Chapter 152: Fortune

This restriction was not without reason. In truth, fortune was an extraordinarily powerful and excellent resource, but its generation was limited. If one had to describe it, it was closer to the world favoring certain resources under its command. The amount of fortune distributed depended entirely on the strength of the world and the importance of each recipient within it.

First, let us take a universe as the basic unit of a world. One could just as easily use several universes, a crystal-wall system, or parallel universes as the foundation; this is merely an example. The stronger a universe was, the more fortune it could obtain.

That fortune would then be distributed among all the individuals within the universe, making them stronger. Once those individuals grew stronger, they would in turn feed back into the universe and strengthen it. Thus was formed a virtuous cycle.

But fortune was limited. A world could not possibly distribute it equally. The degree to which each individual within a universe was considered special would therefore become the basis for the world’s allocation of fortune.

To a universe, a galaxy was an individual. After receiving fortune, a galaxy would distribute it among the individuals within itself. In other words, a universe’s fortune might also be distributed by a higher-level world, and that higher-level world might itself be governed by yet another above it. It was an endless cycle. So do not ask where the original fortune came from—just think of it as the wages the Creator paid to each world.

To a galaxy, the individuals within it were stellar systems.

Under normal circumstances, the stellar systems would then distribute fortune to planets, the planets to their races, and the races would finally divide it among every individual. But the Babel World belonged to a special category. Or rather, every civilization that had reached the cosmic level belonged to such a category.

That was because, by the relevant criteria, the level of an entire civilization had already surpassed the significance of a planet or even a stellar system. Take the Babel World, for instance: Earth at this point was greater than the Sun had once been. It had effectively bypassed the stellar system and begun requesting fortune directly from the galaxy. As a result, the fortune obtained by a single civilization was equivalent to that of an entire stellar system.

Yet the Babel World still differed from those interstellar civilizations. It had not transcended the stellar system through technology, nor had individuals transcended their planet as cultivators did. Instead, the destiny of its entire race had been bound completely to the planet. Thus, the fortune issued by the galaxy—or even by the universe—had to pass through the planet before reaching them.

And there was more than one species living on the planet, so dividing the fortune among them was only fair.

Yet that was precisely where the problem lay.

Although fortune was divided among the races, each race’s fortune existed at the planetary level as a single whole. It was much like a company paying a bonus to a department, which then distributed it among its employees. In the eyes of the company, the entire department was one entity—unless a single person could support an entire department by himself, as Kaguya Otsutsuki had done. Humanity, meanwhile, had prevailed through sheer numbers, prompting the other departments in the company to hold a vote and divide it into Eastern and Western departments.

Therefore, if someone used an ability that consumed fortune, what he consumed would not be the fortune of one individual, but the fortune of the entire human race.

The consumption of fortune was no trivial matter. For an individual, even if his luck ran out, the worst that might happen was that he became as unfortunate as Kamijo Touma. For an entire race, however, fortune was a matter of life and death.

What was more, when humanity crossed into another world, obtaining an identity there was itself a major drain on fortune. Fortunately, if the fortune of a minor character obtained by consuming fortune allowed that character to rise to a higher position within the plot and attract the attention of the consciousness of the demiplane, it would be elevated. When leaving the demiplane, it could even bring back a considerable amount of fortune.

But rising in status was not easy. Thus, after all these years, the transmigrators had, at best, remained at a point where they neither gained nor lost.

With all that said, let us return to the origin of Qiu Huarui.

This origin, known as the Origin of Luck, could increase one’s fortune. But fortune could not increase out of thin air. The true nature of this ability was therefore the controllability of fortune.

It was much like the Phantom Assassin from Dota. That hero relied heavily on luck: with good luck, every strike could claim a life; with bad luck, one could hack away until exhausted without killing anyone.

If Qiu Huarui’s origin were used on that hero, it would be equivalent to storing the luck that should have produced critical hits while cutting down ordinary minions, then releasing it during a team fight. Naturally, every blow would become a critical hit.

But Qiu Huarui’s situation was different. Having only just begun to make contact with his origin, he had not even figured out how to manipulate it. He merely believed that the more he used it, the faster he would master it, and so he kept activating the origin.

That made things rather interesting. He had not stored any luck beforehand, while the consumption of fortune had been sealed by the Eight Great Prohibitions. What would happen as a result?

Naturally, his future luck would be overdrawn.

As mentioned before, luck was a short-term phenomenon with a limited duration. Perhaps one might be blessed with extraordinary luck at this moment, only to become the victim of every misfortune imaginable two hours later. Even the Origin of Luck possessed no way of determining the long-term course of one’s fortune. Thus, it could only seize upon the trend of luck that could be detected over the next few hours and drain it mercilessly.

And so, the instant Qiu Huarui entered the cavern, the luck he would have possessed over the next several hours was dragged directly into the negative.

With his luck gone, Qiu Huarui’s origin naturally fell silent.

Luck was an extraordinarily elusive thing. Once Qiu Huarui’s luck had been exhausted, Feng Xue discovered the cavern. This was because Feng Xue had the best luck among everyone near Qiu Huarui, and under the guidance of fate, he had been led there.

...

The gray aura entered Qiu Huarui’s body, and he began to tremble all over, as though he had witnessed something horrifying. His expression soon twisted into something ferocious. He swung his fists at empty space while roaring with a volume beyond the limits of an ordinary human voice.

“Get away! All of you, get away from me! This belongs to me! It is my treasure!”

Feng Xue, who had just entered the cavern, heard the voice. Without a second thought, he followed it deeper inside. If someone was already there, then the danger along the way was probably not too great—or at the very least, that fellow ahead of him had already dealt with it.

Once Feng Xue stopped treating every blade of grass as a potential enemy, he crossed the short distance in little more than a few finger snaps. Only then did he realize, to his astonishment, that although the final destination was utterly devoid of light, he could see everything clearly: the altar in the style of an evil god, the book radiating a sinister aura, and the young man lost in a state of madness.

“Roar!”

Just as Feng Xue was preparing to wait until the young man exhausted himself before approaching to investigate, his Gourmet Demon suddenly manifested and released a roar that seemed almost tangible.

In that instant, countless nightmare creatures appeared before Feng Xue’s eyes. Some sat, some lay sprawled on the ground; some walked, while others stood motionless. Stranger still, they seemed to be welcoming the arrival of their master, for they parted and opened a path before him.

“Interesting.”

A strange smile touched the corner of Feng Xue’s lips. Temporarily ignoring the crazed Qiu Huarui beside him, he walked over to the altar.