Data-Driven Daoist

“You don’t have time,” Huang Niuniu said. She stirred the Deep Sea’s Strength Spite in the pot. “And I don’t have money.”

She ladled a large portion into his bowl, and steam rose alongside a pungent aroma. By now, he was used to it. It smelled appetising, even. Was this what they called an acquired taste? In his previous life, many stinky foods were seen as delicacies in different parts of the world. Some even gained fame as probiotics.

Deep Sea’s Strength Spite was probiotics on steroids.

“That’s bad, isn’t it?” he said after finishing his portion. He rubbed the scar on his nose. “I didn’t get any stipend for the first month.”

From his pouch, he took out two objects. One was a wooden box, the other a vial. The vial was the Pure Qi Assimilating Elixir they’d received from Wen Liujie. Or rather, from the Alchemy Hall for being a Night Soil Collector.

Yu Han opened the box, revealing a greenish-red pill. It had a coarse surface, as if many leaves had been pressed together to form a round shape.

This was the Body Tempering Pill. Each rookie would receive one a month as a stipend. Yu Han didn’t receive any spirit stones this month, but at least the pill and the five contribution points weren’t taken away. Both had other ‘official’ names, given by their inventors and such. But in most places, they were grouped together by their functions. One helped assimilate Pure Qi, the other tempered the body.

Huang Niuniu took hers out too. “I’ve decided. I won’t sell these.”

“Why?”

“That’s putting the cart before the donkey.”“Let’s verify that,” Yu Han said. Huang Niuniu gave him a resentful look. Yu Han pretended not to notice and cleared his throat.

Both of them had agreed not to use the resources immediately after receiving them. Yu Han had suggested selling them. Would he have any face left if he didn’t at least try to defend his position?

“Deep Sea’s Strength Spite aside, the Vitality Spite is crucial. Other than raising our Vitality substat, it helps recover our Lifeforce,” Yu Han said. “Can you tell me why?”

“Without it, we’ll have to wait longer between each time we clean up the Filth Eating Ghouls,” Huang Niuniu replied. “If we sell these, we may continue the Vitality Spite for longer. We can hunt the monsters sooner. Get more Pure Qi. Well, that’s just wishful thinking.”

“What makes you think that?” Yu Han asked.

“Did you check the prices?”

Yu Han nodded, taking out a notebook—a bunch of coarse paper threaded together with hemp rope. “The Body Tempering Pill goes for around ten spirit stones. The Pure Qi Assimilating Elixir goes for anywhere from ten to fifteen. Let’s say fifteen, for calculation’s sake. We get four elixirs a month. So with the pill, how much is that in spirit stones?”

Huang Niuniu glared at him. “Really? Now?”

“The best way to learn is by using it in everyday life.”

“4 multiplied by 15 is… 60? Adding 10 is 70! Huh? Even if we sell all of them, that’s not even a week’s worth of Vitality Spite.” Huang Niuniu beamed. “How can things be that easy?”

“If we forget about Strength Spite, a month’s Vitality Spite costs around 300 spirit stones.” Yu Han put the notepad away. “How much do each of us have to pay?”

Huang Niuniu’s forehead scrunched up. “One hundred fifty.”

“So how much do I owe you?”

“Don’t take me for a fool. 150.”

Yu Han clapped, and Huang Niuniu broke into a smile.

“How’re you gonna pay them back?” Huang Niuniu asked with a grin. She extinguished the fire in the brazier and put the pot and bowls away.

“Put them on my tab,” Yu Han said.

“What does that mean?”

“I’ll pay them back later.”

“There is no ‘later.’ If you don’t hurry up and get super strong, Sima Yan will take ‘later’ away from you,” Huang Niuniu said. She opened the window, and sunlight peered in. It was midday. There was no fog; the sky was blue and clear. 𝖗

“Let’s continue. I’ll have to hunt 1,500 Filth Eating Ghouls to pay you back. Why?”

“10 cores per spirit stone. Multiplying 150, the number of Ghouls, by 10 is 1,500. Just add a zero at the end.”

