Castle of Black Iron

The moment Zhang Tie opened his mouth, the two parties who were confronting in the hieron’s hall, including severely wounded Mountain Lifting Hermit moved their eyes onto Zhang Tie immediately.

After giving a concession to each other, the conflict would be resolved for the time being. When they exited the pyramid, they could fight to death whenever they wanted!

Honestly, Zhang Tie’s solution was very practical and had had all the parties’ interests into consideration.

After hearing Zhang Tie’s words, the demon baron flickered his eyes. Nobody knew what he was thinking about.

Lu Zhongming threw a glance at Zhang Tie out of gratitude. His wife Lin Huanxi was a hostage of the demon knight. As long as the two parties started a fierce combat, his wife would be killed right away. As the couple was affectionate with each other, how could Lu Zhongming stand watching his wife being killed in front of him? Therefore, Lu Zhongming agreed with Zhang Tie’s proposal very much.

Zhang Anguo the grand elder of Tianlu Palace became faintly shocked as he had not imagined that "Cui Li" who looked rude could propose such a wise solution.

Mountain Lifting Hermit didn’t speak; he only felt warm inside after listening to Zhang Tie’s proposal. He knew that he was not deceived in Zhang Tie.

Mountain Lifting Hermit had a firm standpoint on major issues; additionally, he always faced the music. Neither was he afraid of death. However, nobody would like to be a martyr if he could survive himself. Although Mountain Lifting Hermit was not afraid of death, he didn’t want to die at this moment. It would be too pitiful if he was killed by an earth demon knight at this moment. If not being raided by Old Monster Qi, Mountain Lifting Hermit wouldn’t be in such an embarrassed state.

"You’re just a black iron knight. Do your words count? Don’t forget that there’s one more earth knight on your side." The demon baron responded.

The demon baron would still alienate Zhang Tie from Zhang Anguo and break the unity between human knights at this moment.

A shrewd eye light flashed across Zhang Tie’s eyes as he realized that this demon knight was still unwilling to leave without any achievement at this moment.

This was what Zhang Tie wanted.

Those who flaunted one’s superiority mentally would definitely die out of their mental superiority; those who depended on their force would definitely die out of their force.

"Cui Li’s opinion is my opinion. Given the current situation, we should give a concession to each other instead of fighting to death here!"

Before Zhang Tie replied, the grand elder of Tianlu Palace had opened his mouth. The grand elder of Tianlu Palace was very clear about the demon knight’s intention. Therefore, he didn’t spare any chance to it.

The demon baron rolled its eyes as it said, "Well, I can leave the hieron. However, before I leave this hieron, I have to take the two people as my shield in case of your regret. When I exit the gate of the pyramid, I will let them go for sure!"

"I’m afraid that the moment you walk out of the gate of the pyramid, you will kill the hostages. Do you really think that we’re that stupid?" Zhang Tie sneered.

In the current situation, the demon knight could kill Mountain Lifting Hermit and Lin Huanxi in a split second. If the demon knight left with Mountain Lifting Hermit and Lin Huanxi as hostages, Zhang Tie was sure that the demon knight would break its words and kill the two hostages the moment it strode out of the gate of the pyramid. Would demons keep their words? No kidding!

’You let Mountain Lifting Hermit and Lin Huanxi go now, we promise you that we will let you go safe and sound!" Zhang Anguo said in a muffled voice.

"Hahaha, do you think that I will entrust my life to your creditability?" The demon knight sneered as it continued, "I’m afraid that the moment the two hostages are out of my control, you will join hands to kill me!"

"We won’t do it!"

"Hehe, according to the learning of military tactics of you Hua people, military tactics depend on changes. Now that we’re in hostile state, how do I believe you?"

"You can let go that woman first!"

"No dream. This woman is not common. She’s a knight. Do you think I’m stupid?" The demon baron sneered.

...

The two parties reached an impasse on whether to let go the two hostages first. In this situation, any party which gave a compromise would indicate that the party lost its initiative completely. Due to the deep-rooted mistrust between both parties, they couldn’t give any concession to each other on this point.

After the grand elder of Tianlu Palace disputed with the demon baron for a short while, they could not reach any constructive agreement at all.

When they were arguing with each other, Zhang Tie frowned purposefully as if he was contemplating about it. After finding that Zhang Anguo and the demon knight didn’t speak anymore, Zhang Tie suggested in a hesitant tone, "I’ve got a method...we can exchange hostages. You let go Mountain Lifting Hermit and Lin Huanxi, we will leave a person to you with the crystal ball in his hand in the hieron’s hall. 3 days later, when all the other human knights completely leave the pyramid, you two could leave here at the same time. In this way, no party would be concerned about being screwed by the opponent. The crystal ball in my hand could deliver this order to close the gate of this hieron’s hall 3 days..."

