Reborn with a Space: Hoarding Food and Raising My Kid

Chapter 478: Chapter 411: Exotic Bug Poison

It wasn’t until this moment that Flora Bloom finally sensed something was wrong.

The old crone before her had a face full of wrinkles and a hunched back, yet the scent wafting from her was identical to the sweet fragrance of the peach grove.

She was sizing Flora Bloom up and down, then shot a teasing glance at Lex Cross.

The old village chief stood ramrod straight at the side, not daring to speak, his face a mask of reverence as he looked at the old crone.

Flora Bloom tapped Lex Cross. "Did... did someone do something to me?"

Lex Cross let out a soft breath and nodded. His gaze was filled with concern as he looked at Flora Bloom. "It’s a poison. She can cure it."

Flora Bloom quickly shielded her stomach with both hands, her face showing a rare panic. "Poison? What poison? How could I be poisoned without knowing it?"

The old crone came over to Flora Bloom and sat in the chair beside her. "To be precise, it’s a parasitic insect. It follows its master’s command to live inside a person’s body, slowly releasing toxins. The host feels nothing at all."

Flora Bloom shot to her feet. "Impossible! I..." ’I enter my space all the time. If there were something foreign in my body, the space would have branded it long ago.’

’Any creature branded and recognized by the space could never harm me, its master!’

"In my family, we call this kind of parasite an ’alien insect.’ Once it enters a person’s body, it replicates their genes, becoming a part of them. Unless you’re intimately familiar with the Rook family’s methods of cultivating these alien insects, it’s impossible to detect!"

Flora Bloom and Lex Cross exchanged a look, each knowing what the other was thinking.

’No wonder. If it copied my genes, then it’s a part of my own body. How could the space possibly brand it?’

"This poison... will it affect my baby?"

The old crone shook her head, then nodded. "Not for now, but it definitely will if this goes on for too long!"

Flora Bloom looked at Lex Cross, then at the old village chief. Suddenly, she thought about everything that had happened over the past half-month.

Her voice trembled slightly as she asked.

"What kind of effect does this poison have on my body?"

Before Lex Cross could stop her, the old crone pulled a mirror from her pocket. Just as she was about to hand it to Flora Bloom, a flash of lightning shattered it to pieces.

"Don’t look, Flora!"

Flora Bloom frowned, her expression growing even more grave as she looked at Lex Cross. She turned back to the old village chief. "Sir, am I... ugly?"

The old village chief glanced at Flora Bloom again, opening his mouth to speak but then hesitating.

The old crone let out a snort of laughter. "Ugly? That’s putting it mildly. Do you have any idea what this alien insect feeds on?"

Of the four people present, the old village chief stood to the side, silent. Flora Bloom’s face was a mixture of stern curiosity and restrained anxiety.

The murderous look on Lex Cross’s face had been there ever since Evangeline Rook pulled out the mirror. If Evangeline Rook made one more wrong move, he looked ready to snap at any moment.

"Evangeline Rook, I suggest you cure her first. And cut the useless chatter!"

The old crone chuckled, a look of disbelief creeping into her eyes. "General Cross actually cares about someone? I doubt my little sister, Nina Rook, ever received such treatment, did she?"

Lex Cross’s brow furrowed, and a violent aura began to emanate from him, directed straight at her.

Evangeline Rook shuddered and sighed. "Why are you being so fierce? Do you think curing her is easy? Besides, while this poison can indeed be cured, I need to explain a few things clearly. I don’t want you blaming me for any side effects later.

Knowing your temperament, you’re more likely to just kill me outright!"

"I don’t know what your relationship with Nina Rook is, but since Lex Cross trusts you, you won’t harm me, right?"

The old crone met Flora Bloom’s ugly, slanted, triangular eyes. It was strange. From within those hideously deformed little eyes, a brilliant gaze shone out, making her feel a sense of shame she couldn’t escape.

Evangeline Rook clenched her wrinkled hands and looked seriously at Flora Bloom. "Don’t worry, I’m not saving you for free. If the terms weren’t so appealing, I wouldn’t have agreed to this!

After all, whether you get fat and ugly and eventually die from it has nothing to do with me!"

"Nina Rook!" Lex Cross’s voice rang out again. Evangeline Rook pursed her lips in exasperation and continued.

"Every type of alien insect has a different diet! The one Nina Rook cultivated feeds on a woman’s vital essence and blood. However, a superpower user’s vital essence is well-protected by a barrier formed through cultivation, so the insect can’t directly consume it.

So, after entering a host, it uses its poison to cause an accumulation of a fat-producing toxin, making the person gain weight rapidly.

This toxin obstructs the flow of vital energy and blood in a superpower user, making them lethargic. This forces their vital essence and blood to emerge from behind their protective barrier to fight off these fatty toxins.

Then, the alien insect feeds on that vital essence and blood.

The insect itself cannot absorb the vital essence it consumes. Instead, it’s transferred to its soul-bound keeper—its master, Nina Rook."

Flora Bloom’s face went deathly pale. "And you said it wouldn’t affect my baby? When a woman is pregnant, the child needs the nourishment of her vital essence and blood more than anything! With that insect in my body, how could it not feed on my baby’s vital essence?"

The old crone glanced at Flora Bloom. "I already checked. Your baby is fine! Otherwise, it would have been gone in the past half-month!

But it is strange... It’s been over half a month, yet your body hasn’t changed that much. Logically, you should have ballooned to over two hundred pounds by now!

But your legs and feet are just a bit swollen, your face has gotten fleshier, and, ahem, you’ve gotten ugly, that’s all!"

Flora Bloom knew why she hadn’t ballooned to over two hundred pounds. ’It’s the space inside me!’

She had been constantly drinking Space Spirit Water and eating food produced by the space. Everything from the space came with Spiritual Energy that replenished her body. Moreover, the spiritual water had unparalleled restorative abilities, allowing her body to rapidly replenish its vital essence and blood even as it was being consumed.

That was why her figure hadn’t changed too drastically.

But when she heard the word "ugly," Flora Bloom’s eyes widened at the old crone. She scrambled to her feet and rummaged through the old village chief’s house for what felt like an eternity, finally finding a mirror with a heavily worn-down border on the inside of an old wardrobe door.

When she first caught sight of her reflection, Flora Bloom thought her eyes were playing tricks on her.

’This can’t be me, can it?’

A double chin hung down without any effort, the apples of her cheeks had atrophied and sagged, and her laugh lines were as deep as a fifty-year-old woman’s. Her eyes were swollen like a goldfish’s, the upper and lower lids pressing together to obscure her eyeballs, forming the outline of inverted triangles.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

What she found most unbearable was that her once-flawless skin was now densely covered in brown spots across her cheeks. A huge, birthmark-like patch covered her eye, eyebrow, and the entire socket.

If you didn’t look closely, it almost looked like a comical black eye, as if someone had punched her right in the socket.