Chapter 556: The Roof
In the Starry Sky Hall of the Central High Tower, anyone with the qualification of Level 1 Arcane Scholar or above had received an invitation. Tens of thousands of wizards were in this space, yet it didn’t feel crowded.
This was a unique subspace. All around was an illusory starry sky. Bright, controllable spheres of light floated about, illuminating the entire hall. With tens of thousands of people here, it actually felt somewhat spacious, making one couldn’t help but marvel at the greatness of Ace’s magic.
A somewhat sharp female voice said to her companion: “Look, they’re here.”
A cautious male voice replied: “They are indeed a very good match. I didn’t expect that we actually had a clash with Blania back then. I hope she won’t remember.”
Another companion said somewhat dejectedly: “Being good at math really does mean you can do whatever you want. I can’t see any flaws in her paper. Moreover, originally I didn’t quite understand lines of force, but after reading her paper, I felt completely enlightened.”
The sharp female voice also said: “We are too ignorant to understand what top-tier people see in their field of vision. But I still find it hard to imagine: is our world really a wave?”
The cautious male voice said: “That’s not necessarily true. Particle or wave, it’s really hard to say. Maybe both waves and particles exist. The world in the microscopic domain is something we cannot yet observe.”
“I heard that Mythical Wizards can directly observe molecular structures relying on their powerful spiritual power. I wonder if at a higher level it’s possible to…”
The voices of the crowd grew increasingly noisy. Thales took Blania to their seats in the front row. Bayen was standing on the stage.
His attire today was very formal: a well-fitting black wizard robe, with two badges pinned to his chest—the Five-Ring Legendary Wizard Badge and the Level 3 Arcane Scholar Badge, respectively.
After briefly introducing Thales’s achievements, there was first a relaxing song and dance performance.
Actually, in this solemn environment, Bayen did not agree with having such a song and dance performance. But Ace said it was very good, so it could only be very good.
After performance groups from seven different habitable planets with various styles let the wizards present experience a performance full of exotic flavors, Ace walked onto the stage.
“Seeing everyone in a relaxed mood, I am relieved. This award ceremony of ours today is indeed the highest honor for all wizards. Only those who have achieved absolutely pioneering achievements have the qualification to receive the Ace Magic Award.
“But everyone shouldn’t be too serious either. Today should be a joyous day. Now give your applause and cheers to our protagonist, the founder of electromagnetism. If the entire magical electromagnetism is a building, then Thales is the one who, after laying a solid foundation for the building, almost single-handedly completed its skeleton.
“Then, joining forces with others, he completed the main body of this building. Let us cheer for Thales.”
Thunderous applause echoed in this slightly spacious Starry Sky Hall. Amidst the cheers, Thales flew up to the high platform alone. Today he wore a black magic robe with a red ribbon draped over his shoulder. Like Bayen, two badges were pinned to his chest, flashing with extraordinary brilliance.
Looking at Thales being cheered by everyone, Blania’s eyes revealed affection. This was the man she admired, who had single-handedly accomplished a great achievement that could rival magical mechanics.
Thales looked around at the cheering crowd, his heart also somewhat excited. He took a deep breath and signaled for everyone to stop. After a long while, the crowd finally stopped cheering. Thales said:
“Thank you all for your applause. Thank you, everyone. Lord Ace really overpraised me. For me to be able to stand on this stage here, there are especially many people I need to thank. The first ones to thank are my parents. They gave me life and gave me the opportunity to know this colorful world.
“Speaking of which, I am also unfilial. Ever since I left the Bernard Planet fifteen years ago, I haven’t gone back. Today I suddenly really want to see my parents and relatives. I think after the ceremony is over, I will go back and take a look.”
Just as Thales’s emotions burst forth, Ace clapped his hands. A spatial door unfolded, and Thales’s parents, siblings, and nephews and nieces of the grandchild generation—a whole large family—all arrived.
Reuniting with his family on stage, Thales’s tears flowed freely, hugging his parents tightly. It took a long time before he arranged for his family to step down. Blania had long been prepared and appropriately led Thales’s family to sit in the front row.
Thales gathered his emotions and said, somewhat choked up:
“This is truly a great surprise, and this is also the charm of magic. This is also my second thanks: thank you, Lord Ace. It was He who created the Magic Net, giving me the opportunity to come into contact with the supernatural. It was also He who bestowed upon me magical aptitude, letting me truly become a wizard.
“The third person I want to thank is my teacher, His Excellency Warren. It was he who laid a good foundation of magical knowledge for me, broadened my horizons, and lent me the Starry Sky Butterfly, allowing me to roam the entire stellar system while still a Senior Mage Apprentice.
