[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. Marr- Lets have a detailed talk later – and you will tell me every other function of yours that you’ve been hiding 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 work hard or to focus 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. Or maybe we both changed – I will tell you about it when you come inside. But first help me sort out these systems – I can hardly see where I am going right now. I have infiltrated my roots all over– your Inner body now 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 Character. 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 absorb? Did you imprint some inside you too? Don't tell me you did the thing you do with those books? You cannot make a copy of Rune and store it in yourself Marr, you will kill yourself doing something like that. Those Rune's are made of purest form of energy, it needs to be mediated with other things even before you start comprehending their essence! And those in the space were virgin Rules, Marr!”

[I don’t know – maybe I already did.]

“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 voice almost felt like he was crying.

“There is a place inside my body where you cannot reach? 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 sealed up 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. I don’t know how many memories you permanently discarded or temporarily shelved but we had been dormant since. You can examine things later when we are done here. But that place I am talking about - 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. I cannot influence it or ask 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. Now I feel like an idiot for not guessing it all. I have such blue eyes –”

[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 believe it - when I woke up, I was suddenly so full of energy that if I didn't vent, we would have surely exploded by now. I could just make myself grow faster, and faster and then I just pushed us to our Awakening! It's all my fault –only if I didn't think I could handle all this by myself. I feel bad just thinking about it right now.]

“As you said, you weren’t even awake. It was my impulsive action of chasing that thing into the Rune Formation - it could have been something worse. Maybe it will turn out for the best, at least we will not be human anymore. After the Awakening.”

While she was talking, she slammed the freshly drawn symbol with her palms. A yellow rune sprang up instantly. 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 in meditation posture. With her two still bleeding palms connected, her eyes closed and back straight as pine trees, all her Spiritual Consciousness was concentrated in plunging deeper and deeper, into her own self.

Everything grew silent. Her surroundings - a blank space. And even Marr.

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.

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 those white dots not only warming her bones but also healing her malnourished bones; covering all bones in a thin layer of white light film, they penetrated into the pores and filtered inside the marrow. She felt its warmth, her body was healing from within. Wei Zhiruo observed this process for a while, trying to guess why it was different from before.

She then let herself fall deeper – and here opened up 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. 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. She picked one to see it up close – the veins were so well formed, as clear as real tree leaves. And it had captured so many star-particles! And branches – there were so many of them, heavy boughs branching out and luxuriantly lush leaves waving in a rhythm. Her soul had been completely covered in a layer of impenetrable roots.

[You look…thriving. I never saw you like this. Now I have changed my mind. This is hardly a disaster for us, but feels more like a blessing.] Wei Zhiruo couldn’t help saying. A few red blood-like drops emerged in her field of vision, they fell over her shoulder and turned into a kitten.

[I am just holding myself back from rushing all out. Look at all those jumbled up red lines in there? It's like a weed conquering everywhere.]

[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 though.] 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 vessels.

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 –they were essentially different organisms. But...it still was hard to wrap her minds around it.

Wei Zhiruo tried to remember a similar looking image. Yes, it was in the past...her mother's clan had this stored away as a secret method of cultivation. This was one of the things she had raided before setting out on her space journey.

"What was it called? [Pure Energy Technique]? It looks the same as in that chart —the meridians and apertures are almost the same. They said it carries Qi –the body's vital energy."

[Do you want me to send you the image from your memories?]

"Oh yes, sure. If you could spare a moment."

[Found it —there you go!]

"Thanks Marr." Wei Zhiruo saw the image floating in the void. She looked at the yellow parchment paper full of blotches of many kinds, moths had eaten its corner. When she first saw it, she found it hard to believe that those Ruze people were so bad at preserving their clan's greatest inheritance. If she wasn't careful, she would have even missed it because of its battered state!

"It's always good to store information. You never know when you might actually need one." Wei Zhiruo sighed and started concentrating on her job.

She first matched all Qi meridians and their apertures. There were thirty six principal meridians running from head to toe, thin as a human hair. These were those found in muscles and tendons, a few connected to her bone marrows and spinal cords. Twelve others joined with the principal ones, and these were connected to her other internal organs, from her heart, kidneys to her lungs and other parts. And then there were thirty nine peripheral meridians, their thickness not even as good as a spider's gossamer. They branched out everywhere!

"This looks essentially the same as those vessels drawn by that human mage, remember? Nature Mage Eruthmys? He drew the vital vessels in humans of the Middle World. Yes, it's essentially the same. A few differences in some peripheral meridians. Could it be that humans from all kinds of realms had the same kind of internal evolution? Humans of the Cuiping world...those humans in the city of Mages Oplehema in the Middle World ...almost all habitable planets in Sagittarius galaxy have some or other kind of humans. And they all claim to have come from different sources. It would have been great if I cross-checked this fact when I was in Opal Town. Now we might never know if Oplehemic humans were biologically the same as Cuiping World humans."

She distractedly summarized and then started counting the apertures and special nodes.

"There are too many of these– four hundred special nodes, out of which three hundred and sixty five are more prominent than the rest. And now, because you have made a message and infiltrated almost everywhere, there is no counting some hidden ones. Okay. Let's start straightening your red threads out."

Wei Zhiruo observed all the meridians and nodes, special apertures and points and then started pruning the red threads. She would tug out any excessively dominant thread, leaving just a single red thread merging into one meridian. But for the principal thirty six, she left a few more.

She found a few hidden points and mapped them in the chart, calling out to Marr to send his red threads into the point and merge with it. Like that they spent most of the night just sorting out the jumbled up meridian, and their points.

“But there seems to be something different about here. Marr, can you feel it too?”

After she was done, doing whatever she could, sorting and pruning the threads from completely turning the Inner body into a maze, she felt the changes in her human body. “Did you observe our Inner world? Has it changed too? My Spiritual Consciousness is working like it did back then, maybe the world we created is still here?”

[I didn't. I was too busy to think of that. Do you want to go in now?]

"But are you in control, right now? You won't go feral on me will you?"

[Nah- not right now. Your help greatly decreased the pressure. I just sorted out my roots surrounding your soul. But about the change —I think I found where it went. That drop. It's close to your center, right near under the navel. Should we go see that first?]

"No, let's see the changes in our Inner World first. Do you think it's still in the shape of the Central House of Knowledge? With all the books you had absorbed in it? It will be a loss if everything is gone —you spent so much effort to craft it out like that."

[I can do it all over again. At least we have this chance –if we died, who would have cared for it?] Marr floated around her in his red drop form.