Castle of Black Iron

Zhang Tie was really shocked by the magnificence of the Lion Fortress. When Zhang Tie was watching the Lion Fortress in the air, he saw a red shadow flashing by. It was the beautiful ”young sister” who had been flying towards the Lion Fortress. After a short while, all the airships had landed outside the Lion Fortress.

All the knights were flying towards the Lion Fortress, closely followed by Zhang Tie.

After drawing closer, Zhang Tie found that there was a huge piece of diamond-shaped crystal floating above the top of the huge metal pyramid, the dim luster which covered the part above the exterior wall of the fortress in a translucent energy field. Being similar to the energy field in the tower of time, this energy field was a safety cover of the entire Lion Fortress. Of course, knights could not fly above the Lion Fortress. Therefore, all the knights could only land outside the Lion Fortress and enter it from the gate.

Standing on the ground, Zhang Tie found that this fortress was amazingly magnificent.

’It’s more like a terrifying steel mountain than a fortress.

However, the metal of this fortress was definitely harder than steel.

The gate of the fortress was hundreds of meters high and dozens of meters wide. Two lines of guards in black helmets and armors were riding an exotic and fierce beast which was higher than 20 m outside the gate with spears in hand.

Undoubtedly, given the qi of the two lines of guards, they were knights!

Their mounts were watching everyone who was entering the gate with their aggressive golden pupils while exposing their sawtooth-like fangs. Some mounts were drooling while their saliva corroded the sands on the ground, causing curls of cyan smoke.

As for these living beings, those people who entered the fortress were like snacks crawling in front of them. As a result, these beasts became a bit restless while drooling. The knights were controlling and soothing their impatience.

”They’re underground dragons...”

Zhang Tie heard someone whispering in front of him.

’They’re underground dragons?’ Zhang Tie threw a glance at the underground dragons out of curiosity and found that their sturdy hind legs were pretty powerful. It indicated that this mount was good at long-distance running at a possible, terrifying speed. The sharp claws on their forelimbs implied a strong destruction and aggressivity. The squamous layer over their skins indicated that they had very thick and coarse skins along with a great defensive capability. Their corrosive saliva indicated that the underground dragons had a very good appetite and digestive ability. This was a mutated beast which might be omnivorous.

A thought occurred in Zhang Tie’s mind. Zhang Tie then ran his spiritual energy to check their level.

’Level 15, they’re battle spirit-level mutated beasts!’

As they had reached level 15, the underground dragons might have other special abilities.

No wonder they could be the mount of knights.

The moment Zhang Tie entered the gate, a restless underground dragon had stomped towards Zhang Tie’s head forcefully.

”Watch out!” Zhang Tie heard an emergency warning while everybody entering the gate turned around out of curiosity...

’F*ck! You think that this father is more delicious than others?’

Zhang Tie directly punched the sole of the underground dragon without even looking at it.

With a thunder, the 20 m-high underground dragon uttered a short, urgent sad moo like blowing a conch. Closely after that, it was sent over 10 m above the ground and flying backward and finally fell down like a ’collapsing’ mountain and pillars, causing an earthquake. The knight on its back had long flown away...

Everybody was dumbfounded.

Zhang Tie didn’t use his battle qi at all. He just used his sheer animal strength and made a face-to-face collision with the underground dragon.

The result was that Zhang Tie was safe and sound except that his feet sunk a few centimeters in the ground while that huge underground dragon was sent flying backward by Zhang Tie.

’F*ck, what a weirdo! Is that a human or what? Even if he’s a knight, he was too exaggerated.

The underground dragon was struggling to pick itself up. Although Zhang Tie’s blow was not fatal, it had to be crippled for a few days before recovery. Of course, it was impossible for it to be bouncing in its rehabilitation period.

The owner of the underground dragon hurriedly flew over and landed on its side. After that, he started to check its wounds.

Zhang Tie threw a glance at them before entering the gate.

