451 New Alchemy (1/2)
In a magic tower in Salyvaor, the capital of the Kingdom of Brianne.
The ending song of Allyn's Past Week was still lingering in the room, however, it was suddenly cut off by a hand that turned off the radio. The slender-figured archmage Lauren had a sneering look on his face, and even his little mustache was showing his scorn. ”What a good student of Neeshka. Lark doesn't even want to hide her inclination.”
For a sorcerer like him, knowing who was hiding behind 'Lark' was just a piece of cake.
Lauren was standing in his study, which was decorated with dark red curtains and soft crystal lights, and looking at his students in front of the desk.
A senior whose hair had all turned grey said bitterly, ”Arcana Voice, Truth of the World… Lucien is the one who is hiding behind. No matter how hard they try to cover it, they are always sitting on the chair engraved with the words 'the Particle Theory'. Shame on them! A programme at least should be bias-free! How could they let Lark intentively shake the wave theory supporters confidence!”
He looked much older than Lauren.
”Christal, it doesn't matter,” said Lauren calmly. ”The world of arcana only respects truth, which makes here the justest place to live in. No matter how tricky they are, in the end, the experiment results will speak for us.”
Although he just mocked Lark, Lauren didn't really hold anything against her. As an archmage whose great honors had been piling up, he did have the confidence and tolerance to only attack Lucien in a dignified manner with the experiment results and images.
Sitting beside Christal was a young man with light brown hair, yet his yellowish-brown eyes belonged to that of an aged man. He said to his teacher hesitantly, ”Sir… About the result…”
”Yes, Manuel?” Lauren looked at him, frowning slightly.
The student's lips pressed against each other into a thin line, and finally, he became determined to speak it out, ”Sir… I think we should be prepared for the fact that the experiment result might not be able to overthrow the light quantum hypothesis.”
The middle-aged woman who had beautiful light purple hair also seized the chance and agreed. ”It's True, Sir. The several experiments in the past a few years have shown that the light quantum hypothesis can perfectly explain the photoelectric effect.”
”You…!” Lauren stared at his students angrily. He did not want to believe that what Lark said in the programme had indeed shattered his students' confidence.
”If that was true, I'd rather prefer there is no explanation for the photoelectric effect at all!” Lauren reproached his students and then walked out of the study in a rage.
Outside of the window in the darkness, the fine spring raindrops were thrumming the field, indicating the upcoming harvest of a season.
......
In the Atom Institution, Lucien was still working on observing the tiny flashing light spots, trying to find what he wanted from their messy traces he took down. Meanwhile, the improved magic circles were now buzzing as the powerful electric currents passing through, slightly twisting the surrounding magnetic field.
Thanks to the Lord of Storm's experiment of using helium atoms to bombard a piece of metal foil, Lucien now had the perfect reasons for applying to Magic Research Board for introducing the lately improved magic circles and alchemical facilities to meet all the requirements for conducting the experiment — the Atom Institution specialized in studying the microworld and the inner structure of the atom. Since the Lord of Storm had proved the existence of the atomic nucleus and described the atom's inner structure by colliding particles, the Atom Institution had the very reason to conduct further studies based on the Lord of Storm's achievement, and the institution's request should be fulfilled without a doubt.
Finally, Lucien had identified the trace he had been seeking for!
Charge-to-mass ratio, charge quantity, mass… all the data flashed through Lucien's brain. In the next second, he sprang up from the chair and started measuring the particle that made the trace!
Time flew, and Lucien's work was almost done.
Charge-to-mass ratio, the same!
Charge quantity, the same!
Mass, the same!
The numbers had overlapped with each other!
Suddenly, Lucien's cognitive world embraced him again, and the elements in the sky and the environment started changing in front of his eyes: the central core surrounded by the electrons had turned into the combination of two particles! The only difference between all the elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon was the different numbers of particles they had!
This was the nucleus of hydrogen! This was proton! This was the nature of the elements!
The great shift in Lucien's cognitive world was done within seconds. Lucien could sense the fundamental changes it brought, as he could now feel the connection with all the elements much more sharply. Seizing the chance, Lucien quickly entered his meditation world and now his spiritual power possessed both the properties of particle and wave. This was not a simple combination of wave and particle, as now even a single spiritual quantum of his showed the nature of wave!
......
In his Kingdom of Electromagnetism, Brook stepped into his lab.
His lab looked like a fantasy: Cold metals, weird patterns and shapes, jumping and flashing electric arcs, black twisted magnetic fields, as well as the vast starry sky…
He stopped in front of a complex alchemical operation table, placed on his right-hand side were all the experiment notes and records.
Brook took a glance at the records he made, and a strange look stopped for a second on his face where his years had begun to show. Then he put aside all the thoughts and started focusing on the experiment.
......
By the time he walked to the door of the lab, Lauren had calmed down. He turned around and said to his students following him, ”Manuel, Diana, you two can leave now. I will start my experiment.”
Manuel tried to say something, but Lauren had disappeared behind the door.
The door charged with flashing electric currents cut the students off from their teacher.
”It's gonna be alright, isn't it?” Manuel murmured subconsciously.
Christal had a cold look on his face. ”Of course. The light quantum hypothesis can not explain everything, say, the diffraction image.”
”That's true.” Agreed Diana.
She was not feeling too nervous, since she believed that the experiment result would not be too surprising. She was confident that the worst scenario would just be that her teacher suffered some damage to his cognitive world, which would only take a few years for Mr. Lauren to fix. In the past three years, she had gradually shifted her cognitive world to a more balanced position, if it was not more on the particle theory's side, thus she was prepared for both outcomes.
If she could do so, it should not be a problem for her teacher.
Lauren put on his magic robe, and a layer of grey covered him from head to toe. After carefully checking all the magic circles and alchemical facilities, he started the experiment conscientiously, just like every time in the past.
......
In Lucien's cognitive world which was basically substantialized, his spiritual power had filled in every corner of this space. The joining spiritual quanta together formed mysterious and dreamlike cloud clusters, but when Lucien approached them, they scattered and became particles and waves.
When everything calmed down, the image of Lucien's cognitive world also disappeared. Lucien opened his eyes, knowing that he finally made the last step for finishing his own meditation method, called the Evans's Duality Meditation. The meditation method was still in its first stage though, and Lucien could still make further improvements on it.
With this meditation method, the cost that Lucien paid for forcing his way into senior-rank could be compensated. Lucien tried with his new meditation method and drew the conclusion that his meditation worked at least three times better than the best existing senior-rank meditation method, and it would take him just another one or two years to reach the seventh circle.
In the past three years, due to the damage done to his soul previously, Lucien did not make any remarkable progress in increasing his spiritual power. Therefore, he had spent most of his time studying sixth-circle magic incantations and creating new spells. By now, Lucien had constructed twenty-one sixth-circle magic spells within his soul. Among them, there were three newly-created spells: a curse spell Professor's Solicitude, an electromagnetic spell, and an astrology spell.