"Welcome, cultivators," Prism Nai Hong boomed as he hung in the air, 40 feet overhead. Chang-li and all of the members of Morning Mist who had reached the Peak of Bodily Refinement stood on a floating platform on a placid lake. This was Chang-li's first time inside this, the fifth floor of the Vardin City Tower. He could feel the increased lux density over the previous floors.
Disciples Yang, Shou, and Cui, all wore lux inhibitors, though Chang-li had urged them to find opportunities to cycle without them. Brother Stone stood tall. He was making great strides toward the Peak of Mental Refinement and had refused to wear a lux inhibitor, though Chang-li had a couple tucked away just in case. Li Jiya and Joshi looked ready for anything.
A hundred feet away on another floating platform was the Azure Flame delegation, fifteen cultivators strong. The bridal candidate and her three supporting young masters were all at the Peak of Spiritual Refinement. With them stood eleven lesser disciples. Their robes were patterned with concentric waves of blue and red, a vibrant design.
Forming a triangle between both were the Golden Locks cultivators. This was the first time Chang-li had seen their tournament delegation en masse. Their robes were striking, made of pure gold. Not yellow, but true gold, gleaming in the morning sun. Mai Wen had only twelve with her, but she looked supremely confident. From here, Chang-li couldn't make out rings or insignia to indicate the rankings of her team members.
"Today, you will be competing against each other,” Nai Hong declared. "There are several tower champions scattered around this floor, seeded here by the prisms waiting for you to find them, similar to what you faced on the fourth floor. However, we have also placed nine puzzle boxes scattered throughout this level. Each puzzle box will be counted equivalent to defeating one of the champions. The puzzle boxes contain clues toward understanding the nature of this floor guardian's challenge. You will not be permitted to face the guardian today, but later in this tournament, those who remain eligible may face him and attempt to claim his boon. These puzzle boxes will help you prepare. However, they do not contain any treasures to help your advancement, so you will have to decide how to prioritize your search. In addition, while we permit members of rival sects to spar, there are to be no crippling or fatal blows. I will be overseeing, and anyone who attempts to go past what is required to push another sect away from a challenge will be punished harshly."
He did not further elaborate. Chang-li didn't ask. Having a prism oversee the contest ought to make him feel more confident, but after Prism Eri’s behavior, he had come to realize that prisms were just cultivators like himself. More powerful, yes, but still human. They could be capricious. The problem was that their capriciousness could lead to disaster for Chang-li and his friends.
“You may begin," the prism said and disappeared with a crackling noise and a flash of light.
Li Jiya turned to her team. "Put space between us and them, now," she ordered, before rushing forward. She easily leapt across the twenty feet of open water between their floating island raft and the next. Chang-li thought it would be doable for him as well, but he turned to the disciples. "Can you make that leap?"
Cui shook his head. "I don't think so."
“I’ll handle it,” Chang-li said and worked on a weave he'd been practicing ever since the climbing challenge two days before. It was a simple application of a technique he'd read about in the Morning Mist Scrolls, a modification of the same basic shielding technique Joshi used. He wove together red lux, then infused it with green, which let him seal off the weave. He threw it out halfway between one platform and the next, and it floated on the waves there, a one-foot square of visible lux.
"Go," he told Cui, who bent, reinforcing his legs with red lux, and leapt onto the platform. The other disciples and Brother Stone followed. Joshi soared past them, catching up to Li Jiya. Chang-li took advantage of the stepping stone he'd made so he could feel what it was like. It was a little slippery under his boot, and he wondered if he'd be able to make it more grippy in the future. Catching up to the rest of the team, he inhaled lux from the air around him and cycled it. They crossed two more islands before Li Jiya called a halt. "The others have scattered as well for now," she said.
"I have Magen watching," Joshi said. "He will inform us if anyone attempts to follow us."
"Good," Li Jiya nodded. "We need the puzzle boxes."
Chang-li expected Joshi to complain that they should focus on the challenge beasts which would grant divine treasures. Instead, Joshi was nodding. "Agreed. The Tower Boon will be more useful to us than another treasure, I hope."
"How will we find these puzzle boxes?" Chang-li asked. "And how is any of this a test for who would be the best bride, anyway?" It had been rankling him for days now, and Prism Eri's arrival had put it into focus.
"What do you mean?" Li Jiya asked, looking annoyed. "The Emperor's bride must be a strong cultivator.”
"Yes, but it feels like there should be more to it," Chang-li spread his hands. "The Dowager Pearls are the backbone of the Empire. Along with the civil servants, they keep the Empire running, they maintain order. They're, well, administrators. How is this testing your aptitude?"
"Administration can be taught," Li Jiya said. "Cultivation of talent is inborn."
