Castle of Black Iron

”Castle Lord!” Heller bowed towards Zhang Tie after the two awe-stricken and exciting girls left.

Zhang Tie asked Heller, ”What’s the God of Karma?”

”It’s the official appellation of Castle Lord given by the residents in Castle of Black Iron. Karma represents reprimand and redemption. It’s both a start and an end. Karma is the top rule, the source of all the strengths, nature and all the rules. All the rules are the concrete manifestation of karma. The God of Karma is the top celestial being and the Creator. The appellation indicates that the residents in Castle of Black Iron worship and respect you!” Heller said with a solemn look.

”Is that real?”

Zhang Tie touched his bald head in a bashful way as he felt the appellation was something great.

”Erm...is it okay?” Zhang Tie asked Heller in a faintly shameful way. It might be a bit exaggerated for a mortal to be worshipped as a celestial being.

”What are you concerned about, Castle Lord?” Heller asked.

’Hmm, whatever, it’s just an appellation. Nothing to be worried about it.’

’Could a wanted man also be worshipped like a celestial being?’ Zhang Tie smiled in a self-deprecated manner. Closely after that, he walked towards the small tree which was covered with fruits.

After so many days, the small tree was covered with leakless fruits.

Besides, two fruits of redemption from the gratitude of gulf shrimps and hairy shellfish were also hanging over the small tree, which looked pretty brilliant...

——Fruit of Redemption from the gratitude of gulf shrimps. It’s already ripe. Usage: Pick and direct eat it. Notice: The fruit cannot be taken out of the Castle of Black Iron. After twelve hours of having been picked off the tree, its energy and vitality will gradually decline.

——With this fruit, Castle Lord could accelerate the healing and recovering ability by 18.7% and increase the upper limit in endurance capacity in the hypoxic environment by 9.3%.

——Fruit of Redemption from the gratitude of hairy shellfish. It’s already ripe. Usage: Pick and direct eat it. Notice: The fruit cannot be taken out of the Castle of Black Iron. After twelve hours of having been picked off the tree, its energy and vitality will gradually decline.

——With this fruit, Castle Lord could increase the defensive capability and anti-strike ability by 4.3%.

The two ripe fruits of redemption indicated that Paul had been carrying out his task by setting free gulf shrimps and hairy shellfish after Zhang Tie left Yanghe Prefecture.

Zhang Tie revealed a big smile before starting to enjoy the fruits.

Rome was not built in one day.

A long journey began with the first step. After taking so many fruits one after another, Zhang Tie gradually climbed up to the higher peaks.

These leakless fruits became the ”tonic” of Zhang Tie’s battle qi. Zhang Tie ate them one after another like having common fruits. Zhang Tie soon ate up all the leakless fruits that had been accumulated during the past months. After that, Zhang Tie started to take the fruits of redemption. Compared to those leakless fruits, it took Zhang Tie about 3 hours to fully digest the two fruits of redemption, which was a bit longer than that required by those leakless fruits.

After returning to the Lion Fortress for only 2 days, Zhang Tie had promoted to 1 change black iron knight and gained an overall improvement in power from ”King Roc Sutra”. After taking so many fruits, Zhang Tie’s potential overall strength increased once more.

After digesting these fruits, Zhang Tie got off the sacrificial altar. When he was going back to his private knight’s tower, he was stopped by Heller.

”Castle Lord, you might have already forgotten something.”

”What?”

”Castle Lord, how did you feel in the first abyss?”

”Nice, but it was too misty over there. I had a poor vision inside it!” Zhang Tie replied with a confused look.

”The garrison knights in the Lion Fortress have to drink one vial of senior night-viewing medicament per year so as to stay in the Earth-elements Realm. I’m afraid that Castle Lord has forgotten that you could have a dark vision ability without taking night-viewing medicament!”

After hearing Heller’s words, Zhang Tie became confused at first; after that, he blinked his eyes as if he had recalled something. Closely after that, he was in ecstasy...

Many people have the similar experiences. When making a move, they would suddenly find a passbook in a corner or some gold coins that they once hid. They then felt having a windfall.

