After returning home, the first thing Sage did was to store all the materials from the Hidden Domain inside the Universe Ring. The strange soil, unknown watery liquid, crystal plants, bushes and grasses, as well as the ‘lumber’, acid, and lastly that huge brown crystal. He linked with a Centipede and used it for its original purpose, construction. Altering some of the landscape he dug out a sort of small valley, piling up the excavated dirt as a hill. He also used a Warp Worm for some of the excavation before finally creating a secluded area for an experiment. He’d already set up various areas in the Universe Ring that were different ecosystems for his many insects, so he wasn’t new to things. Each area had a weak array that acted as a fence that deterred creatures from crossing it. In addition, it had an array to create the proper weather conditions.

Unfortunately, Sage couldn’t exactly reproduce the conditions of the Hidden Domain. Instead, he incorporated the idea from his Formation Machine into the formation he laid around the area. He couldn’t use perfectly interlocking Formation Plates, they wouldn’t last very long, so instead he just created a huge formation array that could cover many many variables. He didn’t know the conditions so this huge array could be set to many different configurations and allow him to adjust it as he liked. He was pretty sure the basic materials would be fine here, but he wanted to try and find the proper conditions that could allow them to reproduce.

To this end, he set up the materials from the Hidden Domain. Creating a pool of the special water, with the same materials on the bottom and edges of the pool. He did the same with the acid and the soil and stones. Essentially he tried to recreate the same ecosystem as was inside the Hidden Domain. He kept most of the flora in stasis, but he planted about 10% of them to try and get them to grow. Lastly, he released half of the Crystal Spiders he’d captured from the Hidden Domain. There wasn’t enough time when he was in the Hidden Domain to completely study the ecosystem so all he could do was try things out and see if it worked.

With his reproduction of the Hidden Domain in place, he moved his focus onto the main research topics. Sage had two main focuses for his research this time around. Firstly, array symbols and array formations. Secondly, new devices that took advantage of that knowledge. There was a lot he could do with the help of the Holy Flame Sect’s library, the library from the Timeless Master, the two books he got from the Cult of the Woodlord, and lastly the ancient array symbols. As for new devices, the lack of mechanical devices and complex mechanisms was very apparent in this world.

If I can figure out a few types of motors or large scale precision manufacturing, it’ll change the world.

Of course, he wasn’t just going to perform research. He had tons of contribution points now to use on his own personal training. There were also many techniques he could now purchase from the Sect, as well as the ones he’d personally collected. Lastly, he wasn’t going to fall behind with his insect breeding. He even took the time to bring half of the bugs from his Insect Shed into the Universe Ring while also repopulating the Insect Shed with bugs from the Universe Ring.

Six months later.

Boom!

A huge cloud of black smoke rose into the air, the product of that loud exploding sound. The smoke was rising from the back yard of Sage’s house. Normally, he performed his research within the Universe Ring, but today he was doing a demonstration. The ‘audience’ for this demonstration was completely covered in black soot. That lone spectator started yelling and berating another soot person, this one standing next to a large and mangled piece of metal that was the source of the mess.

It was at this point that there was a noise from the house and a teenage girl pulled open the door to the backyard and led four people into the yard. Two of them were walking in the front and they wore the extremely elaborate and heavily enchanted robes that denoted them as Peak Masters. Peak Master Zhen broke into a loud laugh when she saw the appearance of the two people that were in the back yard. Both of them completely covered in black soot, but their antics had caused their goggles to fall off leaving the two looking like a pair of raccoons.

A feminine voice came from the aggressive spectator, the soot covered person performed a very deep bow, “Forgive us for not greeting you earlier, Peak Master Zhen and Peak Master Lupeng.”

The other Peak Master was a tall and wiry man with large vein covered forearms and only a light feathering of white hair. His piercing black eyes had flecks of green in the iris, Peak Master Lupeng snorted loudly at the sight in front of him. It was hard to tell whether he was amused or irritated. On the other hand, Peak Master Zhen was barely able to hold in more laughter. She looked back at the two young folks following them in and then indicated the two soot covered people.

“That is Wan Ling, an exquisite business mind, and an even more exquisite beauty. That other one is Lang Sheng, lacking in talent and luck, but filled with knowledge. One of our most promising young business managers and our most decorated Outer Disciple.”

Then she addressed the two soot people and pointed to the young folks following them, “This is my Personal Disciple Jin Shih, historian, scholar, and one of the top talisman masters in the Sect. This lovely lady here is Cui Shufen, the Personal Disciple of Peak Master Lupeng, and one of our most accomplished Astrologers.”

Peak Master Lupeng coughed and glared over at Peak Master Zhen. She laughed and pointed to the wiry man, “This is of course Peak Master Lupeng. He’s in charge of security for the Sect.”

The two soot people, Sage and Wan Ling, started a round of bowing. Bowing to each of the four people multiple times. Both in greeting and also in time with the many apologies that followed right after.

“Please forgive us. I was testing a new device I’m working on and as you can see something went wrong.”

Wan Ling quickly started signalling the teenage girl who had led the guests in. Making a gesture at the girl to try and tell her something. Unfortunately, the girl was pretty new and she had no idea what Wan Ling was signaling. Wan Ling was currently too flustered by having two Peak Master’s seeing her in such a terrible state. She was a person that could usually keep her calm even under the most stressful situations, but the combination of factors got to her. She just kept making gestures to the teenage girl.

Peak Master Zhen’s eyes were sparkling with amusement as she joined in, starting to make gestures at the girl. Peak Master Lupeng snorted again, while the two Personal Disciples did not seem amused. Jin Shih seemed annoyed, like a stern parent waiting for their child to stop fooling around. Cui Shufen on the other hand was just staring intently at the man covered in soot.

Wan Ling finally couldn’t help it, going directly from hand gestures to yelling, “Fetch the tea set!”

She suddenly seemed so embarrassed that Sage could swear he could see the red on her cheeks through the soot. Peak Master Zhen was laughing madly.