Chapter 239 - 227: The Chaotic Base

Flora Bloom forcefully yanked her ankle back, sending the woman who was grabbing it tumbling to the side.

"Well, well, who knew the base had a girl this pretty? You’re a real sight for sore eyes! Hahaha, looks like me and the boys are in for a treat tonight. This little thing is so fair and beautiful, I’d die happy on top of her!"

Flora Bloom watched as the three men who had been about to grab the mother and daughter now turned their attention to her. The lewd grins plastered on their faces made her skin crawl.

"I don’t have time to get my hands dirty killing you right now," Flora Bloom said, turning to leave. "So you’d better not provoke me."

"Hey, little beauty, don’t go! What’s with the bad temper?" one of the men said, striding toward Flora Bloom. Before his hand could even touch her cheek, a bolt of lightning struck him in the head, and he crumpled to the ground.

Lex Cross leaped from a nearby path, closing the distance to Flora Bloom’s side in a few bounds. "You’re back?"

Flora Bloom nodded. "Yeah, I just arrived. Why is this place such a mess?"

The man who had been knocked out by Lex Cross’s lightning was helped up by his companion. He and the other man pointed at Lex Cross and yelled, "Fine! You just wait! Don’t you dare go anywhere! I’m gonna get my guys, and we’ll be back to take care of you!"

The pair paid the men no mind. Instead, it was the woman who had grabbed Flora’s ankle earlier who spoke up, her eyes darting nervously between them. "You... you can’t go! If you leave, they’ll come back for you, and when they can’t find you, they’ll kill us!"

Flora Bloom was in a hurry to get back to the villa district and had no patience for the woman. "If you keep making a scene, do you want to see if I kill you right now?"

Xiao Bai, as if on cue, let out a tiger’s roar, which drew a crowd of onlookers. A few of them recognized Flora Bloom.

"Look, isn’t that Flora Bloom? The one who stole someone else’s fiancé? She just uses her looks to seduce men everywhere!"

"That’s right. Didn’t you see? The whole reason those men who just ran off were causing trouble was because of her." The speaker was a middle-aged woman, and she shouted toward Lex Cross, "Hey, young man! That girl is no good, you need to open your eyes and see her for what she is!"

Flora Bloom felt the Thunder Element energy gathering within Lex Cross and quickly grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Don’t," she urged, holding him back. "They’re just ordinary people without superpowers. Ignorance isn’t a crime. Let’s just get back to the villa district. I have something important to—"

Before Flora Bloom could finish, a large crowd of people suddenly came running from the direction of the villa district. Leading the pack were, of all people, Tianna Bloom and Seth Warren.

As they ran, they hurled attacks from their two superpowers—ice and fire—behind them.

Flora Bloom looked behind them. A dozen or so dark brown vines were twisting madly in their wake. In an instant, the vines ensnared the two people at the rear of the group and dragged them away.

Meanwhile, Tianna Bloom and Seth Warren’s superpowers seemed completely useless against the vines.

Flora Bloom asked through their mental link, ’Didn’t I tell you to wait for my signal before entering the base? Why are you here now, throwing the whole place into chaos?’

Rose explained innocently, ’Master, I haven’t disobeyed your command. I’m still outside the base. I haven’t entered.’

’What?’

Flora Bloom looked closely behind Tianna Bloom’s group. Sure enough, the vines were dark brown. They were similar to the Rose vines she had just tamed, but the color was different. The Rose she’d subdued had vines that were a blackish-green, with some parts being purely dark green; none of them were dark brown.

Furthermore, while these dark brown vines also had thorns, they were covered in dense, fine prickles, not the large, irregularly spaced spikes of the Rose she had tamed.

Tianna Bloom and Seth Warren were both Second-level Superpower Users, but their powers were completely useless against this vine plant. Many of those who were swept away began to bleed profusely the moment the dark brown vines coiled around them. Any blood that dripped onto the vines was rapidly absorbed, prompting them to constrict even tighter around their bleeding victims.

Lex Cross’s lightning struck two vines reaching for them. The attack only made the vines pause for a moment before they resumed their advance.

Dark brown vines, covered in fine prickles... The leaves were thick and dense, almost identical to the vines and leaves of a rosebush, except for one thing: there wasn’t a single flower on them.

’Suddenly, she remembered her first time entering the villa district. On the lawn, there had been a few rosebushes that never grew any buds. She had tried pulling at them, even tried breaking the stems with her hands, but they were incredibly tough and impossible to uproot.’

’Could it be... that those rosebushes had evolved, too?’

From outside the base, a dozen thick rose vines, complete with green leaves, red flowers, and a heady fragrance, stretched into the compound. Just as a few of the dark brown vines were about to coil around Flora Bloom, Rose’s vines intercepted them, wrapping tightly around the attackers. With a powerful yank, they actually tore the leafy, flowerless rosebushes in the villa district out of the ground, roots and all.

’Hmph! You’re not even fully evolved, and you dare to run wild in my presence? I’ll just absorb your plant essence for myself!’

’Wait! Don’t kill them yet!’

The rose vines immediately stopped absorbing the other bushes’ plant essence and waited for Flora Bloom’s instructions.

’First, take these people and these other bushes—your brethren—over to the inner quarantine gate. Find a place to put down roots and leave the people on the two grassy areas by the gate. I’ll be there in a minute.’

When Tianna Bloom, Seth Warren, and their group saw the vines get intercepted by another dozen, even thicker vines, they thought the danger had passed. But just then, the ground began to shake violently. A fissure opened up from outside the base, snaking down the street they were on and continuing toward the villa district.

A plant with a main trunk half a meter in diameter appeared, covered in a dense tangle of branches and new shoots. Its root system was half-buried and half-exposed, with several thick roots moving along the fissure like legs, propelling it forward at an incredible speed.

As it passed Flora Bloom and Lex Cross, a few of its branches—with Flora’s consent—wrapped around Flora Bloom, Isla Preston, the leopard cat, and Lex Cross. It lifted them partway into the air and continued its high-speed advance toward the quarantined villa district.

Seeing Flora Bloom depart, Xiao Bai leaped onto the roof of a nearby low-rise building and bounded off in the direction of the quarantine wall.

Tianna Bloom had been thrilled to see Flora Bloom and the others being snatched up and carried away by the strange plant’s vines. But when she saw that Lex Cross had been taken as well, her expression turned complicated.

"How could Lex be taken away too?" Part of her wanted to rush forward and save him, but deep down, she was terrified. She couldn’t even handle those dozen or so thin, dark brown vines. This new plant had a half-meter-thick trunk and countless tendrils—what could she possibly do to save anyone?

Seth Warren’s sharp eyes spotted Shauna Wallace among those caught in the strange plant’s vines. His expression shifted, a complex emotion flickering in his eyes. He got to his feet to chase after the departing plant, but Kirk Warren grabbed his arm.

"Bro, what are you doing?"

"I’m... I’m going to go take a look."

Kirk Warren had, of course, seen the people entangled in the plant’s vines—not just Flora Bloom, Lex Cross, and Sherman Lynch, but also Shauna Wallace, the woman his brother was constantly thinking about.

"Are you crazy, Bro?! Are you going to get yourself killed over a woman?"

Seth Warren’s brow furrowed. He looked at Kirk Warren and patted his head. "You stay here where it’s safe. I’m just going to check it out. I’ll be fine."