I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Montagu smiled and walked to the center of the field.

The moment Catherine moved, the entire training room's ethereal atmosphere was thrown into disarray by her invisible scales.

She was much more skilled at this month's nailing technique than Richard was.

The moment the mirror reflected the raised hand, the Moon Nail was already in front of Montagu.

Montagu stepped aside to let him pass.

If we apply this to others, the idea that the Sun's tradition is too comprehensive means that someone is a jack of all trades and master of none.

But when applied to Montagu, everything is presentable.

Faced with Catherine's attack, he conjured a solar corona in his palm, turning it into a light barrier that blocked the second moon nail she fired.

The two of them took turns attacking and defending.

Catherine's Moon Spikes are fast and ruthless, specifically designed to strike at tricky angles.

Montagu blocked each of the light walls that came his way, and occasionally managed to launch a counterattack during the gaps between the blocks.

Richard had been observing silently from the side, and the water mirror reflected their every movement clearly.

Catherine is indeed very strong on offense.

The power lent to him by the Nemesis Mask allowed her to specifically target the opponent's weaknesses.

She can spot any weakness in the opponent's defense or ether at a glance, and then she will specifically target those areas with her attacks.

Montagu's strength lay in his lack of weaknesses. He didn't try to outrun Catherine; instead, he focused on building up his light barrier defenses.

After fighting for about ten minutes, neither of them gained an advantage.

Richard called for a halt from the side.

Catherine withdrew the needles, took a half step back, and maintained a steady breathing, clearly not using her full strength.

Montagu, on the contrary, broke out in a sweat. He smiled, shrugged, and said to Catherine:

"It's really tiring to fight you. You just deliberately target the places I'm most uncomfortable with."

Catherine collected all her silver needles and wrote a sentence in her notebook:

"You have very few weaknesses; I can only pick out the smallest ones."

Fisher sat in the corner, marveling at the sight. He said to Edith:

"Look, now that's what you call a fight. What I did with you just now was like elementary school kids playing around."

Edith wasn't angry; instead, she nodded in agreement.

Montagu looked at Richard: "Your turn."

Judging from his expression, he seemed to have high expectations for Richard's performance.

Richard walked to the center of the arena and asked directly, "Who wants to fight me first?"

Catherine was the first to jump out again.

Although she had just finished fighting Montagu, she wasn't exhausted.

The red-haired girl pulled out her silver needle box again and stood opposite Richard.

"How are you going to take my picture?" she wrote curiously.

As soon as he put the notebook away, he simultaneously unleashed the Moon Nail with his other hand, intending to trick him.

This moon nail strike was both tricky and urgent; Richard's water mirror had barely caught a glimpse of his finger moving when the needle was already right in front of his eyes.

Instead of using the Stone Armor to block as usual, he silently activated his Mirror Reflection.

The second stage of the mirror was to seek stillness within movement. He had anticipated the opponent's surprise attack, and the water mirror had already been laid out.

As soon as Catherine's ether condensed on her body, her unformed intention was already reflected in the mirror.

He turned his body slightly, and the moon nail grazed past his ear before embedding itself in the inscription wall behind him.

Catherine's eyebrows twitched, somewhat surprised.

This time, she changed her approach with the moon nails she shot; halfway through the attack, the needles suddenly veered to the side.

It is the prototype of the Moon Chain, an advanced version of the Moon Nail, which extends from one place to another.

Richard's mirror has already reflected that turning point.

Before Catherine could make her move, Ether shifted to the side, intending to fall into his water mirror before she could act.

He also veered in another direction, and the deflected moon nail passed right through the spot where he had originally been standing.

Catherine stopped.

With the combined effect of [Perception & Contemplation] and the illuminating ability of the Sphinx Lamp after its transformation, Richard's mirror reached a level that other mirror professionals simply could not achieve at this stage.

While other people's mirrors can only reflect the physical object being struck, his mirror can reflect the flow of ether within the opponent's body even before the spell is cast, which is very close to being able to predict the future.

This time, Catherine didn't try any tricks.

He immediately withdrew the silver needles, channeled ether into his limbs, and pounced on Richard like a wild beast.

"It's fast," Fisher exclaimed from the corner.

Richard's water mirror still hadn't cleared.

No matter how fast Catherine's punches and kicks were, they couldn't outpace the speed at which her intentions were expressed.

