Castle of Black Iron

Three demonized city guards were rushing towards Zhang Tie. They all looked pretty disgusting, with the skin of two of them heavily burned. Besides that, one of them had lost an eye, and one’s hair and scalp was burned off. The last one had a bolt in the right side of his chest, while disgusting puss was flowing out of the festering wound. Due to their stink, a lot of flies were circling around them.

With only one glance at them, Zhang Tie had given up his plan to bring them back to Professor Simon. They were really disgusting!

With one javelin, Zhang Tie slashed their heads into pieces as fast as he could, like swatting flies. After that, he started to search the military camp. As he didn’t see Shrek inside the camp, Zhang Tie thought that he must’ve been targeting the demonized city guards wandering outside the military camp.

This was a very large military camp, which covered about 500,000 square meters, including the training field. Many buildings inside the camp had been burned, leaving behind the most common barracks, some training facilities, warehouses, canteens and so on.

According to the habits of demonized people, some of them preferred to wander where their hosts used to stay. Therefore, Zhang Tie didn’t believe that there were only three demonized people inside such a large military camp. Although he couldn’t see any on the training field, he might meet some demonized people somewhere else.

Zhang Tie ran directly towards the nearest barracks.

The door to the barracks was half closed. When he arrived, Zhang Tie kicked it open at once. After peeping inside, he found no demonized people at all. It was chaotic and nothing could be seen on the bunk beds except for dust.

Zhang Tie kept kicking open the doors of seven more barracks and found no demonized city guards inside at all. Then Zhang Tie came to the gate of a building with four floors.

That building was very magnificent. Its exterior was covered with delicate marble bricks. There was also a noticeable copper plate on the wall outside, reading, ’Brigade of City Guards III Headquarters, Heavens Cold City’.

There were two empty sentry booths outside the gate of the building. Some military vehicles and light wheeled infantry chariots were parked in the parking lot beside the building. Those vehicles were crowded together in a disorderly way and the scene was lifeless. One chariot had even run into a parterre beside the building. After crashing into the parapet guardrail, it tilted over the parterre and was damaged greatly.

Everything there seemed to reveal how chaotic it was when the airships of Huaiyuan Palace had assaulted this military camp one week ago.

Zhang Tie didn’t intend to go inside. But then he suddenly heard sounds from upstairs and changed his mind, deciding to search inside.

After entering the building, the sounds became louder. The sounds, "bang, bang, bang" were drifting down from upstairs every second. With a javelin in hand, Zhang Tie silently went to the stairs of the building before he rushed upstairs.

Like other similar buildings, the stairs were in the middle. On both sides of each floor were corridors, and lining the corridors were rooms and offices. At a glance, the design was indicative of military camps.

Nobody was in the corridors on the second and third floors, so the sound had come from the fourth floor, which was more luxurious than the lower floors as it had dark red carpet on the floor. The moment Zhang Tie came to the fourth floor, he caught sight of a man in military uniform at the end of the corridor on the left, who was thumping on a closed door with his fist.

As that man had his back to Zhang Tie, the latter could not clearly see his face. Therefore, Zhang Tie could not judge whether or not the man was a demonized person.

All the rooms and offices on this floor were opened, with papers scattered all over the floor, except for the room at the end of the corridor on the left.

Zhang Tie took a look around and found nobody else on this floor. He walked towards the man in military uniform and stopped ten meters away from him.

He coughed, "Ahem..."

Zhang Tie’s cough was extraordinarily loud in the empty corridor. The moment the man heard this, he turned around.

Bloody eyes, a grim and twisted face, and mucus dripping from the corners of its mouth; all this indicated that it was a demonized city guard. What made Zhang Tie excited was that it was a second lieutenant.

Zhang Tie then let out a sigh, ’Thankfully, this one doesn’t look that disgusting.’

The demonized person then charged at Zhang Tie, intending to punch his face. It moved very swiftly, equal to the fighting strength of a level six fighter. Zhang Tie revealed a smile as he faced its attack head on, like how a tough guy would bully a toddler, he ended the fight in the blink of an eye.

