Chapter 74: (1): The Power of the Ice Formation
However, collecting this honey was a must. Long Xuan looked at the bee queen, about the size of a fist, in his palm, and after a light cough, he kindly said, "BingBing, your relatives have been living in my medicine garden for so long; it's time they pay taxes."
"This medicine garden is mine. They're staying in my garden, so shouldn't they pay taxes?"
"All the spiritual herbs here are painstakingly cultivated by me, and the pollen they collect is all mine. Since they've taken my things, shouldn't they pay taxes?"
"Their hive is protected by my Ice Formation, safe from predators. Living here is 100% safe, so shouldn't they pay a protection tax?"
"I've calculated carefully for you: scenery tax, safety tax, water tax, single tax, honey collection tax, income tax, property tax, asset tax, protection tax, head tax, breathing tax, sunbathing tax, stable living tax, land appreciation tax, farmland occupation tax, environmental protection tax..."
Long Xuan counted on his fingers and found that ten fingers weren't enough, so he had to stop.
"Okay! For now, that's all I can think of. I'll add more as I think of them."
"All these taxes combined aren't much. Each household only needs to hand over half of their honey every month."
"Now, go collect taxes from each household for me. Anyone who dares to resist won't get royal jelly in the future."
Long Xuan excitedly pointed and gestured, suddenly wondering if he was being too harsh.Those spirit bees are all honey addicts; collecting their honey is like taking their lives. They might rebel.
Hopefully, BingBing, just becoming the bee queen, won't be overthrown.
He thought that to rapidly develop the number of ice bees and quickly form combat power, they must be left with enough food. The more food, the faster the reproduction rate.
Moreover, he's just one person with a limited appetite and can't eat that much honey. Too much would be a waste.
Considering these points, Long Xuan decided to reduce the tax rate to 20% and let BingBing handle the tax collection.
BingBing seemed very interested in collecting honey from each household. She swallowed hard and eagerly set out to work.
With the royal bee bloodline's suppression and the allure of royal jelly, all the spirit bees obediently complied.
There's no such thing as a peasant uprising in the spirit beast world; Long Xuan was overthinking.
But what he didn't expect was that this little clever bee dared to defy his orders and collected twice the amount of honey, keeping the extra for herself.
If Long Xuan knew what she did, he might be furious.
After successfully collecting the honey, Long Xuan was in a great mood. He immediately made a cup of honey water, added some crushed ice with the Ice Flame, and took a sip.
The cool honey water made him feel refreshed, with the sweetness mixed with the floral fragrance, cold and delicious. It was beyond satisfying.
Honey made from fourth-grade pollen was indeed delicious and did not disappoint Long Xuan. He showed a look of intoxication after drinking it.
"This is life, a cup of honey water, living like a god!"
"Indeed! There's nowhere as comfortable as home, nowhere as safe as home," Long Xuan exclaimed while holding his cup.
However, just as he finished speaking, the Ice Formation suddenly shook violently, as if something was hitting it fiercely.
Long Xuan was startled by this sudden change, interrupting his moment of joy.
What's going on? Just after saying staying home is safe, something dangerous happens. Could it be a meteor strike? Long Xuan was shocked.
At this moment, the killing array of the Ice Formation seemed triggered, and ice-blue fireballs flew into the sky, striking far away.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."
Long Xuan heard the whistling sound of fireballs passing by his ears, countless fireballs flying over his head, and in an instant, it seemed like the sky was raining fire, madly bombarding outside the formation.
Soon, a series of explosions could be heard outside the formation, as if it were being bombarded by artillery, shaking the ground violently.
"Is this firepower?" Long Xuan was stunned by this terrifying scene.
Even though he set up the Ice Formation, he didn't expect its firepower to be so strong. This was the first time activating the killing array and witnessing the formation's power.
Long Xuan immediately ran in the direction of the fireball attacks and, upon reaching the edge of the formation, saw a group of spirit beasts attacking his medicine garden. He finally understood what was happening.
Despite the beast tide being intercepted by the Gu cultivation allied forces, it's impossible to intercept 100%.
Small groups of beasts occasionally penetrate the defense line, reaching the human world.
There were already reports of spirit beasts massacring villages.
Apparently, this group of beasts was the fish that slipped through the frontline, penetrating deep into the interior, planning to raid Great Stone Village.
But Long Xuan's medicine garden was in front of Great Stone Village, right in the path of the spirit beast army.
So naturally, his medicine garden faced a fierce attack from the spirit beast army, which seemed to want to destroy this stronghold.
This was truly misfortune; even staying home wasn't safe.
Was he protecting Great Stone Village by taking the hit?
Long Xuan was a bit stunned, but despite his medicine garden being under a massive attack by the spirit beast army, he wasn't worried.
In this world, the power of Gu cultivators and formations are not equivalent.
Even though he's just a small Gu cultivator in the Spirit Gathering stage, the Ice Formation's power far exceeds that of a Spirit Gathering stage Gu cultivator.
If the attack power of the formation is equal to the level of the Gu cultivator himself, how could Master Jin dare to settle down in the wild, and how could Di Xin dare to settle down in the prairie?
Formations with Spirit Gathering stage power wouldn't provide them with such security.
Long Xuan's formation was inherited from Master Jin's cave-protecting formation, and with the addition of the Ice Divine Flame as the treasure that supported the formation, its power increased several times. How could an ordinary group of beasts just attack it??
Just looking at the firepower in the sky shows the formation's immense power.
"How can my Ice Formation be something you can break through at will? You are truly overestimating yourselves. You're doomed!"
Looking at the spirit beast army fiercely attacking the formation, Long Xuan showed a disdainful expression.
The sky was raining fireballs, and the dense fireball rain fiercely bombarded the beast army, causing countless spirit beasts to scream.
The ground was covered with unquenchable cold flames. Spirit beasts engulfed by the flames were either burned to death or turned into ice statues.
Their thin spiritual armor was useless, like paper, easily burned through by the cold flames.
The Divine Ice Flame's power far surpasses Long Xuan's Blazing flame Palm. Being directly hit by the Ice Flame means certain death, whether you're a peak first-tier spirit beast or even a beast king.
This spirit beast army was truly unlucky to stumble into such a deadly formation, a disaster indeed...
This beast army had about 500 members, a considerable number, with various types of spirit beasts, even flying ones, making it a motley crew.
However, the Ice Formation's firepower was too fierce for such a beast army to withstand.
The dense fireballs struck the beast army's center, continuously bombarding them. In no time, more than half of the spirit beast army was killed or injured, leaving them dazed.
Even the flying spirit beasts couldn't escape the fate, as the dense fireballs acted like anti-air missiles, sweeping the sky.
The flying spirit beasts dodged one fireball after another, but eventually couldn't avoid the tenth one.
Hit by a fireball, they screamed, engulfed in blue flames, and fell heavily to the ground.
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