Castle of Black Iron

It was winter. Forgue town was covered by dense fog before the sunrise for quite a long time due to being close to a river.

Zhang Tie woke up after another long sleep in the morning to find that all the wounds caused by Major Franca when he escaped Blapei had completely recovered. Because of the double recovery effect of his preliminary recovery body, although he felt a bit uncomfortable when he went to bed last night, this morning, he felt that his body was as spry as usual.

For the first time, Zhang Tie realized that his preliminary recovery body was extremely great.

It was the fourth day since Zhang Tie left Blapei. Each morning, this small town called Forgue would be covered by a dense fog. It was located over 120 km to the south of Blapei and was part of the Kalur war zone where the Iron-Horn Army fought the Brilliant Feathers Army.

One fourth of the buildings in the small town had been destroyed in the war. Many places revealed marks of being charred by white phosphorous gel bombs. Although the remaining three fourths of the buildings were well preserved, all the town’s residents had long escaped, leaving nobody at all. It was as desolate as a ghost town now.

It then became a proper place for Zhang Tie to recover.

Today, a great amount of soldiers of the Iron-Horn Army were looking for Zhang Tie all across Blapei, but nobody could imagine that at that night, Zhang Tie had kept running for three hours and had hidden himself in the barren mountains and hills of Kalur war zone.

On the second day, having slightly recovered, Zhang Tie found the small empty town on the riverside. He then found a house there and settled down before taking a good rest to recover like a wild wolf.

In four days, only four days, the wounds caused by Major Franca had completely disappeared.

During these days, Zhang Tie didn’t have any contact with the outside, so of course he didn’t know what had happened. He could never imagine that the day after he left Blapei, the airship from Huaiyuan Palace of Zhang clan had arrived at Blapei. Nor could he guess that on the same day, Major Franca, who had set him up became a wanted man by the military party of the Norman Empire and became a criminal like Zhang Tie.

From the moment he pulled out his sword in the beer hotel, Zhang Tie had prepared for this situation. Back then, he could choose only one thing between being slaughtered and slaughtering others. Unfortunately, the people after him were neither average guys nor soldiers of the Sun Dynasty whose death could help him gain an Iron-Blood Medal. They were from the most powerful agency in the Norman Empire and worked as law enforcers.

Although there were always numerous law enforcers in humanity’s history, even though law enforcers themselves were heinous criminals and scumbags, when something like this happened to him, Zhang Tie finally started to understand why those heroes were forced to be bandits on Liangshan Mountain[1].

Additionally, even if he was an officer of the Norman Empire, he was still not able to explain himself to others. This event originated from the greed of someone who had discovered a bit of his secret. Unless he revealed the secret of the Castle of Black Iron to the public, he could not explain it at all.

So he could only escape as a murderer. The only other thing he could do before escaping was to muddle the waters.

If the Iron-Horn Army was not that easily bullied, they would ensure the safety of his family members in Blackhot City before the secret police caught him and confirmed that he was a traitor. If he was safe, his family members would be safe. If his secret was not revealed to the public, his family members would be safe. That was why Zhang Tie decided to fight the secret police to the end in the beer hotel. He knew that besides himself, anyone who learned of or got his Castle of Black Iron might immediately kill his family members in case of potential dangers.

These couple of days, as he didn’t know what happened outside, Zhang Tie was very concerned about the safety of his family members in Blackhot City.

Although being in recovery these days, Zhang Tie was always worried about his family members. The only thing that comforted him was that he gained a new Fruit of Brilliance these days. Although not all of the dozens of secret police killed by him were bad guys as they were just following orders, there were truly some big scumbags among them who undoubtedly were the best nourishment for the Fruit of Brilliance.

After eating the new Fruit of Brilliance, Zhang Tie’s spiritual energy increased by 4 points. Compared to before, Zhang Tie’s spiritual energy had reached about 62-63 now.

If such a speed was revealed to the public, it would definitely be amazed.

After another increase of his spiritual energy, Zhang Tie felt that his senses became even sharper than before as he could carry on four arithmetic operations on two abacuses in his mind at the same time in a faster and more flexible way.

...