Catching its wrist in one hand, Zhang Tie pushed the demonized person’s head with his other hand. Then, with a "Kacha" sound, he rotated its head 360 degrees and immediately broke its neck like breaking off corn cobs. As a result, the puppet’s head was bent backwards over 180 degrees and lolled down its back while the top of its head was facing the floor.

No blood was spilled during the whole process.

Zhang Tie then loosened his grip, letting that demonized second lieutenant fall onto the floor like mud.

However, Zhang Tie hadn’t expected that the puppet wouldn’t die immediately. Instead it lay on the floor, its limbs still twitching slightly like a machine that was out of control. Meanwhile, its bloody eyes gazed at itself, intending to control its own body once again.

Although, Zhang Tie had long known that demonized people had a very strong physical endurance, he had not imagined that the puppet could still try to stand up at that moment.

"Motherf*cker!" Zhang Tie swore as he immediately raised his foot and stomped on its limbs to break them. After that, the puppet didn’t move any more. However, its bloody eyes were still gazing at Zhang Tie. Thankfully, Zhang Tie’s psychological endurance was great and he didn’t care about this "staring salute".

Previously, Zhang Tie had intended to catch it, However, at the sight of the metal plate on the door, Zhang Tie changed his mind.

The plate read, ’Brigade Commander’s Office’.

He thought to take a look inside, as there could be some good items there. A thought flashed across Zhang Tie’s mind, ’No matter what, they are Zhen Clan’s items. Just take them.’

It seemed that this was an important place as it had a reinforced metal protective door. At that moment it was obviously locked, otherwise the demonized man would not have thumped on it for so long, leaving only a dent in it.

"Pah, pah, pah..." Zhang Tie patted the door’s surroundings. From the muffled resonance, Zhang Tie knew that it was a heavy door.

Zhang Tie then took a deep breath and moved one step back. After that, he ferociously kicked its lock with the "Elephant Stomp" movement of Iron-Blood Fist.

With a crisp sound, "Bang," the whole door, along with its frame, changed shape greatly, leaving a crack of space between the door and its frame about two fists wide.

After another "Elephant Stomp", with a boom, the door fell down together with its door frame.

Soon after that, fine plaster and cement blocks dropped from the ceiling and covered Zhang Tie’s head and face.

"Peh...peh...peh..." Zhang Tie kept spitting out of the cement and plaster as he patted off the dust in his hair. After that, he walked into the office.

’It’ll be a great loss if I find nothing inside.’

He came to an outer room of the office, which was more than thirty square meters big. There were some filing cabinets, a sofa set and a desk close to the door. Some maps were hanging on the wall. It seemed to be the office of a secretariat or an adviser. After a glance, Zhang Tie could see nothing valuable. Therefore, he didn’t search it any more than that.

There was a dark red door on the right wall, which was half covered. Stepping on the thick carpet, Zhang Tie walked over there and pushed open the door.

Compared to the room outside, the room behind the door was like an office of a brigade commander. It covered more than 100 square meters. The moment he walked inside, he saw a huge sand model of the city on a table in the middle of the room, and two nice, crisscrossed, gleaming long swords on the wall facing the door.

"Ze...ze...Zhen clan is really rich!" Zhang Tie sighed with feeling as he touched the two one meter high crystal columns, each of which weighed hundreds of kilograms.

The two crystal columns on both sides of the door looked pretty good. They were transparent all over. Additionally, a steamed-bun sized pyramid energy shadow had formed in their cores. The moment Zhang Tie drew close to them, he felt the powerful energy effects of the two super "crystal generators".

Such large pyramid crystals were close to at least level six. Zhang Tie had not seen such large pyramid crystals before. The value of the two items was definitely worth more than 10,000 gold coins.

After confirming that nobody was in the room, Zhang Tie teleported the two huge pyramid crystals into Castle of Black Iron without any hesitation.

This was really a worthwhile trip for Zhang Tie.

The brigade commander’s office had been arranged in an ambient way. Other than the two huge "crystal generators", there were some oak bookcases which were filled with books. At the sight of the bookcases and the books inside, Zhang Tie’s eyes gleamed. Without a second thought, he collected all of them into his study room in Castle of Black Iron.

