667 - 676
Chapter 667: Waiting for the Opportunity
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
As a key town in the north of Symbian Republic, Deland City was the first tenacious human city after the demons corps broke the human defense line in Selnes Plain.
It took 3 days from the first demonized puppet was killed by the steam ballista of Deland City to the city was fully collapsed by demonized puppets corps.
In the 3 days, more than 200,000 demonized puppets were killed outside the city. However, for a human city without a knight, when a knight of demons' vanguard corps destroyed a city gate of Deland City last night with powerful battle skills, the demonized puppets flooded into the city, which indicated the collapse of this city.
Among the flames which rushed into the sky across the city, the garrisons of Deland City fought demonized puppets overnight. In the latter half of the night, the battle calls stopped in the city while all the brave soldiers of garrisons died. From then on, Deland City fell into the hands of demons.
At dawn, the vanguard corps of demons had left Deland City and charged towards the next human city like a swarm of locusts. At dusk, more than 3 million demonized puppets of the middle corps of demons arrived at Deland City and took a rest inside the city temporarily.
The vanguard corps, middle corps and rear corps of demons kept a marching distance which required a bit longer than half a day. Like three terrifying monsters, they rushed forward and tore apart human cities and countries one after another like tearing pies.
When Koz, the head of Senel Clan entered Deland City, he looked gloomy and cold with a killing intent. Even his sons Battie and Houghs dared not to stay close to him.
Since he saw Scala's corpse, Koz had been looking like wanting to eat human flesh. He glared at everyone. He even killed 2 of his subordinates due to a trivial matter. As his favored son, Scala's death was a great blow to Koz, even the entire Senel Clan.
Koz had more than 20 sons, 5 of which were most talented and were able to carry the future of Senel Clan. However, 3 of them died in less than a year——his youngest son Cambo died in the underground space of Misty Woods; Rouben died in Tokei City, the nestle of Senel Clan which had been run for many years. Even Scala, the successor of Senel Clan was killed in Mocco City.
What was worse was that Koz saw the tumble-down future of Senel Clan. Even if Koz himself promoted to a knight, his offspring would still be unable to carry out the responsibility of this clan. 'Houghs is smart; however, he could not carry responsibility for the future of the clan; Battie is brave and fierce; however, he is always jealous and not calm enough in troubles. Although Houghs and Battie have better cultivation qualifications than commoners, it is still difficult for them to be knights. Even though in Three-eye Association, those weak and useless clans would also be gradually pushed aside and lose more and more things. Now, the hope of Senel Clan doesn't lie in the next generation, but in the 3rd generation. If I became a knight, I would have time and resources to see the third generation to grow up; however, as long as something bad happened to me, Battie or Houghs, Senel Clan would deteriorate into a weak power in Three-eye Association and would gradually be eaten by other forces.
...
As a key city of the Symbian Republic, Deland City was much more prosperous than Mocco City. It was once the charcoal dealers' garden in the Symbian Republic. Even though it had experienced a war and big fires, the greater part of this city was still preserved.
When the members of Senel Clan entered Deland City, they didn't notice that a trivial black beetle followed them in after a few minutes.
Of course, the beetle was Zhang Tie. After receiving some information, it was not difficult for him to find the members of Senel Clan. However, he didn't have a chance to attack them. Therefore, Zhang Tie just followed the three targets of Senel Clan——Koz, Battie and Houghs into Deland City.
When the members of Senel Clan entered Deland City, they settled in a manor that had not been destroyed by fire. One hour later, Zhang Tie also settled in a rockery of the manor.
In the evening, Koz called Battie and Houghs into his room. Zhang Tie then gazed at the inside of the room quietly on a parasol outside the room.
Besides Koz, Battie and Houghs, the elder being employed by Senel Clan also sat in the room.
When they saw Koz and Elder Quentin, Batty and Houghs hurriedly showed their sincerity to them.
"Father, Elder Quentin..."
Until then did Zhang Tie know the name of the elder being employed by Senel Clan.
"I've negotiated with Elder Quentin just now. I have one thing to tell you." Koz said icily, "From today on, you two have to report all of your private schedules to me or Elder Quentin in advance until we completely occupy Blackson Humans Corridor. Without our consent, you'd better stay in the camp. Don't stay too far away from me and Elder Quentin! Our Senel Clan has spent too much for this holy war. As long as you could survive, you would have much brighter future than today. Am I clear?"
Battie and Houghs then exchanged a glance with each other as they lowered their heads at the same time, "Clear!"
"You can leave now!" Koz waved his hands with a frustrated and fatigued look.
Battie and Houghs then left...
After hearing his words, Zhang Tie started to grumble inside instantly. He had not imagined that Koz, the old man, could be so cunning and cautious——The moment Scala died had he paid special attention to protect the remaining two talented sons. 'It's difficult to kill them then.'
Battie's and Houghs's bedrooms were on two sides of that of Elder Quentin. At the sight of such an arrangement, Zhang Tie could do nothing but swear inside.
'Do I leave now and wait for a chance to settle with Senel Clan in the future?' Zhang Tie asked inside.
'Be patient. Many good opportunities are waiting. Patience is a virtue!' Zhang Tie warned himself after thinking for a few seconds.
Zhang Tie then stayed there silently...
...
On the second early morning, more than 3 million demonized puppets of the middle corps nearby Deland City set off once again. The corps lasted dozens of miles in length and marched all the way towards the south along the route of the vanguard corps. The moment Zhang Tie landed on the materials in a vehicle had he moved southwards together with Senel Clan and demons corps...
Chapter 668: Towards South
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
In only 10 days, the vanguard of demonized puppets corps had already swept the greater part of the territory of Symbian Republic. Following the middle corps of demonized puppets, Zhang Tie witnessed the collapse of human cities one after another.
Deland City, Perigourd City, Edeline City, Somibay City, Holbech City, Kozlian City and Reay City...
All the above cities were once prosperous human cities. None of them were worse than Blackhot City. However, when the middle corps of demonized puppets arrived, many cities were burned into ruins. When passing by those deserted villages and towns, fields and numerous corpses, Zhang Tie was deeply impressed by the cruelty of the holy war and its harm to humans in the past 10 days.
After taking Deland City, the demonized puppets corps didn't meet any large-scale regular resistance on the way towards south anymore. All the human cities had been deserted or burned into ruins before the arrival of the contingents of the demonized puppets. Even the entire Symbian Republic had become unmanned. Women and kids had evacuated 2 years ago; soldiers also evacuated after the human defense line in Selnes Plain was collapsed; especially after Deland City was collapsed, the remaining human troops in the Symbian Republic became completely disappointed. As a result, nobody would like to stay in this city and wait for the arrival of the demonized corps.
The combined forces of the corps of almost 10 million demonized puppets and that super demons corps were irresistible.
Speaking of that super demons corps, Zhang Tie finally witnessed it during the past days in Holbech City.
Zhang Tie didn't know how to describe the demons corps. He was shocked when about 100,000 LV 9 demon fighters appeared in front of him.
Before the demons corps appeared, Zhang Tie saw a great batch of at least 4,000-5,000 wing demons hovering above Holbech City like a cloud. Only after the batch of wing demons arrived at the air territory of Holbech City in less than 5 minutes had that super demons corps appeared in the horizon which rolled towards the city like a black flame.
Without arousing an earthquake or any loud battle calls, the contingent of almost 100,000 LV 9 demon fighters just flashed at the foot of the city wall of Holbech City like a hot wind blowing from afar. When the wind stopped, the formation of about 100,000 demon fighters stood still like steel mountains silently. However, facing such an unrivaled qi, the contingent of about 1 million demonized puppets gathering outside the city wall were scared to move backwards.
At that moment, all the members of Senel Clan and Arthur Clan who ruled the middle corps were welcoming the super demons corps outside the city. At the sight of this scene, the face of each one of them turned pale, including that knight who was employed by Senel Clan.
Even Zhang Tie, in the incarnation of the little beetle, who was lying on a brick on the top of a wrecked bartizan, was also shocked by such a power.
If a LV 9 iron-armored demon was in front of him, Zhang Tie would just ignore it; if 10 LV 9 iron-armored demons were in front of him, Zhang Tie could solve them easily; if 100 LV 9 iron-armored demons were in front of him, Zhang Tie would feel stressed; if 1,000 iron-armored demons were in front of him, Zhang Tie would turn around and escape right away. If 10,000 iron-armored demons were in front of him, even a knight would avoid from them, not to mention Zhang Tie. However, there were almost 100,000 LV 9 iron-armored demons in front of him. Zhang Tie didn't know how many commissioned officers ranked LV 10 to LV 15 were among them. However, Zhang Tie learned it from the members of Clans of Three-eye Association that there were 6 demon knights in this super demons corps under the rule of the demon general, although one of which had been killed in Selnes Theater of Operations.
'How do I resist such a powerful super demons corps?' Zhang Tie compared all the other corps that he had heard and seen before to this super demons corps and found it was unrivaled across Blackson Humans Corridor. Any human corps in front of this super demons corps could do nothing but be slaughtered, even if they outnumbered the demons; because that sharp blade formed of LV 9 iron-armored demons could easily break out the encirclement of human corps and escape away.
Perhaps humans corps could encircle this super demons corps with outnumbered armored troops in a specific narrow environment before giving them a heavy blow with the coordination of the airship troop. However, the collapse of human defense line in Selnes Theater of Operations had indicated that this ideal battlefield and situation would never appear. Selnes Theater of Operations once gathered the most powerful human airship troops and most human armored vehicles. So what? The two predominate armed human services were dragged in a bottomless mire only by the wing demons troop and the demonized puppets corps. Demons were not idiots. They would not stand there and wait for you to beat them after a proper deployment. Conversely, the demon general of this super demons corps was even more smarter and cunning than those most famous human generals.
The wing demon troop served as the barrier and eye of this super demons corps while the corps of numerous demonized puppets served as the shield and tentacles of this super demons corps. This super demons corps always loomed behind that barrier, eye, shield and tentacles, which would give human corps a fatal blow at the critical moment.
