Castle of Black Iron

Zhang Tie had just returned to Xuanyuan Fortress for less than one day.

2 months ago, when the No. 1 corps of Fire-Dragon Corps arrived at the east bank of Weishui River, Zhang Tie had left Xuanyuan Fortress and deepened into the areas occupied by demons alone so as to seek for chances to promote to a shadow knight.

As the demon army gradually approached Xuanyuan Fortress, fights between human knights and demon knights increased on an increasingly larger scale. Therefore, it became more and more difficult for Zhang Tie to capture demon knights or refine water elements from them alone.

In the past 2 months, Zhang Tie almost met a team of over 100 demon knights in the areas occupied by demons. Generally, he had no chance to launch an attack at all. In such a case, he could barely make any achievement. With his powerful secret methods and Castle of Black Iron, Zhang Tie only caught 2 earth demon knights and 6 black iron demon knights.

After refining the water elements of two earth demon knights who had just promoted to an earth knight, Zhang Tie formed 7 more scales on his water chakra.

After that, Zhang Tie performed bloody sacrifice using those demon knights in Castle of Black Iron and fix Gao Tianzhao's water chakra once again. After absorbing Gao Tianzhao's water chakra, he lit 26 more scales on his water chakra.

After 2 months, Zhang Tie finally lit 357 scales on his water chakra, only 3 scales left than promoting to a shadow knight. He could almost touch the realm of a shadow knight.

After refining the water elements of another earth demon knight, he would be able to promote to a shadow knight. Even if he couldn't capture an earth demon knight, it would take him only a couple of months to promote to a shadow knight only by absorbing water elements from the elements realm.

However, the situation on the battlefield was changing from time to time. Demons didn't spare a chance to Zhang Tie. Over the past 2 months, the demon army which had gathered and finally approached the line of defense near Helan Mountain Range and Weishui River. As the large-scale battle was about to break out soon, Zhang Tie instantly chose to return to Xuanyuan Fortress as he would like to fight demons together with Fire-Dragon Corps and the other human knights of Taixia Country.

Only after arriving at Xuanyuan Fortress for less than 24 hours, the demon army had arrived in an overwhelming manner.

This was Zhang Tie's experience in the past 2 months...

At this moment, Zhang Tie witnessed how Zuoqiu Mingyue talked with Sagus for the first time in terms of a large battle formation with all the other human knights of Taixia Country in the sky above Xuanyuan Fortress in the theater of operations ...

Zuoqiu Mingyue flew back to Xuanyuan Fortress while Sagus flew back to the battle fortress of demons in the air.

"Ready for the fight..." Zuoqiu Mingyue's voice sounded in the ears of all the human knights of Taixia Country.

Zhang Tie's blood boiled with indignation as if he had returned to Selnes Theater of Operations...

Only after Sagus returned to its floating battlefortress for less than 1 minute, the demon army had started their action.

Almost 20,000 demon knights charged towards Xuanyuan Fortress from its flanks. The moment they moved, over 20,000 battle qi smokes and tornadoes rushed into the sky in different colors such as black, blue, purple and brown, which cut the sky into pieces, making it a cage being woven by battle qi smokes and tornadoes.

The 20,000 demon knights were led by two heavenly demon knights, who directly manifested their virtual images, a 9-headed fierce dragon as long as 1,000 m and a cyclops as high as 1,000 m.

Such an offense could even match that of the demon army which marched forward just now.

On the ground, two corps of 200,000 iron-armored demons rushed out of the formation of the demon army, surpassing ox-head demons and spider demons and surging towards Weishui River with a distance of 60 miles between each other.

Sagus was sitting on the throne made of human skulls decently and watching the demon knights surging towards Taixia's base. Over 80,000 demon knights around the floating demon battlefortress and most of the demon corps on the ground remained still.

It was just a beginning. Demons didn't exert their full efforts. Sagus the Monarch Abyss didn't even launch a strike himself.

Zuoqiu Mingyue immediately issued his order to Xuanyuan Fortress while 20,000 human knights in the flanks of Xuanyuan Fortress rushed forward towards the demon's air force.

At this moment, the two parties didn't choose to collide with each other in terms of large-scale formation directly. As for demons, they had an advantage in attack. However, it would be too stupid if they gathered all of their knights to collide with the most powerful point in Taixia's line of defense. Additionally, Taixia's Xuanyuan Fortress had an evident advantage over the large formation of demon knights.

As for Taixia Country, as long as all the human knights gathered into a large formation, too many gaps would be left in the line of defense along Weishui River. As long as the large formation of human knights were dragged by demons, the wing demons would easily break through the natural chasm of Weishui River from the air. As a result, Taixia corps in the east bank of Weishui River would be very passive facing the wing demons in the sky. Even though there were airplanes and air cavalries in the theater of operations, it was hard to say whether they could completely defeat wing demons. What was more, in the current stage, there were only about 2 million air cavalries and airplanes in the theater of operations in total, which was outnumbered by wing demons.

