Chang-li
The difficulty with cultivating in a large party quickly became apparent. First, Chang-li had official scribing duties. Li Jiya insisted he record their encounter with the tortoise. One of her acolytes had made his third condensation from the lux gathered, and Chang-li had to note down his name, sect rank, and currently mastered chords.
They had reached Jiya's chosen destination, a pleasant grove of tall trees whose bark smelled of cinnamon, their spreading branches sheltering a small glade with less dense underbrush than the usual jungle. Here, the porters and servant worked to set up a small encampment while the two red nobles spoke with Li Jiya about cultivating. Mostly, though, they were complaining.
"I don't want to be so far off from everyone else," Lady Shisa said.
"Are you here to cultivate or to socialize?" Li Jiya asked, probably more harshly than Lady Shisa was used to being addressed.
The noblewoman's eyes widened, and she jerked back away from Jiya as though she'd been struck. “How dare you speak to me with such familiarity?"
"Cultivating is not a game, Noble Lady,” Li Jiya said frankly. "It is serious. And if you cannot take it seriously, I will escort you back out of this tower immediately. We have three days here, which can be put to good use to firm up your shaky foundations. It is three days that I will not have to work on my own progression, as I must put your needs first. Now, let us resume your cycling techniques. Seat yourselves on the ground and cross your legs in the receptive position."
"On the ground?" Lord Jai-lin said, his eyes widening in dismay. "Can we not wait until the servants place a rug?”
"A rug?”
It should be in one of the boxes. It will make it much more comfortable.”
Li Jiya pointed “Seat yourselves."
The nobles at last obeyed, and Chang-li took the opportunity to sneak off, away from the grove, with Brother Stone. They went off, ostensibly to fetch wood for a fire. The Moon Whisper disciples had checked the nearby environs and pronounced them safe, which was not what Chang-li had wanted to hear.
"How are we supposed to cultivate with all of these nobles along?" Brother Stone grumbled. "I couldn't get any of the lux off of that tortoise. By the time the nobles and acolytes were done, the little left had dissipated.”
"We'll just have to go further afield," Chang-li said. "If anyone notices we were gone, I will say I was making a survey of the plant life in the area to correlate with the levels of Tower Beast activity. That sounds like the sort of thing people expect scribes to do."
Brother Stone grunted his approval. He carried a heavy wooden walking stick, like the one Chang-li had bought and lost before entering the first floor of the tower. He used it to part bushes as they went. "I hope Elder Sister Min is getting along well in her party. I wish we had been assigned to hers."
Chang-li was glad to have a little distance between himself and the overly perceptive noblewoman. "I wasn't in charge of filling out the party rosters," he informed Brother Stone. “She’s in the charge of Li Jen, the brother of our cultivator lady.”
"These Moon Whisper Young Masters leave a better impression than the Jade Lotus. If you'd said she was with Feng, I don't care what the consequences might have been. I’d be heading back to find her right now."
"Shh," Chang-li said. "I hear something up ahead."
Brother Stone froze. Chang-li tried to sense, but the ambient lux here was dense enough he couldn't get a feel for variations.
A moment later, an armored creature burst out of the bush at them. It had a shell, something like the tortoise’s, but segmented so it could roll into a ball. It was far faster in movement than a turtle. It rolled over on its own neck and became a ball of red, lux-armored beast.
Chang-li sprang out of the way, summoning a yellow lux flame to his right hand. Brother Stone reacted well. The orange lux enforced his staff as he swung out with it and struck the beast a hard blow, knocking it back. Chang-li reached out with his flame as the beast flew past, but the flames splashed harmlessly against its armor.
The beast unrolled from its ball, landing on all fours. Its long tail had a spiked knob at the end, glistening with orange lux. This creature was stronger than the ones he'd fought on the first floor. He could sense that he was going to need more than one color of lux to get through this shell.
The beast charged them. Brother Stone struck another sharp blow. Chang-li considered summoning his sword from his soulspace but he didn't want to give away too much to a temporary ally. He would try to do this the hard way.
Chang-li pulled yellow lux from his core to make another handful of fire. This one he enhanced with orange. He needed to get through that shell. The beast caught a glimpse of him and raced forward, snarling.
The orange lux refused to bond with the yellow. In disgust, he thrust his burning hand forward into the armored beast's face as the creature snapped at him with vicious fangs. He could sense blue lux enforcing those fangs. Probably a bite would leave poison festering. "Don't let it bite you," he called to Brother Stone as the other man came in and smashed the orange lux weapon against the creature's neck.
