Data-Driven Daoist

Art Levelled Up!

Vitality: 9 -> 10

[Body Origin: 6.40 -> 6.60]

Yu Han’s eyes snapped open, and he was greeted by two eyestalks staring down at him, the full weight of the crab’s body on his chest.

“Get off!” he shouted, trying to push the crab off him. “How the hell did you get in here?”

The crab’s eyes rotated as it waved its claws above its head in a frenzy. Its eyestalks would pause for a few seconds, then start rotating in the opposite directions.

Click! Click click!

It growled. Yu Han coughed.

“C-Can’t breathe—”

The crab relented, and Yu Han shot up, pointing at it. “Are you trying to kill me?” It waved its pincers.

“Unbelievable,” Yu Han muttered. It barged into his dreams, then his yard. And now his house! It was like one of those horror games, where every time he closed his eyes, the ghost would get closer. Except it was a crab, dancing its crust off.

It jumped down, then left the hut. A strange growl came from outside, accompanied by the sound of rain.

It’s raining. Yu Han hadn’t even noticed. That was when the smell hit his nose, followed by a horrid taste. It was like eating three-week-old mouldy fish innards, with a side of rotten duck eggs.

Oh god, this is foul. He spat, scrunching his nose, running to a hemp bag. Vomit threatened to spill out, but he held it in.

He carefully untied the knot, then took out a cloth, similar to the scented cloths he’d lent Li Yao and Fang Zhao. He wrapped the cloth around his face like a scarf, but the smell didn’t leave. The medicinal scent of the cloth simply accentuated the stench. Somehow, that made it worse.

He removed the cloth and noticed an oily, black stain on it. That was when he remembered the effects of the Body Tempering Pill. It would forge the body, and during the process, eject impurities.

Yu Han’s whole body was covered by an oily black substance. On the mat, there was a Yu Han-shaped silhouette, and his spit looked like a coffee stain.

He took the soap and ran out of the hut into the rain, the cool droplets massaging his whole body. He opened his mouth and took in the rain, gurgling carefully so that he wouldn’t swallow a mouthful of impurity. After washing his mouth to the best of his abilities, he cupped the rainwater and brought it to his nose. A few times, the water shot all the way in, and he dropped into a sneezing fit. But finally, his nose was rinsed, the horrible smell receding.

As he scrubbed his body with soap, a pincer tapped his foot.

“What do you want?” Yu Han asked.

The crab rolled upside down, pointing at its belly with its elongated legs. There was an oily spot there. It stared at him, claws striking the muddy ground impatiently.

“Serves you right for jumping me.”

It hit the mud harder, splashing it on Yu Han’s body.

“I get it, geez.”

Yu Han took some foam and scrubbed the crab’s belly. The rain washed the soap away almost immediately.

After scrubbing and scrubbing at his own body, he finally felt skin. He was out in his loincloth. The thing looked as if it had been dipped in gasoline. He’d have it throw this away.

Maybe the magical laundry machine can clean it.

Yu Han went back into his hut, dried off with a towel, and put on a clean set of robes. He’d been cycling through the three sets he had. On Earth, such heavy washing machine usage would damage your clothes, no matter how well it was designed. Here, magic didn’t need to tumble the clothes to wash or dry them.

The crab entered. Yu Han expected it to shake the water off like a dog for some reason, but it didn’t. It tapped the brazier, then took a mug with its pincers and looked inside—literally, an eyestalk sticking into it. It set the mug down, turned to Yu Han, and plopped to the ground.

A few minutes passed. Both stared at each other.

Something feels weird, Yu Han thought. What was it? He brought out a notebook and—Right! My status screen! He’d taken the Body Tempering Pill, and a Pure Qi Assimilating Elixir too.

He opened the Dao Records.

Name: Yu Han (Johan)

Level: 1

True Qi: 105 (+19) / 200

Pure Qi: 12 (-22) / 200

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Primordial Qi: 0

Lifeforce: 493 (+79) / 792 (+24)

Yu Han whistled.

Wow. He pumped his fists. Suppose he got two True Qi from natural accumulation. Or even three. That left sixteen from other sources. If the gain from the Pure Qi Assimilating Elixir was the same as before at eight, that meant an additional eight from cultivating in his Dreamscape.

How? Why? Was it because of the duration, that he might have been cultivating for hours? Yu Han didn’t know if there was any time dilation between reality and the Dreamscape. For all he knew, he could have been cultivating there for days, hence the progress. Or maybe cultivating in Dreamscape time was manyfold higher in quality than reality.

How he wished he had an FMRI. Or knew how to even use it. He shook his head. Whatever the case, cultivating in the Dreamscape was a priority now.

There was nothing urgent to analyse. If he could get to the True Qi level cap sooner, he’d see what the trial was. Like Tribulations, Trials were stuff you didn’t share with others. So Li Yao, that bum, was of no help.

Six Pure Qi wasted. If it were up to Yu Han, he’d optimize the process so that the least amount of True Qi got wasted. He could gather data, plot it, run it through some equations. I wonder if there’s a way to fit this to a Bayesian model.

He clapped, startling the crab. It scuttled to the door, peeked out, then shrank to the size of a tennis ball.

