Chang-li stood with Joshi outside the entrance to the Heart of Ice. On his left were Min and Joshi; on his right, the General of the West, Hiroko silently in his shadow, and Khan Temaj. Behind them, the Fourth Heavenly Army and a couple hundred Darwur warriors waited.

Climbing up the slopes of the mountain had taken three days of hard work, everyone hauling heavy packs on their backs, filled with supplies to equip them for a long stay inside this tower. By night, the tower glowed, beckoning them onward; in the daylight, it reflected back sunshine, gleaming from afar, tantalizing him. It was a spike of pure ice emerging from the side of the mountain high up on a slope, at the foot of a vast glacier.

They stood about two-thirds of the way up the mountain, high enough that drawing breath was difficult. Chang-li was glad for his cultivation-enhanced body. Min struggled. He had suggested more than once that she return with the rest of the Darwur and wait for them, but she refused.

"I'm going to reach the Peak of Mental Refinement as soon as I possibly can," she told him. "I have to progress. I need to keep up with you." He didn't protest, even though he hated seeing her suffer. He had taken her pack from her a day ago. Now she walked behind him, leaning on a walking stick, breathing heavily, as they stared across the mountain slope toward the tower.

The mountain protruded here, two vast stone skirts that formed a long, undulating valley. The top half of the valley was filled with a wall of ice hundreds of feet thick, towering over them. The rest of the valley was loose rock that shifted underfoot. Streams ran down from the edge of the glacier and collected at the foot of the valley in a freezing cold pond that reflected the clouds and sky in a perfect mirror.

And there, just at the edge of the glacier shelf, stood the Heart of Ice. It was a perfectly proportioned spire, as tall as the edge of the glacier, made of ice. Chang-li's eyes wanted to flicker past it, but he forced himself to study it, looking for clues to its interior. It was filigreed all around with white and blue lines in the ice, suggestions of doors, windows, balconies. Other lines seemed merely decorative.

At its foot, a yawning dark hole gaped. That was the entrance.

Atop it bloomed a wide flower of ice, petals subtly reflecting each of the seven shades.

The General of the West turned to them now. "I expect Eri to arrive at any time. My men and I will delay her, but the tower's defenses will not hold her out forever. You must raise as many cultivators as you can, but do not neglect your own climb. Teach them, but when I send word, you must push on up the tower."

Chang-li nodded. His core felt wrong inside him, and he didn't know how he was going to fix it, but one step at a time.

The general turned to Hiroko. He took her hands in his and leaned close to her, whispering something in her ear. She gave him a wan smile, bowing her head.

"May the blessings of heaven go with you, my daughter."

He stepped away and then pointed skyward. The general shot upward, propelled by lux, until he reached the top of the tower, where he hovered, guarding his future prize.

Chang-li took a deep breath. "Shall we?"

It was important that he and Joshi entered first. If what the general had said was true, the tower would adapt to their level. Should one of the Darwur who had not even started toward the Peak of Bodily Refinement enter first, the floor would be weak in lux, offering no hope of cultivating fast enough to make a difference in the upcoming battle.

Cued by him and Joshi entering, the tower should be dense with lux. It would be difficult. But fortunately, the army had provided plenty of suppressor bands to go around for all those who had not yet reached the Peak of Mental Refinement. Min had the one Chang-li had given her some time ago already in place on her wrist.

According to the general's intelligence, they were leaving watchers out to keep an eye for any sign of Eri's people. As soon as any were sighted, they would activate the tower's defenses, and then Chang-li and Joshi would attempt to climb the tower as fast as they could while the others made ready to repel the attack.

Chang-li took a deep breath and proceeded into the tower through the great arch, Joshi right beside him. They stepped through the darkness, then into a vast red cavern.

Chang-li stared around, studying with all his senses, physical and spiritual. This was only the third tower he'd ever entered, and a primal tower to boot. He hadn't know what to expect, and hoped to be ready for anything.

The lux here was incredibly dense. It pressed in against him immediately, wanting to fill his core. He inhaled, enjoying the feel of lux in the air.

Joshi at once began to cycle. "Traces of the other physical colors, very little spiritual lux at all," he observed a moment later. He didn't have to say out loud what the dominant lux was. Everywhere they looked was red.

Min and Hiroko stepped in, followed by Joshi's brother and several leading officers. They began to spread out, looking around at the place.

