Castle of Black Iron

As a man who was too frugal to eat a bowl of rice brew made by his own family at the cost of 3 copper coins, how could Zhang Tie let go such a giant’s skeleton which was worth at least 1 million gold coins? Otherwise, Zhang Tie would not even forgive himself. No matter how rich he was, he would never be such wasteful.

Therefore, after taking a round rapidly and finding nobody was in the neighborhood, Zhang Tie started to excavate the complete giant’s skeleton which was as long as 20 m out of the soft soil in the shadow of the woods at the fastest speed.

Although the greater part of the giant skeleton was buried in the soil, as long as Zhang Tie moved away from the layer of mud, he would see the original skeleton which was radiating white luster.

The giant’s bones were as dense in texture as that of white marble. As long as he slightly moved some mud away from above, Zhang Tie would see the faint metallic luster.

Zhang Tie moved as fast as a steam excavator. However, it still took Zhang Tie 2 hours to finish the excavation of the complete skeleton.

Watching the complete giant’s skeleton in a huge pit, Zhang Tie was dumbfounded. Even though it was just lying there, it was still almost as tall as Zhang Tie. Zhang Tie could not imagine how powerful it would be when it was alive. It would be even more terrifying if the giant could cultivate.

In legends, humans once lived in the same age with giants. Giants were also a branch of humans. There were many Hua stories about giants.

In far-ancient times, there was a big flood. Hua emperor ordered one hundred human clans to regulate rivers and watercourses. There was a giant couple called Pufu. Although they received the order to deal with the flood and drain rivers and watercourses, due to their laziness, they were punished to stand still. Without any food to eat, they could only drink dew until the river turned clear. Due to such a ”tender punishment”, the giant couple finally succumbed to Hua emperor and started to do labor work diligently...

After that, another Hua emperor came to the world who ruled the whole world. At that time, 12 giants appeared in Tao river’s bank. The Hua emperor liked them and had people build 12 gold statues for each of them.

Later on, 2 more giants played major rules in the history of Hua people.

One was called Weng Zhong. After surrendering to Hua people, this giant became the general of Hua clan. He assisted Hua people to conquer all the alien clans and was well-known across the world. Due to his braveness on the battlefield, Hua clan even built a statue for him to commemorate him. In many Hua regions, Weng Zhong referred to bulky copper or stony statues.

The second giant who left his name in the history of Hua people was called Wu Ba. This giant once assisted a Hua man Wang Mang to usurp the throne. He was the best general of Wang Mang. Due to his bulky figure, everybody would like to call him Big Wu Ba. Even today, Hua people would say the term ”Big Wu Ba” which was derived from this giant.

Giants were deeply related to Hua people.

...

After recalling those stories about giants in Hua people, Zhang Tie put his hands on the huge skull of the giant’s skeleton and penetrated his spiritual energy into it. Closely after that, he moved it into Castle of Black Iron.

With 1 million gold coins as a reward, Zhang Tie felt pretty good. He refilled the huge pit and cleaned all the traces before returning to Castle of Black Iron. After that, he flew out of Castle of Black Iron in the incarnation of a little black beetle and started to discover this region..

After activating the senior hiding rune, Zhang Tie straightly flew 100 m high along the coastline.

Although the thunder hawk could fly higher and faster, it would be too eye-catching for an animal above the ground to appear in such an underground space. It would definitely arouse the attention of the demon knight if he came here. Therefore, the little black beetle was much safer. Although the beetle could not match the thunder hawk in speed, it was also very swift.

The land in the underground ocean seemed to be a huge island with mountain ranges on it. The entire island looked pretty vast. It was as broad as tens of thousands of sq km. After flying for 2 hours, Zhang Tie found that he was still in a small corner of the island.

When Zhang Tie wanted to fly towards the middle of the island, he saw a figure flying over 500 m above his head.

Zhang Tie was shocked inside, ’It’s the demon knight. It’s also flushed over here. It seemed that the demon knight fell off from the other cave.’

Although the demon knight was flying high, it kept its eyes closely on the ground so as to seek for Zhang Tie’s trace.

Zhang Tie hushed, ’Thankfully, I’ve already incarnated into a beetle. If I kept loitering over there in my original body, I might have been caught by that demon knight.’ However, Zhang Tie knew that this demon knight was not sure whether Zhang Tie was also flushed over here. ’Due to the complex underground watercourses, I might be flushed to other places.’

