Ning's eyes were wide and blank as he looked at the pillar that grew in front of him. Could he even call it a pillar anymore?
He looked up, but… he couldn't see where the top ended.
The audiences were quiet as well as all of them had their heads pointed toward the sky to see what had just appeared on the stage.
The people inside the hall couldn't even see anything, as only the stage was covered in what they saw. So, instead, they ran to the door to see what had happened.
The important figures that were in the tower acted like children as they all ran to the window to see it as well. Even from the tower, they had to look up as it was all too tall.
The young man that had been tossed into the air saw the curvature of the world. He saw the roundness of the planet, he saw the cloud hovering just a few hundred meters above him.
He saw birds that flew below him and then he saw the continent, so very tiny.
He could see the Black Mountain range from where he was and it looked so very close to his eyes. Then… he started falling.
The sudden realization that he was falling caught onto him when the weightlessness started again. He looked down and saw the messed up stage that had been pushed up. It was over to the side.
He was going to fall without landing on it.
The Emperor stood by the window and caught a glimpse of the young man falling. He turned to his son, the Crown prince, and gestured above.
"Go grab him before he dies," he said.
"Yes, Father," the crown prince nodded and stepped outside of the tower's window. Then, the very next moment, Wind Essence gathered around him and he flew into the air, flying toward the young man that was falling down.
As he flew, he looked at what had formed.
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A massive earth pillar that went as high as two kilometers. Even its diameter was so wide that most Earth Essence Soul realm experts would fail to create something of that width that would go up just 10 meters.
How in the hell had a young man created something like this?
Ning's dizziness hadn't faded away, but the shock sure as hell helped a lot. His mind felt clear, just as clear as it was confused.
The pillar he had created had needed to be wide. He had to finish the match as soon as he could, so he had decided to use a large area.
He had an inkling that his sword was made from a mountain from a very long time ago. So, he had thought it was time to test it. To test it, he had used as much Essence as he could in a short amount of time and poured it all into the sword.
The sword, surprisingly, had accepted it all and still wanted more. Ning didn't give it more as that would take some time. Instead, he simply used the Essence he poured into it.
He created the pillar.
However, what had formed could not be considered a pillar at all. To be more accurate, it was a lone cliff that stood tall and strong. It reached the sky, going high up, something Ning hadn't expected at all.
No one could have expected it at all.
The others were shocked, but Ning was shocked even more so. After all, he was the only one here that knew the sword could accept a lot more Essence if he took the time to pour it all.
Ning saw something green flash in the air and turned his head to the side. When he did, he saw a middle-aged man slowly drift down with his opponent.
When they landed, Ning saw his opponent had completely passed out from fear.
Multiple referees quickly came onto the stage —or rather what remained of it and took the young man from the man's arms. In doing so, many of them bowed to him, calling him 'your highness' as they did so.
One referee came to Ning as well and grabbed him before heaving him up while he was focused on the royalty. He was being taken away quickly when the person spoke.
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"Stop!" he commanded, stopping the referee in his track.
"Is something wrong, your Highness?" the referee asked.
"Don't forget the young man's sword," the man said as he walked to the sword that was halfway into the ground and pulled on it.
He paused for a moment and pulled it even more. In the end, he used every bit of energy in his body to pull the sword, but it wouldn't budge.
The man stopped and looked at the massive thing in front of him. "Well… I suppose that makes sense," he said.
Ning moved away from the referee and went next to the man. He leaned and pulled out the sword easily, giving the man somewhat of a surprise.
"That's quite the sword you have," the man said.
Ning nodded. "I'm afraid it is not for sale though," he said.
The man couldn't help but laugh. "Would you refuse me if I asked to buy that sword?" he asked.
Ning frowned for a moment. "I do not know who you may be, sir, but I will definitely refuse," he said.
"What if I told you I am Damien Black?" the man asked.
"Damien…" Ning paused for a second before his eyes narrowed. "Are you… the Crown prince?"
"That is me," the man said.
"I see. It is a pleasure to meet you, your highness," Ning said. "But even if the Emperor were to ask to purchase this sword, I would still refuse."
"Ohh… quite bodacious, aren't you?" the crown prince chuckled. "Fine, go on. You need medical attention quickly."
"Thank you," Ning said and bowed, before turning around and walking away.
The Crown prince watched him get taken away and shook his head before flying back toward the tower.
Damien flew directly through the window, instead of taking the stairs as most others would. He had already leaped out of the window, so he found no shame in doing the same to enter.
"It might take some time to get rid of the problem that had just been created," the Crown Prince said. "We might even have to postpone the matches."
The other nobles around him nodded as they saw no other choice. "We might indeed have to do that," they concurred.
The Emperor stared at the pillar and shook his head. "That will not do," he said. "The matches must end today."
"But father, the way things are, I don't know how they will—"
"The fight doesn't have to take place at the stage," the emperor said. "We have plenty of space behind us in this barren land, don't we? Have it take place there."
"Oh," the Crown prince's eyebrows perked up as that was indeed not a bad idea. "What about the audience? Do we just create multiple projections for them to watch the whole thing from here, or should we send them out there too?"
"Tell the committee to do whatever they feel convenient," the emperor said. "They can have some Earth Essence Expert to create a few elevated sitting platforms and call it an arena for now."
"I will let them know," the Crown prince said and walked through the door this time around, with a staff member following him to lead the way.
The Emperor looked at the giant pillar that was in front of him and sighed before sitting down on his seat.
Saburn Foreman stood where he was, completely stumped at what he was seeing. The size of the rock that had formed out of nowhere was not something that fit his understanding at all.