That was how Zhang Tie felt at this moment. After being busy fighting demons these years, he might have forgotten about this if not being reminded by Heller.

He remembered that he had one more treasure in Castle of Black Iron——Fiery Flame Lotus.

After taking the seeds of the Fiery Flame Lotus, he could have a dark vision ability which was more effective than night-viewing medicament.

”Oh, how about the Fiery Flame Lotus in Castle of Black Iron now?”

”Why not take a look at them with me, Castle Lord?” Heller suggested as he stretched out his hand to invite Zhang Tie.

Zhang Tie immediately rushed into the underground tunnel of the palace tree.

The underground tunnel of the palace tree was linked with the Immortal Mountain.

The inside of the Immortal Mountain had a wonderful scenery.

The hinterland of the Immortal Mountain included the largest warehouse of Castle of Black Iron, Aziz’s cellars and Edward’s foundry.

As for rune equipment masters, Edward’s foundry was really attractive where Edward used dozens of extremely pure underground flames in different temperatures to extract items. Each rune equipment master was desiring about having such a workshop. They could not imagine about having dozens of underground flames in different temperatures in the same workshop at all.

In the past, Zhang Tie didn’t understand why Edward chose to build it in the hinterland of the Immortal Mountain. Now, in the eyes of an artisan master, Zhang Tie found that Edward’s foundry in the Immortal Mountain was really a DreamWorks for rune equipment masters. He realized that he would not find the second foundry like this in the world outside Castle of Black Iron.

Right at the bottom of the Immortal Mountain, Zhang Tie saw numerous glittering fiery flame lotus on a magma lake which covered tens of thousands of square meters.

Among the glittering lotus leaves were golden lotus flowers. Some golden lotus buds were getting ready to burst; some had been in full bloom; some golden lotus flowers had bred seedpod.

The entire space above the magma lake was filled with an exotic fragrance.

The remaining lotus seeds that he left here had become a wide area of fiery flame lotus leaves, flowers and seeds.

At the sight of such a luxuriant scene in the magma lake, Zhang Tie felt a contradictory deja vu. Many people might have already seen common lotus flowers covering a lake; however, Zhang Tie bet that they had never seen so many fiery flame lotus leaves, flowers and seeds over a magma lake. Even his master Zhao Yuan might not have seen that before.

This was a top luxuriant scene and the manifestation of the good luck in Castle of Black Iron. It was Castle of Black Iron who was the celestial being instead of him.

”After the first batch of fiery flame lotus become ripe, Castle Lord didn’t care about it as if you didn’t need fiery flame golden lotus seed for the time being; therefore, I decided all by myself to sow those seeds. After so many years, due to the nourishment of the aura in Castle of Black Iron, they finally reached such a scale. There were 1149 fiery flame golden lotus seeds in this magma lake.”

Zhang Tie squatted beside the magma lake as he touched one fiery flame golden lotus leaf out of curiosity. As large as a common lotus leaf, it was not hot but the texture was like a metal. It was like a super alloy leaf. Although Zhang Tie had a terrifying strength, he could still not crumb the fiery flame golden lotus leaf; instead, he could only leave a fingerprint on it. Zhang Tie flicked at it, causing two melodious, silvery metallic sounds.

The subtlety of silicon-based life was really out of Zhang Tie’s imagination.

As an artisan master, Zhang Tie instinctively knew that the leaf of this fiery flame lotus was an extremely rare material. Besides being light and firm, the leaf also had some special functions. Battle armors being made of the leaves of fiery flame lotus were definitely rare.

Zhang Tie touched its stem and felt bristles as hard as metal on it. Like lotus leaf, lotus stem was also a rare raw material of equipment.

Zhang Tie picked himself up from the ground and asked Heller, ”What’s the lotus root of this fiery flame lotus used for?”

”The root of the fiery flame lotus is not available to you, Castle Lord.”

”Why?”

