Chapter Ninety-Six: Qiqi's Request

After a night of rest, Jia Zhengjin ordered Wolf and Buddy to take all the town guards and the kobold troops to the site of yesterday’s hive. To their surprise, almost all the giant bee corpses left behind had already vanished!

Centipedes, ants, snakes, cockroaches, and numerous unidentified insects and carnivorous creatures from another world were feasting on the remains. Seeing these beings, whose size was no less than the giant bees, Jia Zhengjin could only sigh, “What a pity! There were at least ten thousand bottles of honey left there!”

“No helping it,” Wolf remarked at his side. “It’s best not to be too greedy.”

“True enough.” Jia Zhengjin waved helplessly. “Let’s pull back!”

The group, dejected, returned to the city. Just as they entered, his father-in-law, Borlint, came running in a panic. “Lord Kean, something very strange has grown in my fields!”

“Strange things?” Jia Zhengjin followed him to the farmland, where he saw a tiny watermelon seedling and a purple flower with peculiar markings.

He immediately recalled that these must be the watermelon seeds and the unidentified plant seeds he had sown the night before. Not concerned, he reassured his father-in-law, “Don’t worry! These are plants I planted myself, not wild growth.”

“So that’s it!” Borlint let out a breath of relief, but when he saw Jia Zhengjin reach out to touch the strange flower, he quickly pulled him back. “Lord Kean, you mustn’t!”

Before he could finish his question, Jia Zhengjin saw the flower move. Its center opened like a mouth, filled with dense, razor-sharp teeth! As Borlint yanked him away, the flower snapped at the air with a loud crunch, then drooped motionless.

“What on earth?” Jia Zhengjin was dumbfounded. If not for his father-in-law’s intervention, his finger would have been ruined!

He circled the field, took out the Thunder Spear, and cautiously prodded the strange flower.

With a snap, the flower lunged and bit down on the spear, tearing at it like a rabid dog.

Not only Jia Zhengjin, but everyone else nearby was stunned.

[Man-Eating Flower Seedling]—when mature, it becomes a terrifying carnivorous plant.

The introduction finally appeared before his eyes, and Jia Zhengjin felt a chill run down his spine. Thank goodness his father-in-law discovered it early—otherwise, it could have been disastrous! If the man-eating flower were allowed to grow, who knows how many people it might devour!

He withdrew the Thunder Spear and found its hardened tip covered with tiny tooth marks. If those teeth had bitten his hand, the bones would have been crushed!

Such a menace could not be allowed to remain!

Jia Zhengjin quickly ordered everyone to step back, donned the Tiger Mask, and sprayed fire onto the seedling, burning it to ashes.

“Lord Kean…”

“Father-in-law, this thing was dangerous, so it’s best to get rid of it early. But you can take care of the watermelon seedling. Once it grows, we’ll have more seeds to plant whole fields of watermelons!”

“Watermelon?” Borlint blinked in confusion, but guessed it must be some delicious food, and nodded earnestly.

Having dealt with the man-eating flower, Jia Zhengjin reminded himself not to plant unidentified seeds so carelessly next time. His domain was growing, and if anything endangered the villagers, it would jeopardize his workforce and city construction!

“Town guards, return to camp for training!” Jia Zhengjin instructed Buddy to continue strengthening the guards. He ordered the kobold miners to shift their focus—the day’s gathering target was plant fiber and clay.

As for the kobold craftsmen, he assigned them all to the factory to smelt and process iron and copper ore, making more iron armor and weapons.

After making arrangements, he himself took a stone shovel and iron axe and set off to harvest plant fibers and dig clay near the city’s base.

Today’s goal was to build the hive and see if he could recruit an army of Luruto bees like yesterday!

If he could command thirty thousand Luruto giant bees, not only the city guards—even if the mighty Empire’s army came, he might still have a fighting chance!

More importantly, those tens of thousands of bees could kill a terrifying Fire Python, which meant he could lead the swarm to sweep through even stronger creatures in the forest.

Of course, the Fire Python was merely a first-tier magical beast. Though formidable, there were countless beasts in the deep woods fiercer than it. Even so, it took almost the entire bee swarm’s strength to slay it!

If he faced second or third-tier magical beasts, or even more terrifying beings, could the swarm defeat them?

Perhaps Jia Zhengjin should build more hives and recruit more giant bees?

But what did the giant bees eat? Could he afford to feed them? That too was a matter he had to consider.

As he worked, melodious music and a beautiful song suddenly reached his ears.

He turned to see the bard, Kiki Lysimer, who had somehow wandered out of the city. She stood not far away, smiling as she sang to the busy kobold miners.

“Why haven’t you left?” Jia Zhengjin put down his tools and asked.

The music stopped. Hugging her lyre, Kiki smiled, “Lord Kean, I’m very interested in those exotic songs you sang yesterday! I am a bard—I love collecting all kinds of beautiful songs. So I wish to stay here for a while and learn those unique melodies from you. Please, Lord Kean, grant me this wish!”

“I’m busy. I have no time to teach you!” Jia Zhengjin replied helplessly. “Soon the city guards will return to attack my city—I have to prepare for war!”

“No problem! If you just hum those tunes while you work, as a way to relax, I can quietly follow and learn. I won’t disturb your work!”

“Really?” Jia Zhengjin thought that humming while working wouldn’t affect anything.

“Lord Kean, I promise to be absolutely quiet!” Kiki pleaded. “Please, please~~”

Seeing her so earnest, Jia Zhengjin couldn’t bring himself to refuse. So, as he chopped wild grass and gathered plant fibers with his iron axe, he sang popular songs from his previous life.

True to her word, Kiki stayed silent, quietly following him, ears perked to listen. Occasionally she made a pretend gesture as if plucking the lyre, but never actually touched it. She simply listened, memorizing the melodies and pondering how to compose them…