Chapter 645: Return (2 in 1)

In the monotonous world of black, white and grey, Douglas, Fernando and Lucien did not perform a direct space jump but flew with intimidating pressure. Even the least unintelligent spectres knew better than to mess with them.

“Gather the power of feelings to transform himself into a status similar to the primeval devils, and then become a demigod by combining the power of faith and the energy of space… Mr. Thanos truly deserves to be one of the greatest sorcerers in the school of astrology. He’s the first expert who has ever advanced into such a level other than the natural-born demigods…” Although Douglas was born in the last years of the Sylvanas Magic Empire, a period that was far away from Thanos’ reign, he had learnt a lot about him in his life and his research. Therefore, he showed Thanos enough respect.

He had a lot of mixed feelings about the matter. The road to becoming a demigod had been presented before him clearly. It would be hypocritical to say that he was not tempted. Actually, few people could control their feelings well under such circumstances.

Fernando took it relatively well. It hadn’t been long since he reached the peak of legendary, and he was still far from qualified to make the step. Douglas differed from him in that Douglas had been a top legend for hundreds of years and he was praised to be on par with the Sun King before the Sun King’s demise. If he was willing to, he could gather the power of feelings and restore the magic circle in a decade, so that he could ‘borrow’ the power of Mountain Paradise to become a demigod with the help of the monster – that is, if his transformation did not fail.

However, the problems that Thanos and Viken had after they became demigods had been shown to him obviously. In his own cognitive world, the road from the general theory of relativity, although not very clear yet, had shown a bright and promising prospect. In decades, it was possible that he would be able to become a demigod without any concerns. Therefore, it was not difficult for him to overcome his greediness, particularly when his original path just showed the light of dawn and was far from devastating.

“In my opinion, they were simply overwhelmed by their desires, and what they did was purely stupid. The primeval devils were not demigods themselves. What’s the point of transforming into their status except for the convenience to accept the power of faith?” Fernando did not hesitate at all but berated Thanos, a predecessor in the Magic Empire, straightforwardly. “Of course, the work has its own value, which is to give us the examples of failure!”

“However, Viken who can actually use ‘God’s Arrival’ many times is an absolute danger. We do not have the ability to resist him yet. Therefore, besides working hard to also turn ourselves into demigods, we need to study the path on which he became a demigod in order to find his weakness.” Douglas said prudently. Nobody except the monster knew how many times Viken could use ‘God’s Arrival’ in a row. “We cannot give up thinking on this path altogether just because it failed. It’s high time that we included the primeval devils into our research.”

Lucien nodded his head. Studying the primeval devils would help him grasp the mysteries and essence of the status transformation and the reality of the world. “One day, I will explore the primordial relics in the deepest level of hell.”

Since the Lord of Hell was very interested in him, Lucien certainly did not have the courage to go to hell until he became a top legend.

“As long as you can provide enough benefits, the Lord of Hell wouldn’t mind even if you killed a certain duke of hell, much less ‘trivial’ things such as breaking his projection. However, we must be cautious that he may be preparing schemes in secret for greater benefits.” The Lord of Hell was no stranger to Douglas, who had explored hell many times. “After this thing is over, I’ll go to the primordial relics in the deepest level of hell to collect ‘resources’ for our research. You needn’t take the risk.”

“Mr. President, rest assured. What we achieved from the adventure is enough for me to digest for a long time. Also, until I become a top legend, I would rather go to the abyss than the hell.” Said Lucien sincerely.

When Fernando heard ‘what we achieved’, he remembered the Chamber of Immortality and murmured, “The mysteries of immortality is a picture of the cosmos? What kind of mystery is that? Is it true that only if you are stronger than demigods can you see through it?”

“I don’t think so. The picture of the cosmos, as well as its intangible and unapproachable nature, perhaps contains a certain secret that is related to immortality.”

“Fernando, have you forgotten that we haven’t discovered any planet in space to this day? We cannot see anything even if we look down at the worlds below, as if they are covered by something. However, the picture of the cosmos is hidden inside the Chamber of Immortality. Those two things may be related. If we solve the puzzle, we may be able to touch the mysteries of immortality.” Douglas analyzed the situation in the Chamber of Immortality from purely the perspective of arcana.

Lucien said thoughtfully, “The picture of cosmos inside the Chamber of Immortality perhaps really has something to do with the failed discovery of planets.”

However, their relationship might be the opposite of what people imagined. Lucien had certain guesses and considerations, but he needed more theories and phenomena to confirm and modify them.

Exploring the truth of the world required both bold assumptions and careful confirmations. Neither of them could be missing!

Fernando argued habitually. “That’s not necessary. Doesn’t the general theory of relativity specify that light will be curved in the gravitational field? Perhaps, the locations of the planets that we calculated based on starlight have huge errors from actuality.”

