Don't Mess with That Dragon

This great collapse of the external Beastman Tribe occurred before the cold winter, and it was precisely this massive influx of Beastman population that allowed the Dragon Nest Tribe's population to break through the 90,000 mark, moving towards a count of 100,000.

The substantial growth in the Beastman population did not cause much trouble for the Beastman Tribe.

All work had precedents, and with the Dragon Nest Tribe's rich experience in absorbing members, they quickly incorporated the numerous wandering Beastmen into their ranks after the great collapse.

During this period, the Dragon Nest Tribe focused on strengthening the training of the tribe's Beastmen, mainly to enhance their prowess.

Time passed in tranquility, with about half a month remaining until the end of the cold winter.

Meanwhile, Austin, who was contemplating the four Law Divine Swords, encountered a seemingly insurmountable obstacle before even entering the gate.

At the mountaintop,

lightning flashed and thunder roared, winds and thunder converged.

Austin's face showed a distressed look.

"Wind, Thunder, Water, Fire, Power of the Four Symbols, sigh..."

Between heaven and earth, the Qi of the four Law Divine Swords dispersed into the void, intertwining mysteriously, seemingly possessing a faint, almost intangible connection.

This intertwining of Qi formed an incomparably harmonious "circle," seemingly excluding the surrounding miles from heaven and earth.

This was the power at the level of Laws, where the Laws were affecting the void.

The surrounding miles of territory were transformed into a domain belonging to them!

If one could comprehend the rationale behind the mutual intertwining of the Qi of these four Law Divine Swords, it could serve as the foundation for developing a Four Spirits Sword Array akin to the Four Directions Sword Realm.

Austin thought this at the beginning, and with great hope, he invested a significant amount of his heart spirit into it.

He infused his spiritual power into the Thunderbolt Divine Sword he was most familiar with, merging into its aura and spreading into the void, intending to observe how this aura of Laws intertwined.

But, he failed from the start.

The four Law Divine Swords seemed to possess consciousness. When Austin attempted to glimpse at their true condition, the connections and intertwining of those auras ceased immediately.

The Law Divine Swords stood quietly around, their might shaking the surroundings, opposing each other as if dividing four realms, making the previous mystical intertwining seem like an illusion.

When Austin withdrew his spiritual power, the intertwining of those auras and the harmonious circle reappeared.

First came astonishment, followed by shock, and, finally, a relentless determination.

He continued to attempt,

first once, then twice, and so it went.

Thus, Austin abandoned the Thunderbolt Divine Sword and focused his spiritual power on the Wind Law Divine Sword.

However, the result was the same!

Just as when he merged his spiritual power into the Thunderbolt Divine Sword and tried to trace the aura of the Thunder Law to understand the connection and intertwining principles between the four Laws, those connections vanished as soon as he observed them.

When Austin infused his spiritual power into the aura of the Wind Law, the result was identical.

Next, it was the Law of Water.

And finally, the Law of Fire.

No matter how Austin tried, as soon as he observed, the connections between the four Laws inevitably vanished.

The four Law Divine Swords were like four mischievous children.

When you're not looking, they get along very well, playing and having fun together.

But as soon as you look at them, they immediately become proper, as if they don't recognize each other.

Strange, very strange.

"Quantum superposition state..."

Austin's expression turned grim, pondering for a long time, and he used a term from physics he encountered in a previous life to describe the situation he faced.

Just like Schrödinger's cat.

Before you observe it, that cat exists in a state of being both alive and dead at the same time.

The four Law Divine Swords before him were just like this.

While being independent, they were also interconnected.

In a state of both independence and connection.

"Schrödinger's cat, an overlay of life and death!"

Austin's expression became particularly complex.

Back when he was young, upon first hearing about Schrödinger's cat and roughly understanding the experiment's process, he simply thought that the so-called superposed states of the cat were:

Living result + dead result = overlay of life and death.

The so-called state of life and death overlay was nothing more than a philosophical, linguistic concept.

The cat in the box was either alive or dead; the result could only be one or the other.

Once the box was opened and the cat inside was observed, confirming the cat's life or death, it was akin to stepping back from the right side of the equation to the left.

However, it wasn't until Austin attended university, learned more, that he truly understood that his initial understanding was completely wrong.

The state of overlay between life and death is a real existing state, not just a linguistic equation.

Memory pulled him back continuously.

Austin recalled a real-life experiment that seemed bizarre and frightening to ordinary people, the photon double-slit interference experiment.

In that experiment, when you used detectors to monitor how the photon passed through the two slits, that photon manifested as a particle, and no interference pattern appeared on the photographic paper behind.

Yet when you removed the monitor, a strange phenomenon occurred.

With the same experimental setup and environment, the photographic paper behind displayed an interference pattern at the end.

As if some ghost or deity wielded its invisible hands, altering everything.

And that classic experiment in quantum physics proved that human consciousness could cause the collapse of the quantum superposition states that exist in reality.

This is also why people often say the end of science is theology.

It was from that experiment Austin's thinking began to change, realizing that Schrödinger's cat genuinely existed in a state of life and death overlay.

Now, the problem faced by Austin's four Law Divine Swords might be the same.

"This, perhaps already touches upon the fundamental concepts of world reality and existence!"

Austin shook his head slightly.

The state of independence and connection coexistence of the four Law Divine Swords, Wind, Thunder, Water, and Fire, was so similar to the photon's double-slit interference experiment!

This problem had already touched upon the fundamentals of the world and reality.

Such a level of power was something Austin could not touch.

Untouchable, incomprehensible.

"Perhaps, only reaching Legendary, or even Epic above Legendary, or the Divine above Epic, could one truly understand the source of such things."

At this moment, Austin couldn't help but recall the final words of the old priest before he left the Divine Kingdom.

"...a predetermined destiny."

Perhaps that pertained to some deeper information.

After mulling over it for a long time, he came to no conclusions.

In the end, Austin gave up on contemplating these issues.

Though he hadn't figured out the rationale behind the connections between the four Law Divine Swords, regarding the Four Spirits Sword Array, Austin came away with some ideas during this fruitless contemplation process.