At the critical moment of life and death, still thinking about the national treasury

He was calculating.

The Nightmare's main body was pinned down by the residual lightning, its devouring power in chaos, and the frequency of the cocoon wall's vibration was dropping. This meant its self-healing ability was extremely strong; in ten breaths at most, the cracks would heal and the chaos would subside. By then, the residual lightning would be forcibly suppressed by it, and everyone would be swallowed again.

He had to pierce through one layer of its skin within ten breaths.

But the eighth-layer Lightning Phoenix had been exhausted, and the lightning snake attacks from the first seven layers of the Lightning Abyss Demon Suppression Tower were almost ineffective against a peak level-nine anomaly. Although the New Emperor Sword had been frantically devouring scattered nightmare fragments on the side, eating so much that its blade had thickened, its current combat power was only at the peak of the seventh realm. No matter how much it devoured, it couldn't become a Martial God in one bite.

Unless—

Wang Hao's gaze fell on the ninth layer of the Lightning Abyss Demon Suppression Tower.

The ninth layer had never been opened. The ninth layer corresponded to the ninth realm of martial arts—that was the pinnacle of martial arts, and also the place where the purple lightning dragon was sealed, but it had been used up.

But at this moment, Wang Hao noticed that the lightning patterns on the ninth layer were faintly glowing.

Extremely faint, like a candle in the wind.

It was residual lightning.

Although the Heavenly Tribulation residual lightning inside the cocoon was suppressed by the Nightmare, it was extremely dense. After all, it was the tribulation lightning absorbed by Xie Wujiu when he crossed the Martial God Tribulation, and its grade was extremely high. The Lightning Abyss Demon Suppression Tower fed on lightning. Although the residual lightning was scattered everywhere in the cocoon, the natural attraction of lightning caused it to constantly gather toward the lightning tower. However, the amount gathered was too small, far from enough to open the door of the ninth layer.

Unless—Wang Hao took the initiative to insert the lightning tower into the Nightmare's body, letting it directly extract the residual lightning.

This was like taking a harpoon to stab a whale's stomach wall to suck its blood from the stomach. The risk was immense. The Nightmare's main body was not a dead object; inserting the lightning tower was equivalent to exposing his vital point to its mouth. Once the Nightmare reacted and swallowed the lightning tower instead, Wang Hao would definitely suffer a backlash.

But if he didn't insert it, the residual lightning would be slowly digested. Ten breaths later, everyone would die together.

Wang Hao only thought for half a breath before making a decision.

"Wei Zhongxian."

Wei Zhongxian immediately appeared beside him, his robes stained with blood, but his back was still straight.

"Guard for Zhen. Within ten breaths, no one is allowed to disturb Zhen."

Wei Zhongxian didn't ask why; he only said in a deep voice, "This old slave will guard with his life."

Wang Hao smiled, patted his shoulder, and then strode forward.

Under his feet was the black cocoon wall of the Nightmare. Every step felt like stepping in soft mud; the devouring power writhed madly under his soles, trying to invade his meridians from the Yongquan acupoint. Wang Hao ignored it. The national destiny black dragon coiled behind him, its dragon mouth wide open, golden light suppressing the ground beneath his feet, forcibly carving out a path in the soft mud.

He walked directly below that vertical pupil.

The vertical pupil sensed the threat and suddenly looked down. One person and one pupil locked gazes.

"What are you looking at?" Wang Hao tilted his head back. "Is Zhen not enough of an appetizer for you?"

The vertical pupil contracted violently, and the devouring power concentrated and blasted toward Wang Hao. Wei Zhongxian thrust out both palms, his cold true essence turning into layers of ice walls to block above Wang Hao's head. The ice walls shattered layer by layer, and blood began to seep from the corner of Wei Zhongxian's mouth, but his feet didn't move an inch.

Wang Hao took this instant to strike.

He lifted the Lightning Abyss Demon Suppression Tower with his right hand and slapped the bottom of the tower with his left hand, ruthlessly driving the entire tower into the black cocoon wall beneath his feet!

Pfft!

It wasn't the sound of piercing flesh, but a more eerie muffled sound, like stabbing a knife into a clump of breathing mud.

The Lightning Abyss Demon Suppression Tower penetrated three inches into the body.

The Nightmare's main body trembled violently. Everyone inside the cocoon simultaneously felt the ground beneath them sway, as if the entire mountain had been nudged by something.

The vertical pupil suddenly widened. It was no longer pure black—countless fine golden cracks surfaced at the bottom of the pupil. That was the suppressed Heavenly Tribulation residual lightning responding to the lightning tower's call.

Buzz—

The ninth layer of the Lightning Abyss Demon Suppression Tower lit up.

It didn't suddenly shine brightly, but like a lit fuse, it spread upward inch by inch from the bottom of the tower. The dim lightning patterns were injected with golden lightning light, like a dried riverbed finally welcoming a flood.

The ninth layer was absorbing the residual lightning tribulation inside the Nightmare's main body. Ten breaths finally gathered a complete Martial God Realm Heavenly Tribulation.

