Castle of Black Iron

Closely after the kid's exclamation, the entire banquet hall became quiet at once...

Zhang Tie let out a sigh inside. He had not imagined that someone could be so blinded by lust for money. How could he use a kid to slander him? When the kid said that, Zhang Tie knew that a pleasant sneer must have flashed by someone's face.

'Don't they know that it will make the old man and the entire Zhang Clan lose their face by doing this? Is it worthwhile only for a potential Wang's woman by doing this? Do they think that they will have a chance to marry the Wang's princess by ruining my reputation?'

That kid was also a member of Zhang Clan. Given the seniority of Zhang Clan, Zhang Tie was even his uncle...

Seeing Zhang's old man shooting his furious look towards the kid, the kid's parents instantly became flurried as the kid's mother also changed his face, "Xiaoyi, no bullsh*t..."

"I'm not talking bullsh*t!" The kid raised his head stubbornly as he pointed at Zhang Tie and said, "This man is as timid as a rabbit. He was captured by demons in Selnes Theater of Operations and barely saved himself..."

"Pah!" The kid's father slapped the kid forcefully as he noticed the old man's popped his eyes and felt goosebumps all over.

"Wah..." The kid instantly burst out into laughter while covering his face in an unbelievable way.

The kid's jarring cry reverberated around the entire quiet banquet hall...

The old man's look had turned completely icy at this moment. He glanced over all the Zhang's offsprings. Besides only a few members of Zhang Clan, few of those at present knew that secret. How could a kid know that? Naturally, he was taken as a gun when Zhang Tie proposed a toast to the grand madam and the old man...

The old man wanted to lose his temper; however, after thinking that Zhang Tie would be more embarrassed if he exposed Zhang Tie's experience to the public, the old man just threw a glance at Zhang Tie before recovering his composure.

After feeling the old man's fury which was going to break out like a volcano, the grand madam looked a bit flurried and surprised. She then threw a strict glance at the other juniors on her side. Those juniors dared not stare at her at all...

Zhang Tie kept all this in mind. In the beginning, he didn't want to care about such a trivial thing because he thought it was unnecessary to explain and prove it to these irrelevant people at all. He felt no shame about what he did at all. However, given the current situation, if he didn't explain or do something, not only his face, even the entire Zhang Clan's face would be lost. Some people with sh*t in their mind could not care about the face of Zhang Clan, however, Zhang Tie himself should care about it, because there were so many members of Zhang Clan at present.

If he was required to make a choice between Zhang Clan's face and those d**chebags' face, Zhang Tie would definitely choose to preserve Zhang Clan's face. Therefore, Zhang Tie had to give an unforgettable lesson to those people. 'If you don't care about Zhang Clan's face, watch out your face then...'

'I don't need to explain as my words are not persuasive at this moment and would only make those d**chebags more pleased. Someone else should explain it to them...' Zhang Tie thought.

Zhang Tie ran his spiritual energy. In a split second, he had sent out a message through the finger ring on his hand.

Right then, Zhang Su instantly sprung up as he glanced at all the other peers of Zhang Clan. Zhang Su realized that someone wanted to strike Zhang Tie so as to ruin the potential marriage between Zhang Tie and Wang's princess. Zhang Su roared, "Zhang Tie made a meritorious deed in Selnes Theater of Operations. Since he has returned to the clan, it indicates that he's innocent. Whoever is slandering Zhang Tie, roll out!"

Nobody stood out. However, the Zhang's old man's eyes looked icier. All the guests were stupefied by such an incident as they exchanged glances with each other silently. Nobody had imagined about this incident at the 70th birthday of Zhang's grand madam. When a clan expanded, there would always be tricks for rights and interests. Such an incident was not strange at all. It was just a good play for the public.

"Zhang Tie wishes grandpa and grand madam happy and healthy life forever!"

When everybody became quiet, Zhang Tie uttered as he held the glass of wine by two hands to propose a toast to the grand madam. Closely after that, Zhang Tie bottomed up the glass.

