Chapter 168: The East Wind Arrives

The wind howled like a knife, scraping through every street.

But inside the “Furnace and Crucible” tavern, the atmosphere was as hot as summer.

This was the favorite gathering place for the kingdom’s alchemists and low-circle elemental mages.

The air was a mixture of the sour smell of cheap ale, sweat, and the strange odors of various magical materials.

Henry sat in the noisiest corner of the tavern, a half-empty mug of ale in front of him.

He looked terrible. His eyes were dark-ringed, his beard was unkempt, and he looked like a defeated rooster.

“Damn the wave camp!” he slammed the mug on the table, spilling a good amount of ale. “They’re parading that standing wave model everywhere now, calling us particle camp folks fools who only know how to do math!”

Sitting opposite him were a few other equally dejected supporters of the particle camp.

“There’s nothing we can do, Henry,” a tall, thin mage sighed. “The two mountains of ‘interference and diffraction’ are too hard to climb. We can’t just say ‘photons interfere with themselves,’ can we? That sounds too stupid.”

“But the photoelectric effect is ironclad proof! Compton scattering is also ironclad proof! Are we just going to admit defeat like this?”

Henry growled in frustration. A silence fell over the tavern.

The particle camp had indeed been having a rough time lately.

Ever since Lia’s short article on the standing wave of electrons was published, the wave camp had been as if injected with a stimulant.

“See! Even quantized energy levels can be explained by waves! The essence of the world is waves!”

This argument was gaining more and more traction.

Although the particle camp held the two trump cards of the photoelectric effect and Compton scattering, they appeared weak when it came to explaining the propagation of light.

Just as Henry was about to down another mug of ale to numb his frustrated nerves with alcohol.

A person in a gray cloak, their face obscured, walked up to his table.

The person didn’t speak, but simply took out a wax-sealed parchment from their cloak, placed it on the table, and then turned and disappeared into the noisy crowd.

“What is this?” the tall, thin mage looked at the parchment warily.

Henry frowned and picked up the scroll.

There was no signature, only a simple wax seal with a design of an eye and a star.

The sigil of the Truth Seeker.

‘Professor Lia?’

Henry’s heart skipped a beat.

He broke the seal and unrolled the parchment.

It was an experimental design diagram.

The diagram was drawn with extreme precision, with the dimensions and materials of each component clearly marked.

At the core of the apparatus was a sealed glass container, with three words written beside it—Cloud Chamber.

Below was a short text explaining the principle of the device and the expected experimental results.

“…When a high-energy photon collides with a stationary electron, two clear tracks will be produced, forming a unique V-shaped fork…”

Henry’s hands began to tremble.

He was no fool.

He instantly understood the terrifying significance behind this design diagram.

A V-shaped fork!

This was the most direct and irrefutable evidence of an elastic collision between particles!

If this experiment could succeed…

“Henry? What’s wrong?” the tall, thin mage looked at his increasingly bright eyes with some concern. “You didn’t see something you shouldn’t have, did you?”

Henry didn’t answer.

He shot up, clutching the parchment tightly to his chest as if it were a priceless treasure.

“Let’s go!” he growled at his companions. “Back to the lab! Now!”

He didn’t even bother to pay for his drink before rushing out of the tavern and disappearing into the wind and snow.

For the next few days, a strange calm fell over the magical world of the Royal Capital.

The arguments between the particle and wave camps died down considerably.

Because the leader of the particle camp, Henry, and his most fanatical supporters had collectively disappeared.

They had locked themselves in their private laboratory in the west of the city, refusing all visitors.

Some said they had given up after losing the debate and had collectively gone into seclusion.

Others said they were preparing something big.

The members of the wave camp scoffed at this.

“Something big? What could they possibly have? Can they make a photon speak and personally admit that it’s a ball?”

Victor publicly mocked them at several small academic salons.

He had been on a roll lately.

As a staunch defender of the wave theory, he felt he was on the side of truth.

He had also been invited to the upcoming seminar at the Royal Academy of Sciences.

He had already prepared a thirty-page speech, ready to nail the particle theory to the pillar of shame in history.

***

Inside Klein’s mage tower.

Lia was leaning on the sofa, lazily flipping through a fashion magazine.

It was brought back by Adèle from outside, filled with the latest styles of dresses and jewelry for the noble ladies of the capital.

