In the course of her duties, she sees a lot of that. Instant acceptance and instinctual deference. The Ministry of Integrity's reputation is, of course, useful, but internal policy is unclear on this matter; And thus her own path can come into play.

It should be a real choice.

"I wish to reassure you that it is a choice. One you may make freely. You have done nothing wrong, and cannot be conscripted when you have not broken the law. There are benefits and drawbacks to either side of the choice, as with any decision in one's life. But you may choose. As for your father... The details would need to be discussed with the correct officials, but as a direct family member to one who is accepted into a great sect, he would be permitted to dwell in the sect village. The conditions there are superior to those here in terms of safety, as close as it is to the sect, and rent and taxes are quite light. You can also send some of your earnings as a cultivator to him. Though you will need such things for your own advancement."

Really, as filial piety goes the burden should be light, though. How much can food and housing for a single mortal cost, 5000 silver a year?

Yeah but like. The emperor clearly wants her to do one of those things. And she wants to contribute to the empire. 

She feels as though having been ordered to second guess herself by an imperial official, she had better get started on that. 

Obviously she will have to pay for her father out of her income, that's how having ageing parents works. She's a little concerned that the cultivator thinks it might not be possible on her salary and expenses, but cultivators are richer than the village headman and he looks after his mother in law pretty well?

What would be the benefits of remaining a mortal? She would be able to continue attending to all her worries. She'd have to look after her father as he ages and find a way to have a family so that there will be someone to look after her in her own old age. She would disappoint the Duchess, who is in some abstract way the reason why they have nice things. 

"No, I'm sure." 

Lin Shao can see the resolve. And she never wanted to talk this new talent out of it, really, just ensure the gravity of the moment is impressed.

She gives a firm nod, staring with her piercing eyes.

"Very well. I have the appropriate paperwork for your enrollment, since I was expecting to find a prospective recruit. However, it will likely be some days before a carriage can be arranged to bring you to the Argent Peak. You are lucky that the Peak's intake for the new year occurs in just under two months, you'll likely arrive just in time. I will leave some silver to cover your situation in the meanwhile, and as the Empire's apology for inadequate protection. Do you wish to speak to your father before we make everything official?"

"Yes, I should."

She hesitates. 

"Do you have any advice for me? I don't know what to expect, at Argent Peak."

"Think about what you want to do. What kind of person you want to be. What kind of life you want to live. Tell me when I come back, and ask again. I will go speak to this troublesome mud spirit now, and you can speak to your father."

And she will stand and stride out of the side room where the chief has been letting her rest.

She ... doesn't know what sorts of people you can be, if you're a cultivator? That's kind of the problem. Presumably they don't have any need for folk heroes any more, since they have the Duchess and then the alternatives are ... soldiers? People who make mythical magical blades? Wardstone repairmen? Priests? Officials of the Ministry of Integrity? By extrapolation, officials of other Ministries?

She doesn't think she'd be a very good ministry official. Presumably, you have to be able to read for that. She has a vague sense that there are other further skills to be acquired, after reading, which are also important, but she has no clue what they are. 

She talks to her father. He's perhaps even more enthusiastic about her becoming a cultivator than she is; he's more aware of the amount of money involved and the amount of status possessed by cultivators. His advice to her is - "We've never had a choice of what to be. You have a choice, now. So - make sure you actually choose. Do something that will make you happy. Whatever trade you learn, at that school of theirs, will be your trade for the rest of your life and then your children's and apprentice's trade down the years. So make it a good pick. Don't become a soldier. Don't make murder your trade. Learn to protect yourself, whatever it takes - and do bear in mind I haven't the first clue what it takes, do your service if you can't do it in a forge or an office, but the Duchess knows we've got enough killers and soldiers, and not enough of everything else." 

It's the most words he's said to her in a row in months. They don't have a talkative lifestyle. It seems to have worn him out, and after speaking, he falls silent, and they sit together in silence, in a little cottage she will soon leave behind, for a while.

The day after Lin Shao leaves, she puts on her best social face and goes around to find the most worldly and well-travelled people in the village and ask them, on account of how she is to become a cultivator and wants to do best honour to the village which has been her home, what stories of cultivators and what they know about what cultivators can do and what cultivator-skills are valuable to the empire. 

The official has a few words of advice for her before she leaves, advising her to find friends and allies and stick to them, and to take advantage of whatever the sect offers to teach, and a pouch of silver she drops almost as an afterthought.

Some of the most worldly and well-travelled people in the village include:

The brewer, who occasionally goes to a larger town to sell his alcohol and bring back goods to peddle to the rest of the village. He says cultivators can cause water to well up from the ground, or turn night to day, or brew potions of unimaginable strength that will heal a man practically torn in half by a beast, or supplicate the great spirits, earning their favor and keeping their ire away from the people.

The headman's son, who had been sent to learn to read and write in the city of Nanshao. He says that cultivators often pursue arts, performing music or poetry so sublime that it has real effects on the world. They can heal or hurt with a song, and trap evil beasts with a painting, or complete a thousand scrolls of paperwork in an afternoon.

The village herbalist-healer who is largely regarded as a crazy old woman who knows little except her herbs, but does have all sorts of stories to tell. Not many of them make sense. Making deals with a fox spirit to trade secrets for gemstones. Punching a river so hard it becomes a lake. Tricking a dragon into cooking dinner. Eating poison to become stronger. Turning into a bird - or possibly merging with one - and flying through the air. Stubbornly standing in one place for a week to talk to a mountain-spirit. Offending the moon and being cursed to be constantly thieved from in revenge.

