578 Ritual (1/2)

Seeing that the few grand arcanists and legendary sorcerers had been gathered here, Douglas asked concernedly, ”Did Benedict III do anything in the past few days? I think he must have a good reason to expose his secret and lock me inside my demiplane. Did he tamper with our conversation to deceive people or allure someone of the Highest Council?”

Lucien secretly raised his thumb after hearing the president's questions. Even though he had been caged inside his demiplane, he was still able to infer most of the things.

Of all the legendary sorcerers on the spot, Fernando had the most seniority and least concerns. He said loudly, ”Douglas, however confused you are about the nature and source of gravity and the initial cause, you can't lose your confidence and explain everything with a supreme being, can you? It doesn't matter even if you have ten thousand whys, but it will be horrible if you can't come up with a single question but get satisfied with explaining everything with gods. The speech that the Church quoted almost deprived all the arcanists in the Congress of their confidence.”

Douglas slightly frowned. ”Benedict III hid the latter part of our conversation to disrupt your minds?”

”I admit that there are times when I am confused, lost and can't see the way ahead, but when I return to reality and find that there are so many problems waiting for me to resolve, I'm full of momentum again. Also, a supreme being does not equal to the God of Truth. It may be a synonym to the truth of the world. The space is so vast and boundless, and our world is nothing at all compared to it. How can I worship a god that fights for believers and resources in such an insignificant place?”

Fernando smiled. ”That's the Douglas I know. I told them that you wouldn't demean yourself by worshiping the God of Truth.”

Hellen quietly patted her cheeks and heaved a sigh of relief. Brook, Hathaway and Oliver looked more or less relaxed and delighted, too.

In the rising period of an organization, many contradictions would be covered by the thriving appearance.

Not wasting any time, Douglas asked straightforwardly, ”The whole Congress was affected? Was it through the Sky Radio Station. I'll clarify it first and announce Benedict III's vileness to everyone.”

He wondered if a delay of one and a half days had made the lie unfalsifiable.

”There's no need to rush. The influence has been cleared. Why don't you tell us what exactly happened?” Fernando was eager to know the details.

Douglas looked at everybody in confusion. ”Cleared? Didn't you say that almost all the arcanists in the Congress lost confidence, Fernando?”

That was a rather severe situation.

Because of his relationship with his teacher, Brook had been listening quietly without saying anything. Hathaway never talked whenever she could avoid talking. Hellen felt too guilty to talk. Oliver, finally, picked up the topic. ”Mr. President, they lost confidence because the arcanists saw that even you, the founder of the gravity theory, were baffled by the nature and source of gravity and looked for philosophical and theological answers. They had suspicions about the road they were on, but after somebody explained the nature of gravity, everybody was refreshed. Naturally, their panic was gone.”

”That's good.” Douglas didn't realize what he heard first. Then, he turned his head and said, ”Wait, Oliver, what did you say? Somebody explained the nature of gravity?”

He looked at the Land of Truth and asked tentatively, ”I was locked inside the demiplane for a day and a half, wasn't I? Did the time flow at a different speed in the outside world, and decades have actually passed?”

There had been absolutely no sign of an explanation on the nature of gravity, so the news was so shocking to him that he suspected it was because of different time speeds. Otherwise, how could a theory have popped up after only one and a half days?

”You were locked away for one and a half days. However, Lucien had worked on it for years. He proposed a theoretical explanation on the nature of gravity. The deductions based on his theory match the observed redundant precession of the Morning Star at the perihelion and the adjustment to synchronize the time in the high sky and on the ground of the artificial planets.

After a brief daze, Douglas asked in a hurry, ”Where's the paper? Let me take a look!”

At this moment, he forgot everything he planned to do.

Hellen gave the copy of the paper and Lucien's book list to Douglas. ”Here you are, Mr. President.”

Taking over the paper, Douglas browsed through it. His calmness was gradually gone, replaced by devotion. Shadows surfaced around him, constructing the ancillary computation circles.

He scratched his head now and then, making his neat hair messy.

Understanding his earnestness about the question, Fernando did not interrupt him despite his usual impatience.

After a long time, Douglas pulled his bow-tie, half confused and half enchanted. ”I get basically what it says. The nature of gravity is the curved space-time caused by gravity. I saw the geometry on 'Nature' before, too. But is the deduction legitimate?”

As one of the greatest mathematicians, Douglas had already grasped the many new methods including tensor analysis after only browsing through 'Nature'. However, it was impossible for him to understand the general theory of relativity for the time being.

Fernando answered, ”At least, Bergner and I did not find any flaw in the mathematical deduction, except that the methods that Lucien adopted in certain parts are rather clumsy and inconcise.”

”Curved space-time… mass… energy-momentum tensor… the curvature of space-time is transmitted as waves…” Douglas mumbled the content in the paper, caught in the state of ten thousand whys again.

Lucien, Hellen and the rest of them kept absolutely quiet and did not interrupt the president. It was not until a long time later that Douglas was finally back to himself. Taking a deep breath, he walked to Lucien and patted his shoulder, ”I dare not say immediately that your theory is correct, but you have undoubtedly proposed a paradigm-shifting idea. The greatest achievement of the Congress of Magic in the past ten years is your participation. I regret that I did not insist on my idea and let Fernando become your teacher.”