Castle of Black Iron

After a long time, Zhang Tie finally opened his eyes.

Watching the earth-element crystal which had completely lost its golden luster and revealed its milky color. Zhang Tie faintly shook his head and forced a bitter smile. After that, he put that useless crystal on the table.

There were 7 rows of earth-element crystals on the table, 3 ones in a row. As of now, all the earth-element crystals had become as milky as that one in Zhang Tie's hand while all the pure earth elements in this crystals had been used up. These milky earth-element crystals were as useless as empty bottles.

Zhang Tie looked at the clock on the wall.

——December 29.

'I've practiced 45 days in the underground palace at the cost of 21 earth-element crystals. I've only used 1/4 of my full ability to withdraw the earth element from the crystals. If I had exerted my full effort, I would have used up 21 earth-element crystals in just 2 weeks.'

Through this cultivation, Zhang Tie completely understood how painstaking and distant it was to form his second chakra.

After taking that fruit of brilliance which increased his spiritual energy by two times, Zhang Tie could make 4 hands in the elements realm to capture earth-element crystals at the same time. That was to say, his cultivation speed was 3 times higher than that of common knights. Even now, he had just lit 1/6 of the first scale of his second chakra.

Zhang Tie estimated that it would take him at least 11 months to promote to the 2nd scale of the second chakra if he kept cultivating in the current state without the help of earth-element crystals.

'It means that it will take me 330 years of painstaking cultivation to form the second chakra according to "King Roc Sutra" based on the current state.

'This is the benefit of being able to use 4 "hands" at the same time. If I stuck to cultivate by one "hand", I would not be able to light 100 scales for 500 years, not to mention that I could only live 400 years as a black iron knight.'

It was very difficult for black iron knights to form their second chakra. It was a very long trip. Additionally, the second chakra had very complex patterns according to the Emperor-class "King Roc Sutra", which made it many times more difficult than forming the second chakra according to other sutras.

It would take him more than 330 years to promote to earth knight by only using one "hand". Zhang Tie became completely disappointed about this. He knew that people didn't cultivate so painstakingly in the far-ancient brilliant human civilization. 'In that age, there must be many methods that people could use to cultivate at a fast speed. With abundant high-quality earth-element crystals, higher-performance elements-gathering matrix and more secret cultivation methods, knight cultivators would be able to improve their realm to a higher level in that age; otherwise, "King Roc Sutra" and "Breaking Sun Sutra" would not be left.

However, in this age, the resources that could enable knights to accelerate their cultivation speed became scarcer. Therefore, knights had to seek and monopoly more resources so as to accelerate the formation of their chakras. Otherwise, most of the knights could not promote to earth knights in their whole lives.

When the younger generations imitated their predecessors, they could not reach their targets as easily as that of their predecessors due to the changing cultivation environment.

After getting off the bed, Zhang Tie came to an open land outside the room and finished one set of an iron-blood fist in a slowly and solemnly way so as to relax his limbs.

However, his iron-blood fist entered an utterly different realm than before. It had turned mild after reaching yang and rigidity. However, a terrifying power was hidden in the mild movements. Although he moved slowly, he could make the air in the entire underground palace move, arising small cyclones one after another beside him. Like swirls caused by ocean currents, those cyclones appeared and disappeared from time and then.

As Zhang Tie moved with his fist intention, he was considering about his cultivation means in the future and carding the achievements and gnosis of this cultivation.

At this moment, Zhang Tie clearly knew about the problems facing him and the corresponding solutions. 'As of now, the most effective way to accelerate my cultivation speed was earth-element crystals. As long as I could gain sufficient high-quality earth-element crystals, I could accelerate my cultivating speed to form the second chakra. However, an earth-element crystal is a rarity, it's already a bounty gift for Norman Empire to present 20 earth-element crystals to him in the rotating chakra ceremony. Each clan elder of Huaiyuan Palace could have 4 earth-element crystals per year. It's far from enough.'

'It seems that I have to concern more about earth-element crystals from then on.' Zhang Tie murmured.

'Besides earth-element crystals, the second method to accelerate my cultivation speed is to form as more "hands" as possible in the elements realm. At present, I've already been able to form 4 "hands" at the same time. It benefits from my long-term practice. It seems that it will take me a bit longer time to form the 5th one.'

'Finally, I could only improve my cultivation speed by other items such as elements gathering matrix or other unknown secret methods. There are some information about trading these items in Mountain of Brightness. However, the trading sites are mainly in Eastern Continent and Western Continent. They are face-to-face trades between knights. There's no trading information in the remote place such as Waii Sub-continent in Mountain of Brightness. Additionally, over 70% of the traders are exchanging for earth-element crystals. Earth-element crystal seems to become a hard currency among black iron knights. Few items could be bought by golds. As of now, besides elements gathering matrix, I don't have anything valuable to exchange for earth-element crystals.'

'As Three-eye Association and demons could bribe human knights, they should have got some good things.'

Zhang Tie suddenly recalled the equipment and medicament from the knight of Three-eye Association whom he had killed...

All in a sudden, a killing intent appeared in his punches...

After relaxing his limbs, he made his qi and blood active once again. Meanwhile, he had a clearer framework on his cultivation in the future. After that, Zhang Tie flicked his clothes for a couple of times and walked out of the underground palace.