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But one thing was obvious. His son was right, and he had missed the chance of obtaining the sword for himself.
Now, if he owned the sword, everyone would know where it can come from. It was a terrible thing to realize. He continued staring at the pillar, trying to come to a conclusion about what he could do now.
There was nothing he could do that wouldn't be blatantly obvious. He sighed.
'Dammit! What the hell even is that sword? How can it create something that massive in such a small time? How have I never heard of this before? Did that kid come from the Springwind continent perhaps? Or the Blueflame Continent? What is going on?' Saburn thought with maddening confusion.
The Emperor stayed seated as he closed his eyes, warding off all the noise and discussions around him. As he started feeling the quietness settle, he remembered the texts he read.
The archaic texts.
Every emperor was forced to read the texts once they were crowned as one. The texts had the history of the entire world and many important events written on them, all of which were only passed down through the emperors alone.
The texts were so ancient, that the Emperor was sure that only a handful of people would even remember this one event from over 500 years ago.
He himself found it hard to recall as it was a text that was written in passing, and what was written was nothing more than a legend to most people.
As the impossibility of such an event was simply apparent. I think you should take a look at
But, just because he knew something was impossible, didn't mean it was. For his knowledge could be lacking which made him think something was impossible.
He remained close-eyed for a while remembering the exact information on the texts he had read, making sure that he wasn't wrong. When he opened it, his son had already come back and was sitting next to him, waiting for him to open his eyes.
"I have spoken to the committee," he started delivering the information. "They have agreed to change the location of the remaining battles. After a brief meeting amongst themselves, they will go and create a temporary arena behind us."
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"They claim that it will not take longer than 2 hours," the crown prince said. "We will have to wait until then for them to continue. Are you okay with this?"
"I am," the Emperor said. "But Damien, the competition no longer holds much importance to us."
The crown prince frowned a little. "What do you mean by that, Father?" he asked. "Don't you want to see Allen and Alena do well in the competition? Allen is guaranteed to go into the Top 4, and Alena will go there too. Then they shouldn't have much trouble moving onto the—"
"Allen and Alena have done well, but it matters not at the moment. Our priorities have changed. We much now consider how we are going to act."
The crown prince was very puzzled as his father was speaking only to him. "What is going on, Father?" he asked, looking at the pillar. "Is it the young man?"
"No, it is his sword," the Emperor said.
"His sword?" the crown prince asked. He could understand being interested in such a good sword, but… his father seemed more than just interested.
He seemed… hungry.
"What exactly is going on?" he asked.
"You will read of a legend when you become the Emperor," the Emperor spoke. "The legend speaks of the past, of the world over 500 years ago when there used to be 4 continents in this world, not three."
"Along with Glacien, Blueflame, and Springwind, there used to be another continent called the Stonefall continent."
"However, one day, the continent vanished and what was left behind was pieces of it, that came to be known as the Sunken Lands," the Emperor said. "Only a few people truly knew what had happened."
The crown prince got curious. "What happened?" he asked.
The Emperor looked at the pillar. "Conversion," he said. "They say the majority of the continent was converted, turned into a conduit. A conduit that had since been lost to the world."
"However, now it has surfaced, and we have to make it ours."
"We have to get the conduit that is dubbed the name the Continental Sword."
"That… that sword is made up of a continent?" the Crown prince couldn't help but ask his father. He whispered the words, but no one was paying any attention to them anyway.
"About three-fourths of it. The Sunken lands is a result of what is remaining," the Emperor said.
"What about the people that lived there?" the crown prince asked.
"I don't know. The text doesn't speak about them. It just mentions that after the continent disappeared, someone appeared with the sword and showed it off to multiple emperors. That was how the records were made. "
"As I said, the record was made in passing, but what is written describes the sword perfectly."
"A heavy sword made up of continent. It looks like a barren, crusted desert, but is instead the many pieces of broken lands that were used to create it," the Emperor said. "If we can get our hands on the sword, we will have to fear no other continents. We can take over the rest of the region and rule this continent without a single worry or threat."
The crown prince gulped. "But father, I asked the young man about the sword. He refuses to sell it," he said.
"Did you give him a price?" the Emperor asked. "No, but I think he knows what it is worth now. He told me directly that even if you were to ask it, he wouldn't sell it to you."
"Then we won't buy," the Emperor said. "We will just take it from him, whether he likes it or not."
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"That won't work," the prince said. "Even if we take away the sword, he would still own it. In the end, it would be his sword. Besides, unless he gives up the sword, it is too heavy for us to take it away."
"Fine," the Emperor said. "Then we will kill him if it comes to that."
The crown prince frowned. "What about taking him in, father? Bringing him into the family. Maybe have Alena marry him to bring him into the family so we can use him. Even without the sword, he is someone that can fight Essence Soul realm fighters with the Essence Manifestation realm. It takes miracles for someone like him to be born."
"No," the Emperor said without even taking the words into consideration. "I must own the sword. If I can't have it, no one can."
The Crown prince frowned. He wanted to explain to his father how his way was better, but of course, he wouldn't listen. His father never truly listened to him when it came to making important decisions.
Even the last time he had done something impulsive, Damien had been there to give him another way to solve the problem.
He had told his father that he would marry Mroden's daughter to connect the houses, so he wouldn't have to worry about them. If he married the young girl when she came of age, the problem that his father was worried about would not remain anymore.
However, his father had instead decided to take the matter into his own hand and that very night he had burned Mroden's entire family down. Even the girl he loved back then had been burned alive by his own father.
