for air as the wolf's corpse finished dissolving into golden light.
He tried to stand but his legs refused to cooperate. His body was too damaged, too exhausted. But more pressingly, the sealed blood essence inside him was becoming a problem.
A serious problem.
The essence wasn't staying sealed properly. The nodes he'd compressed it into were holding, barely, but the sheer volume of energy was too much for his current cultivation level to contain. The crystalline structures were swelling, expanding against their spiritual bindings like water turning to ice and cracking the stone that held it.
Long Chen felt pressure building inside his torso. His chest felt tight. His breathing grew labored and shallow.
He looked down at his body and his eyes widened in alarm.
They were swelling.
Visibly swelling.
