Martial Skill

Not many people were aware that Edrick had earned a bloodline or physique, basically, only the members of his household as well as Ting Zhenniao and Ku Xing knew of it, so Elder Wei was instead told that it was a mere advancement in cultivation that had allowed Anoteros to have such a sudden growth in strength, citing a strong affinity for the Mountain Sasquatch Body technique.

For now, he was planning on keeping the physique under wraps from the public and only announce his possession of a bloodline once he decided that the time had come to fake his slaying of the murderous sasquatch, framing it as him acquiring it from the beast itself.

Now, the question was whether Elder Wei would believe that lie once he got to test Edrick, the noble scion could control his strength to appear weaker, but he couldn't make himself less durable, so a simple sparring session could easily reveal that something was a bit off with his claims, that is, if Wei paid attention or even bothered to question things.

Having been committing atrocities for the majority of his past life, Edrick was well aware that an absurd amount of people would not question, or would straight up ignore obvious signs of strangeness or foul play, it was fine when potential witnesses acted this way, but when it had been preys with whomst he was trying to pull some tricks on, it was rather infuriating.

Both the senior and junior got into their respective stances, the former adopted an unusual posture, which was due to his practice of an ox technique that mixed body cultivation and a pugilist-like battle style into one, it looked like he was going to charge with his head forward.

As for the latter, Anoteros merely adopted a simple boxing posture, although with only one arm raised in front of his face, already knowing that the elder had the habit of targeting the chest and abdomen.

"Let's start" the middle-aged-looking man's orange hair swayed a bit as he stepped forward, not being a beginner when it came to instructing the youth in the way of combat, Wei naturally only fought with a small portion of his strength, much like when Edrick had sparred with Elder Gang.

On the surface, the two men might seem similar in terms of combat style, but unlike Gang, Wei focused solely on a single technique and combat style, and he was much more direct in how he fought as well, feints were rarely seen, and the direction of his attacks were clear for all of those who could see them, but the simplicity was not exactly a weakness as it was the whole point.

The elder stepped forward first, slipping past a right hook, and then swiftly followed by throwing a straight punch with his left hand aimed at Edrick's stomach, which he dodged by stepping backwards and out of its range.

It seemed rather simple, but Anoteros basically had no other choice but to dodge, as, much like a charging ox, the senior could hardly be diverted off course or intercepted, so even when he was limiting himself, dodging was really the only viable option, but an ox was also a beast with lots of stamina, and this was pretty much the big deal about his cultivation technique.

Constantly attack with a blind trust in your own defences, and force your opponent to run around constantly, if they don't fall to your attacks, then they will exhaust themselves before you do.

Although it was his forte himself, Wei often ended up turning his pupils into agile fighters for this simple reason, his current top student, the female inner disciple, could sidestep attacks from multiple directions from sheer constant training to avoid getting hit by Wei when sparring.

Anoteros did not dodge eternally, however, and sought a good occasion to dodge in an arc, past the elder's strike to try and land an attack of his own, but it took nearly three whole minutes before such an opportunity presented itself, the rhythm of Elder Wei's attacks was simply that outlandish.

But once he moved to the side, he feinted going for a punch to the head, only to arch his back, to evade the swing of Wei's right fist, and slammed both of his palms against the sides of the senior's head.

"Ouch" in response, the elder did a poor job of acting hurt by the strike, and promptly hit Edrick right in the chest before putting his hands behind his back, signalling a pause.

"That's some tough skin you've got there, you weren't so durable last week! Did your cultivation breakthrough extend to your other techniques, perhaps?" Wei, instead of being suspicious, instantly thought that it was because of Anoteros's other body cultivation technique, Guardian Hippopotamus Physique, which was focused on defence.

Edrick just nodded in agreement.

"In any case, good move there, you've actually grasped my style very well in a short amount of time, most other juniors are too worried about not getting hit to realise that it's incredibly simple, if I had been on the same level as you there, that strike would have certainly been enough to daze for some time, even with my ox technique, targeting the ears is a sure way to achieve something, good job"

"Now, let's switch things up, you get to attack, and I'll have to defend without the possibility to strike back- However, unlike usual, try to only emulate my style, understood? Then let's go!"

Although all of the elders had wanted to teach something to Edrick due to him having a special status within the sect, and his presence potentially signifying that they could ease the slight tensions between the sect and the Elt Clan, Wei was well aware that there was a fairly big difference into what each of them could actually teach the youth.

Naturally, the two noble elders, Ku Xing and Ting Zhenniao, had far more available to teach, compared to the other three, they had far firmer foundations and resources in their pockets than what was available to the non-noble elders, even if those three scrapped whatever they had together, they wouldn't be anywhere close.

Also, the Xings and Zhenniaos already had very good relations with the Elt anyway.

So Wei, in his best attempts, was willing to teach Edrick his very own combat style, it might seem simple, but it required strong nerves to use to its best extent- One had to be confident in their strong defences, and not slow down the aggression when using it to fight.

'Ah yes, I am a genius' he thought to himself.

"..."

After the training session, however, he wasn't looking very content with himself.

'I… I probably should think of something else…' indeed, his battle style was far too simple, and since Anoteros seemed to know no fear or apprehension, even after Wei changed the rules of the spar to test Edrick, he found that the noble scion was absolutely unfazed by the threat of receiving hits whilst emulating the Ox Technique's combat style.

Unlike the typical youth, he did not seem to have an inherent fear of getting hurt.

So basically, what Wei was trying to teach him was worthless.

'Where did this kid come from anyway? He clearly knows how to fight and isn't afraid at all, and his cultivation speed and talent are great! Why would they send such a fine youth to our sect in the first place? Or why wouldn't they flaunt his talent? Why didn't he start cultivating at a younger age?'

Wei sighed.

Trying to make sense of what pure-bred nobles were thinking was a waste of time, he would be better off asking Ku Xing and Ting Zhenniao directly, one problem however.

They kind of scared him.