Castle of Black Iron

Watching Zhang Tie coming over here, all of his apprentices stood up immediately and bowed towards him as they said in unison, "Master!", including those young men who survived the massacre in Xujia Village.

Zhang Tie nodded towards all of them.

Zhang Tie had people bring here some beef that was stored in the icy warehouse on his airboat and two disabled bloody figures. Those beef were about 200 kg in weight. As Zhang Tie just had people store these beef in the icy warehouse before the airboat set off, they were still fresh now. The moment they opened these sealed cases, those fresh beef had given off a bloody odor.

In order to preserve the fresh taste of these beef, after those beef were slaughtered, their fleshes were instantly sealed in cases even with blood.

Beside the bonfires, the moment those people who participated in collecting corpses in the daytime smelt the bloody odor, their faces had turned a bit pale.

Since Zhang Tie took the first fruit of redemption, he had realized the value of those lives which looked trivial. From then on, he rarely ate meat; except for this time.

Zhang Tie nodded silently as he waved his hand. After seeing Zhang Tie's gesture, those bodyguards behind Zhang Tie put all the fresh beef in trays one after another. A bodyguard even brought some professional forks and knives which were used to eat roasted meat. On the other side, some bodyguards unfolded two metal operation tables which were especially for field operations.

They fixed the limbs, waists, necks and heads of the two disabled bloody figures on the metal operation tables, causing the atmosphere beside the bonfires to become weird.

'Bloody beef on one side, bloody figures on metal operation tables that were always used in field operations on the other side, what does the master want to do?'

Under the silent gazes of the apprentices, the two disabled bloody figures roared and struggled on the operation tables.

Zhang Tie looked at his apprentices with a big smile, exposing his white teeth, "You must be hungry. I've already prepared the supper for you. At least 1 kg's beef per person. You could eat well-cooked beef or half-cooked beef here!"

After hearing Zhang Tie's words, some female apprentices of Zhang Tie immediately vomited.

Zhang Tie didn't care about those female apprentices; instead, he continued to look at the other apprentices, "Is there anyone who has learned anatomy or surgical rescue? Raise your hand..."

Liu Xing and the other 6 black-armored fighters raised their hands. Among the other apprentices, over 10 people raised their hands too, including Zhu Dabiao.

It seemed that those who came from major clans with provincial governors could indeed accept a better education.

"Good, you're responsible for dissecting the two bloody figures. As we're all here, you will make an overall analysis of the two bloody figures from their heads to their feet and tell the others about the physiological difference between the two bloody figures and commoners. Liu Xing, you 7 just stay aside to teach them how to do that!"

Zhang Tie's words were as influential as imperial edicts for the 121 apprentices of Iron-Dragon Sect. After saying these words, Zhang Tie and Bai Suxian sat beside a bonfire and started to roast two pieces of beef with iron forks. Liu Xing and the others who had raised their hands didn't dare waste time; they immediately started to autopsy. Watching Zhang Tie roasting beef, all the others started to roast beef by iron forks consciously, even though some of them looked pale and were vomiting.

Zhang Tie said each of them had to eat at least 1 kg's beef. Therefore, no matter how disgusting those people felt, they had to do that.

"Master, those girls have not experienced this before. Is it a bit excessive?" Bai Suxian asked Zhang Tie in a secret way as she saw some female apprentices moving timidly to take their bloody beef, some of which even started to vomit once again after taking their shares.

"If you cannot even pass such a low-grade test, how could you be my apprentices? Do you think that you will never meet such a scene in the future? I took you out for a practice, not for a trip! I've treated you good enough; otherwise, I would have told you to eat the flesh of the bloody figures..."

"The flesh of bloody figures. It sounds more disgusting!"

"Disgusting? Do you know that many human fighters have to eat the fleshes of the rotten demonized puppets on the battlefields of other subcontinents? If you they don't pass this test, it will be useless even if they promote to knights in the future."

