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

"What sort of bargain?" Joshi asked roughly. "And what has become of my kinsmen?"

"Oh, they weren't foolish enough to stand in the way of those cultivators," Sun Wukong assured him. "The Golden Locks people seem to have pushed straight past the first floor. As I said, you have a bit of time before they arrive, but you are no match for them. I can feel the difference between their power and yours."

Chang-li's heart sank. "Then we've got to stay ahead. We should just push up the mountain now, deal with this floor's guardian rather than trying to bargain with the emperor."

Sun Wukong shook his head. "That will not serve you as well as you think. The next floors are very different. You will not be able merely to rush through. I am certain you will be forced into a confrontation with these enemies."

Min was shaking her head. "Impossible. They're so much higher than us."

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. We have a bit of time yet. Let me help you to grow stronger. In exchange, you will help free me from this mountain so I can go about my own business."

"How exactly will we do that?" Chang-li asked warily.

Sun Wukong waved a hand. "The details will become clear soon enough."

"I… believe we should make this bargain," Hiroko said quietly.

Sun Wukong turned on her, beaming. "There you are then. What say you? If you don't reach the top, then all this is worthless anyway."

"Can we trust you?" Chang-li asked.

Sun Wukong threw back his head and laughed. He laughed for a good minute before wiping tears from his eyes and turning back. "Trust me? No, certainly not. I am the least trustworthy creature you have ever met. But," he waggled a finger. "I think this will be funny. And while I do not make or keep solemn vows, I am always interested in a good time."

Truthfully, Chang-li had been half convinced the moment the odd man had offered them training. He turned to his friends. "What do you think?"

"I think if he thinks he can help us face a bunch of cultivators backed by a prism, then I'm willing to hear him out," Joshi said.

Chang-li turned back. "All right. We'll make a deal. We'll make that deal."

"Excellent!" Sun Wukong said tearfully. "Then, let's waste no time at all. Now that I've got your measure, I know exactly how best to aid all of you. And fortunately for you, there's plenty of me on hand to help."

With a pop, he split into four different images of himself.

"Now, let's begin."

Chang-li concentrated, trying hard to cycle. It was hard to relieve his mind of outside pressures when he was upside down, resting all of his weight on his hands, with his legs sticking up above him, and a grinning Sun Wukong bobbing up and down in front of him.

"Hold that. Hold that. Yes. Now. Cycle. No. That's a stupid pattern. Why would you use this pattern like that? Try this: inhale through your left nostril. Don't worry about what color the lux is. It's all yellow here. Cycle it into your core. There you are. Why did you do this funny dual channels thing to yourself? Could end up being useful, but you're liable to cripple yourself trying to ascend the ranks. Oh, I see. You are an ambitious one, aren't you? And good heavens!"

Sun Wukong froze. He approached Chang-li, crouching down, bringing his face in close to Chang-li's. It was horribly disconcerting to stare into the man's mouth as he scrutinized. "What is that? I didn't sense that at first when we were fighting. You've got it well locked down. Right. On your feet now, boy."

Sun Wukong's voice rang out. Chang-li gratefully inverted himself, stretching his sore muscles and running a quick cycle of Purification of Mind and Soul.

"None of that now," Sun Wukong snapped. All his playfulness was gone. "Can't believe I didn't see this before. Take that bracelet off now."

Chang-li obeyed at once without asking, falling back into old habits of doing whatever his master at the time said.

Off in the distance, another copy of Sun Wukong was forcing Joshi to chase Magen, who was bobbing along ahead of him and eluding the punches Joshi threw. Min was shooting at targets that Wukong conjured from the end of his staff. He hurled them into the air, calling out an element of lux flavor for her to tip her arrow with as the target hung arced through the air, forcing her to respond in heartbeats.

The fourth copy of Wukong sat almost nose to nose with Hiroko, both of them kneeling in an overly intimate posture. Presumably, they were discussing something, doing training of some sort, but Chang-li couldn't make out what.

"Focus on the me here, boy," Wukong snapped. "You have something stuck in your chest. Should I fetch it out for you?" He reached a hand toward Chang-li as though intending to push it into his chest.

Chang-li scrambled backward. "No, thank you," he hesitated. "Unless you think you could do it without killing me. It's a Lens," he admitted.

Sun Wukong's eyes went wide. "A Lens."

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"You know what that is?"

"Of course I do. I'm not an idiot, boy, though it seems you are. You're not even at the Lux Endowment level. Why on earth do you have a Lens stuck in your core?"

"It's a long story," Chang-li said wearily.

"Yes." Wukong sighed. "Well, I suppose we haven't time for that now. And no, I'm not going to try to take it out of you. So, what are we to do with you here now?" He drummed his fingers against his leg, then nodded. "Right. I've just changed your training program up entirely. You will keep that bracelet off unless I say otherwise. You're going to learn to actually use what you've got here, boy. It might kill you, but on the other hand, this is the only chance I see of you fools actually being able to take on those cultivators that are, even now, looking for the steps up. Six of them, and they're all at Lux Embodiment."

Chang-li's blood went cold. "Hopeless," he whispered.

"Probably," Wukong said, "but in which case you have nothing to lose by doing as I say. As I see it, the only chance you've got is to reach at least Lux Endowment yourself. Fighting down a level is hard, especially outnumbered. Fighting down two levels would be suicidal."

Chang-li stood up and squared his shoulders. "Then we haven't any time to waste."

Min knocked an arrow, aiming at the just-released target.

"Ice," Sun Wukong snapped.

