414 - 421

Chapter 414: The Castle Ablaze with Lights

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Staring at the castle which looked like a black eagle swerving over the cliff, Lucien stood some distance away from it. Since he did not have the transfiguration mask with him, it was very easy for him to be caught by Dracula, as Dracula had noticed him before in Sphinx Mausoleum.

Rhine had disappeared in the desert to the south of Gusta Empire, and when Dracula was looking for Rhine, he met a mysterious senior-rank mage with lots of precious magic items in the Mausoleum. If somehow Dracula saw the same mage visiting Observer's Castle later, he must be able to see the connection.

Lucien took out his pocket watch and confirmed the time again. Casting all the helping spells on himself, swallowing down all the magic potions he still had, and grabbing Pale Justice in his hand, Lucien carefully sensed what was going on around the castle. Meanwhile, he had turned on the monocle. If anything happened, Natasha would contact him.

Indeed, Lucien could still carry out his plan without Natasha's help, but that would bring him a lot of extra troubles and potential risks.

Lucien assumed that five minutes was enough for Viscount Hazlehurst to report to Dracula, for Viscount Hazlehurst was Dracula's offspring.

Putting the pocket watch away, Lucien started to count the time. Another reason that he chose Viscount Hazlehurst was that Dracula relatively favored him.

And Lucien fully believed that Natasha would do exactly what he asked. There was a mutual trust between them.

Time went by in seconds. Three minutes and fifty-six seconds later, Pale Justice suddenly started to tremble, as if a horrible enemy was approaching.

Through the sword, Lucien could feel that at the edge of the cliff close to the Observer's Castle, some weak but extremely vicious power flashed across. The power consisted of the purest darkness and the breath of death.

Holding his breath, Lucien started the countdown.

"Ten, nine, eight…"

The Observer's Castle which was seemingly forever covered by darkness lit up slightly as if a layer of dust had been removed. A layer of dim light, which was a byproduct of Speed that Lucien just cast on himself, also appeared on Lucien.

"… Five, four, three…"

Night breeze passed by. Tonight there was no sound at all, except for a slight rustle made by the dark creatures. Lucien took out a tube of potion which would help accelerate his flying speed and drank it all.

"… Two, one."

When he reached the last number, Lucien left all his worry and fear behind. He dashed for the castle like a speeding bullet.

Lucien could feel the strong wind flapping against his face, and the dark forest underneath retreated fast like black tides. Many dark creatures, looked up in the sky in great surprise.

Lucien had no chance to look back. He must be fully determined to seize the chance and be safe!

Against the wind in the sky, before those dark creatures could take any actions, Lucien landed in front of the Observer's Castle.

"Kilahkim." Lucien spurt out the password.

All of a sudden in the darkness, countless fist-sized, red-eyed bats fiercely flew out, aiming at Lucien.

Although Dracula had left the castle because of Lucien's plan, he did not forget to leave projections of blood bats here.

Although these bats were just projections, they were still very sensitive and alert since Dracula had the power to half substantialize things even in a dream. The bats could even launch real attacks!

Flying and swirling, the countless blood bats released dizzying sound waves.

"Welcome, distinguished guest." The castle's alchemical life, Mikhalik, greeted Lucien in a low voice. Then the gate slowly opened, as if the bats did not exist.

Grabbing Pale Justice tight, Lucien was given immunity to rage, charm, weak and many other negative influences, making he able to resist the dizziness deep in his soul. He jumped toward the half opening gate very swiftly.

Lucien's strength and speed had been improved remarkably by the potions and the magic items he had, but his level of quick-response and balance were left behind. Therefore, Lucien stumbled and tottered into behind the gate.

The blood bats fiercely hit the edge of the gate. At this time, Mikhalik's low muffled voice came again.

"Enemy attack. The first layer of defense activated."

Black bolts of lightning covered the walls and the gate. As soon as the bats touched the lightning bolts, they were burnt down into piles of dust. But the bats were not afraid of death. Instead, they continued with their attack.

Lucien pulled himself up and put away Pale Justice. Removing the magic effects of strengthening, Lucien regained his balance. Then he rushed for the main hall, casting magic spells along.

At this moment, although Dracula was informed that someone had broken into the Observer's Castle, he would not come back in person, because he was now occupied by the fake Rhine!

Obviously, Rhine was much more important! Dracula would not waste a second!

Lucien, after acquiring his balance again, ran at full speed through the blood-colored flower sea. He had seen this before, so he was not afraid. Right now, the only thing he kept in his sight was the door of the main hall.

The numbing sweet smell was resisted by Health Belt, and the eyes could not affect Lucien at all since he was not looking at them. Drawing a straight line, Lucien arrived at the door of the main hall like a shooting star.

"Kilahkim." Lucien cast the spell again.

Although it had been only a bit more than ten seconds, Lucien felt that it was as long as his whole life. All of the strength in his muscles had been extracted and squeezed out. He felt completely exhausted.

Taking out the magic potion Congus Forest, Lucien drank all of it. When the feeling of exhaustion was gone, Lucien heard Mikhalik's voice again, "Welcome, distinguished guest. Except for the controlling core, the energy room, and the base of the treasury vault, you can go anywhere you wish."

Lucien did not lower his alert. He gave Mikhalik the password that Rhine gave him.

"Please give me your command, my distinguished guest." Mikhalik's voice became more docile, "Except for the excess to the controlling core and the base of the treasury vault, I shall take your order as I take my master's command."

"Good. Top alert. Activate all the defense magic circles. No one can come in except for Mr. Rhine." Lucien spoke very fast, making the best use of every second.

Mikhalik burst out an exclamation as he realized how serious it was. Then he answered, "As your command."

The black bolts of lightning outside the walls all disappeared. Instead, a transparent shield covered the entire castle as if it had been the castle's extension.

The magic creatures including the Scarlet trees in the magic garden had all disappeared. Everything was overwhelmed by deep darkness.

A few seconds later, Mikhalik responded, "Defense magic circles all activated. Alert level: legendary. Any other command?"

Until this moment, Lucien finally could let out a sigh of relief. Even if Prince Dracula came back himself, it would still take him at least a few minutes to break the shield and the protection mechanisms of the castle.

"Turn on the lights. All of them." Lucien commanded.

"Yes," answered Mikhalik very decisively. The alchemical life understood the meaning of this.

The creatures hiding in the dark forest under the cliff saw, for the first time, that the castle was lit up in light. The light was so bright as if it could pierce through the thickest darkness.

The dark creatures were confused.

Following the first light, more lights were lit up one by one in every single room of the castle. Within a few seconds, the entire castle had become ablaze with lights. The details of the castle were fully revealed.

When the darkness was driven away, the bright moonlight directly shone on the castle. Because of the reflection from the walls and glass, there was a pure silver-colored halo in front of the main hall, which seemed peaceful and cold.

"Turn me into Mr. Rhine. Use the best transfiguration spell." Lucien commanded again. The last thing he wanted to do was to let Dracula knew the existence of a sorcerer whose name was Lucien.

"Yes, sir," answered Mikhalik respectfully.

Dark air fell upon Lucien, and when it disappeared, the transfiguration spell had taken effect.

Cherishing every second, Lucien stepped into the moonlight halo, which gave him a kind of feeling which was hard to describe.

When Lucien was just about to cast the special summoning spell taught by Rhine, the moonlight suddenly dimmed, as if the entire sky had been covered by a huge shadow!

"You filthy little bug! I'm going to eat you up!"

The low voice was full of fury. Under the power, all the trees in the nearby dark forest were snapped, and the dark creatures exploded one by one like firecrackers! Even the shield covering the castle also started squeaking.

Prince Dracula had come back! This was faster than Lucien's expectation!

What happened to Natasha?

Would the summoning rite still work while the silver moon was blocked?

The two thoughts rose simultaneously in Lucien's mind.

Chapter 415: The Scarlet Moon

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

No matter how worried he was about what happened to Natasha, he was unable to help her in the situation right now—Lucien was very well aware of this fact. Therefore, he managed to put all the thoughts behind and focused on what he was faced with right now.

With the castle's magic circles resisting the imposing pressure from the Legendary, Lucien was sheltered and could thus still stay focused. He looked up, and when he saw a remaining thin layer of the silver moon's light, his soul felt the special connection again.

Lucien quickly drew his conclusion: Although the moon was blocked, the remaining light was still able to provide power to the summoning magic circle, and the level of the magic circle was close to the power of Dracula! Also, it seemed that the summoning magic circle had a bit to do with Alterna, as She had left Her imprint on it!

Huge bad wings covered the entire sky. In the air, Prince Dracula gazed down at the castle furiously. All of a sudden, he merged into thick darkness, enveloping the surroundings and cutting off all the connections that the castle had with the moon.

Affected by the magic circles, Dracula could not see through the disguise brought by Transfiguration. However, since he was this close to the castle, he could be certain that the person standing in the hall was not Rhine due to the special connection between the first-generation vampires. He had mixed feelings about this: On one hand, he felt encouraged, because Rhine was obviously not in a favorable position right now or he would not have sent a filthy little bug here to carry out the rite for summoning the Primordial Ancestor of Vampire; On the other hand, he felt quite pissed that the bug had tricked him and was trying to summon the almighty God of the Silver Moon.

