Castle of Black Iron

Zhang Tie arrived at Saint Herner Island the next evening, some hours later than the estimated arrival time because his passenger liner met a heavy wind the previous night which slowed its sailing speed.

Saint Herner Island was over 1000 km north of Akurey Island. The temperature here was obviously lower than that of Akurey Island.

The moment the passenger liner arrived at the port, passengers who had stayed on board for dozens of hours had disembarked hurriedly. Many of them were carrying luggage, some even held sabers or swords, except for Zhang Tie whose hands were empty.

Zhang Tie didn’t notice that his hands were empty until he disembarked. He looked really eye-catching. This look didn’t match a pioneer’s status at all. ’It seems that I have to go to a store for some pioneer products on Saint Herner Island.’

Albeit there were some pioneer equipment and appliances in the Castle of Black Iron which were bought in Stars Viewing City, they were utterly different than the styles of those items used by those pioneers on the Ewentra Archipelago. If he wore them, he would tell others that he was a newbie coming from afar. That would be stupid!

Especially due to the climate of the Ewentra Archipelago and the Ice and Snow Wilderness, pioneers here were wearing utterly different outfits than those in Jinyun Country. Of course, Zhang Tie who only wanted to increase his fighting strength calmly would not turn him into a spotlight only for saving a few gold coins.

There were mountains of products in the port of Saint Herner Island. Those tall tower cranes were constantly discharging goods from those super huge steamers. Zhang Tie found most of the goods were wood, ores, and square linen parcels that contained various animal hides. There were so many warehouses in the port while many workers were loading and moving these goods between warehouses and steamers.

The wharf was bustling. This place was much more prosperous than Akurey Island. Besides the larger population, the industry and trade here were also obviously more developed.

Zhang Tie also saw some dockyards near the port. The Zhang Clan was building ships in Jinhai City. Having visited the shipyard of Zhang Clan, Zhang Tie knew a bit about building streamers. At the sight of those docks near the wharf, Zhang Tie instantly judged that all the docks were capable of building huge streamers of tens of thousands of tons with varying sizes and platforms.

Besides being more prosperous than Akurey Island, this place looked more barbarous as the overseers on the wharf would ferociously lash those carriers with their whips and would shout loudly at any time...

Zhang Tie also noticed some primitive people with weird tattoos on their faces and bodies barging about among the crowd. Even those pirates who wore skull horns with fierce fat faces also arrived while carrying sabers, sword, and shields.

Since he left the passenger liner at the ticketing window of the port, Zhang Tie had already witnessed 2 battles. The surrounding people were not even interested in watching the battles at all as they had seen similar scenes so many times. Of course, no sheriffs or policemen would care about them.

”Give me the latest steamer ticket to the Ice and Snow Wilderness!” As the line in front of the ticketing window was not long, Zhang Tie had gotten a chance to buy his ticket in only 3 minutes.

An old man with a brandy nose was sitting behind the ticketing window. After glancing at Zhang Tie, the old man slightly and lazily waved his head as he mumbled, ”Another pioneer wanting to make a fortune in the Ice and Snow Wilderness? The latest passenger liner will set out in 5 days. There are VIP, first-class, second-class and economy-class cabins, which one do you want?”

”What’s the difference?”

”16 gold coins for VIP, 7 gold coins for first-class, 4 gold coins for second-class, one person per cabin. Three free meals available for VIP and first-class. 80 silver coins for economy-class, passengers stay in one big cabin. Which do you want?”

The ticket prices really startled Zhang Tie. They were too expensive as they could even match that of airship tickets, ”How come they’re so expensive?”

”It has to pass the Devil North Wind Belt of Auro Strait, you tell me why!”

After thinking for a short while, Zhang Tie gave him 4 gold coins, ”Give me a second-class ticket!”

The old man then manipulated the ticketing machine, causing a series of ”dadada” sounds. A few seconds later, he gave Zhang Tie his ticket. Taking the ticket, Zhang Tie took a glance at it and found that the ticket read——10:00 am, Jul.31st; No. 7 Pier, Saint Herner Harbor, Blue Polar Whale; Second-Class Cabin G614; Boarding with this ticket.