“Look at this one,” Lia pointed to a starry sky dress in the magazine and said to Klein, who was peeling an apple beside her.

“It’s made with real stardust, and then enchanted with a miniature gravitational field to make the stars on the skirt rotate on their own. The effect would definitely be amazing.”

Klein glanced at it and commented expressionlessly, “Not practical. The gravitational field would interfere with the stability of the surrounding elements, and the radiation from the stardust is not good for the skin.”

“You have no sense of romance,” Lia pouted. “This is art, you know?”

“I don’t.” Klein cut the peeled apple into small pieces, speared one with a toothpick, and held it to her lips. “I only know you.”

Lia opened her mouth and ate the apple, the sweet and crisp juice bursting in her mouth.

“Any news from Henry?” she asked indistinctly.

“Not yet,” Klein shook his head. “But according to the informant in the west of the city, the magic fluctuations in his laboratory have been abnormally intense these past few days, and he has purchased a large amount of liquid air and high-purity alcohol.”

“It seems he’s already built the cloud chamber,” Lia nodded. “He’s probably adjusting the power of the X-rays now.”

“Aren’t you afraid he’ll fail?” Klein asked. “That experiment requires extremely high operational skill. The slightest mistake, and you won’t see anything.”

“He won’t fail,” Lia smiled confidently.

“Henry is a genius, especially when it comes to playing with all sorts of rays. Moreover, a person pushed to the brink has infinite potential. Not to mention, I gave him an almost-babysitter-level instruction manual.”

Klein looked at her confident and in-control appearance, a hint of indulgence flashing in his eyes.

“Adèle’s back,” he said suddenly.

As soon as he spoke, the door to the main hall was pushed open.

Adèle rushed in like a gust of wind, her face flushed with excitement.

“Lia! Mentor Klein! Big news!” She slammed a newspaper on the table. “Exclusive from the ‘Royal Capital Fashion News’! Master Laurent is going to recreate his legendary ‘Aether Wind’ experiment at the seminar!”

“We already know,” Lia pointed to the invitation on the table.

“No, you don’t know this!” Adèle pointed to a section of the newspaper and said mysteriously, “The paper says that Master Laurent has gone all out this time. He’s even taken out his ‘Tear of Light,’ which he has treasured for thirty years!”

“‘Tear of Light’?” Lia was unfamiliar with the name.

“It’s an extremely rare natural magic-conducting crystal,” Klein explained.

“It’s said to have been discovered in some ancient ruins and has an extremely strong effect on the conduction and amplification of light.

Laurent has always used it as the core component of his interferometer and has never shown it to anyone.”

“That’s right!” Adèle said excitedly.

“He’s brought out his most prized possession this time, all to prove the existence of the ‘aether wind’! Now the entire kingdom is betting on whether he will succeed this time.

The wave camp is praising him to the skies, saying he’s going to end this chaotic debate single-handedly.”

“He’s building momentum,” Lia said, hitting the nail on the head.

“By hyping it up, he’s raising everyone’s expectations to the maximum. This way, when he successfully replicates the experiment, the sensational effect will also be the greatest.”

“Then what do we do?” Adèle was a little worried. “He’s even brought out the ‘Tear of Light.’ What if—”

“There are no ‘what ifs’!” Lia interrupted her. “A fake is still a fake. Even if it’s studded with diamonds, it won’t become the real thing.”

“But public opinion…”

“Public opinion is like grass on a wall.” Lia picked up another piece of apple from the table. “It sways whichever way the wind blows. We just need to… blow a stronger wind than his.”

Just then, the communication crystal on Adèle’s wrist suddenly lit up.

“It’s a friend from the Alchemy Association.”

“What? Really?” Adèle’s eyes grew wider and wider as she listened to the voice from the crystal. “Where? I’ll be right there!”

She cut off the communication and looked up sharply at Lia and Klein.

“S-something’s happened,” her voice was trembling, but it wasn’t from fear, but extreme excitement.

“Henry’s laboratory just had a violent magical explosion.”

“An explosion?” Klein frowned.

“Not a destructive explosion!” Adèle waved her arms incoherently.

“It was… it was an impact caused by the instantaneous release of some kind of energy! Now all the mages in the west of the city are running to his place! I heard… I heard someone saw… saw a miracle in his laboratory!”

Lia and Klein exchanged a look.

Both saw a flash of understanding in the other’s eyes.

The east wind has arrived.

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