Family

"Big Brother Adam!" Before Adam even reached home, he saw Lina pumping her little legs as she ran over, her face split in a silly grin. She threw her arms around Adam's leg and smeared all the dirt from her face onto his trousers.

Adam, who normally had a bit of a cleanliness obsession, was not angry at all. Instead, he laughed, lifted Lina up high, and made her laugh until her eyes narrowed into slits.

Adam was smiling when he noticed someone on the second floor staring at him.

The smile on Adam's face faded, replaced by his usual gentle one. He set Lina down and smiled as he rubbed her little head.

When he looked toward the second floor again, that person had already disappeared.

Adam had an excellent memory. Even if he had only met someone once or twice long ago, he could remember them clearly—especially when he had been the one to bury that person.

"You thief who stole my identity!" A voice thick with venom rang out, yet Adam did not turn around. He simply continued chatting with Yalis and Maggie, casually discussing all manner of gossip about the neighbors.

Yalis was not a man of many words. He always sat silently in his little woodworking room, knife and wood in hand, making small wooden crafts.

Yet this time, he had unexpectedly sat beside them, awkwardly echoing some of Maggie's words before falling silent once more.

"All this concern should have been mine!!!"

It was as though a vicious ghost were still roaring in his ear. Adam turned a deaf ear to it and did not care in the slightest.

Perhaps this world did have things such as evil spirits, but such spirits had to be transformed from powerful creatures. An ordinary boy, once dead, was simply dead.

"So this is another problem caused by the bloodline awakening?" Adam looked at the figure of 'Adam' emerging from the shadows. He met its gaze without the slightest fear, and there was not a trace of guilt in his eyes.

The real Adam had not even been killed by him; he had merely borrowed the other's identity. Even if he truly had killed him for that identity, and the dead spirit had now come to seek revenge, Adam could still face him calmly.

"Does every werewolf's bloodline awakening produce things like this?" Adam was mentally resilient enough not to care about this at all, but other werewolves might not be able to ignore such illusions.

"Or is it only me?" Adam listed several peculiarities about himself.

"I came into contact with wolfsbane. That is quite possible, since it is connected to werewolf bloodlines."

"Then there is the fact that I am a half-purebred werewolf. Cases of werewolf-human hybrids are not that common."

"Or perhaps it was because I underwent the Tears of God Ritual and other Church-related rites, which triggered something."

"It might also have been caused by my entering the perception state ahead of time." Adam carefully observed the figure and compared it with its surroundings.

"It is indeed derived from my own perception. Its form is rooted in my memories, rather than truly existing in this world."

"An overabundance of perception, coupled with involuntary retrospection during the bloodline awakening, created this phenomenon?" Adam felt a flicker of irritation.

Then Adam quickly calmed that irritation, because being upset would not change the fact that these troubles already existed. Most people understood that principle, yet when something truly happened, it was difficult to keep oneself calm.

"Then perhaps perception is also one of my personal talents? Developing one's talents should mean developing them in every aspect." Adam changed his way of thinking, and immediately felt much better.

"Affinity, perception... are my talents in these areas?" Adam was fairly satisfied with that. Though he did indeed need abilities that could directly increase his combat power, given his current situation, affinity and perception could instead play a greater role.

"After all, I subdued those people through acting, and my acting is entirely propped up by affinity and perception." Adam laughed at himself and slowly adjusted his mental state.

The figure gradually vanished as well. After Adam ate a relatively sumptuous dinner, he prepared to go upstairs.

Though this familial affection did not belong to him, feeling others' concern still brightened his mood considerably.

But Adam soon reined in those unnecessary emotions. He knew one thing clearly: sooner or later, he would be exposed. The only difference was whether it happened sooner or later.

The fewer unnecessary attachments he had, the better it would be for everyone when he made his escape.

After locking the attic door, Adam began waiting quietly. As moonlight emerged, he even began seeing illusions—unfamiliar people and unfamiliar events.

"White fur... am I beginning to trace back to my ancestors?" Adam narrowed his eyes. Rather than panicking at the appearance of the illusions, he began studying them carefully.

Their contents were exceptionally chaotic. There were scenes of ordinary life, scenes of battle, and scenes unfit for children.

"No, why is every kind of content being crammed into the bloodline?" Adam frowned as he discovered that the scenes unfit for children were actually the most numerous.

"I understand that reproduction is the most important matter for a species, but this is just too..." Adam tried his best to brush aside those worthless scenes and draw nourishment from the others.

"Close-quarters combat, toolmaking, wilderness tracking, even werewolves who were sorcerers." Adam shook his head. Most werewolves were proficient at close-quarters combat, while werewolf sorcerers were almost nonexistent. The scene he saw of one did not convey anything particularly useful.

After all, combat was easier to display through images, but a sorcerer's cultivation had little visual impact. It was merely a werewolf sitting there, with slight changes in its bearing and form.

"I can't gain much this way." Adam closed his eyes to rest his mind. When the night gradually deepened, Adam transformed once more.

Bang! His head lightly struck the ceiling. Adam realized a beat too late that his werewolf form had grown taller again.

Moonlight shone upon his white fur, as if sprites of light were dancing across his body before entering it.

Suppressing the urge to howl, Adam climbed out through the attic window and ran swiftly through the streets and alleys of the district.

Leaning forward and using all four limbs, Adam grew faster and faster. A great rush of wind struck him head-on, fluffing up his white fur.

At that moment, it was as if Adam's rationality had separated from his body. He knew clearly what he was doing, but interfering with his body was far more difficult than usual.

"The superego has receded. The wildness within the bloodline has linked with thought, the id has taken the initiative, while the ego has withdrawn to the side, making it harder to control the body." Adam's hidden rationality analyzed.

In psychological terms, a person's mind consisted of the id, ego, and superego. Adam in his ordinary state was the ego, influenced by the id and restrained by the superego.

But after transforming, the id became the one controlling his body. His present rationality, meanwhile, was the ego free of all influence and restraint—pure reason.

Though the ego was normally influenced by the id, it also served to regulate the id. But perhaps due to the bloodline's influence, that regulating ability had weakened greatly.

"The bloodline amplifies the id and suppresses the ego. Without the ego as the middle layer, the superego also finds it difficult to restrain the id's impulses."

"Still, my mental state has always been good. My id, ego, and superego are relatively harmonious." Adam thought of the disharmony in his own psyche. It probably mainly stemmed from how he had endured all kinds of pain in order to achieve his goals.

But his ultimate goal was also to escape pain. Therefore, the id only needed to vent for a while before returning to his control.

"So letting myself relax now is not bad either." Adam's ego was not overly worried about his own safety. In the id state, his instincts became sharper, allowing him to easily sense danger and quickly avoid it.

At its core, the id was the one most afraid of pain and the most cowardly. It bullied the weak and feared the strong, a pure hedonist. Paired with sharp instincts, this state was instead the least likely to get him killed.

After the ego analyzed this with complete rationality, it stopped interfering with the id's frolicking.

Sure enough, Adam soon gradually regained control of his body, ended his transformation, and quickly found his priest's robes and mask.

Now it was time to get down to business.

Thank you, You Yushi Ma, for the reward. Thank you for your support. Please bookmark, vote with recommendation tickets, add it to your reading list, and help promote it. Your support is truly important to a new book. Thank you.