After realising just how valuable the boon-granting effect of Five-Legged Devil Goat Physique was, anyone who passed by Edrick and was not privy to what he had discovered, would think that he was in deep reflection like a scholar who had just discovered a truth of this world…

In reality, he was just thinking about going into the woods and sticking his fifth limb into everything that moved for more free abilities, and was already wondering what sort of things they might yield, sasquatches were classified as ‘beasts’, but there were other classifications of beings going around.

Although the way certain things were classified greatly depended on who you were asking, even amongst the thinking heads that dealt with that sort of thing, disagreements were common, so much so that it was not difficult at all to find books on the subjects that referred to the exact same creatures under completely different names and classifications.

The only thing that those thinkers agreed upon is that it was a huge mess, and that there were way too many things and variants going around.

For example, goblins like Edrick had seen a few times in the forest, everyone mostly agreed that those counted as ‘monsters’, at least, the precise kind that he had run into was, as some goblins instead fell into the group of ‘sapients’ without question, some of these smart green fellows could be found working in governments and kingdoms after all, the biggest cause for differing visions laid in the things that, without a doubt, did not possess sapience.

Were they monsters? Were they beasts? Were they animals? What were even the qualifications required to fit into any of those groups? Anoteros had read quite a few books about this, so he was fairly confident in believing that there was no clear definition whatsoever and that the scholars were just making things up and going with the flow.

Muxing seemed to be part of the group of people interested in studying the natural world and its inhabitants, so it was a shame that he could not ask questions to her just yet without blowing his cover.

Speaking of the dirty blonde-haired girl, her stomach was swelling nicely, and it seemed that it had already reached its maximum size, or at least, Edrick hoped that it wouldn’t get any bigger than that, as she was looking stretched thin already, and since this was apparently her first pregnancy as well, it would be best if things could remain within a manageable range.

In any case, today was Dikenag, and as such, Anoteros was standing within the quarters of Elder Wei, a rather burly man that proudly exposed a hairy chest at all times, he appeared middle-aged, and had rather noticeably orange hair that absolutely did not fit with his brown eyes.

In short, he was noticeably weird-looking, but he was a competent cultivator, he was an elder of the Myriad-Arm Sect after all, a high position many sought after.

As his lack of family name implied, he did not hail from any clan and used to be a commoner, and his raw talent was, by his own admission, poor.

Wei had more than just Edrick whomst he trained, so this was his way of encouraging the less talented, but promising youths he had decided to take under his wing, he, who had only ever cultivated a single cultivation technique had become a powerful and respected cultivator.

This ought to be an inspiring tale for the disciples that had also come from peasant or farming families, but naturally, the elder was leaving out some details.

Details that he knew about from pieces of Zixuan Elt’s memories, some knowledge wisps, but mostly from Ting and Ku, who had been letting him in on quite a lot of things, they quite liked to speak after ‘training’.

Naturally, all cultivators without family names wanted to have their own clans, they wanted to be bigshots and experience what nobility was like, own land, and have descendants that would carry on their legacy…

But it was not quite as easy as being a relatively strong cultivator, especially in Leynlornd.

The royal family was powerful, and had their hands on everything going on within their borders, and caring very much for not only their wealth, but also reputation, they wouldn’t allow just any old schmuck to establish clans as they pleased.

It might have been possible far into the past, but nowadays, one needs the crown’s permission, and before asking for said permission, one needs to be recognised as valuable, and then be granted a family name by the ruler in person.

In short, the amount of clans that appeared every year was often zero.

And anyways, any newly formed clan would instantly be strongarmed into becoming vassals to a greater clan, so most often, the minor clans that you would hear about that had just been created, really only existed as extensions of another clan, as this was the easier method to form one…

Bend the knee, lower your head, and become a grafted branch to a tree that probably wouldn’t mind sacrificing you.

So naturally, most cultivators would end up joining sects instead, which regulations for being established were similarly stringent, but were much easier to join.

Wei, despite being a part of the Myriad-Arm Sect, merely cultivated a technique that mixed body cultivation, and pugilism- So although skilled in wielding a sword, his real weapons were his fists.

“Come on, why do you look so scared? This is just training, you’re not going to get hurt!” right now, the elder was encouraging an outer disciple he had seen some potential in, but the young man was unmistakably fearful to the point that his wooden weapon was trembling strongly from side to side.

Why was he so afraid?

Because the elder had put him in the ring with Edrick! The only disciple under Wei here that could actually do anything against the noble scion was a female inner disciple, but she was not really pressed to help her juniors escape the punishment of getting manhandled, due to the fact that she was a friend of both Hui and Yin, otherwise, she might have filled in for their sake, but since she was familiar enough with Anoteros, she wouldn’t say anything unless the elder put her up to it.

As such, the poor outer disciples had to fend for themselves, they had tried fairly well during the first few sparring lessons, but they were essentially all beginners, so even if they had good talent in cultivating, it did not help them much in learning how to use their chosen weapon and fighting was a skill that undoubtedly took much more time to acquire.

So the poor young man was rapidly disarmed, and immobilised.

“Ah… How come you still don’t realise that he has far more reach than you do? Just because you have a weapon, it does not change the fact that his arms are long as hell!”

“Sorry… Master…”

“Alright, Edrick, you can let go of him- Outer disciples, train amongst yourselves, look over them for me” he addressed the inner disciple last before walking further to the side with Anoteros.

“Alright, let’s have a little spar, you told me you had a breakthrough, right? I am eager to see how great it was!” the senior rubbed his chin, undoubtedly, if Edrick had an advancement in strength whilst under his tutelage, even if unrelated to him, he could still brag about it to the others.

“Very well, Sir”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep