945 - 952
Chapter 945: Breaking the Gate of the Hieron
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
At the top of the highest peak of the Weapons Mountain...
Old Monster Qi, who arrived here first, walked towards the hieron.
The hieron was built in the mountain and was integrated with the entire Weapons Mountain. The entire hieron was tall and majestic. It was completely made of a metal, which radiated the same luster as that on the floor of the lobby where the battle puppets stood. There were various mysterious reliefs of figures and animals on the exterior walls of the hieron...
If those metal reliefs could be cut off from the walls, they were extremely superb, priceless art treasures and the most precious materials for anthropologists and historians to study far-ancient civilizations.
However, they were just reliefs on the walls here.
Very few of those who came here would value artworks and care about the academic value and research value of them.
Because all those who could arrive here were at the top of the pyramid of humans. They were featured as being realistic, powerful and knowing what was most important for themselves.
It was too cold here. The temperature here almost reached the upper limit of all the living beings. Even earth knights had to release their protective battle qis so as to stay here a bit longer.
As the air here was thinner, people here would feel suffocated in the vacuum unconsciously.
What was more, those reliefs on the exterior walls were integrated with the hieron, which could not be cut off at all.
The gate of the hieron was higher than 10 m. It was completely closed. Therefore, Old Monster Qi could not see what was inside at all.
In order to catch time, Old Monster Qi rushed to the top of the Weapons Mountain at the fastest speed at the cost of too much strength physically and spiritually.
As he walked towards the hieron, Old Monster Qi drank up a vial of all-purpose medicament. At the same time, he panted while widely opening his mouth.
Earth knights needed to breathe too. Although earth knights could hold breath for a long time in extreme conditions, Old Monster Qi could still breathe as more as possible at this moment so as to recover his physical strength and aura as faster as possible.
The oxygen content of ten breaths here was equal to that of two breaths at the foot of the mountain.
Old Monster Qi came to the front of the hieron while radiating shrewd eye lights. He circled around the hieron for a while as if he was looking for another entrance.
Pitifully, Old Monster Qi became disappointed.
The only access to the hieron was that closed gate.
After coming to the front of the gate, Old Monster Qi checked the gate for a few minutes before shaking his head. He then forcefully pushed the gate; however, the gate remained still. After that, Old Monster Qi moved a few steps back and took a deep breath before striking the gate of the hieron with his battle qi constantly and fiercely...
...
Old Monster Qi kept striking the gate of the hieron thousands of times in over 10 minutes.
Besides the bangs reverberating on the top of the mountain, the gate of the hieron remained still.
Facing the strikes of earth knights, even adamant steel would be shattered into pieces; however, that gate remained still like nothing had happened.
"It's useless, Old Monster Qi..." A voice sounded behind Old Monster Qi. During the past 10-odd minutes, Zhang Anguo the grand elder of Tianlu Palace had already ascended to the top of the main peak and appeared behind Old Monster Qi, "I guess that you were leaving one step earlier than us for the sake of the benefits here. If the gate of this hieron could be opened so easily, it would be none of our business!"
Old Monster Qi stopped as he turned around and smirked, "Do you also want to pretend to be innocent in front of me? If you were not afraid of me occupying all the good items in the hieron, why did you come here?"
"Old Monster Qi, if you could really open the gate, according to the rule, all those who could see them would have a share, of course, I would share them with you! Let's see whether you could occupy all of them." The grand elder of Tianlu Palace said with a calm look.
As old guys were always shrewd, the grand elder of Tianlu Palace took it for granted.
Old Monster Qi replied with a cold harrumph.
"Among the hierons being discovered in the Earth-elements Realm, besides the sacrificial altar of the joss, most of them were clean and solemn, leaving no good items to people..." Saying this, Mountain Lifting Hermit jumped onto the platform on the top of this peak steadily as he continued, "In far-ancient times, these hierons were all majestic and solemn religious sites instead of treasure banks. The treasure bank here is in the palace complex where we've just passed by. It has been robbed by people tens of thousands of years ago. It'd be a surprise if we could find something good here; however, it'd be normal if there was no good thing here. Otherwise, we wouldn't get the key to this hieron only at such a small cost!"
"Mountain Lifting Hermit, just admit it. Hohohoho, 4 decades ago, Dongfang Haori the head of Dongfang Clan in Lanzhou Province gained a heavenly-level space-teleportation equipment from a hieron's palace. It's said that that space-teleportation equipment is used for lighting an oil lamp, which looked pretty common. Therefore, Dongfang Haori got a good deal. This space-teleportation equipment has been the No. 1 treasure of Dongfang Clan, which is called Ocean-containing Bottle. Mountain Lifting Hermit, dare you to say that you don't want one like that?"
"Over so many years, humans have just found one Brightness Hieron in the Earth-elements Realm. Except for the Brightness Hieron, how could other hieron's temples contain such a space-teleportation equipment which is used for loading oil?" Mountain Lifting Hermit let out a sigh as he said with a faintly frustrated tone. It felt like a man who used to buy lottery tickets heard someone hitting the jackpot while he got nothing at all.
Mountain Lifting Hermit was longing for a space-teleportation equipment very much. He was more familiar with the process that how Dongfang Haori gained his Ocean-Containing Bottle than anyone else. He had seriously studied that.
As the Brightness Hieron needed to maintain its brightness, a space-teleportation equipment was used to light the hieron. People didn't meet such a surprise anymore in other hierons. Even though the far-ancient civilizations were pretty magnificent, people of those ages were not so luxurious that they would use space-teleportation equipment as a common container in each hieron or temple.
There were some advanced silver secret items in the battle god temples; however, this one was not a battle god temple, but an unknown one. Therefore, it could barely contain any silver secret items.
Based on the modern people's study about the far-ancient history and civilizations, a certain far-ancient age was full of religions; in that age, people worshiped and stood in awe of various deities. There might be tens of thousands of religions in that age, leaving the most hieron ruins.
However, few people could precisely distinguish the categories of hieron ruins.
It was a very profound learning about the source of humans and demons. Pundits in this discipline enjoyed a lofty position even among knights.
"Even though there's no space-teleportation equipment, I think the system control hub in the hieron is still well preserved. Why not attempt to join hands to open the gate? If there's a system control hub, we will see whether there are some surprises inside it. If there are, we can share it!" Old Monster Qi proposed after rolling his pupils.
"Old Monster Qi, it seems that you're desiring so much to open this gate!" The grand elder of Tianlu Palace opened his mouth abruptly.
Old Monster Qi uttered two weird shrieks before saying, "I just don't want to go back in vain. After all, we've been here. Why not have a try? Three people are much more powerful than one. It's also possible for a blind cat to meet a dead rat."
Mountain Lifting Hermit and Zhang Anguo exchanged a glance with each other before nodding at the same time.
Earth knights were all confident, powerful ones. If they were not confident about their powers or out of the bit of fluke mind and curiosity, the three earth knights would not come here. No matter what, as they had already come here, they would have a try, even though a heavenly knight could not break such a gate of hieron according to the legends.
'What if the gate was opened by accident? What if there're some surprises inside it?'
With the tentative thought, the three earth knights joined hands with each other and battered the gate of the hieron another 10 minutes by releasing their virtual images of battle qis.
Although the main peak of the Weapons Mountain vibrated under their strikes, when they stopped, the gate was still closed without any damage.
Mountain Lifting Hermit gave up his mind, "There might be nanobeads in the pearls of secret items near the top of the peak. As I have limited time, I will not waste it anymore, see you..."
As he said that, Mountain Lifting Hermit jumped a few times and disappeared in the mist.
"Hahaha, it seems that the legend is right. The gates of hierons could not be opened by sheer animal strength. I will go to somewhere else to find space-teleportation equipment. Old Monster Qi, don't daydream anymore. The Weapons Mountain itself is a mountain of treasures..." The grand elder of Tianlu Palace told Old Monster Qi before leaving here too.
As a result, after watching the triangular relief being composed of three scales on the top of the gate of the hieron for a while with a complex and rapidly changing look, Old Monster Qi could only let out a sigh before leaving...
Nobody knew what Old Monster Qi was thinking about.
...
When muffled thunders constantly drifted from the main peak of the Weapons Mountain, Zhang Tie stopped his footsteps as he looked up at the highest peak...
As it was so loud that even though it was far away from Zhang Tie, Zhang Tie could still feel the faint shocks at his foot like sensing a train passing by while standing not far away from the railway.
'Are the three earth knights in a combat?'
Zhang Tie was shocked at once.
However, after sensing the locations of the three tracing feathers, Zhang Tie denied this possibility. If earth knights were in combat, they would not stand still even if they were in a close combat.
The tracing feather which entered here in the end also sensed the shocks drifted from the top of the mountain. After being still for a few minutes, the tracing feather accelerated its speed at once...
"Monitoring" the locations of those tracing feathers, Zhang Tie licked his mouth while a light flashed across his eyes.
'F*ck, this journey is becoming more and more interesting...' Zhang Tie sighed with emotions.
