Faral floated quietly inside Zhu's consciousness.
As an orb, moving through the strange space was effortless, but one problem remained: he couldn't hear a single word. Zhu and the Twin Blood System had been conversing for what felt like an eternity, yet their dialogue was entirely shielded from him.
Faral bobbed impatiently in the void. What are they talking about?
He drifted closer. Nothing. He edged closer still. Still nothing. The instant he tried to extend his spiritual senses toward them, a subtle pressure gently repelled him.
"Seriously?" Faral grumbled.
He prepared to push through again when the entire domain shifted. The galaxy above dissolved. The floor of endless black vanished. In a single instant, the scenery transformed entirely.
Soft grass sprouted beneath Zhu's feet. A gentle breeze swept across the landscape, sending ripples of green across expansive fields. Rolling hills stretched toward distant, wide valleys, framed by grand mountain peaks beneath a brilliant sky.
Faral froze, his orb spinning in disbelief. "What?!"
Zhu stood in the center of the grassy plain, eyes wide and shining as she took in the vista like a child discovering a dreamland.
"This..." She spread her arms wide. "...is my world."
Feral drifted nearer. "Your world?"
Zhu nodded enthusiastically. "Everything here belongs to me."
She planted her foot, and the grass beneath her shifted in response. She raised a hand, and a distant hill smoothly recontoured itself. Laughing, she turned in a full circle. "I can control it!"
Faral's orb vibrated with excitement. "You can alter the landscape?"
"Apparently! I can feel everything here—the ground, the air, space itself. It's like..." She searched for the words. "...my thoughts become reality."
Feral stared. This was far beyond a simple storage space.
Before he could probe further, Zhu's expression faltered. "Wait."
The world flickered. A tremor rippled across the horizon as the sky dimmed.
"Mara," Zhu murmured. The connection was fraying.
Outside the consciousness space, Mara's spiritual energy had reached its absolute limit. The gateway could no longer hold.
"Zhu!" Mara's voice echoed faintly through the realm.
"I know!" Zhu cast one last look over the rolling hills. She hated to leave, but the realm dissolved into a haze, and dark canvas claimed her vision.
Zhu opened her eyes to the physical world, standing atop the glowing rune patterns of the sanctuary. Across from her, Mara collapsed backward onto the floor, chest heaving and face drained of color.
"That..." Mara gasped, "was exhausting."
Zhu rushed to her side. "Are you okay?"
Mara waved a dismissive hand. "I'm fine. Just completely drained of spiritual energy."
Zhu glanced down at the rune circle. The physical doorway had closed, yet a residual trace lingered. The pathway between her physical self and the inner world had been forged. While Mara couldn't maintain the bridge for long periods yet, the foundation was set.
And there was another major development: Zhu's status had officially updated. She was no longer classified as a Null.
Opening her status display, she reviewed the changes:
Name: Lin Zhu
Mana Type: Mutation Mana
Potential Tier: SSS (Hidden) F (Displayed)
System: Twin Blood
Status: Unregistered
Skills: Blood Drain, Blood Shift (partially locked)...
A wave of relief washed over her. An SSS-rank display would make her a target before she had the strength to protect herself. Having the space reflect an F-rank profile kept her safe under the radar. Accessing her consciousness space had allowed her to regulate how these attributes were masked and managed.
Mara offered a weary smile. "Congratulations."
Zhu laughed softly. F-rank wasn't powerful compared to the cultivators around them, but to a former Null, it meant everything. It was official, measurable progress.
"There's something else," Faral chimed in from nearby.
Mara sat up slowly as a translucent green vine rose from the nearby fountain, pointing directly toward the rune circle. "We can refine this arrangement," Faral explained.
Zhu blinked. "Refine it?"
"Yes," Faral continued. "Now that the baseline connection is established, systematic practice will strengthen your spiritual energy—and in turn, elevate your potential rank over time."
Zhu frowned, puzzled. "Isn't rank progression normal?"
Mara shook her head firmly. "No. Absolutely not."
Herkid's eyes widened in utter disbelief. "That's... that shouldn't be possible."
"Someone enlighten me," Zhu requested, looking between their shocked expressions.
Faral explained, "Normally, once an individual awakens their mana type and registers a potential tier, that cap is permanent."
"So an A-rank potential user can never push past A-rank?" Zhu asked.
"Correct," Feral confirmed.
Herkid nodded, still processing the concept. "You can grow stronger within your rank's threshold, but an F-rank wind user will never match the fundamental limit of an A-rank user. That rule is drilled into everyone from childhood. Actually changing the underlying potential tier of an awakened core? It's unheard of."
Zhu looked down at her hands. "So we aren't just training... we're upgrading the cap itself."
"Precisely," Faral said nonchalantly, as if stating the obvious.
A heavy silence settled over the sanctuary before Zhu grinned. "Then we'd better get to work."
One immediate obstacle remained: the purple lotus resting in the fountain needed to be integrated into the rune structure, but the artifact resisted every attempt.
Herkid volunteered to handle it first, stepping forward cautiously. "Easy now... we're just moving you over a few feet."
He extended both hands to lift the flower. The instant his energy brushed its petals—
WHAM!
A wave of force erupted from the lotus, sending Herkid flying backward into the wall with a heavy thud.
"Herkid!" Zhu ran over to help him up.
Groaning, Herkid rubbed his back. "I'm fine... I think."
The lotus floated serenely in the water, undisturbed.
"It definitely doesn't like you," Zhu observed.
"I noticed," Herkid replied, brushing dust off his clothes. "I was as gentle as possible. That thing is remarkably hostile."
Mara muffled a laugh while Zhu shook her head. Forcing the lotus was out of the question, and neither Mara nor Zhu wanted to risk destabilizing it by pulling it out manually.
Herkid studied the setup, pacing around the perimeter. "What if we don't move the lotus at all?"
"How do we connect it then?" Zhu asked.
"We modify the formation," Herkid said, gesturing to the floor. "The fountain is already acting as a natural housing for the lotus. Instead of dragging the lotus to the circle, we expand the circle to enclose the fountain."
Mara caught on immediately. "Making the fountain an active node of the array."
"Exactly."
Zhu looked at the complex runes carved into the floor. "Is it possible to expand it without losing power?"
Herkid's face lit up with a competitive spark. "It has to be larger, but the efficiency can't drop a single percent. It's a massive recalculation, but I can pull it off." He immediately pulled out his drafting tools and knelt by the array.
Mara shook her head fondly. "He really loves a challenge."
"He certainly does," Zhu agreed with a smile.
The next several days passed in an intense rhythm of trial and refinement.
Mara focused on maintaining the gateway, opening the portal repeatedly to build her endurance. Each attempt drained her energy to near exhaustion, but her threshold grew from mere seconds to sustained minutes.
Inside the consciousness space, Zhu refined her authority over the terrain. She practiced sculpting the landscape, moving structures, retrieving stored items, and stabilizing the environment under stress. What initially left her breathless soon became second nature.
Simultaneously, Herkid and Faral redesigned the physical foundation. Lines were redrawn, geometric vectors recalculated, and heavy auxiliary symbols integrated. The original layout expanded into a grand, seamless formation encircling both the standing area and the lotus fountain.
By the end of the week, the work was complete.
Herkid wiped sweat from his brow, stepping back to inspect the vibrant, newly etched channels. Feral hovered above the core node, giving a nod of approval.
"It is finished," Feral announced.
Mara took a deep breath, stepping into position opposite Zhu. She met Zhu's eyes, her gaze steady and focused.
"Ready?"