Chang-li rejoined the group. He and Brother Stone said nothing about their fight. Instead, he waited as Li Jiya and her acolytes went out, found a beast similar to the one he and Brother Stone had fought, and dragged it back for the delight of the young nobles. Chang-li watched hungrily as the nobles wasted most of the lux. Their cycling technique was terrible, and they couldn't absorb even a fraction of what the tower beast offered.

Bringing them into the third floor was like feeding a mouse the meal meant for a man. They were doing nothing to earn their own lux. Now he saw how being forced to fight for survival had strengthened him. He was resolved. He would walk this path properly.

He did need help. Trying to develop his own techniques at this stage was a fool's game. He would find a master or sect willing to take him on once he reached the Peak of Bodily Refinement. It wasn't completely unheard of for a scribe to become a cultivator, and every sect needed trained scribes, as he knew from Wulan's journal. It was just that they usually didn't bother with the hard work of cultivating.

With a license, even a forged one, Chang-li could find a home in some small sect and make his rise. It would be easier to get the rest of the license endorsements he needed with the backing of a real sect. But that was for later. Right now, he had to reach Bodily Refinement. If he and Brother Stone could steal away and make a few more kills, perhaps he would have a chance of achieving it on this trip. If not — well, he was getting better and better at altering records.

After the nobles finished their cultivating, Chang-li handed out purification rations to everyone. He consumed his and cycled it through his body, cleansing his own lux channels, and was pleased to feel how much stronger they already were.

Lord Jai-lin had produced a lute from somewhere and was strumming, singing a ballad to the irritated-looking Li Jiya when the blood-curdling screech rent the air. Everyone leapt up. Chang-li filled himself with refined orange and yellow lux, ready for an attack. He could feel a disturbance in the lux all around him, as though a storm wind had shaken up the environment.

"Everyone together," Li Jiya snapped. "Nobles and servants in the center, anyone who can fight in a ring around them, disciples with me." She took off, bursting out of the grove, her disciples on her heels.

Lord Jai-lin and Lady Shisa were exclaiming loudly, "What's going on? Did she just leave us? What's happening?"

Li Jiya burst back through the trees. "Retreat," she ordered. "Back to the tower entrance. Disciple Yan will lead you. I will cover."

"What's going on?"

"It may be a tower eruption," Li Jiya said before disappearing again.

That got everyone shouting and fussing. Chang-li's heart hammered. He snatched up his satchel, intent on keeping Wulan's scribe case safe. As Disciple Yan urged them, he fled with the rest from the clearing.

Brother Stone was at his side. "An eruption?" the Brotherhood man said. "The whole camp could be in danger, and the city below. I thought this floor had been purged enough to make an eruption unlikely."

Chang-li shook his head, not bothering to waste breath speaking about things they couldn't possibly know. They were out of the grove and into the jungle. It was a repeat of that first terrified flight. But now Chang-li wasn't helpless. In fact… his steps slowed. He was running the wrong way. He wanted to fight.

"We should help Li Jiya," he said. "We can fight."

"Are you mad? She said to run.”

“She told the others to run. But we're licensed and expected to be capable of handling ourselves on this floor, remember?"

"Under the instruction of a Young Master of a suitable rank, yes."

"Well, then let's go find her and get our instruction," Chang-li snapped as he started off the other way, not bothering to see if Brother Stone followed him. The disturbed strands of lux seemed to be urging him toward the direction Jiya had gone. It was like whatever had started this was pulling in the lux all around. Was that even possible?

Chang-li ran, cycling red through his body to keep his lungs and muscles fresh. The jungle brush ripped at his scribe's robes, but he didn't care. As he plunged forward, he heard the sounds of fighting up ahead, inhuman shrieks and the shouts of the cultivators.

He burst through a surrounding thicket and found the fight. Li Jiya and her two disciples were facing two enormous bird creatures. Each of them was at least twice as tall as a man, and they glowed bright with lux. Their downy pin feathers marked them as chicks, but these babies were terrible monsters already. One scratched at Jiya's disciple, showering him with dirt from its enormous claws as it came within inches of catching him.

The other was pecking like an enormous overgrown chicken; its beak snapped closed on Jiya's arm, lifting her from the ground. She shouted in pain, her lux weapon dissolving into fragments.

Chang-li rushed in. His right hand glowed as he hurled his new Fire Pot technique. The orange casing shattered against the bird, and the yellow inner flame licked its feathers briefly before burning out. This creature was much stronger than the armored beast he and Brother Stone had fought.

"You fool, run," Jiya shouted, but Chang-li ignored her. She was striking the bird in its face, trying to get it to release her.

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He turned, reaching into his soul space and drawing his sword. Secrecy wasn't important. If he didn't help, then Li Jiya and her disciples would die, and he had no doubt the beasts would track down the rest of the party and kill them too. The thought of trying to escape didn't even cross his mind. He would not leave his party to the mercy of tower beasts the way young Master Feng had.

Chang-li's sword glowed with the orange lux he laced it with. He cycled red and strengthened his body as he threw himself forward. There was no art in this, no subtle weaving together of lux. He was just grabbing as much as he could and throwing himself into the attack.

The bird turned, dropping Jiya. She sprang up and wove a three-lux technique as Chang-li swung his sword left-handed against the bird's leg. The sword bit in. Blood welled from the cut he'd made.

The bird screeched again, shattering Chang-li's eardrums in a wave of agony. He fought through the pain as he followed up with a fistful of flame right into the cut, bypassing the bird's defenses and burning it inside. It lifted its wounded leg as it ineffectively flapped its arms. Then it came darting downward, stabbing at Chang-li with its beak.

