Chapter 9 The Awakening 

Wei Zhiruo fluttered her eyelashes a few times, reorienting her dilated pupils to get them used to the outside darkness, and her breath hitched up a little. When she successfully realigned her breath, she broke out into a shiver because of the outside temperature.

She herself felt that she had been meditating for quite long. She estimated it was around the early hours of morning, or more precisely, around four o’clock.

Naturally, when she glanced at the shore, it was already empty and no weeping maiden stood there crying; all there was left was some rustling, slithering grass patch, and a lonely silhouette of those abandoned courtyards —her next destination.

Wei Zhiruo rested her eyes a bit before she began to row the boat. The distance between her hiding spot and the shore wasn't that big, but those interspersed reed-beds, clusters of Lotus root gathering like weed and forming circular islands —if she didn't want herself to be stuck while rowing in either of these, she will have to row around it, thus, row quite a distance.

"Marr? Which step are you on?" Wei Zhiruo asked. She couldn't use her Inner eyes to peer in her Spiritual inner body in her current state, so the ongoing process was completely unclear to her. She guessed it was somewhere around the third step of the first Awakening phase —the merging.

Another thought emerged in her mind, but this time it didn't sound faint or struggling as before. [Final step. Because the spiritual build of this human body is different from humans of our past clan —I might take some more time to merge the two spheres.]

" Will the differences be more pronounced than before owing to that? How much?" Wei Zhiruo asked doubtfully.

[Um..eh. Let me put it this way. If previously your body had a focal point over the center of your heart, a singular position that maneuvered every detail of your past practice as well as the position of Mana Bead; here it's completely different. The centers appear to have been dispersed, divided into three areas. Your spiritual body now has three centers —one holds your Spiritual Sea, intact with the soul and my body, the next ones more elusive, difficult to pinpoint precisely, but it should be somewhere around your heart. Finally, the last one's the spiritual space at your navel, the position that holds those root-like things growing in there. And remember, the shift in the core area, the positioning of the soul itself from your heart to your mind seems to indicate a very pivotal shift to me, like a world law which is alien to us.]

"So," Wei Zhiruo nodded and surmised her understanding, "as a result of this shifting, we have three Spiritual platforms. When the spiritual spatial nodes merge with the physical, will these spaces also directly intersect? Because I know that in the past, although we never had the chance to heal our Mana-Bead after that incident, Awakening, which occurred before that, definitely did merge the Mana-Bead with my heart entirely! It helped me manifest a very solid, almost real spiritual space. It was so solid that I didn't have to use meditation to sense my spiritual realm —and like the rest of my limbs I could simply use it at my own discretion. Is this going to be the case here as well? If it is, then the rest of the meridian's and apertures will also manifest in the real body and will no longer be just...phantoms of a transcendental nature? But I see that in all this...your red-roots will become a little more influential than they had been in my previous body."

[From the looks of it, yes.]

"Ahh...it doesn't sound that bad." Wei Zhiruo echoed, feeling quite startled by suddenly having so many platforms she will have to manage in the future. "But our problem will also become difficult to manage. We don't have any skills that follow this pattern, no resources to use, and also no idea whether all humans in this world have similar physique or mine is an exception."

[...We do have time to search for that. Awakening will surely lengthen your life-span...]

"You're right." Wei Zhiruo shook off her thoughts and, like the previous few times, swept her Spiritual Consciousness around the mansion.

There was still no stirring, no sounds but while she surveyed around, she was surprised to find a very familiar figure. It seemed, the beauty was still on her way back to her courtyard?

She instantly remembered that girl's laughter filled cries, and remembered how she had caught a glimpse of a very familiar something in them. That brought a flood of past memories.

Wei Zhiruo grew increasingly silent as her thoughts tapered away from thoughts of increasing her own strength to some past incidents. She was thinking…of madness.

Madness as a concept was nothing foreign to her; she had seen many people break down and fall apart. Beguiled souls, desperately searching for a relief for their endless pain…or born lunatics who could never be a part of the sane world...always forgotten on the fringes of time. However, madness filled desperation and crazy desire? That was something one didn't usually see around. People who had such deep, obsessed spirits were really rare. And psychotic.

