Chapter 146 The Flower Chaser and the Bees: Magical Potions and Honey
After asking around among the merchants, Shu Xin was somewhat surprised to learn that there were also professional beekeepers among the Flower Fairies.
Just as flower fairies who specialize in taming white-feathered birds are called feather tamers, and flower fairies who specialize in cultivating wheat seeds are called wheat herders, flower fairies who specialize in raising bees are called flower chasers.
Upon learning that the Flower Fairy wished to raise bees to produce honey, a caravan quickly brought a hive full of bees to the Land of Sin, along with a family of over a dozen flower fairies who were professional beekeepers working as flower chasers.
Shu Xin naturally welcomed this family of flower chasers, and more than a dozen new treehouses sprouted up in the Land of Sin that very day.
However, contrary to Shu Xin's expectations, the honey produced by the bees raised by the Flower Fairies is not sold as a condiment or food. In the eyes of the flower fairies, honey is a valuable material for making magical potions.
In Shuxin's original world, beekeepers are also called flower chasers. This is because beekeepers need to migrate with the flowers to chase nectar sources. The flower chasers in the magical world are the same. These flower fairies do not cultivate fields. They only raise bees and will migrate to different regions with the flowering season.
Flower chasers would use honey to exchange for magic potions from apothecaries, and then use the magic potions to exchange for the food and goods they needed. In Shu Xin's opinion, the flower chasers among the flower fairies actually also served as mobile doctors.
Limited by their magical talents, there are very few healers and pharmacists among the flower fairies. Whether it is the healing magic of healers or the magical potions of pharmacists, they can often only be provided to the residents of the surrounding areas. As a result, a large number of flower fairies do not receive timely treatment after being injured or falling ill.
However, flower fairies do not need unique magical talents to become flower chasers, so their numbers are far greater than those of doctors and apothecaries. In addition, since they need to find nectar-producing plants, their activity range can be said to cover the entire country of Garnar. In this way, as long as there is a flower chaser near a village or town, the flower fairies can exchange with the flower chaser for magical potions that can save their lives.
The acorn wine from the Land of Sin is so popular because it's used as a magical potion. Thanks to the active efforts of the caravans, the brewery's acorn wine production has been sold throughout the country, and the large quantities of acorns and golden cherry seeds obtained in exchange have been sown, with the lush green saplings growing vigorously.
The reason why the Flower Chaser was willing to follow the caravan to the land of sin was actually for the sake of acorn wine.
The merchants' trade routes and the flower-chasing envoys' flower-chasing routes overlapped to some extent. Although the merchants mainly went to densely populated villages and towns, while the flower-chasing envoys were basically stationed in the deep forests and wilderness where flowers were abundant, the flower-chasing envoys also needed to trade with the residents near the flower source, so they quickly learned about the existence of acorn wine.
Since acorn wine is a high-quality magical potion, the Flower Fairies, who rely on magical potions for their livelihood, naturally wanted to establish connections with the Land of Sin. They happened to run into a caravan that was buying bees for their lord, and the Flower Fairy family came over with their luggage.
Then the flower chasers were shocked to discover that the barren and desolate land of sin had actually become incredibly rich, and the legendary flower fairy who had purified the land of sin really did exist!
The Flower Fairy who received the Flower Chaser was indeed as gentle and kind as rumored. She not only promised to trade acorn wine with them, but also generously issued a new decree to her merchants, requiring them to seek out the nearby Flower Chaser and trade acorn wine to them whenever they arrived at a village or town.
The Flower Chasers were deeply moved. They had originally only planned to come and take a look, intending to dispel the lord's unrealistic idea of beekeeping, and then leave after collecting honey with their bees for two days. Now, they not only voluntarily bred a new queen bee and distributed new bee colonies to the Flower Fairy, but also decided to stay longer to properly impart their beekeeping experience until the Land of Sin had its own Flower Chasers before leaving.
As for why they didn't stay, it's because there are still a few plants in bloom in the Sinful Land. In the short term, they can support the two weak colonies that have emerged due to swarming, but if it goes on for too long, neither colony will become a strong colony. As a result, the amount of honey collected by the colonies will decrease, and the quality of the honey will naturally decline.
Shu Xin understood. To be honest, the flower fairies were really kind-hearted. These flower chasers only raised a new queen bee because she was willing to sell them acorn wine. Even if it weakened their own bee colony, they would still raise a new bee colony for her. They also shared all their experience and skills in raising bees without holding anything back. How can I put it? It's really easy to be deceived at every step!
Thinking about the Wind Market currently being held in the Kingdom of Ganar, Shu Xin was worried that the flower fairies would make a losing deal. However, she thought that the flower fairies were all quite poor, so even if they lost money, they probably wouldn't lose much. At most, they wouldn't make any money. As long as they weren't tricked into selling themselves, the problem wouldn't be too big.
...The flower fairy merchants all have mental magic talents, and they are all quite clever. They shouldn't sell themselves, right?