Like now, after the demonized puppets corps broke the human defense line in Selnes Theater of Operations, it divided into three parts and marched all the way towards the south. This super demons corps loomed weirdly among the vanguard corps, middle corps and rear corps of this demonized puppets corps. Even though the members of clans of Three-eye Association didn't know about its whereabouts. They only knew that this super demons corps under the rule of the demon general would always stay less than 300 miles away from one of the three demonized puppets corps. Sometimes, this super demons corps would completely get rid of the demonized puppets corps. They were just commanding the military actions of the demonized puppets corps. Nobody knew where they were.
Besides, Zhang Tie found one rule about the whereabouts of this super demons corps——they never made camp in cities; even in Holbech City, this super demons corps also encamped about 100 m away from the city wall of Holbech City.
Hua military experts usually described a powerful troop as follows: when they moved, they were as rapid as the wind and lightning bolt; when they slowed down, they were as dense as the woods; when they plundered, they were as aggressive as the fire; when they remained still, they were as firm as the mountain; when they hid themselves, they were as mysterious as the sun and moon in cloudy days. After watching this super demons corps, although Zhang Tie would not like to accept and admit it, he knew that this super demons corps was the troop that could match the description of the best among all the troops that Zhang Tie had seen.
The moment Zhang Tie saw it had Zhang Tie enlightened that no human troops could defeat this super demons corps unless one of the human troops was composed of the same number of LV 9 human fighters. Based on the battle experience in Selnes Theater of Operations, only human troops composed of LV 9 or above human fighters could defeat a troop composed of LV 9 or above demon fighters. The forces who were most destructive to this super demons corps in Selnes Theater of Operations were not airship troops, armored troops or other human troops, but those squads of demon hunters and paladins who loomed in Selnes Plain.
About 3,000 iron-armored demons were killed by demon hunters and paladins in total. However, the other human corps and troops only caused a casualty of about 1,000 iron-armored demons.
Zhang Tie knew that the collapse of human defense line in Selnes Theater of Operations would give a huge blow to the current human corps establishment system for sure. He could find the loopholes in the current human corps establishment system, so did others. The former division standards of human corps had become meaningless; perhaps in the future, human corps were only divided into two forces, one was used to deal with demonized puppets; the other was used to deal with the regular army of demons. Demonized puppets corps would be defended with high city walls, powerful steam ballistas, armored vehicles and white phosphor gel bombs, which could also pose a great threat to regular demons corps. Even though those human soldiers above LV 2 could operate the weapons. By contrast, only human fighters above LV 9 could deal with regular demons corps; even though a squad, a battalion or a company of human fighters above LV 9 would be more effective than a common corps composed of hundreds of thousands of common human soldiers.
In order to defend the super demons corps, common human corps had to hide in "Iron Tortoises[1]" which were driven by steam; however, field forces that could wrestle with the super demons corps under the rule of human knights who could move as fast as a lightning bolt on the battlefield were more destructive. They didn't need to be outnumbered, but they should be elites. Only in this mobile way could they curb demons...
Chapter 669: Stancy City
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
When in Holbech City, Zhang Tie was closer to the demon general, he even wanted to fly into the camp to take a look at the demon general. However, Zhang Tie finally abandoned this thought. After having the knight's consciousness, Zhang Tie clearly knew how powerful was a knight's consciousness. Therefore, he didn't feel like risking his life; additionally, Zhang Tie heard that the demon general was not a common knight.
It was indeed too foolish for Zhang Tie to risk his life in order to take a look at someone.
Although the death of his incarnation would not kill him directly, according to the description on the "Great Wilderness Sutra", it would cause a great damage to his original body as well; in the worst scenario, he might become a plant man. After thinking about it for a short while, Zhang Tie felt it being not worthwhile for him to do that, 'I only need to know that it's a powerful demon knight. If there's a chance, I will see it for sure; even if I cannot see it forever, I won't lose a fine hair.'
'I'd better pursue something "closer to real life", for instance, how to kill the three b*stards of Senel Clan.' Zhang Tie considered at that moment.
The super demons corps encamped outside Holbech City overnight. Before daybreak, they had disappeared. On the second morning, the middle corps continued to march southwards; in a few days, Kozlian City and Reay City collapsed too.
Speaking of Senel Clan, what made Zhang Tie depressed was that Battie and Houghs were always staying in the vision of Koz and Elder Quentin in the army of demonized puppets these days. He could not even fly close to them, not to mention killing them. It was okay if an insect followed the members of Senel Clan; however, if it always followed them, it would arouse their attention sooner or later.
Elder Quentin had a knight's consciousness, the basic ability of which was to keep everything in mind the moment he saw it. Zhang Tie was sure that if he was noticed twice by Elder Quentin in different cities, he would have a big trouble. Therefore, Zhang Tie always kept over 100 m away from Elder Quentin these days when he gazed at Senel Clan members. He almost didn't appear in the positive vision of Elder Quentin. In this case, it would be more difficult for Zhang Tie to kill Battie and Houghs.
On April 15th, the 895th year of Black Iron Calendar, rainy...
On this day, the army of the middle corps of demonized puppets arrived at Stancy City...
When Stancy City entered Zhang Tie's vision, it was heavily raining. This city had also been destroyed by humans before the arrival of the army of demons. However, compared to other human cities, this city was more completely destroyed by the garrisons. It was like having been demolished by "developers", a special powerful Hua profession before the Catastrophe in the legend. The half-collapsed city walls and exposed broken steam pipelines and disordered concrete structures were more eye-catching in the heavy rain. The heavy rain, while falling down, causing a drizzling mist which looked like smoke rings out of the mouth of one fickle guy and ridicule towards the army of demons...
Compared to those cities which could still be available or renovated after being burned to ruins or destroyed, this city had been completely destroyed. What was left was just building craps erecting in the wild.
On the incomplete city walls, the big red, painted words were also becoming especially eye-attractive even in the heavy rain.
"B*stards of demons, go eat f*rt. This f*ther won't leave anything to you!"
...
"Sons of bitches of Three-eye Association, this father is leaving now; go clean your asshole and wait for this father to come back..."
...
"Some public toilets are still available in the downtown; this father tells you, retarded sons, remember to keep clean. Don't relieve yourselves everywhere..."
...
There were so many similar slogans. Even some of them had been erased by people, many of them were still left.
These days, Zhang Tie had seen too many deserted human cities. Only when he caught sight of this city did his eyes brighten up. It was really a wonder to see so many "inspiring" slogans and such a completely destroyed city.
"B*stards, who left these words. If I caught you, I would peel you off and soak you in a lacquer..." A furious sound drifted from those people who were riding demon horses in front. Judging from the infuriated sound, Zhang Tie knew that it was Battie. Even though he didn't see Battie, Zhang Tie could still imagine how angry Battie looked.
"Battie, if you can take a look at that intelligence these days, you will know that the commanding general in charge of the defense of this city is called Mathew. It was Mathew who issued the order to demolish this city and leave these words. Mathew is alone. He has no family members. Even if you caught him, you could only peel him off and soak him in the lacquer; instead of soaking all of his family members into the lacquer!" Houghs said.
After Scala, the would-be "successor" of Senel Clan was killed, Houghs became more "active" these days.
"Houghs, what do you mean?" Battie asked furiously. Even idiots could hear the meaning of Houghs. Battie had not imagined that he was blackmailed by Houghs only because of a casual grumble.
"Nothing, I just reminded you out of kindness!"
"B*stard!"
The moment Houghs wanted to satirize Battie, Koz glared at him and Battie icily. Quivering once all over, they instantly lowered their heads and stopped quarreling.
"Clean all of these slogans after encampment, I don't want to see them tomorrow!" Koz sent an order.
"Yes, sir!" Someone replied at once.
After hearing Koz's sound, Zhang Tie silently exposed his head out of a small hole of the wooden horizontal beam on the top of the vehicle drove by two uni-horn black oxen and glanced at Koz once again...
In the heavy rain, all those on demon horses were wearing raincoats, except for Koz and Elder Quentin. The falling raindrops were blocked away by their protective battle qis. 'How cool and brilliant are they to be protected with battle qi in the heavy rain!' Zhang Tie drooled silently...
'As long as I promote to LV 14, I will be able to form protective battle qi.' Zhang Tie hesitated when he realized that his cultivation had been prolonged after following Senel Clan for more than 10 days without any harvest...
Chapter 670: An Encounter
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
'Should I continue to follow Senel Clan members until I get a chance or come back to exterminate this clan when I'm powerful enough?' Zhang Tie thought.
'It's indeed a tricky problem. Although incarnation has many benefits, it also has shortcomings.'
'During incarnation, my original body would enter a marvelous state like hibernation of some animals or trance of convalescence. Like falling asleep, my original body doesn't need to eat or drink in 1-2 months. The only trouble is that I cannot cultivate in this state.'
'Although "patience" could bring me some chances, it would take me a great amount of time.'
'If I spent more than 10 days in cultivation, I might further improve my battle force. I could read the endless true words of the "Great Wilderness Sutra" on the 4th storey of All-spirits Pagoda for more than 600,000 times, which indicates that I've finished half of the work to activate the 4th storey of All-spirits Pagoda. If I spent more than 10 days to light surging points, I could at least light 2 surging points with the effect of the leakless fruits. That means I will be closer to LV 12 great battle master.'
'I've not eaten the ripe fruit of source of wing demons. Neither have I started to cultivate the "Soul Capture Forbidden Skill" of Bloody Soul Temple from Taixia Country that I obtained from Scala. If I focused on those iron-armored demons, I might find a chance to kill enough LV 9 iron-armored demons and get a fruit of source of them.'
Zhang Tie became perplexed when he hid in the hole. If he kept acting like this, he might not even find a chance to exterminate Senel Clan even when the demonized puppets corps occupied the entire Blackson Humans Corridor, 'How long will it take, one year or two years?'
