cultivation setup in the greenhouse.
He’d kept back half of the queen cell comb, most of the Bee Treasure, and a portion of the Royal Treasure Jelly. Despite having wanted to consume the Royal Treasure Jelly himself, he’d resisted — instead, he planned to use it to feed a single larva from the queen cell section. He was going to try raising a queen bee himself.
If it worked, he’d establish a perceptual link with her, use that connection to guide hive-building behavior, and maintain his own personal Treasure Bee colony on board. A daily supply of Bee Treasure and Royal Treasure Jelly without requiring field trips.
“Treasure Bees collect nectar on their own. More efficient than keeping ants.” He glanced at Blackhead, who was making rounds through the vehicle carrying metal scraps and Activity cores — all of it for the Antgod, who had developed an enormous appetite since beginning her egg-laying preparation. Her abdomen had swollen noticeably larger every day. Shen Cong was beginning to wonder if she’d end up looking like a driver ant queen — that distinctive grotesque distended shape. The ant burrow’s dimensions could still accommodate her. Barely.
He returned his attention to the queen cell larvae in front of him, thinking through the problem.
Both times I established a perceptual link — with Blackhead and with the Antgod — they were near death. Eggs on the verge of failing. With the Mechanical Vine, the connection came when the cutting was wilting badly. So the pattern is: distress state, then Activity infusion, then the link forms.
Should I let the larva starve half to death first, then try?
(End of Chapter 179)