Chapter 270: Tide-Shifting Breathing

"I just want to know a little more," Richard said, choosing his words.

"My aunt showed me some materials, and I've learned a few self-defense Spell Formulas, but they only buy me a little time."

"But last time in the Western Suburbs of Briston... without outside help, I never would have made it home alive relying on those few Spell Formulas."

"...Hmm."

Gerard set his teacup back on the low table.

"You're just like your aunt. Whatever you want is written plainly on your face."

The old man stood, pulled a stack of parchment files from the bookcase, and set them on the low table between them.

Richard scanned the covers.

{Initiate: Body Forging}

{Practitioner: Circuit Compression}

{Minor Adept: Bloodline Activation}

{Ashford Family Precepts Compilation: Physical Conditioning}

"Everything you want to see is right here."

Gerard patted the stack.

"If you want to read them, I won't stop you."

"But before you turn the first page..."

The old man's ether field pressed toward Richard.

"Sit still. I have a few words for you."

Richard sat up straight.

Gerard began.

"You have nurtured your circuits to this degree, and what you have cultivated is clean ether."

"If you feed them using the blood ignition approach—ice water, hyperventilation, muscle whipping...

...what you nurture in those circuits will no longer be a Scholar's ether, but ether tainted with the stench of blood."

"With mixed ether, the precision of your future decryptions, the subtlety of your readings, and your purity when nourishing supernatural items—all of it will be compromised."

The old man picked up his teacup.

"Wait until ten years from now, when you take your first vow to step into Minor Adept..."

"...Only then will you realize that your ether structure was ruined long ago."

Richard fell silent for a moment.

"...I will be careful."

"I am not here to listen to your guarantees."

Gerard pulled the top file from the stack.

{Ashford Family Precepts Compilation: Physical Conditioning}.

"Since you want to read, start with this one."

"This is the family compilation. Generations of Hunters have written down everything they could about the Initiate stage."

"Normally, it is only shown to Hunters from the main family branch."

"I'm letting you read it today because I know just talking to you is useless.

For you Scholars, curiosity about the unread is the hardest thing to suppress."

Gerard pushed the file in front of Richard.

"You may read it."

"When you finish, write down your thoughts for me."

"...Write what?"

"After you finish reading, write down: 'Why I cannot train like this.'"

Gerard fixed his gaze on Richard.

"Write it out clearly."

"If you cannot make it clear... you will not get to touch the rest of those books."

Richard took the {Precepts Compilation: Physical Conditioning}.

"...Yes."

Gerard watched his grandson put the file away, his expression finally softening a fraction.

"Have you heard what happened to Vincent when he was a boy?"

"...Not really."

"When he was eleven, he suffered his second bone fracture."

Gerard's tone was flat.

"He thought the Initiate training was too slow, so he competed with a cousin to see who could soak in ice water the longest."

"By the eighth barrel, he had hypothermia."

"The butler had to carry him to the physician. He spent the next two months in bed."

"When your uncle came home, he hauled him out of bed and beat him for half an hour."

Richard frowned. He had never really grasped what his grandfather meant by his cousin working hard, but now he had a clear picture.

"...Vincent trained like that because his innate circuits could withstand it."

"He could withstand it, but he paid the price."

"His earliest hope in life was to take over for your uncle and go to the New Continent."

Gerard traced the ring of tea stains around the rim of his cup.

"But now, Vincent's ceiling is already in sight."

"The threshold of Minor Adept is something he might just barely touch if he pushes himself to his absolute limit."

"Whether he touches it or not, he will still have to spend over a decade stuck as a Practitioner."

"His daily training since he was thirteen was all for the sake of that Minor Adept door."

"And after all that, he has only just touched the door."

"...Grandfather."

"I am telling you about Vincent because I want you to understand."

His grandfather waved a hand, cutting him off.

"In our branch of the Ashford family, out of every ten children, only six survive the Initiate training."

"Of the other four, two end up crippled, and two develop circuit problems where training any further would kill them."

"That is the price of being a Hunter."

"The Scholar's price is different, and you know that well enough yourself."

"Two paths. Both have their difficulties."

"Right now, you are walking the Scholar's path."

"You need to walk this one steadily before thinking about anything else. Do not try to grasp both paths right now."

"Those who try to grasp both..."

The old man paused.

"...I have seen a few, and not one of them went far."

Richard clutched the {Precepts Compilation: Physical Conditioning} to his chest and repeated himself.

"I will be careful, Grandfather."

