The Sky Cries Blood

Rumble—!

The clouds rolled violently as nearly ten thousand silver lightning snakes, each as thick as a barrel, slithered and intertwined madly within. These were no ordinary natural lightning bolts; they contained the will of the Heavenly Dao, and every single lightning snake possessed the destructive power of a full-force strike from a Fifth Realm martial artist!

Seeing those nearly ten thousand lightning snakes about to pour down, the five ancestors circulated their true qi to the limit. Five heaven-spanning golden dragon auras shot into the sky, attempting to prop up a barrier above Wang Hao's head to forcefully resist the heavenly might.

Wei Zhongxian shouted at the top of his lungs to activate the grand palace protection array to its maximum capacity, while Sun Li sprinted toward the array's core.

Wait... did I forget something?

Lightning? Heavenly punishment, divine retribution? What was that piece of junk I just pulled from the daily sign-in called again?

Wang Hao's brain worked at an unprecedented speed. He suddenly slapped his thigh—the Thunder Abyss Demon Suppression Tower!

His breathing suddenly quickened. He had originally thought the tower was a useless trinket only good for display. After all, who in their right mind would run out into a thunderstorm holding a broken little tower just to get struck by lightning? Not to mention it required absorbing high-level lightning—that was just insane.

But now...

Wang Hao slowly raised his head, looking up at the densely packed, seemingly endless silver lightning snakes in the sky. On his originally pale and terrified face, an incredibly bizarre expression was rapidly spreading.

How the hell is this a heavenly tribulation? This is clearly the heavens seeing that I'm short on ammo and delivering it right to my door—a fully automated, all-you-can-eat buffet charging station!

An extremely crazy and devious plan instantly formed in Wang Hao's mind.

Looking at the five ancestors in front of him who were preparing to burn their essence blood and fight with their lives, the corners of Wang Hao's mouth twitched into an imperceptible, insidious smirk.

Although the ancestors are loyal to me, this loyalty is mostly based on the royal blood flowing in my veins and my status as the emperor. If I want to completely subjugate these old monsters who have lived for hundreds of years, making them obey my every word and even willingly act as my free thugs, relying on bloodline alone isn't enough. I have to give them a little Human Emperor shock!

Thinking of this, Wang Hao instantly concealed all the greed and calculation in his eyes. His entire aura abruptly changed as he straightened his back. The panic from just moments ago was swept away, and the majestic demeanor of an emperor possessed him once more.

Grandfather! Ancestors! Grand Companion Sun, calm down! Wang Hao shouted loudly. He stepped out from behind Wang Jingyuan, hands clasped behind his back, and looked up at the giant eye in the sky with a cold sneer. A mere heavenly tribulation dares to run wild in my imperial palace? I am the Human Emperor, what is there to fear?! Today, I shall conquer this heavenly might!

Good grandson! Are you crazy?! Come back! Wang Jingyuan turned pale with fright and reached out to grab Wang Hao's dragon robe.

Grandfather! Wang Hao turned his head abruptly, his eyes full of compassionate righteousness. I am the Son of Heaven of the Great Zhou, having received the Mandate of Heaven, may I live a long and prosperous life! The territory of the Great Zhou was conquered by generations of ancestors. As the Human Emperor, how can I hide under the wings of my ancestors and eke out a living?! If I can't even withstand this little heavenly tribulation, what face do I have to sit on this dragon throne, and what qualifications do I have to rule the millions of people in the world?

These words were spoken with resounding force and awe-inspiring righteousness. Paired with Wang Hao's chiseled, resolute profile, they instantly set off a stormy sea in the hearts of the five ancestors.

Such courage, such responsibility—it was simply thirty percent more domineering than the founding emperor!

Wang Jingyuan's outstretched hand froze in midair, and his eyes had unknowingly moistened. He looked at Wang Hao's thin but javelin-straight back, his heart filled with a mixture of wild joy and pride: Good! Good! Good! This is the true bone structure of an emperor! With a grandson like this, why worry about the Great Zhou not prospering!

However, with his back to the ancestors, Wang Hao was already blooming with joy in his heart.

Moved? Shocked? Cry it out, old fellows! The atmosphere is already set, next is the moment to witness a miracle!

With his hands behind his back, Wang Hao looked up directly at the cold, giant eye of dark clouds in the sky and let out a disdainful sneer: A mere backlash of the Heavenly Dao dares to act wildly in my imperial city? The place where I stand is the place of human prosperity! Today, whether you are a heavenly tribulation or divine punishment, I will take it all!

Having said that, under the shocked gazes of the crowd, Wang Hao flipped his wrist and took out the ugly, palm-sized black miniature tower from his storage ring.

What is that? Wang Jingxuan was stunned for a moment. He had thought Wang Hao was going to pull out some kind of divine artifact, but this pitch-black iron lump didn't even have a trace of true qi fluctuation. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed like a defective product from a street stall.

Wang Hao didn't give them any time to think. He took a deep breath, pretended to exert all his strength, and fiercely threw the black tower into the sky, shouting: Go!

