Edward was deep in meditation, with the spiritual black paper in his hands. He was trying to focus his thoughts only on the description of the Physical Essence realm, but many other thoughts were roaming in his mind. He managed to pretty much clear his mind, but in his subconscious mind, there were still thoughts of Snow. Where she was right now, what she was doing right now, where can he find her, how will he find her and all kinds of thoughts.

"Ok, I need to first empty my mind.", he said to himself.

Edward slowly emptied his mind, he imagined himself to be in an endless empty white space. Then he began to slowly gather his thoughts and comprehension on the Physical Essence realm.

"The Physical Essence realm is the very first realm of martial arts cultivation. A person steps in this realm by building up the physical essence. Martial artists keep increasing physical strength until they reach beyond the limits of ordinary humans. After that, they learn to channel this energy throughout the different parts of their body like a fluid. Once they have mastered this step, they learn to focus all that strength at the center of their body and solidify them in the shape of a ring. With this, the realm of Physical Essence is achieved. By forming the first ring, one steps into the physical essence realm. After that, the formation of each ring represents one level and the maximum number of rings formed can be 9. With nine rings, one reaches the pinnacle of the Physical Essence realm and starts preparing to step into the next realm, the Body Metamorphosis realm.", Edward thought about the physical essence realm inside his mind.

Edward focused his thoughts and slowly kept writing on the paper. Finally, he finished writing. After finishing, he looked around, and it seemed more than 40 people had already finished. The time was almost up. It seemed that not more than 50 people would pass this round. He walked towards the instructor and submitted his paper.

"Times Up!", said the instructor. "I have received 47 papers till now. I checked all the papers as soon as I got them. With this result, 47 people will be participating in the first phase of the selection exams. We will then test you on the training field, and the 30 highest scoring participants will advance to phase 2, the remaining 17 will be eliminated, so try to take place within the top 30 for the first phase.", he declared.

Everyone was hardening their will. None of the 47 selected participants wanted to be eliminated in the first phase.

"See this punching machine? A student from the academy will punch the machine at full power. He is in the ninth level of the Physical Essence realm, and not only that, he is very close to reaching the next realm. Trained by the academy, he possesses the highest possible strength below the Body Metamorphosis realm. His full power punch will be set as "100" in the punching machine. Your punches will be compared to that. Anyone scoring below 60 will be directly disqualified.", said the instructor.

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Everyone lined up in front of the punching machine. At this moment, a young boy around 15-16 years in age came out from a hall room at the corner of the field.

"I won't be going easy", he said with a smirk and punched the machine very hard.

Ding!

The punching strength was set as 100. The following punches will be compared with that.

Most of the participants were shocked by the force of the punch. Compared to the strength of this punch, many of them were not confident.

Soon, the first one on the line came and punched the machine.

"63, pass"

"Hah", he sighed in relief. The participant was relieved of his worries now that he barely managed to pass, but then he remembered that he had to be in the top 30 to move on to the next round. He started to worry once again. He left the spot with a gloomy expression.

Some participants got hopeful after seeing him pass, while some participants were still worrying. 

Participants kept coming one after another. Each participant tried their best to get a  satisfactory score.

"72, pass."

"70, pass."

"58, fail."

"71, pass"

"59, fail."

"66, pass."

"59, fail."

"55, fail."

"89, wow! Good! Very good!"

"58, fail."

"94, excellent! Which noble family are you from, boy?"

"The Aaron Family."

"Ah! The Aaron family. They always have good talents."

Soon, it was Edward's turn.

Edward calmed his mind, channeled his strength into his feet, waist, and right arm. He knew that appropriately channeling the physical essence is the key to strength, as Snow taught him. Slowly inhaling, he twisted his body and gave a hard punch, unleashing all his strength at once.

DING!!!!!

The scoreboard showed 87.

"87, Unbelievable! To think someone in the 7th level of the Physical Essence realm could score 87! Excellent! Excellent! Which family are you from, boy?", asked the instructor.

"I don't have a family", said Edward.

"Really?", asked the instructor.

"Yes", Edward replied.

"Ah! What a waste of talent, if only you had a family to back you up, you could've become a very powerful cultivator. Don't worry, you can still try. If you pass the selection exams and show your worth to the academy, you might get a chance to shine with the help of the academy."

"I will try my best", said Edward.

"Good", the instructor praised.

Soon, the punching strength test was over. Shockingly, one participant scored 106 and astonished the whole crowd. The instructor was full of praise. This boy was a youngster from the Brown Family, the most powerful family in Southern City.

"I will now start the movement speed test.", said the instructor.