’It seems that I have to stay here a few days.’ Thinking about this, Zhang Tie left the ticketing window.

On the streets outside the harbor, there were many people. Zhang Tie looked around and found various shops on both sides of the streets.

Zhang Tie didn’t walk too far away. Instead, he chose an average, tidy inn that was less than a 20 minute walk from the harbor.

The management in the hotel was stricter than the pioneers’ inn as it needed to register the ID number of the guest. Zhang Tie presented his latest ID certificate in front of the counter——an ID certificate of a countryman of Holy Golden Orchid Empire. A very average name was beside his photo——Peter Hamplester.

Zhang Tie estimated that there were at least 10,000 people shared the same name across the Blackson Human Race Corridor. He remembered some guys called Peter at school in Blackhot City.

Zhang Tie then settled down on Saint Herner Island and waited for boarding. In the blink of an eye, 2 days had passed.

In the past 2 days, Zhang Tie also learned about the situation in the sea close to Saint Herner Island. On some small isles, there were many seals and walruses. Many people were living on these animals. However, these animals were kind in temperament and rarely attacked people. Although they were mammals living in the sea, their population were not hostile towards humans. Therefore, according to the generation rules of seven-strength fruits, Zhang Tie would not kill those poor animals.

However, those mutated seals and walruses were different. The bloody seals and huge walruses close to Saint Herner Island were existences that scared sailors a lot as the 2 species both liked to attack people and small fishers, which had caused a lot of disasters in the area.

However, the 2 species didn’t have a large population near Saint Herner Island. They mostly lived in the Blueedge Strait to the east of the Ice and Snow Wilderness. Therefore, Zhang Tie had to go to Ice and Snow Wilderness to look for bloody seals and huge walruses which wasn’t contradictory to his previous plan.

Only after slightly changing his route on the map, Zhang Tie settled down in the hotel.

On the 3rd day, Heller wanted him to collect some special plant seeds on the island. Zhang Tie also wanted to buy some equipment to respond to the climate of the Ice and Snow Wilderness. Therefore, after supper, he left the hotel.

He soon bought the necessary equipment at cost of less than 4 gold coins. With a hat made of sea dog’s hide on his head, a pair of gloves made of a bear’s hide on his hands, a multi-purpose cloak made of fox’s hide on his back, and a heavy pioneer sword that could be used in the sea and on the land in hand, Zhang Tie looked no different than those pioneers on the streets.

Although the necessary equipment, Zhang Tie only bought some plant seeds wanted by Heller in a small store of a remote suburban farmers market after wandering for several hours in the downtown area.

After putting the seeds into his backpack, Zhang Tie found that small stores had closed as it was already past 10 pm.

Zhang Tie then returned according to the route in his memory...

...

There were a few people on the suburban road in the evening. Two rows of tall birches were standing on both sides of the road. After walking for over 20 minutes, Zhang Tie only met 3-5 people. Of course, Zhang Tie would not be afraid of walking alone in the evening, additionally, he had night vision...

Seeing lamplights casting from behind, Zhang Tie hurriedly moved aside on the roadside stones. Ten seconds later, 6 cars passed by Zhang Tie, 1 of them passed a small puddle and splattered mud onto Zhang Tie’s pants.

”F*ck!”, Zhang Tie swore loudly. However, the driver didn’t care about his feeling at all; in a wink, the team of 6 cars had gone dozens of meters away.

Besides swear, Zhang Tie didn’t do anything else. However, the moment Zhang Tie was preparing to wipe the mud off his pants, Zhang Tie saw a birch several meters in diameter falling down in front of him and directly hit the hood of the first car, which forced the whole team to park at once. The last 2 vehicles failed to decelerate on time and directly crashed onto the ends of the front cars.

”Retreat!” Someone in one of the 6 cars roared. Although it was dozens meters ahead of him, Zhang Tie could still hear it clearly.

