Castle of Black Iron

After staying still over there in an embarrassed way, the two bounty hunters found that the juvenile was not dangerous at all. He was still roasting his kebab using his sword. After exchanging a glance with each other, they put down their battle postures.

However, the two bounty hunters dared not move closer to the juvenile in case of any misunderstanding. Anyone would feel a bit vigilant if they met such a stranger on the isolated island.

”Ahem...ahem...” The tough man with dense eyebrows pretended to disguise twice as he pointed at the corpse on the ground and asked, ”Little brother, did you kill this man?”

”Hmm, yes. Is there anything wrong?” The juvenile answered frankly.

Watching him answer so easily, the two bounty hunters became faintly shocked inside.

”Little brother, do you know the man you killed?”

After hearing this question, the juvenile rolled his eyes as he shrugged, ”I don’t care, I was roasting meat in the cave. However, this guy rushed inside and wanted to kill me. As I found he was not a good person, I just killed him!”

’Just? Just killed him?’

Watching Zhu Liang’s broken neck and shocked look once again, the eye corners of the tough man with dense eyebrows jumped a couple of times.

”This guy is Zhu Liang. His nickname is Ferocious Wolf. He’s the criminal being wanted by the Ministry of Penalty. As he’s lascivious, he has raped many women. We two are bounty hunters in Yongzhou Province. I’m Li Butian. This is Yang Zhigang, my brother. We have been chasing after Zhu Liang for a long while. We followed him to this island. We’ve not imagined that he had been killed by you, little brother. He deserved that!”

The juvenile rotated his longsword as he blinked his eyes, ”Is it okay for me to do that?”

”Of course. According to the regulations of bounty hunters, as we’ve chased him for half a year, though he was finally killed by you. If we give his head to the Ministry of Penalty, we can get a reward of 100,000 gold coins. You can have half of it!” Li Butian said while being neither humble nor pushy.

After hearing Li Butian’s words, the juvenile revealed a smile. He seemed to feel okay with it. Waving his hand, he said,”Since you’ve chased after him for half a year and I’ve just met him for less than half a minute so it’s just an accident. I won’t take the money. You can just take away his head. I just find pleasure in helping others, getting rid of the cruel...and pacifying the good people.”

The juvenile felt a bit strange while speaking such a phrase which was full of Hua characteristics.

”You really don’t want to take the money?” Yang Zhigang moved one step forward with a happy look. When he saw Li Butian’s solemn look, Yang Zhigang smirked as he scratched his head and moved back.

It was Li Butian and Yang Zhigang’s first time to hear someone who could present 50,000 gold coins without any hesitation. For most of the bounty hunters, 50,000 gold coins was not a small figure. Many LV 6-7 bounty hunters could not even make 50,000 gold coins after many years of work.

”Little brother, may I know your name? If you feel troublesome to take the 50,000 gold coins, you can tell us your address. After taking the reward, we will remit the 50,000 gold coins to you through the bank. Although it’s a dangerous job, we’ve not taken any ill-gotten gains over the past years.” Li Butian asked while cupping his hands with a much more solemn look.

”I’m Zhang Tie! As Zhu Liang escaped here, he only had a small part of strength left like an arrow at the end of its flight; therefore, I killed him accidentally. I could barely take the 50,000 gold coins.” Zhang Tie also stood up and cupped his hands with a solemn look as he watched Li Butian cupping his hands towards him. Although this bounty hunter was just a LV 11 battle master, he had an awe-inspiring righteousness. Zhang Tie would treat such a person politely even if he was just a lad in a store. Zhang Tie would not grab the jobs of these guys who risked their lives every day even when he served as a human-flesh bag in Blackhot city, not to mention now.

After listening to Zhang Tie’s modest words and seeing his polite movements, Li Butian and Yang Zhigang relieved their vigilance about Zhang Tie greatly. They just felt that this juvenile was very righteous.

”Hahahaha, now that little brother says so, we will take the money. Honestly, we’ve been chasing after Zhu Liang over the past half a year. We planned to purchase some equipment and pills with the reward of this task so that we could have a higher probability to survive ourselves in an emergency. This time, we almost suffered a great loss from Zhu Liang at the cost of many pills and equipment...” Li Butian said generously.

After Li Butian said that, Yang Zhigang’s stomach uttered ”gulugulu”. Although they became spirited after taking the qi and blood recovery pills, as they had not eaten food for so long, Yang Zhigang’s stomach finally protested.

At the same time, the flesh on Zhang Tie’s sword was turning golden and spitting oil, which started to drop off the roasted flesh onto the bonfire. The entire mountain cave was filled with a special rich aroma. Sniffing it, Yang Zhigang had silently swallowed his saliva for many times.

Zhang Tie revealed a smile as he raised his longsword, ”Why not eat together with me, two elder brothers?”

