Spiritual sense was a curious thing.

  For some cultivators, it was a tool of exacting details. As comprehensible as mundane vision and twice as discerning. Daoist Scouring Medicine could walk past a crowd of a dozen outer disciples and rank them by strength as clearly as any seeing man could rank them by height.

  For others, it was an arcane thing, more akin to divination than vision. In his youth, Daoist Guarding Thunder had oft complained of a dry mouth and frantic energy, a sensation like small insects crawling on his skin. An ailment that only ever seemed to rear its head when an unseen danger neared.

  And then, there were men like Daoist Enduring Oath. While stones are excellent listeners, they are also notoriously hard of hearing.

  Many of his fellows would say he was useless as a sensor. Blind to the subtle flows of qi that daoists used to mark the coming and going of their fellows. They were not entirely wrong. His spiritual sense was nigh useless for tracking and measuring disciples or daoists. Even if they stood before him and flared their qi, he would not be able to tell the difference between a man in the second stage of qi condensation and the fifth. At a distance, he would be hard pressed to tell the difference between a foundation establishment daoist and a peasant dressed as one.

  Yet, Heaven had granted him one consolation when it took the greater portion of his spiritual sense. Save for Sect Master Ren Yuhan, he suspected he was the only man in the sect who felt each time the Patriarch stirred from his cultivation, or when the great heroes of the empire took up arms in some distant war.

  Perhaps Heaven had intended it a reminder of how small he yet was, of the consequences of reaching beyond his station. He had taken it as such in good humor.

  The presence that approached his home strained the limits of his senses.

  It was familiar, walking grounds he knew better than any others. It even bore a piece of jade marked by his hand and qi. Still, he nearly missed it.

  But the difference between nearly and nothing is the width of a sword's edge. He opened the door just as the monkey was raising its paw to knock.

  "Li Hou. It is passing strange to see you without your master. Is he well?"

  To his credit, Li Hou recovered quickly.

  "Daoist Cooks Himself is getting less cooked. Slowly." The monkey replied, utterly at ease in his senior's presence.

  "I'm pleased to hear that. Please, come in. Did he send you for more of those pots?"

  "No, he doesn't have that many worms." Li Hou said, stepping into his home. Daoist Enduring Oath carefully did not smile at the way the little monkey swaggered about. With arms and a tail a full hand's span length longer than his legs, he cut a comedic figure no matter how carefully he mimicked the posture of men.

  "Worms?"

  "Wine worms. Green ones. This mountain doesn't have them, but he got some. Making good wine. Cultivator wine. Will share. Maybe."

  Ah. That was good. He'd been worried Daoist Scouring Medicine had been up to something dangerous. It'd been a great weight off his shoulders when his brother had finally agreed to cease his experiments with black powder. His brother's mind oft travelled down concerning tracks, especially when he thought his might insufficient for his needs.

  "Interesting. Would you like some tea?"

  "No."

  "I have rock sugar."

  "Yes-yes."

  Daoist Enduring Oath watched the monkey explore his home as he prepared tea. Li Hou pieced through his belongings as if they were the monkey's own, but treated them with a respectful gentleness he'd completely lacked in autumn. He inspected every tool and keepsake as if seeing them with new eyes. The daoist supposed in a way, he likely was. How strange his arsenal of hammers must have appeared to one without any understanding of the concept.

  "So, what new project has my brother occupied himself with?" Daoist Enduring Oath eventually asked.

  "How you know?"

  "I have known Li Xun for most of my life. He always has a project."

  "Is making bath. Bodily Cultivation. Is like pill but much more. So many different ingredients. So many charts."

  "The bath is for you, I assume?"

  "Yes. I help!"

  "He has told you, of the many dangers of bodily cultivation?"

  Li Hou's brow furrowed.

  "I once ate bad fruit. Shit white for three days and three nights. Summer was hot. Streams were rocks. Puddles were drips. Monkeys drank from caves that season. Licked water from stone. My cave ran dry. Was too weak to walk. The King roamed far. Brothers brought drips in bark. Held on."

  Daoist Enduring Oath finished pouring and set the kettle down. He could see the monkey's meaning.

  "I see. I apologize for my presumption. Sometimes, your mannerisms and speech make it easy to forget you are not a human youth, unfamiliar with risk and danger."

  "Easy crimes easy to forgive."

  Another odd aphorism. Daoist Enduring Oath wondered if it was something monkeys said amongst each other, translated, or a phrase of Li Hou's own creation.

  "You don't speak often, of your life before my brother kidnapped you."

  "You don't ask."

  "I suppose I am asking now then. What was it like?"

  Li Hou carefully picked up his cup. He sniffed at it gingerly, before taking a small sip and letting out a pleased chirp at the sweetness. Daoist Enduring Oath had noticed the monkey was very careful around hot liquids. He wondered if it felt heat more keenly than men. He really knew so very little about the strange spirit beast.

  Li Hou shifted in his seat, straightening.

