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 after the fall of her clan. She was running away to save her life, but she hadn’t forgotten to give them a blow.

"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 or what we call ‘source energy’."

[Do you want me to send you the image from that scroll?]

"Oh yes, sure. If you could spare a moment. Even if you don't, I can manage it on my own."

[No, I’ll be faster. Great! Found it —here 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, some of which looked like dirt. Moths had eaten its corner and some words, but overall it was still legible. 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. For a moment she even thought whether she had been hoodwinked and stolen some other document! 

"Alas! Who would have thought, we would need it for ourselves one day?It's always good to store more 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 some thirty six principal meridians running from head to toe, thin as a human hair. These were those found attached to muscles and tendons, a few connected to her bone marrow and spinal cords, as well as to her head. 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 and studied by that human mage, remember? Nature Mage Eruthmys -? When he set out on his journey to write down ‘self healing’ medicinal practices for humans, I recall, he heavily emphasized the role of these spiritual vessels in his treatises. He drew the vital vessels in humans of the Middle World, and called them Rujen. Objectively, that Rujen spiritual vessel system should be different from the Qi system from the Cuiping world but no, apart from slight shifts and changes, it's a spitting image of that! However, since both the places are still inside the same galaxy, we can imagine why they would resemble each other. There might have been a sort of internal migration in ancient times, and all of them might have originated from a single source. I can wrap my head around this. But why does this body resemble those energy systems too? Why does it have almost the same spiritual vessel channel like the Qi circulatory system? Apart from a few differences in some peripheral meridians here and there…everything else -? Almost the same. It makes sense that humans of the Cuiping world, or those humans in the city of Mages Oplehema in the Middle World have essentially the same internal system. Almost all inhabitable planets in the Sagittarius galaxy have some or other kind of humans. They may claim to have come from different sources, but there is no valid proof of that. Some trace their origin to fallen gods, some to even chaos - but who knows where they actually came from? They might have common ancestors for all of them, just like we have in our recorded history. That could explain why they have the same internal spiritual routes, right? But, what I don't understand right now is why does this resemblance even reach out to this completely new world? I am sure we are not inside Sagittarius galaxy anymore; the sky is completely different from how it would be if we were to be on one of its planets.Then why are humans of this world essentially the same as the one in the Cuiping world? Does that mean, all humans, regardless of world, have a common origin? Or maybe, it is the same because we are still in the same universe? It would have been great if I cross-checked this fact when I was in Opal Town or even in Oplehema. Now we might never know if Oplehemic humans were the same as Cuiping World humans, as well as humans of this world! What a loss," she said.

“I don’t think so. I cannot feel the same kind of resonance as I did in our universe. You are not as attuned to outside forces as I am so you wouldn’t feel it, but, when we just came here, I remember feeling suffocated and strangled as if we were fishes thrown out of water! This feeling didn’t recede till we were unconsciously sucked in inside that embryo. I think it was fortunate that it happened. The feeling I got from the surrounding was akin to us having intruded into someone else's home! No bloodkin will feel this way in his own world! We were born amongst the stars, our natural habitation is the endless space and universe! Just travelling to a different galaxy would never make us feel so…unwelcome. I bet this place is different. I don't know why I feel this way, but maybe we are in a different universe altogether!” Marr replied. 

“Is that true? So we can never go back to the Middle world again?” 

“I don’t think we can…” 

“That's sad. I was hoping we could try travelling all over the Middle world this time and even those faraway regions of elves and dragon-kinds. We could have revisited Abyss and spent some time there too…”

Both of them simultaneously fell silent while doing their own things.

“At least we are alive.” Marr observed, clearly trying to divert her mind.

“Yes. We can travel in this world too, right? Let's do that after we are done Awakening.” She distractedly said and then started counting the apertures and special nodes, shrugging away the sense of loss brought out by this new revelation.

"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 mess and infiltrated almost everywhere with your roots, there is no counting some hidden ones. Okay. Let's start straightening your red roots 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 roots, 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 roots into the specified point and merge with it. Like this, 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 examine our Sea of Consciousness? 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 on me. I just sorted out my roots surrounding your soul. But about the drop containing the runes—I think I found where it went. 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 copied in there? You spent countless nights stealing into those buildings just to store away that rich collection of scrolls and books. It will be a great 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.

In a second, they were both floating over in the Sea of consciousness. Wei Zhiruo with her inner eyes and Marr with his real body. What they saw in there completely shocked them.

"Let me rephrase it - it hasn't just changed but drastically altered."

[What in the hell happened here -?] Marr exclaimed. 

An enormous blue ocean thundered with rageful waves, while a sky full of spiraling Runes almost blinded them. There was also the familiar looking corner, that they both knew as the part of their Inner world.

