With that short exchange out of the way, Wei Zhiruo got busy pretty fast. However, despite struggling for a long time with the Technique, apart from a general idea that seemed to hold up to her previous assumptions, there was no instant answer to all her other doubts. In fact some more questions sprung up like mushrooms after a bout of rain, and she hardly had any answer to any of it.

  The major problems she faced was complete ignorance about nature and attributes about the Spiritual Qi, while aggregating the real potential out of starlight particles was an equally baseless quest. Although there were several records of clansmen using starlight and deliberating over its nature, there was nothing very useful about it. To them, starlight was usually used to ease up the discomfort of long-time meditation, warming up the orifices and finally, regulating the mood. So, even if she was going into this experiment —there was no base, no rationale behind it. She will just use her 'voice of the heart', her instincts to make further decisions.

  Those words on the parchment flickered as if to show all their edges to her in a flooding outburst— they were cryptic and lacked any familiarity; just a bunch of cluttered terms which might mean something in some context, but right now to her, it was nothing more than a piece of puzzle that needed to be dissected at best.

  "At least, it's written in Finsmeavean." She hissed under her breath, ignoring the pangs of pain to think about the Skill.

  Finally, here was the most difficult problem she faced. How could a Skill that claimed to forge a new path be so easy to master? So many of its terms were used as if the author, even the translator of the text, thought it was common knowledge and didn't need any further explanation!

  "Cough, cough, cough!" She coughed out blood, and steeled her nerves to concentrate on just that piece of text flickering in her mind and forget everything else. The pain was pulsing horribly as before, and blood was coming out of her ears, nose and throat —she didn't have a choice but to grit through it all.

  Wei Zhiruo started reading the whole Technique's content once again for the fifth time—or more like, tearing it apart into bits and pieces, and into easily correlating chunks of information that she could use for mapping out a graphic chart. The diagram was her only clue right now —and her instincts were kicking at her to start from there. So, she did.

  Although Wei Zhiruo couldn’t afford to lose too much time on doing this either, this gulf in understanding was pivotal to her later establishment of a perfectly working Technique. The chances of healing were hundred percent, but uselessly overburdening her own body too was not her intention. Without the foundational support, she couldn't just puncture a few holes in her body and hope for the best, could she?

  Even if she was relying on her instincts — she wasn't going into this blindly. Watching the diagram, her inner eyes calculated the patterns, the momentum of Mana was equated running inside this model —and finally, when she glimpsed a significant amount of accommodation in the Technique, only then did she evoke her thoughts out of deeper calculations! Then she started reading the Technique description of fifty pages.

  She looked down at the reduced sentences from over a fifty pages long descriptive text, and the 'stack' of foreign vocabulary, mental allusions, idioms and quotes which peculiarly looked like sayings from certain, very famous works all too clearly rooted in an alien civilization— she was stumped.

  "One more time —let's read along with the introduction this time." She muttered and started meditating over the Technique's first introduction.

  But here too, she was faced with the major issue —she didn't have any idea from where these terms originated, so how could she understand any of their meanings or supposed cultural context? It couldn't be read in a cultural vacuum, at least. Finally, lost, she looked back again at the diagram, the sole object that didn't need her "cultural finesse".

  "At least...this looks workable." Sighing at her lack of insight, she started studying the painting, and meditating over the brush painted diagrams. The swirl and arrows which looked like a flow of energy showcased the flow inside a body's outlined figure portraying torso and limbs and a head; the positions of all the meridians were marked and magnified, while the six Constellations were painted on the margins in great detail with required explanations as well as the number of stars that formed them arranged in clear order.

  She looked at the position of "dantian" which looked like a Mana-Bead — the size was arguably different, she knew, but the basic attributes were exactly the same. This was the origin of her previous calculations and by now, she was pretty sure that starlight could actually be used as a good enough substitute for Qi. The issue wasn't that, the issue was whether this highly flexible starlight could be absorbed using this Technique —this Technique which had highly specific requirements.

  "There must be a clue, another way to get into this. What does the resulting system look like? In its final realization the Technique should look like a stacked hole, with one layer of Constellation, then a layer of seal. Yes, the seals are important too." She finally looked at the section that mentioned seals, but felt like something was missing. This didn't look completed enough…something very crucial was missing from the description of Seals that was going to tie up the whole Technique!

  Wei Zhiruo sucked in breath and fell into deeper thought. All the flow of energy which enters the body through Meridians, swirls in the 'supposedly' opened up four hundred apertures and points, then trickles down towards the dantian. But unopened aperture nodes are just like clogged blood vessels, although they don't stop the circulation of Innate Qi, but they do hamper with its speed. That is to say, mostly, the flow was strictly constricted in a loop, unable to escape once the Qi entered the body, and these nodes further slowed down this process. From the Meridians, to the dantian, then back to the various organs from dantian again, and then another circle of the same process. This was to be regulated using a "Breathing Art".

  When she focused over the next diagram showing the Practice of , written with more details and expositions—it looked more like a diagram of an Array Pattern that Mages often used to draw over the surface of their...staffs?

