Castle of Black Iron

Zhang Tie was taken into the gate of the huge black tower by the small tower uncontrollably. When he entered it, Zhang Tie felt dark all over. It was like entering another space. Meanwhile, indescribable great stress approached him from all directions. He then felt being completely shattered by a meat grinder. After that, his meat pulp was squeezed out bit by bit through a gap or a small pipe.

Of course, it was only his personal feeling. His body was actually not pulverized at all. When the small tower entered the huge tower, it gave out a golden light, which covered Zhang Tie's body. Additionally, the semi-transparent energy cover around Zhang Tie was not broken.

Even so, Zhang Tie still felt his whole body being pulverized into numerous fine particles. Closely after that, those fine particles formed his original look again.

This process felt not like passing a door or space, but numerous nets. He couldn't access to it until being filtered time and time again and divided into the smallest particles by these nets...

Zhang Tie didn't see what had happened behind him; nor did he know that Six-armed Demon Emperor had been grabbed in the huge black tower. Before recovering the injury caused by Six-armed Demon Emperor's fatal strike, Zhang Tie had been filtered like this. As a result, the irresistible great stress and pain caused by those invisible huge nets almost blew Zhang Tie up.

Gnashing his teeth and widening his eyes, Zhang Tie wanted to see what was in the dark. Pitifully, his lotus-flower eyes also became ineffective at this moment. After struggling for half a minute, Zhang Tie finally blacked out with honor as his self-protection procedure was activated.

...

After a while, Zhang Tie gradually woke up as he got his consciousness back.

Zhang Tie found that he was still alive! When he passed out, he almost thought that he was made into a ham sausage.

After finding that he was still alive, Zhang Tie felt pretty happy like surviving a catastrophe.

It was indeed something good for a person to stay alive; especially that he could survive the attacks of demon-emperors time and time again. Even Zhang Tie felt that he was too lucky.

When he gradually recovered his composure, Zhang Tie's face felt cold and hard as if it was on an ice brick. He quivered once all over when the cold penetrated into his head.

When he opened his eyes, he found that his face was not on an ice brick, but on the cold floor.

After rolling his eyes for a couple of circles, he moved his fingers a bit. When he felt his body was complete, Zhang Tie instantly picked himself up from the ground.

He was in an open and quiet hall.

Even though Zhang Tie had seen the world, he still widely opened his mouth facing such an open and large hall. He then pinched his thigh. When he felt the pain, he confirmed that he was not dreaming.

This square hall covered over 60 square miles. It was over 6 miles in both length and width. It was even larger than an ordinary city.

The floor was paved with icy and shiny black slab stones. Its dome was over 1,000 m high. Many huge, white pillars made of crystal white marble were supporting the entire hall. Each pillar was dozens of meters in diameter. On the dome, there was a mural of a huge 6-wing roc king descending to the mortal world. The domineering qi of the six-wing roc king caused Zhang Tie to hold his breath all of a sudden.

On both sides of the central axis of the hall, two rows of huge bronze tripods were blazing, brightly lighting the entire hall. Zhang Tie's shadow also twisted on the mirror-like floor. Zhang Tie could almost see his astonished look from his shadow on the floor.

Just now, Zhang Tie was lying in the center of the hall. It was a huge hundreds-of-meters high platform ahead of him which could be reached by stairs. There were totally over 1,000 stairs, all of which were made of odd-looking heads with different expressions; some were vivid. Zhang Tie could recognize that some heads belonged to demons, some were strange heads that Zhang Tie had not seen before. All the heads were looking down and connected with each other, serving as the stepping stone towards the high platform.

On both sides of the stairs, there were statues of 3-eyed giants kneeling down on the ground while holding burning lanterns by hands on their heads.

On the high platform at the end of the stairs, there was a huge golden throne, which was like a brilliant, flaming mountain.

Zhang Tie could sense a surging, shocking, domineering qi from the throne on such a high platform even though he kept his eyes closed.

An elder in black robe with silvery eyebrows and hair was sitting on the golden throne in a domineering way. His eyes were even more profound than the night sky. He was looking straight into Zhang Tie's eyes.

The small black tower that took Zhang Tie inside was rotating on the elder's hand like a toy.

Zhang Tie felt that his spirit, qi and vigor were caught by that elder the moment he looked straight into the elder's eyes. Although the elder was just sitting there calmly, he was like the tallest peak in the world. Being lonely, tyrannical and independent, his strong temperament made Zhang Tie feel like kneeling down at the sight of him.

Standing there hardly, Zhang Tie moved his throat and wanted to say something; however, he found his throat had become dry and hoarse like a desert and could barely utter any voice.

"Are humans so frail now?" The elder lightly sighed on the golden throne as his voice immediately reverberated across the hall.

'Frail? Did he refer to me?'

In the beginning, Zhang Tie didn't think the elder was referring to him; because he had not heard anyone describe him with the word "frail" since he gained Castle of Black Iron. Zhang Tie didn't think there was any connection between this word and him either.