’At this moment, I’m invisible while the enemy is visible. This seems to be an opportunity to launch an attack.’

A glimmer of hope rose in Zhang Tie’s heart once again. Zhang Tie just stayed 1 mile away from the demon knight.

Because the demon knight was seeking for Zhang Tie’s trace on the ground, he didn’t fly too fast. Therefore, Zhang Tie could follow him up.

4-5 hours later, after finding no trace of Zhang Tie on the coastline and in the ocean, the demon knight abandoned his mind as it turned around and flew towards a mountain which was as high as 5,000-6,000 m on the side of this island, closely followed by Zhang Tie.

Zhang Tie found that the demon knight almost fell off when it flew over the mountain range. Therefore, he instantly followed up it at a speed several times faster than that of before.

Watching the demon knight hurriedly disappearing on the back of the mountain range, Zhang Tie immediately rushed towards there.

...

When he flew over that mountain range, Zhang Tie finally knew why that demon knight almost fell off just now. Even Zhang Tie himself had forgotten to flap his wings and almost fallen off when he saw the item in the distance.

On the plain behind the mountain range in the middle of this island, Zhang Tie saw an extremely magnificent pyramid which almost made him suffocated.

That pyramid was larger than any other pyramid that Zhang Tie had ever seen or heard. It was about 3,000 m in height. It was more like a mountain peak than a building. If not flying over this mountain range, Zhang Tie could never see such a pyramid.

The pyramid was completely made of crystals. Even being more than dozens of km away from it, Zhang Tie could still see the color and texture of the crystals.

A huge pyramid completely made of crystals. Such a pyramid could never be made in this age, even through the concerted efforts of all the human countries across Blackson Humans Corridor. The technique that required to build such a huge pyramid had been out of the limit that humans could reach in this age.

A term occurred to Zhang Tie’s mind——Pre-historical cultural relics.

How could such a marvelous pre-historical cultural relics exist in the underground space?

After being stunned for a second, Zhang Tie hurriedly sped up towards that pyramid.

Compared to Zhang Tie, that demon knight almost exerted its full strength that he used to suck nipples to fly towards that pyramid, which really shocked Zhang Tie.

...

When Zhang Tie was 20 miles away from that pyramid, Zhang Tie sensed a powerful energy enshrouding the space. If he cultivated in such an atmosphere, he would light his surging points much faster than before.

The closer he was to the pyramid, the more evident the energy field of the huge crystal pyramid would be. With the effect of that energy field, the plants nearby the pyramid grew much better than those in other places. The palm-tree like trees and the fungi on the ground were too huge. Those trees were 200-300 m high while those fungi were completely like booths.

Besides those plants, there were more animals. It seemed that those animals had also sensed that this place was special...

At this moment, a loud boom drifted from the front. At the same time, Zhang Tie saw some huge odd-looking birds [whose wings were as long as 3 m] smashed into minced fleshes and sprayed over.

All the animals seemed to have been used to the long-term tranquility. After hearing such a loud boom, all the animals were so flurried that they instantly escaped in all directions. Batches of colorful little birds flew off the woods and escaped to the distance; some small beasts were escaping everywhere in the 2-m high brushwood.

The moment Zhang Tie saw those small animals had Zhang Tie known that there were no fierce animals or magical beasts here. Otherwise, there would never be so many small animals here.

Those odd-looking birds might be the fiercest animals here. After feeling that their territorial airspace was violated by the demon knight, they wanted to warn the demon knight; pitifully, the front two birds were instantly killed.

Before Zhang Tie reached the pyramid had he heard the demon knight’s extremely blatant laughter.

”Ha...ha...ha...thanks, Demon God...it’s the legendary tower of time...it’s the tower of time. Bingo...Everything in this tower of time belongs to me...belongs to me...”

Zhang Tie moved closer and found that this pyramid was not made of crystals at all; instead, it was completely a super huge, ink-colored piece of crystal. There were even some complex runes in the crystal which enabled the crystal to display a bizarre color...

Zhang Tie was so shocked that he almost turned stonified...

There were also two giants’ skeletons below the stairs towards the entrance in the middle of the pyramid.

The two giants’ skeletons were also well preserved as they shined a metallic luster. They were sitting on two huge chairs made of crystals below the stairs like two dignified concierge gods. Each of them was supporting a terrifying battle sword which was as high as 10 m like two huge pillars rooted in the ground. After throwing a glance at them, Zhang Tie knew that they were at least weighed tons.

