CHAPTER 542: CHAPTER 335: MALVITE, THE BEE KING’S MYSTERY

A minute ago, inside the hive.

Thick, smooth, golden honey flowed endlessly on the ceiling, cascading down like a waterfall at the center, continuously pouring into the massive cocoon.

Upon entering the hive, Gu Qiye immediately set You Ruirui down.

The black electric arc lingering around them had already dissipated, and they stood at the entrance of the palace, quickly scanning the surroundings, cautiously observing the eerie scene within the palace.

Inside the enormous cocoon lay a mother bee three meters long, with a narrow scar on her chest. This was undoubtedly the Queen Bee.

In front of the Queen Bee’s cocoon stood a nondescript Bee Prince, who at first glance seemed like an oversized ordinary worker bee.

The difference between this Bee Prince and a worker bee was his human-like features, without the prominent sting in the middle, making him appear less menacing, more like a gentle-looking elderly man.

"The Four Bee Lords, Malvite," You Ruirui whispered, "We don’t know what kind of superpower it has yet, so we must proceed cautiously."

"The only one among the Four Great Bee Lords whose ability is still unknown?" Gu Qiye asked.

You Ruirui silently nodded, her ice-blue eyes reflecting Malvite’s face.

Malvite sighed, slowly rose from in front of the cocoon, scratching his head, "Judging by the noise, it seems quite heated outside... You must have taken advantage of the chaos to sneak in, right? It’s quite a coincidence to bump into a slacker like me."

Before he finished speaking, You Ruirui and Gu Qiye vanished from their positions, splitting to surround him from the left and right.

You Ruirui moved with the ice, the surface extending forward, her form swift as a gusting snow. With a casual gesture, she conjured a large array of robust yet sharp ice spikes in mid-air.

"Boom! Boom! Boom—!"

The Icelandic girl’s fingers slightly bent, over a dozen ice spikes instantly tore through the air, shooting straight from above her head towards Malvite in a probing offensive maneuver.

On the other side, Gu Qiye, recalling his previous encounter with Qiao, was uncertain if each Bee Prince concealed a neurotoxin capable of paralyzing opponents.

He also refrained from recklessly approaching Malvite, instead unleashing a surge of intense black lightning from his fingertips, forming a beam that swept forward with a screech.

At this moment, two hexagonal mirror surfaces materialized in the air, one on each side of Malvite, both three meters wide and long.

You Ruirui’s ice spikes vanished into the left mirror, disappearing as if the mirror contained a vast space; similarly, Gu Qiye’s beam of black lightning was swallowed by the right hexagonal mirror.

Years of combat experience alarmed Gu Qiye and You Ruirui, making them aware that something was amiss, adopting a wary posture within a fleeting half-second.

In the blink of an eye, a black lightning beam shot from the left mirror, aiming directly at You Ruirui’s heart; simultaneously, several ice spikes flew from the right mirror towards Gu Qiye, accompanied by a howling cold current.

An abrupt ice sheet formed beneath You Ruirui’s feet, she leaned down, swiftly sliding to the right, her white hair fluttering amidst the cold flow and shards of ice, resembling a nimble, agile spirit gliding over a glacier.

In an instant, the lightning beam from the mirror swept past the side of her face.

Despite narrowly avoiding the attack, a part of her combat suit’s shoulder was torn open by an arc of electricity, leaving a thin wound on her skin.

Flashes of electricity danced over the blurred wound, intense pain and numbness transmitted to her brain.

Nonetheless, the Icelandic girl’s eyes remained unblinking, her face impassive, as if she could not feel the pain.

If she had been two centimeters closer, her head would have been incinerated into ash by the frenzied lightning! This was You Ruirui’s first time experiencing the terrifying destructive power of Gu Qiye’s lightning from an opponent’s perspective.

Across the palace, Gu Qiye had already disappeared from where he stood, the reflected ice spikes from the mirrors unable to catch even the remnants of his shadow.

At that moment, he transformed into a streak of black lightning, silently bypassed Malvite, appearing beside You Ruirui, crouching down to examine her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

You Ruirui shook her head expressionlessly, meeting his gaze for a second.

In almost the same instant they locked eyes, both Gu Qiye and You Ruirui confirmed their understanding of the Four Bee Lords’ superpower—the ability to create mirrors that absorb attacks and voluntarily reflect the stored objects.

Thus, they immediately reached a consensus; now was not the time for a ranged battle, as that would only invite disaster;

Engaging in close combat would significantly reduce the presence of Malvite’s superpower.

"Did you know?" Malvite suddenly spoke, "I am the last-born Bee Prince and the weakest among them, so since the moment I was born, the Queen Bee told me... that the only way to birth a true Bee King of the Light-Eating Bee clan is for the Bee Princes to slaughter and devour each other."

Gu Qiye was slightly taken aback, and You Ruirui looked at Malvite with an expressionless face.

"How pathetic, isn’t it?" Malvite spread his hands.

"I can tell, you have a strong desire to vent," Gu Qiye said, "but chatting while fighting isn’t a good habit."

