?A plan took form in Lex's infantile mind. His plan was based on the level of confidence he could summon up on his own ability to survive hazardous conditions. After a moment of contemplation, Lex was fairly confident that he could survive - not that these tests would kill him anyway.
With his plan set and decided, he continued to put up various defenses while specifically avoiding having any that contained spirit energy. After all, this particular type of lava, or fire, seemed to burn it right up!
These defenses included, but were not limited to, arrays that specifically absorbed heat energy to work, space barriers, compressed stone and walls of supercooled rock which were cooled through the use of arrays.
No sooner had he finished that a massive earthquake came, much stronger than the ones he experienced before. Before the tremors had an opportunity to subside, a massive explosion rocked the entire tunnel network, shaking even the burrow Lex had created.
The temperature drastically increased all of a sudden and a continuous roaring sound engulfed Lex, as if there was heavy machinery at work all around him.
Lex could not tell if the ground was shaking because the earthquake was still going on, or because of the heavy, continuous flow of lava in the tunnels all around him. Either way, the fact that his hiding spot had not instantly been blasted open meant that he had a good chance of surviving this test without issue. But that was no longer Lex's goal.
He extended his spirit sense to study what was happening outside, and quickly learnt that the rock around him was melting much faster than he anticipated. All he needed to do was continue to cut into the rock in the opposite direction and he would avoid all contact, but he did the exact opposite.
Now that he had survived the initial blast without issue, he began to remove the many defenses around him, and even tunneled closer to the lava. When he reached the point where he could see the rock turning red, he stopped tunneling at last. He removed his stealth suit, lest it be destroyed, and sat cross legged in nothing but his underwear.
He added some failsafes, just in case they were needed, before putting his back against the melting rock and began to cultivate.
At first, the heated rock felt like nothing more than a warm towel on his back. The transition from that to feeling like he had entered a hot sauna was pretty quick. The rock finally began to melt, yielding under the massive heat and pressure of the flowing lava on the other side. But Lex did not allow the entire wall of rock to melt, but instead left only a portion of it unsupported. The sides of the wall were being rapidly cooled using his arrays.
This way only a small amount of lava started to drip, and fell onto Lex. It was clear that Lex's means would not last, and it was only a matter of time before the entire wall gave way, but his intention was never to stop the lava completely.
He just needed to slow it down while his body and cultivation technique adapted to the heat and pressure. As thick, massive drops of lava fell upon Lex's bare skin, his cultivation technique absorbed the heat from it as if it were ambrosia instead of lava, and began altering his body.
For a time, the lava seemed unbearably hot, even burning his fragile skin, but Lex eventually lost himself in cultivation.
He did not notice when his arrays stopped working, or when the wall rapidly began to melt. He did not notice either when it gave way entirely, and a current of lava fell onto him, carrying his smoking body with it. He did not even notice it when his hair burnt off completely, or when his skin started to cook.
That was because the greater the pressure Lex faced, the faster his cultivation technique altered him. He was changing at a noticeable, perceptible speed. Not only was he growing stronger, his cultivation was improving drastically.
This was the first time he was cultivating since he bonded with Lotus, so he was taken aback by the massive boost it provided.
His body had long been carried away by the flowing lava, and though he suffered burns over every inch of his skin, before the damage could become substantially threatening, the lava stopped affecting him.
Neither its weight, which could barely compare to the liquid he bathed in when he was bonding with Lotus, nor its heat could affect him anymore. In fact, his body was rapidly absorbing the heat and healing him at visible speeds.
A tornado of spirit energy formed around him as he cultivated, and the eruption actually slowed down as the lava around him began to cool.
In just thirty minutes, Lex went from being in the middle of the Golden core realm to the top. If this continued, it would only be a few hours before he reached the peak, and was ready to change his realm!
Mateo, who had been studying Lex's actions to decide his training regimen, threw the clipboard onto the floor as he discarded his current plan. He would need to come up with another plan.
But, instead of starting a new plan on his own, he made a tough decision and used his authority to wake someone else up. This was not fair. He was just a ground manager. Why did he have to deal with a freak?
For that, it was better off if he let another incomprehensible freak deal with the situation.
The process was not straightforward, as waking someone up from dormancy was not a quick thing, even if it was a projection. To be fair, none of them were only projections. It was just that a portion of their brains were being woken up while the remainder of their body continued to be dormant.
It was not time to wake up, but extreme times called for extreme measures.