When Zhang Tie was considering this question, he heard whispers of two clan warriors of Senel Clan on both sides of the vehicle, who were responsible for escorting vehicles of grains and weapons.
"Is that Tripoli, the capital of Symbian Republic ahead of Stancy City?"
"Right. After passing by Stancy City and tiding over Niecon River, we will arrive at the capital of Symbian Republic!"
"Pitifully, given the information from the vanguard corps, it seems that Tripoli's current situation is like that in Stancy City. All the resistible forces in the Symbian Republic have retreated to Norman Empire. They keep retreating southwards. None of them dare to block our army!"
"Ho...ho...that's great. We only need to chase after them. I'd like to see where they could hide."
"It's boring. We don't have a sense of conquest. We've not obtained any booties for a long time. Neither did we see any fresh, beautiful women..." The speaker swallowed his saliva at this moment before continuing, "I really recall those days in Titanic Duchy!"
"As long as we are fast enough, I don't believe that all the people can evacuate from this continent. Because of demon disasters, even the civilians in Norman Empire have not fully evacuated!"
"Therefore, we have to take Norman empire; then, we will obtain manpower resources, food, beautiful women and a great amount of wealth!"
"Heh, heh, heh..."
After hearing these words, Zhang Tie made his determination. 'Before the demons corps arrive at Norman Empire, if I cannot find a chance to kill Senel Clan members, I will leave them and improve my battle force by eating fruits first. I would never hang on the same tree of Senel Clan to death. After improving my battle force, I'll have a lot of chances to deal with Senel Clan in the future.'
'It's nothing serious even if I failed this action. Even the god would not allow one to be always smooth and successful.'
The moment Zhang Tie made the determination had he become relaxed. He then laid in the small hole and watched the heavy rain outside.
In the eyes of that insect, the scene was utterly different from that in people's eyes. They were not raindrops, but dense rain bullets. Each rain bullet was as large as its head. Like shells, each of them would cause a pit on the ground. Those fine dust and grits rose and fell. After a short while, the ground had become an ocean while numerous rivers and lakes came into being. Being baptized by rain bullets, those wild plants and tiny grasses were shaking with full rhythm. It seemed that they were communicating with this world in a bizarre way...all that in Zhang Tie's eyes formed a marvelous scene and brought Zhang Tie into an exotic realm.
How could people see such a marvelous scene!
Even Zhang Tie's new home was fashionable. He chose his temporary settlement in a junction on the top of a materials vehicle, which was hidden, safe and water-proof. If not someone climbed on the top of the vehicle and demolished it, nobody would find such a small hole at all. While he was staying in this small hole, he recalled the tree hollow where he lived in Wild Wolf Valley.
If there was no demonized puppet or war, these days' travel was unforgettable for Zhang Tie for sure. Even walking the same route, the world in the eyes of an insect was also utterly different than the world in the eyes of a person. Zhang Tie, in the incarnation of the little beetle, felt pretty fresh in a new world.
This was the marvel of life.
In the eyes of every life, even an insect, this was a different wonderful world full of possibilities and vitality.
'Who else has the right to deprive the other lives to sense this fresh and wonderful world?'
...
Suddenly, the material vehicle parked. Closely after that, the vehicle quivered a few seconds while someone jumped off it and unveiled the waterproof cloth over the vehicle. He started to unload those items from the vehicle in the heavy rain. At the same time, it turned noisy outside the hole.
The army was going to encamp here.
Those senseless demonized puppets could stay overnight as long as they huddled together. They would eat everything they saw on the way here. However, for those members of clans of Three-eye Association and their lackeys in the demonized puppets corps, they had to pitch tents at least. Of course, the common human members of clans of Three-eye Association would at least eat some dried rations during the march period; however, those like Battie, Houghs and Elder Quentin maintained high standards in food, drinking and living even during the march period.
Zhang Tie once thought about poisoning those b*stards of Senel Clan as it was the most convenient way for him to kill them; however, he found that the major figures like Koz, Quentin of Senel Clan were very meticulous in daily food. Before starting meals, they would have special people taste the food. Besides, their dining wares, including the glasses, vessels, knives and forks were able to identify poisonous substances. Therefore, the poisons that Zhang Tie carried didn't work anymore.
When the noises outside the hole turned smaller, it almost stopped raining. When the night fell, Zhang Tie drilled out of that "temporary settlement" on the top of the material vehicle. After that, he popped out his wings and started to "inspect" the near environment.
Usually, the material vehicle was parked in a hidden place in the rear of the camp. That temporary campsite was separated from the dense demonized puppets with barriers. The tents of Battie and Houghs were on both sides of the tent of Elder Quentin. Koz's main tent was also close to them. When Zhang Tie flew out of the hole, he saw the two guys walking in the main tent together with Elder Quentin and a liaison officer of Arthur Clan, another clan of Three-eye Association which controlled the middle corps.
Arthur Clan originated from Verof Federation of 17 human countries which collapsed first in the north. In the past 100 years, three federal presidents came from this clan. Besides, this clan controlled the largest military-industrial complex in Verof Federation as the biggest noble clan in Verof Federation. Who could imagine that such an influential clan could be a member of Three-eye Association? The reason that demons corps could take Verof Federation rapidly was closely related to Arthur Clan. Arthur Clan had much deeper background than Senel Clan. The knight that Zhang Tie killed was a knight employed by Arthur Clan. After that knight "disappeared", Arthur Clan dispatched another clan knight whom Zhang Tie saw after he killed Scala in Mocco City.
Now that the liaison officer of Arthur Clan was there, it indicated that they ought to be negotiating about the march route tomorrow in the main tent. Zhang Tie had eavesdropped such talks sometimes; however, he didn't get any valuable information from their talks; additionally, he was even afraid of exposing himself. Therefore, Zhang Tie didn't want to do that once again.
They encamped in the south of Stancy City. It seemed to be a river in the distant as Zhang Tie could hear gurgling sound of water. He then flew towards that river.
It was a great river, which was wider than 200 m. Due to heavy rain, the water near the bank was a bit dirty. It seemed to be an iron bridge over there previously; however, it had been completely demolished now. There were only two piers on two ends.
The iron bridge was replaced by more than 10 chain bridges above the river, which were paved with planks being linked with iron wires. Perhaps it was hard for commoners to build chain bridges above such wide river; however, it was very easy for a corps with knights. Heavy equipment such as armored vehicles might not be able to pass chain bridges; however, common vehicles and horses could easily pass them.
At the sight of the firm chain bridges, Zhang Tie had abandoned his thought——to kill them when they pass the chain bridges.
'Won't I find any chance to clean Senel Clan members? Do I have to wait until the future?'
With a depressed mood, Zhang Tie flew along the bank for a while before returning to the encampment.
Of course not. There were always unexpected things in this world.
Before he reached the encampment had Zhang Tie heard a thunder-like sound which contained an unrivaled aggressive qi, "Who's Koz, the owner of Senel Clan?"
The moment Zhang Tie heard this voice had become stunned because he was familiar with this sound. Zhang Tie remembered that he might have heard it somewhere. At the same time, a solemn and dignified face loomed in Zhang Tie mind...
Elder Muray, Huaiyuan Palace...
Zhang Tie quivered all over as he almost fell down from the air, 'Is that him?'
After recovering his composure faintly, Zhang Tie hurriedly rushed back towards that encampment from where he had just left...
Chapter 671: The Unrivaled Power of Elder Muray
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
When Zhang Tie arrived at the camp, he saw Elder Muray standing still about 20 m in the air while releasing a powerful aggressive qi and looking down at the camp.
Zhang Tie flapped its wings and silently landed on a eucalyptus tree over 100 m away. After that, he held his breath and gazed at the scene over there.
The camp of Senel Clan was a bit disordered while numerous demonized puppets were flooding towards the camp.
At this moment, Koz and a knight being employed by Senel Clan walked out of the main tent. The moment Quentin caught sight of Elder Muray had he walked into the air one step after another like there were stairs in the air and gazed at Elder Muray from 50 m away.
Some bolts were shot towards Elder Muray right away from some heavy crossbows. However, Elder Muray just ignored them. Like chasing away flies, he casually waved his arm, causing the bolts fly back at a faster speed. After flying over 100 m, they exploded the two warriors of Senel Clan who were holding the heavy crossbows, followed by thunder-like sonic booms. From the beginning, Elder Muray didn't look aside. Elder Quentin was also glassy-eyed like having not seen Elder Muray killing people in front of him.
At the sight of this scene, Zhang Tie swallowed his saliva on a distant tree forcefully, "It's too powerful! The casual wave could cause bolts fly back as powerful as his javelins, which could kill any fighters below LV 12 immediately."
"You're Koz?" Elder Muray asked Quentin icily.
"I'm Quentin, the elder being employed by Senel Clan. Who are you?"
"Zhang Muray, Huaiyuan Palace!" Elder Muray replied with a calm, loud voice.
After hearing this answer, Koz who had just walked out of the main tent slightly changed his look; Elder Quentin's look also turned solemn at once.
"May you tell me about your intention here?" Quentin asked carefully and slowly. At this moment, Quentin expected to hear the words "pass by"; pitifully, Elder Muray's reply shattered his hope at once.
"Senel Clan once framed Zhang Tie, apprentice of Huaiyuan Palace. Of course, his elder would come here to revenge for him; otherwise, others would doubt that our Huaiyuan Palace is too weak to protect its own apprentices. I only need to take away Koz's head today. Why are you here?" Elder Muray asked calmly.
In the distance, a knight of Arthur Clan was flashing towards here as fast as a lightning bolt.
"Kill him..." Before Elder Quentin opened his mouth had Koz's voice spread across the military camp.
...
Before Zhang Tie recovered his composure from Elder Muray's shocking words had the terrifying, fierce battle started.
When Koz uttered "Kill", he had already started to move rapidly. As a result, Elder Muray instantly focused on him while narrowing his eyes...
