Fleeing from famine? Not a chance; the divine healer's wife made her fortune.

Chapter 205

As dusk turned the bee market at Cangwu Pass amber, Su Yunlan's jade bracelet was burning hot in her sleeve.

At the end of the seventh crack was an octagonal building made of beeswax, with seventy-two glass honeycomb lamps hanging from the eaves, each lamp wick containing a fist-sized golden ringed queen bee.

'That old fox has raised the price of tricolor bees to fifty taels a cage.' 'Xiao Twenty-Six crushed the pine pollen in his palm, the gold dust falling into the cracks of the bluestone bricks; 'Last month, the supply department only paid twenty taels when they purchased them.'

Xiao Yuhan's combat boots rolled over the ground littered with dead bees, the fluorescent blue of the mycelium flickering in the twilight.

He gazed at the sandalwood beehives on the top floor of the octagonal building; the subtle Big Dipper pattern on the surface of those hives was identical to the bee pupae he had dissected the night before. The Wu family monopolized seventy percent of the bee passages in the northern desert. He lightly tapped the blue bricks with his sword sheath, and three silver-winged worker bees suddenly emerged from the cracks. "Look at the constellation markings on the top of the beehives."

Su Yunlan's silver scissors grazed the cracks in the jade bracelet, and the mist from the medicinal spring rose in her eyes.

The migration map projected from the bee larvae last night overlaps with the scene before us, with the northernmost Big Dipper marker clearly engraved on the Wu family's bee flag.

She suddenly caught a familiar scent of red sand—exactly the same as the beeswax markings on the half-rolled map in the space.

"Oh, isn't this Madam Xiao Si?" Wu Fengshang strolled downstairs, his purple-gold abacus inlaid with honeycomb, three blood-eyed queen bees encased in a jade pendant at his waist. "I heard you're trying to improve your bee breed?" He flicked a strand of spider silk from his fingertip, which caught one of the scout bees that Xiao Ershiliu had just released. "These Western Region Golden Ring Bees need to be raised on Tian Shan snow lotus—can your shabby inn afford that?"

Just as Xiao Ershiliu's bone flute was about to touch the other's throat, it was stopped by Su Yunlan's silver needles solidified with beeswax.

The jade bracelet on her wrist trembled slightly, and the phantom image of the medicinal spring gathered into the outline of a swarm behind Wu Fengshang—the fluorescence on the abdomens of those worker bees completely overlapped with the sentry positions on the border defense map.

&34; Manager Wu's beehives are quite special. &34; She suddenly reached out and brushed her hand across the grain of the sandalwood, the medicinal spring seeping from the cracks in the jade bracelet seeping into the dark patterns of the Big Dipper, &34; I heard there's a kind of firefly bee in the northern desert that can weave star trails on the night of a full moon? &34;

Wu Fengshang's pupils contracted sharply, and the abacus beads clanged together with a piercing sound.

The honeycomb lights on the octagonal roof suddenly went out simultaneously, and the seventy-two queen bees emitted a threatening tremor.

Xiao Yuhan's battle robe fluttered amidst the buzzing of bees, and the fluorescent blue mycelium entwined with it climbed up the sandalwood beehive along the sword sheath, while the Big Dipper markings began to shift eerily.

"Three hundred taels, and I'll give you five cages of three-colored bees." Wu Fengshang suddenly snapped the jade pendant at his waist, and the Blood-Eyed Queen Bee collided with Su Yunlan's silver scissors, sparks flying. "However, you'll have to pay twenty boxes of Rotten Firefly Grass—that's the secret ingredient for raising Firefly-Winged Bees."

Chen, the beekeeper, was met with laughter three days later at the apiary.

An old beekeeper is applying tung oil to a century-old beehive, his withered fingers brushing over the thick layer of propolis on the comb: "Using firefly grass to feed bees?"

