Castle of Black Iron

It was pretty a long time to wait until the flames in Bluestone Pass Fort were put out. Although it was only a little over twenty minutes, it felt as long as the period from Hidden Dragon Island to here by airships for them, especially those who had not joined any real wars.

For castles and forts which were mainly made of stones, steel bars, or cement, white phosphorous gel combustion bombs were not used for the purpose of destroying the targeted building structures but to kill live people and destroy some facilities on land.

After being detonated, white phosphorous gel combustion bombs could hardly be put out; additionally, they would stick to the surfaces of objects in large areas and continued to burn. Their burning temperature was as high as 1000 degrees Celsius, under which temperature, as long as it’s stuck with gel, most of steam-driven defense facilities would be destroyed.

It’s needless to say what would happen if they were stuck to human bodies or something combustible.

From the beginning to the end, the air-defense turret in Bluestone Pass Fort only launched their ballista two times before being ineffective in front of white phosphorous gel combustion bombs. Additionally, the two bolts lost their power when they were still far away from the bottom of the airship. As a result, they just fell off after drawing a parabola in the air.

Soon after being attacked by white phosphorous gel combustion bombs, the steam pipes of the castle or fort would be damaged or meet mechanical obstacles. As a result, the pressure on the turret would drop off, causing the air-defense ballista an adornment.

In this age, the most effective weapon against an airship was another airship. Pitifully, even after the airships of Huaiyuan Palace completed the first round of attack, the airships of Zhen Clan still didn’t start a counterattack yet.

This was the advantage of raiding — it never spared any chance for the opponent to counterattack.

After the flames below gradually put out and the air-defense armed force of the fort was disarmed, Zhang Tie’s airship started to descend and hovered over a hundred meters above Bluestone Fort. At the same time, they started to fire the ballistas on the airship so as to clean off as many obstacles as possible for the students before they landed.

The small-caliber rapid fire steam-driven ballista was pretty powerful when shooting downwards. After being shot out, the bolts carried a great inertia which could easily penetrate through two men in armor. Any bolt could easily break one’s foot or hand.

The terrifying war airship was like an eagle hunting its prey. It constantly launched attacks towards the targets below; as a result, some soldiers who had reluctantly gathered under the attack of combustion bombs were soon shot over by the steam bolts.

”Open airborne hatch cover No.1 to No....”

”Put down the wire cable...”

”Prepare for fire suppression and cover...”

”Fighters ready for airborne landing...”

The commanders on the airships were shouting loudly. In only a few seconds, fighters had readied themselves for airborne landing. Because of the low height and requirements on high speed and efficiency, no parachutes were used; instead, a wire cable was used to slide down. By pulling the speed control pulley, everybody could slide onto land in a few seconds.

They then stood at the entrance of the airborne landing cabin; meanwhile, a chilly wind blew in from the entrance of the airborne landing cabin and constant clear sounds of ’Ding, ding, dang, dang’ drifted from the armor plate at the bottom of the airships while being struck by bolts. Although the guards in the forts below had suffered a blow, they still maintained some fighting strength.

At this moment, only about 1000 guards were left alive below. Some were moving in all directions; some were reorganizing themselves to launch counterattack. With only air attack, unless dropping powerful alchemical bombs, they could not completely destroy the fort.

The senior military officer who was interpreting about this action just now glanced over them and asked, ”Who will go first?”

The one going down first would definitely be the main target of the guards below. The first one would face a great danger even on the wire cable.

However, the reason that Seniors Association of Zhang Clan allowed clan students of Hidden Dragon Palace to join this war was hoping that most clan students of Hidden Dragon Palace could experience a war by themselves as a very important force of Hidden Dragon Palace.

Huaiyuan Palace had not carried out such a large-scale operation for over two decades.

Hearing that military officer’s words, before the others stood out, Zhang Tie, whose blood had been boiling, had jumped out and grabbed the speed control pulley on the wire cable.

The moment he grabbed the speed control pulley by his left hand and jumped out of the cabin, Zhang Tie had figured out the situation below; at this moment, the first rays of the morning sun had just radiated from the skyline.

Zhang Tie then pulled out one javelin from his back and instantly penetrated through one guy who was aiming at the airship with a crossbow.

Zhang Tie moved very fast, so was the speed control pulley on the wire cable. He dropped more than ten meters every second. Before he touched the ground, he had already thrown away all nine javelins in the heavy metal container.

After Zhang Tie cleaned his javelin container, the sounds clashing the bottom of the airship also became sparse. Those being more careful would hear the sonic boom after Zhang Tie threw out each javelin.

With nine consecutive sonic booms, the nine guys who posed greatest threats to their airborne landing had been cleaned by Zhang Tie. Watching Zhang Tie’s back, a bright light flashed across the senior military officer in the airship.