The moment he opened the gate of the underground palace, the bodyguards outside the gate had known that; therefore, when Zhang Tie returned to the ground, he saw the director of the moving palace of corps leader.

The sun had just set while it was a bit cloudy. It was chillier than when he entered the underground palace.

When the director watched Zhang Tie once again after over 1 month, he felt Elder Mushen was more profound than before, especially his eyes which seemed to penetrate through everything. This was mainly because that Zhang Tie's spiritual energy had surged after taking the fruit of brilliance. Of course, other fruits also contributed to Zhang Tie's qi field. However, that director thought that it was due to Zhang Tie's cultivation. Therefore, he treated Zhang Tie more respectfully.

"Is everything going smooth?" Zhang Tie asked.

"Yes!" The director replied as he passed three brief reports to Zhang Tie.

After taking them, Zhang Tie spent less than 20 seconds in skimming over the 3 brief reports.

In fact, only two major events happened in Hurricane Corps during the past 45 days——Hurricane Corps have divided into three-level combat troops; the subordinate army of Hurricane Corps started to enter the three cities and take over the city defense and security of the three cities.

"After the lantern festival, dispatch the first batch of an elite troop to Kalay Mountain Range to prepare for the battle in the future!" Zhang Tie fixed the time for the batch of fighters above LV 9 to enter Kalay Mountain Range.

After adjusting the establishment, on the premise of not influencing the battle forces of the other troops, only 418 fighters in Hurricane Corps were between LV 9 and LV 13. These fighters would form the elite special operations brigade of Hurricane Corps. The brigade was further divided into 3 squads, who were responsible for the battle in the theater of operations Kalay Mountain Range.

Zhang Tie sighed inside, 'The number of fighters between LV 9 and LV 13 in the entire Hurricane Corps only equals to two battalions of the demon corps. What a great disparity in strength! Only when the strength of all the countries across Waii Sub-continent unites with each other can they barely defeat the demon corps. Otherwise, no human corps could defeat the demon corps.'

For these fighters, they would face a fierce battle in Kalay Mountain Range in the future.

The director jostled down Zhang Tie's order.

"Additionally, the maneuver teams who receive battle tasks should make financial statements every season independently. The fighters of the maneuver teams should be paid in terms of 5 times that of the average compensation of the mercenaries of the major mercenary groups in Armes. Now that you're making money privately, show me some performance. If one maneuver team suffers a loss for consecutive 2 months, I will lay off the commander and replace him with an able man!"

Zhang Tie instructed as he walked. The director kept jostling down Zhang Tie's words on his side.

"Distribute my order to the garrisons, from next January 1st, in the three cities of Huaiyuan Palace, any person who traffick humans, kill slaves, force women to be prostitutes, rape women, plunder others' properties should be punished with the death penalty. Any officer who colludes with businessmen should be punished to swallow gold coins which equates to the value of the properties that he received illegally. If the gold-eater doesn't die, he's free. Otherwise, all the properties of his whole family will be confiscated. Thieves' fingers should be cut off; defrauders' ears should be cut off. All those who violate the laws should be punished twice the severity of Huaiyuan Palace! Additionally, the Department of the Military Law and the Moving Palace of Corps Leader should find an itinerant military court so as to supervise the disciplines of the garrisons in the three cities. All the judgments and cases should be released on paper. I should see all the second instance cases on bulletins. If the garrisons severely disturb the residents or violate disciplines, call the head of the garrisons to interpret it to me in the moving palace."

The three orders were full of killing intent, especially the collusion between officers and businessmen. It was a way of committing suicide by swallowing golds. When gold entered one's mouth, it would penetrate through one's intestines. If the officers swallowed the golds they were bribed, they would have a disaster. If they took more than 10 gold coins from businessmen illegally, they would hardly survive themselves. This was equal to draw a line between officers and businessmen, which was used to differentiate between normal trades and taking bribes. Those who dared take bribes had to consider whether could they hold that illegal income into their stomach in advance.

The itinerant military court would pay special attention to second instance cases. As a sword of Damocles above the heads of all the soldiers and commissioned officers of Hurricane Corps, it could punish anyone who dared violate the laws.

Zhang Tie, who was born in a common family of Blackhot City, clearly knew how hard small figures lives were. When they ran a rice brew store in Blackhot City, a taxman came to ask for a bride from them. Although that taxman was just a small figure in Blackhot City, he made Zhang Tie's dad and mom sorrowful every day and almost made the rice brew store wind up. Later on, after Zhang Tie's elder brother joined the city guards of Blackhot City, he found some friends to give that taxman a lesson. From then on, the taxman became a good man...

At that time, as the holy war had not broken out, Blackhot City was still peaceful. However, even in such a peaceful environment, small grassroots could still not be able to survive themselves. By contrast, in such a chaotic world, numerous small figures were wondering here and there to survive themselves. Those commoners who came to Huaiyuan Prefecture from other places might be killed by some swashbuckling b*stards or corrupt officers and illegal businessmen at any time.

However, Zhang Tie felt like living up to his so many years of life in Blackhot City and his title as a knight by using such shocking means to deter the bad guys and protect the underprivileged ones.