THE MARTIAL KING, VOLUME 8 - Season 19 Episode 45

“Why is it not normal that there’s a queen bee?” Zen asked, bewildered by what he just heard.

The Collapsing Mountain warrior curled his lips before answering, “Our prophet said that there’s only one queen bee and it is located in the farthest depths of the Sacred Spring Mountain.”

“If there is only one queen bee, then why is there one here?”

The Collapsing Mountain warrior looked at the hive and noticed the two large eyes looking out towards them. His lips visibly trembled at the sight. “If there is a queen bee here, then the queen bee at the bottom of the mountain must have died! Something grave might have happened! We should leave right now!”

Zen was not familiar with the Sacred Spring Mountain and there were many secrets that the Collapsing Mountain race hid from the public. Zen never heard of this supposed prophet before, and the only person he knew that led the race was Chapman.

He wasn’t really willing to leave. If he left now, then he would most probably have to spend another year in the Collapsing Mountain race.

“How do we leave?” he asked.

The Collapsing Mountain warrior scratched his head. He had totally forgotten that the only path they could take was the one in front of them.

If only they had more strength to resist the gravitational force of this place and fly, then they’d be able to return by the route they came in. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be that easy given their current strength level.

The two of them stood in discussion, trying to think of a strategy in getting out. In the end though, they realized that there really was no other way. The two of them simply gritted teeth and continued forward.

Given their current situation, the Collapsing Mountain warrior no longer held any hostility towards Zen. He even told the young foreigner his name: Teigan and he had just turned 30 this year.

The thing was, the way the Collapsing Mountain race calculated age was not accurate. Daytime was not something that was fixed in the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land. Sometimes, the day lasted as long as dozens of hours, sometimes only three or four hours. The Divine Refinement Forbidden Land’s calendar was way different from in the universe Zen came from.

Teigan walked in front. Despite his huge bulk, he had an extraordinary talent of controlling his strength. He was able to shrink every muscle in his body to help him move as light as a cat.

Zen had once again hid his aura. He stared at the scattered barbarian bees before following Teigan quietly.

“Buzz buzz buzz…”

A number of barbarian bees flew around the beehive. The large eyes inside the hive still stared at them following their every move. The queen bee was the greatest threat out of all the bees and they had to be careful. If they irritated it, then the entire hoard of barbarian bees would attack them with no hesitation.

The two reached the beehive soon enough. The eyes still stared at them and continued exerting invisible pressure.

Just as they were about to walk past, Teigan suddenly stopped. Zen frowned. Was he perhaps too nervous?

“Move!”

he told Teigan, giving him a push.

However, there was a sudden crisp sound and the cracks on the beehive’s surface grew bigger. As the hive chipped away, the queen’s eyes were completely exposed along with a part of its head and body. Its fine hair was like iron nails that were inserted upside down on its body.

“Huff”

Teigan suddenly took in a deep breath.

“Buzz buzz…”

The sound startled a few of the barbarian bees who immediately dashed straight towards Zen and Teigan.

They did not run; they did not even dare move a single inch. Sometimes it was better to simply accept one’s fate than counterattack. Any sort of defense from their part would only agitate even more barbarian bees until the entire hive swarmed towards them.

“Buzz buzz buzz…”

One of the barbarian bees hovered in front of Zen with its huge sting at the ready. At the tip of its sting were two, pitch-black barbs that made it look like an anchor. It was no doubt going to be painful if they ever got stung by these insects.

All the muscles in Zen’s body had tensed up. If the bees ever attacked, then all he could do was a swift counterattack before fleeing as fast as he could.

Fortunately, the bees merely circled around them before slowly returning to the hive.

“Oh God! Nothing happened,” Zen murmured.

Teigan’s nervous face also relaxed.

However, just as they were heaving their sighs of relief, they heard rumbling sounds coming from behind them!

Someone else had fallen down!

The two of them looked at each other. There was no need to talk; they knew exactly what they had to do next.

“Run!”

Just as they started to dash away, a loud “bang” rang out from behind them. They didn’t know who had fallen down but such loud commotion would no doubt alert the barbarian bees. Since they were the nearest, they would also be the ones to suffer the most if they didn’t move now.

They had to run away or risk suffering intense pain from the bees’ stings.

Their movements caused a good amount of noise but it was nothing compared to the rumbling sounds of the warrior who was falling behind them.

