Chapter 493 - 423: A Woman’s Ordeal (4)
Chapter 493: Chapter 423: A Woman’s Ordeal (4)
As Flora Bloom let out a muffled groan, Maeve Preston held her breath and lifted a tiny infant from the operating table.
"She’s out!"
Flora Bloom let out a weak, pale sigh, and a mouthful of spiritual water entered her mouth, healing the wounds from childbirth. Her stamina also began to return quickly.
However, she had underestimated the postpartum weakness that childbirth inflicted on a superpower user.
She felt she didn’t even have the strength to stand. Her body felt completely empty, as if she’d been drained of her very life force, and she was incredibly drowsy.
Seeing Maeve Preston and the others deftly tending to their child, Lex Cross immediately sat up and pulled Flora Bloom into his arms. "Flora, are you okay?"
Though she was drained of all strength, Flora Bloom’s eyes were fixed on the small, blood-covered bundle in Maeve Preston’s hands. "Let me see."
Maeve Preston cleaned the baby. According to standard procedure, she was supposed to suction the amniotic fluid and other substances from the baby’s mouth and throat, then stimulate her to cry to activate her lung function.
But the baby wouldn’t cry. Maeve Preston patted her little bottom, but she simply opened her eyes and smiled up at her.
Although the spiritual water had restored some of her stamina, Flora Bloom was still drained. She gave a weak smile and looked at Maeve Preston. "Maeve, don’t worry. It’s okay, just give her to me."
Maeve Preston hesitated for a moment, but then wrapped the baby in a prepared swaddling blanket and placed her beside Flora Bloom on the operating table.
"Flora, if a baby doesn’t cry at birth, I’m afraid there could be various problems down the line." Maeve Preston’s professionalism compelled her to explain. There were many reasons a newborn might not cry, and with no way to run further tests, she had to make the situation clear to Flora Bloom.
Flora Bloom smiled. "Don’t worry. She’s perfectly healthy. She just likes to laugh, not cry."
’Polly was the same way in my past life. No matter how much I spanked her little bottom until it was red, she simply wouldn’t cry.’
’Shelton Underwood almost threw her out, thinking there was something wrong with her. Thinking about it now, his hatred probably began right then. Or maybe even earlier, so early that no one noticed.’
Flora Bloom dipped her finger in spiritual water and let a few drops fall into Polly’s mouth. Afterward, unable to fight off the encroaching sleepiness, she drifted into a dream.
In her dream, the black ant reappeared within her inner space. It seemed to be guiding Flora Bloom toward a dark and desolate realm of nothingness.
The realm was deathly still and filled with Death Energy, containing nothing but endless darkness and restless, wandering spirits.
Amidst the crowd of souls, Flora Bloom peered through the darkness and saw a beam of light. It seemed to carry three different and opposing types of energy—origin and evolution, life and death, light and darkness—yet they did not spill out or mix.
’It’s the only light in this pitch-black place. If I can just grab it, I can escape this darkness.’
She tried to seize it, but each time the light seemed to be within her grasp, it felt a world away, just beyond her touch.
She was utterly exhausted, mentally and physically. ’I’m so tired. I just want to rest!’
Suddenly, the cry of an infant traveled from far to near, breaking through the barriers of the vast, endless darkness to reach her ears.
’Polly!’
Realizing the cries were coming from her daughter, Flora Bloom’s consciousness began to instinctively struggle against the surrounding darkness. But the more she tried to escape, the tighter the darkness wrapped around her.
The black ant was like a maggot clinging to bone. In the darkness, it opened a pair of blood-red eyes, and its gaze seemed to lure and bewitch her Divine Soul.
’A black ant?’
An image of the man in white flashed through Flora Bloom’s mind. ’This has to be his doing,’ she thought.
’If I stay here any longer, this darkness will devour my soul and consciousness whole.’
And so, in a self-destructive gambit, she detonated a part of her sea of consciousness within the darkness. Just as the resulting vortex was on the verge of collapse, the red, blue, and gold Crystal Stones flared with brilliant light, forming a barrier to protect it. A cooling sensation instantly washed over Flora Bloom’s mind.
At the same time, the familiar, abundant Spiritual Energy from her inner space began pouring into her, allowing her body and soul to realign. In that instant, her consciousness returned to her body.