“After I came to the Celestial Realm, I disturbed the Teacher in his Wizard Tower for a long time and borrowed the Teacher’s laboratory.
“The fourth group I want to thank are the fellow wizards who researched electromagnetism together with me. It is we who jointly constructed the edifice of electromagnetism. Lord Ace overpraised me too much; I actually only did a little simple work.
“Here I want to specially thank my secretary, Blania. Thank you for your meticulous care, and also thank you for your paper full of mathematical and physical beauty. You are a soulmate bestowed upon me by heaven. I hope we can cooperate with each other in the future and continue to progress in the field of electromagnetism.
“In A History of Wizards, when Lord Ace advanced to a Senior Wizard Apprentice, He once said, ‘The long night is pitch black; I shall be the light.’ Lord Ace calls Himself the Firelinker. He carved out the hardest path on an impossible road, carving out the path of magic for us wizards.
“He is the night watchman walking alone with a torch in the supernatural long night, a solitary traveler. But now, on this long road of magic, it is no longer just Lord Ace alone holding the torch. We can proudly say that the fire has been passed down. Every one of us is a Firelinker on the long road of magic.
“From having nothing to its development today, every one of us deserves thanks. In the days to come, we might get even closer to the truth of this world, truly approaching the mysteries of the world.”
Thales’s words triggered intense applause from the people. The thunderous applause lasted for nearly half an hour before the crowd’s enthusiasm slightly subsided. Ace said gently:
“Thales spoke very sincerely. As we wizards have reached today, our horizons have become broader and broader. But I also want to say one thing.
“The limit of our vision is like a prison. When we strive to leap out and our vision becomes broader, we must also realize that we are in a larger prison.
“We know that we are people with the power of thought, and we can be the measure of all things. But there is a scope to all of this. We must always maintain a humble attitude and revere the unknown. At the same time, we boldly hypothesize and carefully seek proof. I hope that everyone sitting here will have broader and broader horizons and discover more truths!”
Seeing the enthusiasm gradually recede and everyone starting to think seriously, Ace continued: “Now let us begin the award presentation. As the highest academic award for wizards, Thales, relying on his outstanding achievements in the field of electromagnetism, receives a Magic Medal with one permanently fixed Sixth Ring Epic Spell and two Fifth Ring Legendary Spells, as well as one thousand Level 3 Magic Stones and a magic-type pseudo-Noble Phantasm specially crafted by me.”
…
The other wizards, of course, didn’t know exactly what Thales had obtained. In Thales’s Wizard Tower, he had just finished talking with his parents and everyone had gone to rest. Only then did he begin to seriously study that badge and that pseudo-Noble Phantasm he had received.
The material of the Magic Medal was star sand produced by Ace’s nebula. Every grain could be used as Mythical material. Actually, using it as a medal was somewhat of a waste. The entire medal had a frosted texture and would flash with starlight in the darkness, seemingly with endless power surging within.
The permanently fixed Sixth Ring Epic Spell: “Guardian of Star Sand.” Can be actively triggered once per charging cycle, forming a close-fitting star sand treasure garment wrapping the whole body. Inside, it has a subspace isolation layer that can effectively block all attacks in physical forms.
The permanently fixed Fifth Ring Legendary Spell: “Guardian of Virtue.” A passive magic. Provides the wearer with a permanent spiritual protection equivalent to a Legendary Knight of Virtue, isolating spiritual interference or spiritual control below the Demigod level.
The permanently fixed Fifth Ring Legendary Spell: “Roar of Ace.” Can be actively triggered three times per charging cycle. Each time it will create an extremely high-temperature fireball containing solar First Flame, which impacts at high speed and explodes rapidly.
“This is indeed a good thing. They are all magics I am not good at. But regarding spiritual shielding, it seems Luther’s Electrostatic Shielding Cage also has miraculous effects. Can it be considered that there is a certain relationship between spiritual power and electromagnetism, and the distortion and alteration of force fields can reshape all this?”
Thales wasn’t sure either. But since it could shield spiritual power, then spiritual power and electromagnetism definitely had some connection. It could even be said that if there were electric force fields and magnetic force fields, would there also be spiritual force fields?
After thinking for a while, Thales temporarily put aside this idea and turned to study that pseudo-Noble Phantasm.
A frosted tactile feel. It was estimated that star sand had been added. A flip-cover metal mechanical pocket watch. Opening the pocket watch and injecting mana, the pseudo-Noble Phantasm began to function. On the upper left edge were three buttons, respectively for acceleration, deceleration, and stasis.
