Chapter 339: The Beginning

What was the cosmological constant?

General speaking, if multiple universes did exist, a cosmological constant would be the special DNA for a universe. The cosmological constant was what made the universe different from the others.

After arriving at the world, Lucien had found that although this world was very similar to the Earth, there were still a few major differences, for example, the undiscovered stars linking to destiny, the existence of magic, arcana and Blessings, great dragons, demons, vampires and so on. Therefore, Lucien subconsciously took it for granted that this world was in a different universe, thus, of course, the cosmological constant would also be different.

There were two reasons why the formula could cause Lucien to have such a mood swing. One thing was that the formula produced jointly by Fernando and Douglas had proved that this world was also discontinuous and quantized, which obviously conflicted with the Congress' current understanding. The other thing was that the cosmological constant was the same as Planck Constant from the Earth.

The first point would cause a huge stir in the system of arcana. Lucien was already prepared for it when he found the periodicity among the elements. However, when he found out the constant, he was totally shocked, because the constant could directly tell Lucien if the two worlds were different.

This was Lucien's first attempt at exploring the essence and nature of this world!

However, the constant was the same as the one from the Earth!

The two constants were the same!

At that moment, all the illusions caused by Lucien's nervousness disappeared immediately. Lucien felt that he was in a world that was half visional and real, and his meditation world suddenly shook. The meditation environment constructed by fire, wind, and water broke into pieces inch by inch, while the cast starlight brought by gravitation forced its way down to stabilize the whole cognitive world.

Then, the meditation world, after being destroyed, started to reform from the pieces. The energy flow was no longer like a stream, but spots of light like countless small stars.

After a while, when his cognitive world settled down gradually, Lucien opened his eyes slowly. Fortunately, the new understanding of the world accorded with Lucien's previous knowledge, or his head would explode.

It seemed that the energy particles in the cognitive environment could travel through the virtual and commute between the soul and the spirit world. Lucien felt that his soul was stronger than ever, and his spirit was capable of discovering the deeper secrets. Lucien had overcome an important barrier on his way to the senior rank, just like how Astrology and Magic Elements wrote.

There were three major barriers for one to reach the senior rank: first, beginning to get early insights in the nature of the world; second, having the soul and spirit that were powerful enough to intervene in the reality world; third, one's arcana and magic knowledge should be enough to analyze a complex sixth-circle spell.

However, facing such a progress, as a fourth-circle sorcerer, Lucien did not get excited at all. Because of the constant and the gravitation constant from before, he had to admit that, very possibly, he was still in the same universe where Earth was in. Of course, a possibility was that there was another universe very similar to the one that he was familiar with. However, he could not explain why magic and arcana only existed here, and why the stars remained undiscovered.

Brain in a vat?

The Matrix?

The experiment zone of some kind of powerful creature?

The principle of human choice? Mind over matter?

Lucien was not willing to accept any of these assumptions. But comparatively speaking, the latter two situations were much better for him. Lucien had never felt so eager to explore the world and to grow stronger!

"That's all for today. You can leave now. Come back tomorrow." His eyes closing, Fernando seemed to be a bit tired. Lucien was woken up by Fernando's words. He realized that his hands were sweating.

Lucien never sweated like this since he had become a level-two knight.

"Yes, sir." Lucien took a deep breath and stood up slowly.

Fernando noticed that Lucien was acting a bit strange. He thought that Lucien was being tortured by the two formulas, so Fernando tried to comfort him, "Although it's hard to admit that we can be foolish sometimes, all the arcanists can encounter problems that they are not able to solve. When this happens, we publish papers on Arcana and Magic to get new ideas. If we still can't solve this thermal radiation thing when the next month's Arcana is issued, we can put the two formulas on the journal. Your name will be included."

"I'm fine, sir." Lucien was a bit absent-minded, "I just... just need some rest."

The fresh air outside of the Congress building refreshed Lucien. This was the real world, the beautiful world!

"I'm lucky that no one has come to unplug my tubes, and no one from Matrix has been sent out to kill me." Lucien made fun of himself in his heart. He knew that he had to hurry to improve himself. And his next paper should be about the thermal radiation formula and the constant. Still, Lucien also had to be careful with the pace, or more arcanists' heads would explode from the cognition shift, which definitely wouldn't be a good thing for the Congress.

In Lucien's spirit library, most of the quantum books were still sealed.

