Castle of Black Iron

After entering the pawnshop, Zhang Tie saw a lad in cyan clothes and a hat dozing off behind the counter, leaving a puddle of saliva on the counter.

All the furnishings in the pawnshop seemed to have been old as they lost their gloss. The entire pawnshop was still filled with looming smoke and tea fragrance.

Besides some cheap items scattering in the containers behind the counter, nothing else could be found in the pawnshop.

After comparing the formidable term Mountain of Brightness to such a broken pawnshop, Zhang Tie threw a glance at Elder Muray.

”Ahem...ahem...” Elder Muray coughed.

But the lad still did not wake up.

Elder Muray looked a bit embarrassed as he coughed twice forcefully once again. This time, the lad finally woke up. When the arm that supported his head slid away, his head instantly pounded on the counter while his face fell into the puddle of saliva.

”Who...who’s spraying me with water?” The lad shouted as he waved his limbs. When he saw Zhang Tie and Elder Muray clearly and noticed his saliva on the counter, he wiped it away from his face and tidied his sleeve.

’This is really...really...amazing’ Zhang Tie was so shocked that he became silent.

”Where’s your boss?” Elder Muray asked politely.

”6 new virgins arrived in Yihong Pavilion last night. The old thing has not come back yet!” The lad seemingly complained that the ”old thing” didn’t take him there. After losing his temper for a short while, he looked Zhang Tie and Elder Muray up and down. When he gazed at Zhang Tie, his eyes gleamed, ”Ze...ze...I’ve not imagined seeing a knight in Waii Sub-continent!”

Zhang Tie was doubting that this place had nothing to do with that Mountain Brightness. However, the latter words of that lad wavered his mind.

When Zhang Tie concealed his qi, even a knight could not recognize his status as a knight. How did this lad know?

Zhang Tie instantly cleared his suspicion.

”You are lucky. Now that a big deal came, the old thing would definitely know it. He will come back soon!”

Soon after the lad’s words, Zhang Tie heard footsteps outside the pawnshop. Closely after that, an old, thin guy rushed in with white mustache in a scarlet robe with floral patterns on it. Besides, there was a faint mark of lipstick on his face...

What a shameless old thing!

”Ahh, who’s that? Why did you come here at such a critical moment? What a killjoy...” The old guy kept swearing when he entered.

Even Elder Muray, the worst-tempered elder in Huaiyuan Palace was silent with a big smile in front of this old guy.

After throwing a glance at Elder Muray and Zhang Tie, the old guy muttered. After that, he told the lad to open a narrow burglarproof door beside the counter and entered.

The moment he entered the counter, the old guy knocked the lad’s head with his finger, causing the lad to spring up due to a sharp pain, ”You sleepyhead, whether you were speaking ill of me just now?”

”Ahh, never!” The lad touched his head with a pair of gleaming eyes like an innocent rabbit.

”Work hard. Don’t always think about women. Look at you. You do not even have your pubic hair. As it’s chaotic now, I will increase your salary by 2 silver coins next month. When you have 20 gold coins, I will find a class A virgin for you...”

After saying that, the old guy chased away the lad before sitting on the seat behind the counter and watching Zhang Tie and Elder Muray.

After this old thing entered, Zhang Tie realized through his knight’s consciousness that the entire space of the pawnshop had been sealed. Although the door was open, all the sounds inside the door could not be leaked.

Elder Muray threw a glance at Zhang Tie. Zhang Tie then walked to the counter.

The old thing threw a serious glance at Zhang Tie before asking with an impatient look, ”Name?”

”Zhang Tie!”

”Age?”

”22!”

”Your nominal age?” The old guy glared at Zhang Tie like watching an illiterate, ”How could you not count the 10 months in your mom’s womb? You, young men, who grew up in remote areas such as Waii Sub-continent are fickle. You know sh*t! How do you not learn the essence of Hua culture? Again, age...”

This time, Zhang Tie was completely conquered by this old thing, ”23!”

”Which clan were you born in?”

”Huaiyuan Palace, Jinyun Country!”

”Put out your right hand horizontally...”

Zhang Tie put out his right hand. The old thing then pinched each finger of Zhang Tie’s right hand like touching his bones. After that, he took out a needle from below the counter and rapidly injected into Zhang Tie’s one finger. After squeezing out some blood, he took out a white dragon-shaped crystal plate from below the counter and dropped that blood onto the two eyes of the dragon-shaped crystal. After being immersed in Zhang Tie’s blood, the white crystal instantly turned as blue as a sapphire.

”Inject your spiritual energy into the dragon-shaped crystal!”

Zhang Tie then injected his spiritual energy into the dragon-shaped crystal plate from his finger. The crystal then started to illuminate. Finally, dragon-shaped totem halos appeared above the crystal. After flying around the crystal for one circle, the halos finally entered the crystal and turned into a shiny dragon scale on the crystal. What a marvel!

After doing all this, the old thing fumbled out a bright yellow crystal from the counter and gave it together with the dragon-shaped crystal plate to Zhang Tie, ”It’s okay!”

Watching the bright yellow crystal, Elder Muray faintly frowned, ”Why there’s only one earth-element crystal? Shouldn’t it be two?”

”The earth-element realm is breaking out a fierce war. Bless the God that you can have one earth-element crystal. It’s just a benefit being used to encourage human knights. It’s normal even if you could not get one. How many do you want, a crate?” The old thing rolled his eyes, which choked Elder Muray so much, ”Well, where’s the money?”

Elder Muray took out some gold checks and put them on the counter.

At the sight of the par value, Zhang Tie was dumbfounded, ’Each of 4 gold checks is 1 million gold coins. It’s the largest par value that Golden Roc Bank could issue!’

’Are such trivial items worth 4 million gold coins? 100 tons of gold?’

Zhang Tie watched the two items which weighed less than 250 g in total with an unbelievable look. He could not connect the two items with the 4 million gold coins for the time being.

Even though Zhang Tie had a wealth of 500 million gold coins, as he lived a tough life when he was young, he knew clearly about the value of 4 million gold coins.

Even so-called major clans in many small countries could not afford 4 million gold coins. Even the major clans in Blackhot City could barely afford 4 million gold coins.

After putting away the gold checks, the old thing seemingly knew what Zhang Tie was thinking about. He then threw a glance at Zhang Tie before explaining unsatisfactorily, ”Do you think that knight’s crystal plate is common? You can never find the second one across the world except for the Mountain of Brightness. It’s already deducted given that you’re a human knight. This item is your access to the knight’s word. After injecting your spiritual energy in it, you will see whether it’s worth 4 million gold coins or not.”

After hearing this, Zhang Tie directly injected his spiritual energy into the knight’s crystal plate.

After entering the knight’s crystal plate once again, Zhang Tie saw a paragraph of words in his mind sea. It introduced the significance and usage of this knight’s crystal plate to Zhang Tie.

Due to his powerful spiritual energy, it only took Zhang Tie less than 1 second to figure out the entire paragraph. He then widened his mouth.

Generally, this knight’s crystal plate had three functions.

First, this knight’s crystal plate indicated Zhang Tie’s status as a knight. Now, the knight’s crystal plate had been completely bundled with Zhang Tie. Only Zhang Tie could use and activate some special functions of this crystal plate. Only people with human’s knight’s crystal plates could access to many mysterious human regions in the underground world. It was like each human knight’s legit certificate. Additionally, this knight’s crystal plate had established a certain mysterious contact with Zhang Tie. If Zhang Tie died, the Mountain of Brightness would know that first.

The second function of this knight’s crystal plate was more marvelous...