Right as they finished a small glow was seen near one of the walls and it opened, seeing that no one came out Wu Guang shrugged, and shared a look with Yuan Taotu. They both entered the opened passage simultaneously which took them towards the room with several doors they had arrived first.

When they exited the passage or better said entered this room, they encountered the outer disciple that served as their guide, who with a shaking voice asked them to forgive him for being slow to go fetch them back. After he was calmed down by Wu Guang the disciple explained that there was a bit of shortage of people because several teams failed at the same time so the Elder had ordered him to go fetch Wu Guang and Yuan Taotu, but he failed to find the right passage at first.

Seeing that there was nothing harmful intended, Wu Guang again calmed the disciple by repeating that there were no issues and proceeded to report to the supervising Elder. After their badges were scanned and the Elder confirmed their score both of them left this room going to the surface.

The outer disciple also said that Lang Juan and Duqi left after being called by order of some external Elder so guessing that it Lang Zheng, Wu Guang decided to not wait for them and go back to the tower where they were staying.

Later when the Clan's pair returned his guess was confirmed and both of them explained that they went to meet their future mentor. As dinner was something that they would need to think about themselves the group decided to eat at the outer district, which was nearby.

Thankfully no incidents happened so after eating everyone finished their own routines before sleeping and proceeded to do the latter.

***

The next day's test was the only one during the week that would net them individual points and was a comprehension one. When the group arrived at the sanded area used before for the weapons part of the admission test, they found that this time the number of people was far superior.

From what Wu Guang found by asking their guides, most disciples preferred to not take part in the 'Nascent Pride' week tests as it was not mandatory and the possibility of winning points was low, so he was a bit surprised to see almost three thousand people gathered in and around the area.

His surprise was explained quickly after finding that the comprehension test this time used real combat techniques. So even if the ones taking it failed or did not score much, their chosen technique if memorized could be trained in the future. Even if the techniques themselves were basically a type of martial art and not spirit ones, they were still usable for combat. Another important part was that all the provided techniques were part of the sect exclusive martial school.

The test was about to start, but luckily the queue for it would be level and status based so Wu Guang and the rest were amongst the first. After registering they listened to the rules, which were basically - choose one of the five techniques and demonstrate it after meditating on it for a bit. The time to choose and memorize a technique was solely one incense stick worth of time and the one to meditate was the same, so the test was more based on initial comprehension than the proficiency one could show. Judging from this, the queue served not only to limit the number of people near the five slates with the manuals but also to limit the number of people demonstrating the technique at the same time.

With their status corresponding to half-inner disciples, his group was above everyone else, so they were included in the first 20 disciples group allowed to near the slates.

All the techniques provided were from the school of fighting called 'Standing Hill' and were based on defense with standing counterattacks. This school was the main one instructed inside the Sect and Wu Guang internally gave it a pretty good score, as the basic movements could be used effectively against equal level opponents. Using it against more advanced realms would not be possible, but it still could serve as a base for close quarters.

The techniques provided were the most basic sets of the school for legs, punches, palms, chops, and wrestling. The names were similar and the second character for all was 'Boulders', while the first was respectively 'Rolling', 'Flying', 'Crushing', 'Cutting', and 'Moving'.

Wu Guang quickly deduced that the leg set would be useful to finish his tempering of the muscles and break to the next level of cultivation, so he centered his attention on it. But as letting Wu Guang even see for a second anything was a mistake that anyone would make considering that he should not be able to memorize everything instantly with his current known cultivation..

He made this furtively so for anyone observing him would be seen as a normal glance deciding which to choose and this indeed was so, as the instructors who monitored the test did not suspect that Wu Guang used the small glance to actually memorize all the five slates.

It turned out that Wu Guang was the only one from the first twenty people group to approach the Leg slate, but if looked at, the reason would be easily understood. The technique called 'Rolling Boulders' was far more difficult than the others to use in combat.

The three movements could be made with any leg but all would require very good timing, as all come from above, so the opponent would have time to evade or counter if timed badly.

They were not named, but Wu Guang internally called them high, middle and circling for convenience.

As the time to choose and memorize one ran out, they were moved behind the slates. After another incense stick ran out, everyone was asked to demonstrate the technique. The process was easy and there was an outer elder for each slate to quicken it.

Wu Guang did not observe the rest, but he still noticed that Yuan Taotu had chosen the palm technique while Lang Juan and Duqi went with the most popular punch one. The demonstration took only a few breaths and Wu Guang showed not only that he memorized the manual but also directly reached an intermediate level of proficiency, which was far above the expected result. Although the proficiency wasn't really scored, this still gained him an appreciative smile from the elder examining him.

The one he called the high movement was a kick that basically could be described as raising one leg fully while evading an approaching opponent and then lowering it while infusing qi into the muscles as the leg reached the shoulder of the latter. The middle one was similar but the leg would be only half raised and would be centered on the arm of an opponent and it would be mainly used to counter an armed opponent or an evaded hand technique.

The circling movement was the only one meant to be used mainly to attack and was basically a kick made by making a full circling motion while standing. The strength from the qi infused into the leg would make the opponent not only lose his balance but also disturb his protection or defensive technique. This was achieved by hitting on the most undefended part of any attacking opponent - the outer side of the rear leg.

With his demonstration done flawlessly, which meant he did not miss any details or movements, Wu Guang felt that he completed the test perfectly. Which was confirmed right away as he was congratulated while his badge was returned by the pair of outer disciples responsible for the registration process.

He knew that the overall ranking depended on the first two tests. Still, this was the only personal score he could get and a congratulation meant that he at least surpassed the expectations for the test. Although he could not get higher points than other successful participants, he supposed that there would be a special mark or something. After all, both he and Yuan Taotu would have the same amount of points, how would the first place be decided then?

As everyone from his group was examined at the same time, they had nothing else to do here. So after talking quickly between them and deciding to not observe the other disciples, the group walked away.