The next two days passed quickly. Fang Zhao was training like a maniac. Li Yao and Huang Niuniu would spar with him, with Yu Han joining in sometimes. The three of them combined couldn’t take him down.
Though when Yu Han maxed out his instincts with Thousand Petals Awareness, he came close.
Can I call it Ultra Instinct? Nope. No, I won’t steal names. I could totally come up with a better one.
He could force a draw with Li Yao. Huang Niuniu refused to spare with him
How about, Synaptic Bloom? It matches the original Thousand Petals Awareness.
It wouldn’t show up on his Dao Record. But his gains to the Psychic Art had gone through the roof recently. For now, he could max out his sense of touch better. He wanted to find a way to up his reaction without up’ing the pain. With sight and sound, he could only last a minute or two while combined with touch.
The end goal?
Max out all his senses. Then see if he could effect other senses not listed in the Arts manual, like balance and heat.
They used blunted training weapons. Fang Zhao used none. With bare-handed martial arts, he could deflect swords, spears, and whips alike.
He had shown interested in collecting other Martial Arts too. Already, he could link the seven he knew together adequately.
Yesterday, they picked up their third share of Pure Qi Assimilating Elixir. The Hidden Realm excursion lasted four days, and with the three days of settling in after that, Yu Han was finally ready for his Night Soil Collection duties.
The donkey cart rocked left and right. Huang Niuniu bit her lips as she wrote numbers on a Yu Han brand notebook. She was plotting their future expenses, like a matriarch in charge of the household finances.
But rather than having a husband and kids, she had three idiots, one crab, and an old cat.
“Our Coveralls actually cost more than what we have,” she said. Her voice a bit down. “We’re not that rich. Is smuggling not good business?”
One Coverall set cost 5000 Elite Grade spirit stones. That was equal to 50,000 Mortal Grade ones.
“We don’t own the Coveralls. If we leave the Night Alchemists’ Yard, we’ll have to return them.”
“What if I ask Senior Brother Wen really nicely?” Huang Niuniu made a face. “Like this.”
“He has a fiancé.”
“I can flutter my eyelashes!” Huang Niuniu sulked. “Mother taught me how.”
“Tan Ruoxuan can do that too,” Yu Han said. “And she can put you in jail.”
“Good answer. Definitely what I wanted to here.” Huang Niuniu lightly poked the butt of the donkey with a stick. It made a snorting sound and picked up its pace.
Yu Han brought up his Dao Record.
Name: Yu Han (Johan)
Level: 2
Active Accords: 1
True Qi: 91 (+87) / 300
Pure Qi: 284 (-16) / 300
Primordial Qi: 0
Lifeforce: 912 / 912
He had earned more than three hundred Pure Qi in the Hidden Realm. Especially on the second day of their excursion, where they had cleared out the cenote. When his Pure Qi was full, anything extra seemed to be wasted.
According to Fang Zhao, there were artefacts that collected this extra Pure Qi. The Pure Qi would lose its mysterious properties, but could still be used as neutral spiritual energy, like the Qi in spirit stones.
A bump on the road shook Yu Han’s vision.
How did the Romans make roads again?
The Johan part of Yu Han didn’t want to openly share knowledge. However, the basis of a Courtyard, if he decided to make one, had to be knowledge.
Earth knowledge stays with me for now, unless I can frame it in a safe way.
Primordial Qi: 0
[Mind Origin: 17.95]
Intelligence: 15
Memory: 25
Perception: 14
Clarity: 10
Magnitude: 5
Density: 6
Fortitude: 10
Purity: 5
“Is it working?” Huang Niuniu asked.
Yu Han shook his head.
In “The Dao of Characters (Review by Liang Fuyu),” the author claimed that one of the most important foundations of the art of Formations, for a Cultivator, was a strong Mind Origin. Other foundations were talent, clan, and teacher. They would also need to acquire the Qi Awareness trait. The earlier the better.
One way to determine if one’s Mind was up to par was changing the Dao Record to display information that better suited the Cultivator’s needs.
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This could be accomplished even when one was below Level 21, their Essence bar still not activated. Same went for Qi Awareness.
Yu Han’s Mind Origin was his highest stat. He’d been trying to change how his Dao Records showed information.
Mentally, he grabbed hold of the ‘feeling’ or ‘sensation’ he got when he had to concentrate on parts of the Dao Record to show additional data. Such as with his Arts Panel.