”Haha, what a nice day...” Li Butian replied as he walked over there and sat opposite to Zhang Tie, followed by Yang Zhigang.

Zhang Tie divided the flesh into 3 parts and wrapped them with coconut leaves. He then gave two parts of them to Li Butian and Yang Zhigang. After that, 3 of them started to enjoy the food.

Li Butian and Yang Zhigang thought that the roasted flesh was just common sea fish; however, they had not imagined that the flesh was so tasty. It was hard to describe the taste. Although they had eaten too many exotic food from the mountains and seas, they had not eaten such delicious food before. Not only that, the moment the flesh entered their stomach, a warm current had started to spread across their bodies. They soon felt being fully energetic.

The well-roasted flesh had been eaten up by the 3 people in only 5-6 minutes.

”Brother Zhang, what’s this flesh of? How could it be so tasty?” Yang Zhigang asked as he glanced at Zhang Tie with shiny eyes as if he wanted to find another piece of roasted flesh, he even wanted to lick off the oil on the coconut leaves.

”It’s a mutated octopus that I caught by the sea!” Zhang Tie fabricated. Actually, it was the flesh of the huge deep-sea monster that he got from the refrigerator of Castle of Black Iron. Of course, it was tasty.

”Oh, no wonder my elder brother and I have not eaten it before. Mutated octopus is indeed a rarity!” Yang Zhigang just believed in Zhang Tie’s benign lie.

Yang Zhigang didn’t notice that Li Butian’s eyes turned bright as the latter watched Zhang Tie wiping off the oil from his longsword using coconut leaves.

After cleaning his longsword, Zhang Tie inserted that sword into the ground beside him and revealed a smile.

”Does brother Zhang Tie belong to one of the 7 major sects?” Li Butian suddenly asked.

After hearing Li Butian’s question, not only Zhang Tie became faintly stunned, even Yang Zhigang widely opened his eyes and gazed at Zhang Tie with his shocked eyes.

”Ahh, why do think so, brother Li?” Zhang Tie asked out of curiosity.

Li Butian shook his head with a bitter smile, ”I finally know why brother Zhang Tie doesn’t treasure tens of thousands of gold coins. I think his longsword would be worth at least 200,000 gold coins.”

Yang Zhigang widely opened his mouth as he watched Zhang Tie with a dumbfounded look. Even though he had just eaten the roasted flesh on the longsword, he still could not believe that Zhang Tie’s longsword was worth over 200,000 gold coins. Such a rune weapon was far out of their imagination.

”Hoho, you really have a good eye, elder brother Li!” Zhang Tie revealed a modest smile. The longsword was indeed a top-quality rune weapon. It was plundered from the warehouse of a Three-eye Association clan. Zhang Tie had plundered over 100 swords like this one. After their shapes were slightly changed by Edward, they were just put in Castle of Black Iron. Such weapons were competitive products for those who were not above the battle spirit. However, they were a bit useless for knights, even though it was priceless. Zhang Tie just took one for free. Among his weapons, only the autumn-frost gold sword could play a great role for him. All the other swords were a bit worse than the autumn-frost gold sword.

”Given the top-quality rune weapon which is worth hundreds of thousands of gold coins, the great battle force that you could kill Zhu Liang the Ferocious Wolf so easily and be alone in this isolated island, you must be practicing outside here. Across Taixia Country, only the 7 major sects could have such young elites!”

”Elder brother Li, why not think that I’m a disciple of a clan?”

”The major clans across Taixia Country have very strict requirements on their disciples. Before clan disciples could undertake tasks alone, they would barely be such indulgent. Young disciples of major clans at your age would always be very low-key. Even if their weapons were exquisite, they would not be as extravagant as you. Generally, only disciples of the 7 major sects would practice alone with such top-quality rune weapons which were rewarded by their sects. Although being very luxurious for commoners, such rune weapons were average for the 7 major clans. After staying in their sects for so long, those disciples get used to carrying such top-quality rune weapons; instead of showing off them! Such rune weapons indicate the background of those young powerhouses above LV 11 and pose a deterrence to those with a good taste.”

Li Butian was really an experienced bounty hunter as his analysis was very rigorous. His analysis probably fitted others very well, except for Zhang Tie.

Actually, Li Butian had mistaken Zhang Tie’s age, which was actually about 10 years elder than Zhang Tie’s look. As a result, all the other speculations about him were wrong.

”Pitifully, elder brother Li guessed wrong. I’m not coming from any of the 7 major sects; instead, I just came from a common clan!” Zhang Tie shook his head as he said with a smile. Huaiyuan Palace which was well-known across Waii Sub-continent also became common in Taixia Country; therefore, Zhang Tie was not modest.

”Ah, which clan does brother Zhang Tie come from? Tianlu Palace, Guanying Palace or Bairen Palace?” Yang Zhigang interrupted.

