The North American Gourmet Demon Handbook

"No, no need, Li." Seeing that Li Shanze was about to agree, Charlie couldn't help but smile. "Mr. McKee said he would find a time to visit you and discuss this matter with you in person."

"Talking face to face, that would be great." Li Shanze subconsciously pressed his throat.

No matter what, one must always prepare for the worst. When facing a wizard, the most effective method is to render their spell ineffective.

"Lee, please don't notify Kate, okay? It's just the two of us meeting Mr. McKee." Charlie continued to beg.

"Don't forget that I'm also from the FBI." Li Shanze joked and touched Xia Li's head casually.

At this time, the doorbell rang.

133 visitors

The visitor was none other than McGee.

This time he did not transform into a metal crow, but came in person.

His gray herringbone three-piece suit was bathed in sunlight, reflecting a golden halo.

The pocket watch was inserted diagonally into his vest pocket, and the platinum watch chain twisted and turned like a witchcraft rune - this was perhaps the only thing about his outfit that resembled a wizard.

When he took off his wide-brimmed fedora, his slicked-back silver hair took on a rime sheen.

His ebony staff also looked out of place among traditional staffs.

McGee was dressed very elegantly and looked almost nothing like a wizard. He looked more like an old friend of Senator Hamilton.

"You've arrived at the perfect time, Mr. McKee." Li Shanze smiled sarcastically, "I just got back too."

McGee just laughed, a very hearty smile, and seemed not to take Li Shanze's sarcasm to heart.

"Haha, please forgive me for using a little trick. Miss Butner has so much potential, I really can't wait."

After sitting down, McGee placed his ebony cane beside him and said impatiently, "Mr. Li, I believe you already know why I'm here. I want to discuss with you the matter of taking Miss Butner as my student. What do you think?"

Are you still so impatient at such an old age?

Is this just his personality, or is he deliberately being so urgent?

Li Shanze said slowly, "Wait a minute, Mr. McKee, how did you know she had potential, and how did you tell she hadn't received any systematic witchcraft training?"

McGee was unstinting in his praise for Charlie: "Miss Butner has witchcraft energy cheering and leaping all over her body. It's so obvious!"

It seems that Charlie was still cautious and did not tell anyone about her absorption of Buchaska.

Li Shanze and Xia Li exchanged a look, and Xia Li winked.

McGee said decisively, "Any senior witchcraft specialist can see Miss Butner's potential at a glance! She has a great chance of becoming the Chief Federation Wizard! At the very least, she has a chance of joining the Nine-Man Wizard Council!"

Li Shanze almost spit out a mouthful of water.

"Wait, what is a Senior Witchcraft Specialist, and what is a Chief Federal Wizard? Are wizards also civil servants within the federal system?"

McGee was also very surprised. He looked at Charlie and found that Charlie also looked confused.

The old gentleman sighed and said, "You see, you don't even know this, so Miss Butner must have never received any systematic wizard training!"

Then he began to explain seriously.

It turns out that wizards in the United States are divided into seven levels.

From low to high, they are witchcraft intern, witchcraft assistant, certified wizard, senior witchcraft specialist, witchcraft executive, grand wizard, and chief federal grand wizard.

Among them, witchcraft interns, witchcraft assistants, and certified wizards are also called junior wizards.

Senior witchcraft commissioners and witchcraft executives are also called senior wizards.

The Grand Wizard and the Chief Federal Grand Wizard both belong to the ranks of Grand Wizards.

There are nine Grand Wizards in total, forming the Nine-member Grand Wizard Council, and the Speaker is called the Chief Federal Grand Wizard.

"Mr. Li said this is a federal civil servant, which is true in a sense."

"At least initially, wizards did try to establish a wizarding kingdom in North America. This hierarchy system was the preparation made by the wizards back then to establish the American Wizarding Kingdom." McGee sighed at this point, feeling that his ambitions had not been fulfilled.

What the hell is the American Wizarding Kingdom? Hearing such wild history, Li Shanze was dumbfounded.

But the old gentleman quickly laughed again and said, "Now that I think about it, the failure of the successful establishment of the American Wizarding World might not be such a bad thing. At least we didn't get bogged down in the bureaucratic swamp of Washington."

"Think about it, in this bureaucracy, wizards sign forms with wands, predict fiscal deficits with divination, handle voter complaints with magic missiles, and pay veterans' wages with earthquakes—even Merlin would have to learn how to fill out an EEO-1 equal employment opportunity form."

