Yu Xiang eyed his friend expectantly as the feline eared boy prepared himself for the intense process of transforming raw spiritual plants into pills. Many different herbs sat on his work bench, arranged in careful order and already prepared to be processed. The Winter Jade Orchid was still in its vase, left alone by the side so that its chilling aura would not damage the weaker plants or interfere with the early steps of pill refinement.

Lin Fen reached inside one of his sleeves and withdrew his seemingly eternally sharp and clean knife, then with a deep steadying breath he began his work.

Yu observed silently as Lin Fen fully demonstrated his prowess in this most fundamental of a cultivator’s arts. He did not limit himself to roughly cutting the plants based on their spiritual energy concentration like he had the day before, he instead minced, crushed, and sliced following an invisible pattern that the green eyed cultivator couldn’t even begin to guess at, sometimes entirely discarding entire pieces of the herbs for reasons that completely escaped him.

As Lin kept working away Yu Xiang noticed something with his spiritual senses. Lin Fen’s chi was moving rapidly in complex patterns, infusing both his knife and the spiritual plants with his chi.

Indeed as Yu Xiang was busy admiring the young alchemist at work Lin Fen was engrossed in his own task, directing the flow of energy of the spiritual herbs with his own chi. He cut away and rejected the traits he didn’t need and nurtured the aspects he approved while at the same time connecting all of the spiritual plants with invisible bridges made of pure chi.

Essences started mingling perfectly under the expert gaze of Lin Fen’s mind’s eye but he didn’t relax for even a second as the first step of his endeavor was concluded, for there was still a lot of work to be done.

After all, much like a warrior cannot relax against a superior opponent an alchemist cannot sit back and let anything slip while trying to create a pill one realm higher than he is.

Lin Fen critically observed the web of pure chi that he had erected to connect the now processed spiritual herbs, a peculiar technique that he had learned long before he ever joined the Golden Peak sect, and which he had failed to see mentioned in any of the scrolls in the hall of knowledge open to the outer disciples. He used this method to channel the spiritual plants’ escaped energies which he wasn’t able to contain, directing them through his chi in a way that not only prevented them from interfering with the overall refinement but actively fed the herbs’ essence, elevating them and rendering them more potent.

He waited a few moments more for the network to grow more stable, correcting a few imperfections and shoring up some weaknesses in the web while he was at it before he finally turned towards the centerpiece of this performance.

The Winter Jade Orchid was swiftly unearthed and with a deep breath to steady himself, Lin Fen finally connected it to his web of chi.

A torrent of dense energy crashed through the chi tunnels, its sheer power almost enough to break Lin Fen’s iron grip over his technique, but the feline eared cultivator had already anticipated such a scenario and taken steps to make sure nothing would go wrong.

Instead of hurtling directly towards the other plants the deluge of energy instead headed for the center of the web of chi where it split off in a dozen different directions. The heavy energy passed through artificial twists and turns all the while Lin Fen imposed his will on it, slowly robbing it of more and more of its momentum until it was finally subjugated.

Lin Fen directed part of the now tamed energy towards the other spiritual plants, bolstering their essence even more while making them more in tune with the stronger Winter Jade Orchid, and used the rest to reinforce his chi bridges.

Now that he had dealt with the escaped energies it was finally time to begin the last phase.

The grey haired young man signaled his friend who swiftly got up from his seat and grabbed a previously prepared pill furnace, depositing it in front of the young alchemist.

Lin Fen lifted the lid off the top of the pill furnace and carefully deposited the spiritual plants inside, leaving the Winter Jade Orchid for last, then he closed it back up, screwing the lid as tight as he could.

The young cultivator steadied himself for a moment.

[Alchemical Flame]

A pure white flame flared up under the pill furnace, swaying silently in an unseen breeze as Lin Fen concentrated on his task.

The spiritual fire rose as Lin started the refinement in earnest. Sweat beaded his brow as he willed the impurities in the furnace to be burnt away and compelled the various essences to intermingle, a task made vastly easier by his web of spiritual energy.

Hours passed this way, Lin Fen’s focus so great that he failed to see small flecks of silver appearing inside his white flames. Only after he had almost reached his breaking point did Lin finally manage to finish the pill.

The young pill maker let out a gasp and slumped down on a plush chair, taking in hungry gulps of air. The pill furnace let out a sharp whistle as it expelled gouts of dark smoke similar to a pressure cooker.

Lin Fen almost fell asleep then and there but was kept from the sweet release of slumber by Yu Xiang, who had left while he was deep in the throes of refinement and came back with a jug full of fresh cold water and a plate of food.

Lin Fen almost threw away all his decorum and kissed him then and there.

But instead, he restrained himself to thanking a smirking Yu Xiang and almost inhaling the entire jug in a single mouthful.

As Lin nourished himself Yu walked up to the still smoking furnace, unscrewed the top, and plopped his hand inside, he pulled it back out and looked with trepidation at the small icy azure sphere that now sat in his hand. Yu Xiang brushed his spiritual senses over it.

A Constitutional Realm cultivation pill.

>>>

How exactly does one become a Cultivator?