Chang-li utterly disagreed. But Li Jiya was still speaking. "Remember, the first duty of an Imperial bride is to bear a child to the Emperor, if he so chooses. The Gem Court brings the Emperor's bloodline back to the people, and infuses the ranks of cultivators with the divine strain."
"So, what you're saying is that the Emperor is breeding stronger cultivators," Joshi suggested. "And his primary interest in brides is to find women who will give him suitably talented children."
"It's one of the purposes," Li Jiya said. "And we can talk about this more when we're not in the middle of a competition. We need a strategy."
"Magen has spotted something," Joshi announced. "Three islands over." He pointed.
Chang-li shaded his eyes. The islands they had hopped so far were flat rafts about twenty feet on a side, covered in low-clinging plants that trailed their tendrils in the water and offered up blossoms. The islands rocked gently up and down, so they were more properly rafts, like the ones making up the Flotsam of Vardin City. The island Joshi pointed out was bigger, humping up out of the water like a real island.
Li Jiya immediately started closer, Chang-li hanging back to help the disciples. They paused one island away and surveyed their target. The island was circular, covered by the same plants, but rising up in a mound.
Li Jiya pursed her lips. "I can feel a lux technique there, hiding something from us. Send the lux creature to look.”
"Magen doesn't want to get any closer without me," Joshi said.
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"It would be helpful to know what it is," Li Jiya countered.
Joshi shook his head. "If Magen does not wish to approach, I will not force him."
Li Jiya looked disgusted. "Very well. Then we leap in blind, expecting anything."
Chang-li readied a Firepot. He was full of purified lux. There was very little indigo lux here, and no violet at all that he could tell. With prisms watching, he wouldn't have dared do anything beyond venting the violet out of his lux channels anyway.
Li Jiya had her weapon in hand. She and Joshi leapt as Chang-li threw out a pair of stepping stones for the disciples, since this gulf was almost twice as wide as the previous. Joshi and Li Jiya made use of his second to spring themselves across the gap.
Chang-li followed, keeping an eye on the disciples. They were making excellent progress in their cultivation. He thought Yang and Cui would reach the Peak of Mental Refinement not long after Brother Stone. Both had already pierced the first veil, though they had a hard road ahead of them. He was becoming aware just how fast he and Joshi had made it through the first two stages of cultivation, thanks to their weeks-long sojourn inside the first tower, and, he suspected, their exposure to violet lux. The disciples didn’t have that advantage. Their time inside the towers could be measured in days, not weeks. He was proud of the progress they’d made in that time. They'd worked hard, taking his teachings to heart.
Shou was more of a problem. Chang-li was still looking through the scrolls for techniques to help him progress. He had initially seemed more like Joshi, focusing on the physical luxes, but neither fists nor swords seemed to fit him. Chang-li wanted to have him and Min try working together on lux archery the next time they had a training day. He didn't think it was quite the right fit for Shou, but it might spark something.
Li Jiya had said she thought it was a waste of time to train disciples whose inclinations did not match with their seniors. "A sect excels by having two or three areas of excellence," she had informed him. "Every member of a sect should know how they fit into the sect's scheme. Trying to offer every discipline is a mistake. If we had a grandmaster here, they would tell you the same."
Chang-li had held his tongue. Li Jiya was only a temporary member of Morning Mist after all, and he didn't need to argue with her. But he was convinced the sect would be stronger with diversity.
Now, as he landed on the island beside Brother Stone, he directed the senior disciple. "You four hang back until we see what it is, then provide support. You focus on secondary threats and keeping a perimeter up. If I were one of the other sects, I would attack while we are distracted."
"Understood," Brother Stone said, giving Chang-li a nod.
Chang-li moved forward to join Li Jiya and Joshi, confident Brother Stone and the disciples would do as he asked. Joshi and Chang-li were striding up the sloping mound of the island, even as Brother Stone and the disciples spread out a bit to ring in this half of the island. Unlike the others, this one wasn't moving up and down. It felt solid.
Li Jiya made a sweeping motion with her weapon across the air, both directions. Her crescent moon blade gleamed, and then the lux technique she had pierced fell into pieces, revealing what lay beyond.
Chang-li was high enough down now to look over the edge of the mound and into it. It was a small bowl-shaped depression about 15 feet across. In the center rested an enormous six-legged lizard curled around a trio of eggs. The lizard flicked a tongue at them warningly. One of the eggs gleamed golden.
"That's got to be it, a puzzle box." Li Jiya said.
Joshi turned his head. His eyes widened. "Incoming," he said. "One of the other sects.”
Chang-li could hear Brother Stone calling to the disciples, directing them to intercept the new arrivals. That might buy them the minutes they needed to take this puzzle box, if they hurried.
Li Jiya didn't hesitate. "We need to claim that puzzle box," she snapped.
Chang-li had an idea. "If I get the puzzle box, I can store it in my soul space, and no one can take it from us.”