  Wei Zhiruo suddenly stopped deliberating over other things and focused on why this looked so familiarly like that. She remembered examining the staff of her professor in the Academy.

  Professor Shean Blacksmith was a Wood Mage, but mostly specialised in Rune-Forging, so they had good rapport with one another. He took extra care of her amongst his students, often telling her about the latest 'highly confidential jobs' that trickled through the Adventurers Guild into his hands because he knew how focused she was on strengthening herself—she did take over some of them—and often, he was the only reliable source of her news in the Middle World.

  Wei Zhiruo recalled that his staff was made of Silver Cypress wood, some thousand years old with traces of Mana imprints, engraved with the Array Formation that looked like a swirling vine looping, meandering in a wreath, all the way down to its pointy end downwards. When he saw how she was interested in it he had even explained a little bit about the mechanization behind it.

  "This, which you see here, is its focal point." Professor Blacksmith had pushed his wrinkled hands against the staff's perched up wooden top, engraved with the face of an ugly looking owl, and told her, in his slow thoughtful voice. "It is the point where every Mana particle gathers and then is dispersed in the next circulation. Look, these vines which you see and their tiny little leaves? The leaves are hidden Array points that will store Mana, channel a Formation by linking with other points and voila — you get yourself a pretty handy weapon that can support your magic and also work as an auxiliary tool to maximize the effect of your spells!"

  "The mana enters through the owl-head," as if to show her own interest in the topic and further encourage him, Wei Zhiruo had reiterated, saying, "it runs through the staff in a line, gets stored in these vine-leaves and then dispersed at required times? But the energy seems dependent on this pattern? Why is that?"

  "That's how Arrays work usually —they need a pattern, which they use to maintain specific spells. Take an example of a battlefield formation if you will, where you might see the usage of most rudimentary kinds of arrays." He waved his hands and a few swirling light green aura propelled in the air, forming shapes of various army units. "Here, a battlefield is the surface of the article, and when the general specifies a battle tactic, a pattern emerges as you see here, and then —the directions given by the General, or we can call him the foci of our little formation —it works in a specific order, retaining a specific structure to get required objective, gaining maximum results. So, this owl head, despite being ugly as you might be thinking in your head right now, is the center of the whole arrangement, you see? Ugly, but pretty useful! When magic runs through this formation —which by the way is more complex than any battle formation can ever be because they successfully translate the ancient laws of the universe in their patterns —it gives me the specific ability and help I require out of it."

  Wei Zhiruo remembered this conversation as well as the floating army that formed a distinctly recognizable Array Formation and then she looked thoughtfully back at the arrows and energy directions in the diagram, flickering in her mind's eye. "Strangely enough it's pretty close to it...can this be really that? So, the meaning of the 'Stellar Formation' or the whole technique is to forge an Array inside the body itself?"

  Suddenly, as if her mind was struck by an epiphany, a strange sensation started overwhelming her mind! Drowing in that tide, she looked deeply wonderstruck at the diagram: the lines of brushed ink suddenly came to life, squiggling around like insects and squirming to run away, or rather deform themselves! Then they hastily reorganized their positions and lines, their characters becoming well rounded and precise. They seemed to have gained more depth, and when she looked back at it closely enough trying to seize this special opportunity to fullest, reading that Technique's long description —she fell into a trance-like state instantly. Even the pain in her body couldn't wake her up!

  As if the world had opened up to her a new window to look through, she peered at the azure sky that appeared in front of her eyes distantly. Or rather, the yellowed pages suddenly didn't look like yellow, dust ridden pages of dirty parchment paper and words looked nothing like the Finsmeavean script of before, but a strange language which she began to suddenly understand despite never seeing it before! The sensation was wonderful...inexplicable. It pulsed with energy, with power...!

  Many details which felt hard to comprehend opened up one after another to her.

  Why? Wei Zhiruo looked at the flickering red and golden letters etched in her mind, precisely stated down the parchment as a footnote —"the permission to own", and then she took a deep, solemn breath. This was unexpected.

  She triggered a specific mechanism, or maybe met a specific condition of the original author, which then directly revealed the actual Technique to her. As easy and simple as that.

  "Amazing..."

  This style of passing down a Technique to a selective few was really ingenious. There was no need to hide the scroll under heavy watch, no need to keep worrying about the treasure being stolen day and night because one knows, even if it gets stolen, it will not be used by those who shouldn't see it!

  「

  As previously mentioned, the method's main objective is to forge a new Dao path, and as it's Author, I, believe in impartiality of Heaven. Heaven is everything; everywhere is its eye and as a cultivator, one fights against heaven to gain power to survive. To such a cultivator, a partial Heavenly Way is eternal sin.

  Anyone foolish enough to believe destiny and not fight it can forget this art.

  But to those who find themselves always stumbling in their way forward, slaves to this impervious fate —forge on.

  Albeit, this sounds like one is expecting an ant which has been imprisoned in a closed glass container to fight against those who contain it, but this is the truth. How can one stand inside the encirclement and expect to understand what his opponent looks like, how strong he is or how to escape from where he cannot see them? How can an ant escape its prison?

