Data-Driven Daoist

“You have a unique identity,” Dong Tianlan spoke with conviction as her eyes moved up and down Fang Zhao.

The boy appeared uncomfortable to be on the receiving end of such a gaze. Dong Tianlan continued, fiddling with her sleeves. “You are an apex noble of the Great Xia Dynasty’s divine capital, yet you are exiled. But even a blind fool can tell that you still retain the care of your clan elders. Otherwise, how could you still be walking unpunished with how many wrongdoings you have committed? Even if none of them were individually sinful enough to make the heavens weep and earth roar, the sheer quantity boggles me. You should be in jail for at least half a year just to be made into an example to deter the young from unethical behaviour.”

“Y-You know?” Fang Zhao broke the stare, sweating.

“Everyone who is anyone does,” Dong Tianlan said. “Other than your friends, I suppose.”

“Now I’m curious,” Li Yao said.

“Me too,” Huang Niuniu looked ready to gossip.

“Now, now, guys,” Yu Han tried to play it down. “I’m sure we can find out even if he doesn’t tell us.”

“Thanks for respecting my privacy, guys,” Fang Zhao groaned.

“The long story short is that as long as you hang around us,” Li Yao said, “the big guys up the ladder won’t mess with us too much.”

“They will, though you won’t die,” Dong Tianlan corrected.

“What she said,” Li Yao nodded, placing an arm around Fang Zhao’s shoulder. “This makes you our ticket to fame and fortune!”

Fang Zhao swatted away Li Yao’s arm.

“I don’t have a bloodline like Tubs and Cow Girl,” Li Yao said. “Make sure you don’t drown in debt. You know, I used to collect loans on behalf of my boss back in the day.”

“Brother Li, I don’t care if you play games with me,” Fang Zhao said. “But Mistress Miao might do something… undesirable. She has her priorities.”

Li Yao’s smile cracked.

Mistress Miao had been on a pranking streak recently. Just the other day, Fang Zhao had fallen into a pitfall filled with murky swamp water. It had been dug right in front of his hut and covered with grass.

“I have no priorities,” the cat made her opinion known. “Do your worst, Li boy.”

Fang Zhao glared at her, and Li Yao just shrugged.

“It was a joke!” He said, “Don’t take it personally.”

“It’s not Li Yao’s first time joking around a bit too seriously,” Yu Han gave Fang Zhao a concerned look. “You can’t trust these gang rats.”

“Shut up fattass,” Li Yao said. “You’re scaring the poor noble lord.”

“See? He’s a brute. He’ll sell your kidney to a monstrous beast if that means money—”

“When will I join your courtyard?” Dong Tianlan brought the topic back to the matter at hand.

“It’s ‘can I join,’ not ‘when will I,’” Yu Han said. “Come back… in a week?”

Dong Tianlan glared, then clicked her tongue. “Grandfather sent gifts. I work at the scripture hall. I can give my courtyard higher access. It is within my rights.”

“Can we look at core formation realm techniques?” Huang Niuniu asked.

“No. Access yes but only within reason,” Dong Tianlan said. “The Dong clan won’t support me overtly unless my life is in danger. Here I am, consorting with seedlings the sect Master has his eyes on. This is, for me and my clan, akin to a Tempering from the dao. We must navigate the waters without offending either side.”

“So you’re on your own?” Yu Han shook his head. Even if she was on her own, she brought a huge slice of pie to the table.

“Unless, as I said, my life is threatened. I shall, of course, receive my due of cultivation resources. But that I will not share, and anything extra I must earn with my own merit.”

“With our merit, you mean?” Huang Niuniu tutted. “If we let you join, Missy!”

“Stop that,” Yu Han flicked her forehead.

“Owie.”

He flicked again.

“Ouch.”

One more time.

“Uuu.”

“Rather than cultivating diligently, you play around with village girls,” Dong Tianlan said. The anger in her voice palpable. “Grandfather’s investment has gone to waste, and you humiliate his grace.”

Yu Han flicked Huang Niuniu’s forehead one final time.

The girl said “Eeeng,” but more seductively, while looking at Dong Tianlan.

“What gifts?” Li Yao rubbed his chin. He was maidenless after all. He wouldn’t get it. At least Fang Zhao had a hidden catgirl in a ring.

Dong Tianlan took out a pouch and poured its contents. Four wooden rings.

