Castle of Black Iron

Time: 4 am, March 14th, the 895th year of Black Iron Calendar...

Location: A tower in Ironedge Castle of Senel Clan outside Tokei City, the capital of Titanic Duchy...

At this moment, the Ironedge Castle was like a stiff monster falling asleep in the pitch-dark night...

In the empty tower, a rat appeared in a corner along the wall of the aisle in a blink of an eye.

That rat had smooth fur which seemed having been well maintained. It looked shrewd all over.

The rat stood up like a person. After looking around, it sniffed. At the sight of the thick layer of dust on the floor, the rat looked a bit frustrated.

After finding that nobody was near here and the environment here became different than that a few months ago, it darted along the wall. In a split second, it had reached the staircase. Soon after that, it climbed downstairs...

There was a lobby on the first floor with an opening gate towards the outside. There were some scattered rocks and broken objects. All the items had been covered with dust. Half of a wall in the hall had collapsed. Along the moonlight from the broken hole on the collapsed wall, the rat saw this place clearly.

There was neither lamplight nor human here. It seemed having experienced a sharp change.

The rat ran all the way to the gate of the lobby. Standing at the stage outside the gate, he watched the Ironedge Castle with a dumbfounded look.

The rat found the Ironedge Castle had been completely abandoned. It looked desolate and shabby all over.

It had to be abandoned as half of its buildings had encountered a huge destruction and turned into debris. The greater part of Ironedge Castle’s main buildings had collapsed. The yard of the square in the center of the castle had been covered with weeds, which were slightly waving in the night wind...

Under the moonlight, there were tweets of crickets among the weeds.

When the rat was glancing over the scene, a huge colorful cat which had long treated this place as his home was lowering its body and drawing close to the rat. The rat which was glancing at the scene out of curiosity was a rare night snack in the eyes of the big colorful cat.

The rat seemed not having found that the cat was drawing near. Drooling saliva, the big colorful cat soon narrowed the distance to 2 m. It then charged towards the rat as fast as a lightning bolt.

...

The rat didn’t scream; instead, the big colorful cat groaned after being extremely stunned.

The rat disappeared; instead, Zhang Tie appeared as he glanced at this place full of excitement.

At this moment, Zhang Tie disguised as Peter Hamplester who had returned from Ice and Snow Wilderness. He was lifting the skin on the cat’s neck with two fingers slightly. Facing such a thing, the cat became so scared that it kept groaning out of panic.

After calming down, Zhang Tie revealed a smile as he placed the big colorful cat on the ground. Being too scared to look back, the cat escaped away at the fastest speed.

Wandering in this utterly different castle, Zhang Tie glanced at the changes here. In the square, Zhang Tie saw a 2-m deeper pit and the cracking ground nearby. In the deserted building, Zhang Tie saw the same radioactive, destructive pattern. The only reason that caused this outcome was that this place had been attacked by the alchemist bombs.

Although Zhang Tie didn’t know what happened here during the past months, there was only point to confirm that besides the troops of the allied human forces, no other forces could have such a power across Waii Sub-continent.

Zhang Then climbed onto the top of the half-collapsed wall, from where he looked at the distance and was shocked greatly.

Dozens of pyramid-sized gravetower demons outside the Tokei City had disappeared. Even the exterior city wall of the Tokei City had been severely destroyed. The ground had been covered with human airship wrecks.

Looking at the distance, Zhang Tie saw at least 1000 human airship wrecks within dozens of square miles...

Under the moonlight, many human airship wrecks only remained their skeletons which supported the hard-type air sacs. Some of the skeletons were well preserved; some had been twisted like bones of dead warriors as they shined desolate brilliance.

This was a miserable large-scale battle. The human airship troop raided Tokei City and used the alchemist bombs to destroy all of the gravetower demons here. However, as a payment, human airship troop also suffered a great loss.

When Zhang Tie recalled Lan Yunxi, he became concerned at once; however, after thinking about Lan Yunxi’s status, he recovered his composure again. Zhang Tie knew that Lan Yunxi would never be permitted to sacrifice in such a miserable battle by Zhang Clan or Lan Clan. Even if Lan Yunxi’s airships crashed, they would escort her away too.

”I wonder what’s going on in Selnes Theater of Operations?”

”Over the past months, the entire Selnes Theater of Operations must have experienced a great change.”

Zhang Tie instantly disappeared. After a few seconds, a big bird appeared. It flapped its wings and rushed to hundreds of meters high in a blink of an eye and headed for Tokei City in the distance.

That bird was the wounded thunder hawk that Zhang Tie bought in the illegal demon hunters market. After recuperating several months in Castle of Black Iron, it had completely recovered; additionally, with the help of all-purpose medicament, the thunder hawk had reached its heyday. Under the moonlight, its feathers were shining like metal. Only after a few breaths, it had already reached one mile away.

At this moment, Zhang Tie was sitting calmly under the small tree in Castle of Black Iron while the thunder hawk became his second incarnation after the rat.

Previously, Zhang Tie even didn’t imagine that he could manipulate in this way.

In the process of using soul-based animal controlling skill of ’Great Wilderness Sutra’, he had to protect his original body. In that state, his body was just like a plant man who only breathed. It couldn’t sense or move at all. If not being protected well, even a 3-year old kid or a wild-dog could kill him. It was always a shortcoming of soul-based animal controlling skill.

If the incarnation was dead, the manipulator’s awareness and senses could recover on the original body; at most losing some aura qi and source soul. Although it felt not good, at least the manipulator would not die. However, if the original body was dead, the manipulator would indeed die. He didn’t even have a chance to mend it up.

Therefore, when the disciples of Great Wilderness School applied soul-based animal controlling skill, they always hid their original body in a safe place or put them under the eyes of the elders of the same school. Otherwise, once there was an emergency, they would die for sure.

For Zhang Tie, Castle of Black Iron was the safest place for him. Nobody could break in without his consent. In Castle of Black Iron, his original body could be well protected. With Castle of Black Iron, Zhang Tie could apply soul-based animal controlling skill without any concern.

What did Zhang Tie’s incarnation mean to Castle of Black Iron?

Previously, Zhang Tie had to exit from the same place where he entered Castle of Black Iron. After having incarnations, he could exit wherever he wanted as long as he controlled the incarnation.

In Heller’s words, the ’anchored’ space coordinate of Castle of Black Iron changed with the location of Zhang Tie’s incarnation outside Castle of Black Iron. When Zhang Tie’s incarnation left Castle of Black Iron, it was nothing different than Zhang Tie leaving Castle of Black iron. Similarly, when Zhang Tie’s incarnation entered Castle of Black Iron, it was nothing different than Zhang Tie entering it himself.

This was a very powerful ability. It meant that he could appear anywhere where his incarnation could arrive as long as that space could hold his body. What a magic!

However, this was not a magic, but a bonus effect after Castle of Black Iron combined with ’Great Wilderness Sutra’. This effect fully displayed 1 plus 1 was greater than 1...

After combining the ability of Castle of Black Iron and the most mysterious soul-based animal controlling skill of ’Great Wilderness Sutra’, Zhang Tie instantly obtained a powerful ability. Although his fighting strength didn’t increase, he gained endless possibilities and a fantastic means.