Castle of Black Iron

On July 9th, the 903th year of black iron calendar, over two months since the last collision between two large battle formations, the human's battle fortress and the demon's battle fortress hovering in the core of Tiewei Mountain started to slowly evacuate under the protection of their own large battle formation of over 10,000 knights respectively almost at the same time...

When the two large battle formations started to evacuate, Gorath had just knocked out a battle spirit-level spider demon and thrown it into Castle of Black Iron like teleporting a booty in a messy deep mining trench over 70 miles away from the demon's battle fortress.

The moment the demon battle fortress moved, Zhang Tie had flown off the mining trench which had been deserted for many years and landed on a small hill. After that, he looked up at the floating demon's battle fortress.

Although being over 70 miles away, Zhang Tie could still see clearly the movements of the demon's battle fortress with his flickering lotus-flower eyes through the dense black mist.

Floating in the air, the demon's battle fortress was like a beehive-sized malignant tumor. Being covered with many accesses, it felt pretty chilly while slowly evacuating under the protection of the demon's large battle formation.

'Has the first large-scale battle between human knights and demon knights which broke out since the holy war come to an end?'

In the latest half a month, as the frequency of collisions between knights above earth level of both parties in the core decreased, fewer and fewer land forces appeared. Therefore, Zhang Tie guessed that the earth-element reserves here might have been fully exploited and both parties were preparing to evacuate.

As expected, both parties left this battlefield almost at the same time today.

As the battle fortress of both parties slowly evacuated, some dependent battle qi smokes and tornadoes also separated from each other and slowly evacuated with their own battle fortress and large battle formation...

Before coming here, Zhang Tie was thinking about getting some earth-element crystals here; however, after arriving here, Zhang Tie knew that it was impossible. Because both humans and demons had dispatched more than one shadow knight to prevent from being raided by the opposite shadow knights even heavenly knights. In this situation, it was unrealistic for an earth knight to do anything in the defensive area arranged by the shadow knights or heavenly knights. Little profit, big risk! Therefore, Zhang Tie gave it up.

However, although he didn't gain any earth-element crystal, he also made a great achievement on the battlefield.

Watching the two battle fortresses leaving, Zhang Tie felt a bit regretful inside.

If this large-scale battle lasted two more months, he would make a bigger achievement.

At this moment, a weird figure appeared in the dark mist over dozens of miles away and moved along a strange route as fast as a lightning bolt. It was flying towards Zhang Tie as if it was searching for something. Zhang Tie turned around while flickering his eyes. Closely after that, he returned to the mining trench rapidly. After a few seconds, a little black beetle flew off towards the human's battle fortress...

After a few minutes, that weird figure finally arrived at the place where Zhang Tie was just now.

That was an iron-armored shadow demon knight. The moment it arrived, a large area of black mist in the surroundings had rolled away.

There was some fresh blood on the ground of the mining trench, which was left by the spider demon which had just been knocked out by Zhang Tie.

Squatting down in front of the blood, the shadow demon knight rubbed it by its fingers. Closely after that, a shrewd light flashed by its eyes. After checking the surrounding environment, it hatched a soul-chasing butterfly at the fastest speed...

However, the soul-chasing butterfly kept flying around here like a donkey that pulled a millstone.

Two minutes later, the shadow demon knight roared and shattered the soul-chasing butterfly. After that, the shadow demon knight looked around this place before throwing a glance at the human's battle fortress. Closely after that, it flew towards the demon's battle fortress...

The first wrestle between Zhang Tie and a shadow demon knight in the Earth-elements Realm came to an end...

...

In the highest tower of the human's battle fortress, Du Guyi was standing alone like a forceful mountain peak as he was watching the demon's battle fortress silently with rising flames in his eyes...

"In this large-scale battle, we lost 2147 knights in total, which included 2019 black iron knights and 128 earth knights. Two shadow knights were injured. 18% of the total participants were dead. 73% of the late knights were Hua knights from Taixia Country, the rest 27% came from other continents. Additionally, 31 knights have disappeared after the battle, including 2 earth knights. In the rear battlefield of the battle fortress, we lost about 400 Class II garrison knights and over 20,000 auxiliary fighters and logistical personnel..."

