Sun Wukong strolled back and forth in front of the four friends, his hands clasped behind his back, his coppery hair falling behind his head like a waterfall. He had incredible grace, and his will was impressive to feel. "You have all made great progress. I commend myself as your trainer," he said. "Min, Hiroko, both of you are ready to pass the Veil of Heart. Once you do, you will have reached the Peak of Mental Refinement with a solid foundation. I expect you both to continue your will training as we have been discussing.

"Joshi, Chang-li, you have taken great steps toward Lux Endowment. Chang-li, your understanding of the hues of lux has improved by leaps and bounds."

Chang-li bowed his head, accepting the praise. He could now distinguish 128 shades of yellow and was working on applying that knowledge to the other colors as well. They were not as predominant here, and in fact, there was no indigo or violet at all. But he felt confident he would be able to add those in as soon as he had access to a decent stock of their lux.

"However, you must improve your use of will externally. Focus on trying to refine your Intent and the knowledge the previous floor guardians gave you. You need to accept that you have the ability, nay, the right, to impose your vision of reality on the world. It is the key to being a cultivator.

"Joshi, you must work on your lux distinguishing techniques, but also on determining your true Intent. Master those, and Lux Endowment will be yours."

He pointed to the path leading up the mountain. "This path will take you to the Golden Courts, where you will find the Jade Emperor, who is, of course, the guardian of this floor. On the way there, you pass by the Celestial Peach Orchard that used to be my domain. Care has been given over to another, which I find offensive. Therefore, you will raid that orchard."

Chang-li raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yes, I think it will be an excellent test of the skills you have been acquiring, not to mention the peaches there are a heavenly treasure which will greatly strengthen each of you. And finally… bringing a fully ripe peach to the banquet should summons the Jade Emperor from wherever he is. Then you can ask him a boon." Sun Wukong gave a dramatic pause. "And you will ask him to free me, fulfilling our bargain."

Chang-li was beginning to get excited at the idea. "This orchard. Who guards it now?"

"Oh, nothing as powerful as I," Sun Wukong said carelessly, trailing a few strands of his long copper hair back over his shoulder in one careless gesture of his hand. "It is a great serpent, not particularly intelligent, but possessed of a nasty sort of poison that you will want to avoid getting in your veins.

"Once you have finished there at the orchard, continue up the mountain to face the Jade Emperor. You should hurry, though. Your enemy cultivators have found the guardian of the floor below. I have made arrangements to have them slightly delayed in transit, but I can't hold them off for more than a few hours."

Chang-li felt a thrill of fear running through him. They had spent so much time training; hopefully, it would be worth it. But none of them had made it to the next tier yet. If the Golden Locks cultivators found them, they would be easy prey.

"Can we stay ahead of them on the next floor?"

Sun Wukong shook his head. "In fact, you should not try. The next floor is the one place you will be able to take advantage of its particular qualities. But take heart! Not only will the peaches aid you in your own cultivation, but if you bring a peach to the Jade Emperor himself, he will reward you with the boons you need."

Sun Wukong fixed all four with a look. "But remember the bargain we struck. You will ask for me to be freed of the seal that keeps me here, tied to this mountain, so I can go on my own way."

"And then where will you go?" Joshi demanded. "What else aren't you telling us?"

Sun Wukong's face went hard. "Very much," he said quietly, "but time is wasting. This was the bargain we made."

Chang-li glanced at the others before saying, "We want to know more before we risk letting you free. I didn't know you were bound to this floor."

"We all have bonds. I merely want mine loosed." Sun Wukong's frustration was clear. He grabbed at his reddish hair and let out a loud cry. "Ahhh! To have this chance dangled in front of me like the very fruit I spoke of… all right." He took a deep breath. "Help me escape this floor. Then we will speak again and make a new bargain. This time I will reveal everything that we must do to help each other, and with the Lens inside you, Chang-li, we can forge an oath that binds us both. But for now, you must go!" His eyes flickered. "Your chance is my chance. I must delay those coming after, give you the time to climb the mountain. Leave no peaches behind, not even the smallest bud!"