After hearing Zhang Tie’s suggestion, Zhang Anguo’s eyes gleamed at once, "Good, I like this method. I will take the crystal ball and stay 3 days with you in the hieron’s hall. We will leave 3 days later. After all, we’re both earth knights and could balance each other!"

The demon baron radiated a blue eye light, "Do you think it’s still called exchanging hostages if you stay with me? If you stay with me alone, although we cannot hurt each other; however, with the crystal ball in your hand, you could control the hub of the hieron. Under this circumstance, you’re fully in the advantageous position. How could I defeat you? If you want to exchange the hostages, just let the guy with crystal ball stay with me in the hieron’s hall!"

The demon baron pointed at Zhang Tie, revealing his malicious intention.

"No way!" Zhang Anguo denied it right away. ’Are you kidding me? Leave a black iron human knight with a demon earth knight? Isn’t it sending a sheep into a lion’s mouth? It’s too dangerous.’

"You can leave another person; however, he should not be an earth knight; additionally, you should leave the crystal ball which’s used to control the hub of the hieron!" The demon baron’s blue eye light jumped a bit as it revealed a casual sneer.

"I will stay with you!" Zhang Tie said heroically.

"But..."

"He cannot defeat me in a short period! Additionally, I could protect myself..." Zhang Tie pointed at the corpse of Old Monster Qi as he said generously, "I will set the procedure in the crystal ball. In 3 days, the gate of the entrance of the pyramid will open while the temperature outside this hieron’s gate will remain normal. If it doesn’t work, I will smash the crystal ball and commit suicide together with him. Now that I propose this suggestion, I will bell the cat even if it’s dangerous. It’s not unfair for another one to do that."

In Zhang Anguo’s and Lu Zhongming’s eyes, Zhang Tie’s image became much more brilliant in a split second.

Such a righteous people who could rush into the battlefront and spare living chance to others at the critical moment would win others’ respect wherever he was.

This was the extremely righteous deed of a gentleman. Although there were thousands of enemies in front of him, he would still fight them dauntlessly!

Mountain Lifting Hermit moved his lips silently as he threw a deep glance at Zhang Tie...

This method could only be reluctantly accepted by both parties, at least apparently.

The demon baron was very careful. He proposed further requests on the details about exchanging hostages. It told Zhang Anguo and Lu Zhongming to leave the Weapons Mountain and release their battle qi signals at the foot of the mountain so as to indicate that they were not hiding nearby the top of the main peak of the mountain. It even told Zhang Tie to close half of the gate of this hieron’s hall and fully close it after the two hostages left. Within 1 minute, even if the two severely wounded hostages were out of the gate of this hieron’s hall, they would still be in its sight on the top of the main peak of the Weapons Mountain; additionally, Zhang Anguo would not come back in 1 minute. Before the hieron’s gate was completely closed, the two hostages were actually still in its hand.

The demon baron was really considerate, leaving no chance for human knights to reverse the situation.

"Now that I could enter this hieron alone, of course, I know this better than you. I could identify what orders you’ve sent from the grains on the gate of the hieron’s hall. Therefore, you’d better not play tricks in front of me in case of troubles!" The demon baron warned Zhang Tie.

...

After making a decision, Zhang Anguo and Lu Zhongming left the hieron’s hall.

Before leaving there, Lu Zhongming threw an unwilling glance at Lin Huanxi. Finally, he gritted his teeth and rushed down the mountain together with Zhang Anguo.

The temperature and air supply outside the hieron’s hall had been recovered to the normal state by Zhang Tie. Therefore, it took Zhang Tie and the demon baron less than 5 minutes to see the rising battle qi tornado and battle qi smoke at the foot of the Weapons Mountain at the same time.

After seeing the battle qi tornado and the battle qi smoke, the demon baron turned around and told Zhang Tie, "It’s your turn!"

"I’ve just thought about something. If you fetch demon knights here to revenge my partners or ambush outside the pyramid by remote-sensing crystal in the 3 days, won’t my partners be in danger? Now that I’ve expressed my sincerity, it’s also your turn to express your sincerity. Throw your remote-sensing crystal to me. Don’t tell me that you as an earth demon knight don’t even have a remote-sensing crystal with you!" Zhang Tie slowly said.