  So the 'Three Hundred Thousand Dao's' of the heavenly way are nothing but sham, an imprisonment for those who Cultivate the Dao — just an assimilated view of past sages and God's who once fought against the "unknown imprisoner" of their fate! The true arts have long been manipulated to just keep a few acceptable ideas and thoughts, and when one uses them —the end is just being enslaved in another destined fate! All Dao's are Heavenly Ways Paths. If the Heavenly Way itself is contorted, how can one who follows it's way remain sturdy and righteous?

  So, in such an unjust world, only those are successful people who can steer away from this influence and forge an unconventional path alone!

  The ancient knew this state —so they fought hard to practise occult practices aimed at shielding one's own destiny and self from the ever-present eyes of heaven. Unfortunately, in the Cataclysm of the Great JinYa world, we lost all such inheritance. Whatever remains is a shadow of the past —and at the end of that tunnel, one is always at the risk of being manipulated like a marionette against his will and to fight is to fight a phantom, some shadows on the walls. How can a cultivator, who seeks the truth and freedom, accept this? How can one who vows to live proud and tall like a bamboo stalk standing, facing an overarching sky, be easily convinced to bow to someone else due to helplessness?

  So I, Feng Ming, give this art to whoever is destined to steer clear of the usual path — this technique is for those who want to cut their ties to the existent Heaven.

  In the Cultivation world, a mortal can enter Qi cultivation using an introductory cultivation technique. But to enter the Qi into the body is summoning the attention of heaven. If a person is happy with fate he obliges, if one is dissatisfied, he fights. But for cultivators fighting against fate is like breathing the air —without it, he cannot survive.

  However, to fight the heavenly laws of one's place of birth, is similar to a tiny ant fighting the waves of an ocean, or the mighty torrents of a storm. Few can survive this ordeal without bowing their head to their destined end. Just like me, a fool living a dream.

  I became an Immortal long ago, but found that the Dao one seeks is never ending search. There are many Dao's but none was mine. But my journey is already at an end because the path I took is only allowed to reach this step. In front of me is a clif named Fate.

  I started writing this skill in the last years of my life —my vitality is drying, and now facing death, I accept my fate. But for those who are keen to not be jostled in the stream of world, with strings attached to each of their act, and each molecule summoning you to be assimilated in the Path of Heavenly Dao—where heaven is inherently selfish, prejudiced, a tyrant, and one whose actions belies cruel intentions, favour for some and ignorance of others, disregard for the basic principles of the universe, and injustice everywhere is it's doing—to not be assimilated and used by such a contorted Way of Heaven, or not to become a pawn in the hands of a few, use this skill to build your own path, hiding away from the eyes of the Heavenly law's.

  I give to my inheritor the rights to possess this skill, use it, teach it to others, all within the bounded intention to never stray from true heart, from righteousness and from the will to remain uninfluenced by a contorted Dao of Heaven. 」

  Surprised, Wei Zhiruo contemplated this...preface written by the author of this skill with great patience. She could almost smell the desperation of its author from its ink, as if suddenly the black and blue ink turned a turbid red, dried and spoke to her face to face, crying of injustice.

  And then she thought of her own past life. She herself knew what it felt like to be used by the World Consciousness, a powerful being that couldn't be faced with conventional strength. Look at her end now, isn't she dead in that world, drifting afloat in a different world entirely because she faced off against such towering existences? Beings that shouldn't be crossed —?

  Having this experience of being treated and discarded like a piece of chess, or jostled in the thunderstorm of others will, she was quite keen on trying this skill. Now, this was no longer a small experiment to her; if she failed this time, she will have to look for other ways to comprehend this Art! She really, really wanted something that could help her become an immutable stone in front of mighty forces she couldn't retaliate against. She didn't like the feeling of helplessness, of her life slipping away from her own hands and being unable to do anything to stop it. Once was enough to suffer that.

  Wei Zhiruo became more focused and read along to find out what the Technique was about.

  There were actually three parts to the Skill, written over the fifty pages in small letters, namely — for opening up aperture in the body, absorbing the Qi for using the new apertures to create Soul energy or vitality from Qi, and finally to forge body and become invisible in front of the forces of Heaven. Three very distinct techniques to try, using same method of initiation.

  What she needed to achieve right now was particularly this first step, the Skill, which would lay the foundation for later practice.

  But here was the catch —this technique required one to constantly run the art inside the body from the moment one gets started, or seal the opened aperture points with Array Talismans or the sequelae one could face from stopping in the middle, was fierce enough to even cause one's death!

  Mentioned underneath the skill was another additional descriptive note.

  「It is advised to those who undertake this Technique, that they constantly remain in the presence of Qi or the Technique might backfire. Then when they gain significant advancement on their learning of Dao's of the heaven, they can use their insight to engrave Array Talismans inside their body. 」

  "Dao…?" She repeated silently, as this foreign term had no equivalent in her mind. A road, a path. To what?

