117 Luck (1/2)

”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.