I loaded the Mysticism panel.

The last one is the mirror tradition, and the corresponding advanced breathing technique is speculatio.

"The method of practicing the Mirror Concentration Technique is different from all the previous breathing techniques."

Isabella touched the potted mint on the table.

"Inhaling and exhaling are just preparatory actions, used to even out the ether in the microcirculation. The real work is done during the breath-holding period."

"When a practitioner holds their breath, they suppress their own etheric fluctuations to a complete stillness, much like a water mirror."

"When the stillness is extreme, any external etheric fluctuations will form a clear reflection."

Richard's breathing involuntarily slowed down.

"Whether it's the spells the opponent throws or the ethereal traces floating in the surrounding environment."

Everything that encounters your "still water" will be reflected in your perception in real time.

"Later on, it wasn't just about watching."

Isabella traced a line on the table with her finger: "You can 'keep' the mirror image."

"How long will you stay?"

"It depends on how still and deep your water is. Once you've captured it, you can analyze, disassemble, or even replicate the reflection."

"The simplest approach is to replicate your own technique for an equivalent enhancement, or to replicate the technique during combat to counter it."

"You see what technique your opponent used to attack you, you record the structure in your mirror image, and then you can use the same structure to attack back."

"Replicas are generally much weaker than the originals, since you only copied it once, not learned it from scratch."

"But the replication speed will be faster, and you don't need to fully master it like you do with my analytical techniques."

Richard's mind was racing.

His "Perception and Contemplation" does something similar.

Contemplation is a passive diffusion of inspiration, while the Mirroring Method pushes this stillness to the etheric level, turning the whole person into a mirror.

If a shadow could function as a mirror... it would become the best replica of a surgical mirror, even reflecting itself and causing the shadow to split on its own?

Isabella went through all the documents.

My suggestions mainly focus on two directions.

She pulled out the sun and the classics and placed them at the front.

"The Sun Tradition." She pointed to the left first.

"The most comprehensive, and you already have the foundation of the Golden Path, so the Corona Method is like widening that path."

Scholars who follow the Sun tradition are most accepted, have the most resources, and the widest network of connections within the imperial system.

When you report to any branch office, the first reaction they'll have when they hear you're following the Sun's tradition is, "We're one of them."

"The drawbacks are also obvious," she added.

"Being too comprehensive means having no outstanding features. There are too many traditional Sunshine people, so it's not easy for you to stand out in a crowd and be remembered by name."

Her finger moved to the right.

"Personally, I highly recommend in-depth reading of classical texts and traditional texts."

"Most scholars follow the classical tradition, but it's mainly because I can teach you."

"That's the advantage of being a pioneer. If you choose another tradition, I can only provide you with the information and let you figure it out yourself."

Richard leaned back in his chair, rubbing the corner of the outline paper for "In-Depth Reading" back and forth between his thumb and forefinger.

The Sun Tradition is indeed safe, comprehensive, and rich in resources, with its classic traditions having already been paved by my aunt.

But his eyes kept drifting towards the outline of the Mirror Condensation Technique.

"You're thinking about a mirror."

Isabella's voice pulled him out of his reverie.

My aunt's expression wasn't exactly surprised, but it carried a hint of curiosity.

"You've flipped through the outline of the Mirror Condensation Method several times, but you haven't opened the in-depth reading version since you got it."

"Is there a reason?"

Richard quickly filtered through the several reasons in his mind.

"When I appraise strange objects, I use my spiritual vision to look outside and use divination to ask for directions."

To find out what the thing inside looks like, you need a mirror that can reflect your image.

"The 'reflection' in the 'reflection method' is, in a sense, an identification process. By reflecting the object in the mirror, its structure emerges from the reflection."

"I feel like I really need this skill."

Isabella did not immediately respond after hearing this.

"The Mirror Tradition, including those who are proficient in mirrors or above within the colony, is estimated to number no more than twenty people, including semi-retired ones."

"Fewer people are active."

"Data is scarce, communication is almost non-existent... because mirror traditions are inherently mutually exclusive."

"Mutually exclusive?"

"Two mirrors facing each other, have you ever seen that? Endless repetition, each reflection deepening the meaning."

Isabella made a comparison gesture with both hands.

"When two people with a mirrored tradition reflect each other in the same room, their ether will become entangled and knotted together."

Mild cases result in headaches lasting a few days, while severe cases require half a month of recuperation.

"So the mirror tradition is basically that everyone goes their own way, at most exchanging messages occasionally."

"If you choose the mirrored tradition." She looked into her nephew's eyes.

"I can't teach you anything outside the syllabus; you'll have to figure it out yourself."

Richard turned to the second page of the outline.

The entry requirements are listed above: practitioners must have a "weak perception" of the etheric field.

In other words, one can naturally receive ethereal information from the surroundings without actively cultivating spiritual vision.

【Perception and Contemplation】.

The description of that trait on the panel automatically popped into his mind.

When stationary, the range and accuracy of inspiration diffusion are simultaneously enhanced, and it is not easily detected from the opposite direction.

He has already fully met the requirements for this advanced breathing technique, and it could even be said that he has more than enough.

My own "contemplation" can hardly be described as a faint perception.