The last time...she had seen this kind of obsession in a woman who desperately needed to die.

When the clan was massacred, she was just thirteen, and grieving the loss of her father's death in mysterious circumstances. Although there were several signs of unsettled pressure building in the court, there was no sign of outward danger, or even that of the sudden collapse of every state machinery on the surface. The massacre of Dawn's End, the assassination of most of the capable leaders and generals of the clan, and then the siege of the capital Finsmeave...these events seamlessly rolled into one another. Suddenly the war horns sounded, and suddenly the magical shields and barricades shattered like burst bubbles —it was only then she was summoned by her aunt to bid her last farewell.

That night, she realized that her aunt had other’s whom she loved more than her— for whom she was ready to desert her in a chaotic world to survive on her own. That was also the night Wei Zhiruo had bid farewell to everything in her past, pledged a revenge and then drifted away to never settle down again – because the last chain holding her feet to the earth had decisively given up on her.

Wei Zhiruo herself never blamed her aunt for doing that— she was sad, she was mortified, but because she clearly knew that in that lost battle, that woman had not only lost two of her most beloved sons and a loving husband, she had also watched her entire family being killed one by one with nowhere to seek help. For a spectator of the end of her beloved land and butchering of her own people and past, Wei Zhiruo knew death was the best end.

"Forgive your aunt, Miss Amaranthus. She is grieving...she is obsessed." Her aunt's maid in waiting had kissed her forehead and requested. "Her husband, your cousins, and your other uncles and aunts are all dead. There is no one she can look up to. No one to take care of her. She has never lived in loneliness —you know...Being the only one to survive is foreign and frightening to her. You are much braver, my princess, so she thinks she can leave without worrying about you. I know...it's not the truth. You are young and you don't deserve any of it! I know but I cannot persuade her. Just...don't blame her. She has never imagined the world turning into this."

That was minutes before the maid died, and before Wei Zhiruo caught the last glimpse of her aunt while standing over a collapsing Tower of Inheritance. The Pearl Princess of Sangtchi was hurtling through the wind; riding over clouds under her feet, flying over in the dirty yellow skies, full of soot, dust and flying ashes everywhere — she slashed and cut into the black mist of men and beasts of her enemies parting waves after waves of the opposite force, watching them fall trembling under her spells, and thunderous crushing of her revenge, that had come rolling down like an avalanche. The man who killed her sons died under her sword, and most unexpectedly, despite the towering odds she faced, she killed the Ruze priestess—a red sword pierced through the lungs of a shocked woman, the same woman who had forced the Forgotten Kingdom to burn like that, the cause of everyone's misery, the traitor...the Oracle.

She herself died with thousand arrows piercing through her back. Maybe, she was even supporting a smile when she died? Wei Zhiruo never found out, as she was busy fleeing like a coward.

Unsurprisingly, this faint similarity she glimpsed made her wonder. What could’ve that little girl experienced to have such maddened eyes? What could make a child, who didn't look any older than fourteen, so obsessed? It was indeed an intriguing mystery.

Wei Zhiruo panned out a bird’s eye view of the whole mansion, but still, the back of that person was the only silhouette that flickered in that vast, sprawling mansion.

Wei Zhiruo followed ‘the beauty’s’ tired steps; saw her as she toppled and crumbled down. She kept watching, as she fell over the ground, and weakly knelt down on her knees or froze up like a corpse with no energy to stand up again, or when she gathered enough strength to crawl forward to only fall back again – she saw all of that happening and repeating. The girl somehow crawled back to her courtyard and a worried old woman instantly lunged at her, as if she had just been waiting for her.

With the most alarmed eyes and manners, still holding her mistress to herself, supporting and carrying her back into the chambers and with worried sighs and enquiries interspersed at each step, she kept asking – “Where have you been, young lady? We got tired looking for you, and then the curfew came upon us – no one of us dared to go outside to seek you out in such circumstances. Your slave, I ought to have informed someone by now...but forgive me for having no control over my panicking heart! We felt you might have your reasons to go out so late, but look at you – what happened?! What horrible things did someone do to you, my lady? Is it the Second Mistress again? Should I alert the Old mistress -? We must do that, and I…I would have already called for help but others said, they saw you walking away with young lady Cheng! I shouldn't have believed them! Cui’er was all about calling the Old mistress if you didn’t come back by the morning – but we should have tried harder! By god, I should have tried harder searching for you–! I... I who knows pretty well that you are not someone who goes around without informing people close to you…Look at you, you look horrible! It's all my fault for being so careless!”