High overhead, faint colors swirled in a cloudy sky, reminding Chang-li of the first tower he had been in. That must be the source of the trace amounts of other luxes that Joshi had mentioned.

Because everything around him was red.

The ground was red. It sloped downward like a bowl toward a vast up-jutting platform in the center, miles off. Great red boulders dotted the landscape. Craggy cliffs and ravines between them and that platform. There were sparse plants here and there, all red-hued scraggly bushes, a few trees. Red shapes moved among the trees and brush, too distant to make out details. Chang-li could feel the presence of tower beasts lurking.

"Time to establish a beachhead," Joshi said.

Chang-li drew his weapon. This, at least, should be all right to use. He and Joshi spread out as Magen zooming ahead.

"Found a beast," Joshi said sharply as Magen dipped down into a hole under a rock.

A moment later, a tower beast sprang out, something like a six-legged jackal. Its gray fur was streaked with red. It launched itself at Joshi, who had already formed his gauntlet and shield out of the abundant red lux. The beast bounced off of the shield. Chang-li stepped forward and swung his sword. He hit the creature on the spine, but his blade slipped to one side. He hadn't been expecting quite as much lux reinforcement.

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He adjusted his aim and stabbed. The point of his sword slid inside the creature's chest. It howled and yipped and fought. Joshi was there now, following up with another punch to its head from his spiked gauntlet, and a moment later it lay still.

"This is good lux," Joshi said. "If we can process the tower beast meat the way the general said his men could, we may be able to help my people advance faster than we expected."

Min was already inspecting some of the small plants around. She had a knife in her hand and was sawing at a patch of grass. She looked up as Chang-li and Joshi returned with the beast's body. "These have the density of lux I need to help create the purification tablets to supply all of our people. I'm going to need some help from the expedition alchemists, but it shouldn't take too long."

A thought struck Chang-li. "Have some of the others gather the herbs. You come with us," he instructed. "Let's see about getting you the Peak of Bodily Refinement."

Min grinned. She quickly found a couple of soldiers and explained what they were looking for, then followed Joshi and Chang-li with her lux bow in hand.

The three cleared the nearby area as the soldiers put up a perimeter around their initial encampment. Min shot several creatures. Her arrows weren't strong enough to kill them. These creatures were weaker than the Peak of Spiritual Refinement, but stronger than mere Mental Refinement-level creatures, but they were giving her good practice. With Joshi and Chang-li to finish the creatures off, all three warmed their dormant combat skills back up.

Chang-li started to feel comfortable with his new sword, the Liar's Blade. It was a couple of inches longer than his previous blade, and a bit thinner and lighter. He could feel it accept lux easily and suspected it had dormant abilities he was yet to unlock.

When they returned to camp, Min said, "I'm close to the peak, I'm certain of it. Can you help me?"

Chang-li turned to Joshi. "You're about to give the first lesson in cultivating to your people, aren't you?"

Joshi scowled. "I'd rather you did it."

"It's going to be easier with someone who speaks their own language," Chang-li pointed out. "I'm going to help Min, then I need to do some meditating myself and see if I can learn anything about this problem I've got."

Joshi nodded. "Very well. I'll need you help later, though, once they've all learned a couple of basic cycling patterns."

Chang-li requisitioned a tent from the army and he and Min stepped inside its somewhat imaginary privacy. They both sat down in cycling positions.

Chang-li used his lux senses against Min. He could feel how tight her core was, how full it was with lux. She was right. She was close. Just a little push, and she'd get there.

He thought through the various advice he had read for helping disciples past their peaks. For him, reaching the Peak of Bodily Refinement had come in the heat of battle. That was not a recommended way of doing it. It was much better to carefully approach the peak under the guidance of a more advanced cultivator, someone who could help nudge the student away from any great mistakes that might cripple their cultivation. Or so his texts told him.

Min was a solid cultivator. She didn't have any particular flair just yet for cultivation or affinity with a particular type of lux. She was just relentless and determined to make it there to advance no matter how long it took.

The next stage, the Peak of Mental Refinement, was where Chang-li was going to suggest some less standard techniques for her. But just to reach Bodily Refinement shouldn't be too hard.

Min's eyes were closed as she cycled.

"I know there's mostly red and not much of the other colors here," Chang-li said, "but I want you to try to balance them as best you can. That means spilling most of your red and bringing in the other colors."

