Yu Xiang picked himself up off the floor, his own flushed out impurities dripping off of his form and caking the flooring.

“Ugh, I bet this is going to stain.” Yu grumbled to himself as he took off the top part of his outer disciple robes, quietly lamenting to himself and feeling stupid for not having worn something old and beat instead.

Yu looked down at his uncovered torso, his previously lean body now looking more like it had been sculpted out of marble like a god’s statue in a greek temple, he flexed his muscles one at a time, enjoying the feeling of power he could sense coursing through his flesh. Unfortunately, his admiration was kind of ruined by the black slush clinging to his skin and burning his nostrils with its stench.

The green eyed cultivator waddled out of the room after carefully wringing out his robes so that they wouldn’t drip any of the dark slush over the rest of the house, making sure not to breathe with his nose again so as to avoid any sudden retching urges.

Just as he took a step outside the fouled chambers so did Lin Fen, the two stopped in their tracks and took each other in.

Yu Xiang had to do a double take as he laid his eyes on his long time friend. As he was now innately more cognizant of his own body thanks to the new spiritual roads that traveled along his form he knew that the current outside changes brought on by his own breakthrough had been minimal and subtle, so he hadn’t expected the stark difference between yesterday and today’s Lin.

His previously gray hair and fur had gained a natural shine that made his locks look more like spun silver than anything organic, not that their previous hue looked entirely normal in the first place anyway, his face had softened and while he could’ve been called a pretty boy before he was now firmly androgynous, furthermore he had grown a couple of centimeters himself, though Yu’s own growth meant that their height difference was still roughly the same.

But none of that was what left the young reincarnator most bewildered.

Simply put, Fen Lin was completely clean. Not a speck of filth could be found on his robes and he was even bereft of any lingering bad smells from the impurities bath he must have just gone through.

Yu Xiang looked his friend directly in the eyes, who had been taking in his grime covered form with an impish, lopsided grin, and simply asked. “How?”

In response, the feline boy raised his nose and sniffed in superiority, a decision he promptly regretted as his face contorted in a disgusted grimace. Lin Fen raised one of his hands, his index finger outstretched, and a small white flame burst to life on the tip of his finger.

"Alchemical fire is made to burn away impurities.” He said curtly. Yu Xiang waited for a second, expecting something more, but was sorely disappointed as Lin Fen seemed to have nothing else to add.

The young alchemist raised his nose in the air again, the proud image ruined by his left hand being held tightly against his nostrils, and eyed Yu in badly veiled amusement.

“You might want to freshen yourself in the bath, Yu Xiang…” He mildly added.

One of Yu’s eyebrows twitched in annoyance as he sent the feline cultivator a scathing glare, the boy’s amusement clear to see in the frantic movement of the fuzzy noodle he called a tail, which currently made him seem more like a dog blooded beastfolk.

The green eyed boy plastered a serene smile over his face.

Lin Fen immediately backed up and braced himself for impact.

“Haha, you’re completely right Lin. But before that…” Yu Xiang’s eyes narrowed into slits. “I need to give you your congratulatory hug! It’s not every day that someone passes into a new Realm after all...”

Yu Xiang opened his arms wide and bent his knees as if ready to pounce. Lin Fen bolted away, throwing himself out of an open window in his desperate escape, while Yu didn’t move from his position, snickering openly at his friend’s reaction.

Now that he had enough fun it was finally time to wash himself of all the drying impurities, that at this point had gained the consistency of tar.

It took him almost an hour of consistent scrubbing and scraping, copious amounts of scented soap, a mysterious liquid Lin Fen gave him once he returned to the house and he even had to use his [Golden Grasp] on his sponge before he finally managed to get rid of the foul substance that had stubbornly clung to his body.

After that thoroughly unpleasant experience, Yu Xiang decided to hit the sack early to save energy for the next day’s cultivation.

And so it was that the next morning Yu Xiang found himself sitting with his legs crossed in their house’s cultivation room, the Winter Jade Pill sitting in his hands.

He studied the light azure pellet intently, both with eyes and his more esoteric senses, weighing its power and poring over every aspect of its essence. Once he was satisfied with his level of comprehension he deposited it in front of his legs, deciding to cultivate for a while on his own before he plunged himself headfirst into absorbing the pill.

Yu retreated into his mind, shutting off most of his perception of the outside world. It wasn’t a perfect isolation like the one during his breakthrough, but it was more than enough to fully concentrate on his task.

The young reincarnator sensed the raging flow of his spiritual energy, observing with a frown as it wildly circulated through his spiritual channels in an uncontrolled pattern, swaying unevenly and rendering the normally perfect control of his spiritual energy significantly worse.

He’d noticed earlier while he was cleaning himself and he'd tried using his technique on a sponge, which took him a few tries embarrassingly enough, his chi was slow to respond to his will, its power unwilling to be bent and directed.

Yu Xiang already knew the cause of this situation. It was the result of his breakthrough.

Rising up a Realm was not a peaceful process, it involved forcefully wrenching open a sealed part of your own spirit with pure brute force, adding in the enormous influx of power that came part and parcel with the advancement it was not a surprise that a cultivator’s spirit would be left… scattered, for lack of a better word, in the face of such a violent growth.

This state didn’t have an official name, though most people simply called it the Half Step or the Half Stage.

Yu Xiang poked and prodded at his chi, trying to assert his will on the dense energy but finding his efforts largely pointless, he theorized that it would take him at least a few months to bring the energy back under his control if he had to do it on his own.

Thankfully, as he didn’t have that kind of time, he didn’t have to be so conservative in his cultivation.

The green eyed cultivator plucked the Winter Jade Pill from its resting place and plopped it right away into his mouth. Instantly an intense minty flavor flooded his taste buds, shortly followed by an icy sensation that made his teeth ache. Yu ignored his discomfort and swallowed the freezing pill in a single gulp.

Immediately, unbound spiritual energy began springing from his stomach. Yu Xiang bent it to his will as it entered his system and set it to running opposite the raging current in his veins.

The two streams of energy collided spectacularly, slowing down the tempestuous pace of the energy in his spirit and making him grunt in discomfort as the crash strained his channels.

After that first cramp and a few more spikes of pain Yu Xiang fell into an acceptable rhythm and set himself to fixing his cultivation in earnest, growing more and more focused and shutting off most outside stimulus.

It was only after he had completely brought his power back under his control that he finally woke up from his trance. He stood up from his sitting position, stretching his sore limbs from what he assumed had been at least a couple of days of motionless meditation.

Once he was satisfied with the state of his body Yu Xiang called his chi up into his arm, the low thrum of power not perceivable to anyone but him.

The young cultivator took a stance and punched forward with all his might.

The air whistled as it was parted forcefully by his fist, followed by a series of kicks and other chi enhanced movements.

Yu Xiang lost himself for a few moments in the power he had spent long years accumulating, a carefree smile growing on his face.

He had finally, officially this time, set foot into the First Stage of the Constitutional realm.