“No! Don’t…wake grandmother! I’m alright -”

The rest of the dialogue was left between the mistress and her servant as Wei Zhiruo reverted back her attention from that corner.

She wasn't interested in eavesdropping.

"[It's done. The Ordering, Organizing and Merging —all of the steps are done. Steer faster so that I can proceed with the next phase. This time, since the forces of vitality need to be forged in the bloodline and smelted anew, you are going to need a lot of patience and it's going to hurt a lot more when your body transforms. There isn't going to be any outward manifestation of bloodline too. So be prepared to live with this face for the rest of your life.]

“What? You don't like how I look right now?" Wei Zhiruo teasingly asked after being informed about the changes. "Don't worry, I am almost there. Just don't start too quickly —It will look odd, if someone spotted us writhing in pain over the water surface, that is, if we don’t end up drowning first. Mind you – I don’t want either of that happening to me.” Wei Zhiruo offhandedly reminded him.

[I know. But you have ten minutes maximum. After that, I really cannot stop the next phase from starting.] Marr replied to her in her mind.

Wei Zhiruo connected her mind with Marr’s and saw him skimming through texts inside the “Central House of Knowledge” floating inside her Spiritual Sea. His roots though, were furiously entangling with her human organs, taking over the Outer body.

Without even asking she knew instantly what he was up to. He must be searching for some way to alleviate the pain of body transformation of the Second phase.

She was already feeling it, as Marr's piercing and digging his roots into flesh and organs was not a process without pain. But it was still in the range of tolerable; when it comes to Awakening pain, there is no other such torment anywhere else in the world. And she wasn't even exaggerating. Most children passed out of the pain a few seconds into the Awakening —but she had tasted what it felt like to wish to die and being unable to achieve that wish. Unlike others, even in her first Awakening, she remained conscious throughout the three phases. That was one of the most horrible memories of her childhood.

“You don’t have to mind too much. It’s not like we don’t have experience. At least we are not going blindly into this Awakening – it's already our second time.” She softly reassured Marr.

Wei Zhiruo herself wasn’t optimistic that he would get anything out of those old texts, but refrained from outright stopping him. There were hardly any actual ‘clan secret books' left by her ancestors on this theme, not to mention actual bloodline inheritance was incomplete and mostly inaccessible.

What was left of previous clan inheritance was just a few history and anecdotal books – all her own techniques were found in the Middle world after searching for years! As for Rune-forging...she was embarrassed to note that none of her skill books had anything like anesthesia or pain numbing Rune which wouldn't also ruin the process.

When the whole physical body, its organs and fluids start transforming together — flesh becomes harder, organs develop extra functions and sturdiness and go through earth shattering changes — in the end when the last bit of her body sheds away its human weaknesses, she will face the third phase of Awakening.

Till then, the fire of her bloodline will smelt her like an unbeaten sword, melt her orifices and cool them down, melt again and pound the soul and body till she is shaped in the same vein as her ancestors of lore —the Bloodclan. A clan who worships bloodline like a god.

The numb pain that filled her at this moment as she felt those roots digging through her was just the first step –it was going to become a more and more exhilarating sort of anguish. It wasn’t always like this, though. In the past, her kind never had to experience such tumultuous, unbearably painful transformations.

Wei Zhiruo recited to herself a small snippet from the "Clan's book of Records" which was a compulsory reading in the Clan Schools.

「 A formless gust of Chaos which was Nu, gained sentience in the ages of the World formation and started his reign of the seamless skies. And since he was older than time, and the world itself, while the seed of the world grew and burned and formed the universe, he felt his loneliness was too long and also decided to create a mate for himself. So he took his most precious Heart-blood, mixed it with the vitality of newly formed Stars, and washed this seed in the spring of the Beginning of time. From that seed grew out the First Tree of the world — Liita.