A tall three story building with an emerald roof. Its walls were made of the toughest kind of black obsidian - a great conductor of all kinds of magic. It still retained all those ancient, undeciphered Rune's etched over all its visible surface. But the Rune's floating all over the sky were completely alien!

“These must be some of those you just absorbed. Thank goodness it just changed and enlarged the sea of consciousness. We could have been in a coma!”

From being a building on land, the towering obsidian palace had changed to an architecture floating over in the air. Clouds of different colors and mist surrounded it, some flowing around like water, some falling down into the behemoth of an ocean like a waterfall.

[We didn't construct any of these in our minds, right? They were added because of those Runes.] Marr tried to grasp it. He changed to his kitten form as he walked over the misty ocean. [It feels real, but it isn't. It's still an illusion - thank goodness. It would be a mess if a new world opened up in our own minds!]

"Hmm. It is definitely an illusion. Maybe that space does impact people in different ways - you remember? It said, "you will be born anew"? I guess it wasn't just a phrase to dramatize its effect, but rather... it meant literally. What does rebirth entail - changes and enormous changes, life shattering changes. This - isn't it pretty much that?"

[Yes you can say that too. Imagine if that drop of myself didn't get sealed inside your navel, would we have blown up and become another kind of space full of Rune's? Just a few of these runes can affect your consciousness to this extent, imagine all of them entering your inner world-!]

"What kind of horror story are you telling? I get chills just thinking about that! Let's not go into the details shall we? We have been so lucky since our birth - it's good enough that your blood sealed it away as it did. We can think about how to deal with it after we have strengthened ourselves better. Let's see what that place near the navel is or if I can take you inside." Wei Zhiruo instantly stopped him from dwelling over this topic and turned away to get outside of her Inner World. "At least, unlike humans, we still have this part of us intact. Do you think normal humans have this space in their mind?"

[According to the same Ruze manuscript, a human can only open up something like this if they grow stronger spiritually. After all, it was their script which called it 'Sea of Consciousness'. They have it, but only those who can cultivate their spiritual selves.]

"Is that so? I remember humans from the middle world also have similar distinction in their ranks? There is the concept of the "Consciousness field", right? And only mages, mage apprentices and priests can hone these fields. We need to relearn so many things! Since the books are here, let's check them out to see if there is any answer to why there are so many similarities in the essence of spirituality and mind…of all living creatures." Wei Zhiruo sighed out loudly.

They both floated down to the Core, then near the navel. Wei Zhiruo's Inner eyes saw the opening. She surrounded Marr with her own consciousness, and then they both successfully entered the space there.

[What is this—?] An astounded Marr exclaimed loudly.

Before their eyes was a small space opened up near the navel. But the whole thing looked astoundingly bizarre. 

"They look like roots." Wei Zhiruo replied. And they felt so familiar, as if she had always had them. For a moment they both remained silent and observed the spectacular thing growing inside.

The space had five colorful roots, each entangled with the other. They looked about the same size, yet, each had its own individual aura. An ice blue one emanated chill, while another black colored one was full of malaise. A bright, fully shining one emanated softness, as if it was healing its surroundings. The dark and the light roots were almost merged, coiling together. And in such a naturally balanced way that neither allowed another to become dominant! The other two were quite difficult to find out too, entangled in a mess. But one of them was pure green full of vitality, and another a red color, almost burning its surroundings with heat!

All of them were of similar length, coiling together.

[The blood drop is not here. It should be somewhere here, but that space hasn't opened up yet. Only these roots…are here.]

"Why are there so many colored roots in a human body? What even are these? Don't you feel they kind of symbolize a specific element? Like that red is clearly burning fire, and the green is lush greenery, wood, and then the white must be light and, clearly the black one is darkness, right?"

[Yes, and the blue one, ice! I don't know what these are but we don't have enough time to search for answers. Ama, I feel we might go into the Second and Final phase of Awakening back to back -the force inside me is building up too quickly. You should get ready.]

Wei Zhiruo turned away from the roots and said, "Are you sure? Then go. Don't worry about me and extend your roots as far as you can. You can alter everything —but don't touch this space on your own. Maybe there is a hidden mystery to this place. Try to not change anything about here, if you can. My instincts are saying that these are good things." 

[Heard you. I will take care of that...love you Amaranthus. Be careful.]

"I'll be, Yuemarr. Don't overexert yourself. Always call me when you think you cannot carry on. We can think of something. Don't sacrifice yourself for me okay– I don't like seeing you do that."

[Umm…]

Wei Zhiruo took a last glance at the magnificent roots and then prepared to get out of her meditation. For one, she needed to reach the shore quickly. But before heading to her destination, she drew a [preserve] Rune over the opening of the space,  sighed and then woke up.