Chapter 640: The Road Ahead

Goldolo fell silent for a moment, but the fire in his heart was burning. This Alexander was not the Alexander he knew.

Goldolo roared, “I don’t know what electrons are or what experiments you’re talking about, nor do I know why determinism has failed here. But I know one thing: if all our expected possibilities are eliminated, then the most impossible one is the truth.

“Since this world wasn’t beautiful to begin with, why can’t you accept it? Why can’t you explore why it isn’t beautiful? Being so decadent like this… you disappoint me too much. You might as well die here!”

Bam!

Goldolo rushed in front of Alexander, balled his right hand into a fist, and punched Alexander hard on his right cheek.

Grabbing Alexander’s collar, he hoisted him up forcefully and shouted, “You damn bastard, pull yourself together! You are a wizard! You are a thinking wizard! You are the measure of all things! Since you’ve discovered the truth, go explore the secrets within. You will definitely succeed.”

Alexander looked at his friend and said in a low voice, “Can I really explore the secrets within? In the microscopic realm of this world, determinism has actually failed.”

Goldolo remained furious. He roared angrily, “If determinism has failed, then go discover the new truth! Electromagnetism shattered classical mechanics, and Lord Ace, destroying to establish, built Special and General Relativity upon the ruins of classical mechanics.

“Why can’t you do the same? Why must you hit a dead end? Can’t you temporarily forget the rules and constraints of the macroscopic world and start from scratch in the microscopic world?!”

Alexander murmured, “Forget the rules and constraints of the macroscopic world and start from scratch in the microscopic world… Yes! I can start from scratch in the microscopic world.”

The dream suddenly shattered. Alexander and Goldolo opened their eyes simultaneously and smiled at each other.

Three days later, though his body hadn’t fully recovered, Alexander continued his unfinished experiment.

Disregarding his ailing body, Alexander reset the experiment. He altered the electron emitter, releasing the next electron only after the previous one had hit the screen.

If there was no grating, single electrons would randomly distribute on the screen just as before.

When the grating was added, a single electron should also appear randomly somewhere. But the fact was, when Alexander activated the particle emitter, the unbelievable thing that had happened before occurred again: two beautiful interference fringes.

“Logically speaking, after adding the grating, a single electron should also randomly appear somewhere on the screen, just with a higher probability of landing behind the grating. That’s why two interference fringes would appear,” Alexander murmured his deduction.

He had already concluded from continuously emitting electrons that an electron has a cause but no definite effect. But with continuous emission, the unexpected happened again: every single electron passing through the double slits exhibited interference phenomena.

Alexander felt a splitting headache. Where on earth did the interference come from?

In a paper titled Report on the Continuous Electron Emission Experiment and the Electron Double-Slit Interference Experiment, he detailed this series of experiments and proposed two tentative conclusions.

“From the experimental results, it is known that two situations completely different from the macroscopic world exist on the microscopic level. First, determinism fails on the microscopic level; a definite cause does not lead to a definite effect, and emitted electrons distribute randomly. Second, a single electron passes through two slits simultaneously—an inexplicable phenomenon.

“Particularly the second one: where does the interference come from? Could it be from the electron before or after it? This is eliminated first because they do not pass through the double slits simultaneously. Did the single electron interfere with itself? If the electron is a wave, there is naturally no doubt. But how do we understand the electron suddenly collapsing into a point when it reaches the screen?

“This is a property of a particle!

“The electron is like a microscopic phantom, incredibly bizarre. I cannot explain the reasons for either of these two results.”

After writing all this, Alexander thought for a moment and added a paragraph on the title page of the paper.

“When discussing the quanta of the microscopic world, we might as well cast classical theories out of our minds. Do not miss the beauty of the present because of the past. If you start anew, everything you see will be beautiful.”

As a paper of extreme subversive and deterrent power, from the moment it was mailed to the headquarters of the Magic editorial department, it put the editors on high alert.

Finally, the editor-in-chief reported it to the Supreme Council committee, and Bayen decided to review the manuscript personally.

Holding this experimental report that the vast majority of wizards feared, Bayen felt a surge of emotion.

“Lord Ace is not in the world; He has gone to collect Level 6 space-time runes. I cannot bother Him with such a matter. It is time for me to shoulder the responsibility,” Bayen murmured.

