Data-Driven Daoist

Chapter 46: Fasting Brew

A disciple from the Law Enforcement Hall blocked their path near the next stone tank.

“The Night Soil Collectors conduct their business at night. Why are you two going around during the day?” the woman asked. She had one hand on the hilt of her sword.

“There’s no rule about that,” Yu Han said.

“That’s how it’s always been done,” the woman shot back. “Not to mention having monsters running around during daytime.”

“The Filth Eating Ghouls are weak during the day. Do you want us to risk our lives and fight when they’re at their strongest?” Yu Han asked. “To avoid being a bother?”

“Does Disciple Wen Liujie know?”

“We are free to choose our own itinerary,” Yu Han said. He didn’t want to offend anyone, but he stood his ground.

“We’ve had reports that you threatened to ruin public order by flinging waste materials on the streets,” the woman said.

Damn that Sima Yan. “Senior Sister, that’s obviously a lie! What would we gain by doing that?” Yu Han said. “But I’d like to make a report back.”

“This morning, someone tried to block our path to a waste tank. If we were late cleaning it, the waste would have clogged the cesspool, causing it to overflow into the outhouses in the area. Thank god we made it in time! I suspect it’s a devious plan against the Sect’s public order.” Yu Han said, looking wronged. “I’m a weak rookie. The next time that happens, I’ll probably be late cleaning up stone tanks. I’ll head back and let Senior Wen know. Maybe he can personally clean it up.”

The woman laughed. “Is that so? We in the Law Enforcement Hall will keep it in mind.”

Wen Liujie was busy trying to break through, and so he had left most of the duties to younger disciples. The Night Soil Collectors, being an outcast group by their very nature, supposedly had a strong internal unity.

Yu Han had yet to see it. But marking a stone tank and letting it simmer for far longer than necessary was a common tactic to petition for their rights.

The woman stepped aside. Yu Han tapped the donkey with the stick, and the cart moved. He bowed to the woman.

“Was that okay? She’s from the Law Enforcement Hall.” Huang Niuniu’s brow creased.

“Did we break any laws?”

“Maybe an unwritten one. Senior Wen seemed pretty discontent when we told him we’d be doing our rounds during the daytime.”

“If it isn’t written, it’s fart.” Yu Han scoffed. “Besides, that Senior Sister wasn’t angry at us. Whoever made the stupid report made her go out of her way to check the matter. She had to warn us, and she did.”

“Are you sure?”

“If not, she’d insist, and we’d have no choice but to turn back. She’s probably more pissed off at Sima Yan’s group.”

Huang Niuniu breathed a sigh of relief. “How can you be sure?”

Yu Han knew internal review—at least at Nexus Assurance Auditing, the company he worked at for most of his life. Those bastards earned free money sitting on their butts. They wanted no trouble; they just wanted to drink coffee and cash in checks for doing nothing. Even if there were problems, it didn’t concern them unless it was reported. They’d only go out of their way to investigate if it was serious stuff like embezzlement or insider trading.

If someone made a formal report, though, no matter how minor the issue, they’d have to investigate, even if just for show. It wasted valuable time they could spend on real problems, creating thankless work.

They arrived at the next stone waste tank.

“Ready?” Yu Han asked.

Huang Niuniu nodded. She took the vanguard this time.

Yu Han opened the hatch. Soon, Filth Eating Ghouls gathered near the entrance. They snarled, but stayed inside. The daylight was bright; it didn’t seem like it would rain soon. Even when clouds blocked the sun, it wasn’t dark enough.

“Can we lure them out?” Huang Niuniu said.

“What if we throw a ghoul corpse? Maybe they’ll get mad and rush out?” Yu Han suggested.

“Or they might get scared,” Huang Niuniu said. “How about we dump some waste? They’ll be attracted to the food!”

“There’s way more in the cesspool. They don’t have to come out into the sun for that.”

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They fell silent. Time passed, and Huang Niuniu took a few careful steps forward. As she neared the entrance, the Filth Eating Ghouls snarled louder. The leading monster reached out, about to jump, but controlled itself.

“This much should be enough,” Huang Niuniu said. She lashed out with her whip, wrapping it around the torso of the leading Filth Eating Ghoul. “Come here!” she shouted, pulling the whip. The Filth Eating Ghoul flew, and as it neared, Huang Niuniu unsheathed the dagger and stabbed it into the monster’s head.

The remaining creatures were instantly riled up. They growled, then rushed at her.

“Nice thinking,” Yu Han praised. Her ribbon whips had a range of about twelve feet, long enough to keep her safe while attacking. “Next time, we could probably just throw a stone.”

“Should’ve said that sooner,” Huang Niuniu grumbled. She let the dagger fall at her feet and unclasped the other ribbon whip. “Take some distance.”

Yu Han jumped a few steps back.

Huang Niuniu took a stance with both her feet slowly dragging on the ground. Her arms moved, and the ribbon whips danced in the air. The cloth ribbons fluttered like silken flames, but their heavy whip cores struck the stone ground with surprising force. They tore the air with loud whooshing sounds, and when colliding with the ground, the noise echoed like beating drums.

“This is so annoying,” Huang Niuniu complained. Her Martial Art was called Flowing Fragrance Weaving Silk Flower Dance. The previous two times, because she’d been using the ribbon whips like normal whips, she didn’t gain much Arts True Qi. She had to go through the motions of the dance.