After hearing Zhang Tie's reply, Bai Suxian became silent. Zhang Tie didn't overstate. What he described indeed happened in Selnes Theater of Operations. Zhang Tie even witnessed it. How did those human fighters survive the mountains of bloody corpses in Selnes Plain? How did those humans being captured live in the hell-like underground cave of Misty Moons Forest?

"The two bloody figures are really valuable. As they are still alive, open their skulls by saw first and observe the difference between their brains and human brains. Many demonized humans would have puppet worms in their brains. You'd better check whether there's such a thing in their brains! After dissecting their heads, dissect their organs one after another..." Zhang Tie told his apprentices to "start from the head" when he saw them picking various tools and preparing for the autopsy...

The two metal operation tables were matched with the whole sets of surgical apparatuses. The moment Zhang Tie finished his words, someone had fetched the bone saws and started to saw the two bloody figures' skulls at the same time.

Although the two bloody figures were fixed on the metal operation tables, they had not taken anesthesia yet.

Along with the roars of the bloody figures was the sound of frictions between bone saws and their skulls. The skins on their heads were immediately cut by saws, spurting out blood at once, spraying over the clothes of those people surrounding the operation tables.

When the two bloody figures were slowly opened by saws and sprayed blood in all directions, the beef started to give off fragrance. During this process, the two bloody figures were not dead; they just made struggles in vain on the metal operation tables

The greater part of Zhang Tie's apprentices had turned pale. It might be the first time for the two apprentices to saw bloody figures' skulls as their hands were shivering.

Liu Xing and the other black-armored fighters were instructing them on one side, 'You should not cut into the skull directly in case of hurting the bloody figures' brains; instead, you should slowly saw it around the skull.

None of Zhang Tie's apprentices might have dissected alive bloody figures which looked like humans before. Therefore, they were all very intense throughout the whole process. One apprentice directly cut off a bloody figure's ear when he circled around the skull by saw, causing the bloody figure to shriek more miserably.

"Let me have a try..." Zhu Dabiao gritted his teeth with bloody eyes as he rolled up his sleeves and took that the saw from the apprentice who cut off the bloody figure's ear by a mistake. He pressed the badly mutilated head of the bloody figure by one hand and started to have a try. In the beginning, Zhu Dabiao's hands were quivering; however, after trying it a few times, this guy had become stable mentally and physically.

Zhang Tie threw a glance at Zhu Dabiao. Although this guy always looked sluggish, he was indeed a bit vicious at the critical moment.

Watching this scene, the young men who survived the massacre in Xujia Village and Xu Yian became silent; especially the former ones who just watched all this with dumbfounded looks as they felt that Fire Dragon Hermit's image became a bit terrifying for the first time.

Not until now did Xu Yian tell these young men that they would join Iron-Dragon Sect in the future. Therefore, those young men didn't know that their destinies in the future were closely related to Zhang Tie for the time being.

As Xu Yian had the similar experience in the troop, he had guessed Zhang Tie's purpose; even though, Xu Yian still had not imagined that Zhang Tie could directly dissect two bloody figures alive.

After looking at the young men on his side whose faces had turned pale, Xu Yian made a decision right away. He directly came to Zhang Tie's side and asked, "Hermit, do you have some more beef on your airboat?"

Zhang Tie threw a glance at Xu Yian before saying, "Do you also want some?"

"We need them too!" Xu Yian said decisively.

"Great!" Zhang Tie told a bodyguard on Bai Suxian's side, "Gift them 100 kg's beef!"

After receiving the order, that bodyguard left. After a short while, he brought the beef along with the forks and knives and gave them to Xu Yian.

Xu Yian watched those young men with red eyes as he said furiously, "We will also eat beef. After growing stronger, we will learn battle skills and revenge for our family members!"

Xu Yian took a piece of beef immediately, closely followed by all the other young men of Xujia Village silently.

...

"Enjoy it..."

