Castle of Black Iron

Those residents were exerting their full strength to escape, leaving billowing wheat fields behind them. A 30-year-old tough man pushed forward a woman who was carrying a baby when he heard the miserable shrieks were approaching him from behind. At the same time, he roared, ”Take Xiaocheng away, hurry...” while holding tightly his walking saber on one side of his waist. Closely after that, he turned around and charged at a bloody figure.

Meanwhile, a virtual image of a black spider appeared behind this tough man, which indicated that he was a LV 6 fighter.

Given the uniform of the man, those who were familiar with the regulations in Taixia Country would know that this man should be a bowman being subordinate to the local constable of the town. Bowmen were used to protect the safety of the local place. According to the demand, they would assist the constable to govern the local place. Bowmen were not officials, they just ranked exiled Class VI. In Zhongzhou Province, a constable would have 3-5 bowmen. Each bowman would have some assistants. Besides the constable, all the judicial agencies even local garrisons in Taixia Country could assign and command these local bowmen.

This bowman’s surname was Liu. This morning, after having some breakfast at home like usual, he was preparing to go to work. However, before he left home, he had heard the increasingly louder cries and shrieks from the streets. He went outside and saw many naked bloody people rushing into the town and killing anyone they saw.

His house neighbored a martial arts school. The master of the martial arts school was surnamed Xiang, who was a Class 8 fighter. He used to teach his disciples how to fight. When this bowman rushed out of his house, Master Xiang also rushed out of the martial arts school with some disciples. However, they met a naked bloody figure at once. In only a few seconds, Master Xiang’s and his disciples’ heads had been blown up by that naked bloody figure.

Soon after the bloody figure rushed into the martial arts school, shrill shrieks drifted from the martial arts school. The bowman could identify that the shrieks came from Master Xiang’s family members. Oozing sweat all over, this bowman hurriedly returned to his home and started to escape away with his wife and kid.

When he escaped, this bowman had some questions inside, ’Isn’t Zhongzhou Province an immortal province in Taixia Country? It’s always peaceful. Even holy war could not affect this place. How could it become so chaotic all of a sudden? Where do the bloody figures come from? How could they behave like mutated fierce beasts?’ However, this bowman didn’t have time to figure them out. He only thought about escaping out of here with his wife and his kid.

Thousands of bloody figures covered Fuan Town like a bloody flood in the blink of an eye. Soon after this tough man and his family members entered the farmlands outside the town, those bloody figures had caught up with them.

...

When this bowman turned around and charged at one bloody figure, he saw more and more bloody figures rushing out of the town. Only after a short while, these bloody figures had found clothes in the town and put them on. Although being not tidy, they were not naked anymore; additionally, some of them even held weapons that they found inside the town.

”Go die...” The bowman slashed towards a bloody figure with his full strength...

The bloody figure flickered his red eye light when he dodged away easily by leaning to one side. At the same time, another bloody figure flashed out and punched through the tough man’s chest at once, drawing his heart out...

This tough man spurted out a mouth of blood over the surrounding yellow wheat...

What a sharp difference in battle strength! One LV 6, the other LV 9. In face-to-face close combat, the result could be identified in a split second; not to mention that the LV 6 fighter had two opponents...

The bowman fell down; however, before he loosed his grip, his saber had been grabbed away by that bloody figure.

Before falling down, the bowman threw a glance at the direction where his wife was escaping to. He found that the emaciated frame was still tumbling in the wheat field but in another direction. However, his son was not at her side. He knew that his wife must have hidden his son somewhere or let his son lie somewhere in the field. A kid could easily hide himself; however, she changed one direction and continued to escape so as to induce away those bloody figures...

Parents would make the same choice in this situation.

The bloody figures had been chasing after his wife. Before he lost his consciousness, the bowman had the last doubt in his mind, ’Has the flames of war reached Zhongzhou Province?’

...

On the top of the north city gate of Huian City, those people watched those bloody figures killing those people who were escaping in the field with pale faces. Big fires could be seen everywhere in Fuan Town while more and more bloody figures poured out of Fuan Town. Crossing the fields outside the city, they were rushing towards Huian City like a bloody tide.

Those bloody figures moved too fast; additionally, all the battle-qi totems of these bloody figures indicated that they were LV 9 fighters.

At first sight, over 20,000 bloody figures were rushing towards Huian City, which was very terrifying.

At the same time, the airships in the airship base in the northwest outside the city flew off like a flock of flurried birds in the reeds. All the airships were sending distress signals by releasing colorful smokes into the sky...

