Chapter 79 - Power Up! (2)

Following <De Vermis Mysteriis> and <The Lesser Key of Solomon>.

The third grimoire.

Baopuzi. As the name suggested, unlike the other two grimoires, this was an Eastern occult grimoire.

My eyes narrowed.

"...A new grimoire."

If it had been before, I would have hesitated a bit, what with studying and managing <De Vermis Mysteriis> and <The Lesser Key of Solomon>.

But in the current situation, new magic wasn't a bad thing.

Well, I'd need to look at the contents before making any real judgment, though.

But this grimoire's name, I felt like I'd seen it somewhere before?

Given that I couldn't quite remember, I'd probably just come across it in passing from a manga or novel.

Anyway, I took the <Baopuzi>, box and all marked [Please Pick Me Up], and went back inside.

At the entrance, I searched for information on the <Baopuzi> on my phone.

It had been a while since my last "Help me, Google!"

Baopuzi – A Daoist text written by the Eastern Jin scholar Ge Hong. Said to contain Daoist philosophy and methods for becoming an immortal.

'...Methods for becoming an immortal.'

Well, the word "immortal" alone sounded healthy enough.

A fresh and eco-friendly vibe, maybe?

Of course, it could turn out that step one to becoming an immortal was to discard the physical body.

To check for myself, I leaned against the wall by the entrance and opened the <Baopuzi> to skim through it.

"Hmm...."

The content itself was quite interesting.

Influenced by Laozi's view of nature and the philosophy that anyone could become an immortal.

The message was that regardless of talent, any person could become an immortal through effort.

In the past, methods for becoming an immortal included meditating and then jumping off a cliff, starving yourself while praying, and holding grand rituals toward the sky crying "O heavens! Please make me an immortal!"

Ge Hong, the author of the Baopuzi, rejected all these methods.

[Becoming an immortal is not achieved through heaven's help, but through one's own power.]

That was Ge Hong's philosophy.

I blinked for a moment.

'I feel like I've seen this philosophy somewhere before?'

And then I remembered.

Breaking through Heavenly Tribulation by one's own power and becoming an immortal?

'This is xianxia!?'

Xianxia. It wasn't a genre I knew in detail, but it wasn't one I was completely ignorant of either.

A worldview where you had to watch out for basic backstabs and attacks from all sides, where beings called cultivators sought to completely transcend humanity and become celestial beings.

They'd grind up ordinary people to make elixirs, grind up spirit beasts to make elixirs, grind up fellow cultivators to make elixirs, devour them all, and keep getting stronger. That was the genre.

'Eat! Eat! Get stronger!'

Thinking about it that way... was Kirby from Kirby's Dream Land also a xianxia character?

Well, that was just an extreme example, and there were plenty of cases where characters got stronger without eating elixirs.

It was just like fantasy or martial arts fiction, with a common set of foundational settings that served as the root.

The specifics varied a bit depending on the author.

Anyway, in a xianxia worldview, a cultivator would build up power through training. When they tried to break past their set limits and exceed their natural lifespan, the heavens would send down Heavenly Tribulation to stop them.

Usually by directly dropping lightning to kill the cultivator.

At that point, the cultivator would use the power they'd accumulated to overcome heaven's interference.

'I cut through the lightning-!'

And ascend to a higher realm.

...Of course, this was just a general similarity in feel.

The Baopuzi didn't actually contain xianxia-style cultivation stages like the Condensation Stage, Qi Gathering Stage, or Soul Formation Stage.

Obviously, there were no techniques for making elixirs from human flesh either.

To begin with, the immortal that Ge Hong spoke of was different from the immortals in xianxia.

The immortal of the Baopuzi was a human who lived longer than an ordinary person.

Ge Hong believed that no amount of praying alone would change anything.

He concluded that by living a healthy life and eating things good for the body, one could naturally avoid aging quickly and live a long life.

He researched methods for becoming an immortal in a rational way for his era. And what came out of that research was,

roughly three methods for becoming an immortal written in the Baopuzi.

Breathing Technique – breathing in a healthy way.

