Chapter 307: Chapter 295: Untouchable, Unprovokable
As Sepherdine followed David Warren, he was utterly astonished by the sight before him.
The villa area inside the isolation gate had felt like a park, with its fresh air and pleasant scenery. But after walking through the back gate, he felt as if he had stepped back in time to a street from before the apocalypse.
The streets were spotless. The iron railings surrounding the villa area glowed with a golden light, obviously reinforced by a Gold Ability User. The connected earthen mounds were smooth and hard, likely fortified by an Earth Ability User as well.
A fence like this could withstand a siege from a zombie horde for quite some time. Besides, where were the zombies? There wasn’t a single one in sight.
David Warren saw Sepherdine’s dumbfounded, disbelieving expression and felt a surge of smug satisfaction. "Pretty shocking, huh? Our boss led the team and cleared this whole area out. It’s a safe zone now. Don’t worry, no zombie attacks here. You’re perfectly safe."
Next, David Warren led Sepherdine into Villa Area Two, and after passing through it, they finally entered Villa Area Three, where Flora Bloom was.
The outer wall of Villa Area Three was made of some unknown material—a yellow earthen wall with golden supports, within which a deep blue, water-like liquid flowed.
Curious, Sepherdine reached out to touch it, but David Warren immediately stopped him. "Whoa, don’t touch it!"
David Warren picked a stone off the ground and tossed it at the wall in front of Sepherdine.
The stone wasn’t large, but it was about the size of a baby’s fist. When it hit the wall, it was as if it had been tossed into a lake—it sank into the structure and vanished without a trace.
Stunned, Sepherdine stared at the wall that encircled the entire area. He swallowed hard. "Th-this wall can swallow stones?"
David Warren shook his head. "I don’t know the details. It’s a defensive wall our boss designed to stop intruders from sneaking in."
"What would’ve happened if I’d touched it?" Sepherdine asked, his face pale.
"I don’t know what happens to a person, but yesterday a bird flew into it. It got stuck, and the liquid inside ground it into dust. In the end, it just became part of the wall."
Still skeptical, Sepherdine walked over to the gate, intending to snap off a branch from a cluster of roses to test it himself. Who would have thought that despite carefully avoiding the thorns, he was pricked the moment he touched it.
Bright red blood welled up from the prick, only to vanish unnervingly into the tip of the rose branch. The sight made Sepherdine freeze for a moment before he collapsed to the ground in terror, his head spinning.
"I... I can’t move!"
David Warren frowned, speechless. ’This guy is unbelievably audacious for a newcomer. How can he just go around trying to grab everything?’ He remembered the boss repeatedly warning them all about the layout of the villa area: there were three things not to be touched, and three not to be provoked.
The things not to be touched were the walls in Villa Area Three, the beehives in the trees, and the rose vines that could be seen everywhere. The wall was a new type of defensive barrier developed by Flora Bloom, Ethan Monroe, Sherman Lynch, and Caleb Bloom.
The main structure was built with energy provided by Ethan Monroe and other Earth Ability Users. The framework was made by Sherman Lynch and Caleb Bloom, who fused reinforced metal with earth energy. During the process, Flora Bloom’s deep blue Water Ability was also added, making the finished wall a perfectly integrated whole.
Originally, it was just sturdy and looked nice. But one day, the Golden Crow chased a small bug onto the wall. When it couldn’t catch it, it simply blasted the bug with True Sun Fire, burning it to cinders. Not only was the wall unharmed by the Golden Crow’s True Sun Fire, but the heat actually caused the structure to fuse even further. After being baked by the fire, the three elements became even more condensed and solid.
Even stranger, from that day on, the rose vines that originally clung to the wall suffered terribly. The wall seemed to gain a destructive, grinding quality—any vines that touched it would have their flowers shrivel and their stems shatter. They couldn’t get anywhere near the section that had been scorched by the fire.
Flora Bloom experimented with it many times and eventually discovered that in addition to its incredible defensive power, the wall now had a potent offensive capability. It was harmless if left untouched. But if you made contact, best-case scenario, you’d only lose the limb that touched it. Otherwise, you’d be dragged in by the energy inside; a person without superpowers would be completely unable to break free. Any superpower user below Level 3 would face certain death or grievous injury.
So, Flora Bloom used her contract to compel the Golden Crow to perform daily hard labor, spitting fire onto the walls of Villa Area Three to bake them. It took seven days just to finish this one section of the perimeter wall.
The branch Sepherdine had just touched was, in fact, one of those rose branches. It came from the very same rose vine Flora Bloom had subdued on her way back from rescuing Caleb Bloom.
The root systems of sentient plants had already expanded across a third of Morhaven, but this specific vine’s roots were even thicker and more extensive.
This little cluster of rose vines was just a small offshoot that had sprouted back up from that massive, sprawling root system.
"Ah, I forgot to tell you—you can’t just go touching the plants here! The rose vine you touched is poisonous. Since you just got pricked, you’ll only be paralyzed for an hour or two at most. You’ll be fine. Here, let me help you walk."
Sepherdine was paralyzed from head to toe; even his tongue was stiff and numb, making it impossible for him to speak.
David Warren draped one of Sepherdine’s arms over his neck and half-dragged him along. Soon, they arrived at the central area of Villa Area Three.
As for what could change in just seven days, the sight before them was enough to astound not only Sepherdine; even the people who lived in the villa area felt a renewed sense of shock every time they saw it.
The original wisteria-covered pavilion was now completely laden with flowers. Clusters of deep and pale purple wisteria were so thick they obscured the delicate leaves on the vines.
Next to the wisteria pavilion was an irregular pond, roughly a dozen square meters in size. By the pond stood a green willow, and next to the willow was a rockery that had been carved from a single, seamless piece of stone. It was a one-piece rockery Flora Bloom had created by using her spatial control to slice a massive boulder from a mountain range.
Additionally, opposite the rockery, a grape arbor three to four meters high and over ten meters wide was laden with grapes that hung like purple gemstones.
A young woman lay in a rocking chair, wearing a baseball cap. Under the grape arbor, she popped grapes into her mouth one by one, rocking back and forth with her eyes closed, looking utterly carefree and content.
"Boss, Boss! I brought him!"
Flora Bloom stopped the rocking chair and stood up. Seeing Sepherdine, she suddenly burst out laughing.
"Captain Sepherdine, what happened to you? You didn’t come all this way just to see a doctor, did you?" Flora Bloom teased. "My only Healing System specialist went on a date with Old Monroe today. She’s not here. How about you try again tomorrow?"
Hearing this, Sepherdine’s eyes began to roll up in exasperation. But his tongue was still paralyzed and he couldn’t speak, so he just let out a series of desperate, muffled "Ooh, ooh, ooh" sounds, his eyes filled with urgency.
Flora Bloom summoned Little Bee, and it brought her a small piece of honeycomb. Flora Bloom handed the small, hexagonal piece of honey, still in its beeswax, to David Warren. "Just have him eat this."
David Warren didn’t notice the look of utter refusal in Sepherdine’s eyes and shoved the honey, beeswax and all, straight into his mouth.
Sepherdine panicked. ’This is it, I’m toast! Is Flora Bloom feeding me poison to kill me?! Why did I have to come talk to her about a partnership today of all days? I shouldn’t have come!’
But what he tasted was an incredibly sweet honey that melted instantly in his mouth, leaving behind a faint, cool sensation. And only a few dozen seconds after the honey dissolved, the paralysis in his body began to fade away.
