Chapter 175: Chapter 163: Leveling Up to Level 3

The night sky was cloudless. A faint, fragrant breeze drifted from the gate of the isolated villa complex. Morgan Sterling and Chester Sawyer had been waiting behind a large tree outside the gate for a long time, but there was no sign of Flora Bloom or her group. Just as they were thinking of going in to check on the situation, they caught a whiff of an intoxicating aroma.

"Chief, looks like something’s happening inside!" Chester Sawyer peeked out, looking toward the gate over fifty meters away.

"This scent is appearing under strange circumstances. Do you think Flora Bloom is behind it? I’ve never smelled anything like this before." Morgan Sterling was conflicted. On one hand, he wanted to investigate the source of the fragrance. On the other, he was extremely wary of the things on the other side of that gate.

The familiar BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ grew louder from beyond the gate, halting the two hesitant men hiding behind the tree in their tracks.

The towering isolation gate and the lush plants along the wall blocked their view, preventing them from seeing what was happening inside. But that familiar sound was something they knew all too well.

"Chief, those things are out again. Should we go warn them?" Chester Sawyer asked tentatively. He had a strange feeling deep down—Flora Bloom and her people were different. A friendly gesture now might just change his own fate in the future.

’But if we go in, will we lose our lives for it? A feeling is just a feeling, after all. He had no idea what was actually going on inside.’

Neither of them had the guts to go investigate. Finally, Morgan Sterling let out a deep sigh. "Let’s go back."

Superpower users had astonishing hearing. Both of them could clearly tell that the buzzing from beyond the gate was much louder than when they had scouted the area before. They didn’t know what Flora Bloom’s group of four had done to attract so many of those strange insects, but what they did know was that even if they went in to help, it would be pointless.

"What if we go find some people to help? After all, that young lady Flora Bloom is quite strong. If she continues to grow, she could be a great asset to us in the future," Chester Sawyer asked, looking at Morgan Sterling.

Morgan Sterling just shook his head and sighed. "No matter how strong she is, her arrogance and recklessness have gotten her killed. She’s even taken her companions down with her. How could someone like that ever be of help to me?" With that, he turned and left the gate that sealed off the villa complex without a backward glance.

Just then, a message came from Vert through Flora Bloom’s spiritual link.

"Oh? They’re gone?"

Flora Bloom glanced toward the other side of the isolation gate. Sure enough, the traces of Wind Element and Earth Element energy were gradually moving away. The two were no longer there. A mocking smile touched her lips.

It was unclear just how many beehives were in this half of the villa complex. New spiritual powers were constantly joining Flora Bloom’s spiritual link. Because of these hives and swarms, they still hadn’t finished scouting the area. So, Flora Bloom decided to simply take out some Crystal Cores, sit on the ground, and start absorbing the energy within them to try and level up.

She had been the first to break through to Level 2, but now Caleb was already Level 3. Her teammates, who had originally been Level 1, had all reached the Second Level after this recent upgrade. As long as they had enough Crystal Cores, she believed it wouldn’t be long before everyone’s Superpower Level surpassed hers.

She had been at Level 2 for a very long time. Under her guidance, the energy from the Crystal Cores in her hand quickly entered her body and was absorbed by her sea of consciousness, circling and feeding into the blue Crystal Stone on its first orbit.

One after another, the Crystal Cores were absorbed by the blue Crystal Stone, but Flora Bloom still showed no signs of breaking through to Level 3.

Flora Bloom already knew her spiritual power’s capacity was much larger than the average person’s. When she went from Level 1 to the Second Level, others only needed a dozen or so Crystal Cores. Her superpower was already at the Level 1 bottleneck, yet she still had to use several dozen to raise her Superpower Level to the Second Level.

Crystal Cores vanished from Flora Bloom’s palm one by one. In a flash, she had consumed a tenth of several thousand Crystal Cores. But the deep blue Crystal Stone in her sea of consciousness was like a bottomless pit, devouring the energy. Every time Flora Bloom touched a Crystal Core, it was instantly drained dry.

Not until only about a thousand of the original eight thousand-plus Crystal Cores in her storage space were left did the deep blue Crystal Stone in her sea of consciousness grow slightly larger. And with that, Flora Bloom’s superpower successfully broke through to Level 3.

Level 2 to Level 3... took seven thousand Crystal Cores? The staggering number left Flora Bloom nearly speechless.

And what left her even more speechless was that when she tried to absorb more Crystal Cores, intending to compress the energy and accumulate it for a breakthrough to the Middle Level, the energy from a hundred Crystal Cores was swallowed by the deep blue Crystal Stone in her sea of consciousness and vanished without a trace. There was no reaction at all.

Her superpower energy hadn’t increased, nor could she feel any sense of condensed, tangible energy.

This struck Flora Bloom as strange. She tried absorbing another hundred Crystal Cores, but the energy still vanished without a trace, and she couldn’t feel any accumulation of superpower energy whatsoever.

The situation suddenly left Flora Bloom at a loss. In her past life, she had reached the High-level simply by mindlessly accumulating energy like this.

’But in this life, why can’t I even break through to the Middle Level? Is there something wrong with my method? That shouldn’t be possible!’

But since accumulating and compressing energy from Crystal Cores to break through wasn’t working, she stopped trying. Wasting two hundred Crystal Cores like that was a real shame. She’d figure something out after they moved into the villa complex here.

When she opened her eyes, ready to call the other three to continue exploring this half of the villa complex, she found that the sky was already starting to brighten with the dawn.

The other three saw Flora Bloom with her eyes closed, holding Crystal Cores, and knew she was leveling up. So, aside from keeping a vigilant watch on the swarms of bees lining up to gather nectar and the ones building a hive on the large tree nearby, they didn’t disturb her.

The hive on the large tree was now big enough to fit Caleb inside. Except for the worker bees still expanding the hive and the queen, Little Bee, who had already gone inside to breed the next generation, all that remained on the two lawns were the clusters of wildflowers. Their fragrance still carried for miles as they swayed gracefully, as if still luring distant admirers to come and taste their sweetness.

Flora Bloom stood up, stretched, and glanced at the hive on the tree. Aside from the frustration of having wasted two hundred Crystal Cores, everything else put her in a great mood.

Because just a moment ago, the influx of new spiritual powers joining her spiritual link had started to decrease. This was indirect proof that the vast majority of the queen bees and young bees were now under her control. She believed this part of the villa complex had essentially become her domain.

Beyond the two lawns stood two detached villas with enormous floor plans. With these sentient plants and her control over the nearby bee swarms, the level of safety here was definitely much higher than in the other half of the villa complex.

Flora Bloom never doubted the combat strength of these bee swarms. The fact that even Morgan Sterling, who had likely broken through to the Middle Level, didn’t dare to rashly enter this area was proof enough. Their power was definitely not something ordinary superpower users could challenge, let alone zombies below the Middle Level.

"Let’s go. We’ll find my parents and the others. From now on, we’re living here!"