Prince Dracula's dark-red pupils gazed at Lucien. However, Lucien was not affected by what was going on outside of the castle at all. He lifted his hands with his eyes half closed, his magic robe swaying in the wind, and the monocle reflecting the light. In the ancient language of the vampire, Lucien cast the spell.

How was this possible?! Without the connection to the silver moon, how could the summoning rite still work?!

Prince Dracula could not stand it: Apparently, both the mysterious spell and the incredible spiritual imprint belonged exclusively to Rhine. Although Dracula had searched for it in the castle for several times, he found nothing. However, right now, it was obvious that this little bug definitely knew much more about the Primordial Ancestor than he did!

Dracula raised his head slightly and burst out a silent cry of anger. Under his overwhelming power, all things within a range of more than ten kilometers were crushed into ashes. The only things that survived were the Observer's Castle and the cliff on which it was located, thanks to the light shield.

However, under such great power, even the light shield started cracking and shaking violently, as if it were to collapse at any time.

Although what was going on outside was beyond horrible, Lucien was not affected, since he was not directly exposed to the power and horror. To him, it felt like watching a disaster movie with great visual effects. Meanwhile, he could still stay very focused on casting.

A small puddle of light from the silver moon emerged under Lucien, and soon the bright moonlight halo was formed again.

Seeing this, Dracula felt rather offended. How came this filthy tiny bug had such strong connection with the Primordial Ancestor?!

In great silence, a huge flock of bats was summoned by Dracula out the darkness, its amount large enough to block the entire night sky. Each one of them was of the size of a human's head, and they all had a pointy face and bloody fangs. As soon as these blood-thirsty bats landed on the light shield, the shield dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if its power was being quickly absorbed. Meanwhile, as soon as a bat was killed by the defense shield, a new one was born from the boundless darkness.

The power of the prince was so formidable that it could directly gain power from the shield like it was sucking blood!

"… The call from the blood prays for the reappearance of our Ancestor, may the silver moon pierce through the deepest darkness…" Lucien closed his eyes to stay concentrated, deciding not to look at the tottering light shield anymore.

The light of the shield had dimmed to an extreme, but it was still resisting the attack of the bats. Affected by the connection between the mysterious spell and the silver moon, Prince Dracula was acting in an irritated manner. He gathered all the bats together and formed a bloody mouth big enough to devour the entire castle.

The mouth opened and two white fangs were revealed against the moonlight. Fiercely, the fangs sank into the light shield.

Bang! The shield crashed and vanished.

"Defense magic circle severely damaged. Defense level lowered…"

As soon as Mikhalik's muffled voice was heard, the second layer of defense was directly destroyed by the fangs!

At the same time, Lucien felt that his soul had risen into the air. Although he was actually still standing in the hall, he was also somehow coldly overlooking Prince Dracula who was bitterly launching his attack. Lucien also saw more obscure scenes beyond description, which were stretching out in every direction incorporating all possibilities.

The bloody mouth disappeared, and the bats turned into roaring black waves. A huge, pale hand with sharp nails grew out of the bat crowd and targeted at the castle down there.

Dracula decided to find out who this filthy tiny bug was!

Lucien's expectation was that Observer's Castle could withstand the fierce attack from the legendary for a couple of minutes, but in truth, it only lasted for less than thirty seconds!

The energy wave on the surface of the light shield disappeared, and Dracula was just about to find out who was summoning the Primordial Ancestor.

However, at this moment, he saw a small silver moon rising behind the caster. Although not very bright, the pure moonlight covered the little bug within, so Dracula could not see anything.

Then the small silver moon became bigger and bigger, as if the real silver moon had descended inside the castle.

Meanwhile, the silver moon in the night sky had somehow mysteriously disappeared. Only a few stars were still hanging above.

In the silver moon behind Lucien, a figure with blond hair emerged. A pair of scarlet eyes could be seen clearly, and they were rather cold and indifferent.

As soon as the figure showed up, Lucien felt that his soul was no longer looking down from above, but was embraced by the boundless power of darkness. However, the dark power did not feel eerie or intimidating. Instead, it was peaceful and warm, and even sacred, like the embrace from mom at night, or the ultimate home to return to when life came to the end.

Panic flashed through Dracula's dark red pupils as soon as he saw the blond-haired figure. Flapping his huge black bat wings, he was about to leave and escape to another space.

The filthy little bug did it!

The little bug, with no distinguished blood at all, managed to summon the Primordial Ancestor!

Feeling the special connection, Lucien lowered his right hand, and the blond-haired figure also lowered the sword in its hand.

A slash of moonlight pierced through the darkness. Its light was so bright that it lit up the sky. Like a sharp blade, the moonlight split Dracula into two halves.

Ahhhhhh!

In the bitter scream, black smoke came out of Dracula's body. Then the two halves suddenly joined themselves together and quickly disappeared into the darkness without any hesitation.

It was a great pity for Lucien that even using the God of Silver Moon's power, he could only hurt Dracula slightly. But still, it was a great lesson for Dracula in thousands of years.

In fact, as the Vampire Prince, even when facing the God of Silver Moon, Dracula should have been able to fight against the moon power for a while and retreat remaining intact. However, his deep-buried fear toward the Primordial Ancestor had made him lose the will of fighting immediately!

With the single strike, the sacred power left Lucien's body. The power ascended into the sky and disappeared in the darkness.

At this moment, the real silver moon reemerged in the sky again. But inside it, the blond-haired figure was faintly revealed.

Lucien did not quite understand the situation.

Although he was very confused, he activated the scroll for Space Jump without delay. He had to seize the chance to leave this place, or Dracula might come back to him after the rite. Also, he could not rule out the possibility that Alterna, the God of Silver Moon, might choose to kill him to keep what happened a secret!

Before Lucien was thrown into the chaotic space currents, he took a last glance at the silver moon in the sky.

Hanging in the sky, the silver moon was incredibly bright and big. Lucien could still see the blond-haired figure in it. Besides, now the moon was rimmed with a layer of fixed black, gray, and white, inside of which there were fuzzy figures wandering around.

The blond-haired figure lifted the sword in hand again, and the gray layer was hacked into pieces.

When the solidified illusion was broken, there were light balls between the color of white and black flying up. Seemingly to both dead and alive, the light balls fiercely collided into the silver moon.

In Lucien's eyes, the elusive light balls were like clusters of black, gray, and white cloud. They looked down upon Lucien and were full of changes.

Time seemed to stop for a second. And then, the elusive scarlet moon, which was covered with the light balls, fell from sky fiercely. Trailing a tail of light, it pierced through the layers of barriers between the spaces and fell into a broad and strange world.

The world seemed to be a dimension that had never been discovered before. It was the most spacious dimension ever!

Meanwhile, however, the real silver moon was still hanging in the sky, but was dyed with a scarlet cover and appearing rather eerie.

That was the last scene that Lucien saw before he entered the space jump.

…

Allyn. In a very tall astronomy tower.

Douglas spoke seriously. "We have to find that dimension and figure out what happened."

Beside him, a white-mustached old man wearing a pointed hat was subconsciously stroking the bright crystal ball in his hand. He said in a low voice,

"The scarlet moon. It this the beginning of an era of chaos and killing, but also revolution and development?"

The scarlet faded gradually, and the silver moon recovered its usual silence and coldness.

Chapter 416: The Search that is About to Get Crazy

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

After arriving at the small hill nearby Allyn through space jumping, Lucien quickly took out his crystal ball and cast the spell Horoscope under the dim morning sky.

The crystal ball darkened, in which countless stars lit up. When he saw that Natasha's Host Star of Destiny was still shining brightly, Lucien released a long sigh of relief.

Lucien finally relaxed. He looked in the east and saw the rising orange sun, lighting up the entire sky.

An idea suddenly came to Lucien's mind: The main material world was also a sphere, as there was a time difference between the Dark Mountain Range and Allyn, in addition, there were also horizons.

After using the scroll last time, Lucien had confirmed with the Lord of Storm that space jumping would only take about half an hour. From the different positions of the silver moon that Lucien saw in the Dark Mountain Range and in Allyn, it was easy for him to notice the existence of time difference.

Because of this very reason, arcanists never doubted the cosmology theories developed by Douglas.

Lucien wondered why that, despite the theories, the arcanists could not see the world or find any planets when they managed to fly into space.

He shook his head, knowing that it was not a good time to contemplate such a question that had been bothering the Congress of Magic for many years. Lucien rose into the sky and flew towards Allyn.

Landing on the edge of Allyn, Lucien did not waste his time going back home first. Instead, he cast Speed on himself and rushed to the Congress of Magic's magic tower as fast as he could.

Dashing out of the elevator and into his teacher's office, Lucien finally saw Fernando. Wearing the same scarlet magic robe and holding a magic book in his hand, Fernando was tutoring Alferris, who was holding a thick and large quill-pen trying to figure out a tough magic question.