"I don't believe your 'careful' for a second."

Gerard shot him an exasperated look.

"You didn't come here just for Hunter training methods, did you?"

Richard's eyes lit up, and he took the opportunity to steer the topic.

"That's right. I've been using the Initiate breathing method up until now, and I've already broken into the Practitioner rank... I wanted to know if I should switch."

"It is time to switch."

Gerard answered crisply.

"Your Initiate breathing method was the Fourfold Breathing of the Golden Path. That is a crutch for before the Practitioner threshold."

"You don't need a crutch anymore."

Richard felt a wave of relief. It seemed his grandfather didn't plan to put up any hurdles for him regarding this.

"I have an advanced breathing method of the Golden Path here. It is called 'Tide-Shifting Breathing'."

"Tide-Shifting?"

"Fourfold Breathing is a straight line." Gerard gestured.

"Inhale for four beats, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four... They are all line segments."

"Tide-Shifting Breathing is a wave."

His grandfather wandered around the library for a moment and pulled out another book.

This one was much thinner than the Precepts Compilation. The cover bore Classical Latin script.

Richard took it and flipped it open.

The main text was also written in Classical Latin, and beneath each paragraph were handwritten annotations in the Albion Language—his aunt's handwriting.

"Why is it called Tide-Shifting?"

"Turn to the third page."

Richard turned to the third page.

The third page depicted a wavy line.

The peaks of the wave, the troughs, the intervals between one wave and the next... every part was marked with a different breathing rhythm.

"The rhythm of Fourfold Breathing is fixed," Gerard explained.

"Inhale four beats, exhale four beats. It is always four beats."

"The rhythm of Tide-Shifting Breathing self-adjusts according to the state of your Seat of the Sun."

"During daytime activities, right after casting a Spell Formula, or having just returned from field duty..."

"That tree of light in the Seat of the Sun rustles its leaves rapidly and sinks its roots deep."

"At those times, the rhythm accelerates: short inhales, short exhales, short holds, allowing your ether reserves to replenish rapidly."

"At night, during quiet meditation, or when you're tired from reading..."

"The leaves of the tree of light sway slowly, and the roots loosen."

"At those times, the rhythm slows down: long inhales, short exhales, letting the ether slowly seep into your circuits for deep nourishment."

"Adjusting your own breathing rhythm to match your state—it means the same thing as the tides."

Richard went over this explanation in his mind.

"How do I know when the rhythm should be adjusted?" he asked.

"If you just practice blindly on your own, you definitely won't know."

Gerard pointed at the book in his hand again.

"Just breathe according to the method. The book will teach you."

"For the first month or two, you'll feel like everything is wrong."

"Your lungs will stretch too long when inhaling, your throat will feel tight when exhaling, your chest will feel blocked when holding your breath..."

"Endure it for a month, and from then on, it will get smoother and smoother."

Richard couldn't help but ask, "Will it drastically affect my physical state?"

"Not really," Gerard said bluntly. "At most, it will make you sleep poorly for a month, sweat when you eat, and give you a headache when you read."

"You can't take on any field duty during this month."

"You are on summer break right now. The timing is perfect."

Richard looked down at {Tide-Shifting Breathing} in his hands.

"Grandfather, this one..."

"That isn't an heirloom."

"Tide-Shifting Breathing is one of the advanced breathing methods of the Golden Path. It is a universal type."

"The benefit is that if you want to switch to a different advanced breathing method later on, you won't be affected."

"And the downside?"

"There is no real downside," Gerard said, stroking his jaw. "Its biggest flaw is mediocrity."

"In the future, if you want to find one that suits you better, you can ask your aunt."

"She walks the Scholar's path. She can pick out a few more suitable books for you to choose from."

Richard hugged {Tide-Shifting Breathing} to his chest as well.

"...Thank you, Grandfather."

"Hmm."

Gerard stood up.

The old man walked to the library door and turned back to deliver one last sentence.

"For the first month of changing your breathing method, your whole body will feel out of sorts."

"Like you're wearing someone else's shoes."

Gerard spoke these words completely dryly.

"Endure it."

"After a month, they will fit."

..................

Richard brought the two books back to his room and placed them on his desk.

He sat in his chair, closed his eyes, and regulated his breath.

His shadow peeled away from the floor tiles beneath his feet and stood in the middle of the room.

Richard let it sink into the Shallows behind the veil.

He had gone to the library partly to see if there were any advanced breathing methods.

