Thunder Tower Swallows Fivefold Calamities

Screech!

A thousand giant eagles, each several zhang long and condensed entirely from pure purple lightning, radiated a terrifying heat and an aura of destruction that was more than ten times stronger than the lightning serpents from before!

This was the full-force strike of a martial artist at the Sixth Realm, the True Intent Realm!

Careful, my dear grandson! The power of this lightning tribulation has doubled! Wang Jingyuan exclaimed, cold sweat already seeping from his palms.

It is fine, Imperial Grandfather.

Wang Hao decided to take his posturing to the absolute limit. He even deliberately took half a step forward, pointed a single finger at the sky, and revealed an arrogant look of absolute supremacy in his eyes. So what if it is the Heavenly Dao? In the Great Zhou, We are the Heavens!

Open!

Wang Hao swung his finger down fiercely.

The doors of the black pagoda's sixth floor swung open in response!

An even deeper, abyssal glow swept across the horizon like a searchlight. The moment that glow hit the thousand lightning eagles, which had been diving down like a meteor shower with air-tearing shrieks, they did not even have the chance to let out a cry. They were directly dismantled into pure lightning energy in midair. Like dust sucked into a vacuum cleaner, they were stretched into purple ribbons of light and completely dragged into the sixth floor!

Clang! The sixth floor's doors slammed shut, and its array patterns lit up.

It... it swallowed them again?! The five patriarchs were completely numb by now. The way they looked at Wang Hao was no longer how one would look at a junior needing protection, but rather how one would gaze upon a supreme god descending to the mortal realm.

At this moment, Wang Hao was practically going crazy with joy in his heart.

A thousand full-force strikes from the True Intent Realm! Aren't the Twelve Noble Families scheming in the capital right now? Aren't they ignoring imperial authority just because they have a few old geezers hidden in their clans? Excellent! Once I free up my hands, I will invite all of you into the palace for a deadly banquet. As soon as the doors of this sixth floor open, every single one of you will have to press your fingerprints onto my planning proposals!

Wang Hao calculated inwardly. This was no longer just an ordinary mystic artifact; this was his ultimate deterrent for harvesting the world's wealth! This was the otherworldly version of a nuclear weapon!

However, the Heavenly Dao's bottom line was clearly not so easily crossed.

Having two consecutive attacks easily neutralized, the giant eye in the sky fell into a state of absolute frenzy. The center of the clouds instantly turned a heart-palpitating dark red, resembling flowing magma.

Buzz, buzz, buzz...

The void trembled as a hundred sword-shaped bolts of lightning, each ten zhang long and exuding an aura of utter destruction, slowly poked their tips out from the blood-red clouds like Swords of Damocles. The crisscrossing sword intent actually sliced fine black spatial rifts into the sky above the imperial palace.

The power of the Seventh Realm! The peak of the True Intent Realm!

Sun Li gasped, his voice finally carrying a trace of unmaskable panic. An attack of this magnitude, he could not even block a single sword-shaped bolt on his own, let alone a hundred.

Grandson, you cannot act arrogant anymore! With such power, that treasure might not be able to hold up. Let us handle it! Wang Jingyuan took a step forward, ready to intervene.

Imperial Grandfather, I can withstand it!

Though Wang Hao said this aloud, in his heart he was roaring frantically: Don't move! Nobody move! That is a Heavenly Tribulation equivalent to the full-force strike of the Seventh Realm! If you shatter it, where am I supposed to find such high-level free bombs?

Wang Hao stared dead at the hundred descending giant lightning swords, his cheeks flushed red from extreme excitement.

But in the eyes of the patriarchs, it looked as though Wang Hao was desperately squeezing out every ounce of his true qi to resist the heavenly might. They could only sigh in admiration that the Emperor had truly grown up.

Seventh floor! Open for me!

Wang Hao roared hoarsely.

The black pagoda rumbled as the doors to the seventh floor slowly opened. The moment those hundred giant lightning swords, each capable of easily wiping out a small city, touched the black hole of the pagoda's doors, it was as if they had been snapped up by a prehistoric behemoth. Accompanied by a deafening, teeth-aching, and muffled swallowing sound, the hundred giant swords were forcefully snapped, crushed, and ultimately transformed into the most berserk energy, thoroughly swallowed into the black pagoda's belly.

Burp... Rumble!

The black pagoda's seventh floor erupted with a blinding light.

Standing below, Wang Hao looked at the Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, which now had seven floors lit up. Feeling the terrifying energy contained within, he finally could not hold it in anymore and broke character.