As a veteran Tenth Ring Legendary Immortal Wizard, he was known as the Legend closest to Ace, walking almost the exact same path of the Starry Cosmos. Aside from being more adept at prophecy, they were very similar in many ways.

To be safe, Bayen performed a prophecy before reading it, but the result was very strange: it was completely blank. There was nothing.

Bayen grew even more uneasy. As he paced back and forth, his disciple, Thomson, walked in.

Thomson was a genius. He had creatively proposed the concept of matter waves, believing that particles also exhibited diffraction and interference, and it was proven that particles indeed possessed the diffraction and interference described by matter waves.

However, this was insufficient to explain double-slit interference, though Thomson did not know it yet.

“Teacher, I heard Alexander’s paper is in your hands. May I take a look?”

Bayen looked at the young Thomson and subconsciously activated a prophecy spell. If Thomson read it, the predicted outcome was: Unknown.

Unknown meant no result. How could that be? How could such a situation exist?

Bayen grew even more unsettled. He practically drove Thomson out. He felt as if a ten-thousand-pound boulder was pressing down on him, or as if a wraith had latched onto him.

He slowly opened it, revealing a paragraph of text.

“When discussing the quanta of the microscopic world, we might as well cast classical theories out of our minds. Do not miss the beauty of the present because of the past. If you start anew, everything you see will be beautiful.”

A faint smile touched the corner of Bayen’s mouth. Beautiful? An experiment that puts people on high alert is not necessarily beautiful.

Gently turning to the next page, Bayen adjusted his mindset, trying his best to stay calm as he read the paper.

But his eyes still slowly widened. When he saw the repeated single-electron emission experiment, his expression gradually turned solemn.

“Unpredictable? Unable to predict the particle’s arrival position, meaning the particle’s arrival event happens without any cause? In other words, a definite cause cannot deduce a definite effect? In the macroscopic world, as long as you answer all the exam questions correctly, you get a perfect score. But in the microscopic world, even if you answer all the questions correctly, the grader gives you a score based on their mood?”

It was too absurd. Bayen stood up; he decided to conduct a repeat experiment.

Three days later, Bayen’s sub-plane turned into a brilliant firework. The destruction of the sub-plane caused the entire Wizard Multiverse to tremble slightly. Bayen’s prized pupil and descendant, Thomson, immediately rushed to Bayen’s laboratory, only to find that Bayen had turned into a ball of fire and burned to ashes.

“Both soul and body…”

Thomson grasped futilely, but caught only a few sparks. Only a single scroll of a paper floated there. Thomson’s heart was shaken, his state of mind complex.

The matter wave theory he had proposed suggested that an electron, as a particle, also carried wave-like properties because matter waves are very obvious in the microscopic realm. But how could such a thing cause the deaths of so many Legendary Immortal Wizards?

Thomson gripped the paper and slowly unrolled it. “Might as well cast classical theories out of our minds?”

Thomson slowly opened it, his gaze burning. He read carefully, his expression gradually turning grave, his Mental Image World shaking violently.

“A definite cause deducing an uncertain effect? It seems I also need to conduct a repeat experiment.”

Thomson looked like a martyr, carrying solemnity and resolve. Testing with the particle emitter over and over again, Thomson gradually noticed a difference.

“Can this random distribution be analyzed from a mathematical perspective? Just like rolling dice: the result of a single die is indeed random, but if you roll the dice enough times, you can completely summarize its probability!”

Thomson was indeed a brilliant genius, and a mathematical genius at that. He spent three months, ignoring the shockwaves rippling through the magical world surrounding “Alexander’s Death Experiment,” and creatively summarized a set of statistical mathematical theories: Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics.

Starting from the statistics of predecessors, he introduced statistical mechanics into the microscopic world, summarizing an exploratory resolution paper.

On a flattened piece of magical parchment, Thomson wrote the following title: Probability and Statistics: An Exploratory Direction for Resolving Quantum Mechanics.

“…Admittedly, the repeated electron emission experiment can confirm that a definite cause in the microscopic realm does not necessarily lead to a definite effect. But even an uncertain effect still follows a pattern. Determinism has not completely failed; it merely requires the introduction of probability theory to modify determinism, just as relativity encompasses classical mechanics.

