Data-Driven Daoist

What the hell was that? Yu Han groaned. How long had it been since he’d collapsed? It felt like merely a minute, but his body was dripping with sweat. He was lying flat on his back, heaving deep as if he was drowning.

There must be a limit to how many Primordial Qi I can put into a single substat! That was the first possibility that came to Yu Han's mind. It was a common mechanic in some games, although comparing reality to games was probably not the best idea.

"If that is the case," Yu Han pondered through the rapidly receding headache, "what is the limit? What governs it? Is it a permanent limit, or does it increase with level?"

He decided to go with the assumption that there was a limit and brought up the Mind Origin panel again. This time, very carefully, he added in only 1 point to Memory.

Primordial Qi: 4 (5)

[Mind Origin: 18.25 (17.33)]

Intelligence: 14

Memory: 24 + 1 -> 25 (24)

Perception: 11

Focus: 11

"Is it fine now?" Yu Han waited a few seconds. There was something there, like the preemptive feelings of motion sickness before getting into a car. Slowly, the feeling intensified, manifesting into a prickling headache.

"Fuck." Yu Han took away the point. "So Memory is a no go." He looked through the stat sheets. Should he stick to Mind Origin? Or should he try to put some points in Body or Spirit Origin?

Body Origin stats like Strength would probably show the most immediate results. As for Spirit Origin, Yu Han knew no Spiritual Arts. His Bloodline Art Deep Sleep might have used Qi, but he couldn't actively channel it. It would be useless for now.

"Let's put it in Mind Origin." With Body Origin, he could go back to taking the Spites. There was also the monthly allocation of Body Tempering Pills, not to mention the Rot-Negating Body Tempering Elixir.

He debated between the four other Mind Origin substats.

"Thousand Petals Awareness became stronger with the points I gained to Focus and Clarity. I don't know which one it ties to, though. The manual doesn't mention it." Yu Han got up. He stretched his torso first, then moved on to some dynamic lunges. His joints made popping sounds. "Intelligence and Perception are the only ones I haven't gained stat points in outside of Heavenly Allocations."

Since he didn't know what they did, Yu Han decided to use one point in each of them. Maybe he could figure out their effects by comparing the changes?

Going by their normal definitions, Intelligence was the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. And Perception was the ability to become aware of something through the senses. Of course, English was a tricky language; these words had other used definitions too.

"Shouldn't Thousand Petals Awareness actually depend more on Perception, if I go by the standard definition?" Martial Arts could be tied to more than one substat, so that was a possibility for Psychic Arts too. Perhaps Thousand Petals Awareness depended on Clarity, Focus, and hopefully, Perception too.

He made the changes.

Primordial Qi: 3 (5)

[Mind Origin: 18.25 (17.33)]

Intelligence: 14 + 1 -> 15 (14)

Memory: 24

Perception: 11 + 1 -> 12 (11)

Clarity: 10

Focus: 11

He immediately felt the difference.

"Wait, I haven't applied the changes yet!" Yu Han stopped mid-twist. What was the change, then?

He sat down, closed his eyes, and scanned every part of his body. He closed off each sense with Thousand Petals Awareness, leaving only touch.

Soon, he found the anomaly.

"It's my head!" Or specifically, it was his mind. It was as if a pressure that was always there had lifted a bit. The pressure was a familiar one. Intensified, it took the form of a headache. The headache that happened when he put points into Memory.

Now, this pressure had lowered. As if his mind was returning to a normal state after taking off training weights.

"What the hell is going on?" Yu Han went to his stash and took out his notes. After an hour of pondering different possibilities, he made a hypothesis.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"I was already over the limit." Yu Han scratched the word “Memory” with his charcoal pen.

Perhaps with the previous Primordial Qi allocation, all five to Memory, he had inadvertently crossed the limit, but only a little. So minuscule that his conscious brain could not sense it. Now, with the hit he had just received from the headache, the sensation was still fresh in his mind. He also had a higher level of Thousand Petals Awareness and with it, he noticed what was wrong.

It was perhaps a bit like chronic fatigue. Maybe his Mind had been working over capacity.

Yu Han tested it out more. He moved points around. To Mind Origin, then to Body and Spirit Origin too. After some thorough notetaking, he made some observations.

Adding points to Body and Spirit Origin substats did not lessen the pressure. He had to add them to Mind Origin substats. If he added three points to substats other than Memory, the pressure disappeared completely. Adding the fourth or fifth point did not make his mind feel any lighter.

He could add it in any way possible. One point each to Intelligence, Perception, and Focus, or all three points to Intelligence. The pressure would still fade away.

And finally, most importantly, if he added four points to non-Memory substats, and the final fifth point to Memory, the pressure did not return!

Based on these observations—or data points, so to speak—he could assert some claims.

