Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
After joking, the Lord of Storm said to Lucien seriously, “Hathaway and I have made some achievement in removing the impurities from the elements and we’ve found some elements of similar properties like twins, triplets, and even quadruplets. The biggest difference between them is their atomic weights, which resulted in the inaccurate measurement of atomic weight data. After removing the impurities, the weights of the elements have perfectly matched the data provided in the periodic table of elements. Now both of us no longer doubt the accuracy and validity of the table.”
Lucien wondered why all of a sudden Fernando wanted to talk to him about the isotopes. The smile on his face was a bit confused, “So it seems that my previous proposal worked, right?”
Since Lucien put forward his assumption that energy was in fact delivered in portions and thus solved the problem in the experiment of thermal radiation, Lucien had been very busy with his work in his Atom Institution. Therefore, Fernando had changed his way of teaching. Instead of asking Lucien to read the letters for him, he gave Lucien some tasks every week, say, reading the books in different arcana fields, or analyzing a fifth circle spell, and then he would solve the problems that Lucien encountered in the process.
As for Fernando’s progress in his own project, he only shared it with his students on their monthly regular meeting, thus it was Lucien’s first time knowing that Hathaway and Fernando had made such great progress in separating isotopes.
“No, it almost led us to the wrong path,” said Fernando a bit unhappily. “Hathaway suggested that we put the similar elements—we temporarily call them equivalent elements—into the same position on the periodic table of elements for now. The finding has made us completely abandon the belief that atoms are not further divisible, or there would be no explanation for the existences of the equivalent elements. We were planning on publishing our paper on the next month’s Arcana to make most of the arcanists to be mentally prepared for the theory shift. However, now you’ve found the new particle that is way smaller than an atom by messing around. So now no one can deny the fact anymore.”
Fernando still did not give any high comment on Lucien’s finding, instead, the words he used were “messing around”. However, Fernando looked very serious. “Your finding is going to be a huge shock to a lot of arcanists, especially those who study elements. So right now you shouldn’t submit this paper. We shall seal it for now temporarily. Hathaway and I will find some open-minded arcanists first to gradually spread out your idea, so they can have some buffering time.”
This paper was different. What was in the paper was not just an assumption, but a final conclusion with solid evidence support.
“No problem.” Lucien nodded.
After Lucien left Fernando’s study, the Lord of Storm walked back and forth with his hands behind his back, wondering what he should do. The senior-rank arcanists who he was looking for must have already noticed the problem with the old theory and thus be ready to accept the new one. Ideally, they should be from the Will of Elements. The Lord of Storm should be very careful not to let the Hand of Paleness and Moonsong League know this, or it would be their great chance to weaken the Will of Elements.
Among the six major organizations in the Congress, the most powerful ones were the Will of Elements, the Hand of Paleness, and the Cabin of Palmeira, and each of them had a grand arcanist and a legendary archmage behind as their support: Yaroran Hathaway Hoffenberg, the Lord of Elements and Davy, the Creator, behind the Will of Elements; Vicente Miranda, the Thanatos, and Congus, the Demigod-lich, behind the Hand of Paleness; Hellen Price, the Witch of Iceland, and Hull-Chulia, the Lord of Gas, behind the Cabin of Palmeira.
As for Moonsong League, it was Chelsea Holt, the Moon Scholar, the legendary archmage, standing behind it. Chelsea was very close to Brook, the Emperor of Control. And as for Family of Sorcerer, the two legendary archmages, the Eye of Curse and the Master of Transformation built it up from the very beginning.
The Prophet, who led Tower, was a scholar dedicated to his researches and was the closest to the Congress.
The rest of the grand arcanists and legendary archmages were all on the same side with the Congress.
After a while, Fernando became more impatient. Lucien, his student, was causing him troubles all the time, and his ability to cause troubles had almost surpassed his ability to study arcana and magic!
Lucien definitely brought the Lord of Storm a good headache.
…
A few days later.
When Lazar, Rock, and the apprentices were being very passionate conducting the experiments, they somehow got a day off from Lucien. However, they believed that they did not really need it, except Jerome.
Jerome was married, so he finally could spend some time with his wife, which made the two bachelors, Lazar and Rock, feel quite envious.
While in the institution, the powerful and influential arcanists and archmages all gathered here.
There was Mr. Douglas, the president of the Congress, Hathaway, the Lord of Elements, Mr. Fernando, and also Mr. Oliver, the Hand of Annihilation. This was Lucien’s first time meeting Oliver. He looked rather elegant and well-mannered, although he was already close to forty.
