Castle of Black Iron

It was deep night and tranquil. The deep place of the pitch-dark mountain cave reverberated with the sound of water dripping off stalactites that hung upside down from the top of the mountain cave. A salamander was silently creeping on the bank of a pond and capturing fleas in water in the gloomiest and most humid environment.

As they had been used to such a dark environment, these salamanders’ visual sense had completely degenerated; however, their olfactory sense was still very sensitive.

All of a sudden, that salamander suddenly stopped catching fleas as it instantly fled into crannies of the rocks and dared not expose his head as if it had seen something dangerous.

Not knowing why, a cluster of mist had already appeared in this mountain cave. When the mist faded away, a person showed up like a specter.

He was thin and tall. His entire body was covered with a black cloak. In a golden mask, he looked mysterious and terrifying. Under the golden mask, there was a pair of glittering eyes, which were observing the environment here meticulously with alert.

His hands were inside the black robe. He was ready for the fight. Before a drop of water fell onto his body from the top of the mountain, it had been bounced off by a layer of invisible protective battle qi.

Besides alert and prudence, his eyes also contained a bit of shock and doubt.

“Long time no see, Ockham…” A voice suddenly entered his ears. He quivered once as he instantly turned around and looked ahead.

10 m ahead, Zhang Tie slowly exited the “invisible” state.

There was no invisible Shen bead in this world. Therefore, when he saw Zhang Tie’s body becoming real from transparent, undoubtedly, he was greatly shocked.

After several decades, Zhang Tie’s looks still remained as same as before. However, his qi turned more unfathomable.

He slightly quivered with fear and shock. After a few seconds, he instantly recalled something as he hurriedly knelt down by one knee in front of Zhang Tie and lowered his head. Meanwhile, he picked off his golden mask and greeted in a hoarse tone, “My respect to you, owner, I’m Ockahm…”

“Unexpectedly, you’re already in the 7 change realm of shadow knight. You’ve made great progress too…” Zhang Tie sighed while continuing, “You don’t have to kneel down there. Get up. I will not eat you…”

When he saw Zhang Tie, this holy light bishop of the Holy Light Empire felt weak all over and even lost his bravery to revolt just like how a new-born mouse caught sight of a cat. When Zhang Tie took him in, Zhang Tie was only an earth knight. Zhang Tie became world-renowned at the bank of Weishui River and slaughtered demons as if they were dogs. Later on, he “died” with a sage-level knight of Taixia Country at Yinhai Desert. From then on, Zhang Tie’s name had been a legend over the past decades.

Over the past years, all the others thought that Zhang Tie was already dead; except Ockham. If Zhang Tie was dead, the effect of the god’s baptism rune on him would be relieved. However, the effect of the rune was not relieved yet; despite that he couldn’t sense Zhang Tie’s existence.

When he saw Zhang Tie again, Ockham’s head buzzed with confusion. Before coming here, he was worried and doubted that it might be a trap. However, he dared not disobey Zhang Tie’s order. When he came here and saw Zhang Tie again, Ockham knew that it was not a trap. Therefore, his shock was beyond words.

Ockham had confirmed two things in the shortest period of time. This Zhang Tie was real. He appeared to be more powerful than before. Not knowing whether Zhang Tie had promoted to a heavenly knight or a semi-sage knight, even though Zhang Tie didn’t make any progress in his cultivation base, he could also easily kill Ockham given the bond between them because of the god’s baptism rune.

Although he still had a lot of questions, Ockham had figured out his own role in the shortest period of time.

“It’s so nice to see you back, owner…” After standing up, the holy light bishop instantly “choked”. Closely after that, his eyes turned red as he dropped off tears. Meanwhile, he watched Zhang Tie with excitement as he behaved like a humble slave…

As long as a person promoted to a knight, it was too easy for him to control his tear gland. Zhang Tie didn’t want to learn whether Ockham’s tears were real or not; because it was meaningless. He only needed Ockham to be loyal to him. Ockham’s performance didn’t let Zhang Tie down either.

After being “excited” for a short while, Ockham stopped dropping off tears. Zhang Tie then spoke in a serious way, “After falling in the space crack, I almost couldn’t come back. When I came back, I found I was in Coldwater City. Additionally, I lost many things and couldn’t contact my family for the time being. Therefore, I called you here to ask you some questions!”

“Owner, do you need me to contact Jinwu Palace?” Ockham asked Zhang Tie carefully. Being not a fool, Ockham didn’t ask Zhang Tie why he didn’t go back to Taixia Country and found his family; because he was crystal clear about Zhang Tie’s enemies. Each of the three major sects of Taixia Country was a huge mountain that couldn’t be rocked. Now that Zhang Tie had come back, the sage-level knight which disappeared together with Zhang Tie at Yinhai Desert might not come back. As for a knight and a clan, it was as troublesome as facing demons for them to offend such an enemy.

