Castle of Black Iron

The four elders of Huaiyuan Palace were all standing outside the Shrine Palace in auspicious clothes today

According to the strict procedure of the rotating chakra ceremony, Zhang Tie burned incenses in the Shrine Palace in the solemn atmosphere. After that, Elder Muen as a ritual officer shouted, ”Lower your body!”; Zhang Tie then started to bow towards the heavens and the earth. Finally, he inserted the burning incense into the copper cauldron which was placed right outside the gate of the Shrine Palace. After that, he walked into the Shrine Palace.

The entire Shrine Palace was extremely brilliant.

The ground was paved with gold bricks with a pattern of auspicious clouds. All sorts of ceremonial banners and prayer flags were hanging on the pillars inside the palace. Expensive heaven-star sandalwood was burning in the copper cauldron, which did not only light the entire palace, but also covered the entire palace with a special fragrance. The entire Shrine Palace was magnificent and looked more like an imperial palace.

Zhang Tie was the first one who strode into the palace from the front gate. The moment he entered the palace had Zhang Tie put away his battle-qi totem.

The 4 elders of Huaiyuan Palace followed Zhang Tie in; then the other deacons and clan members of Huaiyuan Palace. The others entered in the end. However, except for Zhang Tie and the other four elders, all the others were forbidden to enter from the front gate; instead, they could only enter from the two side doors in an orderly and rigorous way.

Nobody else was allowed to enter the front gate of the Shrine Palace except for the clan head and elders.

Zhang Tie slowly walked on those gold bricks with full emotions. At this moment, Zhang Tie expected that his parents were watching him from aside.

After entering the palace and passing a long way, Zhang Tie came to the statue of Lord Huaiyuan and the memorial tablets of the ancestors and martyrs of Huaiyuan Palace. With the assistance of the clan deacons, he started to light incenses and offer sacrifice to all the ancestors and martyrs step by step.

When Zhang Tie was offering sacrifice, Elder Muen took out a gold brochure and started to read an elegiac address loudly on Zhang Tie’s side.

”The god’s descendant in Taixia Country benefits the world. Xuanyuan bloodline the unrivaled, we’re majestic and vigorous; Long Bow grants us the surname...”

It took Zhang Tie 3 minutes to finish offering the sacrifice to all the ancestors and martyrs in a solemn and strict way.

After Zhang Tie finished it, the elegiac address also almost came to an end...

”We have an offspring called Zhang Tie. He could swim as fast as a fish in the water and fly as fast as a dragon in the sky. He could rotate his chakra and protect the country and its countrymen. As ancestor Huaiyuan Lord is at present, the righteousness will exist forever. Wish it prosperous forever!”

Soon after the word ”forever”, Zhang Tie rightly finished the last bow and inserted the final 3 incenses into the censer which represented the memorial plates of Zhang’s bloodline in Golden Sea City. Some new memorial plates had been put there, which were the memorial plates of Zhang Haitian’s father, grandfather and grand-grandfather.

When one person rotated the chakra, he would bring honor to his three elder generations. His ancestors’ memorial plates would also enter the Shrine Palace and enjoy the burning incenses.

Watching this scene, Zhang Haitian was so excited that his eyes were even filled with tears.

Zhang Tie stood up and turned to the big cauldron in the middle of the palace. Deacons then carried gold basins of milk, grease, grains and sesame from both sides and walked towards the cauldron in the middle of the palace.

Zhang Tie grabbed the grains and sesame from the gold basins and scattered them into the fiery flames in the big cauldron one handful after another.

Each time he scattered them into the cauldron, the fiery flames would grow higher while the top flames turned golden and surged out of the cauldron as fantastic as a dragon. Sparkles constantly flew out of the cauldron, causing flowing light and cracking sound.

It was a ritual for blessing.

Seeing the flames growing fiercely in the shape of a dragon and sparkles surging out of the cauldron, the elders and deacons of Huaiyuan Palace became so excited as it was a rare auspicious sign. At least it didn’t appear when the earlier elders of Huaiyuan Palace held the rotating chakra ceremonies.

All the elders of major clans from Jinyun Country were shocked by such a rare, auspicious phenomenon.

