Free Web NovelChapter 232: Chapter 220: Entering the Mall
Flora Bloom and her companions swept through Area 006 on Behemoth’s back. After harvesting a portion of the Zombie Crystal Cores, they left the remaining corpses behind. ’There are just too many. We’d never finish even if we worked until dark!’
So, the group decided to set off to find Flora Bloom’s father, Caleb Bloom, and collect the rest of the Crystal Cores on their return trip.
Behemoth was incredibly fast, and the group soon arrived in Area 008. Little White followed suit, leaping onto the roof of a building in an old residential complex there.
They didn’t see that back in Area 006, which they had just left, several cracks had suddenly split open on the zombie-covered ground. Dark green plant roots snaked out, crawling onto the heads of the corpses. The rootlets, like nimble steel fingers, pried open the skulls one by one, attached themselves to the Crystal Cores inside, and began to absorb their energy.
More roots sprouted from the ground like new shoots, growing rapidly until they formed a Rose vine. Its thick tendrils were covered in sharp, backward-pointing thorns.
The thorns were a vibrant green with red tips, clearly poisonous.
This was clearly a type of climbing Rose. After absorbing some of the Zombie Crystal Cores, it continued to send out new shoots from its base, which grew into more vines.
Before long, Rose vines were sprouting erratically all over Area 006. The ever-multiplying vines blocked the path Flora Bloom and her group had taken, cutting off their route back. From a distance, an unsuspecting onlooker might have mistaken it for a green wall.
Only upon getting closer would one discover that it was, in fact, a massive net woven from overlapping, intersecting Rose vines of uneven thickness.
Meanwhile, Flora Bloom and her party had already begun clearing the zombies in Area 008. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
But just then, a sharp, beast-like shriek that nearly burst their eardrums echoed out. After the shriek, the zombies in Area 008 unexpectedly began a mass retreat toward Area 009.
"What’s going on with these zombies? Why are they running away?" Neal Wallace asked, the Fire Element superpower still active in his hands. Dozens of zombie corpses already littered the ground.
"Something feels off, but I can’t put my finger on it." A white energy surged around Saul Sterling’s body. He closed his eyes, scanning the area for a long moment before opening them again to face the group.
"All those zombies are heading toward a shopping mall in Area 009."
"What?!" This was the last thing any of them wanted to hear, especially Flora Bloom. The mall was only so big; if tens of thousands of zombies swarmed inside, rescuing her father would become exponentially harder.
"Go, Behemoth! Overtake those zombies, and then—kill!"
At the command, Behemoth tore toward Area 009 like a bolt of lightning. The zombies’ pace was no match for its speed, and the group quickly caught up to them.
The zombies were behaving strangely. Even as they were being cut down, they didn’t fight back or attack, merely continuing their desperate flight toward the mall.
Flora Bloom and her companions were moving as fast as possible—she even unleashed her newly acquired Fire Element superpower—but they still couldn’t stop the zombies from escaping into the mall.
Flora Bloom’s new Fire Element superpower had automatically advanced to level two after her personal space evolved. She tried channeling the Fire Element Energy in her hands toward the zombie horde.
The scorching energy felt unfamiliar, yet exhilarating. A seemingly tiny wisp of flame shot from her hand, landing accurately amidst the zombies. It instantly erupted, and the low-level zombies it touched were incinerated on the spot, reduced to piles of ash with only a single Crystal Core left clattering to the ground. freewēbnoveℓ.com
Aboard Behemoth, Sherman Lynch, Neal Wallace, Shauna Wallace, Saul Sterling, The Crown Prince, and Raccoon Cat all stared, dumbfounded. Even Flora Bloom herself looked at her own hand in astonishment.
’Is this the power of the Fire Element? Why does my Fire Element Energy feel so different from a regular Flame Superpower?’ The sensation was faintly reminiscent of the energy the Golden Crow had radiated when it unleashed its True Sun Fire.
"You can stop doubting. That is my True Sun Fire!" the Golden Crow’s voice chirped, childlike yet brimming with arrogance.
"Why is the Flame Superpower I’m using your True Sun Fire?"
"How could you forget the atrocities you committed against me! You devoured most of my blood essence and absorbed it, and now you’ve forgotten! WAH! You she-devil, are you even human?!"
Flora Bloom ignored the Golden Crow’s childish roar and focused on conjuring another ball of fire in her palm. ’Could it be from last time, when I formed the contract with the Golden Crow? When its blood essence entered the vortex in my sea of consciousness, the deep blue and red Crystal Stones devoured most of it. Is that what caused my Flame Superpower to evolve?’
PUFF. The flame went out. When Flora Bloom tried to conjure it again, she found she could no longer gather that explosive Fire Element Energy.
It wasn’t that her spiritual power was too low to use the ability; rather, the Fire Element Energy in her body was completely depleted, making it impossible to coalesce.
"HAHAHA! Did you really think unleashing the True Sun Fire was some simple trick? With your current spiritual power and superpower combat level, that single burst you just managed was your absolute limit!"
Flora Bloom flicked the Golden Crow on the forehead to shut it up. From her personal space, she retrieved the Level 3 Crystal Core that Lex Cross had prepared for her.
Holding the Crystal Core in one hand, she once again tried to gather Fire Element Energy with the other.
Just as the unfamiliar Flame Superpower began to coalesce, the energy in the Crystal Core was depleted, and the stone shattered in her hand.
"*Hah!* I really can’t use it again?" she panted. "Tell me, what do I need to do to use this Flame Superpower sustainably?"
"Your level is too low! You’ll find out naturally once you’re strong enough!"
As she questioned the Golden Crow, she began to spread her Water Energy, trying to transform it into a mist to block the horde from escaping into the mall.
"Are you an idiot? These zombies have terrible eyesight. Your mist might be useful for trapping people, but it’s useless against them." With that, the Golden Crow retreated behind Flora Bloom’s ear again.
Sure enough, when Flora Bloom’s mist spread out, it did nothing to stop the horde’s advance into the mall.
Despite chasing and attacking the horde from behind for some time, they had only managed to kill about a third of them.
"Flora, what should we do? The horde is inside the mall now," Shauna Wallace cried out, her face etched with the same anxiety as the others.
"We’re going in, too." Flora Bloom turned to Saul Sterling. "Saul, could you please find out where my father is?"
A few seconds passed. "Second floor, near the exit of the emergency stairwell. Uncle Bloom is in a security monitoring room."
"Sister-in-law, we’ll scout ahead!" The Crown Prince and Raccoon Cat declared before vanishing from sight. Saul Sterling shouted after them, "Crown Prince! Raccoon Cat! Don’t take the emergency stairs—there’s a Middle Level zombie there!"
Flora Bloom and the others dismounted from Behemoth.
It was a medium-sized shopping mall. The main entrance was flanked by four tall plate-glass panels, all of which had been smashed, leaving shards scattered across the ground.
"Saul, how many Middle Level zombies are inside?"
Saul Sterling’s expression was strange, tinged with a hint of conflict.
"It’s bizarre. There’s only one Middle Level zombie in the whole mall, and it’s by the emergency stairwell on the third floor. There’s something else, too. Even though there are plenty of low-level zombies around, the first and second floors are filled with a huge number of zombie *corpses*."
"Zombie corpses?" The others looked at Saul Sterling, intrigued.
"That’s right. A rough estimate would be over ten thousand. All of them have had their Crystal Cores harvested. Even their brains are gone."