"Good, good, everything is good, everything is good..." The grand madam recovered her composure as she took a glass of sweet water passed by a female servant and drunk it. After that, she passed a shoe-shaped gold ingot to Zhang Tie...

After taking that gold ingot, Zhang Tie frankly sat back. However, the others threw different looks at him. Someone took pleasure in Zhang Tie's misfortune; some were fully sympathetic about him.

"Come on, cousin, don't stand there; take a seat; eat something!" After returning to his seat, Zhang Tie pressed Zhang Su, who still looked furious, onto the chair with a smile. After that, he continued to enjoy so many delicious foods like nothing had happened. He even picked a chicken leg for Zhang Su.

The crying kid was taken out of the banquet hall by his mother. All the guests and Zhang's family members in the banquet hall pretended that nothing had happened as they recovered their bustle at once. After Zhang's juniors proposed toasts to the grand madam and the old man, it was other junior guests' turn. However, the bustle contained a weird sense. Zhang's old man still maintained a bad look.

...

However, 10 minutes later, before the junior guests finished their jobs had constant, dense footsteps drifted from outside the banquet hall. Before those people in the banquet hall responded to it had the gate been pushed open forcefully. Closely after that, an old man with white mustache slowly walked inside with hands on his back. A big team of people in black military uniform poured in and circled around all the tables with solemn looks while putting their hands on their sword handles. At the same time, they gazed at all the people at present with thunder-like looks.

At the sight of that old man, all the influential figures of Zhang Clan, including Zhang Haitian in the banquet hall stood up as they showed their respect to the old man.

"Lord Judge..."

"Lord Yuanshan..."

The old man was also wearing a black robe with 5 flame-like golden lines on the wristbands. This old man who looked as firm as iron and mountain was the lord judge of Golden Sea City. He was responsible for the execution of criminal laws across Golden Sea City, the supervision of local government officials and the elimination of evils. Besides, he was also responsible for maintaining the regulation of Huaiyuan Palace. In Huaiyuan Palace, the title of lord judge was directly appointed by the Criminal Laws Pavilion of the clan, who was under the direct leadership of the clan elder who was the head of the Criminal Laws Pavilion and was only responsible for the Elders Association. When necessary, the lord judge had the right to kill any government official or Zhang offspring below the castellans of Huaiyuan Palace before reporting to the clan elder of Criminal Laws Pavilion. Among all the cities of Huaiyuan Prefecture, the title of lord judge was as noble as castellans. The clan elder who ruled the Criminal Laws Pavilion now was Elder Muray. Elder Muray hated evils so much and was bad-tempered. With Elder Muray on their back, the subordinates of Criminal Laws Pavilion became more decisive and strict in law enforcement.

After recognizing the status of the old man, all the influential figures in the banquet hall couldn't sit there anymore.

Zhang Haitian was also shocked very much. Even the grand madam hurriedly stood up and bowed towards the lord judge.

"Lord Yuanshan, why are you..." Zhang's old man instantly asked.

"I've just received a message. Remnants of demons and Three-eye Association are hiding in this banquet hall and making rumors to confuse Huaiyuan Palace's people, even the humans. Therefore, this old fellow especially came here to see who dares to make troubles here under my eyes in Golden Sea City!"

Closely after the lord judge's words, the entire banquet hall suddenly became frozen while everybody felt a killing qi.

"Lord Yuanshan, is...there...something wrong...with the message? It's my wife's 70th birthday today. Besides Zhang family members, these are all my friends. How could there be moles of demons and Three-eye Association?" Zhang's old man asked with a surprised look.

"When in Selnes Theater of Operations, Zhang Tie, on behalf of Huaiyuan Palace, guarded the entire human airship fleet alone. He broke the myth that wing demons were unrivaled in the air by killing numerous wing demons alone in the sky. He made meritorious deeds many times for humans and won the honor "Selnes Eagle". He was well-known across the entire Selnes Theater of Operations and greatly raised the morale of all the human soldiers across the theater of Operations. Zhang Tie had made notable exploits. As a result, demons and Three-eye Association were afraid of him very much. After then, demons and Three-eye Association set him up for the reason that he was a mole of demons and Three-eye Association in the Selnes Allied Humans Command. Zhang Tie deepened into the capital of Titanic Duchy alone to execute the task considering that it was related to the life or death of the allied human forces in Selnes Theater of Operations regardless of his personal life or honor. Finally, he fell into the trap set by demons and Three-eye Association and lost his contact with the troop of Jinyun Country..."

