Great Synergy

Physiques, bloodlines, and the likes were highly coveted in various manners, possessing a physique was basically a passive boost, it was akin to having gone beyond total mastery of a cultivation technique.

The same was mostly true for bloodlines, though, bloodlines were attractive in the sense that once you possessed them, you could pass at least part of it down to your descendants, so amongst cultivation clans, it was one the top criterias that would convince someone to bind themselves to you through marriage.

In fact, the amount of wandering and lone cultivators who sought bloodlines for the sole and unique reason to marry into a cultivation clan was extremely high, as even if you weren't that good in other aspects, the bloodline alone was attractive enough to at least allow you to live a fairly lavish life.

Edrick now possessed one of each, physiques and bloodlines were the most famous of their kind as well, as there were variants relating to other aspects, such as the soul, in that regard, Jingyi was peculiar because she possessed one of everything.

But although already very rare, physiques and bloodlines were the most common of that group, moreover, thanks to them both being from the same species, they had harmonised and created a feedback loop that had allowed them to further increase their value.

Right now, as Anoteros stood up, he felt distinctly more powerful, he now had all the advantages as when transformed whilst still looking like his usual self, the bonuses when he would actually assume the transformation would certainly be even greater then.

Usually, one in his situation would have to test a bunch of stuff to get an idea of what he really just earned, but Edrick only had to open the system and check the information listed there, just like with the bloodline, he could learn exactly what the boons he had earned were all about.

Mountain Sasquatch Body had disappeared from the cultivation technique section and been moved to the previously empty physique area.

*Mountain Sasquatch Body (Physique) : You Now Enjoy The Benefits That Used To Be Locked Behind Your Transformed State Whilst Not Transformed, The Power Of The Transformation Has Been Adjusted, You Can Now Make Use Of Any Sasquatch-Related Techniques Or Aspects Even When Not Transformed Without Any Backlashes, You Now Have Much Finer Control Over Transforming And Can Thus, Partly Transform—You Can Switch Between Your Normal Self And Transformation At Will, There Are Now Variant Transformations Available, And The Amount Of Them May Increase In The Future*

It was a whole lot of text, but it indeed confirmed that the combination of physique and bloodline had greatly enhanced what should have been rather simple, Anoteros had never read about bloodlines and physiques interacting in such a cohesive manner, but he assumed that it was rather uncommon for one to not only have both physique and bloodline, but to also have them both match the exact same beast species or theme.

Most of those with bloodlines to begin with had earned them through their parents, and typically, the bloodlines that ran in clans were natural bloodlines, not the kind earned throughout a lifetime, so they were unique in nature and probably had no real link to any physique one could acquire.

Feeling like it was natural and without risk, Edrick extended his right hand forward, and willed for his hand to transform, and right before his eyes, his hand erupted with black fur and swelled in size, the palm becoming far tougher and taking on a greyish shade.

Focusing, he made the fur shift colour, before, thanks to the bloodline, he had been able to turn his fur white, but now, he not only could play around with black and white, but also brown like the mountain sasquatch, lighter brown like the pygmy sasquatches, or grey, like the skunk sasquatches, the colouration of his palm could also shift between the different shades available, and the two did not have to match at all, they could be controlled individually.

And even though only his hand was transformed, Edrick felt no discomfort and could control it like usual.

Opening and closing it, he could indeed tell that the power increase was higher than it was to be… Then he willed for the transformation to go away, and his hand popped back to normal swiftly, it wasn't quite in the blink of an eye, the process was quick, but gradual still.

Anoteros smiled a little bit, before, undoing his transformation was rather lengthy and required some care, this was a massive improvement.

Lastly, there was one thing about the description that was quite interesting, so he once again transformed his hand to test it.

There was no explanation as to what 'variant' meant, but he had a pretty good guess, so he tried it out, and willed his hand to transform into that of skunk sasquatch- Lo and behold, it absolutely worked, greatly increasing in size compared to before.

It was rather unwieldy with the rest of his body not being transformed though, so he tried to see if he could do it but while retaining his proportions, and it worked again, which told him something very interesting.

Previously, although he essentially became a sasquatch when shifting form, he didn't actually change in body shape or size, despite his stature not being that of the creature at all, advantages were gained- And he could still do exactly that regardless of the variant, when he attempted to turn his hand into a pygmy sasquatch's to check, he found his hand shrunk, before making it go back to normal whilst still retaining the advantages of the nimble species.

Naturally, the benefits were lesser when he did not adopt the true physiology, but what he retained was still ample.

'Mmh… Then I guess…' he breathed in and out, he was already in his birthday suit as he had been expecting for some hair growth when trying to cultivate the technique earlier, so he didn't linger on and transformed.

Within a few seconds, Edrick somewhat changed in shape as he turned himself into a mountain sasquatch, the sensation of bones shifting and changing was especially odd, but the results were there, with brown fur, he was currently exactly like the beast, and he could still have hair grow over the areas that were once always covered up for him, which he certainly preferred.

Then, he became a pygmy, greatly shrinking.

And then into a skunk, swelling up even taller than normal.

'I wonder if…' just as I thought of it, his appearance changed again, and he now assumed the body structure of the late sasquatch lord.

He thus currently had access to four variants, and he could pick and choose details of their appearance at will, mixing and fusing different things.

Honestly, Anoteros would be lying if he said that he didn't feel incredible right now, cultivation was one thing, but actually shapeshifting felt superbly magical and supernatural to him.

'Ooh… I feel like a little boy right now, I want to see what it feels like to crush something into paste like this- Ah, the bloodline didn't see any change in description… But I feel like its effects have gotten better, piping all of those apes was really worth it'

In fact, he was already considering repeating it with other species if he ever earned a bloodline- Or even, was a bloodline needed? With his dual cultivation technique, it would be a waste not to go acquire more abilities like what he had gotten!

For now though, he went back to normal.

Now was not yet the time to get delusions of grandeur, he should just go about his day as per usual…