Published: February 7, 2025
"I'm sorry for being late today; I had something to take care of. There will be another chapter soon."
These black mists are the needle bird demons.
This piece of green-grade equipment is naturally the beast pool type equipment—the Demon Servicing Beehive!
Since obtaining this equipment in the secret realm and capturing many needle birds to raise in the Demon Servicing Beehive, Ye Zhongming has yet to truly use it to assist in his battles.
However, this does not prevent him from knowing the power of this equipment.
This equipment is not overly complicated; it is essentially a breeding dish that does not require magic crystals. Ye Zhongming only needs to offer a bit of his blood after capturing the small flying mutated life forms that need to be domesticated.
This item was acquired before subduing the tribes of Shankan, and it has been some time since then. The needle bird demons inside have been completely tamed and, during these days, have undergone significant changes due to Ye Zhongming's careful nurturing.
During this process, Ye Zhongming also discovered some "secrets" of this equipment.
First, as a shared characteristic of beast pool type equipment, the Demon Servicing Beehive has the ability to heal the injuries of mutated life forms. Ye Zhongming has released the needle birds to hunt after returning to Earth, and these tamed little creatures no longer require Ye Zhongming's blood to grow and evolve; they can hunt for themselves just fine.
Since they are hunting on their own, getting injured is unavoidable.
Many needle birds come back with considerable injuries after a day out. Normally, such injuries would take a while to heal.
However, once they enter the Demon Servicing Beehive, their injuries recover rapidly. As long as the injuries are not too severe, Ye Zhongming has never seen one that didn't heal within fifty hours. Even crippling injuries, like a broken wing, can heal within ten days.
Just this alone makes this equipment truly remarkable.
Next is its role in promoting evolution.
Although after being tamed they no longer need Ye Zhongming's blood for nourishment, he did initially provide the energy with his blood, creating a faint bond between him and the needle birds. He can clearly feel that after becoming life forms in the Demon Servicing Beehive, the evolution speed of these needle birds is accelerating. Ye Zhongming cannot determine exactly how much faster, but based on some individual changes, he estimates that the time needed for evolution is about one-third less.
This is already a frightening statistic.
Lastly, there is the shortening of the breeding cycle.
Since needle birds are demons, Ye Zhongming is unsure of their normal breeding cycle. However, on Earth, due to the apocalypse, the reproductive capabilities and breeding cycles of mutated life forms are typically enhanced and shortened compared to peaceful times.
Based on the breeding periods of similar life forms on Earth, Ye Zhongming roughly estimates that the breeding period of the life forms in the Demon Servicing Beehive may be shortened by about one-third again.
These small social flying creatures already have an easy time reproducing, and with the timeline shortened by a third, the speed is exceptionally terrifying.
Take the needle birds as an example; from the moment they were assimilated until now, these little creatures have reproduced twice.
Moreover, the needle birds born and raised in the Demon Servicing Beehive have a higher birth level and reach adulthood quickly. The first batch of needle birds that were born has already reached adulthood and are now at level three!
These factors combined have raised Ye Zhongming's regard for this equipment to a level comparable to the Crystal Energy Magic Bullet Gun!
After all, without seeing the life forms trained by the Demon Servicing Beehive evolve to their highest levels, the potential of this equipment remains. If all these hummingbirds can evolve to the level of the Hummingbird King—level six—then the value of this equipment would far surpass that of the Crystal Energy Magic Bullet Gun.