Chapter 194: Moon Nail Reversal

Richard's gaze shifted slowly from the snow outside the window back to his desk.

The room was so quiet he could hear his own breathing.

Downstairs, his father had folded the newspaper at some point and gone into the kitchen. Richard could hear his parents murmuring about tonight's dinner.

The world had returned to normal. Only the Silver Ring on the desk had changed.

Richard picked it up.

To the naked eye, it looked exactly the same.

He rolled it between his fingertips for a moment, then activated his Spirit Vision to inspect it. The ring's fundamental ether structure hadn't changed at all.

But he could feel its "weight" was different now than it had been a few minutes ago.

Before, the Silver Ring had just been a supernatural item.

Now, the Silver Ring was a supernatural item carrying a tremendously faint trace of "someone else."

That trace held no malice, but it held no goodwill either.

It simply lay dormant inside, suppressing the layer of "ether reverberation" around the outside of the ring.

He remembered Madam Marie's words.

"You may take it off at any time."

Richard sat at the desk.

He pulled a thin leather cord from the drawer.

He had originally bought it to make a small coin pouch for his sister but had never gotten around to using it.

He threaded the Silver Ring onto the cord to fashion a simple pendant.

He hung the pendant around his neck.

The Silver Ring settled against his chest, gently smoothing out the rhythm of his breathing.

The ether Micro-circulation of the Seat of the Sun wasn't disturbed. Instead, the ring of "ether reverberation" surrounding his body dampened significantly.

His beacon had grown dimmer, but his ability to perceive the world remained unchanged.

Richard's gaze lingered on the white porcelain cup on his desk.

The damp, curved mark inside the cup had already begun to dry.

He picked up the cup.

Going downstairs, he heard his mother in the kitchen asking his father if they could buy an extra pound of brown sugar at the molasses shop tomorrow.

"Brown sugar has gone up in price lately," his father said.

"By how much?"

"A penny."

"...We still have to buy it. Evelyn is making toffee tomorrow."

Halfway down the stairs, Richard paused.

His father complained about the price of sugar, and his mother teased him for being stingy.

Evelyn popped her head out of the kitchen to argue she had only made toffee once last week.

Those mundane voices created an indescribable contrast against what he had experienced over the last half hour.

The locked-up "mother" behind the veil, and the real mother down in the kitchen.

A wall separated the two "mothers."

The wall was so thick that his family felt absolutely no threat, yet so thin that he had to wear the Silver Ring to shield himself.

Richard exhaled and continued downstairs.

"Richard," his sister peeked out from the living room. "Why did you bring a cup down?"

"Just to wash it."

"I can do it."

"...No need, I've got it."

Evelyn climbed off the sofa, leaned in, and sniffed his shirt.

"Did you change your soap?"

"...No."

"Then why do you smell sweet?"

Confused, Richard lowered his head and sniffed.

It had to be the sugar cube in the milk, mixed with Madam Marie's kiss on the Silver Ring...

"I spilled some milk on my shirt earlier."

He walked into the kitchen.

His mother stood at the sink with her back to him, slicing a cucumber.

She didn't turn around. "Did it go smoothly?"

"It did."

"No accidents?"

"None."

"Let's eat."

His mother finished slicing the cucumber, sprinkled it with salt to marinate, and stepped away from the sink.

Richard turned on the faucet.

The lick mark inside the cup washed away, spiraling down the drain.

...

Richard was distracted during his makeup classes on Saturday morning.

The Silver Ring hung around his neck. Every few hours, he scanned it with Spirit Vision, but its weight never fluctuated.

After eating lunch at the Dawn Family's house, he returned home and performed a divination using Stone Reading.

He scattered the stones onto the Copper Dish. The double circle and wheat ear landed in the center, the crescent moon sat slightly off-kilter, and the water drop and spiral rolled entirely off the plate.

According to the interpretations Old Biggs had taught him, it meant safety and stable resonance, with no obvious relapses or negative reverberations.

