Castle of Black Iron

Sitting in the vehicle, Zhang Tie carefully watched the weird city wall of Kalur.

Unlike Blackhot City which had tall city wall, Kalur had no smooth city wall like what people usually saw. If the city wall of Blackhot City was regarded as the city’s skin, Kalur had a protective coating of steel and iron which was composed of various pipes and bending components like the muscles and fiber tissues under the skin.

Kalur’s city wall was composed of overlapping, bending, steaming pipes. All the city-defense equipment of Kalur were also built on these exposed steaming pipes. People standing outside the city wall could easily see the various exposed city-defense equipment linked by steaming pipes—gears, operating arms, various transmission tools, pressure valves, and steaming batteries.

They were weapons of destruction.

The core of Kalur region was Kalur City, which was a huge city built on an extinct volcano. The endless geothermal energy underground brought the city endless power, which was transmitted to the necessary places to support the prosperity of Kalur.

The whole Kalur City was a huge, round and orderly spider web. Circling the volcano, it spread layer by layer, occupying the best area that covered several hundreds of kilometers of the entire Kalur region.

Each place, each road, and each building in the spider web was very orderly arranged. All the farmlands, plants, and residential districts were well divided by roads. Compared to this, Blackhot City was too disordered. The dense and tall chimneys as well as the plants with blue roofs impressed Zhang Tie a lot.

This city felt like a huge machine, each part of which was closely linked by different gears.

Given the prosperity of manufacturing industry, Kalur City was ten times greater than Blackhot City. It was not only the manufacturing hub of the former Andaman Alliance, but also one of the two most important air traffic hubs in Andaman Alliance. When Donder left, his first station was also Kalur where he took an airship and left.

Now, Kalur City felt overpopulated since refugees were pouring in from all directions. Although there was no big trouble, there were always small troubles. From the Golden Roc Bank to all the way to the city control zone and the core zone of Kalur City, job seekers stood with raised boards. Refugee relief points set by Kalur’s managers could also be seen everywhere. In airships bases, there were airships constantly landing and setting off, carrying people in and out.

Nowadays, although it was the most chaotic period in Kalur’s past dozens of years, the airship companies had the highest trading volume. There were many spies, intelligence agents, and people who had special missions from the Norman Empire and the Sun Dynasty, let alone the refugees.

Recently, Kalur had become another battlefield for someone; dagger, crossbow, and poison their weapons. Each day, unknown corpses would be found in shadowy corners of the city. Besides police, city-guard also joined in the security management of this spider-web-like city, even the militia of Kalur had been mobilized.

This was a civilized and barbarous city full of order and chaos.

As a guest of the Sauls winter auction, Zhang Tie entered the Kalur City. He lived directly in the Sauls Hotel where the auction was going to be held in. Because of the numerous refugees, the accommodation cost in Kalur City was very expensive. The price of a common room in Sauls Hotel had already soared to one gold coin a day. This price was almost five times that of the normal one.

Sauls Business Group was a partner of Golden Roc Bank in Kalur. It managed many businesses, including arsenals, hotels, auction houses, and airship companies. The hotel Zhang Tie lived in was also part of Sauls Business Group.

Zhang Tie lived on the 17th floor. Additionally, this hotel was built on a mountain, so Zhang Tie was able to see the whole Kalur. There was a telescope in the hotel’s balcony through which Zhang Tie could see far away.

The original intention of a desktop telescope in the balcony of the hotel would have been for the guests’ convenience, to enjoy the beautiful view in Kalur. However, now it made Zhang Tie clearly see the cruelty of war.

On the first day in the hotel, he saw an air battle between the airships of the Norman Empire and Sun Dynasty at dusk dozens of kilometers away through the telescope. During this air battle, the four airships turned into fire balls, dropped from the sky and crashed in the mountainous area surrounding Kalur.

Recently, the fight for Kalur between the two large countries was becoming more and more fierce. Although Zhang Tie could clearly see the air battle, he didn’t know how many soldiers were wounded and killed in the mountains everyday. The columns of smoke constantly rising from distant places and the flaring flames that brightened up the skyline at night every day were a warning to Zhang Tie of what was happening outside.

He let out a deep sigh inside.

