Chapter 523: The Holy War Broke out
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
"Shadow demon?" Zhang Tie heard about this term in the legend. This kind of demon caused a catastrophe to humans. They got their name from their great transforming ability. They were like chameleon and some octopus at the bottom of the sea. They were born to transform their looks. The transforming ability of shadow demon was much greater than that of chameleon and octopus. This was the most weird and dangerous ability adopted by demons. As long as they liked, they could transform into any person.
The fact that Master Abyan was a shadow demon could shock numerous people for sure. This was out of everyone's imagination, yet it was reasonable. Because in the human history, those shadow demons who could transform into humans had brought a huge terrifying catastrophe to all the humans. When shadow demons appeared as human elites, they might become the presidents, leaders and those big figures who had great powers of a human country. If such a demon who desired destruction of humans by keeping them under the control of demons and ascended to the throne of a human country, it would cause a much greater harm to humans than a demon army.
Besides casually transforming their own looks, shadow demons had a more frightening ability, to plunder and combine with other's genes. They were terrifying gene plunderers.
Shadow demons were the synonym of liars, plots and catastrophe.
"It turns out that the frightening demon was always near me. It's always in Blackhot City as an influential person."
Master Abyan, who displayed his real status as a shadow demon, walked towards Zhang Tie one step after another. Zhang Tie didn't know why such a demon would appear in Blackhot City. However, Zhang Tie was clear that now that it had displayed its original look, it didn't plan to let him survive here. If he fell into its hand, Zhang Tie could only expect for death in a faster way.
When two enemies encountered in a narrow path, they had to fight for death!
"Kill..." Widely opening his furious eyes, Zhang Tie darted towards Abyan once again without any fear. He reached directly towards Abyan's chest with thunder-like fists and lightning movements. This movement gathered all of Zhang Tie's spiritual energy and qi. It was the most powerful attack that Zhang Tie could afford.
However, Abyan, who had recovered his demon's look, just stood there still. When Zhang Tie struck onto Abyan's scaled chest, he became excited inside. Almost in a split second, Zhang Tie had attacked Abyan for over 100 times all over his body; including head, neck, chest and lower abdomen.
However, Abyan just stood there still like a mountain.
"How could it be?" Zhang Tie became stunned. Each time he touched Abyan's body, Zhang Tie felt like being blocked by a strength. There seemed to be an invisible armor on Abyan.
Abyan's tail then swept towards Zhang Tie like a leg. It struck on Zhang Tie's chest, sending Zhang Tie flying back over 30 m. Zhang Tie finally hit onto the wall and fell down together with some broken stones from the wall.
Zhang Tie then spat out mouthful of blood as he felt his bones being broken all over. At the same time, Zhang Tie felt humming in his head while sparkles were in front of his eyes. If not having eaten a lot of Iron-Body Fruits, Zhang Tie knew that he must have been completely crippled. Two of his ribs seemed to have broken. Besides, his breast bone had cracked. Panting heavily, Zhang Tie struggled to get up from the ground slowly.
"You humans are as weak as ants in our eyes. Among all the people that I've ever seen, I have to admit that you're the most powerful one on LV 8 at this age. Your strength is even greater than most of LV 11 fighting masters. You gave me a big surprise. However, gaps between levels could not be easily narrowed. For instance, a bigger mice could not be heavier than a new-born elephant. In front of a LV 14 fighting demon who has formed his protective battle Qi, even if you've already formed Iron-Blood Battle Qi and have much greater strength than that of others on your level, it's still useless! However, your body has made me more surprised!" Abyan revealed a smile on his fully-scaled, grim face before walking towards Zhang Tie one step after another.
"LV 14 fighting demon? protective battle qi?" Zhang Tie felt hopeless at once when he heard these words. Zhang Tie could hardly narrow the 6 levels gap.
Zhang Tie attempted to contact with Castle of Black Iron; however, he found his spiritual energy was very unstable at this moment. That guy's terrifying sonic attack directly penetrated through his head and messed up his spiritual energy. Plus the following collision, Zhang Tie had been greatly wounded all over. Of course his spiritual energy could not exist independently from his body. At this moment, his spiritual energy was absolutely like a mustang that escaped from the stable, which could be hardly collected at once.
"Are you regretful about coming here?" Zhang Tie asked himself. However, even now, he still didn't feel regretful at all. He had to do something. He just wondered why a LV 14 fighting demon would hide in Blackhot City in the look of a human.
"I know what are you thinking about. For our shadow demons, we could not exert our utmost ability ourselves; instead, we have to exert our ability to the utmost by combining ourselves into human society. We have many fighting demons. In the eyes of many powerful humans, especially knights, there's no difference between a LV 14 fighting demon and a LV 8 fighter. Therefore, I chose to hide in Blackhot City so as to gain greater privilege and influence as a pharmacist and play a bigger role than a LV 14 fighting demon!"
Before Zhang Tie asked the reason, Abyan had already explained it to him, "After knowing this, you will have a good death. Do not struggle anymore, because it would make you more painful. I could feel your upsurging vitality. If I could engulf you, I might complete the evolution of my second form. I've been waiting for it since a long time. It's very difficult for me to meet a man who's suitable to be engulfed and could bring me much vitality. Commoners are useless for me. If I engulf commoners, I have to pay the same amount of vitality to gain vitality from them."
Zhang Tie felt that Abyan just treated him as a yummy dim sum, a rare tonic.
"Pah..." Zhang Tie spat out a mouth of blood as he revealed an untamed smile, "You want to engulf me? Go eat shit!"
After saying this, Zhang Tie darted towards the shadow demon once again. Zhang Tie would never make this b*stard happy even at the risk of his life.
At this moment, Zhang Tie drew out of the dagger. He exerted his full efforts to throw it towards Abyan in a sound-breaking speed like a flying javelin.
The dagger stopped in front of Abyan's left eye, closely after a loud sonic boom.
Abyan's invisible battle qi undulated for a short while. The dagger then fell down before Abyan, who caught it by hand and threw it back towards Zhang Tie, causing another sonic boom. The dagger almost penetrated through Zhang Tie's left scapula, causing a blood spurt on Zhang Tie's shoulder. At the same time, Zhang Tie was sent sliding back and was finally nailed onto the stony wall on his back. Zhang Tie uttered a muffled harrumph as half of his body was tainted with fresh blood at once. He looked miserable; however, his battle intent was still burning in his eyes as he deadly gazed at Abyan who was walking towards him.
It was already out of Zhang Tie's ability to narrow the 6 levels gap. That was a bottomless chasm and an endless natural moat.
"I've told you, if the huge gap between levels could be mended up by brutal strength, people didn't need to cultivate anymore!" saying this, Abyan slowly walked in front of Zhang Tie.
Zhang Tie stretched out his right hand and pulled out of the dagger on his left shoulder and stabbed towards Abyan.
Abyan just stretched out his weird claw and slightly twisted Zhang Tie's right hand, breaking all the bones of Zhang Tie's right hand at once along with a cracking sound.
Zhang Tie kicked towards Abyan's lower abdomen like a huge ax while breaking the air. Seeing this, Abyan swept his tail over Zhang Tie's feet. With a cracking sound, Zhang Tie's feet were broken.
Spitting out blood, Zhang Tie knelt down by one knee to maintain his balance. At this moment, Abyan stretched out one claw and stuck Zhang Tie's neck, lifting Zhang Tie above from the ground. He then moved Zhang Tie in front of him as he looked straight at Zhang Tie's eyes.
"I rarely have seen such a stubborn person who has a great potential. As long as you promise me to serve demons loyally and become my bloody descendant, I will give you a chance to survive. You can have paramount privilege and have numerous women; you can enjoy everything in the world..." Abyan gazed at Zhang Tie with his pitch dark eyes as he said icily.
"Mo...motherf*cker!" Zhang Tie ferociously struck onto Abyan's face with his head. Although Zhang Tie's head started to bleed, Abyan was still safe and sound. Zhang Tie raised his head and grit his teeth before striking onto Abyan's face once again. Blood spurted out of Zhang Tie's skull. After striking Abyan for the third time, Zhang Tie's skull was broken while his forehead had transformed. Whereas, Abyan's protective battle qi remained unchanged as firm as steel.
Zhang Tie's eyes were blurred by fresh blood, making the world in Zhang Tie's eyes look bloody.
"If so, go to hell..." seeing Zhang Tie being still that uncompromising, Abyan's tail raised while the tip of the tail inserted into Zhang Tie's spine through Zhang Tie's neck.
Zhang Tie's body then started to quiver all over. Being stabbed by that tail, Zhang Tie felt that his qi, blood and energy were all absorbed by that tail.
"How energetic vitality. Your vitality is at least 20 times that of human fighters of your level. This is really the best gift from the Demon God!" Abyan became thrilled as he grim his face and revealed a smile. Meanwhile, he stretched out his snake's tongue and started to lick the fresh blood that flew off Zhang Tie's head like tasting yummy food.
Abyan's body started to radiated red glow. With a heavy bloody taste, the red glow slowly covered Zhang Tie.
Zhang Tie felt that he was losing his vitality rapidly. This process was completely converse to that when he ate seven-strength fruits. When the tail inserted into his spine, Zhang Tie felt that his strength of qi, strength of blood, strength of bone, strength of marrow, strength of vein, strength of passage and strength of spirit were constantly drawn out from his body and flew into Abyan's body.
The vitality that mentioned by demons referred to the above seven strength in human body.
The red glow over Abyan's body started to appear more brilliant while the bloody taste covering Zhang Tie's body grew dense. Gradually, an ox horn started to bulge on Abyan's forehead. Meanwhile, a bone film appeared and gradually grew on Abyan's back like rat's wings...
Abyan became so excited that he even raised his head and uttered a terrifying roar.
Zhang Tie didn't know what happened to Abyan. It seemed to be an evolution of shadow demon. However, Zhang Tie knew that he was losing his vitality rapidly. He was going to die soon. "If not those seven-strength fruits, I might have already died."