Chapter 946: Enticing the Lions off the Top of the Main Peak
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
There were a lot of crystals near the top of the Weapons Mountain which contained more pearls of secret items than those below the halfway of the mountain. Therefore, Mountain Lifting Hermit, Zhang Anguo and Old Monster Qi sought for the pearls of secret items which might contain nanobeads and space-teleportation equipment near the top of the mountain.
One important feature of silver secret items was that they could break the physical and space limits of regular equipment such as size and existence form, which was out of commoners' comprehension.
Silver secret items could directly extract elements from the elements realm and form material objects. In commoners' eyes, this was definitely a myth.
By contrast, small space-teleportation equipment such as nanobead could have a large capacity.
As they could sense the existence of elements realm, knights could understand how silver secret items worked; whereas, they could not understand the working principle of space-teleportation equipment such as nanobead.
Was it a mini wormhole or a foldable space which could compress and restore materials in terms of quantum in a specific way?
Nobody knew about it!
People could only guess the working principle of space-teleportation equipment such as nanobead.
Scientists might be interested in the working principle of space-teleportation equipment. However, as for knights in this age, only weapons were most practical.
Although nanobead was a silver secret item, it was much more advanced than common silver secret items; additionally, being different from common silver secret items, nanobeads would not expose their virtual images of secret items at all.
Even earth knights could only have 80% of possibility to gain a nanobead.
As for the remaining 20% of possibility, they should refer to the features of pearls of secret items which might contain nanobeads through long-term learning.
Like how experienced fishermen and pearl catchers living on the sea judged whether the seashells that they had got contained pearls through the surfaces of the seashells, after about 800-900 years of inheritance and practice after the Catastrophe and numerous people's studies and conclusions, knights also worked out a learning on judging the value of pearls of secret item.
This learning was called "The Learning about Secret Items".
"The Learning about Secret Items" was the top secret knowledge and the most influential learning. This learning originated from Taixia Country and led the orientation and popular trend of human knights.
In Taixia Country, if a knight wanted to show off his talent and display his special taste, he had to show off his learning on secret items when he would win a lot of knights' admirations.
Knights, especially male knights didn't have to be handsome in Taixia Country. If an earth knight was ugly in Taixia Country, you could comment his ugly look in front of him and he would not get angry about that; however, if you said he didn't know the learning of secret items, it was equal to calling him an illiterate. It was like calling a rich people nouveau riche. 9 of 10 knights would get angry about that and you would face a very severe result.
Zhang Tie didn't know about the "Learning of Secret Items" among the knights of Taixia Country. Waii Sub-continent was just a barren land for Taixia Country and no elders of Huaiyuan Palace could show off their learning about secret items. After coming to Taixia Country for a few days, Zhang Tie had been wanted by the supreme court. As Zhang Tie didn't communicate with the knights of Taixia Country especially knights above earth knights too much, he didn't know the popular learning about secret items among the knights of Taixia Country at all.
However, being different from Zhang Tie, Mountain Lifting Hermit, the grand elder of Tianlu Palace and Old Monster Qi had studied hard about the learning of secret items.
All three earth knights had gnosis about the learning of secret items; additionally, they were all a bit reserved.
...
The pearls of secret items were formed by the four elements in the elements realm, which carried a special attribute, namely, the greater the striking strength was on them, the more resistant and harder they would be. It was similar to those materials being invented in scientific means before the Catastrophe which could adjust their physical properties to the changing stress.
Therefore, an earth knight would only open a pearl of secret item 20% faster than a black iron knight. That was to say, if it would take a black iron knight 50 hours to open a pearl of a secret item, it would take an earth knight about 40 hours to open a pearl of a secret item.
The time in the hieron ruins was equally precious to the three earth knights.
...
According to the survey, each commoner who traded stocks would feel that they were a bit better than the average level; knights who studied the learning about secret items thought almost as same as common stock traders.
In this world, commoners had many secret methods to trade stocks; similarly, knights had many secret methods of selecting pearls of secret items too.
...
After circling around 4-5 pearls of secret items in a cluster of crystals being not far from the top of the mountain for quite a while, Mountain Lifting Hermit compared the sizes, colors, feels and grains of those pearls of secret items. He even patted one after another like selecting a watermelon. Finally, he selected a pearl of a secret item and started to strike it with his battle qi.
The moment he started his work, he had made constant bangs.
...
As for the grand elder of Tianlu Palace, he took out 3 turtlebacks and stood still on the side of each pearl of secret item for a few minutes, during which period, he threw the three turtlebacks onto each pearl of secret item and made judgments according to the numbers of positive sides and negative sides facing upside.
He soon selected one pearl of the secret item too.
...
Old Monster Qi's method was more astonishing. He took out a file and scraped each pearl of secret item forcefully. Closely after that, he tasted a bit powder of each pearl of the secret item and finally selected one.
After occupying a cluster of crystals near the hieron at the top of the mountain respectively, the three earth knights got busy. Unconsciously, they surrounded the hieron.
...
The weird grey cloud of the mist of the demon baron stopped less than 0.7 miles away from the top of the main peak of the mountain because it had heard the bangs and the specific battle qis of earth knights.
As this was still in the no-fly zone, actually there were just 2 or 3 paths leading to the top of the main peak. After circling around there for a while, the demon baron found that the three paths towards the top of the main peak were all blocked by earth human knights; therefore, it frowned unconsciously.
The demon baron was not afraid of any single earth human knight here; however, the situation became tricky when three earth human knights gathered together within a short distance.
The sharp senses of earth knights could never be matched by black iron knights. Therefore, no matter how much the demon baron excelled at disguising and hiding skills, as long as it was less than 100 m away from an earth knight, it would have a probability of 80% to be noticed by the earth knight; if it was less than 50 m away from an earth knight, it would definitely be noticed.
No matter from which side it would go up the hill, the demon baron would definitely be found by one of the three earth human knights. As long as one earth human knight found it, the other two would find it too. If so, the demon baron's plan would fail for sure.
The core of the demon baron's plan was to enter the main temple of the bloody sacrificial hieron and control the system control hub of the entire hieron. As long as it controlled the system control hub, it would be able to catch all the human knights here and gradually made all of them its bloody sacrifices.
It would take him some time; at least he didn't want to be bothered by people when he entered the main temple.
After looking at the top of the main peak with a fierce eye light for a few seconds, the demon baron turned around and ran towards another direction...
However, the demon baron didn't know that since he entered this hieron ruins, his trace had been tightly monitored by a human knight.
...
Right then, Zhang Tie who was going up the hill became stunned. When a colorful light flashed by, Zhang Tie heard Lu Zhongming and his wife exclaiming at the same time. Closely after that, the two people started to chase after that colorful light at a faster speed.
After following the couple for a short while, Zhang Tie caught sight of something in the hands of this immortal couple. That thing was radiating a faint glow and was wrapped by them so that they could resist the coldness and reach 6,000 m above the Weapons Mountain.
As few black iron knights could reach here, therefore, there were more chances here than below.
Zhang Tie didn't follow up the couple anymore; instead, he frowned.
The last tracing feather stopped almost 0.7 miles away from the three earth human knights near the top of the main peak of the mountain.
Given the route of the tracing feather, Zhang Tie sensed that its destination was the top of the main peak. However, the three earth human knights blocked its way.
After making a circle below the three earth human knights, the weird cloud of mist didn't find any way to go up the hill.
Therefore, the tracing feather went down the hill; however, it didn't directly come to the foot of the mountain; instead, it rushed downwards like how a snake moved.
Those who had been scouts or soldiers must know that in a certain region such a snake walking route was evidently a tactical search action, which would not ensure you to encounter your enemy at the fastest speed but could ensure you to find your enemy being nearest to the circle center of your moving route.
'Now that it didn't want to encounter Mountain Lifting Hermit, Zhang Anguo and Old Monster Qi near the top of the main peak, why would it choose to go downhill like a snake? Isn't he afraid of colliding with human knights? What's it thinking about?'
Zhang Tie's mind became as clear as crystal once again...
'He's enticing the three lions off the top of the main peak!'
Chapter 947: Making a Choice
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
Actually, many critical moments didn't have too many signs before arrival; instead, they came as natural as evening sunglow, thunders on rainy days and silkworms breaking out of cocoons. They always appear silently. When you understood that your choice would determine the fates of you and many people around you, the critical moments had already elapsed, leaving no chance for you to make a choice again.
Zhang Tie didn't know that he was facing such a choice. He only felt that the last tracing feather was very weird and had a strong will to reach the top of the main peak. Although he didn't know the guy's final target.
He had a few options.
First, ignore the weird mist. After all, there were three earth human knights here. Additionally, the new arriver didn't notice the existence of Zhang Tie. If the weird mist caused some trouble, the three earth human knights would handle it for sure.
That man passed the lobby so fast that Zhang Tie almost regarded it as a shadow knight. However, seeing that guy getting cold feet and wandering in front of the three earth human knights, Zhang Tie reaffirmed that that guy was an earth knight. If it was a shadow knight, it could continue to go uphill without caring about the three earth human knights at all.
Now that it could pass through the lobby so fast, it might have some special method.
The first option was selfish for Zhang Tie.
