Richard’s gaze slowly moved from the snow outside the windowsill back to his desk.
The room was so quiet he could hear his own breathing.
Downstairs, his father had put down the newspaper at some point and gone to the kitchen. Richard could hear his mother and him quietly discussing what to make for dinner tonight.
The whole world had returned to normal, except for the silver ring on his desk, which had changed.
Richard picked up the ring.
To the naked eye, the ring looked no different.
He pinched it between his fingertips for a moment, then activated his Spiritual Vision to scan it. He found that the Ether structure of the ring itself hadn’t changed at all.
But he could feel that the ring’s "weight" was different from a few minutes ago.
Before, the silver ring had been a Marvel.
Now, the silver ring was a Marvel plus an extremely faint wisp of "another person."
That wisp of "another person" was neither malicious nor benevolent.
It just lay quietly inside the ring, suppressing the layer of "Ether Echo" on the ring’s exterior.
He remembered Lady Mary’s words.
"You can take it off at any time."
Richard walked over to his desk and sat down.
He took a thin leather cord from the drawer.
He had bought the leather cord a while ago, intending to make a small coin purse for his sister, but he had never gotten around to it.
He threaded the silver ring onto the leather cord, fashioning a simple pendant.
He hung the pendant around his neck.
The silver ring settled against his chest, gently smoothing the rhythm of his breathing.
The Ether Micro-Cycle of his Throne of the Sun was not disturbed. Instead, the "Ether Echo" surrounding him was suppressed a notch.
His lighthouse had dimmed, but his own ability to see the world had not changed.
Richard’s gaze lingered for a moment on the white porcelain cup on the windowsill.
The moist, curved mark inside the cup was already starting to dry.
He took the cup down from the windowsill.
As he went downstairs, he heard his mother in the kitchen discussing with his father whether they could buy an extra pound of black sugar from the treacle shop tomorrow.
"Black sugar has gotten more expensive recently," said his father.
"How much more?"
"One penny."
"...We still have to buy it. Evelyn is making toffee tomorrow."
Richard stopped halfway down the stairs.
His father complained about the price of black sugar; his mother teased him for being cheap.
Evelyn popped out of the kitchen, retorting that she had only made toffee once last week.
All those sounds, juxtaposed with his experience from the past half hour, created a contrast he found difficult to describe.
The "Mother" locked behind the Curtain, and his real Mother in the kitchen downstairs.
These two "Mothers" were separated by a wall.
The wall was thick enough that his family downstairs felt no threat at all, yet so thin that he himself had to wear the silver ring for protection.
Richard let out a breath and continued down the stairs.
"Richard," his sister poked her head out from the living room. "Why are you bringing that cup down?"
"To wash it."
"I can wash it."
"...No, it’s fine. I’ll wash it myself."
Evelyn climbed off the sofa and came closer, sniffing at his chest.
"Did you change your soap?"
"...No."
"Then why do you smell a little sweet?"
Richard was a bit puzzled. He lowered his head and sniffed himself.
’It must be the sugar cube from the milk, plus Lady Mary’s kiss on the silver ring...’
"I spilled some milk on my clothes earlier."
He walked into the kitchen.
His mother was standing at the sink with her back to the door, slicing a cucumber.
She didn’t turn around. "Did it go smoothly?"
"It did."
"No trouble?"
"No trouble."
"Dinner, then."
His mother finished slicing the cucumber, sprinkled it with salt, and set it aside to marinate. She took half a step back from the sink.
Richard turned on the faucet.
The licked mark on the inside of the cup was washed away by the water and flowed down the drain.
...
During his tutoring session on Saturday morning, Richard was somewhat absent-minded.
The silver ring hung around his neck. Every few hours, he would scan it with his Spiritual Vision, but the "weight" on the ring never changed.
After having lunch at the Dawn family’s house, he returned home and performed a Divination using the Stone Reading Technique.
The stones scattered onto the Copper Disc. The double circle and wheat sheaf landed in the center, the crescent moon was slightly off, and the teardrop and spiral rolled off the disc.