  Reading this part, Wei Zhiruo raised a brow and started thinking whether she should really try this skill without knowing what that was.The pitfalls were huge, almost lethal. Who in this world could be sure that they would always get the right amount of energy source they based their skill over, and do so constantly? Even if she wasn't going to use Qi, but starlight instead and one could debate that light was almost present everywhere —but what if she fell into a space crack some day with no light in close proximity? Or a space rift? Wouldn't she instantly die?

  "But these so-called ‘Array Talisman’, they really look familiar. Like Runes. Or am I seeing things?" Wei Zhiruo observed solemnly. There was a picture of six Talismans which when started over a period of time started hurting her inner eyes. After pondering over them for a few minutes, she felt her head splitting with a headache and stopped instantly.

  "Agh, God, this suffocating feeling as if I touched something that I shouldn't touch with my ability... Isn't this quite familiar? Rune's, Rune's, rune...The last time I had these headache-inducing moments was when I was learning God's speech, Origin Rune. And what about its Principles? The underlying principle that makes a Rune magical is that they carry a specific element from the ‘First language of the world’ or that they are parts of the ‘Tongue of Gods’, a language used by God's themselves. The Ancient God's even had the ability to manifest things by just speaking so the symbolic power held in God Rune, or rather the Origin Rune is unimaginable. So what are the principles behind these Talismans?" Wei Zhiruo slowly deliberated over them a little more, then she read the next section after finding no clue at all.

  「Dao inscribed Array talisman’s, some call them the highest order of Talisman and Formation Dao, as they hold a trace of Dao in their inception —but a few can achieve success to reach this pedestal. But to successfully fight against the Heavenly Way and survive is not something everyone can achieve. The following Dao inscribed Array Talismans need to be learned, practiced, perfected and written over on the Apertures to finally Seal the apertures.

  

  For heart Meridian, after comprehending the laws of life.

  

  For the bone Meridian, after comprehending the Dao of death.

  

  For the Sea of Consciousness, grasped after comprehending the Dao of Talisman.

   or in its place for better results over the Artery Meridian, which can be written after comprehending the Dao of Time, or the law of the physical world.

   on soul, after comprehending the Dao of Existence.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

   over the Sea of Qi, which can be written after understanding Dao of Everything. 」

  "Hmm? Dao...inscribed Talismans... is it? Suppose, the Dao is a road to a destination, leading one to the highest power, then wouldn't the Origin Runes make a great substitute? Origin Runes or rather God's Tongue— weren't these the secret signs that Ancient God's used to signify their conception of universal laws? Each of them holds the essence of Universal principles, raw and pure. You might say [Water] in that tongue—what you might get once it's induced is not water anyway, but the actual essence of the water, and that is how powerful they are. Weren't these Runes once celebrated to hold the essence of the Highest order, the secret of the whole world? If Dao is the epitome of this systems, written here, and its reach and extent of known knowledge, then why cannot the Runes be a good enough substitute? They are definitely advanced and particularly independent! And finally, even if they aren't useful, what is the issue in trying to see if it works? So, let's see...which ones should I pick?"

  There weren't many to begin with, but to use the most relevant one should be the safest bet here. She looked at the line which told her that this whole Technique was just a proposition, and had never been practiced before. There was no benchmark, no standard or result she could use as a guidepost to see if any of the things was working. But she didn't feel too worried about it. She wasn't even using Qi to begin with —!

  "What about the Origin Runes from?" Wei Zhiruo thought and started looking through her memories of it. There were actually some Five Hundred Origin Runes in the whole book which looked like a thick slab of hardened mud —running in almost three thousand pages. She remembered each word of it, but that was the result of life-threatening hardship in the past.

  "There is [Life], there is [Death]... [Word] is good enough to explain the nuances of speech. [Time] and [Soul] have a quite specific meaning to them. But what to use for the five elements —? That's confusing…" Wei Zhiruo picked up a few decisively then stumbled upon the last one. What could substitute for Elements? She thought about the nature of elements in the world, which denoted a specific change and particularly the beginning of the change, so she chose the Rune [Origin].

  Wei Zhiruo woke up from her meditative state. "Then let's see the results of this mess. Anyways, this is just an experiment. If it's successful, it's good. If it's not...no worries. We can try it when we know where this system comes from again."

  She looked down at the ground, and picked up a stray branch. She used its tip and etched out the pattern, she drew a figure of a man with his arms and legs outstretched and marked the position of the dantian and the Sea of Consciousness.

  Wei Zhiruo imagined the Formation link to be an unbroken line, originating in the Sea of Consciousness. This line will then run through the body in an orderly manner– one point over the Sea of Consciousness, second on the soul, then descending downwards, the third point will be over the carotid artery Meridian, fourth in heart meridian, fifth at the center of the spine-meridian, and finally, ending in a circle with the last point engraved over Meridian entering the dantian! A closed, unbroken channel that must run continuously.

  From what she grasped from Talisman, she chose the substitutes. The ‘life’ was budding in the heart. The skeleton was a symbol of ‘death’. ‘Time’ eroded the flesh and blood, and ‘soul’ remained eternally what it was before, a soul. If the five elements were the same as her own world – the fire, water, earth, metal and wood – then the term ‘Origin’ was the best substitute for it, because all these elements were essentially the basis and origin of everything else.