As he finished speaking, Gu Qiye was already closing in on Malvite, his entire body enveloped in wild arcs of electricity. He first raised his fist as a feint, then suddenly ducked down to avoid Malvite’s grab, swiftly twisting his body, raising his knee, and kicking upward.

A layer of black lightning clung to the heel of his shoe, striking Malvite’s chin with precision.

"Bang—!" Malvite’s body flew backward, his chin’s exoskeleton shattered by the lightning, and black blood gushed out.

At this moment, You Ruirui’s attack came in quick succession, gliding across the icy surface to catch up with the Four Bee Lords. An ice-blue long sword formed between the palm of her right hand.

A hexagonal honeycomb-shaped mirror formed right in front of You Ruirui, but she had foreseen it, swiftly and gracefully gliding across the ice and circling in midair before slipping behind Malvite and stabbing forward with her sword.

Malvite suddenly spun in the air, steadying himself, his feet landing on the ceiling. Instantly, he raised his right hand, covered in exoskeleton, to grip the ice sword.

However, at that instant, a mutation occurred—within a tenth of a second, You Ruirui froze the air directly in front of Malvite’s eye sockets, forming tiny ice particles that coalesced into two narrow spikes.

The two tiny ice spikes shot straight forward, piercing towards Malvite’s eye sockets.

"Damn—! Despicable humans!" Malvite saw the ice spikes heading towards his pupils but couldn’t block them in time, thus let out an exaggerated roar.

In an instant, his eyeballs were pierced by the two tiny ice spikes, blood splashed red across his eye sockets. Malvite let out a scream, his vision darkened, but his remaining sharp senses still helped him observe his surroundings.

Now, standing on the ceiling upside down, he forcefully crushed the ice sword in his grip, blood seeping from his palm.

But in the next moment, an ice-forged giant hammer appeared in You Ruirui’s left hand, swinging upward to smash into Malvite’s chest.

A cold tide formed by a burst of cold air rushed towards him, the temperature of the air dropping rapidly. Malvite quickly generated a mirror in front of his chest, absorbing the incoming giant hammer.

In an instant, the ice hammer bounced out from the mirror, instead smashing towards You Ruirui’s own head. In her ice-blue pupils, the hammer grew closer, like the approach of death.

Gu Qiye had already crouched down, shattering the ground with his step, shooting upwards like an arrow to embrace You Ruirui, and then stepping onto a corner of the ceiling.

The ice hammer swept beneath them, their clothes tinged with a faint layer of frost. Gu Qiye’s body twisted upside down, stepping on the ceiling, shooting towards Malvite like an arrow loosed from its string.

He held You Ruirui in one hand, raised the other forward.

His right fist, wrapped in wild, fierce lightning, transformed into a pitch-black drill, pounding towards Malvite’s head. The lightning was silent, yet seemed to scream, filled with a violent and surging blackness.

Malvite momentarily lost his sight; despite the Light-Eating Bee’s strong self-healing ability, this was the most vulnerable part of his body, still requiring time to recover.

Additionally, You Ruirui formed a thin layer of ice dust in the air, lightly freezing his fists and legs, so Malvite naturally couldn’t react in time to Gu Qiye’s surprise attack.

Before he could raise his arms, his head was struck by the approaching electric fist!

"Sizzle—!" The pitch-black lightning, like a venomous snake seizing its prey, tore through the exoskeleton layer by layer and then shattered half of Malvite’s head.

"Squish—!" Blood splattered wildly! Gu Qiye holding You Ruirui fell from the air!

"Aaaargh—!" Half of Malvite’s head was already missing, dark blood flowed out, the remaining half of his face was as ferocious as a demon, his blood-drenched eye sockets opened, revealing a gaping black hole.

He stomped hard on the ceiling, his body dropping toward the floor, rolling as he fell.

Afterward, Malvite struggled to stand, step by step approaching Gu Qiye.

Meanwhile, honeycomb-like mirrors stacked around Malvite, seamlessly forming an impenetrable warrior’s armor.

Gu Qiye squatted down, laying You Ruirui down, looked up to see this scene, and thus distanced himself from Malvite.

Malvite’s remaining half-lip moved, "And the Queen Bee told me, the purpose of my birth was to be consumed by other Bee Lords so that the true Bee King could be born... This feeling is truly unbearable, as if since birth, I was destined to be the prey of other Bee Lords, that from birth, I was a sacrifice."

"What kind of mother is there in this world? If I were ignorant, I’d accept it willingly, but I devoured your human memories, knowledge, and understood my own situation."

"In human terms, this feeling should be... emptiness and... anger, correct?"

Malvite raised his hand to point at the giant cocoon behind him, gritting his teeth, his damaged lips twitched, as he shouted hysterically:

"I told her I didn’t want to be a sacrifice, told her I wanted to live, but she became furious, so... so I injured the queen severely, tearing open her womb. Yet now, now... am I to be trapped in imminent death to protect her? This is truly damn ironic..."