“I can’t fight like this,” she said.

“The loud noise is keeping the monsters at bay, though,” Yu Han commented. The motion of the whips was less erratic, but because Huang Niuniu was concentrating on the dance, she couldn’t skillfully bind the monsters or throw them.

The Filth Eating Ghouls tried jumping her, but they would either be hit by the whip or become disoriented because of the noise. For some strange reason, though, all twenty-two monsters kept their focus on Huang Niuniu and didn’t try to bypass her to attack Yu Han.

“The noise scares them, but it also attracts them?” Yu Han guessed. The swishing sound of the ribbon whips was loud enough to drown out his voice.

“What did you say?” Huang Niuniu shouted. “I can’t hear you!”

“Keep dancing like that. Try to hit as many Filth Eating Ghouls as you can,” Yu Han said. Whenever he saw a disoriented monster, he’d jab out with the halberd.

Slowly, the Filth Eating Ghouls got used to the sound and didn’t get disoriented.

“My arms hurt,” Huang Niuniu complained. She’d been dancing for almost fifteen minutes now.

“Eight left!” With her tanking the aggro, Yu Han had been able to pick off fourteen of them one by one.

Some of the Ghouls tried to use their sonic attack. But every time they tried, Huang Niuniu would interrupt them with a whiplash, then Yu Han would lunge in and finish the work.

After five minutes, Huang Niuniu collapsed onto her back. She threw her helmet off, her shoulder-length hair sticking to her sweaty forehead.

Yu Han killed the last monster with a Heavy Ox Swing.

“Finally,” she gasped. “Let me check—” She shot up to a sitting position. “74 Arts True Qi! And 1 Pure Qi.”

Yu Han checked his own gains.

Name: Yu Han (Johan)

Level: 1

True Qi: 74 / 200

Pure Qi: 22 (+12) / 200

Primordial Qi: 0

Lifeforce: 692 (-7) / 720

Next, the Art.

Ox Tail 72 Sweeping Forms

True Qi: 92 (+15) / 200

“My Martial Art only gained 15 True Qi,” Yu Han said. “I’ll conclude that even if one doesn’t give a monster the finishing blow, as long as they participate in the battle, they’ll get a fair share of Pure Qi. On the other hand, even if I’m the one killing the monsters, my Martial Arts True Qi won’t increase much unless I use it in the battle in a meaningful way.”

“Duh.”

“It’s important to verbalize this.”

“Pull me up.”

Yu Han grabbed her hand and helped her to her feet. They harvested the cores and threw the corpses in the cart.

It was about eighty percent full already. Next was the hardened nodules.

The duo made their way to the King Earthworm Gorge, dumping all the waste and corpses into the crevice.

“Feels like I’m committing an environmental crime.” On Earth, many companies would try to save costs by illegal dumping. It would destroy the ecosystem, but save their wallets. Here, however, they had magic to take care of all the side effects.

“Do you wanna go down there?” Huang Niuniu peered down the stairway. The stairs going down into the gorge itself were wide, but had no guardrails. One slip, and it was straight down to excreta hell.

“No thanks,” Yu Han said, crossing his arms.

“Maybe we can find more precious herbs? Or the deadly ones?”

“No thanks!”

“What a bore.”

They stopped by the Night Alchemist’s Yard to clean up, where they met a few coworkers. Some talked, others were silent. The Coveralls were placed in their proper storage, allowing the cuts to self-mend by some alchemy magic.

There was still daylight when they returned home. Huang Niuniu prepared the Fasting Brew. It was mostly various herbs, roots, and flowers boiled in water.

“Calorie zero?” Yu Han commented.

“What’s a ‘Kai Luo Lie?’”

“The amount of energy in food. It’s the evil stuff that makes you fat!”

Huang Niuniu scuttled back and patted her body. “You think I’m fat?”

“Not ‘you’ you. ‘You’ as in the general people.”

The brew had a pale yellow colour. Huang Niuniu scooped out the plants and placed them in a pot.

“Doesn’t it look like p—”

“Shush!”

“I’m just saying—”

“If you have nothing good to say, don’t say it,” she said adamantly.

Yu Han sipped the brew and cringed. It was like licking rock salt. She didn’t even put salt in it, so why was it so—

The bitterness hit.

“I—I—”

“Gulp it down. Wash it down with water,” Huang Niuniu led by example. Her white face turned green, then purple.

Yu Han pinched his nose and did the same.

“Ugh.”

He trudged back home. With no motivation to train, he fell on the bed.

Wait, I have to—

He sat up and took out a vial from his sack. Huang Niuniu and he had agreed to take the Pure Qi Assimilating Elixir tonight. Senior Wen had advised them to take it either while doing a closed-door cultivation in a cultivation cave or before sleep.

He popped the vial and chugged it down. The mellow sweetness touched his tongue, tasting like cough medicine.

In his Dreamscape, the crab appeared again, reenacting their previous interactions. It dropped more strange pearls. Some of the previous pearls had turned sapphire blue, the mirage inside of them still obscure but comparatively clearer.

The hole in the Dreamscape wall was child-sized this time, and the crab’s size was similar to a large dog. It went away, disheartened.

Yu Han did more tests. His conclusion: echoed events and objects lasted about 1.2 times longer. They had clearer details. The area of the dreamscape had also increased a tiny bit.

The next morning, Yu Han woke up screaming.