Chapter 550: Sorrow and Joy

On the first day of the Month of Flowers, inside the Allyn branch of the Moonsong League…

Jurisian, in the attire of a battle sorcerer, with a six-star arcana badge, a five-circle magic badge and a badge of crescent moon on his chest, slowly walked into the hall.

“Good morning, Mr. Jurisian.” The few middle-rank arcanists who just got down from the stars greeted Jurisian respectfully the moment they saw him.

Since the Influence Factor was introduced, it was not rare for the arcana level to surpass the magic level, but the senior-rank arcanists were still rare. An insurmountable barrier that many people couldn’t cross in their lifetime seemed to lie between level five and level six. With his discovery of the splitting of spectral lines under strong magnetic field and his theoretical explanation four months ago, Jurisian proved the prophecy in the new alchemy and finally earned six silver stars. Had it not been for the fact that his cognitive world was still not substantiated yet, he would’ve advanced into the sixth circle and become a senior rank.

Jurisian had always been amiable when he was not on a mission. He replied in a smile, “Good morning, are you waiting for today’s ‘Arcana’, too?”

“Yes. Debates have remained unabated about Mr. Oliver’s transformation formulas recently. We can’t wait to see the latest explanation and application. Perhaps somebody has already proved it with experiments.” Bobby, the middle-rank arcanist in the lead, was a tall, muscular man, with narrow and long eyes.

Jurisian chuckled, “Me too, but I’m more worried that I might see Evans’ paper on that someday.”

Upon hearing that, the fairly large number of arcanists in the hall suddenly fell silent. The name had been haunting them like a nightmare. They could never trust Mr. Oliver’s paper as well as the papers of other arcanists too deeply until he offered his opinion on the transformation formulas. Waiting and being scared seemed to have become their habit.

After more than ten seconds, Bobby was back to himself, he was about to reply to Jurisian, when a few receptionists carried the journals including ‘Arcana’ and ‘Magic’ out and placed them on the counter. So, he dropped the subject and said, “Mr. Jurisian, the papers are here. After you.”

Seeing that Bobby was right before the counter, Jurisian shook his head and said jokingly, “Let’s respect the queue. You can check if there is Evans’ paper first so that the rest of us can be prepared.”

He intended to refuse Bobby’s generosity subtly and humorously, but after he spoke, all the arcanists who were squeezing forward to purchase the journals stopped.

Their eyes were focused on Bobby, as if they agreed with Jurisian’s proposition that he should check if there was Lucien Evans’ paper first, and what it was about if there indeed was.

Bobby did not think much at the beginning, but when so many people gazed at him, he immediately recalled the magnificent accomplishments of the Headcrusher. His forehead immediately beaded with sweat, but the arcanists behind him gave him so much pressure that he still picked up a copy of ‘Arcana’ after a long hesitation.

Realizing that his joke seemed to have been misinterpreted under the special circumstances, Jurisian stepped forward and planned to stop Bobby so that he could ‘examine’ it himself.

Suddenly, Bobby blurted out, “There is Mr. Evans’ paper!”

His voice was uncontrollably high, and it was obviously shaking. The whispers in the hall were entirely gone. The place seemed to have been frozen in time.

“What paper?” Asked Jurisian subconsciously.

Bobby breathed in relief. “It’s about the electrodynamics of moving bodies and the mass-energy equation. It sounds like research on the motion theories in electromagnetics and doesn’t appear to be disruptive.”

After he was reassured, he simply read the paper that was put on the first page of the journal on the counter in his curiosity. The other arcanists, cleverly, did not interrupt him but focused their eyes on his head. Jurisian, on the other hand, was deep in thought because of the ambiguous title.

After a while, Bobby’s facial muscles began to twist, and his sweat was dripping from his cheeks. Then, he raised his left hand and pressed his head, as if he were in agony. His eyes were chaotic and confused.

The hall was caught in a weird silence again. Murmuring something, Bobby turned around, only to discover that all the arcanists around him including Jurisian, regardless of their rank, had retreated to at least ten meters away from him. He was surrounded by emptiness, as if a devil had just taken a bite here.

“What are you doing?” Asked Bobby, puzzled.

All the arcanists eyed him weirdly. Jurisian coughed and said, “We saw that you were in pain and therefore gave you a peaceful environment for you to recover. What is this paper about?”

“Oh? You were afraid that my cognition would collapse and my brain would explode?” Bobby realized what happened and smiled, “How is it possible? Mr. Evans’ paper infers Mr. Oliver’s transformation formulas based on two hypotheses. There’s nothing disruptive.”

Upon hearing that, Jurisian and the rest of them took another three steps back. “What? It’s an explanation about the Oliver transformation?”

“Then why were you pressing your head so painfully?”

Bobby looked at his feet rather in embarrassment. “I could understand the formulas in it, but the descriptions about time, space, mass and energy were too bewildering for me. I couldn’t think them through and just knocked my head to see if I could get any inspiration.”

Hu. Everybody’s breath of relief almost gathered into a wind. So, the guy was only thinking hard because he could not understand it. Their worry was for naught.

Knowing that it was Evans’ explanation that they had ‘long expected’, the middle-rank arcanists of the Moonsong League were finally calmed down, but none of them dared to read it carefully.

