Cultivators on Earth
Lex was taken aback and the surprise showed clearly on his face without the Host Attire to help him control his expressions. For a moment they both just stared at each other before they both quickly regained their composure.
"How can you tell?" Lex asked, not bothering to try and hide the fact that he was cultivating. He needed to learn more about cultivators on Earth, and how he could come in contact with them. An opportunity such as this would be impossible to find again.
"How can I not tell? You're not even trying to hide your internal strength. Hasn't anyone told you that you need to be careful, if I was a regular person you could have seriously hurt my hand."
Lex immediately realized that he was probably using more force in his handshake than a normal person. This meant he still didn't have a good grasp of his strength yet as he hadn't even noticed.
"I'm sorry, I just broke through yesterday, I guess I'm not used to my strength yet. Wait, does this mean you're a cultivator as well?"
Jessica didn't reply but stared at him intently. Silence filled the room and slowly tension started to build until it began weighing on Lex.
"Who is your mentor?" she finally asked, her tone suddenly accusatory. "What district do you belong to? Why haven't you disclosed yourself in the Bluebird office?"
Jessica's grip on his hand strengthened and Lex suddenly became aware that he couldn't pull it out. He was panicking a little now, but the situation wasn't out of control yet. He could still redeem himself.
"I don't have a mentor, I don't know what you mean by district. You're the first cultivator I'm meeting."
"How could you cultivate if you don't have a mentor? Don't lie to me, my cultivation is a lot higher than you and I'd have no problem at all taking care of you. Explain yourself here clearly or I'll take you to the Bluebird office, you should know how they treat undocumented cultivators in their territory."
"No please, listen to me," Lex pleaded. He could feel the pressure she was applying on his hand, and he was sure she'd crush his bones if she used even a little more strength. Even if Regal Embrace was focused on defense it could do little for him if the gap in strength between him and his opponent was huge. He needed to quickly come up with an explanation that didn't expose the System. He was too young to die! He'd never have expected to encounter danger on Earth, he thought it was the other worlds that would endanger him. Fortunately, when he learnt Regal Embrace it also gave him general information about other cultivation techniques so that he would understand how Regal Embrace was different. He could use that information to explain how he taught himself.
"I found my cultivation technique on a piece of paper in a bottle on the beach. It explained a lot about cultivation but I just thought it was some kind of yoga. It wasn't until I tried it out and felt the changes in my body that I started taking it seriously. I just broke through yesterday for the first time. I don't know anything else about cultivation other than what I learnt from that bottle, and I've never met another cultivator before."
Lex tried to sound as desperate and as honest as possible, which he was in the beginning as Jessica was very intimidating. It wasn't until he remembered that he could retreat to the Inn as long as he was given a little bit of time that he recovered internally.
Jessica stared at him a while longer, trying to determine if he was telling the truth. Ultimately she let go of his hand, but just as Lex was beginning to feel relief he felt a strange aura surround him. It was the first time he felt something like that - if he had to choose a word to describe it, it would be sharp. He felt as if any movement he made could hurt him, and that he was in more danger than before. The aura however disappeared just as quickly as it came.
"I will believe you, for now. But you have to follow me to the Bluebird office. All legal cultivators must be registered and have an identity token on them at all times. If you try anything funny or try to run away...well, I'm sure you felt my Qi surround you just now. As the sub-district head I have the authority to eliminate any suspected threats."
Lex suddenly got goosebumps. This was bordering on insane! He was just trying to quit his job, and his life was threatened time and time again by his ex-Boss. The cultivation world really was dangerous.
"Fine, fine I'll follow you. We've worked together for so many years, you know me. I won't do anything 'funny'."
At Lex's words Jessica was suddenly reminded that she had indeed worked with Lex for a few years now, and although she did not have an intimate knowledge of the man, she'd spent enough time with him to get an idea of the kind of person he was. She relaxed visibly, but didn't drop her guard completely.
"Follow me and act natural. If anyone in the office asks where we are going just say I'm taking you downtown to the legal office to finalize your resignation."
Lex smiled weakly and nodded. He followed her out of her office and they cut through the building quickly. He noticed Henry was sitting at his workstation but this didn't really seem like the time to catch up. Fortunately no one questioned where they were going.
When they reached the street a black SUV was parked at the door with a chauffeur waiting for them holding the door open. Lex climbed into the car behind Jessica and they were off. For a time they sat in silence. Lex, who had once again regained his composure after constantly being threatened, was thinking about how he could remedy the situation. A lot of it depended on how they treated him at this so-called Bluebird office. But waiting to see how things turned out wasn't something Lex could do, he had to take initiative.
"So... are cultivators very common?" Lex asked, sounding reluctant.
Jessica hesitated but answered eventually. "Cultivators are rare enough so that the general populace does not know about them, but are common enough that there are special laws pertaining to them. Most powerful or old families have them and most of the upper echelon of any large companies have them. In democratic governments they are rarer, but every military is full of them. You can consider it as if any person of a certain status has at least some interaction with cultivators, if they are not so themselves. Even a normal person who raises himself to success will end up encountering them eventually, and may even become one."
"So how come they're such a big secret? I never even believed they were real until I got my cultivation technique."
"It's a secret, but not a closely guarded one. There's tons of books and movies and shows about them everywhere. But most news outlets strictly control what's reported as actual news and cultivators themselves have a huge incentive to keep things quiet. Cultivation resources are rare and the more demand there is for it, the greater the competition will be."
"If it's not such a big deal...then why did you react so strongly to finding out I'm a cultivator?"
"There is a stark difference between a registered and unregistered cultivator. Because of their increased strength and abilities, if cultivators are not regulated there would be chaos everywhere. In older days, clans or sects used to maintain the peace. In the modern day things have changed. In the US 3 private companies have the government contract to regulate cultivator activity, Bluebird is one of them. They maintain a list of registered cultivators, and some basic information about them. This way if an incident occurs they can more easily track whoever was responsible. Unregistered cultivators though are a different story. Registering has no real drawbacks, and instead has many benefits, which is why only those people who have something to hide don't register. Most of the time, they're criminals who've run away from another country, or people with malicious intent." Jessica hesitated a bit once again, unsure of how much more would be appropriate to reveal. Eventually she decided to give Lex a warning.
"You should be very careful. If you really did cultivate yourself and have no background to rely on, then you fall under the most vulnerable category of cultivators. Although cultivators have to follow special laws and their activities are regulated, they are also afforded special privilege's. It's not so bad normally, but if a cultivator with a high level of cultivation ever perceives you as a threat to his or her interest they won't hesitate to kill you, and at most they'll just get a fine. If you want to survive, I strongly suggest you join an organization as soon as possible."