As I was about to throw a punch to the left, I saw the direction of the ether flow reflected in the water mirror.

The girl tried a different tactic, attempting a split kick, but Richard always managed to move aside before her attack even landed.

Once, twice, three times, Catherine's attacks became increasingly urgent, and Richard could barely dodge them completely.

On her seventh attempt, Catherine missed with a straight punch.

In the brief pause between attacks, Richard tentatively tried to counterattack, his Moon Nail solidifying halfway.

But in that instant, his water mirror went haywire.

This is the biggest hurdle in the second stage of mirror polishing.

Just then, Catherine's next attack arrived.

He hastily conjured the [Stone Armor], but Catherine's hand had already stopped in front of his chest.

The center of the arena fell silent. Catherine withdrew her hand and began scribbling in her notebook, then showed it to Richard:

"You can indeed see my intentions every time, but the moment you try to cast a spell, your mirror disappears."

Richard didn't try to hide anything; there was really nothing to hide: "I haven't gone that far yet."

Fisher stood up from the corner, looking utterly bewildered.

He said, "I was watching closely just now, Catherine's movements were so fast my eyes were blurry, how did you manage to dodge them all?"

Catherine answered for him: "He can see a person's intentions."

Fisher exclaimed, "This is too bizarre."

Edith had been silent until now, but finally spoke up: "No wonder you dared to choose the mirror."

Richard looked at her.

Edith said, "I've never understood why you would choose to go to Mirror Street, which is so rare in the entire Empire and is notoriously difficult to navigate."

Now I understand, it really suits you perfectly.

Montagu also came over at this moment. He had been standing to the side watching, his eyes full of thought.

"I'll play against you in the next match."

Montagu's fighting style is completely different from Catherine's.

He seemed to have learned from Catherine's lesson earlier, and instead of moving immediately, he first gathered his ethereal aura.

The first principle of the Sun Tradition is order.

He also spread the ether over his body, making sure it was completely covered.

Richard unfolded the mirror to reflect.

Although it can still be seen, it is much more difficult than seeing Catherine.

Catherine's intention to attack was very clear, pointing directly at her target.

Montagu's intentions were shrouded in his own radiant hue, making them impossible to be entirely certain from any angle.

While Richard was pondering and making his judgment, Montagu had already taken the initiative.

He directly unleashed a wall of light, pressing it straight towards Richard and forcing him into a corner.

Richard quickly stepped aside, and Montagu's second light barrier immediately appeared, blocking the direction he wanted to deflect.

Step by step, they patiently and calmly cornered Richard.

Richard was indeed able to see the location of each of Montagu's light walls.

But he really had no way to deal with such direct pressure from the light barrier.

The two men kept moving around the training ground, eventually reaching a stalemate.

Although Montagu's light wall has a wide coverage area, it is still limited in scope. After all, he is just a practitioner, and maintaining the light wall to keep pushing it forward consumes a lot of ether.

Richard seized the opportunity, waiting for the opponent to switch to using the light barrier to push, and then he slipped into a blind spot.

Later in the fight, Montagu stopped first.

"Your mirror is indeed impeccable in terms of defense."

Fisher chimed in from the side, "Isn't this just a turtle shell? When it's retracted, no one can bite it, but it can't bite anyone else either."

Richard remained silent.

Catherine suggested from the side, "Let's try a free-for-all, all four of us together, and see if he can still see it."

Fisher immediately perked up at the suggestion.

Edith reminded him from the side, "Don't be too happy yet. The two of us combined aren't even enough to beat Catherine by herself."

Fisher didn't seem to care: "There are four of them anyway. The two of us will keep him occupied, while Catherine and Montagu will take the lead."

This division of labor was unanimously approved.

Richard stood in the center of the field, surrounded by four people.

"Begin," Montagu said.

Different etheric forces from four directions pressed down on him simultaneously.

It was at this moment that Richard's waters truly revealed their eeriness.

The intentions of four different opponents simultaneously fell into his trap.

Catherine's sharpness, Montagu's meticulousness.

Edith, using a star chart to calculate the offset of Fisher's stiff pages, saw it all clearly reflected in his mirror at the same instant.

If other traditional mirror practitioners were to simultaneously reflect two people in different directions at this stage, they would be in a chaotic situation.