Richard packed the Copper Dish away.

At two thirty in the afternoon, he arrived at the Coleman Household.

This time, Old Coleman and Mrs. Coleman hadn't laid out the table full of business cards in the living room.

Instead, the table held a freshly brewed pot of black tea, plain butter cookies, and a small blue-and-white porcelain sugar bowl.

"The house isn't as busy today." Mrs. Coleman poured the black tea. "Bill is waiting for you in the backyard."

In the backyard, Coleman had already strapped on his protective gear.

Richard walked over and set his satchel on the bench by the wall.

"About what we discussed last week..." Coleman said, securing his chinstrap. "Did you practice?"

"I did."

"Then let's see if you've made any progress."

Coleman walked to the center of the yard and began pacing in that casual, unpredictable manner from last time.

Richard stood in his fixed spot against the east wall.

He drew a Silver Needle from the long box.

The complete sequence for the Moon Nail took seven steps. Catch the needle, draw the breath.

Step one pre-ignition: he sent a wafer-thin film of ether to his left shoulder;

Step two pre-ignition: he sent a cluster to his right elbow;

Step three pre-ignition: to his waist;

Step four pre-ignition: to his left index finger.

Coleman frowned.

He could sense that the boy opposite him was "lighting up all over."

But this glow lacked direction. No single spot was brighter than the rest, and none of them were rapidly increasing in brightness.

Coleman's gaze swept over Richard.

Richard struck. The Silver Needle brushed past Coleman's right ribs and embedded itself in a crack in the wall.

"..."

Coleman froze.

He hadn't read the flare of light before the strike.

When the Silver Needle was thrown, he had only managed to react because of the micro-movements in Richard's wrist.

But by then, the Silver Needle was already flying past his ribs.

"Again."

Coleman plucked the Silver Needle from the wall and handed it back.

Richard took it and stepped back into position.

This time, Coleman concentrated entirely on reading Richard's ether fluctuations.

He watched Richard's left shoulder. It was lit.

He watched the right elbow. It was lit.

He watched his waist. Still lit.

Coleman narrowed his eyes.

Thwack.

The second needle embedded itself directly into the right shoulder pad of his protective gear.

Coleman pulled the Silver Needle from the armor.

His expression froze as he looked at Richard.

"How did you do that?"

Richard laughed. "I figured out a new method this week: staggered pre-ignition."

He explained the method to Coleman.

Deconstructing the seven steps, staggering the pre-ignition, and layering false signals.

Coleman listened, then walked over and sat on the bench.

"I've been practicing blood ignition for two years."

Coleman unbuckled his helmet and set it on the bench. "The instructors teach us to funnel our entire body's ether into a single point for an explosive strike."

"In Hunter training, 'staggering' is heavily criticized. Staggering means waste."

"This staggered pre-ignition concept of yours..." Coleman shook his head. "If our military academy instructors heard it, they'd drag you out to the track to run twenty laps."

"Good thing I'm not a military academy student," Richard laughed.

"Right, you're not." Coleman picked up his canteen and took a swig.

"But for you, staggering is actually an advantage."

"Yes," Richard admitted. "The cost of staggering is a weaker strike."

"That needle I drove into the crack in the wall earlier was significantly shallower than the one I threw last week."

"There's energy lost between the stages. The final Moon Nail condensed at the tip is weaker than one fueled by a single push."

"This fighting style is effective against lower Ranks. When the opponent's Inspiration isn't strong enough, they can't read the false signals."

"But a Practitioner or higher would be able to discern which spot is the real one."

"It's enough," Coleman said, shaking his head. "You're a Scholar. Having the ability to fight back in critical moments is enough."

"Hunters emphasize quick kills. You emphasize escape. Two different paths."

Richard sat on the other end of the bench.

They fell silent for a moment. Coleman leaned back against the wall.

"Again."

Over the next half hour, Richard's accuracy rose to over eighty percent.

Coleman memorized the timing of every single strike Richard made.

