Castle of Black Iron

Knights could hear a sound clearly from hundreds of meters away with the powerful perception of knight's consciousness as long as the sound was not intentionally covered. Some knights who cultivated special secret methods could even hear farther. Therefore, Elder Muen had almost heard the talk about what happened in Waii Sub-continent between Zhang Tie and Elder Muyuan before entering the Shrine Palace. Even Elder Muray who came in the end also heard a part of their talk.

At this moment, besides the head of Zhang Clan, all the other 6 clan eldrs of Huaiyuan Palace had arrived at the Shrine Palace.

"I did not imagine that Waii Sub-continent would deteriorate into such a lifeless land being covered with Full Moons Demon Miasma only after we left Waii Sub-continent for a few years. I wonder whether Sacred Iceland Kingdom has been influenced by the miasma over Waii Sub-continent." Elder Muen asked Zhang Tie.

"As there is an ocean between Sacred Iceland Kingdom and Waii Sub-continent, the terrifying Full Moons Demon Misama didn't extend to Sacred Iceland Kingdom. Before I came back from Sacred Iceland Kingdom, I had issued an order to forbid people to land on Waii Sub-continent once again except for soldiers and other special forces who had to execute their tasks!" Zhang Tie answered.

"It seems that Sacred Iceland Kingdom don't need to worry about being attacked by demons in a short period. The accident in Waii Sub-continent makes Ice and Snow Wilderness a Shargri-la. Misfortune may be a blessing in disguise."

"If not the threat facing the Sacred Iceland Kingdom had been cleaned off for the time being, I might still be in Sacred Iceland Kingdom! I promised those guys in Ice and Snow Wilderness that I would fight demons to the death with them shoulder to shoulder. Trust is the coin of the realm. I was also worried about their safety when I came to Sacred Iceland Kingdom. However, I had not imagined that the black-robe knight Gorath could have such a trump card. Benefited from that, I could return to Taixia Country without eating my words!" Zhang Tie gasped with admiration as he felt lucky. He performed his disguising ability to the utmost. Nevertheless, none of the elders at present could imagine that Zhang Tie was the very Gorath.

"Have you handled the affairs in Sacred Iceland Kingdom?" Elder Muray asked.

"Sacred Iceland Kingdom is just a combination of tribes and Ewentra Archipelago. The clan elders of those tribes and the major clans in Ewentra Archipelago are still managing the affairs in their own territory. I don't need to worry about that at all!"

Honestly, Zhang Tie felt a bit pleasant when he became the tsar of Sacred Iceland Kingdom. However, when he came to Youzhou Province, he found that a province of Taixia Country was almost as large as a sub-continent and a provincial governor governed the region as large as a subcontinent with military region commander who had extremely great power above them. After that, Zhang Tie's pleasure eased. Taixia even ignored the Chaosang Sub-continent who hoped to merge in Taixia Country and pay tax to Taixia Country, not to speak of a tiny Sacred Iceland Kingdom. 'Sacred Iceland Kingdom could only be a wild province in Taixia Country at most and I could only serve as a Class 6 Prefectural province in Taixia Country at most with the foundation of Sacred Iceland Kingdom, not to mention that Sacred Iceland Kingdom was in the north of the remote Waii Sub-continent.'

"Sacred Iceland Kingdom could serve as a trading center and connection between Eastern Continent and Western Continent and grow increasingly prosperous. It could also trade with Huaiyuan Palace and benefit both parties!" Elder Muan suggested while the other elders nodded at the same time. Zhang Tie also nodded.

Elder Muen let out a sigh, "There are so many unexpectations in this holy war. The super demon corps which swept over Waii Sub-continent; the black-robe knight Gorath who exterminated so many Three-eye Association clans and released the terrifying ptomaine miasma over Waii Sub-continent; either the hundreds of millions of demonized puppets or the terrifying ptomaine miasma could topple over a sub continent. Whenever I thought about the current situation facing Waii Sub-continent, I would feel both lucky and worried. I feel lucky that Huaiyuan Palace left the lifeless land in advance and laid our foundation in Youzhou Province of Taixia Country; I'm worried that we cannot predict the progress of the holy war. We cannot see clearly the future of Huaiyuan Palace. In the holy war, numerous clans would be exterminated; numerous clans would grow prosperous at the same time. All the elders at present are shouldering responsibility for the prosperity of Huaiyuan Palace. There's a major event that could determine the future of Huaiyuan Palace, which Huaiyuan Palace have planned for a long time. We, as Clan elders of Huaiyuan Palace, should negotiate about it."

"Have the Northeast Military Region Headquarter of Taixia Country set the regulations about the selection of the provincial governor of Youzhou Province?" Elder Muyu asked.

"Yea, I've just received the message that Lord Cheng Honglie, the commander of Northeast Military Region Headquarter, had already arrived at Youzhou City, the capital city of Youzhou Province by an airship yesterday. He had already set the regulations about the selection of the provincial governor of Youzhou Province!" Elder Muen said.

Hearing Elder Muen's reply, all the others at present straightened up, including Zhang Tie. After throwing a glance over the other elders, Elder Muen continued, "Lord Cheng borrowed a special object from Heavens Fortune Sect——Heavens Ball. He will use this Heavens Ball to select the provincial governor of Youzhou Province."

"Heavens Ball? What's that?" Elder Muray asked while widely opening his eyes.

