CHAPTER 550: CHAPTER 548: DOUBLE SLIT

"Sages are always in agony, especially those who try to chase after the truth," Luo Siyuan intoned. "He must find answers to all the questions in his theories on his own and cannot shirk responsibility onto anyone else—because only he walks this path alone.

"Fortunately, those who have attained enlightenment can multitask, their thoughts racing far beyond those of ordinary people. He could also create Stone Elemental Puppets to assist him in his experiments.

"He observed celestial phenomena, speculated on the movements of stars, and predicted the timing of solar eclipses and the recurrence of meteors.

"He soared into the clouds and discovered there were no Thunder Gods beyond the thunderclouds. He also confirmed that ordinary lightning could be avoided with a simple iron rod or a more complex iron cage.

"He excavated fossils and dissected demons and even human corpses. He drew diagrams to discover the evolutionary relationships between different species. Using his Spiritual Sense, he found that many kinds of plagues originated from tiny, rapidly-multiplying insects..."

Luo Siyuan’s expression turned solemn as he said in a deep voice, "Yet, the more one knows, the more one realizes how little one knows, and this only increases the fear.

"When he accepted me as his disciple, my Master, who had already delved deep into the mysteries of heaven and earth, was indeed not very mentally stable. He wanted to confirm his last conjecture in life—that this world is ’fake’."

Du Tinghuai blurted out, "Fake?"

"That’s right," Luo Siyuan affirmed.

He continued earnestly, "Firstly, please understand a concept: everything—you, me, air, soil—is composed of minuscule particles. This is similar to the saying, ’A one-foot staff, halved daily, will never be exhausted in ten thousand generations,’ yet different. When an object is divided until it can be divided no further, you get particles.

"These particles, with different compositions and arranged in a certain order, combine to form everything in the universe and all its wondrous transformations.

"After verifying the particle theory, my Master began to try to prove whether light consists of particles or waves.

"At first, he thought light was particulate, as this explained its straight-line propagation and reflection. However, later observations of diffraction and polarization phenomena made him think light was a form of wave.

"Both theories had supporting evidence, leading to a spiral of development. Every time he proposed a theory and a mathematical formula, it was swiftly overthrown by another, more succinct and perfect theory, almost driving him insane.

"So, he conducted an experiment."

Luo Siyuan pulled an old iron plate from his sleeve and casually tossed it into the air, using a Spell to fix it in place. "He made a plate with two very close, vertical, parallel slits and used a Spell to create a strong, slender beam of light to shine on it.

"If light is particulate, then the screen behind the plate should display two vertical, parallel bars of light.

"If light is a wave, then the screen behind the plate should display a series of vertical, parallel light bars. This is because the wave peaks would superimpose, the troughs would superimpose, and their amplitudes would cancel each other out, thus showing an alternating pattern of bright and dark interference fringes.

"As a result, the screen showed a series of alternating vertical fringes."

While explaining, Luo Siyuan released beams of light from his fingers, which passed through the slits in the iron plate, projecting the zebra-like pattern of light and darkness onto the airship.

"That is to say, from this result alone, it seems more likely that light is a wave.

"However, my Master was not satisfied. Using Spells, he designed an even more precise version of the experiment—this time using individual particles, not beams of light.

"Particles are singular entities. When one passes through the two vertical, parallel slits, it goes through either slit A or slit B. Therefore, two vertical bars should be projected onto the screen.

"The results were beyond his expectations: the screen still displayed the alternating light and dark interference fringes. This completely defied common sense!"

The people aboard the airship were thoroughly baffled, unable to comprehend what Luo Siyuan was talking about. However, during his explanation, it seemed as if he had cast some kind of Spell that allowed everyone to grasp and understand what he was trying to convey.

Luo Siyuan spoke gravely, "My Master thought, could it be that the particles were colliding with each other, causing them to exhibit wave-like properties?

"So, he shot each particle individually through the double slits to eliminate the possibility of interference between them.

"However, after several hours, the screen still showed interference fringes.

"The only explanation was that as the particle passed through the double slits, it split in two. It then passed through both slits, interfered with itself, and recombined before hitting the screen as a complete particle.

"This led to an even greater puzzle: How does a particle choose to pass through the first slit, the second slit, or both slits?

"Therefore, my Master used a Spell to design an extremely delicate device capable of observing particles as they passed through the double slits..."

Luo Siyuan’s voice trembled slightly. "The outcome... far exceeded his imagination. Once the observation equipment was added, the particles reverted to their normal state, leaving marks on the screen that formed simple vertical bars instead of interference fringes.

"The particles, the constituents of all things, seemed to know when they were being spied upon! They exhibited a completely different behavior when observed!

"Shaken, he removed the device and used his own Spiritual Sense to observe the particles. The result was still the same!

"This also meant that the act of observation by a person could determine the nature of the particles!

"This theory was far more terrifying than admitting that light possesses both wave and particle properties!

"For ordinary people, this may not seem like much. Most still believe in the existence of gods and Buddhas, believing that above all beings there is a great will, transcendent of mortal understanding.

"But for Guang Chenzi, who knew that immortals and Buddhas no longer existed, he could not accept it.

"If observation by someone using Spiritual Sense could affect particles, would it work for sentient animals?

"What about sentient plants?

"Could the minuscule creatures that are the sources of plagues do the same?

"I must admire my Master’s strong nerves. He even proposed a hypothesis corresponding to the evidence, assuming that each particle contained a mischievous immortal or Buddha. These immortals or Buddhas would deliberately cause trouble during experiments to see if anyone was spying on them.

"Of course, the immortals and Buddhas have passed away, and they certainly wouldn’t be interested in rolling dice."

Luo Siyuan said leisurely, "After enduring long trials and much suffering, my Master chose to descend the mountain and took me as his disciple in the process.

"I was the only person in the world who could understand him and keep up with his thoughts.

"With my assistance, he continued to refine the experiment, a process that was painful yet one he relished. For instance, he considered placing the Detector—which could be a device or a person using Spiritual Sense—after the double slits. Since the particle would have already passed through the slits, the event of ’passing through the slits’ would be in the past. The question then became: could such post-event observational activities reverse cause and effect and influence history itself?"