Alferris had shrunk to the proper size for the desk. Right now, it was listening to Fernando so attentively that its attitude surprised Lucien.

"Here you are… So the things before daybreak had something to do with you?"

Fernando was aware of Lucien's arrival as soon as his student entered the magic tower. Less than an hour ago, the scarlet moon rose. Then, Lucien returned to the Congress of Magic. It was obvious that he had something to do with it.

Lucien nodded. "I summoned the God of Silver Moon, Alterna, to help a friend get out of a trap. But what was out of my expectation was that Dracula, the vampire prince, showed up. I have no idea what happened in the end."

Lucien was being quite honest; he just didn't mention the World of Souls.

From Lucien's story, it seemed that there was a first-generation vampire who got trapped by the vampire prince, and Lucien was commissioned to break the trap by summoning the God of Silver Moon. Then some mysterious existence which was behind Dracula showed up and led the whole thing to an unknown direction.

To be honest, Lucien did not have any idea about what happened exactly. He only had some vague guesses based on what he knew about the World of Souls.

Of course, Lucien was taking a bit of risk here. If nothing so inconceivable like this had happened, if space had not been distorted by the power of the scarlet moon, and if Lucien didn't have to use the Space Jump scroll which was connected to Fernando's demiplane and thus allowing Fernando to deduce from the results that Lucien had gone to the Dark Mountain Range, Lucien could have saved his efforts coming up with all the excuses, as Fernando would have seen a different story himself. After all, Lucien was born with the talent of a Secretive.

However, after going through all the things that happened before, Lucien believed that his own teacher was quite trustworthy. Even if Fernando found out the secret of the World of Souls, Lucien should still be safe.

When it came to something serious, Fernando was always short-tempered but earnest. Tapping on the desk lightly, he said,

"It was the Observer who was trapped, right? He's the only one who can summon the God of Silver Moon. In fact, it was quite a good opportunity for you. When Alterna descended, you were temporarily affected by Alterna and saw the world from Her perspective, a perspective that only She can provide you. After all, Alterna is the closest existence to the truth of the world, which is the ultimate goal of every arcanist's research. You might not be able to feel it right now, but you'll understand its value when you step into the realm of the legendary one day."

Compared to questions like what kind of power was behind Dracula, what the solidified colors of black, white, and grey were, or where the other falling dimensions were, the question that Fernando cared more about was what Lucien saw when the God of Silver Moon arrived.

Lucien did not try to hide this part, as he also had no idea what he had seen. "I felt I was in the air, looking down upon everything. There were… things I have no idea how to describe. They were… possibilities… of the world."

What he saw was way beyond his words.

"In the air, look down… Possibilities…" Fernando slightly frowned. "It is said that when one approaches the truth of the world or—what others call—god, the person is essentially changed, in a good way. He or she would be able to see the track of destiny from another perspective, but it's not like what you said… not really. Anyways, Lucien, you own this. When you become a legendary and experience something similar one day, the blurry images shall have more specific meanings."

Obviously, neither did Fernando find anything really valuable.

Before Lucien responded, Fernando put on a mischievous grin. "Speaking of this, I have to thank you. Your intervention caused the injuring and falling of the God of Silver Moon and the mysterious existence. If we can find the dimension where they fell before They woke up, very likely we'll be able to collect some valuable materials to fill in the blank of our research. Aren't you a lucky star for the Congress!"

Yes, every high-rank arcanist was a lunatic when it came to conducting researches, and the grand arcanists were the greatest representatives. Lucien realized that his vision was still far away from that of his teacher, as he hadn't thought from this perspective.

"So how long it will take us to locate the dimension?" asked Lucien, who was also unconsciously affected by the passion.

"Around three to ten years. We will use astrology, on the premise that we know its existence for sure and have blurry image memories for guidance." Fernando replied.

"The Congress will try its very best. Besides us, the South Church, the North Church, and the Dark Congress should also have seen what happened. Since it's related to the secrets beyond the legendary level, they'll all get crazy. Whoever finds it first gets the best share."

After explaining briefly to Lucien, Fernando said, "So far, don't bother with this anymore. Your astrology is way far from prying into the truth. When the dimension is found, I'll request the Highest Council for an exploration. If you and the other students are willing to go, you guys can come with me."

Straightfoward. That was very typical of Fernando.

"So why are you here? In such a hurry…" asked Fernando after finishing his speech.

Lucien was reminded of his purpose. Putting on a flattering smile, Lucien said, "Teacher, I wonder if I can use your demiplane to go to the Duchy of Violet."

"But you just came back." Fernando felt a bit confused, which was very rare for him.

Lucien hurriedly explained, "I got a friend to help me distract Prince Dracula this time. Although Horoscope has told me that she's safe, I think… it's better if we talk face to face. After all, Prince Dracula's power of cursing and casting nightmares is also well-known."

"She? The little girl from Hathaway's family?" Fernando slightly nodded, knowing that Lucien and Natasha were quite good friends. "You need me to bring you back?"

"Yeah, please." Lucien suddenly felt that Fernando was like his guardian and was somehow amused.

When Fernando stood up and was about to bring Lucien to his demiplane, Lucien noticed that Alferris was still focusing on its own study, sparing no time for greeting at all. Driven by curiosity, Lucien asked, "Hey, what are you busy studying at, Alferris?"

"Alchemy, Golem Making," answered Alferris without looking up.

"What for? You need golems?" Lucien felt it was even stranger, since Alferris always tore down the golems for their shining pieces.

Alferris answered while pretending it was not a big deal. "The Congress has been encouraging senior-rank mages to develop new golem models. A seventh circle mage like me can collect some precious materials from the Congress for free two times, as long as my golem making skills reach a certain level."

When it mentioned the free precious materials, its amber-colored eyes were shining with excitement.

No wonder… This was very typical of little Crystal.

"By the way, boss. I recently read a story about the brave and the dragon." Alferris seemed to recall something and finally looked up at Lucien and grinned.

"So… what do you mean… You want to defeat the brave?" Lucien felt a bit suspicious.

"No no no… boss, I mean— Here's my plan. I can play the role of the dreadful dragon. We kidnap a princess and I'll demand for treasures. Then you'll be the brave and defeat me to win the abundant reward. Then we do half-half…" Before Alferris could finish his proposal, it was deterred back to its own textbook by Fernando's one single glance.

...

After a few minutes of space jump, Lucien was taken to Fernando's demiplane. He finally could see this place clearly: It was a space full of thunder and lightning. Fernando's black magic tower was like a huge lightning rod, conducting the electricity power down to the ground with bright silver-white flashes.

Fernando suddenly asked, "Is the Count Silver Eye safe now?"

"…?"

Being busy running for his life, finding excuses, and worrying about Natasha, Lucien finally realized now that he still had no idea if Rhine had been rescued from the trap in the World of Souls.

Seeing Lucien's confused expression, Fernando teased him.

"Hmm… Obviously, you are in such a hurry that you don't even remember what you did all these things for."

But in Fernando's mind, he actually understood Lucien. After all, this young man just went through a series of great challenges. Fernando, smiling, slightly shook his head. From his own demiplane, Fernando took Lucien with him through another space jump.

Finally, they arrived at Melzer Black Forest outside Aalto.

Chapter 417: Partly Good and Partly Bad

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Adjusting the piece of monocle decorated with a fine silver chain on his nose, Lucien was about to activate Fernando's Electromagnetic Message. However, just at this time, Lucien received a call.

After the disturbance of the electric current noise, Lucien heard Natasha's voice, sounding both concerned and relieved.

"Lucien?"

Obviously, getting back into contact was a great relief to this young lady.

"It's me. I was about to call you as well." Lucien could not hold back the smile on his face. Since Natasha's call came as soon as he arrived in Aalto, it was reasonable for him to assume that Natasha had kept on calling him for at least the past half an hour.

Unlike Lucien, who mastered the knowledge of Horoscope, Natasha could not tell if her friend was safe through divination. The many accidents that happened during their plan greatly worried Natasha.

"Good news," said Natasha in great relief. "I was worried about you since Dracula went back earlier than we expected—he never approached the bait in the mountains. But it seems that you did it, right? Was it because of you? —I'm talking about the scarlet moon."

Lucien's connection to the scarlet moon was too obvious to ignore.

Lucien also felt relieved hearing Natasha's words. Apparently, it was some kind of special connection that Prince Dracula possessed with other first-generation vampires that helped him find out it was a trap, so he never really got close to Natasha. In this case, Lucien did not have to worry whether Natasha had been cursed anymore.

"I summoned the God of Silver Moon, but I've got no idea why the moon turned scarlet. So far, I can't say the task has been fulfilled, since I haven't heard anything from the other side." Lucien could not confess to the Princess that he was in such a hurry to confirm her safety that he had not spared time to contact Rhine yet.