Chang-li started to ask another question, but Sun Wukong spread his arms wide. He seemed to thin out, his form wavering, and then he was gone.

They stared where he'd been for a moment. Then Chang-li collected himself. "Right. No time to waste. Not if Eri's people are arriving. I don't think any of us want to face them in combat as we are right now. So let's take Sun's advice and start up the mountain. We'll worry about the rest later."

The steps carved into the face of the mountain were short, narrow, and steep. Chang-li's legs ached after just a hundred or so of them. He kept up a low cycle of red lux throughout his body and attempted to think about his own next steps, but his mind kept racing back to Eri's minions. Six of them, and each powerful enough to defeat him and his friends alone. They had no chance like this. They had to stay ahead and race upward.

As the stair turned a switchback on the face of the mountain, Chang-li glanced out. Off in the distance, he saw a vast plume of dust and smoke rising from the forested portion of the floor. A scattering of bright red birds raced upward. He felt a disturbance in the lux's patterns, and a chill fell on him.

"A champion has fallen," Joshi said quietly. "I feel it."

"It's not Sun. We'd better keep moving," Chang-li said grimly and continued up the stairs.

For as short as the mountain was, there certainly were a great many stairs. Then at last they came out on a wide ledge shelf two-thirds of the way up the mountain. The ledge led into a small plateau carved in the mountain face. There was a wall blocking off part of the plateau with a golden gate in it. Above the top of the wall peaked tiny tops of trees.

A light breeze carried a heavenly aroma toward them. Chang-li inhaled deeply.

No question about it, this was the heavenly peach orchard that Sun Wukong had spoken of.

He stretched forth his lux senses. Something incredibly powerful waited inside. It felt at least as strong as he and Joshi. Perhaps stronger. He couldn't get a sense of it.

"Do we try the gate or the wall?" Joshi asked.

Surprisingly, Hiroko spoke up. "Let's try the gate first," she said. "It might have a way for us to access that we haven't thought of."

She set off right for it, her head held high as though she knew something Chang-li didn't. As they approached, he spotted a small golden plaque set next to the gate with a handful of characters carved deep into it.

He studied the plaque.

"It's in Old High Imperial. I had to study some of that in school. Mostly. It's used for poetry, and I think that's what this is." He read off the lines. "Softly, softly the wind / blows from the south with whispers of rain."

Hiroko smiled. "Ah-hah!"

"You know something about this?"

She nodded. "My grandmother taught me this poem. This is all bringing back memories of stories my grandmother told, Sun Wukong, the heavenly courts. And this poem."

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She repeated the lines Chang-li had spoken, adding the last line: "While peach ripens", each syllable lingered over for a moment. Chang-li could see she was remembering some cherished memory.

As she finished speaking, the gates opened inward silently. Chang-li took a deep breath and stepped inside.

It was a grove, but one clearly planted and tended. There were four rows of five trees, each tree fifteen feet from any of the others, with little golden flowers planted at their feet and long, thick grass everywhere. The trees themselves were only a bit taller than Chang-li, and while they all smelled beautiful, most bore only flowers.

"Perhaps we're here in the wrong season," Min suggested, as they walked through the trees.

Chang-li was keeping alert. He could feel the presence of some great creature here, but had not yet spotted it.

At the far end of the garden was a pond. Beside the pond, a taller tree, with its branches bent deep over the water, and there, five peaches were growing.

Hiroko pointed and took a step forward. Joshi caught her arm.

"Look," he said, and pointed.

Now Chang-li spotted it too. Behind the trunk of the tree was wound an enormous serpent, its skin mottled with brown and greens, so it had at first blended in with the surroundings. This, then, was their opponent. He reached out with his lux senses.

The beast had a vast quantity of lux in its core, mostly of red, which was a surprise to Chang-li, and made him hope that perhaps they'd be able to fight this easily.

"Anything in your stories about this?"

Hiroko shook her head. "No."

As they spoke, the serpent began to move. It slithered down the trunk, then popped its head up above the grass on the far side of the pond, and eyed each of them.

"Tasty morsels," it hissed. "Come to me. I shall grant you slumber everlasting in this, the grove of the heavens."

