Castle of Black Iron

Due to the heavy snow in the chilly north wind, it had been snowwhite within 3,500 miles. Even though, Iron-Dragon Airboat was not affected at all as it marched forwards rapidly and steadily in the heavy wind like an iron-armor battleship that rode the wind and waves.

At this moment, a gold light and two humans landed on the entrance of the stern of Iron-Dragon Airboat in the heavy snow.

After they returned with the thunder hawk, the movable dome on the deck of the stern slowly closed.

“Look at you. Didn’t you tell me that you were just going to take a look outside with elder brother? Why did you come back so late?” Bai Suxian walked towards them in winter clothes and a brilliant ferret cloak. Although there was not a bit snowflake on Zhang Tie’s clothes, Bai Suxian still came forward to pat his clothes like his virtuous wife.

Lately, as Iron-Dragon Airboat gradually approached Youzhou Province, Bai Suxian became more and more virtuous like a good wife and mother. 2 days ago, Bai Suxian even washed Zhang Tie’s clothes. However, it was her first time to do laundry. Finally, although Zhang Tie’s priceless boa silk robes became clean, after being dried, they would become mops if being bound to wooden clubs.

Watching Bai Suxian leveling a corner of his garment by drawing it, Zhang Tie threw a glance at Mountain Lifting Hermit with a helpless look. Mountain Lifting Hermit then burst out into laughter.

“You’ve killed someone?” Bai Suxian stood up and asked Zhang Tie.

Due to her sharp knight’s consciousness, Bai Suxian could notice the faint blood smell over Zhang Tie. Although there was no blood on Zhang Tie’s clothes, it still carried a faint blood smell in a short period after staying in a bloody environment.

“Just now, I wanted to take a look at the northern landscape outside. Unimaginably, Little Thunder had a sharp vision and discovered a team of bloody figures in the wild hundreds of miles away. Therefore, elder brother and I went there to deal with those bloody figures and warmed up our bodies by the way!” Zhang Tie said with a smile.

Zhang Tie named the thunder hawks as Little Thunder. After hearing that Zhang Tie was speaking highly of it, the thunder hawk fluffed up its feathers.

“There were over 70 bloody figures. It was a big team. In Tongzhou Province, even if they couldn’t break through a city, they could easily sweep over villages and towns. Even the ground guardians of ordinary business groups couldn’t defeat so many bloody figures. We’d better clean them up the moment we saw them. Otherwise, many commoners would be killed by them!” Mountain Lifting Hermit said as he shook his head.

“However, those bloody figures’ heads and corpses are in the wild. They will not easily rot in the snowy day. It’s said that Tongzhou Province has a high reward for heads of bloody figures. If members of Supreme Court or local garrisons killed them, they could even promote to higher positions. I wonder who would pick up those heads and corpses of bloody figures!” Zhang Tie joked. In such a high position, of course, he would not care about a few gold coins and the so-called meritorious service.

Of course, the food chain of a huge deep-sea monster was different than that of small shrimps and fish. The former would not admire about the later either.

“We’ve done a lot of meritorious services for others.” Mountain Lifting Hermit briefed.

The three people burst out into laughter at the same time. Closely after that, they entered the airboat. They didn’t need to care about the thunder hawk as it could enter the airboat itself step by step just like a human.

Over the past half a month, since Iron-Dragon Airboat set off from Zhenzhou Province, it had been approaching to and crossing those provinces and prefectures that were afflicted by bloody figures at Zhang Tie’s request. Although Iron-Dragon Airboat didn’t stop on the way, with thunder hawk as a high altitude reconnaissance satellite outside Iron-Dragon Airboat, they had exterminated 20-30 small teams of bloody figures within 60 miles on the way. They didn’t let any alive bloody figures go. Additionally, they even saved two villages in the wild and a small city from those bloody figures. Besides, they coordinated with the local garrisons to exterminate a team of bloody figures that hid in a mountain cave. After doing all the above meritorious services, Zhang Tie’s group directly flew away pleasantly without leaving a name or accepting the local invitation and appreciation.

In the words of Mountain Lifting Hermit, this was what knights should do.

When they entered the airboat, all the disciples of Iron-Dragon Sect hailed them. As Mountain Lifting Hermit had become the grand elder of Iron-Dragon Sect, of course, Zhang Tie’s disciples dared not snub him.

“As it’s winter, local garrisons are inconvenient in marching. If bloody figures went out, they would easily leave traces. These bloody figures are pretty cunning. They would definitely hide somewhere. Therefore, before next spring, the catastrophe of bloody figures should be relieved for the time being. It will take Taixia Country as a whole at least 1 year to completely exterminate these bloody figures.” Mountain Lifting Hermit talked about the overall situation of the catastrophe of bloody figures in Taixia Country, “When in Zhenzhou Province, I had heard that the prime minister would resign after the catastrophe of bloody figures across Taixia Country was slightly pacified next year…”

The Finance Minister’s Mansion was under the direct leadership of prime minister, who was one of the top three chancellors. Han Zhengfang the finance minister of Taixia Country was the master of Heavens Reaching Church, who detonated the catastrophe of bloody figures across Taixia Country. Of course, the prime minister of Taixia Country had to take responsibility for it. After the prime minister resigned, the position of prime minister would be vacant. Given the high popularity, Meng Shidao, the master of the crown prince would succeed to the position of prime minister.

