Thirteen days later, a hint of awareness flashed through Lex, though his body was in such poor condition that he couldn't have even groaned if he wished. He didn't even feel pain - just lethargy.

It took an incredible amount of effort to simply think. A single thought was akin to the burden of moving a mountain, let alone actually moving his body.

The faint awareness lasted only long enough to realize he was severely screwed, before it once again disappeared as Lex fell asleep. A day later, he woke up again, this time, his mind in a much better state.

He realized he could not move his body at all, so he did the only thing he really could - he began trying to circulate his cultivation technique. While his cultivation would not progress any time soon, it would help him recover quicker.

Unfortunately, he was too weak to even do that not that he gave up. He was healing quickly - far quicker than he should have normally, and it was thanks to the exceptionally pure and abundant energy in Arch-Heaven. Lex, however, did not have it in him to feel grateful.

It took several hours before he healed enough to begin cultivating, and that expedited his healing tremendously. But as a consequence of being unable to control his body, cultivation actually led to certain events that made Lex very nervous. As his body healed, it began absorbing the materials around him into his body, whatever they may be.

He was not in any condition to stop his body from absorbing things, but he had become extremely paranoid considering past events so he was thoroughly observing any changes that happened in his body while he cultivated.

That's when he learned something interesting. While his body was absorbing any and all things around it, as soon as they entered Lex's body, they just turned into ordinary Spiritual energy. It was as if everything inside the Arch-Heaven was made of energy, and that its actual appearance was a deception.

Lex continued to study the energy, searching for even the slightest signs of any abnormality. This was the worst he had been injured since back when he was in the Void and turned into a meatball. Fortunately, he was not nearly as injured now as he was back then.

It took two continuous days of cultivation before he could finally extend his spirit sense and observe his body, as well as his surroundings. His arms and legs had survived, though his hands and feet had disappeared, as if incinerated. Alongside them, he had once again lost all the skin on his body, leaving him as a bloody sight.

His bones had suffered severe burns, yet fortunately none of the injuries went further than that. Actually, close to his dragonheart, the injuries were actually the lightest, as if his heart itself had mitigated some of the damage.

All around him was a small puddle of his own blood, coating what looked like a smooth rock inside a small hole. Around the hole was dirt and grass, making it likely that Lex had absorbed all the dirt into his body while healing. That also meant he had been unable to absorb the rock passively.

Either the rock was special, or it was much more densely packed with energy making it hard to absorb. Lex did not want to test out his theory so he left it as it was.

Lex sighed - mentally of course. He had suffered a lot, but the damage was much more than that. His clothes had been incinerated, as was the norm, but so had most of his equipment. His spatial ring, given to him by the Governor of the Origin realm, which used to contain two hearts of Jorlam, was the only thing that had managed to survive, though even that looked like it had suffered some damage.

Fortunately, the ring seemed to have a very basic self healing feature, but it was unknown how long it would take for it to heal. Until then, the ring and its contents were unavailable to Lex. Naraka, which he usually kept in the ring to soak in the Hearts Blood of a Jorlam, also became unavailable to him.

This was one of the worst injuries Lex had ever taken, and the worst thing about it was the absolute lack of warning. His instincts had not acted up at all, giving him no warning about the chaos his actions would unleash.

Speaking of which, Lex could not help but recall the barrier that had saved his life. At the time that the storm had erupted, he hadn't had enough time to realize what was happening. Now, though, it was easy for him to understand. There was a reason he needed to register to enter Arch-Heaven properly: the registration process marked him, providing him with safety in the event of a storm such as the one Lex had survived. In fact, it was entirely possible that the registration would protect him from even more things.

That begged the question of what exactly was so dangerous that even Dao Lords could not survive it, especially considering the protection that the registration provided. Or maybe Dao Lords didn't get the protection, or maybe the protection only existed for a limited period of time.

Lex had too little information about this place, and unfortunately, it was not so easy to get it. The jackal he had met previously seemed like a swell guy, but he had given Lex no warning about the dangers of Arch-Heaven. Did he have some reason for that, or did he perhaps want Lex to die? Did he stand to benefit somehow from Lex's death?

There was too much uncertainty. The only thing that was certain was this place was incredibly dangerous, and that Lex did not have a lot of time to waste. As such, he was forced to try something he really hadn't wished to try. It was a risk, but if he avoided all risk, not only would he fail his quest, he might never be able to leave this place.

So, he took a risk and summoned Fenrir. Considering all the peculiarities of Arch-Heaven, Lex more than expected the summoning to fail, and was also mentally prepared for the possibility that this might cause another storm. Unexpectedly, it worked.