Castle of Black Iron

They moved very slowly.

Before each daybreak, the two teams had already left the airboat and searched along the route that Zhang Tie designated for the bloody figures. After finding bloody figures, they would kill them right away and bring back their heads.

According to ZhangTie’s route chart, they only needed to move about 130 miles a day. They spent most of their time in the wild and unpopulated places that were far away from cities. Sometimes, they needed to tramp over mountains and through ravines. Even though they had tools, the roads were still tricky; especially that they had to search over the surroundings so as to prevent from being raided by bloody figures. After finding bloody figures, they had to kill them. Such a route was a tough challenge for Zhang Tie’s apprentices, the highest level of which was just LV 9.

Therefore, although they left early each day, they always came back to the place where the airboat landed after the night fell.

When they left the airboat, Zhang Tie only allowed them to carry weapons, empty water bottles, slopes and signal flares for surviving themselves. They could not even carry medicament. On the way in the daytime, they had to find food themselves. Of course, when they came back to the airboat, they could eat whatever they wanted with unlimited quantities.

On the first day, since they left Xingyu City, they spent 15 hours on the way. When they returned to the airboat, it was already over 1 am midnight. Everybody had been extremely fatigued. Some female disciples looked embarrassed as their clothes had been broken in many places. Zhang Chengze and Zhang Chengze were completely carried back on stretchers made of twigs by Liu Xing and the other guys.

As the weakest and youngest two people among Zhang Tie’s apprentices, Zhang Chengxu and Zhang Chengze had reached their physical limits when they finished 80 miles of the journey in the wild. One passed out, the other started to throw up and twitch all over. Therefore, the others could only carry them back by stretchers.

On the first day, when they came back, some female disciples, Zhang Chengxu and Zhang Chengze had silently cried in their own cabins. Others didn’t know that they were crying; however, Zhang Tie could as long as he wanted.

After resting less than 6 hours on the airboat, all of them set off once again at about 7 am next morning, including Zhang Chengxu and Zhang Chengze.

On the second day, they returned to Iron-Dragon Airboat almost at the same time. Being different than that on the first day, this time, they brought back 3 bloody figures’ heads.

It was their first time to meet 3 bloody figures in the wild on the route designated by Zhang Tie. Of course, they killed them soon.

Zhang Tie felt that these bloody figures were as disgusting as demonized puppets. He didn’t want to carry these bloody figures in case that the fresh air in the airboat was polluted. Additionally, he wanted to make his apprentices move more conveniently. Therefore, he only told them to bring back the heads of bloody figures.

After seeing the three bloody figures’ heads, Zhang Tie awarded them with 6 vials of full-purpose medicament.

After taking the award, all the 121 apprentices of Zhang Tie became spirited.

In peacetime, it was hard to see the effect of all-purpose medicament. Only in such a tough situation could those vials of all-purpose medicament bring a great effect to a team at the critical moment. They could enable those who could not stand it to walk farther and help those being slightly wounded to recover rapidly. As a result, they could improve the overall action efficiency of a team.

The fact was that this method that Zhang Tie chose for his apprentices to cooperate with each other was especially effective.

Only after one week, the 121 apprentices had been familiar with each other and looked more like fellow apprentices of the same master. They gradually became an entity. Many people started to call others Senior Fellow Apprentice **, Junior Fellow Apprentice **, Senior Sister Apprentice **, Junior Sister Apprentice** which sounded intimate.

Besides Liu Xing who was the first apprentice of Zhang Tie, the others’ seniorities were arranged according to their ages. Elder ones would be called senior fellow or sister apprentices; younger ones would be called junior fellow or sister apprentices. Without Zhang Tie’s concern, these apprentices had already figured out their seniorities mutually after 1 week’s cooperation.

Zhang Chengxu, Zhang Chengze and some female apprentices didn’t cry anymore. The two teams left the airboat at the same time; however, they came back earlier and earlier gradually from 1 am to 11 pm.