Their son was born with both their traits, and it's recorded in Old Songs of Memory, his marriage with Liel, the Goddess of Vitality, birth and death, resulted in the creation of the first Blood-God —Qein the Stargazer, and also the First ancestor of the Bloodclan.

Qien was born with the power to count stars and see the future so when he saw the Catastrophe of the Old Skies shattering —he gave birth to three seeds and sent them away to three different universes so that when they find a good soil, they will grow up into the carrier of his bloodline. It was from one of them, our clan traces our roots —though which one it was, is an eternal mystery. 」

Wei Zhiruo knew that the Sangtchi clan had migrated from a different universe and settled down in the Cuiping world. She remembered reading quite clearly that their Sangtchi clan's first ancestors who came to the ‘known universe’—holding both the Middle World and the Cuiping world inside it—were descendants of one of the three seeds. Those who came, all had titles and designation; like the ‘Fifth Elder Yissem of Samthci’ and his wife whose name wasn’t recorded but she came from clan Yirim, the ‘Seventh Elder Obaen of Urus’ and his wife, Uriel of Areme.

As a result, there was hardly any confusion in ancestry as the bloodclan in her universe traced their heritage back to these two couples, and used a corrupted version of name Samthci as the common clan’s name.

Her mind flashed with sudden inspiration so she commented to Marr, saying —

“Maybe when I broke the vow tying the clan's link with Cuiping world, I was also breaking away from the recognition that land had given to an alien race like us? The link to that universe itself? Or why else am I now in a completely different universe? It isn’t that implausible… I died chanting the Oath breaking song after all and it seemed more like I was rejected and thrown away from that universe into another universe. Do you think it's too far-fetched?”

She didn't think it was too far-fetched.

[Now that you put it this way...it seems really likely. You remember I told you how I felt on waking up for the first time in this world? So, according to this line of thought, it was only after we merged with a creature of this world did we get a chance to live here? That will also explain why your ancestors emphasized so much on this Oath to the world. They selflessly dedicated years and years of their lives supporting the development of an alien civilization, and in return, you say, they got nothing out of it…? That is quite difficult to believe and really, too much selfless dedication. I am more ready to believe that they might have negotiated a symbiotic relationship with that world.]

“So, when the oath broke – I too lost the last link tying me to that universe. Would we have died instantly if I wasn’t sucked inside this body? Crushed to pieces?” That made her obviously question whether or not she had now completely gained a ‘native’s’ identity?

[Hard to say. But why are you thinking about these old tales?]

“I was just randomly thinking about how blessed earlier clansmen were when they didn't have to suffer the pain of Awakening and then from there it went back to the tales of ancestors. Anyways — the reason for it all is the Bloodline is what I ended up summarizing. I still don't have any reasons to begrudge those puritanical thoughts of our ancestors. We, as a creature since the dawn of time, are too good at assimilating characteristics and there is no correct way of preserving the right traits. All good, bad traits just jumble up together in the end and no one knows what the result will look like. Our ancestors also warned us too—" Wei Zhiruo replied slowly. "Imagine if our clan had kept the clan's precept and never married outside of the clan, we wouldn't be facing our slow end and later extermination."

In the ancient times, clansmen were born bloodkins, not Awakened into one. This shift only happened after the bloodline diluted too much, making it impossible to bear a full-blooded progeny inside a weaker womb. Clansmen evolved, or rather degenerated, owing to thousands of years of intermarriages with other races — most of which were marriages to humans. It was only natural that the blood would get diluted with age.

Soon enough, the women of the clan couldn't even carry a full-blooded offspring in their womb —they had grown weaker and softer, none of these traits were conducive to carrying a creature that took three years to be born. And while everyone was lamenting that they had lost the last trace of ‘acceptance’ from their bloodline completely– the first Awakening took place. Maybe, it was the last blessing from her ancestors? But this blessing also came at great price.

