MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 997: Apexus

While every individual present except for Altheria and Veronica held planetary-scale combat strength, the younger cultivators, including Aura Nova, Lucian Darkheart, and Aaaninja Chronisynth Eternos, had yet to climb to the highest cultivation stage that bestowed such dominating fighting might: the Apexus Mana Rank, a realm marking the ultimate summit of their Galaxy-based cultivation path.

In that instant, solely Null Anthony and the elder generation had brushed against that Mana Rank. Yet, despite the elders having grazed this level, they couldn't surpass the younger ones who hadn't, as these youths were sheer outliers, beasts of an entirely superior breed whose progress and prospects shattered all reason and tradition.

Aaaninja, lost in a trance, sensed his Mana Rank surging skyward like a bolt loosed from a drawn bow, relentless and speeding past ordinary bounds.

Ascendant Mana Rank Level Five... Level Seven... Level Nine.

The very next moment, mana erupted in a devastating surge that ripped through space as if it were mere thin parchment, the nearby void buckling under the savage influx. Yet the advancement refused to halt merely because it had crested the top of Aaaninja's existing Mana Rank; rather, it pressed on with horrifying speed.

The divide separating the Ascendant Mana Rank from the subsequent one crumbled at once, fissures spiderwebbing over its unseen barrier, before it burst apart with total simplicity as the breakthrough forged ahead unchecked and unopposed.

Dominion Mana Rank; Level One... Level Three... Level Six... Level Nine.

Aaaninja perceived ever greater volumes of mana flooding into him through his very pores, his mana core morphing into a ravenous void poised to consume any energy it encountered without mercy.

Aaaninja experienced the shift live, his muscles swelling and tightening at the same time, their toughness and weight multiplying rapidly, his bones toughening and purifying to a superior degree, his blood growing denser with might, his vessels fortifying while his heart drove blood with crushing vigor, his consciousness broadening as if he were acquiring sharper insight, vigilance, and senses right then.

Aaaninja sensed his bodily might skyrocketing to such heights that should he face his pre-breakthrough self in combat, one effortless smack from him would obliterate the old version without a trace.

However, that wasn't the sole change; he also detected a deeper shift in his Soul, something profoundly more essential than the bodily alterations.

His Soul appeared to glow brighter and intensify as if it had likewise been fortified, polished, and raised to a nobler plane of being, and truly, it had received a full renewal and upgrade.

During any breakthrough, should a person bear any bodily or ethereal wound, such as one to the Soul, the Heavens would instinctively mend the individual and restore them to flawless condition as a mark of recognition and tribute for ascending to a superior realm.

That said, this mechanism failed against elements like curses, since those were outside burdens tied beyond basic mending, so for any irreparable harm, one merely needed to advance to the next Major Mana Rank, and full healing would occur automatically. Naturally, this applied not to minor Mana Ranks from Level One to Level Nine, but exclusively to Major Mana Ranks and broader Realms.

Back during Aaaninja's clash with Lucian, he had offered up a fragment of his Soul to form a True Soul Clone capable of deceiving Lucian utterly, thus rendering his Soul partial and broken. It hadn't troubled him, for he possessed methods to mend and restore his Soul later, yet now such efforts proved unnecessary—the Heavens handled it, fully repairing his Soul and making it whole once more, even more integral than prior.

As soon as his bodily and Soul evolutions finished, Aaaninja's form started shaking fiercely as if wracked by colossal force, the mana streaming into the planet densifying to unheard-of levels, the world beneath them creaking in agony from the unbearable load, then detonating inward with ruinous power, folding in on itself savagely—yet this failed to disrupt the continuing... ascension.

"Don’t tell me..." Lucian's gaze bulged in disbelief as he fixed on the quaking Aaaninja, his tone hardly more than a murmur.

"He is stepping into the Apexus Mana Rank," with those words slipping from Klaus’ mouth, the essence of reality itself appeared to affirm it, the core of being responding in kind.

In the following blink, the sector of the Galaxy surrounding them flared into a dazzling, otherworldly blue and white, Aaaninja's figure seeming to dissolve from all views entirely, though he remained, his presence felt but unreachable, with mana still thundering toward him without end.

Aaaninja sensed his whole genetic makeup undergoing a core rewrite. His form disintegrated in the moment and reassembled over and over, his Eyes Of Genesis shattering into shards of holy radiance, only to reform in a vastly improved version, his heart bursting in a gruesome spray of gore and tissue, but a new one sprouting right away. For every limb or organ that perished, a replacement emerged far tougher, more resilient, and beyond all prior limits.

The process persisted as if the Heavens were stripping Aaaninja of his mortal chains and recasting him as a more flawless entity, one fit for the tier he entered, one nearer to godhood.

His mana core quaked wildly inside him, then swelled ceaselessly as it absorbed mana boundlessly, until it hit a limit, halted sharply, then released a searing flash of mana while leaping to the superior plane.

The Apexus Mana Rank.

The Apexus Mana Rank lacked sub-levels, standing as a lone and unchallenged condition. Here, no standard cultivation advances occurred. Power gains came solely from personal honing, expertise, and technique sharpening, much like Null Michael's transcendent leap as the Sword Saint following his duel with the Eleven Winged Angel called the Sword Origin.

The radiant white and blue ghostly glow faded the instant Aaaninja fully entered the Apexus Mana Rank. His form reappeared at last, his white hair now shining much more vividly, emitting a subtle divine luster, his Eyes Of Genesis appearing even more spectral and captivating, as if language fell short in capturing their splendor and command.

Aaaninja brimmed with immense vitality throughout his being, vast and limitless; before, he wielded the battle strength of Apexus Mana Rank holders, but hadn't truly attained it—now he had, and all felt... flawless, unified, and supreme.

His frame overflowed with strength beyond even his immediate grasp, his mana blazing without cease as if genuinely boundless now. Bodily wounds held no relevance anymore, for only strikes at his core essence could truly harm him.

His gaze swept steadily about, revealing he now drifted in the Galaxy, the planet from before utterly demolished into stellar rubble. He uttered no words, merely conceived and commanded in silence, and abruptly, Time stuttered and flowed backward, fate yielding to his intent, until he and the others stood inside the planet anew, as if the destruction had never been.

The mana toll for inverting an entire planet's timeline? So trivial it defied measurement.