After the pair went back towards their rooms, Wu Guang took a long bath with several common medicinal herbs to help his body heal and then went to sleep.
Normally would fall asleep right away, but somehow the mention of the 'Soaring Moon' provoked his mind to try and find an answer. He had actually lied about not having learned it as he did memorize most of the manuals and schools he could during his visit to the 1st level of the Martial library. Still, it was the truth that it was absolutely unusable even for him.
What made the technique unusable and led towards the idea of it requiring some kind of special accompanying qi techniques was that several movements required one to hold the sword by the edge. Wu Guang understood that what made him think about it was the possibility of Kuang Xiaolan being right and a special weapon was meant to be used.
He carefully recalled the movements of the 'Soaring Moon' which at least from his own experience looked like a very advanced way for the sword and suddenly he recalled one of the strongest female cultivators he had seen during the ranking battles between High-Tier realms.
"Hmm, but that should be impossible... The weapons she used came supposedly from a middle-tier realm originally, so how a manual for a weapon like hers appeared here? On the other hand, if it's a common weapon in some realms, then how come it's unknown?" The more he remembered the strange blades she used, the more he felt that he was on the right track.
The weapons in question could be only described as a big version of the crescent moon daggers but with a handle and pommel added to one of the ends.
"Indeed, if such a weapon is used, then all the techniques are logical. After all, you do have an edge above and below your hand as the manual mentions... Judging from the fact that the manual is worded in an antique manner but the copy in the martial library is pretty recent... The original was either lost or damaged" After Wu Guang reached this conclusion and felt that he was right, he considered the mystery solved. In any case, to confirm or deny his conclusion he would need to find such a weapon, so there was no need to think more about it.
***
Wu Guang had recuperated enough during the night to consider himself ready for the two sparrings that he had programmed for the day. The weapons in question were the short-spear and the glaive. The latter was actually something that Wu Guang simply choose on a whim after noticing the availability of such. Although he considered it a whim, in truth this came from his curiosity about the weapon, after all, before coming to the sect he did not see any of them on sale. He even had judged that it was not used on the island or even the realm itself. Something which would be not surprising as every realm had its own most and less used weapons, techniques, elements, etc.
This assumption had been broken by the fact of the Martial Palace master carrying a glaive. Surprisingly he only found a very basic manual that could not even be considered for anything except training in the Martial Library, and so if he wanted to learn about the weapon - he would need to ask someone who used it.
The spear training thankfully went well and Wu Guang was not even so bruised afterward. This was thanks to the combination of the improved hearing he had used during all the fight to predict the movements that he could not see and the fact that he was not so badly outmatched. The latter because his opponent was a 1st step spear-master inner disciple and his non-qi fighting style was of similar quality to the 'Stinging Bee' which Wu Guang used. Still, Wu Guang only had learned the first part of it, so he did not land more than a pair of lucky hits while receiving 14 himself during the hour and a half they sparred.
In any case, this result was pretty good and Wu Guang gained a lot of useful information and experience to improve his own fighting manner.
After thanking the disciple, Wu Guang had a few free hours to spend and somehow ended going towards the inner circle plaza. He did not know why he went there but thought that even if there was no reason scanning the billboard was still a sensible thing to do. And so he went towards the billboard, but this time to check out the sections he had mainly ignored until now.
Surprisingly he found something interesting in the challenges section and after calculating his time quickly noted it down and went to register right away. The challenge that had piqued his interest was not only something from where he could possibly win a couple hundred contribution points but also would serve him for his training.
In short, the challenge was an obstacle labyrinth built around the usage of one's senses. It was directed to 4th and 5th Spirit realm level disciples and meant to help them familiarize themselves with the use of the 1st level senses.
As it would take place during the night four days from now, Wu Guang would have no trouble taking part in it and if everything went well, would even be able to have most of his senses trained at the time.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
As for the reason why he went to register right away, it was very simple - allowed spots. The notice was fresh and should be posted here between yesterday and today, but as it only had twenty spots, Wu Guang considered that most of them had been already occupied. This was actually confirmed by the Mission Hall disciple in charge of registration as after Wu Guang was registered, the former mentioned that he was the 19th person to do so.
Afterward, Wu Guang walked back to the training area, intending to find the dojo where he was supposed to spar with glaives. He also thought that if it's possible, talking with his unknown sparring partner could help him find out where he could get manuals and techniques for the glaive.
Wu Guang entered the dojo right as he found it, albeit the fact that it was the biggest and nicest looking between all of them was strange. Well, it would not be strange for a lot of weapons like the ones that were practically official in the sect as the spear, but when taking into account that there was not even a single true glaive manual in the Martial Library...
But even so, it was where the directions said and had the signboard with the name on the entrance, so he could not have been mistaken. As Wu Guang entered he found himself to be the only person present and so he could not ask if he arrived at the right place after all, but looking around and seeing several stands with different glaives presented, this unspoken question was solved.
He did not need to wait for much before someone arrived, but as Wu Guang turned around to greet the person he stopped the intended casual greeting and bowed formally in place. Indeed this was the right way to salute, after all, the new arrival was no one else than the Martial Palace Master.
"Inner Disciple Wu Guang greets Martial Master Zhen"
"I acknowledge your salute, you may rise"
Wu Guang straightened, but formally he could not speak directly to the master as they were neither in the same category. At least not until receiving permission to do so.
Thankfully the Martial Master understood the unease of the disciple before him so after a brief pause during which he walked towards the center of the dojo he permitted him to speak
"Don't worry, speak directly"
"Excuse me Palace Master, but isn't this a simple sparring? My skills with the glaive are at best amateur and so I supposed this to be a way to improve them... Even if the opponent is fairly powerful, this should be a boring matter" Wu Guang spoke directly as he was instructed to, but still tried to remain respectful to this enormous man who most probably was one of the strongest combatants in the sect.
"Well, this is indeed a simple sparring but I have to be present"
"May I ask something then?"
"Yes"
"Excuse me, but why the Martial Palace Master is present for such sparring?"
Wu Guang prepared to receive any kind of answer but still, the words that he heard amidst the burst of laughter of the Palace Master were not even considered by him
"Hahaha... Your question would be sound normally, but can't you guess yourself? It's simple, really. I am the only glaive master in the sect right now and so I am the only available opponent"
"Then please excuse me, Master. I doubt I can even be considered a glaive practitioner, so if you permit, let me take my leave" Wu Guang truthfully was very interested in sparring with such an opponent, but he knew that he would fly with a simple movement of a Soul realm cultivator, so to not embarrass himself and even more not bore the Palace Master - the best action would be to sweep the matter under the rug.
"I will not allow such. You are a disciple of the sect and you registered officially. And so... you will get your match even if the headmaster himself had to come. This is actually part of the rules. Indeed you may think that it's not right for me to be your opponent, but we are doing this"
"I understand... Then thank you for your instruction" Wu Guang understood that he could not avoid this sparring and so he could only wish to not embarrass himself too much and to remain alive after it.
As in confirmation of his thoughts, Master Zhen walked towards the simplest stand in the room and took two training glaives. After confirming their condition he turned around and threw one at Wu Guang.
The throw was done only with a fraction of strength, but Soul realm cultivators were far stronger than Spirit ones as the body would undergo an evolution during the breakthrough and so receiving the glaive still made Wu Guang slide back a few feet.
Luckily he did not receive any real damage from it. Still, this was enough to understand that if the fraction of strength applied was bigger, Wu Guang would fly away with broken bones or even worse.