The roar was followed by shiny axes flying out of the pine woods on the roadside like locusts.

Some axes directly tore off the thin steel plates of the cars and were stuck inside...

Some directly hacked onto the bullet-proof glass and caused spider-web like cracks...

The first wave of axes didn’t hurt anyone, except for causing the cars to appear in a sorry state.

In a split second, besides the first car which was under the big tree, all the other cars started to retreat rapidly as if well trained for the scenario. Meanwhile, 6 men with shields and sharp swords instantly jumped off the first car and rushed towards the roadside pine woods without making any sound...

The second wave of axes soon arrived. Before the 6 men arrived at the roadside, they had been torn into pieces by those flashing axes...

Some axes accurately flew into the cars through the cracks of the windows that were caused by the first wave of axes. As a result, balls of bloody mist broke out in 3 of the 5 cars at once. The fresh blood sprouted onto the glass in all directions like that small puddle being pressed by that car just now, causing the glass red all over.

Over 10 m ahead of Zhang Tie, some more birch trees of several meters in diameter fell down and blocked the 5 remaining cars.

The doors of the cars all opened, while people inside all rushed out and started to fight those killers in black clothes who were rushing out of the roadsides...

Miserable shrieks...fierce battles... the spraying fresh blood...the sounds of sabers, swords, and axes cutting into body...and those battle totems which had disappeared before rising up...

Within several seconds, before Zhang Tie determined whether to save them or to directly turn around and escape, the battle had come to an end.

Over 30 dead bleeding bodies covered dozens of meters on the road under the wrecked cars’ lamplights. Most of them were those getting off the cars, 7-8 of them were killers in black clothes. Additionally, those killers were still sharply adding hacks on those dead bodies.

At this moment, a tough man who was covered with blood leaned against a car as he held a long sword and a shield to protect a woman. At the same time, he furiously glanced over those grim and bloody killers who were surrounding them.

Although some of those killers were killed, there were still over 50 people of them.

”Who are you?” The tough man asked loudly. ”Do you know the consequences of going against the Ballas Clan? You have to pay for it with your blood!”

Those killers didn’t speak at all, instead, they just moved forward to block that man and the woman behind him.

”Gitta, no need to ask. Don’t you understand that those people are assigned by those old douchebags of the Ballas Clan?” A calm voice sounded, then the woman slightly let out a sigh. ”Because of their absurdness and greed, they have lost their reason and chosen to cooperate with ghosts. They don’t even think about that, even if they killed me, how could the properties of the Ballas Clan fall into their hands?”

”Papapa...” with a series of slight clapping sounds, a long-face muscled guy walked out of those killers, ”Everybody on the Ewentra Archipelago knows that there is a seductive fox on Saint Herner Island, who is the most beautiful widow in the Ballas Clan. A woman who makes the Ballas Clan one of the top clans on Saint Herner Island in only ten-odd years. You look as beautiful as they describe!”

From Zhang Tie’s viewpoint, he could not see the look of the woman who was facing him with her back over 20 m away, but from her back, Zhang Tie felt she was pretty mature and seductive. Additionally, he could sense the long-face guy’s burning eyes fixed on that woman.

That long-face guy seemed to have felt Zhang Tie’s gaze. He then glanced at Zhang Tie before waving his hand to a killer beside him. The killer then walked towards Zhang Tie. For those people, a teenager like Zhang Tie was just a small figure with bad luck. Why the f*ck was he still on the road at this time? Of course, they thought Zhang Tie deserved to be killed.

Seeing a killer walking towards him, all the others killers didn’t care about Zhang Tie at all, including that long-face guy, because in all of their eyes, Zhang Tie was like a salty fish on the chopping board, a common pioneer who might have been scared stiff by what was happening.

In many people’s eyes, the alleged pioneers were just a number of homeless coolies who dreamed about becoming rich by moving around. They were no more threatening than those farmers who retired from army. Actually, many pioneers were composed of soldiers who retired from army and didn’t feel like living simple lives. Most of them were between LV 1 and LV 5. However, few pioneers were above LV 6. The proportion of pioneers above LV 6 among pioneers was lower than the proportion of military officials among the same amount of soldiers. Therefore, they didn’t need to worry about whether Zhang Tie was a powerhouse or not.

