When he reached his limit, the boy began to squeeze all the mana in his body into a tiny size. This time, the difficulty was much greater and the pain of the process increased dozens of times.
Every part of his body felt like it was being used to its fullest and he was screaming for him to stop. All of this was ignored by Kayden. He knew how much his heart had improved his body with all his advances. He was practically made of steel.
With an audible CRACK! One of the veins on his left arm broke in two due to the pressure caused by the normal and compressed mana. The new pain didn't even stop Kayden from raising his eyebrows.
The boy felt all the veins on the left side of his body begin to rupture. With superhuman willpower, he began to repair them while continuing to squeeze out mana.
For the next few minutes, this process repeated itself throughout his body. The veins showed signs of cracking and he went there and repaired them, increasing their strength. The impressive thing is that he stopped squeezing the mana at no point.
Multitasking has become second nature to him after spending decades honing his willpower and mind during his coma.
After an hour, the boy finally felt the two types of mana coming together and the pressure on his body returned to normal. Along with this also came signs that he would make definitive progress.
"No," Kayden ordered his own body to resist the changes. "Not yet." Again, he began to draw mana from the environment into his body. This time, the pain came at a much higher level.
Every minute he spent collecting mana, his veins began to show more signs of tearing. More than half of the time he spent cultivating was spent strengthening his veins.
It took him four hours to gather all the mana he needed and of that time, almost three hours were just arranging his mana veins. The pressure on his body reached an absurd level, and just one slip could cause his entire body to burst from the inside out.
And yet he continued. This pain and pressure was nothing compared to what he went through. This sentence is wrong. In the same way that it would be impossible to compare the weight of an atom with that of a planet, it would be impossible to compare the pressure and pain in this situation with that of your coma.
At this moment, he was squeezing the normal mana with the compressed one. The veins began to burst before he could have the chance to repair them. This forced the boy to have to create new ones while continuing to squeeze.
The solution he quickly found was to decrease the circumference and increase the resistance of each vein he created. This way, it was easier for them to handle the new type of mana.
The problem was that for everyone that exploded, he had to create two more. This took much more time than the boy expected. Slowly, the hours began to pass and the boy remained firm.
No negative thoughts.
No positive thinking.
There were no emotions or thoughts, just a goal and a mind determined to achieve it.
Ten hours later, Kayden finally felt like he was ready to force the two types of mana together. With one last effort, he succeeded. Within seconds, all the pain and pressure in his body disappeared.
And before he could breathe, signs of the breakthrough began to explode in his body.
"No", again the boy suppressed them and gathered again... "Where's the sister?" He couldn't feel anything around him. It was almost as if he had lost the ability to sense mana.
In every direction he extended his senses, there was nothing. Not even a shred of mana. The closest he could get was to the wall of the tree, which somehow blocked the foreign mana from entering.
This meant that he had dried up all the crystals and mana stones during his advancement. There was no way he could continue anymore. Accepting this fact, the boy allowed his body to move forward.
Every inch of his body began to catch fire as he had his impurities expelled from him. His veins were improved and his heart also received an increase in endurance and strength.
This entire process was controlled by Kayden, not even an inch was done against his will. This meant that something that should have taken minutes ended up lasting more than 6 hours.
"That's it," Kayden finally stopped trying to improve his body when he realized that the urge to rank up was gone. He could no longer do anything else as his body had finally reached the eighth rank and if he continued cultivating now he would damage it.
This was different from his other advancements, in which he simply connected one after another without thinking. Because this time he broke a gigantic barrier and he had to be careful.
The boy fell to the ground and passed out from exhaustion. Even if his mind could go further and remain conscious, his body could no longer handle this process. There were many hours spent awake under extreme pressure and when it was over, the boy allowed himself to rest.
Once he woke up, the boy didn't even check his progress before jumping on the food. In no time, he ate two weeks' worth of his supplies. The hunger he felt was immense and it seemed like he hadn't eaten for years.
As soon as he finished his meal, the boy had a bulging belly from eating so much. His greatest desire was to lie down and rest, but... his mind would never let him do something like that.
"My body is at the level..." The boy didn't know where to classify his strength. Just by using his body as a base, he had already passed the peak of the ninth realm. He was almost twice as strong as when he was in the last form of transcendence and at the eighth rank.
"Holy shit", finally the boy turned into a real monster. His strength was at an absurd level compared to his cultivation and if he utilized the enlightenment state, he could break even more steps.
For the first time in his life, Kayden felt afraid of himself. His strength was far beyond what he had ever imagined before. Laughing to himself, the boy sat on the floor to reflect on what happened.