He couldn't bring himself to hate his own father back then, but… he had decided after that to not marry anyone else. He had wanted to hand down the throne to his brother, but his father had remained headstrong in making him the emperor.I think you should take a look at
He was most likely going to force him to marry a woman but he was sure he would refuse him when he did. Since that day 30 years ago, he had started seeing that his father wasn't the man he once thought he was.
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Even so, his father was the Emperor. If he gave the order, he would have to follow it, or he would lose his head. Even if he opposed his father, he knew he was a coward at heart. He would follow any order he gave him if his father got serious.
"If I'm not wrong," the Emperor continued. "That kid doesn't know just how great of a sword he has on him."
The crown prince looked back up and toward the window. Staring at the giant pillar that remained outside, he doubted his father's words.
"I'm sure he knows he has something good. If he still didn't know that after creating such a massive pillar, I would call him an idiot," the crown prince chuckled a bit.
"No," the Emperor said. "If he knew what the sword could do, he would have used it by now."
Damien was confused. "But he just did, didn't he?" he asked.
The Emperor finally turned his head toward the prince. "What do you think a continent is? Is it just a giant landmass with nothing but rocks?" he asked.
"That…" the crown prince puzzled at the words.
"No," the Emperor continued. "A continent is more than just the land that forms it. It is the cliffs and valleys. It's the lakes and waterfalls. It river that flows through the land and the sand at the banks of it."
"It is the crystals, the metals, the lava, the wind. It is the light that falls on it, and it is the shadow that it holds."
"A continent is more than just one element. It is an amalgamation of everything that it holds. Wind, Earth, Water, Fire, Magma, Light, Shadow, Ice, Sand, Mud, Lightning, Crystals. Everything."
"The Continental Sword is one that allows someone to access most of the Essence that is available in this world. Only a few abstract ones like Space isn't available, but they rarely are."
"If you can get a hold of the Continental Sword, you will be a master of almost all the Elements. A true monarch of Essence," the Emperor said. "The Kid might know his sword is special, but I guarantee you he does not know of this."
"If he had the slightest inkling of how strong his sword was, he would have never shown it to the public," the Emperor said. "So, before he figures out the rest of the powers in the sword, we must get a hold of the sword."
"Even if we have to kill the kid to get it."
Ning lay down on the bed as the dizziness finally started to wear off after drinking the medicine that he was given. His pain reduced a bit as well, and the doctors started checking him on what was wrong.
"You have a cut to the head, not a severe one, but you might want to keep the bandage on it for a few days. Your third and fifth ribs on your right chest are snapped in half. That will require a few months to heal entirely."
"As for the rest of your injuries, we have applied some ointments. Those should heal within a day or two," the doctor said.
"Thank you, doctor," Ning said.
"Alright, now… do you wish to concede from your upcoming matches or will you want to fight?" the doctor asked.
The question made Ning scratch his head as he couldn't choose anything. He hadn't thought of the upcoming matches, but now that he did, he didn't know what it was that he wanted.
"Can I… let you guys know later?" he asked.
The doctor chuckled a bit. "Sure," he said. "You can just not show up when the match begins, that works too."
"Thank you," Ning said.
"Oh yeah, for your information, the matches have been moved back at least 2 hours, so you have plenty of time to rest too," the doctor said before walking away.
"2 hours huh?" Ning thought.
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He sat alone on his bed with his ripped clothes. He looked around, but every bed but one in this place was empty. And that one was to the young man that he had knocked out.
He could basically not be counted as being there at all.
It was the medical section of the arena where only the wounded came to visit. While the competition was going on, not even the teachers were allowed to visit here unless in extreme cases.
Which meant, he was going to be alone for quite a while longer.
He sighed, and leaned against the bed, thinking about the upcoming matches. He thought of the brackets.
The next fight was going to be the Prince versus his guard. Since Hyandus had already mentioned that he was going to give up, the prince was going to win. Which meant, he was going to have to fight the prince next match.
"Do I want to fight against the prince?" Ning thought. Unless he wanted to create a spectacle as he had just done once again, he doubted he had any way of winning the match.
Besides, he didn't want to win against the prince. He liked the prince.
"If I lose there…" he would end up in a match for 3rd place. The person he fought was going to be someone that lost to the princess in the Semi-finals.
"Huh, the twins are going to fight in the finals? Ice versus Magma. For that alone I will have to give up," Ning thought. "But not all. I will need to come third."I think you should take a look at
He cracked his fingers. "I guess I know who I'm going to have to win against."
Ning reached into his storage ring and brought out a pure crystal. As he did, he saw the sword that was in there.
"Just what are you?" he couldn't help but ask.
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The sword was something that he had fought when he had come to this world on the very first day. Once he had bonded with it, it had been with him at every moment.
It had shown some impressive stuff even when he was weak, but what it had done today was simply preposterous. Creating that much land with barely half of his Essence was not something Ning had expected it could do.
"Did you swallow an entire mountain range or what?" he couldn't help but ask. When he was ready to use the system again, he would ask it about the sword.
For now, he took the Pure Crystal and started absorbing the Essence inside of it. He had lost quite a bit of it creating that massive rock pillar, so the best he could do right now was get it all back.
As he absorbed, Ning started getting a peculiar feeling. "Hmm?" he thought. "Isn't this… a bit too soon?"
2 hours passed very quickly. At that time, another arena was created in the barren land beyond them. Once it was made, everyone was instructed to move over to it as the next set of fights would take place there.
For the nobles and rulers in the tower, another window had been created on the other side, through which they could directly view the new arena. From the ease of view, anyone could tell that the arena was made with them in mind.
