In this era, astronomical telescopes were mostly owned by the church, and they did not allow ordinary people to produce or use them. Even the production of special lenses required a permit.
To obtain this astronomical telescope, Zhou Liye worked on tasks for two consecutive nights.
After overcoming numerous obstacles, including the deaths of two assassins and several peripheral personnel, they finally obtained the astronomical telescope and moved it into Galileo's hut.
The cabin was built on a mountaintop and was very secluded. It was surrounded by flowers, grass, and parasitic plants, and each path was guarded by assassins.
Every night, as Zhou Liye climbs the winding path, he can vaguely see a small house and a sky full of stars.
The thought of Galileo observing the stars inside gave him a feeling of pilgrimage.
The next phase of the mission is to wait for Galileo's research while escorting other wizards and documents.
Copernicus, Bruno, Galileo... The reason these wizards observed the night sky every day was to record the orbits of constellations. By calculating the changes in these orbits, they could build a better heliocentric model.
If one day the trajectory predicted by this model matches the observation results perfectly, then they have succeeded!
However, they need a lot of observational data for this.
Copernicus left some behind, Bruno left some behind, but it wasn't enough.
Celestial observations are usually done in units of years, decades, or centuries. Some comets only appear once every few hundred years, making each observation record invaluable.
This is not a task for one or two generations, but a mission passed down from generation to generation by all wizards for many years.
Like a spark, it is carefully nurtured and passed down until the right time for it to turn into a raging fire.
Galileo was the one who took up the baton last, leading his students day and night, completely secluded in a small cabin on the mountain.
During this period, Zhou Liye took on several side quests.
Wizards from all over the world had different records of star observations. After learning about Galileo's news, they all chose to send their records over by various means.
Like a continuous stream of sparks, it contributes a little light from every corner of the world; though faint, it is unstoppable.
It's not just Copernicus... Every ordinary night, countless people gaze devoutly at the starry sky.
But things took a turn.
The church, through an inside job, wiped out one of Bluebell's branches.
That day, Zhou Liye almost got killed by the Templar Knights who were lying in wait when he returned from his mission.
He was filled with rage and wanted revenge, but the first mandatory order he received from Bluebell was to rescue Galileo and move him and his apprentices away safely if possible.
After this incident, Bluebell suffered great losses, but kept quiet about it.
Because of their forbearance, although the church began to doubt Galileo, it had no conclusive evidence.
Ultimately, the church decided to arrest Galileo on charges of "illegally using a telescope," a charge that should have resulted in only a fine, and Bluebell had already raised enough bail money. However, the church detained him without conducting a trial.
Without trial, there is no verdict; without a verdict, they can delay indefinitely.
From that day on, Zhou Liye began to disguise himself as a prison guard and try to sneak into the prison every day to visit Galileo.
Although Galileo was no longer alive, his students continued their research.
When the apprentices encountered problems, they would ask Zhou Liye to smuggle papers into the prison to meet with Galileo.
Galileo, in the dirty and cramped prison cell, secretly continued his research every day by lighting a small, hidden candle, under the cover of Zhou Liye.
During the day, Zhou Liye would take Galileo's findings out again.
The final turning point came with information sent by another wizard, Kepler.
He invented a new elliptic curve algorithm that perfectly fits the heliocentric model.
After going to great lengths to overcome numerous obstacles, he delivered a large amount of information.
Like the final piece of a tangram puzzle, the long-standing task of heliocentrism has finally come to an end.
After the heliocentric model was completed, the apprentices, suppressing their excitement, continued their daily observations.
The observation results and the model's predictions are almost completely consistent!
Everyone who heard the news was greatly excited, and even the assassins realized that the world was about to undergo a huge change.
—Now they know that the sun is the center of the universe! The sun is stationary, without any divine power at play; it is the earth that revolves around the sun in an elliptical orbit!
Zhou Liye immediately went back to tell Galileo the good news.
Galileo sat down in a daze, clenching his fists together, crying and laughing at the same time.
He took the paper, examined it closely in the light shining through the iron bars, and said, "Why are there still two decimals that don't match?"
Zhou Liye knew everything. He wanted to say: because this model has not yet taken into account the influence of gravity, we will have to wait until Newton discovers universal gravitation and Einstein publishes the theory of relativity before the predictions will be accurate to several decimal places...
But he smiled and didn't say anything.
Because this spark has been passed down to this day, it has become a bright torch, and it will continue to be passed down slowly, with countless great scientists dedicating their lives to it.
This is an eternal endeavor of human civilization.
After that, the heliocentric theory began to spread widely among wizards.
The church discovered this immediately, but it was too late. Enraged, they decided to sentence Galileo—
Life imprisonment!