Chang-li's mind and core were both full. His thoughts and his cycling were consuming so much of him that he had almost forgotten that this floor would have a guardian to pass. As he cycled, quick flashes of dark emotions stabbed through him. Rage. Desire. Jealous. They weren’t his. They were memories, feelings, from the man he’d just killed, and had come into him along with his lux and techniques. He didn’t like it.

  He jerked his mind back from his worries as the golden cloud brushed up against an enormous branch of the giant tree. The branch was easily ten feet across, very gently curved. They stepped off onto it, and Sun Wukong led the way toward the enormous trunk.

  "Will the guardian let us pass?" Joshi asked.

  “He’ll open the door, yes, since you’ve beaten the others. If you want a decent boon, you will have to make him an offering," Sun Wukong said cheerfully. "Something of worth to you. One of those trinkets you took off your defeated foes, perhaps, but it would be better if it was something with significance to you personally."

  Joshi immediately glanced down at his feet. "I'm keeping these," he said. Chang-li had to hide a smirk.

  "I could give up the fan," Hiroko suggested. "I don't truly know what it's good for, anyway."

  "Show me," Sun instructed.

  Hiroko pulled the fan out, opened it, and flipped it over so he could see both sides. She unleashed a tiny flame dragon.

  Sun smiled. "Ah, I see. That is a very valuable trinket, and with time and study, it would be a perfect offensive weapon for you. I suggest you choose something else."

  Chang-li thought of the mirror he had taken, but his instincts told him to hold on to that. He was certain he could find many uses for a technique-duplicating mirror. That left the strange bracelet or the broken sword. Chang-li found himself reluctant to part with any of the treasures, but what had Sun meant about the offering meaning something to them personally? He didn’t want to give up any of his own possessions. He wrestled with the dilemma for a while. Didn’t it make sense to give something up for the possibility of greater gain? And yet the old proverb about a bird in hand rang in his mind.

  They reached the trunk of the tree. A vine wound up it, as thick across as a man's body, and Sun stepped right up onto the vine and began climbing it as it went. He scrambled after. It was easier than he expected. Here and there, where the vine slanted upward a bit too steeply, small mushrooms protruded from the trunk of the tree which could be used as handholds. They felt woody; they gave a little under his fingers, an unpleasant sensation.

  The whole tree was redolent with a spicy aroma. Its dark brown bark smelled of cinnamon, and with every breath, Chang-li inhaled its scent. The richness washed through him. He cycled Purification of Mind and Soul and felt the sensation flowing through his lux channels, calming them. He mentioned it to the others.

  "Yes, yes," Sun said, beaming. "This tree is an incredible natural treasure. No doubt an alchemist could make many valuable potions and elixirs from its bark. But in your case, just being here and cycling near it should give you its benefits."

  The roiling lux in his core began to settle. Chang-li breathed in again, taking as much as he could. He switched from Purification of Mind and Soul to simply moving his lux between his core and the Lens. His lux responded at once, feeling smoother, less upset.

  He should name this new pattern, even if it was one that no one beside himself was likely to use. Part of mastering something involved naming it. Nothing came to mind just yet, though.

  They continued to climb and came to another branch of the tree. Here, a wide ledge had been built into the tree, the first unnatural feature he had seen here: a scallop of white tile, silver veins running through it, surrounding small circular clutches of flowers that bloomed green and blue, their blossoms adding a honey-like note to the air.

  Chang-li inhaled again, swapped back to Purification of Mind and Soul, then stopped where he was and dropped to a seated position. Placing his hands on his knees, he said, "Hold a minute. I need to cycle." He felt like he was dangerously near to losing himself. He had to regain his balance now, before facing another challenge.

  The other three looked at him curiously before one by one they sank to cycling positions of their own. Hiroko settling right next to one of the clusters of flowers with a smile on her face. Sun Wukong stood on the wide branch and tapped his foot impatiently. "I thought you wanted to be done with this," he said. "We are wasting time."

