68 Argument

Darth Wilkes widened his eyes in shock as he saw that the replica Ice Artifice tilt the balance over to the other side.

At last, the weighing scale produced a low thumping sound as the replica Ice Artifice rested heavily on one side, while the original Ice Artifice was hanging in the air on the other side of the weighing scale.

"How can this be… I obviously took everything into account when replicating the inside of the Ice Artifice. The spiritual density must be correct…"

Darth Wilkes was unable to accept the fact that happened in front of him. Even the people from Cloverleigh City exchanged glances with each other. They were well aware of their young master's control in spiritual density, hence it was a shock to them as well that things didn't pan out as planned.

At this moment, there was a slight smirk on Kael's face that was unnoticed by everyone else.

In reality, Darth Wilkes had managed to feel out the spiritual density of the Ice Artifice correctly and replicated it to perfection. However, no one would have guessed that Kael was able to cheat right in front of everyone's eyes.

The Ice Artifice was soul-bound to Kael ever since he had dripped his essence blood into the item and the two of them had formed an extremely close relationship. Adding onto the fact that the Ice attribute spiritual energy in Kael was derived from the Ice Artifice, they were extremely sensitive to each other.

Kael had previously murmured an incantation prior to the weighing test of the Ice Artifice and the replica. That was to actually increase the spiritual density of the original Ice Artifice, increasing its power and the cold energy it was exuding for a short period of time.

Of course, if the weighing scale was left by itself for two hours or more, the Ice Artifice's spiritual density would grow back to normal and the weighing scale would tip back into equilibrium. However, this amount of time was too long for the replica Ice Artifice to exist. By the time the Ice Artifice went back to normal, the replica would have disintegrated.

Wallie Dawson took the opportunity to announce, "Darth Wilkes' replica has failed to balance in equilibrium with the original item. As per the rules of the challenge, he will lose if Kael's replica was able to be in balance with the original. We will now proceed to test Kael's replica."

"Wait!" Darth Wilkes finally lost his composure and shouted.

"Yes? Young Master Darth Wilkes, do you have any objections?"

"Of course I do. In all my time in practice in spiritual energy control, I have never failed in recent attempts for the past year or so. It is impossible for me to not feel out the spiritual density of the Ice Artifice accurately. There must be something wrong here. I suspect foul play!"

The crowd immediately went into an uproar over Darth Wilkes' declaration.

"Foul play? Is he a sore loser or something? Can anyone cheat right under our noses?"

"That's right! He is a pampered brat that doesn't know how to take losses in his stride. To think that he can come up with such a ridiculous proposition!"

"..." The crowd was mainly dissatisfied with Darth Wilkes' declaration. Even the representatives from Anchorage City, who were supposed to be Cloverleigh City's allies, felt that it was somewhat inappropriate for Darth Wilkes to make such a claim.

The competition proceeded in a fair and square manner. Every single action of the challengers was absorbed into the vision and sight of the cultivators. In a sense, it was an indirect slap to the cultivators' face that they couldn't detect any abnormality in the competition.

As such, the crowd couldn't accept Darth Wilkes' claim in a short period of time.

"Vice-Principal Wallie Dawson, I request to examine the Ice Artifice once again." Darth Wilkes was very sure that there was something amiss here.

Kael's expression shifted slightly. "This guy is a difficult person to deal with alright. Looks like I will have to deny it at all cost later."

Wallie Dawson nodded his head. "For the sake of an objective competition and that all interested parties will be satisfied with the outcome of the challenge, I allow that. Proceed."

Darth Wilkes immediately extended his fire property spiritual energy into the Ice Artifice. After a minute of rumination, he extracted his spiritual energy from the item. A cold and menacing look flashed across his face as he gave a death stare at Kael before proceeding to speak to the five judges.

"Honored judges. After inspecting the Ice Artifice, I have reason enough to believe that there is foul play at work here. The spiritual density of the Ice Artifice now is much denser than when I was feeling out the spiritual density in the earlier stage of the challenge. I have no idea how Kael did it, but there was indeed foul play here. The spiritual density of the Ice Artifice is indeed altered!"

The judge from Cloverleigh City immediately hopped onto the bandwagon. "Kael! To think that you actually cheated in the middle of such a prestigious challenge! What do you have to say to defend yourself? If you can't give a proper explanation, I will have to deny your qualifications to the challenge and render all the challenges void!"

Render the challenges void? Obviously everyone knew what that meant. It meant that the agreement to provide cultivators to produce the hybrid cores was to be null and void, and that the trip to Fledgling City had lost its purpose. Everything would remain the same as before, and perhaps it would invite another demonic beast horde tide from the sentient demonic beasts hiding deep within the Black Heart Forest.

"Hmph! Cloverleigh City, your words are a bit too harsh. Render the challenges void? Only a consensus amongst all the five judges can make that effective, and not just your words alone. Besides, how can we believe what Darth Wilkes has said? From the beginning to the end, he is the only one who has felt that difference between the Ice Artifice at the beginning of the competition and now. Who can say that he is not lying?" Wallie Dawson immediately interrupted to de-escalate the situation.