Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
Kael spent most of that time in deep meditation. His room at the Golden Crane Inn became his cultivation chamber. The outside world faded to background noise.
The merchants shouting in the streets, carriages rumbling past, and cultivators arguing over petty disputes. None of it reached him.
His focus was absolute and complete. The Essence Gathering Pill's energy had integrated into his meridians over the first day. By the second day, he felt the threshold approaching. That invisible barrier between Level 1 and Level 2 Primal Adept.
On the morning of the auction, it finally happened.
Kael sat cross-legged on his bed. The first rays of dawn filtered through his window. His breathing was slow and rhythmic. In. Out. In. Out. Each breath drew primal energy from the air around him and the exhale refined that energy through his meridians.