"During that period when Zhang Tie was captured, demons and Three-eye Association spread rumors across Selnes Theater of Operations, they fabricated that Zhang Tie, the disciple of our Huaiyuan Palace, had been captured by them and surrendered to demons. As a result, it gave a blow to our army's morale. After then, the demon corps broke through the humans' defense line in Selnes Theater of Operations. Zhang Tie, our Huaiyuan Palace's disciple, alone fought over 10,000 miles in the enemy-occupied zone before breaking through their encirclement and joined the battle of Upton with clan elders two weeks ago. In the Upton battle, Zhang Tie killed over 1,000 demons above LV 9. He's qualified as the number one talent in the young generation of the 6 major clans of Jinyun Country and the pillar of Huaiyuan Palace. He had just returned to Huaiyuan Palace last night. I received a message just now. It's said that someone dared to sully our Huaiyuan Palace's talent and confuse the others' minds. Therefore, I came here to the banquet hall to take a look!"

Everybody became stunned. Since it was said by the lord judge of Golden Sea City, they all believed that it was true, especially the comment "the number one talent in the young generation of the 6 major clans of Jinyun Country" and "the pillar of Huaiyuan Palace" which shocked everybody else. Even Lan Yunxi was not qualified as the number one talent in the young generation of the 6 major clans of Jinyun Country; even the lord judge himself dared not say that he was the pillar of Huaiyuan Palace. How many military exploits had Zhang Tie made so as to gain such a comment from the lord judge?

"In order to sully Zhang Tie, our Huaiyuan Palace's disciple, those demons and Three-eye Association even killed their major general mole in the Allied Humans Command. Hundreds of people were killed one after another. I will see how many moles here dare to sully Zhang Tie, the disciple of Huaiyuan Palace in Huaiyuan Prefecture, for the sake of demons and Three-eye Association!" Closely after lord judge's words, some people felt soft all over as they almost slipped under the table.

Hearing these words, Zhang Haitian became dumbfounded. He didn't know what to say. The grand madam's face turned pale right away. In this old mansion, she was the noblest one. However, in front of this lord judge, whom even the castellan of Golden Sea City would bow to, she was almost like a common woman...

The kid who swore Zhang Tie just now and the kid's mother had been taken into the banquet hall by two subordinates of the lord judge. Facing this, the kid and his mother were so scared that they almost burst out into tears...

The lord judge looked at the kid mildly as he asked, "I know you're innocent, it's nothing to do with you. Just tell me who taught you to say this?"

"I...I..." The kid stammered. Actually as a 7-8-year-old boy, he had already understood righteousness; otherwise, he would not swear Zhang Tie in the public. Looking at their poor kid, the parents of the kid were so anxious that they almost cried out. As long as they were judged as serving demons and Three-eye Association, their whole family would fall into the hell...

"Xiaoyi, hurry, tell your grandpa, who taught you to say that. Don't be afraid. After you tell him, you will be safe..." The kid's mom held her tears as she told her son mildly.

The kid then started to search among those people...

...

"Grandpa, save me..." Before that kid pointed at him, a 20-year old young man exclaimed as he instantly rushed out and hugged Zhang Haitian's leg with tears and nasal mucus, "I didn't mean it, it's Junyu and Juntao's opinion..."

"Ahh, grandma, save me..." Another two young men charged towards the grand madam with a pale face. Pitifully, they were too far away from the grand madam. The moment they moved had they been caught by some warriors in black costumes. After taking them to the lord judge, the warriors kicked onto their legs; with a screech, the two people knelt down in the same row with the earlier one.