Well, first off as a mortal one needs to begin acquiring some spiritual energy. Normally this is done through eating spiritual beast meat, spending prolonged amounts of time in a spiritual energy rich environment, or through years and years of meditation to the point that one could somewhat absorb the atmospheric spiritual energy like a full blown cultivator.

This process is called Foundation Building and normally takes up most of a prospective cultivator’s childhood. As the name might imply this first stage acts as the bedrock for all the following steps of a cultivator’s path, obviously there are ways to shore up one’s foundation even after this step has been completed but it tends to be a lengthy affair or prohibitively expensive and oftentimes both.

After enough spiritual energy is accumulated and the person is satisfied with the state of his foundation then the next step is to open the Natal Gate.

As one gathers more and more chi inside himself a rudimentary spiritual sense develops and once one gets closer to the peak of the Foundation Building stage a young cultivator will start to feel a concentration of energy in his chest, growing ever clearer as his body gets more and more saturated with spiritual energy.

As the pressure inside his body builds, the young cultivator will have to use his primitive spiritual senses to push against this collection of energy, applying pressure until the block gives way and the Natal Gate is opened.

The young cultivator has now set foot in the Natal Realm.

A torrent of spiritual energy passes through the Natal Gate, nourishing the cultivator’s spirit and bringing to life ethereal channels previously dormant, his power soars, his control skyrockets and his spiritual senses expand and become clearer.

Now he is a true Cultivator, but his path is only at the beginning.

Yu Xiang meditated over these facts as he prepared himself, contemplating on his own road to this moment.

His spiritual senses focused inwards, around a conglomeration of chi near his stomach, he brushed against it gently and felt the energy surge and almost explode out of his belly but he forced it down with an effort of his will.

Yu had already consumed half a dozen cultivation pills just to top off his reserves and add just a bit more energy to his breakthrough, although he didn’t eat the pill made with the Winter Jade Orchid yet as he wanted to save that for after he stepped into the Constitutional Realm.

The green eyed cultivator took a deep steadying breath and decided to stop procrastinating. He once more set his senses on the spot where his chi was accumulating and began applying pressure.

Immediately the energy started raging against its restraints causing Yu no small amount of discomfort and pain as he gritted his teeth and kept applying pressure while also keeping all the energy contained around his stomach.

As the pressure mounted so did the distress and Yu Xiang had to restrain himself from brushing a hand against his brow as he felt the sweat accumulating.

For long agonizing minutes, Yu kept going, clenching his jaw so hard that blood almost started to flow out of his mouth, until something finally gave.

The battle finally reached a tipping point and with one final push Yu Xiang forced open the Constitutional Gate, letting out an explosive sigh of relief as the pressure in his stomach abated and his chi started flowing through the new opening.

Unfortunately for him, things weren’t over yet and his sigh of relief became a strangled cry as a stabbing pain engulfed his entire body. Thousands of previously dry channels all over his body came to life, nourishing his flesh and raising his body’s sensitivity far too much for him to handle.

The cool evening’s air felt like a million icy daggers being dragged over his face, his robes felt like sheets of sandpaper grinding away at his skin, and the sun's light felt like a scalding inferno that tried to burn away at his flesh, all of this while every millimeter of his body was stabbed by needles.

Yu Xiang let out a moan of pain as he sat there in agony. As the time passed and more and more hidden channels were flooded with fresh spiritual energy suddenly Yu’s vision went dark, before even with his eyes closed he could still perceive the light behind them but now it almost seemed like the sun had disappeared.

The same thing happened to his hearing, then his sense of taste, of smell, and finally to his touch, and with that last sense gone so did the pain disappear. Yu Xiang was trapped inside his own mind, completely cut off from the outside world, not even his spiritual senses could perceive anything out of his body.

As he sat there slowly recovering from the previous pain an image appeared clearly in his mind.

A young man was sitting down on the floor with his legs crossed, wearing a green robe just like Yu’s. No, it was exactly his robe he realized, and the boy sitting in his mind’s eye was himself.

Or rather, a refined version of himself. Yu used his spiritual senses to examine this perfected version of himself, noting how hundreds of almost imperceptible imperfections had been smoothed out and removed. As he looked over himself he felt the image respond to his curious gaze and a sense of malleability filled his mind. Yu Xiang already knew what he needed to do.

The image responded to his conviction before it could even become coherent thought, stretching slightly and making the perfected Yu Xiang just a bit taller. The young reincarnator could not help but nod to himself in satisfaction, and as the image sensed his approval it thickened, becoming more real and concrete.

Once the image had become impossible to distinguish from a real person it started to fade from Yu’s spiritual senses, and once it was completely gone Yu’s sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch all came back at the same time.

A headache hit Yu like a freight train, leaving him a groaning mess laying on the ground. As he slowly sat up a terrible smell invaded his nose and almost made him retch, he opened his eyes and laid his gaze on the mess he’d made.

An oily dark substance covered almost every inch of his body. It had soaked into his robes and had even formed a dark puddle around him.

Yu sighed and thanked the heavens that Lin had convinced him to break through in one of the unused rooms of their house instead of their cultivation room, but as he felt the new strength flowing through his body, he decided that a bit of grossness was more than worth reaching the Constitutional Realm.