In over 1 month, the news that Meng Shidao had promoted to the semi-sage realm and killed Han Zhengfang had been spread across Taixia Country. Therefore, in the large-scale catastrophe of bloody figures, the fame of Meng Shidao skyrocketed. Of course, he became the very person who would succeed to the prime minister. Benefited from him, even crown prince’s position rose greatly.

After Meng Shidao succeeded to the prime minister of Taixia country, the crown prince who was acting as regent could have a bigger right of speech in the imperial court. The subordinates of the Gobbling Party across Taixia Country had been ready celebrating their “master” and “leader” for reaching his heyday stealthily.

In the opinions of many members of Gobbling Party, if Meng Shidao promoted to the prime minister, it indicated that the Gobbling Party had started to reach its heyday in Taixia Country.

The stone that Zhang Tie threw in Xuanyuan Hill was arousing an increasingly larger ripple. Although Zhang Tie couldn’t predict everything. Each coin had two sides. After making a plot to have Meng Shidao fight Han Zhengfang ferociously, although the Gobbling Party was pushed to the opposite of Heavens Reaching Church, Meng Shidao was also pushed to the position of prime minister of Taixia Country.

After fighting Meng Shidao, Han Zhengfang had disappeared. Therefore, the speculation that Meng Shidao had caught up with Han Zhengfang and killed him after the latter escaped away from Xuanyuan Hill with heavy injuries became popular across Taixia Country. Of course, this news was a great strike for the remnants of Heavens Reaching Church; however, it was a pretty good news for the Gobbling Party of Taixia Country. Therefore, the Gobbling Party helped intensify the strength of billows and waves at this moment. Zhang Tie even doubted that this news was released by the Gobbling Party. This news would bring a great political dividend for the Gobbling Party and could severely suppress the power of Heavens Reaching Church and boost the morale of soldiers and commoners across Taixia Country. Therefore, even Meng Shidao didn’t deny the news.

As Meng Shidao didn’t deny the news, of course, Zhang Tie would not jump out to be a target. Whatever, Zhang Tie had already reached his target. It was none of his business even if Meng Shidao promoted to the prime minister; neither would Zhang Tie be afraid of him.

‘As long as I returned to Huaiyuan Palace, Meng Shidao and the Gobbling Party would never easily shock Huaiyuan Palace and Zhang family.’

‘I’m not the same person as I was 4 years ago. Huaiyuan Palace is not the same Huaiyuan Palace either. Additionally, the Gobbling Party should consider how to deal with Heavens Reaching Church instead of dealing with me and Huaiyuan Palace.’ On the way here from Zhenzhhou Province, Zhang Tie had evidently sensed that the Gobbling Party and the clans that supported the Gobbling Party suffered the greatest losses among the regions which were afflicted by bloody figures. The clans of Gobbling Party would encounter great tentative shocks from bloody figures immediately. The families of some local backbones of Gobbling Party were even exterminated. The Heavens Reaching Church had fallen into the trap of Zhang Tie by targeting at the Gobbling Party at this critical moment. Zhang Tie only needed to watch two lions fight in the mountain.

…

In the command module, Zhang Tie told Mountain Lifting Hermit as he pointed at the looming, boundless and undulating mountain range in front of him, “That’s Yangui Mountain Range. We head for north from Tongzhou Province. After crossing Yangui Mountain Range, we will arrive at Youzhou Province! Previously, our Iron-Dragon Sect only occupied over 600,000 square miles of Iron-Dragon Sect. I’ve not imagined that I could win a bet from Guan Qianchong. Therefore, Guan Clan gifted me the rest land of Yangui Mountain Range. From then on, the entire Yangui Mountain Range belongs to our Iron-Dragon Sect. We can do whatever we want here!”

“Yangui Mountain Range is majestic and imposing. It’s abundant in natural resources and connects with many provinces. The entire Yangui Mountain Range occupies millions of square miles. No other sect in the surroundings could match our Iron-Dragon Sect. Besides, there are many basins and plains in the mountain range, large or small. We could easily build dozens of big cities here. This Yangui Mountain Range is indeed the treasure land for Iron-Dragon Sect to be prosperous!” Mountain Lifting Hermit nodded with a strange look as he watched the Yangui Mountain Range in the far, “This Yangui Mountain Range is even similar to my real name. My mortal surname was Yan. It seems that it’s predestined for me to join Iron-Dragon Sect!”

Zhang Tie became stunned for a second.

Right then, two airboats appeared in front of Yangui Mountain Range. Suspending in the air, the two airboats seemed to be waiting for Iron-Dragon Airboat.

Zhang Tie identified the two airboats at once. One of them was the private vehicle of Zhang Taixuan, the head of Huaiyuan Palace; the other belonged to his elder brother.

“Huaiyuan Palace is welcoming young brother back home…”