Castle of Black Iron

Everyone’s life was usually composed of accidents. Take the accident of Bilis setting him up for an instance, Zhang Tie had not imagined that he would encounter something like this today. After delicately arranging this trap, Major Franca had not imagined that Zhang Tie would dare and have the strength to fight back.

Previously, Franca had made a survey on Zhang Tie. He had made a lot of preparations to respond to Zhang Tie’s ability that made fifteen people lose their strength to resist. However, what Major Franca had not imagined was that Zhang Tie had completely recovered.

Zhang Tie was attacking him not by poison, mysterious knowledge, but pure fighting skills.

The moment Zhang Tie started his attack, Major Franca’s face slightly turned pale. Although with a pair of sharp eyes like that of a wolf, this major of secret police started to feel that what happened today was jumping away from his expectations and becoming uncontrollable.

According to his plan, Zhang Tie only had two choices: first, being compromised; second, being stubborn and getting caught. After arresting Zhang Tie, he would take him away from Blapei at the fastest speed to fix the fact that he had committed the crime. As long as Zhang Tie was in his hands, of course Franca had his way to make Zhang Tie obedient.

After all, Zhang Tie was just a 15-year old juvenile, a juvenile who was akin to a cripple. If not, why would those mice and scumbags of the Sun Dynasty target him?

Major Franca knew that Zhang Tie was setting free earthworms these days. He also knew his excuse for it. Although he found it weird, the excuse itself was reasonable. However, he had not imagined that Zhang Tie had completely recovered his combat effectiveness.

Besides, Zhang Tie even had been promoted to the preliminary recovery body as well as eaten two Iron-Body Fruits and one Leakless Fruit. At this moment, Zhang Tie not only had completely recovered his combat effectiveness, but his performance would have definitely surpass that of when he was in the Iron-Blood Camp.

Major Franca was more than two meters away from Zhang Tie, a billiard table between the two of them. The moment Zhang Tie popped out his red-snake sword, the sharp sword qi and the sword’s tip had already went past the over two meter space like a long spear and rushed towards Major Franca’s throat.

Now that he had launched the attack, Zhang Tie would never keep him alive. He would never care about his status, even being part of the secret police. Like on a battlefield, he would definitely be cold-blooded and waste no time...

’If I’m alive, I will kill you...’

However, as a major of the secret police, Franca was definitely not average. Having long been alert, he also responded instantly. Almost the moment he saw the sword qi, he had already moved back by tilting his body backwards.

Of course the red-snake sword moved faster than him. When Major Franca felt a sharp qi attacking his throat, he had no other choice but to incline his head to one side.

A wisp of silver hair fell off at once.

Major Franca’s face immediately turned pale. If he had moved slower just now, he would have been struck through his throat just now.

Zhang Tie’s combat effectiveness was really terrifying.

However, in that split second, Major Franca had already taken out his weapon, a pair of steel claws.

Major Franca caught the thin sword blade of the red-snake sword with his steel claw. However, the moment he caught it, he felt like having caught a twisting and smooth neck of a snake.

It bounced towards him and Major Franca then caught it with another steel claw. At the same time, the super long sword’s body twisted towards him too. With no more hands, Major Franca could only let go and move back once again. This time the sword blade touched his face when he felt a cold breeze pass his face.

When he moved about five meters away from Zhang Tie, Major Franca felt wetness on his face. He touched it and found a finger-long wound cut on his face. In a split second, his sharp eyes became bloody.

The red gloves then rushed in like a tide once again.

”Kill him!”

Major Franca pointed at Zhang Tie as he delivered his order without any hesitation. By then, he clearly knew that if he could not kill Zhang Tie here and now, he would rush out. And if that happened, the whole thing would be totally out of his control.

From the moment Zhang Tie started to attack, Major Franca had a bad feeling. Zhang Tie’s last words were very right. Whether it was in the Northern Border Army or in the Norman Empire, although sometimes he might have advantages, it was never his turn to be number one. Zhang Tie was a military officer while he was part of the secret police. If the secret police wanted to frame a military officer who had won the Iron-Blood Medal as traitor, unless he was caught in the scene...

Seeing Major Franca only suffering from a small wound facing his two fatal moves, Zhang Tie felt a bit pitiful as those moved were what he had comprehended after practicing the red-snake sword these days. The first fatal move was a sword thrust while the second one was a three-section attack. They were both indefensible fatal moves.

In a split second, Zhang Tie understood that Major Franca’s real strength was definitely above his own. As his best moves could only cause small wounds on him, it wouldn’t be that easy to wound him again.

Seeing the two of them starting to fight, the other red gloves rushed in once again with the front ones holding a pitch-black cylinder. After hearing Major Franca’s order, one of the red gloves standing at the front immediately put the cylinder facing Zhang Tie.

After a loud ”boom”, there was a huge net blown out towards Zhang Tie.

’Dammit!’

