Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The silver lines lit up one by one and outlined the space-time gate. Lucien walked into the gate in one stride.
A dazzling light burst out, and Lucien’s figure gradually disappeared. After the light was gone, Natasha could only see the empty magic circle and the pale space-time gate.
……
“The transmission to the cosmic observatory is ready. Please make sure you have finished the potion in your hand,” said Layria to the four students, Ali, Anderson, Jane, and Philomena.
Ali took a glance at the light blue tube in his hand and could still feel the spicy taste. However, after taking the potion, he did feel a strange feeling, as if his soul, brain, and his body had been put into a magic freezer.
Earlier, when signing up to be the volunteers, he saw Jane stepping out first, so he hurriedly followed. Luckily, he was the fourth.
He looked to the side and into Jane’s eyes. He saw that Jane’s black eyes, which were always quiet and peaceful, were now shining with excitement and exhilaration. The light in her eyes came from the most sincere passion that a human being had toward the mysterious and boundless universe.
One would never be able to realize how small and insignificant an individual was until one saw the starry expanse.
Looking around and seeing the look on the students’ faces, Layria smiled. The Congress was obviously very generous to these students. The magic potion called Strong Chirga that was given to each student was very expensive, and it was used to help with nausea. Most sorcerers who entered the cosmos would endure this themselves.
Chirga was a fruit of Holm, but its annual yield was very low. Chirga could be used as the main material for some senior-rank magic potions.
But Layria knew that there was a reason behind the Congress’ generosity. When the students saw the cosmos, they would understand that the so-called God of Truth on the small planet, which strived to gather more followers and resources, was in fact not that almighty at all.
Then the students would go back to their schools and promote the idea among more students. The Congress would then introduce more projects, including cosmos museums, experience centers, and more radio programs, to widen people’s horizons as much as possible.
“Attention. The transmission has been activated,” said Layria.
Ali suddenly became very nervous. Before this space jump, he never even tried flying!
But his heart was also full of expectation and excitement.
The dazzling light streaks blurred Ali’s eyes.
……
Tower.
“There are positive electrons… It’s true…” said Rachel to Samantha. In her hand, there was the latest issue of Arcana. Rubbing her forehead, she felt both excited and frustrated.
“We can’t see it before we do the experiment on our own,” said Samantha with a meaningful look on her face.
Although she said so, she did believe that Lucien had found positive electrons. The Lucien equation had gained great significance in the field of microscopic domain study, and its validity had been proven many times. Lucien was also well-known for his rigorous attitude, and he had never published a paper unless he was a hundred percent certain. Perhaps this was the power of authority.
“The world is so wonderful! In the past thousands of years, not a single intelligent creature has ever realized the existence of antimatter. But now, arcana will lead us to the truth of the world.” Rachel’s eyes were shining with excitement. No arcanist could resist the charm of arcana.
Although most arcanists started their studies for power, for money, for treasures, or for material enjoyment, and they could easily forget their most sincere passion because of the tedious, repetitive experiments and wealth, but every time when there was a major finding, they could still recall the passion and pure joy from exploring the truth of the world.
Samantha nodded. “Actually, according to symmetry, the existence of antiparticles shouldn’t be something too surprising. When there are particles, there must be their antiparticles. Mr. Evans has also abandoned the most doubtful concept of negative energy and chosen to replace it with the pair production of particles and annihilation.”
“I wonder how those supporters of the model of the ocean in the vacuum are feeling right now. The grand arcanist who was supposed to be the one most likely to support it has given it up,” said Rachel. Although the model thrilled every sorcerer, as it provided a possible insight into the nature of magic, many leading arcanists found it unreliable because of the experiments on some particles with integer spins.
Samantha finally smiled. “No matter what, the falsifiability of the model hasn’t been proved yet, nor has the validity of Mr. Evans’ model.”
Then the smile on her face disappeared, and she murmured a bit confusedly, “Does the uncertainty principle apply to how matters come into being…?”
Then what about determinism? Should it be dumped?
