“Hmmm. Interesting. Very interesting.” Minister Vin scribbled away onto a piece of paper, recording the details of her dominion.

She had thought that giving away this information might not be the wisest choice, but for now, she saw no negatives. All she was doing was describing how the dominion looked. Black and white, sludge-like, four rings riddled with eyes. And she wouldn't lie, of course.

“Ok. Now that that’s done, I will send this report to Frajithla.” Minister Vin rolled the paper up and stuffed it into a jade tube, then threw it out the window.

Huabe was shocked for a minute until she watched in awe as the tube began to levitate in midair and then shot off like a speeding bullet. “Wow.”

“Yup, it’s pretty cool. A wonder of soot smith engineering right there.”

“What’s a soot smith.”

Minister Vin waved his hand. “You don't need to worry about that stuff for now.”

… Huabe was mad, and rightfully so! This ‘cultivator’ wouldn't tell her anything! What was with this lack of information flow!? In fact, why wasn't everyone in this town a cultivator? A different cultivator could have just gone out and collected a bunch of beast eggs and given them out! Then this would be a town full of martial cultivators.

“Why won't you tell me? Also, why is everyone not a cultivator?! Couldn't you all just collect some beast eggs and give them out!? Huh!?” Huabe had never been very good at keeping her thought under wraps. Especially so when she was angry.

The Minister actually didn't look too angry, considering she had just shouted in his face. Instead, his face was plastered with a look she could only describe as resigned.

He let out a sigh. “You are not the first one to voice these complaints. But do know that there is a reason. I can tell you, but your life will become more… let’s say challenging.”

What other response was there? “Yes, I want to know! Please tell me.”

The minister sighed again. “All right.” With those words, he rose from his chair and walked toward her. He did the same foot tapping, hand motion, and murmuring as he did the last time she saw him. And as before, a slight blue glow covered his feet.

Then he scooped her up in a princess carry and took off.

“What the- ahhh!” The ground and the surroundings turned into a blur as the minister carried her through the streets, out the city gates, and finally onto the ocean waves.

He stopped, standing on top of the water.

“What the fuck was that!?”

The minister looked down at her. “That's one foul mouth you’ve got. What is Wenku teaching you?”

“Hmmm. Never mind that. Why, pray tell, did you rush me out of the city and out into the ocean? Are you going to drop me beneath the waves to drown? I’ll have you know that I can swim!” She wasn't going to go down without a fight though! She prepared to bite him when he spoke.

“Drown you? What books has Wenku been reading to you all!? No, I am not going to drown you! I just want you to see what it is like outside the city. Take a close look at the surrounding waters.”

Huabe slowly closed her mouth and took a tentative look around. It seemed mostly normal. Fishy smell, blue ocean, a red spot. A red spot? She looked around, and there were many spots of red that were slowly growing and shrinking.

Then a giant corpse rose above the waves. It was truly huge. The corpse looked like some sort of whale. The thing had huge metal-looking scales covering its whole body. And it had legs! Eight of them. And in the side of the legged whale was a huge gash running the length of it. Blood poured from the grievous wound, dyeing the sea red. But even as she saw it, the wound was closing, healing on its own. The flesh knit itself back together, and the rented twisted scales slowly straightened again to cover the new yellow flesh that was quickly filling up the wound's space. It seemed that the corpse was not dead, a folly on her part.

The whale moved, its eyes looking down into the waves with a look of pure fury. Then the eye moved again to look their way, and a look of hunger entered the eye.

She could honestly say that she almost peed her pants.

The whale turned its large body to face them. Then a large horn rose from beneath the whale and pierced it through its brain and dragged the giant beast below the waves once more.

Blood rose from below, forming a large red spot. But soon enough it receded, leaving the ocean blue again.

“Holy mother loving shit! Let’s get out of here!” Huabe franticly tugged on Minister Vin's robe.

“Yes, I agree. That was a bit too close for comfort.”

…

Soon they were back inside Minister Vin's office. Huabe was panting in her chair as the adrenaline slowly wore off and the minister just quietly drank some tea.

“So-So, why did you want to show me that?” Huabe managed to stutter out.

“Well, that's part of the reason we cultivators keep information to ourselves and do not hand out freebies for mortals to cultivate.” Minister Vin replied.

Huabe was still fairly confused. “I don't follow.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The minister set his teacup down. “You see, there is this little thing called luck. It follows everybody. And cultivators? Well, they are the unluckiest things in existents.

“Bad luck follows a cultivator wherever they go, causing misfortune and undesirable circumstances. You are searching for a rare herb, and you spot one in the distance? A giant lizard stomps on it and then chases you, firing balls of acid at your behind.

“Looking for a nice quiet cave to cultivate inside of? The cave you find turns out to be the belly of a giant mole worm.

“Cultivators are unlucky. Plain and simple

“Now mortals? They are the luckiest lucksters to walk the planet. You saw all the beasts out there, right? It is absolute mayhem. Beast eating beast, blood is absolutely everywhere. And I alone am certainly not enough to defend this city, so why do you think everyone here hasn't been slaughtered?

“Because this is a city of mortals. Their combined luck is able to shield them from the true horrors of this world. Their combined luck is even enough to smother my own, bad luck, from attracting any misfortune.

“But to give out beast eggs for the mortals to cultivate? You might be thinking, “Oh, but we will all band together to defend against the beasts,” and you would be right, except for one thing.

