As the afternoon’s golden rays gradually shifted into the evening’s orange hues the traffic that had been present everywhere in the Outer Disciples’ compound started to wane.

The auction house closed its doors for the day, the Inner Disciple manning the counter letting out a sigh of relief as he made his way higher up the mountain towards the Inner Disciples’ living quarters.

The hall of knowledge would stay open throughout the night like every other day since there was always someone inside too focused on their studies to bother with proper rest.

The cultivators standing guard at the gate to the compound were finally able to relax as they were relieved of their duty by their substitutes.

Only a few Outer Disciples were still outside at this hour, either finishing some last errands, running some sanctioned assignments taken for the Sect, or spending some of their hard earned money in the restaurants and brothels of the great city that surrounded the foot of the Golden Peak mountain. Most had returned to their residences by now, passing the time by meditating on some new insight, absorbing spiritual energy from pills, or, in the case of Yu Xiang and Lin Fen, gorging themselves on a full course dinner.

The two cultivators sat on opposite sides of their low table, a veritable metropolis made out of empty plates almost obscuring their view of one another.

Yu was busy stuffing as much food down his throat as he could physically manage, continuously adding to the porcelain towers as he scarfed down more and more dishes. Such a sight was not uncommon in this house and among other disciples' in general as a cultivator’s body needed a lot more nutrients than that of a mortal to function.

Fortunately for the city’s economy, the local ecosystems, and the planet as a whole this exaggerated consumption diminished drastically once a cultivator entered the Constitutional Realm and the body became less and less reliant on outside sources of sustenance. Even before that many cultivators preferred to forego eating actual food most of the time, as it was both a drain of money that could be better spent on cultivation and a waste of time spent both preparing and eating said food, and instead bought something called Meal Pills, specially made pellets that once eaten would leave a cultivator stuffed for an entire day.

Yu Xiang, while much more fond of actual food than the average cultivator, made use of those pills too most of the time, as it was simply a lot cheaper in the long run. But today wasn’t like any other day, so both Yu Xiang and Lin Fen decided to go all out.

It was finally time for them to take their first step into the Constitutional Realm.

Breaking through the ninth step of the Natal Realm and into the Constitutional Realm, as far as their combined research had turned up, was supposed to be a very intensive process for a cultivator’s body. Understandable, as it was the realm that most focused on the body’s enhancement and where its most direct refinement took place.

So today they’d decided to stuff themselves with enough food to put an army into a coma and tomorrow they would actually take the next step of their life as cultivators.

Contrary to Yu Xiang’s record breaking consumption speed Lin Fen was eating almost in slow motion, his chopsticks inching upwards at a crawling pace, often missing his mouth entirely in his inattention. His eyes weren’t on his meal but were instead focused on the unusual centerpiece of their dining table.

A glowing pure white flower was sitting in a dirt filled clay jar acting as an improvised flower pot, its gentle cold brilliance appearing almost hypnotic to Lin’s eyes.

Once Yu had finally shown him the precious spiritual plant he had almost gone into a frenzy, the need to carefully study and catalog the flower had overwhelmed his common sense to the point his far more physically adept friend had to quite literally sit on him until he stopped struggling and calmed down, and even then it took many minutes for the diminutive scholar to regain his composure, minutes spent in a rather humiliating position for any self respecting person, let alone a cultivator. Fortunately, Lin Fen had been too embarrassed at his own outburst to care about his so called 'dignity'.

The knowledge that in less than a day he would be able to work with the spiritual herb didn’t seem to be enough for him as he never let the flower out of his sight, to the point that he didn’t even notice Yu Xiang, who had just finished his meal, getting close to him until he snapped his fingers right in front of his face.

The shorter boy jumped back letting out an ‘eep’ of fright, his feline ears shooting up and his chopsticks flying out of his hand. Yu Xiang caught the utensils before they could reach the ground, handing them back to his friend while shamelessly snickering at his reaction.

The now fuming beastman snatched the chopsticks from Yu’s hand, sending him a withering glare for the latest prank but only managing to make his companion laugh harder. He stomped back to his seat resuming his meal with renewed vigor, having been snapped out of his trance by his friend's antics.

The still giggling Yu left the table and headed up the stairs towards their shared room before returning a short time later with a squat square box made of lacquered wood.

He briefly left the box on the floor as he picked up the various empty bowls he had eaten from, setting them all down in a stone basin attached to the kitchen’s countertop that acted as a sink.

Yu pushed a minuscule amount of spiritual energy into the stone and watched as it rapidly filled with water, streaming from a set of inscriptions placed in a circle on the inside of the basin. He gave the bowls a good vigorous scrubbing with a nearby rag then left them to dry on the countertop.

He returned to the table, picking up the lacquered box on the way, then sat down while placing his cargo at the center of the table, right beside the spiritual flower.

Lin, still in the middle of eating his sizable dinner, shot him a questioning look, one of his ashen eyebrows raised.

The brown haired youth shrugged his shoulders. “You looked like you could use some help keeping your mind occupied with something other than that plant.” He said pointing at the glowing flower. “Want to play a few rounds?”

The diminutive cultivator mulled over the question for a few moments while chewing on some rather tasty mushroom dish. Yu Xiang simply waited, by now used to the half feline’s bouts of prolonged silence and contemplation.

After a few more seconds of quiet reflection, Lin Fen nodded and opened his mouth. “Yes, thank you.”

Yu Xiang huffed in amusement at the short response, mentally comparing the way he’d previously droned on and on about the finer points of plant harvesting and processing to his current almost anemic speech pattern. Not that he found it off putting in any way, he’d been living by his side for years now and he could always appreciate some quiet time.

Yu opened the wooden box, setting the lid down beside the table. The inside of the box was made of a softer wood, covered in a thick layer of red velvet that protected its contents from the rough texture. At the center of the box rested a square board made of a shiny reddish wood, sixty four polished squares of black and white jade placed in a, well, chessboard pattern were inlaid in the wood, a paper thin layer of pure gold dividing each of the spaces. Furthermore, under the board, were four carved dragons with more gold decorations, placed at the four corners of the board to act as its feet.

Yu lifted the opulent chessboard out of its case and set it at the center of the table, after moving the spiritual plant to the side.

Lin Fen observed him as he proceeded to take out chess pieces made of more carved jade and gold out of the box, quietly recalling the first time he’d seen the extravagant table game and his bewildered questions of how in the hells he could have afforded such a thing.

Yu Xiang had simply said that it had been a gift from one of his caretakers, while he had still been living in the Sect’s nursery. It was the first time Lin Fen truly understood the difference between a sect born disciple and a cultivator joining as an outsider.

As Yu finished setting up the board and pieces, they finally began playing, simply enjoying each other’s company and taking a break in preparation for the coming day.

For when the sun rose next it would be time for the both of them to break through to the next Realm.