Castle of Black Iron

“We’re arriving at Yanzhou City. You will set for the west border of Taixia Country with all the other knights across the northeast military region from here. Zhang Taixuan wishes you could give a big blow to the demons for the safety of Taixia Country; hope you could return safely as soon as possible. I’m waiting for you with a banquet!”

The moment Zhang Tie opened his eyes, he had seen Zhang Taixuan standing in the lobby and talking to them. After saying that, Zhang Taixuan deeply bowed towards them.

The hatch door of the airboat had been opened. All the knights from Youzhou Province started to get off the airboat one after another. Zhang Taixuan just stood on one side of the hatch door with crossed hands in front of his body as he saw off those knights.

Zhang Tie also stood up and walked towards the exit with Mountain Lifting Hermit, Bai Suxian, Elder Muray and Elder Muyu. However, he became hesitated slightly when he passed by Zhang Taixuan.

‘I’ve not received the news of Lan Yunxi for a long time. I wonder whether Lan Yunxi has become the goddess of Yaogong Palace of Taiyi Fantasy Sect? Will Lan Yunxi go to the battlefield in the west border of Taixia Country this time?’

Not until Zhang Tie found that he could not see Lan Yunxi anymore did he realize that he had forgotten to leave a remote-sensing communications device in the necklace of patron for the sake of communication.

Sometimes, when you missed someone for too long, you might be accustomed to it. When that person stood in front of you, you would forget how to catch her.

Zhang Tie couldn’t help but want to ask Zhang Taixuan about Lan Yunxi; however, he finally said——

“Clan head…after I leave Youzhou Province, please take care of Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory and Jinwu City for me!”

Zhang Taixuan threw a deep glance at Zhang Tie before revealing a faint smile, “Elder Mushen, don’t worry!”

After such a brief talk, Zhang Tie got off the airboat.

Not knowing why, Zhang Tie always felt being estranged from the clan head of Huaiyuan Palace. The feeling was utterly different than that marked by the other elders of Huaiyuan Palace.

‘Is it the stress like how a young man meets his father-in-law or because Zhang Taixuan is hard to approach due to deep considerations as the clan head of Huaiyuan Palace?’ Zhang Tie was perplexed…

When Zhang Tie got off the airboat, he had long forgotten about those distracting thoughts. A huge military camp appeared in front of him under the setting sun.

Being outside Yanzhou City, the camp was within the jurisdiction of Yanzhou City. It was about 20 miles away from Yanzhou City. Right on the hillside in the camp outside Yanzhou City, the high and magnificent city walls of Yanzhou City in the far turned glow under the setting sun.

Yanzhou City was both the provincial city of Yanzhou Province and the hub of the northeast military region. Yanzhou City was also a class-A city; however, Yanzhou City was much larger than Youzhou City. As Yanzhou City had developed for hundreds of years, its prosperity could never be matched by that of Youzhou City which had just been established.

Zhang Tie could see many open uncultured lands; however, Zhang Tie saw many uneven buildings outside Yanzhou City. The density of population around Yanzhou City was definitely over ten times even dozens of times greater than that around Youzhou City.

Airboats were rising and falling in the training fields which covered over 80 square miles. Whenever an airboat landed, someone would get off it.

Zhang Tie got off one of these airboats.

All the people who got off these airboats were imposing human knights in different costumes. They all looked around as if they were something.

Needless to say, Zhang Tie knew that they were also called here by Xuanyuan command like him.

The moment Zhang Tie got off the airboat, he had felt the intense atmosphere filling the military camp.

…

“Knights from Youzhou Province gather in the blue region on the training field… Knights from Youzhou Province gather in the blue region on the training field…”

…

“Knights from Mozhou Province gather in the black region on the training field… Knights from Mozhou Province gather in the black region on the training field…”

…

“Knights from Chaozhou Province gather in the green region on the training field… Knights from Chaozhou Province gather in the green region on the training field…”

…

The moment he got off the airboat, Zhang Tie had heard a loud sound. Zhang Tie looked up and saw a human knight in battle armor suspending in the sky above the military camp while fully releasing his qi and repeating those monotonous decrees in a majestic manner like a huge humanoid loudspeaker.

Mountain Lifting Hermit looked up as his pupils contracted. At the same time, he muttered, “Shadow knight…”

“If not a shadow knight, how could he control so many knights?”

“That’s true!” Mountain Lifting Hermit nodded.

“This knight is a high chancellor in Black Armor Army…” Bai Suxian whispered.

“How do you know that?”

“High chancellors of Black Armor Army always have evident features on their battle armor. I’ve seen that in Lord Guangnan’s Mansion!”

Zhang Tie threw a glance at that shadow knight as he nodded and said, “Let’s go gather in the blue region first…”

Perhaps Zhang Tie would feel that shadow knight was awe-inspiring previously; however, after defeating a shadow knight himself, Zhang Tie had not been afraid of shadow knights anymore although shadow knights were still powerful in Zhang Tie’s heart.

Zhang Tie looked around and found the other knights getting off airboats were also shocked by that humanoid loudspeaker. Hearing that sound, they went to their own region consciously.

43 knights from Youzhou Province also walked towards their own region in the training field. Only after a short while, they had arrived at their location.

It was a drill ground in the military camp. It was a high rostrum on the opposite of the drill ground. The drill ground had been divided into 8 regions. Each region had an eye-catching color and could be easily identified. They were respectively red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple and black which corresponded to Youzhou Province, Gaozhou Province, Mozhou Province, Tongzhou Province, Qiongzhou Province, Yanzhou Province, Huizhou Province and Chaozhou Province respectively. After getting off their airboat, those knights went to gather in different regions.

After arriving at the drill ground, Zhang Tie immediately realized that too few knights came from Youzhou Province. Each region on the drill ground covered dozens of mu and could hold thousands of people. The other regions were crowded as they all held 300-1000 knights. Only the blue region for Youzhou Province contained 43 knights, forming a sharp contrast with the number of knights in the other regions…