It was Zhang Tie’s turn to show surprise. With a roll, he moved beneath a billiard table. Almost at the same time, the huge net covered the place where Zhang Tie had been standing before while some steel nails on the net’s sides fixed to the ground at once...

Before the other people could shoot out their nets, the red gloves’s eyes popped out as a 300-400 kg billiard table was lifted from the ground and flying towards them like Mountain Tai. Hurriedly they avoided it.

Soon after that Zhang Tie jumped out from behind the billiard table. With a sound of ”chiliu”, the sword qi of red-snake sword radiated from his hand and immediately flew through the narrow space like a spiritual snake...

Almost at the same time, some red gloves’ heads flew away, fresh blood spurting out one meter high. In the meantime, Zhang Tie rushed towards the door.

”Stop him...” Major Franca shouted loudly while rushing towards him.

Hearing the order, some more red gloves surged towards Zhang Tie. However, before their weapons touched his shadow, the three meter long red-snake sword’s blade slid through their bodies and hands. Almost at the same time, the red gloves released miserable screams; two more hands were now lying on the ground and several red gloves whose wounds were now longer than one meter in total were rolling on the floor.

When Zhang Tie was about to rush out through the door, another batch of red gloves rushed in. In a blink of an eye, the ”s-shaped” snake-like sword qi swam across the narrow passageway, and it immediately became a bloody lane.

At this time, Major Franca rushed close to Zhang Tie.

After withdrawing the sword qi, the red-snake sword turned into a short sword at once. The moment Zhang Tie clashed his short sword with Major Franca’s weird steel claw, he felt a weird yet familiar strength being passed from his red-snake sword into his arm. In a split second, Zhang Tie’s hand was wounded.

It seemed like Iron-Blood hidden strength, yet it contained greater strength than Iron-Blood hidden strength as it had a feminine sense and was more aggressive.

’Iron-Blood invincible strength’, a thought flashed across Zhang Tie’s mind.

Seeing Zhang Tie’s shocked expression, Major Franca sneered. ”Did you think that only those guys of the Iron-Blood Camp can use Iron-Blood Fist Skill?”

Saying this, Major Franca didn’t stop attacking and the two people experienced two rounds of fighting in a split second. Finally, Major Franca’s steel claws broke through Zhang Tie’s defense and he was punched by Major Franca and flew back in the air. Spurting out a mouth of fresh blood on his way, Zhang Tie was wounded once again.

’Dammit, this guy has also practiced the Iron-Blood Fist Skill. He even has formed Iron-Blood invincible strength. Perhaps this guy failed to form the Iron-Blood Battle Qi and turned to practice other battle qi. Still, he is still a powerful opponent. What’s worse is that this guy is already LV 8, which makes him overwhelming...’

Zhang Tie knew that although the other red gloves might not defeat him, he could not defeat major Franca at this moment at least, especially in this narrow space where he could not use the full power of his strong points.

The moment Zhang Tie fell to the ground, he grabbed a billiard table from his side and threw it towards major Franca. Nevertheless, before the billiard table made of granite and covered with a faded green cloth reached Major Franca, it was punched to pieces.

Still, Zhang Tie had already won the precious time to escape.

He quickly moved back and forcefully slashed an ”X-shaped” mark deep in the wall behind him using his red-snake sword. After that, Zhang Tie used his full strength to fiercely hit the wall, like how he practiced the ”Bear Back Iron Body Skill”.

As Major Franca’s howled and his expression shifted to fury, Zhang Tie broke through the wall.

The rest of the secret police who were surrounding this beer hotel seemed to not have imagined that someone might break outside through the wall.

When Zhang Tie broke out, the nearest red glove was two meters away from him. By the time he turned his head, Zhang Tie had already rushed forward like a mad tiger. Before he even arrived in front of him and the rest of the secret police outside, the sword qi of his red-snake sword had reached more than ten people. In a blink of an eye, over ten heads were sent flying in the air. As a result, the red gloves were greatly weakened.

The highest combat effectiveness of these common secret police was merely equal to the common soldiers of the Brilliant Feathers. How could they hold back Zhang Tie who had been driven mad? In a split second, he had already broken the first encirclement.

Although the secret police standing at higher points shot a round of bolts towards him from their crossbows, Zhang Tie caught a man nearby and used him as a shield. Then before the second round of bolts could be shot and Major Franca rushed out of the beer hotel, Zhang tie was more than twenty meters away.

When he left, Zhang Tie saw Bilis’s corpse lying on the ground outside the beer hotel and swore inside, ’You idiot, did you think you could survive when you’ve got yourself involved in framing a military officer of the Norman Empire?’

”Catch up with him!”

All the secret police ran after Zhang Tie together with Major Franca, who was gritting his teeth.

Not until then did Major Franca realize that he had forgotten one of the most important factors about Zhang Tie - his running speed. Although Major Franca obviously ran faster than most of the secret police, Zhang Tie’s running speed was amazing. Even though he had been wounded, the distance between Major Franca and him was still becoming greater.