Zhang Tie knew that Tianlu Palace, Guanying Palace and Bairen Palace were the top major Zhang clans in Taixia Country. Zhang Tie had heard the names of the three palaces in Waii Sub-continent. The elders of Huaiyuan Palace also took the above three palaces as their idols. The three major Zhang clans were much more powerful than Huaiyuan Palace. Based on the current development speed of Huaiyuan Palace, it could never match the three major Zhang palaces in 100 years even after 10 times’ expansion on the premise that everything was developing smoothly at a higher speed.

There was one point that could indicate the power of the three major Zhang palaces: Huaiyuan Palace had elders; however, the three major Zhang palaces had House of Lords.

”I am from Huaiyuan Palace!”

After hearing Zhang Tie’s background, Li Butian and Yang Zhigang exchanged a glance with each other in an embarrassed way. Because they had not heard about Huaiyuan Palace before. In Taixia Country, besides those who studied the learning of ancestral bloodlines, nobody could clarify the tens of thousands of palaces in Taixia Country.

”Huaiyuan Palace was once on Waii Sub-continent. After the holy war broke out, it transferred to Taixia Country for further development. It’s not strange even if two elder brothers have not heard about it!”

After listening to Zhang Tie’s explanation, the two bounty hunters both let out a sigh at the same time. Now that Huaiyuan Palace was once on Waii Sub-continent, it was not discourteous for them to be confused about that name.

Later on, the three guys started to chat freely and learned more about each other.

Li Butian and Yang Zhigang learned more ”experiences” about Zhang Tie. In Zhang Tie’s mouth, he was amongst the people on Waii Sub-continent, who didn’t leave Waii Sub-continent with the fleet until the arrival of the demons. As Zhang Tie could not bear the distant travel on the ocean, he just left the fleet and swam in the ocean. Previously, Zhang Tie wanted to come back alone; however, after swimming for 8-9 months in the ocean, he almost got lost. Two days ago, he came to this isolated island. He didn’t know how far was this place to Eastern Continent. Just now, when Zhu Liang came in, Zhang Tie even felt happy instead of being afraid because he thought that he could finally have someone to talk to. However, it was out of his imagination that Zhu Liang directly rushed towards him with vicious eye light and wanted to kill him. Therefore, he had to kill Zhu Liang.

Li Butian and Yang Zhigang were both speechless about Zhang Tie’s experience.

Through Li Butian and Yang Zhigang, Zhang Tie learned about the specialty of the profession ”bounty hunter”. In the beginning, Zhang Tie thought that bounty hunters were official employees of Taixia Country. Whereas, through the two guys’ explanation, Zhang Tie understood that bounty hunter was like a private detective on Waii Sub-continent. In Taixia Country, any innocent warriors above LV 6 could become bounty hunters after going through approval and confirmation. This was also an employment channel for warriors in Taixia Country. The Ministry of Penalty was in charge of the penalty judiciary of Taixia Country. The chief officer of Ministry of Penalty was one of the 9 chancellors of Taixia Country, who was a high-ranked official in Taixia Country. All the bounty hunters were registered in and managed by the Ministry of Penalty to a certain degree.

Zhang Tie was very interested in the episode about how they chased after Zhu Liang the Ferocious Wolf and the wanted list of the Ministry of Penalty.

Later on, a question occurred to Zhang Tie’s mind, ”Zhu Liang ranks below the 9000th place on the wanted list of the Ministry of Penalty in Taixia Country, who ranks first on the wanted list of the Ministry of Penalty?”

”Zhao Yuan the alchemist demon!”

When Zhang Tie heard this name, his heart almost stopped beating.

Although being shocked inside, Zhang Tie kept his look unchanged. He continued to ask, ”What’s this guy’s talent? How could he rank first on the wanted list of the Ministry of Penalty?’

”Zhao Yuan the alchemist demon is a ground-breaking figure. 87 years ago, he made a killing spree in Mojiang City of Songzhou Province and killed 7 knights including the deputy head of Taiyi Fantasy Sect and the young master of the Heavens Holding Pavilion. His crime shocked the entire world. From then on, Zhao Yuan the alchemist demon had been ranked on the 1st place on the wanted list of the Ministry of Penalty and started a feud with Taiyi Fantasy Sect and Heavens Holding Pavilion. Anyone who could kill Zhao Yuan the alchemist demon would be rewarded with 100 cities!”

One person for 100 cities. Such a reward was able to drive everybody mad. Li Butian’s tone turned ethereal when he mentioned the reward for killing Zhao Yuan.

However, Zhang Tie was more shocked inside.

’Taiyi Fantasy Sect?’

It sounded a bit familiar. After thinking about it for a few seconds, he suddenly remembered that it was the very sect that Lan Yunxi had joined in Taixia Country.

Zhang Tie’s heart pounded.

’What the hell!’...

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