As Li Yan's cultivation continued to rise in the late stage, he no longer needed to be so cautious when refining the blood essence. He began refining half a drop at a time, then a whole drop.
He had refined the preceding few drops one whole drop at a time without anything unusual happening. But when the eighth drop entered his body, an unexpected problem arose.
Li Yan suddenly realized that, because he cultivated several of the world's most powerful techniques and possessed considerable strength, the blood essence he had previously absorbed might not have brought him to full saturation.
Refining another being's blood essence was inherently a slow process of assimilation. His cultivation had gone so smoothly over the years that Li Yan had gradually come to think of refining blood essence as something easy.
Yet assimilating outside power would always bring him to a threshold. He could not absorb another being's power without limit.
Had Li Yan continued refining it little by little, like water patiently wearing down stone, that threshold would have risen along with his slowly growing strength, allowing him to assimilate more outside power.
But after repeatedly refining entire drops in one go, he had finally encountered something he could no longer suppress.
The power in this drop of blood essence could not merge into Li Yan's blood in such a short time. The vast excess began swelling inside his meridians and flesh as though they were being inflated.
It stretched Li Yan's flesh so much that it actually separated from his bones, a consequence of the overwhelming power inside his body.
Although the immense pain almost snapped his nerves, the formidable endurance he had developed through years of practicing the Body Refining Technique now showed its worth.
Li Yan forcibly suppressed the heart-piercing agony