The door of the ninth layer slowly cracked open a sliver.

The lightning light spilling from the crack wasn't golden, nor was it purple—it was white, completely different from the previous purple lightning dragon.

Pure, unadulterated white lightning.

As soon as the white lightning appeared, the nearest New Emperor Sword let out a strange cry: "Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot!" The blade frantically darted backward, the artifact spirit's voice trembling. "Tyrant, what the hell did you release! This isn't lightning! This is the biting tooth mark of the Heavenly Dao! It's as terrifying as that big purple worm!"

Wang Hao ignored it.

Because he could feel that the door of the ninth layer was only open a sliver, like the sluice gate of the Three Gorges Dam being pried open by a finger's width. The torrent behind it was already roaring, but this crack was not enough to release the flood; instead, it would crush the entire dam.

He had to continue opening it.

He bit the tip of his tongue and spat a mouthful of essence blood onto the tower body.

The national destiny black dragon simultaneously lowered its head, and a golden dragon breath shot from its mouth, pouring into the top of the tower.

Under the dual enhancement, the crack on the ninth layer of the lightning tower widened a bit more.

White lightning light poured out from the crack, turning into an extremely fine thread of white lightning that shot from the top of the tower, piercing right into the center of the vertical pupil above, hitting the hairline crack blasted open by the Lightning Phoenix.

The instant the white lightning thread pierced in—

The vertical pupil froze.

The entire space inside the cocoon froze.

Time seemed to freeze for an instant.

Then, deep within the vertical pupil, all the suppressed Heavenly Tribulation residual lightning exploded simultaneously.

It didn't explode from the outside in, but from the inside out.

Countless golden lightning lights surged out from the core of the vertical pupil, like an ignited lightning ball. The black surface of the vertical pupil was torn full of holes by the golden light, and the devouring power was dispersed for the first time—not injured, but dispersed. Lightning power was the natural nemesis of anomalies; it was utmost yang and utmost firm, specializing in breaking the dark and evil. Heavenly Tribulation lightning was the natural enemy of all anomalies, and even a peak level-nine anomaly couldn't be exempt.

The vertical pupil was bursting.

The cocoon wall was collapsing.

The devouring power was frantically shrinking back, like a scalded tentacle.

Wang Hao was sent flying by this recoil force, his chest feeling stuffy as a trace of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth. But he didn't retreat; instead, he borrowed the force to turn around in mid-air and formed hand seals.

"Heaven Imprisoning Earth Overturning Palm—"

"Eighth Palm—"

"Sky Splitting!"

This was the eighth palm of the Heaven Imprisoning Earth Overturning Palm. It shared the same name as the Sky Splitting Nine Swords, but its artistic conception was completely different. The Sky Splitting Nine Swords slashed through chaos, breaking all laws with one sword; the "Sky Splitting" of the Heaven Imprisoning Earth Overturning Palm tore through heaven and earth, shattering the firmament with one palm.

Wang Hao had never used this palm since learning it. It wasn't that he didn't want to use it, but he couldn't. The eighth palm required a cultivation base above the Air Traversing Realm to execute. If he forcibly activated it at the peak of the Air Controlling Realm, his meridians would be damaged—but he couldn't care so much right now.

The vertical pupil was blown full of holes by the Heavenly Tribulation residual lightning, which was precisely its most vulnerable moment. If he didn't strike, and waited for it to recover, the residual lightning would have exploded for nothing.

A golden palm print condensed in front of Wang Hao. The form of this palm was completely different from the previous seven palms. It was no longer a palm print, but an axe-shaped golden light—like Pangu's sky-splitting axe, with the blade facing down and the back touching the sky.

The meridians in Wang Hao's right arm bulged, the cuffs of his dragon robe burst, and the blue veins on his entire arm bulged like horned dragons. Blood seeped from his pores, dripping down his arm and being absorbed by the axe-shaped golden light, making the golden light increasingly blazing.

"For Zhen—"

"Split!"

The axe-shaped golden light crashed down, striking the exact center of the vertical pupil.

The crack finally turned into a rift.

The vertical pupil split open from the middle, and eerie origin energy, black as ink, gushed out from the tear like a volcanic eruption. But this was no victory—the vertical pupil was the core of the Nightshade. With its core broken, the Nightshade wouldn't die; it would only fall into a frenzy. It was like poking a hornet's nest; when the queen is injured, the swarm goes mad.

Just as expected.

The moment the vertical pupil split, the entire space inside the cocoon began to contract violently. It wasn't dissipating, but shrinking. The Nightshade's main body was pulling back all its power to re-condense into a smaller, denser, and more crazed form.

The cocoon walls squeezed inward at a visible rate, rapidly shrinking the space. A thousand zhang, eight hundred zhang, five hundred zhang, three hundred zhang—

"It's trying to crush us to death!" Old Master Ren shouted sternly. "Hold on!"

