"What the?"

Qin Li was stunned, the explosion was on par with the power of an attack by someone in the 4th layer of the xiantian realm.

"Was that some sort of trick?"

Hartley couldn't contain his disbelief and had to speak aloud what he was thinking, the concept of spell-weaving had left him stunned but what just happened had equally blown his mind.

Cackling came from the hunched-back figure drenched in dirt and pebbles.

"The formula! This is the formula, I'm definitely on the right path now, with a few tweaks I can readjust the polarities and use reflux distillation to convert it into a fractionating column... Six months! I need six months." Alrick muttered to himself with his index finger scratching his chin.

"Can you make more of that?"

Hartley asked with wide eyes as he pointed towards the pit in the ground.

Alrick's head snapped back to Hartley, annoyed that the young lord had disrupted his calculations.

"Pffff, that's only the waste product. nothing special, my formula will change the world as we know it."

Alrick said this with a proud smile and euphoria in his eyes as if he was high on some sort of drug.

Hartley took a deep breath and calmed himself. He didn't care what the mad scientist was trying to make but if he could supply that stuff that he called "waste product" in good quantity, then he would have no qualms about investing some more gold coins in this deranged man immediately.

Qin Li's eyes were shining like stars in they sky as he too realized what this so called "waste product" produced by the madman potentially meant for the future of the Western Hills

"if you can make more of that then we will build you an independent lab and supply all the raw materials you need for your experiments." Hartley said to Alrick hoping the man would be lucid enough to understand.

Alrick's eyes brightened in excitement, he executed another one of his extravagant bows.

"Of course, of course young lord, it is my pleasure to serve the western hills" he said as he cackled out again like a hyena pleased with himself and started to gesticulate and mumble again. It seems that man could be lucid when he wanted to be Hartley couldn't help thinking.

Alrick had been bounced from pillow to post since he had entered this old decrepit state, he used to be a young alchemy genius, revered by many as his name rung bells in the circles of the city's top potion makers.

He had served countless noble houses who were willing to pay hefty sums to secure his services, providing them with all types of high quality dans. These medicines could change the face of a noble house, helping lucky people to rise higher in the xiantian realm or saving fatally wounded soldiers on the verge of death.

Ever since he had latched on to this new concept of his, he had become obsessed with it to the point of it driving him half mad. Leading to him squandering all the riches he had gained on his infinite experiments.

He had spent his years in solitude hunched over his table conducting experiment after experiment until his back was permanently bent, all in search of his illusive ultimate formula.

Obviously noble houses would not tolerate spending gold coins on a man that was creeping towards the edge of insanity, let alone having him squander infinite resources to find a phantom formula that he couldn't even explain.

Over the years he had gained a reputation of being a crazy apothecary who sponged up gold coins without conscience, leaving his noble backers with nothing to show in return, this made him like a leper in the eyes of the nobles, backing this man was almost like traveling to the river's edge and dumping everything of value you had into the river.

After being shunned by the people who could provide the resources for his experiments he had faded away from the memories of most, destined to be forgotten as another person he couldn't fulfill his potential.

With that Alrick resorted to making the odd medicinal dan to earn a few gold coins, which would disappear promptly into one of his experiments.

That's how he had met viscount Sanzu, selling the man some medicinal dans every month. Viscount Sanzu would be kicking himself right now if he knew that this expendable pawn given to the western hills as a peace offering in order to foster a better relationship with Hartley had just created a weapon of mass destruction.

Hartley could not believe his luck, looking at the dirty deranged hunched-back man was now like looking at a free pie falling from the sky. He would have been happy if the man could produce a few rank 1 medicinal dans per month that they could stockpile, but what the man had inadvertently created was way more valuable.

This was a weapon, if he could figured out to utilize it properly, could change the battlefield maybe even the whole continent. He had to keep the man in the Western Hills and guard this precious secret.

In the following days Hartley had the stone builders rush to construct a spacious two story building away from the manor in a remote part of the east forest, the premises was walled off and only a few select trusted people from the serving staff would be allowed to work there.

A few days later Hartley sat on the second floor of the manor in his office going through the list of equipment and materials that Alrick had requested for his lab, he exhaled sharply reflexively, no one in their right mind would seriously give this sort of funding to a madman but Hartley had already acquired something of value so he could take this gamble without losing out too much even if Alrick didn't produce anything else of value.

Zhi Ruo who had taken over the finances of House Hartley smiled, her eyes radiant as she came over and sat across the desk from Hartley.

She stretched out her hand and took the list from Hartley, as she read through it her eyebrows shot up.

"Why does that lout need all this?"she asked puzzled and a bit unwilling.

Hartley grinned and came to the other side of the desk hugging her from behind in her seated position.

"This lout has already made a significant contribution to us and besides we've got the white iron coming from the young prince soon, it'll balance out," he said as he planted a tender kiss on her jaw.

" I've assigned someone to shadow him and take notes for safety reasons and to gain knowledge of anything else he manages to produce."

Hartley added as he intimately held his wife in a close embrace.

Zhi Ruo snorted but made no further objections.

"How are Shao Law and his friend doing?" Hartley asked

"They are settling in, I've put them in a group with Fu Jianu, they are currently training and meditating on the top floor." Zhi Ruo answered.

Shao Law was the skinny youth from the rykers guild, he had returned with his friend a few days ago, Zhi Ruo had placed them in a group with Fu Qian's daughter Fu Jianu.

Zhi Ruo had taken over the training of the two kids from the rykers guild and Fu Jianu, The boys looked at her with a constant worship etched on their faces as if in reverence to a hidden goddess and eventually so did Fu Jianu.

Zhi Ruo was teaching more on her experience rather than any complicated technical knowledge but it was enough for now because soon they would be supplied with the cultivation technique acquired from the prince and a few martial scriptures to practice then it would be up to their own luck.

Since getting married Harltey had taken a break from cultivating and was lounging around the manor with Zhi Ruo in bliss, in all this time Qin Li has never taken a single day off and was now at the thing line between sub-realms quickly approaching the 5th layer of the xiantian realm. Qin Li's hard work and work ethic impressed Hartley to no end.

It was time for Hartley to get back to enhancing his strength again.

On a beautiful spring morning Hartley flashed away from the manor and headed deep into the back mountains. On that faithful morning the men training in mountains suddenly felt tremors ricocheting through the earth's surface, the floor underfoot swayed like an earthquake... Hartley was having even more luck.