He thought that elder was talking to someone else. However, after a few seconds, Zhang Tie found that the elder didn't move his eyes away from him. Then, he realized it——the elder on the golden throne was the only person besides him in this hall. Additionally, that elder said it while looking into his eyes. Undoubtedly, the elder was talking to him.

"Are... are you talking to me?" Zhang Tie finally opened his mouth as he pointed at his own nose.

"Do you think there's a third person here besides you and me?" the elder asked Zhang Tie calmly, "As a human, you cannot even stand the stress facing the Infinite Prison Net. Such a human body is like rotten wood and withered grass. I couldn't find any other word to describe it besides "frail". How could such a person cultivate Infinite King Roc Sutra? Even with the help of Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree, you couldn't even form all the chakras. You're too frail! You have almost been killed so many times and always behaved as humble as a fly. You didn't even dare tell others about your cultivation method. How could such a person be selected as the cultivator of Infinite King Roc Sutra? I feel ashamed of you..."

To be honest, Zhang Tie had not felt he was living in such a poor way at all; sometimes, he even felt being a bit narcissistic. However, after hearing the elder's comment, Zhang Tie suddenly realized that he didn't live up to the Infinite King Roc Sutra before. He even wanted to hide himself into a crack on the ground out of shame.

'Wait!'

'How did this elder known so many secrets about me? How did he know my top secret?'

Zhang Tie who had already lowered his head suddenly looked up at the elder with amazement...

"I've known everything about you since your birth when you passed the Infinite Prison Net..."

"Who are you?" Zhang Tie gazed at the elder and the rotating small tower in his hand fearlessly and continued, "Did you abduct me..."

"I'm the owner of this place. You're too weak to know my name now. As for abducting you..." The elder became temporarily silent as if he was tasting the meaning of this word. "Almost like that!"

"Why did you do that?" Zhang Tie asked as he watched the elder with vigilance; meanwhile, he was ready to release his battle qi and spiritual energy strikes. Zhang Tie was confused about the elder's real battle force. He just faintly felt that the elder was too much powerful than him. Actually, the elder's battle force was absolutely unpredictable. Even though Zhang Tie knew he couldn't defeat this elder, he was not that kind of person who dared not challenge those who were more powerful than him, be it demon emperor or this fathomless elder. Zhang Tie would never make any compromise once he confirmed that the elder was his enemy.

"You don't need to know the reason!" the elder said tyranically as he didn't explain it to Zhang Tie at all. Watching Zhang Tie who was ready for a life-and-death battle, the elder continued with an odd smile, "You're useless in my eyes. Only that bit bravery, uprightness and innocence live up to the fame of Infinite King Roc Sutra..."

The elder then pointed at Zhang Tie. Zhang Tie then felt floating in the air as his body, battle qi and spiritual energy were completely out of his control. His battle force became zero.

Zhang Tie felt being a fish on the kneading board. In front of such a power, the so-called fighting to death was as hilarious as a piece of bean curd wanting to break a kitchen knife.

Zhang Tie just struggled in the air in vain as his face turned pale.

The elder ignored Zhang Tie; then he pointed at the sky again. In an instant, a huge hole appeared in the air right in front of Zhang Tie. Closely after that, Six-armed Demon Emperor fell out of the hole and floated in front of Zhang Tie.

Zhang Tie didn't know when was Six-armed Demon Emperor abducted either. Eyes wide open, Six-armed Demon Emperor, being bound by chains and shackles of black fog all over, was also struggling in vain like Zhang Tie. Additionally, a black chain sealed his mouth. Zhang Tie could still speak; however, Six-armed Demon Emperor couldn't even open its mouth.

"What do you want? Hurry, put me down..." Zhang Tie exclaimed as he started to feel flurried.

Previously, when Zhang Tie was alone here, he thought he would be killed by the elder in the worst scenario. Actually, Zhang Tie felt that the elder wouldn't kill him now that he could allow him to wake up. However, Six-armed Demon Emperor appeared here uncontrollably too. Therefore, Zhang Tie started to fear that the elder was a pervert who might do something strange and disgusting. That would be more painful than death.

"You're too frail. Although this insect looks ugly, its body is one hundred times more powerful than yours. It's a great tonic for you. I will use this insect to make you a bit stronger in case you ruin the fame of Infinite King Roc Sutra in the future..." the elder said as he pointed at Six-armed Demon Emperor again. Then, Zhang Tie saw a black flame over Six-armed Demon Emperor. Closely after that, it shrieked miserably as a wisp of red energy flew out of its body and poured into Zhang Tie's body like a torrent, causing Zhang Tie's blood to boil...

Zhang Tie almost forgot about this feeling.

When his qi and blood started to boil with the wisp of red energy that pouring into his body, Zhang Tie instantly recalled that this feeling was as same as that he had experienced many times before.

The wisp of red energy was the strength of blood of Six-armed Demon Emperor. It was as same as the strength of blood that seven-strength fruits contained. However, it was thousands of times more powerful than the latter.

If the strength of blood that a seven-strength fruit contained was taken as a bowl of water, the strength of blood that poured into Zhang Tie's body from Six-Arm Demon Emperor was like a billowy big river...

...