  Although, she still felt like she was going nowhere with this castle created over the sky – this was a ‘wild’ idea; but in her small twenty years of lifetime one thing she had learned about is that —there was too much mystery at hand and not everything could be done with certainty. If she keeps thinking about it, she will lose the chance to take a major life-changing decision. Not everything needed an explanation to begin, and not every experiment could be successful. If she thought it was good enough to try seeing it run inside her body, and she had a very safe opportunity to try it as well without losing much, she thought why not do it and see the results? Maybe she will be surprised at the turn of events?

  The wind felt milder and the surroundings much clearer as if she was seeing everything much calmly. Her brain was refreshed, and energized and she felt particularly keen and insightful.

  “Marr, wake up.” Wei Zhiruo called out in her mind.

  “Aa...um…What happened?” Marr appeared in the outside world, rubbing his eyes with his pink paws. He then yawned, showing all his sharp front canines sparkling in the dark, and started rubbing off his white whiskers. “You're done so early? We still have fifteen more minutes till the second phase ends…let me look.”

  Wei Zhiruo didn’t stop him.

  “Hum…this looks fine. I can see where it will all tie together. The thought process is a bit muddled, but from the diagram itself —this whole thing looks like a...very strong Array pattern. Especially the double reinforcement of organs and the Runes which carry them. If I am right —[Life] and [Death] Runes can be used to preserve life, and call death right?”

  "Yes, they do that actually. But the medium is very specific. It needs Gold blood from the God-race, or dragon blood, mixed with the chanting of a level Twelve Rune-forger — I am still at level one — to actually bring out that effect. It's very specific about these requirements."

  "So how do you want to write it down without a medium?" Marr looked up confused.

  "If we are just using these Origin Runes as just copies of themselves without initiating their internal attributes or manifesting out anything from them, there is no need of orthodox mediums, and there is actually a way of doing exactly that. I don't know about Talisman's, but Runes have always worked as Seals on Weapons and Accessories. You might have seen some without realizing it —but here, the mechanism is to use the Runes and arrange it in an Array. I think it will work. Ancient Weapon Craftsmen in the past often used this method to seal their Weapons using Rune, to make them more stable and in line with the Universal principles and laws. In that ceremony, they sacrificed certain years of their lives to the Rune...I am aware of this method and it's not that difficult to achieve. That is hardly any issue if you agree." Wei Zhiruo explained a not so popularly known fact about these Origin Runes which she did read a few years ago, but never thought of ever using that for herself. She looked at his grave looking expression and sighed internally.

  Despite this, she continued to persuade him. "Since we have pretty long lives, a couple of years shouldn't matter. What do you think?"

  Marr frowned looking back at her as if to say he knew that she knew his objections to this. But he still didn't dissuade her upfront, instead just looked away from her blue eyes. He didn't object, but he didn't agree as well.

  "Then let's begin?" Wei Zhiruo once again asked tentatively, looking unsure about his decision.

  She waited for a whole minute before he looked back at her and nodded.

  "Okay. Go on." Marr said and turned away from her.

  "Then, I am starting." Wei Zhiruo warned Marr.

  Wei Zhiruo used the life-essence as a knife, directing it to form a shape and then started to hit hard, puncturing a hole in the thin hair like Meridian, aiming at four specific points. Simultaneously, she used the spare energy to finish it up by establishing a Star-point over Soul and Sea of Consciousness which actually needed to be calculated, then engraved in a specific pattern rather than actually cut open like the rest of the apertures.

  The result was instantaneous. Six points emerged in the body, aching, flickering and looking very delicate. She didn't stop to see the results, but followed the same pattern and started designating the Constellation patterns instead.

  "Concentrate! I will absorb the starlight and direct it over." Marr said in her mind.

  "Good, go on. I will start the Rune casting." Wei Zhiruo looked at the process and became more in sync with the inside flow of her Internal Qi, running in the Meridian like a stream of water; it was so natural that it didn't feel like she was directing them for the first time at all!

  But there wasn't much disturbance after opening a specific aperture point. Wei Zhiruo had carefully observed clearly before doing anything, so that she could achieve her objective while suffering least loss of Internal Qi from the Meridians. She was precisely going for a position that was too clogged to easily allow internal movement of Qi. And it was working.

  "Use the breathing art. See if the starlight can be directed in that specific Constellation as you thought. Hurry up, do it fast! The Internal Qi is trickling away." Marr observed and urged her to hurry.

  "Well—"

  Wei Zhiruo recalled the breathing pattern, then straightened out her mind and started using her Spiritual Consciousness to push the starlight to revolve in the specific order. The result was visible in a second. Instantly, the Star-points seemed to have become more grounded, rooting downwards and softening their momentum —white dots sparkled showing off their sheen, dancing and bumping against one another. Finally, a distinct pattern started emerging naturally with their own rhythms: a distinct shaped Constellation. After one success, the process followed naturally till all the six Constellations were in place. Although this drained more than half of her Spiritual Senses, Wei Zhiruo didn't feel she had lost too much.