The beef was not cooked well yet as there was still blood in it. Someone might feel that t it tasted tender; however, for those who had seen so many badly mutilated corpses today, Zhang Tie's order was like a curse.

Those apprentices who had always felt that Zhang Tie was genial since they formally acknowledged him as their master finally found that their master was cold-hearted and dignified.

After receiving Zhang Tie's order, nobody dared to move; even though the beef was not cooked well yet.

When Zhang Tie started to eat it, everybody else followed him.

Many people had started to vomit the moment they took the first bite. Even so, they continued to eat while gritting their teeth after looking at Zhang Tie's glassy-eyed look.

After they ate for 2 minutes, the first bloody figure's skull was opened, exposing the brain tissues inside. What shocked everybody at present was that there was indeed a gray octopus-shaped puppet worm that had already combined with the bloody figure's brains...

All of a sudden, after feeling the flames, the puppet worm started to creep as if it wanted to hide into the brain. However, before it entered the brain, the one who was responsible for opening the skull had nipped it out of the brain by a pair of forceps.

When the puppet worm left the bloody figure's brain, the bloody figure suddenly quivered all over on the operation table as he showed the whites of his eyes. Only after a few seconds, the bloody figure had become still. As the puppet worm's tentacles were tightly sticking to the bloody figure's brain, it destroyed the bloody figure's brain when it nipped out of there.

In the flame, the octopus-shaped puppet worm was placed in a surgical tray. However, it was still creeping as if it wanted to climb out of the tray. At the sight of such a disgusting thing, many people who had vomited just now started to vomit once again.

"Haha, I wonder whether this thing tastes good or not!" Zhang Tie burst out into laughter as he stood up and came to the operation table. Catching that creeping puppet worm by hand, he walked to one bonfire and started to roast it on the bonfire.

The puppet worm kept struggling and creeping at its utmost effort in Zhang Tie's hand; however, it gradually became still and oozed oil in the flame...

Under the gaze of the surrounding people, after a few minutes, Zhang Tie's hand remained unchanged like performing a magic; however, the puppet worm in his hand had been cooked well. Zhang Tie directly put that well cooked octopus-shaped puppet worm into his mouth and started to chew it. At the same time, he praised that it tasted good.

After eating the cooked worm that was taken out of the brain of the bloody figure, Zhang Tie threw a glance at his apprentices, "In the former two holy wars, as the demon corps could eat human flesh, they didn't worry about food supply wherever they were. By contrast, humans would always change their faces due to fear when they talked about demons. Can you eat demon fleshes? Can you make demons change their faces the moment they talk about you? Do you think that Taixia Country will be peaceful forever? Do you think that flames of war and turmoils have nothing to do with you? Do you think that you only need to cultivate yourselves in Iron-Dragon Sect? After that event in Zhongzhou Province, do you think that demons and the Heavens Reaching Church only founded one bloody sea in Pingsha Valley? Although you all hope so, don't tell me that you're my apprentices in the future if you really think so. I don't need such stupid apprentices."

"Do you know why I brought you to Zhongzhou Province? Because I wanted to show you the possible situation that you might face in the future and how bad your opponents are? I wanted to warn you for that. As your master, actually, I only hope that you could survive this holy war instead of promoting to knights. Only when you survive yourselves could you have a bright future. I'm afraid that you might be involved in a tricky situation before making any preparation..."

After saying that, Zhang Tie threw a glance at Bai Suxian. Bai Suxian then walked towards him. Closely after that, Zhang Tie and Bai Suxian returned to the airboat.

Beside the bonfires, everybody became silent once again. After a while, someone suddenly started to chew the bloody beef forcefully...

The autopsy continued. Although someone was still vomiting, more people started to chew beef forcefully...

As Zhang Tie's first apprentice, Liu Xing was the second person who took the disgusting puppet worm being covered with the brains out of another bloody figure's head and roasted it on the fire before eating it with a glassy-eyed look...