Chapter 281: Chapter 269: Golden Cicada’s New Skill
The rose vines were lush with leaves, and a bud ready to bloom appeared at every few nodes. Roses of varying sizes in magenta, bright pink, and champagne also blossomed along each vine. The smallest flowers were about eight or nine centimeters in diameter, while the largest was a full thirty centimeters.
Also, Big White the goose had woken up. After waking, a tuft of bright red crest feathers appeared on its forehead. Its size hadn’t changed, but its appetite had grown enormously.
More than half of the extra vegetables in Flora Bloom’s space ended up in its belly.
Additionally, after its slumber, the Golden Cicada had molted a complete and enormous shell. After shedding the shell, it ate the entire thing. Once it finished eating its own molt, the Golden Cicada grew a size larger. Its abdomen became even more round and plump, and its chirping grew much louder.
Flora Bloom had kept the Golden Cicada in Villa Area 3 since it woke up. Yesterday, after finishing its greens, Big White spotted the large, plump cicada and excitedly chased it through half the villa. It spread its wings, launched itself into the air with incredible speed, and pounced, pinning the Golden Cicada to the ground.
Caleb’s voice had little effect on a hungry goose, and Flora Bloom was too late to recall the Golden Cicada to her space.
Just when everyone thought the Golden Cicada was about to be devoured by Big White, it suddenly flashed with a golden light. In the blink of an eye, it reappeared on Flora Bloom’s shoulder, chirping "CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP" nonstop. It sounded like it was crying to Flora Bloom for help.
Only Flora Bloom knew that in their spiritual link, the Golden Cicada was desperately begging her to pull it back into the space. Its fluctuating spiritual power was clearly still shaken from the scare.
Meanwhile, Big White was munching on something with a satisfying CRUNCH. It was also a Golden Cicada—or to be precise, a molted shell that looked identical to the Golden Cicada.
Flora Bloom now understood. This "Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell" must be the new skill the Golden Cicada awakened after its slumber.
Flora Bloom thought, ’If even a wuss like the Golden Cicada awakened a new ability after its slumber, does that mean the other little guys who were hibernating have also awakened new skills?’
Vert’s body could now be described as immense. It could change its color at will to match trees or other plants. If it stood or lay still on the ground, it was almost indistinguishable from a tree or a bush. This was likely Vert’s new skill. On top of that, Flora Bloom could feel that its original Wind Ability had grown stronger, and it was now large enough for two adults to ride.
Little White had slept the longest but was the earliest to wake. Its two large teeth had grown longer, its fur had become smoother, and its body had gotten bigger. Its Thunder Ability was stronger, and it could now manipulate the elements to fly for short periods.
The one with the biggest change, however, was Little Armor. Little Armor was an evolved creature that had mutated from a pangolin. After waking up this time, not only did it not get bigger, it actually got smaller. Although it was much smaller than its previous form, it was still comparable in size to a large dog.
Little Armor’s entire body was golden yellow, giving off a faint reflection even in the dark. Its body was covered in dense, overlapping scales shaped like inverted teardrops. Most importantly, Flora Bloom was amazed to discover that when Little Armor’s scales stood on end, they revealed tiny hollow pits. A few of these pits even contained small red wild berries it had stored after foraging.
As for Juggernaut, Flora Bloom hadn’t noticed any other changes after it woke up, aside from it growing significantly larger. Its crocodile hide was incredibly tough, and the tips of the bony plates protruding from its spine had become razor-sharp. The space between each plate was large enough for a person to stand or sit.
Big and Little Peacock’s evolution was actually the most dramatic. Peacocks normally can’t fly. But after waking from their slumber, the pair let out a series of calls, flapped their wings lightly, and began to fly around inside Flora Bloom’s space. Their long tail feathers trailed behind them like two iridescent blue rainbows. But aside from being beautiful, Flora Bloom had no idea what practical superpowers these two had.
The two grasshoppers in Flora Bloom’s space also underwent a huge transformation after their slumber. Their original grass-green exterior turned a dark, inky green. The large mandibles on their forelimbs became tough and sharp, and the soft fuzz on their hind legs turned into long, sharp spines. The once-ordinary grasshoppers now emanated the energy of the Gold Ability and had a faint metallic sheen.
Furthermore, the venomous snake had grown a sharp horn on its head. It was the first time Flora Bloom had ever seen a horned snake. On top of that, after its slumber, the snake had grown so large it was nearly the size of the giant python Flora Bloom had recently acquired in the Eye of Earthly Fire. After waking up, the two snakes had moved their nest into the mountains and were now living together.
In addition, even the earthworm underground had grown grayish-brown, scale-like plates all over its body. It too had become enormous and had burrowed its nest deeper beneath the black-soil farmland. The clutch of eggs the Golden Cicada had first discovered in the mountains by the Janton stables, Vert’s eggs, and Juggernaut’s egg were all radiating a dense and active Life Force, as if they could hatch at any moment.
The liveliest place in the space was actually the livestock pen. After the first batch of chicks and goslings hatched, the chicken and goose population began to explode. Not only were there more than thirty chicken and goose eggs every day, but the number of birds was also still growing.
Chickens lay eggs, eggs hatch chickens.
Geese lay eggs, eggs hatch geese.
Flora Bloom’s space had now achieved the wonderful goal of self-sufficiency in two types of meat: chicken and goose.
Meanwhile, in Villa Area 3, there was a well in the courtyard of each of the three villas where Flora Bloom and her group lived, dug by Caleb Bloom and his team, including Ethan Monroe. According to Flora Bloom’s spiritual power scan, tectonic movements beneath Morhaven had formed layers of rock shells at varying depths underground.
Flora Bloom commanded the roots of her plants to drill into the shallower parts of the rock shell. Some broke through to groundwater, while others pierced the barrier to the subterranean seawater.
A dense network of underground plant roots intertwined within the three drilled channels, holding the surface soil in place from below. The water that welled up from underground was filtered by countless plant roots before rising to the bottom of the wells.
Caleb Bloom and the others even connected the plumbing for all three villas. Flora Bloom took out a water heater she had been storing in her space and had it installed in the central villa. Of the other two, the villa on the left was converted into a dining hall, with the second floor remaining as bedrooms.
The first floor of the villa on the right was turned into a simple medical and sanitation station, managed by Maeve Preston, Cynthia Grant, and Shelly. The second floor also remained as bedrooms.
The basements of the three villas were also connected. Flora Bloom filled two of the basements to the brim with wheat from her space, and stored a portion of her collected kimchi and the dried sea fish from the outskirts of Azuregard City in the other.
Flora Bloom transplanted two apple trees and a banana tree from her space into the villa’s courtyard. The queen bees that had bonded with Caleb Bloom, Sherman Lynch, and Shauna Wallace moved their hives here, building their nests in the three fruit trees.
Outside the three villas was a covered path about twenty-some meters long. The flat-roofed corridor had a latticework design, serving as a trellis for two mutated wisteria vines that had climbed up and completely enveloped the top.