"Welcome to the American Wizarding World, where even miracles have to go through a complicated and lengthy approval and procurement process!" McGee shouted in a rather exaggerated and deep voice as if he was performing a drama.

"If that day ever comes, it will be the end of wizards—all the spirituality wizards need will be stifled by the huge bureaucratic machine."

Li Shanze listened carefully to the old wizard's grumbling jokes, and suddenly something came to his mind.

No, wait, is it bureaucracy that makes Washington immune to the supernatural? Is this the episode where bureaucracy is most useful?

Is this reasonable?

After making a joke to lighten the mood, McGee got serious: "Speaking of which, Miss Butner, did your teacher ever teach you the essence of witchcraft?"

Charlie was speechless and couldn't answer.

"It seems like your teacher has protected you very well."

"She only teaches you some spells that don't require any cost and can be cast using only witchcraft energy."

"No wonder you have abundant witchcraft power and have mastered many practical witchcraft techniques, but you know almost nothing about the system of witchcraft."

"You have the strength of a certified wizard, but your basic witchcraft knowledge is not as good as that of the lowest-level witchcraft intern."

"Then let me give you a lesson in witchcraft first," said McGee, his eyes sparkling.

Charlie shook her head a little embarrassedly: "No, Mr. McGee, we haven't decided yet-"

McGee waved his hand. "Why would you need a disciple to learn anything below the level of a Witchcraft Enforcer? I must explain the basics to you so you can truly make a choice."

Then, McGee cleared his throat and said, "The nature of this world is not absolutely materialistic as mortal scientists claim, nor is it absolutely idealistic as the Church claims."

Li Shanze listened more seriously than Xia Li.

“The world is not absolutely materialistic. Matter and consciousness are two different entities. Although consciousness still depends on the intellect to exist, it can also act on matter.”

It sounds like, in the eyes of wizards, the world is a dualistic worldview of matter and consciousness.

Li Shanze did not comment on the wizard's worldview. He listened quietly to the old wizard continue talking.

"Both willpower and witchcraft are tools used by consciousness to manipulate matter."

"The difference is that willpower is the power formed by the consciousness of everyone, while wizard power relies more on the wizard's own mental strength and cultivation."

"In other words, wizards are extremely dependent on talent. There may only be one wizard in ten thousand people, and only one truly great wizard is likely to be born in ten thousand wizards."

Having said that, McGee paused for a moment, as if explaining why he was particularly optimistic about Charlie.

Li Shanze did a simple calculation and realized that this meant that there was only one great wizard among a billion. With a total population of more than 300 million people in the United States, there were only four "real great wizards" at most.

“Here we return to the original question: What is the nature of witchcraft?”

“Witchcraft is essentially a violent negotiation of consciousness with the material world. The practitioner pays an existential price.”

“Just like the law of conservation in alchemy: the more miracles you create, the more price you have to pay!”

Xia Li listened attentively, but Li Shanze interrupted and said, "Wait, Mr. McKee, what is existential cost?"

McGee sighed. "That's a good question. Miss Butner is very good at controlling plants, right? Let's take the Root Cult, a faction that is particularly adept at controlling plants, for example."

"After manipulating plants for too long, they often lose their awareness of their own existence."

"The wizards of the Root Mysticism are closer to plants than to humans. They—perhaps the word 'they' would be a more appropriate word—view plants as the ultimate intelligent life forms, and humans as 'transient lichens'."

“They consider themselves the priests of the forest and the gravediggers of civilization.”

"The most recent revision of the Root Man Esoteric Sect's doctrine was inspired by geological archaeology—during the Permian period, cyanobacteria caused a mass extinction."

Hearing terms like geological archaeology, Permian period, and mass extinction from a wizard made Li Shanze feel a little dazed.

When Li Shanze thought about the fact that this wizard organization called Genman Secret Cult even modified its doctrines based on geology and archaeology, he felt that it was difficult to describe the feeling.

When he met Charlie before, he thought that all wizards were like Charlie, who seemed to be living in the eighteenth century.

I didn’t expect that a real wizarding organization would keep up with the times.

Charlie frowned. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to be a wizard who thought of herself as a plant, but she seemed to be hesitant.

"Is this the existential price that all wizard factions have to pay?" Li Shanze asked at the right time.

"Of course, each of the nine wizard factions has its own existential cost and its own doomsday prophecy."

Author's words: Thanks to book friends 30600563, book friends 6880556864, Polar Bear, and Aji for their recommendations.

I have to attend my cousin's wedding, so I only have one update today. Please forgive me.