Zhang Tie didn’t know what was an auspicious phenomenon. He just completed the rotating chakra ceremony step by step.

After scattering all the grains and sesame into the cauldron, Zhang Tie started to wash his hands in a silver basin of water.

”The blessing ritual is over. Carry out the gold chakra!” Elder Muen said as a huge sacrificial vessel was carried to the middle of the palace by 30 tough men.

Being over 6 m in height and over 2 m in width, the sacrificial vessel looked like a huge round metal barrel with all sorts of flowers, birds, insects and fishes and characters on it. On two sides of the barrel, there were two huge Hua characters ” 穆 1 ”. Its weight could be imagined from the number of carriers.

Zhang Tie knew that an important step in the entire rotating chakra ceremony was to select a character by rotating the chakra.

This word ”chakra” in the rotating chakra ceremony referred to both knight’s chakra and this rotating gold barrel which was used for selecting a Hua character for the very knight.

As a Hua tradition, it was a great honor for knights to rotate a gold barrel so as to fix their characters.

For instance, the name Zhang Tie was very average. There were billions of people surnamed Zhang in this world. There were at least 1000 living people who were called Zhang Tie. If you said Zhang Tie was a knight, nobody would know which one did you refer to.

Therefore, knights had to rotate the gold barrel to select a character for themselves. As long as they selected the very character, nobody else was allowed to use this name in 1000 years unless humans were exterminated.

When wild gooses flew over, they left their quacks; when knights died, they had to leave their names, which was the paramount glory of knights.

Of course, Elder Muen 2 , Elder Muray 3 and Elder Muyu 4 were not their raw names. The character ”穆” was ”grabbed” by Lord Huaiyuan for knights of Huaiyuan Palace. Besides the knights of Huaiyuan Palace, no Hua people surnamed Zhang in this world could use the character ”穆” as the second character in their names. Each elder would also ”grab” the last character for their name in the rotating chakra ceremony. When the last character combined with the character ”穆”, it would form the unique name of knights of Huaiyuan Palace. As Elder Muray, Elder Muray and Elder Muyu had promoted to knights for so long, everybody just called their formal names. As a result, their raw names were rarely mentioned.

There were 999 Hua characters left on the gold barrel. It depended on which one would Zhang Tie select.

Everyone wondered which Hua character could the youngest knight of Zhang Clan would select.

After slowly walking to the gold barrel, Zhang Tie raised his head and watched this gold sacrificial vessel. He then took a deep breath and put one hand on the gold barrel.

Zhang Tie also wondered which Hua character could he select.

Zhang Tie then released his battle qi to rotate the gold barrel rapidly.

When it rotated, clattering sounds drifted from inside the gold barrel like numerous metal balls being stirred up. Zhang Tie just waited on one side silently together with all the others.

Only the clattering sounds could be heard in the entire Shrine Palace.

Only when the gold barrel rotated above 36 circles could a Hua character be ”selected”. Nobody could see through the gold barrel. It depended.

After 2 minutes, the gold barrel slowed down. When it finally stopped, with a click, a silver round ball was spat out of the mouth of the gold barrel.

Elder Muen walked forward and took out that silver ball. At the sight of that golden character, he raised high the silver ball and showed it to all the onlookers at present.

At the sight of that character, all the onlookers widened their eyes, ’No way!’

It was the character ” 神 5 ”, which was majestic.

” 穆神 6 ”——the formal name of Zhang Tie as a knight. From then on, Zhang Mushen would be a unique name in the world.

Zhang Tie also felt a bit surprised, ’Did the gold barrel know that I’ve long been a jerk god in Ice and Snow Wilderness?’

’Zhang Tie...Zhang Mushen...Zhang Tie...Zhang Mushen...’ Zhang Tie muttered twice inside as he still felt the name Zhang Tie was easy to read aloud. Now that it was a tradition, Zhang Tie didn’t mean to be bizarre; instead, he just accepted it frankly.

”Please take a seat, Elder Mushen!” Elder Muen cupped his hands towards Zhang Tie, followed by all the elders of all the other clans at present.

From then on, Zhang Tie was on the equal footing with all the other elders of Zhang Clan.

...