Using his instinct, Zhang Tie moved his left hand and reached towards his double-carp sword. At the same time, a sharp sword qi flashed out of Zhang Tie's waist and circled around Abyan's neck...
"Hoho, I've not imagined that you could play such a trick. But it's useless. These common weapons could never break my protective battle qi at all..." although the sharp golden carp blade circled around Abyan's neck, Abyan just waved his head to make the golden carp blade drop off Zhang Tie's hand. Abyan then watched Zhang Tie with a bantering and satisfied look, allowing Zhang Tie to struggle, he even scratched him using his left hand in vain, "Struggle, humble human; be afraid, weak human; your fresh blood would be sweeter with your fear!"
...
"Am I going to die this time?" Zhang Tie's consciousness gradually became blurry...
Not knowing how long have passed, Zhang Tie suddenly became awake. This was the last awakening time of his life. When he woke up, he found that he only had 10% of his vitality. While Abyan became more terrifying. The bloody light covered Zhang Tie like a heavy bloody cocoon, making Zhang Tie pretty weak.
Because too much spiritual energy had been drawn out, Zhang Tie felt that his remaining spiritual energy became stable although it was still flowing away.
The horn on Abyan's forehead was growing bigger. Watching the horn, Zhang Tie instinctively took out that horn that he picked up from the sludge in the river when he attended the survival training in the wild wolf valley from Castle of Black Iron. After that, he injected all the Iron-Blood Battle Qi into that sharp horn before stabbing it towards Abyan's heart...
The sharp object radiated a dim light after being injected with Iron-Blood Battle Qi. It smoothly broke Abyan's protective battle Qi and stabbed into Abyan's heart.
Abyan quivered at once as he watched that object with an unimaginable look. Like being fixed, his face was full of fear...
Zhang Tie also started to quiver. When he stabbed that horn into Abyan's body, he felt his palm hot as a great amount of energy flew into his body through that horn. Zhang Tie felt being locked tightly with Abyan at this moment. Neither of them could move.
Abyan was engulfing Zhang Tie's energy just now; however, after Zhang Tie stabbed that horn into Abyan's body, he started to engulf Abyan conversely. One human, one demon and one strange horn then formed a mysterious circulation.
Abyan wanted to open his mouth; however, he couldn't say any word, neither could Zhang Tie. He only felt getting hotter and hotter all over while his qi, blood, energy and red glow grew richer and thicker...
Before completely losing his consciousness, Zhang Tie locked that arched door in his mind——go back!
...
The news that Abyan was assassinated made his castle become an empty place in three days. All the commoners who were afraid of being involved with this accident had escaped away. Besides, they took away all the valuable objects across the castle.
The whole Blackhot City was in chaos...
After seven days, a person appeared above the castle like a burning cloud.
Watching that castle at his foot, Zhao Yuan growled out of fury as he released a punch downwards the castle. With a boom, Blackhot City seemed experiencing an earthquake. At the same time, Abyan's castle disappeared, leaving a 100-m deep pit while the underground water filled the pit.
After a few days, a senior investigation team led by a big figure and some knights assigned by Norman Empire arrived at Blackhot City. When they stood on the side of the lake which was said to be a castle one month ago, they all became silent.
...
After over one month, over 30 countries and regions across Blackson Humans Corridor broke out demon catastrophes. Being controlled by puppet worms, the undying army spread across the ground like locusts...
The third holy war broke out!
Chapter 524: Three Years
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
Zhang Tie felt that he had made a long, sweet dream and became a fetus in his mom's womb once again. Being soaked in warm water, Zhang Tie didn't know how long had he slept. When he started to recover his consciousness, he twisted his body for a short while before opening his eyes.
It was dark in front of his eyes. After a short while, Zhang Tie realized that it was not because he lost his visual ability, but because he was wrapped in a thick, hard and dark cocoon-like mucous shell.
"I've not been suffocated to death?"
A whim flashed across Zhang Tie's mind. He then started to move his limbs. With a crashing sound, he tore off that mucous shell and walked out of it.
When he walked out of there, Zhang Tie was not adapted to the tender light in the outside. Therefore, he slightly narrowed his eyes. After a few seconds, Zhang Tie started to glance over this place.
Abyan was also wrapped in a 2m-high bloody cocoon. However, Abyan had become a completely dried corpse. He almost shrunk by half of his original body. Like a weathered lizard flesh, he looked very frightened. The sharp horn was still there in his chest.
After glancing at Abyan, Zhang Tie moved his eyes away.
He caught sight of the Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree, which made him reassured at once. As long as he was in Blackhot City, he would be safe. However, the small tree in front of him looked a bit different than that before. Concretely, it grew taller with more dense leaves. "The surrounding houses didn't change too much; but why this space became a bit different than before?"
Zhang Tie remembered that when he came here last time, the length and the width of the space of Castle of Black Iron was less than 1 km. However, at this moment, both the length and the width of the space of Castle of Black Iron reached about 10 km, which was almost one hundreds times greater than the former figures. Zhang Tie saw a lush plain in front of him which was covered with various crops and woods. What a prosperous scene! There was even a 100-m high hill miles away. The hill was covered with undulant woods. Plus an over 20 square km of glittering lake. All this shocked Zhang Tie.
If not that small tree and the rolling colorful clouds in Castle of Black Iron, Zhang Tie almost thought that he had come to the wrong place.
"But, it really feels great to gain a new birth."
At this moment, based on the angle of the light in Castle of Black Iron, Zhang Tie knew that it was noon. Some diligent bees were circling around Zhang Tie while being attracted by the special smell of Zhang Tie.
Zhang Tie could sense the pleasant mood of those bees.
Standing still for a few seconds out of amazement, Zhang Tie found Heller was not here. Therefore, he came to the riverside which was not far from him and prepared to cleanse up himself. Because he found that his clothes had been ragged and rotten, which looked poorer than beggars. Besides, he felt glutinous which made him more uncomfortable.
Zhang Tie came to the riverside. The moment he put off that dark tore gloves, he caught sight of his hands.
This pair of hands were completely different from that before as they were covered with black scaled skin while each fingernail looked as sharp as a blade, shining cold light.
"Ah..." Zhang Tie was too scared that he started to exclaim. At the same time, he faltered back. However, before he fell down, he felt that another foot appeared on his back which supported on the ground to maintain his balance. Zhang Tie looked back and wanted to see what was that. Unexpectedly, that thing moved in front of him in a very agile way. He could see it clearly...
It was a tail like that of Abyan, which was similar to his third finger or third foot...
Zhang Tie was too frightened that his face turned blue at once. He became completely flurried. Right then, his clothes were broken while a pair of wings stretched from his shoulder. Each wing was about 3 m in length. The wings flapped forcefully, dragging Zhang Tie away from the ground.
After his clothes were torn off, Zhang Tie saw a layer of black scales over his body. In the reflection on the stream, he even saw a horn on his forehead.
Raising his head, Zhang Tie shrilled miserably, "What's happening? Ah...how can I become this?"
At this time, he found that his voice also became muffled due to the weird change of his vocal cords. His words had a hoarse effect.
Heller darted towards Zhang Tie from afar and stopped several meters in front of Zhang Tie. Watching Heller's calm look, Zhang Tie slightly recovered his composure.
At this moment, the pair of huge wings had already lifted him 8 m in the air and suspended him there.
"Ah, Heller, what's happening to me? How can I look like Abyan..."
"Don't worry, Castle Lord. Come down first. I will explain to you slowly!" Heller raised his head and told Zhang Tie.
"Ah...erm..erm...how can I come down. I cannot control myself!"
"You can. This is your instinct in this state like walking and breathing. As long as you are not nervous. You will know how to come down!"
After hearing Heller's suggestion, Zhang Tie tried to calm himself down. After that, when he intended to come down, he had already landed steadily on the ground while flapping his wings.
The pair of powerful wings with a layer of flesh film were folded at once.
Before Zhang Tie opened his mouth, Heller had already displayed a three-dimensional image in front of Zhang Tie by drawing in the air...
...
After ten more minutes, hearing Heller's explanation and watching Heller displaying how the two groups of spiral DNAs engulfed with each other, Zhang Tie became dumbfounded.
"You mean he didn't engulf me in that case but I engulfed him? What's that horn? How could it be so powerful? How could it break Abyan's protective battle Qi and transfer Abyan's vital energy to me constantly?" Zhang Tie touched that sharp horn in his hand as he asked.
"Do you remember that legend about the Wild Wolf Valley when you attended survival training there?"
"You mean that gold-eating boa which shocked the entire Blackson Humans Corridor?"
"Right. This sharp object is a teeth which exfoliated from an adult gold-eating boa. It's the most special object on gold-eating boa. This thing has the exotic ability to engulf and pierce through everything. After injecting your battle Qi into it, you activated it. Therefore, you had pierced through Abyan's protective battle Qi with it. Meanwhile, at that moment, Abyan was experiencing the evolution of his second form, which indicated that his DNA was highly active. You three then formed a mysterious circulation, under the effect of which, Abyan's second evolution process was reversed to you, making you look like this."
"Can I recover my former look?" Zhang Tie asked.
"Yes, you can. Your former look was your first form while your current look is your second from. With the ability of shadow demon, you're able to convert between two forms at your will!"
"Whether I am a human or a demon now?"
"It depends on your definition about humans and demons!" Heller watched Zhang Tie with a deep and savvy look.
"What do you mean?"
"If you differentiate demons from humans in terms of look, you are now a demon; if you differentiate it in terms of DNA, you're neither a demon nor a human. Because your DNA combines the common features of both species. You're now a mutated species. If you want to differentiate humans from demons in terms of ability, you're purely a demon as you can do everything that a shadow demon could do. If you differentiate it in terms of soul and awareness, you're yourself, namely human! Of course, it depends on your recognition about yourself. If it was people, at the sight of you, they would treat you as a demon for sure. However, any demon would treat you as their same species. Your first form would be considered as a transformation of a shadow demon. Nobody would believe that you're Zhang Tie!"
