Chang-li stood beneath a rainbow whirlpool sky, his feet as steady as they could be on the stark white sand as he cycled through the pattern the ancient scroll described.

Having thoroughly established command of the physical lux, weave in a strand of life lux to stabilize the matrix in preparation for bonding with the spiritual luxes. If the disciple has difficulty with this, refer to exercises as described in Master Ariyandaksha Jhang's Guide to Visualizing Lux Layers. The disciple may also benefit from a refresher course in Philosophy of Lux.

It was unfortunate that, as of yet, he had not discovered either of the other documents mentioned in this scroll. He had translated this one on their first day back inside the first floor of the tower and had been ecstatic because here was not a single technique, but a guide to preparing the cultivator who had reached the Peak of Mental Refinement on beginning to use more complex lux patterns. Unfortunately, he had not yet figured out how to do so. Every time he tried to weave a strand of green into his red or yellow lux, the whole pattern fell apart.

Joshi was seated on the sand a few yards away, both fists pressed against the face of the dune, trying it himself. As Chang-li's attempt fell apart again, Joshi looked up. "No luck?"

Chang-li shook his head and flopped down onto the dune, immediately shifting into the purification of body and soul technique. He cycled violet lux through his channels without a single trace of guilt. It felt like less violet lux here than the first time he had entered, or perhaps it was merely because his lux capacity was so much greater.

"This scroll is making assumptions about what we already understand.” Chang-li sighed. "I'm going to have to go back to the ones I haven't translated yet and look for something to help us."

They had been in the tower for what Chang-li guessed to be a week now. Somewhat to his surprise, they had entered into a totally different part of the tower than before. There was no sign of the maze he, Joshi, and Hiroko had encountered. Instead, they'd come up through a vast network of ropes in a dark cavern, crawling their way up toward the light until emerging through a hole in the desert floor under the swirling rainbow sky.

From there, they'd made their way to the nearest oasis. That, at least, had worked as before, with an oasis protector yielding up a treasure after being defeated.

They split their time between travel and training. As they walked, they instructed the disciples and Min in basic techniques. Brother Stone had reached the Peak of Bodily Refinement on their first day there, during the fight against the oasis protector. He too was working on mastering the ability to weave green lux in with his red, with no more success than Chang-li or Joshi, but he grew frustrated faster.

While Chang-li translated scrolls and Joshi scouted ahead for the next oasis, Brother Stone instructed the other three disciples. They were making great progress. Min sometimes sat at the edge of their circle and watched. She'd asked Chang-li to show her how he cycled and he taught her several patterns. She was a quick study and had already had her first core condensation.

Right now, she and the others were at the foot of the dune where they had set up their camp. Compared to the first time Chang-li had been on this floor, they were in luxury, with four tents to shelter them at night. Though since he'd never seen rain in this place and the wind didn't pick up enough, they didn't really need much in the way of shelter, but it was a nice change nonetheless.

The four disciples cooked real food over lux fires. They didn't complain about hauling the packs full of scrolls and copybooks Chang-li had brought either. He had been worried about bringing so many of the precious scrolls, fearful that jostling and handling would ruin them. But so far, his fears were unfounded. As he translated the scrolls, Chang-li copied them fresh into new journals. Brother Stone and Disciple Shou could both read, as could Min and Joshi. Once the techniques were copied down, they poured over the documents as arduously as Chang-li had.

"Time for a break," Joshi declared, getting up and heading for the camp.

Chang-li followed him. It rankled, but they hadn't been able to get anywhere. He'd even summoned Scribe Wulan, who had been no help whatsoever, just insulting Chang-li's abilities and telling him any fool could manage such a simple pattern.

Chang-li joined the rest of the party. Disciple Cui handed him a plate of rice wraps. He ate gratefully. Min was daintily eating with her left hand as she perused a journal with her right. It wasn't one of the journals he had brought, but a fresh one, and the notes were in her handwriting.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"What are you reading?" Chang-li asked.

"I took records from the Tradewinds Sect, not about their techniques, but about how they run their sect." Min looked up, half smiling. "By the time we're done here, I'll know how to be a proper sect administrator. Or at least how to fake it. It's not so difficult,” she assured him. "I have experience with administration, both in the Brotherhood and watching my political family members. Plus, there's a lot of housekeeping involved. I spent time as a girl with my mother managing the Governor's household. I know a little bit about that."

"I hope it's a task that's not repellent to you," Chang-li said.

