Flora Bloom, however, had no time to fight with him over the Crystal Core.
She quickly rushed to the edge of the fountain and scooped out the dying, crippled golden cicada.
The moment the golden cicada saw Flora Bloom, it let out another strange shriek. Although it wasn't as loud as when it had fought the giant mantis, the cry still made Flora Bloom dizzy, her mind going blank for a moment. Even the small, slowly spinning vortex in her mind briefly paused.
But after just a few seconds, Flora Bloom recovered. Without a moment's hesitation, she moved to prevent the golden cicada from launching another sonic attack.
"Store!"
The next second, the giant golden cicada appeared in Flora Bloom's space.
Flora Bloom looked inward at the golden cicada in her space, a smile spreading across her lips. Just as she'd thought, after an initial bout of fear upon entering, she tossed the cicada into the river. Amazingly, its torn-off wings began to slowly grow back.
Its broken leg segments also began to slowly repair themselves at the same time. What surprised Flora Bloom the most was that the instant the golden cicada entered the space, a mental link connected to it appeared in her mind.
The first mental message she received from the golden cicada was, surprisingly, "Master."
She could feel a domineering Spiritual Imprint from the space within the cicada. It had been automatically applied the moment the creature arrived, leaving the cicada with no way to resist.
'How could she not be ecstatic? Her space has this function? Any creature that enters acknowledges her as its master? And resistance is futile?'
She walked over to the giant mantis with mischievous intent.
The giant mantis wasn't dead yet. Its abdomen and limbs were still vibrating at a high frequency, emitting a threatening sound. However, the sounds grew quieter, and its struggles gradually ceased.
Fearing it would die, Flora Bloom no longer cared if Ethan Monroe and Neal Wallace discovered the secret of her space. She quickly reached out, touched the giant mantis's body, and brought it into her space.
Her space was magical. Ordinary inanimate objects could be collected with just a sweep of her consciousness. But living things required her to make physical contact with some part of her body to be brought in.
Having just brought the mantis into her space, Flora Bloom immediately breathed a sigh of relief. 'Thank goodness, thank goodness I was quick enough. If I'd been any slower, this thing really would have kicked the bucket.'
After entering the space, the giant mantis took a moment to adjust before its injuries also began to heal in the river. But suddenly, the mantis's three pairs of limbs began to twitch violently. Its huge abdomen throbbed nonstop, and the message transmitted to Flora Bloom through their mental link was "Pain."
This made Flora Bloom a little anxious.
'Doesn't the river in my space have healing properties?'
She quickly controlled the space to pour a continuous stream of river water into the mantis's mouthparts.
Although this eased its convulsions, the giant mantis was still in extraordinary pain.
Flora Bloom used her control over the space to scan its entire body. A second later, she suddenly started to laugh.
Inside the mantis's abdominal cavity were, surprisingly, twelve emerald-green eggs. Within each translucent egg, she could see the form of a tiny little mantis.
'So the giant mantis was in all this pain because it was about to lay its eggs?'
'Thinking of how the giant mantis had been so brave and invincible, fighting a whole group by itself...' Flora Bloom could already imagine it. 'When these little mantises grow up to be giant ones, I'll have a mantis squadron. Won't I be invincible then? Who would dare provoke me?'
She sent a thought to the giant mantis, telling it that it could lay its eggs by the river. The spot was close to the water source, which would also help it recover.
Just as Flora Bloom's gaze followed the mantis's silhouette to the riverbank, she saw the vegetable and fruit seedlings on both sides of the river. They were already half a person tall, and her jaw nearly dropped to the floor.
'This... it hasn't even been a full day, has it? The vegetable and fruit seeds I scattered out of boredom have already sprouted and grown this much?'
Although she didn't know anything about farming, she knew that it took a long time for vegetables and fruits to be ready for harvest. 'The fastest would be three months, right?'
And the few fruit tree saplings by the river had already rooted deeply. The roots on one side had already reached the lower depths of the river, and their growth was incredibly robust.
