Ever since Edrick had spoken about the way for him to have a shot with Yin, Shu had picked cultivation back up, before, he had felt somewhat disheartened by it, as he was far from being amongst the talented ones, like the average cultivator, he could only cultivate a single technique at a time, some might be able to cultivate multiple if they took lengthy pauses from their previous technique, but the truth remained, those like him struggled to get strong quickly due to having to entirely focus on a single thing at once.
Meaning that if he chose a weapon cultivation technique, unless it was an especially exceptional one, he would not get physically stronger beyond his natural limits, same with anything else, he could only improve one thing with cultivation at a time.
Adding the fact that he wasn't exactly a man of great constitution either, being smaller than average and having barely any muscles- He had originally hoped to do something about that, but reality was cruel, and his only talent laid in the fact that he had a good disposition to learn techniques relating to sneaking around and escaping.
Usually, if asked, he would say the truth, but try to make it sound like he had learned multiple cultivation techniques, in truth, he had only ever learned a single one, and he had not pushed it to its theoretical limit, after managing to become an inner disciple he only rarely cultivated and really only to not lose his touch.
Things had changed however, Anoteros had managed to change his outlook on things, the terrifying man was correct in his words, Shu had never seen it like this, but when hearing facts and logic, one should naturally agree.
Wind-Riding Serpent-Tailed Rat Anatomy was not a subpar technique in its department either, although a mouthful, all of those words were not used to hide a messy or ineffective cultivation technique, it was just the lengthy name of a real creature that had the body and head of a rat, feathered wings on its back, and the tail of a snake, something that sounded like it had come straight out of a nightmare.
After deciding to take things seriously, Shu had done as Edrick had suggested and went to the library to seek his third wife's assistance, who was still working as a librarian here despite now having the rank of special disciple, with her help, he could get access to many books an inner disciple should not be able to get their hands on.
Though, it wasn't as useful for him as it would be for others, he had already cultivated too deeply with the Wind-Riding Serpent-Tailed Rat Anatomy, and couldn't just change, besides, there was no reason to change, it was perfectly suited for what he was good at, and when it came to anything else, he actually seemed to have negative talent in them, so it wasn't worth the time.
Shu had somewhat known Hui before since she was one of Yin's friends, probably her best friend in fact, but he had not known her to be so knowledgeable, taking her words like they were Anoteros's, he didn't just go over the basics of cultivation again and start training, he learned more about the beast his technique had been based upon.
He had made great progress already.
The technique fell in the category of body cultivation, but as one might expect, the winged rat wasn't know for its strength, it was a scavenger, a vicious little creature- In fact, it was often compared to a honey badger in terms of aggressivity, only that instead of somehow taking damage from everything without a care, the snake-tailed rat evaded everything before running away like a coward.
Basically, nothing actually bothered to hunt these things anymore, being way too much trouble for what they were worth, it would be like fighting an army so that you could eat a small piece of meat.
As such, cultivating this technique made one stealthier, faster, granted greater reflexes and allowed one to run for their lives very efficiently, it had the downside of making you into someone that could really only do this however.
But that was fine to him…
"Still training diligently, huh?"
"Indee- Edrick?!" Shu leapt off his chair, somehow keeping his voice quiet despite the surprise.
"No need to act so strongly, you are in an area of the library you shouldn't normally be in, so you should have been more attentive to your surroundings" Anoteros spoke casually, like he didn't totally sneak up on Shu like a predator stalking its prey.
Edrick sat down beside him, the long table completely empty beside the two of them, obviously, during the day the library was much more empty, especially now that the temperatures had risen back up, and also, this was the section where normally only core disciples would be found, and everybody knew that those guys rarely ever stepped out of their rooms.
"But anyways, is the progress good? I surely hoped you haven't been only focusing on cultivation and also did regular physical training, you know what they say, your mundane attributes are the foundation of everything else"
"Yes… Hui has been saying the same thing…"
"Of course she has, I told her to, but she probably had additional insights of her own, that brain of hers is well-developed" Edrick brought his hand down on Shu's shoulder in a friendly, yet somehow threatening way.
"Why don't you show me what you can do? Let's have a little spar"
"Huuh… Sure? But Edrick, you are absolutely stronger than me, there is no doubt about it! It won't be much of a fight!"
"Agreeing and then immediately arguing against it? Aren't you a little negotiator, Shu? Don't worry, we won't fight for real, and besides, you should absolutely be faster than me, your technique is focused on that"
"Well… But I only cultivate a single one"
"My body cultivations don't increase speed that much even together, you'll be fine"
It was just impossible for him to negotiate with Anoteros, so Shu just had to mentally prepare himself, he had never actually seen Edrick fight, or even train for that matter, but the guy was over two meters tall and built like a brick house, it was natural to expect to get beaten into a pulp by him, especially when he was nearly always emitting a sense of danger.
"Alright… Where are we going?"
"My residence of course, there is something I wish to speak about afterwards" Edrick led the way, and Shu felt better, he surely wouldn't get thrown around too much if Anoteros was aiming to give orders, which was what was assumed he meant…