Almost at the same time, a fiery battle qi totem rushed into the air like a signal bomb from Elder Quentin, which was extremely brilliant in such a deep night and could be seen clearly within 100 miles. This indicated that the knight being employed by Senel Clan had gone to all lengths at the beginning of the battle.
At the same time, numerous subordinates of Senel Clan inside and outside the camp triggered their long-distance weapons, some of which were powerful mobile beehive crossbows and drag and drop heavy mechanical ballistas towards Elder Muray.
The faces of the great batch of demonized puppets being closest to the camp who knew nothing about death and fear had turned grim...
...
Closely after the word "kill", Koz had already been 50 m away...
At this moment, Quentin had already formed a powerful Knight-level long-distance strike...
Numerous bolts had already been shot out...
Those demonized puppets being closest to the camp had already raised their steps and prepared to rush towards here...
A brilliant longbow had appeared in Elder Muray's hand, which was almost as high as that of Elder Muray. Even though Zhang Tie had been widely opening his eyes, he still failed to see how it appeared in Elder Muray's hand, not to mention the look of the longbow. In the evening, the longbow was emanating brilliance like a weapon composed of light. Elder Muray was striding forward and drawing the bow in the air...
At the sight of that longbow, Quentin changed his face at once while his battle qi totem quivered a while and almost collapsed...
...
Closely after the word "him", Koz had been more than 100 m away and disappeared in the numerous demonized puppets...
Quentin's powerful Knight-level battle qi finally came into being while a wolf-sized battle qi charged towards Elder Muray. Soon after launching this strike, Quentin rapidly retreated towards the other direction at the speed many times faster than that of Koz.
Numerous bolts were close to Elder Muray's body...
The long light bow in Elder Muray's hand was like a full moon. The moment he unstrung the bow had the camp of demonized puppets become bright like a sun rising in the dark. Zhang Tie felt white all over in front of his eyes...
All those bolts being close to Elder Muray were crushed completely. The wild wolf battle qi flowing off Quentin's hands was like a snowman falling into the magma, which was destroyed at once. At the same time, a beam of light flew off Elder Muray's longbow and caught up with Koz.
The tents and demonized puppets were all vaporized by this beam of light at once...
With still a dumbfounded and unbelievable look, Koz had disappeared in the beam of light.
At the sight of this scene, the aggressive knight of Arthur Clan in the distance instantly turned around and escaped right away...
...
When Zhang Tie recovered his composure, he found a great chaos in the demonized puppets camp.
After triggering his long crossbow, Elder Muray chased after Elder Quentin and disappeared from Zhang Tie's vision...
There was a 1,000 m long terrifying burning mark from where the longbow was triggered, causing half of the tents in the core of the camp of Senel Clan to disappear.
Koz disappeared, along with his sons, Battie and Houghs. Zhang Tie saw two heavily broken items on the ground where a lot of tents had been cleaned. Zhang Tie could barely identify their previous looks, one of them was Battie's ox-horn shaped helmet, the other was Houghs' long sword.
Zhang Tie recalled that the bolt triggered by Elder Muray rightly penetrated through the main tent, from where Koz and Quentin had just drilled out. When Elder Muray suddenly arrived, it seemed that Battie and Houghs were still in the tent. Koz might want to protect them by leaving them inside the main tent at the critical moment. However, everything happened so fast. Only in a few seconds, everything had come to an end. Battie and Houghs didn't even have time to respond to it.
Koz thought he was just facing a knight; however, he forgot that the knight came from Zhang Clan, Huaiyuan Palace...
Zhang Tie had not imagined that what he failed to do after following Senel Clan for more than 10 days was solved by only one bolt of Elder Muray in less than 30 seconds. After the Koz, the head of Senel Clan and the two excellent successors were killed, Senel Clan was exterminated.
What a knight!
'The grand dinner that the poor always dream about might only be the common food what the rich felt not like eating at all. What I couldn't do might just be a matter of choice for others.' Zhang Tie concluded.
Zhang Tie was deeply impressed by the brilliant longbow and the bolt that had been triggered. Until then did Zhang Tie realize why Elder Muray was bad-tempered as was said by everyone in Huaiyuan Palace. Whenever he launched an attack, he would cause a great casualty...
What made Zhang Tie feel more complex inside was Elder Muray's words "Senel Clan once framed Zhang Tie, apprentice of Huaiyuan Palace. Of course, his elder would come here to revenge for him".
At this moment, the estrangement between Zhang Tie and Huaiyuan Palace faded away in Zhang Tie's mind at once.
'What a Zhang Clan of Huaiyuan Palace!'
Zhang Tie took a deep breath before flying off the twig. Soon after he flew off the camp and came to a hidden place had he incarnated into the thunder hawk and rushed to the height of about 1,000 m by flapping his wings. At the same time, he darted towards the direction where Quentin left for at the speed ten times faster than that of the beetle according to his memory.
Quentin escaped towards the east.
Zhang Tie kept chasing after him until the daybreak. He didn't know where he had been. However, he didn't see Quentin and Elder Muray on the way at all. Finally, he stopped in front of a vast ocean where Zhang Tie knew he lost his target...
Chapter 672: A 1,000-Mile Misty Ocean
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
No matter how lucky he was, he could not encounter a dying knight every time. Therefore, it was not strange if he lost his target.
After adjusting his mood instantly, Zhang Tie flew along the coastline.
'Quentin might have turned when he flew eastward a while. However, I kept flying eastward; therefore, I lost my target.
'Will Elder Muray catch up with Quentin?' Zhang Tie didn't know about that. At least he had not seen battle traces between knights on the way here. The knight's realm was always covered with a mysterious veil for others. Quentin might have a way to protect his life.
Zhang Tie couldn't think through why a brilliant long bow suddenly appeared in the hands of Elder Muray last night, why Quentin suddenly changed his face after seeing the longbow and slipped away as timid as a rabbit after a hasty strike. It seemed that Quentin had long known that the longbow was an unrivaled weapon. As he knew that he could not defeat Elder Muray, he chose to retreat. So was the knight from Arthur Clan. After seeing Elder Muray killing Koz in the blink of an eye, the knight of Arthur Clan also hurriedly turned around and escaped.
Zhang Tie didn't know whether it was worth seeing such a shocking scene after following Senel Clan jubilantly for more than 10 days.
Zhang Tie had not gained any new fruit; neither did he kill anyone. However, the strike of Elder Muray opened a gate for Zhang Tie at once, allowing him to peep many things that he had not imagined through the gate.
In Zhang Tie's eyes, Koz was a powerful guy, who was very cunning and hard to deal with. Even Zhang Tie himself had fallen into his trap. Zhang Tie didn't know when he could kill such a powerful enemy. However, Elder Muray made him disappear only with one punch. Therefore, Zhang Tie reached a conclusion——In the eyes of knights, all those below knights were ants.
'I have to be a knight like Elder Muray, even better than him.'
A hot blood and heroic spirit surged in Zhang Tie's mind, 'With Castle of Black Iron, small tree and "King Roc Sutra", I have no reason to be not as powerful as Elder Muray.'
'Although I didn't launch an attack, Senel Clan have been exterminated. What's my next destination then?' Zhang Tie considered inside.
'Go back to Huaiyuan Palace? No, Elder Muray must be here for me. If I went back to Huaiyuan Palace, I would definitely be confined as a stallion. I would never be as free as now. Even if I was not confined in a place, I would always be accompanied by an elder from Huaiyuan Palace as my bodyguard. If so, I could not enter Castle of Black Iron to eat fruits and would barely promote to a knight quickly. Therefore, I would never go back.' Zhang Tie thought.
After Koz was killed, the middle corps of demonized puppets would be in a chaos temporarily; however, it would not pose any rudimentary influence to the plan of demons. After rolling over the Symbian Republic, the vanguard of the army of demons would target Norman Empire directly.
'Will Norman Empire leave its empty cities to demons?' Zhang Tie didn't think so. 'Because Norman Empire has not evacuated all of its people. If Norman Empire didn't resist, after capturing those people in the territory of Norman Empire, the population of demonized puppets would expand to a terrifying scale. This would cause a disaster for the rest of humans. Therefore, Norman Empire would fight demonized puppets and demons to death even only for saving some more time for those civilians. Besides, if the military of Norman Empire just escaped away, the royal household of Norman Empire would lose their majesty. When they give up Norman Empire, they abandon their royal status and honors as well. Therefore, the royal household of Norman Empire would never just escape without fighting demons and demonized puppets. After demons broke the human defense line in Selnes Theater of Operations, the cruelest battle between humans and demons would start in Norman Empire. '
'I have no concerns in Norman Empire; based on Hanna's current status, they could easily leave Norman Empire by an airship. Reinhardt is a powerful fighter, who could determine his own fate with his current ability and battle force. Therefore, it is meaningless for me to go to Norman Empire at this moment.'
'The best choice is to digest the achievements that I've gained these days so as to further improve my battle force. After promoting to LV 12, I'd better find a chance to kill a batch of iron-armored demons so as to get a fruit of source of iron-armored demons. After that, I will go to Ice and Snow Wilderness.'
As soon as he made the determination had Zhang Tie felt relaxed.
Watching the vast ocean at the foot, Zhang Tie remembered that his Castle of Black Iron was running out of basic energy storage and his plan to build some "new houses" on the top of the immortal mountain in Castle of Black Iron. His heart raced at once, 'Before I promote to LV 12, I will greatly increase basic energy storage for Castle of Black Iron.'
Zhang Tie instantly flew towards the deep of the ocean...
After more than half an hour, Zhang Tie was almost 100 miles away from the coastline, from where he sniffed the special odor of sulfide in the sea wind coming from afar. An isle appeared in Zhang Tie's vision.
There was a volcano in the isle, which was fug-belching. At the same time, a lot of dark red magma flew out of the top of the volcano all the way to the ocean. The moment the scorching magma met the icy seawater had arisen a large area of vapor, which looked like a dense fog over the sea. The entire isle was covered by the misty dreamland. If not above the isle, Zhang Tie could never see the overall look of the isle.
