Data-Driven Daoist

「Is he a predator?」 Fei Rui asked. 「Does he want to eat Soft Niuniu?」

“Is something wrong?” Huang Niuniu asked, inching closer. Had she noticed the look on his face?

Not good, Yu Han thought, schooling his expression. It would be bad if the observer found out they were onto them, though he couldn’t be sure if their faces could be seen from so far away. Who knew if the observer had some magical tool of night vision?

He grabbed her hand and went to his hut. They entered, and Yu Han closed the door. He lit a glowing stone, placing it by the brazier, then peeked out the window. The stone tanks and the grove couldn’t be seen from here, so the other side probably couldn’t see them either.

“H-Han’er, this is too soon—” Huang Niuniu said quickly.

Yu Han saw her blush in the bluish moonlight. “What nonsense are you saying?” He covered his face, then brought his mouth near her ear to whisper, but she squeaked.

“I-It tickles.”

“Shush. There’s a guy spying on your hut from the stone tanks.”

“Oh.”

“Fei Rui spotted him.” Yu Han turned to the crab. “Did you get a good look at his face? Can you recognise him if you saw him in the streets?” 「We’ve seen him before!」 Fei Rui raised its claws and clicked. 「It’s one of the two-legged ones from the wooden thing that carried you to the Heavenly Friendship Palace.」

He doesn’t know what a boat, is but knows about the Palace. Okay, I’ll teach him more vocabulary later. Yu Han described the guy who was following their group—or more specifically, Huang Niuniu—earlier that day.

「Yes! Yes. That’s him.」 Fei Rui scuttled sideways to the window, then climbed the wall until one eyestalk peeked out. 「I can’t see him. But that was the guy. Do you want me to sneak out and see him again? Should I eat him?」

“Huh… can you?” Yu Han asked.

「I haven’t eaten two-legged ones before. He’s weak, so I can crack his head-shell really fast and eat what’s inside.」

Yu Han shuddered. Fei Rui, since when were you a horror crab? I thought you were cute and cuddly like Huang Niuniu! He shook the thought away and said, “Leave it for today. We’ll see if he shows up again tomorrow. I’ll have to talk with Li Yao and Fang Zhao. However, if this is a problem…”

If the guy tried to approach Yu Han’s hut while they slept, they’d be defenceless.

「Don’t worry. I can keep one eyestalk in my dream and one eyestalk outside it. If the weak, bad two-legged one comes, I can eat him!」 Fei Rui said in his innocent, boyish voice. Ṟ𝐀ΝỌᛒÊs

“Y-You can do that?”

「You can’t? Why? It’s so easy!」 The crab laughed, tap dancing with his many legs.

“Don’t eat him. Can you knock him out?”

Fei Rui nodded with his two eyestalks. It was weird how quickly Yu Han was getting used to his body language.

“Then do that. Niu’er—what’s wrong with you?”

She was puffing her cheeks out so much he suspected they would pop.

“Nothing,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Stay here tonight—”

“Eek!”

“What?”

“N-Nothing.”

“... Take the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.” Yu Han’s hut still had traces of the burnt mat. He hadn’t really cleaned in recent days. He made a mental note to get something like a futon if possible. If not, then a thick mat.

Yu Han turned off the glowing stone and lay down on the floor. It was hard and cool, yet somehow not so bad. His spine was straight, and as he moved, it made soft popping sounds.

Huang Niuniu was on the bed. She shuffled and rustled for a while.

“Don’t you dare try anything,” she said suddenly.

“I won’t!” Yu Han exclaimed. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to. But he wouldn’t. Thankfully it was dark. If she could see his face now, he would return to the White Lotus Kingdom and never come back. Ridiculous. Am I a teenager or something? ...Wait. I am. Fuck.

Stolen story; please report.

“I’m telling you. Don’t you dare try it.”

“Come on, woman. I really won’t.”

“Really?”

“Geez.”

“Really?” Her voice grew smaller.

“Really!” Yu Han reassured her.

“Dummy,” she replied.

I’m not dumb… There was a ticklish feeling in his heart. She was so—

No. Better not think about it.

They were going to the Hidden Realm soon. He had Sima Yan at his back, and Huang Niuniu had stalkers. Fei Rui’s existence was reassuring, though. Even a year from now, unless the crab perished or decided to no longer accord with him, he could provide protection.

Protection.

Protection… Yu Han took a glance at Huang Niuniu. Her form was just a silhouette on the bed.

This world… did it have protection?

Fuck! Get your head out of your ass, Yu Han. He was about to slap himself, but stopped. The noise might wake her up. Her breathing was soft, slow, and deep. Was she asleep or just pretending?

She mothered him so much. She would probably be a great mum. But with the dangers on the horizon, if she were to have a child, it would bring more horrors than happiness.

She’s fond of me. I don’t know if that’s just a sense of dependency from what I did to Wu Di, or something more.

He decided not to dwell on it. She was his friend. Second after Li Yao. Fang Zhao was the third. Fei Rui was the fourth.

A warm feeling hugged his heart. It was nice. Yu Han smiled.

“Are you awake?” she asked.

“Go to sleep,” he replied.

