The harsh winter wind blew down the last leaf from the Whomping Willow, and snowflakes rang Christmas bells across Hogwarts.
Christmas arrived, and Aiden began busily preparing gifts for his friends. At the same time, he needed to infiltrate the dreams of various Squibs at night to leave his influence, which finally allowed Aiden's acting progress to be completely finished on Christmas Eve.
After sending out gifts for everyone—Professor Snape's premium shampoo, Professor McGonagall's enchanted cat toy, Dumbledore's exotic candies, and rare books for the old headmaster—Aiden set off alone on his journey to the China.
Before leaving, Aiden visited J. Pippin's Potion Shop, where clerk Vincent was still behind the counter.
Seeing Aiden, Vincent showed a knowing smile.
"Welcome to J. Pippin's Potion Shop," he said, making an exaggerated bow.
"Vincent, oh Vincent, your little schemes are already known to everyone," Aiden teased.
Aiden then purchased dragon brain essence, dragon blood, venomous leopard blood, bird snake eggshells, Whomping Willow branches and leaves, and seven different human tears of intense emotion from the potion shop.
Returning to the Prewett ancestral home, he extracted the characteristics and finished brewing his advancement potion. Then Aiden set off for the China.
At the wizard immigration office of China, a man in traditional Daoist robes examined Aiden's documents carefully.
"Aiden Prewett, from a noble family as well," he noted, comparing the documents with Aiden's appearance.
"What brings you here?" the man asked.
"Winter vacation travel," Aiden replied with a sincere expression.
"Your Chinese is quite good. Alright, you pass, but please remember—if you cause trouble here, you will be subject to our laws as well."
The man gave Aiden a final stern reminder.
"Of course, sir," Aiden nodded respectfully.
The Sichuan-Chongqing region, located in the southwest of China, was an area of beautiful natural scenery, deep cultural heritage, and vibrant economic development. It also possessed rich Daoist culture and was the region with the most abundant "wizards" in the country.
As a foreigner returning to this land with similar cultural roots, Aiden was filled with emotion.
Randomly selecting a restaurant, Aiden prepared to solve his hunger problem.
"Oh, it's a foreign kid. Where's your family?" the boss greeted Aiden warmly.
"Haha, my family is no longer here. I'm traveling alone," Aiden replied.
This statement made the boss fall silent. He quietly added extra ingredients to Aiden's dish.
"Come on, kid, eat more. You can only grow taller when you're well-fed," the boss said, soon serving all the dishes.
Since today was a special day, there weren't many customers in the restaurant. The boss had nothing else to do, so he sat down to chat with Aiden.
"Where are you from, kid?"
"I'm from Britain. I've come to experience Chinese culture," Aiden replied with a smile.
"You should really experience the culture here. Your Chinese is quite impressive too."
The boss lit a cigarette, but seeing Aiden, he quickly extinguished it.
"It's fine, please smoke. By the way, I want to ask—where have all the young people in the city gone?" Aiden waved his hand to indicate he didn't mind, then asked curiously.
"Oh, it's because of that ship being blocked by you foreigners. The young folks all ran to the embassy to protest," the boss shrugged.
"Uh, I'm really sorry about that," Aiden said, momentarily speechless.
"Hey, what does it have to do with you, kid? But seeing how well-mannered you are, just don't make things difficult for us when you grow up," the boss said meaningfully.
"Haha, definitely not," Aiden laughed it off.
After finishing all the food on the table, Aiden paid and left the restaurant.
The second half of 1993 was not a year worth celebrating for the people of this country. In October, a giant ship named Galaxy had been detained without reason in the Middle East. China had responded by relocating the embassy of the detaining country to a separate location.
When Aiden arrived, the outside was already surrounded by protesting young people.
"Down with imperialism!" a young person led from above.
"Down with imperialism!" the crowd echoed in unison.
"Return our freedom of navigation!" "Return our freedom of navigation!"
The angry emotions reached their peak, and more than ten thousand minds outside the embassy resonated powerfully.
Aiden hid in the crowd, feeling their collective anger. He took out the advancement potion from his pocket. The liquid showed countless brilliances, like a manifestation of the collective unconscious sea itself.
Without hesitation, Aiden pulled out the cork and poured the potion into his mouth.
Unlike the pain brought by previous potions, Aiden couldn't feel his own body. He seemed to become pure thought, merging into the collective unconscious sea.
Aiden passed through the membrane between dreams and reality. In the collective unconscious sea, he felt himself being held in a warm, maternal embrace—like a baby being cradled again, influenced and dissolved by the imprints left by countless souls in the unconscious waters.
But the surrounding waters were not calm. Waves of anger and humiliation crashed in all directions. These sorrows and frustrations penetrated Aiden's thoughts, stitching together his final missing pieces so he would no longer scatter.
Finally, Aiden's consciousness awakened. He used soothing magic on himself and quickly gathered his scattered essence together.
The shouts of the protesters echoed around him. Aiden joined his voice with theirs, and his figure in the collective unconscious sea gradually became clear and defined.
With a single thought, Aiden felt himself split apart—literally dividing into more than ten pieces, scattering and flying into others' islands of consciousness. Here, he witnessed the source of their anger: their homeland was wounded, and they hated their own powerlessness.
Finally, Aiden gathered his thoughts back and returned fully to the real world.
"Did I succeed?" Aiden began examining himself carefully.
"I thought I would lose my humanity and become more like a mythical creature," he said with self-deprecating humor.
"And now?" the system asked.
"It's okay. I'm still human. At least I can laugh with them, cry with them, and feel righteous indignation alongside them," Aiden said, showing a beautiful, genuine smile.
Back at the hotel, Aiden began cataloging his new abilities.
"Manipulate Emotion, Virtual Persona, Dream Walking, Mental Storm, Psychic Plague, Mind Deprivation, Consciousness Stroll, and Mythical Creature Form."
Aiden raised his head and met the dragon pupils reflected in the mirror.
"Demigod. From this moment on, can I be considered essentially non-human?" he murmured.
"You haven't been human since you became a dragonman," the system teased.
"Hmph, shut up," a certain dragon huffed indignantly.
"Sigh, still being tsundere," the system observed with amusement.