The Jo family, who have a herd of possibly magical sheep and almost rival the headman for wealth. Their stories are mostly about fighting - defeating the evil Cloud Barbarians who dare to come test the Empire's strength, building grand fortresses and fortifying roads with spirit wards, carving out fields and mines from vicious untouched wilderness and creating a place for people in the harsh world of nature.

So cultivators can do ... Probably anything then. They say the gods were cultivators, once. 

... It is not practical to choose from amongst the set of practically everything. 

She doesn't know what things are sensible, rather than possible. She doesn't know what trades lead to a good life. She still doesn't know how to read. 

She has at least outlined her ignorance. She hopes. 

She will spend the rest of her wait trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel for any other information or learning of use from her village. 

Well, surely someone must make the ward stones. That seems like a pretty dependable trade. Everyone needs ward stones.

She will bow one step deeper than would be logically reciprocal, then, she supposes, which is incredibly presumptuous of her but she's a hick and can probably get away with it, and if she can't better to learn it now. 

She has no idea what to think of all the strange and magical aspects of this conveyance and its master. 

She will load her possessions (another person might mistake her for an unusually well prepared camper rather than someone moving their entire life) and say her goodbyes and then be off. 

Does Li Kang want to make conversation during the ride? 

Waiting in the luxuriously (for her) appointed carriage is a package of supplies. There's three black and silver sect robes made of something lovely, soft, and durable, far nicer than anything she's ever owned. Because there's no way normal clothes could stand up to the rigors of cultivation training, apparently. There's soap and hairpins and a comb and sandals and a sewing kit and a brush and inkwell (and wax paper wrapped ink blocks) and a compact mirror and a small blank notebook. None of it is very fancy, but compared to the things one uses in a tiny village, it's maybe a bit overwhelming.

Li Kang wants to talk a bit after they get going! Somehow she can hear him clearly in the carriage despite solid wood being between them, and vice-versa, apparently. Maybe the sudden breeze by her head has something to do with it.

"So, you're probably signed up for the armies after your time in the sect, right? Starting from way out here and all."

"I am." She says, as neutrally as possible before she hears his opinion on that. 

"Yeah, figured as much, coming all the way out here. It's not so bad as all that. Keep your head down and say 'yes sir' a lot and don't take any stupid risks and you'll probably be fine. I was, at least."

"Makes sense. What did they have you doing?" 

"I got rolled into a line regiment, since I'm not that talented - I'm still only high yellow and silver." He sounds a bit pained at this. "But it is what it is. I'll break through eventually. We all had to learn the army-specific arts, then it was lots of marching in formation all around the southern border. Manning forts, clearing out pests, patrolling to make sure the cloud barbarians see us and know to stay away. Cai's armies are real big on discipline. Only actually fought a cloud barbarian once, and it was over a hundred of us in a line keeping some of their flying horses at bay."

"What are the army arts good for? What other arts do you know?" 

Is this secret information? How should she know. But what he can do, she can probably do, if he's right about 'yellow and silver' being unexceptional. 

"I think we're not supposed to tell new people too much about it. And I'm not really sure how to explain... There's a whole lecture they'll give you, much better than I could. But when we say 'arts', as cultivators, we don't mean like - painting. It's a process of manipulating qi. Like learning to dance or write, but with qi. There's easier ones and harder ones. The army arts I know are Thousand Spear Redoubt, Mountain's Breath Marching, and Blazing Wind Charge. They're good for standing your ground with a spear, for running long distances without getting tired, and for shooting fire. Now that I'm thinking about it there's a lot you might wanna know... But it's really hard to sum it up briefly, you know?"

"I have faith the sect will teach me everything I need to know about the theory. What I want to know is - stuff they can't tell you. What jobs suck, what career pathways have good prospects, what teachers to avoid?" 

"Oh. Uh... Any lesson from a sect elder is really good, even if they have a reputation. The training might suck a lot during, but you will learn fast. And that makes everything else easier. Don't skip any of the free sect elder lessons in your first month! They're really awful, especially the physical lessons, but they're worth it! ...What jobs suck probably depends a lot on what you're good at. So, figure out what you're good at. But don't neglect fighting too much. A lot of the best opportunities are kind of dangerous. The other big thing to know is - there's going to be a lot of noble scions around. You can try to avoid them or at least not actively offend anyone, or try to cozy up to one in hope they'll give you resources or support or protection in exchange for work and loyalty."

"... What sort of things offend noble scions?" 

Her cached answer is 'being noticed by them in any way' but that doesn't seem workable in her new situation. 

"Not knowing their names or what their families are famous for. Implying that they suck, or their families suck, or that they made a mistake."

"How would you recommend remedying not knowing the names or families of any nobles." Other than the Duchess Cai, of course, but that goes without saying. She's not even sure which baron they pay taxes to. 

"Well, there's history books. And gossip, if you listen to one of the good gossip-heads for a while maybe they make fun of you but you'll learn stuff. I'm not gonna spend the whole trip lecturing about noble houses. Deflecting about how piteous your education was and how honored you would be to learn more is a good fallback, for a while."

... she can't read and doesn't know any gossips. (To be honest she's not really sure what a history book would even be about?) She supposes she will have to fix that.

"That's fair. What would you enjoy talking about?"