Second, Zhang Tie could make some noises so as to induce the three earth human knights towards the late arriver and destroy the guy's action and plan. It was even possible for them to round up that guy.
After thinking about it for a while seriously, Zhang Tie gave it up.
If Zhang Tie was a selfless sage, he might choose the second option at this moment. Without caring about possible dangers, exposing his trump card and standing on the frontline, he would definitely destroy the plan of the late guy who might harm the interests and safety of the human knights' teams.
However, Zhang Tie was not a sage; he might be a gentleman in some aspects; however, he was never a sage. He was even a wanted criminal who couldn't even expose his real status. Therefore, he didn't need to be a hero at this moment.
Zhang Tie could neither ignore it as it was too selfish nor sacrifice himself for the sake of others.
Therefore, after considering it for a while, Zhang Tie chose the third option while being driven by a great curiosity.
'I will not care about that guy's tactic for the time being; instead, I will reach the top of the mountain and check what that guy wants there. If that guy wants to harm all the human knights here, I will stop it or send a warning to the three earth human knights.'
'By that time, I will have a good excuse——I have an exceptional aptitude; additionally, through cultivating "Fire Dragon Sutra", I have an extremely strong cold-resistance ability. After coming to the top of the main peak, I caught sight of that stranger doing something. Therefore, I released the battle qi signal to attract the three earth human knights there.'
After thinking through it, Zhang Tie started to move.
As he paid attention to the route of the tracing feather, Zhang Tie avoided encountering the tracing feather. At the same time, he rushed all the way towards the top of the main peak.
After more than half an hour, Zhang Tie had reached a bit farther than 0.7 miles away from the three earth human knights near the top of the main peak. After activating the effect of super hiding skill, he hid himself somewhere.
At that place, Zhang Tie could clearly sense and hear the bangs caused by the three earth human knights.
Zhang Tie then started to monitor the locations of all the tracing feathers in his mind.
The couple of Lu Zhongming stopped at somewhere above 7,000 m. They might have already targeted the pearl of a secret item which might contain that virtual image of the secret item.
The late tracing feather had already declined to about 8,000 m at the hillside and was continuously searching its enemies.
Zhang Tie predicted that the couple would encounter that grey cloud of mist for sure. At this moment, their vertical distance was only about 1,000 m. Of course, the linear distance between them was much farther; however, if the grey cloud of mist continued to search for its enemies in such a twisted way, it would encounter the couple who stood still sooner or later.
Zhang Tie held his breath and waited for the coming battle.
In less than 10 minutes, when the linear distance between the tracing feather and the couple was about 2,000 m, it suddenly stopped its snake walking search tactic. In a split second, it altered its route and rushed towards the couple like how a real python hunted its prey.
Zhang Tie knew that the tracing feather had already found the couple. Perhaps, the couple had made some noise which aroused its attention from 2,000 m away.
Sensing the tracing feather rushing towards the couple, Zhang Tie became intense at once even as an onlooker.
Although Zhang Tie had not seen it by eyes, he had a commanding deja vu about what was happening.
At this moment, Zhang Tie was a bit guilty. If the couple was not far away from him, actually, he wanted to send a warning to the couple; however, he could only sense it at this moment.
Thankfully, the couple's battle strengths were much greater than that of common black iron knights. Additionally, that guy should not just kill people; instead, it wanted to make some noise so as to entice the three earth human knights off the top of the main peak. Therefore, even if they fought each other, the couple would not lose their lives.
That tracing feather approached to 200 m away from the couple at an extremely high speed. After that, it slowed down and circled around them for a short while as it gradually narrowed the distance to 100 m...50 m...
'You still want to raid them as an earth knight? F*ck!'
At this moment, Zhang Tie almost wanted to swear it loudly. He also genuinely sensed the danger of that guy, who didn't mind using despicable means to reach its target.
In a split second, the tracing feather darted as fast as a lightning bolt and reached the side of the couple like a sharp saber.
Zhang Tie opened his eyes and didn't sense that tracing feather anymore; instead, he threw a glance at the location of the couple at the hillside.
Only after one second, a knight's battle qi signal had rushed into the sky...
It was Lu Zhongming's battle qi signal; Lin Huanxi's battle qi signal didn't rise up.
Zhang Tie could faintly hear Lu Zhongming's roar.
When Lu Zhongming's battle qi signal rushed into the sky, the bangs near the top of the main peak stopped at once. Apparently, the three earth human knights found the abnormal situation too.
In less than 10 seconds, Zhang Tie had seen Lu Zhongming's battle qi rushing downhill while the three earth human knights also dashed towards the battle qi signal of Lu Zhongming.
As for earth human knights, after entering the pyramid, they could not ignore the battle beside them; especially after someone of Old Monster Qi's team had been killed a few days ago.
After sensing the three earth human knights going downhill, Zhang Tie instantly sprung up from where he hid and rushed towards the top of the main peak.
Only in a few minutes, Zhang Tie had arrived at the top of the main peak.
Zhang Tie looked around and caught sight of the hall of the hieron at once.
He had not imagined that there was a hall of hieron over there.
'It's closed, does that guy want to enter the hall?'
At the sight of the clusters of crystals not far away from the gate of the hall, Zhang Tie rushed over there and hid in a metallic crystal.
The late tracing feather was close to the tracing feather of Lin Huanxi when they were rushing downhill, closely followed by the tracing feather of Lu Zhongming. The three earth human knights were chasing after Lu Zhongming's battle qi signal from over 10 miles away.
The front tracing feather suddenly sped up and left Lu Zhongming over 500 m away. It seemed that it had been out of Lu Zhongming's sight...
Zhang Tie found the front tracing feather just made a circle at the middle of the mountain where the mist was densest before going up the hill from the other side; however, Lu Zhongming rushed all the way down the hill...
Lu Zhongming lost his target...
Lu Zhongming's battle qi signal rushed all the way downhill together with the three earth human knights...
The tracing feather was both perilous and cunning.
Sensing the tracing feather speeding up towards the top of the main peak, Zhang Tie held his breath at once. At the same time, he started to breathe with the help of the space in Castle of Black Iron like how he breathed in water. Namely, he inhaled the oxygen from Castle of Black Iron and exhaled the carbon dioxide into Castle of Black Iron.
...
In over 10 minutes, the cloud of grey mist had flown onto the top of the main peak...
Finally, the cloud of grey mist dispersed, revealing the original look of the demon baron, who was holding Lin Huanxi. She had been in the coma due to heavy wounds with blood at her mouth corners.
'It's a demon, a real demon, an earth demon knight.' Zhang Tie was shocked inside.
At the sight of the hieron's hall, the demon baron revealed a faintly grim smile as it rushed directly towards the gate.
After coming to the front of the gate, the demon baron dropped Lin Huanxi onto the ground, causing her to spit out another mouth of blood while half of her body had been covered with blood.
The moment her blood touched the ground, it had turned into bloody ice scums which were giving off white vapor. The demon baron stepped onto Lin Huanxi's neck by one foot barbariously and cruelly while paying attention to the grains on the gate conscientiously.
A pair of black battle boots, white neck; a brutal demon and a mistreated human woman with a painful look. Being stimulated by such a sharp comparison, Zhang Tie's pupils shrunk at once...
If not having activated his super hiding skill, Zhang Tie might have already exposed himself. The senses of knights; especially earth knights were out of commoners' imaginations.
...
The grains on the gate of the hieron's hall was very similar to those on the floor of the lobby where they had passed.
After watching it for half a minute, the demon baron had put one hand on one place of the grains; after a few seconds, it put its hand onto the other place of the grains...
The demon baron constantly pressed over 10 times in 2 minutes. When it pressed the last place, the gate slowly opened without making any noise.
When the demon baron found the gate was opened, it couldn't stand bursting out into laughter because it would soon gain the booty...
He caught the woman's hair and directly dragged her into the hieron.
Zhang Tie didn't know why would this demon have to enter the hieron's hall with such a trick. However, he knew that this guy was definitely going to do something bad.
We should oppose what the enemies supported, support what the enemies opposed and destroy what the enemies wanted to do!
This was always a classic proverb on fighting enemies.
At this moment, Zhang Tie's blood all over started to burn.
'Motherf*cker! You're dead!'
Watching the demon baron dragging Lin Huanxi into the hieron's hall with laughter, Zhang Tie sprung up and rushed towards the gate at the fastest speed and the most agile way.
When he rushed into the gate of the hieron, Zhang Tie caught sight of a giant joss and an altar on the other end of the hall while a crystal ball was silently suspending in the air in the middle of the hall.
The demon had rushed over 20 m away towards the crystal ball.
The moment Zhang Tie entered the gate of the hieron, the demon baron had sensed it. It turned around and caught sight of Zhang Tie.
A dumbfounded look appeared on the demon baron's grim face, closely followed by a brutal yet sportive eye light. The demon baron accelerated towards the crystal ball in a split second while dropping Lin Huanxi onto one side.
Sensing that the demon baron aimed to get that crystal ball, Zhang Tie also rushed towards that crystal ball at his fastest speed...
