By the time Shen returned home, the apartment was quiet.
The hallway lamp had already been extinguished, leaving only faint moonlight coming through the window near the stairs. The wooden floor creaked softly beneath his steps, but no doors opened and no voices followed.
Arthur and the girls had already gone to sleep.
Shen closed the apartment door carefully behind him and stood still for a moment, listening.
Everything is silent. Good.
He loosened the cloak around his shoulders and walked quietly to his room.
Once inside, he locked the door carefully and finally allowed himself to breathe more freely.
Tonight had been a long night.
He touched his coat pocket to make sure the ingredients were there.
He brought out the ingredients from his pocket and placed the small wrapped items carefully on his desk.
For a few seconds, he simply stared at them.
"Alright then," he murmured quietly.
"Let's do this properly."
Shen took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
Rushing into a potion while nervous was a bad idea. Even the occult book had emphasized that.
He sat in the chair and closed his eyes for several minutes, slowly steadying his breathing.
Inhale and exhale.
Gradually the tension left his shoulders.
When he opened his eyes again, his thoughts were clear.
Shen stood up and brought out the equipment he had prepared earlier.
A small metal cauldron, a wooden stirring rod, and a clean glass cup.
He set lit candles around the cauldron.
Shen glanced toward the window.
The night sky over Backlund was rarely clear. Thick smoke from factories and constant fog usually hid the stars.
But tonight was different.
The clouds were thinner.
And through the dark sky, several faint stars could be seen.
"That's quite lucky," Shen said quietly.
The final ingredient required water collected under starlight.
He placed a small glass bowl outside the window where the starlight could reach it directly.
"I am not sure if this is going to work," he said a little uncertainly.
After several minutes, he brought the bowl back inside.
The preparation could finally begin.
Shen placed the cauldron on the desk and poured the pure water into it.
The clear liquid reflected the candlelight softly.
Next came the crystal dust.
He carefully measured ten grams of the sun-patterned crystal powder and let it fall into the water.
The dust didn't dissolve immediately. Instead, the tiny grains floated like faint golden particles.
Shen picked up the jar containing the bat eyes.
For a moment he hesitated.
Even though he knew it was necessary, dropping preserved creature eyes into a potion still felt strange and disgusting.
"Well… no turning back now."
He added them into the mixture.
The moment the eyes touched the water, the floating golden particles began moving slowly around them.
Shen watched closely.
The final step was simple.
He stirred the liquid gently with the wooden rod.
At first, nothing happened.
Then the liquid began to darken.
The golden particles spread through the water, mixing with the shadowy color forming around the bat eyes.
The mixture slowly changed.
Dark blue.
Then deeper.
Soon the entire potion looked like a piece of the night sky.
Tiny specks of golden light floated inside the dark liquid, drifting slowly as if following invisible currents.
After that, he slowly poured the potion into a glass cup.
Then, looking at the glass, it looked strangely beautiful.
Like a small galaxy trapped inside a cup.
Shen lifted the glass carefully and studied the potion.
The golden specks gathered together occasionally, coming up, then drifting apart again, repeating the process.
They looked almost like stars rising through the darkness.
For a moment, he forgot about the potion's danger entirely.
"Wow… This actually looks beautiful."
The swirling pattern moved slowly, giving the impression that the liquid itself was alive, drawing him in, asking him to submerge in this galaxy.
Calm, beautiful, mesmerizing, and mysterious.
Shen stared at it for a few seconds before shaking his head to break this feeling, a little terrified.
"Right. It's still poison if I mess this up."
He laughed quietly at himself.
"Imagine dying because I was admiring the potion too much. That would be a really bad joke, and this potion is Sequence 9."
The small humor helped him calm his nerves.
He sat down and took another slow deep breath.
"Alright."
Shen lifted the cup.
"Cheers to me."
He smiled a little.
Then he drank it.
The potion tasted cold.
Colder than water.
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
Then the world tilted.
A wave of dizziness struck him instantly.
Shen grabbed the edge of the desk.
"What—"
Pain spread through his body.
It started in his chest and moved outward like burning wires under his skin.
The cup slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor.
Shen barely noticed.
His muscles twitched violently.
His vision blurred.
Then the voices began. Strange whispers filled his mind.
Some sounded distant.