That thing will erode the worker bees' honey sacs! &34; He deliberately tapped the wax knife against the rim of the pine barrel, making a loud clanging sound, &34; The queen bee lays her eggs according to the mountain god's instructions, what do you city folks know about bee language? &34;

Su Yunlan bent down to observe the mycelial veins on the locust wood beehive. After watering it with the spatial medicinal spring last night, the fluorescent blue mycelium had grown into a miniature fortress along the Big Dipper pattern.

She secretly mixed the powdered firefly grass into the honey water, and the medicinal spring seeping from the cracks in the jade bracelet condensed into a star pattern at the bottom of the ceramic bowl.

&34; Old Chen looked at the direction of the bee trail... &34; She lifted the foundation of the hive covered with worker bees, and the mycelium revealed a blurred border terrain in the sunlight.

&34; Bee trails must follow the earth's veins! &34; Suddenly, Chen the beekeeper used a wax knife to pick up a piece of dead bee. The reddish patterns remaining on the stinger of the dead body made Su Yunlan's heart skip a beat—that was the missing Southern Dipper mark on the spatial map, &34; The scribblings you carved on the beehives will attract corpse bees sooner or later! &34;

As dusk fell, Su Yunlan remained alone at the bee farm.

She used the ashes of the decaying firefly grass to heat out the Big Dipper pattern on the jade bracelet, and then filled the crack with the propolis she had collected that day.

As the last drop of medicinal spring water seeped into the beehive, the fluorescent blue mycelium suddenly enveloped the entire locust forest, projecting a complete star map of the bee's path in the twilight—three of the seven points of light were clearly marked with the Wu family's bee flag symbol.

As Xiao Yuhan walked along the star trails paved with mycelium, the hem of his battle robe was covered in glowing beeswax. "Twenty-six found this in the Wu family's warehouse." He opened his palm; half a bee pupa shell bore remnants of the same crimson scale sand found in Su Yunlan's space, "the same material as the coded message you found in the corpse bee's stinger."

Su Yunlan's silver scissors sliced ​​through the jade bracelet, and from the depths of the cracks, the phantom of an ancient book formed from medicinal spring water emerged.

As the night wind dispersed the last buzzing of bees at the apiary, she gazed at the eerie fireflies that lit up in the direction of the seventh star of the Big Dipper, her fingertips stained with the juice of the decaying firefly grass as she traced star trails in her sleeve—there, a swarm of fireflies, never recorded in any ancient texts, were vibrating their wings in sync with the lyrics of the opera "The Banquet at Yaochi".

As dusk cast long, thin shadows on the blue brick wall, Su Yunlan leaned against the rising steam from the medicinal spring, perusing ancient scrolls.

The spring water seeping from the seventh crack in the jade bracelet condensed into an amber color in the inkstone, making the incomplete characters of the "Tiangong Bee Manual" clearly legible.

She dipped her fingertips in the ash of decaying firefly grass and traced the star codes she had copied from the stinger of a bee's corpse the night before on the rice paper.

&34; Could the quality of a bee species really be determined by its wing veins? &34; Suddenly, ripples appeared on the medicinal spring, and the phantom images of three worker bees floated on the surface.

Su Yunlan stared at the spiral pattern on one of the hind wings, and the pattern was exactly the same as the tung oil pattern on Chen Beekeeper's wax knife.

She scattered the ashes of the firefly grass into the air, and the ashes projected a complete pattern of wing veins onto the spatial dome—those intersecting golden lines were clearly a miniature version of the northern trade route.

The rustling sound of fungal hyphae crawling across the window frame came from outside. Xiao Yuhan walked in carrying a bronze lamp, the hem of his battle robe still stained with fluorescent blue beeswax.

His gaze fell on the star chart on the Xuan paper, and he suddenly used his sword sheath to pick up the amber water from the inkstone: "Is this the Big Dipper pattern on the Wu family's bee flag?"

'More accurately, it's the star trail of bee migration.' Su Yunlan poured the medicinal spring water onto the ancient scroll fragments, and the missing text was filled in by fluorescent mycelium. 'Look at the trade route nodes corresponding to these wing veins—' She pointed her fingertip to the point where the golden thread and the ash of decaying firefly grass overlapped. 'By testing the translucency of bee wings with red-scaled sand, we can screen out the bee species most suitable for the climate of the northern desert.'