In this case, the party which used the large formation of demons would be idiot. Although the large formation of knights had great power, it would not play any positive role if it was used in the wrong place. For instance, although armored vehicles corps could be very destructive on plains, they would become as useless as scrap iron in swamps and mountain areas. If both parties determined to fight at their full efforts in terms of large formation of knights, take when humans and demons scrambled for the ore in Tiewei Mountain in the Earth-elements Realm as an instance, when one party outnumbered the other, it could crack down the opponent completely at the lowest cost; however, when two parties had almost the same battle strength; especially in the battle of attack and defense with a long line of defense, the effect of large formations would be very limited.

...

Zhang Tie and Feng Cangwu were among the 10,000 human knights in the left flank of Xuanyuan Fortress under the leadership of Ye Qingcheng.

Ye Qingcheng shot out first while releasing his virtual image——a huge sword. As long as hundreds of meters, that huge sword flew out of an open lotus flower and lashed towards the 9-head fierce dragon. On the other side, the first heavenly human knight of Taixia Country shot towards the cyclops in shape of a huge fiery ape as high as 1,000 m.

"Hahaha, let's have a competition. The one who kills more demon knights would win a jar of liquor..." Zhang Tie burst out into laughter as he rushed towards over 10,000 demon knights on the other side in the left flank.

"That's a deal!" Feng Cangwu instantly released his battle qi smoke. The favorable apprentice of Heavens Fortune Sect recovered his arrogance as he added, "I will kill black iron demon knights. You kill earth demon knights. If you kill a black iron demon knight, it doesn't count. Hopefully, it's a fair competition..."

"Hahah...no problem. I will kill earth demon knights more than black iron demon knights that you will kill!" Zhang Tie burst out into laughter as he accelerated at once, lagging Feng Cangwu behind immediately. Feng Cangwu swore inside as he hurriedly sped up to catch up with Zhang Tie.

Seeing so many battle qi smokes and tornadoes of demon knights in front of him, Zhang Tie was completely hyper...

As a member of Taixia Country, he would not feel pitiful if he could kill demons for the sake of the country on the battlefield of holy war at the cost of his life.

Additionally, Zhang Tie was clear that he would not die easily. After staying with Yan Feiqing in the tower of time for 6 decades, even if he didn't use the ability of divine dominator, he could still survive a heavenly demon knight's hunt.

At this moment, halos covered Zhang Tie, which meant that he benefited from the aiding strength of Ye Qingcheng, who was giving out a golden light. All the Hua knights rushing towards the demon army benefited from Ye Qingcheng's aiding strength.

Such aiding strength brought Zhang Tie his favorite speed, strength and the immunity to the influence of the dark aiding strength of the opposite camp below a heavenly knight. Therefore, Zhang Tie's battle strength surged immediately.

At the same time, all the demon knights on the other side were covered with the halos of dark aiding strength as they accelerated their speed instantly.

Facing those demon knights in the air, Zhang Tie found back the long-awaited feeling of being alone. Zhang Tie immediately realized that he had not been a real corps leader, a general or an owner of a bounty territory since he left Blackhot City. He was just Zhang Tie, a son of a common family, a commoner who had his dreams, a Hua teenager who hoped his family members and friends could live better and a former second lieutenant in Iron-Blood Camp...

Perhaps over 120 miles was a long distance for commoners; however, as for knights who were rushing forward, they soon saw clearly the grim faces of demon knights in the blink of an eye.

The 2 heavenly demon knights and 2 heavenly human knights collided over 50,000 m high in the air, shielding the light of the sun and the two moons at once while a multitude of thunders happened in the sky.

Below the battlefield of the 4 heavenly knights, when the 20,000 human knights were still 1,000 m away from the 20,000 demon knights, they had already launched their battle qi strikes towards the opponent. In a split second, tens of thousands of brilliant fireworks broke out in the sky in the west of Weishui River, forming a beautiful firework belt over hundreds of miles long in the skyline...

That was the most brilliant moment for a knight in his whole life.

A fierce strike flew by closely along Zhang Tie's body. After missing his strike, a 2.5 m tall earth knight was rushing towards Zhang Tie with a fleer while brandishing a huge wolf-fang mace which was thicker than Zhang Tie's waist...

"After experiencing so many frustrations, my original intention still lies there, namely, I will be a vanguard to chop off demon's head by sword..."

At this moment, Zhang Tie felt warm and clear inside as he recited some lines of a poem. Soon after he finished his word "sword", a bizarre huge sword which was longer than the body of the earth ox-head demon knight had appeared in his hand. When they passed by each other, sword light flickered. After Zhang Tie passed the earth demon knight over 100 m away, the earth ox-head demon knight's body froze in the air for a second before blowing up and turning into the bloody mist...

On the battlefield of the holy war, it was the first earth demon knight that Zhang Tie had killed by sword...