Apocalypse: Why did you provoke her? She's a cultivator.

Chapter 130 Human Traffickers

Mu Zhenzhong stroked his chin, staring at the document in deep thought for a long time.

In the end, he chose to believe Li Hongbo, thinking that as the leader of Lincheng, he wouldn't lie to him.

Mu Zhenzhong sat in the armchair, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest, his gaze fixed on Li Hongbo opposite him.

"General Li," he said, his voice low but carrying an undeniable authority, "go and make a trip to Ye Qiu Mian's side."

"If this person is really as capable as you say, it would be much easier for us to get him on our side in Xin'an City."

Upon hearing this, Li Hongbo's face showed a hint of embarrassment, and he replied truthfully, "Deputy Chief Mu, to be honest, I have already tried this in Lincheng."

Mu Zhenzhong raised an eyebrow: "Oh? What was the result?"

“It failed.” Li Hongbo shook his head, his tone certain. “She was very firm, showing no sign of backing down, and…”

He paused, then added, "I've been keeping an eye on things these past few days, and it seems Ye Qiumian isn't in Xin'an City. When I went to where they were staying, they all said she wasn't in Xin'an City."

Mu Zhenzhong stopped tapping his fingers on the armrest, paused for a moment, and slowly nodded: "Understood."

Seeing Mu Zhenzhong remain silent, Li Hongbo took another half step forward and lowered his voice even further: "Deputy Chief Mu, it's not that I'm incompetent, but Ye Qiumin has already rejected me. Even if I try to win her over again, she might not agree. If you could personally intervene..."

He paused, observing Mu Zhenzhong's expression, "With your connections, perhaps it can be done..."

He is the deputy leader of Xin'an City, and is more likely to become the leader in the future.

Although Mu Zhenzhong tried to win over Ye Qiumian, he couldn't be 100% successful.

But if he goes in person, the chances of success might be higher.

Mu Zhenzhong slowly rubbed his fingertips along the rim of the teacup, the coolness of the cup seeping up through his fingertips.

He looked out the window; the eaves of Xin'an City stretched into a gray line in the twilight.

After a moment, he looked away, murmured a soft "hmm" in his throat, and nodded slowly: "Alright, I'll go see her."

……

The cave at the foot of the cliff was empty and quiet.

Ye Qiu sat cross-legged and secluded himself for five days to cultivate.

When the exercise was finished, the spiritual energy condensed at the fingertips was as stable as a rock, but it was difficult to make any further progress.

She opened her eyes, a look of understanding flashing in them, and got up to dust off her clothes.

The branches of the unidentified tree beside me swayed gently.

Ye Qiumian walked over and touched the rough tree trunk with her fingertips: "I'm going out for a walk and will come back later. This spiritual vein still needs you to guard it."

The tree seemed to understand, but two leaves fell with a soft rustling sound.

Ye Qiumian said no more and turned to walk out of the cave.

She looked up at the steep cliff, then lightly touched the ground with her toes. A faint spiritual light emanated from her body, and she slowly rose up, riding the air currents to fly into the distance.

Let's go back to Xin'an City first. Since we can't break through our cultivation level for the time being, we might as well go find Chu Qingyang to temper our bodies with lightning. Maybe that will help us break through the bottleneck of this body.

Ye Qiu sat cross-legged in the cave, his fingertips flowing with spiritual energy like a stream.

During the time she spent after her rebirth, she made a new discovery.

Although her soul was already at the Tribulation Transcending stage, the bottlenecks and confusions on her path to enlightenment were meaningless to her.

The path of spiritual energy circulation and the opportunity for breakthrough in realm are as clear as the lines on the palm of your hand.

There shouldn't be any sluggishness.

However, the breakthrough was too rapid, which caused cracks in the meridians.

The spiritual energy surged through the meridians, causing waves of subtle, throbbing pain.

Therefore, this body must be brand new and has never been cleansed by spiritual energy.

The meridians are like newly sprouted vines, still tender and weak; the physical body is like an unforged rock, lacking resilience. Although the soul can easily draw upon higher-level spiritual energy, this physical body cannot keep up.

After each breakthrough, one must stop and spend time nurturing the meridians and tempering the physical body, allowing it to gradually adapt to the intensity of spiritual energy.

She sighed softly: There's no rush. We still have to wait for this body to slowly catch up with the soul.

When Ye Qiumian returned to the outskirts of Xin'an City, she saw a sea of ​​refugees, with the elderly, women, and children huddled in corners, their eyes filled with despair as they gazed at the city gate.

Because they couldn't gather enough crystal cores to enter the city.

Most of the people blocked outside the city were ordinary people who had not awakened any special abilities.

In the aftermath of the apocalypse, as time passed, the number of zombies increased.

Moreover, the zombies in various places are controlled by the zombie king. Without fresh flesh and blood to fill their stomachs, they can only devour each other.

Therefore, the strength of zombies is also rapidly increasing. In order to obtain strong zombies to devour, the zombie king will even specially raise zombies.

Therefore, these unarmed ordinary people dared not venture into the zombie horde to kill them, and naturally could not dig out the crystal cores.

At this point, these ordinary people could only be abandoned by Xin'an City and left outside the city.

As soon as Ye Qiu landed, his gaze was drawn to a figure.

There was a dirty-clothed man holding a child who was about five or six years old and unconscious.

He hurried along, looking furtive, and ran towards a secluded corner.

She frowned and followed silently.

Deep in the alley, two lean men were waiting.

Upon seeing the filthy man, a sinister smile immediately appeared on his face.

"Did someone bring it?"

"Hmm, where's the crystal core you were promised?" The dirty man hugged the child tightly, looking wary.

One of the two men spat a mouthful of water onto the ground.

He pulled a bag of crystal cores from his pocket and said menacingly, "You'll get your share!"

"Yes, yes, yes!" The dirty-looking man smiled as he took the bag of crystal cores, weighed it in his hand, and prepared to leave.

Just then, the child suddenly opened his eyes, and after seeing the person in front of him, he struggled violently.

"Let me go! You're bad people! Help!"

The two men's faces darkened, and they grabbed the dirty-looking man: "Didn't we agree that he was your own kid?"

The man stuffed the crystal core into his pocket and said matter-of-factly, "Who cares whose it is? As long as I can exchange the crystal core, that's all that matters."

Seeing the child crying incessantly, he frowned and said, "Knock him out, so as not to attract attention."

The two men nodded and raised their hands to attack.

"stop!"

As soon as the cold shout fell, Ye Qiumian had already flashed in front of him and snatched the child away.

"Who the hell is this stinking woman who dares to meddle in other people's business!" The three men were furious and charged forward, brandishing their knives.

Ye Qiumian's eyes were icy cold, and a sudden burst of spiritual energy appeared at her fingertips.

In an instant, the alley fell silent.

Three corpses lay on the ground. She looked down at the still-shaken child in her arms and softened her voice: "Don't be afraid, it's alright now."

The child was still trembling slightly, tears streaming down his face, but he tried his best to straighten his small body and bow to Ye Qiu Mian to thank her: "Thank... thank you for saving me, sister."

His voice was trembling with tears, but he was very earnest, "Sister, can you help me find my parents? I've gotten separated from them..."

Looking at the fear and anticipation in his eyes, Ye Qiu Mian nodded: "Okay, I'll take you to the city gate first. They might be looking for you there."