“Do that.” Li Jiya nodded. “I’ll join the disciples and hold them off.”
Chang-li took a quick glance at the rivals, now massing on the next island over. It looked like half of Azure Flame's team, led by two of their Young Masters. Morning Mist had equal numbers, but he wasn’t sure about power levels.
Li Jiya rushed forward, calling the disciples to join her as she threw up a weave preventing Azure Flame from landing on their island. A net of red and orange lux that repelled them backwards. The cultivators gathered on the nearest shore, then split off their attack into two groups.
Meanwhile, Chang-li and Joshi turned and raced down into the pit. They had faced several champions by now, and they worked together without needing much discussion. Joshi raced for the lizard. She rose off of her eggs, stepping in front of them to protect them with her body. Joshi drove in at her. She spat a gout of greenish liquid at him. Joshi dodged the liquid, hit the nets covering the bottom of the bowl, and they instantly withered.
“Jiya has the northern bunch contained, but four are coming from the west!” Joshi shouted, pointing.
Chang-li raced forward toward the lizard's tail. She was lashing it back and forth. It was as thick as a young tree trunk. She must have caught sight of him because she whipped it around now, crashing toward Chang-li. He dodged under it and came up on her other side, racing forward toward the eggs.
Joshi, meanwhile, slammed a Thousand Fist technique down on the lizard's head, hitting her from six different angles. She fell to the ground, picked herself back up, and advanced on Joshi. He backed away.
Chang-li darted in. He scooped up the puzzle box and immediately stored it in his soulspace, then hurled a Firepot at the lizard. It hit her flank. Distracted, she turned on him. Joshi punched her again.
Now Chang-li raced over the edge of the bowl as Joshi climbed up thirty feet away toward the west. The lizard hesitated, then followed Joshi. Chang-li made sure she was heading in the right direction, straight into the flanking group of Azure Flame cultivators. Magen had spotted them for Joshi, and he was nearly on them, the lizard hot on his heels before they realized it.
Joshi leapt, using Meteor Punch to carry him right past the pack of cultivators. Leaving them to deal with the enraged lizard, Chang-li and Joshi hurried to reinforce Li Jiya and the disciples. They faced five Azure Flame cultivators, one Chang-li recognized as a Young Master, but not their bride candidate. Now that Chang-li and Joshi joined the fight, Morning Mist had the advantage.
Techniques flashed. Weapons and punches flew everywhere, but conscious of a watchful prism, Chang-li held back. He used a weave to bind and blind one cultivator, who threw up his hands. "I retreat," he called, and Chang-li allowed him to clear the web and leave the island.
Li Jiya and Joshi had one of the Azure Flame's Young Masters cornered. Joshi drove him back to the edge of the water with a flurry of punches, and Li Jiya kept him from fleeing. Chang-li focused on the other disciple who'd been with them, but the woman was already leaping away, so he let her go.
As soon as Joshi and Li Jiya had pushed back the Young Master, they turned and sped across the island to where the lizard was wreaking havoc on the remaining Azure Flame cultivators. “Keep them from getting behind us!” Li Jiya called to the disciples. “We’ll push them back, then we’re moving on. We have what we came for!”
“Understood!” Brother Stone agreed.
The lizard faced off against four more Azure Flame cultivators: one Young Master, three disciples. Two of the disciples were wounded. The lizard reared up on its four back legs and spouted a gout of lightning-infused breath at the cultivators. The Young Master threw up a technique, breaking the breath around it. One of her disciples was caught in the blast, screaming. One side of his head now wreathed in flames, the disciple threw himself into the waters of the lake.
With Chang-li, Li Jiya, and Joshi joining the fight, the Azure Flame quickly fled, and now the enraged lizard turned its attention on Morning Mist.
“It’s a challenge beast!” Joshi called. “We want its heart!”
"Take it down!" Chang-li shouted to the disciples, who pulled out the scripts he had prepared several days ago. As of yet, the only script Chang-li could make was for his firepot technique, but now the four sent a rain of fire pots down on the lizard, while Jiya stepped in with her weapon.
Chang-li wove a blue-and-green confusion web, tossing it expertly around the lizard's head. The beast began to thrash about, its limbs flailing in the sandy shore, leg twitching madly.
Joshi leapt onto its back and aimed a spiked orange gauntleted fist at the base of its neck. Three quick blows in the same location, and the lizard spasmed, falling flat to the dirt, before, after a final series of convulsions, laying still.
Li Jiya moved forward. A moment later, she emerged triumphant, carrying the challenge beast heart. She held it up. "Did you get the puzzle box?"
"I have it," Chang-li confirmed.
"Then let’s get out of here, before they regroup," she instructed, leaping away from the island without a backward glance. Chang-li and the others followed.