What a treasure! What a fantastic treasure! It is mine. This is mine!

The might of Heaven is unfathomable, and it brooks no insult.

Three consecutive lightning tribulations had been casually devoured by the ant-like human below using some unknown black mystic artifact. The giant cloud eye high in the firmament seemed to feel the greatest provocation since the birth of this world.

Boom!

Deep within the dark clouds, that giant eye suddenly opened into an even larger slit. This time, what leaked out was no longer a cold, overlooking gaze, but a trace of emotion, the killing intent of the enraged Heavenly Dao!

Screech! Screech! Screech!

Ten ear-piercing, metal-tearing shrieks of a phoenix echoed without warning over the entire capital.

The originally dark red clouds instantly boiled like water. Ten lightning phoenixes, each a hundred zhang long and condensed entirely from the purest, most violent crimson lightning, circled and formed in the sky above the Sweet Spring Hall. With every flap of their wings, they tore pitch-black spatial rifts into the void. The destructive aura radiating from each lightning phoenix instantly drained the surrounding air, causing ripples to spread through the atmosphere.

The full-force strike of the peak Sky-Soaring Realm... and there are ten of them!

Standing behind Wang Hao, Second Grandfather Wang Jinghai's voice was as dry as sandpaper. He stared fixedly at the ten circling lightning phoenixes in the sky, his muscles tensed to the absolute limit.

This was no longer a normal heavenly punishment. Power of this level posed a substantial threat even to the five of them, old monsters of the Sky-Soaring Realm! If they tried to take it head-on, at least one of the five would definitely perish here!

Grandson! Retreat! Fall back to the Imperial Ancestral Temple quickly! Wang Jingyuan's eyes were bloodshot as he tried desperately to rush forward and pull Wang Hao away.

However, Wang Hao stood as unmoving as a ten-thousand-year-old pine tree rooted on the white jade steps.

Not only did he not move, but from an angle hidden from the five patriarchs behind him, the corners of Wang Hao's mouth were curving upwards like crazy.

Retreat? Are you kidding me! These are ten strikes from the peak of the Sky-Soaring Realm!

Wang Hao's inner abacus was clicking wildly, his brain working at an unprecedented speed: Those thousand-year-old noble families in Jiangnan who control sixty percent of the Great Zhou's salt and iron businesses rely on a few half-dead Sky-Soaring Realm ancestors holding down the fort. Every year, they cry poor and resist paying taxes to the imperial court. I was just worrying about what to use to beat them into submission. My ancestors care about face, after all, my imperial grandmother came from a Jiangnan noble family, so they value that sentiment and find it hard to strike. But I am different! As the current emperor, it is perfectly reasonable and legal for me to collect taxes. With these ten lightning phoenixes, I will issue a decree tomorrow demanding their family heads come to the capital for an audience! Whoever dares to defy the decree, I will drop a phoenix on their ancestral tombs just to hear the boom!

Though he was overjoyed inwardly, Wang Hao deeply understood the imperial art of putting on a full show. He knew all too well just how shrewd those five old fogeys behind him, who had lived for hundreds of years, truly were. If he wanted them to willingly work themselves to the bone for him in the future, he had to take this tragic act of sacrificing himself for the Great Zhou Dynasty to the absolute extreme right now!

With this in mind, Wang Hao steeled his heart and fiercely bit the tip of his tongue.

Pfft!

Wang Hao intentionally forced out a mouthful of blood, spraying it across the white jade steps in front of him. His body then swayed violently, putting on a tragic appearance of having overdrawn his True Qi and holding on purely by willpower.

He abruptly turned his head. His originally handsome face was now intentionally forced to look as pale as paper, with a trace of blood hanging from the corner of his mouth. In an extremely tragic, almost roaring voice, he shouted to the ancestors behind him, Imperial Grandfather! I can still hold on!

My good grandson—!

These blood-weeping words, paired with Wang Hao's tottering yet unyielding back, instantly struck the hearts of the five ancestors like a massive hammer.

Wang Jingyuan, who had lived for nearly two hundred years, immediately had red eyes as old tears streamed down his face. The other four ancestors were moved beyond words. This was truly the Qilin prodigy of the Wang family!

Good child! He is truly the seed of our Wang family! From now on, if anyone dares to touch a single hair on my good grandson's head, even if I have to risk my old life, I will execute ten generations of their clan! Third Grandfather Wang Jingxuan gritted his teeth, secretly swearing a vicious oath in his heart.