“I don’t want to contact my clan for the time being. I want to know the situation facing my clan over these years. Have they met any accident?”

This was indeed the question that Zhang Tie was concerned about the most. Over these days, although Zhang Tie had read the memories of dozens of people in Coldwater City, he didn’t learn too much about the affairs of top powers as all the dozens of people were low-level roles, especially those lackeys being brainwashed by demons. He only learned some empty things and a couple of major events. Of course, Zhang Tie couldn’t gather too much information from those people’s brains.

After hearing Zhang Tie’s question, Ockham hurriedly told Zhang Tie about all the information of Jinwu Palace that he knew.

Ockham paid closer attention to the information about Taixia Country and Jinwu Palace because of Zhang Tie; therefore, he knew more than ordinary people. Therefore, he poured out all the relevant information that he knew at this moment.

Over the past 30-odd years, Jinwu Palace didn’t decline; instead, it developed into a super major clan being well-known across both Eastern Continent and the Western Continent.

Jinwu Palace’s enemies in Taixia Country were Taiyi Fantasy Sect, Heavens Holding Pavilion and Qionglou Pavilion. Over the past 30-odd years, the three sects were totally incompatible with Jinwu Palace; however, they could do nothing to Jinwu Palace’s rise.

After Elder Heavenly Chaos, also the owner of Heavens Holding Pavilion died in the battle at Yinhai Desert, Heavens Holding Pavilion’s power declined heavily. As those grand elders of Heavens Holding Pavilion didn’t reach an agreement about the next owner of Heavens Holding Pavilion, Heavens Holding Pavilion had been troubled with internal disputes over the past three decades. 6 years later after the battle between Zhang Tie and Elder Heavenly Chaos at Yinhai Desert, although the new owner of Heavens Holding Pavilion was selected with the interference of Old Man Taiyi and Elder Shenkong, he couldn’t completely conquer the other two grand elders who were also semi-level sages.

On this occasion, that grand elder who ascended to the position of the owner of Heavens Holding Pavilion with the support of Old Man Taiyi and Elder Shenkong was killed by Yun Zhongzi, the sage-level elder of the Great Wilderness Sect. In that battle, Heavens Holding Pavilion suffered heavy losses.

Therefore, there was still no owner of Heavens Holding Pavilion even now. The other two grand elders who always wanted to scramble for the position of the owner of Heavens Holding Pavilion finally stopped; instead, they both developed their own force in Heavens Holding Pavilion. As a result, Heavens Holding Pavilion’s reputation declined greatly. It almost dropped out of the top 6 sects in Taixia Country.

In this situation, nobody in Heavens Holding Pavilion felt like offending Jinwu Palace which was in the heyday.

By contrast, Taiyi Fantasy Sect and Qionglou Pavilion were both tired of coping with Yun Zhongzi, the elder of Great Wilderness Sect who treated them as his top enemies over the past three decades.

Over 30 years ago, on the day of the battle at Yinhai Desert, Yun Zhongzi had raided the headquarters of Taiyi Fantasy Sect, inflicting a heavy loss to the latter. In the following a few years, he raided some branches of Qionglou Pavilion consecutively and killed many elders and knights of Qionglou Pavilion. Those elders and knights of Taiyi Fantasy Sect and Qionglou Pavilion who went out to carry out tasks also became the preys of Yun Zhongzi. They would die for sure once they fell in the hands of Yun Zhongzi.

By now, Taiyi Fantasy Sect and Qionglou Pavilion finally knew that people in barefoot was not afraid of those in shoes. The two major sects were afraid of Yun Zhongzi so much that everyone felt insecure.

In the two major sects, besides sage-level knights like Taiyi Old Man and Elder Shenkong, almost nobody else could defeat Yun Zhongzi. The two major sects both had their bases; however, Yun Zhongzi, being such powerful, was alone. His trace was uncertain. Therefore, he always carried out guerrillas with the two major sects. Of course, the two major sects wouldn’t be in danger every day.

Additionally, Yun Zhongzi’s animal controlling skill was amazing. Old Man Taiyi and Elder Shenkong set two traps in vain because Yun Zongzi used his animal controlling skill. As for the second time, Yun Zongzi even met trick with a trick. He induced Old Man Taiyi out of Taiyi Fantasy Sect’s headquarters and raided their headquarters for the second time. As a result, a lot of knights in the headquarters were heavily injured. Even the palace of the sect was destroyed again…