Castle of Black Iron

When he was in Norman Empire, Zhang Tie traveled to Nordinburg where he easily figured out Hanna’s situation.

Hanna’s husband was a member of Sines Clan of Nordinburg, who was called Quinnell. Sines Clan was a pine leaf gentry which was a noble clan in Nordinburg. This clan mainly traded grains and drinks. Quinnell was the second son of the head of Sines Clan. In the past two years, Hanna’s beer and formula made Sines Clan well-known across Nordinburg and raked a great amount of wealth. Sometimes Hanna’s beer couldn’t even meet the demand. As a result, Hanna’s reputation as the Beer Queen spread across Nordinburg. Everyone admired that Sines Clan married a money-spinner.

Hanna and the main members of Sines Clan had long moved away before the human defense line in Selnes Theater of Operations collapsed.

Hanna and her husband’s clan, as the elites in Norman Empire, mastered the formula of the beer "Iron-blood Lover"; therefore, they became the major resources of Norman Empire and enjoyed the special concern from the country.

Zhang Tie didn’t know where was Hanna now; however, he was not worried about Hanna’s current situation. As for this woman who once had love affairs with him, Zhang Tie felt reassured as long as he knew that she was living a happy life.

Besides Hanna, Zhang Tie also inquired about the situations of Reinhardt and his former friends in Iron-blood Camp. After receiving the news, Zhang Tie was stunned.

As the military establishment system that Norman Empire had carried out against the attack of demons was completely as same as that Zhang Tie had imagined before. As a large-scale mixed establishment unit, corps was gradually altered. In Nordinburg, Zhang Tie was told that Norman Empire was gradually changing almost half of its corps into three troops: First, a pure city defense troop, which was mainly responsible for city defense based on city-defense weapons. This kind of troop’s main force were warriors; Second, cavalry forces, airship forces and armored forces, which were called maneuver troops; the members of these maneuver troops were more professional with higher qualities. They were excelled at maneuverability, assaulting ability and abilities to coordinate with the other two troops. Norman Empire requested its maneuver troop to be able to crack down common demonized puppets corps in an all-round manner and coordinate with the other troops when in need. Additionally, they could form a stress to the super demon corps. The 3rd troop was an iron-blood force fully composed of elites above LV 9, who could wrestle with the super demon corps face to face and had a great ability to survive in the wild.

In Norman Empire, all the elites of a corps could only form one iron-blood force. There were only 5 iron-blood forces in the north border of Norman Empire and less than 500 people in total.

The establishment of the Iron-blood Camp of the former No. 39 Division of Iron-horn corps had been rearranged. Reinhardt, who came back from Selnes Theater of Operations entered the Iron-blood force. Other friends entered city-defense troops and maneuver troops. Based on their experiences in Iron-blood Camp, many of them were promoted to military commissioners.

Only after a few years, the holy war had forced these tough men of Iron-blood Camp of the No. 39 Division of Iron-horn Corps to advance in their own ways. They could barely gather anymore. Except for sighing about that, Zhang Tie had no way to change it.

After the demonized puppets corps were heavily damaged by the flood, the super demon corps disappeared. Zhang Tie stayed in Nordinburg for two days to seek for the traces of that super demon corps.

Zhang Tie didn’t seek for that super demon corps for a noble or great purpose. He was just seeking for a chance to kill some squads of iron-armored demons so as to gain an iron-armored demon’s fruit of source and further improve his battle force. It would be better if he could relieve some stress for Norman Empire and Blackson Humans Corridor in this process.

After hovering above the wild aimlessly for a few days, Zhang Tie didn’t find any trace of the super demon corps; however, he noticed a civil airship which landed in the wild due to a mechanical breakdown. It was surrounded by over 100 demonized puppets. Zhang Tie then descended there and recovered his look as Peter. Closely after that, he solved the problem for the airship.

Those common demonized puppets posed a terrifying, fatal threat to those passengers in the airship. However, they were just like ants in Zhang Tie’s eyes. He killed them all in a split second.

