The reason for Yuan Taotu to wait for Wu Guang was easy. The former had already decided on a way to spend his points and did not want to leave the residence unattended before leaving. So after confirming that Wu Guang would remain for the rest of the day and definitively would be spending the night in the residence, Yuan Taotu left after mentioning that most probably he would not return until morning.
No reason for the latter was given and Wu Guang did not ask for one, so except for Yuan Taotu, nobody could really know what he was intending to do during the night.
There were a few hours of daytime left so Wu Guang after washing himself and changing into a fresh uniform sat down to recuperate the qi he had spent and recall the battles he had today. Doing so was part of the process when one was trying to gain experience, as any survived battle meant that errors in judgment, movements, strategy as well the correctly done things could be found and understood calmly. Thus benefiting future battles and cultivation.
In the case of the tournament battles, Wu Guang did not find any big faults except that he was too arrogant as he did not feel danger from his opponents, even from the latter two. There was also the matter that he was not really prepared to deal with opponents that used barrier and armor techniques, but this was a matter that could not be solved before. Thankfully it could be solved now, and in the close future, he should not have such a problem.
When his qi recuperated fully, Wu Guang stood up and walked towards the training area of the residence. He had decided to first familiarize himself with 'Shivering Disruption'. Afterward, he would try the fusion of techniques he was so curious about. Normally one would think that the order should be reversed, but for Wu Guang, something with confirmed use came first even if it was not so interesting, after all, he was not an immortal right now and his most pressing need was to be able to survive until his strength was enough as to not worry about such a thing. Yes, dangers would be always present and his own demise could serve as proof, but strengthening himself while weak and going after his own interests and goals while strong was the safest way in any case.
'Shivering Disruption' was an easy technique to use as it only required following a method of controlling the qi that would cover the external object he wanted to. No mantra or martial circulation was needed for it and to ease the process of mastering it nothing except repetition was needed to advance. For his first test Wu Guang decided to use the saber, and so took it out of his holding pouch. After willing part of his qi to leave through the pores in his hand and controlling its connection to the body. He made it cover the entirety of the blade. Afterward, he started willing it to move in the method described by the technique.
First, the qi formed a faint, thin, grey membrane. And then the result of the technique became visible as the practically invisible qi particles began moving and clashing between them. This membrane would constantly vibrate, which was the actual 'Shivering Distruption' technique in action. From the information that accompanied it, Wu Guang knew that such membrane would become up to a finger thick as his mastery grew and the color would also slightly change alongside. The color came from the main element of the technique. Which was Yin, albeit it was the element of cold and night and so naturally was of a purple hue, the technique relied more on the darkness part. So the final color would be black, albeit it would be so only after full mastery was reached.
These observations did not slow Wu Guang at all from activating and de-activating the technique several times. His goal was to master it to at least an intermediate level. And it should be fairly easy to reach in a few hours as practically no Spirit technique should require more than a few days of practice even to a normal cultivator, not to say him whose mind and comprehension was of a level that surpassed by far any cultivator of this plane.
In truth, he was not so pressed to master the technique even to that level right at the moment. But Wu Guang did not want to leave anything unfinished. Plus that level of mastery was the one that he required to be able to separate the membrane from his body and have no need to control it. Making it possible to use for ranged attacks, at least until the qi dispersed. And as he wanted to test the duration of the technique for his ranged weapons, it was obvious that he needed to train it. He also wanted to compare the duration of an active technique cover with the normal qi cover. Although this had no practical need, he could use the results to have a better overview of what he can and what he can not do during ranged combat.
As expected the process of reaching Advanced level mastery was reached after three hours. Every technique had its own way to differentiate the different levels and the one for 'Shivering Disruption' was described in colors and thickness.
And as it was a technique with no mantra or circulation, one could find out his mastery only by comparing the results to the description.
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In Wu Guang's case, after three hours his saber would be covered by a dark-gray membrane at least four times wider than the first one he had created, reaching two-thirds of a finger. Confirming that he had indeed reached the intended mastery.
With his initial objective reached Wu Guang took out one of the chitin daggers. After activating the technique, he severed the connection between his qi and it. For the first test, he had decided to check the time it would take for the qi to disperse to a point of the membrane disappearing. The membrane broke up after an incense stick of time or so. In more exact terms that he had started using recently, which came from his life on the Blue Planet it would be equivalent to 5 minutes. The fact that his mind started using such terms first had surprised Wu Guang as after all he only spent a bit over two dozen years consciously on that plane, but after some thought, he felt that as it was far easier to keep track of things with them. And as it was natural to want clear calculations, he did not even think about calculating otherwise.
The second test was to actually throw the dagger and check if the duration would change. As the duration remained unchanged, Wu Guang proceeded to the third test which was to apply external qi on the membrane to check how much time it could resist. This one was meant to emulate the fact that he would use it against a possibly qi-protected opponent and as most barrier techniques had surrounding defensive effects to impede or cushion blows it was logical to expect that first, it would need to cross an area as such.
This test was far harder to do alone but Wu Guang solved the problem by using his Saber with the activated technique and pressing both weapons until one membrane gave up. The one that gave up was obviously the one on the dagger. This was because he did not sever his connection and so continuously sustained the saber's technique. After confirming twice that it could resist a fifth of the previous time in such condition Wu Guang finished his tests. And concluded that in case of need 'Shivering Disruption' was viable for ranged weapons as well, at least to wound or distract an opponent.
Normally he would also check the effect of the disruption itself, but that would need to wait until he found a willing partner or fought an opponent with a barrier or protective technique.
The tests also served to find out that the membrane when not in use did not require much qi. Also if a connection was maintained, it could be recalled back without loss. While the activated technique did spend a bit, the amount was almost unnoticeable until it clashed with something. So Wu Guang had used only about a tenth of his overall qi for all the training and tests. Such a small usage of qi meant that he would be able to constantly use the technique in battle with no problem.
The next thing on his agenda was to try and fuse 'Rock Shield' and 'Rock Spikes'. His intention was to have the latter form qi infused spikes or the opposite, with the former creating several simple rock shields. But to do so first he would need to familiarize himself with both the 'Rock Spikes' technique.
He would also need to analyze all the information he had in his mind about the method for fusing techniques. But thankfully his memory was absolute and so he only needed a moment to recall everything.
The first part was the easiest as the technique simply prepared enough qi via circulation like the one needed for 'Rock Shield'. And activated by using 'Stomping the Hill' which he had already mastered fully and so could activate without reciting the mantra, circulating the qi, or even stomping. Simply by willing the qi to follow the method itself when stepping.
After feeling that he understood 'Rock Spikes' enough he decided to try the technique a few times before moving on to the matter of fusion. Wu Guang activated the circulation and albeit it was not really needed also recited the mantra. Then as he sensed that qi had gathered in the spot indicated as the start of 'Stomping the Hill' circulation process as well an approximate area had appeared in his mind - he activated the technique.
There was a small deviation between the estimation that had appeared in his mind and the result but in general, the technique succeeded and a circle of six or seven feet starting from the step he used for the activation indeed was suddenly covered in several spikes.
After some observation, he concluded that the deviation was because of the fact that the area he was on and not an error and so repeated the process a few feet away.
With this, the technique worked better and he confirmed his assumption. The deviation came from the area indeed and was simply because the residence training area had few rocks underground.
Finishing with this, Wu Guang started thinking about how to start the process of fusion. Though he did not stay still while doing, proceeding to destroy the spikes he had just called. As they weren't infused with qi, they would not break by themselves and would need to be destroyed physically.