Xiao Yuhan suddenly grasped her hand holding the pen, and the medicinal spring seeped into the star map through the gaps between her interlaced fingers.

The fluorescent mycelium spread along the lines of his palm, weaving a fine honeycomb pattern between them: "You always manage to tear a hole in the most desperate situations." His deep voice made the fireflies in the bronze lamp tremble slightly, "Just like when he saved Twenty-Six with wild mint on the road to exile."

Su Yunlan's ears burned, and the ink from her brush spread across the rice paper.

The jade bracelet suddenly vibrated like a buzzing bee, and the medicinal spring gushing from the crack enveloped her loose hair.

Xiao Yuhan gently lifted a strand of her hair that shimmered with fluorescent blue light, his fingertips brushing against the silver bee hairpin tucked in her hair: "Back then, you could concoct a hemostatic powder even with a thorn hairpin, but now..."

"Fourth Brother!" Xiao Twenty-Six's voice, accompanied by the crackling sound of mycelium bursting, came from outside the courtyard. "Old Chen is burning rotten firefly grass at the bee farm!"

Su Yunlan suddenly stood up, and the amber water from the spilled medicinal spring seeped into the shape of the Big Dipper on the ancient scroll.

She picked up the red sand bottle that had been sealed with beeswax the night before, and when the silver scissors in her sleeve brushed against the jade bracelet, they sparked a string of fireflies.

Xiao Yuhan's sword sheath was at her waist, his warm breath brushing against her flushed earlobe: "Have dinner first. There are twenty-six people watching the bee farm."

The candlelight cast their shadows onto the star chart, outlining overlapping star trails with flickering light.

As Su Yunlan counted the beeswax seeping from between the scales of Xiao Yuhan's armor, she suddenly realized that the fluorescent blue spots actually formed the tung oil pattern on Chen Fengnong's wax knife.

She picked up a mint leaf and placed it on the rim of his bowl: "Old Chen must have been burning the rotten firefly grass to drive away the corpse bees, but those ashes..."

&34; Could this help you verify the wing vein theory? &34; Xiao Yuhan rolled mint leaves into a honeycomb shape and soaked them in the amber-colored medicinal spring. &34; Twenty-six said that the bottom of Chen Beekeeper's century-old beehive was engraved with the Southern Dipper pattern, which was opposite to that of the Wu family. &34;

As the night breeze, carrying the acrid smell of beeswax, slipped through the window cracks, Su Yunlan was conducting her final experiment on the bee corpses in the space.

The illusory worker bees formed from the medicinal spring crashed into the red-scaled sand barrier, and the golden light emanating from their wing veins perfectly matched the records in the ancient scroll.

She scattered the ashes of the firefly grass onto the Big Dipper constellation, watching the ashes accumulate along the golden veins of the wings to form miniature trade routes. Suddenly, she understood the true meaning of what Chen the beekeeper had said during the day: "The bee's path must follow the earth's veins."

The jade bracelet suddenly emitted a dazzling fluorescence, and the spring water gushing from the seventh crack enveloped the entire book "The Heavenly Craft Bee Manual".

As the ancient scroll transformed into a fluorescent glow and disappeared into his wrist, Su Yunlan discovered a bee-wing-shaped mark on his palm—the pattern of which was exactly the same as the blood-eyed queen bee wing veins in the Wu Feng Shang jade pendant.

"Fourth Madam!" Chen the beekeeper's hoarse voice burst open the courtyard gate at dawn. The old beekeeper, carrying a smoking beehive and with fluorescent blue mycelium still clinging to his wax knife, said, "The swarm of corpse bees is heading towards the seventh star of the Big Dipper!"

Su Yunlan gripped the Crimson Sand Bottle in her sleeve, watching the morning mist condense into star-shaped water droplets on Chen Fengnong's raincoat.

She caught a glimpse of the jade gourd hanging from the old bee-man's waist, with the six stars of the Southern Dipper faintly engraved on the bottom of the gourd—the last marker missing from the spatial map.