If there wasn’t that demon knight, Zhang Tie even wanted to land here and take a look at this place carefully. Everything here was too shocking.

”Open...” The demon knight’s roar drifted into Zhang Tie’s ears from the middle of the pyramid.

”This opportunity could not be met in 1,000 years. The first one entering it would get this opportunity. Never let that demon knight in...”

Heller, who used to be silent, warned Zhang Tie at this moment.

Zhang Tie then flew forward. He found the demon knight was trying to push open the 40-m high gate while withstanding it forcefully.

The knight’s physical strength was unrivaled; however, no matter how much strength it exerted while raising its battle qi, he only gradually opened a narrow crack of the gate while a powerful, milky light pillar leaked out of the crack. There seemed to be another splendid world behind the gate...

Watching that crack, the demon knight was driven so excited that it kept exclaiming. Meanwhile, it exerted all the strength that he used to suck its mommy’s nipples...

Gradually, the crack expanded, 1 cm, 2 cm...

The demon knight almost became mad as it kept roaring...

However...

Before the demon knight responded, Zhang Tie had already flown inside through the 2 cm crack.

The gate suddenly became heavier. Finally, it did not move no matter how much strength the demon knight used. The demon knight then became flurried. Closely after that, the gate closed up tightly just like joking with him.

’What’s wrong?’

The demon knight was driven infuriated. Gradually, he became hopeless; finally, he was driven as resentful as a grumbling woman.

With a growl, the demon knight exerted its full strength to launch a punch onto the gate.

However, its strike became completely ineffective just like how a mosquito wanted to push down a huge tree. It didn’t even shake off any dust...

”No...” An extremely miserable shriek sounded outside the pyramid.

At this moment, the demon knight was like a beggar who had expended all of his money to buy a lottery ticket. When the beggar found that he hit the jackpot of 10 million gold coins, he went to ask for the reward while dreaming about living in an empire. Pitifully, those workers told him strictly that the computers in the lottery center were attacked by hackers last night and the winning numbers were changed temporarily by the hackers. Therefore, the beggar’s lottery became ineffective. How the beggar felt at that moment was coincidentally how the demon knight felt.

The most terrifying thing was not to have nothing; what was more terrifying was that you lost what you were going to get right away.

...

Watching the huge crystal gate being closed, the little black beetle returned to Castle of Black Iron. Zhang Tie himself then walked out of Castle of Black Iron.

It was a distant and deep crystal tunnel. Breathing the vigorous energy in the tunnel, Zhang Tie felt comfortable all over while each of his pores became relaxed.

Walking in the tunnel, Zhang Tie looked around and found no crack on the walls. The tunnel was covered with the light shadow of crystals which contained running runes. Zhang Tie’s shadow was reflected in all directions of the crystal tunnel. Zhang Tie felt like walking in a kaleidoscope.

Zhang Tie chatted with Heller when he was walking inside.

”Heller, will that guy break in?” Zhang Tie asked as he looked back.

”No, only one person is allowed at one time. Additionally, that demon knight cannot destroy this place.”

”How do you know that?”

Heller’s chuckles drifted from Zhang Tie’s mind sea. Zhang Tie knew it was Heller’s answer; therefore, he didn’t ask him anymore. Whereas, another question occurred to his mind.

”Umm, I heard the demon knight shouting ”tower of time”, what’s that?”

Heller became silent in Zhang Tie’s mind sea for a couple of seconds before replying, ”In a far distant age, powerhouses of clans cultivated here. Have you heard an ancient saying that has been spread for thousands of years——humans are afraid of time; yet time is afraid of the pyramid!”

”Yup, I’ve heard it when I was in Blackhot City. But is there any relation between it and this pyramid?”

”That old saying exists because of this pyramid!”

”What do you mean?”

”You will know it when you leave out of here, castle lord. There’s a time barrier in front, the great time and space torsion which would cut off the links between you, Castle of Black Iron and me. But, don’t worry, castle lord. Everything will recover back to normal when you come out of here. Until then, enjoy your time here!”

Zhang Tie didn’t know what was a time barrier. He only saw a bright yet not dazzling light film in front of the tunnel as was told by Heller. Without any hesitation, he just walked in...