”Even after being processed, the effects of the root of fiery flame golden lotus could only be digested by earth knights. After taking its root, earth knights could raise their high temperature-resistant ability to an unimaginable level and could further improve their protective battle qi. As a result, when in a defensive state, earth knights could also harm their enemies.”

”Protective battle qi could be aggressive?”

”Castle Lord, you have already seen your master Zhao Yuan perform it!”

Zhang Tie remembered that the moment the LV 10 fighter from Zhen Clan in Heavens Cold City touched Zhao Yuan’s clothes, his arms had burned into ashes...

Watching these lotus flowers, Zhang Tie wondered what effect would he gain after taking all of these fiery flame lotus seeds.

”After 3 days, Castle Lord could try the taste of these fiery flame golden lotus seeds. Castle Lord will have a big surprise by then!” Heller said leisurely.

...

When Zhang Tie exited the Castle of Black Iron, he had been fully confident about the coming action.

One day flew past...

...

At 8:50 pm, November 3rd, after putting away his belongings, Zhang Tie carried his metal field operations bag with an abyss spear on its side and a gold-eaten tri-edged dagger in a metal sheath beside his waist in a soft armor and a pair of metal tiger-claw shaped battle boots and came to the outside of the gate of Lion Fortress.

As the old saying went, a fair bird had fair feathers. With such a wholly new set of equipment, Zhang Tie looked much more powerful than that a few days ago. He was filled with killing qi at the moment.

Gong Ziyao and Zhou Shufan had arrived here a few minutes earlier than Zhang Tie. Besides carrying a knight-level field operations bag respectively, Gong Ziyao wore a set of half-body metal armor, Zhou Shufan wore a set of senior grey knight-level soft armor with a short sword at one side of his waist. Watching Zhang Tie punching his card and striding out of the gate, Gong Ziyao’s and Zhou Shufan’s eyes gleamed at the same time.

”Brother Cui, you look extremely brave. If you were in a senior armor, you would look more dignified!”

”Ha...ha...brothers, you don’t look bad, either!” Zhang Tie burst into laughter.

In only a few minutes, those whom Zhang Tie had met in the Iron-blood Tower had arrived one after another. Almost each of them was carrying a knight-level field operations bag.

Without a space-teleportation equipment, even being knights, they had to take enough food and water with them. With one kettle of water, the knight might survive the dilemma. Therefore, nobody dared be careless at this critical moment.

The garrison knights at the gate of the Lion Fortress were not shocked by such a team of knights as they could catch sight of many teams of knights going on expeditions everyday. No matter what these knights were going there for, as long as they left the Lion Fortress, they might encounter demons. In that case, they had to end the battles by forces. Objectively, these teams of knights going on expeditions safeguarded the Lion Fortress.

Mountain Lifting Hermit also arrived here on time with a metal bag on his back. After ensuring that everybody had arrived, Mountain Lifting Hermit nodded and issued the order, ”Let’s go!”. Closely after that, he rose in the air, followed by all the others.

As an earth knight, Mountain Lifting Hermit moved very fast in the air. Only after a short while, Zhang Tie felt that he had reached almost 800 km per hour. The others hurriedly followed him up.

As for common black iron knights, it was a bit difficult for them to constantly fly at such a high speed for a few hours.

As Mountain Lifting Hermit flew, he kept observing the performance of the others. Actions spoke louder than words. If a black iron knight could have an excellent performance in the air, his battle strength would not be too bad.

Although all the knights in this team had killed demon knights and were elites in the Lion Fortress, they were also different than each other in battle strength.

Only flying 1 hour at such a high speed, the differences between the knights in battle strength had been exposed.

The couple was still closely following up Mountain Lifting Hermit while the three foreign knights had gradually lagged behind.

Zhang Tie, Gong Ziyao and Zhou Shufan were close to each other. Although being in the middle of the team, Zhang Tie’s leisure look won more glances from Mountain Lifting Hermit. As a result, Mountain Lifting Hermit nodded inside...

...

As for Zhang Tie, through this action, he might get silver secret items or kill demon knights. Even if they did not encounter a demon knight, it would also be a big achievement for a newbie to explore a mysterious region in the first abyss under the leadership of so many veterans. He just took this action as a knights’ travel in the first abyss.

