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

Chapter 160 News of the Mysterious Tree
Ye Qiumian listened quietly without interrupting. Only after Xiao Nuo finished speaking did she look up at the two people struggling to get up in the distance, trying to escape.

Her eyes remained expressionless as she walked slowly over and stopped in front of Yu Jiahui and Song Yiqiao.

The moment her gaze swept over them, their initial thoughts of resistance vanished, leaving only a deep-seated fear.

"What...what do you want to do?!" Yu Jiahui exclaimed in terror, "My brother is the base commander of the Azure Dragon Base."

"I don't care who your brother is, just stay put." Ye Qiumian's voice was flat, yet it carried an irresistible pressure.

Yu Jiahui gritted her teeth and dared not speak again, while Song Yiqiao trembled with fear.

The two dared not run any further, fearing that the woman would really kill them.

Ye Qiumian stopped looking at them and turned back to Xiao Nuo's side.

She took out a bottle of healing pills from her spatial storage, poured out two pills and placed them in Xiao Nuo's hand, "These are healing pills. Taking them will improve your injuries. The rest is up to you."

Xiao Nuo looked at the pill in her palm, then at the two people in the distance who were filled with hatred in their eyes, and her eyes were filled with gratitude.

She knew that Ye Qiumian had given her the power to decide what to do.

"Thank you, Sister Ye," Xiao Nuo said gratefully.

Ye Qiumian nodded: "I have something to do, I'll be going now."

"Sister Ye..." Xiao Nuo looked up at Ye Qiu Mian, who was about to turn and leave, and couldn't help but ask, "Where are you going?"

Ye Qiumian paused slightly, remembering that Xiao Nuo had just said that she had accepted a mission to investigate abnormal energy in the vicinity.

Perhaps Xiao Nuo has the information she needs.

She turned to look at Xiao Nuo and said calmly, "I'm investigating the unusual energy around here. Also, I'm looking for a mutated tree."

Ye Qiumian described the possible locations of spiritual veins, their differences, and the shape of the unknown tree.

As soon as she finished speaking, Xiao Nuo exclaimed in surprise, "Sister Ye, I haven't encountered the special place you mentioned, but I have seen a very huge tree."

The leaves are similar to what you described, but the tree is several times larger than you said. I don't know if it's the mutated tree you're looking for.

Upon hearing this, Ye Qiumian raised the corners of her eyes slightly, and a bright light suddenly appeared in her usually cool eyes.

There was a barely perceptible urgency in his voice: "Do you remember the location of that big tree?"

Xiao Nuo nodded and said, "I remember, go more than 100 kilometers to the northeast, there is a rocky slope there, and behind the slope there is a particularly thick tree with a bluish-green bark that can be seen from afar."

Ye Qiu Mian nodded: "Okay, I understand, thank you."

She gathered pale blue spiritual energy at her fingertips and pointed it towards Yu Jiahui and Song Yiqiao. A semi-transparent spiritual rope suddenly formed, binding the two tightly together, and they remained motionless no matter how much they struggled.

"They'll be free in an hour. You can decide what to do with them."

Ye Qiumian looked at Xiao Nuo, left these words, and her figure had already disappeared into the dense forest, leaving only a blur after a few leaps.

Xiao Nuo stared at the disappearing figure, then glanced at the two bound, furious men.

She took a healing pill from her palm, and without the slightest hesitation, tilted her head back and swallowed it.

The pill melted as soon as it entered her throat, and a warm current quickly flowed through her limbs, finally bringing a touch of color back to her pale face.

Then, she took out a luminous white crystal core from her bosom.

The moment the fingertip touched the crystal core, wisps of energy flowed into the body through the fingertip, intertwining with the warm current of the pill and slowly repairing the damaged meridians.

During those half hour, Yu Jiahui and Song Yiqiao's cursing never stopped.

"Xiao Nuo, you bitch! Just wait until I skin you alive!"

"Don't think that just because someone saved you this time, it will happen again. I'll kill you sooner or later!"

The foul language was like poisoned needles, piercing Xiao Nuo. But she didn't even lift her eyelids, her entire mind focused on the flow of energy, until the burning pain in her dantian subsided considerably, before she slowly withdrew her attack.

She stood up and walked step by step toward the two bound men.

The two who had been arrogantly cursing just moments before suddenly panicked when they saw the cold indifference in Xiao Nuo's eyes.

Yu Jiahui flinched and shrieked, "What do you want to do? I'm warning you, if you dare lay a finger on us, my brother will make you wish you were dead!"

Song Yiqiao also forced a tough stance: "That's right! Brother Wenhao loves me the most. If you hurt me, he won't let you get away with it!"

"Yu Wenhao..." Xiao Nuo repeated the name softly, the image of the gentle, smiling figure who always protected Yu Jiahui behind her flashing through her mind.

Yes, he dotes on this younger sister so much. If I really hurt them, he probably will never be kind to me again.

A bitter smile involuntarily crept onto his lips, tinged with self-mockery.

But the next second, that bitterness was replaced by a bone-chilling cold.

Just now, these two men grinned maliciously and attacked her with deadly force, their spiritual power almost shattering her internal organs.

They had no intention of sparing her life.

Xiao Nuo's eyes sharpened, and she stopped talking nonsense.

A pale blue supernatural power gathered at his fingertips and pierced through the two men's abdomens with lightning speed, striking their dantian points.

"what--!"

Two piercing screams shattered the forest.

Yu Jiahui and Song Yiqiao felt a sharp pain in their dantian, followed by what felt like something important being forcibly ripped away, and their supernatural abilities instantly dissipated without a trace.

They collapsed to the ground, staring at Xiao Nuo with terrified expressions, unable to utter another threatening word.

Xiao Nuo withdrew her hand, her fingertips still feeling a slight numbness from the collision of supernatural powers.

Seeing their dejected state, she remained expressionless, turned around, found two vines, tied them up, and took them back to the base.

……

Ye Qiumian stepped on the air currents condensed with spiritual energy, her figure like a pale blue streak of light, cutting through the clouds and flying swiftly to the northeast.

The wind whistled past my ears, and the forest below gradually changed from lush green to dark brown, then tinged with grayish-yellow.

That's a landform feature close to a rocky slope.

During the hour-long race, she barely stopped. The spiritual energy shield on her fingertips was worn into fine halos by the gale, but she didn't slow down at all.

After circling and searching in the air for another hour, just as the spiritual energy was about to run out, a cluster of striking gray-white stones finally came into view.

That rocky slope stretched across the edge of the dense forest, with large and small stones piled up haphazardly, their edges worn smooth by wind and rain, yet exuding a wild and untamed atmosphere.

Behind the rocky slope, a giant shadow rose from the ground and pierced the sky.

It was the tree Xiao Nuo had mentioned.

It is no longer what it may have looked like in my memory. The trunk is so thick that it takes more than ten people to hug it. The bark is a deep dark green with a shimmering light. The branches and leaves spread out like a canopy, blocking out the sun. Even the sunlight can only filter through the gaps to cast mottled golden spots.

Even more astonishingly, the rocky slope was shrouded in a visible mist of spiritual energy, which seeped into the tree trunks in wisps and strands, with a concentration several times greater than that of the previous spiritual vein.

Ye Qiumian's heart skipped a beat, and she abruptly stopped, landing lightly with her skirt brushing against only a single withered leaf.

She walked slowly through the pile of rocks, each step landing on the point with the most concentrated spiritual energy, until she stood in the shade of the towering tree.

Ye Qiumian looked up at the trees that seemed to stretch to the horizon, let out a long breath, and said with barely suppressed joy, "I've finally found you."