Castle of Black Iron

”As a Class 1 garrison knight of Lion Fortress, one could gain 6 earth-elements crystals per month. However, if you choose to be a Class 2 garrison knight, when you gain the maximal freedom, you could only gain 2 earth-elements crystals per month. Precisely, if you just stay in Lion Fortress for 3 days per month and spend 27 days outside, your effective time is only 3 days while the rest 27 days could not be included into the effective time for you to receive earth-elements crystals. Am I clear? Only when you stay in the Lion Fortress could you be regarded as fulfilling your duties and receive your gains. If you left the Lion Fortress, your work would be ineffective. Of course, if you like, you could apply for degrading to Class 1 garrison knight in the Task Center of Knights at any time. As Class 1 garrison knights have to execute their tasks each month, they would have less freedom. As a reward, they would have more earth-elements crystals. Additionally, many tasks being distributed to Class 1 garrison knights are matched with extra rewards of earth-element crystals...”

”In Lion Fortress, we have to follow the military laws of Taixia Country. Although the contents of the laws are over complicated, you only need to keep a sentence in mind——Life for Life, money for money. The logistical personnel and subsidiary fighters in the fortress enjoy the same human rights as knights. There were many cases that knights from other subcontinents killed logistical personnel and subsidiary fighters due to various reasons. As for such cases, no matter how many chakras had the knights formed, they had to die without any exception or preferential treatment. Even a Hua commoner could not be insulted by knights from other subcontinents, not to mention the soldiers of Taixia Country in the fortress.”

”Female is a scarce resource in Lion Fortress. Therefore, after you fall in love with any beauty among the logistical personnel, although you have the right to pursue her, don’t violate her will; otherwise, you would face a tragedy for sure. It’s not worthy for you to do that.”

”As for the three fruits that you’ve already seen, they are breadfruit tree, nutritious mushroom and watermelon. They’re the food of all the people in the fortress. As a Class 2 garrison knight, you could have one breadfruit, 0.5 kg nutritious mushroom and 0.5 kg watermelon a day when you stay in the fortress. From tomorrow onward, you could receive them from the supply point. If you have your own food or could gain food and materials from outside the Lion Fortress, you could exchange these fruits for consumption points in the fortress. With consumption points, you could consume in the bars of the fortress or purchase some daily-use products such as clothes and shoes. Many items and materials in the fortress are in relatively urgent demand. Because these items should be carried from the floating airboat above the ground, they would not be provided for knights freely.”

”There are two general currencies in the fortress: consumption points and elements crystals such as earth-elements crystals, water-elements crystals and wind-elements crystals, the exchange rate between every two kinds of element crystals from low to high is 1:6. Golds and silvers are not available in the fortress, those who could come here would not lack those common objects above the ground!”

”The earth-elements realm is very large, it’s almost like a complete world. The Lion Fortress is the pass from the earth-elements realm to the Eastern Continent. If you want to leave the Lion Fortress, I suggest you to study the map of the earth-elements realm near the fortress. Before being completely familiar with the map, you’d better not deepen into the region being far away from the Lion Fortress. Even if you want, you’d better go there with the other knights. The topography in earth-elements realm is very complex, besides plains which are similar to those above the ground, there’re various abysses and underground caves. Compared to the earth’s surface, more regions in earth-elements realm have not been explored, which might contain precious mineral resources and pre-historical items. This is also why many people are attracted to the earth-elements realm.”

”In the Tower of Brilliance, you could see the tasks distributed to Class 2 garrison knights, which are always matched with three rewards: earth-elements crystals, consumption points and meritorious deed points. There’re many kinds of tasks. As for Class 2 garrison knights, the fastest and most effective way to gain the above three rewards is to kill demon knights in the earth-elements realm. Of course, besides demon knights, there’re many dangerous things in the earth-elements realm too. Since the beginning of the holy war, over 20 Class 2 garrison knights disappeared out of no reason each year. Watch out yourself.”

After hearing that even knights would disappear out of no reason, Zhang Tie stopped walking, closely followed by that man in a red military uniform with the rank of major who had been introducing for him all the way. After turning around, he asked Zhang Tie, ”What’s wrong?”

”Class 2 garrison knights disappeared out of no reason when executing common tasks?” Zhang Tie repeated with an emphasis.

”Yes!”

”Haven’t you investigated that?” Zhang Tie frowned.

