After dinner, Leon began preparing for the hunt that night. He first sharpened his two sabers using a whetstone and then covered himself in a fur coat made from mortal realm bear skin, the coat covering him from head to toe.
Even on the exposed parts of his skin, a black, extremely pungent healing oil was applied in advance.
Once every preparation was done, the time was already 11 o'clock at night, and Leon left for John's house.
Infront of his house, John was already ready with a fire torch in his hand. He was also dressed up like Leon, with a bundle of some type of grass on the ground and two large barrels, one meter in height, beside him.
"Healing ointments, anti-bee venom, recovery pills. Everything ready?" Leon asked as he slung one of the barrels over his shoulder like a school bag by the two handles.
John nodded as he dumped the bundle of grass onto his empty barrel and slung it over his back.
"All the supplies are on the barrel you are carrying. We can distribute them after we reach the old banyan tree," John said as he began walking forward with his fire torch.
"By the way, that old man gave me some cultivation manuals. I asked him, and he allowed you to select any if you like," Leon said as he followed.
John's eyes lit up when he heard this. "At least that old guy has some conscience. After beating up both of us for more than a year, he finally decided to give us some benefit."
"Whatever. That old man is not simple. He is probably far above the iron realm we thought he was in. Today, with a wave of his hand, he tossed before me 178 vital qi cultivation manuals, all above the 5 star level."
John gasped when he heard this. "Mm, you are right. Even when we sparred with him, there was no qi fluctuation around him. It is unlikely that anyone at the iron grade can achieve that."
"Anyway, as long as he is not our enemy, it is good. After all, for most experts, what we view as priceless treasures is nothing but dust, and having connections with such an expert is like a chance to pick up the dust that slips from their palm," Leon said with a glint in his eyes.
"Oh, I saw old woman Mercy and your sister walking around with a frail looking pony. Did you buy it recently?" John asked curiously.
Leon nodded. "A wandering merchant sold it to little Amy. Actually, it is a unicorn, so I was planning to nurture it well."
"An elite beast! Now that is interesting. Even in Rose Valley, such beasts have quite a market, especially the cuter ones like yours."
"By the way, did those soldier bastards contact you for anything else?"
"Not for the time being. But they did try to forcefully take away widow Mary's little daughter in the name of apprenticeship in a music academy in Rose Valley, saying she has a talent for zither. But the village chief intervened and stopped them."
"You suspect that squad leader you mentioned before is involved in this matter as well?"
"Cannot be certain, but the chances are high. After all, those bastards, instead of bullying us, when had they ever tried to help us? As for that little girl, she has not even seen a zither before. From where did those shifty eyed bastards calculate that she has a good talent for music?"
Leon and John chattered nonstop on the way as they moved forward in the forest among the occasional growls of beasts and sounds of other creatures like insects and snakes which hunted in the night.
The main reason why they chatted all the way was to keep the poisonous insects and snakes away, as most of these animals would hide instead of attacking when they heard the voices of other bigger animals that were stronger than them.
Leon had followed John to hunt inside the forest from the next day he came to this forest village, and he was very familiar with the workings of the forest, even better than some veteran hunters in Stone fort Village. Hence, John did not have to specifically tell Leon such minor details as they knew each other very well.
After about three hours, Leon and John reached a large clearing with a huge banyan tree in the middle. Due to the light from the full moon above, both could see a large beehive on top of the tree.
The hive alone covered most of the tree top, with large thumb sized bees quietly resting on the surface, creating a rather scary spectacle.
Leon and John stopped some distance away from the tree and squatted down behind a fallen log.
"The hive is even larger than before, and the size of the bees is also larger, likely each in the mortal realm. We cannot deal with them like before," John said with a frown as he looked towards the massive beehive.
Leon also frowned. He did not expect the bees to evolve in just a month's time. One had to know that both were seasoned honey collectors who frequented this place every month to collect honey.
Each time, they would collect at most 80 liters of honey in one barrel, and the other barrel would be used to collect carcasses of the bees Leon had killed. Since the bees had small cores even smaller than a tiny bead, extracting them one by one took time, and it was instead easier to collect the bodies and use them to brew bee wine, which was sold in high demand in Rose Valley town.
"Judging from the size of the beehive, it can yield at least 500 liters of honey, and both our barrels can hold around 300 liters each. As for the bee carcasses, we will create some makeshift sacks and bring them back using a stick or bamboo pole by hanging the sacks on the pole like how we bring back game from hunts," Leon said as he calculated in his mind.
John blankly turned around and looked at Leon as though he was an idiot. "Little brother Leo, there are at least 60,000 bees, all in the mortal realm. The green fog grass we brought with us is just an ordinary plant, and it will not be able to put the mortal realm bees to sleep. At most, it will just irritate them, and then both of us will be chased like dogs like last time."
Leon's mouth twitched. "Last time, it was you who screwed up after getting drunk. Instead of bringing green fog grass, what you bought was some kind of hallucinatory grass. If I don't wake up from the hallucination sooner, both of us might have died long ago."
John averted his eyes and said guiltily, "It doesn't matter who screwed up last time. If we touch the hive, it will just be us getting stung for nothing. As for collecting honey, that is just a dream."
Leon frowned as he sized up the beehive. "Don't be intimidated by the hive's size. At night, the golden crowned bees' vision is extremely poor, and furthermore, they are only at the first heaven of the mortal realm, with almost zero combat power except for their stingers."
John stared at Leon in disbelief. "Don't tell me you are going to kill all those bees with your blade."
Leon nodded. "One swing, one bee. If we start now, I might be able to finish it before daybreak."
John thought about Leon's almost never exhausting stamina due to practicing the technique described in the old wall painting and nodded after some hesitation. "Fine then. If things get out of hand, we will run away."
Leon hummed in agreement and, taking the green fog grass in his hand which was already lit at the tip, ran towards the old banyan tree before throwing the grass directly below the tree.
In less than 5 minutes, the green fog grass was completely in flames, and a thick fog rose upwards to the tree top, covering the beehive above.
"Buzz... buzz..."
Suddenly, the quiet beehive started rumbling with a torrent of buzzing sound which made one's skin crawl, and more than 60,000 bees the size of a human thumb hovered above the sky, almost blocking the moonlight.
Just the sound made by the buzzing of their wings was so terrifying that John directly put the barrel he was carrying over himself as he squatted on the ground, afraid to draw the bees' attention onto himself.
.............
Some distance away, on a tall tree top.
"Young miss, that guy is definitely crazy. Provoking such a large swarm of bees like this, even if he runs with all his might, it is unlikely that he will even survive," a woman in ninja type white battle armor which covered her from head to toe said to the similarly dressed woman beside her.
Although the two women were covered in armor, judging from their curves and their beautiful eyes, it was not difficult to judge that both were beauties.
"That guy is at the 7th heaven of the mortal realm and seems to be a body cultivator. Dealing with 100 or so bees might not be a challenge to him, but over 60,000 is still somewhat out of his league," the other woman said in a sweet voice which sounded quite comfortable to the ear.
"Should we help him?" the maid beside her asked.
The young lady thought for a moment and shook her head. "They might have confidence in running away if the situation gets worse. Don't underestimate these native hunters. Inside the forest, their survival ability is extremely terrifying."
"But that handsome boy does not look like a native. It would be a pity if his face was ruined by the bees," the maid said with some hesitation.
The young lady rolled her eyes. "Fine, stop speaking like a pervert. If things get out of hand, I will protect him."