After hearing Heller's answer, Zhang Tie became stunned as he became very painful inside. None of normal men would like to look like this.
"Therefore..."
"Therefore, after you leave Castle of Black Iron, as long as you expose your second form or special ability of demon, you would be treated as a demon, a shadow demon, which was the top enemy of humans. According to the 'Great Brilliance Charter', anyone who kills a shadow demon could be promoted to be a Lord. Do you know what does this mean?"
Of course Zhang Tie clearly knew that once he was exposed, he was doomed to be killed.
"Oh. What's the time now? How long have I stayed in the bloody cocoon? I have to go meet my friends!"
Heller then watched Zhang Tie silently for over 10 seconds before opening his mouth, "It's March 1st, 894th year of Black Iron Calendar..."
"What?" gazing at Heller's solemn look, Zhang Tie felt humming in his head as his face completely turned pale. He had not imagined that he had slept in the bloody cocoon for 3 years!
Chapter 525: The Price of Being a Pure Human
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
Three years elapsed in a wink. It took Zhang Tie one day to gradually adapt to this message. What made him a bit reassured was that all the people that he cared about had been properly managed.
His elder brother was accompanying their parents. Before he left Huaiyuan Palace, Zhang Tie already gave his elder brother the basic energy aura yeast which could constantly reproduce. Therefore, although he was not in Jinwu Castle, his elder brother could still maintain the supply of the all-purpose medicament and guarantee the development of Jinwu Corporation.
"The members of God Blessing Association and those girls of Rose Association have already left Blackhot City and would be able to survive in Jinyun Country. I've already told my elder brother to take good care of Miss Daina and Linda. Therefore, they should also be safe." Before leaving Ice and Snow Wilderness, Zhang Tie had already made proper arrangements for everything over there. Therefore, even without him, the Ice and Snow Wilderness could still run normally.
Thinking this way, Zhang Tie felt a bit better. However, Zhang Tie knew that many things must have happened and changed a lot of people.
"Dad and mom must be worried about me very much."
"How are my friends in Hidden Dragon Island doing now?"
"How is senior sister Lan Yunxi?"
"What's up with God Blessing Association and Rose Association?
"How's Miss Daina and Linda now?"
"And I missed the chance to meet Pandora..."
According to Zhang Tie's former plan, after seeing off his friends from Blackhot City, he was going to attend Pandora's "hubby selection meeting" in Holy Golden Orchid Empire. He had not imagined that he would sleep for over 3 years. Therefore, he must have missed that meeting. Zhang Tie only hoped that Pandora's "hubby selection meeting" had ended smoothly due to the coming holy war. However, the moment Zhang Tie remembered Pandora's father, Haiger VII, he became restless, "Who knows what weird opinions would that mad emperor come up with?"
What was most was that Zhang Tie didn't know what happened to those people outside Castle of Black Iron and whether the holy war between humans and demons had broken out.
Zhang Tie knew that he had missed too many things during the past three years. The only achievement that he had made was to survive the battle between him and a LV 14 demon.
The price of survival was too big!
After watching carefully that strange face in the mirror and that pair of pitch dark eyes, Zhang Tie roared as he punched the mirror into pieces. This was the 7th mirror that he broke this day. Perhaps, this face was very beautiful in the eyes of a pure demon like the pervert Abyan; however, as long as Zhang Tie saw such a bug face and monster claws, he felt an impulse to destroy everything.
Many things were not considered precious until they were lost, such as human body. When you had it, you didn't feel it was precious. However, when you lost it, you would realize that each pure, aesthetic line displayed the nobility of human body. According to myths, the God created human body according to his own image, which indicated that human body was perfect.
Therefore, Zhang Tie felt being polluted by a disgusting and terrifying virus about the assimilated genes after killing Abyan.
Zhang Tie really didn't know how to face those people who were familiar with him with his current mentality and body. He felt that he might drive them mad by this body.
What was more unacceptable was that he would pass some genes of his second form to his kids as was told by Heller.
This was the terrifying genes of shadow demon. Although such a blood-tied relationship was a paramount honor for someone such as Three-Eye Association. It was said that many managers of Three-Eye Association were the half-blooded descendants between shadow demons and humans. Their positions were determined by their purity of demon genes. Therefore, they only allowed half-blooded descendants to get married with each other. Zhang Tie's situation was greatly favored by those half-blooded descendants. However, Zhang Tie would never accept this.
Because Zhang Tie preferred to be a commoner. He thought what his parents gave him was the best. Zhang Tie could not accept what the other commoners disliked. He didn't want to be a monster; neither did he want his descendants to be such a monster. If so, Zhang Tie knew that his whole family would be destroyed. Not only his descendants and wives, even his parents could not accept this.
Therefore, Zhang Tie went for Heller with red eyes.
"I know you must have a method to manage this problem. Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree and this space must have a method to deal with that. I'd like to recover to my former body at any price. I have to drive those demon genes out of my body. I want my human body back at any price!"
Heller watched Zhang Tie. In the past one day, he had already felt Zhang Tie's mentality and response to his second form. Heller had not imagined that Zhang Tie could have such a sharp response about his transformation.
"Previously, I thought that you would not care about it as long as you don't expose the second form. With the second form, you could have many abilities of shadow demon, such as flying, transforming, great vitality and strike-resistance ability. You could stay with demons safe and sound. You might play a key role at the critical moment. I've not imagined that you didn't accept it at all. Why not consider about it? In my opinion, body is just like a coat."
Zhang Tie watched Heller seriously, "Heller, your life and birth are different from me. Therefore, you don't understand how important is a human body for a human. My body belongs to myself, my parents, my wives and kids. It's closely related to my family. Perhaps you're right. But I don't want it. I only want to be a pure man, a man who could make every member of his family happy and proud instead of a powerful monster, who would scare his family members. I don't know whether I would be driven mad by such a body!"
After being silent for a while, Heller told Zhang Tie, "It would cost you too much if you want to recover the former pure human body. Even Castle of Black Iron and Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree are not all-purposeful. It follows many fixed rules and laws. If you want to reach your target, you have to spend too much!"
"What price should I pay?" Zhang Tie asked.
"You would not get any seven-strength fruit from Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree anymore!"
Zhang Tie became silent for a while. His current fighting strength benefited from seven-strength fruits to a certain degree. Seven-strength fruits were the most powerful fruits that the small tree provided him. Without seven-strength fruits, Zhang Tie knew that he would lose his biggest advantage. From then on, it would be hard to say whether he could improve his fighting strength like before.
During the process that Abyan promoted to the second form of shadow demon, he consumed the greater part of Zhang Tie's vitality granted by those seven-strength fruits. After completing the assimilation and evolution of his second form reversely, Zhang Tie even lit the remaining surging points on his spine and became a LV 9 fighter.
However, Zhang Tie's overall fighting strength was actually a bit weaker than that he had when he was in Blackhot City. The reason was that most of the energy granted by seven-strength fruits that he had eaten were consumed. His strength was not that abnormal anymore. The potential strength brought by lighting another 13 surging points could not offset the fighting strength that he had lost.
"If I knew how to light surging points after LV 9, I might have lit more surging points with the surplus energy of Abyan. What a pity!"
"Heller told me that I could not get seven-strength fruits anymore if I want my pure human body back."
"Which choice could make my parents pleasant and proud of?" Zhang Tie would ask himself this question whenever he faced a problem. He then soon got the answer. This question had become his compass of his life.
After hesitating for a second, Zhang Tie raised his head firmly, "I'd like to pay such a price, even if I could not get any seven-strength fruit anymore from then on. I have to recover my pure human body. The second form would make me lose many precious things, which was irreplaceable in this world. Although seven-strength fruits could improve my strength to the utmost, there are many ways to improve my personal strength. Those who have no seven-strength fruits could become powerful one step after another, I believe that I can also do it!"
After hearing Zhang Tie's words, Heller's eyes were filled with admiration and respect, "If so, Castle Lord, please follow me!"
Heller then led Zhang Tie to a place where they planted the flower of life, which was like a huge lotus, each bud of which was as large as a huge vat.
The flower of life covered dozens of square meters, which formed a scenery in Castle of Black Iron.
"Does flower of life have such a marvelous effect?" Zhang Tie became amazed.
"It could make each pure life seed to sprout here; of course, it could also make the life to recover to its pure seed here as well. However, the latter requires a higher price!" Heller explained as he touched a bud of the flower of life. The bud then opened. "Castle Lord, please take off your clothes and lie in there. It will take you two days to recover to your pure human body!"
Zhang Tie immediately lay in the bud of flower of life...
Chapter 526: Heller's Humor
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
After Zhang Tie laid in the flower of life, the huge bud gradually closed. Zhang Tie then felt being wrapped by pedals while an exotic fragrance drilled into Zhang Tie's nose. Zhang Tie instantly felt pure as his soul and his body seemed being split from each other.
...
Zhang Tie couldn't feel the existence of time in that state. After quivering his body all over, Zhang Tie realized that the pure state had disappeared. Zhang Tie opened his eyes and found that he was soaked in a liquid of the bud. What a strange feeling! He didn't breathe, however, he could sense that each pore on his skin was exchanging oxygen and energy with the liquid.
With a crashing sound, the bud opened while the liquid spread over the ground and disappeared instantly. All the liquid that touched Zhang Tie's skin also slid off Zhang Tie's body. Being naked, Zhang Tie also caught sight of the outside world at once.
At this moment, Zhang Tie really felt being a new born. He was pure, cool and energetic. He watched his hands, skin and his thing before letting out a deep sigh.
No tail on his body, no scale on his face, no horn on his forehead, no bat-like flesh-film wings on his back, he recovered his human body once again. In one word, "Cool!".
Although demon's body was powerful, Zhang Tie always regarded it as a worm, instead of a person. Now, he had recovered his pure human body; although losing his seven-strength fruits as a payment, Zhang Tie felt it was worthwhile.
