Lex Cross’s deep, cool voice reached Flora Bloom’s ears. For some reason, hearing it gave her an instinctive sense of security.
The man in white glanced at Flora Bloom. His eyes darted about as a thought seemed to strike him.
"Fine, take it. Just don’t let me see you again!" He produced a golden stone and tossed it to Lex Cross before turning to Flora Bloom. "Human, you owe me one for this, you know!"
The man in white gave Flora Bloom a flirtatious wink. The next instant, he transformed into a surge of black energy that shot into the nearby zombie horde and vanished.
Flora Bloom was still pondering the phrase ’you owe me one’ when Lex Cross handed her the stone.
The moment the golden stone appeared, Flora Bloom had sensed an exceptionally rich Gold Element energy emanating from it. Furthermore, its energy signature and appearance were incredibly familiar—it was a fragment of the Energy Baryte her space required!
The golden fragment pulsed with an immense amount of Gold Element energy, causing the Spiritual Energy within Flora Bloom’s space to stir excitedly. It was only then that she finally understood what the man in white meant by ’you owe me one’.
Flora Bloom looked at Lex Cross in pleasant surprise and was about to say something when the other special forces soldiers suddenly gathered around. Seeing Flora Bloom, they greeted her with a mixture of surprise and delight.
"Sister-in-law, what brings you to Argent?" The first to speak was the team’s "fortune-teller," Saul Sterling, followed by Charles Aldridge of the Ice Element, Maxwell Miller of the Gold Element, and Nolan Jennings of the Plant Element, among others.
"Sister-in-law, it’s so good you’re here! Do you have any food? Quick, some water, cake, bread, whatever you’ve got. I’m starving to death!"
Five shamelessly held out his hand to Flora Bloom, begging for food. When the others saw this, they also crowded around her, their eyes filled with yearning.
Flora Bloom saw their battered appearances. Although she didn’t know what they had been through, she could tell it was nothing good. She was about to take some food out of her space for them to eat, but then she realized it wasn’t the right time. They were in the middle of a horde of zombies.
"Let’s get back to the base first. Here..."
Before she could finish, the black tide, composed mainly of an ant swarm, began to recede. Next, swarms of black scorpions burrowed back into the ground. Finally, only a horde of several thousand zombies remained, standing in place like dazed fools. Suddenly, they caught the scent of human flesh and lunged toward Flora Bloom’s group.
Flora Bloom no longer held back. The Behemoth appeared once more, and everyone nimbly climbed onto its back. Carrying the twelve of them, the Behemoth lumbered toward the base gate, crushing large groups of zombies underfoot as it went.
Lex Cross stood aloofly at one end of the Behemoth’s back, not saying a word. Flora Bloom didn’t try to speak to him, either. Instead, she turned her focus inward to her space, examining the black ant she had just acquired from the man in white.
Strangely, the black ant hadn’t been imprinted by the space. It just cowered in a corner, perfectly still, its small, shiny black eyes darting about.
Flora Bloom could sense that the ant was not a living creature, but was composed of a form of energy. It was just like the severed finger and flesh of the man in white that she had previously brought into her space. If attacked and disintegrated, it would dissolve and disperse as black energy.
As the one with absolute control over the space, Flora Bloom commanded Pike, which had built its nest within, to attack the black ant.
The moment Pike’s stinger touched the ant’s body, the ant dissolved into a wisp of black mist and dispersed. But a moment later, the black mist gathered again and reformed into the ant’s body, which continued to cower motionlessly in the corner.
Flora Bloom attempted to throw the black ant out of her space, but her control over it seemed unresponsive. She couldn’t lock onto the black ant at all. It was as if the space fundamentally could not recognize the ant’s existence.
’What in the world *is* this man in white? He can imprison my space, restrict my movements, and suppress my superpower. His finger regenerating is one thing, but an ant under his control got into my space, somehow dodged the ownership imprint, and now I can’t even lock onto it to throw it out.’
It was all incredibly strange. But she checked the space’s other functions: the crop growth rate was the same, the Spiritual Energy was still plentiful, the water in the Spirit River still flowed gently, and the vortex that formed a barrier to the Spirit Sea was still spinning. Everything was exactly as it had been.
Flora Bloom relaxed a little. Soon, they reached the entrance to the base.
Donovan Yardley and Albert Lyon, watching from inside the base gate, grew tense when they saw the giant crocodile stop at the entrance. But when they saw that the first person to get off was the long-missing Lex Cross, they instantly became energized.
"Captain Cross, is that you? You’re back? This is fantastic! It’s so good you’re all safe!" Albert Lyon watched as the special forces soldiers got down one by one behind Lex Cross. Aside from being a bit dirty, every single one of them appeared to be unharmed. His face lit up as if he’d just won a five-million-dollar lottery.
Donovan Yardley scanned the group for a long time, his eyes darting about. Finally, when he saw a small figure stand up on the giant crocodile’s back, he let out a sigh of relief.
His expression was one of excitement. He approached the giant crocodile’s front claw, looking particularly friendly yet also a bit nervous, wanting to help Flora Bloom as she was about to get down.
Just as he reached out his hand, however, he was pulled away by Five. "Old York, come on, over here! We’ve been gone for a while. Anything interesting happen at the base? Tell us all about it!"
"Hey, wait, I..." Donovan Yardley turned, intending to help Flora Bloom first, but saw that the woman who had just been on the crocodile’s back was now being lifted down by Lex Cross, who had his hands under her armpits.
The way he held her looked for all the world like an adult lifting a child. But the atmosphere between them was undeniably warm and tender. He smacked his forehead. ’How could I have forgotten that the child in Flora Bloom’s belly is Lex Cross’s?’
He suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. He turned to look and saw that Lex Cross had inadvertently glanced at him. The look seemed completely unintentional, yet it etched one word in his mind: "Warning."
Lex Cross set Flora Bloom down and led the team through the base gate without looking back. He didn’t even slow his pace to wait for her. After recalling the Behemoth, Flora Bloom had to jog to catch up.
"Hey, wait for me!"
The ten special forces soldiers spontaneously made way for Flora Bloom. Although Lex Cross didn’t turn around, his pace slowed noticeably.
The guard captain at the gate, Albert Lyon, was like Lex Cross’s biggest fanboy; seeing him was like seeing an idol. There was no way he would stop him and make him go through the unpleasantness of quarantine.
Flora Bloom followed Lex Cross into the base. Along the way, the normally crowded streets and alleys were unusually quiet. The number of people around them only started to thin out when the group arrived outside a small, old-looking courtyard house.
News of the battle outside the base ending inexplicably, along with the sudden return of Lex Cross and his team, quickly reached the ears of Titan Adler and others.
Furthermore, the teams sent by the five great families to Morhaven to gather intelligence had all disappeared without a trace. This news set off alarm bells among the five families, especially for the Thorne family and Hector Grant.
As soon as Lex Cross returned, Titan Adler sent someone to his residence to summon a person. But the one being summoned was not Lex Adler, as people might have expected, but someone else.
Flora Bloom followed Lex Cross into the old courtyard house. He went inside and was gone for a long time. It wasn’t until Titan Adler’s man arrived to summon him that Flora Bloom saw Lex Cross come down from the second floor.
"You haven’t said a single word to me from the moment you saw me until now."