<h4>Chapter 338: The Beehive Settles Down</h4>
A cloud of despair loomed over the group standing on the cier.
The group sighed andmented, lost in uncertain thoughts about not only their individual futures but also the future of the human race as a whole. They simply could not see a way forward.
Frozen Thunder drifted slowly toward the bizarre mist where the Sword Boat was anchored.
A golden sh sparked in Pang Jian''s eyes as the fragmentednd passed Absolute Heaven.
Shaking off the effects of the alcohol, he said, "Remind the Ice Race to be cautious of the bizarre mist''s corruption before this fragmentednd enters it.
"After umting enough momentum, this fragmentednd will elerate directly toward the Abyss.
"I''m going to have a chat with the Ice Armor Eel Dragon."
With that, he disappeared, with a golden bee taking his ce.
The others were now well-acquainted with Pang Jian''s strange abilities and knew that Pang Jian had left the bee as a marker.
***
<i>Whoosh!</i>
n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
Pang Jiang pulled a massive beehive out of the Gate of the Abyss and ced it in the heart of the forest in Absolute Heaven where the Wood Race warrior, Ka Zi, had perished.
The nearly hundred-zhang-tall beehive was home to bee pupae and golden bees. The golden bees''pound eyes glowed eerily as they silently observed Pang Jian.
One particrly enormous bee rested at the top of the beehive.
It was the hibernating Bee Sovereign.
The Bee Sovereign was in the middle of his transformation and showed no signs of emerging anytime soon.
However, he had sent a mental message to Pang Jian earlier, instructing him to ce the beehive there.
<i>Does this ce benefit the growth and transformation of more bees? </i>Pang Jian''s eyes flickered with curiosity.
Extending his divine sense outward, he released a faint golden light from his forehead that swept through the forest.
The golden light scanned the whole area in seconds.
Corpses of human cultivators, Vicious Beasts, and Spirit Beasts were still impaled on branches and dangled in the air.
Small insects buzzed about the forest, but no other living beings were present.
Despite this, Pang Jian could sense faint soul remnants lingering in the heads of the deceased humans, Vicious Beasts, and Spirit Beasts with his newly refined divine soul.
These soul remnants still carried dim memories,ced with resentment and an unwillingness to die.
Even in death, their souls held emotion.
<i>Soul remnants? They didn''t scatter into the heaven and earth? </i>Pang Jian was taken aback.
<i>Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!</i>
A swarm of bees emerged from the beehive to inspect the bodies.
These bodies still harbored soul fragments that had yet to disperse into the surroundings, and the bees could absorb them using their bee souls to nourish their beehive.
As Pang Jian observed them, he soon understood the reasoning behind their actions.
<i>They''re gathering soul remnants, extracting the stray thoughts within, and using them to spark intelligence in their bee souls.</i>
Pang Jian had entered the forest to kill the Wood Race warrior, Ka Zi, under the guidance of the Bee Sovereign.
The Bee Sovereign had started his transformation after obtaining abundant divine consciousness from the Heart of Winter.
He had also told Pang Jian that Absolute Heaven had a ce suitable for the beehive.
That ce was this forest.
ording to the Bee Sovereign, the bees nurtured within the beehive were akin to his divine sense. They could act as manifestations of the Bee Sovereign, with each also being capable of having independent thought.
While the golden bees possessed souls, Pang Jian sensed they had yet to develop true intelligence.
This was akin to the Spirit Beasts of the Abyss, whose bloodlines had not yet reached a level where true intelligence could emerge.
<i>This ce will help the bees develop their intelligence,</i> Pang Jian realized. Gazing at the pupating Bee Sovereign, he wondered, <i>How long your transformation will take?</i>
Pang Jian then used one of the bees to teleport to theke where the Ice Armor Eel Dragony hidden.
Landing on the grass by theke, Pang Jian closed his eyes and released his divine sense. Theke''s surface rippled slightly as his divine sense seeped into its depths.
Pang Jian''s divine soul made him feel uncannily simr to an Outer God.
His divine sense could prate the ground, dive into the depths of the seas, or stretch out tens of li in every direction to detect hidden souls with just a single thought!
This seemed to be the power of a real God!
<i>Do other human cultivators gain abilities like mine upon reaching the Spirit Condensation Realm? Those with divine sense refined from divine essence may possess some of these abilities, but I doubt it would be on this level.</i>
Pang Jian coalesced his divine sense deep beneath theke.
<i>Whoosh!</i>
A golden figure materialized, woven from Pang Jian''s divine sense.
Piles of bones were scattered across theke floor, seemingly from human cultivators and foreign races based on their shapes.