"Anyways." Lucien paused with an unaware smile on his face. "Thanks for your help, really. There was no way that I could do this without you. Dracula could have killed me like crashing a little bug… I'm so glad you're not in any trouble because of me…"

"Of course. I'm always trustworthy." Natasha cut Lucien off triumphantly. "Where are you? I'll give the mask back to you."

Lucien, who had got used to Natasha's style, immediately informed the Princess where he was.

After less than ten minutes, Lucien saw Natasha in her fine milky-white full set of armor, followed by Camil. As usual, she was glamorous.

"It's a pity that the mask can't turn a male into a female," said Natasha sincerely when she handed the mask back to Lucien while staring at him.

Lucien was speechless, so he decided to simply look up at the sky where the silver moon was still hanging when he took the mask back.

Natasha was just subconsciously joking. Seeing that Lucien was not into this kind of talk, she laughed and soon became serious again. "I was told that Dracula is an expert in casting curses and nightmares. You probably want to have your teacher or Hathaway to check you out as soon as possible when you go back. Umm… I think you should go and find the Eye of Curse. He is the authority on these cases."

"No worries. I was under the defense shield all the time. Before Dracula broke the shield, the God of Silver Moon was summoned and drove him away. I was not affected at all." Lucien grinned again, feeling rather sweet and warm in his heart.

"Great." Natasha nodded slightly and then looked at the sky. "When you summoned Alterna, the black, white, and grey… the solidified colors, they were the same with what you saw beside Lake Elsinore, right? It's another dimension… I wonder if Mr. Rhine and the Grand Cardinal Sard have something to do with it…"

She was not digging into Lucien's secrets but was just putting forward questions without demanding for an answer. Meanwhile, she was also trying to remind Lucien that other powerful existences who experienced the collapse of the Grand Cross should have also figured out some pieces of the puzzle. After all, at that time, the silent world of black, white, and grey emerged out of the water. Although so far "no one" had found the entrance to the world yet, it was easy for one to connect the two things together. Therefore, Lucien had to be even more careful in the future.

Natasha believed that she was so far the only one except for Lucien who had grasped something about Rhine and Sard, since Lucien had given her the reminders.

"You're right. To find the entrance of the dimension, Mr. Rhine decided to work with Sard, but he was betrayed by Sard, who definitely was hiding some secrets. Therefore, Mr. Rhine was trapped. To help him get out, I summoned the God of Silver Moon. But obviously, the secrets of the dimension are even more complex than I expected. So far, I have no idea whether I succeeded or not."

Since Natasha had figured out much of the story on her own, Lucien generally explained the situation to her without touching the deeper secrets. Besides, Natasha's unconditional help made Lucien trusted her even more.

Natasha nodded solemnly. "Since the fall of the Magic Empire, despite the ongoing conflicts between the South and the North Church, there have been no conflicts powerful enough to involve in the entire continent. In the dimension that attracted both Sard and Rhine hides the power that rivals that of Alterna. Maybe… this is the beginning of a new great era."

Natasha put on a confident and bright smile. "In every great era, there are great powers that ended up fallen, but there are also new powers catching up and exceeding the former. We shall work hard together, Lucien! I can feel that my blood's longing to fight!"

"I've caught up with you." Lucien pretended to be quite aggressive. "Perhaps sooner or later, my power will exceed yours."

Natasha readily accepted the challenge, happy and excited at the same time. "We'll see who becomes a level nine first, and who becomes a legendary first. If you lose…"

She put on a cunning smile, as if she was hiding some little secrets.

"Alright, you should go now. For what happened tonight, the Grand Cardinal and the priests must be on high alert right now. Although we're not that important, we still gotta be very careful. After all, your mentor is a grand arcanist…" Natasha hurried Lucien as she did not know that Lucien came here by space jump. "And remember to write to me!"

Lucien's heart suddenly sank. How came he forgot this part? He was in such a rush that he directly jumped to the suburb nearby Aalto. Sard might have already noticed it! Luckily, Fernando was still with them!

High up in the air, where Lucien and Natasha's sight could not reach, Fernando in his red robe was smiling at an old man in front of him. It was Sard, the Grand Cardinal of Aalto.

"It's not decent to peep at the kids' dating." Fernando grinned.

"Tonight is not a peaceful night," said Sard expressionlessly, "so as the Grand Cardinal of Violet, I'm responsible for the Princess's safety."

He was the one who made the most information out from the scarlet moon incident tonight. Thus, right now every single unusual sign and anyone in Aalto who was worth extra attention was being watched by Sard.

Fernando stood right in front of Sard and blocked his way like an old scoundrel. He sighed and said, "Sard… you're so close to becoming the Saint. I really want to destroy you right now."

Obviously, Fernando was threatening Sard by reminding him that he was still not yet a Saint!

"Bellia and his people are also watching," Sard replied. It seemed that Fernando's words did not really bother him. After all, there was more than one legendary in the parish of Violet.

Meanwhile, Sard did not take any further movement either, as he knew that this short-tempered legendary-level archmage could fulfill his words at any moment.

Fernando stood still while observing Sard with a meaningful smile. However, in his mind, he had already blamed his student multiple times for his unusual recklessness. After what happened, a space jump would easily catch the attention of all factions including Aalto and the North Fortress.

Fernando looked down. He secretly criticized again that Natasha was being enough impetuous this time as well, and somehow Camil did not even stop her.

These kids… Fernando sighed.

He was here not just for sending and picking up Lucien!

...

After Fernando's ten-minute-long roaring, Lucien made an in-depth and sincere self-criticism. Then, wearing the Transformation Mask, he arrived in Rentato by magic train. There Lucien found a random hotel and went to sleep to summon Rhine's projection in his dream – Allyn's many magic circles would prevent Rhine's from projecting to Lucien.

In the foggy world of dream, Rhine, who was wearing a tight red shirt and a black high-necked coat, soon appeared.

"Mr. Rhine, you are still trapped…" Seeing that Rhine was still projecting through the World of Souls, Lucien got the answer.

Rhine smiled helplessly, though his silver-colored eyes were charming as usual and his bearing was still elegant. "The Primordial Ancestor was injured and fell together with that thing from deep of the World of Souls. Thus, He had no chance to help me out. Hopefully, the Primordial Ancestor can wake up as soon as possible… Or probably I should count on you and wait until when you become a legendary."

"Then what about the threat from the World of Souls? Has it stopped?" Lucien hurriedly asked. He had taken such a huge risk and sincerely hoped that it would not go in vain.

Rhine nodded gently, the helplessness and bitterness disappearing from his smile. "It has stopped. These senior-rank specters are in such a rage that they are now using their most powerful Horoscope spells to figure out who did it. But because of the power of the Primordial Ancestor and your strange track of destiny, they can't find you."

"I indeed felt from the imprint in my soul the moment when the Primordial Ancestor fell. He was severely injured, so His rank could not be maintained, and recovery would require a long time. Of course, even if killed, the Primordial Ancestor could still gain power from the darkness and the silver moon to resurrect. He never dies."

"As for the mysterious existence from deep of the World of Souls, because it never woke up completely, it has been broken into many pieces. Its recovery might take even longer. Part of its pieces fell into the unknown dimension. So, Lucien, if you can find them, I'm sure it would be a remarkable benefit to you, since it could make up the cost you paid for becoming a senior-rank in a rush, not to mention that it can also guide you in your future progress."

Lucien nodded. If he could find the pieces, with the knowledge in the spiritual library, he could perhaps reveal most of the truth of the world.

As for how to compensate for the loss caused by advancing too fast, Lucien did not need the extra help, since he had already found the direction: To create his own meditation.

Because of some magic experiments, arcanists believed that spiritual power and light were in fact the same by nature. Therefore, whether light came in the form of waves or particles involved the understanding of spiritual power, and in which direction meditation should go.

So far, despite their differences from each other, most meditation methods were based on the belief that light came in waves. However, there were still a few that were based on the Theory of Particles, and they worked quite well—even better than Theory-of-Waves meditations for some arcanists with unique cognitive worlds.

Building on the photoelectric effect that has been discovered, the next step that Lucien was going to take was to study the wave-particle duality of light, which was also the wave-particle duality of spiritual power!

Chapter 418: Fernando's Roaring

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

On the thirty-fifth floor of the Congress of Magic's headquarter tower, in a medium-sized meeting room.

In the center of the room, there was a long cherrywood table surrounded by twenty-four chairs. The chairs were all made of precious wood and their red velvet cushions were nice and soft. The backs of the chairs were carved with different fine patterns, such as the symbol of elements, a storm enveloping bolts of lightning, the crown of magic and arcana…

"It has been confirmed that the God of Silver Moon, Alterna, brought about the change of the scarlet moon. As for Alterna's enemy… it was an existence which has never been discovered before, probably coming from a silent world where all colors are devoid except for black, white, and grey." The Prophet, who was wearing a grey pointy hat, concluded primarily.

The scarlet moon and what happened to the two beings so close to the "truth" caught the attention of the Congress of Magic immediately. The Highest Council called for a meeting to decide further arrangements.

Since the meeting was a rush decision, only eighteen out of the twenty-four members managed to attend. Hathaway and the other five members were not in Allyn right now.

