I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Chapter 196 Are you crazy?

After school on Tuesday, Richard went to the fighting club to find someone.

The fighting club's training time is from after school until 6 pm.

When Richard arrived at the entrance of the training hall, shouts were still going off inside.

The sounds of sandbags hitting each other, the clanging of protective gear clashing, and the shouts of several teenagers mingled together.

Richard looked in from outside the door and saw Coleman fighting with Frazier.

Coleman threw a punch, but Frazier dodged to the side and landed a backhand hook to Coleman's jaw.

He dodged to the side, and then landed another punch.

The two men's fists collided faster than when Richard had last seen it.

He leaned against the door frame and waited for five minutes.

Coleman finally had his fill of punching, and after beating Frazier so hard he fell to the ground, he took off his helmet and hung it on the sandbag rack.

The boy turned his head and saw Richard standing at the door, clearly surprised.

"...Richard?"

Coleman walked over and swished the towel around his neck.

"Didn't we agree to meet again on Saturday? Why did you come today?"

"I have something I want to talk to you about," Richard said in a low voice. "Let's go outside."

The two walked out of the training ground.

There weren't many people on the path outside the stadium.

On both sides are withered grass in winter, and in the distance are the row of red brick buildings of the main campus.

Coleman wiped the sweat from his brow with a towel.

"...My mom's nagging at home again." He said with a smile, "She said since you're coming next week, she asked me if you have any favorite snacks."

"Ahem." Richard coughed.

"You're not planning to come to my house this week, are you?"

Coleman narrowed his eyes: "If that's the case, I'll have to give my mom a heads-up beforehand."

"That's not it." Richard waved his hand.

He took out a long box of silver needles from his pouch.

Coleman's gaze lingered on the long box of silver needles for a moment.

"Your moon nail?"

"Um."

Richard laid out the unpleasant truths upfront.

"I've figured out a new use for the moon nail."

He carefully considered his words before speaking.

"In theory, it can temporarily enhance the activity of some of your circuits."

Coleman stopped in his tracks.

"Enhance? How exactly do you enhance?"

Richard opened the long box of silver needles, revealing the row of silver needles inside.

"Punch a moon nail into your skin, preferably on your forearm."

He put it very directly:

"After the needle is inserted into the body, the condensed ether will diffuse into the surrounding microcirculation, temporarily raising the activity of that complete circuit to a higher level than normal."

Coleman's face froze.

He looked down at the row of silver needles, then looked up at Richard.

"...Richard, are you fucking insane?"

Coleman pulled the towel off his neck and clutched it in his hand.

"Pierce me with moon spikes? You know what moon spikes are for, right?"

His eyes widened: "This thing is used to deal with evil things; it can tear open the ethereal layer when you pierce it."

"You're stabbing this thing into my flesh? Are you treating me like some kind of evil spirit?"

Coleman stared straight at him:

"The inner part of my forearm is the core pathway that hunters train the most."

"If something goes wrong, my left arm will be useless."

"At least I can still practice boxing now. Do you expect me to be disabled if my left arm is ruined?"

Richard knew that Coleman's reaction was normal.

The [Moon Nail] spell is positioned as an offensive spell throughout the entire Mystic faction.

Using it to stab a living person sounds like something only a madman would do.

If it were Richard himself, he would have thought the other person was crazy if he heard such a proposal for the first time.

Coleman stared at him for a few seconds.

"When I heard your first two sentences, I almost thought you were going to take me to get some kind of proper treatment."

Coleman wiped his face with a towel: "So you're going to poke me with moon spikes?"

"Don't you yourself think this plan is too far-fetched?"

"I know it's absurd," Richard said somewhat helplessly. "That's why I didn't make any absolute statements at the beginning."

"How about this, let me show you the effect first."

Coleman raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of effect are you looking for?"

Richard didn't answer, but instead rolled up his left sleeve.

On the pad of my left index finger, the needle mark has been covered up to the point that it is almost invisible, but a small burn scar remains.

Coleman leaned closer for a look.

"...You've already pricked yourself?"

"I've had it done a few times."

He looked at Richard with the kind of look one gives a ruthless person: "Are you alright after the treatment?"

"You can tell by the fact that I'm standing here now," Richard said, shrugging.

Coleman's expression relaxed slightly.

"The fingertips are the ends," he pointed out the key point.

"If you prick your finger and something goes wrong, at most you'll lose one finger."

"If I have a problem with my forearm, my whole arm will be useless; these are two different things."

"I know these are two different things, so I'll demonstrate it for you again right here."

Richard pulled a brand new silver needle from the long box.

This time he didn't choose a finger; instead, he rolled up his sleeve a bit more, revealing his entire left forearm.

"Prick the inside of your forearm, corresponding to the spot where you were pricked."

Coleman looked at him.

"...You just said you've had it done a few times, always around your fingers. You haven't had it done on your forearm?"

"no."

"Then you're going to stab me now, which means you're using yourself as a guinea pig."

"Yes," Richard answered without the slightest hesitation.

Coleman gritted his teeth: "You're really crazy."

Richard held the silver needle in his hand:

"If I wouldn't even dare to prick my own forearm, why should you trust me?"

He took two steps toward the base of the wall, leaned against the red brick wall, and deliberately struck a pose as if he was ready to risk everything.