Because he had completely recovered, Zhang Tie quickly took action after waking up.He was more alert this time. Before leaving that room he was in, he first accessed the Castle of Black Iron and changed his look and clothes inside.

Several minutes later, an average-looking 20-odd Chinese youth who had killed Samira stealthily flashed out of a deserted room in Forgue town.

For Zhang Tie, the most urgent thing was to ask for news. After that, he would find an opportunity to go back to Blackhot City and transfer his family members away in advance. They could not stay in the Norman Empire any more. He had to move his family members to a country predominated by Chinese in the southeast of Blackson Human Clan Corridor. He would have to transfer his family members to the Eastern Continent before the third holy war between humans and demons anyway.

Zhang Tie was carefully walking through the small town which was covered by a dense fog. It smelt refreshing, cold and clean. With each mouthful of breath, Zhang Tie would feel that his lungs and chest had been washed.

These days, according to his observations, besides two teams of scouts from both parties, no troop of above 100 people had been here. However, as this place was in the war zone, Zhang Tie had to be careful. Having experience in fighting here, he knew well that the safer the place you were in felt, the more dangerous it probably was because a great number of people might be hiding in a dark place, aiming at you with their crossbows. At this moment, Zhang Tie didn’t want to fight anyone for no reason any more.

But before he could walk out of the small town, a series of footsteps drifted over from up ahead. From the sounds, Zhang Tie judged that there were at least ten people. At the sight of an open door on the side, he flashed inside the room while pulling out his dagger at the same time. 　

Zhang Tie came to the kitchen of this deserted house and stood close to the window while listening and observing what was happening outside. The disordered footsteps sounded as if they belonged to a group of escaping soldiers who were moving closer to him.

Because there was a small door in the kitchen connected to the courtyard of this house, Zhang Tie chose to hide here. In an emergency, he could avoid being surrounded and escape through that small door.

The kitchen was covered with dust while some millets and utensils like colanders were scattered on the ground.

The strangers soon arrived in front of this house in the dense fog. What amazed Zhang Tie was that they were not escaping soldiers but a group of figures with all sorts of luggage and sundries. They were not beggars, refugees, or roving bandits.

”Austa, Beane, you take someone to search this house. Gaer, Gerry, you take someone to search that house. Keep your eyes opened, don’t miss good items. Many houses here belonged to rich lords from downtown who came to the mountains to hunt in the autumn. When they returned home, they would always leave some items that they felt not valuable, especially those in the kitchen and cellar. If someone finds food, we might get full this morning...”

After this order, a number of people poured into the houses on two sides of the road. Around seven to eight people rushed inside the house that Zhang Tie was hiding in. The moment they entered, they started to turn all the items over. After a short moment, the empty house looked if it had suffered from a plague of locusts, having been cleaned by those people.

”Ha, look what I’ve got? A silver-gilt candlestick...” someone started to happily shout in the parlor outside the kitchen.

”I bet the former owner of this house was a miser. Only those guys who were niggards yet pretended to be rich would buy this cheap fake item...”

”This item is worth at least 10 copper coins in Kalur, someone would like it...” The former voice still sounded happy. ”At least we can change it for a loaf of brown bread!”

”You two, go check in the kitchen...” another voice said.

Hearing the gradually getting closer footsteps, Zhang Tie’s heart raced and he put his dagger back, making two coughs on purpose in the kitchen...

The moment he coughed, the whole house became quiet.

Zhang Tie walked out of the kitchen and caught sight of seven people in the parlor who were glancing at the kitchen. When they saw Zhang Tie, they all let out a breath.

”Ha... You’ve got here earlier than we did, you’re really brave, what did boss say...”

”The early birds get the worms!‘ A guy who was holding the candlestick wove it in front of Zhang Tie with a pleased expression, ”Sorry about this, although you came here first, I found it first, so it’s mine!”

When this person talked, all the others guys clenched their fists, making the sounds of ”gazhi, gazhi”, At the same time, they cast fierce looks at Zhang Tie, seemingly indicating that if he dared to have any questions about who the candlestick covered with dust belonged to, they would never mind punching him and telling him what was ’strength in numbers’.