However, this was not what Major Franca was most concerned about, what worried him most happened when Zhang Tie ran several hundreds of meters and came to the area of downtown.

He didn’t run towards the less populated place; instead, he ran towards the most populated place.

There were many people in the area who were celebrating the beer carnival. At this time, most folk had already ignited their torches. Because the Beer Queen of this year had been selected, when the dusk arrived, the grand carnival would start. Many people were waiting for the passing of the Beer Queen’s festooned vehicle.

”Secret police Major Franca is a traitor; he killed the two missing soldiers of No.21 Division and framed a military officer of the logistics department of the Iron-Horn Army...”

...

”Secret police Major Franca is a traitor; he killed the two missing soldiers of No. 21 Division and framed a military officer of the logistics department of the Iron-Horn Army...”

...

”Secret police Major Franca is a traitor; he killed the two missing soldiers of No. 21 Division and framed a military officer of the logistics department of the Iron-Horn Army...”

Zhang Tie kept running as he shouted loudly like a super great trumpet which could be heard by everybody on the avenue. Major Franca who was closely chasing after him was so infuriated that he almost spurted a mouthful of blood. This method was definitely more lethal than the slash on his face. At this moment, even though he could kill Zhang Tie at once, after those words had been shouted out, it would be impossible for the Iron-Horn Army not to make any response to this event.

When the people in the avenue heard Zhang Tie’s appalling words, they all became stunned. But before they could make any response, a great amount of secret police with weapons in hand followed Major Franca out and the whole avenue became in chaos.

...

Watching Zhang Tie disappearing in the flurried crowd, Major Franca immediately stopped, his face turning extremely pale and ugly-looking. This had been absolutely out of his expectations.

At this moment, not only Major Franca, even the other secret police following him had twisted expressions. They knew what the outcome was. What they did was now known by the public.

Nobody noticed that Major Franca’s fingers couldn’t help but tremble slightly.

A person behind him forcefully swallowed his saliva as he lowered his voice to ask., ”Major Franca...”

Major Franca gritted his teeth. ”Contact the headquarters right away. When we carried out the mission in Blapei, we found First Lieutenant Zhang Tie of the Logistics Department of the Iron-Horn Army to be a traitor. After being revealed, he refused to be arrested by our forces. He even killed officers of the secret police and incited the Iron-Horn Army in Blapei to hate the secret police of the Norman Empire by spreading rumors.

”Now, Zhang Tie is escaping. I’ll request the headquarters to deliver the class A order for arresting Zhang Tie. As Blapei is in extreme danger, in case of unnecessary conflict with the local soldiers of the Iron-Horn Army, we have to leave here right now!”

...

One hour later, in the minister’s office of the headquarters of the Logistics Department of the Iron-Horn Army in Blapei, General Goethe smacked the desk, causing a loud sound in the office.

”Where are those bastards? Where’s Major Franca? Where are they?”

The news made General Goethe so infuriated that his face turned red and his mustache rose.

”When Colonel Bach of No. 21 Division received the news and took soldiers to the airship base to stop the secret police from leaving, Major Franca had already flown away from Blapei along with the other secret police, giving a feeling as if they were escaping. Now, the soldiers of No. 21 Division are very furious...”

”Where’s that first lieutenant?”

”We’ve not found First Lieutenant Zhang Tie. Based on the witnesses, he might have been wounded. At that moment, he was being chased by the secret police. It was said that he was a traitor.”

”Nonsense! Could an officer who has been granted an Iron-Blood Medal be a traitor? Go fetch First Lieutenant Zhang Tie right now. Ask him to explain it. Meanwhile, contact the headquarters to warn the airship troop of the Iron-Horn Army to intercept those bastards in the air. I want them all under arrest and interrogated one by one. If those bastards truly dared to do this in Blapei, I will peel off their skin this time!”

”Yes sir!”

...

This night, it was not peaceful in Blapei. Through the whole night, Zhang Tie was not found, but Major Franca’s airship was found 190 km away from Blapei in a valley in the northeast. It had been heavily destroyed with all the secret police having died except for Major Franca. According to the investigation, before the airship crashed, all the victims had been poisoned...

On the same day, in Nordinburg, the capital of Norman Empire’s northern border, two orders for arrest were delivered at the same time: one was from the Northern Border Army of the Norman Empire; the other was from the Northern Border Order Review Committee of the Norman Empire.

The image of Major Franca appeared on the first order for arrest while the image of First Lieutenant Zhang Tie appeared on the second order for arrest. They were wanted at the same time.

Coincidentally, the crimes on the two orders for arrest were also the same - murder! One murdered the two missing soldiers of the Norman Empire and escaped while the other murdered the secret police of the Norman Empire and escaped. However, the charge of traitor didn’t appear on either order for arrest.

Although big figures quarreled in Nordinburg, they made compromises too...

On the same day, a fish-like silver airship arrived at Blapei and hovered in the air for two days before silently leaving.