Ning watched the first day of the tournament started. The first day was surprisingly full of little fun competitions that he didn't mind sitting through at all.
There were some weightlifting competitions, races, swimming, and even some gymnastics. He had been expecting just simple competitions where they fought or compared their strengths but this was much more fun.
That was not to say there weren't any fights either. The first day ended with an all-out battle royale where many padded-up competitions fought against each other with staffs that were so thick that they had to carry it in their arms.
There were many shenanigans that happened there that made Ning wish that he was part of the competition too.
However, since this group was selected very early on and trained for these very purposes, as someone who only just entered the Essence Manifestation realm, he could not take part at all.
Still, he enjoyed the matches as best as he could.
The first day ended around 3 in the afternoon and the final points were tallied up. The Blackhawk Academy was in the lead by 197 points, an entire 20 points above the 2nd place holder, the Essence Heart academy.
The other academies followed behind them, but not that far either. Once the numbers were revealed, everyone left the arena.
"You guys did good," the headmaster said on the way back. "Continue doing as well and we will certainly take the lead in this tournament."
The students nodded and went back to their rooms in the Light Dance academy.
Ning went to sleep since he had been awake for over a day now. Also, he wanted to wake up in the middle of the night to absorb some essence and be on the way to the next rank which was the Essence Soul realm.
That was the realm where one's Essence formed a soul and could be used as a physical manifestation by itself too. Ning was looking forward to this realm as it seemed it changed the way one fought quite a bit.
The 2nd day came around and there was a whole new set of competitions that were to take place on this day. The competitions consisted of matches that focused on one's 5 senses. Sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound all had various competitions around them.
There were memory games, counting games, games where you recognized the flavors of a pie, games where you had to guess what beast was inside the giant cage, and so on.
Blackhawk did quite well, but Essence Heart took the lead this time around. They ended up gaining 16 points more than Blackhawk Academy and were only 4 points behind in overall points.
The headmaster spoke of how they had to do better for tomorrow.
Even without being told what the focus of the third day's competitions would have, Ning would've guessed that it focused on one's Essence sense.
There were various competitions this day too, but they were quite long and perhaps even more fun to watch.
From having to pile a bunch of treasures based on the element of Essence they held, to a Maze that one had to go through blindfolded, only relying on the Essence clues that were left inside.
Ning wished he had a chance to play in that maze too, but alas he would never get the turn.
The third day of the competition ended with Blackhawk once again claiming overwhelming victory, increasing their point gap by over 25 in a single day, ending up at 29 points difference when compared to the Essence Heart academy.
In fact, the Ash Wind Academy was actually catching up to the Essence Heart academy with only a 9 points gap.
The fourth day came around.
This was the day that Ning had come for.
"You are taking part today, right?" Tenn asked.
"Yes, it should be a quick one tho," he said.
"Go on, there is nothing to be nervous about. They will just check your Essence purity by having you use two separate natural conduits, that's it," the teacher Hayan said, trying to make Ning feel good before he went onto the stage.
Ning didn't need such silly words to appear before an audience but he appreciated the intention behind it.
He appeared on the stage, surrounded by thousands of people watching him and the 9 others that had come onto the stage with him.
It seemed that finding people with Pure Essence wasn't the easiest thing and so each academy could only produce a single one at best.
"Please come in front," the person conducting the competition spoke and had all 10 people line up for something.
In front of them was a massive block of wood that seemed to have some sort of liquid spilled below it. It was set at the base of a slanted platform that had a slight inclination the further it went from the group.
"Use the wind conduit to send out a gust of air. Push the conduit as far as you can," the man said.
'I see,' Ning thought. He understood what their intention was with the competition.
Natural conduits had advantages and disadvantages to them when compared to skills or manmade conduits.
Natural conduits had great flexibility in what they produced in that the shape of the Essence could be as large as the conduit could handle. As opposed to manmade conduits which had very limited flexibility and skills that had no flexibility at all.
However, at the same time, natural conduits couldn't scale with the user. If the user was stronger than the natural conduit could handle, the conduit would break, which would never be the case with manmade conduits or skills.
Ning understood that they had chosen a natural conduit so that the competitors could create as much wind as they could, without the wind being excessively strong due to a person's Essence rank.
That meant, in the end, the thing that would determine victory was how good the person's Pure Essence was so that they lost the least amount of Essence during the conversion from the conduits.
