As Yip Chor's fist pushed into the Colossal owl-man's eye, it ruptured with a soft, oddly satisfying pop. From Yip Chor's inner soul realm, the eyeball appeared to be a vast expanse of shimmering, translucent matter, flickering with countless vibrant spectra of light. It was as though the bird-man's eye had not decomposed but had transformed into a sea of pure spiritual essence. From the perspective of the dark crypt, Yip Chor's hand had entered a viscous sludge of odorous preserved flesh within the cavernous eye of the Colossal owl-mans head.
With a rush of resolve born from a deep hunger for more concepts, Yip Chor plunged himself further into the skull of the bird-man. Breaking past the eyeball, he pulled himself into the bird mans grey matter, through it's eyehole. In there, he found himself submerged in a kaleidoscopic pool of knowledge, every stroke of his arms unveiling a new realm of understanding. His entire body absorbed concepts in torrents - higher insights of flight, sharper notions of an owl's sight, more nuanced understanding of a predator's instinct. The essence of these concepts did not stem from the bird-man's personal experiences or specific cultivation techniques, but instead, they seemed to be fundamental aspects of its being, condensed into spiritual fragments that Yip Chor's soul gene could interpret. What he was doing was comprehending the underlying structure, the innate genetic essence of the Birdman. It was as if his soul gene was resonating with the core DNA of the bird-man, rather than just replicating its abilities.
The experience was dizzying, even frightening, but Yip Chor persisted. He swam deeper into the skull, guided by an intuitive sense that there was something far greater yet to be discovered. Concepts were swirling around him like a hurricane, merging, colliding, breaking apart only to form newer, more complex structures.
Suddenly, in the deepest recesses of the skull, Yip Chor came across a different kind of concept. Not just a singular idea, but a combination of many, entwined and layered so intricately that it was impossible to separate them. It was a Rune. A Rune was not a simple manifestation of an idea like fire or water. Instead, it was an assemblage of multiple concepts, harmoniously structured into a single unit.
With a sense of reverence, Yip Chor in his inner souls realm reached out and touched the Rune. A surge of energy unlike anything he'd felt before engulfed him. His soul's landscape flared with dazzling light as the Rune ingrained itself on his soul gene. His body, spirit and universe star, his fate wheel, his life wheel – all lit up simultaneously, resonating with the incredible power of the Rune.
Then, with an echoing chime, time seemed to slow as his fate wheel and life wheel began to turn faster, their movement slow but certain. The bells of his soul realm tolled thrice, marking the arrival of a monumental shift within his spiritual existence. A sudden surge of energy coursed through his being, and he could feel himself transforming, evolving.
Yip Chor felt a transformation ripple through him, beginning from his soul realm and extending to his physical self. He came to a profound conclusion. A rune within a soul gene was the blueprint that determined a creatures physical manifestation. In the moment of an infant's formation within it's mother's womb, it was the rune on the soul gene which would dictate the development of the baby, ensuring that its physical form and DNA were in perfect harmony with the underlying soul gene. The body was not merely a vessel; it was the embodiment of the soul's unique blueprint, a physical representation of the soul's conceptual framework.
In essence, Yip Chor realised that a being's physical existence was intimately tied to the inscription on its soul gene. The body was a testament to the soul's distinct configuration of concepts, a living testament to the soul's unique essence. The soul's rune determined the form, the attributes, and the capabilities of the physical and spiritual body that it would inhabit.
Now, Yip Chor realised that he had two runes on his soul gene. He had the rune that was inscribed on his soul gene at birth, and he had the rune he ingested now. By making contact with every physical aspect of this bird man, through his soul's resonance, he had reconstructed the blueprint that had formed this creature.
Stolen story; please report.
These two runes were not isolated entities. Instead, they manifested as individual luminous stars on his soul gene, surrounded by an intricate and staggeringly complex network of connections. Each rune was a radiant metropolis within the landscape of his soul gene, linked by a maze-like network of pathways reminiscent of roads on a map, illustrating the interconnectedness of his new dual nature.
In addition to this, the rock dias that contained his soul gene was undergoing a qualitative transformation. It began cracking and reforming, shifting it's shape until it now appeared as a transparent plane of obsidian glass, and the network of connections that flowed from each rune had expanded into three dimensions. This network of connections traversed through the depth and breadth of his soul gene, reinforcing the interconnectedness of his dual nature.
When a cultivator engaged in cultivation, the transformations of their bodies DNA and spirit influenced a delayed change in their soul gene. If a cultivator reached an evolution, their soul gene would ultimately reflect that change. Subsequently, if such a cultivator was to undergo reincarnation, their soul, bearing the evolved rune etched onto their soul gene, would naturally gravitate towards an environment and parents commensurate with their level of evolution. Thus, the rune engraved on a cultivator's soul gene dictates their starting point in their next life, ensuring that their soul was drawn to circumstances suitable for their enhanced state. It is a spiritual law of attraction, a resonating call echoing across the realms of life and death, aligning a soul's state with it's physical incarnation.
The issue was that adding new patterns to a soul gene was an TOO HARD! It was so difficult that even seasoned cultivators who'd undergone countless evolutions over centuries barely left a mark on their soul gene. It would take thousands of reincarnations, with investments of karma across each of these reincarnations, to even etch a single evolution into a soul gene!
And yet, Yip Chor had just done the impossible! In a matter of hours, he'd copied an ENTIRE RUNE from the DNA of a high order being, a creature of incredible power. This wasn't a mere imprint of it's soul gene with it's basic blueprint, but a comprehensive copy of the creature's DNA at it's point of death.
Extreme didn't begin to cover it! This achievement was monumental, a leap forward that most could only dream of! As he looked at the complex patterns of the new rune in his soul gene, Yip Chor's heart raced with excitement. He had opened a door to unimaginable possibilities, and he was eager to explore what lay beyond. His journey had just taken a thrilling turn!
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From an outsiders perspective, they would have been horrified to see a strangely clothed man delving into the giant eyeball of this strange owl creature like a wriggling maggot. Ever so often, thick juice would seep from the eye of this giant head as though it were shedding bloody tears.
Meanwhile, inside the giant skull, Yip Chor was ensconced within its confines, his body curled and trembling in a fetal position akin to an unborn child nestled within its mother's womb. The interior of the skull, in stark contrast to its repelling exterior, unfolded as a realm of profound contemplation and understanding for him.
In his inner soul realm, he gazed with awe at the Rune now ingrained in his soul gene. The web of concepts branching from this Rune was immensely more intricate and interconnected than those of his original human Rune, displaying a level of sophistication that hinted at the owl creature's higher order of existence.
As Yip Chor tenderly caressed the Rune, nestled like a jewel on his soul gene pillar, he noticed profound changes within his soul realm. His Life and Fate wheels had metamorphosed, his fate wheel mirroring the dark, a polished obsidian glass of his soul gene pillar and his life the polar opposite... a light, crystal clear glass. They both bore golden inscriptions along their peripheries, akin to finely wrought gilding, a sight so exquisite that Yip Chor couldn't help but express his admiration.
The biosphere within his inner realm had swelled significantly in size, its diameter stretching from a mere hundred meters to a staggering half-mile. Looking upwards, he observed that the stars of his inner cosmos were brighter, transformed into luminescent orbs. Among these celestial bodies, he spotted a peculiar cloud of dust encircling his body star. He reached out to draw the dust closer, expecting it to respond to his command, as a concept should. But to his surprise, it defied his call.
Could it be that this wasn't a concept? If not, then what was it? This discovery sparked a new wave of curiosity in Yip Chor, his mind filled with a thousand questions.