Later, the clan became classified into three classes – the full blood, half-blood, and the humans. Then the full bloods started falling in number, then half-bloods fell in number too. Wei Zhiruo herself saw this whole process as a natural decline. With each passing generation diluting the bloodline further and further, a bloodline like hers was too hard to preserve in the changing times. Awakening, that process alone could hardly do anything to revert the grave situation. She was a great proof of changing realities —as the only full-blooded bloodkin in almost a century, she was nothing short of a unicorn in a changed world!

Awakening itself though was not too complicated.

In the first phase, the bloodline awakens and merges with the spiritual and physical aspects of one's existence, and the blood-seed sprouts around the soul.

The second phase prepares the body to face a harsh environment. As creatures who were originally born to dwell in outer space —the void, the body readies itself to face incomprehensibly harsh temperature, pressure and lack of resources.

And finally, the last phase which was called ‘Soul Transformation’. The changes in this were usually quite esoteric, vague and difficult to put into words. But she knew that this transformation completely subverted the essence of the soul and also had great significance in the records.

[This book—it's a book about clan genealogy called <Three Thousand Years of Ureme>, by the way, but this book really emphasizes what you were thinking about right now.] Suddenly Marr interrupted her wayward thoughts.

"About the importance of the third phase—? Why? I don't remember we actually experienced any different sensation when we went through it last time. The only remarkable thing about it that I remember was the last spell of healing. The last few seconds completely healed away all the traces of wounds and pain that it felt almost magical. And yes, the clan elders' hymns and chanting. That too was...really ethereal."

[This says that a past elder observed that chanting the hymns has something to do with the Awakening of the legendary clan's seal of recognition. In the cases of all five seal holders till the death of the last Ureme, Poiyo of Ureme, your great-great-grandmother—the most common thing observed was that a specific hymn was sung and a very elaborate ritualistic order maintained. So the last phase is very important if one wants to awaken complete inheritance.] Marr sounded serious.

"You believe this?" She asked. This was the first time she heard such a thing.

[There is no harm in believing it. We can try reciting this hymn when the time comes. I remember, you learned it from elder Erick?]

"I did," Wei Zhiruo replied. "As I said, it sounded ethereal and the younger me had never heard anything like it. I was especially keen on mastering that piece."

[Then—let's try our luck.]

Wei Zhiruo didn't reply but turned her head back to look behind herself; an endless screen of fog had once again veiled most of her charted path. She turned to face forward and likewise, saw the mist shading her view. Had she been reliant only on her human five senses, she would have no other way but to blindly chase a direction – and such a tedious task would have relented her to a destination eventually – but the time taken in that arduous journey would’ve been exceptionally long.

A few minutes passed in the blink of an eye. Finally, she reached a close distance to the shore and dropped the oars on the board. “We are here.”

She jumped down the boat. The shallow waters reached up to her knees, but the toughest part while treading over them was still the chilling, biting coldness that felt like knives piercing through her bones! She splashed and pushed forward attentively, so as to not lose balance while walking over the slippery mud.

A few steps and she was close to the embankment. She put her two small arms over the shore, hauling her small body over with the assistance of the shore-side grasses by taking them as ropes, she climbed up. Her robe got noticeably wet by the end, up from its lower rims to the waist and was now sticking to her skin. However, the coldness emanating from it was the least of her concerns.

[Don't worry too much. It will just take four hours – so don't be nervous about the whole process – it will be over before you know it.]

This reassurance, although couldn’t lighten much of Wei Zhiruo’s increasingly nervous mood, but it did strengthen her will. She smiled a little, before setting out to find a secluded corner.

A while later, she found it —an old willow tree, with its bark darkened with time and dust, and leaves too lush and green. It was humongous, a giant. Despite being just a weeping willow, it shadowed every other nearby growth underneath itself.

“Then it's decided. It’s a nice place for hiding.” Wei Zhiruo spoke. The willow tree had dug its roots through the brick walls of the courtyard, and now grew leaning somewhat over the boundary walls, which were also the edifice demarcating the line between the mansion and the outside of the manor, a much more brimming world.

It created a dark, hollow space between the trunk and the wall, which was large enough for a small child to sit under comfortably. If she sat down in that gap, anyone who came this way would just see the trunk, and the lush willow branches cascading down. This way, she will have plenty of time to escape or hide somewhere else. But she was preparing for the worst-case scenario – this place was quite some distance away from both the rest of the courtyards as well as the pond and chances of anyone just stumbling upon her…it shouldn’t be that great, right?