Starting from this isle, more and more mist as wide as hundreds of square miles appeared on the sea. The mist gradually covered the sky. Therefore, Zhang Tie felt like entering a misty ocean.
In the misty ocean, Zhang Tie could faintly see glows on the sea, from where a wide area of vapor and water mist upsurged. Some scorching air flows even spurted as high as 100 m in the air.
After recalling the map on the sea area of the entire Blackson Humans Corridor for a few seconds, a term occurred to Zhang Tie's mind——A 1,000-mile Misty Ocean! 'I'm in a 1,000-mile Misty Ocean.'
This was a forsaken place in Blackson Humans Corridor. A lot of magma fractures led to the underground world beneath this ocean. The volcanic activity in this region was very frequent while the magma was spurting out of the seabed all the year round. After reaching the sea level, the magma heated up the sea water and formed a misty ocean as wide as 1,000 square miles. This was due to the epeirogeny of the continent. After tens of thousands of years, this sea area might become a vigorous land being bordered by the land of Blackson Humans Corridor. However, at this moment, it was just a forsaken place.
No ship would like to enter such a secluded misty ocean. The visibility in the misty ocean was very low. Dark eddies existed everywhere beneath the sea level. Additionally, more hidden reefs would form everyday after the magma cooled down. Furthermore, old reefs would enlarge everyday, which would even change their locations due to the flowing underground magma river. This passage changed in each second. Nobody could hold it. Therefore, all the ships of Blackson Humans Corridor would make a detour around this Misty Ocean.
As the seawater here cooled down too much magma, the sea water here became hot while carrying some substances in the magma. As a result, the sea water here displayed weak acidity, causing no fish or marine organism to live in this sea area.
This was a dangerous desert in the ocean. However, it was the best paradise for Zhang Tie at this moment.
After flying more than 2 hours in the misty ocean as a thunder hawk, Zhang Tie almost came to the center of the misty ocean. He then teleported the thunder hawk into Castle of Black Iron.
After the thunder hawk was teleported in Castle of Black Iron for one minute, Zhang Tie's naked body appeared out of void about 40 m above the sea. After that, he dove into the sea, causing no spray at all...
With the preliminary waterproof body, Zhang Tie felt as free as being in the sky when he returned to the ocean that he had not seen for a long time. The moment he entered the sea had he slightly moved and dived towards the seabed after leaving some bubbles on the sea level. His speed and agility would dwarf any ocean organism if there was any.
This sea area was very deep. Besides, it was about 40 degree Celsius. After diving about 1,000 m in depth, Zhang Tie saw some fiery magma rivers in the seabed while the surrounding seawater was boiling and constantly transferring numerous bubbles and vapor upwards, causing the dense mist over the sea.
There were some crisscrossed oceanic trenches beside the magma rivers. With the surging magma, large water flows poured out of the deep earth's crust being linked to the oceanic trenches, making the ocean environment more complex...
Chapter 673: A Hidden Cultivation in the Misty Ocean
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
Zhang Tie attempted to touch the water flows pouring out of the oceanic trenches. The moment he was hit by one water flow had he been sent sliding over 50 m backward. Given his senses, Zhang Tie realized that it was fresh water. It seemed to be a turbulent fresh river in the oceanic trench. In farther places, Zhang Tie saw some volcanoes spurting magma from the seabed. There were volcanoes and estuaries of subterranean rivers at the seabed, arising Zhang Tie's praise about the marvel of the creator, the mother nature.
Because of the environment hereby, the seawater was covered with torrents, subterranean streams and whirlpools.
Zhang Tie was very satisfied with the environment.
"Heller, how about this place?"
"Nice, I could maximize the teleporting entrance so that Castle of Black Iron could absorb seawater at the fastest speed without causing any abnormal situations on the sea level!" Heller's voice sounded in Zhang Tie's mind. Heller was very satisfied with Zhang Tie's plan to increase basic energy storage for Castle of Black Iron.
"Hard work!"
With these words, Zhang Tie entered Castle of Black Iron.
When Zhang Tie put on his clothes in Castle of Black Iron, he felt the colorful cloud turning bright. Closely after that, a spillway opened in the sky while enormous seawater poured down directly into the Abyss of Chaos.
The Abyss of Chaos was surrounding the immortal mountain while enormous seawater was pouring into the Abyss of Chaos. In a split second, the entire immortal mountain was like being covered by a bizarre, round waterfall, which shocked Zhang Tie at once.
With the knight's consciousness, Zhang Tie still felt that the waterfall was flowing hundreds of times faster than that of a common waterfall. In Zhang Tie's eyes, the entire immortal mountain was not covered with liquid, but with an extremely thick, freezing crystal wall. If not the changing glistening light on the round water wall, Zhang Tie would never believe that it was a water flow pouring down from the sky.
The super high-speed waterfall fell into the Abyss of Chaos silently without causing any spray.
In the distance, those people whom Zhang Tie brought in Castle of Black Iron were so excited at the sight of such a wonderful scene on the immortal mountain that they all knelt down and prayed loudly on the ground. In the eyes of those people, the immortal mountain was a huge crystal cover manifested by their god. As it was flowing super fast silently, those people didn't know that it was water. They could only feel the breeze.
Watching Heller walking over here, Zhang Tie swallowed his saliva forcefully, "Can you tell me the runoff of this water?"
"1.17 million cubic meters per second!" Heller answered with a smile.
"Ah? You mean the Castle of Black Iron could engulf 1.17 million tons of seawater per second!"
"Right. This figure is 3.2 times that of the largest river in Blackson Humans Corridor. Now, Castle of Black Iron could convert 1.17 million tons of basic energy storage per second. Do you want to check it?" Heller waved his hand while a virtual image of counting card appeared in front of Zhang Tie. The figures in the front 7 digits were running so fast that Zhang Tie could only see a white line while the 8th digit was rolling rapidly like that of a water meter. The figure on the 9th digit changed twice per second.
The great convertible efficiency of basic energy storage reminded Zhang Tie of how he carried pack baskets of deserted ores from the mining caves into Castle of Black Iron. Zhang Tie felt speechless at once, 'What a great cheat!' He realized that he might not have utilized 1/10,000 of the ability of Castle of Black Iron to convert the material into basic energy till now.
"How fast is the water flow?" Zhang Tie asked out of curiosity.
"It could cut through granite plates!"
"Won't it hurt someone?"
"Castle Lord, trust me, everything in Castle of Black Iron is under my control!" Heller revealed a confident smile which made Zhang Tie reassured.
"What about outside?"
"Don't worry. Nobody would find it. The 1,000-mile misty ocean forms the best cover. If someone comes to this sea area by accident, arrives at such a depth by accident and is no less than 500 m away from this water, I will know that someone is coming through the subtle change of water flow that enters Castle of Black Iron. I will stop it right away. That person would never find it!"
"That'll be good!" Zhang Tie became reassured, 'It might be the god's will for me to arrive here. As for such a suitable environment for me to increase basic energy storage for Castle of Black Iron, I will make full use of it for sure.'
"How long will you stay in Castle of Black Iron, Castle Lord?"
"I won't leave out of here until I reach LV 12!" Zhang Tie had a sense of crisis after seeing the blow of Elder Muray last night. Even a LV 15 guy was nothing but a f*rt in front of the knight. Therefore, Zhang Tie realized that him, as a 5-star battle LV 11 battle master was too risky in front of the real powerhouses. After promoting to LV 12, Zhang Tie would feel safer in front of crises. Additionally, Zhang Tie had already lit 125 surging points. He only needed to light another 19 surging points before promoting to a LV 12 great battle master...
Zhang Tie gained the ability to intensify his power twice when he promoted to LV 10 and LV 11 with the help of "King Roc Sutra". Based on the former two experiences, Zhang Tie knew that he would intensify his ability once more when he promoted to LV 12. He was desiring so much about what he could achieve.
"If it's real, before you leave Castle of Black Iron, you would definitely see a new round of change of Castle of Black Iron!"
"I hope so..." Zhang Tie said as he walked towards the small tree.
'It's time to eat fruits!'
From March 14th when he left Tokei City to April 16th, there were 6 new leakless fruits hanging on the small tree, 5 of which already became ripe, 1 was still raw.
Besides the 6 leakless fruits, Zhang Tie saw many more fruits, 1 of which was the fruit of brilliance, 4 trouble-reappearance fruits and 1 fruit of judgment.
The fruit of judgment granted Zhang Tie with a wholly-new rune skill——"preliminary tracing skill". As a very practical and powerful skill, it enabled Zhang Tie to release a hidden spiritual energy mark on someone or something which would stay effective very long. As long as that person or thing appeared less than 600 miles away from Zhang Tie, Zhang Tie would be able to sense it and find them precisely.
The 6 fruits came from the reward of killing 4 young elites of Elvis Clan in the rear corps.
Besides, the wing demons' fruit of source that Zhang Tie desired most also became ripe. It smelt extremely fragrant. The whole fruit was radiating a bizarre eye-catching brilliance. Compared to other fruits, this one took Zhang Tie the longest time to become ripe since he came to Selnes Theater of Operations last year.
Watching the complex pattern of source flower being composed of rounds on the surface of the fruit of source, Zhang Tie let out a deep sigh with satisfaction. 'No matter how many troubles have I experienced in the Selnes Theater of Operations, everything was worthwhile. With such perfect conditions, if I could not be a knight, I'd rather go die.'
Zhang Tie reached his hand out...
——Wing demons' fruit of source. Usage: Pick and direct eat it. Notice: The fruit cannot be taken out of the Castle of Black Iron. After twelve hours of having been picked off the tree, its energy and vitality will gradually decline.
——This fruit could increase your life source and improve your health and quality of life in an all-round manner.
——All the life existences are sprouted by the seed of source. The spiritual life rules are the manifestation of the source. The great strength forms the look of the source, which is included in each fulfillment. It includes all the knowledge, rhythm, lives and sacred things. It is a combination of feminine and masculine, brightness and darkness, positive and negative. It is the flower and fruit of lives and the sturdy tree of lives.