The seat was a black, steel high-back chair, a sacrificial vessel which was specially designed for the rotating chakra ceremony. It was square and straight without any surplus decoration. It was called the black iron throne. Being put on the three-stage high platform which was paved with gold bricks, it looked pretty dignified.

With a gold tray in hand, a deacon was standing in front of the gold-stage platform respectfully. Zhang Tie walked over there. Elder Muray then unveiled the red silky cover and put a tiger-shaped seal 7 into Zhang Tie’s hand.

”From now on, you are the commander of Hurricane Corps!”

Zhang Tie received the tiger-shaped seal of Hurricane Corps and nodded towards Elder Muray. After that, he walked onto the stages one step after another and sat on the black iron throne steadily.

”Congrats!” Elder Muen shouted loudly while his voice drifted in the entire Shrine Palace.

Zhang Taibai, Lan Yunxi’s 4th uncle solemnly walked out of the crowd and bowed deeply towards Zhang Tie.

”Zhang Taibai wishes Elder Mushen a good fortune in battle force and hopes that your chakra rotates forever on behalf of Huaiyuan Palace. In order to congratulate for the rotating chakra ceremony of Elder Mushen, we especially present 500 tons of gold, 200 crates of pearls, 100 crates of gems, 30,000 m python silk cloth, 1 manor in Yiyang City, Golden Sea City and Stars Viewing City respectively.”

Watching those big figures of Long Wind Business Group and Huaiyuan Palace bowing and presenting gifts to him respectfully, Zhang Tie had an unspeakable feeling...

After saying this, Zhang Taibai passed the list of gifts to Deacon Yu before moving to one side silently while another 40-year old man walked forward and bowed towards Zhang Tie...

”Wang Juan wishes Elder Mushen a good fortune in battle force and hopes that your chakra rotates forever on behalf of Wang Clan of Shuyu Palace, Jinyun Country. We especially present 100 tons of gold, 100 pairs of flat round jade wares with a hole in the center and 100 rhinoceros dragons.”

After saying that, Wang Juan passed the list of gifts to Deacon Yu.

Another person walked out and bowed towards Zhang Tie...

”Lan Xiuchuan wishes Elder Mushen a good fortune in battle force and hopes that your chakra rotates forever on behalf of Lan Clan, Banxin Palace, Jinyun Country. We especially present 100 tons of gold, 1,000 high-end crystals and 100 kg’s god-favored incenses.”

After Lan Clan, Ou Clan of Chuixue Palace, Dantai Clan of Tuisi Palace, Li Clan of Qingmu Palace and Dongfang Clan of Qilan Country presented their wishes and gifts respectively...

Those congratulators passed by Zhang Tie one after another while the list of gifts in the hand of Deacon Yu grew thicker. She had to put them into a gold plate...

Zhang Tie was shocked inside, ’What the hell! This is more like a plunder ceremony than a rotating chakra ceremony. Zhang Tie was familiar with some of the items on the list of presents, as for others, they had not heard about them at all...

When it was Norman Empire’s turn, the congratulator was that middle-aged blonde man who was in front of Reinhardt and Leibnitz just now.

”Filis, the crown prince of Norman Empire wishes Elder Mushen a good fortune in battle force and hopes your chakra rotates forever on behalf of the royal household of Norman Empire. We especially present a small gift for Elder Mushen, 200 tons of gold, 20 earth-element crystals, 100 crates of all sorts of jewelry and 100 beauties!”

The crown prince spoke Hua language very fluently. His gifts could even match that of Huaiyuan Palace, especially the earth-element crystals. Everybody else was shocked by the 20 earth-element crystals. They wondered why Norman Empire would establish a relationship with this young elder of Huaiyuan Palace, especially with the 100 beauties. In such a case, if not having known the temperament of Zhang Tie, nobody dared present women to him at the risk of aggravating him...

When he heard ”100 beauties”, Zhang Tie threw a helpless glance at Leibnitz and Reinhardt in the distance. Colonel Leibnitz even revealed a humble smile to Zhang Tie. Needless to say, Zhang Tie realized that his ”romantic affairs” must have been known well by them. Therefore, they catered to his pleasure...

After the words of the crown prince of Norman Empire, Zhang Tie sensed a resentful look. He chased after the look to its owner and found Princess Candis was faintly pouting her petite mouth towards him...