Heller was waiting for Zhang Tie beside him with a mirror and a lot of clothes very carefully. It seemed that Heller knew what Zhang Tie was thinking about.
Zhang Tie jumped off the flower of life and put on his new clothes. After that he raised his head and exclaimed, "Ah..." for about 1 minute. After releasing all his depressive qi, Zhang Tie started to look in the mirror carefully. If there were still some scales on his face or a bulge on his forehead, he would suffer a lot.
It was still that same handsome face. There was no bulge on his forehead. Except one point, his eyes became emerald.
"Ah, why is my eyes green? Is there any remaining genes of demon?" Zhang Tie was greatly shocked.
"Demon's genes have been completely cleaned from your body. However, some of your special genes were activated when you and Abyan engulfed each other. Although demon's genes were removed, your genes could not be eliminated. You've already had the similar experience." Heller explained patiently.
"What do you mean?"
"Castle Lord has awaken another ancestral bloodline, a unique ancestral bloodline which only appeared in Chinese. Such a bloodline would be inherited to your descendants!"
"Ancestral bloodline? You mean I've awaken another ancestral bloodline?" Zhang Tie widely opened his eyes.
"Right!"
"What's its effect? To turn my eyes green?" Zhang Tie muttered inside.
"Castle Lord, you could imagine your eyes turning black!" Heller suggested.
Zhang Tie glanced at Heller before looking into mirror once again. He then silently imagined that his eyes were black. Amazingly, his eyes turned Chinese black.
Zhang Tie almost sprung up.
"Castle Lord, you could imagine that you have blonde hair like that of Peter Hamplester!"
Zhang Tie then imagined as his black hair gradually turned blonde. Additionally, his skin gradually changed its color while his eyes turned blue.
All these only took him dozens of seconds. However, the effect was the same as that of disguising medicament. Zhang Tie was so amazed about that Peter Hamplester in the mirror as he widely opened his mouth.
"What a great...great...great ability!"
"Will I be mistaken as a demon?"
"No, like how fish could swim, human could also swim. You can't say that a person who has the same ability with fish is a fish. Your ability originates from the activated human genes of you instead of the demons. Additionally, this ability is completely different than that of shadow demon. Shadow demon could completely transform into another person; however, you could only change the color of your eyes, skin and hair. Some people were born to change the color of their eyes. For instance, some albinism patients could also change the color of their eyes, hair and skin. Because they've partly manifested their human genes. Although such a manifestation is not constructive and controllable in many people's eyes, it's truly their special ability. The biggest difference between you and those people who could optionally manifest their genes is that you could control this process!"
"Ah, but why would people have such an ability?" Zhang Tie continued.
Heller blinked as he joked, "If I told you that this was just an instinct and talent of women who could make themselves beautiful without make-up in the far ancient time, would you be surprised about that?"
"This was an automatic make-up skill for women?" Zhang Tie became stunned as he watched Heller, "Heller, I've not imagined that you're that humorous!"
Heller replied with a smile as he shrugged, "I'm always humorous, but Castle Lord has not found that before. As the first person who wakes up this ancestral bloodline in this age, you can name this bloodline!"
"Let's call it Fantastic Pupils!" Zhang Tie replied after thinking for a while, "Although I've lost seven-strength fruits, I woke up an ancestral bloodline. Therefore, I can save the money for disguising medicament! That's not bad!"
"Castle Lord, as you've been focusing on that demon body these couple of days, you forgot to take a look at your reward from the small tree after killing the shadow demon. Shadow demon is the most terrifying enemy of human."
After hearing Heller's words, Zhang Tie hurriedly rushed towards the small tree...
After one minute, Zhang Tie's exciting roars drifted from that small tree...
...
One day later...
The moment Zhang Tie left Castle of Black Iron did he appear in water. Widely opening his eyes, he held his breath and watched where he was. If not Heller had told him that he would appear in water after leaving Castle of Black Iron, he might have been choked by water.
There were undercurrents in the water, which was caused by churning water. It was already deep night. However, under his dark vision, he could see everything clearly. He could see a shoal of small fish and flourish water seeds at the bottom of the water on his side. After ensuring that nobody was in water, he forcefully kicked back in the water and came to the surface of the water along with his water-proof luggage.
In the past three years, as Zhang Tie was promoted to LV 9, Castle of Black Iron further released its spacial ability. Heller built a space tunnel between this subterranean stream and the Pool of Chaos in Castle of Black Iron so that water could be constantly transported in the Pool of Chaos and bring a great amount of energy storage to Castle of Black Iron. Therefore, Castle of Black Iron could be expanded. If not being afraid of too much water loss which might lead to abnormal phenomenon here, Castle of Black Iron might have expanded many times more.
However, even now, Zhang Tie was also satisfied. Because he found another way for Castle of Black Iron to increase its basic energy storage rapidly. Later on, if he wanted to rapidly increase basic energy storage for Castle of Black Iron, he only needed to find a remote place in ocean. After entering Castle of Black Iron, he could directly open a space channel and absorb sea water in the Pool of Chaos from inside. In this way, he could increase the storage efficiency by more than 1000 times.
This made Zhang Tie comfortable more or less. Although it was a long period during which he lost many things, Zhang Tie also gained something. After recovering his human body by eliminating demon genes with the help of the flower of life, Zhang Tie found that he recovered his looks of three years ago. Three years was just like one day, which left no trace on Zhang Tie at all.
Only after a few seconds, Zhang Tie had already exposed his head out of the water. He looked around and saw nothing in the surroundings but waving reeds in the night wind.
Nothing changed in the surroundings except for the disappearance of the entire castle of Master Abyan. Instead, it became a lake. "According to Heller, my master Zhao Yuan arrived one week after I entered Castle of Black Iron. With only one strike, he erased the entire castle from this world."
Zhang Tie swam towards the lakeside. As long as he swam in the lake he could sense the terror of the man whose nickname was conversion demon. Such a terrifying strength was completely out of Zhang Tie's imagination. In front of such a strength, Zhang Tie, as a LV 9 fighter, or a fighting demon like Abyan was nothing but ants.
Zhang Tie was filled with reverence and self-mockery. It was reasonable that he didn't know what level was his master Zhao Yuan; however, although having lit 34 surging points on his spine, he was still confused about the next step. In Zhao Yuan's words, LV 9 was just a start of cultivation.
Thinking about this, Zhang Tie became more desiring about Huaiyuan Palace because his relatives, friends and the secret knowledge about the way of cultivation after LV 9 were all there.
Zhang Tie came to the lakeside and entered reeds. He then started to put on his clothes rapidly. When he fought Abyan, he dropped off his golden carp sword. Finally, the sword was covered by Abyan's bloody light and was teleported into Castle of Black Iron. Therefore, it was preserved. But the soul crystal gifted by Zhao Yuan was broken in fight.
After putting on average clothes, Zhang Tie walked out of the reeds and headed for Blackhot City.
On the way, Zhang Tie saw weed everywhere. Additionally, there were so many tombs on the hillside. Some red-eyed stray dogs were wandering in the wild. At the sight of Zhang Tie, some of them followed Zhang Tie without any fear. After Zhang Tie kicked two of them with stones, the rest ones escaped away while lowering their tails.
At the sight of all this, Zhang Tie gradually became cold inside. Although he didn't know what happened in Blackhot City, what was in front of his eyes had told him that Blackhot City had experienced a huge change.
Coming to the south gate of Blackhot City, Zhang Tie was startled by the current situation of Blackhot City. Ruined city walls and open city gate indicated that this city had encountered a catastrophe. It was broken and deserted everywhere. Nothing was on the top of the city wall. Some men were sitting at the city gate with spears. The whole city seemed having been deserted, which was sharply different than its previous boisterous scene.
Sitting in the gate entrance, they were sitting around a bonfire and roasting something. Until Zhang Tie reached the city gate did a guy who was facing Zhang Tie find him.
"Ah, someone is here..."
The moment that person exclaimed, everyone who was sitting before the bonfire turned around as they targeted their spears at Zhang Tie.
"Who're you?", a 40-odd strong guy with a ferocious look glared at Zhang Tie.
Frowning, Zhang Tie watched them. Their uniforms were irregular. Additionally, their gesture and coordination was not proper. Zhang Tie then confirmed that they were just some commoners with some strength. In another word, they were nothing but a motley crew.
"Who are you?" Zhang Tie asked them after glancing at them.
"Ah, he can speak. He's not a damn zombie!" one of them finally let out his sigh as he lowered his spear. As to that guy with a ferocious look, after glaring at Zhang Tie, he hurriedly raised his spear in a shameful way.
"Brat, answer me honestly. Who are you? Where have you come from? What are you going to do in Blackhot City?" the 40-odd guy shouted towards Zhang Tie.
Zhang Tie didn't speak; instead, he just flashed forward and instantly grabbed away that guy's spear magically. After that, he changed the direction of the spear and put the sharp end of the spear onto that 40-odd guy's throat.
Zhang Tie moved so fast that the 40-odd guy's life fell in his hand in a wink.
"It's my turn to ask you. Who are you? Where have you come from? and What's the current situation in Blackhot City?"
Chapter 527: Humans Catastrophe
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
After his spear was drawn out of his hand by Zhang Tie, this man felt his hands hot. Facing that icy spear head, he did not dare to move at all. Zhang Tie just pinched one end of the spear like pinching a walnut with two fingers while the spear was as steady as Mount Tai.
At the sight of this, even idiots would know that they met a powerhouse.
The other guys were instantly scared several steps back. Even though they were a motley crew, they knew clearly about the great difference between small figures like them and a powerhouse.
"Ah, I said, I said...we are refugees from Blackhot City. We were residents in Blackhot City. This is...is how Blackhot City look!"
The 40-odd man stammered as he didn't dare to move a bit. At the same time, he looked down at that spear head on his neck. For Zhang Tie's last question——what's the current situation of Blackhot City, he really didn't know how to answer it. This question was too ambiguous. "Isn't this the current situation of Blackhot City?"
