Chapter 385: Honey

Jiang Ke’er fell in love with this honey.

Over the past year, she had already eaten through every common ingredient she could find using Chinese cooking methods, gaining a massive amount of talents and attributes.

So whenever she encountered a new ingredient she hadn’t tried or seen before, she got extremely excited.

Thus, she decided to take some more honey to make Western-style pastries like cakes.

She spent an entire day in the valley gathering ingredients, searching for beehives, and completely emptying the bees’ nests.

“Once they transform, they’ll hunt you down for the rest of your life,” Qiao Xiaoxian reminded her helpfully.

“No way, I’m not stealing or robbing; this is a fair trade!” Jiang Ke’er said as she sucked the ordinary honey she carried into a syringe.

Then she aimed the tip of the syringe at each hole in the honeycomb’s storage cells and patiently filled them one by one.

“Even the best things get boring if you eat too much. This valley is full of Cloud Bud Flowers—they might want a change of taste once in a while, like some osmanthus honey or peach blossom honey.”

Jiang Ke’er gave herself a perfect excuse for her honey-grabbing behavior.

“I hope so,” Qiao Xiaoxian said, looking worried. But considering she herself had participated in the honey-grabbing, she also hoped the bees would understand Jiang Ke’er’s logic.

The Cloud Bud Flowers had a peculiar, fresh fragrance, not as sweet as other flowers, just right.

It seemed to carry a leisurely aura of “Tao Nature—Purity and Non-Action.”

This relaxed and comfortable feeling completely hit Jiang Ke’er’s preferences—she absolutely loved these flowers.

“Ahhhh—help—”

Even though she was wearing thick protective clothing, Jiang Ke’er was still chased all over the valley by the bees, running for her life.

She was covered in bees, and even a dark cloud of bees followed behind her.

“I told you not to mess with so many at once…”

Qiao Xiaoxian rubbed her forehead and had to hurry over to save her.

After all, these bees were the ones who produced the honey.

Jiang Ke’er didn’t want to just rob their home and then kill the whole family—that would be too cruel.

So Qiao Xiaoxian had no choice but to open the wine jar, turn it into a spray, and blast it around, using the pungent smell of alcohol to drive away the bees.

Jiang Ke’er ran ahead, her legs submerged in the waist-high sea of white Cloud Bud Flowers.

A gentle breeze stirred faint white waves in the flower sea.

Jiang Ke’er charged through the waves, kicking up a flurry of petals, with a swarm of bees clinging to her tail, bobbing behind her.

Qiao Xiaoxian, clutching the large wine jar and panting, chased after her, both exasperated and amused.

“Slow down! Wait for me!”

“No way! If I stop, I’ll be wrapped into a ball!”

In the end, they had to use the universal Diving Technique to escape.

To avoid hurting the hardworking bees, Jiang Ke’er had to take off her protective suit before diving, so she got stung several times.

“Hahaha!” Qiao Xiaoxian stood on the bank, laughing loudly at Jiang Ke’er’s disheveled appearance.

Unfortunately, she didn’t get to laugh for long.

plop~

Having lost their target, the angry bees redirected their attention to Qiao Xiaoxian, and even the smell of alcohol couldn’t drive them away.

Helpless, Qiao Xiaoxian also had to take off her protective suit and jump into the water.

They hid underwater until the bees calmed down and left.

Then, still shaken, they quickly retreated to the wooden cabin.

Qiao Xiaoxian looked at the large swollen bumps with stingers sticking out of Jiang Ke’er’s face and doubled over laughing, clutching her stomach.

“What are you laughing at? It’s not like you didn’t get stung,” Jiang Ke’er said with a pout, pulling out two pairs of pliers and handing one to Qiao Xiaoxian.

“Stop laughing. Pull them out now… let’s do each other.”

“You…” Qiao Xiaoxian looked at Jiang Ke’er helplessly. “You’ve killed so many people. How can you still be afraid of bees?”

“That’s different. The bees didn’t provoke me, and they made delicious honey,” Jiang Ke’er replied seriously. “It’s a matter of principle.”

Qiao Xiaoxian was slightly stunned, and her gaze toward Jiang Ke’er suddenly softened.

“But quite a few bees still died,” Jiang Ke’er said, looking at the stingers on her body.

“Maybe they would have become pillars of the Demon Clan after transforming.”

“Don’t worry. The bees here don’t die from losing their stingers; they’ll grow back.”

“Really?” Jiang Ke’er finally relaxed.

Then she also burst out laughing and pointed at Qiao Xiaoxian’s face.

“You look so stupid right now!”

“…You got stung three times more than I did, and you still have the nerve to say that.”

Anyway, in a strangely cheerful atmosphere, Jiang Ke’er and Qiao Xiaoxian finally managed to pull out all the stingers for each other.

After removing the stingers and swelling, and returning to normal, Jiang Ke’er sighed in relief and smiled at the big jar of Cloud Bud Flower honey in her inventory.

It was her first time collecting honey herself.

It felt oddly joyful.

“Let’s go! The outside world is still too dangerous. Time to head to the Realm of No Regret and check it out!” Jiang Ke’er stood up, feeling refreshed.

“The Realm of No Regret…”

Qiao Xiaoxian’s expression turned nostalgic.

“Why the long face? Don’t tell me your first love is there?” Jiang Ke’er said with a sarcastic pout.

“My first love is you,” Qiao Xiaoxian said without a hint of shyness.

“I was just thinking about some old memories. The Realm of No Regret is different from the Realm of Novice Cultivator.”

Jiang Ke’er selectively ignored the first half of that sentence and asked, “What’s different?”

“The Realm of No Regret is far more dangerous than the Realm of Novice Cultivator,” Qiao Xiaoxian said.

“In the Realm of Novice Cultivator, Xubeast sieges only happen during the Blood Moon, and over 70% of the realm is safe urban territory. That’s not the case at all for the Realm of No Regret.”

“Oh?”

“In the Realm of No Regret, Super Ruins Beasts can launch sieges at any time. Plus, the combined developed territory of the Human Clan and Demon Race is less than 1%, and most areas are primitive natural environments occupied by Xubeasts and monsters,” Qiao Xiaoxian said.

“But the opportunities there are indeed much greater than in the Realm of Novice Cultivator. Super Ruins Beasts often carry extremely rare, even unique treasures… If you can successfully defeat one, it’s great for improving your strength. But it’s hard—even I can’t beat one alone.”

“Even you can’t beat one?” Jiang Ke’er was astonished. “That’s ridiculous!”

“Yes. That’s why cultivators have to hunt in groups, forming hunting parties of various sizes just to barely survive. Once we go in, we’ll probably need to join a hunting party too…”

“Oh, a hunting party, huh…”

Li Lao’er had a big headache.

Because his cultivation base was low and he couldn’t help much in the war outside, his father had sent him into the Realm of No Regret.

This time, he didn’t have to form his own guild.

The Demon Race had several hunting parties, and although they’d been struggling lately, he figured he could at least join a group and slack off while training for retirement—or so he thought.

Unfortunately, the Realm of No Regret had no room for slackers.

Survival resources here were scarce, and everyone had to give their all just to stay alive.

For the sake of Li Family Father’s face, he and his small team were assigned to gather medicinal herbs—already a relatively safe mission.

So he confidently led Mu Guoguo and Changsun Qingyue out.

But as luck would have it, in the desolate wilderness, they ran into a Human Clan team!

Great.

Captured again.