The Queen was freed as quickly as possible after the unanimous conclusion that they were dealing with an entirely different level of environntal crisis.
But then, instead of remaining safely inside the hive to focus solely on producing workers and stabilizing the colony, the Queen unexpectedly flew out herself.
"!!!"
That had been unthinkable!
Naturally, a great number of worker bees imdiately followed after her because allowing their Queen to wander alone was absolutely unacceptable.
But why did such a thing even happen to an already fortunate colony?
Well, one might assu this was because they were searching for a larger ho.
And technically?
That was partly true.
With how rapidly their bodies were increasing in size, the hive they had been gifted would eventually beco far too small for them.
And at the rate things were progressing, future workers would probably struggle to fit inside the cells they themselves thought of constructing.
However, that wasn’t the true reason the Queen had personally ventured outside. Because for such work, scouts should’ve taken the lead instead.
So no.
The real reason was that peculiar scent.
A scent so strange and irresistible that even the colony’s most precious existence felt compelled to pursue it personally.
See, they could already be considered as prosperous bees given the foraging area around them.
But unlike the absurdly rich nectar already saturating the environnt, this scent felt entirely different.
It was deeper.
More intoxicating.
Sothing primal enough that the colony instinctively understood one terrifying truth.
If they truly wished to thrive in this environnt...
Then they absolutely needed whatever that scent belonged to.
And so, guided by instinct, the Queen eventually arrived at the source alongside several loyal daughters.
There, they discovered a human carefully tending to the object of their obsession.
The plant.
And oddly enough—
Even the fruit. Which was surprising considering how bees would only tend to go after fruit when they were in a state of nectar dearth!
Sure enough, for reasons none of the bees could properly comprehend, every instinct within them scread that the nectar and pollen from that plant were essential to their colony’s future.
And so, despite the task being utterly beneath what a Queen normally should do, she snuck around the oblivious human alongside her workers while Jax remained distracted by his gardening and cheerful music.
Then they fed.
At first, nothing particularly dramatic happened.
However, what followed afterward would’ve likely broken the minds of most scientists.
Because the bees that should’ve only molted during their larval and pupal stages suddenly began defying those biological expectations entirely.
Their bodies changed.
Shifted.
Adapted.
Unfortunately, the process also looked suspiciously similar to dying.
The Queen and several workers abruptly lost strength almost imdiately after feeding from what might as well have been forbidden fruit for their species.
One by one, they dropped from the air.
Thankfully, however, fate remained rciful toward the reckless little creatures.
Because by the ti the most resilient of the workers realized sothing inexplicable had happened to their Queen, the surviving bees had already tumbled directly into the unsuspecting human’s belongings.
And without realizing it at all—
Jax accidentally beca responsible for their survival.
__
There had been no exact precedent for what had just happened.
And even now, when they tried questioning the visibly stumped cadet at the center of the incident, Jax himself only seed half aware of what he’d accidentally gone through.
The redhead furrowed his brows deeply as though trying to piece together fragnted mories.
"I just rember feeling kind of sick lately..." he admitted slowly.
"Sick?!" Luca imdiately exclaid in alarm.
Several others also looked startled.
Naturally, they were of course worried, but at the sa ti, those who heard his words couldn’t help but wonder how that could be possible when Jax always looked like the poster boy for health.
In fact, he was so healthy that if he were to be labeled as listless, then everyone else should just be classified as walking corpses.
Especially after witnessing everything Jax had been doing the past several days, nobody would’ve guessed he was supposedly unwell.
However, the redhead rely nodded seriously.
"Yes," he confird. "Not only did my rice intake decrease from five bowls to three per al..."
"..."
"But my rounds to check on my children and grandchildren also dropped from four tis a day to only two."
"..."
Jax explained all of this with complete sincerity while the surrounding group collectively stared at him in utter disbelief.
Sohow, the more he elaborated, the more everyone looked spiritually exhausted instead.
"But what really worried ," Jax continued gravely, "was my plank duration."
"???"
"It’d beco abnormally terrible. That’s when I started seriously questioning my health."
"..."
"..."
Finally, Killian pinched the bridge of his nose before asking in a dangerously controlled tone, "I’m guessing you didn’t tell anyone you were sick again?"
"Ah!"
Jax suddenly looked alard yet ironically proud.
"No! Unlike before, I actually figured it out and was just about to do it!" he defended quickly. Honestly, the way he said it made it sound like so grand achievent.