"That's my plan,” Stone snapped back.
The armored creature jerked back from Chang-li's flame. He needed a technique here. If he were a proper acolyte, his master would have taught him how to bring his technique to the next level already. He had to get through that shell.
Wulan's journal had spoken of his attempts to understand the principles of cultivation that Cultivator Kang was teaching him. Techniques are not strictures to be laid down and followed exactly the same way. They are just different ways to accomplish the same ends, the scribe had written. Cultivating, using lux, is about learning to shape the very fabric of the world around you. The first place to shape that is in your own mind. Perceive what you wish the technique to do, or it will never respond.
Chang-li imagined a fire pot that could hold a burning ember inside for hours to be carried between camps. He built his fire pot of orange lux. Weapons were just tools. Orange lux could make a blade, or could be a shovel just as easily.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Chang-li understood orange lux. It was familiar to him as his own breath. He wove his chord, orange outside, yellow inside. He saw the armored beast as it reared up, showing a plated underbelly. Its orange-tipped claws menaced Brother Stone.
Chang-li released his technique splashed against its red lux-enforced belly. The outer case broke through the lux plating. The yellow inner technique unleashed Chang-li's fire. The creature howled and stumbled.
Brother Stone took advantage of the opening, driving his staff hard against the weak spot Chang-li had just cut in the beast's armor. Chang-li came in with a fistful of flame burning. The beast howled and whimpered as it fell to the ground.
Together, the two cultivators quickly finished it off. They stood panting over the beast as its lux unfolded. "Quick! Draw it in!" Chang-li instructed, taking lux into himself.
He started with a quick Purification of Mind and Soul, driving away the weariness from the fight and mending his sore muscles. Then he switched to Swirling Mists and felt the lux fill him. There was not enough violet lux here to cycle, much to his regret. But the orange and yellow answered easily.
He felt he'd come to understand orange just a bit better. As he cycled, concentrating on that new, better understanding, he felt his core condense. Chang-li switched to the Way of Star’s Light technique Joshi had taught him as his core reshaped itself for the third time. He couldn't help the grin smiling across his face.
Brother Stone looked up. "What is it?"
"My core has condensed!”
"Well done.” Brother Stone smiled. "I believe I am on the verge of my second condensing myself. You use two different colors of lux already?"
"A bit," Chang-li admitted.
"How does a scribe learn such things?" Brother Stone asked. "The Brotherhood has connections with cultivators and they are able to get training for our most promising members. But I would not expect you to have such skills. Who taught you?”
Chang-li shrugged. "Scribes read a lot of books," he suggested.
Brother Stone's eyes narrowed, but he nodded agreement. "Keep your secrets if you wish," he said. "Shall we go back?"
Chang-li desperately wanted to go on. He had already taken two important steps along his path. He wanted more. He wanted to reach the Peak of Bodily Refinement. But it would still be some time between his third core condensing and that peak. He did have his identity as a scribe to protect.
"All right," he agreed. "Let's go back."
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Hiroko
Feng was everything Joshi and Chang-li had said, and more. Hiroko had suspected as much before they even entered the tower, and his preening behavior and authoritarian manner toward everyone he considered lesser convinced her all their aspersions were true. He ordered his underlings—the porters, servants, and guards—to help out, all with the same tone of dismissiveness. To Hiroko and the Dowager Pearl, he was deferential, almost servile. But as he pranced around, she found herself detesting the young man.
This was the strongest cultivator present at the tower? This was what one of the sects who served the Emperor put forth as a hope for the future? Hiroko was not impressed. It was Hiroko's duty to wed a cultivator who could be part of the great tapestry of the Empire, protecting the people, serving the Emperor, and advancing himself. But the only part of that Feng seemed likely to master was his own advancement. He boasted constantly of how, having reached the Peak of Mental Refinement, he would easily be able to take care of this largest of the cultivating groups.
"As soon as all of this is settled and situated, I shall venture forth and bring back a tower beast for you," he boasted to Hiroko. "Which of the physical luxes do you prefer to cycle?"