The lord judge then waved his hand towards the kid's mother, allowing her to take away that kid. After glaring at the three young men, the kid's mother bit her lips as she hurriedly took her kid away. Based on seniority in the clan, the three young men were the kid's uncles, who almost murdered the kid's whole family...

"Ahh, dad, mom, save me..." The young man called Junyu called his parents who were sitting on the other side of the table. Hearing his shriek, his parents' faces turned completely pale as they almost passed out.

The grand madam's lips quivered, whose face had also turned pale. Junyu and Juntao were all the biological grandsons of the grand madam. She threw a glance at Zhang Haitian and found he was closing his eyes silently while his hands were quivering.

Zhang Haitian was both happy and sad at this moment. He was happy about Zhang Tie's achievements; and was sad about what the three young men kneeling in front of him had done. The three young men were Zhang Tie's cousins.

All the guests were watching them silently. What an amazing birthday party! What sharp turns and twists! What a splendid drama...

The lord judge of Golden Sea City watched the 3 young men with a disgusting look, "What else do you want to say? Clarify it as soon as possible, if you have collusion with demons and Three-eye Association, in case of the bitterness of your skin. Otherwise, after you wear the shackles, you will know how strict the criminal penalty is in Criminal Laws Pavilion."

"Ahh, we really don't know anything about demons and Three-eye Association..." The guy called Juntao wailed mournfully as he dropped tears and nasal mucus and kowtowed constantly like pounding garlic in a mortar, "We just found that Wang's princess had a good impression about Zhang Tie; we were jealous of him; therefore, we worked out a plan to make him embarrassed. I heard my grandma saying that Zhang Tie was captured by demons when he was in Selnes Theater of Operations which made my grandpa very worried about him; therefore, we wanted to strike him based on this point..."

"Zhang Tie fought for Huaiyuan Palace and humans in Selnes Theater of Operations at the risk of his life for many times. If you don't appreciate and respect him, you're not beneficent; as cousins, you want to ruin his reputation by spreading rumors, you're not even righteous. You cannot even match a dog or a pig. Shameless!" After saying this, the lord judge waved his sleeves, "Take them away!"

The 3 young men wailed and begged their grandpa and grandma. However, those warriors in black clothes ignored that and directly drew them away by holding their arms...

Based on the comment of the lord judge, the 3 young men might not survive back.

"Wait for a second!" Zhang Tie finally uttered at the critical moment.

Closely after hearing Zhang Tie's sound had the lord judge turned around. The moment he noticed the ring on Zhang Tie's finger had his look turned respectful.

"Lord Judge, now that this event has been clarified, we know it's not related to demons and Three-eye Association, please don't take them away. As Zhang Clan has so many juniors, they have different personalities. Although they are mean and not obedient, please forgive them this time for the sake of the face of Zhang Clan!"

After hearing Zhang Tie's persuasion, everybody was stunned by his eloquence and view, 'As lord judge has made the decision, how could Zhang Tie negotiate with him? The lord judge of Golden Sea City is not that easy-going. Hasn't Zhang Tie seen others' docile look?'

What made everyone more surprised was that lord judge of Golden Sea City started to consider about it carefully after Zhang Tie's persuasion.

After being silent for a few seconds, the lord judge of Golden Sea City replied, "The 3 b*stards are neither beneficent nor righteous. Although they don't deserve death, they have to suffer from criminal penalty. Now that you beg for my forgiveness, I will not take them away; however, Huaiyuan Palace has strict laws and regulations. If such kind of people were not punished severely, it's hard to convince the public!" After saying that, lord judge threw another glance at the 3 young men, "From today on, you 3 could not be government officials in Huaiyuan Palace for the rest of your lives. Besides, all the treatment that Huaiyuan Palace provide for Zhang Clan juniors would be canceled off. From today on, if you dare violate the laws of Huaiyuan Palace, you will suffer 10 times severer punishment according to the Clan laws!"