The tough man and that woman 20 m away also thought that Zhang Tie was just a poor guy who witnessed what was happening by accident.

Nobody felt that Zhang Tie’s existence would cause any change to the current situation or what would happen next. It seemed that Zhang Tie had become a dead boy lying on the ground at this moment.

Zhang Tie then glanced at that guy who walked towards him with weapon as he sighed inside. ’I don’t want to find trouble, but the trouble comes to me. Now that those guys want to kill me, unless I leave Saint Herner Island at this moment by directly diving into the sea and swimming to the Ice and Snow Wilderness or change my look once again, these people could easily find me on this island based on their capabilities and background.

Although Zhang Tie didn’t want to stir up trouble, he didn’t want to suffer any injustice for them. He felt it was not worth it for him to do that. Additionally, Zhang Tie confirmed that if he just escaped in this way, he would probably be the scapegoat of those killers and would be wanted badly by the motherf*cking Ballas Clan, dead or not. By doing this, they could stop him from releasing the truth to the public and let him be their scapegoat. One stone, two birds! Even idiots would know that.

The two men’s talk had arisen Zhang Tie’s interest as Zhang Tie, who always felt being the same as average residents, was also very interested in such revenge between wealthy and influential clans. Therefore, after thinking about leaving for a short while, Zhang Tie gave up this choice.

This was a nice game, a really nice game.

”I’ve been disappointed by the Ballas Clan. I don’t know what those old douchebags have promised you, but I know what you want. We can have a trade here. You let me and my chief guard leave Saint Herner Island. We will leave tomorrow without taking any copper coins. I will give you all of my belongings on Saint Herner Island and in the Ballas Clan so that you could get what you want more easily. How about that?”

Although that woman was at an absolute disadvantage, she still didn’t give it up. She kept talking about conditions with those guys calmly.

”Before seeing you, I truly wanted to kill you, but now, I’ve changed my mind!” That long-face man gazed at that woman with greedy eyes without covering his inner thoughts at all. He glanced at her body like how a wolf licking its prey. ”It would be very nice if I could throw such an intelligent and beautiful woman into my bed! It would be very pitiful if you are just killed in this way!”

Hearing this, all the other killers started to smirk obscenely...

The moment the tough man heard this, he roared as his battle qi rolled up, presenting a king snake. He wanted to rush towards that long-face guy, yet he was concerned about the woman behind him. Therefore, he just glanced over those killers with burning eyes. ”Unless I’m killed, you would not touch even a hair of Ms. Olina!”

”Then...go die!” Saying this, the long-faced man shot out his icy eye as he hacked his huge bola towards the tough man. At the same time, a huge battle qi totem of bloody scorpion appeared behind him.

After 3 loud sounds, Gitta’s shield had been completely broken. meanwhile, he had been sent flying backwards in the air and fell to the ground 10 m away while sprouting out blood.

Seeing this, the woman let out a sigh...

The long-faced man then moved forward with a contemptuous smile, intending to hack that man into pieces...

At this moment, with a sound of breaking bones ”Ka...”, all men turned around and looked at that place where the sound came from.

It was where Zhang Tie was standing. He held that killer’s neck like pinching a chick. When everyone turned around, they saw Zhang Tie just moving his hand back while that killer had fallen onto the ground with his twisted neck, completely dead...

Seeing their gazes, Zhang Tie felt embarrassed as he smirked, ”He wanted to kill me, so I have to pinch him to death. You don’t mind, right? Do you?

The long-face guy with a bola narrowed his eyes instantly...

Hearing Zhang Tie’s words, the woman also turned around and stared at Zhang Tie who was standing away from them on the roadside.

When she turned around, Zhang Tie was stunned instantly as he seemed to be seeing Miss Daina in a different set of clothes...

...