Castle of Black Iron

Jinwu City, Yanghe Prefecture...

Standing on the top of a mountain peak outside Jinwu City, Zhang Tie couldn't prevent his heart from racing when he looked at Jinwu City in front of him.

4 years ago, Jinwu City was only on the drawings; however, it had already come true today.

Compared to Class A cities in Taixia Country, covering a bit more than 100 square miles, Jinwu City was just a small city. However, the boisterous scenery of constant airships above Jinwu City and the bustling crowd outside Jinwu City made it more like a prosperous commercial center or regional air traffic hub than a small city.

Railways and highways had been built. Standing on the top of the mountain peak, Zhang Tie could see crisscrossed railways and highways radiate in all directions from Jinwu City. Smoking trains were running on the railways like boas while various vehicles were shuttling back and forth on the highways.

As it was too boisterous inside the city, Zhang Tie had not imagined that there were two high and magnificent castles being about 1 mile away from the city. They were defending Jinwu City like two silent guards and could divide human flows. Many airships accessing to Jinwu City were parking in the airship bases in the periphery of the two castles.

There were some villages, towns and plants around Jinwu City and two castles within dozens of square miles. Everything in front of Zhang Tie's eyes was thriving and vigorous.

Zhang Tie even caught sight of a huge camp outside the city.

Like that inside Jinwu City, that large-scale camp also looked very boisterous. Of course, the boisterous scene was composed of shuttling steam armored vehicles, battle calls, collisions and sweat of numerous fighters and the dust flying in the air.

In Zhang Tie's lotus-flower eyes, although being dozens of miles away, that camp was still as clear as his own palm prints.

The banner in the camp was not the banner of the official army in Youzhou Province, Taixia Country, but the Jinwu banner of Zhang Clan, Huaiyuan Palace.

The Jinwu Banner was as overbearing as the emblem of Jinwu Business Group. On both sides of the golden bird, its one claw was holding a shield while its the other hand was holding a sword.

This was the symbol of the armored guards of Jinwu Business Group. In another word, it was the symbol of Zhang Tie's private army.

Under the Jinwu banner, the frozen fighters' firm and persistent looks didn't escape away from Zhang Tie's eyes.

Black sweat stains were left on the fighters' faces; the military officers and the steam armored vehicles were roaring. With the extremely rhythmic shocks and booms, the targeted slope was covered with pits...

...

Only after throwing a glance at the size of the camp and the trainees on the battlefield, Zhang Tie had estimated the population of this armored forces——about 100,000 people.

Zhang family had changed a lot after 4 years.

...

Being excited, Zhang Tie watched the Jinwu City in the distance for quite a while before finally taking in a deep breath and flashing away from the top of the mountain peak.

Half an hour later, Zhang Tie appeared in the huge shadow of the city wall of Jinwu City. He looked up at the super high city wall of Jinwu City.

When he looked at it from the top of the mountain peak in the distance, he didn't feel that the city wall of Jinwu City was too high; however, when he came to the foot of the city wall, Zhang Tie realized that it was really too high.

The city wall of Youzhou City, as a Class A city was only a bit higher than 70 m; however, the city wall of Jinwu City was higher than 100 m like a high tower. Standing at the foot of the city wall and looking up at the city wall, Zhang Tie felt its overwhelming qi.

There were various city-defense machines on the city wall. The steam ballistas and heavy centrifugal cannons made the city wall an iron hedgehog. Besides, there were many pieces of movable iron armors over the city wall. It was more like the configuration of a battle fortress than a city wall.

Jinwu City was just a small city; however, it was more like a huge battle fortress.

After Zhang Tie was framed by demons and Three-eye Association and had to escape away, his family members had started to build this city. At the sight of such a firm city wall, Zhang Tie knew what his family members were thinking about when they built the city.

'If not for the sake of safety, Jinwu City would not have such a deterrent city wall. This city wall is actually the portrayal of my elder brother's thought. Over the past 4 years, my elder might be thinking about how to make our family firmer everyday in case that any one of our family would suffer from any misfortune like me once again.'

'No, it won't. As I'm back. From then on, nobody could bully us anymore!'

Zhang Tie mumbled.

...

"Wow, the city wall of Jinwu City is even higher than that of a Class A City..." A 17-18-year-old adolescent was exclaiming at the foot of the city wall.