Then he abruptly raised a finger.
"But then I passed out!"
He declared this with the startling realization of soone who had only just rembered that extrely important detail right now.
The surrounding people looked at him like he was genuinely out of his mind.
Killian in particular appeared one breath away from exploding on the spot. Sohow, however, one of the Empire’s brightest minds managed to suppress the urge just long enough to redirect the conversation toward the Elders instead.
"Elders," Killian said tightly while pointing at Jax before gesturing toward the honestly unnerving swarm of giant bees nearby, "does what happened to this guy have sothing to do with...that?"
But before the Elders could answer imdiately, Jax suddenly raised his hand again.
"Oh! Right!"
Everyone turned toward him warily.
"When I woke up a bit later," the redhead added thoughtfully, "I couldn’t really see anything."
"..."
"And I felt myself being moved around like so kind of goo getting sloshed about."
"???"
"Oh! And I also couldn’t call on my spiritual abilities! It was only when I got extrely desperate that I got it to cooperate, but even then, my vision swam."
That finally caused Elder Pao Xi to snap his fingers softly in finality.
"We figured as much," the Elder murmured.
"Huh?"
Elder Pao Xi calmly crossed his arms before beginning his explanation.
"The Queen Bee, in particular, successfully broke through and developed its own spiritual core after consuming an amount of energy far beyond what would normally be possible."
"However, because the breakthrough happened so suddenly, it hadn’t been properly prepared for core creation. As a result, it instinctively began searching for an external source of already processed Spiritual Energy."
"The kind already refined through soone else’s core," Elder Shen added.
"The bees, or most creatures in general, would need to feed on that type of energy to successfully evolve into higher beings," Elder Pao Xi concluded.
At this point, Xavier, who had been listening intently the entire ti and was already familiar with refined Spiritual Energy through his relationship with Luca, imdiately understood.
"So the bees fed on Jax?" he asked.
"Yes," Elder Pao Xi confird simply.
That finally caused Ollie to blurt out the question many of them had silently been wondering.
"Then why is this big brother suddenly a father?" the blonde asked while openly pointing toward Killian.
"..."
"Because Jax alone didn’t possess enough spiritual energy to support the developnt of another entity’s core," Elder Pao Xi explained patiently. "If he had failed to find soone compatible who could help share the burden..."
The Elder’s gaze shifted toward Jax.
"Then the Queen Bee likely wouldn’t have survived. But more importantly, Jax’s spiritual sea would’ve been completely drained dry until he eventually withered away for absolutely nothing in return."
"!!!"
"What?!" Luca exclaid in horror, golden eyes widening imdiately.
Elder Shen nodded gravely.
"Forming contracts with spirit beasts has never been sothing suitable for inexperienced cultivators," the Elder explained.
"But attempting to simultaneously nurture a being into evolving as a spiritual beast is even more dangerous."
"It’s the type of process that either results in extraordinary success..."
"Or tragic failure."
The atmosphere imdiately turned heavier.
However, Elder Shen looked between the two towering figures and, quite unexpectedly, smiled faintly.
"But fortunately," he continued, "this happened to soone absurdly lucky."
Killian looked disgruntled sohow. Such a five-letter word had been as elusive as his extrely early retirent, so it couldn’t have possibly referred to him.
"Because truly," Elder Shen said calmly, "how many people could possibly find soone both compatible enough and willing enough to share the burden of nurturing a spiritual beast together?"
The Elder then glanced toward the giant swarm nearby.
"And honestly, how fortunate is this fool to have such desperately loyal underlings that they physically carried him for help when he should’ve barely been able to move?"
Naturally, Elder Shen was referring to the massive swarm of bees that had apparently hauled Jax—the literal host of their Queen—around like extrely aggressive ergency responders.
"And now look at the outco," Elder Shen concluded. "Not only did the two of you survive..."
The Elder’s gaze drifted toward the still-tamorphosing Queen Bee.
"But once this little one finishes evolving, there’s a possibility you may end up with a multi-ability spirit."
"After all..."
The Elder smiled knowingly.
"This child was born from both of you."
Gasp!
A sharp inhalation imdiately rang out across the area.
Everyone turned toward the source.
Because, naturally, it was Ollie again.
The blonde looked utterly starstruck.
"Then..." he whispered dramatically.
"Am I an Aunt now?!"
"?!"
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