Chapter 291: Chapter 279: Lucia’s Whereabouts
Flora Bloom hadn’t been back at the base for long when Moon suddenly appeared in the yard outside her villa.
Currently, the residential areas they had cleared out were vast and sparsely populated, leaving many security risks and loopholes. However, thanks to a group of constantly breeding queen bees, with new queens building their hives in the corners of the various villa districts, Flora Bloom would know the instant any stranger set foot on their territory.
Ever since Flora Bloom had called off the bee swarms’ surveillance of Moon, he was no longer attacked when he appeared on her turf.
Moon wasn’t old, about the same age as Joel Bloom, but his mind and strength far surpassed Joel’s.
"Hey, Flora, I’m here! Guess what I saw while I was tracking Lucia?"
Flora Bloom didn’t answer, her expression impassive as she handed him a bottle of water. Then she turned to look at Chester Bell, who was diligently tilling the land off to the side. She suddenly found him a bit strange. Logically, even if his body was that of a Second Level Spiritual Ability User, he should still get tired after laboring for so long, especially after being mentally controlled by Isla Preston.
But this guy had been working for over five hours straight, from before she left until now. He was so drenched in sweat it looked like he’d just been pulled out of the water, yet the movements of his hands never ceased.
"Chester Bell?" Flora Bloom called out his name coolly. He didn’t pause in the slightest. The swing of his hoe and the breaking of the earth were a single, seamless motion, as if she didn’t exist.
A faint smile touched the corners of Flora Bloom’s lips. She turned and walked toward Moon, paying Chester no more mind.
"Let’s go. We’ll talk inside."
Moon downed the water Flora Bloom had given him in one gulp, then followed her into the villa.
In the yard, Chester Bell’s grip on his hoe tightened. Veins bulged on the back of his hand and on his forehead before subsiding a moment later. He immediately went back to digging and loosening the soil.
Inside the villa, Moon took a tour of the living room and kitchen. "Flora, if I didn’t know that zombies were still running rampant outside, I’d really think the apocalypse was over after coming here. Your living conditions are just too good, aren’t they?"
Flora Bloom sat down on the sofa. "If you like this kind of environment, you’re more than welcome to move into the villa district yourself."
"Forget it. I’d rather stay in my own little house. This place of yours has a whole swarm of bees watching my every move. It’s too unsettling."
An idea sparked in Flora Bloom’s mind. Her smile widened as she looked at Moon. "It’s fine if you don’t move in now. Tomorrow, I’m going to have someone post recruitment notices in the base. I want you to join my team along with the other people who apply."
"I’m telling you, Flora, you’re too much! You want me to spy on other people for you, too? That’s a whole other service. You’ll have to pay me a separate salary for that."
Flora Bloom laughed. "Salary? Heh. I provide you with three meals a day, and you still want a salary from me? You must have a death wish, don’t you?"
"Alright, alright, alright. It’s not like I *can’t* help you keep an eye on them. But I have one condition of my own."
Flora Bloom glanced at Moon. "What condition? Go on."
Moon’s face scrunched up in distress as he looked at Flora Bloom. "Flora, I’m begging you. Please don’t make me tail that woman, Lucia, anymore."
Seeing his conflicted expression and deeply furrowed brow, Flora Bloom asked curiously, "Why? Is there some problem with this Lucia?"
"Flora, you don’t know? This Lucia... Late at night, she came out of Seth Warren’s villa and ran over to Zane Locke’s. It was too sordid for words! Absolutely sordid!"
’Well played, Zane Locke,’ Flora Bloom thought sarcastically, her brow furrowed. ’Everyone in the entire base knows Lucia is pregnant with my brother’s child, yet he still dares to make a move on her? Isn’t this a blatant attempt to humiliate my brother, Joel Bloom?’
"Oh? How long was she there? Are you sure she went to Zane Locke’s room?"
"I’m sure. She didn’t come out for about three hours."