As his study room in Castle of Black Iron was still empty, he would not waste the precious books on those bookcases. Until now, Zhang Tie still remembered his experience while in the Grant family’s Private Library in Prague. In this day and age, books were also a very important treasure.

When he was in Zhen’s Mansion, Zhang Tie had the chance to move all the books from the Mansion into Castle of Black Iron. However, due to an emergency he’d had no time to collect every book. Additionally, he was afraid of exposing himself to the Zhang Clan. By contrast, he didn’t need to consider any of that at this moment.

Besides bookcases, there was also a wine cabinet in the office, which was filled with various types of alcohol. However, Zhang Tie wasn’t interested in drinking them as he was not sure what was inside of the bottles.

Many elite weapons were hanging on a wall. There were also two sets of nice looking armor. However, Zhang Tie didn’t touch them either.

On one side of the desk, Zhang Tie found a safe which was completely open, leaving nothing inside. It seemed that someone had taken the items away in a frenzy. Only god knew who had those items now.

After that, Zhang Tie checked the last thing in the office——the desk.

Zhang Tie came to the desk and pulled out the drawer at the bottom. As only some documents had been left inside, Zhang Tie turned them over randomly before pushing the drawer closed.

Some boxes of cigars and some delicate boxes of medicament were lying in the drawer on the second layer. Zhang Tie picked up one box of medicament and found some sexy women on the package, who had alluring, slim eyes and half-exposed boobs. There were 3 lines of Chinese characters on the package:

’Beauties Groan Every Night.’

’Tone Your Kidney and Nourish Your Body. With One Piece, You Will be a Real Man Overnight.’

’Secret Medicament from Qionglou Pavilion of Taixia in the Eastern Continent.’

"F*ck!" Zhang Tie swore as he pressed the drawer back in.

When he pulled open the drawer on the third layer, he found some medals and an exquisite box made of silver and gold, which was about thirty square centimeters wide and more than 10 centimeters high.

Zhang Tie took the box out of the drawer and opened it.

A belt, made of gold and silver diamond-shaped pieces of metal, was lying inside. At the sight of this belt, Zhang Tie widened his eyes in amazement——No Way!

Zhang Tie screamed inside, "No Way", repetitively as this belt’s design and its brilliant, noble and slim buckle made him excited.

It was too familiar for Zhang Tie. This was obviously another Red-Snake Sword. Additionally, compared to the Red-Snake Sword that he’d gained in Iron-Horn Army, this one looked better and more advanced.

Zhang Tie then pressed the bead in the middle of the buckle. With an extremely low sound, "Tsa", two fish shot out at the same time.

Zhang Tie took one of the two fish. Feeling the fine, anti-slip scales and the heavy texture on the fish, Zhang Tie instantly recalled the same feeling from when he’d held the Red-Snake Sword.

Holding the handle of this slim, golden fish, Zhang Tie noticed the small Chinese characters on its back——’Golden Carp of Double-Carp Swords’

Zhang Tie slightly release his Iron-Blood Battle Qi.

A sword ray instantly sprouted out of the golden carp’s mouth and stretched six meters away. Amid the sword light, Zhang Tie seemed to see a flexible golden carp. Just as when he’d used the Red-Snake Sword before, when he pushed it with his sword qi, the secret grains on the blades cast a vivid pattern in the air.

Zhang Tie took the other fish sword in his left hand. At the same time, he slightly released his Iron-Blood Battle Qi to push out the sword light from the mouth of this other fish. The thin sword blade also reached six meters away. The only difference was that the projection in the air from this sword was a silver carp.

Zhang Tie waved his hands at the same time. In a split second, the room was filled with crisscrossing sword light. Like performing a magic trick, Zhang Tie unleashed golden and silver carps from his hands, making them swim six meters ahead of him in the air.

As he was not accustomed to the two weapons and the effective distance of the weapons was a bit long, the two weapons collided with each other every now and then with a splash. Due to an unsteady gesture from his left hand, the silver carp swam over the middle of the wine cabinet, instantly creating a clean cut through the bottles inside. As a result, all the items inside the wine cabinet shattered.

"Hahahaha," Zhang Tie burst out in laughter. The double-carp swords were definitely one level higher than the Red-Snake Sword that he’d used before. The two swords were greater in various ways, including effective distance, sharpness and craftsmanship.