It has the ability to go into dreams. Shapeshifting too, albeit just in size. And the memory pearls… It was a Spirit Beast. What did Tan Ruoxuan call it? A collector crab.

What did it collect?

Yu Han brought up the stat panels.

Primordial Qi: 0

[Mind Origin: 16.60]

Intelligence: 14

Memory: 23

Perception: 11

Clarity: 9

Focus: 10

[Body Origin: 6.60]

Endurance: 7

Vitality: 10

Strength: 7

Agility: 4

Dexterity: 5

[Spirit Origin: 8.20]

Adaptability: 16

Magnitude: 5

Density: 6

Fortitude: 9

Purity: 5

Only Spirit Origin hadn’t changed. He had no idea how to grind it. That one time he got Fortitude, it was not by design. Could Li Yao help? His initial Heavenly Allocation was in Spirit, after all. Or should Yu Han just focus on Mind and Body?

Intelligence, Memory, Perception, Focus, Adaptability. These were the five stats that were above or equal to ten points.

Today, Vitality joined that rank.

Lifeforce: 493 / 792

One point, plus 24 Lifeforce capacity. But was that always the case? He couldn’t remember. Note to self: check it in the Dreamscape. In any case, at least with points in Body Origin Substats, he could literally see the change reflected. With Memory, he had noticed the change with his Arts.

But what about Adaptability? Why was it so high, and what did it do? He needed to find out more about each substat individually. They had to matter. Wen Liujie had mentioned that for Lightness Skills, Agility was more important. Like how the crux of the Ox Tail 72 Sweeping Forms was Strength and Dexterity.

Yu Han stretched. It relaxed his muscles, helping him concentrate.

There was another message. He grinned. Another Art had levelled up.

Arts:

[Deep Sleep]

Type: Bloodline

Grade: Mortal Level 1

Mastery: Initial Step Level 2 (+1)

True Qi: 4 (+5) / 300

“Finally.” Yu Han sighed. This was his first Art. It had a seemingly consistent growth; nothing he’d done had increased the speed. But after the crab showed up, his True Qi gain increased. Maybe cultivation while Deep Sleep is active causes the boost?

Not enough data to be sure. What mattered here was the result; he could find out later and optimize the “why.”

[Echoing Dreamscape]

Type: Auxiliary

Grade: Mortal Level 9

Mastery: Initial Step Level 3

True Qi: 189 (+6) / 400

[Calm Before the Storm Breathing Technique]

Type: Cultivation

Grade: Mortal Level 5

Mastery: Initial Step Level 2 (+1)

True Qi: 29 (+14) / 300

[Ox Tail 72 Sweeping Forms]

Type: Martial

Grade: Elite Level 2

Mastery: Initial Step Level 2 (+1)

True Qi: 40 (+7) / 300

[Thousand Petals Awareness]

Type: Psychic

Grade: Elite Level 9

Mastery: Initial Step Level 1

True Qi: 85 (+4) / 200

The other Arts made good progress, too—especially the Cultivation Art. It seemed that using it while Deep Sleep was active really was the way to go.

Traits:

[Existential Anchor]

Grade: Mortal Level 1

True Qi: Requirements Not Satisfied

[Deep Writhing Clam Bloodline]

Grade: Mortal Level 10

True Qi: 35 (+2) / 1100

[Qi Affinity]

Grade: Mortal Level 7

True Qi: 8 (+1) / 800

Traits were still confusing. Deep Writhing Clam Bloodline got two True Qi, while Qi Affinity increased by one.

Existential Anchor remained unchanged. Yu Han stared at it. Although there might have been other reasons, something about this trait’s name convinced him that it had protected him against the mind control of Fang Zhao’s ring.

He poked the screen.

“Do something,” he whispered.

The crab climbed up his robes like a spider and perched on his shoulder. Click.

“Not you.” He glanced at the crustacean. Two club-like eyes looked back.

Yu Han rolled up the mat. It was completely unusable now. He would burn it outside, but who knew what kind of fumes it would emit if he burned the impurities?

What the heck are impurities, anyway? It was oily. So maybe fat? Yu Han’s heart pumped. He took the measuring rope.

No change. Still the same waist size. Maybe he’d gone down some millimetres, but it was too small a change to notice. Then again, it wasn’t as if the impurities amounted to litres of oil.

Huang Niuniu peeked through the window.

“What’re you doing?” Yu Han asked.

“Did you bathe?” She knitted her brows.

“Scrubbed myself in the rain,” Yu Han replied. “Hey, after taking a Body Tempering Pill, women should be just as smelly as men, right?”

“I’m talking about the soul, mister.” Huang Niuniu came in. She looked fresh, like a bloomed flower, and her hair was still wet. She placed the oil-paper umbrella by the door. “It’s so tiny,” she said, gesturing to the crab.

The crab clicked.

“Cute.”

Li Yao and Fang Zhao arrived soon after.

“Took the pill?” Li Yao sniffed. “Gotta air it out.”

He looked at the crab, followed by Fang Zhao. Huang Niuniu stood there too, as if waiting for something.

“What?” Yu Han asked.

“Isn’t it,” Huang Niuniu said, “going to show us the parchment?”