If Raphael had been like any other Werewolf, the spiritual attack he had just suffered during the Spirit Channeling would have been enough to leave him teetering on the edge of losing control.
But he was far from ordinary. Besides being a Werewolf, he was also a Criminal, so he had considerable psychological resilience.
Additionally, his cultivation of the Mystic Source True Scripture had taken effect, making his Body of Heart and Mind stronger than those of a normal Sequence 7 Beyonder. This allowed him to recover quickly; otherwise, he would certainly have been cornered by that Devil or Desire Apostle.
As long as he didn't encountered the other party directly, Raphael wasn't worried. After all, his innate Anti-Divination was of a very high level. At the very least, Beyonders below the Demigod level wouldn't be able to find him.
In a quiet alley, Raphael ended his Werewolf Transformation and changed into the clothes he had prepared in advance from his backpack. Then he returned to the street, hailed a rental carriage in the drizzling rain, and rode back to his residence.
He sat down on the sofa, propped his feet on the coffee table, pinched his still-throbbing head while lighting a cigarette, then took a drag.
"That was exhilarating!" he exhaled contentedly.
After recovering somewhat, though still feeling some residual discomfort, Raphael decided not to wait any longer. He opened the drawer in the wardrobe and took out the supplementary materials he had purchased over the past few days.
Then he carefully measured them, first placing the four supplementary ingredients into a beaker, and finally adding the Beyonder characteristic, which resembled a dark heart with flowing ice-blue blood.
The characteristic and the supplementary ingredients reacted immediately, forming an ice-blue liquid with numerous black dots suspended in the air.
Holding the beaker, Raphael sighed helplessly. The potions of the Prisoner Pathway looked and tasted disgusting, but the Criminal Pathway's potions looked like poison no matter how you looked at them.
Taking a deep breath to steady his mindset, he looked at his reflection in the mirror not far away, raised the beaker, and smiled, "To the future."
Then he chuckled, switched his tone, and said, "To us!"
Tilting his head back, Raphael drank the Unwinged Angel potion.
He immediately felt something cold enter his stomach, then his slight pained expression vanished, replaced by cold indifference.
It wasn't just his expression that changed, Raphael felt as if all his emotions were also leaving him. Happiness, sadness, joy, pain... they all seemed to become increasingly foreign.
Just then, the left side of his face remained cold, while the right side suddenly revealed a slightly manic smile, "No wonder the ancient name of this Sequence was 'Coldblooded'. All positive feelings and emotions become diluted, but those like malice, evil desires, and so on are strengthened... Heh heh, all conscience is bullshit!"
Then the cold side of Raphael's face spoke: "The description in the Mystic Source True Scripture was correct. Werewolf and Coldblooded can actually complement each other. Werewolves are prone to becoming manic and lose reason, while Coldblooded can maintain rationality at all times! A Coldblooded is originally too indifferent and inhumane, but the Werewolf's desires and the Lunatic's madness can neutralize such coldness, allowing me to retain most of my emotions."
Then his entire face turned manic again, "It seems I'll need to go mad from time to time from now on."
Finally, Raphael coldly grunted in acknowledgment, and realized that he had successfully advanced.
At that moment, the white-jade pearl appeared again in his mind: "It seems you've already discovered the secret of these two adjacent Pathways. Actually, it's not just these two Pathways; other adjacent Pathways are also quite complementary. A pity the minds of all living creatures are too feeble. Even if the body can barely accommodate the characteristics of two Pathways, the mind struggles to remain normal."
Raphael asked curiously, "Then why can I consume potions from both Pathways without losing control?"
The pearl said: "With my help, you are naturally the most special one."
After a momentary pause, it added: "Same as before, I'll give you the potion formulas for the next Sequence."
Raphael immediately said, "Why not give me the Beyonder characteristics as well?"
"Heh, in your dreams!"
Raphael mimicked its tone, "Heh, you can't do it, can you?"
The jade pearl chuckled coldly and fell silent for a moment...
Suddenly, Raphael's expression changed, then he said with a grin, "Alright, alright, both of you say less."
"Oh?" The pearl's tone became somewhat curious: "I personally split your Soul Body in two, yet you still enjoy talking to yourself?"
"Isn't splitting the Soul Body in two precisely for the convenience of our chats?" Raphael laughed, "What's wrong with that?"
The pearl chuckled: "Nothing, nothing. You seem just mad enough."
Raphael then said, "Alright, let's not waste any more time. I need to ask you two questions. First: how does the True Jade operate? Why can it grant others Beyonder abilities?"
"Your Sequence is too low. I can't explain too detailedly," the pearl said. "Hmm, it's not that I'm afraid you won't understand, but at this stage, there are some things that make it easier to be 'infected' the more you know." It paused briefly before continuing, "I can only briefly explain it this way: High-Sequence Beyonders of certain Pathways can temporarily grant other Beyonders some abilities, or allow Beyonders of the same Pathway to acquire some abilities in advance. For example, if a Sequence 6 'Wind-blessed' from the Tyrant Pathway is blessed by the Lord of Storms, they can use some higher Sequence abilities in advance, making such Wind-blessed nearly as powerful as Sequence 5s..."
"The cultivators of that continent are in a similar situation. They actually receive boons. I must say, they are quite clever. They found ways to bring their own Soul Bodies and Body of Heart and Mind closer to... well, closer to the 'secret realms'. For instance, the Mystic Source True Scripture you obtained will make it easier for you to approach the secret realm of the Shadow Cottage in the future. And it's not only you; other cultivators can also receive boons from the secret realms more easily. You may not feel it yet, but after you advance to Sequence 4, you will be able to perceive the advantages the Mystic Source True Scripture brings you."
Finally, the white-jade pearl gave a very high evaluation: "I have seen many intelligent creatures, and these cultivation techniques are a great innovation even among all intelligent creatures."
Raphael nodded thoughtfully, then asked another question, "Is there some secret hidden within the True Jade?"
The pearl chuckled: "You are indeed perceptive." Then it said: "As I mentioned before, after a sufficiently powerful 'Dao Integrator' corresponding to a so-called 'Dao Lineage' or 'secret realm' appears, they can directly grant power to others. However, someone exploited certain 'loopholes' in this process to create the 'True Jades'. Heh... if your mysticism knowledge were sufficient, you would roughly understand what this is about, but I cannot explain it too clearly to you now, because that would alert some half-dead entities, and there would be a slight probability of attracting that prankster brat. Believe me, that would give you quite a headache."