Zhang Tie imagined what Heller had told him about the fruit of source. There was a mysterious link between this fruit and the number 1/12. As long as he ate one fruit of source, the ability that could be brought by each surging point, his physical strength and endurance, his life expectancy and his cells' aging speed would decline by 1/12...
Zhang Tie picked off the fruit of source and held it carefully. After that, he sat under the small tree with crossed legs and put this fruit into his mouth. As he ate it, he closed his eyes.
Soon after the fruit entered his stomach had a pattern of the bud of a flower of source loomed in the middle of Zhang Tie's forehead. Closely after that, the bud was in full bloom. Zhang Tie also started to give out light all over...
After 5 hours later, Zhang Tie opened his eyes. Zhang Tie felt that he had promoted to a new level. He gained a new life both inside and outside. Additionally, Zhang Tie felt having one more familiar energy in his body. He always felt that he had sensed that energy before. After racking his mind for a few minutes, he became suddenly shocked as he sensed the same weak energy escaping from the All-spirits Pagoda when he used the soul-based incarnation method of "Great Wilderness Sutra".
When he remembered the warning of Cloud Crane in the posthumous paper about implementing soul-based incarnation skill, Zhang Tie immediately danced with joy under the small tree while bursting out into laughter...
"Hahaha, I see, I see..."
Chapter 674: Benefits
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
Zhang Tie had only implemented soul-based incarnation method a few times. In the posthumous paper, Cloud Crane once warned that soul-based incarnation method required a bit source of spirit and soul of its user. It was the biggest shortcoming of soul-based incarnation method. Therefore, cultivators of Great Wilderness Sutra could never constantly apply the soul-based animal controlling skill. With one more incarnation, the source of spirit and soul of one's original body would decline a bit. Zhang Tie was afraid of having some sequelae after applying soul-based animal controlling skill previously. However, after eating the fruit of source, Zhang Tie finally understood that he didn't need to think too much. Because the strength gifted by the fruit of source was the very wisp of strength that had escaped from his body when he fixed his incarnations.
From the beginning, Zhang Tie totally had three incarnations, namely a rat, a thunder hawk and a black beetle. It would always consume his original body's some source energy when he fixed the 3 incarnations. However, compared to the energy that he gained through the fruit of source, this bit of energy escaping from his body was trivial. If the source energy gained through the fruit of source was compared to a vat of water, the source energy that he lost when he fixed the three incarnations was only equal to the bit of water on the tip of the writing brush.
Of course, the source energy contained in the fruit of source of 360 wing demons at and above LV 9 was thousands of times greater than that required by fixing a rat, an insect or a thunder hawk.
In the former Great Wilderness School, the apprentices used numerous secret tonics to mend up the escaping source energy when they cultivated soul-based incarnation skill; although Zhang Tie had not taken numerous secret tonics, a fruit of source was enough to mend up all the source energy that had escaped from his original body. After fixing the only shortcoming of the secret method of "Great Wilderness Sutra", Zhang Tie didn't have to worry about potential harms.
The teleportation ability of Castle of Black Iron, the fruit of source and the "Great Wilderness Sutra", what a perfect combination.
After taking this fruit of source, although Zhang Tie didn't light any more surging point, he felt as powerful as lighting over 10 more surging points. At this moment, the flames around the 125 surging points that had been lit had faintly expanded and grown brighter. Zhang Tie's overall strength had hit a new high from aspects such as strength, speed, reaction capability and senses.
It was just a beginning. Later on, with one more surging point being lit, Zhang Tie would gain 1/12 more ability than those people who lit the same number of surging points. The later it was, the more effective the fruit of source would be.
With a laughter, Zhang Tie started to run about wildly on the top of the mountain so as to sense the changing physical conditions more precisely. He flashed as fast as a lightning bolt. After activating Kuafu Bloodline, he arrived at the foot of the mountain in only a couple of steps. With another stride forward, Zhang Tie returned to the top of the mountain. After activating a senior rapidly moving rune, Zhang Tie moved so fast that he almost turned into an extremely virtual shadow which circled around the immortal mountain.
At this moment, Zhang Tie started to feel that this area was too small that it was even inconvenient for him to move.
Heller watched Zhang Tie running about madly out of excitement with a smile. Heller had a great sense of achievement and satisfaction about Zhang Tie's excitement and success——because this was the feature of his achievement-type personality.
After running around the top of the mountain for a few circles in an extremely virtual shadow, Zhang Tie came to the front of Heller with a fresh wind. After standing still, Zhang Tie showed his figure and look clearly.
Zhang Tie neither blushed nor panted.
"Heller, can you expand the immortal mountain? After moving so many people inside, I feel inconvenient to do many things."
"As you wish, Castle Lord. As long as you stay in Castle of Black Iron for a few more days, I promise to show you a satisfactory space and topographical renovation!"
...
Later on, Zhang Tie ate that fruit of judgment which contained the "preliminary tracing skill", some trouble-reappearance fruits and that fruit of brilliance. The effect of each rune of preliminary tracing skill could last 10 days with a remote-sensing distance of 600 km. If Zhang Tie stuck his tracing tentacles to objects, it would hardly be found by people. If Zhang Tie stuck tracing tentacles to people, nobody below knights could notice such a mysterious rune effect on himself. 'As to knights, heh, heh. Don't knights wear clothes or shoes? As long as knights don't find the tracing tentacles on their belongings temporarily, the rune would take effect as well.'
As a very practical and useful skill, it could be used to trace someone and send an early warning to him. It could also remind Zhang Tie of the location of someone. Additionally, if he was chased after by someone, Zhang Tie, with this skill, would be able to master the trace of the opponent; as a result, he could escape easily.
After taking that fruit, Zhang Tie had one more golden secret rune that represented preliminary tracing skill in his mind. After being injected with spiritual energy, the rune shocked while a faintly agile stick of tracing feather in the shape of dandelion's seed appeared in Zhang Tie's mind sea and started to float in his mind sea.
After taking the fruit of brilliance which contained the spiritual energy of the 4 young elites of Elvis Clan, Zhang Tie's spiritual energy sea had expanded a lot. Commoners could never accumulate so much spiritual energy in their whole lives. However, Zhang Tie could gain them only by eating a fruit.
It took Zhang Tie almost one day to digest all of these fruits. Zhang Tie didn't continue his cultivation; instead, he adjusted his rhythm by eating food and sleeping...
On the next day, Zhang Tie took the 5 leakless fruits while two more golden bird-shaped flames circled around that stick of spiritual feather in his Shrine.
After sacrificing himself 891 times in the whole day, Zhang Tie finally found the next 2 surging points in Castle of Black Iron. Closely after that, he lit the 2 surging points under the small tree once again.
Since then, he only needed to light 17 more surging points before promoting to LV 12 great battle master.
Would he just stay there to wait for the next leakless fruits to become ripe so as to light other surging points?
Of course not. Zhang Tie had started to sit under the small tree with crossed legs and polish that stick of spiritual feather in his Shrine using his spiritual energy like how a commoner cultivated "King Roc Sutra" since the next day after he lit the two surging points.
'Others could light their surging points in this method, so could I. It's not acceptable that I could not use the most rudimentary cultivation skill without leakless fruits.' Zhang Tie thought. Additionally, he faintly felt that he had not fully exerted the effect of his powerful spiritual energy and knight's consciousness.
Zhang Tie was right.
Soon after he calmed down and started to cultivate based on his own ability had he sensed the high efficiency of cultivation benefited from his Knight-level consciousness. Only in about 11 hours had the color of that stick of spiritual feather in his Shrine surging point turned from orange to yellow...
It was like breaking 1 of 7 barriers of a surging point in one day. Zhang Tie could never imagine about this before.
Zhang Tie finally understood the benefit of a powerful spiritual energy.
"You're polishing surging points as fast as a knight!" Heller concluded, "This is the benefit for you to have the knight's spiritual energy. Castle Lord, do you want to challenge more difficult cultivation?"
"Of course, what's that?" Zhang Tie's curiosity was aroused.
"When you polish that stick of spiritual feather in the Shrine, you can gain some iron-body fruits at the same time so as to be stronger!" Heller replied like a senior adviser while his words were full of temptations.
"Is that real?"
"It's impossible in other places at any time. However, it's indeed possible in this environment!" Heller said as he pointed at the firm water wall which was falling into the Abyss of Chaos constantly, "When you start your cultivation, I can divert a water flow onto your body. As long as you can bear it, you will have your body exercised when you polish the stick of spiritual feather, one stone for two birds!"
"Do you mean that the water flow could cut through granite. I'm afraid that I could not bear such a high speed at this moment!"
"Of course the water flow that I divert on you will not have such a high speed. Its effect is like the impulse that you could bear under a waterfall as high as 1,000 m. Under such a great impulse, your majesty could stand 12 hours per day at most!"
Zhang Tie gritted his teeth as he said, "Fine!"
Chapter 675: A Remarkable Progress
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
On the same day, Zhang Tie moved to the foot of the mountain from the place under the small tree. Right on a stony platform near the Abyss of Chaos, Zhang Tie accepted the impulse of the powerful water flow as he attempted to polish that stick of spiritual feather in his Shrine...
At the first 3 days, Zhang Tie could not fully enter meditation under the impulse of the powerful water flow when he felt exhausted 12 hours per day. Until the 4th day, Zhang Tie became slowly adapted to it. He tried to enter meditation under the impulse. On the 7th day, Zhang Tie finally could enter meditation under the impulse of water flow. However, this process was intermittent. After eating 3 iron-body fruits in 10 days, Zhang Tie could finally fully enter meditation under such a powerful impulse of waterfall...
After that, Zhang Tie's cultivation schedule became steady in Castle of Black Iron. He would spend 12 hours a day to polish that stick of spiritual feather in his Shrine under the impulse of the powerful waterfall. After that, Zhang Tie used another 4 hours to cultivate his battle skills and other secret methods and 3 hours to read the endless true words of the Great Wilderness Sutra. As to the rest 5 hours in a day, he would eat food and sleep...
