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

Shi Bo, senior disciple of the Golden Locks Sect, worried as he raced through the tower over the words the spirit had whispered to him as she gave her blessing over the team.

"They have betrayal in their hearts," she had warned him in a whisper so low only he could hear. "Take care. They want to take what you have from you. When you come to the crossroad, you will know their treason for sure."

He had never trusted his teammates, a pair of sisters. Mai Yin and Mai Yen had gained their position by courting the favor of higher-ranked cultivators in the sect, not by their own strength. Many times he had seen them under the wing of senior sisters, obviously being instructed privately.

Shi Bo was proud to have earned his own place in the sect by his ruthless skill. Since the day his grandfather had paid his entry, he had shown the sect what a true cultivation genius was like. It had been less than fifteen years from his admission to the sect to the day he reached Lux Embodiment and remade himself the way he had always known he would.

There was little trace of his younger self in him now. He had been thin, almost scrawny, though no cultivator was a weakling, and he had never liked how weak his eyes seemed when he studied himself in a mirror. When the time had come to remake himself, he had focused most of his attention there. He'd come out of the Lux Embodiment trance eight inches taller than when he had gone in, and with the golden, piercing eyes of a hawk.

Shi Bo had ears like a hawk, too, and he heard Mai Yin and Mai Yen whispering to each other as they went. He caught a snatch of words.

"The goddess said—"

"Not a goddess, but she—"

"Hush!"

Shi Bo pretended he didn't hear. He had bigger things to consider. Whoever opened this tower for Mistress Eri to enter would be supremely exalted. He had no doubt about it. Eri always rewarded her loyal servants.

Why, look what she had given him, an artifact of supreme worth. A mirror. He pulled it from his sleeve now and glanced down at it. It was about three inches across, backed with gold in which gems were set to form the outline of a constellation. The surface of the mirror reflected his sharp eyes back at him. He angled the mirror slightly and saw Mai Yin and Mai Yen had dropped back a little and were fluttering their fingers at each other.

The sisters had their own secret language of signs. But with the help of a mirror, he suddenly found he understood what they were saying. He ignored the faint pounding in his head and the odd hints of music playing just at the edge of his hearing and sought to understand what his traitorous colleagues were doing.

For they were traitors. He was certain of that. Had been certain for some time now. This was where they would show their teeth.

He couldn't trust them. He glared as the two had their own artifacts in hand and were comparing them. Mai Yin had a black fan with a red dragon picked out across it in shining threads. Mai Yen's artifact was a pair of emerald slippers, even now on her feet.

Priceless treasures, and he would do anything to own them both. With three such treasures, he would be a match for any foe he challenged. But Mistress Eri had commanded they work as a team, and while she rewarded initiative and those who took what they wanted, she came down hard on anything that could endangered her own plans.

Shi Bo didn't dare risk it. Instead, he watched until, at last, came his opportunity. They were passing through fields of rice that waved gently in the breeze. There were no signs of the farmers, not even houses. As they came to the end of the field, there was a crossroad.

Shi Bo halted. The sign on the crossroad, one side read "To Blue Mountain via the Great Forest" and the other, "To Blue Mountain via the Old Road."

The sisters caught up. "Well, it seems we have a choice to make," Mai Yin said, studying the two.

Shi Bo unleashed his cultivation senses and spread his will and Intent thin, pushing it out many directions. Ahead, along the path labeled Old Road, he sensed a powerful being, or perhaps several beings. Not of his own level, of course, but definitely with cultivation skill. His heart raced. A fight where he could impose his will on a lesser and absorb their own lux after his victory was exactly what he needed.

Mai Yin pointed to the other road. "This is the way," she said with certainty.

She and Mai Yen at once began down the path. Shi Bo stopped. He shook his head. "I'm the leader of our team, and I think we should take this path."

The sisters turned on him, their eyes flashing. Mai Yen put her hands on her hips, tapping her emerald slippers against the cobbled path. "Nonsense. This is the right way to go. Is it not the route the goddess told us to take?"

Bo frowned. He didn't recall the goddess saying anything of the sort. "She gave you directions?" he demanded.

Mai Yin smiled coldly. "It seems that she recognized the true potential for leadership in our trio."

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The words the goddess had whispered to him resonated now.

They are trying to betray you. You will know.

At once he was certain that whatever lay down that path, it included his own death. Mai Yin and Mai Yen were about to set him up, with each other as witnesses. They would tell Eri that he had fallen to a tower beast. Why, there were plenty of ways to arrange just that, by falling back at a key moment of battle or fumbling a spell.

He scowled at them. "I believe this is the way to go. You may accede to my leadership and accompany me, or risk your own path."

"We're supposed to be a team," Mai Yen pointed out. "Lady Eri told us to work together here."

"Then submit to my authority and all will be well," he said, trying to maintain his reasonable attitude.

The sisters looked at each other and shook their heads. "It's as the goddess said," Mai Yen said. "He's too full of his own arrogance to see reason. I will not be held back in my service to our mistress by this foolishness. Come," she said.

The two set off without a backward glance.

Shi Bo watched them go. He was certain of treachery. They were waiting until his back was turned, and then they would double back and find a way to betray him.