Chapter 948: The Wrestle Between Zhang Tie and the Demon Baron
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
Zhang Tie didn't know what was that suspending crystal ball; however, now that the demon was longing for it, Zhang Tie swore to stop it from getting it.
Zhang Tie only had such a thought at this moment.
The earth demon knight was closer to the crystal ball than Zhang Tie.
Given the short-distance explosive speed, Zhang Tie was not superior to the earth knight, although they both moved very fast.
Therefore, when Zhang Tie accelerated, his spear had been split into three parts.
Zhang Tie threw the part with the sharp edge of the spear towards the head of the demon.
The demon baron inclined its head and dodged away from Zhang Tie's strike.
Zhang Tie threw out the middle part of the spear, which was completely a stick.
This stick flew towards the back of the demon baron's heart. After it left Zhang Tie's hand, it caused an air-breaking sound in the hall.
Zhang Tie's strength was great. The spear was also powerful enough. If he was striking a LV 15 battle spirit, he could heavily wound his target for sure; however, although this stick could pose a threat to an earth knight, it was not fatal.
As for the second strike, the demon baron didn't even dodge away; instead, it just allowed the stick to hit its protective battle qi.
The earth knight's protective battle qi undulated a bit; however, the demon baron didn't slow down at all. Zhang Tie's second strike was defused in this way.
The demon baron revealed a faint sneer as it mumbled, 'Naive, how could you dream to stop me by such average means?'
Knights moved too fast. Even though Zhang Tie launched two strikes in a split second, he didn't influence the demon baron's speed at all. As a result, the demon baron had been less than 20 m away from the suspending crystal ball. It would get it very soon.
The demon baron then stretched out its sharp claw towards the crystal ball.
At this time, Zhang Tie threw out the third part of his spear. Like the earlier two parts, the third part of spear didn't even aim at the demon baron at all as it flew by the demon baron's neck.
The demon baron revealed a ridicule. Compared to the earlier two strikes, the third one had even lost its precision. 'It seems that this black iron human knight has been flurried.'
In a split second, the demon baron was only less than 10 m away from the crystal ball.
At this moment, Zhang Tie roared as he threw out his gold-eaten tri-edged dagger from his waist's side.
Although Zhang Tie couldn't move as fast as the demon baron, his dagger could fly faster than the demon baron.
The dagger flew past the demon baron.
In the demon baron's eyes, it was another abortive throw. Precisely, it was not a throw at all. Because the human knight became flurried in the emergency, he just tossed the weapon towards it without even aiming it.
It was understandable. Knights who didn't excel at throwing weapons could not ensure that they would hit the target; especially in high-speed movements together with their target.
Throwing was a technology.
Zhang Tie's performance just now was almost like a knight who was not proficient in throwing. Therefore, the demon baron didn't doubt Zhang Tie's intention.
The demon baron's hand almost reached the suspending crystal ball.
The demon baron would win!
Therefore, it became ecstatic.
The gold-eaten tri-edged dagger that Zhang Tie threw out was a bit faster than the demon baron's fingers.
After passing the demon baron, the dagger suddenly rotated and changed its moving direction. When the demon baron almost touched the crystal ball, the rotating gold-eaten tri-edged dagger knocked onto the crystal ball, causing the crystal ball to shoot towards Zhang Tie after brushing against the demon baron.
Even earth knight could not respond to it in such a situation.
The demon baron's ecstatic yet grim smile froze at once as it watched the crystal ball flying backward.
"Haha, thanks!" Zhang Tie immediately caught the crystal ball and his dagger which flew back like a boomerang. In laughter, he turned around and intended to rush out of the gate.
What a shame!
Zhang Tie intended to show the white feather in the earlier three times not for striking the demon baron but for benumbing it. In another word, Zhang Tie's earlier three strikes were not aimed at the demon baron's body, but its soul. Zhang Tie intended to fix the mindset of the demon baron.
'Even if I exerted my full effort to launch a strike towards an earth knight, I would not pose any threat to it at all.' Therefore, Zhang Tie altered his tactic.
In the previous three times, his weapons flew along a straight line respectively and gradually lost their precision one after another. In this case, the demon baron could never imagine that Zhang Tie's dagger could hit the crystal ball intelligently like a boomerang and a bird.
It was like training a dog. Each time you threw a piece of bone towards afar, the dog would run towards the bone. When the dog was used to do that, even if you just pretended to throw out something, the dog would also run away.
The demon baron had been trained three times by Zhang Tie unconsciously.
From the time when Zhang Tie rushed into the hieron's hall to when he gained the crystal ball ahead of the demon baron, although it was just a couple of seconds, they had wrestled with each other on intelligence, insight, responsiveness and judgment besides moving speed and battle strength. The entire process was shocking.
The demon baron felt being humiliated as it had not imagined that it could be made fun of by a black iron human knight like a monkey.
The demon baron was driven mad out of indignation. With bloody eyes, it roared before releasing its battle qi the moment it saw Zhang Tie rushing towards the gate of the hieron's hall. At the same time, it shot a punch towards Zhang Tie's back and the gate with two hands at the same time.
Its fierce battle qi then shot out like a black light beam...
Zhang Tie who was rushing towards the gate had to dodge away from this strike. If not, he would suffer a great loss.
An earth knight had an overwhelming advantage over a black iron knight in battle strength.
When he turned around and intended to rush out of the hall, Zhang Tie completed two things: first, he released his battle qi signal as he wanted to arouse the attention of the three earth knights; second, when he arrived on Lin Huanxi's side, he picked the heavily wounded female knight by his foot; at the same time, he caught hold of Lin Huanxi's waistband and intended to rush out of the hall like catching hold of a chick.
As Zhang Tie was very powerful, one more person's weight didn't slow down his moving speed at all.
The material of this hall was very special. Zhang Tie sensed that his battle qi could not break out of this place. Therefore, he had to jump away so as to avoid being struck by the demon baron.
The demon baron was not an idiot. Like how Zhang Tie tried his best to prevent it from getting the crystal ball, the demon baron also tried its best to keep Zhang Tie inside the hieron's hall.
The demon baron didn't mean to kill Zhang Tie; instead, it just wanted to prevent Zhang Tie from escaping away from the gate of the hieron's hall.
It might not be easy for the demon baron to kill Zhang Tie at least in a short period; however, it was easy for it to prevent Zhang Tie from leaving only by fully blocking the gate through its powerful strikes.
Zhang Tie attempted to rush out of the gate; however, the demon knight kept attacking him. Only in a few minutes, both parties had alternated their positions——the demon baron stood at the gate and blocked the way while Zhang Tie stood in the middle of the hieron's hall. The two knights were watching each other with a cold look with a distance of dozens of meters.
"You're the most powerful black iron human knight that I've ever seen. If you wish to surrender to us, I promise you that you will get everything you want!" The demon baron flickered its eyes in a weird eye light.
"Why don't you surrender to me? I promise to give you enough steam buns everyday!" Zhang Tie smirked as he derided the demon baron undoubtedly.
The demon baron looked solemn at once as it wanted to move one step forward. Zhang Tie raised up the crystal ball and intended to smash it on the ground, "Stop, if you move one more step forward, I will smash it!"
The demon baron stopped immediately.
During the process when he responded to the demon baron's strike, Zhang Tie realized that the demon baron was afraid of breaking the crystal ball like how someone was afraid of breaking the instrument when throwing a weapon towards a rat. Because of this, Zhang Tie could remain safe and sound in front of this earth demon knight a few minutes. The moment Zhang Tie raised up this crystal ball, he indeed frightened the demon baron.
"This crystal ball is the system control hub of this hieron. If it was broken, all the portals of this hieron would be completely closed. Nobody would be able to access it anymore and all of us would die here. If you want to commit suicide, I will accompany you at the cost of all the others..." The demon baron flickered his eyes as it walked towards Zhang Tie. Although it didn't rush towards Zhang Tie in a split second, it slowly approached Zhang Tie.
"Do you think that I dare not do that? My death is worthwhile with the life of an earth demon knight!" As Zhang Tie said that, Zhang Tie threw the crystal ball towards the ground. At the sight of this, the demon knight changed its face as it stopped its footstep immediately. However, the moment the crystal ball left his hand, Zhang Tie caught it at a faster speed. After that, Zhang Tie sneered at the demon baron and said, "Look, no crap, as a selfish guy, even if you were requested to die for the Emperor Xuanyuan, you would never do that. Am I right?"
A brutal eye light flashed across the demon baron's eyes...
When the two knights were in a stalemate, Mountain Lifting Hermit and Old Monster Qi appeared on the top of the Weapons Mountain at the same time...
Chapter 949: An Unexpected Scene
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
In the Knights' world, there was a proverb that no people could promote to a knight without diligent practice. This proverb fit earth knights more.
When Mountain Lifting Hermit reached the middle part of the mountain, he suddenly became vigilant and felt that something was wrong. Closely after that, Mountain Lifting Hermit made a decision and returned to the top of the main peak after noticing Zhang Anguo.
Zhang Anguo the grand elder of Tianlu Palace was responsible for catching up with Lu Zhongming and figuring out what happened.