The demon baron threw a glance at Zhang Tie. Closely after that, it took out its remote-sensing crystal and threw it to Zhang Tie.

After taking that remote-sensing crystal, Zhang Tie crumbed it right away, "The ring on your left index finger seems to be a remote-sensing device too. Come on, throw it to me! With the two remote-sensing crystals, you could contact the demon’s strength in the first abyss and your clan members! I was told that powerful clans also ruled everything among demons. You must be from a big clan."

The demon baron’s eyes flickered as it had not imagined that Zhang Tie had such sharp eyes. It then silently picked off the remote-sensing ring and threw it to Zhang Tie.

At such a critical moment, two remote-sensing devices were nothing important at all.

Zhang Tie shattered the remote-sensing crystal in the finger ring into pieces by his battle qi.

"Oh, you earth demon knight should have space-teleportation equipment...hmm..I find the ring on your right index finger...look like a space-teleportation ring being made of a nanobead. You’d better throw it to me, I will keep it three days for you!"

The demon baron was driven infuriated at once, "Don’t be too excessive!"

Zhang Tie let out a sigh, "You’re an earth knight; I’m a black iron knight. You’re trickiest and more powerful than me. As we need to stay here 3 days, if there was anything sharp in your space-teleportation ring, I would be screwed many times in 3 days. If you didn’t give me the space-teleportation ring, I would always be worried that you would take something out of the space-teleportation ring. The moment I became worried, I would easily become nervous spiritually. If I suddenly overreacted, I might break the crystal ball. If so, you would have to die together with me. Therefore you’d better give me your finger ring now. No matter what, I will not escape away from you. I cannot even defeat you after 3 days. It’s not worthwhile for me to break my promise only for a space-teleportation device, right?"

Hearing Zhang Tie’s explanation, the demon baron changed its look. After considering it for a few seconds, it picked off the space-teleportation ring and threw it to Zhang Tie.

After taking the finger ring, Zhang Tie put it on his own finger pleasantly.

At the same time, Zhang Tie was shocked inside, ’This demon knight would never pick off the space-teleportation ring and throw it to me if it couldn’t guarantee that I wouldn’t leave this hieron’s hall. The demon knight is making me drop my guard in case I do something in a desperate way.’

"It’s your turn..." The demon baron said in a muffled voice.

"No problem, this Cui is always a man of honor..."

The moment Zhang Tie finished his words, half of the gate had been closed. The demon baron then came to the front of the gate with Mountain Lifting Hermit and Lin Huanxi in his hands. After observing the flowing grains on the gate of hieron’s hall for half a minute, it nodded. Closely after that, it moved one step back and allowed Mountain Lifting Hermit and Lin Huanxi to leave the hieron’s hall while supporting each other with their hands.

Nobody would play any trick at this moment. Both Zhang Tie and the demon baron were seemingly waiting for the gate of the hieron’s hall to close once again.

In less than 1 minute, the gate of the hieron’s hall was closed while Mountain Lifting Hermit and Lin Huanxi fully disappeared in front of Zhang Tie and the demon baron.

The gate of this hieron’s hall would not open until 3 days later.

The demon baron then turned around. After that, Zhang Tie and the demon baron gazed at each other for about 2 minutes.

In such a silence, the atmosphere in the hieron’s hall became weird abruptly.

"Ahem...ahem..." Zhang Tie coughed twice while his echo reverberated in the open hieron’s hall, "In the following 3 days, we’d better take the central axis of this hieron’s hall as a demarcation line. You don’t come to my side, and I won’t go to your side. You will be in the front part of the hall and I will be in the latter part of the hall. If you pass the central axis of the hall and want to kill me, as I cannot defeat you, I could only shatter the crystal ball and perish together with you!"

When the gate of the hall was closed, Zhang Tie had moved back to the rear of the hall, who was definitely over 100 m away from the demon baron.

The demon baron’s green eye light jumped as it narrowed its eyes and stared at Zhang Tie for a second. It then nodded and walked to the wall near the gate silently. Sitting with crossed legs against the wall, it started to recover its physical strength.

Zhang Tie stood far away from the demon baron. As he watched the demon baron, he stroked the crystal ball in his hand. Of course, nobody knew what Zhang Tie was thinking about.

After a few minutes, the demon baron who was recovering its physical strength suddenly felt that the temperature in the hieron’s hall had declined to a terrifying, super low state, which was absolutely below zero 100 degrees Celcius. As a result, the moisture in the air froze in a split second. The demon baron instantly became stiff while its body was covered with a layer of white frost.