After more than a dozen trials, he could finally barely begin to read Richard's genuine "light."

But even when he did read it, his reaction window was far shorter than normal.

By the time the last needle hit, the protective gear was riddled with over a dozen pinpricks.

Coleman took off the armor, leaned against the wall, and drank his water.

"Richard, you Scholars are absolute fucking monsters."

Richard smiled.

"Other Scholars aren't quite like me."

When the training session ended, Old Coleman and Mrs. Coleman saw him to the door.

"Come again next week," Coleman said, waving.

"I will."

Richard climbed into his carriage.

The driver cracked the whip, and the carriage rumbled toward the east side of the city.

On the way back, Richard sat by the window.

He looked down at his wrist.

He had already pondered the reversal conditions for the [Moon Nail] several times.

The core of this Spell Formula was "penetration"—a dual piercing on both the physical and etheric levels.

If it was reversed, the direction of the penetration would have to flip. From stabbing others to stabbing himself.

Stabbing himself directly? It sounded like a madman's idea.

But the reversal logic of [Shadow Armor] followed this exact route.

From inside-out to outside-in. From condensing upon oneself to casting upon others.

The reversal of [Moon Nail], in theory, should be "targeting others becomes targeting oneself."

Richard's fingertip paused on the window frame.

Driving a [Moon Nail] into someone else caused a puncture wound coupled with etheric destruction.

What if he drove it into his own body?

On the physical level, it would just be an ordinary Silver Needle piercing his flesh, leaving a tiny pinprick.

But on the etheric level?

The carriage turned the street corner.

It was past six o'clock by the time he got home.

Evelyn was sprawled over the small table in the living room, drawing a frosting flower on the latest page of her baking journal.

His mother was knitting at the other end of the sofa. His father was working overtime today and wasn't back yet.

Richard went upstairs to his room.

Sitting down at his desk, he took the long Silver Needle box out of his drawer.

He selected the Spell Formula and summoned the [Shadow Inversion] judgment interface.

The Panel brought up a prompt.

[Spell Formula mastery level detected as sufficient.]

[Moon Nail (Reversible)]

Richard blinked.

His mastery of the [Moon Nail] had actually progressed much slower than the [Stone Armor].

He had practiced endlessly at home, used Coleman as a moving target, and pushed himself with [Speculation] to invent the staggered pre-ignition optimization. Only then did the complete Spell Formula finally touch the threshold of reversal.

Richard pressed [Confirm].

The reversal process still had no external visual effects.

No light, no sound. Even Richard's shadow on the wall hugged the baseboard, unmoving.

But he could feel it. The ether flow in his body, which had grown accustomed to "condensing at the needle's tip to pierce others," quietly flipped at this exact moment.

Condensing upon himself.

The Moon Nail on the Silver Needle was, in essence, an ether cluster condensed to the absolute limit.

And when that ether cluster pierced a living body equipped with an Ether Circuit, it would undergo diffusion and interaction.

The reversed Spell Formula harnessed this exact segment of "diffusion and interaction."

[Shadow Inversion Complete.]

[Reversed Spell Formula Generated: Moon Nail: Reflection (Aculeus Reflexus)]

[Effect: Drives the condensed ether cluster of a Moon Nail into oneself or a living body possessing an Ether Circuit. The needle cluster instantaneously diffuses within the body, activating and refreshing the Micro-circulation of the targeted area.]

[Limitation: The point of entry must contain an Ether Circuit;

If the point of entry lacks circuit coverage, the needle cluster loses its etheric function, inflicting only a conventional puncture wound.]

[Side Effect: Ether consumption is slightly higher than a standard Moon Nail;

Consecutive usage within a short timeframe will damage the Micro-circulation;

The enhancement is temporary. Once the effect concludes, the affected area will experience a period of weakness of equal duration;

Repeated applications can prolong the enhancement and accelerated healing duration, but the corresponding period of weakness will be proportionally extended.]

After reading the description, Richard leaned back in his chair.