License to Cultivate [Progression Fantasy Tower Climber] (FOUR books completed!)

At long last, the accused entered the arena. A squad of prison guards paraded in, looking unhappy. Gliding in behind them came a palanquin carried by no one at all, a lux construct of incredible complexity and cost. It was hung all around with a skirt in the colors of the Morning Mist. The palanquin's curtains were thrown back, revealing the occupant: Noren lounging among a cloud of golden pillows.

Yoonji couldn't contain her irritation. This was a ridiculous show of wealth and force. Where had he gotten such a preposterous thing? It wasn't remotely practical. The palanquin seemed to be limited to a walking speed. Why would anyone use that instead of a golden cloud?

Except, she supposed, to show off.

The palanquin approached and stopped in front of the stage. Some of the people dressed in Morning Mist robes came forward and helped Noren off the palanquin, not that he needed any help. Then, surrounded by people in his colors and preceded by guards who looked more like they were there to honor him than to keep him from misbehaving, he mounted the steps.

At the top, he turned and waved to the arena. The people in the stands reacted by loud cheers and shouts. Yoonji stewed but held herself patiently. It would be her turn soon.

The guards approached Noren. Yoonji could hear their whispers. "Please take your seat, Grandmaster."

Noren approached the chair. He looked at it, gave a shrug, and sat down, setting his arms in his lap.

"Arms at the sides, if you please," the guard captain said stiffly, pointing to the manacles waiting there.

Noren sighed. "I assure you, there is no need, and in fact, no use."

"Nevertheless," the man insisted.

At last, Noren extended one hand, then the other, placing them in the manacles, which locked themselves. At once, chains of dark iron grew from the manacles, wrapping themselves around Noren's arms and chest, down the legs of the chair to bind his feet.

In the stands, the crowds shouted their disapproval.

Noren smiled. He spoke, and his words carried just as easily as had the Grandmaster's prior. "Never fear. These chains are of no import. The Inquisition has taken great care to ensure that they are light and comfortable."

He rattled them, and they clanked heavily, denying his words. He looked up front. "Shall we begin this matter, Inquisitor? I have a great deal to do. My disciples are, even now, at the far side of the Empire, getting into who knows what mischief without my guidance. I need to hurry to their side and continue their education as soon as possible."

"You will take note of the fact that you are on trial here for your life, the life of your disciples, and that of your sect, Grandmaster," Ro Daen said sharply. "The accused will please state his name."

Noren sighed and managed to look insouciant, even wearing the chains.

"I am called Grandmaster Noren of the Morning Mist Sect. My license to cultivate bears the name Noren Dara."

"And this is your name?"

"It is the one I answer to currently," Noren said with a smirk. Yoonji couldn't wait for her turn.

"Your sect name, Morning Mist, belongs to a sect proscribed several centuries ago and struck off the registry of sects."

"It was proscribed," Noren said cheerfully, "and it was scrubbed from the list. That has been resolved now. You will find all of our paperwork properly in order, along with our reestablishment notices dating back to almost one year ago, with myself and my chief disciples named as the re-founders of the sect."

There was some muttering, but the Grand Inquisitor spoke at last. "I'll allow it. Inquisitor Yoonji, the stage is yours."

Now, at last, the preliminaries were over, and it was Yoonji's time to shine. She rose, deliberately smoothing her robes and approaching the prisoner, conscious of all these eyes on her, and found herself almost laughing. Why, all these machinations had worked in her favor after all. She, Inquisitor Pak Yoonji, was about to have the highest profile of any member of the Inquisition at a time when duty and loyalty to the Emperor would surely be his primary qualifications for the next prism to be elevated. She had Grandmaster Noren and the Grand Inquisitor to thank for it.

Yoonji smiled tightly as she approached. "Before I begin my case against the accused," she said, allowing her will to enhance her voice so that all here could listen, "let me begin by setting the stage.

"We are all aware of the sad state of affairs wherein several of our prisms have defied the Emperor and risen up in rebellion. To suppress the terrible effects of the rebellion upon our land and people, I and my fellow Inquisitors have been ferreting out treason and lawbreaking across the land. I discovered a plot hatched by the rogue prism Eri. The final details of this plot are still to be determined. I myself am working on gathering that information as we speak.

"The course of my inquiries led me to the group calling themselves the Sect of Morning Mist. The prisoner here has declared that they are, in fact, the same as this legendary charter sect. I will provide evidence to show that it is no such thing but a fraud, a con, and an excuse for treasonous lawbreakers to work a plot against the Emperor.

"I shall explain how the details and magnitude of this plot extend across multiple provinces, involving provincial officials, shadowy underworld organizations that exist in defiance of the Emperor's divine order for existence, even involving members of the Gem Court."

She had plenty of evidence and witness testimony at her disposal to call upon. Yoonji was going to enjoy this.

"But the most convincing evidence shall be from the prisoner's own mouth, where he himself declared his disciple to be guilty of the crime…."

Yoonji hesitated before speaking clearly. "Of grand treason."

