Ning arrived in front of the academy gates and waited along with many others to enter it. There wasn't much time before the tests would begin, so he was quite excited about it.
"Please grab a token from the side when you enter. Your turn will be based on the number in the token," a person from the academy said.
Everyone got into a line and entered while taking one of those tokens. Ning took one as well and got in.
'243,' he thought. 'Isn't that going to take some time?'
He knew a little about the tests that would be conducted in the academy, so he knew how long one would take on average to go through them all. Given his number, he doubted it could leave before 3 in the afternoon.
The first test was a written test to test one's knowledge and intellect. Ning had learned quite a bit on the way to the Blackhawk Dominion, so he wasn't as worried.
He wrote down the answers just as he remembered. As for the ones that required creative thinking, he did his best.
The written test ended an hour later, and they were taken away for physical tests.
The first of the physical tests was one where they simply tested their ranks. Everyone had different ranks, and as such everyone would have different results. The academy was trying to determine the rank of everyone that had gotten in, while also determining just how well the rest of their results were when compared to their ranks.
He had to wait quite a while before he got to take the test at all. Being 243rd on the list didn't help at all. It took nearly 3 hours before it was his turn to be tested.
Ning was still in the 5-Sense-Improvement realm, so he let them know as such. The examiners still tested him and noted it down as such.
Once he was done, Ning moved on to the next test. The physical strength test.
Fortunately, people were already taking the test, so he didn't have to wait much for his turn to come. Half an hour after arriving, he was already punching and kicking at the training rock.
The examiners showed some rather surprised expressions when they saw Ning's nearly 25 times strength. That was already surprising for even Essence Manifest realm Essence users to begin with, not to mention a 5-Sense-Improvement realm person.
After the physical test, Ning was sent to the Sense test.
He was sent into a dark room that was devoid of all light and sound and forced to locate various things that were in the room.
He had to use the limited light to see what was where and use smell to locate a few things. He also had to use sounds to determine if something was in total darkness or not.
All in all, he completed the test relatively quickly and was let go.
The examiners were once again surprised, only this time Ning wasn't sure how surprising his results were. Was he once again better than an average Essence Manifestation realm user? Or was it a little less impressive than that?
After he was done there, Ning was taken to the Essence Sense test. However, due to not being in the Essence Sense realm just yet, he was forced to skip the test and go on to the next one.
The next test was one for Essence Manifestation. Only, you could use conduits to use Essence if one so pleased. At first, Nign was a little surprised and confused. Just how could one use conduits when each conduit was bonded to a single person?
They hadn't even let him bring his sword into the academy, so there shouldn't have been a way for him to do anything.
However, fortunately, there was.
On an irregularly shaped staff, there was a large, uncut, blue gem that seemed to be created from the ocean itself. The gem was the conduit, and would not require one to bond with it at all.
After all, it was a natural conduit.
Ning grabbed the staff and felt the conduit trying to devour the Essence in him. He smiled a little, surprised at the fact that he could actually sense something like that.
'You want my Essence? Take it,' Ning thought and started pouring his Essence into the staff. The blue gem devoured his Essence as if it had never seen something so good before.
Then, Ning focused on the target before him. He could tell that the blue gem could produce water, so he decided on what water skill to use.
He landed on a single answer. Water Blast.
He pointed his staff in front of him and suddenly a gush of water shot out from the staff like it had been coming from a pressurized nozzle. It didn't lose steam all the way until the end of the training field when it struck the training rock.
The examiners looked surprised once more and they quickly recorded everything before sending Ning away.
Now that he was done with most of the tests, there was a single one before he could go back to his room in the city.
The final test was a simple one. The test involved having one of the examiners test one's Essence purity.
The examiners were talented in recognizing how pure the Essence was for any source, so they were more than qualified to test everyone's Essence.
Ning waited until his turn and walked up to the man that was testing his Essence. He placed his palm on Ning's abdomen and asked, "please use your absorption technique if you have any, otherwise just breathe normally."
Ning nodded and used the Twin Moon absorption technique just as the examiner requested. He breathed in and out as the Essence in his body started moving.
After a minute or two, the examiner finally left his abdomen. However, in doing so, Ning could see an absolutely shocked expression on the man's face.
"So pure," the man murmured to himself before looking up. "Are you from a big family by some chance?"
