Edrick cultivated for the better part of the day, spending about two hours to test the difference in the capabilities of his body now compared to before, and although it probably wasn't anything exceptional in the grand scheme of thing, he felt that the increase in power was simply incredible, but the real boons were the dreadful ease with which he could swing from branch to branch and the resilience of his flesh now.
These aspects had seen much greater increases than the rest indeed, if he kept at it every single day like this, the progress should be rather dazzling, though the earnings would surely begin to lessen with time.
In any case, Anoteros had himself be cleanly shaven back to normal by Linmin's expert hand, in the end, he decided to not keep any facial hair at all, dressing himself back up, he turned to his wives.
"You know the drill for tonight" he patted their heads, Fanqia and Linmin nodding in understanding, although Edrick could tell that both were absolutely saddened by it, but it was literally only for a single night, so they would survive.
"Good, I'll be on my way then" watching their husband's back as he exited through the front door, both of them couldn't help but clearly feel that now that he had officially become a cultivator, his presence had somehow gotten even heavier.
"We better get on with it as well…" spoke Fanqia.
"No need to hurry, Lord Edrick wouldn't want us to rush carelessly, we have to do it in the best possible way available" Linmin replied, both of them were doing pretty good with energy circulation so far and they had been busy trying to find the best possible cultivation methods for themselves, of course, they would end up asking their husband directly for his own opinion as it was what mattered the most, but they also had to show some independence as they couldn't bother and rely on him for everything.
He had made it clear plenty of times that they should think for themselves.
Linmin was hovering toward focusing on a sword cultivation technique- He had tried some other weapons out, but he truly was most comfortable with a good old dao sword, although it might seem like an advantage that they had access to plenty of choice due to being special disciples themselves, it only ended up complicating things as higher-leveled techniques would be unsuitable to blossoming cultivators like themselves.
As for Fanqia, she really, truly was incredibly bad at wielding weapons, she could only effectively swing a dagger around after much practise, so she was actually thinking about picking up a technique that was more-so geared toward support than anything, there plenty of cultivation techniques around, so she surely would find something suitable.
However, there was also her innate bloodline to find out about, who knew if it could actually be useful for something? As such, Fanqia also needed to worry about that.
The first and second wives did not linger around and each went their separate ways for now.
Meanwhile, their husband showed up at the library looking like usual, Hui's face beaming up the instant she saw him arrive, having been worried since he hadn't appeared at the usual time, but she hadn't dared to ask or do anything about it.
This routine had been going on for a month after all, it had felt very weird to not get roughed up as usual, so much so that the librarian had been shifty, feeling like something was missing.
"I see that no one is here tonight"
"No, an elder decided to offer a public lesson, so the outer disciples all went…" she explained with a wry smile, expecting to get grabbed by the throat or pulled down to the ground any moment from now.
'Any moment-'
Edrick just offered her his hand.
"Good, you are coming with me" Hui instinctively grabbed it like a cat pouncing on a mouse the second the occasion presented itself, her delicate hand looking awfully small in his.
"H-Huh? Where?"
'Is it another date?! A date so late?! Am I going to get ruined like last time? By the gods- I can not wait-'
"To my residence" he simply responded, pulling her along.
"Your residence?! Can- Can I dress more nicely?" she asked tentatively.
"One of the robes we bought together last time?"
"Yes…"
"Go ahead" with his permission, she slipped into the backroom like an especially oily snake, the sound of her moving around in a hurry was rather cute.
'That woman does not realise how much she makes me want to destroy her…' it was mystery how this awkward, mousy, bespectacled and lonely girl had not been approached by other men before him, even if people around here valued strength so much, it was hard to believe that none would be willing to put that aside when faced with such an adorable and happily submissive creature.
Every time he saw her, he just wanted to grab that neck and see her change colours, only stopping right as she edged on the cliff of unconsciousness.
Soon enough, Hui showed up all dressed up, her braided hair and glasses remained the same since Edrick had already praised them before, meanwhile, the librarian was wearing a rather ample and long robe that really kept everything up to imagination, it really gave the impression of some dotted-on young lady whose purity was so important that even gazes had to be restricted around her.
She had seemed particularly thrilled about that sort of clothing when he had taken her to do some shopping for their second 'date'.
Anoteros had nothing bad to say about that choice, it looked good on her.
Offering his hand again, she shyly took it and allowed herself to be led away, the night hadn't quite fallen just yet, the rays of the sun were still shining, peeking just over the horizon, slowly getting lesser and lesser as the hold of dark grew.
By the time they arrived at the residence, all sunlight was gone, and Hui was redder than a tomato, the more they had walked hand-in-hand, the more embarrassed she had become, it felt stupid to get so abashed about such things when they had already gone way beyond such stuff.
Their first meeting had already been rather heated after all, and they had always been, which was probably why experiencing cutesy couple experiences and being treated with some gentleness felt so weird and novel.
Though she was still hoping that he would get rough with her, she did not mind if they stayed like this, holding hands for a while longer…