Seeing Mountain Lifting Hermit returning to the top of the main peak, Old Monster Qi followed him back immediately.
As Zhang Tie was facing towards the gate, he caught sight of Mountain Lifting Hermit and Old Monster Qi firstly.
When he caught sight of the two human knights, Mountain Lifting Hermit and Old Monster Qi saw the open gate of the hieron's hall and the demon baron at the gate at the same time too. Of course, the demon baron also noticed them.
When two earth human knights encountered an earth demon knight in the hieron ruins, what would they do next?
Undoubtedly, the battle almost broke out in a split second.
Mountain Lifting Hermit released an earth knight-level battle qi signal while a virtual image that a giant embraced a mountain was manifested.
The rising earth knight-level battle qi signal on the top of the main peak told Zhang Anguo that something was happening over there.
Honestly, it was Zhang Tie's first time to see the battle qi signal of an earth knight. Precisely, it was more like a battle qi tornado than a battle qi smoke. If the battle qi signal of the black iron knight was like the smoke of wolf's dung rushing into the sky, the earth knight's battle qi signal was already a tornado which was thicker, bigger and more eye-catching than battle qi smokes on both scale and look.
The battle qi tornado of Mountain Lifting Hermit was emerald which looked like a green dragon that connected the sky with the ground. The virtual image of Mountain Lifting Hermit rose up in the battle qi tornado while its flickering eyes were watching all the living beings below. It fully manifested the power of an earth knight...
When his battle qi tornado and virtual image appeared at the same time, it indicated that Mountain Lifting Hermit had exerted his full efforts.
Old Monster Qi also released his battle qi tornado and virtual image at the same time.
The demon baron turned around and threw a glance at Zhang Tie while its eyes were full of killing intent and indignation. The demon baron thought that its failure was fully caused by Zhang Tie at such a critical moment. Without Zhang Tie, it had long controlled everything here.
However, now that it could be a demon baron, a demon noble, it indicated that it must be outstanding in some aspect.
At this critical moment, when Zhang Tie thought that the demon baron would break out of the encirclement of the two earth human knights and escape away, the demon baron rushed towards Zhang Tie out of his imagination.
Seeing the demon baron rushing towards him, Zhang Tie was startled at once. Closely after that, he understood the intention of the demon baron.
'This earth demon knight has confirmed that I would never destroy the crystal ball anymore after the two earth human knights appeared.'
'Because my party has been in the advantageous position. It's not necessary for us to sacrifice ourselves by destroying the crystal ball. Therefore, the demon knight won a faint chance to gain the crystal ball.'
As for powerful and confident ones, there was no absolute crisis in this world. Crises and favorable turns were the two sides of a contradiction which could convert into each other at certain moments.
All the powerful ones excelled at seizing such a faint chance in such an adversity.
As he had tided over the most difficult moment, of course, Zhang Tie didn't want to be killed by this demon knight at this moment. Therefore, when the demon knight rushed towards him, he instantly turned around and escaped away. He even directly threw Lin Huanxi at a remote corner of the hall in an agile way.
When he caught Lin Huanxi, before escaping away just now, Zhang Tie had already poured a vial of senior recovery medicament into her mouth at the fastest speed. As Lin Huanxi was in a worse scenario, without taking any recovery medicament, she might have died before being saved. After sensing that Lin Huanxi's vital signs had been stabilized, Zhang Tie hurriedly dropped her onto a safe place. If the demon knight was driven madder and caught Lin Huanxi as a hostage, it would become more tricky.
As the demon knight was besieged by two earth human knights and wanted to rob the crystal ball in Zhang Tie's hand, it didn't have time to care about a woman who was going to die.
When he threw Lin Huanxi, Zhang Tie felt that Lin Huanxi opened her eyes and threw a glance at him with a painful look...
Just now, Lin Huanxi had been in the coma. She could only sense being caught by someone who ran and jumped rapidly and poured a vial of all-purpose medicament into her mouth. She knew that someone was saving her; therefore, she wanted to open her eyes to see who was the savior.
...
Soon after Zhang Tie dropped Lin Huanxi, the demon baron's battle qi strikes had rushed towards Zhang Tie like a huge net. With a roar, Zhang Tie released a punch. The moment their battle qis collided with each other, Zhang Tie had rolled out of the gate with the inertia of the great counterforce. Although his movement was not elegant, it was very practical. As a result, he successfully dodged away from the demon baron's strike...
During the period when he escaped, especially after he promoted to 1 change black iron knight and gained a chance to strengthen his overall strength, Zhang Tie's battle strength had improved greatly. Compared to when he was framed by people and was wounded by Feng Yuelun the cheji General of Yingzhou Province, Zhang Tie had reached new heights in battle strength, reaction speed and strike-resistant capability. At this critical moment, he could bear the strike of an earth demon knight easily.
To be honest, this earth demon knight's battle strength was not weaker than that of Feng Yuelun.
The demon knight closely chased after Zhang Tie while Mountain Lifting Hermit and Old Monster Qi kept chasing after the demon knight. Zhang Tie was gradually involved into the battle qis of the demon knight and dodged here and there. At the same time, the hieron's hall was filled with thunder-like bangs...
The demon knight's body became phantom once again while some clouds of humanoid mist gradually formed the look of the demon knight and joined the battle. Unless those clouds of mist were completely dispersed, the demon knight's original body could hardly be identified.
After dispersing one cloud of mist, a new cloud of mist would appear out of the void in a mystical way...
It was Zhang Tie's first time to see such a weird secret method of demons. No wonder this demon knight dared rob his crystal ball at such a critical moment.
...
After a few minutes, an unexpected scene happened...
Old Monster Qi who was fighting the demon knight together with Mountain Lifting Hermit suddenly took out a red sharp driller out of the void. Closely after that, he sprung up and drilled it into Mountain Lifting Hermit's back. After that, he smacked onto Zhang Tie from a few meters away who had just dodged away from the demon knight...
Even though Zhang Tie had always been vigilant about Old Monster Qi and felt that this person was given to capricious moods, he had not imagined that Old Monster Qi could betray human knights and struck him at this critical moment. Being attacked by two earth knights, one of whom almost raided him, Zhang Tie instantly spat out a mouth of blood and was sent flying away...
Mountain Lifting Hermit also had not imagined that Old Monster Qi could strike him at this moment; additionally, Old Monster Qi's red sharp driller was very weird which almost broke Mountain Lifting Hermit's protective battle qi in a split second. As a result, Mountain Lifting Hermit didn't have time to respond to it.
When Old Monster Qi broke Mountain Lifting Hermit's protective battle qi with his red sharp driller, the demon baron immediately seized the chance and launched constant strikes onto Mountain Lifting Hermit...
Being struck by two earth knights at the same time, Mountain Lifting Hermit was sent flying 100 m away and crashed onto one wall of the hieron's hall.
Old Monster Qi sprung up once again and picked the crystal ball which Zhang Tie had dropped off. Almost at the same time, he stayed away from the demon knight before guffawing...
Chapter 950: Life-or-Death Crisis
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
Old Monster Qi's strike at the critical moment not only heavily wounded Zhang Tie and Mountain Lifting Hermit but also robbed the crystal ball. As a result, the situation in the Hieron's hall reversed in a split second.
The betrayal from team members was always more destructive than enemies. Old Monster Qi proved this law once again.
Watching Old Monster Qi's unimaginable performance, the demon baron stopped its strike; instead, it narrowed its eyes and looked at Old Monster Qi's pleasant face out of curiosity.
...
After bearing the full-strength raid from an earth demon knight in such a short distance, Zhang Tie felt being hit by a bullet train at the speed of hundreds of miles per hour as he spurted out a mouth of blood. At the same time, his bones uttered a crisp sound. Closely after that, he was sent flying away and didn't stop until he rolled over 60 m away, leaving blood all the way there.
Zhang Tie struggled to kneel down with one knee. After that, he spurted out a mouth of blood once again while his guts felt being boiled. It was Zhang Tie's first time to encounter such a sharp pain. Old Monster Qi's battle qi was attached with a special damage function. After he was struck by him, Zhang Tie felt being overwhelmed with pain.
Old Monster Qi's strength was also very great, which would break at least a few bones of common black iron knights; the wounds would be severer if the broken bone stabbed into their guts. However, Zhang Tie was special. As he had taken so many iron-body fruits and had a great strike-resistant capability, Zhang Tie bore the test at the crucial moment. Zhang Tie's bones were not broken; therefore, the secondary damage was avoided. Meanwhile, the damage and erosion caused by Old Monster Qi's battle qi had been weakened by his defensive ability.
After spurting out blood twice more, Zhang Tie's depression was greatly relieved. Although his wound looked severe, it was actually not that severe.
Zhang Tie just lay on the ground and gradually recovered his battle strength.
Compared to Zhang Tie, Mountain Lifting Hermit's wounds seemed to be severer. After the red sharp driller broke his protective battle qi, it started to drill into Mountain Lifting Hermit's body through the wound; at the same time, it gradually melted inside Mountain Lifting Hermit's body in a weird manner.
