Lin Fen bent slightly over his new and pristine furnace, examining his latest purchase from every possible angle with twin silvery orbs. His aura extended over the dull, dark grey metal that comprised most of its structure, prodding and poking at the solid surface of the alchemical pot.

The thing looked vaguely like an oil lamp, if only its maker had engorged it on all sides and gotten rid of the usual beak from which a flame would come out to provide lighting. It was also a fair bit larger than his previous furnace, expanding just a touch past the size of the feline cultivator’s head, and making it downright unwieldy to move around, which meant that he’d have to content himself with using his older one if he ever needed to concoct some pills or elixirs outside the sect.

Not that such an occurrence was likely to happen any time soon anyway. Lin had pretty much given up on setting foot outside the sect’s hallowed mountain for the foreseeable future, barring the occasional trips down to the city below.

The young alchemist had learned much from his unfortunate trip to that cursed hidden realm, he was both far too weak and not knowledgable enough to survive a confrontation against a cultivator or a beast that were truly strong.

He still had much more to learn.

His presence wrapped around the metallic cauldron like a particularly tight sock, searching for any seams or gaps in the dark grey plates, nodding to himself in satisfaction only once he was completely sure that there was no weak component that could lead to any leakage.

The large cauldron was not the only new addition to his personal alchemical laboratory, a privilege that was afforded to the young alchemist courtesy of his relatively recently gained status as a member of the Golden Prince’s ‘inner circle’, as many more instruments, vials, tools, and other assorted bits and bobs were placed on a long counter alongside the furnace, neatly placed in rows and ready for a thorough inspection.

One of the feline alchemist’s beastlike ears turned towards a wall, twitching for a few moments as it instinctually focused on a distant and low sound that reverberated slightly through the walls of his laboratory.

Lin frowned, the minuscule distraction still managing to irritate him a bit. Briefly, he wondered how much it would cost to have his entire laboratory soundproofed before he shook his head and regained his focus.

Lin Fen hummed a low tune to himself as he moved on from the alchemical pot, his eyes and other senses roving over any and all imperfections.

The whole set had not even been particularly pricy considering just how much stuff he’d bought, his shiny new golden badge having afforded him a pretty hefty discount, big enough that the feline alchemist almost felt like he was taking advantage of the sect, but he’d reassured himself by thinking about all he could do for the apothecary with some shiny new tools, and that was enough to assuage his guilt.

Aside from his alchemy and general studies on spiritual plants, he’d also spent the last months tackling a problem that had left him stumped for most of the time after their trip.

Namely, his advancement in cultivation.

After learning about the existence of different, better methods to refine his body, Lin Fen had spent a not inconsiderable amount of time researching the subject. His regular, almost everyday trips to the Hall of Knowledge had nearly doubled as he got deeper and deeper into the matter, but disappointingly enough, most of what he could find ended up being woefully insufficient.

Most of the texts available to him went on and on upon the general uses of Intent to boost one’s performance, barely touching upon the matter of permanent enhancement and body refinement.

Even flashing his badge around shamelessly had only granted him a peek at some of the more bland and uninspired records of disciples who had created their own body refinement methods, which would have been good enough for most people, as they could use those examples to build a foundation from which they would create a more personalized form of body refinement for themselves.

There was a substantial problem with this, though, Lin Fen quickly found out.

All of the methods he had access to relied on the user having enough available Intent to fuel the process by themselves, something that Lin Fen did not have, and which would mean waiting for a time when his Intent had increased.

Safe to say, the feline alchemist had no intention of stalling his cultivation for years, if not decades, or going ahead with subpar breakthroughs just to increase his Intent. No matter that the vast majority of cultivators ended up having to pick between either option.

But why exactly was Lin Fen so insistent on this matter? Especially considering his prominent focus on the less combat focused aspects of cultivation?

Why, it was love of course!

Our dear Lin Fen had reached the springtime of his youth, and now his mind filled with thoughts of his beloved oldest companion. But the beastfolk cultivator was not blind to reality, he knew that Yu Xiang was an admirer of the fairer form, so what was a young cultivator in love to do when the odds were stacked against him so harshly?

Cheat as much as he could, obviously!

Body refinement was the key to his carefully laid plans, laying undetected for years now by his way too dense friend. But Lin Fen did not blame the green eyed cultivator for not noticing his feelings, after all, he'd done his best to hide his longing for more from Yu, scared that coming on to him too strongly would just lead him to stumble headfirst into the crushing depths of an unrequited love.

No, he had a better idea. Simply put, he would use body refinement to enhance his already charming natural beauty, until the object of his affection could no longer resist admiring his form. Then and only then would he strike decisively and without a shred of hesitation or mercy!