Sensing the drastic change in the auras of the ancestors behind him, Wang Hao secretly gave himself a thumbs up in his heart. Perfect! This wave of psychological manipulation is a perfect score! These five super enforcers are now thoroughly tied to my chariot for the rest of their lives!

Right at this moment, the ten red lightning phoenixes in the sky had lined up. Emitting a terrifying high temperature capable of boiling seas and burning rivers, and carrying endless heavenly might, they crashed one after another into the black pagoda suspended in mid-air.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The violent explosions caused the weaker Imperial Guards below, who had long since hidden far away, to bleed from their ears and faint on the spot.

However, no matter how furious the lightning phoenixes' offensive was, the black pagoda remained as steady as Mount Tai.

Eighth floor! Open for Us! Wang Hao rejoiced inwardly.

The door to the eighth floor of the black pagoda burst with brilliant light, its profound gloom resembling a black hole in the universe. The ten lightning phoenixes, which were powerful enough to severely injure Almighty experts of the Sky-soaring Realm, let out desperate cries the moment they touched the gloomy light. Their forms were then forcibly torn apart, turning into ten clusters of berserk red lightning origin, which were forcefully swallowed into the eighth floor!

Clang! The door of the eighth floor slammed shut.

As the eighth floor lit up, the thunderclouds in the sky did not dissipate because their attack was blocked. Instead, they began to madly collapse toward the center at an extremely bizarre and hair-raising speed!

The giant eye of the dark clouds completely opened at this moment!

A terrifying pressure that surpassed the comprehension of everyone present, as if it did not belong to the mortal realm, descended with a bang.

Crack... crack...

The originally indestructible white jade plaza of the Sweet Spring Palace, which had weathered a thousand years of wind and rain, actually began to sink and crack over a large area under this invisible pressure.

Hiding in the distance, Wei Zhongxian, Sun Li, and a group of eunuchs rolled their eyes back and collapsed to the ground in terror. A few young eunuchs even lost control of their bowels on the spot.

Within the extremely condensed deep purple clouds, a purple dragon-shaped lightning bolt slowly took form.

This bolt of lightning was a hundred times thicker than all the previous lightning bolts combined. It shuttled through the clouds, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws. Finally, a purple dragon head as massive as a towering mountain, with every single scale clearly visible, slowly emerged from the clouds.

Those emotionless, extremely cold lightning dragon eyes locked deadly onto Wang Hao below.

The... the Ninth Realm of Martial Arts... a full-force strike at the peak of the Martial God Realm!

Wang Jingyuan, who had the highest cultivation base, was trembling violently, even his voice shaking. In the face of this heavenly might that belonged to the absolute peak of this world, the True Qi in his body was like frozen ice water; even circulating a tiny bit of it became an extravagant hope.

It wasn't just him. The other four Sky-soaring Realm ancestors were also covered in cold sweat and completely stiff. Under such world-destroying power, let alone rushing forward to protect Wang Hao, they were even stripped of the strength to stand. Only the most primal fear of the might of heaven and earth remained in their hearts.

And Wang Hao, who was at the very center of the pressure, truly couldn't withstand it this time. He wasn't faking it.

He only felt as if an immemorial divine mountain was pressing against his chest. His breathing completely stopped, and all the bones in his body let out groans of being overwhelmed. His legs involuntarily took two steps back, and he fell heavily onto the white marble steps beside him. His face was as pale as paper, and cold sweat instantly soaked his inner dragon robe.

However, the trace of crazy greed in the depths of his eyes burned to the extreme at this moment!

Martial God Realm?! Good heavens, you are truly too good to me! You are practically my biological father!

Wang Hao laughed wildly in his heart, but on the surface, he still gritted his teeth tightly, pretending to have a tragic, death-defying look.

With this Martial God Realm lightning dragon, who in the entire world can still stop Us? Those hidden holy lands within the Great Zhou Dynasty that claim to have tens of thousands of years of inheritance and don't even take past emperors seriously? Whoever displeases Us, We will directly go to their doorsteps and open the ninth floor! Make them all kneel down and sing songs of conquest!

Roar—!

Just as Wang Hao's thoughts raced, that purple lightning dragon let out a roar that shook the nine heavens. Its incomparably massive body swooped down, opening an abyssal maw large enough to swallow the entire Sweet Spring Palace in one bite. Carrying a destructive force that could obliterate all laws, it fiercely bit toward the suspended Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda!