Data-Driven Daoist

“You have to be kidding me.” Li Yao crossed his arms. “She gets two cool weapons, an Earth Grade Martial Art, and a Spirituality Shrouding Charm. Meanwhile we only get one Charm each?”

“Brother Li, even one Spirituality Shrouding Charm is a valuable asset for Courtyards, not to mention small groups,” Fang Zhao said.

“Even you?” Li Yao scoffed. “A young lord from a super clan or whatever—”

“I’m exiled in all but name.” Fang Zhao rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m as penniless as you. And no artisan worth his salt would sell a Charm of this quality for less than five hundred Elite Grade spirit stones. Before, yes, that amount was paltry for me—”

“Hey, now.” Li Yao glared.

“—But now I’m like you. Poor, destitute, and—”

“You’re rude, ain’tcha?”

“—stricken by poverty. All I have are Mortal Grade spirit stones. An artisan would never trade them for that unless I paid a hefty premium.”

“Rudeness aside, this favouritism is too much still, I tell ya,” Li Yao grumbled. “Too much!” He laughed and closed the chest with a thud.

The second box had, as Li Yao said, three Spirituality Shrouding Charms—bracelets similar to Huang Niuniu’s, but older and more worn out. Yu Han traced a finger on his. It was a bigger bracelet, as he had all that fat as extra width. Are these standardised? Is there an Artefact Crafting Factory or something? It wouldn’t be weird if there was.

Fang Zhao checked his too, then sighed. “The spirit stone looks to be full. We’ll have to change them out after they deplete, but even so, they should last a month at least.”

Feral Spot nodded and let out a series of gurgling sounds.

「Big small worm said it’s going to hide you from most monsters under Level 10. But you can’t hit them with your spirituality thing, or else they’ll notice. How do you hit monsters with spirituality, Yu Han? Is it like a stick?」

Fei Rui had grown in size. He no longer perched on Yu Han’s shoulder, but walked around the stone path, intently poking Feral Spot in different segments. Every time he poked, the glow in that area would dim or brighten.

“Good question. Who should I ask?” Yu Han said, then shared Fei Rui’s interpretation.

“It’s intent,” Fang Zhao said. “Our spirituality remains shrouded if we don’t try to do them harm. Even if the intent to harm is there, the monsters won’t notice our spirituality as long as we remain hidden. Once we act, though, the intention is clear to even the most dimwitted monster, and they will react, thus breaking the Charm’s shroud.”

“Whoa! That’s still neat,” Li Yao said. “Imagine going up to a monster, whistling like nothing’s wrong, then stabbing it in the throat at the last second.”

The worm sent a disdainful hiss his way.

“It shrouds our spirituality, not our physical bodies.” Fang Zhao tapped his foot. “Even a normal tiger will pounce on food that delivers itself to its den, though it will be confused. Not to mention monsters, which are naturally more aggressive. Which reminds me—remember that these Charms are meant for monsters, but not for primal beasts, which also abound in the hidden realm. Sometimes it’s easy to tell them apart, but other times it’s not.”

Li Yao waved his hand. “Yeah, yeah. I get it. Do we head back now?”

“Nothing else to do,” Yu Han said. He turned to Feral Spot. “Senior Feral Spot, is it okay to share with others the Martial Art you’ve given to Niu’er?” Ṙ𝒶ɴȯᛒÊ𝓢

After some back and forth between Yu Han, Fei Rui, and Feral Spot, they got an affirmative answer. It also cleared a doubt Yu Han had: He could share what he got from Dong Chou, the Elder Scribe. The Outer Sect Scripture Hall also didn’t forbid him from sharing the Thousand Petal Awareness psychic art.

That was because the Outer Sect mostly taught Arts that were either already common in the broader cultivation world, or were of no importance to the Sect intrinsically because of their quality. Only in the Inner Sect would disciples gain access to Arts intrinsic to the Stormy Reef Sect. They would have to swear binding vows, which would have severe consequences if broken.

Besides that, there were many Arts widely circulated between Courtyards, Pavilions, and Palaces that the Sect had no interest in. It was nigh impossible to regulate these under-the-table trades with the resources the Sect was willing to give the Law Enforcement Hall.

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On the other hand, if an inner or core disciple traded Arts intrinsic to the Sect, they would go out of their way to make an example out of the branded rule-breakers.

“Is it the same for Calm Before the Storm Breathing Technique and Eye of the Storm Martial Movement?” From what the Elder with the pelican and the hateful Gong Muhua had said, these were Arts developed in the Stormy Reef Sect. They should count as intrinsic, right? But there was nothing said about not sharing these Arts.

Feral Spot scoffed, but he was patient enough to explain. The two Arts were merely the most basic form of the Stormy Reef Sect’s legacy. They even had many common variations in the Outer Sect. For example, Gong Muhua had only demonstrated the Fist and Leg techniques of the Eye of the Storm Martial Movements that day, and later, Yu Han didn’t go to the practice fields. It apparently had variations that used swords, spears, and sabres.

Despite the variation, though, after Body Tempering, they would give diminished returns for time and resources spent training. But they had enhanced versions that were suitable for cultivators at Qi Gathering and above. Those were hidden behind vows of loyalty and ranking within the Sect.