"I'll think about it for a few days." Richard put all three outlines into his bag.

Isabella nodded as well.

"Tide breathing is a universal method; you can switch to other advanced breathing techniques at any time."

"The etheric pathways of the two breathing methods are completely different, and cutting the microcirculation will cause a period of disorder."

"Moreover, the more times it is cut, the more severe the disorder becomes."

Richard silently marked this piece of information as important.

You can hesitate before you choose, but once you've chosen, don't regret it.

Just as he was about to end the conversation, something else popped into his head.

The seed that the Sphinx lamp planted in him, [Shadow Reversal], is marked on the panel as "Change Tradition (Fragment)".

From the first day he received that seed, he had been pondering: what exactly is changing tradition?

It's not among the five major traditions, nor among the minor traditions listed by my aunt.

Of all the documents he sifted through in the Imperial University Library and Museum’s antiquarian section, there were very few mentions of changing traditions, and they were all just snippets.

"Auntie."

"Um?"

"I'd also like to ask about a tradition."

"Which one?"

"Change the tradition."

Isabella withdrew her hand from the lid of the sugar jar.

She looked at Richard and remained silent for several seconds.

The only sound in the office was the gurgling of the heating pipes.

"Where did you learn this name from?"

Richard had already prepared the answer.

"I found it in the museum's ancient books section. It was mentioned once in a very old index summary, but only in one sentence without elaboration."

Isabella stared at him for about five seconds, and finally seemed to accept the explanation.

After all, even Curator Weatherby himself might not remember all the obscure items crammed into the nooks and crannies of those dozens of shelves in the museum's rare book section.

"The tradition of change was once considered the sixth tradition, alongside the five major traditions."

Richard immediately perked up.

"The core is 'change'." Isabella pulled an old notebook from the bookshelf and turned to a certain page.

"The sun tradition upholds order, the furnace tradition forges, the moon hunts for purification, the abyss descends, weaves a web of destiny, and the tradition of change governs 'form transformation'."

"Change a to b, change inside to outside, change positive to negative."

Her finger traced a line on that page of the notebook.

"Technique reversal, attribute swapping, structural reconstruction... anything related to 'turning the direction of something's operation over' falls under the jurisdiction of changing tradition."

Richard thought about how his Stone Armor became Shadow Armor, Moon Nail became Moon Nail Reflection, and Silence became Opening; each reversal was about "turning the direction of operation around".

Therefore, the property is labeled "variant tradition (fragment)".

"Why 'once'?" he asked.

Isabella closed her notebook.

"Because of change, tradition has died out."

Richard gripped the canvas bag strap tightly.

"Extinction..."

"The demise of traditions has been systematically analyzed in academia, and can be mainly divided into two types."

Isabella pulled out an old lecture book, turned to a page with a folded corner, and handed it to Richard.

Richard took it and glanced at it.

The page contained a table printed in very small print, titled "A List of Known Extinct Traditions (Revised as of 1897)".

The list contained more than a dozen names, most of which he had never even heard of.

"The first way to perish." Isabella pointed to the long list of names at the top of the table.

"Nobody's practicing anymore."

Richard's gaze followed her finger downwards.

The notes column next to the names in the table contained only a few words.

Some are labeled "Pre-Roman", some "Iron Age", and some are simply labeled "Primitive".

"The practice behind the veil began in the early days of human civilization," Isabella said, her voice slowing down.

"The earliest ones are completely different from what you read in class."

By today's standards... crude, rudimentary, and mostly fatally flawed.

Her finger moved to a name in the third row of the table.

Richard took a closer look and read, "Bone-Eating Tradition."

She pointed to another one: "There's also this 'raw food tradition,' a breathing method based on eating live animals."

"Although the church has removed a lot of teeth from proper ritual language, it has indeed done a good thing by cleaning up these bloody traditions."

"This is the first kind of extinction." Isabella took her hand back from the form.

"Tradition itself has fatal flaws."

Either the practice methods are so cruel as to cross the line, or they cause irreversible damage to the body, or they are too limiting with no room for advancement.

Over time, naturally no one wanted to take that path anymore, and when the last cultivator died, the lineage ended.

"Natural extinction?"

"Yes." Isabella drew a horizontal line on the table with a red pen.

"The five traditions you see now, except for the Abyss, all of them drew nourishment from these primitive traditions in their early days."

"The earliest golden way of the sun was to tie oneself to a pillar at noon and expose oneself to the sun, relying on direct sunlight to awaken the ether."

"The old ancestors of the hearth tradition put their hands into the furnace and forbade anyone to make a sound, until their skin and ether were simultaneously rewritten in the flames."

"The origins of the Moon Hunting tradition are even clearer; it was gradually domesticated from the 'blood hunting rituals' of hunters in primitive society."

Hunters used to drink the blood of their prey to gain strength, but later they stopped actually drinking blood; the principle remained the same.

Richard scanned the form again.

After looking through the names of more than a dozen extinct traditions, I found that most of them were marked with the note "suspected to be the predecessor of a certain tradition".

"What about the second one?" He closed the handout and returned it to his aunt.

Isabella's expression changed.

"The second way of dying out."

"Tradition itself has no fatal flaws, and practitioners have successors, but the core of tradition has not been passed down."