Hearing what the Prophet just said, Vicente Miranda, also known as the Thanatos, knocked at the table and said, "What we should really care about right now is which dimension Alterna and the unknown existence ended up falling into, and why They started fighting."

Vicente Miranda was covered with a black cloak. Inside his eyes, two dark red flames were flickering.

"It perhaps has something to do with Dracula, the Vampire Prince, and Rhine, the Silver-eyed Count. They aren't getting along with each other. According to the information yielded by Horoscope, I went to the Dark Mountain Range this early morning and found that Rhine's castle has jumped into the Night Highland to recover from severe damage. The surroundings have been completely destroyed into ashes, and traces left by Dracula were everywhere…" Douglas said in a calm tone. "As for why they started fighting, and why the unknown existence was involved, no idea so far."

Fernando's red eyes surveyed around the meeting room, and many of the legendary archmages slightly lowered their eyes to avoid direct eye contact with him. They did not want to be roared at by Fernando if he somehow found a fault of theirs.

"I've sent Bergner and Annonis to locate the dimension. If any of you are free, please join in. We all know how important this is," said Fernando. He had been safeguarding Allyn in recent years and was therefore responsible for making the arrangements at this point.

Bergner was the Prophet's name, and Annonis was the Astrologer.

"Also, I have confirmed from other sources that it was Dracula and Rhine who caused it. If we want to find the reason for the fight, we must focus on the mysterious existence and the silent world made of black, white, and grey!"

As Fernando spoke, he looked directly into Vicente's eyes.

"What do you mean, Fernando?"

The dark flames in Thanatos's eyes flickered. He was not a crazy mage who had no idea of interpersonal relationships. Thus, he understood what Fernando was indicating.

"I've got a message from the Duchy of Violet. At the end of April in year 816, great changes took place beside Lake Elsinore. Some adventurers survived and they described the changes as 'all colors but black, white, and gray started to fade, and the sounds also disappeared'. Don't you tell me this has nothing to do with what happened last night!"

"Also, Rogerio was there at that time! Why he didn't he include this in his report?!"

The light in Fernando's eyes was sharp and he was almost roaring. The survivor he was talking about was, of course, Lucien.

Because of the ambush of the Church and Hathaway's involvement, there were quite a few survivals from the catastrophe. Some of the night watchers and knights who were chasing after Argent Horn were there as well. Therefore, the information was in fact relatively easy to access. Thus Lucien did not try to hide it from his teacher, instead, he confessed in front of Fernando, which was in actually a good way of showing that he knew nothing about the World of Souls.

"You gotta ask Hathaway." Thanatos tried to shift Fernando's attention to Hathaway who was not present.

"Shall I also ask Hathaway why there's also the solidification of black, white, and grey in Heidler as well?!"

Fernando's roaring kept going on. Thanatos couldn't help leaning slightly to one side.

The rest of the members of the Highest Council all knew what happened in Heidler. But because no possible reasons were found, none of them mentioned about it before. Now that what just happened resembled Heidler's condition so much, they all started feeling suspicious. However, facing Vicente, they were hoping that the Lord of Storm could take the initiative to put it forward.

Fernando did not disappoint them.

Thanatos was so skinny that there seemed to be only a layer of skin covering his cheekbones. He responded in a rather calm manner, "Heidler is connected to an unknown dimension. It became like this because it was contaminated. Unfortunately, we haven't found the entrance of the dimension yet, so we're unable to explore it further. Currently, we have no idea if this has anything to do with the silent world. I was about to make some further investigation when I return there."

At this point, Vicente could only choose to tell half of the truth about the World of Souls. It was very difficult to find the entrance anyways.

"Good. We've got some clues. I'll ask Hathaway and Rogerio as well. I hope all of you in this room can set aside some time to help investigate these two cases. After all, this involves the truth of the world." Douglas hurriedly concluded before Fernando's fury proceeded.

After all the members left the meeting room, Fernando shook his head.

"This's more complex than what was expected."

In fact, Fernando knew that Lucien was not telling the whole true story, but he respected Lucien's right to privacy and did not probe further. For Fernando, knowing the correct rough outline of what happened was enough.

Confident as the Lord of Storm, he believed that anything that happened before must leave some clues behind. As long as there were clues, he could find out the truth.

For example, although Lucien said that Dracula never saw his face or detected his smell, so he would not be chased after. But since he had turned to Natasha for help, someone who's careful enough could still trace back to Lucien by studying Natasha's whereabouts.

Therefore, the reasons why Fernando took Lucien back to the Duchy of Violet were twofold: One was to confuse others, as no one in their right mind would immediately return to the site after causing such trouble; The other was that if there truly is a secret hidden behind all these and someone began to suspect Lucien, then Fernando's act would be interpreted as that Lucien had already shared the secret with the Congress of Magic, thus Lucien would be much safer—if someone wants to silence the witness over the affair, then they must silence the whole Congress of Magic!

…

Since spiritual power was closely related to the soul and one's world of cognition, any exploration into spiritual power or advancement of meditation methods required great caution. In the past years, more than a few senior-rank sorcerers had been severely injured when trying to modify their meditations, some even died from it. Therefore, after conducting the photoelectric effect experiment and applying the theory of wave-particle dualism to spiritual power development, Lucien did not come up with a new meditation right away. Instead, he modified it bit by bit during every day's practice. He estimated that it would take him two to three years to complete and perfect the new meditation.

Opening the window, Lucien felt the night wind blew in. It was already the Month of Ice, the wind made Lucien shiver, but was also very refreshing.

Lucien grinned when he saw that Alferris was focusing on roasting a whole lamb down there in the garden. He had been back for a few days and had been showing up in front of people more and more often. No one ever doubted him for having anything to do with the scarlet moon, as in the eyes of the arcanists other than Fernando, Thompson, and those who he was close to, Lucien Evans, the leader of the Atom Institution, never left Allyn.

To their way of thinking, Lucien was spending all of his time on improving himself as he was worried about the Church's possible assassination.

It was because that Lucien did not leave for too long, while Alferris' disguising himself as Lucien also helped a lot.

"Sir, Mr. Arthur's here again. Shall I decline him again using the same excuse?" asked Leo, the chief butler, who was among the few who knew that Lucien just came back.

Lucien shook his head. "Let him in. I gotta ask him about the production of the magic crystal light."

Although he got Health Belt, Pale Justice, and other precious magic items from this adventure, he also consumed lots of senior-rank materials and potions. All he had left right now was a tube of solidified helium, a tube of Alferris' blood, three tubes of liquid helium, four tubes of Water Song, etc.

In addition, the materials that he used for the promotion to senior-rank were loans from Fernando, therefore he had to leave the income from Holm Mineral and Harvest to Fernando as a pledge. His subsidies from the Congress had to go to Alferris for its salary. Although Lucien could still get the materials he needed for experiments using the budget of the institution, he did not have enough Thales or arcana points to do anything else. He needed a new source of revenue urgently.

The air of the dragon in the garden was oppressive. Arthur walked through the garden, feeling quite weak in his knees. When he walked into the living room, enthusiastic smile piled up on his chubby face. "Hi, Lucien, our youngest member of the Arcana Review Board! Finally, you've finally got some time for me!"

"So what makes you here this late?" Lucien was being very straightforward.

Arthur undid the top button and laughed. "Your place's surely much warmer than mine. My fireplace never worked as well as your magic."

"Anyways, Lucien," Arthur continued, "I'm here because the first order of magic crystal lights has been produced. Remember? You changed the materials for producing. Sir James, the Duke, wanted to install crystal lights in his villa in Rentato. We've placed wires from the magic circles powered by water to his villa… of course, under the guidance of several sorcerers from the school of electromagnetics."

Lucien nodded, waiting for Arthur to finish his words.

"So tonight, we are about to light them up! Sir James' place will be the first noble's villa ever that's lit up by magic! This will be a historic event! As the designer, you should definitely be present!" Arthur said humorously with a radiant smile.

Chapter 419: Divergence

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Night in the Month of Ice fell early. Tiny but dense snowflakes were dancing like fairies under the light of the arc light street lamps, holy and hazy.

There were barely any people left on the street. Shaking the snowflakes off their coats while advancing quickly, they had no time for such a beautiful view.

"So beautiful… But why do they have to melt." Alferris looked at the shiny dots in his "palms" melting into water quickly and muttered in a depressed voice.

The snowflakes were shiny and their structure was complicated, which fits Aferris' taste perfectly. He would have collected them if he had not known what they really were, and that was the reason why Alferris did not really enjoy the winter.

As someone who signed a 100-year contract with Lucien, Alferris happily followed Lucien to Rentato after he devoured the rare roasted whole lamb. He disguised himself as a young boy that was around seven to eight years old so the citizens would not be terrified. He had a pair of amber eyes, dark blonde hair, and he was wearing a little suit with a little tie.

In the carriage, Arthur Doyle was shivering in the corner as he knew what the cute boy really was. Although he knew a lot of things and he had a strong background, he was still scared when facing a legendary "monster".