There was a gasp around the arena. The high-ranking cultivators in the stands looked taken aback, the cultivation officials truly horrified. Everyone knew that the Emperor's awareness stretched across the empire at all times, dancing lightly here and there, so that he could be informed of everything that went on. At the same time, everyone knew there were certain phrases which were guaranteed to get his attention.

Grand Treason was one of those phrases.

Yoonji allowed herself a moment to enjoy this feeling as the crowd hung on her every word.

"To begin with, we must go back to the great crime of the Prism Eri, who declared herself in opposition to the Emperor at Varden City, capital of Riceflower Province.

"Perhaps coincidentally, the sect Morning Mist was founded, or, as the prisoner would say, refounded, there in Varden City, with the help of Riceflower city officials.

"The only cultivation spouse the Sect of Morning Mist currently boasts of is in fact the granddaughter of the governor of the province of Riceflower, as well as the granddaughter of their leading Brotherhood, a fraternal organization, nay, a gang of criminals who has joined together in a union without Imperial sanction, unlike a licensed guild or sect."

That got a few upset cries from the crowd. Yoonji had expected that. Fraternal organizations like the Brotherhood of the Oaken Band were everywhere, their rot seeking to undermine the proper pyramid of Empire. Every organization in the Empire operated on hierarchical principles, with the lessors owing duties to the superiors. Brotherhoods pretended to equalize all of that, even referring to their superiors merely as "elder brother," and enforcing ridiculous notions of propriety and mutual obligation.

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Why, she had investigated cases where members of a brotherhood had assassinated high-ranked cultivators who had merely taken advantage of a superior position to impose their advances upon a brotherhood member. Yoonji, as a young Inquisitor, had also overseen such cases. They were properly resolved with a fine and a warning to the cultivator, or a reprimand in his or her license, if the offended party happened to have been higher ranked than the general case.

Some brotherhoods were reputed to have secret techniques to nullify a cultivator's lux in order to perform such an assassination. Yoonji had never found proof of that. Perhaps when this was done, she would convince the Grand Inquisitor to give her scope to begin investigating brotherhoods across the Empire. It was clear to her now that they were hotbeds of rebellion and crime.

But the audience was waiting on her. She returned to her case. "From the evidence I have gathered, it's clear that a couple of opportunistic cultivators happened across the remnants and relics of the old Morning Mist sect. Rather than properly turning them over to the Office of Cultivation for their redistribution to a legitimate sect, they decided to reform a sect which had not existed for several hundred years."

Carefully, Yoonji laid out her investigation. She produced records from Golden Moon City and testimonials from sect leaders she had interviewed, mostly from the Soaring Heavens Sect, who had given her many pieces of information she hadn't been able to put together elsewhere.

She had the evidence from a couple of Riceflower City officials of how the sect spouse, Gao Min, had caused all of their documentation to go through without much examination, and, as a coup d'état, produced witnesses from Fai-Lan City of the hushed and hurried nature of the marriage between Morning Mist's ranking disciple, Wu Chang-li, and the aforesaid Gao Min.

"Now I ask you," she said, pausing in her recitation of the facts to address the arena. They were not, of course, the ones sitting in judgment, but she was well aware of what the opinion of the crowd could do for her politically. "Gao Min is the only granddaughter of the two most powerful men in all of Riceflower Province. Would she really have made a rushed and hurried marriage to a no-rank cultivator from an obscure sect without good reason? Of course not.

"One must ask, what did cause it? Here is the truth: they went to her and revealed the fact that they had located the ancient headquarters of the Morning Mist Sect."

She let that sink in. Some of the cultivators in the stands beside her were leaning forward, obviously eager.

"Imagine," she said, and for good measure she wove a quick illusion of blue lux, showing the Morning Mist Sect headquarters as it had been on her visit, the towers, the outbuildings, the libraries, the secrets of an ancient sect just waiting to be claimed.

"With that, a bunch of low-ranking cultivators could catapult themselves past older, established, worthy sects, and take up a name and rank that was never theirs." She risked a glance into the stand full of cultivators and was pleased to see more than a few of the seniors nodding along, their faces stern.

"Who could possibly have endorsed a scheme like this? Who but a rogue Prism, one who seeks to overthrow the natural order, one who is raising up her own supporters? Prism Eri knows she has no chance to win an honest fight against our Divine Emperor. Her only hope is to somehow establish her claims strongly enough that the Emperor chooses to forgive her and make concessions. Think what having a so-called charter sect on her side backing her up would do.

"I suggest to you that Prism Eri is the one who located the Morning Mist Sect. She chose puppets and established them, then positioned them in such a way as to gain the Emperor's favor when her initial scheme went awry."

It fit everything Yoonji knew of the woman. Prism Eri was scheming, calculating, making sure that even in the event of a failure, she would have a victory.

"And this, then, is why this Prism has admitted to me that his disciple committed treason. Because under the steadfast pressure of the Inquisition, he knew that I had already found everything they wished so desperately to hide. Morning Mist is a fraud, erected by a rogue cultivator to distract us and support herself. Yet the crimes they have committed are real crimes, and their treason is on their own heads, by their own admission."

She stepped back, flushed, delighted at the thoroughness of her case. There was a long, silent moment, broken by the sound of someone behind her clapping.