Beside this adolescent, there was a middle-aged man at his 30s. They both looked like businessmen. The younger one looked naive while the elder one looked shrewd. Given their similar looks, Zhang Tie knew that they were father and son.

Many people who came to Jinwu City for the first time would stop and appreciate the magnificent city wall. Therefore, the demeanors of Zhang Tie and that adolescent at the foot of the city wall didn't look special at all.

"Do you want a photo at the foot of the city wall of Jinwu City? 2 gold coins per times. This is the highest city wall in the entire Northeast Military Region. If you pass by, you will miss this opportunity..." At the sight of Zhang Tie and the adolescent standing still there, a man with a camera instantly came to them for soliciting trade.

'The city wall could even be a scenery of Jinwu City.'

Zhang Tie burst out into laughter inside.

"We need to enter it now. We'd better settle down at first; after that, we have to take the sequence number and queue up tonight; if we're lucky enough, we could gain a chance to buy one case of vials of the all-purpose medicament..." The middle-aged man pulled the adolescent directly into the city, ignoring the photographer.

"Dad, is this all-purpose medicament really that popular in other provinces?" The adolescent asked him in a low and vigilant voice.

"It's very popular. I've already contacted the purchasers in Tongzhou Province. We could make 24 gold coins by selling one case of 12 vials of all-purpose medicament after increasing 2 gold coins for each vial. Although it's not too profitable and is a bit painstaking on the way as well as it will cost us some time, if we're lucky enough, we could travel here twice a year..." The middle-aged man replied in a low voice as he walked.

"When we're rich in the future, we will also buy an airship!" The adolescent said in a naive yet ambitious tone.

"Yup, it's nice to hear that you're so ambitious. Our Hong family's undertaking was gradually established through doing business by your father and your grandfather..." The father patted his son's shoulder and encouraged him pleasantly.

When the father and the son talked in low voice, they entered the crowd at the city gate. There were two teams of city-defense guards and military officers at the city gate of Jinwu City, who were watching the passers-by's faces and personal packages with flickering eyes. Unless they saw something special, they would not check or purposely make difficulties for someone.

Watching the father and the son entering the city gate, Zhang Tie also prepared to enter the city among the bustling crowd.

Zhang Tie was in a medium-sized figure; he looked a bit strong and was dressed like a common warrior that could be seen everywhere in Taixia Country. In this way, he was neither eye-catching nor mediocre. Besides a tough, fierce and intrepid face, there was a common walking saber on one side of his waist.

Zhang Tie could almost see 7-8 people in the similar dress among the crowd.

Besides, guards of business groups, independent warriors and some valiant pedlars almost looked similar.

After making a comparison, Zhang Tie found that more people carried weapons in the crowd than when he came to Taixia Country for the first time.

The moment Zhang Tie wanted to enter the city, he had caught sight of a military officer who hurriedly walked downstairs the tunnel in the city gate. The military officer whispered something to another military officer at the city gate. After hearing that, the military officer immediately became spirited as he hurriedly sorted his clothes.

The whisper of the military officer drifted into Zhang Tie's ears too, "The castellan is coming, watch out..."

After hearing this words, Zhang Tie almost stopped his footsteps right away.

'Castellan? Isn't he my dad?' Zhang Tie mumbled.

Only after a few seconds, a fleet of four black limos rapidly drove towards one side of the city gate and parked outside the city gate. Some people then got off the black limos. At the sight of this, the military officer at the city gate hurriedly walked over there and made a military tribute to one of them. Closely after that, he followed those people who had just got off vehicles and started to introduce something to them outside the city gate.

Because of sudden arrival of these people, many people who were accessing to the city gate turned around and looked at them out of curiosity.

However, after looking at the sharp eyes and sensing aggressive qi of those bodyguards, who were above LV 13, surrounding those people, none of the onlookers dared approach them.

Zhang Ping, Zhang Tie's dad was escorted by the crowd and came to the place where Zhang Tie stood still and looked up at the high city wall. He put his hand over his forehead to prevent sunlight from entering his eyes as he said, "This city wall is indeed high. It looks aggressive; as a result, Jinwu City feels intense. It's necessary to beautify it..."

When Zhang Ping said, a stenographer took down his words in shorthand...