The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5845 The Time to Strike

Ves did not know what was going to happen after he commenced the ritual, but he could look back at his past experiences to get a few ideas.

One of the conclusions he drew was that the attempted creation of the most powerful ancestral spirit, one that was anchored to one of the strongest warships of human civilization, would produce an immense reaction.

Just like the time where he infused life in the concept of the Superior Mother, the birth of the personification of human supremacy was an act that went against the natural order.

Ves still couldn't figure out what sort of criteria the heavenly authorities used to decide when to rain down lightning bolts, but he had triggered it enough times to estimate whether he was at risk of crossing the line.

Combined with the teachings of his mother and the esoteric theories espoused by cultivation repositories, Ves knew without a shadow of a doubt that his current preoccupation would trigger a reaction the likes which most people had never seen.

The only question was whether the scope of his current goal was enough to trigger the legendary 9 round multi-modal lightning tribulation.

Ves tried his best to avoid that truly awful outcome. The Dominion of Man might be a lot more powerful than the Elemental Lord, but she was never designed to withstand such might!

This was why he consciously tried to limit the scope whenever possible. There was only so much he could do to mitigate the possible harm, but he hoped by avoiding something as insane as trying to combine all five classical elements would reduce the negative reaction from the heavenly authorities.

He was pretty sure that three of them would get involved this time.

Even though red humanity had already diverged from original humanity, there was no doubt that the Dominion of Man was a magnificent hull that originally spawned the Milky Way Galaxy.

A huge amount of top-quality materials originated from the most resource-rich regions of the galactic center. The humans of the Common Fleet Alliance had invested a disproportionate amount of effort into developing a ship that was originally built to rival a god mech.

Then there was the Spark Reactor. The living spark definitely possessed a strong relationship with the Fire Scroll, which was itself an artifact that represented the past and present majesty of the old galaxy.

No matter how many years the Dominion of Man roamed the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy, she could never erase her strong roots.

Ves could not determine how violently the heavenly authority of the old galaxy would react to his attempt to turn the Dominion of Man into a vessel of a new ancestral spirit.

If the Milky Way still had a lot of goodwill towards red humanity, then it probably should not be too damaging, but that was only relative.

If the attempted transformation of the Dominion of Man affronted it in any way, then that would be really bad.

Ves also worried about the reaction from the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy. The Dominion of Man had incorporated a huge amount of upgrades that were undeniably tied to the new frontier.

From incorporating who knew how many tons of phasewater to integrating massive quantities of hyper materials, the Dominion of Man had become tied to the dwarf galaxy that had become her present home.

If the Red Ocean treated the Dominion of Man in the same way it did Ves, then its threat should be the lowest. It might even provide help in secret.

However, if the Red Ocean had a strong obligation to defend its native alien species, then it would definitely regard the Dominion of Man as a threat!

The warship not only played a pivotal role in killing huge amounts of aliens, but would soon become the physical anchor of an upcoming ancestral spirit that embodied the very concept of human supremacy!

The birth of such an entity would definitely enflame humanity's tendency to fight the native aliens to the death. There would be much less room for peaceful coexistence due to the immense influence exerted by the new ancestral spirit.

This was why Ves did not think the heavenly authority of the Red Ocean would be as laid-back this time.

Then there was Messier 87. It went without question that the supermassive galaxy that still shone its powerful golden radiance over the entire galactic neighborhood still harbored massive enmity towards the residents of the Red Ocean.

The powerful and domineering heavenly authority of Messier 87 most definitely regarded all of the dwarf galaxies within its sphere of influence to fall under its tyrannical reign.

It was anything but permissible to enable the natives who lived in a place like the Red Ocean to increase their ability to resist its rightful authority.

The twin threats of creating a powerful new warship that had the potential to challenge the gods one day and the rise of a True God that derived endless sustenance from the entirety of red humanity both inhibited Messier 87's takeover.

If Ves wanted to avoid its wrath as much as possible, he should have reigned himself in and significantly reduced the scope of his plan.

The problem was that he refused to do so. Perhaps he became infected by the same hubris that afflicted him during his attempted creation of the Elemental Lord, but he simply could not stop himself from pursuing a number of ambitious goals.

He refused to back down any further than he had already done.

He did not know why this was the case.

Was it destiny or fate that drove him to such extremes?

Was there a tier 1 galactic citizen manipulating him behind the scenes?

Or was it simply his own character flaws that encouraged him to throw much of his caution to the wind?

Whatever the case, a part of him strongly felt that this was the only shot he had. The conditions that were currently present today would never be repeated in the future.