  She looked on as her body's Internal Qi mixed with the starlight, accommodating them and even allowing them to run alongside their own trickling force!

  "This is really working." Wei Zhiruo threw away any hesitation she had in the start and became more optimistic.

  There was no doubt that the Technique was made by a genius —despite not testing it's efficiency by using it on himself, that person had successfully created an Art that worked. And it accomodated not just Qi, but now Wei Zhiruo was sure that this method could have even worked with Mana in her world! What kind of genius was that man? A real monster, right!? She wondered breathing hard, feeling the sweat dripping from her hair, sliding down her face and neck.

  Wei Zhiruo still followed the ‘breathing technique’, and guided the starlight to float in a specific pattern till the clear Array Formation emerged, rotated in a slow manner, and then penetrated her organs. The rhythm inside the body followed in tandem, creating highs and lows of a specific frequency, creating an order in which the starlight entered the point. She pushed and directed them without letting a single of these sparkling dots from getting out of control. It was hard at first, as when cornered many of these would aggressively run helter-skelter, yet she did manage to achieve a semblance of pattern using them. Once the constellations were in place; she took a deep breath and then —

  "I am going to use the Runes."

  "I will observe for you —be quick, but steady. It's already three hours now." Marr sounded worried.

  Wei Zhiruo hummed in agreement and then took a deep breath of morning fresh air. Her aching lungs ached further, the burning sensation and itching in the nose and throat aggravated. Even then she took another breath to submerged her mind in the right state.

  Silence.

  Heart beats thumped.

  Echoes of murmuring thoughts of surrounding creatures. Wei Zhiruo found the pulsing rage in the air; she picked up motions of the laws. Many causal lines, fate lines, unfounded, inexplicable waves and motions and rhythm emerged. Then she took a deep dive into this sea of laws, used her life-essence and started writing.

  Six Origin Runes took her seven decades of life. In her human capacity, that was the limit, and if the Awakening failed somehow, she would die instantly. That's how risky her current bet was. But now, it is done. No going back from here.

  "Use every bit of starlight to fill these six coordinates once I am done Sealing. Instantly, without a second's wait. There shouldn't be a gap or there might be a problem." Wei Zhiruo calculated the breath, and watched a view of Marr busy directing starlight with furious intensity.

  "I know." Marr replied.

  Once she felt that the starlight wasn’t going anywhere else, and the structure was stable enough to consider the final step, she started using the Six Runes —used her Spiritual Consciousness to anchor the prepared Runes into six places, and signed the Rune-enforcing chant. Done. She felt her body protesting against this abuse, hurting triple the intensity it had in the first hour! Her breath stuck in between, her teeth clench and she convulsed in throbbing pain. It felt like someone was crushing every bit of her in constant pounding —

  "Cough, cough, cough!" Wei Zhiruo looked as the six points fixed downwards, their projections became firmer and finally, when the starlight entered them, these six Star-points started forming a single Formation. Next moment, with the same momentum intact, the constellation layered previously seemed to have been nudged into action, so irritated, they started revolving with white light heating up the points, then they found that there was no escaping from the Formation. They revolved, revolved and circled, condensing the starlight in a wisp of white air. The air was instantly sucked into the dantian.

  As if a volcano erupted in her dantian, she heard a clicking sound and felt a throbbing sensation of both pain and satisfaction filling her mind and body! The wind, the air, the smells lingering around herself, and the swaying leaves— as if a layer of her already clear eyes was washed clean, the world looked so brilliantly hued that she couldn't think what to say next. She had never felt such a fulfilling, addicting freedom —revelling in this transcendental experience seemed so much, so much better than any previous sensation! She felt speechless.

  Wei Zhiruo spitted all the blood filling her mouth. "Yeah...Marr do you see this? Did you feel it too?"

  "I... did." Marr looked as astounded as she felt herself. They felt that something very crucial had shifted inside them. And this change was as pivotal as the Awakening itself.

  Starlight flew around, flustered; they seemed to find no channel to escape through from the body anymore, so they instead started orbiting in that fixed Array Formation, made up of six points, running up and down. But the process of that white wisp formation was excruciatingly long!

  "It's good enough that it's working. You better shift your focus to the last phase. Almost a quarter of an hour is left, so see if chanting works. If you have a chance, why not try achieving it? Do you remember the Hymn?" Marr was swaying in her soul, resting after the long ordeal.

  "He chanted for two whole hours of the process. Do you think fifteen minutes should be enough?" Wei Zhiruo asked.

  “As I said, no harm in trying it, is there?” Marr replied promptly. "If you do it well, it should be fine. Which language is the chanting in? I don't seem to recall it at all."

  "It was... Finsmeavean." Wei Zhiruo scrunched up her brows. "Why don't I sing it in the bloodline language and see if it works better?"

