Chapter 33: The Second Reconnaissance

The idea of "building an artificial apiary" was not a whimsical whim for Chu Jiu. In his memory, the number of "beekeepers" required for an apiary could be very small—as few as just one person. For Bean Village, which suffered from a severe labor shortage, a facility that could be managed by a single person was absolutely ideal. Furthermore, the mountain behind Bean Village was lush with vegetation and home to many wild flower fields, so finding a nectar source was not a problem—otherwise, Grandpa Du would never have been able to harvest wild honey.

Unfortunately, beyond knowing that "an apiary needs a beekeeper to tend to the colony and a place nearby for bees to forage," Chu Jiu had no other knowledge about how to actually build one. With only these fragments, even with the boost from his "Clear Mind" ability, it was impossible for him to derive the recipe for an apiary. The system had not yet dropped an apiary blueprint for him, so he couldn't simply have his spirit beasts build one near his cabin and then copy it over to Bean Village.

However...

Chu Jiu stepped out of his courtyard and once again examined the "Primary Monster Pasture" that had just been completed today. The pasture occupied a significant area and looked square and orderly. Gulu had cleared the trees from the ground, circled the area with wooden fences, and tilled the soil inside. Yet, the pasture lacked any specialized facilities—no troughs, no coops, nothing. According to the system prompts, the system would only automatically generate the corresponding facility blueprints after Chu Jiu captured monsters and placed them into the pasture.

In other words, if he caught monster bees and brought them back, he would receive the specific blueprint for an "Apiary for Raising Monster Bees." But the recipe description for the monster pasture made it very clear: "Cannot directly generate 'Honor Zone' specific blueprints; cannot be directly reused in the 'Honor Zone'."

Chu Jiu stared at this sentence in the background for a long time before deciding to follow his own intuition and take a bold risk.

Little Canned (the kitten) tilted its head at the mirror and reached out its little cat paw, curiously patting it a few times.

[Apiary officially enabled!]
[Congratulations, Host!]

On the stove here, fish was steaming, and in the pot over there, brine had been prepared, ready for the chicken legs to be braised. The "Detector" flew toward the small wooden building. He wondered if that little mirror had been fixed yet.

In the center of the illustrated card was the Blood-Sucking Bee, and in the bottom right corner were two heart-shaped icons—one red and one blue.

After receiving Chu Jiu's specific instructions, Roar-Roar Rabbit was full of energy, pounding its chest like a gorilla: "Roar, roar, roar! Don't worry, I will definitely cultivate Cannas that have no foul smell and can still attract insects!"

Kakaba, having received its work assignment, ran straight to the bottom of the swarm, waving its chubby arms and legs, making a unique calling sound in its throat. It soothed the panicked giant bees while telling them where the new hive was, how large the flower field was, and that they didn't need to worry about other insects coming to steal their nectar...

[Spirit Beast No. 4 has triggered "Growth"]
[Current growth level of Spirit Beast No. 4: 4]

"Human!" Chen Mo whispered.

Primary Apiary.
[Deployment complete.]

The next morning.

When monsters and Spirit Beast No. 4 were within a certain distance, monsters in states like berserk or rage would briefly lose their hostility, shifting into a sluggish state of "Ah, what a nice day, I just want to lie down and take a nap."

Chu Jiu sat at the long workbench in his studio, took out a wooden board, and doodled with a charcoal pencil, pondering his next plan.

[Please continue to arrange work for Spirit Beast No. 4, keep it happy and healthy, and assist in its rapid growth.]

Having confirmed the cultivation direction of [Scent], Chu Jiu saw the success rate provided by the system:

At the same time, Chu Jiu saw that the blue hollow heart on the illustrated card instantly filled by one-third... one-half... and finally, it was completely full!

Chu Jiu was so happy he crouched down and praised the little ones one by one.

Lu Qingyan, in front of the screen, gently pressed his knuckles against his chin, his gaze sweeping over the young man, the peculiar building behind him, and the... row of miniature pets beside him?

What should I do? What should I do?

[Appearance, Scent, Taste, Growth Rate, Plant Utility]
[Creative Breeding—even plants not previously marked as "cultivatable" may yield corresponding seeds.]
[Note: The more aspects the Host selects, the higher the probability of cultivation failure. Please judge comprehensively and choose carefully.]
[Note: The specific effects of this skill will be influenced by multiple factors, including the monster's status, its personal preferences, the external environment, and the state of the spirit beast itself.]

Just then, the system popped up a prompt again:

Even if the Blood-Sucking Bees looked terrifying, they were essentially just bees, and they were the type that didn't actively attack humans and had a relatively mild temperament. Since that was the case, it was better to use their swarming instinct to persuade them to move into the pasture.

But scent was different.
The system showed no response.

As for whether the "nectar that attracts insects" trait was retained, it remained to be verified.

Sure enough!

*
At the edge of the village stood the two-story wooden building.
Chu Jiu still handed the seedling to Roar-Roar Rabbit.
Not only was the color of the petals like blood, but its nectar also emitted a strange metallic, rusty smell—almost indistinguishable from the scent of human blood.

