Inside a villa on the outskirts of Aller.
Focused and absorbed, Black carefully worked through the formula Lucian had provided, meticulously calculating the anomalous precession of Mercury's perihelion.
During the deliberate pauses Lucian had left, his feather pen never stopped, scratching steadily across the paper.
Suddenly, he looked up, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief, then rushed into the study, frantically rummaging through Arcane and magic books.
He was not a mage specializing in astrology and force fields — he did not remember the observed values of this anomalous precession very clearly, only catching faint impressions. And those faint impressions burned like fire in his heart, burning so fiercely he could not control himself, burning until his brain felt swollen with blood.
The calculated result appeared remarkably close to the observed values in his memory!
What did this mean?
What did this imply?
One Arcane and magic book after another was pulled from the shelf, glanced at briefly, then tossed aside. Finally, he found the introductory text from his distant memory — *Fifty Problematic Questions on the Astrological Discipline!*
The rustling of flipping pages filled the air, and at a single glance Black spotted the striking data point.
With a thud, the hardcover book fell onto the carpet, making a muffled sound. Black stood frozen in place, eyes vacant, like a stone statue.
They were so close — what did this mean?
At that moment, Lucian's voice came through the magic radio once more: "Through calculation, we can determine that the anomalous precession of Mercury's perihelion is... which broadly matches the observed values."
This sentence seemed to carry immense magical power, instantly bringing the frozen, vacant Black back to reality. Ecstasy and excitement surged through him, his facial muscles twisting to a terrifying degree.
What did this mean?
It meant this explanation of gravity's nature now had both theoretical support and empirical confirmation!
It meant Lucian Evans's general theory of relativity was the theory closest to the true nature of gravity to date!
It meant the problems that had confused and tormented His Excellency the Chairman and countless Archanists were not unsolvable — they did not necessarily require invoking some supreme being to achieve self-consistency! Mr. Lucian Evans's genius thinking had provided an explanation that completely transcended the era and imagination!
It meant the path of Arcane was not wrong — perhaps many problems remained unsolved, but we would always be on the road to solving them!
Although he could barely understand Lucian's explanation of general relativity, this did not prevent Black from applying certain conclusions to derive and calculate, nor did it stop him from believing based on these facts that the theory could explain the nature of gravity. It did not stop him from sweeping away all his previous bewilderment and despair.
Perhaps it was precisely because he could not understand it that he harbored no doubts and rushed straight toward the answer.
If gravity's nature now had an explanation, then the other problems that made people doubt Arcane could one day be solved too — as long as we kept exploring and researching, never abandoning this direction!
"Your Excellency the Chairman, have you heard Mr. Evans's theory? I believe the confusion in your heart must have faded as well..."
……
"Through calculation, we can determine that the anomalous precession of Mercury's perihelion is... which broadly matches the observed values."
When Lucian spoke these words,
Although she had long been won over by Lucian's talent and achievements, holding him in the deepest admiration, in the field of astrology she still maintained strong confidence. And because Lucian had never made any contributions in this particular field, she had always assumed he chose the Astrological Discipline merely because divination and prophecy-type spells were tremendously useful. Who could have known he would hold such astonishing, profound, and inconceivable insights into gravity and the stars?
Watching Lucian speak eloquently from above, she seemed to experience an illusion of when His Excellency the Chairman had explained problems to her teacher, to her — they were all so composed, so admirable.
"This is absolutely an epoch-making paper — no, a paper that transcends the era!"
Around her, every Archanist wore roughly the same expression, though their gains were not as great as
However, the terror that
Helen had stopped reading the paper, deciding to go back and cram four years' worth of *Nature* journal issues. She whispered to Fernando, "I feel as though I'm seeing another Chairman..."