"The arc lamp is way too hot and way too expensive. Most of the cities can't afford it, not even Rentato. You can only find such a lamp in the noble district and the busiest market." Lucien changed his outfit back to Holm style. He was smiling while looking out of the carriage.

Arthur overcame his fear with the desire for wealth. He followed Lucien's sight and looked at the night view outside. He said excitedly, "After the magic crystal light passes the field test, its cost will be lowered again, and I'll talk to the Governor of Rentato City Hall. All the streets in the city will use our magic lamp and it's hard to imagine how much money we'll get. We can also promote the product in other cities and other countries…" He could not imagine how much value the lamp could create.

Alferris turned his head around suddenly after hearing the word "money". He tried to figure out what they were discussing. Arthur was so scared that he almost knocked over the glazed white porcelain teacup.

"This business comes with great opportunity and the profit will be incredible, Alferris. If you want to join us, you must buy a share with your golds, gems, and crystals. You have a lot of them in your collection, right?" Lucien was just joking with Alferris. However, if Alferris really wanted to join in, the Will of Elemental probably would not have an issue. The initial production and promotion phase required much investment. And before the cost was lowered again, not everyone would be able to use the lamp. That would make the stingy Morris's heart broke.

"Gold, gem, and crystal? For real…" Alferris tried to make it look like that he did not care but he was actually struggling badly in his mind. The possible great wealth in the future and the shiny gold, gem, crystal in his collection. He wanted both!

Alferris struggled so bad in his mind that he did not even notice the carriage had already arrived at Duke James' mansion in the noble district.

"Welcome, Evans, our youngest and most handsome member of the Arcana Review Board. Sadly, my daughters and my granddaughters already have their own families, or they'll definitely ask me to introduce you to them." Duke James, who looked like a bald mobster, smiled as he welcomed them. Surrounded around the warm campfire in the garden, he and his guests seemed to be waiting for something.

Lucien smiled as he got off the carriage. "It's a great honor to be welcomed by Duke James himself. I feel like I'm a king or a prince. Why is everyone outside?"

The mansion is completely dark without the slightest hint of light. It almost felt like the mansion had merged with the dark night.

"All the candles in the mansion have been changed to magic crystal lights and we'll light them up one by one in the dark night. It's a memorable moment, and we should begin only when all the guests are here." The Duke's head was reflecting the orange light from the campfire.

Lucien chuckled in his mind as he thought that the Duke had the spirit of a hipster, although an old one.

There were some special set up in the garden, so that although there was only one single campfire, it was not cold at all. The noble girls and ladies were not complaining at all, on the contrary, they were considerably interested in this new party format.

"The Prince's body is weak and the night is cold, so I did not invite him. Alright, let me introduce you to some friends." Duke James led Lucien to several people that looked like sorcerers after Lucien greeted the nobles that he was familiar with. It seemed like they were the Electromagnetics Sorcerers that Arthur had mentioned about who had helped set up the routes and converters.

Approaching the two men and one woman, James pointed at Lucien and said, "I guess you already who he is and I should probably skip the introduction. Level six arcanist, Fifth circle sorcerer, the youngest member of the Arcana Review Board, the genius who has claimed the highest Elemental and Necromancy honors, Mr. Lucien Evans."

Lucien had not submitted his sorcerer rank yet. He was waiting for everything to settle down first.

"Greetings, Mr. Evans," the old man with well-organized black and white hair said. The young man and the young woman around him also bowed politely. "Greetings, Mr. Evans."

"This is Mr. Barek Trevors, a level-six Electromagnetics arcanist and a seventh-circle sorcerer. He's a student of the Emperor of Control, Mr. Brook." James introduced the old man with blonde eyes and a serious expression to Lucien. "And they are his student, middle-rank sorcerers Lillian and Issac."

Lillian was a delicate girl with long brown hair, while Issac seemed to have the Fire Giant's bloodline as he was tall and muscular; his hair had the color of the flames.

"Mr. Trevors, Lillian, and Issac. Nice to meet you." Lucien nodded slightly and greeted them one by one.

James chuckled. "Barek is a friend from my childhood. He failed to activate his bloodline power so he became a sorcerer. However, he showed his talent as a sorcerer and was recognized by Mr. Brook. He became a high-ranked arcanist smoothly. I think it wouldn't take him too long to surpass me, although I started much earlier than him.

"This time we're trying to create some new alchemical things that deal with Electromagnetics, which is his specialty. So I decided to ask him to help."

It sounded like that Barek came from a small noble family. Although he had no title of nobility, he was still a representative of those board members who were close to the nobles. After being introduced to the liberal group by Prince Patrick, Lucien had expanded his social networks.

"Evans, the electrons you discovered are very helpful in the electromagnetic field. A lot of theories now have a deeper meaning." It seemed like Barek did not know how to interact with people. He went straight to arcana topics.

Lucien did not want to waste time on saying preliminaries anyway, so he started talking with Barek about the possible situations of the study in the electromagnetic field. Lillian and Issac decided to remain silent and just listen to their conversation on the side.

"Evans, have you heard of the experiment conducted by president Douglas?" Barek suddenly mentioned an experiment.

Lucien shook his head in confusion. "You know, I spent most of my time lately analyzing spells and improving myself, so I had no idea what happened recently."

"President Douglas designed an experiment, trying to validate that there is no relative movement against ether and the speed of light is the same in all direction." Barek was speaking in a calm tone. It did not even sound like that he was talking about a trending hot topic.

Lucien finally understood what happened. Without other things interrupting, Douglas eventually completed the experiment he mentioned in the letter and confirmed that ether did not exist. Without the ether, there was no way that light could arrive at the ground if light had been waves, and the world should be completely dark.

He denied the wave theory of light from an opposite approach.

"Evans, what do you think of this experiment?" Barek's blonde eyes suddenly turned bright and his expression became even more serious. It seemed like Lucien's answer would decide if they could become friends or not.

Lucien struggled in his mind after seeing his expression. He did not expect the wave theory supports and the particle theory supports to hate each other so much.

Recalling in the magic school that the Electromagnetic faculties supported the wave theory and The Elements faculties supported the particle theory was the main reason for their conflicts, Lucien had a deeper understanding of this principle contradiction which persisted throughout the history of magic.

When they open their eyes for the first time, people could feel the light. By comparing the day time to the night time, the ancient human beings admired the light. They thought light represented life and divinity. Ever since magic was born, sorcerers never stopped exploring the truth of the light. After they found that light was similar to spiritual power, the study of light became one of the eternal topics in the field.

Compared to theories like the Energy Essentialism supported by Viscount Roland, the Atom Foundation Theory of the Element School, and the Theory of Life Force of the Necromancy School, the Particle Theory led by Douglas and the Wave Theory led by Brook were the two major theories that involved all sorcerers of the Congress. They were also the main conflict in research.

If the board were to be turned into a church, then aside from a few people who sat on the fence, the wave supporters and particle supporters would definitely condemn each other as "heretics"!

In this environment, mentioning the wave-particle dualism would not be a compromise. Instead, it would just become a new heresy and was likely to be attacked by supporters of both theories.

Lucien thought for a while and smiled. "Based on your description, Mr. Barek, it seems like the experiment is based on the current Astronomical Revolution System, which hasn't been validated by the discovery of a planet yet."

Lucien repeated the same words he used to answer his teacher Fernando.

"That's reasonable." Barek's expression loosened. It almost felt like that as long as Lucien did not support the Particle Theory and Douglas's experiment, they could be friends.

At this moment, all Duke James's guests had arrived, so he clapped and made sure that everyone was looking at the mansion. Sorcerer Lillian walked to the entrance and smiled. "Everyone, with electricity, the magic crystal lights no longer need to be turned on by with spiritual power. Even the most untalented noble will be able to use them like using quills. Actually, it can be even easier. For example, I just need a single tap and the light in the whole mansion will be turned on."

To make sure that Duke James could show off, Barek made a temporary master switch outside.

"Great, let's put out the campfire first." James was satisfied that the gentlemen and the ladies were all staring at the mansion curiously. He waved his hands to put out the campfire.

Lillian pressed the switch hard intentionally in the darkness.

*PA*

After a soft noise, all the magic crystal lights in the mansion were turned on.

The bright light tore the dark apart and expelled the fear. The place was full of a "divine" feeling. It was like the morning light driving away the night!

It was a big step in human's history!

Chapter 420: Using Electricity Safely

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

In the winter night when snowflakes were swirling in the air, crystal lights flowing with colors lit up the entire place of the Duke's villa, which looked like a shining gem against the black background of the night. The light that burst out from the villa was so eye-catching that it seemed as if all the stars had landed and gathered here.

Even if among the senior-rank sorcerers, no one had ever tried to use this many crystal lights in his magic tower. In most cases, they were used to using magic candles, as the candles' effects were also not bad.

For most of the nobles present tonight, it was not until today that they finally realized what the word "brilliance" meant. They had never imagined that a man-made view could be as imposing as natural scenery. This power came from human beings, and this scene could be spread and seen throughout the world!

