There flowed those red cells, and those fine nerves working just fine in another nervous system. She had learned what a healthy, fully functional human apparatus looked like in the Academy. And it could hardly be called a healthy one. Dark elements were plaguing the blood vessels, as did some other sort of dark spots intermittently sticking to her spinal cord. What they were she couldn't tell. But they felt ominous.

Wei Zhiruo eyelashes fluttered, flapping in the white mist—just then, an owl hooted quite close by and flew over her head, hastily diving into the sea of fog. She looked up, breaking away from her trance, a little alarmed. Seeing that it was nothing but an owl lunging down on its prey, she relaxed her stiffened nerves.

"There is no obvious modification in my biological systems - the heart, kidney and the guts are all working as usual. I am still, positively, a human. Even if it's a second Awakening, it is still the first phase. And there is no elaborate ritual or prayers to the ancestor, no chant, no soul guidance, and we are not five-year-old kids! With not even a shred of Mana in the air, how do you think we will manage to awaken, huh? There is not even a drop of Liquid Mana crystal to support us when we get exhausted – why now, Marr? Couldn't we have arranged for auxiliary herbs or such things before plunging headfirst into this? This body cannot suffer the pain of a second Awakening right now! We are going to die."

[What do you think? Did I want this to happen to us? Of course not!] Marr couldn't help retorting to this, sounding incensed. [You cannot blame me for something like this! You saw those Runes too – yes, it's because of those star-formation in that space. I was in my half-awakened state when I just started absorbing them and kept doing that without considering my limits. I have imprinted quite a large amount too. Now I cannot control myself! I am having a hard time too-all right?! So please, help me sort this out, Ama.]

"You absorbed those Runes? Don't tell me you also have this function? I always thought you just liked to gobble up those negative energy and those filthy stuff inside the Abyss - those dark elements, and miasma. Marr- Lets have a detailed conversation later – and you will tell me every other function of yours that you've kept hidden from me, alright?" Wei Zhiruo couldn't say what she was feeling at this new revelation. She had always known that Marr didn't like to focus hard on one thing or on details, but this was a complete misunderstanding on so many levels!

She knew that if he had this ability, and never discussed it, it could only mean that he thought it was useless. But his idea of useful and useless might not always align with hers, right? Since this was the first such case, any future loss could at least be averted by knowing his abilities. She will have to have this talk.

She hastily stopped herself from thinking too much, and pierced her palms with her nails. In a few minutes her human blood had almost dyed her palm red.

[Actually, I hardly knew I could do that! Something changed in my half awake state. Maybe we both changed – I will tell you about it when we are done with all this. But first help me sort out these roots of mine– I can hardly see where I am going right now. I've infiltrated my roots all over your Inner body and now it feels like a maze. It's just so overwhelming for me to do it all by myself. I feel like I am bursting out with energy and I cannot even halt this process!]

Wei Zhiruo started drawing a rune with her red palm, rubbing it against the rotten wood of the canoe. A circle, a few strokes to form a Rune of [conceal]. At least this could give them some protection and privacy - even if they remained here in broad day-light, no one could find them.

"How many Runes did you get? Did you imprint some inside yourself too? Don't tell me you did the thing you do with those books - copied an image of those Rune and stored it away? You cannot do that to yourself Marr, you would kill yourself doing something like that! Those Rune's are made of the purest form of energy, and they were virgin Runes too! It needs to be mediated with other things like chains and links even before you start comprehending their essence! Marr!"

[I don't know – maybe I already did that. I cannot be sure of how many.] 

"Don't be playful, Marr. Be factual. How many, give me a number. So I can prepare my mind. Are you going to explode?"

[Would you believe it when I tell you that I unconsciously imprinted all of them - and copied the rest which I couldn't imprint? I don't know how I am even alive right now. We should be dead but aren't and now all those Rune's are sealed in your body somewhere – that place is completely foreign to me. Only a small drop of me fell in there and sealed itself away taking along with itself that humongous Rune collection. Now I cannot call it back, or seal it up to alleviate our present situation.] Marr's  frustrated voice almost felt like he was close to crying.

