You know what? I think that I might have given Mei Wu an actual advice rather than some nonsensical quotes I made up on the spot.

Why? Because when I returned and saw her cultivating, the feeling I could sense from her was a much different one than I felt before today.

As I was watching her focused on herself, clearly not paying attention to me, I noticed a small change in her Qi. I was honestly using my instincts and they were clearly telling me that she was practically having an epiphany and that her feelings were at a new strange level of calmness, something that I honestly couldn't understand.

I know that in many xianxia novels, the characters have these weird 'they felt calmer than they ever felt before!' moments when cultivating, but I only thought it was just a metaphor. It was just some fancy words to say to make the breakthroughs seem cooler than just saying 'and he leveled up from lvl 2 to lvl 3.' That was what I thought.

Here and now, I realized that the feeling was an actual real thing, at least as far as my senses were telling me.

People say metaphors about one being as calm as an ocean, but honestly when I feel the sheer depth of tranquility Mei Wu's exterior appearance is giving, it felt like she was as calm as the absolute zero!

There was no movement beyond the air entering or leaving her body, frozen like a statue as Qi moved around and inside her body, barely moving centimeters above her skin, as she was in a strange stillness that felt as amazing as it was a little unnerving.

"Is this how weird I look when I cultivate? Oh goddess, I hope not." I couldn't help murmuring to myself wryly. If so, then I am honestly going to increase my respect for this woman, for being so accepting and used to this cultivation strangeness.

Shaking my head, and trying to ignore the suddenly borderline creepy stillness of my roommate, I took my place to cultivate as well. I still was on the first stage of my Natura Aeterna Nirvana technique after all.

By now, I had unlocked forty of my meridians, thus I still have a long way to go. It seems that my estimation of completing the first stage in only a couple of months when I started cutivating was a wrong one after all, though if I used all my time unlocking them, I might have reached fifty or so during the month I was alive in this world.

But, I can't really argue about it now. I would just continue forward!

With such enthusiasm, both sets of my eyes closed and my awareness of my Qi rose exponentially as I circled the energy through my body, and air entered then exited my mouth as I breathed.

A sense of calm washed over me, one that I was quite used to thanks to my admittedly still-new experience with cultivation.

Qi moved gently towards the next meridian point I wanted to unlock. And just like I did before, I let my qi slowly open the barrier on the way, as the knot gradually dissolved until it was no more.

I could sense that an hour or so had passed since I began this process, but unlike how I would usually stop, I decided to continue the pseudo-meditation exercice that was cultivation, and following Mei Wu's example of utter stillness, I pondered on if I should try to focus deeper on myself.

I didn't usually do that since there was a sense of danger, no matter how little it is before, but now, I have full trust that I won't be harmed, neither by Mei Wu or the hive, thus I decided to test it.

And so, fully focusing on my body and its inner workings, I let my qi flow, as I felt the outer world slowly vanish from my senses, and the calmness I was used to felt like it was growing deeper.

I could hear my own heart, beating normally, and as the feeling of outer calm on my body grew, I heard as if my heartbeat was growing louder, yet strangely harmless and utterly safe and natural.

Something was happening. I don't know what it is, but something inside my body is happening, or maybe, it is occuring to my mind as well.

I could now hear my own blood flowing through my veins, filling every organ it is supposed to reach with oxygen and vitality.

Strangely, even my own heart's sound seemed to become quiet as well as I felt as if my mind was swimming in a highly deep ocean, always moving deeper and deeper.

'It's close...' I thought, a strange mix of curiosity and anxiety welling inside of me that I just knew did not even appear on my body outside as my metaphorical mental body kept diving lower.

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It's close... it's close, it's close!

I can feel my own Qi pulsing outward, but a strange feeling was also making itself known that my Qi was not actually 'outside' this ocean, but actually deep inside.

The dive continues at a pace I couldn't feel the flow of time of, but I just knew that I found the end of it.

It was as if I found the ground in this black ocean. No, this ground... it isn't real.

I frowned, and looked down at the seemingly black surface of what might be my Qi's manifestation in my mind. I could feel the energy pulsing, and it's right under this place where I stand in my mind, or soul. I still don't know it for certain.

"Then, let's break through this then!" with that, I focused my Qi, and I felt as the blackness around was swallowed by green, before the weight of my will pierced the thin layer and I found myself falling once more, but only for a second.

"!" my mouth opened, but no voice came out. The sight before me was honestly shocking, and I would have thought I was hallucinating if I wasn't so deeply and instinctually certain that this was real.