Adding Primordial Qi changed the limit. What else changed while adding Primordial Qi? The weight of each substat! That didn't automatically mean that this limit and the weights of each substat corresponded to each other. It might just be that this limit depended on other factors, such as his Common Talent or Mortal Grade Qi Affinity. It could be related to how many total stats he had, or his level—or anything, really. But he couldn't verify the other guesses.

So he decided to focus on the weights.

"And it's not because I'm conscious about my body weight!" he assured himself.

Yu Han still didn't know the formula for the weights. If he had added Primordial Qi equally to each substat, then the Mind Origin would just be the arithmetic mean. But he had added all five Primordial Qi before to Memory. So Memory might have gotten more weight before, being represented more in the Mind Origin number than the other substats.

After the previous Primordial Qi Allocation, he had gained points in Memory, Clarity, and Focus. It was hard to know if that had changed the weights of each substat. He hadn't done much math on it.

With the current Heavenly Allocation, though, the weights had not changed at all for Body Origin. It rose by a mean of one, and the Body Origin Stat was the Arithmetic Mean of its substats. Same for Spirit Origin.

Yu Han had gained points in Body Origin and Spirit Origin substats after the previous Primordial Qi allocation.

Meaning that natural, drug, or training-induced stat point gain probably didn’t change the weight. Nor the Primordial Qi limit for each substat.

"When I gained the point in Memory because of Fei Rui's pearls, I didn't feel any pain." He already had Thousand Petals Awareness back then, though it wasn't such a high level.

So it was Primordial Qi. How he distributed them set the limit.

"Maybe?" It was still a claim. Totally falsifiable, but Yu Han had no wish to human experiment on himself. "I need to talk with Niu'er, Li Yao, and Fang Zhao if possible. Also Fei Rui." There weren't any taboos against sharing stat information. Huang Niuniu and he had once chosen not to be so transparent. At that time, he didn't trust her so much.

Now, though, he did.

Yu Han felt guilty. If he could choose between going back to Earth or staying here with his friends, he would without a doubt choose to go back.

Would that hurt her? What would Li Yao and Fang Zhao think?

Would he be betraying her?

"Come to think of it, Fei Rui could cross over with me. Can that be possible with Huang Niuniu too?" Yu Han pinched his nose. "Yeah—it was probably just part of the dream rather than actually being Earth."

He hoped otherwise. Really did. But too much expectation might ruin his day, month, and year.

Yu Han tinkered with the numbers a bit more.

"I need that one point in Memory. As for the rest..."

Primordial Qi: 0 (5)

[Mind Origin: 17.85 (17.33)]

Intelligence: 14 + 1 -> 15 (14)

Memory: 24 + 1 -> 25 (24)

Perception: 11 + 3 -> 14 (11)

Clarity: 10

Focus: 11

He decided to put only one point in Intelligence. Yu Han didn't know if changing his Mind stats might force psychological changes on his being. If he suddenly became too intelligent or analytical, even more so than now, would he still be the same person?

In the many LitRPG novels that he used to read, people who went deep into stats like INT or WIS would show skewed psychological development. In other words, they'd become crazy in different ways.

Yu Han didn't want to risk it with Intelligence. Not that he really needed to put points there—he was smart enough!

As for putting three points in Perception, that was because if Perception raised his perception, he might be better able to notice any changes. He had a hunch that it also would benefit his Thousand Petals Awareness.

Just adding one point to each of the substats was the worst choice. It was too generalised, and raised Mind Origin the least at 17.50.

Funnily enough, even putting one point into Memory first without adding the four extra points would bring the Mind Origin up to 18.25! Putting all five into Memory brought it up to 22!

It really was a weighted mean. The more Primordial Qi he had in each substat, the more they would be represented in the Origin value. That might hypercharge some Arts, but he could barely even breathe with all Primordial Qi in Memory, let alone fight.

He sat down, and first shut off all other senses than his touch.

Thousand Petals Awareness!

The previous time he applied the Primordial Qi, there were waves of changes to his body. This time, he wanted to feel them as much as he could.

He concentrated on Perception, Intelligence, and Memory, and finally on Mind Origin.

A force bubbled up. It came mysteriously from somewhere deep inside his body. Parts of it appeared at his feet, going upwards through his hips, torso, chest, neck, and finally into his brain. A pain pricked him alongside this force, but it felt muted.

In the blank void that was his inner vision, a slight, lime green light appeared.

It glowed with the pain.

Once. Twice. Thrice.

The green light was the force. It rose from within him, then cycled through his body, following invisible pathways.

"Are these... meridians?" The elusive channels mentioned in Ji's Cultivation Contemplation.

This cycle of three rose and fell five times, always ending at his head.

Finally, the tide ebbed completely. He opened his eyes.

Primordial Qi: 0

[Mind Origin: 17.85 (+0.52)]

Intelligence: 15 (+1)

Memory: 25 (+1)

Perception: 14 (+3)

Clarity: 10

Focus: 11

The world seemed more real. Yu Han drank in the change.

Art Levelled Up!

Focus: 11 -> 12

[Mind Origin: 17.85 -> 17.95]