She infused the arrowhead and fired it off. He was already sending another target from his staff in completely the opposite direction. "Air."

Again, she infused and fired. This time, he called, "Life." She scrambled. They'd been using yellow lux. That was what she was expecting. Now, she belatedly added green and fired.

The arrow went wide of the mark. Before she could even protest, he was spinning his staff. Now, half a dozen targets at once flew out. She didn't even bother to infuse lux this time, just aimed and fired again and again. She hit three of the targets. The others looped around a couple of times before dissolving.

Min let out a shout of annoyance and threw up her hands. Her lux bow dissolved as she spun on the smiling creature who wore the face of a handsome young man. He cocked his head to one side. "I thought we were making real progress, Min."

She ground her teeth together. "You may call me Mistress Guo," she snapped. "We are not family."

"Perhaps not, but I am your tutor. Should I have you address me as Honorable Sun?"

Min snarled at him. "You can tell me to call you whatever you like, but I'm just about done with this. You're not helping. You're just making this harder and harder and then laughing at me when I get it wrong."

The man softened his expression. A smile was replaced by a look of almost sympathy.

"You are trying to reach the Peak of Mental Refinement. You've already made great progress. But you're holding back, Min."

"I'm doing everything you've asked," she retorted.

"No, you haven't. You need to face facts. You've already pierced the first two veils, and now you've come up hard against the third, and you don't want to admit it to yourself."

Min took a deep breath. What did he know about it? Yet somehow he was touching on her deepest fears. Chang-li had helped her pass the first two veils easily enough. She had allowed herself to think that the only reason she'd ever had trouble cultivating was that she hadn't been able to spend enough time inside a tower.

The veil of sight had fallen easily, the veil of touch crumbling almost immediately after that thanks to the rigors of the second floor. Now, she was coming up against something she didn't truly even understand.

"I'll get it," she said, grinding her teeth.

"But will you get it quickly enough?" Sun Wukong asked. "I know your fear. I can see it in your eyes every time you look at him."

Min couldn't help but turn toward where Chang-li was working with another copy of Sun. They were sparring again, Chang-li's two blades against Sun's staff. Their weapons flashed so quickly she could barely see them.

"He's pushing himself because he must," Sun Wukong said quietly. "The Lens in his soul will devour him if he can't progress fast enough. You have no such constraints. You can take your time."

"I don't want to be left behind," she muttered, and summoned her bow once more. "We go again."

Sun Wukong sighed, stepped back, and fired two targets out of the same end of his staff at once. She put an arrow through each, and kept it up until he ordered her to stop and cycle again.

"Your problem, Min," Wukong said, after she'd spent an interminable amount of time cycling without feeling any impact on her core, "is that you must be in control of everything, and that includes your own rate of progression."

She opened an eye and looked up at where he was standing over her. "I think I almost had it that time," she said. "Something in me is starting to resonate."

"No. It's not," he said flatly. "You don't need to lie. I can hear when a soul is close to a breakthrough, and you couldn't be farther from one. You've decided you must push through now, because if you don't reach the Peak of Spiritual Refinement by the time you're done here in this tower, you don't know when the next time is you'll be able to cultivate."

"That's true for every cultivator."

"Hmm. Is it? I don't see your husband and his friend being so worried."

"They have..." She hesitated. "They're real cultivators," she admitted aloud, hoping that no one was listening in on her conversation. "I'm just a spouse. You know how many of those never progress at all? Of course Chang-li and Joshi are the ones who need to be working on their progression. I'm just trying to keep up when I can. When we rejoin the sect, I'm going to have other duties."

"Yes, indeed," Sun Wukong said. "The duties of sect spouse, as well as everything else. The wheeling and dealing you need to do to support your husband's advancement, the duties you owe your grandfathers, both of them, the ties the Gem Court can place on you. Of course. You are a busy woman, Min," Sun said. "Perhaps too busy. You would do better to focus on just one thing."

She closed her eyes and focused on cycling. Her core brimmed over with lux. It was a heady feeling. New to her still. She couldn't get enough of it. She would advance. She would keep up. Not let the gap between herself and Chang-li grow any vaster.

"Many cultivators struggle their whole lives to attain the Peak of Spiritual Refinement, and you think you can do it as a part-time hobby," Sun said, his voice gently scoffing.

Min's eyes opened. She stood up and scowled at him. "If you're not going to let me meditate, we might as well do another round of target practice."

"It's my turn to try to hit the target," he said softly. "I said I would help you reach the Peak of Mental Refinement, and I will, but I cannot as long as you are placing blocks in the way. You are your own worst enemy, Min. You need to step back and decide what's important to you. Your Brotherhood? Your family? Your sect? Your husband? Your own advancement? Pick. You can't have it all."

Fury welled up in Min. She felt her core tighten, her lux channels overflow as she spoke out of her deepest fear and rage back at the infuriating, hateful, insightful man. "I won't give any of it up. Not even if it means it takes me twice as long. I'm not willing to abandon anything."

"But must it all fall on your shoulders, Min? Couldn't someone else help you out with the sect? With the Brotherhood? With your family?"

"Someone else might do it wrong," she said, and felt something in her give way.

There was a shift. Her lux flowed freely through her channels. She cycled it, listening to its rhythm as her anger pumped blood and lux all through her body. "Someone else might get it wrong," she repeated, and found herself frustrated, blocked. For a moment there, she thought she'd had the insight that would let her pierce the veil.

Sun smiled infuriatingly at her. "And that is why you will never reach the top of anything," he said.