Zhang Tie cultivated and enlightened Iron-blood Fist everyday. Besides, he also cultivated other battle skills and secret skills.
The other battle skill that Zhang Tie cultivated was the swordsmanship called "Meteor Shower Sword" that he bought in the illegal demon hunters market in Selnes Theater of Operations which came from the Eastern Continent. When he bought this book, Zhang Tie was gifted with the secret book "Robust Ox Skill" for free.
Although "Meteor Shower Sword" was not one of the top swordsmanships in the legend, it was also extensive, profound and very powerful. Additionally, the secret knowledge at this level was always beyond the reach of commoners. In the Eastern Continent, some even promoted to sword sage with this secret knowledge.
As long as becoming a strong fighter, anyone could cultivate this secret knowledge. Additionally, as the cultivator's level increased, the cultivator would have deeper enlightenment about this swordsmanship; as a result, his swordsmanship would be more powerful. Zhang Tie didn't know whether it was benefited from his knight's consciousness because he could always understand the contents of the secret knowledge instantly. He made a remarkable progress in the process of learning "Meteor Shower Sword".
Additionally, due to commonplaces between swordsmanship and fist position, Zhang Tie also made progress in Iron-blood Fist.
When he was free, Zhang Tie would cultivate another secret knowledge——"Soul Capture Skill" of Bloody Soul Temple that he gained from Scala's corpse.
Compared to "Meteor Shower Sword", this "Soul Capture Skill" had higher requirements. People whose spiritual energy was lower than that of a battle spirit could not cultivate it. Scala didn't know where to get this secret knowledge. Scala as a LV 14 battle demon didn't unlock this secret knowledge before he was killed by Zhang Tie.
Although it was a higher request on spiritual energy for commoners, it was extremely easy for Zhang Tie. After eating so many fruits of brilliance, his spiritual energy would be much higher than that of common knights, not to mention that of a battle spirit.
Compared to "Iron-blood Fist" and "Meteor Shower Skill", "Soul Capture Skill" was too evil, which was based on the cultivation of vision, auditory sense, smell, taste sense, body sense, consciousness, predestined affinity and soul. As long as he completed the cultivation, he could capture or influence others' souls and consciousness with one look or motion silently which was unpreventable. The hypnotism that Zhang Tie heard before was dwarfed by this marvelous skill. When he reached an extremely supreme realm, he could even sow soul seeds in others' 8 senses, causing them to be his soul slaves. The soul slaves would say fragrant things smelly, smelly things fragrant, white black, black white; they would lose their mind and be fully hallucinatory; they wouldn't even know whether they were dead or not. How arbitrary! What counted most was that soul slaves didn't think that their actions and feelings were under your control. They would only feel that everything they did was following their mind and determination.
After reading "Soul Capture Skill", Zhang Tie confirmed that Koz had not cultivated this secret knowledge. Otherwise, he might have exposed everything he knew to Senel Clan when he fell in their hands in Tokei City. One could easily obtain any information that he wanted from others' mouth using this "Soul Capture Skill".
As this skill was a bit evil, Zhang Tie was considering whether to cultivate it or not at the beginning; however, after reading the secret knowledge once, Zhang Tie tragically realized that he had already bore the contents of the entire "Soul Capture Skill" firm in mind. Furthermore, as the only request that this secret knowledge posed to its cultivator was the cultivator's spiritual energy, after skimming over the secret knowledge, Zhang Tie had already mastered some low-end secret methods such as soul obsessed skill.
'Whatever, just cultivate it. With more skills, I will be more powerful. As a righteous and kind youth...ahem...ahem...I will not do evil things with those evil secret methods.' Zhang Tie thought as he started to cultivate the "Soul Capture Skill". The moment he started had he found a more tragic fact——although always being average in talents, he had a great aptitude in cultivating the evil secret method. It only took him 2 weeks to promote to the level that 'would be reached by commoners after many years' of serious cultivation on many contents as was written on the mysterious book...
'F*ck, this father is born to...have a...'
Zhang Tie swore inside. At the same time, he made the determination that he would never tell others that he had such an evil aptitude. 'As long as I leave Castle of Black Iron, I will never have heard about "Soul Capture Skill" or anything else.'
Castle of Black Iron would engulf 1.17 million cubic meters of seawater per second. Furthermore, the small tree could provide Zhang Tie one iron-body fruit per 3 days and 1 leakless fruit per 7 days. Meanwhile, when in deep meditation, Zhang Tie could produce a golden bird-shaped flame that could light a surging point from the stick of spiritual feather in the Shrine with his knight's spiritual energy. What an amazing speed! Zhang Tie just gnawed fruits and cultivated carefully when the time elapsed...
Zhang Tie didn't know how long had he stayed in Castle of Black Iron. He felt that he had already lit 134 surging points in the blink of an eye. After lighting 10 more surging points, he would promote to LV 12...
...
Today, Zhang Tie didn't count how many times had he died in the trouble-reappearance situation...
With a sound "bang", Zhang Tie who attempted to light the next surging point on the seaside exploded and turned into bloody mist in the blink of an eye. At the same time, the trouble-reappearance situation broke apart...
Under the torrents, Zhang Tie, in naked body, opened his eyes. After taking another deep breath, he activated that trouble-reappearance situation once again...
After failing over another 100 times consecutively, Zhang Tie stood on the seaside in the trouble-reappearance situation once again. However, Zhang Tie became fretful at this moment. The process of attempts depended completely. Sometimes, he might find the next surging point after exploding 200-300 times. Sometimes, it was not enough even after dying 600-700 times. Today, Zhang Tie had already died more than 700 times; however, he still didn't find that surging point yet. Therefore, he gradually became fretful. Thankfully, he had Castle of Black Iron; otherwise, he might have already died.
Recently, Zhang Tie met two bottlenecks in the cultivation of "Meteor Shower Sword": one was that Zhang Tie could not convert his Iron-blood Battle Qi to sharper Iron-blood Sword Qi. As Iron-blood Battle Qi was very powerful as a top battle qi, it was more difficult for it to convert to more powerful Iron-blood Sword Qi. Zhang Tie had spent many days; however, he failed to break through it. Another bottleneck was that Zhang Tie felt not being able to manipulate some delicate moves and battle skills in the cultivation of "Meteor Shower Sword" although he had great physical strength. The reason was that he had not laid a solid foundation when he started to cultivate swordsmanship. Due to the above two bottlenecks, Zhang Tie's swordsmanship cultivation had to stagnate.
The poor small sea snake had already arrived at the seaside. It was trying to bite Zhang Tie.
Watching that small sea snake struggling to climb onto the beach while twisting its body, Zhang Tie, who was fretful, suddenly burst out laughing. His fret and boredom disappeared at once...
Watching the glistening ripples and feeling the sea wind and seeing the familiar scene on the Iron Ore Beach, a whim occurred to Zhang Tie's mind, 'I've kept cultivating for so many days without any rest. I will have a day off today. Just take a walk in Hidden Dragon Island to relax myself.'
Thinking this, Zhang Tie instantly arrived at the cliff from the Iron Ore Beach with one stride. Closely after that, he disappeared from the seaside.
In the trouble-reappearance situation, besides live animals, everything was as same as that in the real world, including all the grasses, trees, sand and dust. Walking in the familiar Hidden Dragon Island, Zhang Tie couldn't help but sigh with emotions. He recalled what happened in Hidden Dragon Palace when he came there at the beginning——carrying navyblue iron ores with Zhang Hongsheng and the other partners, joking with girls from Zhixing Department and seeing Lan Yunxi's charming look for the first time...
Zhang Tie felt that these things very warming and interesting.
As he reminisced about this, Zhang Tie had already arrived at Hidden Dragon Palace and stridden over the mountain gate.
The Hidden Dragon Palace in the trouble-reappearance situation remained unchanged. Nobody was inside.
Walking in Hidden Dragon Palace and watching all the familiar grasses and trees, Zhang Tie recovered his composure completely...
After remembering that he met bottlenecks in the cultivation of swordsmanship, Zhang Tie directly came to the Swordsmanship Gym. Watching those familiar steel puppets, Zhang Tie sighed with emotions, 'As a common member here, I cultivated my swordsmanship diligently while spraying my sweat like the rain. Pitifully, before I passed the test on a fundamental swordsmanship had I left Hidden Dragon Palace due to various reasons.' Zhang Tie almost forgot when he came here last time.
Zhang Tie came to the front of a row of long swords and slightly touched their handles. After that, he took the heaviest sword on the rack and came to the front of a steel puppet before starting to practice the eight moves of swordsmanship repetitively according to the requirements.
Zhang Tie moved as fast as a lightning bolt. Accompanied by his virtual shadow were the consecutive tinkling sounds. At the same time, the data on the counter of the steel puppet upsurged...
After practicing for more than 1 hour, the data on the counter had risen to 5 digits. At this moment, Zhang Tie felt a link between him and the long sword. He then casually threw it backward, which fell on the rack 30 m away precisely.
"Hmm, it seems that I have to mend up the fundamental swordsmanship in the trouble-reappearance situation so as to master "Meteor Shower Sword". For commoners, some fundamental skills could never be fixed after being lost, even with knight's consciousness!" Zhang Tie mumbled. After that, he walked out of the Swordsmanship Gym while waving his head.
'I wonder how does Lan Yunxi's bedroom look like?'
A bizarre, evil whim occurred to Zhang Tie's mind, which aroused Zhang Tie's curiosity. Zhang Tie then smirked as he turned around and walked towards Lan Yunxi's residence.
On the way, a tall pavilion's roof entered Zhang Tie's vision while being almost covered by woods——Secret Knowledge Pavilion...
After recalling that old man who drunk tea water here everyday in the Secret Knowledge Pavilion, Zhang Tie revealed a smile as he continued to walk forward. However, he gradually slowed down his footsteps and finally stopped. He then turned around abruptly and gazed at the very Pavilion...