Zhang Tie guessed that the weapons had probably been gifted to the master of this office. Zhang Tie sighed with feeling. ’This gift is really much better than those weapons in the warehouse of the Iron-Horn Army.’

Zhang Tie had been shocked when he’d gained the rare Red-Snake Sword before. However, he had not imagined that he could gain another set of swords of the same quality just one year later.

Was this his destiny?

Zhen’s assassin had made him lose his Red-Snake Sword in Dragon Cave. However, now he’d gained a much better set of Double-Carp Swords within Zhen’s territory. This must have been predestined.

Zhang Tie then instantly tied his Double-Carp Swords to his waist. Being covered by his field combat clothes, nobody would know that Zhang Tie had changed his sword belt.

By then, Zhang Tie was satisfied.

After another glance around the office, the corners of Zhang Tie’s mouth were raised as he left the room.

When he went back through the door of the outer office, Zhang Tie grabbed the demonized person who’s bloody eyes were popping out and was still intending to pick itself up. Zhang Tie then rushed downstairs with it in hand, like he’d caught a small chick, and rushed outside of the camp.

...

Ten minutes later, after shaking off the demonized puppets chasing him by taking a circular detour, Zhang Tie returned to the hotel where Professor Simon and the other two guys were.

Less than two minutes after Zhang Tie returned, Shrek also came back with a demonized puppet in hand.

"Well, they are mine now. Please spare me two hours. You can leave now!" said Professor Simon

After placing the two demonized puppets onto the desk of the conference room in the hotel, qi instantly covered Professor Simon as he chased the other people out of his working place like a chef who was ready to cook two fat fish.

Zhang Tie, Shrek, Zerom and Jordan were then chased out of the conference room by Professor Simon as well.

At the entrance of the conference room, Shrek put his arm around Jordan’s neck and murmured something to him. Jordan then forcefully swallowed his saliva and nodded.

"Zerom, it’s enough if you accompany Professor Simon here. Jordan and I want to make an inspection round inside the hotel to eliminate the other demonized puppets here!" said Shrek as he winked.

Because he was clever, of course Zerom knew what they were really going to do, but he only exhorted them, "Watch out, don’t bring in those demonized puppets from outside the hotel!"

"No problem!" Shrek responded with a big smile. Then he glanced at Zhang Tie. "How about inspecting the hotel together with us?"

"No need. Just do what you want. Except for money and some valuable items, don’t take any items that are too conspicuous with you. Otherwise you will have trouble!" Zhang Tie warned.

Considering the fact the hotel’s star rating wasn’t too low, there would probably be a lot of money and some valuable items inside the hotel, or left behind from the guests. Whether they could find these things depended on their luck.

Shrek and Jordan then walked away jubilantly.

"Aren’t you going?" Zerom asked Zhang Tie with a smile.

"I have many chances to make money like this, so I’m not in much of a hurry!" said Zhang Tie, having just made a fortune.

"I almost forgot that. You can come here whenever you want!" Zerom patted his head.

"Oh, have you gotten a message from Captain Kerlin? Has he left Blackhot City too?"

Zerom shook his head. "I contacted him a month ago. He was still in the No.7 National Middle School. You might not know yet, but that guy has bought a house near Bright Avenue!"

"Bought a house?"

"As a man who wants to protect and be responsible for a woman, of course he needs to prepare a fixed house in Blackhot City!" Zerom mocked, "That guy is rude and rarely falls in love with any women. But since he’s fallen in love with a woman like Miss Daina from your school, he would not leave Blackhot City unless he saw no chance of surviving! In order to buy a house there, that guy almost robbed non-stop these past few years..."

’Miss Daina.’ After hearing this familiar and beautiful name, Zhang Tie became slightly absent-minded...

Two hours later, Shrek and Jordan came back red faced with items fully covering their waists. At this time, Professor Simon also walked out of the conference room as he wiped off the blood stains on hands.

At the sight of Professor Simon’s slightly pale and frightened face, Zhang Tie was slightly shocked inside.

Professor Simon trembled, his voice hoarse, "I...I have to go back to Armes...right now!"

...