When the pocket watch was opened, a spherical space with a radius of one thousand meters centered on the holder was the control range of the pocket watch. The acceleration button accelerated one’s own time, while the deceleration button and stasis button controlled the entire range.
The holder was immune to the deceleration and stasis effects.
This was an extremely powerful auxiliary pseudo-Noble Phantasm, and an Epic-level pseudo-Noble Phantasm at that. Extremely powerful.
This Noble Phantasm was extremely imaginative in battle. Almost without a doubt, once this Noble Phantasm was used, it could definitely turn the tide in battle.
Exhausted after a long day, Thales fell asleep unknowingly on the lounge chair. Blania suddenly appeared. She draped a blanket over Thales, looking at him with a smile in her eyes.
…
Time passed quickly. Two years later, after multiple experiments and demonstrations, Blania and Thales formally proposed the two hypotheses of “Molecular Vortices” and “Displacement Current.”
Sometime ago, to explain Thales’s magneto-optic effect, Bruce proposed a hypothesis called “Aether Vortices,” believing that the deflection of light in a magnetic field was caused by the vibration of the aether and the vibration of magnetic molecules.
After light was considered to be a wave, wizards believed that aether became the medium for light propagation.
By the same logic, magnetic interaction also occurred through the aether.
Blania and Thales drew upon this idea of vortices, viewed magnetic interactions as rotational, and imagined the magnetic aether transmitting magnetic action as molecular vortices.
How should molecular vortices influence each other? Regarding this question, Blania believed they could be analogous to gears.
Blania was indeed Thales’s academic soulmate, fully utilizing Thales’s analogical thinking.
“The rotation directions of two adjacent gears are opposite. If we want them to have the same rotation direction, I think we can add a small gear called an idler gear.”
Blania said to Thales while drawing an idealized diagram.
Thales nodded, creating a virtual picture with magic, his eyes shining: “So, there should also be a small particle between adjacent molecular vortices to keep them rotating in the same direction. This kind of particle is the aether used to transmit electricity!”
Blania’s beautiful eyes flickered with starlight as she continued: “But electricity and magnetism are slightly different. A changing electric current can generate a magnetic field, but a changing magnetic field might not necessarily generate an electric current, because another condition for generating an electric current is a closed circuit.”
Thales shook his head and said: “No electric current does not mean there is no electric field. Even if there is no electric current, an electric field should exist. We can call it an induced electric field. This is a hypothesis, but it is effective in practical application.”
Blania smiled and said: “Perhaps we can say: a changing magnetic field generates an electric field, and a changing electric field generates a magnetic field. But there is a problem here. A capacitor where the electric field is changing has no electric current inside it. Then where does the magnetic field come from?”
Thales fell into deep thought. This was indeed a difficult problem.
Just as he was thinking, Blania’s diagram changed. She gave a sweet smile and said: “Let us hypothesize such a concept: ‘Displacement Current’ refers to the time rate of change of the electric displacement flux passing through a certain surface.”
The two smiled at each other and continued to construct the model picture. Blania unrolled a magic paper and wrote the title On Physical Lines of Force.
A few days later, the Magic journal was to issue another supplement. Blania naturally advanced to a Legendary Wizard. But the new paper by her and Thales also aroused widespread questioning because they used too many hypotheses.
But regardless, this paper heralded the formal appearance of the “Electromagnetic Field” on the stage. Magnetism generates electricity, electricity in turn generates magnetism; magnetism regenerates electricity, electricity recovers magnetism. It is precisely the continuous conversion of electric and magnetic fields that allows the electromagnetic field to form.
The two made another prediction. Drawing an analogy with the transmission methods of light and heat, electromagnetic waves definitely exist. The action of the electromagnetic field is transmitted by electromagnetic waves.
Blania brought her mathematical advantage into play and ultimately established the electromagnetic field equations—a set of partial differential equations describing the relationship between electric fields, magnetic fields, charge density, and current density.
“This… is too perfect!”
Upon seeing the Blania-Thales Equations, Leyden couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration. While reading the paper, his aura was constantly rising. Like floodwaters accumulated for a long time, it instantly burst through the dam.
Mana was instantly sucked in like a whale drinking, actually emptying the nearby Magic Net. The anomaly caught the attention of the Dream Great Source. The Dream Core thought for a moment and increased the mana supply.
Leyden’s mental imagery world expanded like a balloon inflating. Countless magnetic and electric forces were interacting. An electromagnetic world was thus formed.
(This chapter is finished)
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