If a cultivator outside the Sect learnt these sorts of basic Arts, they would become beholden when they reached a certain level. By that time, it would already be too late. They’d either have to switch their specialisation to a different Art midway, or pay a hefty price of either spirit stones or freedom to get guidance from the Sect.

It was a trap by those with deep histories. Many other Sects purposefully spread these arts outside the Sect to net loose cultivators—cultivators that didn’t belong to any major faction. The Stormy Reef Sect was better in that way—it merely didn’t care.

According to Feral Spot, if not for some reason only known to the top echelons of the Sect, they wouldn’t even recruit disciples from the Lower Bound Province. After all, the outer perimeter of the Sunken Mountains had many towns and villages—not to mention the Great Barrier City with its population of millions. The number of disciples recruited from the Province was five hundred in a good year, and less than a hundred in bad years.

Yu Han took this all in, and after a moment of silence, bowed. Li Yao and Fang Zhao followed, and finally Huang Niuniu also dusted herself off and stood up, showing due respect.

The worm moved his head left and right, then wiggled.

「Big small worm is embarrassed.」 Fei Rui giggled. His childlike voice was pleasant to Yu Han’s ears.

“Thank you.” Huang Niuniu caressed the worm’s soft skin, saying a final word of gratitude. She followed up with a strange request that caught Yu Han off guard. “Can you collapse some tunnels? Sima Yan, Gong Muhua, Pang Jiming, Ma San—” She listed off a series of names and the numbers of their huts. “They’re a bunch of big bullies. They eat good food and sleep on soft beds. But I don’t want to let them shit in peace.”

Feral Spot raised his worm-head and hissed with amusement.

「Big small worm says he won’t let them poop.」 Fei Rui tugged Yu Han’s pants. 「Yu Han. Can two-leggers live without excreting bad things? You did it this morning. Why shouldn’t the others excrete?」

“Because Niu’er has profound wisdom.” Yu Han gave her a thumbs-up.

“Cow Girl, I didn’t know you were this vindictive!” Li Yao grinned.

“Sister Huang, respects.” Fang Zhao cupped his hands.

Huang Niuniu furiously blushed, not used to such direct praise.

They bid the worm farewell and left the Night Alchemist’s Yard, though the night was a long way from over. They walked the muddy paths, sometimes cutting through forest groves and other times striding in the moonlight. Fei Rui was at his full height now, a lumbering crab the size of a mini-truck. Yet the stereotype of big creatures moving slowly didn’t apply to him. The ghostly crab-like creature frolicked to and fro, asking Yu Han a million questions about anything and everything.

“About the tail—I found out some stuff,” Li Yao said. “He’s from a Courtyard that calls themselves the Mad Bloodhounds. They’re one focused on hunting monsters and primals in the Hidden Realm.”

“I heard of them when I was working for my previous Courtyard,” Fang Zhao said, an undertone of grievance in his voice. After all, he had been unfairly kicked out, cutting off his supply of monster blood. “Their leader was in the late Body Refining Realm. What was his name?”

“He goes by Bloodhound One,” Li Yao said. “Real name is Wang something. I asked around, but got different answers. The Mad Bloodhounds don’t have such a good reputation. Last year, two of their new recruits died in the Hidden Realm. They were barely out of their Rookie Year. Rumour is the Mad Bloodhounds did something, but the Law Enforcement Hall found nothing.”

“Tricky…” Yu Han clicked his tongue.

“They’re linked to some other disappearances too. But the Mad Bloodhounds contribute greatly to the Sect with their hunts, and they have the backing of one of the Clans.”

“Which one?” Yu Han asked.

“The Liang Clan,” Li Yao said.

Any organisation with “Hall” or “Clan” in its name was permanent in the Sect. The Liang Clan was one of five core Clans of the Sect, said to have been there since the Sect’s nascent days. Yu Han didn’t know the full history—there were quite a few rumours around.

One thing was certain. They were nobles and directly opposed to the current Sect master, who rose from a commoner background.

“Can you find out more about those disappearances?” Yu Han asked.

“On it,” Li Yao said. He left with Fang Zhao after they made plans to meet up the next day.

“Niu’er, be careful,” Fang Zhao said as they left. “Best not to go out alone. And don’t train outside with the new Art and whips. We’ll keep some cards hidden. Fei Rui, I’ll ask you to shrink too. If someone targets us, then we’ll at least have a surprise for them.”

「That sounds fun!」 Fei Rui said as he shrunk to the size of a dachshund.

“I wanted to show you what I figured out about my trait,” Huang Niuniu said to Yu Han with a pout. “It’s really pretty, and I can cultivate True Qi faster. Then you can give me ideas on how to cultivate even faster.”

“Does it have to be outside?” Yu Han asked.

“I don’t know, actually,” Huang Niuniu said. “I’ll try to find out.”

As they neared their huts, Fei Rui, who had climbed a tree, jumped down in front of Yu Han.

「There’s a male two-legged one hiding in a tree over there.」 The crab pointed towards the copse of trees near the stone tank with one of his eyestalks. 「He’s looking at Soft Niuniu’s hut.」