Chang-li kept up the practice until it became effortless. Whether it would work against a cultivator like Feng, he wasn't sure, but here in this place, with his own lux, he was master. He stepped away from his image, taking a deep breath. He still felt no need to eat or drink or sleep. His sore muscles had long ago been soothed. "How long have I been in here?"
"It has been very little time in the world beyond."
That wasn't reassuring. It wouldn't take Feng long to kill Joshi, not without help and backup.
"You have used perhaps 20% of the violet lux in the structure of this chamber," his image said.
That was more helpful. 20%. A fifth of his training done. He cast about, trying to decide what he needed to work on next. He needed to reach the Peak of Mental Refinement, but Feng wasn't just at the peak, he was beyond it. If Chang-li didn't arm himself better, he'd have no chance of defeating him.
"The sword," he decided. "I want to practice sword and flame."
"Don't you think flame is getting a bit boring?" his image said. "You and your Firepots. I liked that weave technique you were trying, though you don't have the knack for it at all. You're going for the Sevenfold Strands of Heaven, aren't you?"
"No," Chang-li was surprised. This was the first sign he'd had that the image truly was separate from himself and didn't know what he was trying. "It's a technique from the scrolls called the Infinite Loom." He practiced it because it was both a training technique and one that could be adapted to use in battle. He had spent hours studying the scrolls which gave detailed accounts of how to weave it during the training session before re-entering the tower. He'd gotten pretty good at using three different colors of lux. For now, it was an inefficient and inelegant way of controlling luxes he didn't yet understand.
"My sword channels physical luxes. I'm good at those with Firepot, too. What I want is to begin to master the spiritual luxes," he told his image. "The net was just supposed to help me get used to working with them. It's done well so far against enemies that aren't very sophisticated, but as I continue the climb —“
“It won't be enough," his image finished. "Finally, you start to comprehend. You have so far to go, and your attitude is all wrong. You approach this like a peasant begging for scraps or a student entreating his master. It's not how cultivators behave."
A retort sprang to Chang-li's lips, but he cut it off. From what he'd seen of most cultivators, his image was exactly right. Cultivators were arrogant, oppressive, and self-centered. Even one like Li Jiya, who he admired, was completely self-centered, focused on her own path and not on those around her. If her sect had been a little less secretive and protective of their secrets, perhaps her brother need not have died. That was a shameful waste.
"You're getting distracted," his image noted.
Chang-li shook himself. "Merely pondering the truth of what you say."
His image looked surprised. "Oh, so you can listen. How interesting."
"If you're going to help and not just stand there and mock me," Chang-li said, "what I want is to learn to wield spiritual luxes at the same time as using my sword."
"It's a difficult path you've set yourself there." His image looked him over. "You're well on your way to developing two separate lux channel structures coming out of your core. The left and the right side don't match at all. Your left side is much more attuned to physical luxes while your right side is as yet unvariegated. As long as the channels on your right side are poorly formed it leaves you with a weakness that a stronger opponent might take advantage of if they were clever enough to notice it. You need to repair the imbalance and strengthen your right side channels. Or, on the other hand..." He paused, then nodded. "Yes, yes, I think this would make a fine addition to my future body. I will aid you in doing this if you choose."
"Explain," Chang-li said.
"Kneel."
Chang-li did, and his image followed suit, sitting up high on their knees, little ways distant from each other. The image extended his left hand. Chang-li extended his right, and they touched. It felt like touching the wall of the cell had. Smooth, slightly cool, not like touching another human. lux flowed between them.
"What have you read in your scrolls about this?" the image said. "I am not here to teach you new things, but to help you draw out what you already know."
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
There, another admission of its true purpose. Chang-li seized on that as he remembered the lessons in the Morning Mist scrolls. "Nothing about breaking my lux channels down into two separate paths, that's for sure."
"Are you certain?"
Chang-li paused. There had been a great deal of cultivation theory that he hadn't understood, skimmed past and resolved to come back to when he had more time. One scroll, he hadn't bothered to translate, just ran his eyes down the page and tried to determine if there were any valuable techniques there. Something about preparing for the step past. No, how had the writer put it? Prepare at lower levels for the higher. Too many cultivators consider each step on its own rather than what they are building to, and so when they got to the Peak of Spiritual Refinement, they were unable to go any farther. It had been a warning, but not one he’d paid much mind.