Alchemy – making and consuming health supplements.

Bedchamber arts – having sex in a healthy way.

Ge Hong believed that by being careful of excessive gluttony and indulgence, eating meat and vegetables, maintaining a healthy body through moderate exercise,

and training in breathing techniques, alchemy, and bedchamber arts, one could become an immortal.

Reaching immortality without abandoning the human body.

This was the magic of the Baopuzi.

There were also various Daoist arts on top of that.

...At any rate, the fact that it was good for your health was definitely appealing.

And what caught my attention was the Breathing Technique.

Alchemy and bedchamber arts were interesting too, but,

for alchemy, if the ingredients included something like mercury, I'd get heavy metal poisoning, so no thanks. And for bedchamber arts, I had no partner.

...Well, for alchemy, I'd look into elixirs that only used medicinal herbs as ingredients.

I flipped through the pages toward the Breathing Technique section and read.

The method was somewhat different, but... it was similar to the martial arts Breathing Technique Lee Mun-ryong had taught me.

...The effects were the same.

It made the body healthier and temporarily boosted physical capabilities.

The only difference was whether it was a magical Breathing Technique or a martial arts Breathing Technique.

".........."

I thought for a moment, and since it was a studio apartment so everything was right there anyway....

I went from the entrance back to my room.

I casually stepped over Lee Mun-ryong, who lay battered and crumpled on the floor after being thrashed by Grizzly.

Lee Mun-ryong sat up from his prone position on the floor and spoke.

"...So, are you going to continue training the Breathing Technique?"

"I'll pass."

"Hm?"

Puzzled by the change in attitude, Lee Mun-ryong looked confused. I sat on the bed with a glint in my eyes.

And opened the <Baopuzi>.

Shwaaak-!

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

Lee Mun-ryong deliberately let his pupils shake and clicked his tongue.

"Eeeh~ After I went through all the trouble of teaching you!"

I shrugged my shoulders.

Well, I was joking.

It was because I thought I could learn the magical Breathing Technique faster with a grimoire's assistance.

"If I get confused about anything related to the Breathing Technique, I'll ask you. So just give me some advice."

Also, the reason I'd revealed the existence of the <Baopuzi> to Lee Mun-ryong was,

he already knew I possessed multiple grimoires.

Since I'd hired him as a bodyguard, we'd be spending time together. Trying to study grimoires while watching my back around him would be annoying and exhausting.

Grimoires had a function to return to their owner upon summoning, so stealing them was impossible anyway.

...And if Lee Mun-ryong betrayed me, I could just kill him.

Since it was now Tuesday, I had immediately wrapped my body with the magic that blocked fatal wounds,

the [Sixth Pentacle of Mars], so my preparations against a surprise attack were complete.

There would be no repeat of what happened last time.

Lee Mun-ryong made a show of clicking his tongue in displeasure. But he wasn't actually that bothered.

It was just the kid learning something suited to his body.

Lee Mun-ryong watched the new grimoire Yo-han had pulled out with calm eyes.

This was already someone beyond common sense who possessed two grimoires.

Having one more wasn't strange. He just never expected it to be the <Baopuzi>.

It wasn't that he was particularly interested. Magic was outside his expertise.

He'd lived his entire life by the spear and his fists. Other paths meant nothing to him.

He just thought that those fools bewitched by the absurd fantasy of immortality,

Murim Practitioners and Daoist types, might come looking for it too.

As Lee Mun-ryong gazed at Yo-han's face, someone came to mind.

"Hmm~."

But he soon shook his head.

'That guy's surname is Shin. This one just looks similar.'

He lay back down on the floor and took a nap.

Rustle... rustle....

I turned the pages of the <Baopuzi> with some anticipation.

Since it was a grimoire related to Breathing Techniques, I thought maybe there'd be some fantasy-esque training methods.

Like meditating and accumulating inner energy in the dantian, that sort of thing.

...But before long, my eyes involuntarily narrowed.

[Bend your waist to lower your body and exhale while turning your neck... exhale while patting your back... exhale while opening your chest in a bow-drawing stance....]