Some airships dove downwards the moment they flew off...

Needless to say, these bloody figures must have rushed into the airship base outside the city.

”Are these things...humans...or demons?” A young soldier who had not experienced any battle stammered at the sight of this scene.

Like that dead bowman, all the soldiers and officers standing on the top of the city gate had one question inside, ’How could so many people like fierce beasts appear in Zhongzhou Province, one of the nine immortal provinces in Taixia Country?’

”Listen, it’s time for us to contribute to our country at the cost of our lives. As long as we’re alive, we will never allow these fierce beasts to break into Huian City. Brothers in Huian City, think about your family members. We only need to stand here a short while before the arrival of knight-level powerhouses...” The officer who kicked the steward of the Double-well Brewery out of the city gate raised high his sword and exclaimed.

After a short while, the steam city-defense equipment on the city gate of Huian City wuthered, shooting bolts outside the city...

When those bloody figures entered the effective distance of the city-defense weapons at the city gate of Huian City, they immediately scattered like having been trained. At the same time, they accelerated towards the city gate dauntlessly while dodging away from the strikes of the steam city-defense weapons.

Bloody figures were hit one after another by the ceaseless strikes of the city-defense weapons of Huian City, spurting out blood and falling down with shrill shrieks and roars; especially those being hit by the over 2-m long huge bolts would be broken into two halves at once...

However, those bloody figures moved too fast. Although they constantly fell onto the fields facing the strikes of the city-defense equipment of Huian City, it only took the rest of them 1 minute to arrive at the foot of the city wall. In such a short period, the city-defense weapons on the north city wall of Huian City made very limited achievements facing the loose formation of those bloody figures, their super fast speed and flexible movements...

After arriving at the foot of the north city wall of Huian City, those bloody figures immediately jumped over 10 m high and landed on the city wall before making a massacre over there...

Those common garrisons of Huian City were just LV 4 warriors, how could they defeat these LV 9 bloody figures.

The city wall of Huian City could block commoners and common soldiers; however, they were ineffective to those bloody figures at all.

As more and more bloody figures jumped onto the city wall, the attacking frequency of the city-defense weapons on the city wall decreased too, causing more bloody figures to jump onto the city wall...

The entire city wall of Huian City was filled with battle calls while the jarring alerts had long been ringing across Huian City...

As it happened too fast, there was even no omen. Therefore, when the shrilling alerts rang in Huian City, most of the people in the city were still confused about what happened. They didn’t care about it at all...

...

The officer who raised high his sword and exclaimed was also a LV 9 fighter. After killing 3 bloody figures, he was also covered by more bloody figures on the city wall...

...

There was no knight among the 20,000-odd garrison soldiers. The garrison general in Huian City was just a LV 13 battle general. There were some strong fighters, battle masters and great battle masters below the garrison general. These people were all exerting their utmost efforts to fight those bloody figures on the city wall. However, as more and more bloody figures jumped onto the city walls, all of these officers were surrounded...

Even ants could bite an elephant to death. Those LV 9 bloody figures were wolves instead of ants.

Except for knights, even battle spirit-level powerhouses who had formed protective battle qis would not resist over 1,000 dauntless LV 9 fighters’ ceaseless strikes, not to mention over 10,000 LV 9 fighters. Even knight’s protective battle qi might be broken after reaching the critical moment facing constant strikes of so many LV 9 bloody figures, not to mention battle spirit-level protective battle qi. After their protective battle qis were broken, how long would they stand?

The garrison general was waving his huge sword while over 50 bloody figures had fallen down on his side with incomplete limbs. In the end, a bloody figure seized the opportunity to stab his saber into this LV 13 garrison general’s back. When this garrison general became a bit still, five more sabers and swords were stabbed into his body at the same time...

The garrison general widely opened his furious eyes as he roared and swept across the 5 bloody figures in front of him with his huge sword, splitting them into 10 halves.

After killing 5 more bloody figures, the garrison general of Huian City immediately fell down onto the ground...

A bloody figure picked his sword and peel off his armor before putting it on its own body...

After the city wall of Huian City only resisted the contingent of bloody figures less than 10 minutes, more and more bloody figures grabbed the sabers and swords from the garrison soldiers on the city wall and peeled off the clothes and armors of those dead soldiers and officers before jumping off the city wall and sweeping across Huian City like a bloody wave...

The entire Huian City was filled with screams and cries...

...

In the mayor’s mansion of Huian City...