“That’s very possible.” Douglas and Lucien both nodded in approval. Lucien, for one, knew for sure that the phenomenon of ‘gravitational lens’ existed. Of course, it still needed the verification of astronomical phenomena and ‘field tests’.

Receiving no objection from them, Fernando immediately lost the interest in further discussion on the matter, so he changed the subject. “There’s also a related phenomenon. When we explore the end of the Boundless Ocean, we should reach the other side of the Dark Mountain Range according to Douglas’ theory. However, when the legendary sorcerers explored the Boundless Ocean or the Moonlight Ocean on the other side of the Dark Mountain Range, they would eventually return to a certain area on their way no matter how they navigated themselves. It is impossible to confirm that our world is a sphere by circling around it.”

It was one of the most famous enigmas after Douglas proposed the motion theory of celestial bodies. Lucien knew about it before and suspected that it was because of space folding, but he had always been puzzled by the reason. However, after he opened the Chamber of Immortality and saw the picture of the familiar cosmos, he had certain speculations. He thought to himself that it was time for him to explore the end of the Boundless Ocean after he digested what he earned in this adventure.

As he spoke, Fernando mocked the Lord of Hell ruthlessly yet again. “Maltimus has always considered himself as the smartest creature, but in my opinion, he is just as brainless as Abyss. How can the mysteries of immortality be just there for everybody to see and learn? The mysteries of immortality should be a phenomenon, one that is the same as quality of elements, nature, geography or biography, except that the puzzles regarding immortality are contained inside. One can only learn what they are through research!”

“Maltimus laughed in disappointment without asking any questions after he saw the picture of the cosmos, which suggests that he is only slightly smarter than Abyss, and he cannot get rid of his nature as a low-IQ creature!”

Master, you are so mean. That’s the classic arcanists’ way of thinking. How can the Lord of Hell boast that? Lucien shook his head with a smile.

Douglas looked more or less the same. You criticize me for asking too many questions and laugh at Maltimus for not asking questions. It seems that one can never be right.

He shook his head in amusement. “Alright, let’s drop the picture of the cosmos inside the Chamber of Immortality for now. We still have to focus on the current arcana theories. Perhaps, after we figure out the mysteries of the microworld and the macroscopic space, the mysteries of immortality hidden inside the picture of the cosmos will be naturally answered.”

“That is the most correct approach.” Lucien agreed. Then, he thought of something else. “Mr. President, regarding Thanos and Viken, should we spread the secrets on a large scale to shake the foundation of the Saint Truth’s faith and raise the suspicion of the Grand Cardinals, or should we keep the secrets to attract and talk part of the clerics into taking our side?”

“Spread them on a large scale? It’s been years since ‘Arcana Voice’ was founded. The believers are already used to the rumors of the Church. A lot of them are even more unbelievable than what we have. The result probably won’t be very good.” Douglas said thoughtfully.

That was for the few countries on this side of the Storm Strait and the north coastline, because every block had a few magic radios in those areas. The owners of the radios were either members of the Congress of Magic or had the habit of listening to it with the crowd. As a result, the coverage of ‘Arcana Voice’ was greatly expanded. Also, after the Kingdom of Holm and the other countries were inclined to the Congress, the ‘manor broadcaster’ and ‘square broadcaster’ that Lucien invented played the role of popularization very well, giving most civilians a chance to listen to ‘Arcana Voice’.

As for the countries across the ocean such as the Holy Heilz Empire, except for the big nobles who were not restricted, magic radios were barely be found in the common households. It was neither capable nor necessary for the Church to popularize a divine item of similar functions. They had only been broadcasting from the churches to attract the believers to pray. Therefore, ‘Arcana Voice’ had barely any coverage in those areas. The spies sent by the Congress of Magic still had a lot of work to do.

In Lucien’s eyes, that was almost a spy drama.

Fernando added, “The Angel King was in the Holy City before. His return suggests that Viken might know that his secrets have been revealed. He will certainly be ready that we may try to influence certain clerics. We cannot be careless.”

“Why don’t we do both? We will disseminate the half-real stories through ‘Arcana Voice’, shaking the foundation of their relief and leaving Viken the impression that we haven’t figured out all the secrets, while we keep the central intelligence to ourselves, looking for opportunities to convince the clerics to take our side.” Pondering, Douglas said, “This is a matter of paramount importance. Let’s discuss and decide later in the meeting of the Highest Council.”

As they talked, the three of them had reached the advance base.

Inside the defense magic circle, Brook, in his white wig, looked at the three of them and pushed his gold-edged glasses. Heaving a sigh of relief, he said, “It’s good that you are back…”

Bergner, the Prophet who was still wearing his grey pointy hat, also smiled, “Two top legends couldn’t have perished so easily.”