Only the most important arrays were transported over to the new arena, ignoring the other arrays that were more for quality of life than anything.
Both the school's members and audience sat wherever they could find a seat. Since this arena was much larger, there were plenty of seats to go around. The prince and the rest walked together with their academy members and sat in a large, open seating area that someone had reserved for them.
They all looked at the newly built stage and were excited now that the competition was going to continue.
It was already close to 3 pm, so most wanted the competition to end as quickly as possible. At the very least, they did not want the competition to go on until evening.
Due to the lack of lights, it could result in some problems that the new arena wasn't ready to deal with.
As soon as most audience members were seated, the host arrived on the stage and quickly asked them for their understanding while telling them that the matches would now continue.
The 2nd of the Quarterfinal matches began… and then ended as Hyandus notified that he conceded the match. The prince was still a little sour about the situation, but he said nothing.
Since the 2nd match was over with the Prince's victory, he was announced to move on to the next round.
The third match got the crowds cheering. It was a battle between Fire and Water. Two people with completely opposite skills fought each other with both neutralizing each other more than they hurt them.
One would throw a fire attack making the other retaliate with water. When the other used a water attack, the fire user would use his own defensive technique to protect himself.
The fight continued for a long while before during the pivotal moment, the water user used her strongest water technique, while at the same time revealing for the first time that she was wearing a Wind armor underneath her clothes.
The gust of wind disrupted the fire barrier that the fire user had set up, letting the water attack land on him. The water sent the man flying away, and he struck the barrier around the stage, effectively giving victory to the young woman.
Once the woman's victory was announced, she left the stage and made room for the final match in the Quarterfinals.
The princess walked onto the stage when her name was called, and her opponent, a Light Dance academy student walked onto the stage as well.
Just from the looks of it, the Princess's opponent was scared of the fight before the match even officially began. She was terrified of her opponent, and rightfully so.
The princess started the fight by showing off her Magma Essence soul and the girl's Fire Essence soul barely held any chance of winning against something like that.
She still fought to the best of her ability, but the best she could do was nothing compared to what the princess could perform. Just the fact that the princess was a High Essence Soul realm expert meant that she would have won even if she had a Moonlight Essence core.
With Magma Core, there was absolutely no chance of victory for the poor young girl.
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She tried her best still, doing what she could to try and win it all. However, no matter how hard she tried, the victory was locked from the start.
She gave up in the end, as it was the only right thing for her to do. The audience applauded her courage to fight the princess, but they applauded even harder at the princess's victory.
Once the match was over, the two of them were sent back to their seats as the Quarterfinals were finally over and the Semi-finals were going to begin any time soon.
It was barely half past 3 when the quarterfinals came to an end, and so they announced that the Semi-finals would begin at 4 pm sharp.
The fights had half an hour to rest before they would be forced to fight again.
The Blackhawk Academy members waited and looked around. Tenn was more nervous than anyone. "Do you think brother Ning will make it in time? I wonder how his head injury is."
"Shouldn't we send someone to go meet him?" Kaleb asked. "Does he even know the matches are taking place here?"
"Headmaster, you should go," Yorsha said.
The headmaster sighed. "I've already talked to the doctor. He is okay, but he is still hurt. He is being notified of everything that is happening here, so don't worry. Whether he comes or not will be his judgment to make. Just the fact that he had reached the Semi-finals is more than enough for me."
"But he could win more," Kaleb said.I think you should take a look at
"Ohh… are you saying he can win against me?" the prince asked Kaleb.
Kaleb shut up for a moment before speaking. "What can you do if he creates another one of those pillars, prince?" he asked.
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The prince hesitated a bit. "Dammit, you're right. He does have a chance. Although, I think I know what I can do if he does show up. I've been preparing internally for our fight."
The group talked for a few minutes, but Ning never arrived. He was still in the medical room, getting his news about the fights there. Since there was nothing to see this time around, he could only get through to the staff members that passed it along to him.
Up in the tower, the emperor looked at the stage and the audience in the arena. "Do you see him?" he asked his son.
The Crown Prince didn't want to help his father with what he was planning, but he failed to do so. "I don't see him," he said. "He must be heavily wounded and getting medical help."
The Emperor frowned. "He should not be able to leave," he said. His eyes fell on the headmaster of the Blackhawk Academy. "Your elder cousin is down there. Go pass along a message to tell him to not leave once the competition is over until I meet them."
The crown prince hesitated but nodded. He walked out of the room and found a staff member. A minute later he returned back. "It is done."
The Emperor nodded and watched below. He saw a staff member walk up to the headmaster and lean in to say something. Once he said it, the staff member walked away, leaving a puzzled headmaster.
He turned his head toward the tower, but he couldn't see inside. Just the fact that he had turned at all told the Emperor that the message had been passed along.
"We shall do it today," the Emperor said. "We cannot delay a matter of such importance."
The prince nodded. "As you say, father."
Down in the audience, the headmaster was still puzzled. The prince turned and asked, "What did that person say?"
"The Emperor ordered just our academy members to not leave once the competition is over," the headmaster said.
"Oh, Grandfather must want to meet us. He hasn't seen us for the last 7 months so it is understandable," the prince said.
"Probably," the headmaster said. That much he understood. What he didn't understand was what he was supposed to do with the piece of paper he was given.
The messenger said that he had to give it to Ning, but Ning wasn't there at all. Puzzled, the headmaster stayed where he was, and decided to do as he was asked.
For which, Ning would have to come by soon enough.
We shall now begin the Semi-Finals!"
As soon as the host made the announcement, the whole crowd exploded in delight at the news. They cheered for an entire minute before finally allowing the host to begin with the first match.
