Chapter 1: Three Thousand Pillars of Light

　　“The end of physics is mathematics, the end of mathematics is philosophy, and the end of philosophy is theology.”

　　Inside a conference room, upon hearing an old professor say this, the faces of the other experts grew extremely complicated.

　　The more than one hundred people present were all top domestic authorities, representing cutting-edge technology and the pinnacle of human science. Yet, something profoundly unscientific had cast a shadow over their hearts.

　　According to ancient Mayan mythology, in December 2012, three days of continuous darkness would envelop everything, and the end of the world would come. Even elementary school students scoffed at this idea, and mainstream scientists worldwide had found no threats related to 2012.

　　Yet reality was a slap in the face: on December 23rd, 24th, and 25th, 2012, both the sun and the moon stopped working, and the legendary three days of darkness arrived as foretold. Even though humans had artificial lighting, endless panic swept across the globe in just those three days.

　　After three days, the darkness dissipated, and the sun rose as usual.

　　Before people could celebrate surviving the disaster, even stranger phenomena appeared.

　　Three thousand multicolored pillars of light mysteriously appeared in major human population centers around the world.

　　In the East, in China, there were one hundred such pillars, located in the country’s one hundred most densely populated cities.

　　Each pillar was twelve meters in diameter, with one end plunging deep underground and the other reaching into the clouds. The pillars emitted red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and violet light, radiating a mysterious allure, as if calling all living beings to step into their range.

　　No one knew what was inside the pillars. Any humans or animals who entered vanished without a trace, as if transported to another plane. Military forces from various countries sent in suicide squads to investigate, but after a year, there was still no news from them. Some civilians, unafraid of death, also entered the multicolored pillars, only to disappear from the world.

　　In Western countries, the reaction was intense, especially among religious believers, who were thrown into chaos. Some believed the pillars were God’s summons, leading the faithful to the gates of heaven. Others thought they were the devil’s temptation, and that entering would mean falling into endless hell. In just one year, over ten million people in North America disappeared into the pillars, and tens of millions in Europe risked their lives as well.

　　Asia was polarized. In West Asia, most countries believed this was a manifestation of Allah, and tens of millions of people surged into the pillars. East Asian countries, on the other hand, placed more faith in science and maintained a wait-and-see attitude. In China, the most powerful nation in the East, the authorities’ stance was ambiguous: they neither encouraged nor discouraged citizens from entering the multicolored pillars.

　　Rumors circulated online that China’s top officials were also deeply interested in the mysterious pillars. Besides sending in suicide squads, they had secretly sent large numbers of death row inmates and prisoners serving life sentences into the pillars as “pioneers,” like lab rats.

　　Many civilians were eager to try as well: people being hunted by enemies, those with insurmountable debts, those who failed in the stock market and wanted to jump off buildings, those who wished to die after heartbreak, those with terminal illnesses and little time left, and those who simply found life too boring and sought excitement—all flocked to the multicolored pillars.

　　The three thousand multicolored pillars of light inspired fear, but also gave hope to some who were in despair.

　　More than half the world’s population believed the pillars were a kind of miracle.

　　For things science could not explain, people could only classify them as miracles.

　　“The end of physics is mathematics, the end of mathematics is philosophy, and the end of philosophy is theology.”

　　Since the great catastrophe brought by the three days of darkness, this saying had become extremely popular.

　　People traced its origins and found some seemingly reasonable examples.

　　For instance, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Yang Zhenning once said: “The end of physics is philosophy, and the end of philosophy is religion.”

　　Chinese physicist Li Zhengdao also said: “The end of physics is aesthetics, the end of aesthetics is philosophy, and the end of philosophy is theology.”

　　No matter how the path changed in the middle, the final destination was always related to theology.

　　In this regard, there was also a giant among giants, a super idol—the father of modern science, Newton, the founder of universal gravitation, whose three laws were known to all. Newton’s life was a classic journey through physics, mathematics, philosophy, and theology. Beyond his immortal achievements in physics, he also published “Analytical Geometry” and “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.”