After being saved, of course, those passengers appreciated Zhang Tie so much. They all hoped Zhang Tie to stay with them and protect them until they were in a safe place. Now that Zhang Tie had met them, he could not leave them alone to die there along with their family members. Additionally, Zhang Tie knew that the wing demons always traced and attacked lonely human airships. Zhang Tie considered that if he could meet some wing demons, he might find out the super demon corps through them. Therefore, Zhang Tie stayed in the airship and helped the crew to fix the airship. Finally, he escorted the airship all the way towards the south. It took them 3 days to arrive at the north of Kalay Mountain Range after traversing Sun Dynasty and two small countries in the south of Sun Dynasty. They got off the airship in Upton City.

On the way, besides almost being fallen in love once again, Zhang Tie didn’t even see any wing demon.

Compared to the situation when humans troops were shouting slogans loudly to march northward two years ago, at this moment, the entire north region of Blackson Humans Corridor had been in a chaos. After demons army broke the human defense line in Selnes Theater of Operations, all the rest of humans in the north region of Blackson Humans Corridor started to flood towards the south. Previously, humans were evacuating orderly. However, at this moment, all of them became scared as all the orders collapsed due to the collapse of the human defense line in Selnes Theater of Operations. All the rest humans wanted to escape from the north and stay as far away from demons as possible.

The Cross Commercial Alliance which had some relations with Zhang Tie previously was a hilarious example. This political alliance, which was much bigger than the Andaman Commercial Alliance which Blackhot City once belonged to, declared its collapse on the second day since the human’s defense line in Selnes Theater of Operations was broken through. From then on, it didn’t shoulder any responsibility as the central nation’s alliance while all of its members were struggling to escape.

Although the demons army suffered a great loss in Nein City in the north border of Norman Empire, the refugee tide in the north of Blackson Humans Corridor didn’t relieve; instead, more and more people seized this opportunity and tried their best to flood towards the south.

At this moment, the demonized puppets corps were marching into the north region of Blackson Humans Corridor constantly. The demonized puppets disasters that had raged in many regions a couple of years had not been completely cracked down yet. The regular super demon corps’ trace was always mystical. Numerous refugees were pouring towards the south and gathering at the northern foot of Kalay Mountain Range. Everything was wavering like the weather...

The misty rain flew into Zhang Tie’s raincoat collar icily. Zhang Tie, who was walking in the airship base, tightened his raincoat collar and lowered the brim of his raincoat hat, covering the greater part of his face.

The airship base was almost surrounded by dense refugee tents. Even in the heavy rain, there were still a great number of people crowding at the entrance of the airship base and waiting for any possible chance to leave out of here.

After walking out of the gate of the airship base, Zhang Tie saw a lot of curious and perplexed faces.

"Are you kidding me! Who comes to Upton at this moment?"

"He might have just gotten off that airship!"

"What an idiot..."

"Huh, does he want to die? If he dared stay here at this moment, he must be a powerhouse. He might be a paladin coming from the north!"

"He might be a vicious businessman who just came here for the war profit!"

"Alas, it’s such a bad weather today, I wonder when will the next airship arrive..."

Although they thought they were whispering, Zhang Tie, who had knight’s consciousness, could still hear their talks clearly.

In the amazing eyes and discussions, Zhang Tie left the airship base.

Zhang Tie targeted Upton City. When he was in the airship, he had already figured out the route. Therefore, soon after he left the airship base had he straightly gone towards the downtown. From there to Upton City, the distance was about 7-8 miles.

When Zhang Tie passed through the refugee camp, 5-6 men in sloppy looks drilled out of the refugee camp, who after exchanging glances with each other, followed Zhang Tie to a distance of dozens of meters.

Zhang Tie slightly frowned as he had not imagined that someone dared to follow him with malicious intentions in the cloudy, rainy day with a low visibility soon after he left the airship base.

Donder said that disasters and dilemmas were a weird mirror. In front of such a mirror, some would look as noble and sunny as an angel while some would turn as ugly and dirty as a hungry ghost. Donder reached a conclusion, "Although everyone was wearing the skin of a human, not everyone was a real human!"

’Is this humanity?’ Zhang Tie revealed a sinister smile as if he had not noticed being followed. He just kept walking...