Jiya threw a technique, blasting its head to the side. Chang-li shouted and stabbed upward. His sword took it through the eye. Jiya took the opening. She yelled aloud, and her weapon reformed in her hand. She leapt fifteen feet in the air and seemed to hover there a second before coming down hard, smashing the weapon against the bird's neck. It severed the head in one swoop.

More lux than Chang-li had ever seen in one place coiled out of the bird's carcass. Instinctively, he opened himself to it, cycling even as he turned to face the second bird.

One of Li Jiya's disciples was on the ground, bleeding. The other stood over him, trying to protect him. The bird was poised for the kill, one claw raised as Chang-li shouted and threw a Firepot technique at the beast's body. Li Jiya drove forward, hitting the creature hard again.

Jiya dove forward as the bird swooped down on her disciples. She threw her own body in between them and it while projecting out a red lux shield. It was only a single color, but Chang-li could see she had braided it together as though weaving multiple colors of lux. It flew out like a net. The bird struck and bounced off.

Jiya screamed and swung her weapon. She caught the bird on the leg, gouging a deep wound like she was felling a tree. Chang-li formed another Firepot technique and lobbed it at the bird's face. To his surprise, rather than ducking, the bird snapped at the ball of lux. It exploded in the creature's maw, knocking it backward. The bird let out a "chweep!" of surprise that Chang-li could hear even through his ringing, bleeding ears.

Despite the terror of their situation, Chang-li nearly laughed. The chick seemed to have expected a tasty lux treat and instead received a fireball to the face.

Jiya wasn't laughing. She used the butt of her weapon as a pole, jabbing it into the ground and leaping, propelling herself forward. Her weapon dissolved as it left her hand. She summoned it again in midair. Chang-li found himself admiring her technique, then recalled himself. He was in a fight for his life here. He raced forward to the two downed cultivators and helped the less injured man pull his friend to safety.

Brother Stone emerged from the bushes, holding his staff tightly in white-knuckled hands, looking nervous. "Protect him," Chang-li told Brother Stone. The Brotherhood man looked relieved to have something to do that didn’t involve charging at the monstrous bird. Then Chang-li and Jiya's other disciple turned back.

Jiya had leapt to the overhanging branches of a tree. From here, she was hurling tiny lux daggers at the bird. Chang-li formed another Firepot and threw it. This time, the bird ducked. The firepot exploded on the ground at its feet, sending up a spray of dirt and leaves.

Jiya leapt from her branch, holding her weapon blade down. She fell onto the top of the bird; her weapon sliced deep, severing one wing. She sprang off its back, landing in a crouch on the floor of the forest. The bird, enraged, chased her, blood dripping from its severed wing.

Chang-li raced forward. He slashed his sword against the same wound Jiya had inflicted on the bird's leg, deepening it, and then hacked again. The bird's leg buckled. Now standing on just one leg, with one wing flapping ineffectively, it was a pitiful sight, but still dangerous. The bird snapped at Chang-li. He dodged, but not quite far enough. The bird's beak closed on the edge of his robe and ripped it wide open. His clothes fell in tatters. His modesty was only saved by the belt about his waist, which kept the lower half of his tunic wrapped tight around his midsection.

Furious, Chang-li summoned yellow lux flame to his right hand. He stabbed the bird's leg as deeply as he could with his sword, then held his fire to the wound. The bird cried and hopped away from him.

Jiya was there; her blade sliced. The bird's leg was severed, and it fell hard to the jungle floor. She enhanced her weapon with a technique and drove the point of her blade into the bird's fluffy chest. A moment later, it was done.

They stood there, panting heavily, Chang-li absorbing the lux from the bird instinctively, cycling Purification of Mind and Soul to heal his wounds.

Jiya stared at him. She was clearly cycling herself. After a moment, she looked less weary. She straightened up and dismissed her weapon.

"What sort of scribe are you?" she said, her gaze traveling to his sword.

He shoved the blade behind his back, too late of course, and shook his head. "The others. We need to get back to them."

Her eyes widened. Jiya swore. "Yes, the nobles and the servants. There could be more of these beasts. I've never seen anything like them on this floor before.”

"What do you think has happened?" Chang-li asked as he followed her.

She checked on her disciples. The wounded one was nearly unconscious. Jiya frowned. "Can you two help him?" she asked Brother Stone and her other disciple. The pair nodded. "Get him to the exit. I'm going after the rest of the party. Try not to run into any more of these things," she advised them, then took off, Chang-li following her. He took a moment to tuck his sword back into his soulspace when she wasn't looking. Hopefully, she would think it was a technique he had summoned and not an actual weapon.

They raced through the forest.

"I think one of two things has happened," Jiya said. "Either someone found a special champion and failed its test, unleashing it on the floor, or we're about to experience a tower eruption. The cultivation master said it was possible, though my grandmaster did not believe it would happen until a later floor."

"Which of those is worse?" Chang-li asked.

"Well, an eruption could spill outside of the tower. If it's large enough, it could even threaten Golden Moon City. But a champion on the loose is no joke. Champions are always at least the difficulty you would expect of the next floor above, and when a champion's challenge is failed, it enrages. That might be what's causing the lux disturbances we're seeing, or that could be a symptom of the tower eruption. Either way, it's not good."

She certainly had a gift for understatement. Chang-li kept his eyes open as they fled. Far overhead, another piercing screech broke the jungle.

"I don't think we killed all of them," he said grimly. "Those were babies. If this is a failed challenge champion, then one or both of their parents are likely out there. We need to evacuate the tower at once."