Castle of Black Iron

In the mysterious mind space of Zhang Tie, there were so many sparkling stars and 2 full moons. The entire mind sea was like the void of the universe. The sparkling stars and the moons gave out faintly golden light, turning the entire mind sea into a paradise...

The All-spirits Pagoda which represented the inheritance of "Great Wilderness Sutra" was more resplendent while bathing the moonlight. Vivid birds and beasts were constantly flying and jumping out of the tower from below floor 15 as if they were going to incarnate into real living beings. At the same time, the endless true words of the Great Wilderness Sutra were resonating in the void...

The mysterious portal accessing to Castle of Black Iron was on the top of the All-spirits Pagoda.

Additionally, numerous immortal runes were surrounding the All-spirits Pagoda like how planets flew around the sun. They slowly rotated in Zhang Tie's mind sea as a unity.

The golden rune of the binding skill was constantly changing its shape like chains and ropes...

The golden rune of the hiding skill was looming...

The golden rune of the rapid moving skill was the fastest "planets". Before the other golden runes flew around the tower for 1 circle, the golden rune of rapid moving skill had already flown around the tower for numerous circles, causing a light ring...

The mysterious rune was the golden rune of body separation skill. Under the golden moonlight in his mind sea, the rune of body separation skill incarnated into Zhang Tie's look. Like a naked naive kid, sometimes it sat in the void with crossed legs while sucking its fingers; sometimes, it sprung up and jumped here and there over those golden runes cheerily; sometimes, it would climb onto the tower and drill inside before jumping out of it from one window in a pretty naughty way...

...

In this void which was filled with runes, precision gears and numerical dials in different sizes constantly manifested themselves in the golden light as if they were real.

If a master craftsman or a senior engineer of difference engine was here, he would definitely identify that these gears and numerical dials were parts of steam computers.

Those who were more familiar with steam computers could even identify the identities of these "parts" from those super huge gears in the void——they were absolutely the temporary storage of gears of the Xuanyuan Type-1 large steam computer.

As over 60,000 components in different sizes had been visualized, it looked pretty magnificent in the void of his mind sea.

All of a sudden, all the gears and components moved at the same time and started to assemble as if they were under the control of an invisible hand...

A huge steam computer gradually came into being in Zhang Tie's mind sea...

When he assembled over 30,000 parts, which almost accounted for 70% of the complete steam computer, the assembly rhythm suddenly slowed down. In the following minutes, those gears and the part of the steam computer which had been assembled quivered for a few seconds and collapsed. They turned into sparkling light and finally dispersed in the mind sea.

...

In his private cabin of Black-Dragon Airboat, Zhang Tie opened his eyes at once as he shook his head and let out a long sigh.

After almost 10 days, Zhang Tie had tried many times. After failing so many times, Zhang Tie realized that it was definitely a tough challenge for him to visualize a complete steam computer in his mind sea. Even if he had super great spiritual energy and the ability of divine dominator, it was still very difficult for him to visualize a complete steam computer which was composed of over 60,000 parts without making any mistake.

Thankfully, it was still hopeful. Through these days' efforts, Zhang Tie was gradually approaching success. Each time, he would assemble some more parts than that in last time. The complete Xuanyuan Type-1 steam computer was gradually coming into shape in his mind.

The most important point was that the process of visualization required strict exercise on the control of spiritual energy. This process was similar to that of mental arithmetic by abacus. Over these days, although he didn't succeed, the spiritual energy in his mind sea would always increase after each failure. It was even more effective than the visualization of mental arithmetic by abacus.

As for the first method, he had tried his utmost effort; as for the other, he still had surplus spiritual energy. Of course, the effects were different.

Zhang Tie's private cabin was less than 30 square meters. It only had a bed, a table, a locker and an isolated washroom. Such a cabin was just like the simplest small apartment. In military camp, only middle- and lower-level military officers lived in such kind of rooms; however, it was absolutely a luxurious treatment for a knight in airboat when in wartime. This treatment was for earth knights; the cabins of Bai Suxian, Elder Muray and Elder Muyu were even smaller than this one.