Over forty patriarchs joined forces once again, their true essence transforming into a canopy pushing upward. But this time, the compression wasn't physical; it was spatial. True essence couldn't block it. The canopy was compressed inch by inch, the patriarchs' faces turned deathly pale, and a few with weaker cultivation were already coughing up blood.

Within the rift of the vertical pupil, a mass darker than the night itself was writhing.

It was a shrunken Nightshade core—no, it was countless shrunken vertical pupils packed tightly together, like a nest of black eyeballs. Every single eyeball was an independent devouring core. Gathered together, their devouring power was actually stronger than before.

"Damn it!" Xiao Chen couldn't help but curse. "Does this thing multiply the more we fight it?"

Ye Guyun's sword-holding hand trembled for the first time. It wasn't out of fear, but from the overexertion of his strength. Everyone was nearing their limit.

Wang Hao stood at the very front, the luster of his national destiny black dragon already dimmed by half. Blood was still dripping from his right arm, its meridians severely damaged, making it a struggle even to lift it.

But as he looked at that dense cluster of eyeballs, he suddenly smiled.

"Everyone."

The crowd looked toward him.

Wang Hao wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. "I have been pondering a question just now."

Wei Zhongxian said anxiously, "Your Majesty, is this the time to be thinking?"

Wang Hao ignored him and continued, "The Nightshade relies on dream threads to devour people. The more dream threads there are, the faster it devours. But now it has retracted all its dream threads and condensed them into this nest of eyeballs. What does that mean?"

Wanyan Gu was stunned. "It means it's getting desperate?"

"Incorrect." A sharp glint flashed in Wang Hao's eyes. "It means it's scared."

"It pulled its tentacles back to concentrate its power for defense. But it forgot—this is a cocoon. A cocoon it spun itself. By pulling its tentacles back, the cocoon walls are now devoid of its claws and teeth."

"The cocoon walls," Wang Hao enunciated each word clearly, "have become a pure cage. They are no longer its weapon."

Before the crowd could react, Wang Hao had already turned around to face the constantly shrinking black cocoon wall. He raised his left hand, forming his fingers into a sword.

"Nine Swords of Heaven's Opening."

"Fifth Sword."

"Severing the Prison."

This sword was named "Severing the Prison," meaning to cleave open a cage. It wasn't meant for killing enemies; it was meant for breaking out of a prison.

A white sword light flared up. It lacked the silent stealth of the fourth sword, "Soul Severing," and the fierce sharpness of the third sword, "Void Severing." This sword was extremely simple, like using a key to open a lock—just a gentle turn.

The sword light pierced into the cocoon wall.

The cocoon wall didn't explode or shatter; instead—it melted.

At the point where the sword light pierced, like a drop of ink falling into clear water, the blackness retreated in all directions, revealing an opening.

The opening wasn't large, only wide enough for one person to pass through.

But it was enough.

"Go!" Wang Hao shouted sternly. "Everyone, get out immediately!"

The crowd was greatly alarmed.

"Your Majesty, what about you?"

Wang Hao looked at the reforming cluster of eyeballs and said indifferently, "It has locked onto me. As long as I don't leave, it won't chase you."

Xiao Chen said anxiously, "No! You alone—"

"I won't die." Wang Hao interrupted him. "The ninth floor of the Thunder Abyss Demon Suppression Tower only opened a crack. I have to pierce it all the way through, otherwise everyone's efforts today will be in vain."

He paused, then added, "Furthermore—"

He smiled, a smile containing a hint of madness that only the New Emperor Sword could understand. "It has devoured so many people; there must be plenty of good stuff in its belly. If I don't fish some out to take back, how am I going to fill the national treasury?"

The crowd: "..."

It was a matter of life and death, and he was still thinking about the national treasury?

Pavilion Master Heavenly Sword took a deep look at Wang Hao, cupped his fists, and said, "Take care, Your Majesty."

After saying that, he was the first to rush out through the opening.

Ye Guyun followed closely behind, then Qin Hongye, Xiao Chen, and Wanyan Gu. The forty patriarchs evacuated in an orderly manner. The last to leave were Old Master Ren and Old Master Li.

As Old Master Ren passed by Wang Hao, he whispered, "Wang family brat, you owe me one. Next time you bring up things from my youth, I won't acknowledge it."

Wang Hao nodded. "That depends on your post-war contributions."

Old Master Ren's beard twitched in anger, and he dashed out of the opening without looking back.

Before leaving, Old Master Li also added a sentence, "About the coffin—"

"I remember," Wang Hao said. "Go back and donate three stalks of grade-eight spiritual herbs to me, and I'll forget about it."

Old Master Li: "...Are you really the Emperor?"

"One hundred percent genuine."

The only ones left inside the cocoon were Wei Zhongxian and the New Emperor Sword.

Wei Zhongxian would not leave.

Wang Hao didn't try to persuade him. He knew the old eunuch's temper; persuading him would be useless anyway.

The reason the New Emperor Sword didn't leave was even simpler: "I want to eat eyeballs!"