Chang-li wrinkled his brow and thought. “If Physical, Mental and Spiritual Refinement are about teaching my body to properly use lux without killing itself, then the steps beyond are to remake myself entirely."
"Yes," his image whispered, "yes, to become more like me, a creation of lux. As you learn to impose your will on the universe with lux, you will find more and more it becomes the only real thing."
Chang-li said, "but there was something about optimizing yourself for that step and it talked about isolating lux channels. I think..." He closed his eyes, trying to remember the image on the page. It had been a coil of lines spiraling outward. Two sets of lines, not overlapping, never touching as they spiraled away from a center core. "Yes, of having separate lux channels for spiritual and physical luxes. The writer said it gave greater control but was hard to master. Two sets of channels going everywhere. That sounds impossible."
"But what if instead you remake your lux channels as they are," the image prompted. “Instead of two parallel sets of channels everywhere, you have one complete set on each side of your body.”
“Is that even possible at this stage? You're talking about changing my body. I don't have control over that yet."
"Perhaps not in the real world," the image said. "But we are not in the real world. We are in a place entirely made of spiritual luxes. Here, the difference between what is and what could be is thinner. Less lux is needed to make the changes."
"So, you're saying I could remake my own body here?"
His image shrugged. "You already have once when you reached the Peak of Physical Refinement. It just wasn't under your control and you weren't really aware of what you were doing. This would require attention and care, focusing on the details and ensuring that you don't make any mistakes."
“How?"
"Stand up," his image instructed.
They both stood.
"Take off your clothes."
Chang-li hesitated only a moment before letting his cultivator robe slide to the floor. It pooled in a cool gray pile. His image matched his every move. Now he pulled his tunic over his head and stood staring at his image. He could see the lux channels beneath the skin of his image—rivers of light running from his core, there in the center of his body, out to the end of each of his fingers, down through his legs, through his shoulders, and up his spine.
He hurried and pulled off his trousers, studying the way the lux channels ran through his body. Already he could see what his image had meant. On his left side, the channels were wider, deeper, and tinged toward red, while for the rest of his body, the colors were muddied and mixed.
He held out his right hand, concentrating on letting only green lux out of his core. He cycled it all through his body, watching specifically on his right side, seeing how the lux circulated. Then he concentrated very hard and shut off the lux channels on the left side of his body. The cycling failed at once. He wasn't using the right pattern.
He took a deep breath and considered, then began to use Swirling Mists. Because it was a one-directional emptying pattern, it was easier to use. He was just venting the lux from his channels, not trying to circulate it back through. He emptied it out, then reversed the pattern and pulled the green lux back in until it reached his core. Nothing seemed to have happened.
“Well?” he demanded of his image.
“You have taken one step, and you ask me if we have reached the destination yet?”
Chang-li took that as all the encouragement he needed. He repeated over and over until he found his cycling had become its own new pattern, like breathing in, then breathing out. He wasn't stopping and restarting the cycle anymore. The lux flowed out, then back into him.
After a few thousand repetitions, he thought he saw the channels on the right side of his body sharpen. If anything, they'd grown narrower, but their edges felt more defined. Excited, he let blue lux spill out of his core along with the green.
His image had a blank expression as they worked. It took an immeasurable amount of repetitions before Chang-li was certain he was getting somewhere. He stopped what he was doing, pulled all of his lux back in, then cycled unvariegated lux through his body, staring at his image. Sure enough, on the left side of his body, the channels were wide and red-tinged. On the right, they were narrow and with a definite bluish shade.
“Very pretty,” his image said, blinking at him. “But exactly what good do you think that's going to do you?”
“You were the one who encouraged me.”
“Do you think I care what you're doing? We're wasting your time here. You've used more than half of the violet lux in this place, and my time is coming.”
Chang-li brushed off a quick stab of worry. His image was just being a jerk.
“Well, then,” the image shrugged, “you tell me. We can sit here and tell each other riddles for the rest of the time if you would like.”
Chang-li bit off a retort. He stopped and considered. Much greater control of lux, both in and outside of himself now.
“Spar with me,” he told his image.
The image drew his sword. They went around the chamber, Chang-li's body stepping through comfortable forms as his mind worked furiously. He was certainly farther along in his cultivation than he had been, but he wasn't any closer to the Peak of Mental Refinement.
Or was he?