Chapter 79 - Power-Up! (2)

Following <Mysteries of the Worm> and <The Lesser Key of Solomon>, my third grimoire:

<Baopuzi>.

Baopuzi. As its name suggested, unlike my other two grimoires, this one dealt with Eastern occultism.

My eyes narrowed.

"... A new grimoire, huh."

In the past, I might have hesitated, with my hands already full studying and managing <Mysteries of the Worm> and <The Lesser Key of Solomon>. But in my current situation, new magic wouldn't hurt.

Well, I'd have to look at the contents before I could judge properly.

Hadn't I seen this grimoire's name somewhere before, though?

Since I couldn't remember clearly, maybe it was just some passing tidbit in a comic or novel.

Anyway, I took <Baopuzi>, [Please Take Me In] box and all, back inside. Standing in the entryway, I searched for <Baopuzi> on my phone.

Time for my first "Help me, Google!" in a while.

Baopuzi – A Taoist text written by Ge Hong, a scholar of the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is said to contain Taoist philosophy and methods for becoming an immortal.

'... Methods for becoming an immortal, huh.'

Just the word "immortal" sounded healthy. Fresh and eco-friendly, maybe?

Of course, it could also be some bullshit like, "Step one to becoming an immortal: discard your physical body."

To check for myself, I leaned against the wall by the entryway and opened <Baopuzi>, skimming through it.

"Hmm..."

The contents were quite interesting. Influenced by Laozi's view of nature and the idea that any human could become an immortal, it claimed that anyone, regardless of talent, could achieve immortality through effort.

Past methods for becoming an immortal had included meditating and then jumping off a cliff, fasting while praying, or holding grand sacrificial rites while shouting at the sky, "O Heaven! Please make me an immortal!"

Ge Hong, the author of Baopuzi, rejected such methods.

[You become an immortal through your own power, not through Heaven's help.]

That was his philosophy.

I blinked for a moment.

'Haven't I seen this philosophy somewhere before?'

Then I remembered.

Overcoming heavenly tribulations through your own power to become an immortal?

'That's xianxia, isn't it?!'

Xianxia. I didn't know the genre in detail, but I wasn't completely unfamiliar with it either.

It was a setting where backstabbing was a basic passive skill, and you had to watch out for getting stabbed from every direction. People called cultivators sought to become celestial beings who completely transcended humanity by grinding ordinary people into elixirs, grinding spirit beasts into elixirs, and even turning fellow cultivators into elixirs to gobble up and keep getting stronger.

'Eat! Eat! Get stronger!'

Thinking of it that way... did Kirby count as xianxia too?

Well, that was just an extreme example. Plenty of people got stronger without taking elixirs.

Like fantasy or martial arts fiction, the genre simply had a common set of foundational conventions. The details varied a little from author to author.

Anyway, in xianxia settings, cultivators accumulated power through training. When they tried to exceed their allotted limits and natural lifespans, Heaven sent down tribulations to stop them.

Usually, it just struck them with lightning to kill them.

At that point, the cultivator used all the power they had built up to overcome Heaven's interference.

'I cut through the lightning!'

And ascended to a higher realm.

... Of course, it was only similar in feel.

Baopuzi didn't contain xianxia cultivation stages like Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, or Nascent Soul. Naturally, it didn't teach how to make human-flesh elixirs either.

The immortals Ge Hong described were different from those in xianxia to begin with. In Baopuzi, they were humans who remained youthful and lived longer than ordinary people.

Ge Hong believed that prayer alone changed nothing. He reasoned that living healthily and eating things that were good for you would naturally slow aging and prolong life, so he researched ways of becoming an immortal that were rational by the standards of his time.

The result was the roughly three methods of achieving immortality recorded in Baopuzi.

Breathing techniques – Breathing healthily.

Elixir-making – Making and eating health foods.

Bedchamber arts – Having healthy sex.

Ge Hong believed that by avoiding excessive eating and pleasure, eating meat and vegetables, and maintaining a healthy body through proper exercise, people could become immortals by practicing breathing techniques, elixir-making, and bedchamber arts.

Attaining ageless longevity without abandoning the human body.

That was Baopuzi's magic.

It also contained various other Taoist arts.

... For starters, I definitely liked that it was good for my health.

And what caught my interest was the breathing techniques.

Elixir-making and bedchamber arts interested me too, but I didn't want heavy-metal poisoning if the elixirs contained something like mercury, and I had no partner for the bedchamber arts.

... Well, I'd look for elixirs made solely from medicinal herbs.

I turned to the breathing techniques and read on. The methods were a little different... but they resembled the martial arts breathing techniques Lee Munryong had taught me.

... Their effects were the same.

They improved your health and temporarily enhanced your physical abilities. The only difference was whether they were magical breathing techniques or martial arts breathing techniques.

"..."

I thought for a moment, then left the entryway and returned to the room—though in a studio apartment, it was right in front of me anyway.

I lightly stepped over Lee Munryong, who lay on the floor looking thoroughly battered after Grizzly had finished with him. He raised his upper body and sat up.

"... So, are we continuing your breathing training?"

"No need."

"Hmm?"

Lee Munryong looked puzzled by my change in attitude. Eyes flashing, I sat on the bed and opened <Baopuzi>.

FWOOSH!

"Who learns martial arts these days? Xianxia is all the rage."

Lee Munryong deliberately made his eyes wobble and clicked his tongue.

"Awwww! After all that effort teaching you!"

I shrugged.

Well, I was joking. I just figured I could learn the magical breathing techniques faster with a grimoire to help me.

"I'll ask if anything about the breathing techniques confuses me, so just give me some advice."

