William spent the next morning in Master Erian's essence cultivation lab, taking advantage of the extra practice time offered to students preparing for the competition. The lab was quieter than usual with only a handful of students present, most of them were upperclassmen who looked like they had been cultivating for hours already.
Master Erian was monitoring several stations at once, occasionally offering corrections or adjustments to students' techniques. He noticed William enter and gestured toward an empty cultivation chamber in the corner.
"Cross. Good timing. I wanted to test your fire affinity control before the preliminaries."
William followed him to the chamber, which was lined with heat-resistant materials and had several target markers positioned at various distances. Master Erian activated a diagnostic array that would measure essence output and control precision.
