Over the next days, Chang-li studied the cultivator journal in secret, during snatches of time stolen from his other duties. He kept the journal locked up in his private chest but knew that the lock would not defeat his fellow scribes should they become interested in just what it was that he found so interesting.

The six remaining junior scribes assigned to the expedition shared a large barracks at the back of the scribing house on the first floor. The three master scribes had quarters on the second floor of the building and never entered the scribe barracks if they could help it, so he was safe from discovery by his superiors, if not his colleagues. The other junior scribes were all too concerned with their own advancement to notice his machinations anyway.

With Chang-li forbidden from entering the tower again, several of the others were scrambling to position themselves in the next party. They all knew this was their single greatest chance at advancement. While it was highly unlikely any of them could manage to cultivate enough to reach the Peak of Bodily Refinement, they all had dreams. Certainly the chance to increase one's personal lux stores, perhaps even to develop a preferred lux flavor, was not to be passed up.

Chang-li endured their taunts and barbed wishes for his own health. He took to spending more time with scribes Jun and Shi, both of whom professed not to be interested in entering the tower.

"Cultivation is a fool's game," Junior Scribe Shi pronounced one day at their communal breakfast, a kettle of congee split six ways and topped with some dried fish hauled up the mountain from the coastal city far below. "It is almost impossible to manage even the first tier of cultivation without assistance from a sect or a climbing order. As scribes, we are banned from joining any order."

He shook his head as he scraped the inside of his wooden bowl with his spoon, seeking out the last few morsels of delicious, soft rice. “We are already on a path of advancement! Work hard at your assigned duties and climb the ranks of scribe instead. After all, what sect leader or governor can function without scribes at his side to take down his wishes and translate them into action? I intend to make myself useful to the emerging cultivator candidates as they show themselves. Hitch yourself to those stars and ride them all the way to the top, protected by the will of the emperor. What does a rank or two of cultivation benefit a scribe? Almost nothing."

"He has a point," Scribe Jun agreed. "After all, to progress past the second tier requires imperial permission for a full cultivator license. That is almost never granted for those without sect or family." He looked around at the other scribes. "If we had those kind of family connections, we would not be here."

They all nodded at that, even the other hopeful cultivators. Chang-li was not alone in his station. Scribe Jun and Scribe Chang also came from peasant stock, while the others, though from noble families, were all of the lowest rank. Men and women with good family did not get posted to the back end of nowhere.

"Still, the chance," Scribe Wao said, his eyes alight. "If only I could achieve Bodily Refinement, it would prolong my lifespan and give me time to work on my ambition to write a codex."

Chang-li had harbored similar wishes, but he wasn't surprised when Scribe Jun snorted. "If only? Bodily Refinement is peak of the first tier of the Celestial Climb. It requires incredible amounts of lux and expert cycling techniques. The sort of knowledge jealously guarded by sects. You must be remade.”

"Even the first step brings health benefits," Scribe Chang said stubbornly.

"What, is your family prone to consumption, that you are worried about your health so young?" Scribe Deng taunted.

Scribe Jun, the senior-most of the juniors, held up a hand to break up the argument. "Enough."Let us finish our meal. Scribe Wu.” He turned to Chang-li, who was surprised to find himself addressed. “You have been quiet this morning."

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"I am reassessing my plans," Chang-li said frankly. "With the path of cultivation blocked to me, I must consider. I had always intended to do as you say, aim for the highest rankings of the scribes I had hoped a few steps on the Celestial Climb would further my goal perhaps to make the transition to a political post.”

“A tall enough task for a peasant," Scribe Deng sneered.

Chang-li decided not to take offense at that. "In the service of the Emperor, all may prove their worth," he said simply. "Even those whose ancestors were rice farmers and dock hands.”

"The Emperor needs rice farmers just as he needs scribes, but he needs a lot more of them," Scribe Fan retorted, and the others shared a quick laugh at Chang-li's expense.

After breakfast, they reported to Inspector Ji'in for their assignments. Chang-li was pleased to find himself placed in the camp library today. He had been angling for the posting since the requisition had come over. He reported at once to the camp’s Third Assistant Quartermaster’s Aide, who pointed him at a backroom in the quartermaster's office.

"We’ve got two months’ worth of records in there. Our own clerks draw up records and check them against shipments as they come in, but we require a scribe's aid in properly filing.”

Chang-li bowed low before turning to his duties. The so-called library was a long, narrow room with a bank of windows along the top of the wall by the roof, filled with rickety shelves full of tablets and scrolls. There was a row of baskets near the door filled with more tablets and scrolls, records waiting to be filed.

Chang-li dumped the first basket out on a table and began to sort through it. The work would be tedious, not hard. Despite the seeming disarray, his trained scribe's eyes had caught the tags inked on each shelf, characters the previous scribe had recorded to show organization. They would mean nothing to the quartermaster's clerks, being in the scribe's private alphabet.

Chang-li got to work updating the files. He noted as he went that the records were jumbled up through the last month in no particular order, but as he sorted them out, saw that the loads of supplies had been increasing in frequency. He pulled out a scroll listing the purification rations brought in over the last few weeks. Just last week, two whole wagon loads of the rations had been hauled up the steep mountain path.

Only cultivators still working on perfecting their body, those who had not yet reached the peak of the first tier, required purification rations. For them, the quality and quantity of lux available inside a tower was too great for their weak mortal bodies to process. Purification rations would help purge the unwanted lux. After finishing the first tier, a cultivator's body could handle purification on its own.

This many rations would serve the cultivators Chang-li knew were in the camp for over two years. The camp must be expecting an influx of cultivators.

Chang-li filed the record away carefully. Then, having made progress, he paused and went down the shelves until he came to what he was looking for: maps of the tower and its surroundings. Not the inside of the tower, of course. The Emperor's laws forbade anyone from making an accurate map of the inside of a tower. These maps merely showed the mountainside and its surroundings.

If there was an entrance to floor one, as Chang-li suspected, it would be somewhere lower down on the mountain's flanks. The journal had implied it was near a river at the bottom of a canyon. It had to be somewhere out of the way, since no one had apparently stumbled upon it. And yet not completely inaccessible, since he had proof that someone had, once upon a time, entered the tower from that level. He spread out the maps and pored over them.

The path down the mountain zigzagged back and forth. As it neared the base, the land became more forgiving. It traced a long curving arc around the mountain's foothill toward the city of Golden Moon’s Bounty below by the sea.

Chang-li drew a finger along the map. Somewhere here, he suspected, near the mountain's foot, where several streams ran down, carving narrow canyons and deep gorges on their way to the great river Aksah. But which? He'd need more clues for that.

Chang-li returned to his task. It would take him at least another day. He reported back to Inspector Ji’in at the end of the shift, who nodded. "We expected as much. Be sure to update the catalog tags when you are done."

"Of course, inspector.” Chang-li bowed and was dismissed. He went at once to the barracks, though his fellow scribes were almost certainly heading for the dinner tent. Scribes knew it was in their best interest to collect their meals early before the more important members of the expedition came down for theirs. That would give Chang-li a few precious moments alone with his book, searching for further clues.