Watching the ten little bees charge forward without any fear, the Demon Insect King immediately unleashed its mind domination power the moment they got close.
Outside the cave, Qi Ping felt the Golden Marrow Bees’ consciousnesses come under intense assault. All ten bees instantly became dizzy and disoriented, collapsing to the ground.
Fortunately, the animal partner contract remained unshakable!
“They’re just a bit dizzy and disoriented. They’ll be fine after some rest…”
After sensing the bees’ condition, Qi Ping breathed a sigh of relief and quickly formulated a countermeasure…
“Bees, change the formation. Send groups of three now, one of each bee type…”
“Buzz buzz… (Received, boss!)”
Unleashing this kind of mind domination power consumes a tremendous amount of spiritual energy. He wanted to see just how many times this newborn Demon Insect King could use it…
Inside the cave, the Demon Insect King watched the unconscious bees, falling deep into thought…
This shouldn’t be happening…
According to its inherited memories, these bees should have been enslaved, becoming its loyal servants.
It was the future Demon Insect King, destined to command legions of a hundred thousand, a million demon insect soldiers. How could it not even handle a few little bees?
Its bloodline memories told it so, its instincts screamed it—it was a born ruler, a leader destined to command millions. So what was going on now?
However, before the Demon Insect King could figure it out, another three bees charged in.
So, stubbornly refusing to believe it, the Demon Insect King unleashed its mind domination power again…
Without any surprise, the bees’ consciousnesses were assaulted again and they fell, yet still, the enslavement failed…
What is going on?
The Demon Insect King began to suspect if its inherited memories were faulty.
It didn’t have time to ponder further, as a third wave of bees attacked…
So it used its mind domination power…
The result was the bees fainting once more…
Now the Demon Insect King was truly unsettled. It suspected there might be something wrong with these bees, but it had no other subjects to compare them to.
This continued for twenty rounds. The Demon Insect King had exhausted half of its spiritual energy, yet hadn’t managed to secure a single subordinate.
This plunged the Demon Insect King into deep self-doubt. According to its inherited memories, it was supposed to be the King of Demon Insects. So why couldn’t it handle a few little bees now?
Could it be that its inherited memories were a lie?
But its bodily instincts and the power coursing through its form all screamed that it was the born Demon Insect King. If not for this array restraining it, it would have long since gone out into the world, gathered countless underlings, and roamed the heavens and earth with its demon insect minions…
But Qi Ping didn’t care what the Demon Insect King was thinking. His goal right now was to completely drain the Demon Insect King’s spiritual energy, test its specific capabilities, and then proceed with the next step.
“Continue the attacks. Don’t give the Demon Insect King any time to catch its breath or recover.”
“Buzz buzz… (No problem, boss! Leave it to us!)”
Immediately afterwards, the bee swarm continuously sent bees in wave after wave of attacks.
Finally, after more than ten consecutive assaults, the Demon Insect King gave up on its plan to enslave the little bees.
It was at this point that the bees finally managed to land attacks on the Demon Insect King’s body.
The first to strike was the High-Speed Cutting Bee.
Under the High-Speed Cutting Bee’s sharp, blade-like wings, an extremely shallow cut appeared on the Demon Insect King’s blood-red body.
Yet, after just a single breath, the Demon Insect King’s body rapidly healed, returning to its original state.
“The physique possesses high toughness, and its recovery ability is extremely strong.”
Qi Ping, observing from outside, immediately made a judgment on the Demon Insect King’s current strength.
Based on the High-Speed Cutting Bee’s perception, this newly born Demon Insect King’s current realm should only be at the late first-grade stage, but its pressure was terrifyingly potent.
Moreover, Qi Ping was well aware of the High-Speed Cutting Bee’s offensive power. The fact that the Demon Insect King, merely at late first-grade, could withstand it so easily meant its defense was absurdly high.
It was worth remembering that the defense of that late Qi Refining stage black-robed cultivator had been easily pierced by the High-Speed Cutting Bee. This showed just how formidable the Demon Insect King’s defense was.
The second to attack the Demon Insect King was the Venomous Bee.
Evolved from the Golden Marrow Bees, the Venomous Bees not only had drastically increased toxicity, but the strength of their stingers was also enhanced, possessing extreme piercing and armor-penetrating properties.
Therefore, the venomous stinger unsurprisingly pierced the Demon Insect King’s body.
However, after the Venomous Bee injected its entire store of toxin into the Demon Insect King’s body, the King showed no reaction whatsoever—not even a hint of poisoning.
Learning this outside the cave, Qi Ping wasn’t too surprised.
For ordinary spirit beasts, the Venomous Bee’s toxin was absolutely deadly.
But for an existence like the Demon Insect King, whose resistance to insect venom was maxed out, it was unlikely to cause much damage. Otherwise, the name ‘Demon Insect King’ would be meaningless.
So the Venomous Bee’s failure was entirely within Qi Ping’s expectations.
As for the third attacker, the Ink Armor Bee, Qi Ping held no hope for it from the start.
The Ink Armor Bee, a variety specialized in defense, was never good at offense. Apart from its extremely high defense, its attack power was probably below average even among late first-grade spirit insects.
The fact also did not surprise Qi Ping. The Ink Armor Bee simply couldn’t break the Demon Insect King’s defense.
“Besides this, the Demon Insect King doesn’t seem to be counterattacking, aside from struggling. It appears to be restrained by the Four Extremes Demon-Nurturing Grand Array.”
“So, the basic data on the Demon Insect King is now tested: High defense, high poison resistance, high recovery ability. Offensively, due to the restraints, it seems to have no other attack methods aside from its mind domination power. Its agility and speed also cannot be utilized because its movement is restricted.”
With these results, it meant the Ink Armor Bees and Venomous Bees had effectively lost all offensive capability against the Demon Insect King. The only ones that could cause any damage were the High-Speed Cutting Bees.
But the damage the High-Speed Cutting Bees could inflict was extremely limited. With the Demon Insect King’s self-healing ability, it recovered in no time.
“In that case, it seems only Little Crow has a chance to kill the Demon Insect King.”
“Thankfully, Little Crow’s strength has recovered to the first-grade perfection stage, and its bloodline has evolved into the Yang Fire Crow. The Yang Fire flames should be able to deal sufficiently lethal damage to the Demon Insect King.”
Reaching this point, Qi Ping had a plan for dealing with the Demon Insect King.
However, Qi Ping didn’t choose to immediately send Little Crow down to kill it. Instead, he ordered the High-Speed Cutting Bees to continue their attacks.
“Bees, from now on, form groups of thirty High-Speed Cutting Bees. Launch all-out attacks on the Demon Insect King. Don’t give it a chance to catch its breath. Other bee types, fall back.”
The reason Qi Ping did this was due to lingering concern about the Demon Insect King’s spiritual talent attack. For a ruthless character capable of unleashing a demon insect calamity, even in its weakest, newborn state, absolutely no carelessness could be allowed.
Therefore, Qi Ping intended to use the High-Speed Cutting Bees for continuous harassment. This would consume the Demon Insect King’s spiritual energy while also probing for and depleting any hidden trump cards it might have.