  Chang-li ignored him, closing his eyes and focusing on the lux he'd taken in from the defeated enemy cultivator, with the rich cinnamon- and honey-infused air in his lungs seeping into his body. He felt more at peace and settled.

  The flow between his core and the Lens was a torrent. He stood beside its banks, desperately trying to keep the torrent within. The channels led. With every passing moment, he felt those channels strengthening as the healing air built him up.

  Beyond him, Sun Wukong sighed. "Well, if we're going to waste all this time, I can make use out of it," he said. "Come, Hiroko, let's see that fan of yours again."

  Chang-li tried to ignore the conversation, even when Joshi spoke up, sounding irritated. "I thought you said she had to figure it out herself."

  "Yes, but now I'm bored," Wukong explained. Chang-li deliberately tuned them out. As his torrent of lux slowed, becoming a mere rush, he brought his lux back to his core and switched patterns again, back to Purification of Mind and Soul.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Immediately, he felt how much improved he was. The lux answered him well, smoothing out, and he no longer felt those flashes of the enemy cultivator's rage and desire. The Lens had consumed them.

  He sensed memories and techniques were there, just at the edge of his mind, waiting for him to call on them. He didn't have time to sort through all those memories. Not now.

  He cycled just between his core and the Lens again. Now the torrent was much smoother, a vigorous current, but one that stayed where he told it to go.

  Imagining it as a flow gave him a spark of inspiration. Waterwheel, he decided. This pattern was Waterwheel. It helped him with his visualization to imagine an enormous wooden mill wheel sitting atop a torrent, powered by the flood beneath it but not destroyed, and not interfering with the flow, merely using it.

  With Waterwheel as his base, he slowly sent a stream of lux down his left side channels only. He was already used to manually directing where in his body the lux should go, so inventing a new cycling pattern wasn't nearly as difficult as it could have been.

  He inhaled, bringing more lux in from the rich environment around him, and then pushed it all out, reflecting that most cultivators at his stage hadn't been able to spend a quarter of the time he had inside of towers with their lux-rich atmospheres, where he could afford to spend hours practicing new cycling techniques.

  He opened his eyes and stood up, expecting his friends to be waiting for him, but they weren't.

  Chang-li blinked, and his focus returned to the world around him.

  Sun Wukong and Joshi appeared to be playing a bizarre game of tag. Sun was standing at the junction of a branch of the enormous tree, about fifty feet away from the platform on which they now rested. With a roar, Joshi, whose fists were swathed in lux, disappeared. His slippers took him right to Sun. He swung his fist, arcing toward the trickster's head, and Sun split into two. One version of him now stood three feet to the right, one three feet to the left of where Joshi stood. Both reached out and slapped Joshi in the back of the head before vanishing.

  Joshi whirled as Sun appeared further along the branch. Joshi charged at him. Magen bobbed overhead, pulsing different colors. Chang-li had the distinct impression that the lux creature was laughing.

  Joshi closed the distance with Sun. He leapt, kicking out, and passed right through where Sun was standing. As he did, Sun's image blinked away. Now he was standing right beside Chang-li.

  Sun shook his head in a mock scolding tone. "Now then, all I said was that she needed a teacher who appreciated her gifts, and since that clearly wasn't you—"

  Joshi roared again. Min and Hiroko struggled over to Chang-li as Sun swarmed up the trunk of the tree behind them.

  "What's all this about?" Chang-li asked. Their faces were more amused than anything else, so he wasn't particularly worried.

  "It wasn't what Wukong said. It was how he said it," Min said, rolling her eyes. "I don't blame Joshi for getting a bit upset."

  Hiroko, though, had her hands on her hips. "Enough," she called. Joshi stopped where he was. "We're wasting our time on this. Chang-li is ready. Let's finish this floor and go kill someone else’s emperor—and after that, I need to find my father.”