"Not at all. In fact, I'm finding it fascinating. It gives me something to think about while I'm cycling." She tilted her head to one side as she set the journal down. “You looked frustrated."

"I am," he admitted.

He and Min shared a tent at night. It was expected of them. They slept fully clothed, with their backs to each other. He felt as though she was beginning to warm to him, but he didn't know how to go about reaching important topics. Maybe he could start with opening up about his frustrations. "We're supposed to be weaving green lux into our physical lux chords to start forming braids."

Min rumbled her brow. "Why green?"

“My scroll said that's how to do it,” Chang-li told her. “But not why. It’s like they assumed I understand that already.”

Min listened intently as Chang-li confessed his difficulty in the technique. "I feel as though I don't understand what the purpose of green lux is," he concluded. "There's references here to other instructions and philosophies, but I don't have them."

To his surprise, Min frowned in concentration. She set aside the manual she had been perusing and dug into her sack.

"That's reminding me of something else I read. Let me see. Oh, here it is." She pulled out a thin book. "This is one I had copied at the library because I thought it sounded useful. It's actually horribly dry," she confessed. "The Handbook for Junior Spouses, penned by Indigo Princess and ranking spouse of Tradewinds Sect, Leriona." She looked up from the cover, grinning. "Let's just say your friend Princess Hiroko is nowhere near as stuck-up as this woman. It's dated about 60 years ago, so I hope to never run into her. Anyway, it's an instruction manual she's written for newly married cultivator spouses joining their sect to teach them the duties expected of them. It sounded to me like it would be the perfect sort of thing, but she's awful, so... But anyway," Min flipped through the pages until she found what she wanted. "Here we are. It's one of the bits where she gets all ranty for a few pages." She cleared her throat and read.

"And so we can see in the Emperor's grand design a reflection of the natural order of things. For just as green lux joins the physical and spiritual, and so we call it life lux, so do cultivator spouses knit together the physical extensions of the Emperor's will, those he has allowed to pursue cultivation, with the spiritual manifestation of his will that we see in the towers themselves."

"I don't get it," Chang-li said.

"Hold on, there's more," Min said. "That wasn't the interesting part. ‘For what is life but the merging of the physical and the spiritual? Only in living beings are the two forces so joined. This, then, is why we call green lux life lux, for it serves to bind the two together.’”

Chang-li rubbed his head.

“Oh, I think she was full of nonsense, too," Min said briskly. "All this business of the Emperor's grand design, as though cultivator spouses are somehow a higher breed of human just because we happen to be descended from the Emperor. I understand what the purpose of saddling you cultivators with a spy beholden to the Emperor himself is. It's to bind you down tight before you have a chance to do anything the Emperor doesn't like. But when you were talking about your difficulty, I thought of her little rant here."

Chang-li thought about it. "I'm not sure I understand any better," he confessed.

"Well, it's like oil and water," Min made hand gestures as though pouring liquids into a bowl. "They don't mix.. You have to add something else to them, an emulsifier, if you want to combine them. It’s like adding an egg to broth to keep the oil and water from separating. Sounds to me like green lux is there to bind together between the physical and the spirituals."

Chang-li felt as though something dropped into place. "But green has its own uses and purposes," Chang-li protested. “Green is for healing wounds.”

Min shrugged. “An egg has its own uses, but when you combine it with other things..."

Chang-li swallowed his last bite of rice ball, brushed off his hands, and took up a cycling posture, letting lux flow freely through his body. His core was dense with it. He isolated out red and yellow and threaded them together as though performing his firepot technique, but he didn't allow the chord to fully take place. He pulled out a thread of green and started to weave it into his chord.

This time, instead of wrapping it around the existing chord, he loosened his grip on the lux and let it flow. The green seeped into the spaces between the red and the yellow naturally. Like a liquid, it flowed in and around the other lux.

Chang-li let the braid dissipate. He turned to Min, excitement flooding him. "I think that's it. You've given me the clue I needed."

She beamed and clasped her hands together. “Wonderful!”

He leaned in without thinking and kissed her quickly, just a brush of his lips against hers, before pulling back. The disciples, who were now engaged in cleaning out the dinner pot, gave a whoop and a holler. Min turned bright pink. Chang-li cleared his throat. "Ah, yes, thank you. I'm going to…" He scrambled to his feet. "Joshi, I think I've figured something out." He hurried off, back up the dune, his face burning with embarrassment, but excitement filling him.

He was one step closer to perfecting this technique. He was sure of it. Not only that, he felt like he was getting somewhere with Min as well.