1 Awakening

Drip. Drip. Drip

Water dripped onto the milky white liquid, rippling the still surface as it hit it. Instead of mixing in the puddle, it formed a layer on top, seemingly unable to blend together with the fluid. Seconds later, the water droplet began boiling and completely dissipated.

By the edge of the puddle, a rock laid there. At first glance it may seem like an ordinary rock, but if examined carefully you could see white veins spread across the surface of the rock, seemingly glowing.

Suddenly, the rock glowed a bright white, the light so intense it was almost blinding. Just as quickly as it came, the white light died out, the cave regaining it peace.

-Some time later-

'What happened?'

Terra had been asking herself this since she turned back into a rock. She had been achieving a breakthrough in her cultivation, when her body fell into a portal and seemingly rewinded in time as she turned back into a rock.

Terra was a rock that gained sentience. With human intervention and luck she was able to craft her own human body, which allowed her to travel and cultivate. She travelled throughout the realms, searching for the human responsible for helping her gain sentience, but she could never find her and gave up eventually. She spent the rest of her life living in a cave as a recluse, spending her time in a constant dream state where she cultivated.

Terra could tell she was in another cave, but was unable to look due to not having a body. Instead, spread what little soul force she had to scan the surroundings.

'Rocks, crystals, A large white puddle... wait, a large white puddle? Have I gone back in time?' She exclaimed.

This large puddle was highly concentrated liquid soul force, formed from the remains of a spiritual god who died nearby.

'But I remember when I initially achieved awareness the puddle was nearly dried up' she thought.

Terra had unconsciously soaked in this soul force for an unknown amount of time, and had created her soul through the use of this stuff, which allowed her to gain awareness.

She pondered before coming to the realisation that her soul must have travelled to the past, and that the soul force hadn't been used up yet to create her soul yet!

'My soul must've travelled back in time and been inserted into my body before it gained awareness.'

Although shocked that she had travelled back into the past, she felt no regret over it. Her time in the world was spent alone, her lack of communication skills caused many misunderstandings and resulted with her being outcasted in the realms she wandered through.

The only person she considered close to her was a human who she had met before she getting her body. Her face was covered by a mask and numerous scars were visible on her skin, yet her voice was clear and sweet, mesmerising Terra as she talked to her.

She explained to her that she had only found out that she had sentience was due to the large concentration of soul force that was present, and how was shocked that a soul could be formed in such a odd way. She would tell stories about the city she used to live in, the crowded and busy streets and the towering walls that surrounded it. She would often lament about those times, her voice heavy with regret and pain, often wishing that she could go back and change the fate that had befallen it.

Everyday she would visit Terra, teaching her cultivation techniques and methods to acquiring a human form. Until one day, she no longer came.

Terra waited, and waited, and waited, but never saw her again.

She spent many years searching for her, to repay the kindness she had given her, but in the end she was nowhere to be seen and could only assume she had died.

Terra became momentarily distracted before focusing again. Now with the distracting thoughts gone, she has to begin the arduous process of forming a body again.

The process to forming a body had 3 steps: Purification, Visualisation, Realisation.

Purification was the process of preparing the body for transformation. At the moment her body was mixed with other substances and was very impure. By removing these impurities it allows her to stretch her form to the shape of a body, as well as improve the talent of the body formed.

In her last life, she was only able to achieve partial purification due to lack of resources. The end result was that although she was talented, she was never able to contend with the top experts.

This time however, she will be able to achieve complete purification as the soul force puddle is much more abundant.

Taking advantage of her round body, she began rocking it back and forth towards the puddle, inching forwards towards her destination.

'I forgot how embarrassing it is to move as a rock'