  The floor guardian waited for them at the very top of the tree. They had emerged out of the leaves and branches to stand in sunlight. Chang-li gazed out on the world all around him. It was so huge, hard to believe it could be contained within a tower.

  Enormous black butterflies flapped past them, each of them the size of his hand. They had great dark green spots on their wings and gave off a faint hum as they passed. They flew toward the center of the tree, joining together in a dark cloud that fluttered, darkened, and then coalesced into a shape: a man ten feet tall, his body solid green, with enormous black butterfly wings stretched out behind him.

  His back was to them. He turned, folding his wings across his naked body, and inclined his head respectfully. Chang-li and the others bowed.

  "Welcome," the floor guardian said. "I have seen your progress. You are the victors. I shall open the way for you. But, if you would have a boon from me, then give me something of yourselves."

  Chang-li had been thinking about this, and he had an idea. He took the broken sword from his soulspace and bowed, laying it at the floor guardian's feet. The man dipped his head, which had two enormous antennae sprouting from it. The antennae touched the sword lightly, and he turned his face toward Chang-li.

  "What is your intention with this?"

  "This sword represents the victory I have claimed over an enemy," Chang-li said boldly. "My friends and I defeated enemies stronger than we were, armed with treasures like this, and took the treasures for ourselves. He broke this in his attempt to defeat us, but, in the end, we were the victors and him the broken."

  The guardian seemed to consider. "I accept. And with this gift I see yourselves. You are bold and ambitious—good traits in cultivating. I will reward that ambition. You may request a boon from me."

  Chang-li hesitated. He had thought so long about the issue of an offering that he hadn’t thought of a request, but Sun Wukong moved in so smoothly he must have been waiting. He bowed low. "Esteemed floor guardian, my young friends and I were ascending to the court of the Jade Emperor. You and he have had dealings in the past."

  The floor guardian nodded, his antennae swaying.

  "We have," he said, his voice suddenly hard.

  "Then know this: the Jade Emperor's reign ends today."

  The guardian's eyes alit. "He will be expecting treachery from you, Sun Wukong."

  "Just because he sees the dagger coming doesn't mean he has any way to stop it," Sun said pleasantly. "But a little aid would be most welcome."

  "Then I know what to offer you," the guardian said.

  Chang-li's heartbeat quickened. Would he give them a weapon? Perhaps a technique that would help against the emperor?

  The man produced from thin air a length of rainbow-colored cloth. It looked incredibly light and reflected colors in every direction. It reminded him of the sort of thing he'd seen Prisms wearing. The guardian lifted his hand and made a slashing gesture. A piece of the cloth peeled off. He handed it to Chang-li who held it up. It was a cloak, complete with fastenings and a golden chain. Chang-li swung it around his shoulders as the guardian repeated the gesture three more times, handing cloaks to each of the four Morning Mist cultivators.

  The material was incredibly light. Chang-li felt it swish as he turned. He looked to his friends and was startled. The cloth, which had been giving off such a rainbow of colors, hung from their shoulders black as night. He couldn't see his own. It seemed to swish away from him when he turned to try to look.

  "These are taken from the cocoons of my people," the floor guardian intoned. "The silk spun from tiny threads of gossamer. These cloaks will help you resist enemy techniques. They are not perfect shields and if they are hit, it takes them several minutes to repair the damage. See?

  He raised a hand, and a web technique shot from his hand to a length of cloth still draped over his other arm. There was a flash. The cloak's radiance dimmed and became black like theirs. After a moment, the sparkle returned. "These will not protect you from the full attention of an enemy. They are made to deflect glancing blows in the heat of battle," the guardian explained.

  Chang-li bowed. "Thank you," he said, and sincerely meant it.

  Already, his friends' cloaks had resumed flashing iridescence, recovered from the damage of making them, it seemed.

  The guardian nodded. "Then go," he said.

  He turned his back and spread his wings. They stretched out wider and wider, filling the air, and became a dark portal. Chang-li checked that his weapon was ready and stepped through.