Data-Driven Daoist

“Junior Fuyu, your story is too bright to be trapped all day in dark rooms. Live a little, why don’t you?” Shu Boyan said as he stood up.

Oof. Dude. You can’t say that to a lady.

The lady in question didn’t reply. She pointed at the door.

Shu Boyan raised an eyebrow.

“Out,” she commanded.

The three men walked out. The paper door slid back in place, and the wooden gates closed with a slow thud. The latches locked.

The lady was a masterclass in how to make men feel unwelcome.

They walked back all the way in silence. Only when they reached the temple square did they talk.

“Do not mind her manners,” Shu Boyan said. “Not that minding it will do you any good. Regardless, it felt bad, didn’t it? How core clan scions look down upon the peasant-born cultivation seeds? Her though, she does not look down. She does not look at all.”

“You have a nasty personality, Senior Shu,” Li Yao said with a shrug. “Didn’t take you for a gossip.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” Shu Boyan replied.

“I don’t get it,” Yu Han admitted.

“He used us,” Li Yao said, unbothered.

“Okay, explain. Don’t be like that cat,” Yu Han said.

“Senior Shu brought us there on purpose. His goal wasn’t to help us out with these texts,” Li Yao twirled the autobiography. “He wanted to coincidentally meet that Fuyu person. Is she going to join your next mission?”

“Most definitely she will,” Senior Shu said. “And she will thank me for it when the play begins.”

“You took advantage of the gullible little Tubs. And her. And---well, don’t care don’t matter,” Li Yao said. “Practice next is the day after tomorrow?”

“It will be our pleasure to teach you the ways of spoken words, Young Li,” Shu Boyan said. He then addressed Yu Han with a flourish of his hand. “Unfortunately, my earlier verdict remains. I do not feel any sparks to live and embody great tales in you, Junior Yu.”

Ouch. Yu Han schooled a smile. “Thanks either way.”

“You are most welcome. I do not lie when I say it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I hope the mortal invocations of the divine are of use to you.”

With that, the core disciple left.

“Tubs,” Li Yao said. “You know what?”

“What?”

“I broke through to level 3 yesterday.”

“I hope you step on monster poop.”

Li Yao burst out laughing. They left the temple. They would sell their 400-odd monster cores from the ghoul hunts and hidden world excursion.

But right before they reached the market, they were stopped by a gaggle of ten thuggish-looking disciples.

A disciple with a crooked chin, misshapen temple, and a hawk’s eyes unrolled the scroll. His right hand was missing a few fingers.

He clumsily unfurled the scroll and looked over its contents, then looked over Yu Han and Li Yao from toe to head. Perhaps finding what he was looking for, he nodded and put the scroll away into an animal skin bag with beast-teeth ornamentation.

Yu Han tried to walk around the blockade, but the other disciples obstructed his path.

Missing Fingers snapped his thumb and stump of a right index. A pleased smirk split his face.

“Yu Han, Li Yao? We’ve got business with you,” he said.

“We scream, we run, we die heroically?” Li Yao whispered. His hands already rested on the hilts of his two swords. The sect forbade rookie-bullying, but some might still take the risk. And Li Yao wouldn’t go down without a fight.

“Less drama,” Yu Han placated his friend. “Who are you?” he asked Missing Fingers. “And why do you have less fingers?”

“I still say we scream. Like little girls if we can. Loud enough that the Law Enforcers will come running,” Li Yao said.

A vein popped on Missing Fingers’s temple. “You better watch your trap, Fatty. We got a tea house reserved. We have business but we got our own terms. Walk with us or we’ll teach you to crawl.”

“I’m starting on a count of three,” Li Yao took a deep breath.

“Have you no guts, coward?” Missing Fingers mocked. “Crying for mummy when the going gets---”

“HELP!” Li Yao roared. “HELP! WE’RE BEING HARASSED!”

It caught the other men by surprise. A fellow with drooping eyes hissed a spiral of rope free. Two others pulled out their swords with metallic swishes.