Zhang Tie slightly frowned, "What's the date of Black Iron Calendar?"
After blinking his eyes quickly, that man replied, "It's March 3rd, 894th year of Black Iron Calendar!"
"Ah, no, it should be March 4th!" another person hurriedly added.
"Ah, right, it's March 4th. I've not seen calendar for a long time, so I couldn't remember it clearly!" that man hurriedly added.
After hearing this answer, Zhang Tie nodded inside. He had not imagined that he had stayed in Castle of Black Iron for three years. If he was outside Castle of Black Iron in the past three years, he must have made a great progress. However, he also made a great achievement after killing Abyan, although at a great price. Zhang Tie didn't know whether he won the fight or not.
"Has the holy war broken out?"
"Yes!"
"When did it break out?"
"February, 891st of Black Iron Calendar!"
"How could Blackhot City become like this?"
"After the holy war broke out, the army of zombies of Sun Dynasty surrounded here for one year!"
"Tell me what happened between Sun Dynasty and Blackhot City!" seeing their fearful looks, Zhang Tie put away his spear at once as he threw that spear back to the man. Seeing that Zhang Tie was not hostile to them, they all recovered composure. After exchanging glances with each other, they put down their weapons too.
In the following half an hour, they sat around the bonfire and told Zhang Tie what happened in the past three years.
Although Zhang Tie had long prepared to face the holy war, he was still shocked by their description. The 3rd holy war between humans and demons had spread over the Blackson Humans Corridor in only three years.
In Blackson Humans Corridor, the catastrophe of demon puppets broke out in over 30 countries and regions at the beginning and gradually spread the entire Blackson Humans Corridor.
Nobody could imagine that over 30 parent puppet worms appeared in Blackson Humans Corridor at the same time. This number had reached 1/3 of the total quantity of parent puppet worms in the 2nd holy war. It meant that demons had already mastered how to hatch and manufacture parent puppet worms. This was a catastrophe to humans.
Additionally, the new parent puppet worms had a new trait, namely they were wiser and more difficult to deal with.
Sun Dynasty which was neighboring Norman Empire was heavily stricken by puppet worms. Three major cities within the territory of Sun Dynasty broke out demon disasters at the same time. After over 6 million demon puppets spread the entire Sun Dynasty, Sun Dynasty died in three months. Over 3 million demon puppets invaded Norman Empire and arouse battle fires everywhere.
On July, 891st year of Black Iron Calendar, over 600,000 demon puppets broke Kalur, the city of machine all the way to Blackhot City. They fought Iron Horn Army for half a year. The result was that demon puppets failed to occupy Blackhot City; however, Blackhot City became deserted completely.
In this war, over half of 500,000 soldiers of Iron Horn Army decreased. Blackhot City suffered over 800,000 casualties. Until now, there were still over 50,000 demon puppets in the dim underground tunnel of Glang Iron Ore in the northwest of Blackhot City. However, the railway lines leading to the outside of Blackhot City had been completely destroyed and blocked. As a result, the iron ore could not be exploited and transported out of there, causing Blackhot City to be deserted.
In order to protect commoners from becoming soldiers of demon puppets, since May, 892nd year of Black Iron Calendar, at the order of the emperor of Norman Empire, the remaining force of Iron Horn Army and the commoners who survived the catastrophe started to evacuate from Blackhot City.
As a result, Blackhot City became a dead city. Very few people stayed in the city.
Like worldwide wars between humans before the Catastrophe, in each worldwide war, techniques, tools, cruelty and devastating efficiency towards life would be pushed to a new high level. In each war, people would forget about the experiences in the former wars, just like this holy war between humans and demons after the 2nd holy war about 200 years ago.
Demon puppets shocked people very much; the demon army that appeared in Hurricane Plateau in the west of Golan Empire since the beginning of the 3rd holy war made people despairing about the future of humans.
That was an unprecedented demon army which had not appeared in the former two holy wars. With their appearance, the four-level division that human army had carried forward for hundreds of years also became a history.
That demon army only contained less than 100,000 population, which was only about 1/6 of that of an average human army. However, the lowest level of those demon fighters was LV 9!
It was really out of people's imagination that the lowest level of the fighters of that demon army was LV 9. However, demons made it. In front of such an army, human army division became meaningless.
In front of this demon army, Golan Empire died in only two weeks. After that, this demon army constantly occupied 17 human countries in Blackson Humans Corridor like an unrivaled sharp demon blade, causing 1/4 of Blackson Humans Corridor collapse.
Terrifying demon army and raging demon disaster opened the curtain of the 3rd holy war between humans and demons. As a result, Blackson Humans Corridor was covered with battle fires and sad songs. In order to escape from the demon disaster, hundreds of millions of refugees escaped from their homes and headed for safer countries and regions. Human Alliance was consolidating the city walls and eliminating those demons in the wild.
Zhang Tie obtained this information in half an hour. This happened ten months ago. As to other big events in Blackson Humans Corridor in the past 10 months, these refugees didn't know about them anymore.
The deserted Blackhot City had been isolated from outside world for a long time.
After hearing this, Zhang Tie knew that the world had toppled over in the past three years. The 3rd holy war must be unprecedentedly miserable. Besides, demon's great strength also made many people distress.
After entering the south gate of Blackhot City, Zhang Tie walked on the open and desolate streets as he sensed a strangeness which made him restless.
The whole city was like a ghost city at night. Zhang Tie could see nobody in the streets. Both sides of the streets had been covered with weeds while the streets were filled with wastes. None of the roadside showcases were complete. Additionally, besides thick dust, there were only sundries and wastes in the stores.
Many buildings were damaged. All the apartments and residential buildings were pitch dark. Only some villas and senior mansions had looming light and noises——those refugees were indulging themselves over there.
1/3 of Black Gold Hotel was left in ruins...
The school gate of the No. 7 National Male Middle School was tightly closed. The school brand was covered with dust while nobody was inside...
The Bright Avenue seemed having experienced a terrifying riot as the avenue was filled with broken glass and various litters. The roadside walls were covered with scrawls.
The fountain outside the gate of Golden Roc Bank had withered while its two gates had been destroyed and pushed down...
Zhang Tie knew that the Blackhot City in his memory was dead.
Zhang Tie returned to his home. The door of his home was still tightly locked. When his parents left Blackhot City at the beginning, they didn't sell this house; instead, they kept it so that Zhang Tie could have a place to stay when he came back.
The lock was 10 years old, which had been lubricated with oil by his mom when they left. Zhang Tie still had a key of his home in Castle of Black Iron. No refugees would like to visit such a poor home even after Blackhot City was deserted.
Zhang Tie stood still for a short while outside the door before taking out the key and opened it, causing a "click" sound like what it usually did...
Chapter 528: Shadow Demon's Backroom
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
Besides the layer of dust on the floor and the furniture, everything else remained unchanged. The beds inside the bedrooms were even covered with bed covers which were made by his mom. Zhang Tie pulled aside the bed covers and found the bed sheets and quilts were as tidy as before.
Zhang Tie returned to that narrow attic and slept peacefully that night.
This night, lying on his familiar bed, Zhang Tie felt pretty tranquil. He was thinking about one very important question——how to go back to Jinyun Country.
At this moment, Blackhot City had become a dead city. Kalur City was collapsed in the demon disaster. Although the mysterious eastern alchemist master could prevent Norman Empire and Sun Dynasty from occupying Kalur City, in front of those demon puppets who only knew about killing, the name of the eastern alchemist master didn't work at all. Kalur's collapse meant that the traffic hub from where he could fly to Jinyun Country was paralyzed.
Therefore, it became difficult for Zhang Tie to come back to Jinyun Country.
"My message lags about 10 months. I don't know about the current situation of the Blackson Humans Corridor." However, Zhang Tie was sure that the current situation on the continent was worse than that of a year ago. That terrifying demon army could make everyone distress.
Additionally, nobody could guarantee that demons had not input new army into this battle field.
...
On the next early morning, Zhang Tie was awakened by his biological clock before 6. Since he knew that he could not obtain seven-strength fruits anymore, Zhang Tie started to cultivate himself more diligently.
Zhang Tie even started to practice 'mental arithmetic' which he had not practiced for a long time. Previously, the spiritual energy brought by practicing 'mental arithmetic' could almost be ignored compared to that of seven-strength fruits at all. However, after losing seven-strength fruits, the trivial growth of spiritual energy brought by practicing 'mental arithmetic' also became precious for Zhang Tie.
Zhang Tie didn't believe that he could not become a powerhouse without seven-strength fruits. By working hard, one could always fix his stupidity. He will never forget this proverb at any time.
After visualizing two 13-column abacuses, Zhang Tie started to make different calculations with the two abacuses.
After practicing 'mental arithmetic' for one hour, Zhang Tie felt a trivial growth of his spiritual energy. After that, Zhang Tie practiced cross movement of Iron Blood Fist in his room for another one hour. After feeling that his physical condition had reached its optimal state, Zhang Tie sat down with his legs crossed before activating a trouble-reappearance situation.
This was the trouble-reappearance situation of the latest trouble-reappearance fruit, also an unexpected achievement that Zhang Tie made after killing Abyan. Besides this trouble-reappearance fruit, the small tree also bred a wholly new fruit——the fruit of plunder. Zhang Tie could take this fruit out of Castle of Black Iron and allow others to eat it. After considering about it carefully, Zhang Tie prepared to take the new fruit back to his elder brother.
Previously, Zhang Tie thought that he could only get trouble-reappearance fruit by killing magical beasts and wild beasts. Now, he knew that he could also have a trouble-reappearance fruit by killing demons. This was the first trouble-reappearance fruit of an intelligent species that Zhang Tie obtained.
The trouble-reappearance situation brought by this trouble-reappearance fruit was very meaningful for Zhang Tie. Zhang Tie named it as Shadow Demon's Backroom.
The moment Zhang Tie appeared in the activated trouble-reappearance situation had he slid down along the smooth tunnel. In a few seconds, he came out of the tunnel and appeared in that backroom which was full of mirrors.
