Surprisingly he received a nod in response from the bandit. And afterward, they returned to what was happening before. Wu Guang was launching attack after attack while the bandit defended against all of them. This was so strange that Wu Guang did not resist to ask

"Will, you only defend?"

Again being answered by a nod Wu Guang came to a conclusion "I get it now, he is nearing the 4th level and is trying to follow my movements. Indeed, if he manages to do so, he will quicken the awakening and training of the senses after the breakthrough. While judging from the fact that he has been maintaining the 'Gale Armor' during all the fight, he wants to also advance his mastery on it. Well, that's also a good plan, after all, such techniques can be only trained when in use". After the mystery of the pure defense was solved, Wu Guang decided to play along. Indeed, where he could find such a perfect training partner for his qi techniques? And so this situation continued for a quarter of an hour.

Noticing that he was nearing the limit of his technique and that his opponent 'Gale Armour' was on the verge of disintegrating as well, Wu Guang decided to finish this battle. In truth, he was interested in how the following fight would turn out but he did not want to risk it and so used a similar trick as with Kuang Jian. But in this case, he did not summon the 'Rock Shield' below his own feet. In place, he called it right below his opponent's feet.

Wu Guang did not give even a single moment to understand what happened after his opponent was thrown out of balance by the emergence of a three or so feet rock below his back foot.

In place, he utilized this momentary confusion to land a pair of quick punches towards the arms, making the latter guard break. And then finished it with a full-strength kick towards the stomach, an inch or so below the breastplate. In truth such a kick should have been shrugged off by the combination of stable footing, 'Gale Armor' and the battle attire rune infused defense but the first one was taken care of while the second was too weak to fully cushion the impact. Even so, no real damage was done, but the impact and the broken footing still made the bandit fall on his back.

Without letting such an opportunity escape him, Wu Guang instantly jumped towards the opponent and stomped towards the neck.

He did stop right before it landed as it could end badly if he did not do so, but the win was assured.

And this was confirmed by the Battle Palace Elder voice which resounded right away

"Last one standing - Wu Guang"

Hearing this, Wu Guang stepped back and dispelled his techniques. As the elder motioned to him, he took a brief moment to check himself and give a hand to the bandit in raising up. Only then, he moved towards the Elder.

With the fighting finished he stopped concentrating and so heard the public clapping and discussing parts of the fight.

After some congratulations, the talisman on his pouch retired, and receiving the prize of 500 points, Wu Guang left the arena hastily. He did not do so to avoid the people that wanted to talk with him, which in truth were a few but did so because today was his only sure chance to use up the points he gathered. After all, he did not know if what sort of mission Elder Mo had in mind for him and similarly did not know when he would need to leave on it.

***

The last battle of the tournament confirmed Wu Guang's thoughts about what techniques he lacked. A movement one, a close-quarter defensive one, and a weapon technique.

The two former ones he had no way to obtain right now as he wanted to complete the Flaming body set and the respective techniques for it were located on the 3rd floor of the Martial Library. A floor which he could not access until entering the higher outer circle or receiving a special permit. That left him with the techniques meant for weapons, but he had not reached even the 1st level and worse still had not decided on which weapon he would use as a main. He could decide for any, but Wu Guang did not want to rush such a decision, after all, he did not know which techniques and weapons he would be able to find or obtain in the future. So in place of rushing any decision, he decided to choose one of the qi covering techniques that could be used not only with weapons but even with objects.

These techniques were a category on their own and normally were never considered by cultivators that intended to follow a fully martial path. But in Wu Guang's memories, a few famous users came to mind, some of them even did not use weapons at all. Using any common objects in place of them. He remembered them using chairs, sticks, or even stones during battle to a great effect. Having seen their strength and as such technique could be used with any weapon as well were the reasons why Wu Guang had decided to search for one. There was also another benefit to such a technique, which was that it could be used on arrows and throwing weapons as well. Even though while he was a Spirit realm cultivator it would be far less effective as the cover would not remain for more than a few breaths before starting to disperse. In the end, it still would be a ranged qi-based attack, something impossible for cultivators below the Soul realm.