She whirled. Noren had his hands still chained. He had projected a pair of spectral blue hands in front of him, which were applauding loudly enough to break the silence.

"Well done, Inquisitor," he said. "It is good to know that the Inquisition continues to uphold its fine standards of concocting only the most ludicrous and obvious falsehoods. I wouldn't want to think that standards had slipped since the last time I crossed blades with an Inquisitor, of course."

He looked up at the front. "It is customary to allow the accused to speak in his own defense, is it not?"

Grand Inquisitor Ro Daen frowned. "Sometimes. This is an inquisitorial hearing, however, and the rights of the accused are somewhat different."

Noren turned to the stand full of cultivators to the side. "In that case, I will ask my peers, would you care to hear my side of the story?"

Grandmaster Onyanat stood up and spoke. "Grand Inquisitor Ro Daen, the Chartered Eight would like to hear this man out before you make your judgment."

The Grand Inquisitor nodded. "Very well."

"In that case," Noren snapped his fingers. The chains fell from his wrists and vanished. He stood up and strolled easily across the platform as Yoonji glared at him. "I should like to weave a different story, even more fantastical than Inquisitor Pak's, full of daring and misdeeds and romance, the sort of thing legends are made of. Mine, however, has the virtue of being true."

He steepled his fingers together and bowed his head. "Where are we? Ah, yes. With the accused. The actually accused, and absent Wu Chang-li, my beloved disciple."

A projection rose in the air, twisting itself into the image of a young man with his dark hair back in a tail, studious-looking, just as a scribe with a brush in his hands and a look of quizzical astonishment on his face.

"Chang-li is both lucky and talented. A truly gifted young cultivator who might never have realized his potential except for a chance encounter.

"While cultivating inside the tower at Golden Moon City, Chang-li happened to encounter an acquaintance of mine, a man named Wulan, who had been a member of the sect of Morning Mist at the time of its prescription."

One of the inquisitors interrupted. "Grandmaster Noren, surely you cannot expect us to believe that. It's been hundreds of years!"

Noren smiled placidly. "Of course. Wulan has been dead for that time. He had the misfortune of dying inside a tower with unfinished business and a curious reluctance to move on. His shade made a bargain with Chang-li. Together they uncovered a trove of Morning Mist's secrets left behind by Wulan and the last remaining Morning Mist cultivator centuries before in the library at Fai-Lan City.

"This was a truly fortuitous circumstance, as it happened to alert me that someone was looking for the sect once more. Curious, I decided to investigate. By the time I met up with Chang-li, he had the sect well established, and I took both him and it in hand." Noren smiled and extended his hands. "This, I think, explains facts far better than Inquisitor Pak's inventive tale."

Yoonji fumed as more than a few heads nodded.

"Preposterous," she spat. "And in any case, utterly irrelevant. Cultivator Wu has committed grand treason, as accused by his own Grandmaster. In addition, Grandmaster Noren, you seem to be implying a connection yourself with the previous Morning Mist sect, one that you are using to hand down its legitimacy."

Noren nodded cheerfully. "Yes, of course. I was born into the sect. And right up until its proscription, was considered its bright hope for the future." He sighed. "Unfortunately, my father and I never did see eye to eye on certain matters. But nevertheless, I regret his choices, which led him against the Emperor."

Grand Inquisitor Ro Daen interrupted. "Grandmaster Noren, this is fascinating. However, we have spent enough time on the preliminaries. Do I need to invoke a Truth Strike, or can you speak your words with enough Intent to back them up?"

"Oh, I have Intent, never fear," Noren said.

Yoonji felt his will flare out. She gasped at its strength. She'd felt it before, but had convinced herself in these past days that she'd been mistaken. He was incredibly strong. Stronger, perhaps, than the Grand Inquisitor, but that was ridiculous.

"Yes, let's see. The matter of grand treason. Yes, the grand treason," Noren said pleasantly. "Grand treason," he mused. "It is so difficult to speak of grand treason without accidentally committing the crime in question... which is grand treason," he added.

Yoonji stared at him. What exactly was he playing at? There was an electricity in the air as the watchers all looked on intently. Noren sighed. "Very well. It seems I must speak. The heart of the matter is that my disciple, Wu Chang-li, has—"

All at once, Yoonji went deaf.

Or so it seemed for a moment. Noren was very clearly speaking, but no words came out of his mouth. Then a will stronger and harder than her own, or even Noren's, enveloped them all.

The sky cracked open.

People watching in the arena stands fell on their faces in terror. The cultivators in the nearby stands did better, most of them dropping to their knees.

Long, brilliant ropes of light split the sky like an aurora, and a shining, sparkling figure descended. He glowed with his own bright light, emitting every shade at once.

Yoonji had been in the presence of the Emperor on a handful of occasions, but she never failed to appreciate his majesty. She was on her knees as he descended, until he hovered just over the stage in front of Noren. She pressed her head to the ground before daring to raise her eyes an inch or two to see what was going on.

Noren was on one knee in front of him, hands placed on his other leg, head bowed, a posture of respect, but not obeisance.

Then the Emperor's brilliance flared all around, and she lost sight of them both.