"There is a place inside my body where you cannot reach with your roots? Why? Does it have something to do with the seal on my memory?"

[No, that's a completely different story. In short, that seal on your body is for your own good, it just lessens the weight of your soul. You might have obliterated all the memories of our coming here, but there was no other way. You were a mature soul and we had been sucked away inside not even a two months old human embryo! You can guess how much pressure we were under at that moment! We could have died that very instant, but you just happened to remember that Rune 'obliterate’ and pulled it efficiently enough to lessen some of the weight to not just end up bursting like a balloon! I don't know how many memories you permanently discarded or temporarily shelved but we had been dormant ever since. You can examine things later when we are done here. But the place I mentioned- it's hiding inside your Inner body. Maybe your previous bloodkin body didn't have this,  but this new human one does. I can only feel where that blood drop is right now; neither can I reach it in there, nor can I call it out. ] Marr, exasperatedly replied.

"Two months old -? An embryo in the womb - not a human child? Are you sure Marr? Don't human souls inside the embryo only form after three months have passed? That means that there was no original soul in this body? Was it me all along? What kind of sick situation is this?" Wei Zhiruo kept talking. "And I was almost beginning to feel like a thief for taking away someone else's life. Now I feel like an idiot for not guessing it all. I have such blue eyes –humans usually don’t have such rich and deep eye colors!"

[You tend to overthink, I know. I know you were alone, I am sorry for waking up so late and making you feel so bad all this time. But I couldn't control myself. Ama, can you imagine - one moment I am in deep sleep and the next I have managed to put ourselves in such a fix. When I woke up, I was suddenly so full of energy that if I didn't vent, we would have exploded by now. I could only think of making myself grow faster, and faster and then I just pushed us to our Awakening! It's all my fault – if only I didn't think I could handle all this by myself or even alerted you a bit. I feel bad just thinking about it right now!] From his self blaming soft voice, Wei Zhiruo could almost imagine his drooping cat ears and tails. She instantly softened and began to reassure him.

"As you said, you weren't even awake yet. It was my impulsive action too. Without thinking of consequences, I started chasing that thing into the Rune Formation - it could have been something worse. Maybe it will turn out for the best? At least now, we will not be human anymore. After this Awakening."

While she was talking, she slammed the freshly drawn symbol with her palms. A yellow rune shaped in the same way as the Character she had drawn sprang up instantly. It was encircled in a little more elaborate concentric circle, with motifs of strange men and women etched at its outer circle. Wei Zhiruo directed it overhead, then loosened her control. She chanted a word under her breath and then a strong invisible wall formed linked to the Rune, like a bubble shaped dome, completely isolating the canoe and Wei Zhiruo sitting over it.

Only after she was sure that the wall was affixed and stable, did she sit down for meditation. With her two still bleeding palms connected together, her eyes closed and back straight as a pine tree - all her Spiritual Consciousness was concentrated in plunging deeper and deeper into her own self.

Everything grew silent. Her surroundings, her own echoing thoughts - it became a blank canvas. And even Marr stopped talking.

Wei Zhiruo looked down into her human blood circulation system, the various blood vessels all properly running; the blood itself was red and human. No cerulean pigment, nor any trace of Mana dots and particles flowing in them, charging it with zealous energy that slithered like licks of thunder. A strangely distorted sense of loss filled her. But she didn't stop there for long, and plunged headfirst further down. 

The body that was made of flesh and blood, her heart and other organs were still very human. Her skeleton, on the other hand, was shining brightly full of white dots blinking– these were definitely those particles she absorbed tonight. Star-light.

But it was different from past life. She felt that those white dots were not only warming up her bones but were also healing her malnourished bones. They covered all of her bones in a thin layer of white light film, while small dots trickled down and penetrated into the pores and filtered inside the marrow. She felt its warmth, and became sure that her body was healing from within. Wei Zhiruo observed this process for a while, trying to guess why it was different from before. Starlight particles could also heal? Why didn’t it do that in her previous life? Was this function specifically restricted to human bones? 

