Preparations Over

'Welp, the tournament is drawing near, and I have pretty much done everything I could to enhance my strength…' opening his eyes after a period of meditative cultivation, Edrick sat on the ground in the middle of one of his sparring rooms with an open roof, he had managed to successfully transform one of his body cultivation techniques into a physique, and even earned himself a powerful bloodline.

Although the turning of Mountain Sasquatch Body into a physique was greatly in part thanks to luck, as he had had no idea that he would be able to obtain a bloodline from a sasquatch lord when he picked up the technique, he had nonetheless accomplished something very impressive, the time that had passed in between him beginning to cultivate, and earning the physique was extremely short.

He doubted that he would be able to do the same thing for other techniques any time soon…

Speaking of them, now that he no longer had any need to cultivate Mountain Sasquatch Body, he had made some nice progress with the rest, also thanks to Five-Legged Devil Goat Physique and its energy excess capabilities.

The two encyclopedia techniques Ku Xing had given him from the Pain Sutra were progressing along rather well thanks to his godmother's assistance, he should be able to complete all of the bones in his right hand just before the tournament, which would make the bones within it far tougher than they are now, a sort of bonus for completely an entire 'area' if you will.

The Encyclopedia Of Rending should normally be usable in combat, but doing so proved far too arduous for Edrick at the moment, after all, what Ku Xing had shared with him were only portions that could be granted to outsiders, so although very useful, Anoteros really only had success with them thanks to her direct guidance, and even then, without the full sutra to take reference from, Edrick could only use the rending encyclopedia on himself to train the affliction encyclopedia.

As for Guardian Hippopotamus Physique, he had picked this technique up alongside Mountain Sasquatch Body, but it had received less attention due to the lack of special situations concerning it, which was natural, there were no guardian hippopotami anywhere nearby, so even if his affinity for the technique or beast was as great as the other, there wouldn't be anything for it to resonate with, be it a special individual, or wondrous resource.

Still, this body's talent for cultivation was far from poor, and in fact, it was rather exceptional when considering all things together, so with the assistance of the excess energies, he could feel that his flesh and skin had grown far tougher than before, and he could swim rather fast now as his skin could repel water to prevent drag.

As for the four weapon cultivation techniques he was practising, everything was also going smoothly, Anoteros had already been an expert with these weapons to begin with, so after getting used to wielding them with his newfound strength and height, he naturally made some good progress.

Longbowman, Crack Of Punishment, and Oni Smash were all rather simplistic techniques, possessing the most common effects of weapon cultivation techniques, which was to allow the weapon being wielded to share the user's strength, preventing the weapon from shattering due to the materials being unable to keep up with the user's strength, and of course, it also made one unnaturally more capable with said weapon, though a large portion still relied on good old training.

His bow technique only had that, and as Ku Xing had put it, was intended as a technique to lay good foundations for a better technique later on, its simplicity allowed for even someone of lesser talent to eventually master it, as long as they were diligent at least.

His whip technique had come from the Pain Sutra as well, on top of the basics, it allowed for the pain delivered by whip strikes to be far greater than normal, whilst also granting a small amount of control over the whip that went beyond the natural, pretty much making it so the user could suddenly change what they were targeting mid-momentum.

That technique required one to be an agonist to show their true strength, and since agonist in this world meant sadist, it suited Anoteros very well.

His Kanabo technique had one special trait, which was that it could unleash a special ability of sorts, he had already used it against the stray Blasse-Fusse, and as that unfortunate cold human had witnessed, by striking the ground with the Kanabo, one could destroy the earth in a line toward a target.

Such skills were common in higher-level techniques, and were also the basis of how some cultivators casted special spells, they earned them by learning energy cultivation techniques or spell cultivation techniques.

The fourth weapon cultivation was not so basic, perhaps because it pertained to a less common style of combat.

It was called Destreza, and was typically used by having a cloak in your off-hand, which was why Edrick always had one on his shoulders, it was not only a fashion statement, but also a tool of combat that no one would suspect was quite the problematic weapon.

One who practised Destreza could use the cloak to defend by parrying or blocking, primarily against blades, but not limited to them, if you were good enough.

But it was also useful for offence, various aspects of the cloak could change drastically based on circumstances, if Edrick wanted to use it to disarm his opponent, it would grow heavier after he chucked it on their weapon or body, but also become somewhat sticky, making it a pain to remove swiftly.

Despite the toughness provided to the cloak, Edrick himself could stab and slash through it with ease, no matter the situation, basically allowing him to throw it in his opponent's face, and just go wild by stabbing them whilst they can't see anything.

Another aspect that made this technique a notch above the others was the fact that the cloak could be paired with a rapier or a dagger, making it essentially a technique that dealt with three different items at once.

All of what was mentioned above, coupled with the passive boosts earned from destroying Jingyi's script, the abilities earned from the three sasquatch species, and the consumable items that permanently boosted him… Anoteros had increased in power by a significant amount since joining the Myriad-Arm Sect.

He glanced at a system window to the side.

It detailed what he had earned from completing a quest.

*Taunt the authorities after establishing a pattern across multiple murders*

It had been completed when he captured Yi, or rather, Yifei…

Apart from the usual stuff, there had been a passive ability, which allowed him to release his bloodlust, intents, and similar stuff, since he apparently already knew how to conceal them, the system had seen it fit to actively give him a way to do the opposite, and it could be felt even if the people he was targeting did not have the perception to sense it normally.

That was a nice bonus, but probably not something he should do in public just yet.

'Mmh… I'll have to take a look at a bunch of quests once the tournament is over, I have quite a few who have been gathering dust for too long…'

"Hey, Shu… Stop lying over there, I did not hit you that hard" he spoke to his sparring partner, with whom he had had mock duels plenty of times by now.

The crafty inner disciple coughed up a bit of white sand before responding.

"Yes, Edrick?"

"Prepare to spread the news that I slayed the murderous sasquatch… In the meantime, you can go pay a visit to Yaling"

"Understood!"