“Look at this.” In the dark, Yu Han saw her raise an arm. Her palm glowed softly, illuminating the room in a cool blue light. She breathed in, then out.

Suddenly, from outside the window, a glowing speck of light floated in, followed by a few more.

Fireflies, Yu Han realised. There were many in these mountains, and more in the lagoons and swamps.

「Glowy wings,」 Fei Rui giggled. 「Wow, so many!」 The crab had taken perch on the windowsill, one eyestalk visible and the other retracted. As more fireflies came in, he clicked at them with his claws but didn’t harm them otherwise.

“When I breathe with my Bioluminescence,” Huang Niuniu said, “wisps come. They breathe with me.” Her light glowed and dimmed, sometimes like a heartbeat, other times like a tide. Yu Han noticed the rhythm.

“Calm Before the Storm Breathing Technique?”

“You’re smart. I love it.”

“Does it work?”

“I gained 20 True Qi yesterday. Even with the Pure Qi Assimilating Elixir, maybe nine or ten was from this,” she said, moving her palms in the air. The dozen-odd fireflies danced in the air, creating a mesmerising swirl of light. “There were wisps in the water puddles. In the sky, the trees. They give me parts of themselves and take my light.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Thanks.”

“I can cultivate in my dream,” Yu Han said. “It’s not worse than your speed.”

“Are we having a competition?”

“I don’t want to leave you behind.” Yu Han laughed. “I don’t want to be left behind either.”

Huang Niuniu shifted to her side, looking down at Yu Han. Her green eyes glowed in hues of teal and yellow. “Good night, Han’er.”

“Sleep tight, Niu’er.”

He closed his eyes. Soon, he appeared in the white space of his dreamscape. For a while, he lay there, looking at the shell-like ceiling. Then a strange feeling pricked his chest.

He sat up.

“What the fuck is that?” he said.

There was a cave entrance on his dreamscape wall, appearing like a dark hole on the white surface. Through it, he saw the speleothems on the other side. Stalactites from the ceiling, stalagmites from the floor. Columns where they both connected, and helictites growing in random directions.

「It’s my home,」 Fei Rui said.

The crab reached up to Yu Han’s waist now. Only one eye was poking out, the other retracted into his shell.

“Can you see both inside the dream and outside at the same time?” Yu Han asked.

「I have to really think about it, but when I think hard enough, I can. I think I can do it better after cracking my Tribulation.」

“You know your Tribulation?” Yu Han was overjoyed. That meant the crab was at his experience cap.

「Sorry, Yu Han. I can’t tell you what it is, even though I really, really want to.」

“You don’t need to tell me,” Yu Han said. “But if you need some help, you can ask.”

「You’re the best!」

Fei Rui clicked and clacked to the cave entrance, then called Yu Han over.

He stood up and felt a slight difference in his being. The dreamscape and the crabscape connected to it somehow felt a lot more real.

Why? He hadn’t levelled up. It must be the accord.

He stepped through the boundary of the two scapes. A cool wind brushed his face. Sometimes this wind would go through the barrier too.

Fei Rui described each speleothem in the crabscape. He would tap one, then pinch another.

「You can come here whenever you want. In your two-legged one—」

“Human.”

「Human dwellings, you give each other leaf-soaked water. I don’t have dried leaves,」 Fei Rui said. He disappeared between two columns.

Yu Han looked up. The ceiling was densely covered with rock formations. But through some of the cracks, rays of light shone through.

Is there something… outside?

Yu Han had a guess that his own dreamscape was like the inside of a clam’s shell. The creases on the white wall bore a resemblance to that. The texture of the walls was also similar to aragonite and calcite crystals. He had tried licking them, but they didn’t taste salty.

If it wasn’t, that was fine. If it was a clam shell though, why was it hollow? And… could it be opened?

Fei Rui appeared with half a coconut shell filled with water.

“Don’t splash that on me,” Yu Han said.

「But if you drink it, you’ll become weird for a while. You’ll see what I see and dream what I dream. The last time that happened, I…」Fei Rui paused. 「I don’t remember.」

“It’s fine. I won’t drink then.”

「Great!」 Fei Rui splashed him with the water.

“Damn it, crab…” Yu Han wiped away at his face. “Where do you even keep these coconut shells?”

「In my stash! D-Do you want to see my collection?」 Fei Rui’s one eye sparkled.

“Sure, why not.”

He followed the crab through a branching path in the tunnel. There were about three or four of these branching paths.

Do they go on forever? Is it just Fei Rui’s crabscape, or is there more to it?

They arrived at a clearing, small enough that only two or three Yu Hans could fit inside. Shield formations covered the walls, and the centre of the clearing had a rimstone dam. It was filled with the strange water halfway through, inside which were many objects.

A proud Fei Rui started gushing about his prized collection.

Multicoloured pearls, not just white and blue. Coconut shells. But shells from other molluscs too, of all shapes and sizes. Bits of corals, sponges, and sea quartz. Small, nearly fossilised starfish, sand dollars, and sea urchins. There were a few pretty fish scales that reflected light, under which were teeth from unknown creatures. Maybe sharks?

But one item stood out.

The dried dragon-skin parchment.