All the above punishments were severe. With the first punishment, the 3 young men could never assume any clan position later on; as for the second punishment, even if they were poor and starving in the future, they could never get any help from Huaiyuan Palace; the third punishment was more horrendous, if they violated any law of the clan in the future, they had to stand 10 times severer punishment than that bore by others. That was to say, when others who made the same mistake were beaten 2 times, they had to be beaten 20 times; when others who violated the same law were put into jail 10 years, they had to be put behind upon bars 100 years; when others only got bruised, they would have their heads chopped off.

"Thanks for your forgiveness, lord judge!" Zhang Tie made an obeisance by cupping one hand in the other before his chest towards the lord judge.

"You're welcome!" Lord judge instantly moved aside out of politeness.

At the sight of this scene, all the people at present raised their eyebrows once again...

Although nobody welcomed such a big figure when he entered, they dared not stay still at the banquet when he left. All the influential figures saw the lord judge out of the banquet hall.

The moment lord judge left had the 100-200 people in the banquet moved their eyes onto Zhang Tie.

Zhang Tie knew that he could not stay in Zhang's old mansion any longer; he also lost his interest in staying here.

Zhang Su watched Zhang Tie as he wanted to say something; however, he finally didn't say it. Zhang Su was also scared by the words of lord judge.

"Cousin, what a disappointing day! I will invite you for a drink in the future!" Zhang Tie smiled.

Feeling Zhang Tie's intention to leave, Zhang Su nodded as he let out a sigh.

Zhang Tie then came to Zhang Haitian and said, "Compared to the faces of those people, Zhang's face is more important!"

The old man also nodded. After being silent for a couple of seconds, he asked, "Is it true what the lord judge said...about you?"

Zhang Tie smiled as he nodded.

Zhang Haitian's eyes turned red at once...

"Take care of yourself, grandpa. I have to go now. I will come back to see you!"

"Where're you going? I'll have someone take you there!" The old man knew that Zhang Tie didn't want to stay there as he turned around and told the steward to prepare a car for Zhang Tie.

"No need!" After saying that, Zhang Tie threw a glance at Wang Shina while widely opening his eyes with a complex smile. Closely after that, he raised his head and stepped into the starlight. With another stride, he had arrived hundreds of meters high. Closely after that, he flashed away like a sparkling meteor in front of the public.

Everybody of Zhang Clan and all the guests were stunned as they raised their heads and watched Zhang Tie flying away with widely opened mouths...

When Zhang Haitian realized what happened, he had been surrounded by guests while all of them were throwing much more passionate and respectful looks towards him...

By then, everybody understood what did the remarks "The number one talent in the young generation of the 6 major clans in Jinyun Country" and "the pillar of Huaiyuan Palace" mean——Knight, only a knight could enjoy such a comment.

Everybody then bowed to the ground towards Zhang Haitian, "Congratulations to the dragon appearance!"

According to Hua tradition, if a person in a clan promoted to a knight, it was called "dragon appearance"——if a dragon appeared in a family, this family would be able to conquer the whole world.

Dragon appearance was the most important and happy event in Hua families.

So was it for Huaiyuan Palace. With one more knight, they had to celebrate it by holding a rotating Chakra ceremony, it was a major clan in Golen Sea City though.

Zhang Su raised his head and watched the direction where Zhang Tie disappeared for quite a while while the congratulations buzzed faintly in his mind like echoes drifting from the skyline.

Zhang Su had been very arrogant about his own cultivation base. If Zhang Tie was LV 11 or LV 12, Zhang Su might be jealous of him; however, Zhang Su was awe-stricken by him at this moment. If not being real cultivators, people would never know about the terror and power of knights. The higher the level of the cultivator was, the deeper he would understand what did it mean by stepping into the void.

'I have a cousin who's a knight?' Zhang Su felt absurd instead of ecstasy when this whim occurred to his mind.

...

After a couple of minutes, Zhang Tie had entered the air territory above deep sea region. Closely after that, he instantly dove into the sea like a meteor. After then, he started to penetrate through the sea water like a light bubble as fast as a lightning bolt towards Ice and Snow Wilderness...