Arts:
[Deep Sleep]
Type: Bloodline
Grade: Mortal Level 1
Mastery: Initial Step Level 2
True Qi: 62 (+13) / 300
[Echoing Dreamscape]
Type: Auxiliary
Grade: Mortal Level 10 (+1)
Mastery: Initial Step Level 6
True Qi: 515 (+95) / 700
[Calm Before the Storm Breathing Technique]
Type: Cultivation
Grade: Mortal Level 5
Mastery: Initial Step Level 3
True Qi: 263 (+147) / 400
[Ox Tail 72 Sweeping Forms]
Type: Martial
Grade: Elite Level 2
Mastery: Initial Step Level 2
True Qi: 285 (+142) / 300
[Thousand Petals Awareness]
Type: Psychic
Grade: Elite Level 9
Mastery: Initial Step Level 6 (+3)
True Qi: 211 (+1575) / 700
As always, Thousand Petals Awareness rose the fastest. With the Synaptic Bloom practice, it shot through the roof with no signs of slowing down.
Li Yao, Fang Zhao, and Huang Niuniu had better base fighting potential than him. But with Synaptic Bloom, he too had his trump card.
Deep Sleep with Echoing Dreamscape was best for training mental skills. Cultivation Arts, Psychic Arts, and perhaps Spiritual Arts would also benefit from this.
His current focus was training the various senses with Thousand Petals Awareness while cultivating. If he could grasp the feeling of whatever it was that flowed in his body during cultivation, would he get the Qi Awareness Trait?
Ox Tail 72 Sweeping Forms rose quite nicely too. He was close to levelling up.
Would it suffice though? It was, after all, an Art for tempering the body. Not really offense focused.
In the Hidden Realm, his performance in fights was the worst unless he used Synaptic Bloom. Fang Zhao was a genius, and Li Yao was stable. Huang Niuniu was a bit silly, but her Lotus Razor and Pale Spine were no jokes. Not to mention her quick thinking when the Redgrass Beak Viper boss had appeared.
Yu Han, with his halberd, could only act as a basic minion after Synaptic Bloom ran out. It was as clear as day when he defended Fang Zhao.
One trump card is not enough.
Even if Ox Tail 72 Sweeping Forms was meant to train the body rather than to kill, he had no doubt that Fang Zhao could use it better, even with one arm tied behind his back.
Yu Han didn’t want to invest much time in it. His weight loss journey had been stable. Right now, he was around 137 kilograms. Still nowhere near his target, which was below 100.
I definitely gained some muscle, though.
He didn’t really have an aesthetic preference. Not Yu Han, at least. Johan would prefer visible abs over useable ones.
Still, too much fat.
He would continue his daily grinding of the Ox Tail 72 Sweeping Forms, combined with endurance and weight training. But I need a better offense.
Let’s see if I can find a more offensive Martial Art with halberds. If not, I can change weapons. What would suit Synaptic Bloom the most? If I don’t use it as a burst, I could fight longer.
Formations. Arrays. Runes. Glyphs. Diagrams. Talismans.
Those could be a way forward too.
Johan had been a good artist. It was his only creative hobby to speak of. He’d studied programming and data science too. Though not a software engineer, he knew the theory. Yu Han loved chinese painting too, it had made his parents so proud.
Array Formations, it was like a combination of art and coding. He could make it work.
He concentrated on his Traits.
Traits:
[Existential Anchor]
Grade: Mortal Level 2
True Qi: Requirements Not Satisfied
[Deep Writhing Clam Bloodline]
Grade: Mortal Level 10
True Qi: 159 / 1100
[Qi Affinity]
Grade: Mortal Level 7
True Qi: 11 / 800
No changes. Yu Han put his helmet back on. They took care of the Filth Eating Ghouls, shovelled poop, and plopped the corpses on the cart.
They hit one more stone tank. Their efficiency had improved. Huang Niuniu alone could take care of ten or twenty ghouls, no problem. Her Earth Grade weapons were that good. When she got Qi, their deadliness and control would increase.
“If I imagine them having Fang Zhao’s face, it’s easier.”
“Chill.”
“They look alike, yes? Especially that shit-eating grin.”
“Was that a pun?”
Huang Niuniu tried and failed to hold in a laugh. Yu Han joined in.
A few hours later, Yu Han succeeded.
“Ouch.”
Name: Yu Han (Johan) Level: 2
Active Accords: 1
True Qi: 91 / 300
Pure Qi: 284 / 300
Primordial Qi: 0
Lifeforce: 912 / 912
“It worked.” He’d deleted the new line after “Name: Yu Han (Johan)”. It was now “Name: Yu Han (Johan) Level: 2”.