“Can’t you let me off the hook?” Yu Han pleaded. “I’m poor.”

“No!”

“Don’t be unreasonable. Can we even hunt more than 200 Filth Eating Ghouls a month? If we go ten nights a month, with each visit hunting 15 to 20 on average—” That was a number they got from Senior Wen “—How much is that?”

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“If 15, then we hunt 150 in total. Meaning 15 spirit stones. If 20 Ghouls, then the total number is 200, and we get 20 spirit stones! Easy.”

“Don’t be so proud. Even my niece could do this, and she isn’t even three years old.”

“It’s unfair to compare me to a merchant’s family,” Huang Niuniu pouted.

No, that’s not—

The half-eaten remains of Yu Han’s niece flashed by his mind. He had meant his niece from his previous life.

“What’s wrong? You look sad.”

“No, I don’t.”

“You do.”

“I’m angry.” Yu Han closed his eyes. Time. Money. Strength.

“Fine, be like that. Let’s say I let you kill all the Filth Eating Ghouls without touching one,” Huang Niuniu said. “You can pay me back in ten months? So you won’t be needing any Vitality Spite in the meantime?”

“Of course I will.”

“You’re not even paying me for cooking.”

Yu Han started stretching on the mat. They would go out soon, and it was a bad idea to walk a few kilometres without a proper warm-up. “After paying you back, we’ll hunt an extra 3,000 combined for our monthly supply of Vitality Spite.”

“Are you planning on offending all the other Senior Brothers?” Huang Niuniu joined him in stretching. Trying to hunt 3,000 Filth Eating Ghouls meant they would monopolise the waste tanks.

“Okay, then let’s go back to the idea of selling the cores, pills, and elixirs to make the money. How much are we short by?”

Huang Niuniu was silent.

“The subtraction table,” Yu Han reminded her. “Say we earn 10 spirit stones each selling the cores per month.”

“10 from the pill. 60 from the elixirs. 10 from the cores. 10 from the stipend. 90 doubled is 180. So subtracting from 300… 120? I hate that you’re forcing me to learn this.”

“Not my fault. I don’t want to increase my debt. You teach me Imperial Script, and I’ll teach you mathematics.”

Huang Niuniu growled.

“You’re the one who chose it.”

Yu Han had given her a choice between Common Script and Math. Huang Niuniu had made quite the improvement, considering it had only been one month.

“I know. I want to complain.”

“Complaints bring pain. The best way is to shut up and do it.”

Huang Niuniu proudly stuck her chest up. “You’re in for a world of pain soon, mister. Eleven months go by fast.”

“You didn’t have to put your lot in with me. And you don’t have to—”

Huang Niuniu covered Yu Han’s mouth with her palms. “I want to see how you’ll fight back.”

“Sima Yan will probably target you too.”

“So we get him first, before we get Wu Di.”

“You could’ve invested all the spirit stones Senior Duan gave you on yourself.”

“You’ll help me fight Wu Di and Huang Linxue, won’t you?”

They weren’t having the same conversation.

“Let’s calculate Pure Qi next,” he said. Huang Niuniu pinched his cheeks. “Violence won’t save you from numbers!”

“Then please make it painless” Huang Niuniu pinched harder.

“Now say we won’t sell the pills or the elixirs, so our earnings are around 20 spirit stones each per month with the stipend and the cores. But now, we can get around 70 Pure Qi each month too, and with the elixir, we might level up in two months.”

“How can I get Pure Qi if I let you kill all the monsters?”

“Say we team up.”

“You forgot that the elixir wastes some Pure Qi,” Huang Niuniu said.

“I didn’t forget. I was testing you.”

Huang Niuniu rolled her eyes. “‘Ji’s Cultivation Contemplations’ mentions that Pure Qi can be assimilated to increase stats too, but we can’t control the process.”

“Then if we want to level up, we’ll have to use up the Pure Qi early using the elixir and turn them into True Qi.”

