Data-Driven Daoist

Once during Spring Festival, Yu Han had seen an old woman covered in bruises sitting under a poplar tree near his family’s diner.

She was near death’s door; even a kid his age could tell. Her eyes were already dead.

Yu Han was about to deliver another batch of writher meat to his family’s stall in the central square, where the city had organised a fair.

Around them, everything was bustling. Families out to have fun, scholars reciting poetry, kids running with lanterns, and the aroma of food wafting through the air in invitation.

The old woman’s eyes stared unflinchingly at the raw seafood in the bucket Yu Han carried. She didn’t say anything, neither pleading nor begging. But Yu Han physically felt her pain. It hurt as if the inside of his head was expanding, and hundreds of ants were crawling under his skin.

He could barely breathe. He gave the woman a writher. It was still fresh, alive and wriggling.

The woman, with her few remaining teeth, bit into the flesh and ate it just like that. She showed him a smile, and the pain stopped.

He never saw that old woman again. But after that, he would give out food scraps. At first, it was to stop the pain. Gradually, he felt good about it. Like he was doing something important.

His mother called him a sensitive child.

As he grew older, the pain never returned with the same intensity even if he didn’t help out. What replaced it were shame and guilt.

Like with Huang Niuniu and Qiao Jinhai.

He was glad he had done something for Li Yao when he had the chance. It would’ve sucked if the boy had died.

Li Yao didn’t speak much of his past after that. Only that he joined a gang. Stole and strong-armed to survive.

“There’s not much to it, Tubs,” Li Yao said at the end. “When you’re poor, you’re missing something. So you want it back. Even if you have to snatch it from another.”

Huang Niuniu fiddled with her thumbs. Her face was scrunched up like she’d sucked on a lemon. It didn’t look like Li Yao’s story earned any sympathy. Their first impressions weren’t the best. She looked more annoyed and frustrated than sad.

Is that what I’m feeling?

Yu Han was sad for his first friend.

He flicked Huang Niuniu’s forehead.

“Ow, what was that for?” She rubbed it. Her hair was longer now. When they first met, it was shoulder length.

Recently, she’d started putting on some makeup. It wasn’t the garish powder his mother and sister-in-law liked to use. More subtle, and bought from an Alchemy Hall apprentice.

Funny how rubbing things on your face could make your eyes sparkle. Johan never understood how his ex-girlfriend went from a potato in bed to an anime-eyed supermodel in a matter of thirty minutes. There had been tape involved, apparently.

He flicked her forehead again.

“Ow.”

Flick.

“Owie.”

“You two are insufferable,” Li Yao spat. “I bare my heart out, and you flirt.”

“We’re in a happier place now,” Yu Han said. “Did you find us a fifth?”

“Nope. Something stinks out there. We’ve been slandered.”

“Sima Yan?”

“Not sure,” Li Yao said. “Remember those other two wisps that went missing?”

He did. They still had loved ones in the sect.

“One wisp came paired up with a husband during recruitment,” Li Yao said. “This was a few years back, yeah? They’re from the White Lotus Prefectural Kingdom like us.”

“Did you track him down?”

“He doesn’t want to join us,” Li Yao shrugged. “He gave me a polite bow. Said he’s grateful that we gave him a clue with the Mad Bloodhounds. The guy’s pretty convinced, for whatever reason, that the Liang Clan knows where his wife is. Wouldn’t listen to anything otherwise. He didn’t share what he’s planning, but I’d bet my toe he’ll snoop around. Asked if we could help him, and I said no.”

“Good call,” Yu Han said. He did feel bad. But the shame and guilt and the slight pain in his heart was nowhere near as bad as long as he didn’t directly see bad stuff happening to decent people.

“Will you do it for me if I go missing?” Huang Niuniu asked.

“Do what?”

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“Give Li Yao a polite bow,” she said, sticking her tongue out.

“Save it,” Li Yao backed away. “This fatass has been going around making eyes at guys.”

“He’s doing what?”

“Yep,” Li Yao nodded. “First me, then Fang Zhao.”

Yu Han counter-attacked by emphasising that Li Yao did CPR to another guy. Li Yao, unfazed, called him fat.

“Do you know anyone else who could join us?” Yu Han asked.

“There’s always Xiao Zhuzi’s—”

“No.”

“Gotcha,” Li Yao didn’t argue. They were Li Yao’s friends, not Yu Han’s. He had no issues with Xiao Zhuzi, but the others weren’t his people. “There’s one more. She might be interested but—”

“She?” Huang Niuniu said. “Can I finally get a girl friend? It’s so exhausting hanging out with smelly men all the time. Ah, Han’er I like your smell, so don’t worry.”

“Girlfriend means lover where I’m from,” Yu Han claimed.

“No, it doesn’t,” Li Yao tilted his head. “We’re from the same place.”

“Poor people didn’t know about it.”

“Tubs, you’re a pig.”

They went to the Night Alchemists’ Yard. After Huang Niuniu spent a while gossiping with Feral Spot, they headed off.

Combat was a breeze.

Li Yao and Huang Niuniu chose to sit the first stone tank out.

The Filth-Eating Ghouls attacked Yu Han with their usual zeal. They stumbled, fell, and catapulted like humanoid projectiles.

The sound attacks hit him hard, but he no longer got disoriented. Right before the sound hit, he would clench his muscles in specific ways, like bracing himself before a wave while swimming in the ocean. He still lost lifeforce, but his reactions didn’t falter. Thousand Petals awareness also helped. He could mute his hearing, and—

Synaptic Bloom!

