Wu the Immortal

Wu the Immortal, full name Wu Ming, is an immortal Chinese Alchemist and Wizard who has lived for nearly 2,000 years. He has lived throughout the Far East and had taken the roles of famous individuals in history.

Appearance
Wu has long, black hair and light-colored skin with dark-brown eyes. He has a skinny physique with a youthful look. With his powers, Wu has been able to mask his youth with and changed his facial and bodily features to match those of old men, children, and even women.

His attire consists of blue robes, each in the style of the era Wu lived in.

Personality
Wu was raised with a kind soul. He loved to help people and always put his family first. After studying under Laozi, Wu became more dignified and studious. Eventually, over the years, Wu adopted many different attitudes, such as charismatic, eccentric, humorous, stern, and even temperamental.

History
Wu was born under the name Wu Ming to a peasant couple. He lived in the city of Xi Liang in the northwestern province of Liang. While he and his brother weren't raised with the best education, Wu had a knack for studying the few books he could find in the tavern. When he turned 10, Wu eventually began to study the workings of different mechanisms around the town, including weapons of war.

One day, Wu traveled towards the western plains to explore, but was stopped by a group of Qiang barbarians. Before they could cause him trouble, a man in ragged robes came and waved his fingers in front of their faces. They immediately dropped their weapons and walked away. Wu thanked the man for his assistance and, with his curiosity peaked, asked him how he was able to get them to leave without a word. The man, sensing his genuine kindness and innocent interest, said it was "magic". More curious than before, Wu asked the man to teach him this "magic". The man thought for a moment and decided to teach him a few things, leading him back to his shelter in the western plains.

The next 7 years saw Wu training under the man, who revealed his identity to be Li Laozi, the master of the Tao. Although he originally planned to teach Wu a few simple tricks, he eventually took a liking to the boy and taught him the ways of alchemy. Eventually, Laozi even accepted Wu's younger brother as a pupil and the two learned much under his tutelage. By the 7th year, Wu had become a skilled magician and alchemist.

When Wu turned 17, a sickness spread through the west and caused much death. While he was away training, the sickness took his mother and father. Fearing he'd lose his brother as well, Wu pleaded with his master to use the ancient text, The Way of Heaven, and its "Immortal Fruit" spell to save him. Laozi allowed him to use it, but warned that, though Wu was skilled, he might fail and end up killing his brother instead of saving him, an experience Laozi faced when he tried to save his wife. Wu took the chance and quickly went to the tavern and cast the spell on the town's only living fruit tree, the peach tree. The peaches began to sparkle and Wu, not wanting to take then risk of killing his brother first, put his life on the line and ate the first fruit. After a while, Wu didn't die and he picked a peach to give to his sickly brother. He fed him the peach and Wu's brother's condition didn't change.

After a few days, he was still sick, but lived past the amount of time it usually took for victims to die. Wu was visited by Laozi and discovered that he succeeded in creating the immortal peach. He was also told that, although he and his brother were immortal, their health and looks were not. Wu then studied the ways to make an elixir of preservation and a pill of invincibility. With the help of Laozi, Wu succeeded once again and his brother miraculously recovered. Laozi also took the elixir and pills and took the now-orphaned boys as his adopted sons, finally having something to care about after his wife.

Many years had passed and the brothers became masters of magic and alchemy, far exceeding Laozi's skill. Eventually, however, Laozi came closer to the end of his life and bestowed upon Wu his collection of magic and alchemy books. Before his passing, Laozi asked Wu to find and retrieve the The Way of Peace, a spell book that had been used by one of his former colleagues and could spell danger if in the wrong hands.

Soon after, Wu found the location of the book in the hands of an amateur sorcerer named Zhang Jiao. Needing to get the book out of the hands of such a lunatic, Wu took service under the Emperor and aided the Imperial Army in combating Zhang Jiao's sorcery. After his victory and retrieving the book, Wu continued to serve the Imperial Court as its Chief Alchemist. He left the most valuable spell books in his brother's care and sent him to Tibet.

Over the next few years, as the emperor lost power and warlords entered the capital, Wu became a prominent sage physician under the name of Hua Tuo and grew to become known to many, more specifically the Prime Minister Cao Cao. He opposed everything the warlord did and, in the end, when he suggested to cut open his head to remove his brain tumor, Cao Cao thought Wu wanted to kill him and decided to execute him. When the blades of the executioners broke before Wu's neck, Cao Cao tried burning him. When Wu's skin failed to crisp, Cao Cao tried to drown him. When Wu's air bubbles wouldn't stop coming up, Cao Cao tried to pull him apart. No matter what Cao Cao tried to do, Wu wouldn't die. He realized Wu was an immortal and, with no other choice left, Cao Cao locked him in a coffin and buried him under the capital in Luo Yang. Wu was able to escape and, under the guise of Zuo Ci, plagued Cao Cao and his family as they ruled Wei, causing deaths worse than the last. Once the Cao clan fell to puppets under the Sima familky, Sima Zhao ordered his private magicians to build a magical coffin and locked Wu up in it under Xu Chang.

For years, Wu was left under the earth as new dynasties conquered the land. Occasionally, he found himself released by rulers who heard tales of his powers and wisdom, only to be locked up again by jealous successors of those same rulers. The next time he was released, around the late 1400s, Wu escaped to the island of Japan and took the name of Hirate Masahide. He became an adviser to Oda Nobuhide and taught his son, Oda Nobunaga, later becoming his adviser for a short time. When Nobunaga became lord and shunned his retainers for his own ambition, Wu falsified his suicide and convinced Nobunaga to use his retainers. He continued to watch over his young lord and aided him in the shadows. He even transformed himself into a woman to scare off Matsunaga Hisahide from Nobunaga's force. After Nobunaga's death, Wu went into seclusion and later aided Tokugawa Ieyasu as Nankōbō Tenkai until Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu locked him away in the same coffin he had been locked up in during his days in China. He was then buried under Kan'ei-ji Temple, a place that was ironically built by Wu on the orders of Iemitsu.

Wu wouldn't be released for the next 400 years and would instead be passed around as a Chinese mummy through museum after museum. He learned many different languages and history during this time.

Plot
WIP

Powers & Abilities
Immortality: Wu gained this ability while learning advanced magic. Wu is unable to die by illnesses and wounds.

Preservation: From the elixir of preservation, Wu gained the ability, or rather inability, to age or obtain illnesses.

Invincibility: The pills of invincibility gave Wu the power to be protected from all attacks and methods of murder and physical death.

Magic: Wu was taught by Laozi how to utilize this power. He can conjure up weather, energy, even the concepts of life and death.

Power of Alchemy: Wu was also taught alchemy and could perform transmutation on whatever object he wanted.

Trivia

 * Wu is based on the mythology of Chinese sages and immortals.
 * Wu's history is based off of the many legends of Hua Tuo, Zuo Ci, and Tenkai.