The bleached bones of the once-mighty Golden-Winged Giant Roc from the Forsaken Expanse Sect sat in pieces on thekebed, its blood long since drained dry.
A grand pce sat in the center of the bones, with bustling schools of fish and low-ranking aquatic Vicious Beasts swimming around it.
Several sharp-toothed Vicious Beasts snarled menacingly at the ethereal golden figure, eyes gleaming with malice.
"Pang Jian!" The Ice Armor Eel Dragon roared.
The Vicious Beasts scattered and the schools of fish fled in panic.
A young man emerged from the pce, d in gleaming silver armor with a jade belt around his waist. The tall, muscr man had a shining dragon horn on his forehead and silver whiskers on his rugged face.
He radiated strength as he walked.
"You..." Pang Jian was dumbfounded.
The Ice Armor Eel Dragon snorted. "Is it so strange to shift into human form? I don''t always want to fight. I enjoy rxing in this form sometimes. Also, why does your divine soul give off an aura simr to those annoying Outer Gods?"
"Aren''t you going to invite me inside?" Pang Jian asked.
"Not a chance! My family''s here—it''s not convenient!" The Ice Armor Eel Dragon pointed upward. "Let''s talk above."
"Sea God!"
"My King..."
The tempting voices of Sea Race women called out from the pce behind the Ice Armor Eel Dragon.
"You certainly know how to enjoy yourself," Pang Jian remarked, before dispersing his golden divine soul and returning it to his sea of consciousness.
Despite only being at the early stage of the Spirit Condensation Realm, his divine soul could freely travel outside his physical body and explore the world around him.
Few Soul Wandering Realm cultivators could achieve such a feat even in the Abyss.
The umtion of divine consciousness and the terrifying strength of three thousand strands of divine sense meant Pang Jian''s divine soul was exceptionally powerful from the moment it was refined.
<i>Bang!</i>
The Ice Armor Eel Dragon leaped out of theke in human form and instantly spotted Frozen Thunder drifting in the distance.
"You''re using a divine artifact to move the fragmentednd—are you heading back to the Abyss?"
"I am." Pang Jian nodded. "You mentioned that someone captured you from the Fifth World and threw you into this restricted area. Did that person truly resemble me?"
"I do think there''s some resemnce," the Ice Armor Eel Dragon muttered, eyes darting around evasively. "But I was weak back then and hadn''t developed full intelligence yet, so my memory''s fuzzy. By the way, where are your ciers? And the Thunder Pool?"
"They''re in Frozen Thunder," Pang Jian replied.
"And you still dare toe to Absolute Heaven?" The Ice Armor Eel Dragon unleashed a torrent of cold wind and lightning with a wicked grin. "If you''re dead, those artifacts will be mine! Haha, Pang Jian, you''re too careless!"
<i>Boom! Crackle!</i>
Thunder roared and hundreds of ice des collided, leaving a deep crater where Pang Jian stood.
But Pang Jian was nowhere to be found.
The Ice Armor Eel Dragon caught sight of Pang Jian hovering near the bizarre mist with a tiny golden bee floating behind him.
"You can teleport!" It cried.
Pang Jian frowned. "Stop."
Frozen Thunder had been speeding toward the Sword Boat''s anchor point in the bizarre mist and Pang Jian''smand caused it to slow to a halt.
Pang Jian summoned the Heart of Winter and three towering ciers from Frozen Thunder.
They flew over at lightning speed and soon hovered in the air behind Pang Jian.
<i>Whoosh!</i>
Pang Jian''s golden divine soul shot into the crystalline Heart of Winter and gently cradled the crystal core of Winter.
A cascade of memories surged into his divine soul, revealing the Ice Demon''splete path to godhood.
Pang Jian saw the Ice Demon''s humble beginnings as a simple Ice Race warrior and how he had refined his bloodline over millennia, graduallyprehending the Dao of Cold until he eventually became a God.
Every step wasid out—from the materials the Ice Demon collected and the forging of his divine soul to how he strengthened his body!
<i>The Bee Sovereign was right. This path isn''t for me.</i> Pang Jian shook his head as he gently cradled the core with his golden divine soul.
<i>Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!</i>
Beams of cold light shot downward like swords.
The Ice Armor Eel Dragon howled in pain as he returned to his original form. His scales, infused with cold energy and lightning, struggled desperately to withstand the piercing beams of cold light.
"Pang Jian!" The Ice Armor Eel Dragon roared furiously. When the onught continued relentlessly, it switched gears to plead for mercy, "Let''s talk this through. I was only joking!"
The cold light beams also shot toward the pce the Ice Armor Eel Dragon had painstakingly built at the bottom of theke.
He had no choice but to block the attack with his body and endure the barrage.
If he did not, everything he had built would be destroyed.