"What are you doing?" The demon baron was driven infuriated as it instantly sprung up and released its protective battle qi, shattering the frost into pieces at once.

"It’s good ... to be cold, it’s good ... to be cold..." Zhang Tie stammered as he also released his protective battle qi, "If it’s cold, I’ll be clear-minded and spirited and wouldn’t be easily screwed by you! Even I can bear it, don’t tell me you can’t!"

Watching Zhang Tie withstanding the super low temperature, the demon baron didn’t speak any more; instead, he sat down once again.

The demon baron didn’t believe that it, as an earth demon knight, couldn’t match a black iron human knight in cold-resistance ability.

’Let’s see, when you almost use up your battle qi, I will deal with you!’ The demon baron felt thrilled as it swore Zhang Tie inside, ’You’re seeking for death.’

However, it didn’t know that Zhang Tie’s battle qi was endless. Additionally, after setting free so many sandscale fish, Zhang Tie’s cold-resistance ability was many times greater than that of the demon baron. Therefore, Zhang Tie was definitely more adapted to cold than the demon baron.

...

1 hour...

2 hours...

...

10 hours...

11 hours...

Half a day flew past...

The demon baron gritted its teeth and withstood it...

Zhang Tie’s protective battle qi became ramshackle a few times. However, he stabilized his protective battle qi each time. The ramshackle protective battle qi stimulated the demon baron to wait a bit longer each time it wanted to launch its attack towards Zhang Tie.

After one day, Zhang Tie’s protective battle qi became thinner and thinner. However, he could still doggedly withstand such a low temperature. Finally, the demon baron realized that something was not right.

’Even I couldn’t bear the great consumption of protective battle qi in such an extreme environment, how could this black iron human knight stand for so long?’

It seemed that Zhang Tie was also a bit fatigued as he was leaning against the wall far away from the demon baron with his eyes half closed.

The demon baron finally determined to launch an attack.

Sitting there, the demon baron’s eyes were also half closed. However, it always threw a glimpse at Zhang Tie stealthily. Gradually, the demon baron started to radiate some invisible mist, which was almost transparent. The cloud of mist slowly floated towards the back of Zhang Tie along the floor and against the wall like creeping worms. In a few minutes, the cloud of mist gradually formed a figure.

The misty figure silently moved towards Zhang Tie from his back. When it was a few meters away from Zhang Tie, the demon baron instantly opened his eyes while that cloud of mist darted towards Zhang Tie as fast as a lightning bolt. Its target was the crystal ball beside Zhang Tie.

The demon baron widely opened its eyes. It even thought that it was going to succeed right away. Because that misty figure was only one step away from Zhang Tie. It seemed to reach it with its hand immediately.

It’s going to reverse the situation once again. As long as it got the crystal ball, given its knowledge about the bloody sacrifice hieron, all the human knights outside the gate of this hall would definitely become its sacrifices.

The secrets of the bloody sacrificial hieron could not be well understood by a person who had just got the crystal ball for less than an hour. Even though the order had been sent from the crystal ball, it could still be altered. The secret of this alteration was the bloody sacrifice.

’Human is still a bit naive.’

The demon baron revealed a faint, pleasant smile.

All of a sudden, something flickered in front of the demon baron’s eyes while the misty figure behind Zhang Tie was shattered into pieces and disappeared completely...

It happened so fast that even an earth knight’s eyes couldn’t catch what happened. Before the demon baron figured out what happened, its incarnation had been completely dissipated.

However, Zhang Tie didn’t even move at all.

Until that misty figure disappeared did Zhang Tie lazily open his eyes and stretch out his limbs and stand up. He then revealed a sneer towards the demon knight, "You’re really patient. You finally launched an attack after bearing such a super low temperature for a day, by the way, I’ve almost recovered myself. Do you like it?"

"Go die..." Now that it had determined to launch an attack, the demon baron didn’t waste time any longer. It instantly sprung up and darted towards Zhang Tie as fast as a lightning bolt.

Zhang Tie just watched the demon baron with a faint sneer...

The demon baron moved so fast with such a great momentum...

However, due to a high speed and great momentum, the demon baron suffered a bigger loss in a split second...

In high-speed movement, the demon baron was blocked by some invisible blades in the air. In a split second, the demon baron rushed into an invisible trap decisively. Due to sharp frictions, the demon baron’s protective battle qi was broken. Before Zhang Tie moved, the demon baron had suffered over 10 fine wounds on its neck and body, flowing out blood at once...