When he caught sight of those mirrors last time, he didn't realize it. Now, he realized that all the shadow demons were the most abnormal narcissists. This was one weird hobby of shadow demon. In the place which they think was safe, they would arrange a lot of mirrors so that they could enjoy their body which could casually transform into humans from all aspects.
This time, before Zhang Tie came for him, Abyan had already charged at Zhang Tie. With a roar, Zhang Tie also faced him with his iron-blood fist...
Only after 5 seconds, Zhang Tie had been killed by Abyan, closely after which, the trouble-reappearance situation split into light points.
This was the fastest battle since Zhang Tie had obtained trouble-reappearance fruits. This reminded Zhang Tie of the great difference between him, a LV 9 fighter and a LV 14 fighting demon.
Although it was a short fight, Zhang Tie's each movement was full of his strength and the power of his Iron Blood Fist. This was a tougher cultivation for Zhang Tie.
Not each person could have a LV 14 demon as his partner trainer.
Having not been killed like this for a long time, Zhang Tie's forehead oozed only after a few seconds. When he was killed by Abyan in the trouble-reappearance situation, his body even quivered some times.
Widely opening his eyes, Zhang Tie panted heavily. After one minute, he activated the Shadow Demon's Backroom once again. After another 5 seconds, his body quivered again as he was killed by Abyan for the second time.
The spiritual energy being used to activate the trouble-reappearance situation of Shadow Demon's Backroom was just 30% less than that required by activating the trouble-reappearance situation of that huge deep-sea monster. Zhang Tie realized the terror of Abyan.
Zhang Tie activated Shadow Demon's Backroom six times in 10 minutes, which consumed more than half of his spiritual energy. When he exited the trouble-reappearance situation for the 6th time, Zhang Tie felt his nose was wet. After touching it, he found that his nose was bleeding. Therefore, he stopped trying the 7th time.
What happened in the trouble-reappearance situation also reflected on Zhang Tie's body in terms of spiritual energy and feelings. Although it was not fatal, Zhang Tie would not bear it after being stimulated severely several times in a short period.
Before Abyan completely transformed into a shadow demon, Zhang Tie could only bear 5 seconds each time. He could stand such a physical intensity 6 times. Additionally, he could activate Shadow Demon's Backroom 10 times. Amazingly, Zhang Tie found that he could estimate his overall strength through the three data; 5 seconds referred to his fighting force, 6 times referred to the upper limit of his physical intensity that he could stand, 10 times referred to the total amount of his spiritual energy.
After thinking for several minutes quietly, Zhang Tie became spirited, "Perhaps, I could use the three data to measure my power from then on."
Like seeing a hope, Zhang Tie became spirited once again. After arranging his attic once again, he pulled back the bed cover. After that, he came downstairs and came to the courtyard to cleanse himself using the water in the well. After that, he got some food from Castle of Black Iron and ate them and drunk a bowl of all-purpose medicament. Finally, Zhang Tie left this home.
After locking the door, Zhang Tie glanced at this home which he might not see any longer in the future, he then strode towards the east gate of Blackhot City in the early dawn.
Zhang Tie decided to walk eastward no matter how dangerous it was. He remembered that the ocean was over 7000 km away in the east of Blackhot City. As long as he passed by some depopulated zones and some countries would he see the ocean. He then could swim back to Huaiyuan Palace in the fastest speed. This was the fastest way that he could choose to return to Huaiyuan palace. If he was lucky, he might have a chance to take an airship on the way there.
...
Over 100 refugees were gathering at the east city gate. At the sight of Zhang Tie striding towards them, they surrounded Zhang Tie at once.
"I was told that a sharp young man came to this city last night. That must be you. I'm really lucky to meet you here." a 30-odd assh*ole who was wearing some female necklaces over his neck and a dirty, improper high-end western uniform stopped Zhang Tie with his long sword.
Zhang Tie watched that guy calmly, "That's me. What's wrong?"
"Ha...ha...you're lucky, brat. I'm their boss. As long as you join us, you can eat and drink well in Blackhot City from then on. You can be my assistant. If you perform well, I can give you a woman as a reward when we catch some!" That guy revealed his yellow teeth and laughed loudly.
"I'm not interested in that. Please give way to me. I have to go!" Zhang Tie slightly frowned.
"Brat, you still want to go? Don't you know about the regulations in Blackhot City?"
"What regulation? Did I forget to submit entrance fee last night?" Zhang Tie replied in a cold, humorous tone.
"No crap, brat. According to the regulation in Blackhot City, all those entering the city have to join us and defend demons together with us!"
"To defend demons here? This guy really find a great reason for his deed."
"What if I disagree?"
That guy then sneered as he watched Zhang Tie confidently, "If so, you're the mole of demon, you will die here! Do not think that this father is afraid of you. This father has chopped off two demon puppets' heads."
Zhang Tie glanced at them as he smiled and waved his head, "I'm not a mole demon, neither do I want to claim your territory here with you. I don't care what you're doing here. But you'd better not stop me from leaving. Please give way to me!"
That person changed his face at once as he drew out of his long sword and shouted, "Kill..."
Before he finished his words, his head had already flown in the air with his open mouth by Zhang Tie's sword Qi. All those who prepared to swarm up stopped their steps as they watched Zhang Tie with a fearful look.
"I'm sorry, you could choose a new boss!"
Zhang Tie put back his silver-carp sword and kept moving forward. As a result, all those in front of him gave way to him hurriedly. Finally they could only see Zhang Tie off.
Soon after Zhang Tie left Blackhot City, he had started to run towards the rising sun...
Chapter 529: Men to the North
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
Zhang Tie kept running eastward, except for 6 hours of rest per day, regardless of daytime or night. When he felt thirsty, he would drink a mouthful of all-purpose medicament or water. In this way, he could run 500 km a day.
What guided him was a map of Blackson Humans Corridor and a compass.
On the map, there was a wild area which covered more than 1700 square km. In the south of the wild area was a city Indhart which was one of the 17 stars on the flag of Andaman Alliance. This city was also annexed by Norman Empire and destroyed by demon puppets just like Blackhot City. Besides this city, no more city or people could be seen in the wilderness. Therefore, it looked very desolate.
Zhang Tie's first destination was not Indhart, but a human country——the Republic of Symbian in the east of this wilderness.
The Republic of Symbian covered about 2 million square km. A small part of this country was connected to Norman Empire. This country had more than 30 cities. Its national strength was a bit weaker than that of Norman Empire; however, it was much powerful than the former Andaman Alliance.
According to Zhang Tie's plan, after passing by the Republic of Symbian, he would keep moving eastward and pass the territory of Cross Star Commerce Alliance; then, he would pass two smaller countries before reaching the seaside.
The Sun Dynasty had already collapsed in the demon disaster, which meant that the way towards southward from Blackhot City was blocked. Although Zhang Tie was promoted to LV 9 for a couple of years, he didn't think that he could safely and smoothly survive those demon-stricken areas. He was told that the most powerful armies, the Brilliant Eyes and the Brilliant Fury were demonized, causing Sun Dynasty collapse rapidly. Therefore, a LV 9 fighter was nothing in front of such a great power.
The road towards east looked less dangerous; however, it depended. Because the Republic of Symbian was only over 4000 km away from Golan Empire. 10 months ago, the demon army, which swept all the way towards south from Hurricane Plateau had already collapsed most of countries surrounding Golan Empire. The whole northeast territory of Blackson Humans Corridor had been collapsed. It was hard to say whether the demon's army had already reached the Republic of Symbian.
After running in the wilderness for three days, during that period, he killed some low-rank magical beasts and enjoyed their flesh for a couple of times. On the 4th day, Zhang Tie saw many airships in the sky, which were as dense as a horde of flies. They passed by this wilderness towards north while covering the sky.
This was the first time when Zhang Tie felt that airships could be as many as a horde of flies. All of them were large and medium-sized airships, more than 1000 in total. Zhang Tie raised his head and watched that cloud passing over him for about 10 minutes.
Watching those airships flying over him, Zhang Tie felt being shocked inside. However, he didn't stay there but kept running forward. After two hours, Zhang Tie moved another 60 km ahead. At this time, he saw another batch of about 100 war airships flying towards south.
In the next 5 hours, Zhang Tie encountered another 3 batches of war airship, the number of war airships of each batch varied from 300 to 1000. Each batch flew northward in a tidy formation.
At night, when the familiar fury-level war airships flew by Zhang Tie densely, Zhang Tie's blood almost coagulated. Zhang Tie caught sight of the symbol of cloud dragon which was special for Jinyun Country.
After thinking for a few seconds, Zhang Tie kept running towards east.
After one hour, Zhang Tie saw a railway, two smoking trains and endless contingents of people on the sides of the railway.
One contingent was all underprivileged ones, who were moving from north to south while the other contingent was all armored soldiers, who were moving from south to north. They just passed by each other.
So did the trains on the railway. One train was heading for south from north and was crowded with people. Even its top and head was covered with people. People were climbing on the train like ants. Those passers threw their admirable looks towards those on the train.
The other train was heading for north from south was filled with steam armored vehicles, steam tanks and military materials being tightly covered with green water-proof cloth.
Right in front of Zhang Tie, two trains passed by each other in converse directions with a shocking slogan on each train——Men to the North; Women to the South.
Standing on the roadside, Zhang Tie watched the soldiers walking towards north and the underprivileged ones walking towards south. Many of them glanced at Zhang Tie out of curiosity when they passed by Zhang Tie. Zhang Tie even checked himself and found nothing special, "But why do they look at me with that curious look?"
Zhang Tie didn't figure out the reason while a military officer with the rank of captain who was wearing a white armband with the symbol of gendarme walked towards Zhang Tie followed by some soldiers in solemn looks. They surrounded Zhang Tie at once.
That captain watched Zhang Tie with despised and chilly eyes, "You coward, no matter what your name is or which troop you have escaped from. You have two choices now. First, let me chop off your head right away. Second, go back to the frontier and die like a man. Make a choice!"