"For the first match, let me call over our two combatants. The first is the dark horse of the competition. From the Blackhawk Academy, we have Ning Ruogong."
The crowds cheered at his name.
"As for the second combatant, From the same Blackhawk Academy, we have the Icy prince, Allen Black!"
The crowd cheered at his name too, perhaps more so as the females were smitten by his handsome look and his playful demeanor.
"What… do I do?" the prince looked toward the teacher.
"For now, just go on. You will both get disqualified if neither one of you goes onto the stage," the headmaster said. "As for Ning, if he comes, he comes. Don't worry about him."
The prince nodded and left. He arrived at the stage in the midst of cheers as he waited for Ning to arrive. Not only he, but the host and the audience waited as well. However, no matter how long they waited, Ning wasn't going to arrive at all.
In the end, the prince was awarded his victory and he moved on to the finals. He couldn't feel anything positive about the scenario. It wasn't like he had won the fight to move on. He was simply awarded a victory due to his opponent's absence.
'Is he heavily wounded?' the prince wondered.
The same worries went through the minds of many. From what they had seen, Ning had walked away quite easily, but it seemed he wasn't as okay as they had thought he had been.
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The prince arrived back at the seating area and sighed. Then, the next contestants were called.
When the girl from the Ash Wind Academy was called onto the stage, there were few cheers compared to Ning and the prince. But when the princess was called, the cheer returned all over again.
The princess stood in front of her opponent who showed no fear, for she knew that fear wouldn't help her win. Confidence would.
She was nervous, but she hid it well. When the match began, she immediately brought out her turtle-shelled Water Essence Soul and began attacking the princess.
The princess formed a layer of magma that formed a wall in front of her. The wall protected her from almost all the attacks that the young woman could throw against her.
Since water evaporated at the touch of the magma, the girl couldn't do anything at all. She continued fighting, but it wasn't a fight to win, but rather a fight to survive.
And survive she did.
She managed to move around, spending enormous amounts of Essence to create tons and tons of water that solidified most magma that tried to flow toward her. Even then, the heat from the steam alone was getting to her.
She still tried, throwing water snakes, water geysers, water blades, and even flooding the entire arena.
However, none of that worked at all.
Alena's magma grew slowly, but steadily and soon it overwhelmed it all. Her opponent tried to keep up, but against such a strong foe, she crumbled.I think you should take a look at
The referee stepped in to save her at the last moment when a wave of magma flowed in her direction. The girl breathed heavily and sighed in the end after knowing that she had lost.
She stepped away from the arena, giving one last look toward the princess and then to the seating area for the Blackhawk Academy. At least, she was going to come 3rd overall from the looks of it.
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Her academy would be happy as long as she came third.
The princess stopped too and left the arena, going back to the seating area.
"Yay! Sis, we'll finally officially battle each other. We'll finally know who will win," the prince said.
"It's obvious, is it not?" the princess said. "I would win."
"Aww, don't be so sure about that," the prince said. "You haven't fought me at my best."
"And neither have you," the princess answered before looking around. "So, he isn't back yet?"
"No," Tenn answered. "I think we need to send someone to tell him that the match for 3rd place is going to happen soon."
"Someone should be telling him right now. If he cares, he'll come," the headmaster said. He was quite nervous as well as he didn't want to let the chance to have all 3 finalist combatants be from his academy, but he couldn't force someone injured to fight if they couldn't.
The host announced that the next match between Ning and the girl who had just lot would take place in exactly 15 minutes, to give some resting time for the girl before her next fight.
The girl didn't think she needed it. Her opponent wasn't going to come. Still, just in case, she pulled out a crystal from her storage artifact and started absorbing it.
Everyone patiently waited for 15 minutes as time seemed to pass ever so slowly for everyone. Then, when the 15 minutes passed, the host arrived on the stage to begin the final 2 matches of the competition.
He called out the two contestants.
Ning and the girl from Ash Wind Academy were called onto the stage. The girl swiftly walked up, but as expected for most, Ning was nowhere to be seen.
The host looked around. "Well, it seems like—"
"Stop!" the headmaster suddenly shouted from the seating area and pointed somewhere. Everyone's eyes turned as they saw Ning run into the seating area.
"Headmaster!" Ning shouted. "Am I late? Did it start?"
"No," the headmaster spoke toward Ning who ran to the group. "You're just in time. Go that's your opponent."
"Huh? Oh!" Ning realized he was too late.
"Wait," the headmaster quickly spoke again. As Ning turned around, he handed something to Ning. "I was told to give you this before the match. Now go."
Ning left for the stage with the paper in hand. People cheered from outside, all more than happy to see him finally come onto the stage.
As the black horse of the entire competition, while he hadn't managed to enter the finals, they at least wanted to see if he had what it took to enter the top 3.
Ning flipped open the piece of paper and read what was written in. When he read it all, he missed a step in surprise at what was written on the paper.
'Is this real?' he wondered. He couldn't imagine it being real at all. He wanted to go back and ask the headmaster if this was some sort of joke, but his match was already starting, so he continued there.
He arrived on the stage, amidst the numerous cheers and waved his hands at everyone that supported him. Even the host gave a wide smile and walked up to Ning to say something when he paused.
His eyes narrowed for a second, almost unbelieving. 'Was that why he was late?' he couldn't help but wonder.
"You man," he called out to him. "You have finally arrived."
"My apologies, senior. I was told my match would start in 15 minutes, so I rested however long I could. When I did leave, I didn't expect to have to come this far for the match. I'm sorry if I made you all wait," Ning said.