What I saw after the green aura disappeared from around me was a huge forest. A massively giant forest filled of trees, weeds and plants. A blue sky and a sun were present, illuminating the place, and I knew from the bottom of my heart that while this sky wasn't real, it strangely felt so, even if I knew just as well that even if I could fly for days at the speed of the light, I would never reach the end of this sky.

"Wow! What is this place?" I was, of course, utterly baffled by what was going on. Instinctually, I fully understood what was happening, but on an intellectual level? I still needed time to deal with this discovery.

I made a step to walk into my mindscape, -my inner world, because this couldn't be anything else-, and I noticed something strange yet felt right as well, and I looked down towards myself.

I still had my monsterous lower half, even here, and I was honestly expecting that.

This place being my mindscape, my body's projection inside of it clearly shows how I see myself. Me having the lower half is a definite proof that I am seeing myself as an alraune if my previous experiences didn't make that fact clear.

What I found different was how I felt my upper body though. I definitely was older-looking here. My upper half was taller, my bust larger, though it wasn't that much bigger than what I thought they would be. The size was just perfectly balanced, as all things should be. Thanos would be proud of that!

Probably.

Refocusing on myself, I noticed that my hair, green as always, was long, nearly reaching my petals. I liked that appearance. Long hair felt awesome, especially as it swayed along with the breeze in this domain. And if I was to talk about my face, then I would say it felt more... mature than the childish teenage-like face I had in reality, a reflection to my mental age of thirty-something lady.

"Huh... Wonder if I would become like this when I evolve sufficiently enough or I become a Holy Beast?" I asked no one, and naturally got no answer.

Focusing on my inner world once more, there was a rather strange sensation that I just knew everything in it. I could sense every inch of it, and I could notice everything that was happening in it.

Of course, saying that something was happening was a bit of a lie since I can sense nothing was occuring right now, beyond the fact that my Qi was covering every place even though this realm was effectively infinite.

The color of my Qi was like a thin film or membrane that existed all around me, one that I can't actually cut or rip, nor would I want to, but I can touch it, as my fingers touched the empty air as it turned a soft shade of green, acting like it was made of rubber before returning to its original state as soon as I stopped playing around with it.

I hummed while walking, as my omnipresent senses in my inner world told me what I am seeing whenever I halt to look at something. This forest was a strangely beautiful mess of multiple plant life that I knew for certain were not plants that actually existed in my previous world, or ones that I saw in this life so far as well.

"So this inner world of mine also contains whatever fictional plants that I read about or imagined before? Kinda weird, but then again, this is my world." I pondered, then I looked far away, and moved to a place that I felt quite familiar.

Another one of my locked meridian points.

Seeing them in front of me, in the spiritual sense at least, was not really as impressive. I say that I am seeing them, but in reality, I'm seeing nothing. The locked points were nothing but thick invisible walls that seemed to block me from passing through them, nothing more.

I could naturally just walk around, or jump 'above' them, but they still block my qi, no matter how little, from properly 'spreading around,' for the lack of better description.

"Let me fix this then..." I smiled as I touched the wall, hand pulsating with qi as I willed it to follow my intent.

The world around me seemed to shudder, taking a slightly green hue as I guided the qi's movement towards and around the wall, slowly eroding and breaking it in an almost-gentle manner.

Cracks appeared on the invisible wall (knot), and it was barely a few minutes from my perspective before it shattered without giving any voice, the shards flying into the air, vanishing as if they never were there.

The world around me pulsed once more, and I felt as the thin membrane made of my qi filled the space where there was none, and the purity of it increasing just a tiny bit.

I exhaled, both content and amazed by this experience.

To think that I even could enter this inner world of mine... I shook my head. This was one hell of a ride! I would definitely repeat this again!

"Not to mention that there are parts I still want to explore by myself too." I told myself, nodding and the air seemed to move with happiness at that.

Well, I would do it at a later time. It seems that time here passes differently than the outside, clearly the same way it happens whenever I cultivate. My internal clock tells me that the sun was already rising, and soon I and Mei Wu would be called to do our daily nectar packaging work.

"Time to exit then!" with a smile on my lips, knowing that my body was as refreshed as it can be even with my deep dive into my inner world, and I exit the inner world with a simple command, as for a second, I could hear my own heart beating loudly, before that disappeared, and I felt my real eyes open.

Well, that was... an unforgettable experience indeed.