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

“I don’t think we can.” A slightly hesitant Marr replied.

“That's sad. I was hoping we could try travelling all over the Middle world this time and even to 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. "From the turn of events in those last days, I was even fearful that we would be torn to pieces, souls shattered."

“Yes. We can travel in this world too, right? Let's just do that after we are done Awakening. Live a free, unfettered life for the rest of our lives! Sounds good, doesn't it?" She softly said and then started counting the apertures and special nodes in the meridian, shrugging away the sense of loss brought out by this new revelation.

"There are too many of these nodes —four hundred specially marked ones that are precisely like the parchment mentions. Out of them all, 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. Eh— there must be more hidden ones I think. Okay. Let's start straightening your red roots out."

Wei Zhiruo observed 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 twelve — she left a few more rooted there.

She found a few hidden points and mapped them in the chart, calling out to Marr to send his red roots into the specified points and merge them. 

"What use are these meridians, anyway? After all, we cannot rely on technique . The technique is so cryptic that it's useless to work it out." Marr still didn't understand why they needed so much time to understand this new system. 

"It's not useful right now —but who knows when an opportunity comes our way? Usually, it's judicious to just grasp your own strengths and weaknesses so that you don't let a good opportunity slip away from your hands. Did I make sense to you?"

"Hmm...I can imagine that alright."

After Wei Zhiruo was done, doing whatever she could, she felt the changes in her human body and asked,"Did you examine the Sea of Consciousness? Has it changed too?"

"No, 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." Marr embarrassedly looked around in his cat-form and said sheepishly. "Your help greatly decreased the pressure on me. I just sorted out my roots surrounding your soul. But I was going to ask you —do you want to see the place where the blood drop sealed away itself? It's a place near your navel."

"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 copied in there? You spent countless nights stealing into those strictly guarded treasure houses and 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 just do it all over again. To tell you the truth, I am not even that sad." Marr floated around her in his red drop form.

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

"Let me rephrase it — it hasn't just changed but drastically altered. Did we hit all our luck together or what?" 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 actual part of their previous Inner world.

A tall three story building with an emerald dome shaped roof. Its walls were made of the toughest kind of black obsidian which was considered a great conductor of all kinds of magic. It still retained all those ancient, undeciphered Rune's etched over all its visible surface which Wei Zhiruo in her short span of twenty years of life never got the chance to decipher completely.

But the Runes now floating all over the sky were completely new!

“These must be some of those you just absorbed tonight. Thank goodness it just changed and enlarged the sea of consciousness. We could have been in a coma or, worse, dead.” Wei Zhiruo observed those flying Runes and felt a shiver of relief running through her spine.

"So...true."

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 it like a pool of water, some falling down into the behemoth of an ocean, underneath, like a waterfall.

Marr tried to grasp the cloud. He changed to his cat form and walked over the misty ocean. "It feels real, but it isn't. It's still an illusion, or rather, soul like energy's creation—thank goodness. It would be a mess if a new world opened up in your mind!"

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

"Hmm...with this much condensed energy —we can just spend ages just deciphering some of the rules working in this place and those Runes too."

Then next, they both floated down the Core, near the navel. 

"What is this—?"An astounded Marr exclaimed loudly. "Are you still human? Why do you have roots like these?"

Before their eyes was a small space opened up near the navel, it wasn't big enough like the spiritual sea, but still hosted considerable space. But the whole thing looked astoundingly bizarre.

"They look like roots?" Wei Zhiruo dumbfoundedly echoed. "Ofcourse I am human. Maybe humans in this world have these things growing here? It must serve a purpose, okay?"

She reassured Marr and carefully took note of the mysterious space and roots growing inside it. 

There were 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 ominousness. A bright, shining white 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. And interestingly, all the meridian's coiled down together as if taking these roots as their core!

"Strange...!" Marr looked around for a while and then muttered. "The blood drop is not here. It should be somewhere here, but that space hasn't opened up yet. Only these roots…are growing."

"Don't you think they kind of symbolize a specific element?" Wei Zhiruo however, intrigued in the study of newly found roots, interrupted Marr. "Look—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?"

"Ahh—Yes, and the blue one, ice. Two from Five Basic elements and three from Five Special elements?" Marr said.

"Yes I was thinking the same. It's strange and familiar."

"Anyways...I don't know what these are but we don't have enough time to search for answers right away. Ama, I feel we might go into the Second and Final phase of Awakening back to back —the force inside me is building up again. You should get ready."

Wei Zhiruo turned away from the roots and said, "Are you sure? Okay, I know. Don't worry about hurting me and extend your roots as far as you can. You can alter everything here —but don't touch this space on your own. I have a feeling that there is a hidden mystery to this place and it's very important. Try to not change anything about here, if you can."

"Heard you. I will take care of that. You are heading to the shore next? Amaranthus, be careful not to be spotted."

"I will. Don't overexert yourself, okay?" 

"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 enough before Marr was completely finished with the first phase. "I will be quick —wait till I find ourselves a good hiding place."

But before heading to her destination, she stopped and thought for some while and then went back to draw a [Preserve] Rune over the opening of the space using her Spiritual Senses as medium, and then sighed and woke up.