Anyway, with his decision done, Wu Guang remembered the descriptions he had memorized and when he arrived at the 2nd floor of the Martial Library knew already what to choose.

The technique was called 'Shivering Disruption' and as the name implied was meant to cover an object or weapon with qi that would constantly move. It had a nice effect of disrupting any qi that came in contact with it as well. This meant that it would be extremely useful for cases like the 'Gale Armor' that he did not manage to break until it almost disappeared by itself. The price for it was 650 points so Wu Guang had not thought about it before, but now he had 1200 points that he could spend freely.

He did not intend to obtain any other technique but as he was leaving a sudden thought occurred to him "Hmm, 'Rock Spikes' should be pretty effective if combined with the 'Rock Shield' effect of adding qi, would it not?". He thought about the still untested part of 'Master of Everything, Ruler of Nothing' to fuse techniques. Including the fact that he already had one of the techniques while the other was easily obtained, he would not really lose much by trying.

'Rock Spikes' was a weak area of effect technique and could not be used against Spirit or further level opponents, but it was part of the 'Rock' ones that the Sect claimed as being unique and so it was logically present on the 2nd floor. The price was also low as the use of such a technique could be resumed in impending the passage or weakening non-spirit opponents, only being 200 points. Inwardly thinking that in any case, the loss is small, Wu Guang paid the price and the technique was imprinted into his mind after touching the scroll as with all the techniques before.

After concluding this, Wu Guang planned to return to the residence to at least familiarize himself with the techniques but before that, he stopped by the square of the Inner Circle, where the enormous billboard with lessons, classes, tests, opportunities, and challenges was located. He did not know when he would leave the sect on Elder's Mo mission but he decided to check if there was anything useful for him and so opened his way between the Inner disciples present that were choosing, discussing, and registering.

The billboard was indeed enormous, in truth it was more a wall standing in the middle of the square. It was almost thirty feet in length and about a dozen tall. As expected from such size, the number of notices present was enormous. Thankfully they were divided by type and requisites, so anyone would be able to find what they searched for.

But Wu Guang could memorize anything instantly, so he simply scanned all the board. Paying a little more attention to the rows occupied with notices about training, classes, and lessons.

After a moment he retreated from the billboard as to not obstruct the view to the others. Afterward, Wu Guang started walking towards their residence and as only normal speed movement was permitted by the rules he had almost a quarter of an hour to carefully analyze and select whatever was useful for him.

He knew from the rulebook that normally the billboard was updated every week. But common notices were constant and so they rarely changed. Regretfully such was not the case for the one that really piqued his interest. It was a unique lesson called 'Silent Arrow' and it was meant to teach a weapon technique for the bow. As for why it was so, this was explained by the fact that the lesson, or better said the technique was taught by an instructor from the Clans.

After Lang Zheng joined the Sect as a guest elder, it was understandable that instructors from the Clans would come as well. But what did surprise Wu Guang was the fact that it would be taught five times and to a single person at a time. In such a case, why it was still posted? It can't be that between the almost four thousand disciples with access to the Inner circle plaza, there would be not enough people interested. Still, Wu Guang could not answer it at the moment. In place of it, he decided that if he had the opportunity, he would register right away.

As for the rest of the lessons he took note of, they were common and so he would be able to take them at any moment. Still, if he had the opportunity, Wu Guang did not want to wait, after all, the quicker he improved his actual combat strength, the quicker he could advance. "I will need to discuss this matter with Elder Mo. If the mission is not extremely urgent, then a week or so for preparation would be enough for me to take some of them. There is also the pressing need of solving the matter of the orb container as well. Still, my strength is a vital matter if he wants to use me, so I will bring up the matter anyway". With such a thought, Wu Guang arrived at the residence he shared with Yuan Taotu and found that the latter was waiting for him.