...

More than a week later. In the morning of June 28th.

Lucien put the butter on his bread like a decent noble.

"Mr. Evans, when can we start Atom Institution?" asked Sprint. He could not wait anymore.

Sprint had left the restaurant and was now living in Lucien's place. Except for studying and practicing magic, he was just helping Lucien with sorting some materials. Because Lucien was focusing on analyzing the fifth-circle spells, he was not doing the experiments. Therefore, the proud Sprint felt that he was basically useless. Every day, he was longing for the establishment of the institution.

Lucien put down the cup and wiped his mouth with a piece of napkin, "Soon. I've successfully built the structure of the spell, Fernando's Lightning Smelter, in my soul, and I have become a fifth-circle sorcerer. It's time to ask for Mr. Fernando's help."

Of course, before this, Lucien could also use the thermal radiation formula to win himself some more support.

"What...?!" Sprint was very surprised. The milk spilled out from his mouth.

He remembered that Mr. Evans just became a third-circle sorcerer a year ago. He had never heard anyone else who did this! Very possibly, Mr. Evans could become a senior-rank mage before thirty years old!

Lucien put aside the napkin and smiled, "I got some help. Finish the test paper today, Sprint. If you feel having nothing to do, you can do one more."

"No! I'm busy!" Hearing Lucien's words, Sprint obviously was terrified. Even his spiked red hair instantly looked less upright.

"Master, the latest issue of Arcana is available now. Three days earlier than usual." Leo interrupted their conversation and handed the black-covered journal to Lucien.

The early issue of Arcana was within Lucien's expectation. Opening the journal, Lucien instantly saw the first paper from Ms. Isabella, The Relationship between Some Alchemical Substances Produced by Human Body and Emotions and Its Application in Illusion.

In the history of Arcana, rarely could authors who were not legendary sorcerers publish their papers on the first page. Obviously, Arcana was on Isabella's side.

Turning the pages, Lucien saw his paper at the fourteenth place in the first half part of the journal. Between Isabella's and his paper, there were some papers from other fields. For example, Chloe had combined all the formulas and laws in thermodynamics and thus a new thermodynamics system had taken shape.

When seeing this paper, Lucien nodded. He knew it was time for him to publish the next paper.

"Mr. Evans, is Ms. Isabella's paper the reason why they released this month's Arcana earlier?" asked Sprint curiously.

"You've heard about it?" Lucien looked at Sprint.

"People have been talking about it. Katrina said that many arcanists were very excited. They are expecting Ms. Isabella to win the Laurel. Is it true?" Spring also looked quite excited, although he did not really understand the value of this paper.

"Very possibly." Lucien nodded.

Then Lucien left for the headquarter of the Congress.

...

Walking in the magic tower, Lucien saw many sorcerers chatting with each other holding the latest issue of Arcana in their hands.

Lucien knew that the influence of Isabella's paper was profound. He also knew that what he was going to do would be able to overthrow the whole arcana world!

Stepping into the study, Lucien knew that Fernando was still quite pissed off and irritated. Thus, Alferris, the little crystal dragon, had not shown up for a few days.

"Good morning, sir," greeted Lucien politely.

Fernando shouted, "Good morning?! How can this morning be good? Douglas and Hathaway have been writing to me every day telling me the value of improving the formula from the perspective of Particle Theory and molecular scattering, but Brook, Hellen, Oliver, and Vicente are reminding me to see things using the concept of electromagnetic radiation and energy equipartition theorem. They're arguing in my brain, and I wish that I had never studied the topic because neither of them works!"

"Sir, we can forget all of these," seizing the chance, Lucien said to Fernando directly.

Fernando looked very serious, "What do you mean by forgetting all of these?"

"That's right. Forget about particles or waves, and forget about all the arguments. Just look at the two formulas to see if it's possible to put them together by doing math." Lucien was also very serious because he knew that what they were discussing about right now was going to lead to the new beginning of the arcana system!

"Doing math?" Fernando slightly frowned, "I guess... you have done it already, right? Tell me the formula you got." Fernando instantly understood what Lucien was trying to say.

Taking a deep breath, Lucien nodded, "Yes, sir. I've put together a formula."

When saying this, Lucien felt that there was a deafening thunder roaring above the whole Congress and the world of arcana.

This would be the end of the era, but also a beginning of a new one!