“I think a barrier is in order. But casting one will take some part of my mind in maintaining it and I want to fully concentrate on Awakening...” Wei Zhiruo said, while bending down towards the gap and crawling deeper into it. The soil was dry and sandy, with the roots peeking out from the ground. As her hands brushed through them, a little bit of soil stuck in between her wounds, rubbing it open afresh.

[Umm…It really doesn’t look like a place people visit often.] Marr observed. [I think it would be okay if you didn't arrange one…?]

“Well, if you also think so then let's not waste energy over it.” Wei Zhiruo huffed a little, and removed the pin holding her cloak in place around her neck. The cloak fell down, which she gathered in a ball and simply threw away at some distance away from herself.

She sat down and regulated her breath to match the perfect rhythm and began to meditate again.

“Okay…let’s begin. I am ready,” she said.

“I am going to start.” This time, Marr didn't send a thought inside her mind but spoke loudly for her to hear him.

“Good.”

Wei Zhiruo felt her breath stop. She felt the pressure descending down over her shoulders and hastily straightened her pose to the right stance, forcing down all the pressure towards the center, just underneath her navel, and then from there into her limbs down into the soil. She felt the calm vibrations coming from the soil itself, and further directed the excess energy in her body downwards, lessening her pain. But this was just one second in the Awakening, and she still had four long hours to endure!

Without a moment’s break, the pangs of pain seemed to echo from a tunnel of the past and now, had her heart in its monstrous clutches. She could feel it building up, hear its step reaching her, one step, two steps and soon it was here; she felt the pressure build up, recede and then instantly a poignant anguish of almost an ethereal nature gripped her heart. It dragged her down, pushed itself up and then twirled in a twisted, torturous sort of manner, reaching far down to the tip of her toes. It was sheer agony, and pronouncedly blunt.

She lost all her calm and with that, also her ability to speak, or cry out aloud.

"Get a hold of yourself, Ama. Wei Zhiruo!" She heard Marr roaring and pierced her nails into her flesh, she awakened her almost fainting mind.

"Huff, ha…!" She breathed laboriously and dug her fingers into the dry soil.

The pain of bone breaking and realigning could never be imagined without experiencing it going inside one's own body. It was horrifically raw and intense! The rupturing inner organs were twisting, blowing up and then shrinking as if a fire was twirling her entrails like a molten glass and was shaping her in a furnace! Her mind was full of gushing red. Some blood entered her mouth and dyed her teeth red, filling up to her nose. She could only bend down and vomit out the excess blood to open some gap and breath…!

“I’m good. You go on. Don’t stop for me.” She warned Marr, who was busy regulating the pace of the transformation. The spells of pain increased again and she was in no condition to talk again.

“There's a wave-like pattern to this. Each five minutes, the intensity will increase again and then let you adjust to its pace. Take your time and I will try to extend this period as much as I can.” He replied, sounding worried.

For a whole hour she maintained the statue like stillness. Wei Zhiruo felt that if she dared to even move the tip of her fingers right now, she would shatter into countless fragments. Each five minutes she was hit by a greater force of pain, and when she adjusted to it her heart trembled at the thought of another bout of increased intensity!

When finally, an hour of endless torment and most major transformation ended, only then did she straighten her back and ask, “You’ve been too quiet for some while. What happened? Did you find something?”

“Err…uh, well, how should I put this…”

“Go on. You really did? That's quite surprising…” Wei Zhiruo leaned against the wall taking it as her support.

“I'd better show it to you. Close your eyes.”

“Oh...written in a piece of parchment? I remember this is... Finsmeavean script?" Right in front of her inner eyes was a piece of yellowed parchment paper. Its edges were rounded, and it looked like it had been torn away from a book, with one side still supporting traces of being torn away.