"Just stand aside and watch. If there are any problems, immediately take me to Mr. Hutton's office..."

"Richard," Coleman frowned, "you don't need to do this."

"Yes, I will."

Richard wiped the area where he would be getting the needle with an alcohol swab; goosebumps had formed there.

Coleman stood beside him, his eyes fixed on the silver needle.

In the third cycle of exhalation, during the fourth breath, ether is pushed from the Sun Constellation to the fingertips.

The effect reversed, and the silver needles were inserted.

"hiss!"

Richard's entire left forearm tensed up from the inside, and the muscles spasmed briefly.

The needle tip only penetrated five millimeters into the skin, but after the cluster of reversed moon nails exploded, the entire main vein was swept by a concentrated and spreading ether.

Coleman's pupils suddenly contracted.

He didn't have clairvoyance, but he had practiced the Blood Burning Path for several years and had the most basic intuition about the etheric flow in himself and those around him.

He looked at the "brightness" of the main vein on the inside of Richard's forearm, which had been pushed to a level far beyond what was usually seen.

Richard pulled the silver needles out.

There was a very shallow burn mark around the edge of the needle eye. After three seconds, the needle eye closed up.

Richard clenched his left fist, then relaxed it.

Coleman looked at him.

"How is it?"

"Just as I predicted, the microcirculation of my entire left forearm has been refreshed, and the sensitivity is a level higher than before."

"Duration?"

"That time with my fingers lasted about ten minutes."

Richard recalled that experiment: "The forearm should be shorter this time, but we'll have to wait and see how much longer."

Coleman's brow furrowed slowly; he still thought the other man was a madman.

But madness and effectiveness can coexist, he thought, and then looked at Richard's needle prick.

"...close it in three seconds. I scraped my skin while practicing boxing, and it will take several days for it to scab over."

Richard smiled and continued his introduction:

"This is a byproduct of the new usage. While strengthening and activating that microcirculation, it also temporarily increases the speed of wound healing to a very high level."

Coleman gripped the towel tightly in his hand.

"Okay, I'll trust you this once!" He stretched out his left arm and rolled up his sleeve.

"Wait a minute," Richard stopped her.

"Um?"

"After the acupuncture, you will experience some reactions in your left arm."

I can't tell you exactly how you'll react in advance because our paths diverge.

"Tell me immediately if the reaction is abnormal."

"Know."

Richard extended his senses outwards and confirmed that there was no one on the path outside the stadium.

The two stood against the red brick wall, with a row of holly shrubs at the base of the wall blocking their view of the distance.

He used his spiritual vision to fixate on the outline of Coleman's incomplete loop.

Coleman's main vein starts from the chest cavity, runs down the left shoulder, and extends to the fingertips.

The entire meridian was highly active, a testament to the training in the Blood Burning Path.

There is a noticeable "break point" in the middle section.

Richard avoided the break point and aimed the silver needle at the fullest part of the upper section.

"Are you ready?"

"Stab it."

After wiping with an alcohol swab, aim the silver needle at the spot and prick!

Coleman's patience was clearly stronger than Richard's; he only frowned slightly but didn't utter a sound.

The silver needle remained on his forearm for less than half a second before Richard discontinued the procedure and removed the needle.

Coleman stared at his left arm.

Apart from the slight burning pain at the needle prick, my entire arm felt "refreshing" starting from the inside.

The feeling was similar to immersing your hands in icy well water during the hottest part of summer.

He clenched his fist, then relaxed it.

"The 'stuffy' feeling in my arm is gone."

Coleman stretched his shoulders.

"After I started practicing Blood Burning, my entire left arm has always had an inexplicable 'stuffy' feeling."

I thought it was an internal injury from practicing martial arts, something that couldn't be cured.

"The instructor said that everyone who trains the Blood Burning technique has this feeling, and now that stuffy feeling is gone."

Richard knew that although the other party's circuit was inherently broken, the section above the break point was complete.

My injection just now cleaned the inside of this long-clogged water pipe.

"After the refreshing feeling ends, your left arm will enter a period of weakness."

"After I pricked my finger that time, my finger felt a bit weak afterwards, and the duration of the weakness was roughly the same as the strengthening time."

"If I get injections every day..."

"The periods of weakness and strength can overlap."

Richard answered quickly: "There's too little experimental data on how to specifically stack the components."

Coleman then moved his entire neck and shoulders again.

"Could I... come here for a treatment once a week?"

Richard readily agreed, which was exactly what he wanted:

"I'll do it for you every two days. Doing it too frequently won't work either, as constantly refreshing the loop might overload it."

"But you have to keep it a secret; I'm still figuring this out myself."

"I don't have many people I can talk to about this, you know that."

Coleman pulled his sleeves down.

"Last time you asked me if I would still choose to become a hunter if my congenital defect in my circulatory system could be cured one day."

Richard stuffed the silver needle box back into his bag and turned to look at him.

"I still can't answer that."

Coleman looked up at the red brick building in the distance; the evening sunlight had turned the building's exterior a warm orange.

"But at least now we have another option."

Richard packed his things and said, "I have other things to do, so I'll be going now."

"Hmm." Coleman draped the towel back around his neck.

Richard turned and walked towards the teaching building.

After walking about ten steps, Coleman called out from behind.

"Richard, are you coming to training on Saturday?"

"Come."