"That's alright," the host said. "Come here, I have to say something to you."
Ning nodded and walked up close. When he did, the host placed his arm around him and brought him to one side of the stage.
"That pillar you created last time," he whispered. "Can you create it again?"
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Ning nodded. "I can," he answered without hesitation.
"I see," the man said. "Well, I want you to not create it. Or do anything that will make us have to switch to another location for the finale. Would you mind that?"
"Not use my Earth Essence?" Ning asked. That was a request to accept. After all, it was the Earth sword that gave him the edge against most fighters here. If he couldn't use it then…
"Not that, just… keep it contained so that we don't have to spend hours on cleanup. Anything else, you can do whatever you want," the man said.
Ning thought for a moment. "So, I just don't have to go overboard, is that correct?" he asked. "If so, I can accept that."
"Good," the host said and finally walked away from Ning.
Ning thought for a moment about what he had accepted and he didn't really feel bad about it at all. It wasn't like he absolutely needed the sword to win this time around.
At least… not anymore.
The host announced the penultimate would begin now and walked away from the stage, letting four separate referees arrive on all four sides for the safety of the two fighters.I think you should take a look at
Once there, the referee looked at either side and waited for them to get ready.
The woman brought out no weapons, but Ning could tell she wore armor. He had known a little about the fights that had taken place and was aware that she wore Wind Armor.
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As for himself, he brought out his sword.
The girl flinched at the sight of the sword, growing serious as she worried that she would be sent flying into the air at any moment.
Ning smiled and spoke to her. "Don't worry," he shouted. "I have accepted the committee's request to not use extravagant moves like the last one. You can rest easy that you won't get hit with what my last opponent did."
The girl gave a slight grin, but she didn't feel happy about it at all. Even anything that was considered tame compared to what he had shown earlier would still most likely be considered extravagant.
She could only trust herself and never her enemy's words.
The referee looked at both of them and once he got the confirmation that they were both ready, he started the match.
The girl wasted no time and brought out her Essence Soul. It was a giant humanoid Water Essence Soul with thick limbs like those of an elephant, with a head that looked like the girl herself, a shell in the back not very different from a turtle, and a tail that came out of the shell that looked more like a snake's tail than anything.
While she brought it out immediately, she did not attack so quickly. Haste would be her biggest enemy here, and she had to be ready for when Ning used his techniques.
Even without the sword, the Lightning Essence and the Space Essence were not something that she was used to handling. If she was careless, he could most definitely get the upper hand in the battle and easily win.
Ning looked at the girl and couldn't help but chuckle a little. She was so defensive that she didn't even seem like she was ready to attack.
He poured some essence into his sword, creating a few rocks around him that were sent flying toward the girl.
A Water whip formed in the girl's hand that she spun in front of her, hitting all the rocks that were flying toward her, breaking each one of them.
She got back into defense, but she also understood that she couldn't just keep defending, or else she would most certainly lose. She decided to start attacking herself when she paused and her eyes went wide.
She looked up front at the young man whom she had believed until now to be someone weaker than her. She just believed that he had more tricks up his sleeves than actual power.
However, what she was sensing right now told her that her idea about him could not have been further from the truth at all.
The power she sensed, the power everyone in the arena sensed, told them that this was not the same Ning they had seen before.
This was the Ning that had broken through to the Essence Soul realm.
As Ning lifted the veil around his core that he had been doing ever since he returned, the people around the arena finally saw just what level his strength had reached.
"Am I sensing it right?" the prince couldn't help but ask himself. He looked around in confusion, but the others seemed just as confused as he was.
The princess turned around and looked at her brother. "You are sensing this too right?" she asked.
"He did it," the headmaster said softly. "That young man actually reached the Essence Soul realm in the middle of the competition. No, he did it while he was injured."
"How did he do it?" Tenn couldn't help but ask. "Wasn't he wounded with little Essence in his body just a few hours ago?"
"Forget that," Kaleb spoke. "This bastard was only at the Essence Sense realm when he joined the academy half a year ago. Are you telling me he went from that to this in just half a year?"
Even the teacher that had recruited Ning couldn't help but want to tear his own hair in confusion. He had recruited Ning in hopes that he reached Essence Manifestation before the competition. And yet… this was simply ridiculous.
The ones that didn't know Ning closely weren't as shocked as the members of the academy were, but that did not mean that they weren't shocked at all.
People started questioning how he managed to do any of it at all. However, no one could come up with any better explanation than 'it was time for him to break through'.
Even in the tower, the various nobles and rules were talking to themselves about how talented Ning was and how he had managed to break through after his fights.
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None seemed to understand the reason for it, however.
Saburn was near to clawing his own eyes out for not listening to his son just yesterday. Had he done so, he could have taken the sword.
Now, not only had the sword's existence been known to the world, but even the owner of the sword itself had gotten too strong for him.
"Father, what do you think happened?" the crown prince asked the Emperor. "Do you think the young man reached this level by using the sword?"
The Emperor stared at the stage for a while before speaking.
"The sword did aid, but not as much as you are thinking it did," the Emperor said. "For anyone to grow and breakthrough, they simply need to refine their core as much as they can in preparation for it to hold more Essence."
"That is the fundamental truth behind breaking through. The reason most people take time is that they either do not have enough Essence to refine their core, or they do not have quality Essence to refine it."
"However, as long as you manage to refine it to a level, you will certainly be able to break through the realm rather easily," the Emperor said. "In this young man's condition, it could be that he has spent a lot of time refining his core with pure essence, and it reached the level of accepting an Essence Soul realm's worth of Essence just now, allowing him to break through."