Elder Muen forced a bitter smile, "I don't know. I was just told that it was a treasure that Heavens Fortune Sect got from the earth-elements realm. A marvelous world and many eccentric objects could be imitated in this Heavens Ball. People could enter it by their spirits and souls and do whatever they want in the Heavens Ball just like how they do in the outside world. It's told that Heavens Ball was like a senior training field in Heavens Ball Sect, which was used for elders and disciples of Heavens Fortune Sect to compete in military skills or practice their battle skills. They could exert their utmost efforts in the Heavens Balls without concerning about losing their lives."

After hearing the introduction of the Heavens Ball, all the elders exchanged glances with each other. As they were in Waii Sub-continent, although they might have heard about the secret treasures of the 7 major sects of Taixia Country, they had not seen that beofre. Therefore, they all became stunned by this treasure.

This time, Zhang Tie was really shocked. Because he realized that the Heavens Ball was completely like the trouble-reappearance situations in trouble-reappearance fruits.

When Zhang Tie felt complex, he abruptly realized that one object of Heavens Fortune Sect, one of the seven major sects on Eastern Continent, was somewhat related to his biggest secret.

"Does Lord Cheng want all the candidate clans to fight in the Heavens Ball?" Elder Muyuan asked with a solemn look.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. As the holy war has broken out, it's the right time to select talents, especially in military skills. I was told that Lord Cheng was bold and dauntless. I'm afraid that he would have us fight the other Clan elders in the Heavens Ball. We will know the details when we arrive at Youzhou Province. According to the message from Youzhou Province, the powerhouses of candidate clans who want to compete for the provincial governor of Youzhou Province have to arrive at Youzhou Province before 5th of October. The head of Zhang Clan has received the notice in advance. He has left the earth-elements realm for Youzhou Province. He would come back to Youzhou Province before 5th October. We will have to converge with our head before that date and help our head to ascend to the provincial governor of Youzhou Province. After that, our Huaiyuan Palace would be able to officially take over Youzhou City, the most magnificent city in Youzhou Province and control the surrounding hundreds of thousands of square miles of land; meanwhile, Huaiyuan Palace would become a clan with provincial governor in Taixia Country. Huaiyuan Palace's offsprings would be awarded as officials with certain classes and ranks by the head of Huaiyuan Palace..."

According to the explaination of Elder Muen, Zhang Tie gradually realized the importance of this competition for Huaiyuan Palace. It could be said that if Huaiyuan Palace won this competition, Huaiyuan Palace would have a great influence in Youzhou Province, even Taixia Country. As for a clan which had just rooted in a lower province of Taixia Country, the position of provincial governor of Youzhou Province was of great significance.

If they won the position of provincial governor of Youzhou Province, they would have the entire Youzhou City, which meant that they would have the most prosperous region in Youzhou Province. Meanwhile, they would open a shortcut for their offsprings to promote to higher-class officials in Taixia Country and help Huaiyuan Palace root in Youzhou Province, even Taixia Country more deeply. The power, honor and interests being related to the position of provincial governor of Youzhou Province really made people drool.

Besides Huaiyuan Palace, at least 7 powerful clans cast greedy eyes on the position of provincial governor of Youzhou Province, some of them had deep roots in Youzhou Province just like that of Huaiyuan Palace. They were even a bit more powerful than Huaiyuan Palace.

As the first provincial governor of a lower province which had just been established, the first session would last 20 years, during which period, the provincial governor would have enough opportunities to lay a solid foundation for his clan and himself in a lower province. To put it straight, if any clan could take the position provincial governor of Youzhou Province, it would be the first clan in Youzhou Province for sure. The competition for the provincial governor of Youzhou Province was actually the competition for the number one clan in Youzhou Province in the future.

As it was a major event for Huaiyuan Palace, of course, Zhang Tie had to be the vanguard.

...

After Elder Muen introduced it, a question occurred to Zhang Tie's mind, "How many chakras have Commander Cheng formed?"

"Commander Cheng have already formed both earth chakra and water chakra. He's a shadow knight for sure!" Elder Muen answered with an admiration.

Zhang Tie's heart pounded as he took in a cold breath.

After black iron knights formed their earth-elements chakra, they would promote to earth knights; after forming their water-element chakra, they would promote to shadow knights, whose name originated from the changing feature of water. Water could form ocean, river, stream, dew, ice, mist, cloud, even disappear in the air. Water was colorless and variable. Therefore, those who had formed water-element chakra were called shadow knights.

Even the demon general who had almost promoted to an earth knight was unrivaled across Waii Sub-continent, Zhang Tie could not imagine how powerful was a knight who had formed his water-element chakra.

After recalling his "weirdo" master Zhao Yuan and this Commander Cheng, Zhang Tie gasped with admiration inside, 'How many talents are there in Taixia Country...'

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Elder Mushen, now that you could promote to a black iron knight at such a young age, as long as you could practice hard, Elder Mushen would definitely form the second chakra. You might even form the third chakra!" Elder Muan comforted Zhang Tie.

Zhang Tie smiled, "Thank you for your auspicious words, Elder Muan. As for the cultivation road forward, it's a distant way, I could only explore it at my full efforts. As there are all sorts of scenery on the roadside, the cultivation road is not the only one which could lead me to a wonderful scenery in my life. It depends!"

All the other elders had not imagined that Zhang Tie could be so open-minded. Only a sorrowful look flashed by Elder Muyuan's face after hearing Zhang Tie's words...