But thanks to the inspiration that Richard gained from the stillness of [Perception & Contemplation], coupled with the wide-area reflection after the transformation of the Sphinx lamp, the surface of his water remained undisturbed even with the four of them together.

He navigated the gaps between the four intentions, using moon nails, light walls, pages, and stardust to make his four opponents fight hesitantly for fear of accidentally injuring each other due to their lack of coordination.

The four men attacked him haphazardly for several minutes, but they couldn't touch him even once.

"Stop, stop, stop." Fisher was struggling to keep going, clutching his back and panting. "You're not human."

Montagu stopped too, his forehead covered in sweat.

He had already used nine-tenths of his strength, yet he hadn't even touched the hem of Richard's clothes.

He looked at Richard, his tone filled with genuine admiration:

"This mirror really gets stronger when faced with a strong opponent."

The more people attack him, the more fiercely they attack, the more he can see reflected in the water, and the more accurately he can dodge.

If you take a steady, methodical approach and slowly wear him down, that's your only chance of winning.

Catherine accepted the silver needles and wrote in her notebook, "You made the right choice in selecting the mirrored tradition."

Richard leaned against the wall, panting.

After all, he had fought three matches in a row, and the last one was a multi-player melee, so it wasn't easy for him either.

According to the information my aunt provided, other mirror industry practitioners at his stage were probably only slightly better than traditional practitioners like Fisher and Edith, who were completely unsuitable for direct confrontation, but probably not by much.

Montagu advised, "Your only problem right now is how to fight back while using mirrors."

Richard nodded: "I know, that's why I need your help with my training."

After a short break, he said, "Let's have another free-for-all later."

Fisher groaned and collapsed to the ground: "You're coming back? I can't even lift my arms anymore."

Catherine glanced at him and wrote in her notebook:

"You didn't contribute much just now; you were just working behind the scenes the whole time."

Fisher, with his neck stiff, said, "Even just filling in the numbers is tiring."

Edith covered her mouth and laughed.

The subsequent melee continued until evening, and Fisher was eventually dragged out of the training room by Montagu.

After everyone else left, Richard remained alone in the training room to re-enact his stillness, the various intentions of the four people still lingering in his mind.

He began to review the battle.

In the previous few chaotic battles, he got better and better as the fight progressed.

With his mirror-like tradition and his extensive data storage, he might develop a terrifying evolutionary ability that grows stronger the longer the battle goes on, especially in wars of attrition.

My aunt is right. The more varied your reflection in the mirror, the more you can improve yourself.

He stood up and did one last round of breathing exercises.

The pool of water in my chest rose and fell with each breath, and just then, the column on the panel moved.

[Breathing Lv.4, progress 100%.]

Richard stopped.

Starting with the lens-changing method, this column keeps climbing forward.

He went through a transition period to fully adapt to both advanced breathing techniques, namely tidal breathing and condensation breathing.

Today's several chaotic battles, with an entire afternoon of high-intensity efforts to conserve water and provide illumination, pushed the last bit of progress to its peak.

He had been saving up his points for this moment.

Available points: 2.11.

He put two dots in.

[Breathing level lv.4 → lv.5.]

The moment the points were injected into my body was different from the previous times.

At level 3, he saw for the first time the inverted tree on his chest, the Sun Seat, slowly healing himself with each breath.

The level 4 upgrade improved the precision of the tree's restoration, even gradually dissolving the subtle blockages deep within the old wounds.

This time, at level 5, the upside-down tree began to seep out ether.

Richard looked at his tree of light, where every leaf edge began to ooze extremely fine beads of light.

The light beads converged along the veins of the leaves, falling drop by drop into the roots of the tree, accumulating in the very center of the Sun Throne.

【Spring】

[Healing Enhancement; life force can be stored in breath, greatly accelerating self-healing when injured, or guiding energy to heal others.]

Richard sat on the floor of the training room and opened his eyes.

As is customary, I started by trying it on myself.

He tried to channel the little bit of life force he had accumulated into his right palm.

It is different from "healing".

Healing is like a gentle breeze passing by, softly caressing everything it touches.

The injured areas are smoothed out a bit, and the uninjured areas also feel more relaxed.

【涌泉】 is a well.

The well water slowly seeped up from the deepest part of the well, continuously seeping in.

The Moon Nail - Reflection Needle works quickly, but its effects also fade just as fast, like a bucket of cold water being poured over your head and toes.

The spring... there was nothing there.