A Beekeeper in a Magical World

Chapter 16: The Kind Hua Mi

A small glob of honey flew out of the bottle, escorted by iridescent specks of light, and landed in her mouth.

As the honey touched her tongue, she felt an electric thrill coursing through her entire body, from her tiny toes to the top of her head, sending shivers down her spine.

Delicious beyond words!

Little Purple Fur spun in happiness, extended her dainty hands, and conjured a magical gesture to produce a sizable dollop of honey, which she devoured with gusto.

Hua Mi watched the entire scene from inside the wooden cabin.

As he had anticipated, pseudo-flower spirits like her, who fed on flower nectar, couldn't possibly dislike honey.

The next step was to use this as a bridge for further communication with them, exchanging honey for information, building rapport, and, if possible, enlisting their assistance in the beekeeping business.

To make the interdimensional beekeeping operation a success, he knew he couldn't rely solely on his own efforts.

One person's power was, after all, limited. Despite having the abilities to control bee swarms and facilitate template evolution, he was still constrained by his own energy and stamina.

As he contemplated his plans for the future, he was momentarily lost in thought. When he looked back outside, he was taken aback.

Little Purple Fur was hanging on the edge of the honey jar, her belly facing downward. Her entire petite body seemed to have gone limp, and her head and upper body dangled directly into the jar, giving the illusion that she might be drowning in honey.

Thankfully, she had already consumed about half of the honey, which was more than he had expected, and her small stature kept her from sinking entirely into the honey.

Otherwise, the image of a little fairy drowning in honey would have been a dark fairytale indeed.

"It seems the sleep-inducing effects of Moonlit Flower Honey work wonders on pseudo-flower spirits as well," Hua Mi remarked.

He gently lifted her by the petals of her outer garment and gave her a light shake.

"Hey, wake up."

"Ugh…"

Little Purple Fur mumbled but showed no intention of opening her eyes.

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It was evident that she was sleeping soundly, so much so that she appeared to be in a blissful dream.

Hua Mi came up with an idea and scooped a bit of honey with a spoon, bringing it closer to her.

What was the best way to awaken a food enthusiast? Of course, with the temptation of delicious food.

As expected, the effect was immediate.

Little Purple Fur's body twitched, her eyes snapped wide open, and her violet pupils seemed to sparkle. Her neck straightened, and she greedily swallowed the honey with an audible "gulp."

If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Hua Mi would have never believed she could consume so much in one go.

"You have quite the elastic mouth."

She puffed up her cheeks, and within two to three seconds, she had ingested the entire spoonful of honey. Without waiting for Hua Mi to speak, she lowered her head and instantly fell back asleep.

"…"

Her attempts to tempt her further with honey resulted in her simply refusing to open her eyes, opting instead to open her mouth and extend her delicate, rosy tongue to voraciously lick the honey, all while in a half-asleep state.

She had achieved a perfect balance between eating and sleeping!

Hua Mi's face darkened, and he moved the honey spoon away.

He extended his consciousness and established a connection with one of the beehives.

Buzz—

As the humming sound filled the air, a swarm of Ironclad Bees burst out of their hive. They hovered above the beehive, forming a conscious black cloud that appeared rather eerie in the dim light of night.

"Sleep again, and I'll toss you into the bee swarm!"

Little Purple Fur instantly opened her eyes, her gaze clear.

"I'm awake~"

Memories flooded back.

The day she was surrounded by the bee swarm was still etched in her memory. Her dear sister had been stung and swollen like a pig's head, and it had taken her many days to recover from the pain.

She had no desire to repeat that experience.

Hua Mi smiled with satisfaction, letting go of her flowery outer garment.

Little Purple Fur flew unsteadily into the air and let out a big yawn, with glistening teardrops at the corners of her eyes.

"What's happening? Suddenly, I'm so sleepy."

"Moonlit Flower Honey has a sleep-inducing effect. You ate so much in one go, of course, you'd feel sleepy."

Little Purple Fur nodded thoughtfully, her curiosity piqued as she asked several questions about bees and honey. She was now less guarded than before.

The mind of a foodie was that simple.

"Give me good food, and you're a good person."

Hua Mi didn't rush to win her over but instead generously offered, "I have plenty of honey here. You can invite your friends to enjoy it for free."

The little creature happily accepted.

"I never expected these tiny insects to be so formidable!"

After listening to Hua Mi's introduction, Little Purple Fur immediately became interested in the bees, flying lightly toward the Ironclad Bee swarm to say hello.

But before she could get close, the bee swarm suddenly made an aggressive move.

Startled, the pseudo-flower spirit let out a shriek and hurriedly retreated, trembling behind Hua Mi's head.

Hua Mi couldn't help but chuckle.

The sudden attack had been orchestrated by him to teach her a lesson and prevent her from approaching the bees too casually.

Being stung by regular honeybees would be manageable, but he wasn't sure if her petite body could withstand the extreme pain of a Painless Bee sting.

He couldn't constantly control the bee swarm; most of the time, they operated naturally based on their instincts.

Little Purple Fur patted her chest, still trembling with fear, but curious, she asked, "How do they make honey? Do they use magic? Can you teach me?"

"Well..."

In simple terms, regular bees produce honey by secreting an enzyme, and it couldn't be taught. Unless she could also secrete the enzyme herself, but the image of Little Purple Fur spitting into the honey was too absurd to consider.

"Only bees in the world possess this innate ability, and it's not something I can teach."

Upon hearing this, Little Purple Fur felt a mix of envy and longing.

As night had fallen, she decided it was time to leave. Hua Mi filled a small wooden bucket with honey and told her to take it back to her friends for them to enjoy.

"You're a kind person. It seems the rumors about you are inaccurate. Not all alchemists are bad people."

Hua Mi just smiled and waved at her. He didn't bother to explain that he was not the "vile alchemist" they spoke of.

As for the previous owner of the cabin, it wasn't essential information for him to know at the moment. He would inquire about it later when he got to know them better, though it was possible he might not learn much.

If they could mistake him for someone else, it indicated they weren't that familiar.

After seeing off the pseudo-flower spirit, Hua Mi moved the beehives back to the wooden cabin.

"The Ironclad Bees and Painless Bees are about to hatch their first batch of larvae."

Once the larvae hatched, he planned to begin his hybrid bee breeding experiments.

Why wait for the larvae to hatch? Because he needed to cultivate new queens.

The time window for a queen bee to mate was quite short, just a few days, and then she stored numerous male reproductive cells in her body to use for her entire lifetime. After this mating period, they couldn't mate again.

In this regard, these three new bee species were no different from regular bees.

So, to carry out hybrid experiments, he first needed to cultivate new queen bees.

The method was straightforward: select a worker bee and start feeding it with royal jelly from the larval stage, treating it as if it were a queen. Eventually, it would naturally become a queen.

The Forest Swift Bees had high reproductive abilities and short growth cycles. The new queen bee was already in the process of being cultivated.

As for which species he would crossbreed with the Forest Swift Bees, he leaned towards the Ironclad Bees.

Mainly, he wanted to enhance the survival capabilities of the Forest Swift Bees.

Returning to his ancestral home, it was already past midnight. Hua Mi habitually logged into the online store to check for new orders.

To his surprise, there was one order.

"Let's see who the lucky one is."