“Storage rings?” Fang Zhao gasped.

“I say we let her join,” Li Yao cast his vote.

Yu Han halted the meeting. As the future courtyard leader, he could do that.

“T-Take those away!” As someone weak to the temptations of wealth, the meeting must not continue!

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They promised to let her know ‘as soon as possible,’ with another meeting scheduled a week away.

As usual, if Dong Tianlan was offended, she didn’t show it.

This was a person who had mastered the art of being selectively expressive. She mostly showed negative expressions, but never to the extreme.

Before leaving, she forced the four rings on them.

“What species of spirit beast are you, cat?” At the gate of the Night Alchemists’ Yard, Dong Tianlan said her final goodbyes not to any of them, but to Mistress Miao.

“I am a hu—”

“A Mystic Cloud-Patterned Calico,” Fang Zhao interrupted.

“Tiger,” Mistress Miao said.

“Farewell, Mystic Cloud-Patterned Tiger,” Dong Tianlan walked away. “I am curious to know how your qi speak is so well developed, even though you appear only to be in the body tempering realm.”

They watched until her silhouette vanished in the treeline.

“Good riddance,” Huang Niuniu wiped her sweat. “Us and her don’t match. Li Yao, as the vice-leader in charge of networking, you should do a better job—”

“I vote for her,” Yu Han said.

“Traitor!”

“I mean, these are storage rings! Are you dumb?” Yu Han rubbed the wooden ring on his finger. “I’m not giving this back!”

“You are dumb!” Huang Niuniu said.

“Storage rings, Niu’er. Storage. Rings.”

“Tubs has a point,” Li Yao said.

“I can better disguise my stone storage ring,” Fang Zhao added.

“He can better disguise his stone storage ring,” Mistress Miao said.

「Fei Rui likes her. She makes glarey-eyes at Yu Han. The question is. What are glarey-eyes?」

“It’s five to one,” Yu Han said. “She’s in.”

“W-Wait a minute!” Huang Niuniu protested. “Unfair as it is, spirit beasts don’t get votes! They can’t be proper members of a courtyard, right?”

“I am a human with a celestial tiger—” Mistress Miao started.

“That’s a technicality,” Fang Zhao said. “Don’t be so speciesist.”

“You don’t even like her,” Huang Niuniu said.

“I have nothing against Dong Tianlan.” Fang Zhao averted his eyes.

“I mean the cat!” Huang Niuniu pointed at the feline, then stomped.

“I am a human with a celestial tiger—”

Despite the votes, it was left undecided if Dong Tianlan would join. They would take the week and brainstorm the logistics going forward.

The biggest issue was that the girl was a proud snitch.

Yu Han’s group had too many secrets. Many things they would not be able to share with her lest they wanted a nascent soul cultivator breathing down their neck. At best, it would summon core formation or foundation building cultivators who couldn’t mind their business.

“It’s good that she works in the scripture hall,” Li Yao said. “Tubs, you said you needed more texts on array formations, right?”

Yu Han nodded, “I’m stuck. I think I know how to pass the trial, but it’s not looking good.”

“Cow Girl needs more texts on alchemy and wisps. Red-Eyes wants texts on bloodlines and martial arts.”

“Perhaps I should take up a profession too?” Fang Zhao said. “Our team might have an alchemist and a formation master. What else do we need?”

“You should forge,” Mistress Miao said.

“Artefacts?”

“Artefacts. Weapons. Relics. Tools. Armour. Furniture—”

“Why?”

“Why not?” Mistress Miao then elaborated. “It suits the ‘Jade’ in your bloodline, and you will primarily walk the path of body cultivation. Your clan practices the dao of earth and forging. You will forge your body, as you will objects. You can then forge a sword for Li Yao and be done with your debt. Then we can leave.”

“I am not leaving,” Fang Zhao said.

“Yes, you are.” The cat sounded sure.

“So Red-Eyes also needs books on forging,” Li Yao continued. “I figured getting Missy, who was being bullied and grinding her external mission alone in the scripture hall, would have been a smart move. But turns out she doesn’t feel bullied, doesn’t need friends, really wants to join in on the sect politics and, well, benefit from this guy’s clan.”

“Are you changing your vote?” Yu Han asked.

“Nah,” Li Yao said. “We still get the texts and those rings. We don’t include her in our private talks. She doesn’t need to know what we don’t want her to know. She’s not even in the Night Alchemist’s Yard.”