Mountain Lifting Hermit picked himself up from the ground with a pale face. After throwing a glance at Old Monster Qi and feeling his physical conditions, Mountain Lifting Hermit changed his face at once. The moment the red sharp driller disappeared in his body, Mountain Lifting Hermit's face had turned dark-purple while the blood vessels in his forehead and neck suddenly bulged like something was swimming inside and was going to break them. How terrifying it was...
Mountain Lifting Hermit started to punch himself; instead of punching Old Monster Qi and the demon baron while gritting his teeth, causing one thunder per punch.
Only by hearing the sound of the punches, onlookers would be shocked.
He was simply committing suicide...
Mountain Lifting Hermit punched his heart, livers, spleen, lungs and kidneys...
Each time he punched himself, he would spit out a mouth of blood.
The blood that Mountain Lifting Hermit spat out was black which contained soft pieces of the red sharp driller which had disappeared in his body. Those pieces were hard previously; however, when they were spat out, they all turned soft; additionally, they were like a sponge which became swollen after absorbing water and looked disgusting and grim...
After heavily punching his five organs and spitting out the black blood and the swollen pieces of the sharp driller, Mountain Lifting Hermit became dispirited at once as his eye light became bleak. His aura seemed to have been heavily declined. He felt rocky and couldn't stand up until he supported the wall with two hands.
"Five Organs Damaging Driller on Blood and Soul ..." Mountain Lifting Hermit watched Old Monster Qi as his voice became hoarse. He felt to have iron slags in his throat. When he spat out those things, his throat was even wounded.
"Gagagaga...I've spent about 7 years on making this Five Organs Damaging Driller on Blood and Soul, during which period, I used 49 virgin boys' strength of blood and soul and lubricated them day by day with so many rare materials. Mountain Lifting Hermit, you should be satisfied with it..." Old Monster Qi uttered pleasant laughter.
"You're the remnant of Bloody Soul Temple??"
"Is anyone who has mastered the secret method of Bloody Soul Temple destined to be the remnant of Bloody Soul Temple? If so, there are so many remnants of Bloody Soul Temple in the top seven sects in Taixia Country. When the top seven sects in Taixia country besieged the Bloody Soul Temple, whether it was because that they were casting greedy eyes on the secret methods in Bloody Soul Temple or that the Bloody Soul Temple was going to build Immortal Bloody Sea which would rock the foundation of Taixia Country. You know the dirty inside story clearer than me. Pitifully, the top seven sects didn't get the "Supreme Bloody Soul Sutra" Old Monster Qi said with a faint ridicule.
Mountain Lifting Hermit became silent as he wiped the blood stains off his mouth corners and poured a vial of recovery medicament.
Old Monster Qi just watched Mountain Lifting Hermit with a sneer, "There's no antidote for the Five Organs Damaging Driller on Blood and Soul, even if you spat out the pieces of the driller. Within 5 days, you will not be saved even by immortal pills. What are you struggling for?"
Mountain Lifting Hermit didn't speak. He just gazed at Old Monster Qi with a furious eye light as he slowly adjusted his breathing rhythm. In this case, everyone at present realized that Old Monster would never allow any one of them to leave out of here alive.
"Who're you?" The demon baron asked as it kept looking at Old Monster Qi.
"Actually, we have the same target. However, you and I are on different battle lines. I've not imagined that we could encounter today..." Old Monster Qi told the demon baron as he made a specific hand gesture.
"You are a member of Three-eye Association?" The demon baron asked as a shrewd light flashed across its eyes.
Like a commissioned officer or a common noble in a country who couldn't fully master the intelligence of all the agents on his side that were dispatched to foreign countries, the demon baron wouldn't know the agents of demons in Taixia Country as these intelligence were classified among demons. Only a few people at the top level could touch them. Even if it was a demon baron, it was not qualified to touch them at all.
The demon baron only knew that demons had never stopped their layout in Taixia Country since the last holy war between humans and demons. In other words, demons had never stopped fighting Hua people at all, whether before the Catastrophe or after, by force or not by force in all lines.
"In Taixia Country, Three-eye Association has another appellation, Heavens Reaching Church! I'm an elder of Heavens Reaching Church..." Old Monster Qi said.
"How did you know the secret of the bloody sacrificial temple?" The demon baron pumped instead of being relaxed.
"At the beginning, the secret methods of Bloody Soul Temple were gained from a bloody sacrificial temple in the underground world. I gained some classics of Bloody Soul Temple by accident and knew about this secret and some information about the bloody sacrificial temple. This time, I heard someone finding a hieron in the magma sea while there was the symbol of bloody sacrificial hieron on the key of this pyramid, therefore here I am!"
Old Monster Qi explained it to the demon baron patiently in order to eliminate the possible misunderstanding between them.
The demon baron's eyes flickered as it burst out into laughter and turned tender at once, "If so, hand the crystal ball to me! I know this place better than you."
"Hehehehe...although we're not enemies, we're not that familiar with each other. There's an old saying among Hua people, even if you should not think about harming others, you'd better prevent from being framed by others. I will hold the crystal ball in case of unpleasant things." Old Monster Qi replied hastily, leaving no face to the demon baron at all.
"You dare not follow my order?" The demon baron's qi became dangerous at once.
However, Old Monster Qi still didn't care about it; he even threw a contemptuous glance at the demon baron, "When you reach the level of the prince, it's not late to talk me in that way but you're not that qualified to order me at this moment!"
The two earth knights gazed at each other while Old Monster Qi's qi was not weaker than that of the demon baron at all.
After looking at Old Monster Qi, the crystal ball in his hand and the half-dead people in the hieron's hall, it finally made a compromise, "Alright, do you know how to use it?"
"Hahahaha, so easy. Just close the gate to beat the dogs, in water. We only need to close all the entrances of the hieron, lower the temperature outside this gate below the lowest limit by the system control hub of this crystal ball and restrict the air supply in the hieron, all the human knights will lose their ability to resist in less than 1 day. By then, their lives would be in my hands!" Old Monster Qi said as he suddenly threw a glance at the outside of the gate. Right then, a roar drifted from below the peak and was not far from here. "The old thing of Tianlu Palace is coming, we don't need to fight him; additionally, I don't have the second Five Organs Damaging Driller on Blood and Soul. This old thing is very tricky. Even if we two fought him together, one of us might be killed. Why not deal with him when he becomes a drowned rat?"
The demon baron nodded.
After Old Monster Qi finished his words, he cupped the crystal ball by two hands and closed the gate of this hieron's hall like that it had never been opened at all.
Within the hieron's hall, there were only 5 knights, namely Old Monster Qi, the demon knight who was safe and sound, Zhang Tie, Mountain Lifting Hermit who were heavily wounded and Lin Huanxi who was in the coma. Given the sharp contrast in battle strength, the result seemed to have been fixed...
Chapter 951: A Kid Before A Giant
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
Lying on the ground, Zhang Tie was not in a coma. He had listened to the dialogue between Old Monster Qi and the demon knight and noticed the situation of Mountain Lifting Hermit...
If it were on a battlefield, a common soldier might survive himself by pretending to be killed. However, in this hieron's hall, under the eyes of an earth demon knight and an earth knight of Three-eye Association, it didn't work by playing dead or being in a coma.
As Zhang Tie's head was facing the gate of the hieron's hall, when the gate was slowly closed under the control of Old Monster Qi and made it impossible for outsiders to enter it, Zhang Tie became depressed. He knew that it was the most dangerous moment that he had ever experienced since he was born.
If he were not that curious, he might have to face a worse situation if he was not here. However, now that he had come here, Zhang Tie didn't regret. If he didn't come here and just stayed somewhere in the Weapons Mountain, the demon knight who held the crystal ball would not let them feel better than now.
The crystal ball was the system control hub of the entire hieron, which was still safe and sound now. As long as it held the crystal ball, it would be able to control the temperature and air supply and flow in all portals in this huge pyramid. This was what Zhang Tie had known after injecting his spiritual energy into the crystal ball just now.
Portals, temperature, air sounded very simple; however, they were fatal to human knights in this pyramid under the control of the crystal ball which worked as the key of a house and the key of the air-conditioner in the house.
Zhang Tie struggled to pick himself up by one knee as he spat out another mouth of blood.
Only after a short while, under the control of the crystal ball in the hand of Old Monster Qi, the temperature in the hieron's hall had recovered 24 degrees Celcius from the icy temperature, arising Zhang Tie's reverence to the dreamlike far-ancient civilization.
Previously, Zhang Tie had heard about a theory about pyramid when in Blackhot City, which was taught by his nature teacher——many huge pyramids were able to disturb and regulate their climate in the partial region. Zhang Tie didn't believe in it until now.
The temperature in the hieron's hall became more comfortable; however, a greater crisis was coming soon, making Zhang Tie extremely flurried.
Zhang Tie threw a glance at the hieron's hall as he asked himself inside, 'Do I need to expose my trump cards?'
Zhang Tie had two trump cards: first, Castle of Black Iron. With Castle of Black Iron, even in such an environment, Zhang Tie could still have a chance to survive; second, the most mysterious and powerful knight's profession that he had promoted to. Since he killed the demon knight, Zhang Tie had not exposed that ability in the public.