“At the end of the paper, Mr. Evans discussed a possible experiment for verifying the uncertainty principle…” said Rachel in low voice. “According to the principle of field theory, there are tiny electromagnetic pulses in a vacuum space…”
Staring at the paper on the desk, Samantha remained silent. Lucien’s fame and past glory had proved that he was by no means a daydreamer. As he had specified the experiment in his paper, he must have been quite certain about it.
After the uncertainty principle was put forward, although many microscopic domain experiments had shown great conformity to it, no solid experiments could directly prove it yet, which provided arcanists in the school of astrology precious time to slowly adjust themselves to adopt the new concept safely.
“If Mr. Evans had come up with this idea two years earlier, only low-rank sorcerers would have survived,” said Rachel.
Samantha sighed. After the recent two to three years, the many setbacks she had gone through had forced her to start accepting the falling of determinism, and she believed that this was also true for other countless arcanists. The world showed no mercy to any individual and would never change itself because of an individual’s unacceptance.
She looked out of the window and the bright sunlight made her squint. She felt that she could see a bright but a bit sad future.
“Anyway, the discovery of antiparticles will be forever remembered by the history of arcana. We’ve stepped out of the world that had been trapping us. Now we’re even closer to the truth.”
“Maybe nothing bigger than this will show up for a very, very long time,” said Rachel, who also turned to look at the blue sky outside. “After the past ten years of rapid development, it seems that arcana has hit the plateau. The next groundbreaking finding has to keep brewing for a long time.”
……
Traveling through the layers of space and time, Lucien saw the countless shadowy and overlapping sections in front of him, just like when he cast Regather.
……
When the dazzling light retreated, Ali felt very uncomfortable, but the refreshing feeling brought by the potion gave him the energy to look around eagerly.
Ali did not take a glance at the mysterious magic circles or the cold alchemy facilities, and he did not even greet the arcanists on-site. Instead, he directly looked out of the window.
The incredible darkness and endless deep space had instantly struck Ali’s mind.
Against the darkness, the white light spots were pure. They were not shining, but just hanging there quietly, as if nothing in the past millions of years ever changed them.
He turned to look down, and there were the same boundless darkness and pure stars. The students were deeply shocked by the loneliness and the realization of their own insignificance.
Was this cosmos?
Nothing mattered when compared to it…
Layria walked to her friends and handed them the journal, “Our teacher has found positive electrons! From cosmic rays!”
“That’s awesome!” Annick said very cheerfully.
Katrina also had a big smile on her face. “There will be more observatories in the future as more people will want to use them!”
“Heidi, you don’t want to take a look at it?” Layria asked.
Heidi muttered, “The experiment is in the key stage… I believe that Mr. Evans has actually founded positive electrons a long time ago, or he wouldn’t all of a sudden want to set up a cosmic observatory… Ahh!”
However, her muttering was cut off by her shout.
The rest of them turned around and asked in surprise, “What is it?”
“A new track… different from that of an electron or a proton…” Heidi muttered in a low voice while calculating fast in her mind.
Then she sprang up from her seat and exclaimed, “Its mass is more than two hundred times heavier than that of an electron! It’s a new particle! Very likely to be the one predicted by Her Excellency Hathaway!”
“What? A new particle?!” They were all very surprised.
Ali looked at them with confusion. He saw the boundless cosmic, the pure stars, and Heidi, whose hands were still on the alchemy device.
New particle?
Why wasn’t it mentioned in the textbooks?
Did he just witness a historic moment?
……
Lucien could see better now. But then the blinding glare came at him.
Even though Lucien had cast the special spell to protect his eyes, he still could not help squinting. A huge fireball was burning in the air. Although Lucien had the protection from Space Staff and he was still far away from the fireball, the incredible and extremely high temperature was still formidable.
The fireball looked a bit blurry and distant.
Lucien closed his eyes and gently sighed.
“Sun…”
The space and time around him suddenly started to change, and it began to project a starry sky.
