Chapter 177 - 118: Eternal Night Cold Tide and Cyan Jade Gourd

Chapter 177: Chapter 118: Eternal Night Cold Tide and Cyan Jade Gourd

Chen Shang could not create the Gourd Little Vajra, but Qiwa’s Runes were not too difficult. The workload for just one gourd was even smaller, and he happened to have a Space-attribute Alchemy Device to test it out on.

He figured he could start by making a crude version to store Witchcraft.

He slowly disassembled the Rune structure of Seven’s Purple Gourd into three layers.

The innermost layer consisted of Space Storage Runes arranged in a three-dimensional sphere, used to store the Witchcraft model. The middle layer was made of Power of Imprisonment Runes, which wrapped around the outer surface of the Space sphere to prevent its contents from leaking.

The outermost layer was a fusion of the Source of Sealing and the Gourd Spirit Rhythm, responsible for maintaining stability and shape.

Chen Shang took the Void Silk Crystal out of his Space Book. Using his Eye of Truth, he analyzed the weaving pattern of the silver-white threads inside the crystal.

It was a hexagonal net structure, where every node was a stable Space Anchor Point. He did not need to weave the Space Storage Runes from scratch; he only needed to extract the threads from the crystal and reweave them according to the Rune structure of Seven’s Purple Gourd.

He spent the time of over a dozen Hourglasses using his Spiritual Power to extract one hundred and twenty silver-white threads from the crystal.

Each thread was less than a centimeter long, but their toughness was extraordinary—they would not snap even when stretched to hundreds of times their original length. He used these threads to replace Spiritual Power Lines and began weaving the Purple Gourd.

He started with the inner Space sphere. The one hundred and twenty threads hovered above the Recording Platform, slowly entwining and taking shape according to the arrangement of Qiwa’s Runes.

Both ends of every thread had to be secured to the nodes using Spiritual Power, and the angles between the nodes were calculated down to the exact degree.

For the first node, he anchored eight threads at forty-five-degree angles. For the second node, he anchored twelve threads at thirty-degree angles. For the third node...

The prototype of the gourd slowly took shape above the Recording Platform.

Finally, a mass that looked like solidified moonlight hovered in the air. Its surface was covered in dense hexagonal patterns, while its interior was hollow.

Chen Shang stuffed the entire Eternal Night Cold Tide Witchcraft into it.

He did not store a Witchcraft Rune; he stored the actual Witchcraft.

Recording a Witchcraft Rune was like setting up a Magic Staff—it only required an injection of Magic Power to activate and could be reused. However, storing the actual Witchcraft meant it would be gone once used, making it a one-time consumable.

It was not that Chen Shang did not want to do the former; rather, it required a vast amount of Alchemy knowledge that he simply did not possess.

He carved an Activation Rune at the bottom of the gourd. It only required a sliver of Spiritual Power to open the Space within the gourd and unleash the Blizzard inside.

Although it was a one-time use item, it did not require the Eight Winds input sequence, nor did it demand on-the-spot calculations for the wind tunnels’ contraction ratios. That alone counted as a massive advantage.

Chen Shang grasped the gourd in his hand. It was only the size of a palm, entirely cyan-white, with a surface as warm and smooth as jade. Through its hazy exterior, he could faintly see a slowly rotating Blizzard cluster at its core.

He went to the Witchcraft testing grounds to try it out. He extended his Spiritual Power into the Activation Rune at the bottom and gave it a gentle nudge.

The mouth of the gourd lit up, and a streak of pale Blue light shot out, exploding in the air and transforming into a cloud of ice mist hundreds of meters in diameter.

The ice mist did not drift aimlessly; instead, it rotated along the trajectory of an octagram, with every Ice Crystal moving on a fixed path.

He stored the gourd back in his Space Book and sent a message to Alicia: "It’s done. Come and test it."

...

Alicia arrived quickly. By the time she got there, Chen Shang was toying with the palm-sized, cyan-white gourd.

"When you said it was done, you meant this?" Her gaze fell on the gourd in Chen Shang’s palm as she walked over to inspect it closely.

Chen Shang handed the gourd to her. Alicia took it, turned it over a few times in her hands, and then extended her Spiritual Power into the Activation Rune at the bottom.

As the Eternal Night Cold Tide was unleashed, her expression shifted from calm to grave, and then to complex. She placed the gourd back on the table and fell silent for a moment.

"Void Silk! A Space Storage structure? A Power of Imprisonment seal. You stuffed the entire finished Witchcraft of the Eternal Night Cold Tide... into this gourd."

She looked up at Chen Shang, a trace of helplessness in her eyes. "You’re the only one who can make this. Are you planning to rip me off again?"

Chen Shang shook his head. "As long as you provide the Materials, I can make one for you."

Alicia did not answer immediately. Instead, she sat down in a chair.

She knew this had already exceeded the scope of their collaboration on the Blizzard Project. The Blizzard Project was supposed to be a joint Witchcraft development where they shared the results, meaning neither owed the other anything.

But this gourd was different. Chen Shang had created it all by himself. Even if she provided the Materials, there would still be a labor fee.

"What are your terms?" she asked straightforwardly.

Chen Shang leaned back in his chair. "I might go explore an Earth Attribute Plane soon. I’m looking for a few reliable companions."

"You have that much free time? It’s not long until the second quiz... And aren’t you practicing Repulsive and Attractive Dual Force anymore?

"Although your Force Touch Perception is complete, you’re still a long way off from Dual Force Anchoring and Power Level Control. Aren’t you afraid that exploring a Plane now will delay your progress?"

Chen Shang smiled but did not explain. He could accelerate his progress with the Repulsive and Attractive Dual Force by collecting entries, but he needed an Earth Attribute Origin Entry to lay the foundation before he could continue building the Wind Spring on top of it.

Without an Earth Spring, the Wind Spring could not be built, and without the Wind Spring, his Three Elements Mutual Multiplication would remain stuck.

Alicia gave him a look but did not press further, nodding in agreement.

"Let me make one thing clear first, though. This gourd won’t solve the root of the problem," she said, tapping the surface of the gourd with her fingertip.

"It’s a consumable. Once the Witchcraft inside is released, it’s gone. You can’t just pull out a new gourd for every battle... In the end, it still comes down to your own Manipulation Power."