“You see, luck is not random, it is controlled. Not controlled by mere mortals, or even immortals, but Earth. And since luck is controlled by a living, thinking, being, it has opinions on how luck should be distributed. And Earth’s opinion of cultivators who are just given beast eggs, just given spirits, without really earning them?

“Well, let's just say that cultivators can vary in their bad luck. And a cultivator who is just, given, the very thing they need to begin their path to immortality? They are marked for death the moment they accept.

“And cultivators themselves are not immune to becoming unluckier themselves. Everything we learn, every morsel of cultivation knowledge we gain, decreases our luck just the tiniest bit more. You might also be thinking, “But it's just a tiny bit, right?” And I would ask you that same question right back at you when you lose an arm to a beast because you slipped on an acorn!”

Minister Vin leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath, recovering from his rant.

<...Wow. Ok.> That had definitely been informative. So, apparently, luck was a thing here.

…“Cool.”

“Cool? I would not call what I just explained, cool.” Minister Vin looked down at her with a disapproving stare.

“No no. I mean. Don't you think that the fact that an invisible force called ‘luck’ exists is interesting? I mean, that seems pretty cool to me.”

The room was silent for a moment.

Minister Vin frowned “I suppose it could be seen that way. But most, if not all cultivators, feel that luck is annoying. And Earth is no friend to cultivators. It is more like a natural phenomenon. It just is.”

Huabe just got more and more interested. “What is Earth?” She thought that it was the planet she came from, but it seemed to mean something different here. Maybe it was just lost in translation.

“Oh no! If I tell you anything more, the emperor will have my head for endangering a promising young cultivator. Now get out of here, you scamp! Go find your father and wait a couple of months for a reply from the capital.”

Minister Vin started pushing her back, urging her out of his office. When she was through the door, he said one more thing.

“Good luck on your journey.”

“Wait, is Frajithla the capital or a person?”

And then he closed the door in her face.

Huabe looked around for any sign of her father.

He wasn't here. So, she picked a hallway and began to walk. The scenery of the hallway was the same boring stuff she had seen before, just a bunch of tapestries. A vase here, a vase there.

Good and bad. Mortals have good, and cultivators have bad. She thought that it was pretty interesting. It also explained why cultivators seemed so closed off to talking about cultivation with mortals. A person would have to be a real dick to explain how cultivation works to a mortal.

This also meant that she could not help her brothers. Huabe had thought that she could use her newfound cultivation superpowers to get some spirits and beast eggs for them to cultivate. But it seemed that that plan was out the window. They would have to do it themselves.

But surely she could still protect them while they did it, right? She would just have to file that question away for later when she had a chance to talk to the minister again.

For now, she just continued to walk.

Soon enough, the number of people walking in the hallway increased. It became a sea of grey as the uniformed workers walked up and down, carrying papers every which way.

A flash of pink caught her eye. Huabe walked further into the mass of people. Along the sides of the hall were depressions, alcoves, set into the walls on either side. These alcoves housed very low desks and people kneeling, brush in hand and ink nearby.

It was at the end of this hallway, in the biggest alcove, that she saw her father. His desk was busy. People were lined up and down the hallway, waiting. She saw Wenku take the paper, give it a quick read, take his brush and make a few corrections, and then hand it back. Other times, he read the paper, then took a candle, dripped some wax onto the page and gave the wax a stamp with a jade cylinder on his desk. These stamped pages he put into an evergrowing pile on the edge of his desk.

“Hi, father, I’m done with the minister.”

Wenku gave her a quick glance and then looked back down at his work. “Oh, that's good, sweety. I’m pretty busy right now, so we’ll talk later. For now, go with your brothers to the courtyard and have some fun.”

“Ok.” Huabe looked up at her three brothers lounging around the space that was Wenku’s office.

“Yes! Let’s go, I’ll show you the way!” Tiaosu was first up and running, as always. Her two other brothers quickly followed after her and Tiaosu.

Her brother led her down the hallways and eventually out a door into the fresh air. The courtyard was very pretty. The stone bricks beneath her feet were a dark grey hue, and the space was interspersed with manicured bushes and trees.

“So, what do you all want to play? Hide and seek?” Huabe turned to her brothers.

“I’m up for it!” Tiaosu was as eager as ever.

“Sure.” Yantye was in.

“Totally. But first, what did you and that cultivator talk about? Come on, we need details!” Seemed that Duanso was curious, so of course, Huabe would tell them all she could.

“Well then, let me regale you with the tales of the cultivation conversation! It all started when, whoops! Sorry, can’t tell you! Hahaha!” Was she a comedy genius or what?

“Jeez, don't gebait us like that!” Duanso scowled.

“Hahahaha! You’re so funny Bay. You totally had him beggin for more there! Just look at his face!” Tiaosu grabbed Duanso’s cheeks. “Oh, look at me. I’m saaad.” She had to admit that Tiaosu did a pretty good impression of Duanso.

“Whatever. I’m sure she has a good reason, right?” Duanso questioned.

“Yes. I can’t tell any of you. At least not until you become a cultivator. Sorry.” It sucked that she couldn't tell them.

“It's fine. We can just find out when we become cultivators ourselves.” It seemed that Yantye got it.

“Ok, so who wants to be it?” Huabe looked at her brothers.

“Not it!”

“Not it!”

“Not it!”

“Not it! Damn it! Fine, I’m it. You all have twenty seconds, aaand go!” Huabe closed her eyes and began counting.