Wei Zhiruo didn’t stop for too long. She let herself fall deeper and deeper – until she, her inner eyes more specifically, opened up to her Inner body. Her outer shell was now shadowed in darkness, as another wide space appeared in her inner eyes. She, as an omniscient observer saw her Inner self as a phantom, transient but a complete self. 

This inner image had the same appearance as her new self, but the clothes she was wearing - those intricately carved headwears covering her forehead and hair, huge earrings falling down to her shoulders and the necklaces carved with clan symbols hung all the way down to her waist - all of these were the same as she had worn on the day she died.  

It was the dress reserved for her coronation. Since she feared she might die during the sacrificial ceremony, she donned the most elaborate court dress, a huge flowing gown embroidered with clan totems, to remember a past identity that everyone had crushed with their hands. It was red too, bright and vibrant, full of lush green and golden threads embroidered lovingly by her dead aunt. 

But now, it appeared here as a manifestation of her Inner body, flickering and transient. Like a regalia of a distant clan that was no more. 

She let her sight flow down inside this transient body, still at the same light pace – but this time, with a specific direction in mind, as she wanted to see her core, her own soul.

The inner body, like the Outer one, had all kinds of complex looking circulatory systems. All of these systems were hanging in a void. But by this moment, her bloodline had completely conquered these parts. Those fine red filaments seemed to have penetrated everything and were running wildly everywhere. Its red thread became the most dominant force inside, as it entangled, penetrated and rippled in, like a spider's web linking itself with each object therein.

Wei Zhiruo followed these fine red threads, as she dug deeper and deeper into the center and appeared inside the core area.

What appeared in her field of vision was her soul, with its past wounds, and now a towering root of a red tree encircling it, enveloping and shielding it from all sides. The tree itself wasn't huge, its trunk was as round as her present body's waist – but even this was a great advancement!

For twenty years of her past life, she had seen it sprout from a tender seedling to a proud stalk, but for unknown reason it had never grown bigger than a young bamboo stalk. Neither in girth, nor length. Now, it stood as tall as a young parasol tree, lush and fluttering. Its leaves, blood red but shining with bright white starlight particles rustled in a wave of rhythm.

She picked one to see it up close – the veins were so well formed she couldn’t help but gasp out aloud. It was as clear as real tree leaves! And it had captured so many star-particles too! And branches – there were so many of them; heavy boughs branching out and luxuriantly lush leaves swaying all around. Her soul had been completely covered in a layer of impenetrable roots, which were thicker than her waist!

[You look…thriving! I never saw you like this before. Now I have changed my mind. This is hardly a disaster for us, but more likely a blessing.] Wei Zhiruo couldn't help sighing with satisfaction. A few red blood-like drops emerged in her field of vision. The flying red liquid bubbled up a little, and then took a form. It fell over her shoulder and turned into a kitten, white as cloud and purest of ruby red in his eyes. It looked particularly aloof and proud, with his head only bowing down to touch his master who was closest to him. 

[I am just holding myself back from rushing all out, you know? Look at all those jumbled up red lines in there? It's like a weed conquering everywhere.]  Marr cuddled up with Wei Zhiruo and replied.  

[I can help with that. Leave everything there to me and go do your thing. Call me when you are ready to push into the Second phase of Awakening, alright?] Wei Zhiruo assured, rubbing the head of the kitten, which soon flew away turning back into red drops merging with the huge tree.

Wei Zhiruo didn't remain in the Core area for long. She flew back where she had observed those red roots.

Although she had deeply checked this body once before, she didn't actually study the energy system stemming inside. She knew it was going to be different from her actual body of her previous life - they were essentially different organisms to begin with! But...it still was hard to wrap her minds around it.

Although she hadn’t cultivated very complicated body art technique, owing to constant surveillance from her mother, she had still been a very successful Rune maker in secret. Whatever she had learned, she had used up to strengthen her body, and fortify its various parts. Now looking at a completely weak self, which wasn’t even strong enough as her toddler self of past life - she did feel the tumultuous result of changes, bared right in front of herself.