Perhaps he would no longer gain extensive access to the Dominion of Man anymore.

Perhaps his allies within the Red Fleet would lose the power to invite him to their dreadnoughts.

Perhaps the Dominion of Man was about to lose her Brain Trust or undergo a process of upgrades that ruined her compatibility with the specific transformation he had in mind.

Ves did not have enough facts on hand to determine whether this vague hunch had any merit, but he was inclined to believe it as his gut feelings rarely led him astray.

Since this was his only shot, he better make the most of it. His determination grew stronger in spite of the very real danger of attracting the wrath of three different heavenly authorities that all had their own reason to strike down this attempt to strengthen red humanity.

This was the main reason why he stood in front of the Wishing Fountain while a precious radiant lottery ticket began to burn up and infuse the water with chromatic power.

The Wishing Fountain started to shake. The waters that glowed with the colors of the rainbow become more agitated. The air around the site became more charged with energy.

Ves grew more concerned. He had made a rather presumptuous request. Every lottery ticket past a certain threshold granted him the privilege of narrowing the range of possible prizes, but he had pushed very far this time.

Would the Wishing Fountain accept his request?

The more time passed by, the more he grew reassured. The Wishing Fountain had yet to reject his plea.

WOOSH!

The multi-colored fountain water suddenly rose into the air and formed into a giant wheel!

The wheel started out as a simple round shape that constantly twisted in color, but slowly became more and more solid and defined.

By the time the water shaping came to an end, a solid metal wheel had formed!

Much of its structure was made out of a golden alloy, but its surface was split into a hundred different pie-shaped segments.

Ves immediately understood the mechanism of the prize draw.

"Really? This again?"

He had become accustomed to different forms of prize draws, each of which challenged him in different ways.

This was a lot different from the last times he made use of his radiant lottery tickets.

Though the rules were often challenging, they also granted him a measure of control over the process.

The System denied this opportunity to him this time.

This was because at the same time the fountain water formed a large prize wheel, the Wishing Fountain also presented a prominent red button.

It did not look like the prize draw mechanism granted him any significant measure of control this time.

No matter whether he brushed the button with his finger or slammed it down with his fist, there was no way to determine how hard the wheel would spin.

That was assuming that the force exerted onto the button had any effect on the wheel spinning process.

"Maybe this is the price for being so specific."

Ves decided to stop worrying over the apparent lack of control and focused his attention on the prizes that he could win.

While the pie-shaped segments were very narrow, the size of the wheel made the symbols depicted at the edges a lot more discernible.

Despite the lack of descriptions, Ves could already derive a lot of clues from the symbols.

For example, one of them displayed a round shield made out of bronze that shielded the warrior from the fury of the heavens.

Unfortunately, the depiction did not reveal whether the bronze shield was able to increase in size like his Oceancaller.

Another segment depicted a forbidden scroll marked with a lightning bolt that was locked in a dark vault. This was probably one of the most valuable prizes that Ves could obtain because it likely taught him a technique that could defend himself against the destructive power of the heavens.

Ves favored this option a lot more because it would presumably become more effective if he grew stronger and increased his comprehension of the technique!

In other words, this was a form of protection that was much more likely to remain relevant to him in the future. He also did not have to depend on external objects that might either get lost, damaged or simply lose relevance as he had outgrown their capabilities.

The final advantage of obtaining a cultivation technique that could help him resist lightning tribulations was that he could modify it or combine it with other cultivation principles.

"This is definitely one of the top prizes that I can get from this draw."

Ves would have tried to target it already if it wasn't for the fact that this prize draw relied completely on random chance this time. There was no point in getting his hopes up that he would roll a hundred-sided dice and just happen to land on the precise number associated with this lightning bolt scroll.

"The good news is that there are 5 other scrolls as well."

These scrolls differed in shape, symbols, background, efficacy and more. Each of them hinted that they contained highly valuable cultivation techniques, but they probably relied on different mechanisms to achieve similar goals.

"A 5 percent chance of winning a cultivation technique is better than 1 percent."

The remainder of the prizes varied considerably.

There was a lizard that bathed in lightning.

There was a palace made out of stone that could withstand a lot of tribulation power.

There was a cloak that made it harder for a tribulation storm to track the coordinates of their target.

There was even a depiction of a human that opened his mouth and swallowed a lighting bolt!

The wheel depicted a lot of different ways on how to mitigate the damage inflicted by tribulation lighting.

Each of them were useful in specific ways, but that did not mean they were suitable for Ves.

He would really hate it if he ended up winning the giant palace. It was too big and unwieldy, and he doubted that he could repair it once it had incurred damage!