…

Inside ‘Atomic Universe’, Natasha was still practicing arduously every day, leaving only a tiny proportion of time for her recovery.

‘Pale Justice’ flashed, and a terrifying gap appeared on a planet of elements, spreading out countless tiny cracks. The little planet that had been sabotaged by her seemed unable to take it any longer and was about to collapse.

Clap, clap, clap. From the airless darkness, applause came over.

Natasha turned around in surprise, only to discover a young man in a black top hat walking out of the profound space. With a smile of relaxation on his handsome face, he said, “You seem to have made progress again while we were separated.”

Rubbing her eyes, Natasha became solemn. “Devil, take this!”

The sword was slashed at him. Lucien was rather scared. Had Natasha been enchanted by something?

Before he figured out whether he should take the attack or knock her out, the light of the sword was suddenly gone. Natasha flew to his front and hugged Lucien, sticking their faces to each other. Her breath was slightly hasty, and her voice was brimming with intense happiness. “Exactly the smell I’m familiar with!”

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And exactly the formula that I’m familiar with¹? Lucien thought to himself and felt very warm and happy about Natasha’s passionate welcome. He exerted his strength and held her tightly, before he said in a low voice, “Were you worried that I might run into danger?”

“Of course, you are my husband and my love. How could I not be worried after you went missing behind the Furnace of Souls?” In a good mood, Natasha admitted frankly without any hesitation. She leaned backwards and observed Lucien very carefully. In the end, she said with a brilliant smile, “You were not hurt, were you?”

“Not at all. I even obtained many great things.” Lucien smiled and kissed Natasha’s lips. “I got the Fountain of Youth, the Mummy Gloves, the main eye of a legendary Hundred-eye Ghost, a substitution puppet, and several hands of curses.”

Then, Lucien looked around and teased, “You’ve been practicing hard to save me after you become a legend? Since you are still not legendary yet, have you been vulnerable, unconfident and loathing yourself recently?”

Lucien only made such jokes with Natasha.

Natasha tried to smile. “Am I that kind of person? I’ve been very confident. I would become a legendary knight if you were missing for another month!”

“Then, who played ‘Fate’ in the magic tower?” Lucien revealed her ‘ruthlessly’.

Natasha moved her beautiful eyes away and held Lucien’s head with both hands, giving him a long kiss.

“How about it? Do you feel my confidence?” After their mouths were separated, Natasha said while trying to catch her breath.

Lucien’s breath was also unsteady. He chuckled, “I do. With such progress, you will become a legendary knight in a few years.”

In a few years, there should be a chance for him to reach level three of legendary.

“I’ll be able to explore with you by then.” Said Natasha firmly, “In order to make advancements in the realm of legendary, let’s not consider children for now, shall we?”

Lucien nodded softly. “You have my full support.”

Then, he leaned his head forward and exhaled next to Natasha’s ear before he chuckled. “However, you need to make it up to me.”

The itch on her ear reminded her of certain things that she would rather forget, resulting in the hectic flush to Natasha’s cheeks.

…

Inside the Atom Institution, Sprint and the other arcanists were busy with their respective experiments. Suddenly, they heard a familiar, smiling voice. “I’m delighted at your diligence.”

Oh, our teacher is back? Heidi turned around and said happily, “Master, welcome back! There are so many questions that we would like to ask you.”

Because the exploration in the World of Souls had been kept highly confidential, they had no idea about the dangers that Lucien had been through and merely thought that it was a common business trip. Therefore, they were not particularly thrilled and excited after seeing him back.

Observing Heidi with a smile, Lucien said to Annick and the other students. “Has the original Heidi been taken down and replaced by a devil? It’s unbelievable that she is asking questions on her own initiative!”

“That’s because we made a major breakthrough in the research program that you gave Chelly and me.” Declared Heidi proudly.

Lucien raised his eyebrow. “The analysis on the mechanism of the ancillary computation magic circles?”

“Yes!” It seemed that Heidi could not wait to present her works.

At this moment, Sprint turned around and said to Heidi, “Our teacher is only just back. We have to report the important issues to him.”

“What important issues?” Asked Lucien in confusion. Natasha didn’t mention anything about it. However, she had been purely dedicated to her own practice and improvement of late. It was perfectly normal that she did not know what had happened.

With a brilliant smile, Katrina said, “Congratulations on winning the first Evans Prize in Arcana with Mr. Dieppe, master, for the remarkable contributions you made to the wave-particle duality and the electron diffraction. The name of the medal is exactly ‘Duality’.”

While she spoke, she displayed the appearance of the Evans Prize in Arcana with the manifestation magic. The medal had a black background on the upper half, which was embedded with a silver planet that represented the macroscopic world, and a silver background on the lower half, where the black symbols of atom were painted to indicate the microscopic real. It had a certain charming air with it.