"Ladies and gentlemen, come in, please." Barek's student, Lillian, was the emcee tonight. With a lovely smile, she invited the guests to take a tour in the luxury villa lit up like the palace of the Sun King.

The noble ladies lifted their skirts elegantly and glided in, followed by the gentlemen. All of them were very curious and could not wait to see the magic crystal lights closely.

"Very impressive. Our first stage of promotion has succeeded." Arthur was a businessman, and the impressiveness of the scene did not outweigh the importance of making money for him.

He was carefully observing how the nobles responded to the magic crystal lights.

"I want them for my magic tower!" Alferris drooled seeing how bright the lights were, as he was known for being captivated by shiny things. "I'll pay in arcana points!"

Gold, gems, crystals… Anything that had gone into Alferris' pocket would not come out again. Lucien even doubted if Alferris had embezzled half of the building materials of its magic tower, as it looked so deformed that it resembled a crooked peak — Located in Allyn, the tower's chance of being attacked was slim to none, so there was nothing to be afraid of.

"But these lights, because of the cost, can only benefit the nobles. If we can't lower the cost further, common citizens still won't be able to enjoy the light. Every single human being should benefit from the progress of civilization." Lucien was inspired by the scene; To Lucien, the standard of judging whether a civilization is advanced or not should be the popularization of technologies. The commencing age of electricity should be able to do so!

Arthur certainly was not sharing Lucien's view. "But… It is not very likely that we can lower the cost further, at least not in a short period of time."

"Well… We will need a great number of skilled workers. The procedures that don't require magic could be separated out and put on assembly lines to produce standardized parts. Then, the cost can be further lowered." Lucien nodded slightly like a sophisticated capitalist. The candidates in his mind were the dwarves on Night Highland. But since he had caused the vampires such great trouble, Lucien had to wait for at least two to three years to carry out his plan, when all the attention were drawn to the exploration into the new dimension.

"It takes lots of time training workers…" Arthur did not understand the terms Lucien was using, and he was also not interested in asking, since currently even the basic preconditions couldn't be satisfied.

At this time, Lillian turned off the main crystal light in the hall and only left several smaller ones. The light instantly became dim and soft. A romantic and elegant atmosphere was created.

She smiled humorously. "No worries, ladies and gentlemen, you won't lose the romance of having candlelight dinner because of these magical lights. Romance is in our soul and heart."

"Also," she added, "when you walk around in your castle, darkness shall never be intimidating to you anymore. We've brought light to you, forever, with the magic crystal lights."

Lucien suspected that Arthur had paid Lillian beforehand for such painstaking promotion. But Lucien liked it, for the profit it was going to bring!

Following the tour in Duke James' villa, it was time for the court dance. In the Kingdom of Holm, which was known for being very conservative, the circle dance from the palace of Tria had not yet prevailed. Many old-school nobles disdained such a dance that requires the dancers to be so close to each other. Only some young nobles, when having their private gatherings, would do the circle dance.

"Mr. Evans, your design is definitely very impressive. I've ordered a set from Mr. Arthur. I had never imagined that crystal lights could be so accessible." A dignified young lady walked to Lucien holding a glass of water in her hand, her eyes full of admiration.

The "a set" she was talking about was a set for an entire villa, and the cost was equivalent to that of a single magic crystal light before.

Lucien swirled his glass of liquor, Sky Blue, and smiled. "This is because now electricity can be delivered very efficiently."

"Honestly speaking, when the lady turned on the lights, I was shocked by how bright the lights were. I can't describe it with my own words… It was like a dream. And somehow I also felt very proud. You're a sorcerer who creates miracles…" The young lady's face flushed. "I am neither a sorcerer nor a knight… But now I can enjoy the light as well."

Lucien grinned. "Popularizing alchemical items so that most ordinary people could be able to use them is always my dream."

"You're such a great person."

The young lady's sincere praise made Lucien, who was in most cases a relatively "cheeky" person, blushed a little.

"… To make most ordinary people be able to use them… Great vision, Evans." Duke James and Barek, the seventh circle mage, together walked toward them. Hearing what Lucien just said, Barek released a soft sigh, as if he had seen through Lucien's hiding intention.

Seeing the Duke, the young noble lady's face burned. She hurriedly said, "Mr. Evans, I'll leave you alone to the Duke."

"Ha, Evans, why are you just standing there like we old fellows? Can't you tell that Julie was waiting for you to ask her for a dance? Don't tell me you don't like Julie. She's the beloved granddaughter of Count Hackson." James joked. "And obviously, Julie is not the first lady who you have refused."

Lucien took a sip of Sky Blue and spoke half-dramatically, "Perhaps… I'm an old man in my heart…"

Young and good looking, promising and talented, wealthy and of high social status, Lucien was quite popular among the noble ladies. At this banquet, the ladies present were all from the liberal families which were open-minded to magic. They did not mind marrying a sorcerer at all, and some of them even had this fantasy.

Duke James laughed and said, "When there are more water-current magic circles for generating electricity and more electric wires, perhaps the ordinary people can also benefit from magic. The great changes in their lives will be brought to them by magic, not by any divinities. At that time, your vision will be accomplished."

Lucien realized that maybe he should reconsider what kind of person the Duke was. Although the bareheaded duke looked quite robust and ferocious from the outside, he was, in fact, quite sharp and open-minded, as he had figured out this much information from one single comment of Lucien. Fortunately, James was in alliance with them.

"When electric wires and electricity-powered devices are more accessible, we have to consider one important factor — Electricity can be dangerous, much more dangerous than candles. Touching flame with your hand will only burn you, but touching a broken wire will probably kill you. The Church will depict electricity into something vicious to prevent its popularization." Lucien put forward his concern. At the moment, electricity was both the cheapest and the easiest-to-transfer energy; Spiritual power, solar or tidal power were not its rivals.

James looked sideways at Barek and received his confirmation, "Every year there are sorcerers who forgot to cast adequate protection dying from electric shock in electromagnetics labs."

There was a rank in Allyn for the dumbest ways to die, and electric shock ranked the 50th:

The poor sorcerer, Osan, discovered a powerful lightning spell by accident in his experiment. When he approached the ball lightning, he was shocked to find that the power of the lightning balls which were rolling all across the room had exceeded the limit of his protective shield. Let us thank him for his remarkable contribution to the magic of lightning, and for telling us, with his charred body, that we must stay away from uncontrolled electricity currents.

"So what shall we do? You've put forward the question, so you must have already figured out the solution." James smiled and looked at Lucien confidently.

Lucien took his time with his answer. "Electricity is always dangerous to the human body. We can neither require all our users to be sorcerers nor cover every single piece of wire with magic protection. I hope that, Mr. Barek, your sorcerers from the school of electromagnetics can work out a Handbook of Electrical Safety to teach people how to avoid the possible risks."

James nodded thoughtfully.

"Facing something unknown, and especially when it can be both beneficial and dangerous, we shall not simply and blindly reject it like fools. Instead, we should try to make the most use of its positive sides and minimize the hazards. And this is the value in arcana that we should promote. It's the same as how we use fire." Lucien added.

"Also, if the Church and the conservatives are going to encourage people to refuse the use of electricity by exaggerating its possible hazards, we should raise people's awareness by teaching them what electricity really is, letting them understand the pros and cons. It's not going to be an easy job, but it's meaningful." Lucien kept going, and his tone was quite alike to that of a proper member of the Arcana Review Board.

James nodded and turned to Barek. "Evans' words make sense. Can you find the right people to work on the handbook?"

"No problem," Barek replied.

In their eyes, although Lucien's teacher was the Lord of Storm, Lucien had not revealed much talent in the school of electromagnetics and had not presented any outstanding outcome — For many mages majoring in electromagnetics, the discovery of the electron was just a side product from Lucien's exploration of elements.

"Evans, when can you finish the simplification of the record magic circle? Nobles will definitely like it!" said James.

This was the purpose of James coming to Lucien.

Right now, the study on electromagnetism messaging had stepped into a dilemma and they did not believe that Lucien would be the one solving the problem, so they never mentioned it in front of Lucien.

Lucien shook his head. "I'm still looking for the proper material by conducting experiments over and over again. When it comes to choosing materials, it takes time."

In fact, because of his knowledge from the Earth, Lucien had some clues already, but he was not going to publicize it right now. Lucien would wait until the promotion of crystal light became a success first, as the early stage of the electrical revolution requires all strength to be concentrated on one aspect.

"I see…" Duke James sighed.

…

In the Sorcerer Administrative Department, Eric said to the poor middle-aged man who he was familiar with, "Levski, long time no see. Are you here to submit your new paper?"

"Long time no see, Eric. I've… improved my previous paper…" said Levski in a low voice. His yellow hair was as messy as a bird nest, and his blue eyes were dim and weary. This middle-aged man was as thin as a pole.

Eric frowned. "But… the previous one… was rejected by the board members, right?"

"I have improved it," Levski said firmly, "and I was told that papers putting forward subversive theories can now be submitted to Mr. Evans."

