The Mech Touch

5846 A Future Gift

Ves tried his best to determine whether he could influence the prize draw in any way.

Perhaps he could employ his Spirituality or his spatial abilities to accelerate or decelerate the spinning wheel.

Maybe he could unfold his true body and physically force the wheel to stop by using his own hands.

Perhaps he needed to calculate the exact right timing to press the big red button.

He failed.

The Wishing Fountain had become uncommonly rigid at this time. It did not want to play any games with Ves at this time. The only factors that determined what he could gain from expending his precious radiant lottery ticket were factors outside of his control.

Since that was the case, there was little point in procrastinating.

Ves only spent enough time to study what sort of prizes the wheel had to offer.

Even if there was little to no chance he would ever see them again, it was already useful for him to broaden his horizons and learn what ancient cultivators had done to mitigate lightning tribulations.

He never really thought that it was possible to develop so many inventive countermeasures against this ruinous force.

From an ingestible pill that could turn him into a demonic frog that mutated when struck by the power of the heavens to a pink umbrella that could deflect lightning bolts as if they were raindrops, it was clear that ancient cultivators had been obsessed with figuring out how to defend against destructive forces from above!

Ves never really thought about proactively defending himself against tribulation punishment, mainly because such incidents were few and far in between.

However, he did not think he would be able to stop himself from provoking the heavenly authorities.

Everytime he came up with an outrageous idea and tried to realize it, there was a good chance he would incur a violent response.

Ves never wanted to repeat what had happened to the Elemental Lord ever again.

He had been far too complacent at the time, but this was different. He had learned his lessons the hard way and would never allow himself to get caught off-guard again. It was essential for him to prepare for a serious response.

Even if his precautions turned out to be redundant, Ves would still be able to save up his resources for the next time he triggered another lightning tribulation.

"This is it. Let's hope my luck is good enough this time."

Ves slowly reached out and firmly pressed the big red button. He did not brush it, nor slam down on it with excessive force.

The button pressed down without any apparent resistance until it was able to go no further.

Once this happened, the giant prize wheel began to glow with power before starting to move.

The wheel was spinning!

Ves remained standing and continued to look up as the wheel spun at a speed where all of the symbols turned into blurs.

The wheel continued to retain a lot of momentum. More than a minute passed by as it gradually lost more and more speed.

While Ves tried to employ a couple of means to see whether he could affect the spin in any way, the wheel stubbornly rebuffed every external influence.

The only significant force that could cause the wheel to slow its rotation was the force of friction.

Slowly but surely, the wheel started to slow down at a rate that allowed Ves to estimate the range of segments where its pointer might land.

Ves immediately ruled out any possibility that he would be able to win 85 of the possible prizes.

Of the remaining 15, most of them were fairly middling, but there were a few notable standouts.

One of them was the scroll with the lightning bolt. Ves did not know for certain, but he had a strong suspicion that it contained taboo knowledge of incredible value.

Another was a pill that could help him weather the storm while it remained effective. Even if it was only useful for a single time, it was worth it as long as its potency was high enough.

The third remarkable prize was a strange metal puppet that could take on the form of another individual. Perhaps it acted as a decoy that could fool a tribulation storm into striking the wrong target.

Each of these prizes had their own pros and cons. It would be ideal if the pointer stopped at any of their associated segments, but as the wheel slowed down, Ves began to frown.

The range of possible outcomes narrowed once more.

"Goodbye scroll. Goodbye puppet."

From the way the wheel had slowed to a crawl, neither of these two prizes were in reach anymore. The pointer would probably stop at one of five possible segments.

Ves did not have enough information to determine whether any of them were stronger or weaker than the others, but if he had to make a choice, then a pill that could give him a powerful boost for a time was not a bad outcome.

He needed power more than anything else during this sensitive period. The more he was able to advance his phase lord cultivation by siphoning the power of lightning strikes, the harder it became to assassinate him. This was quite important as he had never forgotten about the threat posed by the cosmopolitans.

The only pity was that a prize that could strengthen his own ability to resist lightning tribulation would not be able to assist the Dominion of Man directly.

The spinning almost came to an end.

There were only three possibilities now. The pill still remained a possibility, but only if the friction of the wheel was strong enough to stop its motion within the next three seconds.

"One. Two. Three. DAMNIT!"

The wheel's momentum turned out to be strong enough that it kept spinning despite his desire for it to stop!

Right now, the pointer stopped at a segment that depicted a pagoda of all things.

While it was hardly what he originally wanted, he could definitely see how it could be useful. As long as he was able to deploy it in the vicinity of the Dominion of Man, he would be able to siphon away a lot of tribulation lightning under more controllable conditions.