According to the interpretation Old Big had taught him: safe, brings stable compatibility, no significant fluctuations, no negative repercussions.
Richard put the Copper Disc away.
At two-thirty in the afternoon, he arrived at Coleman’s house.
This time, the Colemans didn’t have the table of business cards laid out in the living room.
On the table was a pot of freshly brewed black tea, a few plain butter cookies, and a small blue and white porcelain sugar bowl.
"We’re not so busy at home today," Mrs. Coleman said, pouring the black tea into a cup. "Bill is waiting for you in the backyard."
In the backyard, Coleman had already put on his protective gear.
Richard walked over and set his schoolbag on the long bench by the wall.
"That thing we talked about last week..." Coleman began, fastening his chin strap. "Did you practice it this week?"
"I did."
"Then let’s see if you’ve made any progress."
Coleman walked to the center of the yard and began to pace back and forth in the same random pattern as last time.
Richard stood in his fixed position at the base of the eastern wall.
He took a Silver Needle from the long box.
He performed the full seven steps of the Moon Nail, connecting with the needle and performing Breath Introduction.
First step, preheating: he sent an extremely thin film of Ether to his left shoulder.
Second step, preheating: a cluster to his right elbow.
Third step, preheating: to the side of his waist.
Fourth step, preheating: to his left index finger.
Coleman’s brow furrowed slightly.
He could feel the young man opposite him "glowing all over."
But this glow had no directionality. No single spot was brighter than any other, nor was the brightness of any spot rapidly increasing.
Coleman’s eyes scanned all over Richard’s body.
Richard struck. The Silver Needle flew past Coleman’s right side, lodging in a crack in the wall.
"..."
Coleman stood frozen in place.
He hadn’t read the flare of light before the strike.
The moment the Silver Needle was released, he only managed to react because of the micro-movement of Richard’s wrist.
But by then, the Silver Needle was already past his ribs.
"Again."
Coleman pulled out the Silver Needle and handed it back.
Richard took it and returned to his position.
This time, Coleman focused his mind, concentrating fully on reading Richard’s Ether fluctuations.
He stared at Richard’s left shoulder. It was glowing.
He stared at Richard’s right elbow. It was glowing.
He stared at the side of Richard’s waist. Still glowing.
Coleman narrowed his eyes.
THWIP.
The second needle lodged in the shoulder of his right pauldron.
Coleman reached up and pulled the Silver Needle from his armor.
His expression froze as he looked at Richard.
"How did you do that?"
Richard laughed. "I figured out a new method this week. Staged preheating."
He explained the method to Coleman.
Deconstructing the seven steps, staged preheating, and deploying false signals.
After listening, Coleman walked over and sat down on the bench.
"I’ve been practicing Burning Blood for two years."
Coleman unfastened his helmet and set it on the bench. "The instructors teach you to concentrate all your body’s Ether into a single point for an explosive strike."
"In Hunter training, ’staging’ is criticized. Staging is considered a waste."
"This idea of yours, this staged preheating..." Coleman shook his head. "If our military academy instructors heard about it, they’d drag you out to the training field and make you run twenty laps."
"Well, I’m not a military academy student," Richard said with a laugh.
"Right, you’re not." Coleman picked up a water flask and took a drink.
"But for you, staging is actually an advantage."
"Right," Richard admitted. "The price of staging is that the strike becomes weaker."
"That needle I just stuck in the wall crack didn’t go in as deep as the one last week."
"There are losses between stages. The final Moon Nail condensed on the needle’s tip is weaker than one pushed in a single stage."
"This tactic of mine is effective against those of a Low Tier. Their inspiration isn’t strong enough to read the false signals."
"But against a Practitioner or higher, they’d be able to identify which one is real."
"It’s enough," Coleman said, shaking his head. "You’re a Scholar. As long as you have the ability to fight back in a critical moment, that’s enough."
"Hunters focus on a quick kill. You focus on escape. They’re different paths."
Richard sat down on the other end of the bench.
The two were silent for a moment. Coleman leaned back against the wall on the bench.