The moment the small black tower left his hand, it grew rapidly in the wind.

Buzz—!

In an instant, a profoundly deep, netherworld black light burst forth from the tower. The originally palm-sized tower expanded madly. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a massive black tower thirty zhang tall, towering like a mountain and suspended in the sky above the imperial city! The purple lightning bead at the top of the tower erupted with a blinding halo, resembling a bottomless black hole.

The giant eye condensed from dark clouds in the sky seemed to sense the provocation of this bizarre artifact and was thoroughly enraged.

Rumble—Crack!!!

Without any warning, the nearly ten thousand silver lightning snakes hovering in the clouds, carrying a destructive, violent momentum, converged into a silver waterfall of thunder. They tore through the void and struck straight down toward Wang Hao's face!

That terrifying pressure instantly vaporized the surrounding air, and even the space faintly showed twisted cracks.

Seeing such might, Wang Hao's legs went a little soft. He cursed inwardly that he had acted too tough and was about to turn this into a tragedy. Why was there even an urge to urinate brewing in his bladder that he couldn't quite hold back?

Just in the nick of time.

Boom—

The doors to the fifth floor of the black tower suddenly slammed open.

An indescribably terrifying attractive force surged out from the doors. The moment the thousands of menacing lightning snakes touched the halo around the black tower, they unexpectedly withered instantly like loaches with their tendons pulled out. They were forcefully dragged and twisted by that power, ultimately turning into countless tiny silver specks of light that were entirely sucked into the fifth floor of the black tower!

After the last streak of lightning disappeared into the doors.

Burp~

The giant black tower trembled slightly, emitting an extremely muffled and strangely anthropomorphic sound of satisfaction. Following that, a ring of dazzling silver array patterns lit up around the edge of the fifth-floor doors, indicating it was fully loaded.

The entire scene was deathly silent.

So quiet that only the whimpering sound of the wind blowing past the ruined palaces in the distance could be heard.

Wei Zhongxian, Sun Li, and the other eunuchs who had collapsed in the distance almost had their jaws drop to the ground. Their eyes were wide as brass bells, and their brains had completely lost the ability to think.

Wang Jingyuan and the other four vastly experienced Sky-Soaring Realm ancestors were collectively petrified. They stood frozen on the spot like five statues, their facial expressions absolutely priceless.

"It... it swallowed them? Just swallowed them all in one gulp?!" Wang Jingxuan rubbed his eyes, feeling as if he were dreaming.

That was the backlash of the Heavenly Dao! It was a fatal tribulation of heaven and earth that had caused countless stunningly brilliant predecessors to die full of regrets! If those tens of thousands of lightning snakes from just now had struck the five of them, they would have been flayed alive even if they managed to survive. Yet, they were slurped up by this black tower like a bowl of noodles?

Standing at the very front, Wang Hao kept his hands behind his back in a cool, detached posture, not even furrowing a single brow. Inwardly, however, a storm of wild revelry had long since erupted.

"Oh my god! I've struck it rich! I've truly struck it rich this time!!!"

Wang Hao was dancing wildly in his mind, the mental abacus in his head clicking and clacking at light speed.

"Ten thousand lightning attacks at the level of a Fifth Realm Grandmaster! With this kind of reserve and firepower, who needs the Royal Guards? Who needs the Brocade Vanguard? If this tower were back in my past life, it would be a walking Gatling gun! No, a fully automatic multiple rocket launcher!"

From an angle the ancestors couldn't see, Wang Hao's eyes were brimming with smugness.

"Hasn't Grand Secretary Zhuge Huaijin been complaining to me that the resistance to the new policies is too great, and that those aristocratic officials in the royal court only pretend to comply? Easy! At the morning assembly the day after tomorrow, I'll slam this Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Tower right onto the imperial desk! Whichever imperial censor dares to jump out and claim that ancestral traditions cannot be abolished, I'll open the fifth floor and blast him with ten bolts of heavenly thunder to wash his brain! If he still refuses to yield, I'll add another hundred!"

Wang Hao could already picture the comical scene: those civil officials who usually spouted morality and righteousness, jumping frantically around the Golden Throne Room, blasted crisp on the outside and tender on the inside by the heavenly thunder.

"Using the Heavenly Dao's lightning punishment to drive the reforms of the Great Zhou Dynasty—is there a more perfectly justifiable excuse in this world? I am administering punishment on behalf of the Heavens! Hahaha!"

Alright, this was purely a fantasy, just something to amuse himself with. If he actually did that, he would truly become a tyrant. Then, he and his father would definitely go down in history—one as an incompetent ruler and the other as a tyrant, a match made in heaven. Even when Hai Rui insulted Emperor Jiajing so ruthlessly in the past, didn't the emperor just sulk in private, ultimately treating Hai Rui with leniency and keeping him well-fed?

The giant eye of the Heavenly Dao was clearly enraged.

The heavy, pitch-black clouds began to churn and contract violently, their color shifting from an inky black to an eerie deep purple. From deep within the cloud layer, a series of high-pitched, ear-piercing screeches of birds of prey echoed out.