  "In the old days, there was only one mountain." The monkey waved his hands as he spoke, like a storyteller trying to grab an audience's attention. "On the mountain there were many monkeys. Big monkeys and little monkeys. Clever monkeys and sleepy monkeys. And the Monkey King, standing above all. Some seasons were fat. Easy fruit and no tigers. Other seasons were sick. Hungry tigers. Armies of bees. Killing cold or suns hanging low, cooking the land."

  "I must confess some curiosity about this King you mention. Did he rule over all the monkeys of Mount Yuelu?"

  "Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Always ruling is man idea."

  "Could you explain that further?"

  "Men have emperor, yes?"

  "Some lands are lawless, but yes, most men have a king or emperor."

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  "If emperor is sick, does another human tell him what to do? Eat this, sleep then?"

  "Within certain bounds, I suppose. Not every man slavishly obeys the advice of his doctor. And no doctor, however respected, would presume to command the emperor about how he might manage affairs of state."

  "Maybe he is Monkey Doctor then. The Monkey King comes when the day is dark and the season is sick. Every-monkey obeys his commands because he is most wise and most right. But if the Monkey King says 'live here not there'? Monkey go here, then maybe come back there later. King knows best, but monkey lives own life."

  "I see." Daoist Enduring Oath said. "So your King was a distant figure, who arrived to save you from calamities? A protector or shepherd?"

  Li Hou shook his head.

  "No. He is a monkey. He does monkey things. He eats fruit and watches clouds. He fights and explores and makes females fat with little monkeys. He plays games and tells stories and steals and chases."

  Interesting. Mentally, Daoist Enduring Oath reduced his estimation of the beast from core formation to foundation establishment. Still a terrifying existence for mere mortals to contend with, but no threat that sects would need to step lightly around. Some spirit beasts lived like the animals they once were. But in his not insubstantial experience with them, the more senior such a creature was, the more it tended to either live like a human, or head into isolation. He wondered if Li Hou derived ancestry from it. It would certainly help explain his remarkable talent.

  "Do you think, he is stronger than Daoist Scouring Medicine?" He asked all the same.

  Li Hou smiled dramatically, showing off his proportionately large canines.

  "The Monkey King walks softly. But he would not lose, unless he wanted to. Not to him. Not to you. Not to any daoist on the mountain."

  Daoist Enduring Oath's eyes widened. He might be one of the weakest core formation cultivators in the empire, but he still was one. Yet the monkey seemed certain.

  "You really believe that."

  "It is true."

  "It isn't. I believe you when you say that your king is mighty. Probably more than your master does, I can imagine a monkey in the empire stronger than me. But this sect has depths you have not seen, and would struggle to imagine. The Patriarch has been in closed door cultivation longer than I have been alive."

  "Maybe one day we will find out if it's true or not."

  "For all our sakes, I hope not. But enough of terrifying hypotheticals. Why did you come to visit me?"

  "Tch." Li Hou clicked his tongue loudly. "Men and reasons. Maybe monkey just want to see Big Baldy."

  "Did you? Just want to see me?"

  "Yes." The monkey proclaimed with certainty. "But also I have questions." He admitted shamelessly in the next breath.

  Daoist Enduring Oath laughed. Truly, there was something charming about less formal company. He'd never had much patience for the games of the more politically inclined daoists. The long years had only ever worn away what little enthusiasm he'd ever been able to muster for it.

  "Ask away."

  "How do you do the cultivation?"

  Daoist Enduring Oath almost spat out his tea. That was the question?

  "You don't ask easy questions."

  "Who asks easy questions? If it's easy, you just figure it out."

  "Give me a moment, to organize my thoughts."

  It was usually inappropriate for a daoist to advise another's disciple, for a variety of reasons. But... The three of them had left the bounds of propriety behind the moment Li Xun had chosen to teach a monkey. His brother would not mind. Daoist Scouring Medicine would consider the very idea one's practice could be spoiled by exposure to another tradition to be among the highest forms of heresy. He didn't mind giving the monkey some pointers, it certainly sounded less of a headache inducing than explaining why he shouldn't.

  In an ideal world, he had no doubt that Li Xun would try to invent some novel method for his disciple. That was how his brother operated. Encounter a problem. Scour every piece of reference material in the sect. Develop something entirely novel, completely brilliant, and usually hopelessly overcomplicated. From what Li Hou had said, he rather suspected his brother was so thoroughly engrossed in planning out his disciple's bodily cultivation he'd hardly noticed he was struggling to progress his spirit. That, or he didn't have any answers. It would be very like Daoist Scouring Medicine to simply treat his disciple as he would have liked to be treated, and drown him in scrolls and hope he figured out the answer himself.

  "What has your master taught you about spiritual cultivation?" Daoist Enduring Oath finally asked.

  "Lots of things. The Azure Spirit Method. Books and scrolls and charts. Comparative Analyses."

  "And the Azure Spirit Method did not suit you?"

  "If I wanted to sit in a cave and be cold and uncomfortable I'd eat more green-skinned poison fruits."

  Daoist Enduring Oath flared his qi before he realized what he was doing. The monkey bore it bravely, knuckles whitening as it gripped down on his table. Li Hou bared his teeth at him, and snarled, reduced to animal instincts as he was unmanned by the pressure of a cultivator two full realms his senior.