Yet as the wheel almost stopped ceased to spin, its remaining momentum continued to spin a bit further.

Ves grew more and more afraid as the damn prize wheel refused to give in to the power of friction!

His eyes widened in panic!

"NO NO NO! STOP SPINNING! DON'T ROTATE ANY FURTHER!"

Alas, his luck must be particularly terrible at this time, because the wheel carried just enough momentum to rotate a little bit more before it finally came to a stop.

Ves watched on in despair as a vortex opened up above the immobilized wheel.

The prize had been set!

A distinctly pink and girlish umbrella emerged from the vortex and twirled down to the surface with an elegant spin.

Illusions of cherry blossom petals spun from the wood-and-

cloth umbrella, making the entire scene seem magical and worthy of celebration.

If Ves happened to be a woman, he would have felt a lot better if he managed to draw this particular prize.

Unfortunately, he was a man!

He would rather die than be caught dead holding this girlish umbrella!

It would have been better if he could pass on this artifact to Veronica, though she probably needed to develop a custom holster in order to hold the cherry wood handle.

This was not possible. The System was anchored to his main body, so only he was able to withdraw it from the System space!

Pink petals continued to rain down from the skies. They fell into the colorful fountain water, making the Wishing Fountain appear more dream-like than before.

The scent of flowers grew stronger as a distinctly pink cast of light radiated from the newly emerged artifact.

The umbrella stopped its descent from the moment it appeared within his reach.

At least the radiant lottery ticket had the decency to spit out a high-level artifact.

Although the umbrella did not appear to be as strong as the Oceancaller, it had only just come into form.

Ves did not spot any obvious runes, but he could definitely tell that it was a remarkable product in many ways.

From the wood that radiated the power of its associated element to the pink fabric that seemed to give Ves the impression that it was absurdly resilient, it was clear that the artifact, or at least the replica of one, was based on a quality design!

As much as Ves felt reluctant to accept this artifact, it would be the height of foolishness to reject a prize this powerful.

He reached out and touched the handle.

Warmth and other energies flowed into his hand. The high-

level artifact accepted his touch and pulsed with acceptance.

The Wishing Fountain slowly subsided at this time. The multi-

colored glow had faded and the prize wheel had broken down into plain old water.

The wooden umbrella also retracted its power now that it had greeted its new owner.

Different from the Oceancaller, the umbrella was considerably more expressive. It transmitted a lot of impressions that granted Ves a lot of information.

"So you are called the Flower Parasol, huh? That's… interesting."

The Flower Parasol briefly explained its purpose and what it could do. It was a defensive artifact that could withstand any sort of damage, not just tribulation lightning.

It was particularly good at absorbing and negating physical force. It would hardly do for the holder of the parasol to get bounced into a mountain after blocking a huge kinetic round.

Its protection mechanisms were primarily based on its fabric surface. It was highly effective at blocking attacks from the direction its main surface was pointed at. It also had the ability to repel attacks from other directions, but its energy barrier or whatever was a lot weaker at this current stage.

Its current defensive properties were quite formidable, and the good news was that it could grow stronger as long as it absorbed powerful exoplants for whatever reason.

The Flower Parasol did not reveal the identity of its maker or its previous owner. It did not explain its production process or its material composition.

Part of it was because it did not know these details.

Another part of it was because the Flower Parasol did not accept Ves as its true owner.

This was pretty logical.

Ves already carried a high-level artifact in the form of the Oceancaller. Powerful objects like these tended to have egos. He would have to expend a lot of effort to force multiple powerful artifacts to tolerate each other's presence.

However, this did not seem likely because there was an even stronger reason why the Flower Parasol felt reluctant to deepen its relationship with Ves.

He was a man.

The Flower Parasol made it very clear that it was explicitly designed to be held by a woman.

Ves was not a woman, therefore he was not an eligible owner.

The main reason why the Flower Parasol tolerated him was because he had won it from the Wishing Fountain. This gave him a bit of leeway.

It also helped that his domain was more to its liking. It was not uncomfortable for the Flower Parasol to remain in his presence.

"Can you shrink or expand in size?"

The umbrella whose surface was covered by embroidered flowers shook in his hand.

Ves grew disappointed. The Flower Parasol had only ever been designed to be held by human-sized women!

This was a big let down because there was no way this artifact was big enough to cover his entire true body.

That did not stop Ves from figuring out how he could make use of it, but he was not that eager to hang onto it after he was done with the Dominion of Man.

"Please bear with me for a time. Once I return to my family, I will think about gifting you to my wife or children. I am sure they will be more to your liking!"

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