Chester Sawyer sat in his office, a constant sense of unease gnawing at him. The last time he’d felt this anxious was when an infected person had suddenly turned into a zombie within the base, biting many people. His girlfriend had been infected in that incident, and he had been the one to plunge a knife into her head, ending her life with his own hands.

He was one of the most prominent Earth Ability Users in the base, possessing a Second Level Earth Ability. Morgan Sterling trusted him deeply, placing all the Earth Ability Users under his command.

"Captain! Sh-she’s back!"

Chester Sawyer’s brow twitched. "What’s with the panic? Who’s back? Speak clearly."

"It’s the daughter of the Bloom family, Flora Bloom. Sh-she’s back."

Chester Sawyer shot to his feet, his eyes betraying an indescribable panic. Though his face was stern, a peculiar glint shone in his eyes.

It was as if he was celebrating her return, yet also scheming something else entirely.

"Go to the villa district at once and find Leader Sterling! Tell him Flora Bloom is back!" A trace of authority appeared on Chester Sawyer’s face. He then rounded his desk and hurried out.

When Flora Bloom first arrived at the base, she had turned it upside down, so there were few who didn’t recognize her. The guards at the gate saw her coming. Some flinched away, pretending not to see her. Others instantly vanished, running to report the woman’s return to their own team captains.

Flora Bloom had been missing for seven days, and her return was causing just as much of a stir. Her appearance made everyone in the base stare as if watching a spectacle.

Flora Bloom walked at a leisurely pace down the street between the low-rise apartment buildings and the villas. She watched as people on both sides stopped in their tracks to stare at them, whispering to each other.

"Miss Flora Bloom, welcome back!"

Chester Sawyer walked right up to Flora Bloom, a smile on his face.

"I wonder where Miss Flora Bloom has been for the past seven days?"

Flora Bloom stood beside Lex Cross. Lex Cross was tall and powerfully built, with a devilishly handsome face. Flora Bloom was petite, her head only reaching his chest. Though her face had a touch of youthfulness, her charming, elfin features were captivating. Standing together, they seemed to be competing in a contest of beauty, yet they also looked like an undeniably perfect match.

Among the onlookers, some of the women gazed at Lex Cross with lovestruck expressions, while some of the men stared at Flora Bloom with undisguised lust.

Noticing the large crowd, Chester Sawyer intentionally caught Flora Bloom’s eye and gave her a meaningful glance, raising his eyebrows. "I wonder, could we speak somewhere more private?"

Flora Bloom glanced at Lex Cross, took his hand, and followed Chester Sawyer behind a small, single-story house.

"Flora, your brother and mother are being held by Morgan Sterling in a water prison beneath his villa."

Upon hearing this, Flora Bloom’s curious expression instantly hardened.

"Say that again? My brother and my mother?"

"Listen to me. Morgan Sterling has set an ambush in the water prison; he probably has other plans. Mr. Hua was also forced to lead a team out to hunt zombies in the city center. If you’re going to rescue them, you must be careful!"

Flora Bloom stared intently at Chester Sawyer’s face, trying to find any trace of a lie. Unfortunately, his expression was sincere, and his eyes held just the right amount of alarm and worry.

"Chester Sawyer, I’m very suspicious of your intentions. At first, I thought you were one of Heath Holden’s men, but then I discovered you were secretly working for Morgan Sterling. Today, you specifically stopped me the moment I entered the base to tell me all this. What is your goal?"

’If you judged Chester Sawyer by his appearance alone, it would be easy to mistake him for the type of pre-apocalypse businessman who only knew how to make money and scheme. And businessmen are the best at seeking advantages and avoiding harm.’

"Miss Flora Bloom, you jest. I just feel that Morgan Sterling’s methods are too crude. Threatening people with their family’s lives is not something a leader who can guide the base to a better future in this apocalypse should do!"

"Oh? So, this is your pledge of allegiance?"

Chester Sawyer gave a harmless smile. "If you win, then this will naturally be my pledge of allegiance. But if you lose, no one will ever know we met today."

Flora Bloom laughed dryly. "You’re a shrewd businessman. But let me tell you, I, Flora Bloom, don’t accept turncoats who sway with the wind. This information of yours has no value to me. However, if what you say is true, when I kill Morgan Sterling and his men, I’ll consider going easy on you."

After speaking, Flora Bloom grabbed Lex Cross and immediately hurried toward the villa district on the other side of the dividing wall.

On the other side of the dividing wall, Sherman Lynch and the other three came out of their villa, intending to meditate and heal on the gravel path between the two lawns.

For some unknown reason, they always felt particularly comfortable walking along the edge of these two lawns. For those with minor injuries, the recovery speed would also be much faster.

"That Ethan Warren is a real piece of work! Flora Bloom was kind enough to let him come here with us, but he actually betrayed us the moment she went missing! The despicable villain!" Sherman Lynch cursed indignantly.

"I never thought Ethan would do something like that!" Mark Sterling clutched his arm, which had been wounded in a sneak attack by one of Morgan Sterling’s men. If he hadn’t reacted quickly and shielded Fa Keyou, Fa Keyou would have lost his life out there!

They had just reached the center of the lawn when the gate in the dividing wall suddenly opened.

Flora Bloom and her companions had just stepped through the gate in the dividing wall when they came face-to-face with Sherman Lynch and Maeve Preston, as well as the heavily injured Mark Sterling and Fa Keyou.

"Old Lynch, Maeve, what happened to you all? What’s this about a betrayal?"

From Chester Sawyer’s brief explanation, Flora Bloom had a general idea that some things had happened at the base after she left. But she still didn’t understand the full story.

The four of them saw Flora Bloom. Sherman Lynch, in particular, whose aged face had grown terribly haggard in only a few days, looked as if he had instantly become a decade younger at the sight of her.

"Flora, you’re finally back! It’s good that you’re back, it’s good that you’re back!"

When Maeve Preston saw Flora Bloom, her eyes suddenly welled up with tears. She rushed over and grabbed Flora Bloom’s hands. "Flora Bloom, it’s so good that you’re back! Quick, come with me and save Shelly! She might... she might not make it!"

Flora Bloom’s brows furrowed. Without waiting for Maeve Preston to finish, she took off at a run towards Shelly’s villa.

Maeve Preston followed, panting, and only shouted when she saw Flora Bloom rush into the villa, "First guest room on the ground floor! Hurry, save her."

After Flora Bloom opened the door to the first guest room on the ground floor of their villa, her powerful spiritual power could barely sense the breathing of Shelly, who was lying on the bed.

She saw that over seventy percent of Shelly’s body was covered in gaping wounds, as if she had been slashed by hundreds of sharp little knives.

A mixture of red blood and yellow pus oozed from her outer clothes. It must be that the hot weather in Morhaven had caused her wounds to fester.

Such a large area of dense, fine wounds. Each cut was close to the next, short in length, shallow at the ends and extremely deep in the middle.

If she didn’t know these were Wind Blades that only a Second Level or higher Wind Ability User could create, Flora Bloom would have thought these wounds were from death by a thousand cuts.

’Of all the Wind Ability Users she knew in the base who were Second Level or higher, there was no one else but Morgan Sterling. No matter how Shelly got these injuries, if my brother and mother are truly imprisoned by him, their situation couldn’t be good either!’

’Morgan Sterling? I originally thought he was just a dull-witted man who happened to possess the power of at least a Level 3 superpower. I never would have guessed that he was the one in this base with the deepest schemes and the greatest ambition.’