On the other hand, he also wanted to research if there were any better ways to train his shadow.

As for training, the shadow was already training.

But his training method for the shadow these past few days was entirely focused on "moving more."

Making it run, walk, stand, and lift objects behind the veil.

"Moving more" could stabilize the shadow's outline so that it wouldn't disperse the moment it sank behind the veil.

Stabilizing didn't mean getting stronger.

He wanted to train the shadow so it could fight on his behalf in battle. Just being stable was far from enough.

Richard flipped open the {Precepts Compilation: Physical Conditioning}.

His grandfather had said that this book contained the flesh-forging methods for the Initiate stage, accumulated by generations of Hunters in the Ashford family.

It detailed how to raise a twelve- or thirteen-year-old boy into a Hunter capable of crossing the Practitioner threshold.

Richard skimmed through it quickly.

Ice water soaking, hyperventilation, wooden dummy striking, muscle whipping.

He read each section meticulously. Beneath each item was an explanation of its occult principles:

An Initiate Hunter's training was all about "inflicting micro-damage."

Ice water soaking triggered a stress response to extreme temperatures, forcing the flesh and circuits to accelerate their metabolism;

Hyperventilation overloaded the ether pathways, forcefully expanding the circulation;

Wooden dummy striking accumulated physical impacts to smash the bones into a thicker density;

Muscle whipping repeatedly inflicted microscopic damage, tearing muscle fibers apart one by one so they could repair and thicken.

There was only one underlying logic:

Inflict micro-damage → Repair → Strengthen.

Richard took out a pen and wrote this core principle at the very top of his scratch paper.

Beneath it, he drew up a table.

Could the shadow learn Hunter training?

Ice water soaking was out; the shadow was immune to temperature.

Richard crossed it out on the table.

Hyperventilation was out too; the shadow didn't breathe.

It was simply a form condensed from a mass of ether. It never "breathed" air.

Wooden dummy striking was equally useless; physical attacks would just pass right through the shadow.

Muscle whipping was impossible; the shadow had no flesh.

Richard pushed the scratch paper aside.

Four training methods, and the shadow couldn't use a single one.

But the logic of inflict micro-damage → repair → strengthen was universal.

Humans had human vulnerabilities, and shadows had shadow vulnerabilities.

Richard picked up his pen again.

On the bottom half of the scratch paper, he started a new list.

The Shallows behind the veil were saturated with massive amounts of ether fragments.

To the shadow, those fragments were tangible objects.

Over the past few days, when he'd thrown the shadow into the Shallows, the edges of its outline had clearly frayed in several places as it phased through the swarms of fragments.

The fraying wasn't severe; activating [Healing] smoothed it over instantly.

But that was "micro-damage."

The risk was that if a large fragment grazed it, the gash torn into the shadow might be too huge.

Then there was the environment. In the Shallows behind the veil, the deeper one went, the higher the ether concentration became.

Just a few steps inward from the edge of the Shallows, the ether grew significantly thicker.

Between the "deep" and "shallow" parts of the Shallows lay an intermediate zone.

The ether concentration in that zone was enough to exert considerable pressure on the shadow's outline.

If the shadow stood there, it would be compressed from all sides by the high-density ether.

Over time, the shadow's outline would start to deform.

This could probably be considered a different kind of high-gravity environment training, right?

Richard set his pen down.

There was one last method he had been pondering for a long time.

Shadows feared light.

In the material realm, the thing shadows feared most was intense light; light was their fundamental natural enemy.

But the core ability the Sphinx Lamp had granted him was "Guarding the Gate Between Two Realms, the Intersection of Light and Shadow."

Light and shadow were intrinsically the twin themes of this lamp.

Richard felt that behind the veil, he could have the shadow actively touch the faint specks of light bleeding through from the material realm.

The light would burn the shadow, searing a small hole through its outline, and then [Healing] would patch it back up.

Over time, the shadow might learn to devour light instead of being burned by it.

The light it swallowed would become power.

This was the most counterintuitive method, and also the most dangerous.

Under ordinary logic, having a shadow eat light was no different from having a wolf lick an elephant's foot.

If the light burned it so fast that he didn't have time to patch it, the shadow would just dissipate entirely.

But if it could swallow it...

"I'll try the first two methods first."

"Once the first two are stable, I'll try the third."

He put away his scratch paper.

Richard began transmitting the three procedures he had just established on his scratch paper to the shadow, one by one.

The shadow halted at the edge of the drifting swarm of ether fragments in the Shallows.