"Is that so?" the Crown Prince asked. "That must be it."I think you should take a look at
He wasn't sure why he was expecting there to be some sort of mystery here. Perhaps seeing that a legendary sword in a young man's hand had caused him to fantasize about other possibilities he wasn't aware of.
The Crown Prince shook his head at himself for imagining that something more was going on.
"However, I do not believe that to be the case," the Emperor said. His eyes were on the Blackhawk Academy members.
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"Wasn't the reason why the Essence Heart Academy was disqualified because most of the Blackhawk Academy students were poisoned by them?" he asked. "That means that this lot, aside from our youngsters were nothing but replacement. Which makes him a replacement as well."
"Which is to say… he was not strong enough or had studied long enough in the academy to be someone of any worth. As far as I can tell, he was brought here for one thing, and one thing alone."
"His Pure Essence."
The Crown Prince nodded. "That does seem possible," he said. "No, that is most likely the case. But what does that have to do with him breaking through?"
The Emperor closed his eyes for a second and answered. "Pure Essence is unique. Moonlight Essence, the Essence closest to Pure Essence is already very unique, but Pure Essence is even more so unique."
"As you can see, the kid can use any technique he wants as long as he knows it. That is because of the Pure Essence he has."
"Since it is so unique, it has another property that not many are aware of," the Emperor said. "It is capable of refining one's core at an exceedingly fast pace."
"Even if a person with Fire Essence core absorbs Fire Essence, it is still just the Pure Essence inside the Fire Essence that is refining the core."
"Imagine just absorbing Pure Essence itself, without your body needing to take out anything from it, not needing to convert it, straight dumping it all into your core."
"Not only that, since you keep Pure Essence in your core the entire time, even when you don't use it, it still refines your core."
"As he breaks through, he gets to collect more Pure Essence, and they refine it even faster for the next realm. In the end, as long as the kid gets a steady supply of Pure Essence, he will be unstoppable in this world."
"Woah!" the Crown Prince couldn't help but say. The information had come as quite a bit of shock to him.
"We can not let that happen," the Emperor said.
"Huh?" the prince looked at him. "But he could be our ultimate savior in times of need."
"Or our destroyer. Especially with that sword, we cannot take our chances," the Emperor said. "After the competition is over, we will have to take his sword, and then kill him."
"Hmm? Weren't you about to attack?" Ning asked the girl with a massive grin on his face. He couldn't even hide how happy he was when he saw the look of shock appear on the girl's face.
That was partially the reason why he was hiding his aura in the first place, to shock people and see their reaction. That alone was quite fun.
The girl had stopped in her steps, so Ning threw a few rocks at her to catch her attention and help her focus.
A column of water sprung out from the ground like a geyser, swallowing the rocks before disappearing. When the water was down, Ning was already passing through it.
The girl panicked and a water whip appeared on her hand that she struck at Ning.
A rock pedestal appeared below Ning, and he stepped on it to move to the right. At the same time, he swung his sword to the side, slicing the whip in half as the part that was cut off fell to the ground, wetting the floor.
The Essence Soul's face opened its mouth and sprayed water at Ning.
Ning stood where he was and created a giant rock to defend himself from it. The rock was struck and the water sprayed all around the stage, but the rock wasn't strong enough to hold itself together as tons and tons of water sprayed directly at it.
After about 10 seconds of struggle, the rock broke apart and the water went through to where Ning was. However, at the last second, the girl realized something.
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The head stopped gushing water and ducked while the remaining limbs and tail went into the shield. The Essence soul then dropped to the ground, just in time to block the spray of water that gushed through the Space Portal that Ning had created to return back the attack.
The shield took a majority of the damage and was fine, but the force of the water still sent the girl tumbling forward.
Before she could gain her footing, Ning had already moved with Wind Essence covering his body to make him move that much faster.
Essence Soul Shield solidified completely and moved unnaturally before the girl.
Ning stopped right before the place where the shield fell and slashed vertically at the shield, leaving behind a large gash on the shield.
He slashed at it horizontally as well, leaving another wound before he sensed Water Essence gathering beneath him.
He added Earth Essence to where the Water Essence was gathering and created a 10-meter-tall pillar that sent him flying. He flipped through the air and saw a sharp sword-shaped water destroy the rock he had just leaped off of.
Wind Essence gathered around him, increasing his friction and slowing his descent. He landed gently and sent many rocks flying toward the shield to pelt at it. However, the entire Essence Soul turned illusory at the last second as everything simply passed through it.
As for the girl, she had moved toward the edge of the shield and was getting out of the way.I think you should take a look at
Ning created a decent-sized rock and sent it flying into the sky. While the girl looked up to see if he was throwing it in her direction, he came back at her to attack her again.
The girl brought her attention back from the rock and looked at Ning before using one of her signature skills.
The Essence Soul slammed onto the ground on all fours, and the head opened as it vomited out tons and tons of water immediately flooding the entire stage.
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Not only was it a lot, it was also strong. The water came at him like waves in the ocean after an earthquake. Alone on the stage, the water looked as large as a tsunami.
Ning stood where he was and dug his sword to the ground. Then, two massive flat pieces of rocks appeared in front of him, that dug onto the ground, with a pointed tip that split the incoming tsunami.
He added one layer after another until he no longer needed to add any. Then, he looked up at the rock that was going to get devoured by the raging waves and immediately used his skill.
A portal appeared at the last moment and the rock vanished into it. At the next moment, he created another pillar of rock that sent him flying over 20 meters into the air.
He appeared on top of the water and saw the rock he had portalled away, hit the girl that hadn't expected anything to come at her at all.
