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

Chapter 161 Breakthrough
As soon as she finished speaking, the branches above her head suddenly rustled softly, and a few large leaves swayed and swept across her head with a hint of impatience.

The movement was neither too big nor too small, yet it resembled the disdain of someone raising an eyebrow, or the reproach of someone who had been disturbed.

Ye Qiumian's fingertips twitched slightly, and a smile appeared in her eyes.

This tree seemed to possess sentience, and even had a bit of a temper.

Judging from this reaction, he clearly didn't expect her to find him so quickly; there seemed to be a hint of surprise hidden in the swaying branches.

She raised her hand and gently pressed it against the tree trunk. The wood was warm and smooth, and she could faintly feel a pulse-like throbbing within it.

She chuckled softly, "Didn't expect I'd found you so quickly, did you?"

The branches and leaves swayed wildly again, this time more like stomping their feet, causing even the surrounding spiritual energy to tremble.

It seemed as if they were dissatisfied with her.

Ye Qiumian ran her fingertips along the patterns on the tree trunk, a hint of understanding flashing in her eyes.

She naturally knew why the tree was giving her such a cold shoulder.

She found that spiritual vein six years ago, and later she broke through the spiritual vein several times, almost squeezing out every last drop of its spiritual energy.

It seems that she had been searching for this tree since then, and after finally taking root here, she found it again.

Anyone would feel frustrated in that situation.

But it shook its branches and leaves and then stopped moving, neither whipping her nor emitting any aura of rejection.

It's clear they're tacitly allowing her to be here.

Ye Qiumian chuckled softly and, without any ceremony, sat down cross-legged under the shade of the tree.

The hem of her skirt swept across the moss-covered stones, creating ripples of delicate, ethereal energy.

She took a deep breath and slowly released her divine sense, like an invisible net, silently probing into the ground beneath her feet.

At first, I only touched dry rock layers. Although the spiritual energy was strong, it was scattered and did not gather.

After diving several more feet, they suddenly encountered a powerful flow of energy with a warm, lustrous glow.

The energy was so pure that it contained not a trace of impurity. It meandered along the cracks in the rock strata, like a jade-colored river hidden underground. Wherever it passed, even the stubborn rocks were tinged with the luster of spiritual energy.

Top grade spiritual veins!

Ye Qiumian gently brushed her divine sense across the main trunk of the spiritual vein, and felt that the power was as vast as the sea, enough to support her to successfully break through to the Mahayana stage.

She slowly withdrew her consciousness, a smile involuntarily curving her lips.

I knew I hadn't made a mistake.

The branches and leaves on the tree trunk swayed gently again, this time without any anger.

It's as if they're saying, "See? I knew you came for this."

Ye Qiumian looked up at the dense trees and said in a low voice, "I'll just borrow your space for now. I won't be greedy like last time."

The tree ignored her and instead cast an even deeper shade.

Ye Qiumian sat cross-legged under the towering ancient tree, the spiritual energy swirling around her fingertips so thick it was impossible to dissolve.

The fog-like doubt in my heart began to surge again.

From the moment she embarked on her cultivation journey in this world, she always felt that there was an invisible veil covering the laws of heaven, and many questions concerning the origin were always shrouded in mystery, as if she was only one step away from being able to see the whole picture.

She vaguely sensed that this step was within the Mahayana stage. This intuition, like oil on a raging fire, fueled her burning desire for a breakthrough.

Without further hesitation, she abruptly activated the Qi-guiding technique, and the spiritual energy around her surged into her dantian like a tidal wave.

The superior spiritual vein underground seemed to be awakened like a giant dragon. The gentle spiritual energy, guided by her divine sense, surged into her meridians along the direction of the tree roots.

What began as a trickle quickly turned into a raging torrent, crashing against her body and spiritual sea, which had already been tempered to an unparalleled resilience by the power of the Integration Stage.

Ye Qiumian frowned, and beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.

The Mahayana stage is the dividing line between mortals and immortals. Breaking through it requires shattering the nascent soul and reassembling the Dharma body, a process akin to being reborn.