“Buzz buzz buzz buzz…”

At that moment, a swarm of barbarian bees came out of the hive!

“What the hell is this!” someone cursed from behind Zen. It seemed that the warrior that had fallen down wasn’t from the Collapsing Mountain race but Zen didn’t really have the time to care who it was.

The barbarian bees were divided into two. One group rushed towards the fallen warrior, while the other group chased Zen and Teigan.

The two of them no longer cared if the road in front of them was dangerous or not. All they cared about was getting away from the swarm of bees that were out for their blood.

“Buzz buzz!”

Unfortunately, their running was nothing compared to the barbarian bees’ flying speed. The group that chased them quickly rushed towards Zen.

“Whoosh!”

Just as they came, Zen heard an extremely small swishing sound.

He lowered his head instinctively and rolled on the ground. Just as he looked up, he saw a bee sting miss him by mere millimetres and hit the ground in front of him.

A strange scene then appeared.

The sting looked intimidating but its power shouldn’t be that strong. The poison also didn’t scare him. However, the moment the bee sting shot out, it actually nailed itself to the ground!

The entire Sacred Spring Mountain was made up of the impenetrable silver rocks that Zen had failed to even dent. For the bee sting to easily nail itself into the ground spoke volumes of just how painful it was going to be if the bees ever caught up to them.

“Crash…”

The originally solid ground suddenly began to boil like water. The sting was acidic and melted the silver rock completely!

“What a strong corrosive power! This isn’t some ordinary poison…”

Zen suddenly realized just how serious of a matter it was going to be if he was to be stung.

Moreover, there were countless barbarian bees behind them so there was no way they were just going to be stung once.

Realizing the gravity of their situation, the two of them began to run even faster. As they ran, they heard an ear-piercing scream behind them!

Zen turned his head to look. The warrior’s body was already blurry. No doubt that he must’ve already gotten stung. It only took a few seconds for his entire body to disintegrate from the corrosive poison and turn into a pool of blood.

That wasn’t all, Zen also saw dozens of stings headed towards him.

His eyes widened in fear. Zen quickly stepped on the cave wall and rolled, barely avoiding the oncoming bees. The stings meant for him quickly lodged themselves into a wall, corroding it instantly. The extremely tough silver rock was as tender as tofu with these bees.

If he was a second slower then Zen would’ve met the same fate as that warrior earlier.

“Die!”

Zen roared in anger. Just as he steadied his footing, he took out his long sword and slashed towards the bees.

He didn’t know if his sword technique was going to work but he just couldn’t sit still and wait for death…

“Shoo…”

The effect of the strike completely exceeded his expectations!

Zen’s strike effectively cut the barbarian bees in two. It seemed the barbarian bees weren’t as strong as he thought.

He had been in constant alert of the creatures in the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land ever since he was chased by the Formless Sky Python. This led him to greatly overestimate the power of these barbarian bees.

Their stinging power was terrifying but, at the end of the day, they were still bees. This type of creature was characterized by their large quantity, fast speed, great agility, and extreme poison. However, their defensive power was still ordinary.
Zen felt overjoyed as he used his sword radiance to instantly kill dozens of the barbarian bees!

“Come over and help!” he shouted over to Teigan.

However, he didn’t expect the warrior to simply keep pushing forward. “I haven’t practiced any martial art! How the hell am I going to help you?!”

The only thing the Collapsing Mountain race could rely on was their terrifying strength but the use of their power remained extremely primitive. Teigan couldn’t really do anything to help Zen in any way.

He could only rely on himself!

The sword radiance Zen summoned served as a net that caught the oncoming barbarian bees and sliced them in half.

“Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz!”

A large number of bees fell with each strike. The halved bodies of the barbarian bees were all that was left in their wake and many of the ones that still chased after them had grown quite wary of Zen’s sword.

“Whoosh!”

A sharp whistle rang out as a ray of black radiance shot straight towards Zen.

Just as it was about to hit him, Zen suddenly placed his sword horizontally in front of his chest.

The black radiance nailed itself onto Zen’s sword! In a blink of an eye, the first-rank divine weapon that had accompanied him for so many years turned into a useless pile of molten metal that he had no choice but to throw away.

His face immediately darkened, not because he felt sad about the sword, but because he saw that the beehive had completely ruptured. An enormous black thing floated by the cave wall where a pair of huge, compound eyes glistened. It was the queen bee!

The black radiance, aimed at zen just now, had been shot out by the queen bee.