A person reported in a muffled voice behind the demon suppression general. When it came to the casualties, the voice turned more muffled.

Hearing those figures, the rising flames in Du Guyi's eyes turned dimmer abruptly. This large-scale battle between human knights and demon knights in the Earth-element Realm was the fiercest collision between humans and demons since the 3rd holy war broke out. Over 1,500 most excellent Hua knights were sacrificed. Such a great loss could not be shouldered by other countries in the world besides Hua. Additionally, in this large-scale battle, Hua people made the greatest sacrifice since the end of the 2nd holy war in order to resist demons. Even though, they had to fight; if not, the demons would grow stronger...

However, this was just a beginning, in some specific stages in the future, large-scale battles between human knights and demon knights would break out too. More and more human knights would die on the battlefields for the well-being of humans.

After hearing those figures, Due Guyi became silent for a minute...

"How about the demons?" The demon suppression general asked in a faintly hoarse voice.

"Demons suffered a greater loss than us. According to the verified military exploits, we've killed 2541 demon knights in total through the face-to-face collision between human's large formation and demon's large formation under your leadership, 157 of them were earth demon knights. Additionally, some demon knights are still missing and unidentifiable. In the rear battlefield, demons broke even with us. And, demons even lost a very rare earth-level shadow demon. Additionally, demons lost about 30,000 ground fighters..." After replying that, the reporter took in a deep breath before adding, "Lord, we've...tried our best, everyone has exerted their full efforts!"

'Yes, we've exerted our full efforts. After sacrificing so many knights, of course, we've exerted our full efforts!'

Du Guyi let out a sigh inside.

After that, the demon suppression general closed his eyes. After a short while, he opened his eyes once again while the rising flames in his eyes had gone out. His eyes recovered absolutely icy and calm.

"Deliver the name-list of sacrificed knights and fighters on different levels to the Supreme Military Department and tell them to make proper arrangements about the sacrificed knights and fighters according to the relevant regulations!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Let's return to the Lion Fortress!"

After saying the last words, the demon suppression general threw a glance at the direction where the demon's battle fortress was leaving for before going downstairs the highest tower...

...

On July 12th, three floating battle fortresses returned to the Lion Fortress. Those who survived this battle were indulged in ecstasy at once, knights or common ground forces. Since July 13th, the streets in Lion Fortress had been covered with ecstatic fighters while the special odor of watermelon liquor filled the entire Lion Fortress...

According to the official declaration in the Lion Fortress and the entire human world, humans made a big victory while the human fighters accomplished the task perfectly.

Through the large-scale battle between humans and demons in Tiewei Mountain, human knights had destroyed the plan of demons about occupying all the earth-element crystals, which were an important strategic resource by successfully grabbing almost half of the total earth-element reserves in the core of Tiewei Mountain, namely, over 2 million high-quality earth-element crystals, although at the cost of over 2,000 human knights' lives. Additionally, they killed over 3,000 demon knights and over 50,000 ground demon fighters...

Only some top rulers in the Lion Fortress knew the real figures on the battlefield. In order to pluck up fighters' courage, the propaganda department in the Lion Fortress exaggerated the military exploits purposefully and depicted the large-scale battle in Tiewei Mountain as a great victory of humans in the Earth-elements Realm. According to the propaganda, the first fiercest collision between the most powerful human force and the most powerful demon force ended up with humans' victory.

Such a propaganda was very inspiring and could strengthen humans' belief in resisting demons. Even those human fighters who were in subcontinents and continents instead of the Earth-elements Realm were greatly inspired by the news about the large-scale battle in Tiewei Mountain after clicking the eye-catching title on the home page of the forum in the Mountain of Brightness as long as they had knights' crystal plates.

The battlefield of propaganda was also the most important branch of the battlefield in the holy war. Even before the Catastrophe, the importance of propaganda had been well known by human decision-makers such as generals. To a certain extent, all the battles would be determined on the battle will, decisiveness and morale in the end. The party whose battle will weakened first would collapse first on the battlefield...

When the entire Lion Fortress was in a carnival, Zhang Tie, after leaving the Lion Fortress over 3 years, returned to the Lion Fortress on July 14th...