“Read. I found this in the collection called <Odd Tales of Wayfarer>. It's an anonymous author’s work that was collected by your uncle's side of the family – my goodness, do they have a rare collection of skills! No wonder they, the Wallace's, successfully erased all traces of past major forces in Erethea, becoming the face of the Eastern Bloodclan family. You’ll feel the same when you look at this. It’s strange but coherent and has the same way of explanation and esoteric terms as that [Pure Energy Technique] that came from the Ruze clan. Maybe, they both might even have a common origin!” By the end of his words, he was sighing loudly.

Wei Zhiruo, though, was now completely engrossed in the skill introduction which was over a few pages long.

「Mysterious Soul Forging Technique

Skill Rank: Heaven Level

Race: Anyone who has a spiritual root is eligible to practice this art. This soul cultivation technique is non-exclusionary, that is, it doesn't forbid simultaneous cultivation of other soul, body or Qi cultivation techniques and also doesn't restrict cultivating other Qi Introductory Skills.

Spiritual Roots Requirements: None. Because the later practice needs continuous inhaling of pure spiritual energy, Wood Yang Spiritual roots are preferred because of the easily available wood energy in nature. 」

“…Spiritual roots? What are these and why would our Bloodclan be interested in collecting such a technique if it is just limited to those who have it?”

"Keep reading, I will explain to you in a moment." Marr squinted his eyes, while he carelessly brushed his whiskers with his paws.

「The Heavenly Stellar Formation

Soul Tempering Method:

<Heaven Level Mysterious Soul Forging Technique>

This method mainly teaches you how to use your human bodily orifices to inhale in the spiritual energy, and also to open up six ‘apertures’ in your body using the ‘life-essence’ of the soul. By doing this, you leave the "Path of Three Hundred Thousand of Dao's" that make heaven, recasting an unorthodox body and road.

All humans have meridians in their body which carry the body's innate Qi, which when tempered with the Spiritual Qi forges the body and makes one a cultivator of Immortality. In orthodox methods, dredging of aperture points and meridian is as important as cleansing the body with fasting and mental exercises. This technique is unorthodox because it teaches one to leave the existent path and forge an untrodden pathway to heaven!

Six apertures that needs to be opened to cut the fate with heaven are — six major points conjoining in a Stellar-field Formation, one point inside the Spiritual Sea, one over the meridian of the carotid artery, descending downwards in a straight line one should be over the meridian of Heart, another one onto the center of meridian of the back-bone, one over the meridian entering the Dantian and finally over the seventh soul.

This heavenly Formation uses your vitality as ink, your body-vessels as canvas and arranges the best Spiritual Array to cultivate "Six Constellation Formation" inside your body using the breathing technique. Once a 'star-point' or unorthodox aperture opens up successfully, it will circulate the innate Qi and Soul Force of the body all over the body in a closed formation, tempering its strength and purity as well as that of other organs attached to this Array.

<Advanced level>: To achieve best results, re-engrave the Array, by engraving 'Star-points' over the body along with the sealing diagram.

As the world’s heaven and its stars are divided into four corners and twenty-eight mansions, each mansion holds a key to fate. Use the following constellations from the twenty-eight mansions to reinforce these six “Star-points”.

Dōngfāng Azure Dragon is represented with Xin star formation, Běifāng Black Tortoise with Xu star formation, Xīfāng White Tiger is by Shen star formation, Nánfāng Vermillion Bird with Liu star formation. Each of these corresponds to a 'Star-points’ in Heart, Sea of Qi, one over the soul, and finally the one over the artery in precise order. For the last two points any constellation can be used, but the most benefits can be brought by using the Firebird constellation for points on bones and Hai Shan for Spiritual Sea, as it is complementary with the rest of the constellations.

<Usages>: Heaven Level Mysterious Skill for forging soul and body. Even a little turn away from the Heavenly way is a path to break free and escape its influence everywhere. Additionally, when one completes all the six points, the soul will solidify into one level higher than the actual cultivation stage, increasing the ability of Spiritual Senses to become equal to triple the area of similar level Practitioner’s. The Sea of Consciousness widens, with each advancement. (For proper breathing art refer to first chapter)

<Warning>: The creator of this skill died before practicing it himself. Many restrictions are undiscovered and the highest point of this method is indeterminate. No record has been ever found of any creature using this skill successfully till date —signed by,

Yours truly, Coriem of Yirim, Sangtchi clan. 」

Under this there was a scratched note written in the language of Bloodline. Wei Zhiruo looked surprised at this but still read what it said.