However, even with the two trump cards, he might not be able to solve the problem, either.
As for the first trump card, if Zhang Tie used it, he would survive himself; however, he might not be able to save Mountain Lifting Hermit and Lin Huanxi. Additionally, his friends Gong Ziyao, Zhou Shufan and Filton would probably be in danger. Even if Zhang Tie escaped this time, he had to stop using the status of Cui Li from then on. Zhang Tie could imagine what the demons and the Three-eye Association would do when they knew that he had such a marvelous ability. Zhang Tie was afraid that Cui Li would not only face two earth knights by then.
As for the second trump card, even if he used it at his full efforts now, he could only deal with one of the two earth knights who were safe and sound at this moment. He was not sure for success no matter how sharp was that knight's profession.
'What should I do then?'
'I have to fight at my full efforts!'
Zhang Tie's eyes became decisive as he struggled to pick himself up from the ground...
Old Monster Qi and the demon baron both saw Zhang Tie struggling to stand up; however, they directly ignored him after throwing a glimpse at him; especially Old Monster Qi, who had been shocked that Zhang Tie could still stand up after being struck by him at his full efforts. He didn't believe that such a common black iron knight could pose any threat to him. He despised Zhang Tie when the latter was safe and sound, not to mention this moment.
After sensing that they were destined to win and nobody else could threaten them, Old Monster Qi and the demon baron couldn't wait to negotiate about the division of their "booties"...
"Mountain Lifting Hermit and Cui Li belong to me, that woman belongs to you as you brought her in. As for the knights outside the gate, we go fifty-fifty..." Old Monster Qi suggested.
"You've taken all the benefits. Could you digest so many knights?" The demon baron sneered.
Although they were cooperating with each other, they didn't believe in each other at all. In front of the interests, neither of them would make a compromise.
"My earth chakra has been wounded and not recovered yet; additionally, I've got two secret battle skills which could reach their great perfections through this bloody sacrifice..."
"Now that you need it, I need it too. The earth knight belongs to me. The other two belongs to you. Actually, if you could knock down that earth knight outside the gate, you could own him too. As for others, we go fifty-fifty!" The demon baron proposed its plan.
"No way!"
"Do you want to try my fist?" The demon baron looked aggressive.
After gazing at the demon baron with narrowed eyes, Old Monster Qi finally made a concession, "When we're going to deal with the elder of Tianlu Palace, you should fight him together with me!"
"That's the deal!"
After reaching an agreement in a few words, they turned around and walked towards their own "target"——the demon baron walked towards Mountain Lifting Hermit while Old Monster Qi walked towards Zhang Tie.
Seeing Old Monster walking towards Zhang Tie, given the safety of the crystal ball, the demon baron reminded Old Monster Qi, "Watch out, this black iron knight is very powerful and tricky. He's much more powerful than common black iron knights. You'd better keep well your crystal ball in case of losing it to this black iron knight! If you could keep him for the time being, I will exchange the other black iron knight for him with you. I will peel him off alive and watch him being sacrificed by me..."
Old Monster Qi burst out into laughter as he replied with a conceited look, "Hahahaha, he's just a black iron knight. I've killed so many black iron knights, including those elites of the top seven sects in Taixia Country. This man is still useful. I will not "sacrifice" him right away; I will release him out of here. This guy has a good human relationship with those people below us. Additionally, except for these people here, nobody else knows that I could control him with my soul-controlling method and have him work for me. When we go collect fish outside there, this guy could help us a lot at the critical moment!"
As the old saying went, people should never be conceited at any time; even if deities disliked those conceited guys. The moment one became conceited, he would not face any good outcome for sure.
Old Monster Qi didn't know that Zhang Tie instantly changed his mind when he prepared to expose his second trump card after hearing his words.
'Soul-controlling Method?'
Zhang Tie had also mastered it. Additionally, Zhang Tie could trigger this secret method with his extremely strong spiritual energy.
Zhang Tie had reached a mysterious level on cultivating various secret methods of the "Soul-forbidden Skill".
Old Monster Qi was very confident; especially about the various secret methods of Bloody Soul Temple that he had mastered; however, he had not imagined that this muscled man in front of him cultivated and excelled at the same soul-controlling method of Bloody Soul Temple...
What shocked Old Monster Qi more was Zhang Tie's strong spiritual energy...
...
"Go die..."
When Zhang Tie was waiting for Old Monster Qi, Mountain Lifting Hermit sprung up and darted towards the demon baron with an unprecedented killing intent.
Out of the dignity of an earth knight, even though Mountain Lifting Hermit knew that he had no chance to win on the premise of being heavily wounded, he still launched an attack on his own initiative instead of waiting to be killed.
Although he was always silent and distant, Mountain Lifting Hermit's temperament was extremely staunch with moral integrity.
The moment he moved, his wounds had been aggravated in a split second while his eyes, ears, nostrils and mouth spurted out black blood at the same time. At the same time, an exotic, virtual long rainbow appeared in the air...
When the long rainbow crossed the sky, the cold wind was aroused while the dauntless assassin sacrificed himself to strike his enemy!
"I've not imagined that you have awakened the most powerful assassin bloodline among Hua people. Pitifully, if you were not heavily wounded, I might keep far away from your strike; however, your current strike is less than 20% of its full destruction..." The demon baron said casually with a contemptuous look as it easily dodged Mountain Lifting Hermit's strike. Closely after that, he punched Mountain Lifting Hermit and sent him flying away, spraying a lot of blood in the air...
...
"Go die..." Mountain Lifting Hermit sprung up and rushed towards the demon knight once again at the risk of his life...
When Zhuanzhu assassinated Liao the king of State Wu, it was like a comet rushing towards the moon and a meteor flashing by in the sky in daytime; when Yaoli assassinated Qingji, a son of Liao, it was like a falcon landing on a platform; when Niezheng assassinated Jifu the king of State Han, it was like a white light shooting into the sky. As a common earth knight, of course, he should always have a heroic spirit...
...
Watching Mountain Lifting Hermit's heroic movements, Zhang Tie's eyes turned wet...
"You son of b*tch, this father will fight you to death!" Zhang Tie was driven mad as he roared and rushed towards Old Monster Qi. It seemed that he was going to make the final try out of courage and braveness...
...
Only after a few minutes, Old Monster Qi with a sneer had pinched the neck of Zhang Tie, who was like a beast in the cage. Zhang Tie looked pretty miserable as he even lost his ability to struggle. It seemed that Zhang Tie had completely lost his ability to launch a counter-attack.
Catching Zhang Tie's neck, Old Monster Qi drew Zhang Tie to the front of his ugly face as he told the latter, "Look into my eyes..."
It seemed that Old Monster Qi's words were magical. The moment Zhang Tie heard that he became faintly absent-minded at once as he looked at Old Monster Qi's eyes unconsciously.
Two looming ghost flames instantly shot into Zhang Tie's eyes from Old Monster Qi's eyes...
...
Old Monster Qi's soul entered Zhang Tie's mind sea at once...
The moment it entered Zhang Tie's mind sea, Old Monster Qi had been startled. Because he had not seen such a vast mind sea before; additionally, Old Monster Qi had not imagined that Zhang Tie's mind sea was completely a cloud of mist, in which, his soul could not even identify directions.
'I have to locate the soul of Cui Li and control it as soon as possible.'
Old Monster Qi's soul started to fly as fast as light in Zhang Tie's mind sea.
All of a sudden, Zhang Tie's mind sea became dark. Out of curiosity, Old Monster Qi's soul looked up and saw a 300-m high golden giant behind him. Old Monster Qi's height only reached the giant's knees.
Old Monster Qi's soul instantly became a 3-year old kid in front of a furious king kong.
'Wait, this guy doesn't look as same as Cui Li...'
Old Monster Qi had a doubt...
However, he could not get any answer anymore.
The familiar giant with a strange look sneered as he raised up one foot and stomped Old Monster Qi's soul into pieces with the latter's shriek and rapid kicks...
Old Monster Qi's soul was devoured by Zhang Tie's immediately in the fiercest way...
...
At this moment, Old Monster Qi who caught Zhang Tie's neck suddenly quivered all over as his nostrils, ears, eyes and mouth spurted out blood at the same time. Meanwhile, he looked like an idiot while his hand which was catching Zhang Tie's neck lost its strength and hung down at once...
After a solemn eye light flashed by, Zhang Tie picked the gold-eaten tri-edged dagger by his foot and held it by hand. Closely after that, he wove his dagger and cut off Old Monster Qi's head, sending his head flying out while a blood beam spurted out of Old Monster Qi's neck...
Zhang Tie put his dagger away as fast as a lightning bolt. After that, he caught Old Monster Qi's head by one hand and the crystal ball that had floated up from the latter's hand by the other hand. At the same time, he roared, "Stop..."
...
Right then, the demon baron put Mountain Lifting Hermit under his foot.
