Chapter 168: Honey

Bai Lang picked up the beetle's shell, gave it a shake, and said, "The poison actually disappeared on its own?" Although the ground looked gray-black from poison, some insects crawling on it were no longer dying. "How can this thing break through my protective gang qi?" Bai Lang also tried probing with the long spike on the shell, and indeed it easily pierced his Golden Bell Shield protective gang qi.

"This thing..." Bai Lang fiddled with the beetle's shell, looking quite astonished. The protective gang qi generated by his Golden Bell Shield Divine Skill is not something he boasts about; he feels it should be considered relatively strong among Innate Experts, otherwise it would betray its reputation as a hard-trained divine skill. That the beetle's spike can actually break through innate gang qi... Bai Lang couldn't say whether this is rare or common.

The village's location, according to the intel, only had a rough direction—there were basically no roads, and no one knew how these people came and went. The intel said the village likely had several hundred inhabitants, plus mountain fields that could be farmed to supplement food supplies, but Bai Lang still couldn't figure out how their food and various supplies were transported in.

The intel then proposed a hypothesis: that through the caves inside the mountain, the interior of the Hengduan Mountains contains an extensive network of caves and underground rivers, but for someone who doesn't know the way among the myriad passages, going in only ends up lost to death. This is quite plausible; if true, it would explain why these people can move so nimbly within the mountains.

Bai Lang simply didn't know the cave routes; he could only search for the village by crossing mountains and ridges—such bandit villages are not unique in the Hengduan Mountains.

In the mountains he also had no sense of direction, so Bai Lang repeatedly climbed treetops to use a compass to determine his bearings—this thing had been taken from the Guard Commander's Mansion; it seemed able to avoid geomagnetic interference with the compass, so it should be considered a small treasure. Just as Bai Lang was climbing up and down, he caught a whiff of a special sweet fragrance.

It was an oily, sweet scent; smelling it was overly sweet and even a bit nauseating, but after a while it turned into a fresh fragrance. Initially it gave a dizzy feeling, but then it made him feel clear-headed and refreshed. Bai Lang let out an "ai," immediately lifted his head, turned his neck, and flared his nostrils trying to pinpoint the direction of the smell.

After attaining the Innate realm, Bai Lang's six senses had improved greatly—his hearing and eyesight aside, his nose could probably reach a dog's level, and he quickly located the direction of the fragrance. As he followed the scent, his expression became quite entranced.

Bai Lang took a step, then two, three... Afterwards, a bell rang in his divine awareness, and a small whirlwind coiled around his body, with a tiger's low growl reverberating in the wind. Bai Lang shook his head, his eyes suddenly flashing with divine light; he clasped his palms together firmly, and as his internal force circulated, he dispelled the fragrance before his eyes.

The ground was littered with tiny bones, and Bai Lang also saw dazed wild beasts marching straight toward the direction the fragrance came from, not changing course even if they stumbled. "What a strong fragrance." Bai Lang muttered, activating his Golden Bell Shield Divine Skill while also driving the Arhat Benevolent King Fist with White Tiger Killing Qi.

The whirlwind rotated around his body; the gang qi not only protected his body, but the vigorous internal force of the Golden Bell Shield also safeguarded his mind. Bai Lang stepped closer and closer to the fragrance's center, the scent growing denser while a buzzing sound filled the air.

Not only was it sweet fragrance; now it also mixed with the metallic tang of blood and a faint rotting odor. Combined, the sweet scent became extremely strange, yet paradoxically gave off a fresher feeling. Even the animals—including a tiger nearly ten feet long—became more stupidly dazed as they moved forward.

Bones were already scattered everywhere on the ground, lying among the plants and creaking underfoot. "What a dangerous place." Bai Lang sighed, having already seen the culprit behind all this.

It was a tree-like thing constantly writhing, its red trunk over twenty meters tall covered everywhere with bee‑hive‑like holes, enough to trigger claustrophobia. The trunk was about as thick as three people could encircle, and all those "branches" were actually red "tree vines" hanging down from the top.

The writhing came from these vines and the bark on the trunk. The vines bore green flowers the size of a human head, but the sweet fragrance did not emanate from the blossoms—though the poison likely did—... the source of the sweet fragrance was those bee‑hive‑like spots on the trunk.

Giant hornets larger than a human head, yellow‑black in color, flew to and fro around the trunk; the ground was littered with dismembered animals, foul blood flowing everywhere. The vines split again near the ground, sending out many "roots" that took hold in the corpses and blood‑soaked earth. Those giant hornets tore meat from the animals, either eating it or using their spiked legs to knead it into meatballs, which they carried into the trunk.

Bai Lang even saw human skeletons among them, while some giant hornets snatched up dry bones and tossed them outside. "Ah, if only I'd read more miscellaneous books. If I had a jade slip that could be searched with divine sense..." Bai Lang stood outside watching for a while, then casually chopped down a giant hornet and sighed.

With this stuff, it's no wonder nobody wants to come clear out these bandits—traveling the mountain roads is just too much trouble. When he chopped down the hornet, Bai Lang felt it was about as hard as the monster hornet he'd encountered on a mission in the Adventure Hall; an ordinary martial artist running into several of them would likely be out of luck.

Bai Lang now possessed the Southern Dipper Holy Fist; at this moment there was no imminent danger, and switching between techniques was completely relaxed. The Southern Dipper Holy Fist truly lives up to "unstoppable against any obstacle"—at least when it comes to slicing these giant hornets in half. Bai Lang used his hand as a blade, easily cleaving a giant hornet into two pieces; the fluid inside the hornet wasn't nearly as toxic as the beetle's, and it did nothing to his hand.

However, after chopping open the hornet, its abdomen also emitted a sweet fragrance, letting Bai Lang confirm that the scent indeed came from the trunk—the hornets go in and out, carrying meatballs and such into the trunk, naturally storing this "honey" inside it.

He strode toward the red tree, and the giant hornets burst from their nest like an explosion, flying straight at Bai Lang. He pressed his palms together, his internal force surging wildly, then struck them together while shouting loudly "Wah!"—a tiger‑like roar that kicked up a gust of wind; instantly the hornets in front of him crackled and fell to the ground, spinning.

Bai Lang took a few steps to the trunk, grabbed a handful and tore downward, saying, "It doesn't feel like wood at all—more like flesh!" After ripping open the trunk, inside were plump, huge, yellowish‑white worms chewing on the meatballs, and a little lower, a stream of golden‑hued honey poured out—the source of the sweet fragrance.

Bai Lang took a few steps to the tree trunk, grabbed it and tore it downwards, "No feeling of wood, rather more like flesh!" After Bai Lang tore open the trunk, inside were yellowish, very fat, very large worms, still chewing those meatballs, and at a lower spot, golden honey flowed out directly...... the source of the sweet fragrance.