Birds And Stones
This particular season made Edrick confident that he might just be able to figure out how to turn his technique into a physique by actively partaking in it, so as his sasquatch instincts began to scream that it was close to beginning, Anoteros prepared and set off for the woods, just so happening to run into Xiao training his swordsmanship outside of his dormitory on the way there, ever since the temperatures had risen, nearly everyone had started to appear outside much more often, Xiao, being an outer disciple still, was naturally pretty easy to find, especially when one knew which dormitory he occupied.
Edrick had come by multiple times since the start of spring, under the guise of messing with the protagonist about his relationship with Ai, which had somehow stagnated, well, it might not be the right word to use in that context as they had definitely been doing couple stuff, but Anoteros was making fun of Xiao from the angle of bedroom sport, apparently, the girl was still reluctant from witnessing his privates.
But really, he was coming by to get a look at what style of swordsmanship and whatever cultivation technique he was training, the bet about the tournament was still on after all, and since there was an occasion to gather information, Edrick seized it.
The crimson eyed youth was the first to speak as he noticed the tall figure of Anoteros approaching, stopping mid-swing with surprising ease.
"Oh hey, Edrick, going to hunt the sasquatch again?" he asked "Honestly, if a creature had managed to slip away and injure me so many times, I don't think I would have the will to keep trying"
Edrick shrugged his shoulders.
"As I said before, I cultivate the Mountain Sasquatch Body technique, and it has become plenty obvious that this creature is far from a regular sasquatch, I'll hunt it down until I kill it, and then I'll eat it on the spot, I am pretty confident that this will at least push me in the right direction to awaken the physique, and even if it doesn't do anything, it is good exercise and practise anyways" Edrick's lie was a solid one, as it honestly wasn't hard to believe at all, body cultivators would often track down special individuals pertaining to the beast or creature their technique was based on.
In fact, it wasn't uncommon for the most dedicated to either hunt down the species continuously, or begin to live exactly like it did, sometimes both at the same time.
Bonus point, it made Anoteros pretty popular with the people of Oie, especially the adventurers and explorers, as they were all still terrified of the sasquatch, still, activities had kicked back into action in the forest, as spring was just too profitable of a season to gather stuff and hunt.
The people still tiptoed around and were overwhelmingly vigilant, but so far, nothing had happened again apart from the occasional distant roars, or falling trees- The latter weren't even always caused by their boogeyman anyways, but being so scared, they associated all danger with the beast until they were given evidence of otherwise.
Anoteros didn't want to make them panic again, as they were a great source of eyewitnesses for him, their valiant hero who had already faced the vile creature and survived, having even managed to bring back bits of fur from the beast as proof.
Also, if he were to get back to fear mongering as the sasquatch, he would take attention away from his fear mongering as a serial killer in the city, and this wouldn't be conducive to success.
"But I must say, this sasquatch is quite the bizarre one, I read up on the species since I got curious, and they aren't supposed to have dark fur, and they aren't supposed to turn white either! So I feel that there is no doubt that you'll gain something once you can fell it" Xiao was enthusiastic about it, even though he knew that Edrick running into such an opportunity would make him stronger, and thus, harder to defeat during the tournament.
His opinion of the noble scion had certainly greatly improved since their very first meeting, he found the tall man to be a rather strange sort, but he had turned out to be friendly, making Xiao quite surprised, as the very first 'young master' he encountered wasn't a total douchebag or a loudmouth, he was more in line with what he would expect a true noble to be like.
Eccentric to the regular person, but with poise and a greater vision of things, someone who had actually been raised amongst the elite.
His impression had especially improved when he got to see him walk around with his wives, making one woman happy was tricky enough, but that many? It was worth respect.
"I think I should be able to catch this ape off guard soon enough… It seems like the mating season of the sasquatches is about to begin, if I can just find him whilst busy with a female, it won't be able to dodge" Anoteros smiled.
"Won't that mean that all sasquatches will be abnormally active and likely to be aggressive, though? You are plenty powerful, but sasquatches are wild beasts, their strength is not to be underestimated"
"No worries, I have my methods to deal with that- On this note, I'll be departing after one question: Did you bed her?"
"No"
"Shame, have a good day"
Edrick went through the gates of the sect without delay, he could probably come back covered in blood, and the disciples in charge would still just let him through without question.
On his way as he walked through the city, fully equipped to take on the wilderness, he passed by a shop that would normally be bustling with people, but was currently bustling with city guards, he showed no particular reaction other than faked surprise and curiosity, his eyes met that of Yi, the young prosecutor standing inside of the shop with a troubled expression.
The two men simply nodded at one another as a greeting before moving on with their respective business.
'Wasn't expecting the body to be found so quickly, the shopkeeper must have been expecting a visitor or something similar'
'Doesn't look like they found the other two, though…'
*Commit murder upon a city dweller and prop up their body in a manner to spread fear throughout the city*
*Have your way with an impoverished traveller in a back alley via force*
*Ravish a store owner in their own shop during opening hours*
The previous night, he had completed these three quests in one go, with three different 'assistants'.
The latter two did not say anything about taking a life, however…
*Taunt the authorities after establishing a pattern across multiple murders*
…He was adept at killing two birds with one stone.