The Baopuzi had illustrated examples of exhaling while stretching in various poses.

'Isn't this... just, you know... ordinary calisthenics?'

No, I mean, if it made you healthier then it was technically about getting healthier, and that was a good thing.

"Haah...."

Well, I'd obviously do it since I had it anyway... but I'd have to do it alongside the martial arts that Lee Mun-ryong was teaching me.

I tossed the <Baopuzi> carelessly onto the bed.

Thud-.

B-Baopu...?

The <Baopuzi>, receiving this kind of treatment for the first time, trembled in bewilderment atop the bed.

Meanwhile, <De Vermis Mysteriis> and <The Lesser Key of Solomon>, standing on the desk and watching the scene, were-.

Wuuung~!

Flapflapflap~!

-quivering like noble young ladies mocking a country heiress who had just arrived in the capital.

'How delightful to see you brought so low!'

And at that moment.

Far away, in a Daoist Temple deep in the mountains, in a location impossible to find by ordinary means.

An old man wielding a Crescent-Moon Blade led his subordinates, violently smashing through the doors of the Daoist Temple as they stormed inside.

"Gwahahahaha! Found it at last!"

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

"The grimoire of immortality! The Baopuzi!"

It was longevity, not immortality, but such distinctions didn't matter to the old man.

He went deep into the Daoist Temple and roughly opened the wooden box where the grimoire was supposedly kept.

"...Huh?"

And the old man found himself staring at a completely empty box.

Was this how Xun Yu felt when he found that empty gift box?

Ah, so the heavens are telling me I should just die!

...A Heavenly Tribulation, perhaps?

"Wh-what is this-!?"

As the old man and his subordinate warriors panicked at the unexpected turn of events, footsteps sounded from behind.

"You scoundrels-!"

The Daoist priests who had been guarding the temple to prevent the <Baopuzi> from being misused by villains, carrying on their master's will, had detected the breach in the barrier and come rushing in.

"How dare you! Trashing the Daoist Temple! Trying to steal the Baopuzi! You will not be forgiven!"

The old man was caught off guard for a moment. But his face soon twisted with rage like a wrathful demon.

"Gah! Now I see! You damn Daoist bastards!"

He swung the Crescent-Moon Blade through the air, readying for battle.

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

"What nonsense! This is private property to begin with! Trespassing is a crime!"

"Shut up!"

The swung Crescent-Moon Blade took a Daoist priest's head clean off.

Shwaaak-!

The Daoist priests drew their swords in fury.

"Kill that evil fiend! Combined formation!"

Clang! Kaang! Claaang!

Inside the Daoist Temple, blades clashed against blades and the battle began.

***

Bureau for Abnormal Phenomena Countermeasures, conference room.

As if the headache from Yoannis's vampire clan issue wasn't enough,

the Special Operations Division urgently convened a meeting over the problem of wizards who had recently flooded into Korea.

The Special Operations Division agent conducting the meeting flipped through the presentation slides, explaining the identities of the wizards who had been photographed after infiltrating Korea by various means.

During the briefing, a photo happened to come up that captured Alphons and Lee Mun-ryong walking together on the street.

Director Shin Do-ryong of the Bureau for Abnormal Phenomena Countermeasures furrowed his brows and spoke.

"...Why did that man come here?"

The Special Operations Division agent paused the screen and explained.

"Ah, this wizard is particularly noteworthy, from the Paracelsus School-."

"No, not the long-haired one. The old man in the background."

Shin Do-ryong spoke with narrowed eyes and an irritated voice.

"That one's more dangerous, so if you spot him, don't bother trying to fight. Contact me."

Team Leader Park, sitting beside him, glanced cautiously at Shin Do-ryong and asked.

"...Someone you know?"

"The former Greatest Under Heaven. Supreme Spear. In the Chinese murim, nobody handles a spear better than that man."

The Breathing Technique users active in the Chinese murim referred to themselves as Murim Practitioners.

Team Leader Park asked the question without thinking.

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

"Me."

Shin Do-ryong said with a perfectly composed expression.

"I beat him, after all."