After a while, thinking that nothing happened to Bobby, Jurisian summoned his courage and read Lucien’s paper by the counter.

As time went by, Jurisian became more and more grave. His muscles were tightened, and he was gritting his teeth. His shiny forehead was brimming with cold sweat, his eyes were filled with confusion and shock, and he kept murmuring space and time, mass and energy to himself.

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Also, what was most weird that uncanny changes seemed to be happening around him, as if the rays of light were brighter.

Bobby immediately understood their previous fear after seeing Jurisian’s status. He hurried to rush into the crowd, while the other arcanists clenched their fists and stared at Jurisian’s head in fear.

After a long time, Jurisian suddenly ‘screamed’, and the uptight arcanists immediately backed off in a flurry, and the hall was in a mess.

After they retreated further and were braced for a headless body, they discovered, however, that Jurisian was standing joyfully, utterly refreshed.

“Mr. Jurisian, are you alright?” Bobby emboldened himself to ask.

Jurisian laughed in wild joy. “While the paper is not exactly perfect, it is a major shock for me and has settled certain problems that bothered me. Therefore, my cognitive world half substantiated just now!”

With his spiritual power that was more than sufficient and his control over magic, it meant that he would become a sixth-circle sorcerer soon.

“Really? Congratulations on you becoming a senior-rank sorcerer in advance. But why did you scream, Mr. Jurisian? We thought that your brain was going to explode…” Said Bobby frankly.

Jurisian replied in a chuckle, “I was ecstatic, so I wanted you to share my joy.”

Witnessing that Jurisian broke the greatest obstacle to the senior rank, the middle-rank arcanists in the hall had no time to condemn his mischief but all surged to the counter to buy ‘Arcana’, hoping that a similar ‘miracle’ could happen to themselves, too.

After a long time, only a few of the dozens of middle-rank arcanists were deep in thought, as if they were both enlightened and confused. The rest of them were just like Bobby. They could understand the deductions, but they couldn’t grasp their specific meaning. They were all at a loss.

However, they all realized that the paper seemed to have overthrown President Douglas’ motion system. Their cognitive world that was founded on that was shaken as a result. Thankfully, Lucien arduously explained that the previous motion system was a low-speed approximation of the new theory in the latter half of his paper with abundant examples, which stabilized their cognitive world again. It was not a disruption but a sublimation!

Even so, the fact that their knowledge was incomplete and unsolid still made them more bewildered than ever.

Right then, a hawk-nosed man walked in, with the badges of a seventh-circle arcanist and a seventh-circle sorcerer on his chest.

Noticing the queer behavior of his fellow arcanists, he broached a few questions.

After hearing their reply, he frowned and picked up a copy of ‘Arcana’ to read the article. As he read on, he observed in disgust, “Absurd! How can time and space be like this! This is in utter violation of observation and imagination! Has Lucien Evans’ head been muddled because of his impractical mathematic studies?”

“Also, there are still many loopholes in it!”

While talking, he went upstairs with the journal, planning to lambaste it.

“Mr. Alvaro, it’s mine…” The middle-rank arcanist whose journal was taken away eventually gave up trying, because he knew that Mr. Alvaro was a seasoned arcanist who had unimaginable persistence in the three laws of the Force Field, the motion system and the absolute time and space.

……

Inside the royal magic tower of Holm…

Looking at his teacher mumbling the words such as ‘mass’, ‘energy’, ‘time’ and ‘space’ before him, K suddenly felt indescribable fear and focused his eyes on the ‘Arcana’ in his hands.

Suddenly, Larry breathed heavily and clenched his fists hard. He announced with his eyes glittering, “If perfected, it is going to be a paper that changes the era!”

“Master?” K asked carefully. He was already a level-four arcanist and a fourth-circle sorcerer.

There was no telling the look on Larry’s face, which was covered in his furry, yellow beard, but he spoke in apparent joy, “My cognitive world has half substantiated.”

……

On the thirteenth floor of the Allyn magic tower…

Lucien sat in the office of the Affair Committee, waiting for Thompson to confirm that none of the sorcerers had cognitive world meltdowns.

“None so far.” Thompson walked in. “That’s because you haven’t presented the improvements on the experiments with the cyclotron yet. Also, after more than eight months of discussions, most arcanists should be mentally and intellectually prepared.”

“However, a few senior-rank senior-ranks of the school of force field did have intense reactions.”

Lucien said helplessly, “I hope that only their cognitive world was broken and solidified. Or maybe, they can indeed find the mistakes in the paper and propose new opinions.”

Thompson was not bothered but consoled him, “Something good also happened. Today, at least six fifth-circle sorcerers’ cognitive world half substantiated because of your paper. Four of them are from the school of electromagnetics and the school of Light-darkness, including Jurisian you know. Two are elemental sorcerers, one of them being Larry. At least in the short run, the good influence of your paper outweighs the bad influence.”

“As far as I know, such scenes only happened when ‘Mathematical Principles of Magical Philosophy’ and the Brook formulas were proposed. Of course, their influences were even greater. Some people’s cognitive worlds even substantiated on the spot.”