She was on the ground, trying to get back up, but Ning wasn't going to let her. Even as he fell from the sky, he pointed at the girl with a single finger as if he were using a gun.
The girl looked up when she sensed the unique Essence and tried to use a defensive technique. But covered in water all over the stage, she had nowhere she could run.
A blast of white blinded everyone that saw it as a lightning bolt hit the girl before anyone could even realize it. The thunderous noise of the bolt followed immediately, forcing many to cover their ears at the sound.
Ning finally landed in the water deep water and looked at the girl who had fallen unconscious. He felt a bit awkward seeing that she had fainted after his attack and hoped that she was fine.
The Referees hadn't even managed to arrive to protect her even with all 4 of them.
As soon as the first one arrived, he checked on the girl's vitals and quickly confirmed that she was hurt, but she was alive.
Ning breathed a slight sigh of relief knowing that he hadn't hurt the girl excessively.
One of the referees used his Wind techniques to force the water out from a small area and walked up to Ning before announcing to the world.
"Ning Ruogong of Blackhawk Academy has won the match."
Chapter 1200 Finals
Ning walked back into the seating arena amidst noises of cheers and applause. He had gone from someone who shouldn't have even his first match, to entering the Top 3 when it should have been impossible for him.
People from his academy stood up and cheered for him as he walked up to them. Some slapped him on the back and laughed, while others patted him on the shoulders.
"Young Ning!" the headmaster stepped in between the students to arrive in front of Ning. "How did you do it? How did you break through in just a few hours?"
"I… don't know," Ning said. "I just felt like it was the right time and I did it."
"Didn't you break through to the Essence Manifestation realm just a month ago?" Kaleb asked. "How did you do it again so quickly?"
"Well, even if you ask me, I can't really answer," Ning said. "I truly don't know how it happened. I just… knew I could, and I did."
"Why did you do it when you were in the middle of the competition?" the prince asked. "You missed our fight. You nearly missed this one too."
"Oh that… uhh, I was told I had 2 hours before our match, so I thought I had time," Ning said. "But I didn't expect it to take so long to create my Essence Soul. Does it always take this long?"
"How long did it take?" Tenn asked curiously.
"Nearly half an hour," Ning said.
"HALF AN HOUR?!?!"
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Multiple people shouted at him immediately the moment they heard him.
"It took you half an hour to make your Essence Soul?" the princess asked.
"Yes, was that long?" he asked.
"HELL NO!" the prince shouted. "All of us take anywhere from 3 hours to entire nights to make it, to craft it as best as we could while it tries to do its own thing."
"How did you make your Essence soul in just half an hour?" the headmaster said.
"Well," Ning had an awkward smile. "I might have cheated a bit."
"Cheated?" the prince was curious.
"Well, I'll show you guys once we are done with the competition," Ning said.
The rest of them were curious, but they were still respectful enough to not ask him about it.
"Come here," the prince dragged him to sit next to him. He got close to him and whispered so low that no one but him and NIng could hear each other. "How strong are you now?"
Ning looked at the prince who seemed to have realized it. He couldn't help but smile and say, "if I had a little more time, you might have been fighting that girl I just beat."
The prince looked at Ning's confident smile and couldn't hide the look of shock on his own face. "You damn man," he said as a smile formed on his own face. "Once we're back, I'm going to make you fight with me every day and night."
"No worries," Ning said. "I am more than prepared for that. I should train myself more too."
The prince smiled. "Well, I'm glad you were late then," he said. "It gives me a chance that doesn't generally come."
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He turned toward his sister who eyed him with an annoyed look as well. "Finally, we are going to see who the superior twin is," he said with a fit of laughter.
Ning talked to the prince while occasionally answering questions that the others around him asked of him. He answered what he could, but since he didn't have a lot of the answers, he couldn't tell them anything.
It wasn't just about his sudden elevation to the Essence Soul realm that made them curious, but also the skill that he used back on the match that got him admitted to the medical room.
They wanted to know how he created the giant rock pillar, which Ning told them honestly.
"I made it using this sword," he said. "Don't ask me about the sword though. I just found it one day, floating next to the beach. I knew it was quite special since back then, but it is only now that I'm finding out that it might be even more special than I could have ever imagined."
The stage was cleared up. All rocks and water on the stage were moved away, tossed out of the arena to one side where they would slowly degrade back into Essence over the course of a year or two.
Since the stage was fixed, the host arrived with loud drums suddenly beating out of nowhere. Lights that had been prepared for a bit shined onto the stage as natural light started dying on the stage.
The sudden brightness alerted the crowd into being excited for what was to come.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" the host shouted. "It is time, for the match you have been waiting for since the beginning of the competition, and maybe even before that."
"The final match is here."
People cheered from all around and the host smiled, hearing all of that.
"Let me call onto our stage, the two finalists, both of whom are from the Blackhawk Academy."
"The gems of our country, the hearts of our hearts, the Royal twins of Blackhawk Dominion. Let me present to you our finalists, Allen Black and Alena Black."
The crowd roared in shouts that covered the entire arena. They clapped and turned to where the Blackhawk Academy was located.
The prince stood amidst cheers as everyone focused on their group. He waved both his hands with massive smiles on his face, while his sister didn't show much emotion than some slight surprise at the sound.
"Shall we, sis?" Allen spoke as he turned to his sister and a giant grin on his face.
Alena nodded and stood up from her seat and together the prince and princess walked to the stage, surrounded by applause that rang throughout the arena as everyone who had come here today prepared for the last match of the competition that was going to begin any time soon.
:)