"And Kakaba, thanks to you for being able to communicate with the monsters; otherwise, who knows how long these Blood-Sucking Bees would have been flying around in chaos."

He found an open space in the forest and smeared his homemade [Bee-Catching Artifact] on the ground.

[Please have the Host arrange for a spirit beast with relevant skills to carry out the work as soon as possible.]
[Deployment program for "Detector" has been initiated.]

As soon as these words were spoken, Little Canned’s eyes went round, staring straight at Chu Jiu; the fur on its body stood on end, and even its little whiskers twitched!

After breakfast, the other three little ones had important tasks today:

After he acquired the [Monster Trapping] skill, the illustrated cards for some monsters had changed.

"Roar, roar, roar! It's okay, it's okay! The new Canna has grown, and there's not a bit of foul smell anymore, roar, roar, roar!"

Indeed, when planning earlier, Chu Jiu had told the spirit beasts that when there were too many bees in a colony, the queen would take about one-half to one-third of the members and leave the hive to find another suitable location. The original hive would then naturally produce a new queen. This was known as "swarming," an instinctual behavior for colonial insects like bees.

"Listen to me carefully, no interrupting."

Alsa Star.
Blood-Sucking Bee: ??!

The Blood-Sucking Bees were not ordinary bees after all. Their worker bee population was far smaller than that of common bees. These 20 worker bees already accounted for half of the colony.

Furthermore, although he had earned quite a few exploration points, opening the Honor Zone and building the monster pasture had used up 6,000 points in one go. He had instantly returned to poverty, back to the struggling life where he had to split every single exploration point in two...

The Cannas cultivated by Roar-Roar Rabbit were truly reliable!
Gradually, the Blood-Sucking Bees stopped flying aimlessly and began to perform a waggle dance in the air.

To Chu Jiu, this sounded like the humming sound a kitten made when it was in a bad mood; although it could express "I'm unhappy," it had no deterrent power.

Of course, Chu Jiu the capitalist was very happy too!

"Roar-Roar Rabbit's Cannas are cultivated so well! There's no foul smell at all, and the Blood-Sucking Bees love them!"

[Special Note: Spirit beasts need to work! Spirit beasts that do not work for long periods will suffer from spiritual power degradation and health damage!]

Ten minutes ago.
He walked to the side and whispered to Little Canned, who was curled up in his pocket, unwilling to move.

In an instant, a glowing illustrated card appeared above the Blood-Sucking Bee.

Whether it was the red heart representing affinity or the blue heart representing fear, they were now completely empty, indicating that this Blood-Sucking Bee could not be captured at all at the moment.

Without much effort, Chu Jiu found the location of the Blood-Sucking Bee.

However, when its long, needle-like proboscis probed into the nectar, it found that its mouth was stuck, and it was stuck firmly with no room to struggle.

At this moment, He Fang spoke from the side: "Next to him... those white and brown things, the little clusters, what are they?"

Sigh, in any case, growth was definitely good for spirit beasts.

Chu Jiu, as usual, could not understand what Kakaba was saying to the monsters.

But this time, Chu Jiu let Little Canned keep watch on the side—to remind him to dodge as soon as it saw nectar leaking—while he grabbed a shovel and dug hard for a long time, finally digging up a seedling of the "[Giant Canna]" that was about as tall as a person.

It seemed that while the [Nectar Trap] had trapped the Blood-Sucking Bee, it only made it angry, not afraid.

[Successfully captured "Blood-Sucking Bee," the Blood-Sucking Bee is about to move into the Monster Pasture.]

Thinking about it made one shudder.

Soon, the Blood-Sucking Bee's trapped proboscis and hind legs could move again.
This was slightly different from the previous plan.

The reason Chu Jiu wanted to cultivate odorless Cannas was to bring back these "Blood-Sucking Bees," which fed on the nectar of Giant Cannas, to raise them.

The Blood-Sucking Bee probed its proboscis into the bamboo tube to taste a little, and its wings began to beat rapidly, as if it were extremely excited.

Only Chu Jiu was left in the cabin—and Little Canned in his pocket.

This sound was exactly the same as the one that had scared off the jungle wild boar earlier.

In any case, there were no useful materials to be collected from the [Giant Canna] anyway.

This time, the power that sent the "Detector" to the coordinates was not synthetic spiritual power from the Alsa Star military, but the spiritual power Lu Qingyan himself had injected in advance.

Chu Jiu was pondering what weapon to take out to beat this Blood-Sucking Bee, when he heard a low "woo-roo, woo-roo" sound coming from the throat of Little Canned, who had poked its head out of his chest pocket.

Finally, the red heart was full too. The Blood-Sucking Bee, which had been frozen on the ground and afraid to move, slowly flapped its wings twice.

[Construction Requirements: Requires 500 exploration points, 20 bamboo stalks, 20 pieces of lumber, and 1 spirit beast.]

However, the decisions Lu Qingyan made were never changed.

...This cat's purring actually had such an effect?! Could it be that the jungle wild boar didn't run away because it was "afraid of cats" when it saw Little Canned?

[Deployment in progress...]