She could clearly feel her nascent soul trembling and cracking in the torrent of spiritual energy, every inch of her spiritual consciousness being reassembled in tearing pain, and she could almost hear the buzzing of intertwined laws in her ears.

The ancient tree's branches swayed gently, as if protecting her, or perhaps worried that the excessively rapid impact would damage its very foundation.

Ye Qiu Mian did not pause at all. She focused all her attention on her body, guiding the violent spiritual energy to wash away every blockage, merging the fragments of the nascent soul with the spiritual energy, and gradually condensing them into the outline of a new Dharma body.

Time flew by in this extreme cultivation, and the concentration of spiritual energy in the forest visibly thinned out, while the main spiritual veins underground gradually showed signs of depletion.

A month later, when the last fragment of the Nascent Soul merged into the Dharma Body, Ye Qiu Mian's body suddenly erupted with an overwhelming aura that broke through the clouds and soared into the sky.

"Boom——!"

Lead-gray tribulation clouds instantly gathered above her head, and purplish-black lightning rolled like a dragon, with the first tribulation lightning bolt, carrying the pressure of the Heavenly Dao, crashing down.

Ye Qiumian suddenly opened her eyes, a sharp glint flashing in them.

Without dodging or avoiding, her Dharma body, enveloped in the remaining spiritual energy, met the tribulation lightning head-on. With a crisp "crack," the lightning exploded on her body, leaving only faint scorch marks.

Immediately afterwards, the second, the third... each lightning bolt stronger than the last, changing from purplish-black to crimson, and finally to gold. The thirty-six lightning bolts, like an endless downpour, completely enveloped her.

The ancient tree's branches and leaves were mostly swept away by the aftershocks of the thunder, yet they still stubbornly shielded her from some of the oppressive force.

Ye Qiumian weaved through the sea of ​​lightning, sometimes using her physical body to withstand the attacks, and sometimes drawing upon the power of the lightning to temper herself. Blood seeped from the corner of her mouth, but her eyes grew ever more determined.

As the last golden lightning tribulation dissipated in her palm, she slowly straightened up, her Dharma body surrounded by a faint golden light, her aura calm and vast.

The initial stage of Mahayana practice has been achieved!

The clouds of calamity dispersed, and the light of day shone down.

Ye Qiumian took a deep breath and immersed herself in cultivation again, this time to stabilize her realm.

She guided the remaining spiritual energy in the spiritual veins to flow slowly, sorting out the surging power and returning it to its proper place, until the energy within her body was as stable as an ancient well, before slowly stopping.

At this moment, she had absorbed nearly half of the superior spiritual vein, and the remaining spiritual energy was enough to nourish this world.

Just as she had completely stabilized her cultivation, something in her mind seemed to shatter violently.

An unprecedented sense of clarity swept over her entire body. Her divine sense seemed to have broken through the boundaries of heaven and earth, penetrated countless spatial barriers, and remotely sensed a supreme place—a place shrouded in clouds and mist, where laws intertwined, the very place where countless cultivators could not reach the origin of the Heavenly Dao even in their entire lives.

Ye Qiumian slowly got up, looked towards the direction she sensed on the horizon, and a look of understanding and relief flashed in her eyes.

So that's how it is. The Mahayana period is indeed the starting point for questioning the Way of Heaven.

Ye Qiumian stepped on the flowing spiritual energy patterns with her toes, her figure like a blue rainbow piercing the sky.

After breaking through to the Mahayana stage, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth became as easy as her own. When she flew through the air, even the gales in the sky would automatically bypass her. With her clothes fluttering, she had already risen above the clouds in the ninth heaven.

Ye Qiumian raised her eyes and looked toward the direction of the Heavenly Dao Origin, where clouds and mist surged and the light of laws flowed faintly.

With a thought, the spiritual energy of the Mahayana stage within her body suddenly surged forth, like an invisible giant hand piercing through layers of void, grabbing fiercely towards that chaotic primordial realm—