That was the basic appearance of the Evans Prize in Arcana that Lucien designed based on ‘Tai Chi’. The word ‘Duality’ had been embedded at the center.

“Why is there image? Who accepted the award on behalf of me?” Lucien speculated that the Congress of Magic held the award ceremony in advance in order to cover the fact that he and some major legendary arcanists had gone missing.

Layria couldn’t help but grimace when she recalled it. “It was the little crystal dragon who accepted it for you.”

They were already rather familiar with Alferris, the little crystal dragon.

I’m sure that he brought the medal straightly back to his own home. It’s like feeding a goat to a tiger… Lucien shook his head with a smile. He was not particularly interested in the medal, but in order to restrain Alferris’ greediness and to build up a healthy dragon-ality, he had to demand that the dragon return the medal to him at some point.

The students reported the important matters that happened in the Congress of Magic to him, as well as the research achievements recently that were worth paying attention to and the operation of the Holt Magic College.

After hearing their report, Lucien asked Blake, Lowi, Alfalia and the other assistances about their updates, before he finally went to the meeting room and convened the regular meeting. After Annick and the other students became middle-rank arcanists and sorcerers, there was no need for one of Lazar and his partners to stay in the institution all the time. Therefore, they had been away to accomplish the mandatory mission this year together.

Heidi was not in a rush at all anymore. She spoke frankly, “Master, Sprint and Annick proposed a hypothesis regarding the unusual splitting phenomenon of the spectral lines.”

“What hypothesis?” Lucien vaguely guessed what it was. He looked at the two of them with a smile.

Annick replied, somewhat embarrassed, “It’s because of the electron spin. However, according to the result of our calculation…”

The more he spoke, the lower his voice became. Sprint simply helped him to finish. “The speed of the electron spin on the surface that we calculated was ten times the speed of sound…”

His voice was loud at first, but he also lost his confidence as he approached the end.

“Give me your manuscript.” Lucien asked for their manuscript and read it carefully.

Heidi spoke for them, “Not just now, many arcanists who work on the new alchemy feel that something is wrong with the concept of electron spin. Also, hasn’t the model of the new alchemy presented by matrix mechanics abandoned the notions that are not readily observable such as orbits? Where is this spin from? This is almost identical to the astrophysical system again.”

“However, this spin model explains the splitting phenomenon perfectly and matches the other experiments. As for the classic image that it corresponds to, it is not necessarily the same as the spin of planets that we think. In the microscopic domain, we can only understand things based on math and experiment data. Since it is not necessarily the spin as we know, it’s possible that the speed in the spin does not carry signals and energy, just like the wave speed of electrons in Dieppe’s paper. This is not in violation of the theory of relativity.” Lucien said roughly and inaccurately. “You may submit the paper to the Arcana Review Board.”

“However, you may encounter a lot of suspicions later. I suggest you deal with the spin problem with matrix mechanics first and see what you can get. I’ll work on this aspect, too.”

“Alright, master.” Annick was more confident after receiving the approval of his teacher. Sprint, on the other, was greatly relieved. He was going to submit the paper even if his teacher did not agree with him.

After resolving their question, Lucien looked at Heidi and asked, “What about you? What’s the major breakthrough that you have achieved?”

Heidi suddenly became shy. “It’s not exactly a great breakthrough. When we analyzed the ancillary computation circles, we discovered that they could help with calculations because the results of different functions had been stored inside them in advance. After we gave the information, they searched for the answers in their storage, and ran simple calculations with the answers… In fact, we reached the conclusion by reading the relevant papers. However, we have gone one step further and described every specific procedure in the whole process.”

“There are too many functions and almost infinite results after they are calculated. It seems that the ancillary computation circles can only play a role in regular problems. Huh. Do you have any ideas on how to improve them? We can try to make them accomplish such a process in most of the problems: we give data and instructions, and we receive a result very soon. That way, it will be easier to popularize them among the magic apprentices.” Lucien said solemnly.

Heidi asked in confusion. “In order to fix most of the problems, we have to store more functions and more results for their calculation, which will have a higher demand on the magic circles and make them even more expensive, just like how the ancillary magic circles we use are different from those you use. This is the opposite of the purpose of popularization.”

Chelly nodded her head in agreement. They seemed to be two different directions of development.

“That’s why I said that you needed an idea. Has it occurred to you that the mechanism of the ancillary computation circles is different from the logic order of our regular thinking and calculation? Have you considered reconstructing the ancillary computation circles according to that and replace most of the functions of our brain with alchemical materials and electronic circuits?” Lucien tried to give them more inspirations.

Developing portable, diverse terminals of magic was one of Lucien’s goals in this direction.