”We did; however, we got no result. The only conclusion was that they might have died. After all, we’re in the earth-elements realm. There’re many fatal factors such as being ambushed by demon knights, a sudden encounter with senior demon knights or high-level mutated beasts or being in dilemma, etc.. Of course, we didn’t exclude other possibilities. After all, too many knights come here from all walks from life. Wherever there are humans, there will be conflicts. If there’re disputes between garrison knights in the Lion Fortress, they could seek for a solution in courts of arbitration. If the courts of arbitration could not handle their disputes, they could fight in the Heavenly Ball of the Battle Simulation Tower. If they don’t feel it’s cool, they could have a real duel in the public. If someone wants something special, as long as they leave the fortress, they will have fewer shackles under less supervisory control. If there’s no evidence, there would be no punishment. Therefore...you know, oh, I’ve forgotten to introduce myself to you. I’m Liu Xing, a logistical major in the Task Center of Kights in the Lion Fortress!”

”Liu Xing...the xing in haixing 1 ?” Zhang Tie asked.

”Yes, the xing of xingzhen 2 !” Major Liu Xing pushed his spectacle-figure upwards as he emphasized in a poetic way, ”Undoubtedly, the xing in xingzhen is much more advanced than the xing in haixing.”

Zhang Tie didn’t pay attention to the persistence of Major Liu Xing. After hearing this name, Zhang Tie became absent-minded while a late face loomed in his mind. The owner of the face in his mind was also called Liu Xing, the first lieutenant in the Iron-blood Camp of the No. 39 Division of Iron-horn Corps of Norman Empire. He was Zhang Tie’s comrade-in-arms!

After coming out of the Task Center of Knights, it took them over 10 minutes to enter a region being filled with dense metal high towers.

All the towers were higher than 200 m. Like chess pieces on the checkerboard and sharp swords and javelins pointing at the sky, they were sitting in the square exterior region of the Lion Fortress. At the sight of them, Zhang Tie knew there were at least 1,000 towers.

This was the residential area of black iron knights who defended the Lion Fortress.

In a farther place, there were some towers higher than 500 m, which were the residences of earth knights who defended the Lion Fortress.

The closer they were to the core region, the higher the towers would be.

When Zhang Tie passed by this region, he saw a piece of metal number plate at the entrance of each tower.

Major Liu Xing soon led Zhang Tie to a high tower marked Black D 1607.

Pointing at it, Major Liu Xing said, ”Here’s your residence. The key to this residence is the metal plate that you’ve got from the Task Center. Besides, the metal plate is the receipt of your consumption points in the Lion Fortress and your identification certificate to access to the fortress. When you enter the fortress, don’t forget to register outside the gate. If not, you will have less earth-elements crystals than you could imagine. By then, you’d better not complain about others.”

When Major Liu Xing introduced, Zhang Tie had already taken out that palm-sized metal plate and inserted it into the metal gate. He then screwed it like screwing a key, causing the gate to open quietly.

The moment the gate was opened, a familiar qi of element-gathering matrix had spilled out of the tower. Zhang Tie was slightly shocked.

Zhang Tie entered it. However, Major Liu Xing just stood outside the tower, ”Whether do you want to take a rest or continue to let me show you around the Lion Fortress? Besides the Battle Simulation Tower and the Knight’s Bar, there’re many more places where knights would be interested in...”

”No need, thank you. I’ve been tired after traveling for a day. I want to take a rest. I will visit the other places myself when I’m free. Oh, how do I find you?”

”When you’re in the Lion Fortress, if you have any problem that needs to be handled by the logistics department of the fortress, just leave a memo in the memo box behind the gate. The logistical personnel would collect it everyday. The logistics department could meet all your reasonable demands!”

Zhang Tie caught sight of the tiny memo box behind the metal gate right away. The memo box had two mouths, one outside, from where memos could be put in and be seen by Zhang Tie from inside, one inside, from where memos could be put in by Zhang Tie and be seen by logistical personnel such as Liu Xing who had the key of the box.

This design was convenient and practicable.

”Okay, I know! Zhang Tie nodded. The logistical personnel of the Lion Fortress was a bit like the butlers in the fortress or servicemen in hotels, who could help knights solve many trifles.

”What else can I do for you?”

”Nothing else, oh, you’ve got a good name!”

After being slightly shocked, Major Liu Xing replied, ”Thanks!”

”Well, I will enter cultivation for a few days.” Zhang Tie revealed a faint smile on his fierce face. Closely after that, he closed the gate from inside.

After revealing a smile, Major Liuxing left...

In his knight’s tower, Zhang Tie dropped the luggage that he had been holding all the way and looked around the tower in a customary way.

The knight’s tower was composed of 3 floors. The area of each floor gradually decreased starting from the first floor. The first floor was the parlor being covered with a lot of items; the second floor was his bedroom and washroom while the third floor was a cultivation room.