After thinking about the flower fairy merchant she had encountered, Shu Xin temporarily put her mind at ease.
In Shu Xin's memory, beekeepers in her original world would set up apiaries and raise many bee colonies, since the more bee colonies there were, the more honey there would be. But beekeepers in the magical world, who are flower fairies, raise bees in a completely different way. They take the route of striving for perfection, and often more than ten flower fairies work together to raise a single bee colony.
Flower chasers use the stems of honeybee twigs, a plant that emits a sweet fragrance and is loved by bees, to carefully weave a round artificial honeycomb that mimics the external shape of a wild beehive. However, for the internal structure, the flower chasers make it into an upright and movable partition, then lure wild bee colonies into it, and guide the bees to build a honeycomb with clear upper and lower layers, namely, an upper honey storage area, a middle pollen storage area, and a lower brood rearing area.
These artificial beehives have large gaps deliberately left in various places. Normally, they are tightly covered with honeybee leaves on the outside. When it is necessary to observe, harvest honey, or clean the beehive, the honeybee leaves are lifted and the operation is carried out through the specially left holes.
Shu Xin felt that the working people were indeed full of wisdom. However, she also asked the Tree of Life for the blueprints for making artificial beehives. The Tree of Life, in accordance with her memories, provided blueprints that included the round nest of the flower fairy and the box-shaped nest she remembered.
The Flower Chasers were also very interested in the artificial beehive blueprints provided by Shu Xin. They quickly gathered materials and wove beehives out of reeds, transferring the bee colonies allocated to the Land of Sin into them. After some discussion, the Flower Chasers also decided to assign some of their personnel to be stationed in the Land of Sin long-term, specifically to take care of the Flower Fairy's bee colonies, so as to compare and see which of the two artificial beehives was more effective.
Shu Xin noticed that the flower chasers had to manually move the artificial beehives, so she helped draw some levitation and flight runes on the outside. She also provided the flower chasers with grass fruit glass, which could be used as observation windows after being installed on the artificial beehives, so that they would not have to lift and cover the leaves again and again.
Currently, the main source of nectar in the Land of Sin is the flowers of the creeping grass. However, the flower chasers quickly told Shuxin that because the flowers are too small, the amount of nectar from these flowers is far less than they expected. In addition, the bee colony has swarmed again, and the supply cannot keep up with the consumption. The bees have started to eat the honey that was previously stored in the honeycomb.
Shu Xin remembered that in the original world, a lot of honey was of poor quality because beekeepers fed the bees sugar water directly. The kitchen had plenty of sugar powder, so it would definitely be enough to feed the bees sugar water.
However, after careful consideration, Shu Xin still didn't reveal the method. After all, these honeys were ingredients for the apothecary to make magic potions. If feeding them sugar water affected the quality of the honeys, thus lowering the quality of the magic potions, then ultimately it would be the flower fairies' health and safety that would be affected.
After seeking help from the Tree of Life, Shu Xin urgently accelerated the ripening of a clover.
This clover is not only an excellent forage grass, but also a high-quality nectar source after it blooms. Moreover, its flowering period is very long, lasting for more than two months. By then, other unripe clover should also be in bloom, and the fruit trees in the field should also be in bloom. There will definitely be enough nectar, and maybe a few more bee colonies can even emerge at that time!
Watching the busy little bees in the purple flower field, Shu Xin breathed a sigh of relief. With more honey, there would be more magic potions. In addition, with the acorn wine that the caravan sold to various places, the flower fairies who were originally injured and sick and could only endure it should be able to recover faster.
She would think of sugar making, which was originally just a way to add another product to the Land of Sin. When she thought of honey, she mostly remembered various desserts and candied snacks. If she hadn't asked the caravan about beekeeping, she probably wouldn't have known that there were professional beekeepers among the flower fairies, and she would have been even less likely to know that honey was actually a very important magical material for the flower fairies.
Although the Tree of Life was indeed omniscient and omnipotent, she could not ignore the stereotypes and fixed mindsets she had developed from the influence of her original world. This was another world, a magical other world, and she needed to ask more questions. As she reflected, Shu Xin turned and flew towards the Flower Castle.
Xi had probably shown off his new cloak enough, because these past two days he'd stopped going to the training grounds and started pestering Shu Xin, wanting to lead the team out to the Wind Market. Shu Xin hadn't originally planned to agree, but now she thought that having Xi go out and check things out for her seemed like a pretty good idea.
She comes from the world of technology, while Xi comes from the world of demons. Of course, Xi knows much more about magic than she does, but in terms of their understanding of the Kingdom of Ganar and the flower fairies, the difference between them is not that great.
As for her concern that the human mages would discover the strangeness of the flower fairies in the Land of Sin, it wasn't unavoidable. She could simply have Xi lead the demons out. Clapping her hands, Shu Xin thought the idea was increasingly brilliant!
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