Chang-li discarded any thoughts he'd had of perhaps reasoning or tricking the creature. This was a time for action. "Hiroko, I want you to bless us. Min, arrows wherever you see opportunities."

"I can sense it's got a reserve of blue," Hiroko said. "Be careful of illusions and poison."

Chang-li nodded as he set off with Joshi. The two rounded the edge of the pond rapidly as the snake slithered toward them.

Chang-li didn't want to damage any of the trees here, certainly not the peach-bearing one, so he waited for the snake to come to him.

Joshi wove orange and blue and hurled out an enormous Binding Chain, the biggest Chang-li had ever seen him use. It wrapped itself around the snake and pulled it forward a foot or two, but the snake slithered free of the chains, then disappeared.

Chang-li unfurled his will. Something that powerful must have a will he could sense. Had it gone invisible? Or disappeared into a burrow?

He and Joshi spread out a little ways, making themselves less obvious targets.

The snake rose up, its body uncoiling. As its head passed the height of Chang-li's, its body loomed ominously. Chang-li could see the lux weaving into its body. Red reinforcing the scales, but the scales themselves were orange, with a trace of yellow on the inside.

As Chang-li studied them, he was reminded of his own Firepot. With a quick jolt of fear he warned his friends, "Be careful. I think its scales contain techniques. If we strike it, we may unleash them."

The snake raised its tail and brought it down hard against the earth. A wave of force heavily infused with earth-flavored yellow lux shot forward. Shards of rock and dirt flung themselves at Joshi and Chang-li.

Joshi threw up a red shield, catching most of the rocks. The wave passed over them. Behind them, Min was nocking an arrow to her bow. "I'll go for its eyes," she said.

"No," Chang-li said. The snake swayed back and forth, but it had not advanced any closer to them yet. It was still a good twenty feet away. "Put one in the scales there at the center of its belly. You see where the stripe of brown gives way to a patch of gray?"

She adjusted her aim and let fly. Her arrow shot true. It struck the snake's abdomen and exploded, not her arrow, Chang-li realized, but the scale it had struck. As he'd suspected, the scale contained a technique like his Firepot. The force of the explosion shot outward, a gout of flame scorching five feet forward. The snake itself seemed unaffected. If that had been Chang-li's sword striking the snake's underbelly, he would have taken the full force of that blast to his face.

The snake was swaying rhythmically. Chang-li focused his lux senses on it, and he could make out a hum as the lux wove together. The hum rose in crescendo, and as it reached the height of its pitch, the snake slapped its tail against the ground once more. This time they were ready for it, and easily blocked.

The snake hissed. It dropped its head until it was almost level with Chang-li and wrenched back its jaws. He could see its tongue flick out. A lob of yellow and green lux-laced spit flew at them.

Chang-li dodged, but not quite fast enough. Some of the spit struck his right arm. His tunic sleeve sizzled and dissolved away. The spit hit his skin and burned there. At once he switched to cycling Purification of Mind and Soul.

Hiroko was there, her cool blue weave touching him as she fought to focus the other end of the weave on the snake. "You fight, I heal!" she shouted.

"Pincer movement!" Joshi called.

Chang-li took several wide steps to the side as Joshi moved in the opposite direction. Now they were on either side of the snake's enormous head. Its eyes were fixed forward. To see them both, it had to shift its vision back and forth. As it did, Magen worked around behind it.

"I'll keep it busy!" Joshi called. "You find a way through those scales without killing us!"

Joshi struck out with his Thousand Fists technique. His blows seemed to fascinate the snake, which wove back and forward, watching his fists. His hands didn't actually land on the snake's body, but the extra blows from the technique did, Magen directing several of them from behind.

The snake didn't seem to react to those blows. With as much physical lux in it as Chang-li was sensing, he wasn't surprised. Yet there was a core of green and blue as well.

Hiroko had latched her weave onto the snake now. Chang-li felt himself strengthened as the snake's own life force was siphoned into him. The burn on his arm smoothed over with freshly grown skin.

"Where should I shoot?" Min called. "I don't want to hurt Joshi!"

"Try the mouth if it opens again," Chang-li advised.

