Castle of Black Iron

After flying 4 hours by Goddess Lake, Zhang Tie felt a powerful qi moving closer, ’it was a knight’s qi.’

Like how eagles could notice other eagles hovering in the sky and how tigers could sniff other tigers walking in the woods, knights were also very sensitive to the qi of their same kind, especially when the other knight released a powerful battle qi straightly.

Although the battle qi was still 50 miles away, Zhang Tie had already sensed it.

”It’s one of my friends. Several hours ago, when you flew towards Saint Maner City, he received a relief message. Therefore, he’s in a rush towards here to support me!” As he explained, Jaray stood up, ”Wait a moment, I will go pick him up. I’m sure my friend will be very happy to meet a young powerful knight!”

”As you wish, I also want to meet your friend. There’s an old Hua saying, ’True friendship exists at the critical moment.’ A friend who could drop everything and rush towards here to help you in the crisis is worthwhile!”

Jaray replied with a smile as he felt that Zhang Tie’s words were pretty reasonable. After nodding towards Zhang Tie, he left the lounge. In the blink of an eye, Zhang Tie felt Jaray flying off the airship towards the qi.

Zhang Tie just had a cup of tea and waited there quietly.

Tea leaves from the Eastern Continent were the most expensive drink. Zhang Tie had learned a lot through the communication with Jaray over the past few hours. In Blackson Humans Corridor, knights liked tea leaves from Taixia Country the most. Some senior products could nourish knights’ body and spiritual energy. If knights always drunk them, they could have a better recognition about the power of mother nature and usually maintained clear-mindedness. Benefited from the tea leaves, knights could easily enter cultivation. Such tea leaves were knights’ favorite. They would cost at least 100 kgs of gold per kilo. Additionally, Jaray said such tea leaves were not the best. The best ones could be hardly bought through common channels. Only a very few of them could be traded in senior auctions.

Watching the bit of golden fine tea leaves in his cup, Zhang Tie revealed a bitter smile, ’This tea leaf is called golden scale. It comes from the Eastern Continent. A small cup of this tea leaves would cost at least 30 gold coins. It’s equal to 3 years’ salary of my father in Blackhot City.’ Although Jaray was not a luxurious man, he had to learn something about it at his level. Gradually, the resources of knights became luxuries that commoners dreamed for.

The tea smelt comfortable and tasted a bit bitter and smooth. Zhang Tie found it carried a special energy and aura, which nourished his body and spiritual energy. This feeling was similar to that of all-purpose medicament. By contrast, the effect of this tea was not as fast as that of all-purpose medicament. However, it felt more exquisite and natural. Besides nourishing his body tenderly, Zhang Tie found that it made his thoughts a bit clearer and more dynamic, ’It would definitely be helpful to knight’s cultivation if they always drunk it. However, I’m afraid that it would cost a knight an astonishing amount of money on such tea leaves each year.”

Right then, Zhang Tie recalled Donder, who said that he had drunk a cup of tea which was worth a few gold coins. Whereas, Zhang Tie thought that he was boasting at that time.

The most impressive tea leaf was that small common tea leaf from the Eastern Continent that Fattie Barley told him to hold in the mouth when he went for Ms. Anna. Of course, that common tea leaf could never match this golden scale in price and quality. However, Zhang Tie always felt that it was the best tea leaf that he had ever tasted and could not be replaced by any other tea leaves ever.

When he remembered about his friends in Blackhot City, Zhang Tie added two ladles of sugar in the tea...

Drinking the sweet tea, Zhang Tie smiled. For commoners, sweet things in daily lives could always bring more pleasure to them than bitterness. Some habits were related to one person’s background. For Zhang Tie, who grew up drinking rice brew never felt that tea tasted good, even though such a cup of tea could not be bought by his family by selling rice brew for even 10 years!

...

Only after 5-6 minutes, Jaray had come back followed by a tall and tough knight in full-body armor. This knight was the No. 1 knight of Berdi Empire. The national strength of Berdi Empire was almost equal to that of Raymlan Empire. The two countries were connected with each other in the territory. Besides, they were harmonious in the relationship. The royals of the two countries got married a few times. Jaray and Way had been bosom friends for over 70 years.

The arrival of Way made the lounge more boisterous. The three knights had more topics to share.

Jaray and Way were too much elder than Zhang Tie, who was only 20 years old. However, in the eyes of Jaray and Way, Zhang Tie was not arrogant due to a young age or his background at all. Not only that, Zhang Tie was very modest and frank, which made the other elder knights more comfortable. Therefore, their talks proceeded very smoothly.

Being different from Jaray, who was restraint, Way was foursquare. Only after 10 minutes later, Way had asked all of his doubts.

”Jaray and I were 100 years old when we promoted to knights. It’s a young age among knights. But Jaray said you’re just 20 years old. How could you promote to a knight so fast? I asked Jaray just now, but he didn’t tell me about that...”

Zhang Tie threw a glance at Jaray, who replied with a smile silently. As he had promised Zhang Tie that he would not expose anything about Tower of Time to others, he didn’t even expose it to Way unswervingly.

Zhang Tie also smiled as he repeated what he told to Jaray just now to Way.

Being same to Jaray, Way also almost sprung up after hearing that Zhang Tie discovered a tower of time in a mysterious underground space.

”No way, no way...” Way forcefully patted his thigh a few times, ”I’ve never imagined that such a mysterious space is hiding deep beneath Kalay Mountain Range, along with a tower of time in it...” After saying that, Way suddenly realized something as he glared at Jaray, ”You’ve long known about it, right?”

