The tree was growing as I looked at it. Its branches were breaking through the surrounding ice and reaching higher. Although it already grew several meters taller than the tallest of its neighbours, it showed no signs of stopping.

It wasn't blooming, but this didn't diminish the alarm of the gardeners who surrounded it. When my astral projection arrived, they all held cutting machetes and hatches and looked ready to attack.

'My daughters, I am here! Your father. Stay away from this tree until I see what's going on,' I announced to them.

They jolted, then followed my order and flew several meters away, smiling at each other in relief.

'Oh, thank you for coming so quickly, Father!' they were thinking. 'It's only been a couple of hours since the tree started acting like that, but a couple of hours was too long! But now that Father is here, he will solve this.'

I didn't pay these thoughts much attention because my focus was on the tree itself. If I could see its status, things would've been easier.

Instead, I had to rely on telepathy and try reading its thoughts. If things really went like the report said, this tree actually had them.

I have also added 'Supernatural Empathy' to my personal morphotype. Usually, I kept it suppressed—not listening to thoughts of millions of bees at once was already hard enough—but this time I used this ability too, hoping to find the most about this… being.

To my shock, I actually felt something.

Emotions, yes.

They were nothing like the human (or bee) ones. There were only senses of calm and purpose. This tree was determined to reach its goals and cared for nothing else.

As for what its goals were…

'Sweet warmth. Soon, I will grow as large as I can be. Then, the little creatures will carry my seeds far, far away, where they will grow into my powerful offspring.'

The fact that these thoughts existed and were coherent was more shocking than anything. This tree must've had at least 60 intelligence to think so coherently.

Even black dragons—some of the smartest tamed beasts in the Bee Empire!—mostly had thoughts like 'Give food, food, food, hungry!'.

Thoughts of dumber beasts were on the level of pure murderous intent.

'Hello, tree. Can you understand me?' I sent the tree a cautious thought.

'I hear thoughts, but I didn't think them. What are they? I don't know. What should I do? Keep growing, I must keep growing.'

Now I was positively intrigued!

It looked like Usnea had given this tree intelligence and some general description of what it—and the Bee Empire—had to do for it. For now, Usnea clearly wanted bees to spread the seeds of the champion tree.

I was sure that the champion tree had the most boosted genes, which could even make its offspring trees sentient. Or could not. This could be tested quickly somewhere where these trees were relatively safe to grow in case of their betrayal.

Regardless, the champion tree itself was clueless like a child, which must've been the source of its strange calm in the face of meeting another person's telepathy. And this cluelessness was worth using!

'I am Nectus Stingprince, and I'm speaking to you in your thoughts with a special ability,' I told the tree. 'You are my ally and I am yours. This means that we will help each other. I command the "little creatures" that will carry your offspring.'

'A lot more thoughts. Do they matter? No. I can only grow, so I must grow.'

I inwardly shook my head in exasperation.

Forget about cluelessness! This tree was so uncaring about being spoken to, because it really didn't care! It was the ultimate example of the principle "why bother if you can't change anything?".

'Fine, fine, grow. Don't you know anything else besides that you must grow and that the little creatures will carry your seeds?'

'I know that I will learn. Should I have answered? But those are thoughts. It doesn't matter.'

I clicked my tongue. The champion tree didn't even have a name…

'Do you even know what a name is?'

'No. Does it matter? Does knowing matter? It doesn't.'

At this point, I was brought back in time, to the dawn of the Hive Supremo, when 99% of its populace was dumber than rocks they didn't know how to throw.

And even THEN I felt less hopeless about trying to teach people new things. At least bees were somewhat interested (if you told them that it would help the colony).

This tree? Less enthusiastic than a middle-schooler left for extra work after class.

With this conclusion, I flew away from the tree and closer to the gardeners waiting for my orders (or for the tree to magically disappear).

'Girls, listen. This tree is a special one. I thereby name it the Champion Tree! At least until it says otherwise. It really can think, and is smarter than most beasts. Perhaps it's even as smart as a bee fresh out of her brood cell.'

This caused several gasps of alarm among the gardeners.

'Does this mean it's dangerous?'

'Smart enemies are the worst! Not that I fought any of them…'

'Do we still have to watch it?'

'Don't worry, girls! Your job didn't change, and the tree didn't become more dangerous! At least, not yet… But I won't leave you on your own with it. I will order reinforcements to come here and keep guard on the Champion Tree. But your job also changed. Now you won't cut down its flowers. Instead, you will gather seeds from them so they can be transported elsewhere.'

There were more shocked gasps, but the explanation from me worked wonders on my girls' spirits.

'This can't be much harder than cutting flowers!'

'Father will take care of us. Of course he will! We shouldn't have even worried.'

I smiled inwardly at my girls, wishing I had a physical form to give them all pats on the head. All of them deserved it. All of my girls everywhere deserved it!

Sadly, I had to be elsewhere and actually arrange all the plans I promised…