Lin Fen violently exhaled air out of his nose in satisfaction at his own genius, confident that his strategy would lead to his complete victory.

What did he have to fear anyway? He had pretty much no competition for his best friend's heart.

Zhen Yin was almost as dense as his dearest companion, with an abrasive attitude to boot which always lead her and Yu to butt heads, if in a friendly way. Her cousin, on the other hand, was more likely to start kissing one of her talismans before she found herself a beau, even if she had no qualms with admiring the more masculine forms of their friends, and from what he'd heard from Yu himself, their spats were far from being like the friendly ribbing he enjoyed sometime.

Su Mei was a nonissue, as anyone with eyes could see that there was already something brewing between her and Jin Shui. Not that he'd say that out loud any time soon, as Su Rong was liable to go off on the younger boy for daring to 'seduce' his little sister. Although seeing what would remain of him after Mei had 'disciplined' him would be quite amusing...

The only real competition, in the end, was Huang Lei, but Lin was quite confident that such a relationship if it even began in the first place, would never lead anywhere serious.

The woman was simply far too focused on her family's sect, something quite evident as she had spent almost every day of the last half a year leveraging her newfound influence to acquire as many resources and connections on its behalf as she was able, which would mean that any serious relation would be colored and weighed by what she could gain for it. And that, from what the young alchemist knew of his oldest companion, would undoubtedly end up leaving Yu Xiang put off.

And if it didn't? Well, Lin Fen had other plans for such an occasion. All is fair in love and war after all!

Putting his reasons aside, what ended up giving the grey haired cultivator the information he needed was the very person that had pushed him to make such thorough preparation.

Many months ago now, while Lin Fen was busy enjoying a nice pot of tea to unwind from his fervent research, Yu Xiang had returned to their shared abode carrying with him more scrolls than he'd ever seen him haul around before, his nose deep into the text in a reversion of their usual routine.

The young alchemist's curiosity had been immediately piqued, so he ended up taking a not so sneaky peek at one of the scrolls Yu had put down on their table, wanting to know what had finally roused the taller boy's academic interest.

Safe to say, Lin was surprised by what he found, it being a bunch of detailed records on esoteric and atypical methods of body refinement and an extensive document on the nature of 'constitutions' something that the young feline was not even aware of before then.

With Yu's permission, Lin Fen devoured the texts, using what he found there to finally come up with a method of his own to perform a complete body refinement even with his lacking Intent.

In the end, he ended up falling back on his chosen art, creating pills saturated with his own 'congealed' Intent that he could then consume at a later time to supplement his breakthrough and subsequent refinement.

It took him a long time to test and work out his plans, not to mention actually building up an adequate reserve of pills for the event, but after months of preparation, Lin Fen had finally managed to break through and perform a complete body refinement, while at the same time laying the groundwork for his constitution.

That was almost a week ago by now, and he'd spent the time since then refining his methods and building up another stockpile of pills, hence the necessary upgrade to his equipment.

The young alchemist's attention was stolen once again by another sound invading the sanctity of his laboratory, bringing another frown to his delicate features.

A heavy thumping sound sent his ears up at attention, while his long grey tail curled in on itself irritably like an overcooked noodle.

But instead of disappearing in the distance, the sound of heavy footfalls only got closer by the second, culminating in a gentle tap against his door.

Lin Fen curiously reached for the entrance of his laboratory, wondering who could be coming to interrupt him during his work, and was pleasantly surprised by Yu Xiang's sudden intrusion.

The dinner they had then was a pleasant affair, with warm discussion that could only occur when two people as close as they were did not meet for an extended period of time.

Although, Lin could not help but smile fondly as Yu failed to notice the change in his cultivation, so unguarded around his oldest companion that he hadn't even prodded at his aura.

"Wait! You've had a breakthrough!" Exclaimed the emerald eyed young man once he finally noticed. "You should have told me! I would've brought you a feast sooner!"

Lin Fen giggled, giggled, at his reaction, happy that none of his usual masks were present when they were alone and amused by his vehement need to celebrate what was ultimately only a small step forward. "I got too engrossed in my research. Didn't even think about stopping." He said, twirling a lock of grey hair around his finger.

As they talked more, Lin Fen subtly changed his appearance, tightening and raising his ponytail into one of his friend's preferred styles and loosening his robes slightly around his neck to draw Yu's eyes, which he found was a success as he immediately noticed his oldest companions' gaze subconsciously trailing his form, the taller cultivator not even noticing his own wandering eye.

Lin Fen would have loved to just keep talking and spending more of his time with Yu, but the Heavens had other plans for them, and so it was that their dinner was oh so rudely interrupted by an uninvited guest.

Although, he'd never be foolish enough to call Guan Hui Chen such to his face.