  Marr agreed with this idea, so she hurriedly started removing all her distractions. She focused and translated, hummed and heard the sound trembling out of her burned throat, sounding raw and ugly —but she kept gritting through, imagining the sensations, the words rolled from her lips and filled her surroundings. She felt she was in a bubble of them —and when she translated the lines to Bloodline tongue, as if a strange ceremonious air started filling the emptiness around her, her mind picked it up better and better, the rhythm filtered her pores like starlights and then she felt the trembling in her navel, her heart convulsing in deep pain and... loss. The song she sang was like a parting song, an elegy.

  In fact, this chant was something a nearby relative should perform for them, or a priest of the clan, while they focused on each word of the chant trying to engrain its essence on their soul. But since there was no one else here, she had to support her tired body and soul, and also recall all the couplets from her first Awakening herself. But now, it was coming so naturally to her.

  Wei Zhiruo didn't sing too loudly. The last second passed quickly and soon the soul and the body started healing. Many deep lines on the soul faded away completely. But instead of rejoicing in it, Wei Zhiruo was seized in a strange emotional storm.

  A line kept repeating again and again in her mind.

  “It is a tale as old as time itself. When curious eyes should rest awhile, they find their grooves beneath. In cold waters, in heated springs, in bubbling brooks, in coming springs, and worlds of endless glory, mesmerized. The eye itself is a beholder, the mind itself the craftsman. Don’t only see – but craft. Craft till you create and keep forging —all powers condense like droplets of dew, all laws converge in the river with throes, all mysteries find a ground in things you do. Walk till you reach this realm of knowledge, read till you see the truth, or craft till you can see it for what it is —there is no sight for you to grieve. Sadness, mirth and joy, anger and loss; this way is just a sturdy way."

  It was a praise to the eternal way. It said, how the vehicle —the body, walks over a decent path. And there is a soul, being carried inside the vehicle of the body on this right path. And the vehicle is righteous, the soul is good, and the path —the only path. All ways lead to the same destination, but not all destinations were her own, nor all destinations were righteous, not all destinations the one her righteous soul should take. There was only one way, and this, here, was her one and only path. To read, to craft, to gather knowledge of everything...to keep seeing, till she saw the things as they truly were.

  Her realization wasn't deep, or long enough…but she felt she had understood something about her purpose in living for the first time. She had pursued strength and knowledge for revenge —without the impetus of revenge, she wanted to see what seeking both would feel like.

  "Wei Zhiruo...it's here. You did it, you really did. Look!" An excited voice interrupted her morose staring into the void, so bewildered she once again meditated inside her Sea of Consciousness.

  There, a Seal emerged on her soul. The Seal of Recognition of bloodline.

  She was now completely shocked.

  「For the one who earned the blessing, and knows the 'Way.'」

  And then…she knew.

  Why didn’t the inheritance feel complete in the previous Awakening?

  Why was she…such a divided creature? Because, she had never understood what living as a bloodkin was. This wasn't about identity, it was purpose.

  With the seal came the knowledge attached to its purpose. The seal itself carried all the countless experiences of their kind, sealed inside it, and only the real and worthy inheritors could get a chance to get a part into the Sacred lands —the Common Land. But to get the key to the seal, one had to undergo a trial. And this trial could be anything, come at any time.

  Although they still were just halfway through the test, and still needed to find the way to open this seal and truly become a recognised member of the clan— even this small step was a huge change for them.

  "We did it…" Marr looked stunned. He still couldn't believe this thing had appeared besides itself.

  "Yes, we did." Wei Zhiruo replied feeling equally mortified. She sat up a little comfortably, hunched beside the willow tree.

  "What are you thinking?" Marr asked, climbing on her lap.

  She looked down at him and tried to frame her answer. Actually, she herself felt it was quite weird to come to such a simple realization, after struggling with this question for twenty years of her life. But the moment that song erupted in her mind, she felt really...perturbed. Like a dream broke, she was jerked to wake up.

  "I never realized," Wei Zhiruo began softly, scrunching up her brows ponderously, "that even the order of thinking must be different to actually be different. I usually murmured and pondered that I was different from other races, but never realized how much my thoughts remained in the same mould and order as my childhood self. I was like a human living in a bloodkin shell. Because the clansmen were mostly human and half-blood, that way of living was very natural to me. It was only after coming back from the Middle world and being subjected to all those people's bullying that I started wondering whether what they said was the truth —that since I wasn't a human, I shouldn't be treated like one? Or that I shouldn't treat myself like a human as well? What was I in the end, as both my birth parents were just humans, all clansmen were living a life like everyone else. Emotions, heritage, loyalty...many things were jumbled up, and it didn't help that there was no other similar kind to show me the way." Wei Zhiruo spoke, deliberating, framing each word.

  Marr didn't reply but grew silent instead. He climbed over her head. "I see...I - I myself cannot actually sympathize with you, as since day one I knew what I was. But I can understand why you feel this way — you were standing atop the swinging bridge between two creatures on both ends, distinctly different in their origins and nature. You cannot go back to your human ways…but you didn't know if there was another way to walk forward. But there is a way, which is solely yours. I am glad you found it."

  "I am glad too. You do understand me." Wei Zhiruo replied.