“GO AWAY, PERVERTS!” Yu Han joined Li Yao. “WE’LL DIE BEFORE WE STRIP FOR THE LIKES---”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Missing Fingers’s eyes turned bloodshot. He looked around and already a crowd of onlookers had gathered.

Most of them snickered. Some showed concern and a few had expressions of disgust.

Missing Fingers cursed and snapped his fingers again. His band gave Yu Han and Li Yao a final glare before they stomped their way out of the crowd.

“Move it!” Missing Fingers yelled at a small guy. “If you got time to waste, better cultivate your sorry behind.” He spat at a girl with a huge gourd on her back. “You, what’re you glaring at? You wanna keep your eyes or gift ’em to me?”

The girl paled, taking steps back. Her three companions took out knives and spears and Missing Fingers took a detour to the left.

Li Yao and Yu Han stopped screaming and watched the ruffians retreat.

Some of the onlookers asked what it was all about.

“Hell if I know. They’re creeps,” Yu Han said. “I don’t even know who they were.”

“Wang Daming and his dogs. Local trash,” the disciple said. He looked like he swallowed bile. “The bastards don’t have enough clout to start a courtyard and aren’t good enough to do the work the hard way. They’re one of the upstart gangs.”

Yu Han had heard about this before. He even watched a gang of seven get the absolute shit beat out of them by an old guy.

“They call themselves factions,” the guy said. “They’ve been popping up like crazy recently.”

“Can’t help it,” Yu Han said. His mind went back to the conversations he had with Tan Ruoxuan. “The outer sect Law Enforcement hall is crazy understaffed.”

“Yeah but who’s to trust them?” The guy scoffed. “They got no face no more. Didn’t you hear all the crap they did before the sect Master took seat? They were no better than thugs and I’m not trusting them again.”

“Trust in the sect Master, my guy,” Li Yao said. “Did you like it better before he turned everything upside down?”

“Guess not,” the guy gave a thumbs down. “When the nobles had everything in an iron grip, these gangs had their owners. Dogs and bitches and the nobles higher up threw them scraps here and there. What did they call it? The weak are meat, the strong eat?”

“Laws of the jungle?” Li Yao said.

“Survival of the fittest,” Yu Han nodded. “Bullcrap.”

“Didn’t it make sense though?” The guy said. “Let the outer sect commoner fight among themselves. Us rabbles rabbling, you know? Competition breeds competence and all that.”

“That’s just a hands-off disregard with a few extra steps,” Yu Han said. Johan would only like it if he was in the audience seat, not in the rat race.

“But our sect Master’s going for orthodoxy!” Li Yao said. “I say we trust him. Trust the future.”

“Hopeful, aren’t ya?” The guy smiled.

“We got inside scoop. What did the Law Lady say again, Tubs?”

“She claimed the Law Enforcers were pretty thorough when it comes to apprehending these gangs.” Yu Han paraphrased Tan Ruoxuan. “They need their prestige back. And parading around law-breakers was a tried and tested method.”

“So why’re these gangs still popping up like mushrooms after rain?” The guy shook his head. “I know why. ’Cause they let ’em go!”

“That can’t be right,” Yu Han questioned.

“By my dead father it is. Swear upon his ashes,” the guy gritted his teeth. “They give them a cash fine and a few lashings. Tell ’em to keep their heads down. They don’t lock them up or throw them out. Heck, didn’t one gang break the legs of grass-sellers recently? Apparently they did it under some bigwig’s orders.”

“I didn’t know about that one,” Yu Han said. Bad public order. Sheesh, what a mess. And the outer sect centrum was supposed to be stable.

“Now you do,” the guy said. “They got a slap on the wrist. They’re still running around like they own the place. Unless they mess with rookies or they’re absolute trash like those Mad Bloodhound fellas, the punishment’ll be more like time off.”

“What if you fight back?” Li Yao asked. “Beat up the gangs?”

