Above the blue-glowing surface of the water, the Oceanids hovered quietly, silently conveying their intention to see the guests off.
Coppelia glanced at Columbina beside her. Although there was no expression on her face, the slightly dimming moon-glow around her body already illustrated her disappointment.
***
By the shore of the great lake.
Coppelia and Columbina sat side by side on a patch of soft grass. Sunlight spilled onto the lake surface, shattering into thousands of points of light. Distant mountains and forests were reflected in the water, sketching a tranquil picture.
However, this bright scenery failed to dispel the haze in Columbina's heart. She once again molded a "Moon Spirit" using liquid Lunar Force, cupping it in her palm. Then, her forearms began to open and close erratically, stretching and squeezing that "Moon Spirit," as if trying to forcibly inject some kind of "vitality" into this mass of silent water through this crude physical deformation.
Under her kneading, the "Moon Spirit" sometimes flattened into a pancake, sometimes elongated like a snake, and sometimes expanded into an irregular sphere, appearing both comical and bizarre.
Coppelia watched from the side, a bit between laughter and tears.
Columbina stopped her movements and molded the "Moon Spirit" back to its original shape, mumbling the Oceanid's words: "Understand life..."
"What are you thinking about?" Coppelia asked.
"The Oceanids said they are born 'understanding life'," Columbina asked. "What does that mean?"
Coppelia pointed to the grass-covered ground beneath their feet. "Beneath this place, there exists an ocean called the 'Primordial Sea.' All the original life in this world was born from that sea. It is the source of all life."
She paused, then continued to explain, "Oceanids were likely born from the Primordial Sea, or at least have extremely deep ties to it. For them, being able to 'understand' and 'mimic' life isn't too strange a thing."
Columbina's gaze cast toward the shimmering great lake, as if trying to see through the water surface to the deeper underground. "If I also go and 'take a dip' in the Primordial Sea, would I be able to understand life?"
"Definitely not!" Coppelia immediately denied. "You'd better not touch the water of the Primordial Sea. For one, your power may not necessarily be able to control seawater of that special nature; for another, I'm not sure what strange reactions would occur if your Lunar Force touched the Primordial Sea water."
Columbina lowered her head, looking at the "Moon Spirit" in her hand, which was as quiet as a dead object. "Do you think the reason I can't create a living Moon Spirit is because I don't 'understand' life enough?"
Coppelia nodded, her tone softening. "Perhaps... 'Life' itself is indeed very complex."
She pointed casually at a Forest Boar rooting for food in a clearing in the distant woods. "Just like that boar. Its internal body structure is very intricate. It has a heart that keeps beating, responsible for pumping blood to the body, two lungs that allow it to breathe air, a brain, and also muscles, bones, blood vessels, nerves..."
Speaking of this, a sudden flash of inspiration struck Coppelia's mind. She turned to Columbina: "Wait, I might have been thinking about it the wrong way. The reason you can't create a 'living' Moon Spirit might not be that you don't understand 'life,' but because you simply don't know what on earth is inside a Moon Spirit's body!"
"Is a Moon Spirit's body as complex as those animals? What should be inside?"
"I don't know the specific internal structure of a Moon Spirit," Coppelia admitted. "But it definitely won't be simple. Nothing in this world that can move on its own is simple; there must be many, many structures inside."
Many... Columbina's attention returned to the "Moon Spirit" in her hand.
In her perception, the head and torso of this "Moon Spirit," and even those two long "braids," contained only "water" inside—only chaotically flowing liquid moon-glow. Apart from that, there was nothing else.
"Then how can I know what should be inside a Moon Spirit's body?" she asked.
Coppelia unconsciously muttered in a low voice, "Perhaps we could try 'dissection'..."
"'Dissection'? What is that?" Columbina caught the unfamiliar word.
"Roughly speaking, it's using a knife..." Coppelia's explanation came to an abrupt halt. She looked at Columbina's focused face, hesitating in her heart.
Would saying "dissection" to her be too bloody? They had traveled together for so long, yet Columbina had rarely even seen her processing fish entrails.
It would be great if there were a ready-made biological knowledge system to reference. Unfortunately, the biological knowledge in my brain has basically all been returned. That's right, the next planned stop is Sumeru; the Akademiya scholars there should have considerable research on biological structures...
Just as Coppelia was pondering, Columbina suddenly spoke, seemingly having comprehended it already: "'Dis' and 'section'... Does it mean opening up an animal's body to see what exactly is inside?"
She understood it just like that? Coppelia thought about it; the meaning of the word "dissection" itself was already straightforward enough. Just as she was planning to mention that Sumeru scholars might offer more systematic knowledge, Columbina spoke again:
"Actually, there's no need to truly open up the animal's body. I can also 'see' the things inside..."
Coppelia was stunned for a moment, then her gaze landed on the net-like ornament covering Columbina's eyes, and she reacted. Columbina didn't rely on vision to observe the world in the first place. For her, "seeing" the muscles, bones, and internal organ networks beneath the skin and fur might be as natural as an ordinary person seeing the texture of a leaf.
"Although I have rarely tried it," the latter half of Columbina's unfinished sentence drifted over.
"Huh?" Coppelia was very surprised. "Have you never tried before to carefully observe what structures are inside complex objects?"
"No." Columbina shook her head. "Seeing the shape and color was already enough."
Coppelia was speechless for a moment. After a while, she said, "Then do you want to try now? Look at the internal structure of an object, look at those more essential things. Start with me." As she spoke, she extended her arms to both sides, inviting, "Come, see what is inside my body."
Columbina immediately cast her perception onto Coppelia, penetrating into the interior of her body and probing carefully. After looking for just a short while, she unconsciously took a deep breath and frowned.
"What's wrong?" Coppelia was made a bit nervous by her reaction. She slowly retracted her arms and hugged herself. "Is there a problem? Is something broken?"
"There are so many, so many... things I don't recognize. So complex, so scary..." Columbina slowly exhaled, withdrawing her perception.
Scary? Just how complex is it? Coppelia lowered her head to look at her own body. Seeing no result, she raised her head again. Before her eyes, Columbina had dispersed the Moon Spirit and was hugging her knees, sitting in a ball.
"I am observing myself." Feeling the gaze cast upon her, Columbina answered.
"What did you see this time?"
"Something is shattered," Columbina said calmly.
____
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