The demon baron was greatly startled as it rapidly moved back to the original place. It then gazed at Zhang Tie like looking at a ghost.

’What happened? Why were there invisible blades in the air?’

The demon baron widely opened its eyes with a flurried look. As it saw nothing in front of Zhang Tie, if not the sharp pains caused by its bloody wounds, it almost thought that it was an illusion...

Without its protective battle qi, based on its high speed and momentum, the invisible, dense sharp blades in the air could cut its body into pieces in a split second.

In order to verify its judgment, the demon baron kicked off Old Monster Qi’s beheaded body and had it pass by that invisible yet fatal space.

As it had predicted, Old Monster Qi’s corpse instantly split up like a piece of soya bean being cut off by steel wires when it flew through that space.

The demon baron took in a deep breath, ’What a terrifying secret method! How could such an invisible lethal trap be set in the air silently?’

The demon baron watched Zhang Tie with its eyes widely opened. It wanted to say something; however, it finally became silent as it saw the sharp spearhead which had been lying on the ground floating up silently in the air and targeting at it like a ballista being ready to fire...

In the entire process, Zhang Tie didn’t move at all; instead, he just stood aside and looked at the demon baron with a distant look.

In a split second, a term that made the demon baron tremble all over occurred to the demon baron’s mind, causing it to shriek with a flurried look, "Divine Dominator..."

Divine Dominator was the top knight, the legendary figure among knights. Even the demon baron had not seen a divine dominator until today. Previously, the demon baron thought that the so-called divine dominator might only be a legendary figure.

It had not imagined seeing a real human-divine dominator today.

At this moment, the demon baron was not thinking about how to survive itself. It even forgot about those human knights in the hieron. It only thought about passing out the message of the human-divine dominator. A high-rank divine dominator would be the disaster of all the demons, including demon knights. Such a person should be killed at any cost.

In the same rank, a divine dominator could dominate everything like the God as an unrivaled existence. It was the most mysterious and terrifying profession.

According to the legend, the divine dominator’s spiritual energy had reached a fantastic realm and could convert into material objects and casually manipulate everything.

The invisible blades in the air which had wounded the demon baron’s body should be composed of the divine dominator’s spiritual energy.

The demon baron wanted to take out its remote-sensing crystals; however, it remembered that it had long given them to Zhang Tie, which had been destroyed in front of it.

’Had he...’

"Now you know why I confiscated your remote-sensing crystals. If you released the message to the outside, I would have to escape once again!" Zhang Tie revealed a sneer...

The demon baron noticed the words "once again". As for why "once again" was used by Zhang Tie, it might never find the answer...

Because Zhang Tie’s strikes had arrived.

Zhang Tie was standing in the distance as if he was watching a performance with his arms crossed. The spearhead of the abyss battle spear had immediately flown over 100 m in the air and stabbed into the demon baron’s protective battle qi. It compressed and rubbed against the demon baron’s protective battle qi violently...

The demon baron’s protective battle qi withstood Zhang Tie’s first strike; however, due to the great strength, the demon baron was sent flying backward like being collided by a train.

Before the demon baron fell down, the second strike had arrived.

Closely after that, the abyss battle spear’s head attacked the demon baron in an increasingly higher frequency, which had surpassed the latter’s maximal reaction speed. After being compressed, the demon baron’s protective battle qi exploded like crackers constantly.

No matter how fast a demon could react, it would never match that of a divine dominator’s spiritual energy.

The spearhead turned into a fierce and bloody living being which kept tearing and engulfing the demon baron as fast as a lightning bolt.

The demon baron finally released its battle qi tornado and virtual image.

Its virtual image of the secret method that it cultivated was a fierce and bizarre monster who was blowing clouds.

The demon baron also started to put up a desperate fight. If not, it would not have a chance to do that anymore.

After a light flashed by its hand, a grim saber which was almost 2 m in length appeared in the demon baron’s hand, a silver secret item.

After finding a chance, the demon baron launched an attack. With a roar, a fierce blade qi’s shock wave swept towards Zhang Tie.

However, when the demon baron’s blade qi approached Zhang Tie, a shield suddenly appeared in front of Zhang Tie. Suspending in the air a few meters before Zhang Tie, the shield shattered the demon baron’s strike in a split second like a firm reef that belittled winds and waves.

Zhang Tie’s shield was also a silver secret item.

The demon baron was shocked instantly; closely after that, it became completely disappointed.

In this round of the fight, Zhang Tie was as steady as Mountain Tai without even blinking his eyes...

...