"All right," Min said.

She shifted her pattern slightly. It wasn't a clean cycling process. She was losing almost as much of the other colors as she was retaining, but slowly, her core began to balance out.

When it was about a quarter red and three-quarters filled with the other colors, Chang-li said, "All right. That should do it. Bodily Refinement is very compatible with red lux anyway. You need to embrace the lux in your core. Up to this point, you've been cycling lux, but it's foreign to you. That's why you have to take purification rations to cleanse out the lux impurities. Now you are transforming your body so that it can withstand lux."

"How do I do that?" she asked without opening her eyes. "I can feel my core right there. I can tell it's ready for me to take that step, but I don't understand how to do it. I can force the lux through my channels in any pattern I wish, but—"

"No, that's not how to do it," Chang-li interrupted. "You don't force the lux. That's just it. You accept the lux. Absorb it."

Min's mouth screwed up with determination. She cycled again. To Chang-li, the notes of her cycling were just slightly off. He might not have even noticed without the boon he'd been given back at Riceflower, to hear lux notes clearly.

He focused his own will gently around Min, seeking to understand what it was she was doing and why it wasn't quite right yet. He had to be careful not to push his will against her. She was fragile now, with her body not yet raised to the Peak of Bodily Refinement. If he slipped, he could damage her badly. Instead, he felt out carefully, then saw what was wrong.

"Give me your hands," he said.

She reached out, put her hands in his, her eyes still closed.

"All right, I'm going to cycle with you. Feel the pattern."

Min opened her eyes, her cycling disrupted. "You're not supposed to cycle yet."

"It's all right," he said quietly. "The amount of lux I'm going to cycle is not enough to hurt me. Besides, I've got to figure out what's going on with my own core eventually." He smiled. "Trust me."

Min nodded. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes again, and started up the pattern.

Chang-li cycled in time with her, matching his cycling to hers, which was difficult since he had two sets of lux channels and she had only one. He couldn't just use his physical channels, though, because he needed to cycle spiritual as well.

Soon the lux flowed out of her and through him, his two channels pulling out and purifying the different luxes, mixing them in his core and feeding them back to her. Slowly, slowly, he adjusted her cycling pattern just a bit until the notes sounded right. "Do you feel that?"

"I do."

"I'm going to withdraw now," Chang-li told her. He let go of her hands and sat back on his heels, keeping his will gently against her as she went through the cycle.

He could feel when she got it right. All at once, her cycling tempo increased. The volume of lux moving through her channels tripled. Her core gave a wild pulse. Lux spilled all through her body, moving through her channels, washing through them, spilling out through her flesh.

Min shuddered, her eyes still closed. Her skin glowed golden for an instant. All her lux poured out in one vast burst. Then, as she inhaled, twice as much came back. She cycled it through her now greatly strengthened channels and into her core.

Min opened her eyes, beaming. "That's it! I can feel it."

"You did it," Chang-li agreed. He couldn't help sharing her grin.

Min gave a wild yelp of triumph and threw herself across the tent at him. They embraced. The strength in her arms surprised him. After a moment Chang-li disentangled himself, with some regret, but there were things still to be done. "A couple things you need now," he said. "The Peak of Mental Refinement is going to be different for you than it was for me. You'll still have to pierce the three veils." He had already explained to her how that worked. "But your mindset and mine are different. I have techniques here that will help you and will work alongside your archery technique. I want you to focus on those. You're going to start practicing archery blindfolded. That will help you get to the first veil."

He brought out a set of scrolls he had saved for her from the Morning Mist Sect library. Min snatched them up greedily. "I'm not going to let Mental Refinement take as long as Bodily Refinement did," she promised. "Oh, I can't believe how good this feels." She shrugged, moving her body. "I have control over every muscle, it seems. It's strange. Good but strange."

"Take your time and try not to think about it to much. You could easily strain something right now. Let your body get use to it naturally." As he confidently dispensed the knowledge he barely understood, but had read in books, he felt like a fraud.

She nodded stood up. "I'm going to go help Joshi with the teaching cycling. That will help me focus on something outside myself."

Chang-li nodded. "Good plan."

She left the tent. Chang-li stared after her, smiling to himself. It felt good to help her reach her next goal, almost as good as reaching it himself. She was one step further along.

Now to make some progress himself.

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