"None," Hiroko said quietly. "My preferred lux is blue. I have reached the second condension of my core in the Emperor's Tower with my techniques." Of course, she had actually condensed her core here in this very tower with the help of Chang-li and Joshi, but she wasn't going to tell Feng that truth. She wished now for Joshi's guidance. It felt as though her third condensing was very far away. There was ambient blue here, but not much of it. Still, she cycled what she could, using the purification of mind and soul technique.
"Ah," Feng said, clearly discomfited. "Yes. So. Blue. I believe that is more common on the higher floors of this tower. Perhaps after we cultivators have made our mark on the fourth floor and it is considered safe, we can repeat this expedition. I would be happy to escort you as many times as you wish."
Hiroko turned her face away and concentrated on her own cycling. Feng disappeared. The whole camp seemed relieved, bustling about their tasks twice as quickly now without his constant interference and intervention.
The Dowager sat on a small stool which had been carried in for her own comfort. "Things seemed to have changed greatly since I was young," she grumbled. "Why, when I was reaching for Mental Refinement, I considered myself a servant of all, not master, as Feng seems to think."
All of the women chosen to serve as the Emperor's consorts were, of course, cultivators themselves, having achieved the mastery of Mental Refinement at a young enough age to show promise. Hiroko suspected that Young Master Li Jiya might be hoping to compete at one of the contests to be selected as an Imperial consort herself. It would mean an end to her own journey of cultivation, but the Dowager Pearls all held positions of great importance within the Empire. Some, like Hiroko's own grandmother, came from outside the Empire itself, serving as ambassadors from their homelands. But it was easy to forget that the Dowager Pearl had, in fact, advanced to that rank.
"My brother's sect, at least, still has some standards," the Dowager was saying. "Li Jiya and Li Jen are a credit to him. I do hope you will consider Li Jen, my dear." She fixed Hiroko with her gaze.
Hiroko bowed her head. "I shall, of course," she said, and was saved from any further conversation by Feng's reappearance. As promised, he had with him a tower beast, an angry, yowling cat bound by cords of braided blue and red lux. He deposited it on the ground as some of the servants flinched and screamed.
“Enough of that," he shouted. "Acolytes, come, finish this creature so the princess may partake."
His acolytes sprang forward with knives and slit the creature's throat. As its lifeblood and its lux streamed from its body, Hiroko took in what she could. It did have a bit of blue, enough for her to cycle. She also worked on cycling the red on its own. Her dumpling technique was a good trick, but she needed to learn to cycle the other colors of lux if she were to progress. The Dowager considered her with approval. "You have paid attention to your studies."
Meanwhile, Feng was shouting at his acolytes. "No, fools, not the Way of Nine. Don’t you see that the balance of orange and yellow is all wrong for that? Use the Way of a Still Pond." He looked up angrily as another group approached their encampment.
Li Jen, the young master of the Moon Whispers sect, led his interested people to the clearing in the jungle where Hiroko waited. The porters and servants mingled together freely. Feng and his disciples drew back sharply. "What are you doing here?"
"The same as you," Young Master Li said simply. He bowed low toward the Dowager. "Honored Great Aunt, I beg your indulgence."
The Dowager Pearl rose. "Of course," she said happily. "Come and join us."
The only noble with Li Jen was Red Lady Min. She held herself off to the side as Jen spoke with the Dowager, and Feng stood by glaring. Hiroko rose and joined Min, hoping that the enmity between the other woman and Feng would keep the pompous cultivator at bay.
"How do you find this, Lady Min?" she asked politely.
"Exhilarating," Min replied. "I hadn't realized what it actually felt like to cycle lux. I've practiced my cycling techniques all my life, of course, but the difference between outside the tower and here, even just the ambience of the lux, is astonishing.”
“What technique do you use?"
“The Way of the Faithful, of course," Min said.
Hiroko recalled what Joshi had said and winced. "I have a technique taught to me by imperial tutors," she lied. "It's much better. Try this." She walked Min through the steps of Purification of Mind and Soul. Min's eyes widened as she grasped the pattern, and Hiroko could feel the difference as she began freely moving the lux about in her body.
“The first step is to learn to perceive the colors of lux inside yourself and determine your own attunement," Hiroko said. "Everyone is naturally more attuned to one lux color or another. See if you can begin to tell them apart. That technique will help."
"Thank you, my lady," Min said, and she sounded truly grateful. "I owe you a favor."
Hiroko was going to laugh that off, but the way Min said it felt as though she were being offered a great prize. "I'll remember that," she said.