After hearing his words, Zhang Tie became stunned. He looked left and right and found nobody else was behind him. Therefore, he pointed at his own nose, "Are you talking to me?"
"Is there any other army deserter here?" the captain asked with a sneer.
"You might be wrong. I'm not a deserter. I am just passing by here!" Zhang Tie explained sincerely.
After hearing Zhang Tie's words, not only that captain, even those soldiers started to laugh out loudly. At the same time, their laughter was mixed with a cold sense.
"Sir, although this guy is a coward, he's humorous. We've caught so many deserters these days. But this guy's lie was the most creative!" a soldier joked as he watched the captain.
"From three years ago, all the countries in the north of Kalay Mountain Range of Blackson Humans Corridor have started the red mobilization decree. All the men ranging from 16 to 60 years old were forcefully recruited to serve the army. They had to fight on the battle field or join the reserve forces and logistics army. This place is close to the battle field of the holy war. All the men within 2000 km have to take the weapons and join the war. The frontier is converging with armies from dozens of countries of Blackson Humans Corridor. All the fighters of the Republic of Symbian had started to converge here. You're just passing by? From where? Are you here to enjoy the scenery?" Watching Zhang Tie with a cold expression, the captain revealed Zhang Tie's "lie" straightforwardly.
After hearing this, Zhang Tie became silent. The captain's words were reasonable, which Zhang Tie could not refute at all. Zhang Tie could not tell the captain about the truth. Even if he explained it to him, nobody would believe in him.
At the same time, Zhang Tie carefully observed those people moving towards south. He then found that all the men looked old and clumsy with grey hair or had kids. Zhang Tie finally realized how distinctive he was here in such casual clothes.
"If all the countries in the north of Kalay Mountain Range of Blackson Humans Corridor have started the red mobilization decree. I might have a lot of troubles if I want to pass by the Republic of Symbian and the other smaller countries on this route, which might be more troublesome than going southward from Blackhot City."
"If I went southward from Blackhot City, demon army might chop off my head. If I want to continue to pass by these countries, the commoners and army of these countries might kill me by treating me as a deserter. Do I have to return to Huaiyuan Prefecture by killing a lot of people?"
After thinking it for a short while, Zhang Tie recalled the airships from Jinyun Country. Thus, he deliberately let out a sigh like a captured deserter, "Well, I will go back to the frontier, just send me back to the encampment of Jinyun Country!"
After watching Zhang Tie seriously, that captain burst out into laughter, "You should think like that!"
...
After half an hour, that captain drove Zhang Tie to a railway station in the front. When a military train parked there, the captain told something to another military officer on the train before sending Zhang Tie into a carriage.
After a few minutes, the military train started to move. Seeing off the train, a gendarme asked that captain, "Captain, do you really want to send this coward to the encampment of Jinyun Country?"
"All those dispatched here from Jinyun Country were elites above LV 9 of the six major clans who could defeat demon army. How come such a coward be dispatched there from Jinyun Country? Do you think that I could not identify that he was lying?" that captain sneered.
"Ah, so where do you send him to, sir?"
"Such a coward deserter is most suitable to be a cannon folder in the vanguard of the battle field. If he could kill one demon puppet, his death would be meaningful!"
"What kind of people were those in that carriage?"
"They were all convicts sentenced to death from Cross Star Commerce Alliance. They had just put on the military uniforms. As long as they could survive one year in the vanguard, they could gain freedom!"
"Ah?"
...
When Zhang Tie was sent in the carriage, Lan Yunxi, a major in the military uniform was delivering an order in the flagship command module of the airship fleet while looking in the distance with a solemn look.
"We're entering the battle field, send the signal, let the fleet change to three layers. Gap, 20m. The first echelon formation releases gliders to spy on the air territory in the front. Watch out the strike of winged demons!"
During the past years, Zhang Tie became a LV 9 fighter in sleep; at the same time, the most brilliant pearl in Huaiyuan Palace also promoted to a great commander of the airship fleet. Her honor shocked the entire Blackson Humans Corridor.
Zhang Tie didn't know that when he raised his head towards the sky, Lan Yunxi was in the air territory within the reach of his eyes.
...
When Zhang Tie prepared to have a good sleep in the narrow carriage, he found the atmosphere was not right as some guys were gazing at him with malicious looks...
Chapter 530: Condemned Prisoners
Translator: WQL Editor: KLKL
The carriage was very crowded and filled with the smell of men's sweat. A lot of soldiers were casually sitting on the floor. Some were even laying on the big boxes of military materials in the carriage. Zhang Tie sat silently on some boxes which obviously contained weapons. At the sight of those malicious looks, Zhang Tie frowned slightly.
At first when he came in, Zhang found these guys were not bad. However, after a few seconds Zhang Tie felt that they were not soldiers at all.
It was a bit stuffy in the carriage. When the train set out, these guys took off their military uniforms and displayed many tattoos of ghosts and magical beasts on their bodies. Zhang Tie knew that some troops in Blackson Humans Corridor would have uniformed tattoos, which were usually symbols of honor and power in the troop. However, these guys' tattoos were very distinctive. Remarkably, they didn't have them in troops.
After a few minutes, those who were sitting beside Zhang Tie silently stood up and left. The atmosphere in the carriage gradually changed. Those people who had been chatting with each other in low voices also became quiet. They all watched Zhang Tie. At this moment, some tough guys walked towards Zhang Tie with malicious looks.
Zhang Tie simply raised his head and glanced at them, but he kept sitting and practicing his mental arithmetic. He didn't even stand up.
"Brat, I was told you are a deserter?" one guy asked loudly in front of Zhang Tie.
"No, I'm just a passer-by and people assumed I am a deserter. Coincidentally, I wanted to take a look at the frontier. Here I am!" Zhang Tie explained calmly.
"Ha...ha..." the guy burst out in laughter as if he felt Zhang Tie was telling a very funny story. "No need to disguise yourself any more. If you're not a deserter, why were you sent here together with us? All the passengers in this carriage are condemned prisoners. We're being sent to the vanguard as cannon fodder. As long as we can survive one year, we will be deemed innocent. Additionally, we can gain a new status!"
After being silent for a short while, Zhang Tie smiled and nodded his head. He hadn't imagined that the captain could use such a trick. 'It seems that it's indeed not good to be regarded as a deserter.'
"Brat. I'm now the boss of this carriage. Everybody here follows my orders. What do you want to say?" The guy watched Zhang Tie while standing in front of him.
"Hmm, you guys work hard. I hope you can survive one year!" Zhang Tie 'encouraged' them in a calm voice.
Zhang Tie didn't feel disgusted about these condemned prisoners. Zhang Tie knew that laws sometimes represented the will of the privileged upper class. Those being sentenced to death were not always evil people. Of course, it didn't mean that all the condemned prisoners were good men either. Some of them were scumbags for sure. But wherever it was, a country that could execute the death penalty on innocent people or good people would vanish rapidly. Across Blackson Humans Corridor, although the countries and regions were ruled by different regimes, most of the regimes and systems were relatively well-developed as a result of thousands of years of human experiences. Therefore, that kind of evil country basically didn't exist at all anymore.
After hearing Zhang Tie's words, that guy became silent for a few seconds. Closely after that, he became irritated as he felt as if he was made an idiot in front of Zhang Tie. He was humiliated by Zhang Tie's words.
At this moment, that guy directed a kick towards Zhang Tie's head forcefully. Given his strength, his speed and his movement, that guy was already LV 7.
Any commoner who was kicked by him would be killed or heavily wounded.
However, Zhang Tie remained unchanged. He just casually caught the man's foot and threw him onto the floor face down like smacking a fly.
At this moment, although Zhang Tie had lost the strength from the seven-strength fruits, as all the 34 surging points on his spine had been lit he had reached LV 9. His physical potential had been tapped further. As a result, his pure strength was almost like that in the underground relics of Ice and Snow Wilderness when he didn't eat the nine powerful huge-wolf seven-strength fruits. Besides, Zhang Tie's battle awareness, application of battle skills and battle qi were greater than before after being baptized by Master Abyan.
With a "Bang" sound, the entire carriage shook. Then, the carriage became silent at once.
Fresh blood slowly flowed out onto the floor from under that "boss" and tinted the floor after a short while. Face down, the man lay in his own blood and couldn't stand up any more.
Like nothing had happened, Zhang Tie continued to practice mental arithmetic against the wall so as to improve his spiritual energy as soon as possible.
The iron wheels of the train were rapidly moving on the rails, making a loud noise, "kacha, kacha". Although there was a metal iron sheet between them and the wheels, the noise was still very jarring. In contrast, nobody dared to speak in the carriage. They dared not to even breathe.
After a few minutes, a slightly hoarse voice drifted from the crowd and called out, "Michel..."
Soon after this voice sounded, a man came out of the crowd. He then carefully held and drew away that corpse. After checking the wounds seriously, he started to clean the blood stains on the floor.
After cleaning the blood stains from the floor, that guy used the corpse to set up a different scene against a wall.
After a few minutes, the guy called Michel stood up as he patted his hands, saying, "It's okay. As long as the troops don't dispatch a trace expert here, they won't find any problem. If I had some tools and materials, even trace experts could not find any problem."
At this moment, the slightly hoarse voice sounded once again, "Bohr has committed suicide. Have you seen that?"
After staying silent for two seconds, another furious voice sounded among the crowd, "After hearing that he was heading for the frontier and joining the vanguard, he became abnormal. When we fell asleep last night, he even shouted from a nightmare and woke everybody else. He even said that he didn't want to die. Peh! What a coward!"
"Yup, this guy even urged me to escape together with him. When he found no chance to escape on the way, his expression looked too bad!" another voice sounded.
"Michel, this coward committed suicide beside you just now. How did it happen!"
"We saw the coward crashing himself against the wall. We all saw it. After a loud sound, he died. I was really scared by this!"