Ethan Monroe and Neal Wallace had finished collecting the Crystal Cores on the ground. When they turned to look at Flora Bloom, they saw her standing still with a silly grin on her face.
But when they saw that the giant mantis's body, which had been on the ground, had vanished without a trace, they quickly called out to the dazed and grinning Flora Bloom.
"Flora Bloom! Flora Bloom!"
"Hey, Flora Bloom, for crying out loud! Snap out of it, stop grinning like an idiot! That damn thing is gone!"
Hearing someone call her, Flora Bloom quickly wiped the joyful expression off her face. She sent a sliver of a mental link to soothe the golden cicada, which had hidden itself in her little farmhouse courtyard, and then returned to reality.
"What? Were you calling me?"
"Oh, my dear girl, can you please pay attention? That big fat mantis is gone."
Flora Bloom gave a mischievous smile, quite pleased with Ethan Monroe's form of address.
"Don't worry, Old Monroe, it's fine. Who knows, you might even see it again in the future!"
Ethan Monroe's scalp tingled at Flora Bloom's words.
"Forget it! I wouldn't want to run into a terrifying bug like that again if you paid me! Spare me, please!"
But Neal Wallace just gave the calm and composed Flora Bloom a deep look. He seemed to have connected the dots about something and didn't press the matter. 'Everyone has their secrets,' he thought. 'When she's ready to talk, she'll tell us.'
Seeing that the two had already cleaned up the battlefield, Flora Bloom didn't think much of it. She had gained two powerful combatants, so she figured she could let them have the few Crystal Cores.
But Neal Wallace and Ethan Monroe looked at the suddenly foolish-looking little girl, both sighed, and held out their open palms in front of her.
Both of their palms were filled with the Crystal Cores from the golden cicadas' bodies. A rough estimate put the number at thirty or forty, if not fifty.
She looked up at them and said, "This was all an unexpected bonus. You collected them, so they belong to you. You don't have to give them to me."
But the two acted as if they hadn't heard her. Neal Wallace, in particular, insisted on taking Flora Bloom's hand and stuffing the Crystal Cores into it. After a moment's hesitation, Ethan Monroe also gave all his Crystal Cores to Flora Bloom.
"If we hadn't come in here with you, how would we have gotten all this? Besides, I owe you. If it weren't for you, I'd have been dead long ago, let alone awakened a superpower."
After hearing this and seeing the resolute look in Neal Wallace's eyes, Flora Bloom could only shake her head with a sigh and accept them.
"Alright, I'll hold onto them for you guys for now. Mr. Wallace, using superpowers in battle consumes a lot of energy. If you need any, remember to get them from me."
Neal Wallace nodded. Seeing this, Ethan Monroe felt a pang of envy.
How could Flora Bloom not notice? Ethan Monroe was very envious that Neal Wallace had awakened a superpower. In the apocalypse, not having a superpower was like being a fish on a chopping block, left to be slaughtered by others. Even survival was incredibly difficult.
She suddenly smiled at Ethan Monroe and said, "Old Monroe, what I said before... have you considered the method to awaken a superpower?"
Hearing this, Ethan Monroe's face filled with terror as he shook his head. "Forget it, forget it! I'm fine being a normal person. If I get bitten by a zombie, the chances of dying are probably higher, right!"
Flora Bloom looked at Ethan Monroe with amusement, exchanged a glance with Neal Wallace, and then they both burst out laughing.
"Mr. Monroe, don't be such a coward. The method I'm talking about won't put your life in danger!"
When Ethan Monroe heard her say that, he was just about to ask what method could help him awaken a superpower too. After all, from what that kid Neal Wallace had said earlier, it seemed he had Flora Bloom to thank for his own superpower.
But before he could get the words out, Neal Wallace's voice came, sounding a bit unnatural.
"Look, what is that?"
Flora Bloom and Ethan Monroe both looked in the direction he was pointing.
"What is it? It's pitch black, I don't see anything."
Ethan Monroe was still a normal person, so naturally, his eyesight wasn't as good as Neal Wallace's or Flora Bloom's, who had superpowers.
But after Flora Bloom saw the situation, she said only one word.
"Run!"