บท 107: The Heaven and Earth Array's Completion

As the energy continued to pour through the downsized Lynmurku it also flowed out again, forming a small circuit around it. Yun watched with trepidation as that circuit grew larger and finally the flows of energy were nearly colliding with her own body. She had no idea what was going on, or whether it was good or bad, but she was confused by the feelings that the mysterious bell had sounded out within her soul. Before long her eyes widened even further as the energy flow began to pass through her own body, bringing both a refreshing feeling and a strange connection.

She could feel another soul, and the other soul could feel her. Both felt a slight bit of resentment from this forced connection, and both quickly understood that the other soul they were feeling was each other. Yun and the Lynmurku glared again, staring daggers at the other. As they did, and the energy flow continued to advance, the Lynmurku shrank yet again, this time ending up small enough to sit on an adult's palm. As it shrunk again so did the array's borders. The base contracted to the point where it was basically just wide enough not to touch either of them, while the sides had contracted to leave a similar amount of space. The distance between them had shrunk considerably as well, and now Yun would be able to easily grasp the tiny Lynmurku if she could move her arms.

Wait, she couldn't move! When did that happen? What in the world was happening in this array!?

Yun had a panicked look on her face right about the same time the Lynmurku also realized it was incapable of moving on it's own. Panic began to reverberate between them through the mysterious connection in their souls. Yun realized that they were both contributing to the rising panic and forcefully suppressed her own panic in order to curb the problem. As she did she felt a wash of calm reverberate between them again that didn't come from either of them as they were forced even closer together by the array.

With a feeling that everything was proceeding slowly Yun and the Lynmurku mutant were pressed almost so close together that they were touching. If it weren't for the fact they were both completely immobilized, not even capable of intentionally breathing, they likely would have originally attacked each other. Now, with the strange soul connection and the proximity they were facing, neither of them was willing to attempt to harm the other.

Even more sluggish was the most strange occurrence yet; the beast before her was slowly becoming less corporeal and more translucent by the moment! Yun could see through the little palm sized creature well enough now to make out the symbols behind it, not to mention the ground. She was at first shocked by this, but then wondered if somehow she was absorbing it's energy.

Around the time Yun felt like the Lynmurku floating before her had become around halfway incorporeal another change occurred in the array. All the concentric rings began to line up in a new pattern, forming vertical rings now that could change from a spherical shape to a deformed sphere. As they did this one side began to push in, followed by the other, and Yun realized suddenly that the Lynmurku, which was now little more than a ghost, was forced inside her body!

As the Lynmurku's ghostly form was pressed into Yun's abdomen she felt that much of the energy she had originally absorbed from it was now rushing towards her Neidan in a crazy flood. It passed through her own energy channels almost like a ghost, not even interacting or disturbing her natural energy flow as it took the shortest routes from every point in her body through the meridians. Simultaneously, outside her body, the array's rings also pressed into her, feeling like they were squeezing her, before their confining rings broke apart in a massive light-show of shattered golden shards.

After being freed from their seeming confinement most of the runes shot out in all directions before they disappeared after distancing themselves from her, however, some of the runes, whether intentionally or not, shot straight into her body, embedding themselves in her flesh. As they did this the innermost diagram rose up slowly from the ground, over her head, then shrunk down and applied itself to the flesh of her left chest, beneath the lapel of her clothing. The pattern was not entirely visible through her fur, but as she watched she found that the short fur that grew from where this imprint was had subtly shifted colors to have a bit of a golden hue that was hard to see unless the light was shining down upon it.

As the diagram etched itself onto her chest Yun also noticed the change occurring in her Neidan space. Within the virtual space that was the home of her future Neidan seed condensed the form of the little Lynmurku, who was now capable of wandering around her Neidan space and absorbing energy there. She could still feel her connection to it, and now she could feel that it was being imparted with part of her understandings of the universe through the Dao of her spirit. A strange sort of uplifting, which Yun also benefited from as she felt the conclusions the Lynmurku came to with it's newly increased capacity for critical thought.

Soon enough all the excess light had faded from around her as the array completely ceased to exist, as if nothing ever happened. The only evidence that anything had happened was the small trigram on her chest and the very light imprint of it on the ground around her. She quickly obscured the symbol on the ground to prevent others from gaining information about her before she began running off in a random direction to distance herself before someone decided to investigate the light and corpses.