"Yes, this guy didn't dare to even hold a machete. What a coward!"
"Right. This coward hit himself against the wall!" the rest of the people added in unison.
Right then, one guy suddenly burst out in tears. His crying was really saddening, "Why couldn't you think it through? Why didn't you think it through? We are just joining the vanguards. We even planned to celebrate with some women after we survived there!"
At the sight of this scene, Zhang Tie became stunned. 'What the hell are these people?'
A gentle man in his sixties wearing military uniform and a pair of glasses walked out of the crowd and stood in front of Zhang Tie. After bowing his body in a humble way, he almost lowered his gray-haired head below his knees. "Your excellency, I'm Hillman. It's my great pleasure to serve you!"
This man's voice was a bit hoarse. The moment Zhang Tie heard it, he knew that this old man was the very person who'd said "Michel" just now. Given his appearance, it was hard to imagine him as a condemned prisoner. If he'd been wearing another military uniform, he could look like a senior adviser. If not wearing a military uniform, he would have looked like a professor at a school or a bank manager. This guy looked a bit similar to Abyan. Zhang Tie wondered why he was here.
"Tell me, what crime have you made?" Zhang Tie watched this old guy with an interested look.
"Hmm. It...it's a small financial dispute!" the old guy replied in an implicit manner as he pushed up his glasses.
"Financial dispute?" Zhang Tie felt baffled about this term.
"A financial dispute with Cross Star Bank!" the old guy added.
"Bullshit. His nickname is old dog. He's a super liar," a voice drifted from the crowd. "He almost made Cross Star Bank bankrupt. If not for the third holy war, the Cross Star Commerce Alliance would not execute emergency air traffic control. If so, the old dog would have been invited to get off the airship and become a billionaire on another continent! I'm Figo. I'm a veterinarian. It's my pleasure to serve you, your excellency!"
'A vet? That's hilarious!' Zhang Tie smiled, "Then, what about you? Why did you become a condemned prisoner?"
Figo revealed his teeth as he looked a bit embarrassed. "Erm...I just performed some small surgeries without their consent!"
"Some small surgeries?"
"Your excellency. Figo's injections are mainly targeted at men——that is, rich and privileged men who would like to gift their inherited substances to women without their consent. When he knew of such a man, our Figo would always help that man do a small contraceptive operation so that those men would lose the necessary and basic physical channels to transmit their own DNA to the woman. Plus, our Figo didn't use anesthetic at all!" the old dog revealed Figo's secret briefly.
'F*ck!' after hearing this reply, Zhang Tie felt his legs clamp, 'What the hell are these condemned prisoners?'
Chapter 531: A Miserable Encounter
Translator: WQL Editor: KLKL
After linking the information that he got in Blackhot City to the information he was told by Hillman the old dog, Zhang Tie had a clear understanding about the current situation facing Blackson Humans Corridor.
The current situation was much more intense than that of one year ago. The demon army had started to move southwards. In the past ten months, three countries were consecutively destroyed by the demon army. In such a case, the countries of the Central States Union in Blackson Humans Corridor had to coordinate their forces so as to crack down on the demon disaster across the Corridor. Meanwhile, each country in Blackson Humans Corridor dispatched their elite force northward and cooperated with each other in case they were crushed by demons one after another.
At this moment, only some demon disasters in the southern countries were put to a stop. All the rest of the countries were filled with flames of war. A great number of refugees started to escape to the south after detouring around the demon-stricken areas. Since two years ago, those southern countries, especially Chinese countries, had started to transfer their population to the other continents at a large scale.
In such a large-scale holy war, the human population would be the major factor for humans to survive this war later on.
At this moment, the entire Selnes Plain between the north of Symbian Republic and Titanic Principality was the frontier for all the countries across Blackson Humans Corridor to defend against demons. The frightening super demon army was fighting the great army, which consisted of over 5 million people from dozens of human countries across Blackson Humans Corridor.
If the demon army broke the defense line of Selnes Plain, none of the forces across the vacant territory, from Selnes Plain all the way to the north of the Kalay Mountain Range of Blackson Humans Corridor, could defeat the demons. Half of the territory of Blackson Humans Corridor would fall.
After only three years, the casualties across Blackson Humans Corridor had already surpassed 100 million people.
After hearing this news, Zhang Tie felt hopeless. According to Zhang Tie's instincts, Selnes Plain could not be held for long. As a LV 9 fighter, Zhang Tie knew the terrifying strength of that demon army, whose basic unit was made of LV 9 fighters.
If there were no more demon disasters, with a population of 1 billion across Blackson Humans Corridor, some golden armies composed of fighters above LV 6 could be formed. When fighting on the right terrains, and being assisted by large-scale mechanical troops, these golden armies might defeat this terrifying demon army. However, many countries were throwing their resources into dealing with the demon disasters in their own territory. Therefore, it was hard to say how long the human forces could stand in Selnes Plain.
...
After killing that guy called Bohr in the carriage, Zhang Tie established his prestige in the fastest way possible and became the "boss" of the condemned prisoners in the carriage. Some smart guys immediately stood on Zhang Tie's side. At this moment, they knew clearly that they could survive longer on Zhang Tie's side. This was one of the laws of survival that these condemned prisoners had learned in prison.
Zhang Tie was invited to sit in the most comfortable place in the carriage, where it was closest to the air vent. Besides having fresh air, this place was also cleanest.
In the carriage, these cannon fodder prisoners, who were doomed to join the vanguard, could only get some water and some dried food rations. Their weapons were placed in some ordnance boxes, which could not be delivered to them until they got off the train under the supervision of someone from the troop. Right now those boxes were sealed with the symbol of Holy War Headquarters of Central States Alliance. If those seals were torn open by anyone before they got off the train, everybody in this carriage would be beheaded.
The first thing that was carried out in a war zone was military laws. Thousands of people would die everyday, everywhere. Therefore, it was easy for those law-enforcement teams to chop off the heads of some condemned prisoners. So even though those condemned prisoners were recalcitrant, they dared not risk their lives by opening the seals in advance.
However, the seals were opened. When Zhang Tie wanted to see what was inside these boxes, the guy called Michel voluntarily opened one box——Michel was a great thief and a trace expert. However, he was just a LV 5 warrior. Therefore, he tried to display his other talent in front of Zhang Tie.
The boxes contained common steel spears, which could be assembled in sections. There were also chest armors and helmets that were punched from thin, steel plates. The steel plates were only about two centimeters in thickness and very simple, which would not provide much defense. The chest armor could only defend one's breast and lower abdomen while being fixed with canvas on one's body. The helmets looked as if they could also be used as lunch boxes.
All these were the simplest of weapons and defensive fittings. Such was the special "treatment" that could be enjoyed by vanguard members in the war zone.
After Zhang Tie saw those items, Michel sealed the box like before. Zhang Tie's eyes glittered because of this guy's talent.
At midnight, the train was still running on the railway. Hillman the old dog told Zhang Tie that they had already entered the war zone. Zhang Tie didn't sleep at all. He just kept his eyes closed and practiced mental arithmetic.
Seeing that Zhang Tie was silent, all the other guys in the carriage became quiet. None of them dared to make any noise.
When the next dawn fell, after listening to the rumbles of the train wheels over night, Zhang Tie suddenly felt his heart racing as he opened his glittering eyes immediately.
"Watch out..." Zhang Tie shouted instantly, waking all the guys in the carriage at once. Many people just watched Zhang Tie with a confused look, wondering why Zhang Tie woke them up.
However, before Zhang Tie could explain, he had already heard a boom in front of the train. Closely after that, the whole carriage keeled and rolled. Zhang Tie could only just catch a metal handle beside him so as to stabilize his body...
The carriage crashed and bumped for 20 seconds due to its inertia.
The train was derailed while the whole carriage was in a mess. The wooden boxes in the carriage hit some people as they rolled around. With some terrifying bone cracks, some guys started to shrill miserably. A guy's head exploded, spraying brains in all directions.
The carriage rolled 180 degrees, its roof and floor reversed. One box with helmets had been opened, and helmets flew out everywhere. The toilet bowl in the carriage also detached itself from where it was, spraying everything out of it, making the whole carriage as bloody and smelly as hell mixed with wails.
The only one who was safe and sound in the carriage was Zhang Tie. However, even Zhang Tie could not bear such a disgusting smell and atmosphere.
The door of such a carriage with condemned prisoners was different than that of carriages with regular soldiers. In order to prevent these guys from escaping along the way, the door of this carriage was locked from outside. It could not be opened from the inside. Therefore, the moment these condemned prisoners recovered their senses, they gathered at the door and started to bang on it.
"Let us out of here, let us out of here..." Many of them started to shout at the door.
Nobody replied outside. However, Zhang Tie could faintly hear continuous, miserable wailing from outside.
"Ah...it's demons. It's demons!" someone's fearful exclamation drifted from afar.
Zhang Tie changed his expression at once as he forcefully lifted an ordnance box away from a poor guy's legs.
"Ah, thanks, thanks." The guy's face was twisted in great pain. Seeing Zhang Tie moving the box away from his legs, he burst out in tears at once.
Zhang Tie immediately tore open the box and drew a bundle of half length spears with the heads out of the box. After that, he ran to the side of the door as he shouted loudly, "Move aside..."
Those who were near the door hurriedly gave way to Zhang Tie. At this moment, Zhang Tie kicked and transformed the steel door instantly, revealing a gap from where a kitten could squeeze out. With another kick, the entire door was sent flying in the air, together with its lock catch.
The moment Zhang Tie jumped out of the carriage he caught sight of a massacre...
...
It was dawn. The long train was paralyzed on the riverside like a dead snake. Its head and last two carriages had fallen in the river. Some of the other carriages were still linked to the train, while some were not. Most of carriages had toppled over. Some armored vehicles had rolled out of the carriages and were lying on one side of the railway.
Many human fighters, who were only slightly wounded, had just climbed out of their carriages in a flurried manner when their heads and bodies were split into pieces by a black swirl...