The Three-Eyed Gorilla shuffled one foot back and forth, trying to steady itself. Just as it found its footing, it lifted its other foot and accidentally hooked its own heel.

With a tremendous THUD, the Three-Eyed Gorilla tumbled to the ground, looking utterly ridiculous.

Accompanied by Lex Cross, Flora Bloom slowly approached the Three-Eyed Gorilla. The closer she got, the more nervous she felt. Seeing someone approach, the gorilla suddenly sat up and turned to look at her.

The pupils in its three eyes looked innocent and endearingly clueless, not at all like a creature that would attack someone unprovoked. However, with the cautionary tale of Saul Sterling in mind, Flora remained extremely careful, a bead of spiritual water at the ready in her hand.

The sight of Lex Cross protectively at Flora Bloom’s side was a dagger to Stephen Bloom’s heart. His precious daughter was still suffering behind the quarantine wall, enduring who knew what kind of torture. Meanwhile, this Flora Bloom had not only stolen his daughter’s man but had also kidnapped his daughter.

’If only she died, everything would be fine! None of this would be happening! Lex Cross will be my son-in-law, not that coward Caleb Bloom’s!’

The Three-Eyed Gorilla twitched its nose, catching the scent of the spiritual water in Flora Bloom’s hand. "Water, water, water! Tasty water!"

Its voice was deep yet childish, suggesting it was still young for its species.

"Um, if you don’t attack me, I’ll give you the water, okay?"

The Three-Eyed Gorilla nodded as if it half-understood. "Water, water!"

Flora guided the bead of spiritual water from her hand to the Three-Eyed Gorilla’s mouth and watched as it grabbed the water and drank it down. After finishing, it looked at Flora with an insatiable expression, as if to say, ’Not enough, I want more.’

"If you want more water, come with me. But don’t destroy anything here, okay?"

The Three-Eyed Gorilla appeared to obey. It stood up, and just as Flora turned to lead the way, a white light suddenly flashed from the third eye on its forehead. A blast of explosive energy hurtled toward her.

Lex Cross’s black energy instantly enveloped Flora, and he threw himself in front of her. They clung to each other and squeezed their eyes shut in anticipation.

But the expected pain never came. The energy from the Three-Eyed Gorilla’s third eye grazed past Flora and struck someone else.

"I... heh... kill... AARGH!" A large hole appeared in Stephen Bloom’s forehead, created by the Three-Eyed Gorilla’s attack just moments before. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Stephen Bloom collapsed to the ground, his eyes wide and his face pale. He was only an arm’s length from Flora, a long knife in his hand, the glow of his Gold Ability just fading from his palms.

It wasn’t hard to guess that he had charged over with a specific purpose in mind.

The Three-Eyed Gorilla was terrifyingly powerful; the possibility that he had charged over alone to fight it was minuscule. The only other possibility was that his target had been Flora.

The crowd looked at Flora, then at the body of Stephen Bloom, who had died with his eyes wide open, and in that instant, they seemed to understand something.

Lately, rumors had been circulating around the base that Flora Bloom had stolen her cousin Tianna Bloom’s fiancé and that she was constantly suppressing and bullying Tianna. Not only that, but the rumors also claimed that Flora was pregnant with another man’s child, yet was using her status as a High-level Superpower User to possessively cling to Lex Cross, which was utterly despicable.

But now? Anyone with eyes could see what was really going on.

Just as the three-eyed monster’s attack was about to land, the man named Lex Cross had thrown himself at Flora, completely disregarding his own life to shield her from the blow.

Did that look like a man who had been possessively captured or seduced? No, this was clearly a man so deeply in love that he was willing to die for her.

It was only then that the people of the base began to realize: the previous rumors had likely all been lies started by Tianna Bloom. ’We’ve all been deceived!’

And the most tragic figure in all this was Stephen Bloom. He and Flora Bloom’s father, Caleb Bloom, were brothers. Of their daughters, one possessed a mutated Ice Ability, while the other had a Middle-level Water Element superpower. Furthermore, there were many rumors that Flora was also a Summoning and Control System user.

And look where it had led. Tianna Bloom had spread those rumors hoping to turn public opinion against Flora, pressuring her to leave Lex Cross. Now, her own father had died at the hands of a powerful monster while trying to eliminate Flora for her.

How ironic!

What was even stranger was, why did the ferocious Three-Eyed Gorilla attack Stephen Bloom? Was it because he charged over with a weapon, and the gorilla thought he was being attacked?

The people who had been snapped out of their daze by Flora’s shout and managed to escape couldn’t think of any other reason. The scales in their hearts had already tipped in her favor, thanks to that life-saving yell.

’Who said Flora Bloom was all seductive looks, with a pretty face but no figure, using Demon Art to lure in men?’

’She’s a goddess who saves people from peril, okay?’

’If anyone dares spread rumors about my goddess in the base again, I’ll fight them to the death!’

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Flora Bloom merely gave Stephen Bloom’s corpse a faint glance and then said to Lex Cross, "Let’s go. There are too many people here. It’s not a good place to reveal the existence of my space."

With that, she turned to the Three-Eyed Gorilla and asked, "Still want some water?"

The Three-Eyed Gorilla’s intelligence really did seem low, and its greed was simply baffling. It nodded its head frantically, a human-like gesture that astounded the people it had just beaten to a pulp.

"Yes, yes, yes! Water, tasty water!"

Flora stifled a laugh. "Come on, follow me back, but you better not break any of the surrounding buildings! Got it?"

The Three-Eyed Gorilla nodded. As it followed Flora away, it was already trying to be very careful, but its massive body still ended up damaging many of the buildings and walls along the street.

When they reached the quarantine wall, Flora had the Three-Eyed Gorilla jump over it.

Its massive body landed on the lawn as it jumped over the wall. Flora initially thought, ’This is bad, the lawn is going to be ruined.’ But on closer inspection, she realized that the blades of grass had grown much taller than before. Even under the gorilla’s weight, the grass was so resilient it seemed to hold the massive creature up.

The Three-Eyed Gorilla curiously walked from the lawn onto a small stone path, then sat down and played with the grass with its fingers for a long time.

Lex Cross and the others returned with Flora. The gawkers outside the quarantine wall also stopped in their tracks. It wasn’t for any particular reason, except that they heard a buzzing sound approaching from the distance, and they all had the good sense to hurry away.

Once she confirmed there were no outsiders around, Flora placed a hand on the Three-Eyed Gorilla’s leg and pulled it into her space. But just an instant later, she tossed it right back out. The reason was simple: right after entering the space and receiving its brand, the gorilla had gone crazy, walked over to Monkey One, and picked it up.

Not only that, but just as Flora saw it was about to stuff Monkey One into its mouth for a crunchy snack, she intervened in time, forbidding it from harming any living creature or plant within her space.

But the creature kept telling her it was hungry, and looking at all the small pets sleeping nearby, Flora really couldn’t trust it, so she threw it out.

The Three-Eyed Gorilla looked at Flora with a wronged expression. "Hungry, water, hungry." When it couldn’t express itself clearly, it started making "OOH-OOH-OOH-OOH" sounds and gesturing at her.

Lex Cross watched with an amused expression as Flora bickered with the enormous gorilla. "Gorillas are probably omnivores," he said. "This Three-Eyed Gorilla is likely still young, its intelligence hasn’t fully developed yet. Just be patient and try to coax it, you should be fine."