134 The Essence of Witchcraft

McGee seemed reluctant to mention the wizarding school's doomsday prophecy. Instead, he cleared his throat and continued to introduce the existential crises of other schools.

"For the seething sages who preside over alchemy, their ultimate curse isn't physical death, but the evaporation of their very being—in the process of seemingly becoming infinitely close to their creator, they gradually become a byproduct of their own potions."

Li Shanze believed that it was no coincidence that McGee first mentioned the Root Vine Esoteric Sect that controlled plants and then mentioned the Boiling Sage of alchemy.

Because the witchcraft that Charlie is best at is controlling plants and alchemy.

"If I'm not mistaken, the earring Miss Butner is wearing is a moonlight bottle, right?" McGee asked, smiling and pointing to his ear.

Hearing McGee's question, Li Shanze was ready to flip the table.

Charlie was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "Yes, Mr. McKee. This is the moonshine bottle."

McGee nodded happily. "And the previous owner of the Moonlight Bottle, Barnum, the former great wizard of the Boiling Sage School, fell into the existential crisis of the Boiling Sages—recursive boiling."

What kind of weird name is "Recursive Effervescence"? It seems like it's just two unrelated words thrown together to try to be trendy...

As if seeing Li Shanze's confusion, McGee laughed.

"The Boiling Sage is accustomed to using potions to solve problems. The more profound the wizard's research, the more path-dependent he becomes."

"For the Seething Sages, who are accustomed to relying on potions to solve problems, especially the great wizard Ms. Barnum, the problem they encounter is the potion's infinite self-referential nature."

"When she began to notice the signs of aging, she tried to use a potion to slow down her aging process. Then, the potion developed side effects, so she used a second potion to address the side effects of the first potion..."

"Each dose of a potion is a passive response to the side effects of the previous one, forming a closed loop. This is the infinite self-reference of the potion."

Then, McGee began to ask a barrage of questions.

"Think about it. When you have 783 kinds of potions in your body, isn't your soul just a byproduct of the chemical reactions between these potions?"

"This is a question similar to the Ship of Theseus question—if a body is iteratively updated by 783 potions, is it still the 'original self'? Does the shift in consciousness caused by the side effects of the potions constitute a new personality?"

"This is also a deterministic dilemma - choosing to drink the second dose of potion is a choice of free will? Or is it a necessity under the duress of the first dose of potion?"

"This is still Hume's self-doubt—Hume believed that the self is just a bundle of perceptions, and the potion systematically reconstructs perceptions, reducing the soul to a continuous record of chemical reactions in a laboratory flask."

“This is also existential anxiety—existentialism emphasizes that ‘man is condemned to be free,’ but here freedom is reduced to the compulsive act of constantly taking drugs…”

Li Shanze saw Xia Li frowning and fell into deep thought.

So he couldn't help but interrupt McKee: "Wait a minute, Mr. McKee, these are just philosophical questions, right? Do they have anything to do with witchcraft?"

McGee laughed and said, "Mr. Li, I wonder if you still remember what we talked about before about the nature of witchcraft."

"The essence of witchcraft is the violent negotiation of consciousness with the material world." Li Shanze still remembers this sentence.

"Yes, you are right, Mr. Li." McGee nodded. "So, the source of witchcraft is consciousness."

At this moment, Charlie, who had been deep in thought, suddenly spoke up: "In other words, when a wizard begins to fall into an existential crisis and begins to doubt his own existence, that is the moment when this wizard is about to face destruction. Is that right, Mr. McKee?"

McGee's smile looked somewhat relieved. "You're half right, Miss Butner."

"When a wizard falls into an existential crisis, he or she will not necessarily fall into destruction through self-doubt. Another way to fall into destruction is self-alienation."

"The existential crises faced by the Seething Sages and the mind-manipulating Delusion Society are typical examples of self-doubt."

"The Root Mysticism, which manipulates plants, and the Beast Druids, who mimic animals, are typical examples of self-alienation. The Root Mysticism considers itself the friends, family, and even slaves of plants, while the Beast Druids simply consider themselves beasts."

Li Shanze suspects that the world's extreme environmentalists are probably backed by these wizards who have transformed themselves into animals and plants.

Charlie thought as she organized her words. "So transforming into a beast is the ability of the Beast Druids... They turn themselves into animals, so they really think of themselves as animals? And then they can't turn back into humans, right?"

McGee shook his head and sighed, "Self-alienation is not an easy thing."

The old wizard's eyes sparkled. "Let me repeat, the essence of witchcraft is the violent negotiation of consciousness with the material world. The word 'violent' is important."