"Although Master Feng ordered and structured a method to escape the heavenly laws and eyes of heaven, he failed majorly when it came to setting a limitation to requirements to this technique. To qualify, one has to be precisely at the most sensitive comprehension level, internal body constitution, understanding of laws and nature, as well as have the most tremendous luck to have it all and be able to run through the exercise with bravery, knowing full well that this is a slippery slope which can instantly turn into a death sentence. This skill is impossible to be used by a human."

“I don’t get it. If it's not for humans then...can we use it ourselves? There are too many foreign terms here.” Wei Zhiruo asked not fully understanding these requirements. “I understand the last constellation part – although they don’t look like anything in our own galaxy, the pattern is reasonable at least. But what does Spiritual Energy, Qi Cultivation level, and that Dantian or any of these terms mean? Is there any additional explanation available?”

“That’s why there is a diagram attached to this.” Another more complicated diagram appeared in Wei Zhiruo’s inner eyes. It was a man’s body with marked spaces and explanations labelled against it. While on the sidelines, there were written notes on constellations and the star numbers and their origin. Also, a not so complicated breathing method, which had also been embellished with additional translation into the Bloodline tongue. None of these were familiar to Wei Zhiruo.

“Look here. Here, is the Sea of Qi or the dantian, in this area where those strange roots are. Then that will make those roots, what this manual calls ‘Spiritual roots’- that's what I wanted to show you.” Marr happily pointed out the major points.

“Then spiritual energy is something like Mana?” Wei Zhiruo asked, confusedly. “I get what you want to show me —it's indeed an intriguing skill. But without Spiritual-energy we will not be able to fill these star-point’s up, or cultivate further. Let me think…,” but suddenly she stopped talking.

“Hush. Don’t talk to me and let me think.” Wei Zhiruo suddenly had an epiphany and stopped Marr from interrupting her thoughts.

Star Formation?

She was suddenly struck by inspiration. Starlight. She didn't have Spiritual energy to fill up the Star Formation and run it as written in the Technique, but she could try using a substitute, couldn't she? If her bones could retain this slippery starlight and force them to heal her bone-marrows, why couldn't she try and capture this ephemeral energy, which had never stuck inside her body for long enough to savor its power, and use it to confirm whether this technique works or not?

"The risk? What about that?" Suddenly Marr asked her, looking as excited as herself. "This might as well work for you! Only if there are no side-effects or rejection reactions on failing. Can you really take this risk?"

“Hmm…it's indeed possible to use the same pattern, but a different system entirely…and about risk? Of course there is! But did you forget? We are still undergoing the Awakening, and its last healing spell that removes every wound on the body and soul…? What if I successfully open these six new apertures at these specific points? Then I won't have to face any backlash. And if I did face one —wouldn't the last healing spell save me? Think about it.”

The third stage of Awakening was a great guarantee.

“Tsk. I cannot dissuade you. I also think it's worth taking the risk for, especially when we know that your current body will never find techniques like this that use your exact body structure as a base. If it does, who knows if it will suit us next time too?” Marr jumped up beside her looking excited like never before. His red eyes glinted in the dark, and shimmered. He knew what she was thinking.

“You're right. Give me some time to refine the process a little. I just had a thought, but I will need a couple of minutes to deliberate over them. We still have one hour of the second phase and two hours of the third stage of Awakening. It's plenty of time. Ugh—god, it hurts…!” Wei Zhiruo stopped talking, vomiting another mouthful of blood from her mouth and then spitting the bloodied saliva.

"Are you okay?"

"Good enough to do…. this. Don't worry, I can manage this. I will never let this chance of becoming stronger slip away. I can do it. You too —go take some rest before we begin."

“Good. Call me up the moment you find a possible design. I just thought this technique would really suit us. If it really turns into one…”

“That would be like timely rain.”

“Just what we needed right now.” Marr finished saying and vanished into the air. "Let's hope it will all work out for the best."