Chapter 2. Learning Brings Me Joy

Tokyo, Shinjuku Ward.

After finishing his exorcism, Qiao Qiao returned to his own home.

It was a typical two-story Japanese-style house.

The lights only came on when he arrived.

Passing through the entryway, Qiao Qiao placed his travel suitcase in the study to the side.

On the study’s walls hung countless weapons that looked fierce and intimidating: inconspicuous combat daggers (never used), Black Star pistols that even elementary schoolers could handle with ease (allegedly), large-caliber anti-materiel sniper rifles unattainable through normal channels (so he claimed), and the rocket launcher he’d just returned to its place (that one was real).

The room resembled nothing less than a panorama of human warfare.

On the desk, physical and chemical lab equipment was piled high, with unknown liquids reflecting eerie lights beneath the lamp—giving the place a distinct mad scientist’s atmosphere.

These were Qiao Qiao’s “tools” for exorcism.

Qiao Qiao was not a native of this world—he was a transmigrant, once a graduate student in physics.

The Qiao Qiao of this world was merely an ordinary, handsome high schooler in Tokyo.

He had moved to Japan with his parents from China at a young age.

For the past two years, his parents had mostly been working at a research institute in Shimane Prefecture and rarely came home.

He lived alone in the spacious Shinjuku house, left behind to study for university entrance exams—a lonely existence.

After crossing over, the first thing Qiao Qiao discovered was not his golden finger, but the existence of anomalies in this world.

He had witnessed with his own eyes an ordinary office worker being mauled to death by a monster with the face of an ape, the limbs of a tiger, and the tail of a snake.

That monster was quickly dispatched by several people dressed in priestly and shrine maiden attire.

He scoured newspapers, searched the internet.

Qiao Qiao could easily find news of anomalies wreaking havoc and shrine maidens, monks, and onmyoji purging evil spirits.

Upon learning this truth, Qiao Qiao discovered he too possessed spiritual power.

This spiritual power was the core ability for vanquishing anomalies.

Spiritual power was formless and intangible, without color or taste; once expended, it would gradually recover over time until it reached a capacity limit.

Soon, Qiao Qiao discovered methods to increase his spiritual power’s capacity and began to steadily build his reserves.

After all, in a world like this, strength was the greatest reassurance.

As his capacity grew, Qiao Qiao started seeking out anomalies nearby to test himself, quickly clearing out all those close to his home.

Thus, he began taking on exorcism jobs, treating them as part-time work after school.

Yet, unlike the yokai described in library books, many anomalies had mastered modern techniques and evolved.

Qiao Qiao realized that relying solely on spiritual power to exorcise anomalies had its limits.

In his brief exorcist career, Qiao Qiao learned one thing: the more he trained his spiritual power, the more he saw the inherent limitations of traditional exorcism.

Unless one could transcend spiritual power...

Qiao Qiao believed fear stemmed from the unknown.

People’s fear of anomalies arose from their mystery.

If one day, he could fully analyze anomalies, making them specimens that anyone could dissect in a laboratory—

Or even serve as a dish in a hot pot—

Then anomalies would no longer be frightening.

Thus, he dedicated himself to uncovering the truth behind anomalies.

Qiao Qiao began researching the fusion of modern science and spiritual power, delving into the nature and causes of anomalies, and applying the scientific methods he’d mastered in his previous life to exorcism.

He was not a military enthusiast, unfamiliar with firearms and weaponry; the only time he’d handled a gun was during university military training.

So his criteria for exorcism weapons were simple: more is better, bigger is beautiful, caliber is justice, and within range, truth prevails.

Qiao Qiao no longer wished to be an exorcist.

From now on, he would be a researcher of anomalies.

...

“Hey, did you hear? There was a pipeline explosion in Tadabori Park yesterday.”

“Really? Why would there be a natural gas pipeline there?”

“No idea, but I heard even that five-hundred-year-old cherry tree was destroyed in the blast.”

“Oh, that’s awful...”

Nearby, snippets of conversation from some girls drifted to Qiao Qiao’s ears, but they didn’t disturb his thoughts.

Qiao Qiao was engrossed in a professional book on the Monte Carlo method—a work on probability and statistics.

For the twenty minutes before the first class, he was completely immersed in the world of study.

When the bell rang, he closed the book.

He shut his eyes, appearing to rest and gather his energy, but in reality, he was reviewing what he’d just learned.

“Hm, a standard unit... Looks like this book alone should yield at least ten standard units of spiritual power capacity.”

His recent reading had increased his spiritual power capacity by one standard unit.

Yes—after coming to this world, Qiao Qiao discovered the way to increase his spiritual power: by studying!

By learning new knowledge, he could raise his spiritual power’s capacity.

Whether math, science, politics, history, geography—so long as it was new to him, it worked.

Thus began Qiao Qiao’s mad journey of learning.

His admission to a physics graduate program already attested to his aptitude.

Now, with added incentives to study, Qiao Qiao worked even harder!

Learning brought him joy!

As for the units of spiritual power capacity, Qiao Qiao had defined them himself.

After all, spiritual power could not be measured by instruments—it was utterly subjective.

Even Japan’s long history had failed to describe this force in modern terms.

Naturally, neither anomalies nor exorcists possessed the kind of straightforward power ranking systems found in novels.

Qiao Qiao believed that to understand anomalies, he first had to change how they—and spiritual power—were described.

From qualitative to quantitative.

He defined the spiritual power required to completely purify a lowest-level vengeful spirit anomaly as one standard unit and began his calculations from there.

It was very difficult to increase his capacity by one standard unit.

It required not only reading, but true comprehension.

Superficial skimming was useless; only genuine understanding produced results.

There’s an old saying: “Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.”

In the spirit of scientific inquiry, Qiao Qiao tested several common books.

A typical university textbook: about five units.

A “Shonen Jump” magazine: zero.

A “Quick O-Day” magazine: about 0.5 units—perhaps because reading it taught something about human anatomy?

A paper published in an international academic journal: five to ten units, depending on depth.

Because of this, Qiao Qiao’s spiritual power capacity was not that high.

Only about nine thousand eight hundred and fifty units.

Does that sound like a lot?

Qiao Qiao didn’t think so.

He had watched videos online of master exorcists in Japan.

With a slap, a Buddha’s kingdom appeared in their palm and lotus flowers blossomed.

Even the most ferocious evil spirits would turn up the corners of their mouths and head for the Pure Land.

Or perhaps a grand formation would hum, lights would swirl, words of power would circle.

Winds would rise, shikigami would conceal all, and anomalies would be utterly devoured.

In short, the more spectacular, the better.

But when Qiao Qiao tried exorcising spirits himself—

It was just a punch, and the vengeful spirit vanished.

No transcendence, no Buddhahood.

Plain and unremarkable, without a hint of the miraculous.

Qiao Qiao thought his cultivation must not be deep enough.

No matter how much spiritual power he had, he couldn’t bring those vengeful spirits peace.

He could not relieve their suffering.

He could only annihilate them, leaving them to perish in pain.

His method was the lowest form of exorcism.

Destroying vengeful spirits was simple.

But sending them to the Pure Land, to the underworld, was hard.

Thinking of this, Qiao Qiao’s respect for those masters only grew deeper.