Castle of Black Iron

Before Zhang Tie determined to leave for the west border of Taixia Country, he had already called back the thunder hawk. These days, the thunder hawk followed afar Black Dragon Airboat all the way to Huanzhou Province.

It was not a secret in Iron-Dragon Sect that the thunder hawk was Zhang Tie's mount and pet. Zhang Tie purposefully exposed his trump card of thunder hawk to Ye Qingcheng. With the help of the thunder hawk, Zhang Tie could escape away from dilemmas or travel 6,000 miles a day. Of course, Ye Qingcheneg would not doubt that Zhang Tie might have any other trump cards such as Castle of Black Iron or a super high-speed flight ability as a divine dominator.

This was the benefit of having a lot of trump cards. Any trump card that Zhang Tie exposed to the public would make people see the light suddenly and think that it's all the abilities of him. However, it was just a tip of the iceberg.

'Sometimes, I could better hide myself by exposing some of my secrets to the public.'

Riding on the thunder hawk, Zhang Tie suddenly thought through it pleasantly.

As the thunder hawk flashed towards Helan Mountain Range between the border of Huanzhou Province and Wuzhou Province at tens of thousands of meters high, the land below was gradually covered by the dark.

In the high altitude, Zhang Tie activated his lotus-flower eyes as he could see far away in all directions...

Even though the night fell, the floods of airships and cars didn't stop moving. The army of airships was evacuating towards the east like a floating milky way. So did those cars. On the highway from Huanzhou Province to Tongzhou Province, numerous vehicles were slowly moving with high luggage on the top, carrying old and young, brightening up the entire road as if it was daytime.

It was very noisy over the road, which included kids' cries and adults' quarrels.

The local garrison of Huanzhou Province was maintaining the order on the highway. In each a few miles on the highway, there would be a resting area, from where people could get food, drinking water and coal.

On the roadsides, all the temporary vacancies for vehicles had been occupied. In the wild, there were bonfires here and there, reflecting on the flurried and helpless faces of adults.

People in the towns and villages on both sides of the road were also evacuating. Many smaller villages had been empty. Coincidentally, those who evacuated from the west could take a rest in these empty villages and towns. Zhang Tie saw many airships of Black Armor Army landing in the wild or outside the cities on the way back after carrying troops of soldiers and materials to the destination. After that, those people in the nearby villages and towns would board the airships organized by local officials by batches before flying eastward.

As demons had not arrived here, the commoners in Huanzhou Province still evacuated orderly.

Women, pregnant women, old and young would be firstly evacuated, followed by male adults; then local militia officials; local garrisons evacuated in the end.

However, not all of them would evacuate.

...

In an empty small village, a group of strong adults with red cloth strips on their hair were standing quietly on the grain-sunning field with the resolute look, sabers in hands, crossbows on the back. A tough man with whiskers was speaking loudly and passionately on the millstone of the grain-sunning field. After he said something, all the strong adults raised their sabers and swords as they roared. Closely after that, all of them divided into two batches. One batch of people carried bags of grains and the other materials into the mountain; the others silently buried something somewhere near the village...

...

A grey-haired old man was sitting in a small ordinary downtown courtyard in an unlined garment while grinding a sword with a long blade and a short hilt wielded with both hands which was usually used by ordinary soldiers in Taixia Country on a hone, causing shrill sound. In the room, a grey-haired old woman took out an old set of armors from a crate and was sewing and mending the lining of the armor for the old man. Before the old man polished his saber, 5-6 grey-haired old man in the armor of soldiers in Huanzhou Province had entered his courtyard, making the courtyard boisterous at once. Some guys felt bored as they directly started to perform saber skills in the courtyard...

...

Although the entire town outside the city was empty, the official residence was still brightly lit. A low-level official was sitting in the lobby in tidy uniform solemnly and drinking alone...

...

In the downtown, a fatty and drunk butcher closed his meet store with a pig sticker and a bone chopper on his waistband. Additionally, with a liquor-containing gourd in hand, he went to the blacksmith's shop and broke the ironmaking furnace and the steam hammer together with the blacksmith. After that, the two people burst out into laughter. The blacksmith carried a long saber and an iron bow; the fatty butcher found a helmet and a set of light armor in the blacksmith's shop and put them on. After that, the two people drove an old pickup truck to the west...

...