"I mean… Those board members said that the geometry you were talking about was just based on your own imagination. Your theory was ridiculous…" Eric said awkwardly, trying to persuade Levski to give up.

Levski tightened his fists and lowered his eyes. His voice trembled a bit, but was still firm. "I don't think I'm wrong. I want to show it to all the arcanists. Eric, please."

Eric nodded and took over the paper. The title was,

New Principles of Geometry with Complete Theory of Parallels.

Chapter 421: Levski's Perseverance and Expectation

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Seeing the title, Eric sighed. "This is of no use, Levski. It's not worth your effort. No one from the Board would accept it. What you're saying goes completely in the opposite direction from our observation and the basic geometry principles. Without a doubt, this is not correct. This is not the first day we know each other and I'd suggest you to stop wasting your time on it."

Because of the need for magic pattern construction and the substantiation of the cognitive world, the study of math had a long history. I was widely acknowledged that Geometry was based on the five axioms and the five postulates put forward by Muenterse, a legendary archmage from the Magic Empire, in his work Geometry . Thus, it was known as Muenterse's Geometry. And also because that Muenterse was the founder of Tower, Muenterse's Geometry was also called Tower Geometry.

Among the five postulates, the fifth one was the source of much interest for being very prolix and looking more like a theorem that needs to be proved rather than a postulate. But it was, in fact, equivalent to a proposition that was popular on the Earth: In a plane, through any point not on a given line, only one new line can be drawn that's parallel to the given line. Since the establishment of the Congress of Magic, with the fast development in mathematics, more and more sorcerers, who pursued the sense of aesthetics that values simplicity in math, attempted to prove the results without using the postulate. However, no one had succeeded yet.

In Eric's eyes, Levski was one of them who failed. Levski tried to use proof by contradiction to support the fifth postulate and started with the assumption that: In a plane, through any point not on a given line, at least two new lines can be drawn that's parallel to the given line.

However, the result he got was surprising. By combining the assumption, the five axioms, and the rest of the four postulates, Levski drew up a geometry system that was logically consistent yet at the same time greatly conflicted with reality. The arcanists from Tower all believed that the system was absurd and treated it indifferently.

After Levski submitted his paper against the oppositions, the criticism of his reasoning was like a fierce storm. Without a doubt, his paper failed to pass the review.

"Eric, have you carefully read my paper? Do you see how I demonstrated it? Both the premise and the derivation are correct! Why you just can't accept it?" Levski's body was trembling from anger. Years of criticism and poverty had not made him yield: For more than ten years, his magic level and researches remained paused, countless mockery and satire were directed at him, but Levski never gave up his theory.

Eric raised his hand, signaling Levski to lower his voice. "Yes, I admit that your use of proof by contradiction and your logic reasoning are absolutely correct. But Levski, open your eyes and see this world. This table, the room… They all look different from what your geometry describes! They are real, my friend. And you tell me what we should believe! You've tried so many years, even printed out numerous copies and propagated them to the other arcanists, but has anyone believed in your geometry system so far?"

"No…" Levski lowered his head, dispirited. In the past, he thought that his paper was rejected because the members of the Arcana Review Board and the arcanists from Tower were too conservative, so he submitted his paper directly to the younger arcanists and to the authorities in mathematics including Douglas, Hathaway, and Paris. However, the younger arcanists still mocked his proposition, calling it "lacking common sense".

Meanwhile, the authorities in mathematics also chose to keep silent.

"I've modified it…" Levski hurriedly emphasized; his tone softened for only a single second. "This time it should be able to pass. Eric, please."

Eric sighed. "But you can't keep acting like this, Levski… You've submitted this paper multiple times in the past ten years. And you never succeeded. Also, we have regulations. You can't submit the same paper for multiple times. It's a waste of the board members' time. You're already in your forties… I have to remind you. You're still a junior-rank mage… "

"This time is different! I've perfected it. Eric, please… Let Mr. Evans read it… I promise I'll focus on studying magic in the following years." Levski begged with hope in his eyes.

Eric's serious face slightly twitched. "Mr. Evans only reads those subversive papers… You know, those that will make sorcerers' brains explode. But yours only discusses the pure theories in math, and it won't affect one's cognitive world. So I'm afraid…"

A sorcerer's cognitive world was based on his or her exploration into the truth of the world. Math was just their tools and thus could not affect its stability.

Before Levski kept insisting, Eric sighed again. "What about this… I'll put 'subversive' and 'math' on the front page of your paper. So your paper will be sent to two board members specializing in mathematics, and Mr. Evans as well."

Eric understood that it was Mr. Evans who brought Levski the gleam of hope. The board members had not changed much within the past several years, and they were all quite annoyed with Levski's paper. If it were not for newly-joined Mr. Evans, Levski would not have been so determined to submit it once again.

At least there was still hope!

"Thank you, Eric…" Levski became speechless from the surprise.

Eric waved his hand. "Go back and wait for the result. Hope your life can back on track as soon as possible."

Levski nodded seriously, feeling anxious but also full of hope. He had no idea if Mr. Evans would treat his paper fairly.

...

On the fifteenth floor of the magic tower, in a bright and spacious room.

Arms extending from both sides of a magic circle were busy sorting the papers.

"Math, Subversive…" The cold, metal voice paused a bit before making a final decision. "To Mr. Neeshka, Ms. Milina, and Mr. Evans."

...

In his cognitive world, where strings of starlight hanged down while elements and electrons revolved, Lucien spread out his spiritual power in waves and let the power fuse with starlight, elements, ice, and snow. Then he carefully vibrated his spiritual power waves to add the properties of spiritual particles onto time's instantaneity.

Lucien was being extremely careful with the tiny modifications, for if his spiritual power went out of control, his entire cognitive world could be ruined within a second.

After a long time, Lucien finally ended his early morning meditation and left his bedroom to enjoy breakfast. Then he walked to the Congress of Magic's headquarter tower as part of his physical exercise.

As soon as he stepped into the institution, he saw Lazar, who never came to the institution early, was walking back and forth in the office with a big smile on his face.

"Hey, Lazar, what makes you so happy today?" Asked Lucien.

"You come so early, Lucien!" Lazar was quite surprised, and then he said in a triumphant tone, "I can fly now!"

As he spoke, Lazar started flying in the office, almost hitting the ceiling.

"I see… So you're a middle-rank now. Gotta celebrate that." Lucien grinned.

Lazar, whose landing still lacked some balance, laughed. "Of course! We're having a party!"

Then he said to Lucien with gratitude, "Thank you, man. I've learned a lot in the past several months doing experiments with you. Your advanced research in the field of Element, especially the discovery of the electron, helped me gain a better insight. My cognitive world has become more stable since then, so I am able to make such a progress while I am still working on math."

"That's why we are always exploring the truth of the world." Lucien smiled, but then his tone became a bit more serious. "But Lazar, you still have to work hard on your math. The more progress you make, the heavier you will rely on math as your tool."

Lazar nodded seriously. "I know where my problems lie. Also, since joining the institution, we're all making great progress. Annick, Sprint, Katrina have told me that they are almost ready to become real sorcerers. They just still need some time to build up their spiritual power and to get some potions as aids."

When Lucien was absent, Lazar and the students followed their prior plan and kept working on studying cathode ray and cryogenic materials. But their schedules were not that tight anymore, so they could have some time to do their own experiments.

"I'm glad to see their progress." Lucien nodded in satisfaction.

After chatting for a while, Lazar suddenly jumped to a new topic. "So Lucien, how do you think of Mr. President's recent experiment?"

This was a heated topic for almost every arcanist recently, and it had to do with the long-time debate over waves vs. particles. Lucien answered briefly, "If Mr. President's theories are proven correct, we should be able to abandon the theory of Ether as a medium."

Of course, many would still try hard to come up with all kinds of theories to mend it.

"This's the Evans I know. Lucien Evans is always sharp and loves to see people's brain explode." Lazar joked. This comment was agreed by many arcanists.

"Maybe I'll get a title because of this… Lazar, I'll go and check out the Review Board first, and go to visit my teacher. When I'm back, I'll celebrate for you." said Lucien.

Seeing that the other students were showing up one by one in the institution, Lucien decided to spend some time in his office of the Arcana Review Board. Although even if he did not show up, the golem would always send the papers to his place in the early evening. But since he was here in the headquarter tower, Lucien decided to take a look in the office so that it wouldn't be empty forever.

...

As soon as Lucien stepped into the luxury office on the fifteenth floor, the golem welcomed him and said in its cold voice, "Master, a paper has just been sent to you."

"Paper?" Lucien was a bit surprised, since rarely were there papers qualified for being subversive.

Taking over the paper from the golem, Lucien saw the two words: Math and Subversive. Instantly, he had some expectations, since there were just a few possible findings in math that could be regarded as subversive within the current level of study.

" New Principles of Geometry with Complete Theory of Parallels …."

Lucien quickly browsed the paper and noticed that it was an improved version. Slightly frowning, Lucien said to the golem, "Go and get me the previous papers submitted by this person… together with the review comments of the board members."