Hearing Zhang Tie's roar, the demon baron turned around and caught sight of Old Monster Qi's beheaded body lying on the ground, the head in Zhang Tie's one hand and the crystal ball in Zhang Tie's other hand.
Through Old Monster Qi's hand, the crystal ball returned to Zhang Tie's hand.
Although Old Monster Qi died, was Zhang Tie still alive? Nobody knew what happened at that moment except for Zhang Tie. Though Old Monster Qi seemed to have wasted some time in Zhang Tie's mind sea, actually, his soul had just searched in Zhang Tie's mind sea for less than 0.5 seconds...
Chapter 952: Spare the Rat to Save the Dish
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
After taking the crystal ball, Zhang Tie injected his spiritual energy into it right away. He sensed that Old Monster Qi had already closed all the portals in the hieron while the temperature inside the hieron was declined as low as that on the top of the Weapons Mountain. At the same time, the air was growing thinner...
Facing such abrupt changes, all the knights outside the gate must have been flurried.
Through the locations of his tracing feathers, Zhang Tie could sense that Zhang Anguo the grand elder of Tianlu Palace and Lu Zhongming were both at the entrance of the gate of this hieron's hall.
Zhang Tie immediately controlled the crystal ball to recover the temperature and air supply outside the hieron's hall. Closely after that, he opened the gate of the hieron.
When the gate of hieron's hall was opened, Zhang Anguo and Lu Zhongming rushed inside at once. Almost at the same time, the demon baron saw another earth human knight rushing in. It immediately caught Mountain Lifting Hermit's neck and flashed back to Lin Huanxi's side while stepping on her neck. Closely after that, the demon baron leaned against the inner wall and observed the situation inside the hieron's hall with gleaming eyes.
At this moment, Zhang Anguo and Lu Zhongming were actually shocked most.
What happened in the hieron's hall was too shocking and weird for the two knights who had just entered it. They had not imagined this scene when they entered the hieron's hall.
Old Monster Qi was dead!
His beheaded corpse was lying in front of Zhang Tie. As Zhang Tie was holding his head and a crystal ball, it seemed that Old Monster Qi had been beheaded by Zhang Tie. Although Zhang Tie was also wounded, at least he was still standing there.
Besides, a demon baron was in the hieron's hall!
Mountain Lifting Hermit and Lin Huanxi were in the hands of the demon.
When Zhang Anguo rushed back onto the top of the main peak, he didn't see Mountain Lifting Hermit and Old Monster Qi. He only saw some blood stains outside the gate of the hieron's hall. Later on, the air supply and temperature inside the pyramid started to change. After receiving the messages from all the other knights of Tianlu Palace across the Weapons Mountain by remote-sensing crystal, Zhang Anguo changed his face greatly. He guessed that someone must have entered the hieron's hall and controlled the system hub of this hieron. However, no matter what, the grand elder of Tianlu Palace didn't imagine about such a scene inside the hieron's hall.
Even the one with the richest imagination could not imagine what happened inside.
Zhang Anguo could only ensure one thing, namely, a bloody battle had just happened in the hieron's hall.
"Let go Huanxi..." Watching his wife being stepped under the foot of the demon baron out of consciousness, Lu Zhongming who used to be genial turned his eyes fiery at once as he intended to rush towards the demon baron.
The demon baron faintly increased his foot's stress, waking up Lin Huanxi and causing her to groan painfully.
Lu Zhongming stopped his footstep at once.
"Anyone who dares rush over here, the two people will die together with me!" The demon baron roared with a vicious look.
The demon baron was also in a very dangerous situation.
After the crystal ball returned to Zhang Tie's hand, Zhang Tie had controlled the system control hub of the entire hieron.
One earth human knight was safe and sound. Besides him, there were 23 black iron human knights here, who could compose at least eight 3-in-1 formations.
If Zhang Tie closed all the portals of the hieron, the demon baron was destined to be killed here facing the consecutive strikes of an earth human knight and over 20 black iron human knights.
Additionally, the demon knight didn't know the cause of death of Old Monster Qi. Although it was dealing with Mountain Lifting Hermit just now, it spared a bit spiritual energy to observe the battle between Old Monster Qi and Zhang Tie.
In the demon baron's eyes, Old Monster Qi's battle strength was overwhelming. Only in a few minutes, Old Monster Qi had defeated the tough man called Cui Li and caught him like catching a chick. The tough guy called Cui Li had already lost his ability to resist. It seemed that everything was in control.
However, in a couple of seconds, Old Monster Qi died while his head was in Cui Li's hand.
Even a performance would have premonitions and transitions; there would be a thunder or at least a few dark clouds before the rain. However, what happened in the hieron's hall didn't have any transition or premonition before Old Monster Qi who was destined to win was beheaded.
An earth human knight died when he grasped the neck of a black iron human knight who had lost his ability to resist...all of a sudden?
How did Cui Li do it?
The demon baron didn't know why. Therefore, it became scared of Zhang Tie.
When Old Monster Qi was beheaded, he was doing two things: first his fingers were pinching Zhang Tie's neck for a long time; second, Old Monster Qi was applying his secret method of Bloody Soul Temple.
After a temporary and rigorous logistic analysis, the demon baron guessed that Old Monster Qi's death was probably related to the two things.
'This black iron knight called Cui Li might have some terrifying rank poison or dangerous items. When I chased after him so long just now, I was safe and sound. However, when Old Monster Qi took the wind, the moment he touched that black iron knight's neck, he was dead, it's too strange; otherwise, something might have happened to Old Monster Qi's secret method of Bloody Soul Temple, sparing a chance to the black iron knight...'
What a demon noble! The demon baron could not be matched by common earth demon knights on both intelligence and battle strength. Through a brief analysis, although the demon baron didn't figure out the truth, he had almost hit it.
...
"Old Monster Qi was a member of the Three-eye Association of demons...summon the others...to kill the demon knight..."
Although being controlled by the demon knight, Mountain Lifting Hermit immediately plucked his courage to roar at the sight of the grand elder of Tianlu Palace.
The moment Mountain Lifting Hermit roared, with a cracking sound, his entire hand had been broken by the demon knight. After uttering a muffled harrumph, he spurted out a mouth of blood once again.
Because of Mountain Lifting Hermit's words, the grand elder of Tianlu Palace determined who was the true enemy in the shortest period. To be honest, watching Zhang Tie holding the head of Old Monster Qi, the two people were not sure whether Zhang Tie was the enemy or the friend. Now, their target became the demon knight.
As to why Zhang Tie killed Old Monster Qi and why Mountain Lifting Hermit was severely wounded and fell in the hand of the demon knight, although they were curious about these questions, it was not the right moment for them to discuss that. What counted most was to deal with this demon knight in front of them.
After rushing inside the hieron's hall, Zhang Anguo faced Zhang Tie and the demon knight at the same time. Now, he moved his footsteps and faced the demon knight with an extremely solemn look while releasing his battle qi.
Although the demon baron was the last one who wanted to be besieged by all the human knights, it had to glare at Zhang Anguo fiercely as it said, "As Hua people usually say, even if I die here, I will have some of you die with me. I've got 2 sacrifices, who would like to be the 3rd?"
...
After killing Old Monster Qi, Zhang Tie had been pretty silent.
Zhang Tie became silent because of regret. He felt the elapsing energy of Old Monster Qi's earth chakra; however, he could not absorb it at this moment. Just now, he could only choose one between killing Old Monster Qi rapidly or slowly absorbing his earth chakra. Therefore, he chose the first one.
'This is a complete earth chakra of an earth knight. Such a chakra would contain very abundant earth elements. It's a rare tonic. After absorbing it, I might promote to 2 changes black iron knight.'
Zhang Tie sighed inside.
Being silent, Zhang Tie's mind became as clear as crystal once again. He started to recall each detail and each word since he encountered the demon baron.
Finally, what impressed Zhang Tie most was the bargain between Old Monster Qi and the demon knight.
——My earth chakra has been wounded and is not recovered yet. Additionally, I've got two secret battle skills which could reach complete perfections through this bloody sacrifice...
——Bloody sacrifice...recovery...bloody sacrifice...chakra recovery...
Zhang Tie's brain cells and nerves all over became extremely spirited due to the two phrases "bloody sacrifice" and "chakra recovery".
The more spirited he was inside, the calmer Zhang Tie would look.
Zhang Tie threw a deep look at the demon baron...
At this moment, Zhang Tie's eyes were not full of animosity anymore.
Of course, the others could never read Zhang Tie's eyes.
As a Hua proverb went, when you wanted something; you had to gift it to others in advance.
'F*ck, no matter what, I will have a try.'
"You can leave!" Zhang Tie opened his mouth towards the demon baron, which aroused all the others' attention. Zhang Tie just beheld the demon baron as he dropped off Old Monster Qi's head whose eyes were still open, "Leave Mountain Lifting Hermit and Lin Huanxi here, we will not find you trouble and allow you to leave the pyramid. As one person has been killed, it's unnecessary for us to fight to death in this place. You will never defeat us; if we want to kill you, we have to pay at least 2 human lives. How about giving a concession to each other. You let them off, we let you go. After leaving the pyramid, we can fight whenever we want..."