Golden light washed over the limestone walls of Cold-Spring Grotto like liquid amber.
The Stage 3 Fallow Slate hovered before Kaelen Vance, its silver-inscribed surface humming with tranquil power. Seven hundred and twenty hours of unbroken accumulation had locked into place. The 1-Month Lunar Fallow Surge had triggered across all three tracks, locking the multiplier at seven thousand two hundred and ten times.
Any ordinary cultivator would have discharged everything immediately.
An imperial master would have thrown open his meridians, flooded his dantian with the stored energy, and spent the entire windfall in a single, roaring blast. That was how every accumulator in the northern territories had operated for ten thousand years.
Kaelen Vance had no intention of doing anything so reckless.
Discharging all three tracks right now would reset my entire accumulation to zero, Kaelen thought, propping his chin on his knuckles. Then I would have to spend another thirty days lying around with earmuffs on just to rebuild the baseline. That sounds suspiciously like hard labor.
Instead, his eyes drifted toward the two-month milestone cap.
If he kept going for another thirty days, reaching one thousand four hundred and forty hours, the multiplier would double again to fourteen thousand four hundred and ten times. That was the threshold he needed for his true foundation breakthrough into the Nascent Soul realm.