”What...what...how could it happen in Huian City, Zhongzhou Province, an immortal province in Taixia Country...” After hearing that the north city wall of Huian City was broken through by bloody figures and the cries and screams of commoners across Huian City, the mayor directly threw himself onto the chair.

”Lord, hurry up, you’d better leave now...” The steward of the mayor’s mansion persuaded the mayor with a pale face, ”Those who have airships in the city have already boarded their own airships, our airship is ready too...”

However, the mayor seemed to have not heard the words of the steward; instead, he just watched the chief justice of Huian City in uniform with an absent-minded look and asked, ”Has...has Lord Meng long known about the event today...whether these people are the rebels of Heavens Reaching Church...”

The chief justice of Huian City didn’t look as good as the mayor. After hearing the mayor ’s words, he just replied in a low voice, ”The Huian Municipal Court has just received the intelligence from Zhongzhou Provincial Court. They told us to close the city gate right away. As for the concrete...reasons, and where does...these bloody figures come from? Whether they’re humans or demons, I have no idea...” After saying that, the chief justice of Huian Municipal Court looked determined as he cupped his hands towards the mayor, ”As people’s lives and properties were destroyed wantonly in Huian City, this humble officer has to investigate it and kill enemies instead of dragging out an ignoble existence. I have to leave, mayor, see you...”

After saying that, the chief justice of Huian City left the mayor’s mansion decisively with two criminal hunters...

”Lord...” The steward persuaded anxiously once again. Huian City was just a small city; therefore, the cries and roars soon approached the mayor’s mansion.

”Let my wife and daughter board the airship!” Watching the chief justice of Huian City leaving, the mayor of Huian City revealed a bitter smile as he waved his hand and said, ”In this situation, if I escaped away instead of fulfilling my responsibility for the time being, I have to be killed in the end; additionally, my family members would be involved with my death penalty. In the earlier two holy wars, few mayors had escaped away from their cities in Taixia Country, I don’t want to be the shameless one...”

”Lord...” The steward dropped off his tears.

”You too. Remember to look after my wife and daughter in the future...” The mayor waved his hand as he picked off his walking sword from the wall and said, ”I will stay here...”

...

2 minutes later, a mini airship flew off the mayor’s mansion. All the guards and soldiers inside the mayor’s mansion were mobilized as they were ready to protect the mayor’s mansion together with the mayor...

In the lobby of the mayor’s mansion, the mayor just sat on the main seat. He put one hand onto his sword handle as he touched the golden official seal of the mayor of Huian City by the other hand...

The official seal of mayor in Taixia Country was not only a symbol of authority but also an alchemist equipment. At the critical moment, it would have a special function. Such a small official seal was the beacon tower of Huian City.

The mayor of Huian City had not imagined that he could use the other function of this official seal. He might be the first one who used that function among the nine immortal provinces in Taixia Country...

...

Only after about 7 minutes later, the battle calls and screams of guards of the mayor’s mansion had sounded. After another 2 minutes, with a loud sound ”bang”, the gate of the mayor’s mansion was broken while a bloody figure broke in...

...

At this moment, a bloody light beam shot into the sky from the mayor’s mansion like a signal. After reaching about 70 miles high, it turned into two burning words——Huian City, which lasted for a long time and could be seen clearly within 700 miles...

Meanwhile, the official seals of all the mayors in Zhongzhou Province started to rock and turn scarlet; even so, they could still vaguely see the two words ”Huian City” on their own seals.

Half an hour later, when two knights of Zhongzhou Provincial Court hurriedly arrived at Huian City, they found that the entire city had turned into a bloody and dead city. All the streets, alleys, houses, hotels, schools and stores had been covered with blood and corpses. After rushing into the city like killers and fierce beasts, over 30,000 LV 9 bloody figures soon turned this small city into hell...

The greater part of Huian City was burning in fierce flames, including corpses and the famous liquors...

After seeing this, the two knights widely opened their eyes due to fury; however, the contingent of bloody figures had long escaped to all directions...

When those bloody figures ran out of Pingsha Valley, they were naked; however, at this moment, they had long put on clothes, armors and helmets and held weapons...

On the same day, four other cities around Pingsha Valley encountered the similar catastrophe. As a result, dozens of towns and villages turned into ruins; over 500,000 people were killed or wounded. Longxi Prefecture in Zhongzhou Province was in an emergency situation...

The flames of war rose in the immortal province plunged so many people into misery and suffering in one day and shocked the entire Taixia Country...