”One team down every three seconds, come on!” that military officer shouted. Watching Zhang Tie jumping down, the other male students of Huaiyuan Palace all became very dauntless. In a split second, six more people had jumped down the wire cable.

After killing nine dangerous bowmen, Zhang Tie had become the very target of the other bowmen. Thankfully, he descended very fast while the airship was moving above the Bluestone Fort. As a result, most bolts had passed by Zhang Tie’s side, except for one bolt which directly flew towards Zhang Tie’s forehead and was blocked by Zhang Tie’s heavy spike shield.

Although the bolt was blocked, it still made Zhang Tie’s arm numb.

Zhang Tie took a chance to peer downwards and saw a long-face military officer who was more than 30 years old in black armor aiming at him with a crossbow. That man’s glare then collided with Zhang Tie’s from a hundred meters away.

A great number of soldiers in black armor, long spears in hands, were rushing towards the estimated arrival place of Zhang Tie while someone shouted, ”Kill him, kill him. If you kill one enemy tonight, you will gain one rank higher and a hundred gold coins!”

That long-face military officer in the far kept shooting at him. However, out of everybody’s imagination, Zhang Tie forcefully swayed the wire cable and loosened his grip when he was still 30-odd m away from land; he then jumped straight down like a meteor.

Nobody could’ve imagined that Zhang Tie would dare to jump off from such a height in heavy armor, including those military officers and the succeeding students from Hidden Dragon Palace.

If not for the iron-body fruits that he’d eaten and the deep sea pressure that had granted him such a high endurance, Zhang Tie wouldn’t have dared to jump off with the equipment of several hundred kilograms from such a height either. This was already his limit of endurance.

Not having imagined that Zhang Tie would jump off from that height, the long-face military officer’s second bolt flew past Zhang Tie, 33.3 cm above his head. Seeing this, those soldiers who had been rushing towards Zhang Tie’s estimated arrival place also turned around in a flurried way.

Zhang Tie had triggered his rapid moving skill in air.

With a sound of ”Bang”, Zhang Tie pounded onto land like a shell. At the same time, he waved his shield, causing five soldiers of Black Armor Army to be heavily injured and fly back through the air while sprouting blood.

Soon after that, Zhang Tie sprang up like a lightning bolt once again and rushed towards that long-face military officer. During this process, twenty or so soldiers of Black Armor Army who were rushing towards Zhang Tie were smashed by Zhang Tie’s shield and sent flying in the air.

Looking from upside down, Zhang Tie was a madly darting ox while those soldiers of Black Armor Army were as weak as scarecrows and were overwhelmed.

With great physical strength and the bliss of God’s rune’s effect, Zhang Tie’s speed was still amazing even though he was in heavy armor.

Seeing Zhang Tie being that terrifying and directly rushing towards him, that long-face military officer finally became flurried as he shot out the third bolt towards Zhang Tie.

Zhang Tie threw out his shield. The rotating heavy spike shield of over a hundred kilograms then cut some soldiers of Black Armor Army into halves before collided with the third bolt shot out by that long-faced military officer.

After throwing out the shield, Zhang Tie sped up once again. Before the long-faced military officer shot out the forth bolt, Zhang Tie had already charged towards him.

”Kill!” Zhang Tie’s voice thundered as he shot out his punch.

Zhang Tie was voice was as loud as a thunder that all the other battle cries were covered. As a result, some soldiers of Black Armor Army who were a bit closer to Zhang Tie felt their heads humming as they slowed down.

At the same time, many people in the fort looked towards Zhang Tie.

That long-face officer faced Zhang Tie’s punch with his own punch...

However, with only one punch...

That long-face military’s body had been broken into pieces like a porcelain dropping off from dozens of floors high and turned into a rain of blood.

”Argh, battalion commander was killed...” Many soldiers of Black Armor Army became flurried...

Behind Zhang Tie, a hundred meter high battle qi totem of a huge centipede rose up from the burning bloody waves at once and looked down at those soldiers in the fort, full of killing intent. It was like a monster who was going to eat as it covered the whole fort at once. At the sight of Zhang Tie’s terrifying performance and immortal battle qi totem, many people were startled. As a result, the remaining soldiers of Black Armor Army across the fort were dwarfed...

”Unrivaled fighter, unrivaled fighter...” Standing in the airship, at the sight of Zhang Tie’s excellent performance, that senior military officer was so excited that he shouted loudly, ”Who is he? Who is he? Why I’ve not heard about him before?”

Seeing Zhang Tie in his steel and iron armor, Ma Aiyun and the other students who knew Zhang Tie felt their minds go blank; Zhang Tie was simply a killing machine on the battle field, so ferocious that he seemed like a stranger to them...