Now the snake hissed and darted at Joshi, who ducked out of the way. Chang-li began to weave his Infinite Loom technique. He needed something beyond his usual Firepot for this foe.

Yellow. This floor was yellow, the domain of elements and elemental magic. He listened to the hum the snake was swaying to, trying to make out the subtle shifts in the tone that would tell him exactly what shades of yellow lux it was most attuned to. If he could make that out, maybe he could make use of it.

The snake reared back again, opening its sloped mouth. Min shot three arrows into its gullet in quick succession. It reacted to each, flinching, but didn't seem much damaged.

Another gout of venom spat from between its lips. "It's using blue in that venom attack!" Hiroko called. "Deep down at the core. That's the key! The venom... it's trying to attack a target on a spiritual level! I've never thought of that," She said in wonder. "What a way to combine yellow and blue."

Chang-li listened hard, and he thought he saw what she meant. That gave him an idea.

"Let's strike it from the inside!" he called. "Min, I need you to prepare another arrow, but don't form the head. I'll do it on the Loom. Hiroko, can you channel the most pure blue possible to me?"

With the lens in him, he wasn't sure of his ability to produce perfect tones. Not with blue, which was a lux he barely understood, and with an expert at it standing beside him, why not?

The snake, meanwhile, lunged forward again, taking Chang-li by surprise as he'd been working. He dodged to the side and tripped, stumbling forward almost under the nose of the snake. It lunged for him.

Min shrieked but Joshi leapt forward with a Meteor Punch, coming down against the snake's head and slamming it to the ground. The snake reacted, rolling quickly, throwing Joshi from it and catching him in its coils.

Chang-li shouted in dismay. Joshi was reinforcing his body with red lux. As the beast sought to crush him,Chang-li started forward, his sword ready, then stopped. No, this was not the way to win this fight. Joshi was managing; he needed to end this.

He finished his weave on the Infinite Loom, adapting a Firepot technique to contain mixed yellow and blue, then applying it to the arrow shaft even now on Min's bow.

"As soon as it opens its mouth, shoot it!" he called.

Then, at last, he raced forward, summoned an open flame in his right hand as his left flashed forward. He shouted and thrust his flaming right hand forward into the snake's face.

That got its attention. It rolled over, smashing Joshi into the ground, and came up, rising until its head was level with his. It lunged forward, its jaws gaping wide open. Chang-li could see teeth the size of his sword and a gullet that seemed to go on forever.

Something rumbled inside the snake. Chang-li forced himself to stand fast. To trust. Heartbeats stretched, so each felt like a minute.

He heard the twang of Min's bow, the rush of the arrow past his head. The shaft disappeared into the snake's open mouth, and Chang-li scrambled backwards, raising up a clumsy red shield as the snake prepared to launch an attack.

But nothing emerged from its gullet. The snake heaved, throwing its head back, thrashing wildly. It made choking, coughing sounds. Something inside it rumbled deep. Its inner hum was discordant and angry.

This was the time to act.

Chang-li leapt forward, his sword infused with as much orange lux as he could pull from his core. He thrust it in a crack between two scales, right about where the rumbling seemed to be coming from. A gout of bilious yellow and green streamed forth from the snake's belly.

He raced back just in time as its scales near the crack went up in flame. The snake thrashed and rolled. Its coils loosened. Joshi started to pull himself from its grip.

Leaping over the thrashing coils of snake, he grabbed his friend under the arms, pulling him free. They raced away. Chang-li hadn't even noticed, but Hiroko had changed the target of her weave from him to Joshi as the bald cultivator struggled in the grip of the snake. Now Joshi's upper body was covered in abrasions and he limped, but he was moving.

The snake thrashed. As more of its scales exploded, they stood back from it, watching as its own defenses consumed it. The poison in its belly eroded away the protections on its scales. The fire and ice attacks inside the scales damaged its now-exposed insides, blowing the small hole Chang-li had made into a wide gash.

When at last the snake lay still and the explosions ceased, Chang-li took a deep breath. He and Joshi went forward. He carefully severed the snake's head from its body, just to be sure.

Then, as the exhilaration of the fight wore off, he said, "Well. Let's look around and see what we can find here."

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