Youngsters and teenagers jumped off trains or cars that were evacuating towards east individually or in a group of 2 or 3 people when they came to a station and turned back towards the west...

...

In a school which filled with osmanthus trees, a teacher in the green robe was standing outside the door of the room. A lot of young students were kneeling down outside the room. They were talking about something. The teacher in the green robe shook his head as he entered the room. At the same time, he let his old servant close the door. From then on, he refused to meet with those people outside the room and talk to them. Only a thin shadow which was cupping a book was reflected onto the window by the candlelight. Those who were kneeling down outside the room became tearful as they all kowtowed towards the door before leaving...

The airship was parking outside the school. When these youngsters were going to board the airship, the old servant of the teacher in the green robe ran out of the courtyard as he gave some books and an envelop to those youngsters. After saying something to them, the old servant returned to the school.

After opening that envelope, the young students saw a fresh poem in vigorous handwriting on the letter.

After reading over 10,000 books of sages, you will be unrivaled.

You will always feel inspired.

When you burst out into laughter, you will scatter all the guests.

When you grow furious, you prefer to climb the mountain being filled with tigers.

You will not be afraid of death.

Your song will make it sunny.

When you become alone, you don't need to bow towards anyone.

Just break the sky and ground to make yourself relieved for the rest of your life!

The last line was——as long as poems and articles still exist in Taixia Country, Taixia Country will be fine!

After reading that poem, those youngsters burst out into tears as they knelt down and bowed towards their teacher's residence before leaving...

...

With lotus-flower eyes, Zhang Tie saw all these scenes in Guizhou Province; especially in that school, the poem that the teacher in the green robe wrote to his students were as clear as they were in front of Zhang Tie even if it was hundreds of miles away.

Zhang Tie was deeply moved by Huanzhou Province and Taixia Country as he immediately sent a message to the Iron Heart Palace of Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory.

'I've already arrived at Huanzhou Province. I'm fine. My dear wives, you don't need to worry about me. However, the large-scale war between humans and demons in the territory of Peacewest Military Region will break out soon. In the future, this region might be in ruins while commoners here would live on the edge of starvation. All the commoners in the theater of operations are evacuating; however, they're limited in the speed of evacuation as they lack traffic tools; especially airboats. I have an idea. When Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory choose to cooperate with major clans on producing Fiery Oil, could we consider the achievements of these major clans in helping commoners evacuate from the theater of operations?'

'The major clans in Taixia Country had numerous airboats and airships. If only they could participate in the evacuation positively! One airboat might transfer over 10,000 people rapidly away from the theater of operations and survive them in the future.'

'I am not doing this for reputation. Because I grew up among commoners and have witnessed the tragedy facing commoners across countries when Waii Subcontinent was exterminated by demons, I don't want to see the same scene in Taixia Country. Although Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory and I have limited capabilities, we could use Fiery Oil to force major clans in Taixia Country to contribute to the evacuation. Dear wives, please consider it carefully and formulate articles. Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory could make a discount for them on Fiery Oil!

After sending the message to Iron Heart Palace, Zhang Tie told his elder brother that he was safe.

After doing all this, Zhang Tie felt a bit reassured.

He just wanted to do his best.

...

The thunder hawk was approaching the border of Huanzhou Province after flying over many cities at the speed of 2 times the speed of sound.

After Zhang Tie left Blackwater Base for 3 hours, a shadow suddenly appeared in the sight of Zhang Tie's lotus-flower eyes. Zhang Tie fixed his eyes closely onto the shadow at once.

That was a wing demon. In the dark, it silently flew out of the woods towards a city in the south at an extremely high speed.

As Zhang Tie had fought wing demons, given its speed and figure, Zhang Tie knew that was a wing demon knight.

The wing demon knight was very careful. It didn't fly high; instead, it just flew close to the top of trees. Based on the terrain and the nightscape, this wing demon knight moved very secretly. The others could barely find him within dozens of miles.

However, that wing demon could not imagine that someone had fixed his eyes on it from over 1,000 miles away.

It seemed that the wing demon was also spying the situation within Huanzhou Province in the east of Helan Mountain and Taixia Country's deployment over there. After flying over a small city far away and observing that small city for quite a while, the wing demon saw a troop of airships being escorted by an airboat flying over. The wing demon even flew into a small lake from the top of a tree and lurked inside there. The wing demon stealthily watched the scene in the sky as it was thinking about launching a strike...