”I’ve promised Zhang Tie that I will not expose it to anyone else. Of course, I cannot break my words!” Jaray explained calmly.

”I rushed all the way here to fight for you at the risk of my life, but you didn’t even tell me that top secret?” Way became furious.

”You didn’t have to come here, I’ve not begged you to be here!” Jaray smiled.

After gazing at each other for short while, they both burst out laughing at the same time. Zhang Tie felt that they were tactful and trustful to each other.

”The tower of time would reopen after 6 decades. It’s hard to come out of there even if you could get down there. Even knights could not get out of there safe and sound. I have some other reasons to come out of there this time!” Zhang Tie warned them sincerely. As that place was a pit, considering that the two knights were decent, Zhang Tie warned them in case they regretted paying a visit there.

After exchanging glances with each other, Jaray and Way both nodded as they knew what Zhang Tie meant.

”Don’t worry, I will not expose this secret to the 4th person. Jaray and I once planned to discover the underground world a few years ago, pitifully, as the No. 1 knights of Berdi Empire and Raymlan Empire, we cannot leave at our will. Although we might have a great harvest in the underground world, we know it’s very risky. Additionally, we cannot estimate how much time is needed down there...” Way let out a sigh.

”You wanted to seek for the tower of time before?”

”Besides the tower of time, there are actually many secret items in the underground world, which are very attractive to knights!”

”Secret items?”

”Right. After promoting to a knight, except for weapons, most of the rune equipment and alchemist’s equipment, especially those which could improve the ability of commoners have become useless for knights. That equipment could exert their full effects on LV 15 battle spirits; however, they could only exert 10% of their full effect on knights!”

Given Zhang Tie’s look, Way asked out of amazement, ”Don’t you know about Black Iron Effect?”

”As Zhang Tie has just promoted to a knight, he has not touched this knowledge before!” Jaray explained on one side.

”What do you mean by Black Iron Effect of equipment?” Zhang Tie asked.

”The Black Iron Effect of equipment is a bottleneck effect on common equipment of Black Iron Knight. For instance, there’s a vat of water in front of you; is it easy for you to increase 10% of the water in it?”

Zhang Tie nodded.

”What if there’s a river in front of you. Is it still that easy for you to increase 10% of the water in it? A damp piece of soft mud might be one time harder after being dried two days under the sun; however, it’s not that easy for you to make a piece of steel one time harder only by drying it under the sun for a couple of days.” Way explained it straightforwardly. It was very satisfactory for a knight to instruct the other one, ”After forming the first Chakra, your energy level and strength system has become utterly different than that of those who had not formed it. Therefore, the rune equipment and alchemist’s equipment that could work on commoners would not have the same effect on you. If an equipment could improve a commoner’s ability by less than 10%, it would be ineffective to knights. Only when its effect on a commoner is higher than 10% could it be a bit effective to fighters in less than one scale. This is the Black Iron Effect of the knight’s equipment.”

After hearing Way’s explanation, Zhang Tie understood it right away. He finally understood why he only got 3 items from two knights outside Mocco City. From that knight of Symbian Republic, Zhang Tie gained an autumn-frost golden sword, whose basic performance and functions are effective to knights in all ranks; however, from the knight of Three-eye Association, Zhang Tie only got a rose finger ring and a full-moon dragon soul waistband.

’The rapid recovering rune on the autumn-frost golden sword could help commoners recover their energy 10% faster, which means 1% for knights; the rose finger ring’s rapid recovering rune could help commoners recover their energy 11% faster, and increase their meditating effect by 15%. As the full-moon dragon soul waistband is a bronze secret item used by knights, it’s still lying in Castle of Black Iron.’

When collecting the booties, Zhang Tie was curious that why the two knights only wore such a few rune equipment. They could at least wear some more finger rings.

After hearing Way’s explanation, Zhang Tie finally understood that it was not because the two knights didn’t want to wear some more items, but they could only have such few items to wear due to Black Iron Effect. Many equipment that were effective to commoners didn’t work on knights at all. Only those top quality items used by commoners could exert 10% of its effect on knights.

”If we could promote to a higher level, do you mean that those commoners’ rune equipment would not work on us anymore?”

”You got it!” Jaray nodded, ”By then, except for underground secret items, none of the rune equipment or alchemist’s equipment made by humans in this age would work on a land knight.”

”Land knight?” It was Zhang Tie’s first time to hear the appellation of a rank higher than the black iron knight.

”Yes, knights in the next rank would be named as land knights after forming the Chakra of land which gathers land, water, wind and fire!”

Speaking of a land knight, Jaray and Way both radiated sacred eyes at the same time. The land knight was what all the black iron knights strived and dreamed for...

”Is Demon General a land knight?”

”No, it has just stridden over the threshold of land knight’s world with one foot. If he was a land knight, at most half of the 10 human knights could survive the Upton Battle...”

...

After chatting with Jaray and Way, Zhang Tie learned more about knights. As Jaray and Way were old human knights who had advanced to knights a very long time ago, their knowledge and recognition of knights’ world benefited Zhang Tie a lot.

Finally, Goddess Lake, the flagship of the royal airship troop of Raymlan Empire arrived at Saint Maner City. It landed in an aisle being adjacent to Goddess Lake...

This aisle covered over 10 sq miles. It was where Jaray’s battle palace rested in Raymlan Empire. The imperial palace of Raymlan Empire was just 5-6 miles away with the water in between.

After promoting to a knight, as long as the knight became the No. 1 knight of a country or a corps leader, its fixed residence would be called battle palace where his subordinates and servants would serve him in. This was the greatest honor of a knight given by the country that he guarded...