  Perhaps Daoist Enduring Oath was not quite as at peace with his flawed advancement as he'd thought.

  By unspoken agreement two cultivators avoided meeting the other's eyes, as they each took a moment to regain their composure.

  "One's cultivation is not a matter for jokes. If you wish my assistance, you will take the matter seriously." Daoist Enduring Oath finally said. "The Azure Spirit Method did not suit you?"

  Li Hou snarled again, this time in frustration.

  "Nothing works right. It's all wrong. I feel it, like he says. But nothing does as he says it does. Earth sinks into me and does not move. Yin flies away whenever I touch it, running wild in strange places. All meridian charts are wrong. So many charts. All wrong for monkey."

  Ah. That made sense. He'd wondered, how compatible human methods would be with a monkey. Of all animals, they were likely the closest to men in spirit and constitution. But cultivation methods were exacting things, and even those made for humans were rarely universal. Many scriptures could only be practiced by one sex, or required a specific ancestry or affinity. The Azure Spirit Method was widely compatible, but that only meant that three in four of the sect's disciples were able to start their journey following it.

  It wouldn't be a matter of elemental affinity, Daoist Scouring Medicine had examined the monkey and confirmed it had strong enough earth roots and a sufficiently balanced constitution.

  "So he drowned you in reference materials." The daoist summarized. "That does sound like him. It is what he would want. He believes in scrolls and figures like you believe in the Monkey King. He thinks if you can learn enough, see the problem from a sufficient distance, you will solve it."

  "He gave up." Li Hou spat. Literally. He could see droplets of spittle on the monkeys side of his table. He would need to wipe that. "He didn't say that. But I know he did. Tells me learn tricks and weapons. Trust in body bath I not see yet. I ask, he takes me to the Fathomless Well. But if I don't ask? He doesn't take anymore."

  Daoist Enduring Oath could easily see how this had happened. For all his scholarly inclinations, Li Xun was no teacher. His own spiritual method was the very pinnacle of his particular brand of overly complex genius, and would be of no help to a monkey with mere months of scholarship under its belt.

  Daoist Enduring Oath's own practice had begun with the Azure Spirit Method. But it had changed greatly over the years from that origin. He'd begun cultivating in his middle dantian, in accordance with the sect method. But he'd eventually formed his core in his lower. Over the years his focus had shifted from the balanced earthen qi the method called for to a mixture favoring fire and yang energies.

  He could see how his own, more intuitive, perspective on cultivation could be helpful to Li Hou. But he wasn't sure how to communicate it. It was difficult enough to teach a human a method, let alone a monkey a perspective.

  As he thought, the monkey kept talking.

  "He say he trusts me. Maybe true. Maybe both. But it hurts, when I use the method. Hurts more every time. So cold and heavy. But I go more. Must go more. Can't even beat little humans. I worry that-"

  "There are things in this world that are complicated." Daoist Enduring Oath didn't know where the words came from. He didn't plan the speech out. He just saw the a thread, a narrow path leading to the place that was right. And then he followed it. He had made a life doing so, and he did not regret the place it had led him. "The movements of the heavens. The affairs of courts. The health and infirmity of the body. To some, cultivation is one such thing. Like your master, they study the influence of energies, and the ways by which they can encourage the formation of subtle matter that promote power and longevity."

  "But there are other things beneath Heaven that are not complicated. Surrender and perseverance. The edge of a blade. Right and wrong. A thing can be simple, yet still be hard. To me, cultivation is such a thing."

  A tension hung in the small kitchen. Orange-crest held his very breath, as if an errant sound might break this moment.

  "Qi is not what matters. The world is filled with qi. Even the greatest spiritual treasures pale in comparison to the volume of qi that passes through the smallest village of the empire in a single afternoon. What separates Immortals from the rest of us, is not how much qi they possess, but how much they can grasp."

  Daoist Enduring Oath opened his mouth to continue, but the thread snapped. His hand reached up unbidden, trying to grasp the thing, the idea, that had slipped by him. He hadn't been speaking for the young monkey anymore. There was an idea there, an answer to a question that had eluded him for decades.

  But it was gone. The moment over. There was only him and the monkey, alone on the mountain.

  Li Hou smiled like a man as he rose.

  "Oh. I thought you said the question was hard. That's easy. Monkeys are the best at grasping things."

  "It's not quite that-"

  Li Hou silenced him with a hug. He didn't even try to wrap his arms around Daoist Enduring Oath's massive torso, instead he grabbed his arm, patting it vigorously.

  "You are a good human, Big Shiny. Thank you for talk."

  "Be careful, you don't want to end up like-"

  "Oh." The monkey cut him off. "Daoist Cooks Himself wants you at his house when next the moon begins to grow. In the morning."

  "What?"

  "It's almost time to cook me! He needs help with the tub. His back is cooked, so he wants to borrow yours."

  Daoist Enduring Oath stared in confusion as the little orange monkey ran out of his house.

  He blinked.

  Well, he should probably wipe up that spittle. Perhaps if he stopped reaching, he might again touch the thought that had slipped through his fingers.