”Hold on!” With a muffled sound, a sturdy knight directly jumped off another underground dragon.

”What?” Zhang Tie stopped as he turned around and looked at the knight with a cold impression, ”You only allow beasts to beat people; yet don’t allow people to fight back?”

”As my brother has just captured the underground dragon and has not tamed it yet. Sorry for what happened! Please forgive us!” The sturdy knight cupped his hands towards Zhang Tie.

Realizing that he was not looking for trouble, Zhang Tie became relieved and waved his hand, ”It’s fine. I’ve not dropped a hair!”

The sturdy knight then threw an appreciative glance at Zhang Tie, who was about 7 m higher than him and said, ”I’m Wu Guanhai, the leader of the No. 7 Squad of the Black Armor Army of Taixia Country in the Lion Fortress. May I know your name?”

”Cui Li!”

”Is it the first time for you to come here?”

”Yes!”

”Are you interested in joining Black Armor Army?” Wu Guanhai put it straight, ”Our Black Armor Army is powerful with a good treatment and rich human resources. How about that?”

”I’ve been used to be free, no interest!” Zhang Tie refused directly.

After hearing this reply, Wu Guanhai became dumbfounded. Closely after that, he burst out into laughter, ”It doesn’t matter if you’re not interested in it for the time being. If you want to join us, you can consider my suggestion! If you met someone tricky in the Lion Fortress, you could go to the Black Fortress of Black Armor Army to seek for my help...”

”Okay, thank you!”

Closely after the conversation with Wu Guanhai, Zhang Tie turned around and entered the gate.

Watching Zhang Tie’s amazing performance in the distance, the ”young sister” flickered her eyes. However, the moment she recalled what Zhang Tie asked her above the ground, she gritted her teeth and stomped to the ground before leaving away...

After entering the Lion Fortress, Zhang Tie caught sight of the map of Lion Fortress on the metal wall being not far from the gate of the fortress.

After throwing a glance at the map, most of the new arrivers would head for the Task Center of Knights in the fortress, except for Zhang Tie who walked towards another direction after bearing the map in mind.

Although it was pretty cold outside, it was warm inside. In the fortress, many underground plants and woods were standing on both sides of the broads streets, which looked pretty vigorous.

It was pretty boisterous in the fortress. After entering the fortress, the 100-odd new knights instantly became trivial like a drop of water entering the ocean.

Besides knights, many logistical personnel and subsidiary fighters were inside the fortress, none of them were below Class 6 according to Zhang Tie’s observation.

People came and went on the streets. Logistical personnel was in red military uniforms with military ranks. Their identity was also a soldier. By contrast, those subsidiary fighters were in grey-green uniforms. The two kinds of soldiers were very easily distinguished.

Besides the above two kinds of servicemen, there were all sorts of knights who were riding underground dragons, in helmets and armors, in exotic costumes or in common clothes across the Lion Fortress who came from Taixia Country and all the other subcontinents or continents.

Most of the human knights were gathering in the Lion Fortress. However, even though there were so many human knights, plus the logistical personnel and subsidiary fighters, this fortress could still not be as bustling as common human cities unless it contained millions of people. However, there were only a bit more than 1 million people in the entire Lion Fortress.

The holy war was like a raging fire. The number of human knights in Lion Fortress also reached a peak. According to Zhang Tie’s knowledge, a lot of knights of Taixia’s armies had been dispatched to the Lion Fortress to fight demons in turns. At this moment, the number of human knights in the entire Lion Fortress had broken 50,000 for the first time.

As for the human knights here, besides those from Taixia Country, the others were coming from subcontinents or the Western Continent. From a certain perspective, Lion Fortress was the center of human knights.

The fortress was filled with a powerful and mysterious strength that originated from the golden pyramid. Even earth knights and shadow knights could not fly in the fortress. The entire fortress was a no-fly zone. Those who could fly in this fortress were all heavenly knights who had formed the chakra of the wind element. They were the most powerful humans in this world.

