For the first minutes, the combat was extremely dull. The instructor seemingly understood from the fact Wu Guang did not attack at all, what the opponent was trying to do and made only some simple but strong attacks. He did not infuse any qi initially, so Wu Guang blocked them with ease.

As time advanced the attacks grew more complex and far stronger, for the moment when Wu Guang failed to block the first one the strength could be compared to at least his own level. With the hit, he broke out of his trance-like state and taking a small break quickly examined his gains. He only gained some slight insights in shields and deciding that trying to gain more understanding would take too much time, proceeded to discard it.

Noticing the instructor's glance he quickly explained himself

"I have never actually used a shield and spear together, so I am sorry for taking instructors time to feel how would it be. I will now concentrate on using only the spear"

"I noticed and I admire the fact that you decided to try something new. Weapon and shield pairs are mostly trained by the soldiers. If you intend to remain at the sect or later travel the jianghu as a cultivator then it isn't your path. For cultivators, the shield also acts as a weapon and I have heard of even a double shield path. But you need to obtain the techniques or not train at all. Now, we have talked enough. Let me see those spear movements!" When the latter phrase was half-shouted, the instructor lunged forwards and started a flurry of thrusting attacks.

Wu Guang jumped to the side and made a quick sweep with the spear while holding it by the lowest part. The instructor easily blocked it and counterattacked with one of his own.

Wu Guang saw that the staff wasn't the weapon of choice for his opponent, but still, the movements were clean and effective showing a decent level of familiarity and training.

They fought for almost like this for a quarter of an hour, and although neither managed to hit the other, Wu Guang felt pressed into a disadvantage. The main reason was the lack of any combat or martial techniques for the spear. Although he was almost at the peak of the spear common training, he had reached it by almost cheating. He understood all the movements but he could only execute them as a simple set. He gained during his training something like a technique, but it was meant to finish off an opponent and not combat. He defended another qi infused sweep of the instructor's staff, but when he intended to counterattack felt something wrong and the next moment found himself on the floor.

"Did you train the spear without any manual?" Angrily asked Instructor Ge

Standing up Wu Guang answered honestly

"Yes. I only trained the simple forms and movements"

"Then you are not bad at all! For someone without any combat experience or even a manual method you actually managed to resist for a long time" This was said with a hint of appreciation in his eyes. Seemingly thinking about something he took a pause and then said

"Wait here"

The instructor left the arena and walked towards the weapon racks. He returned after some moments holding a spear equal to the one Wu Guang was using and instructed him

"I will perform the basic movements from the Stinging Bee spear school. Observe and listen carefully"

"Angry Swarm" Saying this he performed a set of quick thrusts without moving from the spot. These thrusts were directed to several points of the opponent's body and with each of them, the spear almost left his hand to then return for the next one.

"Quick and effective against unarmored opponents. The range is controlled by weakening the grip so the spear moves on its own before strengthening it and applying force"

"Approaching Bee" Several slower and not fully executed thrusts acting as a feint were performed until one of them was executed abruptly and with an enormous force.

"Useful against guarding opponents. Each feint is also used to gain momentum. If paired with qi then during each feint you gather more and more in the arm until you let it explode"

Several other offensive and defensive sets followed. Surprisingly for a short spear school, all the sets were while standing on the spot and using only a single hand.

When all were demonstrated the instructor stopped and simply said

"Your turn. First, use only your body strength, then repeat while using qi"

With his comprehension and consciousness, he had no trouble to discern and memorize even the slightest movement he saw it took him no effort to repeat the sets from the Stinging Bee spear school. He demonstrated the sets a single time without qi and a second time while infusing qi into his arm.

"Good! The sets can be combined between them to form the advanced ones, but I will leave that to your intuition. Now let's spar, no qi and only using this basic sets"

These simple rules sounded simple, but actually, for Wu Guang, it should have been an enormous disadvantage. Instructor Ge was experienced with the school and his natural strength was superior to Wu Guang's.

Surprising both Xiao Feng who silently observed during all this time and the instructor, Wu Guang did not appear at disadvantage. He actually was fighting on an equal level, while losing in strength he actually showed a higher level of proficiency and spear mastery.

Half an hour later, Wu Guang had landed three hits on the instructor while receiving only one during all this time.

"Not bad youngster! Without following any school or manual you are already at peak common understanding of the spear"

"Answering the instructor, indeed I have felt certain affinity during my training with the spear"

"Good. It means that if you master a school or attain proficiency in several techniques you should be able to reach the first level of the spear path"

Instructor Ge was in good mood after seeing someone talented like Wu Guang so he explained and recommended to him several schools and techniques for the spear available in the sect. Xiao Feng also joined the conversation as he was a spear user. Later they chatted a bit about weapons and their stages.

From this conversation, Wu Guang learned that the instructor actually was an advanced common training stage for the spear and staff, but his main weapon was the club, or to be exact double clubs. And with them, he had reached the 5th level. As for Xiao Feng, he only used spears and was close to the 5th level as well.

Actually, these levels were more like mastery, understanding, and amount of techniques for the weapon than real strength, but for cultivators, under the Soul realm where one could start to train mystic techniques, it could serve as one of the indicators. And in truth, they should simply be considered as steps. Steps on the path of a weapon.

When the teens left the barrack's training area and returned to the manor, Xiao Feng only talked once, to berate Wu Guang for hiding his cultivation level before. The latter did not try to explain and just shrugged it off while saying that he actually did not know about his advancement. Actually, it wasn't surprising for Xiao Feng to think Wu Guang hid his cultivation before, after all when they talked during the 2nd night of his stay in the manor he hinted for it to be between the 5th and 6th level. Wu Guang did not try to explain anything to not remind Xiao Feng of the fact that he has been cultivating for only two weeks in total and be blamed for being a genius or something.