"You’re a good little eavesdropper! And so precise with the timing! In that case, how about you do it for me for another seven days?"
Moon’s sunny, handsome face, so much like Joel Bloom’s, flushed red in an instant. "What do you mean, eavesdropping! I—I wasn’t!"
Flora Bloom suddenly burst out laughing. "I’m not accusing you of anything. It’s just a little eavesdropping. What’s there to be shy about? Tell me, Moon, don’t tell me you actually spent three hours with your ear to Zane Locke’s window, listening for noises?"
Flora Bloom had only meant to tease him, but who knew the guy would actually get mad? With a red face, he suddenly faded from view and vanished from her villa.
Flora Bloom shouted toward the doorway, which was suffused with the energy of the Hidden System, "Little Moon, don’t you forget now! It’s only for seven days!"
’Seven days? What about seven days?’
In the yard, Chester Bell’s hands paused in confusion, and he secretly turned his head to look toward the villa’s main entrance.
’This has to be some kind of important information,’ he thought. ’I have to find a way to notify the boss immediately! I have to tell him to be extra careful for the next seven days.’
In reality, he had broken free from Isla Preston’s mental control long ago. He was only pretending to still be under its influence in Flora Bloom’s villa to gather useful intelligence to pass on to Zane Locke.
’But this family is truly terrifying.’ His spiritual power had grown significantly after he’d broken free of the control, and he had originally thought about using the same mental control techniques to give this family a taste of their own medicine.
He knew Flora Bloom’s spiritual power was too formidable to breach. Flora Bloom’s father was also a superpower user and extremely vigilant against spiritual intrusions. So, he had first set his sights on Flora Bloom’s mother, Jade.
But when his spiritual power probed into Jade’s mind, his superpower vanished as if it were a stone sinking into the ocean. He completely lost contact with it, unable to sense it or call it back.
He tried again several times, unwilling to accept it, but failed on every attempt. He just couldn’t understand it. How could his spiritual power be completely ineffective against an ordinary woman?
’My spiritual power has obviously grown stronger! How can I not even control a regular person anymore?’
So, once his spiritual power had recovered, he set his sights on a new target: the youngest boy in Flora Bloom’s team, whom everyone called Caleb.
But what drove him to the brink of collapse was that when his spiritual power probed the area around Caleb, it was as if it were caught and absorbed by a special energy magnetic field. No matter how hard he tried to pull, he couldn’t retract the spiritual power he had sent out.
This special energy magnetic field not only entangled his spiritual power, but it also began tracing it back to its source. If he hadn’t expended even more of his superpower to sever his connection to that probe of spiritual power, the other party would have been moments away from discovering his existence.
Chester Bell could now be certain: this seemingly youngest boy, Caleb, possessed a spiritual power intensity that was far, far stronger than his own as a Second Level Spiritual Ability User!
After that, he no longer dared to casually probe anyone with his spiritual power. This family was simply too terrifying and unfathomable. He had been living in Flora Bloom’s villa for some time now, feigning being controlled and managing to gather a good deal of information. If he were to be exposed, the fate awaiting him would undoubtedly be getting hacked into a million pieces.
From just inside the villa’s entrance, Flora Bloom watched Chester Bell’s every move, the smile on her face growing more and more pronounced.
’This Chester Bell really has some talent!’ she mused. ’You have to know, Isla Preston is a High-level zombie. If she evolves well, she has a chance of reaching the Zombie King level. And he was able to break free from her spiritual power control. If he’s allowed to develop, he could really become a significant problem.’
’If this person can’t be made to work for me, he’ll definitely be a liability in the future.’ But when she thought of the great war that would happen in three years, Flora Bloom’s killing intent was instantly suppressed, as if a valve had been shut. ’I’ll just see what he’s up to first.’
A fully developed Spiritual Ability User was powerful enough to control an entire horde of zombies single-handedly, which would have a massive impact on the battle three years from now. If she could help it, Flora Bloom didn’t want to kill such a talented individual.