All the furnishings in the room were brand new and simple. There was nothing but basic daily-use products in the room. Zhang Tie could not even find a dagger.

In the cultivation room, Zhang Tie felt that the qi of elements-gathering matrix was passed downwards from the triangular top of the knight’s tower, which looked like a very special elements-gathering matrix. Additionally, this elements-gathering matrix was much more powerful than Zhang Tie’s private one.

Many basic structures in the knight’s tower were made of metals just like the materials of the tower. They were so solid that they could not even be destroyed by knights. It seemed that those basic structures directly grew out of the knight’s tower. For instance, Zhang Tie didn’t see any pipe in the knight’s tower even across the fortress; however, the moment he opened the fusiform water faucet, he would see limpid water flowing out of it.

Water would not come out of the void. Therefore, the water pipes must have been inlaid in the knight’s tower, the walls of this fortress and underground in advance.

Therefore, Zhang Tie guessed that each building and the high tower across the Lion Fortress must have been integrated with this fortress in an organic way. Just like how the trunk was connected with the tree leaves, each building and the high tower was a part of the precision system.

Zhang Tie could not imagine how was such a magnificent complex be accomplished.

Among all the things that Zhang Tie had ever seen, only the Palace Tree was similar to the Lion Fortress. All the things inside the Palace Tree were integrated with each other, which grew out of there themselves, leaving no artificial trace just like many places in the Lion Fortress.

’Did the Lion Fortress also grow out of an exotic seed like the Palace Tree?’

Zhang Tie felt it was amazing when this whim occurred to his mind.

After being familiar with the internal environment of his knight’s tower, Zhang Tie went upstairs to the cultivation room on the 3rd floor.

In the cultivation room, Zhang Tie took out the knight’s crystal plate from Castle of Black Iron which belonged to his original body and had the byname of Chakra’s Lion.

’It’s time to make a counter-attack...’

Zhang Tie didn’t have any concern at this moment...

’Eye for eye!’

’Those people and forces who framed me could never imagine that I would survive their trap.’

’As long as I’m still alive, they have to pay for what they did.’

’The Supreme Court of Taixia Country implement laws strictly. They declare people guilty only by evidence. Although I could not present any evidence for my innocence, it doesn’t matter, as sometimes evidence is not that important. The Supreme Court is just one power of Taixia Country; there are powers which are greater than the Supreme Court in Taixia Country.’

’For instance, does my master Zhao Yuan need any motherf*cking evidence if he wants someone die?’

’Of course not, they would make choices according to their own judgments instead of relying on evidence.’

’Big figures rely on personal judgments instead of evidence!’

’Evidences are stagnated and might be false; however, judgments are transcendental, which are the combination of one’s wisdom and experiences.’

’All the big figures are very confident.’

’That’s enough!’

Zhang Tie logged on the Mountain of Brightness by his knight’s crystal plate and accessed to the forum of knights.

’Only when human knights who have been confirmed to betray humans could the link between the knight’s crystal plate and the Mountain of Brightness be canceled off and terminated. Although I’ve been wanted, I didn’t betray humans; therefore, my identity as the Chakra’s Lion is still available in Mountain of Brightness.’

It was Zhang Tie’s first time to post on the forum of knights in Mountain of Brightness.

After recovering his composure, it took Zhang Tie a few hours to finish a sentimental article.

Before releasing it, Zhang Tie named it——”The Truth of the Tragedy in Fuhai City”.

”Castle Lord, please change one title!” Heller’s voice sounded in Zhang Tie’s mind.

”Change one?”

”Yup, although this title points to the purport of this article, it’s not eye-catching. We need an attractive title so that those who had noticed the title would continue to read its contents out of curiosity. What you’re doing was like someone posting on an online forum before the Catastrophe. Do you know that a party was also rampant online before the Catastrophe?”

”What’s that?” Every time Zhang heard the word ”party” would he recall the Gobbling Party.

”Title Party!”

”Title Party?”

After listening to Heller’s serious introduction about the Title Party, Zhang Tie thought through right away...

’What a party!’

After thinking for quite a while, Zhang Tie finally fixed the main title.

”The inscription on the gravestone of the despicable: from the dean of a provincial court and a gentleman to a major criminal and obscene devil in Taixia Country——my half year in Taixia Country”

Followed by a subtitle below——”Being attached with a lot of first-hand precious secret news and the secret of a shadow demon in Heavenly Reaching Church”

Author: Zhang Tie, Zhang Mushen, the Chakra’s Lion.

Reading mode——free

...

This article soon appeared in the Mountain of Brightness...

After absorbing 4 earth-element crystals in 2 hours, Zhang Tie reviewed the article and found it had been browsed over 500 times...