Except for the Emperor of Control and Thanatos who did not get the invitation, and Hellen, who just left Allyn a few days ago, all the grand arcanists were here.
There were also a few legendary archmages here. Kloss, who always had the cunning smile on the face and was always carrying a blond little girl puppet around, was also the inventor of the magic steam train. The Eye of Curse, Atlant, whose eyes never opened, was also here but he did not say a single word so far. There were four legendary archmages present in total.
There were more than forty senior-rank arcanists here, including Morris, Raventi, Gaston, LockLynn, and other arcanists who had already doubted the theory of atom. Some senior-rank mages and archmages famous in other fields of magic also attended the meeting.
The meeting room of the institution was completely filled. Lucien could not help thinking to himself that if something terrible happened to the meeting room, that would basically mean the end of the Congress.
“Lucien Evans, so this time your experiment was going to show us the discontinuity of the form of energy?” When Lucien was about to enter the lab behind the mirror, a tall and thin elder man of a quite good manner asked him in a slightly bit aggressive way.
Lucien just heard Fernando mentioning that this elder man was an archmage, Lauren, the major supporter of Energy Essentialism, the winner of Silver Moon Medal and Ice & Snow Medal, the member of Arcana Review Board, and he specialized in the School of Electromagnetics, Light-darkness, Thermodynamics, and Force Field.
Some other senior-rank mages also looked at this direction. It was also their question to Lucien.
“I’ve found a new particle,” answered Lucien briefly.
“Inside of an atom?” asked Gaston a bit emotionally, although he had been suggested in advance by Hathaway and Fernando and thus he was more mentally prepared.
“We’ll see.” Raventi watched Lucien stepping into the lab.
Morris looked rather serious, “I have the feeling that something not good is going to happen.”
The experiment was not challenging, and once the vacuum environment was created, Lucien adjusted the electric and magnetic field. Then the arcanists started to calculate using the data.
Soon, Raventi growled, “The weight is… two thousand times smaller than that of a hydrogen atom!”
Even the heavy elements at the back of the periodic table had a way bigger atomic weight than that of a hydrogen atom. Therefore, it could be preliminarily determined that the particle was not an atom, but a smaller particle, unless there were a thousand more undiscovered elements in front of hydrogen on the periodic table.
Except for Raventi, the rest of the sorcerers were all a bit absent-minded. Although they had doubted the atom theory, and that was the reason why they were selected to attend the meeting, they still felt lost, as if something beautiful in their memory was broken.
Lauren watched the entire experience and said aloud, “A great experiment!”
Lucien was surprised. He never expected that Lauren, who was just being so aggressive to him, would congratulate him like this.
“It is a radical repudiation of atom theory. It has confirmed that energy constitutes everything and that atom doesn’t even exist!” Lauren’s eyes looked a bit crazy.
The biggest enemy of Energy Essentialism was the theory of atom!
Ignoring how Raventi and the rest of the arcanists stared at himself, Lauren said to Lucien excitedly, “Congratulations, Evans. You’ve brought people a step further toward the truth of the world!”
Before Raventi started his roaring, Lucien said seriously, “On the contrary, I think the discovery of the even smaller particles further shows the physicality of atoms. Inside an atom, there is probably a unique structure…”
When Lucien was about to further explain his belief, Douglas raised his hand and stopped their argumentation.
Looking around in the meeting room, Douglas was gratified to see that all the selected arcanists had lived to their expectation and had basically accepted the existence of the new particle, thus he said a bit emotionally, “We’ve witnessed this great experiment – an experiment that leads us to the real micro-world and a brand new research field! Although the more specific measurement of the particle’s electric charge and its relationship with an atom requires more studies, Atom Institution’s and Lucien’s great contribution to this is enormous. The whole arcana world has marched forward in a big step because of it!”
…
“To handle this kind of subversive research outcomes, I think it’s good to inform some arcanists and sorcerers first just like what we are doing right now. We can use this as a regular method in the future,” said Douglas.
As the subversive findings emerged one by one in the past very short period of time, Douglas had made up his mind that a coping mechanism must be built up.
Oliver agreed but he soon came up with a question, “So who should be the one judging what is subversive and what is not?”
As soon as Oliver put forward the question, most arcanists turned around to look at Lucien.
Lucien had some sense of foreboding.