“Can we do it like that though?” Yu Han asked. “My experience tells me we’ll have to tell her some things sooner or later if we do let her join.”

Secrets soured things. They were like pus festering in a wound. Some secrets Yu Han would never share, like his transmigration. Others, he might. But there were secrets that weren’t his to share. Like Fang Zhao’s matters and whatever was going on with Mistress Miao.

Since Dong Tianlan was specifically joining their team because of Fang Zhao, though, those secrets might reach her ears sooner or later. Her interest in Mistress Miao was visible to anyone with eyes.

“Do you think the sect will eavesdrop on us?” Yu Han asked. “If the sect Master is so interested in Fang Zhao, it wouldn’t be strange if someone’s keeping an eye on us.”

Fang Zhao looked at the cat.

“What?” She purred.

“Is someone spying on us?”

“No.”

“How can you tell?”

“Join my sect. I’ll tell you.”

“Can you tell us when someone is listening in?”

“Maybe.” She swatted a bug. When she lifted her paws, the insect was unharmed and flew away. Her eyes followed it.

“We’ll have to go forward either assuming everyone knows or no one knows!” Fang Zhao’s eyes were bloodshot. The cat was not taking any of this seriously.

“Whoa, my man, calm down.” Li Yao patted Fang Zhao’s back. “Those are two extremes and we don’t need to think like that. If you think we shouldn’t take her, we won’t.”

“At this point, we know the eyes of the sect and clans are on us,” Fang Zhao said. “With her, we can get a heads-up on matters we otherwise would not be privy to, suppose our relationship improves. Without her, we won’t.”

“If our relationship doesn’t improve,” Huang Niuniu said. “We’ll have something worse than a heads-up. We’ll be heads-downed. Is that a word?”

“She didn’t seem like that kind of person,” Yu Han said. He was usually the devil’s advocate. But the others were doing such a good job that he would play the opposite side. “And storage ring.”

“Good point,” Li Yao nodded.

“Whatever choice we make feels like a bad decision,” Fang Zhao sighed.

“Didn’t think it would cause such an issue,” Li Yao said, his shoulders drooping. “My bad.”

“It isn’t your fault. Like Fang Zhao said, we got a heads-up on the sect’s interest in him, didn’t we?” Yu Han said. “How else would we have known that an elder from the great and mighty Trueforge Fang clan visited.”

Fang Zhao’s expression clouded.

The arguments went on, and they went circular. There were clear upsides in the form of knowledge. And Dong Tianlan had sounded agreeable to snitch on the sect and clan too. Double-crossing seemed to be in her bloodline.

They dropped the matter after making no progress.

That night, Yu Han meditated in real life before sleeping. He could feel airy lines moving inside his body. There were three types. The lines originating from his heart he could sense with the highest clarity.

The ones from the head and the navel area were foggier for lack of a better term, more dispersed.

Mistress Miao had already confirmed that these were the three innate spiritual energies. Lifeforce, essence, and qi.

Lifeforce flowed out of the heart all throughout his body. It followed the breath, but even without conscious breathwork like with his cultivation art, it moved.

This isn’t HP at all.

It was better to fix that cognitive bias. If he kept treating it as HP, it would bite him in the back soon enough.

Lifeforce was a consumable, like all types of spiritual energy. It was dynamic in how it acted. But it was also innate and static. It nourished his flesh and bones while being part of it. It protected his physical body, dampening damage.

It was the main driving force of the body tempering realm. With the flow of lifeforce through the networks of meridians, the pathways would form and develop.

The exact science of it eluded him. So he decided to treat it as an art.

He concentrated on the tip of his finger. An invisible tendril extended out. It was the new bloodline art, Inkwell Tendril.

Simultaneously , the flow of all three spiritual energies changed. Essence and lifeforce showed the greatest fluctuation. His internal vision was more of a hazy intuition than a clear image, but the sensation was unmistakable. Motes of essence vanished into the lifeforce stream. A segment of that stream coalesced and stretched, molded by the consumed essence into a reaching tendril that remained firmly tethered to the source within his body.

How to use the Inkwell Tendril seemed to be written in his DNA. Or in this case, his bloodline. He flexed a mental switch, and a drop of ink fell down from the tip of the tendril. A bit of qi was consumed, alongside essence, but not lifeforce.