Chapter 371 - 369: An Unfair Deal

Chapter 371: Chapter 369: An Unfair Deal

It was gone—

???

The Bee King anxiously spun in circles. Finding nothing, it finally remembered to look up at the smug-looking Cao Cao. It had, after all, eaten a Wisdom Opening Pill. It quickly understood that the mysteriously appearing and disappearing thing that held such a powerful attraction for it must be related to this "thing" before it, this self-proclaimed Cao Cao.

So it put on a fawning smile, looked at Cao Cao with eyes full of desperate longing, and said, "Want. I want. Give me."

"I already let you have a taste for free. Don’t tell me you want to keep freeloading?" Cao Cao retorted, curling its lip disdainfully.

’So that thing that suddenly made me feel enlightened was also brought out by this Cao Cao?’ The Bee King had an epiphany. But when it remembered that what the other party wanted was its own honeycomb and honey, its face immediately twisted with conflict. It hesitated again and again, smacking its lips, unable to resist its craving for the green ointment. Finally, recalling Cao Cao’s earlier mention of a "trade," though it didn’t fully understand the meaning, it looked up and said resolutely, "Trade."

After speaking, it glanced at the worker bees coming and going around them, then looked at Cao Cao with pleading eyes. "You can have the honey first, but not all of it. I need to keep some. And this hive... it’s our home. If we give it to you, we’ll have nowhere to live. Can you wait until we’ve built a new hive before you take it?"

"Sure." Cao Cao nodded crisply. Unafraid that the Bee King would go back on its word, it took out the Hundred Herbs Rejuvenating Ointment again and placed it before the Bee King. "You can eat this first. I guarantee you won’t regret this trade after you finish."

The Bee King didn’t stand on ceremony. The moment it saw the Hundred Herbs Rejuvenating Ointment, it completely forgot what Cao Cao had said, pounced on it, and began to devour it voraciously. After finishing, it suddenly shuddered, and its body swelled by a full size. It looked up at Cao Cao in pleasant surprise, its eyes showing a fawning expression.

Cao Cao gave a very self-satisfied smile. "Let’s go, I’ll take the honey first. When can I come back for the hive?"

"When the sky darkens and then brightens again," the Bee King answered without hesitation.

"Alright." Cao Cao nodded readily.

Hearing this, the Bee King didn’t delay. It led Cao Cao directly to where the honey was stored, keeping only a small portion for itself and watching as the rest of the honey vanished. Having witnessed this before, it was no longer completely shocked. Knowing Cao Cao would be leaving soon, it looked at the plant with yearning and asked eagerly, "We’ll have more honey in the future, and we can build more hives. Will you come back again?"

"Of course. Have your swarm store as much honey as possible. I’ll come by every so often. The more honey and hives you have then, the more Hundred Herbs Rejuvenating Ointment I’ll give you." Cao Cao answered with a wide smile, not thinking there was anything wrong or unfair about the deal. It was taking what looked to be over ten pounds of honey, plus a huge, yet-to-be-claimed hive, all in exchange for a tiny, worker-bee-sized dab of Hundred Herbs Rejuvenating Ointment.

It had planned for a long-term trade with the Bee King from the start. Otherwise, wouldn’t that half of its master’s Enlightenment Pill have gone to waste?

So even if the Bee King hadn’t brought it up, Cao Cao would have said it anyway.

"That’s wonderful!"

The Bee King’s mood could only be described as jubilant. The moment it ate the Hundred Herbs Rejuvenating Ointment, it felt a sensation of power coursing through its entire body. The feeling was so comfortable that it wished it could experience it again immediately.

--

"How could you have the gall to trade such a tiny bit of Hundred Herbs Rejuvenating Ointment for so much of their honey and an entire hive?" After listening to Cao Cao’s smug account of the whole trading process with the Bee King, Gu Nuan Nuan was both amused and exasperated, and she began to feel an inexplicable pity for the Bee King.

"Isn’t maximizing profit the whole point of doing business?" Cao Cao retorted nonchalantly, offering a self-righteous defense. "The Bee King didn’t get a bad deal. The amount of Hundred Herbs Rejuvenating Ointment I gave it wasn’t much, but it was just enough for it to digest. If I’d given it more, it wouldn’t have been able to eat it all in one go. Losing its effect would be one thing, but what if the fragrance attracted some other powerful animal that wiped them out? Wouldn’t that be a case of its treasure being its downfall?"

"Hmm, I guess that does make a bit of sense." Gu Nuan Nuan wasn’t seriously trying to stand up for the Bee King. She just smiled, took out a clean Jade Box to store the honey, and then used a Jade Pot to brew a pot of honey water. She poured it into a Jade Cup, took a sip, and nodded with her eyes closed in satisfaction. "Wild, pure honey really is sweeter and more fragrant. I can let the others try some when we get back."

The thought of having a steady supply of such honey from now on made her eyes crinkle with a smile.

"Master, you’re too easily satisfied. This is just ordinary honey. If it were real Spiritual Honey, I guarantee that after one sip, you’d never want to drink this common stuff again." Cao Cao looked at Gu Nuan Nuan as if she were Granny Liu walking into the Grand View Garden, and added a final jab, "You’ll see. Once you’ve had the real thing, this stuff will be completely undrinkable."

"Oh, stop it. If that Spiritual Honey is as good as you say, then it’s better that I’ve never tried it. Otherwise, how am I supposed to go on living?" Gu Nuan Nuan shot it a look. "Don’t you know the saying ’it’s easy to go from frugal to lavish, but hard to go from lavish to frugal’? Hmph. Don’t you go pouring cold water on my parade like this in the future."

She huffed twice. Seeing that Cao Cao still looked completely unconvinced, she couldn’t resist looking it up and down before dealing an even bigger blow. "Besides, you’re a Plant Pet that can’t even eat or drink. How would you know if Spiritual Honey really tastes better than this? You know what they say: no experience, no right to speak."

Cao Cao instantly wilted. It gazed at Gu Nuan Nuan with utterly mournful eyes, looking as if all hope was lost. ’Master really knows how to hit where it hurts.’

It covered its face and let out a couple of fake sobs, trying to win Gu Nuan Nuan’s sympathy. But Gu Nuan Nuan just watched its act with a cold gaze and let out a dry "Heh heh." She then continued to blissfully sip her honey water from the Jade Cup, ignoring it completely. She even sighed, "This is so delicious. It’s smooth and sweet, even better than the legendary ambrosia. Too bad *some people* can only watch and can’t have a single sip."

"SOB, SOB~~" ’Master is so mean! I worked so hard to bargain with the Bee King for this honey, and now she’s just burning the bridge after crossing it!’

With an aggrieved flick of its bottom, it zipped back into its Companion Space to sulk.

’Darn it! My Companion Space doesn’t have enough Spiritual Energy to upgrade and expand yet. Otherwise, I could plant a huge patch of Spirit Plants, then have Master use the Hundred Herbs Rejuvenating Ointment to raise a batch of bees comparable to Spirit Bees to make honey. With a proper comparison, she’d know how right I am!’