「Yu Han, why did you say ouch?」 Fei Rui scuttled to him. His left eyestalk scanned Yu Han, while the right was retracted. That meant half his awareness was inside the crabscape.
“It doesn’t hurt,” Yu Han said. “Go play.”
「What did you do?」
“I changed my Dao Record display. It felt like a door finally giving way after pushing for hours. But the hinges were rusty, and the wood dragged against the floor.”
「I think doors are a bad idea. I think blocking the cave with a round stone is better. But, but, but. Maybe digging in the sand is the best?」
“You are so smart, buddy.”
「I’ll play with Meow Miao. She said she wants to hide the hard spiky bony things inside dead fishies in Fang Fang’s shirt.」
“She what?”
「I think Meow Miao thinks Fang Fang is an ungrateful, spoiled brat.」
“Huang Niuniu does too.”
「Well, Soft Niuniu and Meow Miao are wrong. Fang Fang gives me many shell pats. He looks at my Dried Dragonskin Parchment even if he doesn’t know what it is.」
Fei Rui scuttled away.
Yu Han continued to interact with his Dao Record. At first, even making a small change was hard. For example, removing the word “Qi” in True Qi and Pure Qi:
Name: Yu Han (Johan) Level: 2 Active Accords: 1 True: 91 / 300 Pure: 284 / 300
Primordial Qi: 0
Lifeforce: 912 / 912
He then added in the word Qi before the whole section:
Name: Yu Han (Johan) Level: 2 Active Accords: 1
Qi:
True: 91 / 300 Pure: 284 / 300 Primordial: 0 Lifeforce: 912 / 912
After more cleaning, the top portion of his Dao Record looked like this:
Yu Han (Johan) | Lvl.2 | Accords: 1
Qi:
[True: 91/300]
[Pure: 284/300]
[Primordial: 0]
[Lifeforce: 912/912]
The original purpose of this exercise was to test if he had enough mental power, or rather Mind Origin, to start working with Formations. But Johan’s OCD kicked in, and now he wanted his Dao Record to look minimalistic.
It wasn’t possible to change numerical values, such as turning Level 2 to Level 100. Wouldn’t that be nice?
But he could remove all the redundant words and make the status more compact. The final result was:
Yu Han (Johan) | Lvl.2 | Accords: 1
Qi:
[True: 91/300]
[Pure: 284/300]
[Primordial: 0]
[Lifeforce: 912/912]
ORIGINS:
[Mind 17.95] Int:15, Mem:25, Per:14, Cla:10, Foc:12
[Body 7.60] End:8, Vit:11, Str:8, Agi:5, Dex:6
[Spirit 8.60] Ada:17, Mag:5, Den:6, For:10, Pur:5
ARTS:
[Deep Sleep] Bloodline | Mortal 1 | Initial Step 2 | 62/300
[Echoing Dreamscape] Auxiliary | Mortal 10 | Initial Step 6 | 515/700
[Calm Before Storm Breathing Technique] Cultivation | Mortal 5 | Initial Step 3 | 263/400
[Ox Tail 72 Sweeping Forms] Martial | Elite 2 | Initial Step 2 | 285/300
[Thousand Petals Awareness] Psychic | Elite 9 | Initial Step 6 | 211/700
TRAITS:
[Existential Anchor] Mortal 2 | Requirements Not Met
[Deep Writhing Clam Bloodline] Mortal 10 | 159/1100
[Qi Affinity] Mortal 7 | 11/800
For some reason, capitalising the word Arts to ARTS had taken the longest. By the time he’d finished, it was morning again.
Fuck! Sleep loss is muscle loss. Sleep loss is weight gain!
Halfway through his morning nap, Huang Niuniu woke him up.
“Let me sleeeeeep,” Yu Han slurred.
“Han’er, didn’t you want to do this ‘market research’ thing today?” Huang Niuniu sat at the foot of his bed. She combed her hair, checking herself in a bronze hand mirror.
“My brain cannot brain.”
“If you sleep the whole day, you won’t sleep at night. Then tomorrow you’ll have to sleep during the day too. Are we finally becoming normal Night Soil Collectors? Do we work at night and feel dead in daylight? We can start our demonic cultivation already if you want.”
“Go away.” Yu Han would throw his pillow, but he only had one.
Huang Niuniu didn’t bother him anymore.
Yu Han got up after a few more hours. He’d slept a total of six hours, far less than what he needed.
But Huang Niuniu was right. He couldn’t sleep the whole day. So he would just tough it out until night-time, then try to have a better sleep.
“Wait.” A thought stopped him.
Why didn’t Deep Sleep activate?