As for why I'd revealed <Baopuzi> to Lee Munryong, he already knew I owned multiple grimoires. Since I'd hired him as a bodyguard, we would be spending time together, and trying to study my grimoires while worrying about him watching would be a tedious hassle.

Besides, their masters could summon grimoires, making them impossible to steal.

... If Lee Munryong betrayed me, I could just kill him.

As soon as Tuesday arrived, I'd enveloped myself in [The Sixth Pentacle of Mars], the spell that prevented fatal wounds, so my precautions against surprise attacks were complete.

I wouldn't get caught out like I had in our last fight.

Lee Munryong pretended to click his tongue in displeasure, but he wasn't actually upset.

A person should learn whatever suited their own body.

With calm eyes, he studied the new grimoire Yohan had produced.

The fellow already defied common sense by owning two grimoires. Having one more wasn't strange. Still, he never would have expected it to be <Baopuzi>.

Not that he was particularly interested. He knew nothing about magic and had lived his entire life with spear and fists. Other paths meant nothing to him.

It simply meant that those wretches bewitched by the absurd promise of an immortal's eternal youth and undying life—martial artists and Taoist priests—might come looking too.

As Lee Munryong looked at Yohan's face, someone came to mind.

"Hmm..."

But he soon shook his head.

'That fellow's surname is Shin. Must just be a resemblance.'

He lay back down on the floor for a nap.

RUSTLE... RUSTLE...

As I turned the pages of <Baopuzi>, my expectations rose a little. Since it was a grimoire about breathing techniques, I wondered if it might have some fantastical training method.

Something like meditating to accumulate internal energy in the dantian.

... But soon, my eyes narrowed of their own accord.

[Bend at the waist, lower your body, turn your neck, and exhale... Pat your back and exhale... Open your chest in a bow-drawing pose and exhale...]

Baopuzi was illustrated with examples of stretching in various poses while breathing out.

'Isn't this... um... just ordinary fitness exercises?'

I mean, if it made me healthier, it made me healthier, and that was a good thing, but...

"Haa..."

Well, since I'd acquired it, of course I'd practice it... alongside the martial arts Lee Munryong taught me.

I casually tossed <Baopuzi> onto the bed.

THUMP.

B-Baopu...?

Having never been treated this way before, <Baopuzi> trembled on the bed in bewilderment.

Watching from where they stood on the desk, <Mysteries of the Worm> and <The Lesser Key of Solomon>...

HUMMM!

...fluttered and bounced like noble young ladies mocking a country girl who had just arrived in the capital.

'Serves you right, my dear!'

Meanwhile, far away at a Taoist temple hidden in the mountains, whose location could not be discovered by ordinary means, an old man carrying a crescent-bladed polearm led his subordinates inside, brutally smashing through the temple doors.

"Bwahahaha! At last, I've found it!"

Greed and ecstasy flashed across the old man's face.

"The grimoire of eternal youth and undying life! Baopuzi!"

It offered ageless longevity rather than undying life, but such distinctions meant nothing to him.

He went deep into the temple and roughly opened the wooden box where the grimoire should have been stored.

"... Huh?"

The old man found himself staring into a completely empty box.

Was this how Xun Yu had felt when he saw that empty food box?

Ah, Heaven no longer wants me to live!

... Was this a heavenly tribulation?

"W-What is this—?!"

As the old man and his warrior subordinates reeled at the unexpected turn of events, footsteps sounded behind them.

"You scoundrels!"

The Taoist priests guarding the temple had realized their barrier had been breached and rushed over. They were carrying on their master's wishes, preventing <Baopuzi> from being abused by evildoers.

"How dare you! You wreck our temple and try to steal Baopuzi! We will not forgive you!"

The old man was briefly taken aback, but his face soon twisted with rage like an evil spirit's.

"Bah! Now I understand! You damned Taoist bastards!"

He whirled his crescent-bladed polearm, readying for battle.

"You spirited <Baopuzi> away and mean to pin it on me!"

"What are you talking about?! This is private property in the first place! Trespassing is a crime!"

"Shut up!"

The sweeping polearm sent the priest's head flying.

SPLASH!

Enraged, the priests drew their swords.

"Kill that fiend! Use the joint attack formation!"

CLANG! CLANG! CLAAANG!

Steel clashed against steel as battle broke out inside the temple.

* * *

In a conference room at the Bureau of Anomalous Phenomena Countermeasures, the Special Response Section began an emergency meeting about the magicians who had recently flooded into Korea, on top of the headache already caused by Ioannis's vampire clan.

The operative leading the meeting advanced through the presentation, explaining the identities of magicians who had entered Korea illegally by various means and been caught on camera.

Then a photograph appeared that had incidentally captured Alphonse and Lee Munryong walking down a street.

Shin Doryong, director of the Bureau of Anomalous Phenomena Countermeasures, frowned.

"... What's that man doing here?"

The operative paused the presentation to explain.

"Ah, this magician is from the Paracelsian School, which is considered a particular concern—"

"No, not the long-haired one. The old man behind him."

Shin Doryong narrowed his eyes and spoke in an irritated tone.

"He's more dangerous. If you find him, don't pick a fight for no reason. Contact me."

Beside him, Team Leader Park looked at him cautiously.

"... Do you know him?"

"The former Greatest Under Heaven. The Number One Spear. No one in the martial arts world of the Central Plains handles a spear better than that man."

The Central Plains martial arts world—the breathing-technique users active in China called themselves martial artists.

At that, Team Leader Park asked without thinking.

"If he's the former Greatest Under Heaven, who's the current one?"

"Me."

Shin Doryong spoke with an utterly composed expression.

"I beat him."