Because he didn’t want to stir up any trouble and wasn’t in the mood to wander outside, Zhang Tie stayed in his room for two days. He even ate in the room. During that time, he kept calmly cultivating, polishing his burning points, strengthening his spiritual energy, and constantly killing wild animals in the Trouble-Reappearance Situations in his room. He immersed himself in his own world and very soon two days passed.

On the evening before the auction, when Zhang Tie finished practicing his spiritual energy and the two visualized abacus’ dissipated, he felt his spiritual energy increase a bit. At this moment, a rolling message abruptly appeared in his mind.

——The system detected that Castle Lord’s spiritual energy has reached the lowest standard required to form a space spiritual being in the Castle of Black Iron.

——Space spiritual beings can assist Castle Lord in managing the Castle of Black Iron, complete orders left by Castle Lord, and answer any of Castle Lord’s questions about the Castle of Black Iron and Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree.

——The following resources are to be consumed to form a space spiritual being:

Basic energy storage: 300

Aura value: 9000

Merit value:60000

——Do you wish to form it?　　

——Yes or No.

Such an abrupt message stunned Zhang Tie. Soon after that he became excited.

’It seems that the Castle of Black Iron is going to form a spiritual manager for me. But this time, it might require a bit more resources, especially the merit value points. After setting free so many earthworms, I’ve only accumulated over 62000 merit value points. If I want to form the spiritual being, almost all of the merit value points would be used up along with half of the basic energy storage. Is it worthwhile?’

After thinking it for awhile, Zhang Tie fixed his eyes on the last half of the sentence introducing the function of the space spiritual being, ”...answer any of Castle Lord’s questions about the Castle of Black Iron and Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree. ”

’Any questions about the small tree and the space?’

Thinking back of when he had found no information on the yeast in the private library last time, Zhang Tie gritted his teeth and clicked ”Yes” in his mind. Even if just for solving his questions about the small tree and the space, he felt it would be very worthwhile. After all, these days he’d had a lot of questions about the small tree’s fruits.

——Ascertaining the forming of the space spiritual being!

——Please choose the species of the space spiritual being.

——Human or another?

——Human.

——Please choose the gender of the space spiritual being.

——Male or female.

——Male.

——Please choose the major personality trait of the space spiritual being.

——1. Perfectionist. 2. Affectionate. 3. Ambitious. 4. Artistic. 5. Smart. 6. Honest. 7. Active. 8. Leader. 9. Peaceful.

(Introductions on the nine personalities followed after)

Zhang Tie carefully read the introductions.

’Perfectionist, I’m not a picky man. I don’t want this kind of personality. Pass...

’Affectionate. Uhm, it seems a bit nagging. It’s enough to have one mom. Pass...

’Ambitious. This one seems nice. I will take a look later...

’Artistic. Uhm, this one seems a bit sentimental, not that smart...

’Smart. Uhm, this one seems good, I will take a look later...

’Honest. This one seems a bit boring. I don’t want a stiff guy in such a vacant space. It’s not good, pass...

’Active. No need to be that active in the Castle of Black Iron. Pass...

’Leadership. I don’t have a hobby of being mistreated. Pass...

’Peaceful. It seems a bit self-constrained. Pass...’

After gazing at Ambitious and Smart for a while, Zhang Tie finally chose Ambitious as the personality of the space spiritual being.

——The features of the Ambition-based space spiritual being:

——He’s eager to prove himself at any time. He’s very confident. He needs your agreement and praise. He’s afraid of being not accepted by Castle Lord. His basic mentality is—if I have no achievements, my life is worthless. He has a strong ambition and likes comparisons. He also likes authority. Additionally, he’s also a workaholic who’s not good at expressing his inner feelings, also he’s very narcissistic and arrogant.

This achievement-based space spiritual being is over energetic. He seeks to prevail over others! He likes to accept your challenges and connect his values and achievements with yours. He will sincerely help you pursue the targets. He firmly believes that he can do everything in this world.

——Do you wish to form it? Yes or No?

——Yes!

——The space spiritual being is going to form!

——It will take twelve hours to form the space spiritual being. During the forming, Castle Lord will not be able to access the Castle of Black Iron.

A night soon passed.