“Same same. Nothing happens,” the guy said as he held up his palms and shook them. “Rumour has it something’s been up at the Incarceration hall. They’ll close the outer sect prisons down at this rate. No wardens no spirits no nothing. Wait, hey, aren’t you guys the ones that did the Mad Bloodhounds in?”

They talked for a bit after that. He was a cool guy.

Yu Han and Li Yao went around selling all the cores. Wen Liujie already gave them the green light. Usually they’d keep the ghoul cores for the Night Alchemists’ Yard. The Alchemy and Medicine halls had a demand for them. They could’ve exchanged the ghoul cores with spirit stones or contribution points.

But since they were going to start a courtyard soon, they wanted to try their luck in the market. See if they could find a better deal.

They did.

Cores were abundant in the sect. But not so much outside. The senior sister and her group that bought all theirs would likely head over to the city and resell them to outsiders.

After they had their courtyard set up, they could attemot to do the same. sect laws were weird when it comes to doing business with foreigners without a courtyard. It didn’t break any obvious rules but it did break tradition. At the law enforcement halls discretion, they could twist the vague laws so that it did, in fact, break rules.

They’d sold four hundred-and-something monster cores. Counting expenses like the earth-grade spirit stone for Fei Rui and their monthly spite, they had 11,000 mortal-grade spirit stones in liquid money left, including the loot from the Mad Bloodhounds.

That’s not a bad starting capital. But it did sting now to see more than half of it gone fore one shiny rock.

“It’s fine,” Li Yao patted his back. “Tell Crabby to pay it back at a 13.34 percent interest.”

“I will not,” Yu Han said. “Fei Rui is too young to learn about interest rates!”

Despite the dwindling cash, it was still a windfall for commoners. Though for nobles, it was less than pocket change.

Four humans, a crab, and a cat could do a lot with it.

Dong Tianlan’s got a rich family so we don’t need to count her!

“How many eyes are on us?” Even the inexperienced Yu Han could detect the gazes when they were that obvious.

“Eight groups now,” Li Yao replied. “Did you piss anyone off recently?”

“No I didn’t---” Hmm. Strong Shan? Zhang Jiyou? Maybe not. Sima Yan? He doesn’t have the clout.

“Why’d you stop? Something came to mind?”

“Maybe. Remember Strong Shan?”

“Of course, so Fang Zhao’s secret admirer?” Li Yao asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Lunch?” Li Yao pointed at a restaurant with outdoor seating.

“My good brother Li, I wanna lose weight. I can’t be eating out. Niu’er will kill me.”

“Does she even want you to be thin?”

“What she wants does not matter,” Yu Han said. “I wanna be thinner.”

Li Yao scratched his head. The restaurant was probably owned by a courtyard too. Maybe even a pavilion, since it was located by the main market. The servers were mostly elderly disciples. The Stuck at Body Temperings. Did they hunt their own ingredients?

They ordered braised fish and three meat dishes. Monster meat was cheaper, but they were craving primal. A roasted lamb leg that sent grease-scented smoke up like prayer incense, a holler of stir-fried beef and roots, and a plate of pickled chicken feet that made Li Yao drool.

“Come on, let’s splurge on wine,” Li Yao said. “The chicken feet look lonely.”

“Alcohols are empty calories!” Yu Han was not having it. “In fact, how many calories is this?” He lamented after pulling out a large chunk of lamb with his washed hands. He chewed it down. “So freaking fatty. At least there’s a lot of protein.”

“We have company,” Li Yao sighed. “Do we need to hold up banners saying we don’t want to talk? Is this how the womenfolk in Riversong felt while walking down the street at night?”

Seven thugs lumbered in like they owned the place. They sat down on the same table. Joking and chuckling. Everyone was old friends, right?

Surprisingly, Yu Han did know them. They were the ones who were beaten up by the old man.

Speaking of the devil, the old man was selling his red powder on the other side of the road too. Next to him stood a large man with too many scars on his face and bald head.