After experiencing the initial hardships, the two teams became increasingly vigorous. Everybody gradually treated daily tough march as an interesting yet dangerous game. The reward of the game for bloody figures’ heads was the all-purpose medicament. With more vials of the all-purpose medicament, the teams would be more relaxed in the march and more active in searching for bloody figures.

Some disciples were hurt by bloody figures, if they couldn’t continue to join the action for the time being, they would return to Iron-Dragon Airboat for a few days’ recuperation. After recovery, they would return to their teams. As long as those injured ones recovered their wounds basically, they would request to return to their teams instead of staying in the airboat.

Through many battles with bloody figures, they could have chances to improve their own battle skills through communication. After experiencing the hardships in Earth-elements Realm, Liu Xing and the other 6 black-armored fighters had rich battle skills; those disciples who came from major clans could have chances to learn various battle skills since they were young. Many people’s clans had collected various secret methods on battle skills. Therefore, they were open-minded. They could learn and draw benefits from each other. As a result, everybody gained more battle experience and better battle skills very soon.

In the early days, when they came back to the airboat, it was already too late. After taking some food, they would hurriedly go to bed due to tiredness for the sake of the task the next day. As they came back earlier and earlier, after taking food, they still had much free time. Therefore, they started to chat and discuss the gains and losses of that day’s battles. When they were excited about that, some LV 9 disciples would even simulate the battles in an open place in the canteen. One party would perform as bloody figures that they met that day, the other party would be themselves. They deduced the battles in slow movements and studied how to avoid from the opponent’s movement, how to kill the opponent at the fastest speed, how to coordinate with each other, how to break the opponent’s coordination, how to resist the opponents which outnumbered them and vice versa, etc...

Through similar communication, they all had great achievements and became very excited.

In the first 3 days since they returned to the airboat and started to conclude their daily battle experience, Zhang Tie didn’t join them. He just observed that spiritually. After observing them for 3 days, Zhang Tie found that such communications about the battle experience were very good. In such conclusions, they were learning, rethinking, communicating and improving day by day. An individual’s experience and gnosis would soon be shared by the rest of people. Benefited from this method, all of them could improve pretty fast. Therefore, on the 4th day, since they started their conclusions, Zhang Tie had told them to conclude in the training field of the airboat after having supper. Additionally, he also joined them and instructed them.

Zhang Tie had died thousands of times in trouble-reappearance situations. In reality, he had also experienced numerous brutal battles. As an earth knight, only by giving them a few directions could Zhang Tie benefit them a lot.

Sometimes, Zhang Tie directly limited his battle strength to a LV 9 fighter like Liu Xing and fought them for a better experience, ignoring his identity as an earth knight.

After Zhang Tie joined them, all of his apprentices became highly spirited at once. They would always maintain that high spirit when they left the airboat so as to communicate with Zhang Tie when they came back.

None of Zhang Tie’s apprentices were stupid. All of them knew that such opportunities were rare. Very few LV 9 fighters could be instructed by an earth knight across Taixia Country.

In Zhang Tie’s opinion, Liu Xing and the other guys were his peers. They had a lot of things to share. Therefore, he didn’t treat himself as their elder in many cases; instead, he just communicated with them smoothly on the equal footing.

When in deduction, Zhang Tie could deal with the besiege of 20 LV 9 disciples including Liu Xing in the battle strength of a common LV 9 fighter. However, he could still ”kill all the 20 people” without suffering a bit wound. This result shocked everybody at present. It was his apprentices’ first time to watch the ”extremely brilliant battle skill”...

Zhang Tie didn’t know that his mentality and look when he instructed his apprentices shocked all of his apprentices. Zhang Tie didn’t put on his airs; however, he gained more respect. After watching Zhang Tie’s extremely brilliant battle skill, some female apprentices’ eyes were sparkling starlight at the sight of Zhang Tie...

When Zhang Tie’s apprentices left the airboat for hunting bloody figures every day, Zhang Tie kept studying a secret method that Bai Suxian had given him.

That secret method was called ”Bright Enlightenment Sutra”...

This secret method solved a question that had puzzled Zhang Tie for so long...