In airboat, water and food were provided at the regular time. Everything had been in the state of war. Zhang Tie looked at the clock on the wall and found it was over 5 pm. It was time for supper. When he was thinking about leaving his cabin for Bai Suxian, the entire airboat suddenly quivered lightly as if it stopped. Closely after that, a sound drifted from the sound amplifying port.

"We've already arrived at the advanced base of Huanzhou Province in Peacewest Military Region. All the knights who have arrived at the advanced base of Peacewest Military Region please gather in the lobby of the base; all the knights who have arrived at the advanced base of Peacewest Military Region please gather in the lobby of the base..."

After being transmitted from the copper pipe, although it lacked a bit fidelity, people inside cabins could still hear it clearly.

They had already arrived at Huanzhou Province. Huanzhou Province was neighboring the Military Province in the west. After moving 2 more provinces towards the west, they would exit the border of Taixia Country. The barren province was farther away in the west. The advanced base of Black Dragon Airboat was in Huanzhou Province, which meant that the territory from Huanzhou Province all the way to the west had been the theater of operations of Taixia Country.

It only took them less than 1 month to arrive at the theater of operations since they heard the news about demons. Unimaginably, those provinces in the westernmost part of Taixia Country had been involved in the battle flames. The advancing speed of the battle flames was completely out of Zhang Tie's imagination.

At such a high advancing speed, demons might exterminate Waii Subcontinent in less than 1 week.

Such an occasion made Zhang Tie's heart slightly pound. Compared to the current problem facing Taixia Country, what happened in Waii Subcontinent was absolutely an appetizer.

After hearing the notice, Zhang Tie instantly opened his hatch door and walked out.

Mountain Lifting Hermit and the other knights also opened their hatch doors and walked out...

...

In the sky, an aggressively huge air battlefortress was quietly floating over 10,000 m high in the sky. After those black airboats flew over here from the northeast military region, the battlefortress opened its huge holes. Those airboats then slowly approached them as they inserted their ends into the huge holes before being locked up by the huge metal locking members on the battlefortress. As a result, these airboats became components of this battlefortress.

Only after a short while, the huge air battlefortress had got some more tentacles like that of an octopus...

Under the huge battlefortress, hundreds of thousands of airships flew over here from the west between 1,000m and 5,000 m in altitude. Those airships had different marks. Some belonged to clans; some belonged to business groups; some belonged to aviation business groups. They were different in size, type, performance and speed. They flew over here like escaping fish shoals that covered the entire sky...

Between 6,000 m and 12,000 m in altitude above these airships, dense airships in tidy teams also advanced towards west voluntarily like air trains. Compared to those airships blow, those airships above were all black war airships. Those who were familiar with the military legal system of Taixia Country would know that these airships belonged to Black Armor Army, one of the top 4 armies in Taixia Country the moment they caught sight of these airships.

Each team of airships was led by a knight of Black Armor Army who was standing solemnly on the air sac outside the first airship of each team in order to protect the safety of the airship troop.

After one troop of over 1,000 war airships flew away from the air battlefortress for over 200 miles, they arrived at the edge of an endless forest. At this moment, all the hatch doors of the airships were opened while numerous black rotachutes appeared in the sky like black dandelions.

Those black dandelions were bizarre fighters in clothes which were made of tree leaves and Chinese alpine rushes whose faces were covered with tiger stripes or leopard stripes...

After landing on the ground, those fighters put away their rotachutes silently. Only a few fighters twittered like birds. After hearing the twitters, all the surrounding fighters drew close to each other as they ran towards the forest. Only after over 10 minutes, the corps of 500,000 fighters had disappeared in that vast forest like a waterdrop that entered the ocean.

Two knights suspended in the sky with solemn looks.

One of them let out a sigh, "I wonder how many of them could finally survive!"

"This is the destiny of the tigers and leopards corps of Black Armor Army, unless demons completely destroy the woods covering about 4 million square miles or this holy war comes to an end, this forest would be the forever battlefield of these fighters..."

"What about Weasel Corps?"

"They're in, including Green Snake Corps. This forest could survive the three corps..."

"Let's go, we've got a new task..."

The two knights then flew towards the west...