  She stayed still meditating for a while. The willow tree seemed to have sensed her worry filled happiness, as she felt a thoughtful nudge of reciprocal joy coming from it. Marr was now slowly enjoying the subtle changes still napping over her head.

  She and the Willow tree shared their 'thoughts'. The talk between souls was hardly rational – it was all flowing in sensation; what you felt you conveyed, and all emotions were heightened and formless. Happiness felt like sadness, sadness like nostalgia and like this moment, she received the warmth and compassion from the age-old tree which felt really similar to being pitied.

  But Wei Zhiruo never questioned such pure emotions – any ‘thought’ conveyed to her was good for her. Like right at this moment, she felt the tree reminiscing its old days and ‘saw’ and experienced its emotions as it grew from a sapling, grew its first new leaf, grew higher and higher, ate delicious food and nurtured its roots. The seasons appeared in constant interchanging intervals; yet not a moment was the same. The autumn, winter, spring and summer rolled into each other, yet their feelings left behind in their separation and arrival was always a new found sensation, as if living in mind.

  The willow shared her life, and how its leaves felt in all of them. Interestingly, the tree liked the winter best, because then she will have no companion other than her closest companions like the chattering Purple Berry trees, and sweet spoken Ginkgo’s growing nearby and they chatted and slept, and slept then talked some more, till buds started growing on her branches, stretching for new life.

  It was poignantly different. Ethereal.

  Wei Zhiruo was so immersed in the trees chattering that she didn’t even feel the time slip away. If it wasn’t for the sudden needle-like pain on her back, she would still be immersed ‘talking’ with the tree – but the pain woke her up.

  “Marr, can you see what this is?” She asked him.

  "What happened?" He raised his head.

  "It feels like something is growing over my back? I cannot explain the sensation...it feels like needles piercing at points which are close together. And they are trying to write something…?"

  Marr flew behind her back, and Wei Zhiruo opened her lapels to pull down her clothes.

  “Is this the bloodline seal?” Marr asked after examining it closely. “Yes – it is. It has just started unravelling. It shouldn’t make sense in the beginning, but later they will form a seal or clan totem which has the most resonance with you. It’s just an outward manifestation to recognize other clansmen. They usually don't grow in such a hidden position though? But never mind...We would hardly need this thing here.”

  Wei Zhiruo waited for some while till the image could begin to make sense, observing with her overdrawn Spiritual Senses. By the end of it, her whole back was covered in a life-like tattoo of a Broad-striped black-veined butterfly. "It is a butterfly? Why?"

  "It is beautiful." Marr replied. The butterfly spread its wings spanning all over her shoulder blades. It looked quite life-like. The black was unambiguously visible against the marble white of her skin, and she could almost feel the numbness settling over, as each new stroke appeared and completed the tattoo to perfection.

  “Is it really a tattoo?” Wei Zhiruo didn’t wait for an answer and hurriedly put back her hanging clothes. "You said—there aren't any bloodclan members around here. Why?"

  “I don’t know…just a feeling.”

  To this she didn’t know what to reply. She just looked past the mottled canopy, shielding all the light. The darkness covered her features and made her ease her troubles in solitude. They just enjoyed the peace and quiet of the moment, each other's silent company.

  A few minutes later, Wei Zhiruo used her Inner eyes to feel all the changes from start to end.

  The skeleton, including the spine on which she had carved the seal had differentiated, becoming stronger, with a pearlescent sheen over it and all those dark elements plaguing it before were nowhere to be seen. The hearts, lungs and spleen were not the same as before too. There was no trace of their earlier vulnerability, nor its earlier diseases. Instead of being as thin as hair, or spider gossamer, now all her meridians looked wider and stronger, and the principle twelve of them had even grown in size. A little, but definitely widened.

  A few more strands of condensed starlight were filling her dantian. The blood though…it was still red, but felt a different red than before, the redness carried a much more sublimated star particle. And she saw that Marr had changed too, and when she meditated to meet his body — he had really grown up. The young parasol tree grew a few more hundred meters in height, his leaves were shining more brightly despite being emptied of all starlight in them, while on the top, perched like a glistening snow under warm yellow sunlight, there it was — his first bloom, also a gift from the Awakening.

  It was just a bud at this moment, a soft, golden bud shyly growing at the peak of one of the branches. “You’ve grown stronger.”

  “I have – just like you. I can feel you changing Amaranthus. I can’t put my fingers on it, but something very essential did change in you.” He nuzzled his nose with hers, trying to let go of the strange sense of loss he felt. "This time really feels like we are bidding farewell to everything in our past..."

  He didn't say that this feeling was sharply reflected on her expression right now —if the previous her had been the sea brimming with tumultuous rage, then now, she was the vastness, the emptiness and the patience of it. She had settled down. Maybe she let go of a number of sad things inside her?

  Wei Zhiruo reached out and cuddled the sad cat in her arms and said, “Not true actually. To even reach this step, I climbed a hundred steps in my previous life.” So, it wasn’t a day’s change.

  This was the culmination of all her trials in her last life.