After half an hour of watching, though, he saw no more of them. Now fear bubbled up in him, fear and anger. They had manipulated him. They had taken the easier path, and there were two of them. They would reach the end long before he did. Even if he caught up, they would tell Lady Eri that his contributions had been negligible.

He would not allow that to happen.

Shi Bo raced down the other road. He would beat them to the mountain, and then he would ascend to the next level of the tower and open the way for Lady Eri's victory.

He didn't notice the faint gleam of light as the little lux creature, which watched invisible for the whole argument, sped rapidly off ahead of him.

"It's worked," Joshi reported. "Magen says a single cultivator is coming our way. He's at Lux Embodiment and he has some sort of artifact. Magen thinks it's a handheld mirror, but has not seen what it's for." Joshi turned to Hiroko. "Well done!"

Hiroko's face was still a mass of concentration as she continued to spin out thin, almost invisible lines of blue lux. Chang-li didn't dare interrupt her. Her illusions were having their effect, or so Magen reported.

With the enemy cultivators under their influence, Chang-li and his friends, would be able to separate them and take them one at a time.

"All right," Chang-li said. "We can't underestimate him. He's a full tier higher than me."

And much higher than Min and Hiroko, he didn't add. "Our best weapon is still in our preparations and illusion."

They had spent hours preparing this trap, burying scripts all around and covering them with illusions directed by Hiroko, who was working to maintain her deceptions on all six cultivators.

Sun Wukong watched all of this with a faint smile of amusement. "I cannot intervene in your fight."

Chang-li turned. "Didn't you swear an oath to help us?" His hand reached toward the tiny token in his pocket.

Sun held up his hands. "No, listen. I will not help you in this," he clarified, "because if you cannot manage to take down a single Lux Embodiment cultivator with all of the time and preparation you've put in between the four of you, you will have no chance of climbing this tower. Instead, allow me to go and delay the other team of three while you deal with this one and then his fellows."

Chang-li considered. Sun's words had some weight. He nodded. "Very well. Delay them and then return to us."

"Good luck on the fight," Sun said, and vanished.

"He's almost here," Joshi reported.

"Watch out for that artifact," Chang-li ordered. "We don't know what it does, and we can't risk him using it in a fight. We hit him hard and fast."

They stood in front of a broad river, which here ran across a shallow ford. Boulders marked out the edges of the ford. On the far side of the boulders, a bunch of happy, laughing tower beasts were playing.

The tower beasts had come down to the river, surprising Chang-li and Joshi, but they were friendly, and Sun Wukong had said there was no need to fight them. They were like great raccoons who walked about on two legs. They'd been wearing long tunics when they reached the river, stripped them off, washed the tunics, and laid them out on the rocks to dry while the raccoons played in the water.

It was a cheerful sound, and incongruous with what they were about to do.

Chang-li hardened himself for this fight. It would not be a fair fight, but then again, a fair fight against a cultivator so much more advanced than them would only end in disaster. One wrong blow, and Min or Hiroko could be killed in an instant.

They were the enemy. They would kill him and those he loved without a second thought. Hence Chang-li would have to strike first.

He drew Liar's Blade and looked down at himself. Sun had covered all of them with illusions. Now Joshi and Chang-li were dressed like bandits, in rich coats hanging over homespun trousers, heavy boots, and jewelry dangling from their wrists and necks. Joshi held a staff in his hands, further hiding his true nature.

Min and Hiroko both retreated to their hiding places, Min with her bow already ready.

Here came the cultivator, racing along the road, looking full of himself. He pulled up in front of Chang-li and Joshi, a technique already forming in his hand.

Joshi stepped forward. He raised his staff and boomed, "We are the guardians of this ford! You must pay to cross or remain where you are!"

The cultivator sneered at them. "I am Shi Bo of the Golden Locks Sect. I do not pay for passage. I take what I wish!"

He raised his hand, just as Chang-li had expected.

Chang-li activated the script in the dirt all around Shi Bo. Just as the other man released his technique, a red and green vine wall sprang up around him, weaving itself over the man's head, forming a cocoon.

Chang-li felt the technique Shi Bo had unleashed crash against the inside of his own technique. It shook, but Chang-li's technique held, at least for a moment. He and Joshi prepared their next attacks as Shi Bo unleashed another technique and shattered the cocoon to pieces.

He took a step forward and right into the next of the hidden scripts. Creeping tendrils rose out of the earth, winding around his legs. Shi Bo looked down and sniffed. He had a technique in one hand and a mirror in the other. He unleashed a gout of flame. A straightforward attack, but one with great power.

Chang-li raised Liar's Blade to slice the technique as it left Shi Bo's hand. To his surprise, a second, stronger version of the same technique launched itself from the mirror in Shi Bo's left hand.

Chang-li sidestepped the first technique. It sizzled past his shoulder as Liar's Blade sliced through the lux of the second technique and then sprang into fiery life itself as it absorbed from the opponent's attack. There was blue lux mixed in here too, and green.

It was a subtle technique indeed, and too strong. Liar's Blade shuddered as Chang-li fought to retain control.

"Fool!" Shi Bo snarled. "You dare to attack a Golden Locks Cultivator? Now you will see the wrath of the heavens visited upon you. Die!"