"Again."
Over the next half hour, Richard’s accuracy rose to over eighty percent.
Coleman committed the timing of each of Richard’s strikes to memory.
After the tenth or so attempt, he could begin to faintly read Richard’s true "glow."
But even when he did read it, his reaction time was much shorter than normal.
By the time the last needle hit, there were already more than a dozen pinprick holes in the protective gear.
Coleman took off his gear and leaned against the wall, drinking water.
"Richard, you Scholars are fucking monsters."
Richard just smiled.
"Other Scholars aren’t like me."
When the training was over, the Colemans saw him to the door.
"Come back next week," Coleman said with a wave.
"Okay."
Richard got into the horse-drawn carriage.
The driver cracked his whip, and the carriage swayed as it headed toward the east side of the city.
On the way back, Richard sat by the window.
He looked down at his own wrist.
’The reversal conditions for [Moon Nail]...’ He had already thought it over several times.
The core of this Technique was "Piercing"—a dual puncture on both the Material Layer and the Ether Layer.
’If it’s reversed, the direction of the "Piercing" would have to be inverted, from piercing others to piercing myself.’
’Piercing myself directly? Sounds like a madman’s idea.’
’But the reversal logic for [Shadow Armor] followed the same principle.’
’From inside-out to outside-in, from condensing on oneself to being cast on others.’
’The reversal of [Moon Nail], in theory, should be "directed at others becomes directed at oneself".’
Richard’s fingertips paused on the window frame.
’A [Moon Nail] striking another’s body causes a puncture wound plus damage to the Ether Layer.’
’What about striking myself?’
’On the Material Layer, a normal Silver Needle would pierce my skin, creating a tiny pinprick.’
’And on the Ether Layer?’
The carriage turned a street corner.
It was after six o’clock when he arrived home.
Evelyn was leaning over the small table in the living room, drawing a frosting flower on the newest page of her baking notebook.
His mother was knitting on one end of the sofa. His father was working late again and wasn’t back yet.
Richard went upstairs to his room.
After sitting down at his desk, he took out the Silver Needle Long Box from his drawer.
He selected the Technique and brought up the judgment interface for [Shadow Reversal].
The panel displayed a prompt.
[Technique Mastery has reached the required standard]
[Moon Nail (Reversible)]
Richard blinked.
Reaching the required mastery for [Moon Nail] had actually been much slower than for [Stone Armor].
During this time, he had practiced repeatedly at home, used Coleman as a moving target, and leveraged [Rationality] to come up with the staged preheating optimization. Only then had the entire Technique finally reached the threshold for reversal.
Richard pressed [Confirm].
The reversal process still had no external effects.
There was no light, no sound. Even his own shadow on the wall remained motionless at its base.
But he could feel that the flow of Ether within him, which had grown accustomed to "condensing at the needle’s tip and striking outward," had been silently flipped.
Condensing on oneself.
The Moon Nail on a Silver Needle was, in essence, a cluster of Ether condensed to its absolute limit.
And when a cluster of Ether pierced a living body that possessed Ether Loops, it would diffuse and interact.
The reversed Technique capitalized on this "diffusion and interaction."
[Shadow Reversal Complete]
[Reversed Technique Generated: Moon Nail · Reflection (Aculeus Reflexus)]
[Effect: Pierce oneself or a living body possessing Ether Loops with an Ether cluster condensed by a Moon Nail. The cluster will instantly diffuse within the body, activating and refreshing the micro-circulation of that area.]
[Restriction: The pierced location must have an Ether Loop;]
[If the pierced location is not covered by a loop, the needle’s cluster will lose its effect on the Ether Layer and only cause a normal puncture wound.]
[Side Effect: Ether consumption is slightly higher than a regular Moon Nail;]
Continuous use in a short period will damage the micro-circulation;
The strengthening effect is temporary. After the effect ends, the area will enter a weakened state for an equal duration;
[Multiple Castings can extend the strengthening effect and accelerate healing time, but the corresponding weakened period will also be extended.]
After reading the description, Richard leaned back in his chair.

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