In this situation, Zhang Tie could only walk towards his destination.

In the fortress, Zhang Tie also caught sight of the prototype of Jia land in Class A Cities of Taixia Country. In the fortress, the wide area of Jia land in the fortress was like woods and was taken care of by logistical personnel in red uniforms.

The crops above the ground could not grow in the fortress. Therefore, mainly three crops were planted inside the fortress: the first crop was about 3.5 m in height which looked like coconut palm. Its fruit was like a long bread; the second crop was a huge mushroom which looked like sunshade above the ground; the third crop was lower, whose fruit was like a grey watermelon. Zhang Tie didn’t know what they were.

Zhang Tie felt everything was strange inside the fortress.

...

After twenty minutes, Zhang Tie stopped in front of a huge 21-storey tower.

There was a brand hanging outside the tower, which wrote Mountain of Brightness.

Many people were accessing this tower hurriedly.

After entering the lobby of the tower, Zhang Tie looked around before coming to a hathpace.

”I want to join the Mountain of Brightness!”

An old man with white eyebrows and mustache raised his eyes and threw a glance at Zhang Tie, ”Name?”

”Cui Li!”

”Age?”

”51!”

”Background?”

”I was born in Cui family, Liuying Town at the foot of Coiling Dragon Mountain, Yongzhou Province, Taixia Country. I’ve not joined any sect and doesn’t have any byname yet!”

After hearing Zhang Tie’s reply, the old man flickered his eyes behind the hathpace and threw another serious glance at Zhang Tie, ”Do you know the rules of receiving the knight’s crystal plate from here?”

Zhang Tie replied with a smile, ”Of course, the price of the knight’s crystal plate is millions of gold coins. Although the revenue of the land at my home is not small, it will cost me at least 10,000 years to afford a knight’s crystal plate. Although I don’t know how to make money, I don’t want to do evil things either. Therefore, I came here. I was told that the knight’s crystal plate is free here. However, I have to defend the Lion Fortress for 3 years after receiving the crystal plate!”

”Do you agree?”

”Of course, I agree. I’m here to strive for my bright future.”

”Show me your right hand...”

Zhang Tie stretched his right hand. Like how the old man in the pawnshop of Tianfang City did, this old man started to pinch each finger and joint of Zhang Tie’s right hand carefully.

When Zhang Tie accepted such a check last time, he didn’t know the old man’s purpose; later on, he finally understood that the old man was confiming his bone grains.

The one who had already received the knight’s crystal plate would not receive another one anymore.

However, Zhang Tie was not worried about that. Of course, with his body-changing immortal bloodline, Zhang Tie could change his bone grains completely.

As was imagined, after pinching Zhang Tie’s bone grains, the old man turned around and moved his lips as if he was talking something to the one behind him in a secret way or let the buddy behind him inquire and verify that Zhang Tie’s bone grains were exclusive. After waiting a few minutes quietly, the old man nodded as he took out a knight’s crystal plate from behind the counter and pierced Zhang Tie’s finger with a needle, squeezing a drop of blood onto the dragon’s eye of the knight’s crystal plate. Closely after that, the knight’s crystal plate turned blue.

”Inject your spiritual energy into the crystal plate!”

Zhang Tie injected some spiritual energy into it. After the knight’s crystal plate became illuminant, a looming dragon-shaped light image appeared. After flying around the crystal plate for one circle, it entered the crystal plate and lit 28 scales on the crystal plate at once.

As for a black iron knight who had just received the knight’s crystal plate, it was not an exaggeration that he had lit 28 scales. Many lonely cultivators didn’t join the Mountain of Brightness until they promoted to earth knights.

——West Mountain Barbarian.

It was Zhang Tie’s new byname in the Mountain of Brightness.

After leaving the Mountain of Brightness, Zhang Tie directly walked towards the Task Center of Knights in Lion Fortress...