Therefore, Zhang Tie was the most relaxed one among them...

Mountain Lifting Hermit enjoyed a great dignity among this team of knights, which was not formed in a short period. Instead, it was gradually formed through long-term contacts with him. For example, Gong Ziyao and Zhou Shufan once fought together with Mountain Lifting Hermit in the first abyss a couple of years ago. Therefore, they believed in him very much.

According to Zhang Tie’s observation, although Mountain Lifting Hermit was a bit solemn, his moral standing was reliable. Without personal charisma, he would not easily organize such a team.

In Lion Fortress, the moral standing of an earth knight could easily become a widely accepted secret among black iron knights in a very short period.

...

After leaving the Lion Fortress for less than 1.5 hours, someone in the team had already been exhausted. Mountain Lifting Hermit noticed that; therefore, he landed, followed by the others. They started to run on the ground...

As for knights, as long as they were not flying but were running rapidly on the ground, it was almost like taking a rest.

After landing, their running speed was about 200 km per hour. While running, they could adjust their breaths.

As for Zhang Tie, running was a piece of cake.

After 4 hours, Mountain Lifting Hermit rose in the air once again, closely followed by all the others...

After one night’s travel, they finally appeared in front of the first abyss on the next morning when it started to break in the Earth-elements Realm...

Mountain Lifting Hermit landed in a valley less than 10 km away from the first abyss. There were some plants and a brook in this valley. It was the ideal place for supply and resting before entering the first abyss. It seemed that Mountain Lifting Hermit was familiar with this route very much.

”After resting 3 hours here, we will enter the first abyss!” The moment they landed here, Mountain Lifting Hermit had issued the order.

After that, Mountain Lifting Hermit found a place and entered cultivation calmly with eyes closed.

Zhang Tie came to the lower reach of the brook and washed his face.

”Hello, I’m Filton, a knight from the Grims Republic on the Western Continent. What’s your name?” The black knight walked to Zhang Tie and greeted him...

Filton spoke Hua language fluently...

’Grims Republic?’ Zhang Tie became stunned for a second. He remembered that he had heard about this nation before, ’Oh, yes, it’s the trading partner of Ms. Olina’s Navyblue Castle on the Western Continent.’

Zhang Tie picked himself up from the ground as he casually cleaned his hand on his clothes before saying straightforwardly, ”I’m Cui Li, from Yongzhou Province...”

Zhang Tie stretched out his hand towards Filton; however, Filton cupped his hands towards Zhang Tie...

After being stunned for a second, they changed their gestures at the same time.

This time, Zhang Tie cupped his hands; however, Filton stretched out his hand.

After exchanging a glance with each other, they burst out into laughter at the same time.

”Cecilia made a bet with me just now. She said I was destined to be snubbed!” Filton smiled.

”Ah? Why?”

”Because all the Hua knight that we’ve known in Lion Fortress before were too arrogant or too reserved. Additionally, you don’t look like a kind-hearted man!” Filton threw a glance at the blonde female knight who was looking at them from hundreds of meters away.

That female knight called Cecilia was hot in terms of both figure and look. Although her oval face was not extremely beautiful, she looked valiant, heroic and elegant. Plus her long blond hair, she looked pretty charming.

”Hahaha, you could tell that tomato, besides arrogant and reserved ones, there are also sincere ones like me who’d like to make friends with others among Hua people!”

After hearing the word ”tomato”, the female knight replied with a cold harrumph.

”Do you think that I’m sincere?” Filton pointed at his own nose.

”I have a brother who looks similar to you. You remind me of him! In the saying of your black guys——if someone liked to be friends with you even though you didn’t have any beautiful younger sister, he would not be too bad. I’ve not got any beautiful younger sister...”

Filton burst out into laughter...

When the two people were making fun of each other, the other knights kept that in mind. Nobody could imagine that Zhang Tie would have fun with that foreign knight. Even Mountain Lifting Hermit had opened his eyes and thrown a glance at Zhang Tie once again...