“Determinism is merely a special form of probability theory. It’s just that the existence of the macroscopic world is too stable, and the range of randomness is extremely small and negligible.

“But in the microscopic world, this random distribution is very obvious. However, no matter how obvious it is, it is still a random distribution and has its distribution range.

“For example, electrons have a limit to their distribution range on the detection screen. Probability theory discusses these limits and boundaries. According to this principle, our prophecies also do not have deterministic predictions; they can only predict a rough boundary range and the probability of each event occurring…”

By the time Thomson’s paper was published, hundreds of Legendary Immortal Wizards in the Wizard World had already died. Alexander’s paper was ultimately published, but it was sealed. Wizards retrieved it at their own risk; their lives were in peril.

In just three months, over 400 Immortal Legends and over 10,000 Mythical Wizards had their cognitive mental images shattered. It was no longer their heads exploding into watermelon juice, but their entire divine souls burning to ashes.

Such a massive, agonizing experience was an unprecedented loss for the Wizard World. Yet this was an inevitable step in the revolution of the Wizard World’s foundational theories, leaving everyone feeling heartbroken, lost, and helpless.

Even more wizards did not die, but their Mental Image Worlds had shattered and solidified. Their cognition was completely fixed, and they no longer had any possibility of progress.

They cried out loudly, “Magic is dead; the end of the road is here!”

“There is no truth in the world; all magic is an illusion.”

“At the end of the microscopic, all is absurdity.”

A terrifying turmoil was spreading. Driven by opportunists and the collective unconscious, armed uprisings broke out across the Wizard World. The Supreme Council fell into endless debates. Doubts about wave-particle duality, doubts about the electron—some Legendary Immortal Wizards even believed there must be a super-consciousness, a true God, a Creator, who created everything, including the laws of nature.

It was against this backdrop that Thomson’s paper was published, and Ace simultaneously returned.

Ace had roamed the four-dimensional space-time of the Level 4 Astral Plane for several years, finally collecting enough Level 6 space-time runes and confirming his foundational Eleventh Ring spell model.

“The foundational spell model should still be constructed back in the Wizard World, returning to my four-dimensional material state—that is, within my quasi-plane. This is the most correct method.”

With this thought, Ace returned to the Wizard World and discovered the turmoil and rebellion across the entire world.

After observing the situation of the entire Wizard World, Ace did not hesitate. He split into myriad incarnations, each possessing the strength of a Tenth Ring Wizard. This state was unsustainable, but it won out in speed.

Tens of thousands of Ace’s Tenth Ring Immortal Legendary Immortal incarnations suppressed all the rebels. All murderers paid with their lives, while the rest of their followers were thrown into prison and permanently recorded in the archives.

“So Bayen fell into a long slumber, and Alexander’s death experiment occurred? Since the electron double-slit interference experiment has been conducted, Pandora’s box has already been opened. It must continue, otherwise, Hope cannot be released.”

After suppressing the rebellion and the disillusioned idealists, Ace spoke with complex emotions.

He browsed the recently published papers. Thomson’s paper caught his eye, and a faint smile touched his lips.

“Thomson. Very good.”

A day later, Ace personally affirmed Thomson’s exploratory resolution. He praised it highly at the Supreme Council meeting in the Magic Sanctuary, saying: “I still believe that a thinking wizard is the measure of all things. If the reality of the microscopic world is indeed so, then we should maintain a humble attitude.

“Do you remember what I once said?

“The laws we have discovered now are only relative truths within a certain scope. When removed from their scope of application, truth becomes fallacy.

“Our common sense, the phenomena we are accustomed to in the macroscopic world, might be true fallacies in the microscopic world. We must maintain a reverent attitude. Since we are researching the microscopic, let our thinking be more open.

“For example, the resolution proposed by Thomson: introducing probability theory into the research of quantum mechanics in the microscopic realm. Perhaps it can summarize certain patterns just the same.”

Ace’s words temporarily quelled the disputes, and the wizards began to settle down to research. Thomson’s paper provided everyone with a new perspective. The Prophecy School, which had practically died out, also welcomed a rebirth. The Era of Probability had arrived.

And Ace also returned to his quasi-plane, preparing for the advancement of his wizard class level—to become the first Eleventh Ring Wizard. Right at this moment…

(Chapter finished)

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