Some sounded like echoes of his own voice, but they were speaking different things.
Others were completely unfamiliar voices.
They overlapped and tangled together, forming a chaotic noise that made his head feel like it would split apart, and hundreds of needles were pricking his brain.
Panicking, he thought, "Am I going to lose control?"
Shen gritted his teeth, trying to endure the pain his head was causing.
Then suddenly, the pain intensified.
He panicked more.
His body collapsed onto the floor as the strength left his legs.
His muscles twisted uncontrollably.
His skin crawled with strange sensations, as if something inside him was shifting and reshaping itself.
He screamed silently, enduring the pain.
"Calm… down…"
Shen forced himself to be calm through sheer determination, trying to continue focusing.
Panic would only make things worse.
The occult book had mentioned this.
Cognition.
Focus.
Stabilize the mind.
He forced his breathing to slow.
The voices grew louder for a moment, each bombarding him with their own.
Then they quieted down slightly.
Minutes passed.
The pain in his head and body slowly began to weaken.
The chaotic whispers faded into distant murmurs.
Shen remained on the floor, breathing heavily.
Eventually, the room became quiet again.
The candles continued burning steadily.
The clock ticked softly on the wall.
Shen stayed there for several minutes.
Then he slowly pushed himself up.
"…I'm alive."
Looks like he did not lose control.
And was becoming a Beyonder always this painful, even if it is Sequence 9?
"Am I going to have to endure this again?" he said fearfully.
Then after calming down for a few seconds, he noticed that his body felt different.
It felt lighter, more responsive.
Shen stood up carefully and looked toward the mirror.
His reflection stared back at him.
His purple eyes looked clearer than before.
Deeper somehow.
As if something inside them had sharpened.
He leaned closer to the mirror.
The small details of his reflection were easier to notice.
Even the tiny scratches on the wooden frame seemed more obvious.
"This is interesting."
Then something changed.
Inside his mind, the familiar fog appeared again.
Golden text slowly formed within it.
Pathway: Unbonded
Sequence 9: Rising Star
Description: Become a professional (Rising Star) in more than one field in the eyes of others
Abilities:
The Spotlight (Spark): A passive enhancement to personal presence and charisma. Others naturally notice you more easily in social situations.
Body Control: Improved balance, dexterity, and coordination. Movements become smoother and more precise. Vision also becomes clearer and sharper. (While physical control improves, facial expressions may not always match the intended emotion perfectly.)
Voice Change: The ability to adjust and control one's voice. Can imitate tones, alter pitch, and disguise your voice if needed.
Enhanced Memory: Improved memory, creativity, and mental processing. Information can be recalled more easily and understood faster.
Proficiency: Gains a natural talent for learning new skills quickly and comprehensively.
Shen read the information slowly.
"…Rising Star."
That sounded almost theatrical.
And this description is this the direction for this sequence acting?
If the ability required becoming a "professional in multiple fields," then that likely meant gaining recognition for skills.
Hmm, it could be music, performance, crafts, cooking, and many other fields.
Anything where others acknowledged his ability.
Shen nodded slightly.
"That seems to make sense," he said. "I will have to test it later."
Then the golden text shifted again.
Another line appeared.
Pathway: Unbonded
Sequence 8: Raider
Formula: Shadow Leopard Pituitary Gland. Spirit-Eater Tree Root. 30 grams of Obsidian Dust. Hemlock Essence. Pure Water Collected Under Starlight.
Shen stared at the information.
"Raider?"
The word immediately triggered an image in his mind.
Raider could mean exploring ruins, breaking into ancient tombs, searching dangerous places for hidden treasures, or stealing from those places.
"Like a tomb raider?"
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
If that interpretation was correct, the next sequence might involve exploration, infiltration, stealing, and acquiring hidden things.
It could be secrets, artifacts, knowledge, history, and treasures.
"Interesting."
Shen leaned back slightly.
But thinking about the next sequence could wait.
Tonight had already been exhausting.
His body still felt slightly weak from the potion.
He stretched once and blew out the candles one by one.
The room grew darker.
Shen lay down on his bed.
His mind slowly drifted toward sleep.
Let's think about how to act for this sequence tomorrow.
Slowly, Shen closed his eyes and let the exhaustion pull him into sleep.