Huang Niuniu pulled her hair. “If we choose spirit stones for the Vitality Spite, we can’t choose True Qi by using the elixir. If we choose Pure Qi to True Qi, we can’t choose stats. Why is this so hard?”

“How can striving for immortality be easy?”

“You don’t want it to be?” Huang Niuniu asked.

“I want it to be simple. And it is.”

“What’s the difference?”

“We have to earn enough spirit stones to get us enough Vitality and Strength Spite without selling the pill and elixirs. We have to kill enough monsters that we can choose both stats and True Qi for Pure Qi Assimilation.”

Huang Niuniu raised her hands up. She walked away and brought out a wooden comb. She had bought it from the marketplace after much deliberation, then got offended when Yu Han told her to “just buy it if she likes it.”

“I’m serious,” Yu Han said. He picked up one of the books stacked on Huang Niuniu’s bed.

There were two stacks. One had eleven books—Yu Han’s original collection. The other had three so far, each made of coarse paper bound with hemp rope, similar to his notepad.

“Young Ji’s Cultivation Contemplations: From Body Tempering to Building Foundation.”

“Most Valuable Parts (Give to Junior Wang).”

“Checklist of Common Resources and Their Locations (Give to Junior Wang).”

These were written in Imperial Script.

“I want you to read me Deadly Herbs next,” Huang Niuniu said.

“Not the Rookie Cheat Sheet?”

“Can I poison people with it?” Huang Niuniu said.

“Depends on who you ask. Do you wanna calculate Contribution Points next?”

Huang Niuniu threw a book at his face.

“Hey! These are expensive.”

Yu Han would read the contents aloud, she would write them down in Imperial. At the same time, she would explain the characters to him.

Yu Han would sketch the diagrams with charcoal, though he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to faithfully transfer the drawings. After enough buttering up from Huang Niuniu, he said, “Fuck it,” and went ahead.

Yu Han flipped through “Most Valuable Parts” and “Checklist of Common Resources.”

“We’ll take an External Mission,” he said. “We’ll hunt monsters in the Hidden Realm.”

They wouldn’t earn enough from doing daily chores. They would have to gamble.

Senior Wen had warned them. And in the books, the dangers were clearly outlined.

“Anything for power,” Huang Niuniu said. There was a dangerous gleam in her eyes as she trembled, fists clenched, teeth gritted. “Shi Miao told me she got a hundred Pure Qi in a day there. We’ll go.”

“Here’s the plan. One: We get the cores and other parts for the spirit stones by hunting monsters in the Hidden Realm. Let’s not think about using the cores to grind our Traits for now. We don’t have the alchemy recipe. Two: We buy the ingredients for the Vitality and Strength Spites with the spirit stones.”

“We could probably exchange the parts for Contribution Points too,” Huang Niuniu reminded him. “We’ll get some per External Mission too.”

“Three: Contribution Points. Four: The Pure Qi for both True Qi and Stats. Five: Plenty of combat experience, Arts True Qi. Hitting five birds with one stone.” Yu Han finished listing off their priorities.

“In our dreams?”

“Six: Gather allies!”

“I don’t mind inviting Fang Zhao, but not Li Yao.”

“He’s a good guy.”

“Who doesn’t like me.”

“Let’s talk about that later. First—”

“We hunt the Filth Eating Ghouls?” Huang Niuniu interrupted. Yu Han nodded.

They walked a few kilometres and arrived at the Night Alchemist’s Yard. There, they changed into Coveralls and took a donkey cart to the waste tank near the Outer Sect Marketplace.

“Tell me about the crab,” Huang Niuniu said.

Yu Han explained it in as much detail as he could.

As they neared the Marketplace, the density of disciples increased. Most scowled when they saw them.

“If it isn’t the dung duo,” a sneering voice called out, accompanied by a cacophony of jeers. “One must know their standing, hide their filthy stench in the night. Why are Night Soil Collectors prowling about during daylight, the realm of the living?”

Sima Yan blocked their path, surrounded by Pang Jiming, Ma San, and about a dozen other teenagers.