The halberd cleaved through a ghoul. He tripped another, stomped on its head, and jumped. While midair, he thrust the halberd at the ghoul furthest from him. When his feet tapped the floor, he moved to the right, dodging two ghouls that had catapulted towards him and blocking the claw strike of another with the shaft.

He spun, cutting a ghoul in half and stabbing another with the halberd scythe. He used the rebound as the halberd hit the ghoul’s body and rotated his waist in the opposite direction.

Stone-Cutting Chop!

The halberd chopped the final ghoul in two.

“Cow Girl, don’t you think it’s creepy seeing a fat guy move like that?” Li Yao hooted, then clapped his hands. “He’s like a wench in a flower house.”

“It’s not!” Huang Niuniu said. She cheered Yu Han on, “Han’er! It’s not creepy at all. Not at all, okay?”

“You don’t have to repeat it so many times,” Yu Han gritted his teeth. This girl was messing with him. He had already memorycast scenes of himself in Synaptic Bloom. Seeing himself ‘dance’ with all that weight around would have been surprising, but Yu Han had been baptised by the internet.

Fat and flexible dancers weren’t mythical creatures.

He sat down, exhausted. Fei Rui diligently harvested the cores.

「And this one, and that one. Those too. Not my stash. Not my stash. But ours?」

Communist crab. That should be a World Boss.

Synaptic Burst used up more than his Qi, or Essence perhaps? Such minute control of his muscles put immense pressure on them. As if he was isolating each muscle separately and training them, while moving them all at the same time like an orchestral performance.

He wasn’t doing it consciously, of course. His body moved with the muscle memory of the Martial Art. Thousand Petals Awareness brought it into Synaptic Bloom.

They cleared out the cesspool.

At the next stone tank, Li Yao fought alone. The following one was for Huang Niuniu.

She had made progress with her Art. Unlike Yu Han’s mathematical movements, hers could be called an actual dance.

She spun in place on her heels. Lotus Razor spiralled out, as if she was the centre of a whirlwind. The segments extended, and within a second, all the ghouls were mowed down.

It wasn’t that her strength was overpowering. Her whips were Earth grade. At that level, she didn’t even have to maintain them. If she could inject Qi into them, their lethality would increase multiple-fold.

Teamfighting with her would be a nightmare though. The risk of friendly fire was too high.

At higher Mastery levels of the Art, the manual mentioned the practitioner would be able to control each whip like an extension of their own limbs, imbuing it with willow-like serenity and wisp-like etherealness, whatever that meant. But if it gave her better control, then perhaps she could join them while ganking mobs.

Yu Han continued his market research for the next few days. Huang Niuniu joined him sometimes. Most days though, she hung out with Feral Spot or tried to gain the Qi Awareness trait. Her hut had turned into a semi-laboratory slash witch’s lair, with numerous ingredients lining the shelves for practice.

Li Yao said he had made headway into recruiting the fifth member too. Apparently, she was an outcast.

With Li Yao’s help, Yu Han was able to interview Xiao Zhuzi too, along with other external recruits who had similar situations as the former beggar.

He circled three words in his notebook.

Dignity.

Opportunity.

Options.

The lower rung was deprived of all three. Treat them with dignity, and you get +10 to charisma.

Give them the opportunity to improve, and they’ll take to it like hungry piranhas smelling blood.

Options gave flexibility. They’ll feel as if their fates are in their own hands. The feeling of being in control of one’s own destiny can reduce stress faster than a meditation session.

Yu Han could attest to it. After all, the myth of meritocracy was propagated by capitalists spreading fake options to the masses.

He was still seeing this as an observer though. Something was missing. He could not ‘relate’ or empathise to a level he’d like.

Perhaps he might never fully, but that’s okay. He’d work around it.

One didn’t need to know another inside and out to build and nurture a connection. A genuine connection based on respect did not need two people to be clones.

Maybe if he was still Johan, he would point his nose up at his fellows. But Yu Han had no reason not to give everyone a base level of respect. Johan’s mindset was that respect had to be earned. Dad would smack him in the head and say where he was from, everyone was born with it. They were both from the UK, so Johan had been mighty confused. Was it really that different in London and Norwich? Yu Han got it though.

Respect for competence had to be earned. But for being a human? That was a given unless proven otherwise.

Yu Han scribbled on the page.

Opportunity could be education, like his great-grandmother’s dream. It did, in the end, change their family’s lot in life.

Yu Han had a veritable library of martial arts, and a starting point for Shape-based Array Formations.

He could collect texts on other subjects too. Like alchemy and forging. Perhaps politics and history too? But he had no intentions of becoming a teacher. He knew his limits. And he wouldn’t give anything away for free. That would hurt him physically too, but a different organ. No, it had to be a business transaction, unless the other party was a direct Courtyard member.

In addition to an opportunity, books could be a part of the options category. As for what else, perhaps the Spites? A cheaper internal marketplace?

What am I missing here?

He didn’t find the keystone of his budding idea even when Fang Zhao returned.

“What the hell happened to you?” Yu Han asked.

“These are merely surface wounds,” Fang Zhao said. He had a cat on his shoulder and a cut on his forehead. A gash with bone showing. His clothes were all shredded, barely held together. The wounds on his body had already scabbed over, but they looked gruesome. “But that’s not important. Brother Yu, how would you like to go through a second Bloodline awakening?”