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nThe first person walked up front and grabbed the natural wind conduit. He closed his eyes and focused his Essence on using the conduit.

nAssuming that he did not have a core that was aligned with the wind element, the purer his essence the further the large block of wood would go.

nThe wood was set on a small incline so it wouldn’t move with just inertia, and the young man pushed against it.

nEveryone on stage felt the wind move around them as a large amount of it was created right in front of them. They saw the wooden block move up the incline and a few officials recorded the distance.

nThe young man could only keep it pushed until a certain distance before the wind he produced lost enough force to keep the block at a specific place.

n“5.2 meters,” one of the officials spoke up the number.

nThe young man breathed once again and walked back. Then, the next person walked up.𝑜𝐕𝑙xt.𝒸𝔬𝐌

n4.7, 5.6, 4.4, 5.1. The record was around the same number and one of them was certainly winning. After about 7 people, it was Ning’s turn.

nEveryone looked at him curiously, wondering what record he would get. The student from the Essence Heart academy had gotten an amazing 6.1 meters record, so since Blackhawk academy had been doing better, they were all curious to see what Ning could do.

nNing grabbed the Wind conduit and focused his Essence. He didn’t need to change the Essence, so he only poured it into the conduit. Then, he willed a gust of air into existence that pushed against the wooden block.

nThe wooden block was immediately pushed upward by the air as it jumped nearly 7 meters in a single push. Everyone looked surprised by the amazing record, but Ning wasn’t done yet.

nHe increased the amount of Essence he was using to the best of his ability and soon the wooden block started moving higher and higher. It moved high until it was 7.7 meters up the incline.

nNing couldn’t push it any further, so he had to let the block remain there for a small period of time before he could stop.

n“7.7 meters,” the official announced his record and finally Ning stopped. He felt breathless and took a few deep breaths. He moved away and let the remaining 2 people go ahead, but both of the 2 people knew they were no match for this record.

nThe contestants and the officials looked at Ning in awe as they wondered just how he could have possibly trained to have such a pure essence.

n“Damn bastard must have a wind-aligned core,” someone spoke softly. “He got lucky with the competition.”

nThe next contestants went and the results were set. Ning had won with the student from the Essence Heart academy coming second.

nUnfortunately, this record didn’t help Ning at all, not yet at least. Since it could be that these people got lucky with their core being aligned with the task, they had to go through another test before the average was used to score them.

nThe next task involved an Earth conduit.

n“Your task will be to create a sphere of rock as large as you can. The one with the highest diameter will win,” the official stated. “You cannot make hollow spheres or you will be disqualified.”

n“The sphere’s diameter will be calculated by measuring the diameter of your sphere in 3 random directions and using the average. However, if the difference between any of the two readings ends up being more than 20 centimeters, your smallest reading will be counted as your official one. So, please take care to not make any oblate shapes if you can.”

n“You will have exactly 10 seconds to make one as large as you can.”

nOnce the explanations were over, the competition began a minute later. The order of this test was the same as the last, so the first person that went back then also went this time around as well.

nAs soon as the timer began, he imagined a sphere-forming using the earth conduit and suddenly a rock started growing on the ground in front of him. The spherical rock was small at first, but it quickly got bigger and bigger until it was a massive sphere in front of everyone’s eyes.

nThe earth conduit was taken away from the young man the moment the 10 seconds were over and the sphere stopped growing.

nA few of the staff started measuring the radius and very soon the first result of this test was out.

n2.6 meters.

nThe stone sphere that was formed was larger than any human that stood there. The other contestants looked at it and knew what it was that they had to win.

nOne after another, more and more contestants went for their own test. The rocks didn’t immediately disappear, so they were taken to the side for comparison.

nOnce again, the student from the Essence Heart school did an amazing job, creating a 3.2 meters wide rock. As the rock grew larger, creating even a 0.01 meter wider rock needed more rock than the last 0.01 meter.

nThe amount of Essence required grew exponentially with even the slightest increment in the rock’s diameter, so everyone cheered for the winner until now.

nThen, Ning walked up to do it as well.

nHe took the Earth Conduit and looked at the person that was responsible for the timer. As soon as he gave the go, Ning started.

nImmediately a small rock formed in front of him that was smooth and sphere. It grew by the second, becoming more and more massive with each passage of time.

nNing continued pouring in his Essence until it was taken away from him. Then, he opened his eyes and looked at the behemoth of a rock that stood in front of him.

n“Wow,” Ning himself couldn’t help but say. Not only was the rock a nearly perfect sphere, but it was also quite smooth, which Ning was surprised by.

nThe staff took the measurements but even without them everyone knew that Ning had won. When the results were published, no one was surprised at all.

n3.8 meters wide. That was the diameter of the rock that Ning made.

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