Zhang Tie remembered how he discovered the Gold-eating boa's teeth in the river when he joined the survival training in Wildwolf Valley and all the details in the trouble-reappearance situations these years, even the training in the Swordsmanship Gym just now——in the trouble-reappearance situations, all the lifeless objects were nothing different than roadside rocks and soil as the complete copy of the material world.
Zhang Tie's heart raced heavily while he darted towards the Secret Knowledge Pavilion...
Chapter 676: My Secret Knowledge Pavilion
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
As same as before, the Secret Knowledge Pavilion was composed of 7 storeys. With 8 sides, the pavilion looked like a pagoda while being sheltered in the picturesque mountain scenery.
It was tranquil in the surroundings except for the rustling sounds of tree leaves swaying in the mountain wind.
The front gate of the Secret Knowledge Pavilion was opened with a screen right inside the gate. After detouring the screen, Zhang Tie arrived at the lobby on the 1st floor. Although the tea tables and stools were still there as orderly as before, the old man who used to drink there disappeared.
Zhang Tie became a bit intense as his heart pounded. He faintly felt as guilty as being a thief when he came to this place in the trouble-reappearance situation.
A staircase behind the lobby led to the 2nd floor, where Zhang Tie had not visited before. Therefore, he wondered what was on the 2nd floor. Previously, when he came here, as long as he told the old man what secret knowledge or battle skill he wanted to exchange with his credit points would the old man draw the rope of the bell beside the tea table and had people sent it downstairs. According to the regulations in Hidden Dragon Palace, all the learners could only learn the secret knowledge in the Mysterious Knowledge Pavilion. There were some tranquil and isolated rooms in the Pavilion. Like those in some libraries, you could learn and bear the contents in the secret knowledge in mind quietly. Besides managing various secret knowledge, the old man could also answer various questions posed by learners here.
The staircase leading upstairs was clean while being paved with a soft and thick carpet. When Zhang Tie went upstairs, he heard no sound at all.
When Zhang Tie came upstairs, he saw many numbered isolated rooms where learners could study in. Nobody was in the isolated rooms either.
Previously, Zhang Tie had only exchanged "Fish-like Diving Skill" here. He always read it in a room on the 1st floor. He had not imagined that there were more than 20 isolated rooms on the 2nd floor which were larger than those on the 1st floor.
Zhang Tie then came to the 3rd floor and found similar isolated rooms. Being different from that on the 1st and 2nd floor, the isolated rooms on the 3rd floor were fewer and larger. They were isolated with copper or iron walls. There were huge crystal columns in each isolated room, enabling the energy field in the isolated room very active. Besides, each isolated room was matched with a training cell which contained iron puppets. Additionally, there were living utilities like bedding and washroom in each isolated room. At the sight of these isolated rooms, Zhang Tie knew that they ought to be prepared for learning more advanced mysterious knowledge.
There were totally 3 isolated rooms on the 4th floor. Compared to the 3rd floor, the furnishings of these isolated rooms were more advanced and firmer than those on the 3rd floor. The floors, walls and steel puppets in these training rooms were made of more advanced alloy. Zhang Tie could see many odd-looking wounds on the steel puppets. Additionally, the isolated rooms on the 4th floor were evenly matched with different labs: one elixir lab, one alchemist's instruments lab and one comprehensive lab.
'After staying in Hidden Dragon Palace for so long, I've not had any chance to experience the quality learning conditions provided for learners upstairs hereby Hidden Dragon Palace.' Zhang Tie felt like crying.
After visiting the 4th floor, Zhang Tie came to the 5th floor.
Zhang Tie saw an alloy door with an interface of a secret key. There was no keyhole on the door; instead, there was an identification interface through which the special clan identification plate could be read. It seemed to pose a high requirement for the access of the visitor. Zhang Tie blinked his eyes as he attempted to push it; however, the door remained still. Zhang Tie blinked his eyes once again. Closely after that, he was driven furious while that bit of guilty sense had long disappeared in his mind.
'F*ck, this father has been here and you tell me I'm not allowed in?'
"Open it..."
Zhang Tie roared while a terrifying, barbarous strength and powerful Iron-blood Battle Qi turned into a groundbreaking kick.
In a split second, the entire Secret Knowledge Pavilion was like blasting while the boom could almost be heard across the Hidden Dragon Palace.
"F*ck, open it..." "Boom..."
"Open it..." "Boom..."
After roaring about 1 minutes along with the blasting booms, the alloy door finally fell down with another louder boom.
"Pah..." Zhang Tie spat a mouth of saliva forcefully towards the alloy door. Closely after that, he stepped on it and entered the 5th floor of the Secret Knowledge Pavilion.
Zhang Tie saw rows of bookshelves in the entire 5th floor while various secret knowledge were lying there orderly.
Watching such a marvelous scene, Zhang Tie felt a bit dazzled as he thought it was unreal.
After taking a deep breath, Zhang Tie came to the nearest bookshelf and drew out a book by slightly quivering hand.
Zhang Tie saw the words "Crescent Battle Qi" on the cover of that book. He turned on a new page casually and found it was made of a silver-plate paper which touched very comfortable. The cultivation method of "Crescent Battle Qi" was written in the book.
After putting it back, Zhang Tie drew out another book "Barbarous Ox Battle Qi"...
Then the 3rd book "Fiery Fire Battle Qi"...
...
Zhang Tie rapidly passed by those shelves one after another and saw many classifications: Battle Qis——Battle Skills——Elixirs——Runes——Alchemists' Instruments——Comprehensive——Odd Skills——Others——
In the shelf "Comprehensive", Zhang Tie caught sight of the "Iron-blood Fist" that he cultivated...
In the shelf "Odd Skills", Zhang Tie saw the preliminary, medium and senior "Fish-like Diving Skill".
In the shelf "Others", Zhang Tie saw many books such as "100 Questions about Ancestral Bloodline Learning" and "Secret Knowledge in Taixia Country". Although they weren't any mysterious knowledge, they were more expensive than average books of cultivation.
In the shelf "Elixirs", Zhang Tie saw books such as "Brochure for Apprentice Pharmacist", "Herbs Classic", "ABC of Mysterious Medicine", "Deciphering of Human Genes", "Method of Elixir Manufacture", etc..
Among the two items "Runes" and "Alchemist's Instruments", Zhang Tie saw many mysterious knowledge such as "Basic Runes", "Runes Advancement", "Heavens and Ground Corresponding Skill", "Sounds Imitation Skill", "Minerals Identification Skill", "Metallurgical Method", "Forging Method" and "Flames for Mineral Extraction", etc..
The battle skills were further divided into more categories, including various weapons, fist positions, finger attacking skills, feet movements and cultivation mysterious knowledge...
In all the 5 storeys, there were thousands of mysterious books. Zhang Tie felt like entering a dreamland just by looking at so many names.
Many of the mysterious books here were about battle qi, battle skills and various professional basics that were available to people below LV 9. If he was still in Hidden Dragon Palace, he needed to use a lot of clan contribution points to exchange for any of these mysterious books. However, all of them were freely available to Zhang Tie now.
'How fast does the happiness come!' Zhang Tie's heart raced.
After taking a round on the 5th floor, Zhang Tie rushed to the 6th floor.
On the 6th floor, his heart pounded more heavily.
If the 5th floor was a library, the 6th floor would be an exhibition hall for crystal treasures.
There were all square crystal cabinets which were arranged orderly on the 6th floor. Each crystal cabinet was displaying some sandalwood cases with soft velvet cloths inside. There were mysterious crystal books in different shapes being wrapped with metal on the soft velvet cloths, large or small. Those who had no knowledge about mysterious books would take those mysterious crystal books as ornaments, which were actually advanced mysterious books which could not be cultivated until reaching LV 10.
With a glance, Zhang Tie estimated that there were about 200-300 pieces of mysterious crystal books on the 6th floor. All the deep deposits of Huaiyuan Palace's were displayed here.
Names were written on the sandalwood cases which contained mysterious crystal books for the sake of identification. Zhang Tie took a round on the 6th floor rapidly. After that, he almost cried as the "Robust Ox Skill" which took him great efforts was right here; it was placed in a trivial corner. "Meteor Shower Sword" was even placed ahead of the "Robust Ox Skill". Zhang Tie took the 2 mysterious crystal books out of the cabinets and injected his spiritual energy inside them. He found their contents were as same as that in his own books.
Recalling how many troubles had he experienced when he sought for "Robust Ox Skill", Zhang Tie patted his forehead forcefully, 'Zhang Tie! Zhang Tie! You should have thought about this before! How stupid you are. You've already come to the trouble-reappearance situation for so many times. You have even discovered good items in Wildwolf Valley in the trouble-reappearance situation. How could you forget so many mysterious books in Hidden Dragon Island? How stupid you are! You should not blame others...'
In the most remarkable location in the middle of the cabinets on the 6th floor, Zhang Tie caught sight of "Breaking Sun Sutra". Being different from that which he refused to take from Lan Yunxi, this one was a 60% mysterious book which only contained contents from LV 10 to LV 15. Zhang Tie speculated that this was a trick of Huaiyuan Palace. It was used to encourage clan students and prevent the entire version of "Breaking Sun Sutra" from being exposed to the public. Across Huaiyuan Palace, only a few people could master the entire version of "Breaking Sun Sutra". Even in Hidden Dragon Palace, clan students could not learn the "Breaking Sun Sutra" without gaining enormous clan contribution points. If not real clan elites, nobody was qualified to touch it.
'What's on the 7th floor?' Zhang Tie took a look there and found it was a people's residence. The faint aroma of tea water on the 7th floor had already indicated who was living there——the old man who guarded this Mysterious Knowledge Pavilion.
After returning to the 6th floor, Zhang Tie had been bothered by a happy problem, 'With so many mysterious books and such a top cultivation condition that numerous people were dreaming about, which mysterious book should I choose to cultivate so as to improve my battle force? It's impossible for me to digest all of them, neither do I have so much time or vigor to do that. So which one is more useful to me?'