MIGHT AS WELL BE OP

Chapter 1194: Golden Beam

Anthony stared at Aura Nova, then sighed as he spoke, “Don’t worry about upgrading your Bloodline to the High Grade, that is already an outrageous feat. I will help you upgrade it to the Supreme Grade after Kingsley is done.” He paused for a moment, then added, “Though you might have to brace for the pain.”

“Pain?” Aura Nova asked, confused. She was used to pain at this stage. There was no one who was an Apexus Mana cultivator who didn’t possess immense tolerance for pain.

“Yes, pain,” Lucian spoke. “Unless you have a skill or ability that grants complete immunity to pain, you will still feel pain no matter how high your pain tolerance is,” Lucian stated as though speaking from experience.

And indeed, he was speaking from experience.

“The Bloodline evolution is a total physical reconstruction, so it breaks down the body and rebuilds it. Just like when your body turned into those threads,” Anthony explained. “You didn’t feel the pain at the time because you were in your Ultimate State.”

Aura Nova nodded and said nothing else. Her sky-blue eyes turned to Lucian as she asked, “How did you upgrade your own Bloodline to the Supreme Grade?”

She was genuinely curious.

Lucian glanced at her and replied with a smile, “Trade secret.” His smile turned into a smirk as he added, “Why ask only me that question? Why not ask Anthony the same thing, and how he is even able to upgrade others besides himself? After all, I can’t do that,” expertly shifting the attention to Anthony.

Aura Nova turned her eyes to Anthony, who simply stared back with an expressionless face.

“Forget it. If you don’t want to say anything, then just say so,” Aura Nova replied with a shake of her head.

She didn’t dare ask Anthony any questions. This was the guy helping her; was she supposed to start questioning her helper? Although she had upgraded her Bloodline Grade by a level, she knew that wouldn’t have been possible without Anthony giving her the idea and knowledge.

Anthony simply shook his head, choosing not to say anything. If Aura Nova had asked him, he would have replied with the exact same thing Lucian had said.

“Kingsley, let’s begin with you,” Anthony stated as he turned to Kingsley.

Kingsley sighed as he spoke, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, but sure.” He walked forward without arguing.

Although he wanted to ask for advice like Aura Nova had done, he decided not to. After all, even Anthony couldn’t seem to communicate with the Universe.

He stood in the destroyed open space for a moment, unsure of what to do next. After a moment, he lowered himself to the ground as he sat in a lotus position. He closed his eyes and drowned out the silence and uncertain thoughts that echoed within his head as he tried to communicate with… anything, basically.

Anthony, Aura Nova, and Lucian had already flown backward and given him space. Unlike Aura Nova, who had immediately commenced her own process with nothing but a thought, Kingsley remained still for over an hour, and yet nothing happened.

But Anthony, Lucian, and Aura Nova said nothing. They weren’t in a rush and simply gave the guy a chance. After all, he had already said he didn’t know how to communicate with the Universe.

As the fifth hour passed, something finally happened, a change.

The clear blue sky shook as the white clouds began to part ever so slowly, and a golden radiance bathed the planet itself as though some Ultimate Existence was descending. The golden energy collapsed together to form a gigantic Eye in the sky that gazed down upon everything within the Barren Planet.

Anthony, Lucian, and Aura Nova recognized the Eye. It was the same one that had appeared during their spar to resurrect Kingsley back then, then gazed at Aaaninja with a certain unknown expression.

“No matter how many times I see it, I simply marvel at it,” Aura Nova spoke as her eyes shone.

Aura Nova was always a curious person, and at this moment, she activated her Code Replication Command by habit to understand what was before her. But the moment she did, her eyes immediately exploded outward in a shower of crimson blood and flesh as her brain began to melt and degrade from within her skull as though she had gazed upon the forbidden.

The Universe didn’t even turn to Aura Nova despite what she had done, as though it couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge her existence.

Aura Nova didn’t speak or complain. She simply willed it, and a new set of eyes grew within her eye sockets while her brain regenerated as she returned to her perfect state.

As for Anthony, he couldn’t understand why the Universe couldn’t just grant Kingsley some resurrection ability that didn’t require energy. Surely, such a thing was within its power. Although he thought that, Anthony didn’t say it aloud.

From the Eye that represented the Universe, a pillar of overwhelming golden brilliance collapsed downward with a booming hum that shook the eardrums of everyone present.

The incandescent pillar of light struck the seemingly absent-minded Kingsley with full force on the head. Dust, stones, and boulders erupted outward in a five-kilometer radius, reducing everything to oblivion.

But Kingsley remained whole and uninjured, as though nothing had happened to him. The light simply bathed him, pouring through every cell in his body, through every pore of his skin. Kingsley remained silent as though he were in a trance, simply enjoying the process. His skin reddened as he began to… molt.

The outer layer of his flesh tore apart and broke away from his body with ease. Within his body, his heartbeat increased in real time and continued rising as every vein was twisted and rebuilt. Then, in the next instant, his heart exploded within him before freezing in place, the process reversing as though time itself had rewound. Yet a new and stronger heart was being built from the old as raw material.

Just as Aura Nova hadn’t felt the pain, Kingsley didn’t either. The Universe made sure of that as the golden beam continued to pour down upon him.

His old skin, which he had shed, evaporated and was burned away by the beam from the Eye of the Universe.

The process continued for another hour until the beam thinned ever so slowly and started to flicker out. Then, after a few seconds, it totally disappeared, leaving only Kingsley, who remained seated in place.

The Eye in the sky stared at Kingsley one more time, then turned its gaze toward Anthony. It seemed to blink at Anthony for some unknown reason. Then, with that, the Eye exploded into golden energy, which filled the sky and immediately began to dissipate and vanish.

For several lingering moments, countless golden motes drifted through the atmosphere like fragments of a shattered star, casting an ethereal glow across the barren landscape. The air remained saturated with an indescribable presence that refused to disappear immediately, as though the Universe itself had left behind a faint trace of its attention before finally withdrawing completely from the planet.

The sky returned to normal once again as silence settled over the surroundings.