Castle of Black Iron

“Besides element crystals, I’ve got many silver secret items and rarities from Earth Elements Realm…” Sagus’ voice drifted from afar.

“Silver secret items and rarities from Earth Elements Realm?” Zhang Tie asked after a “disguised” consideration, “Sure, but, I want at least 100 pieces of silver secret items for fighting a shadow demon knight in its 9 change realm!”

100 pieces of silver secret items? Were silver secret items as cheap as white cabbages? Of course, Sagus was not an idiot. Silver secret items were different than element crystals. Although element crystals were precious and humans didn’t have as many as mines of element crystals as demons, human knights could still maintain a balance between its supply and demand. In order to get element crystals, more human knights could be summoned to explore mines in the Earth Elements Realm which would strengthen human knights’ strength in the Earth Elements Realm. Hungry mutated beasts were most dangerous. So were hungry human knights. One major reason that Sagus agreed to give so many element crystals to Zhang Tie was that he knew that those element crystals couldn’t be converted into battle strength right away even if Zhang Tie got them. Element crystal was not the only factor to become a knight. Additionally, a knight had limited demand for element crystals in total and only needed to refine limited element crystals within a period. By contrast, silver secret items, as long as they fell into the hands of human knights would greatly improve human knights’ battle strength immediately. On the battlefield, the behavior of gifting silver secret items to the enemy was nothing different than propping up the enemy.

Therefore, Sagus directly vetoed Zhang Tie’s proposal.

“100 pieces of silver secret items is too many, I could at most give you 5; plus some rarities from Earth Elements Realm as a compensation…”

In the eyes of outsiders, it was more or less a bit preposterous for a human knight to bargain with a sage-level demon knight on the battlefield for the “compensation” of the fight for honor. However, nobody tittered; because everyone understood what such an exchange meant——the prelude of a life or death combat between two powerful knights which would end at the price of one’s life.

When Zhang Tie bargained with Sagus, those knights in the air above Xuanyuan Fortress didn’t feel hilarious at all; instead, they turned intense inside.

Many knights thought that Zhang Tie should stop it. As the shadow demon knight in its 9 change realm would soon promote to a heavenly knight, its battle strength could not be matched by those in their 3 change realm or 6 change realm. Even though Zhang Tie’s sword power skyrocketed by two times after Zhang Tie awakened his unrivaled double-sword bloodline, he could still barely win the third round.

“Commander-in-chief…” Ye Qingcheng couldn’t help but open his mouth on Zuoqiu Mingyue’s side as he wanted Zuoqiu Mingyue to stop Zhang Tie from continuing. Because it was a rare chance for Zhang Tie to win the 3rd round. Ye Qingcheng was afraid that Zhang Tie had lost his mind by the great prestige after constant victories.

Zuoqiu Mingyue slightly raised his hand as he replied calmly, “Wait…”

After hearing Zuoqiu Mingyue’s reply, all the heavenly human knights beside him exchanged glances with each other as they became quiet. Ning Taisheng’s mouth corners raised slightly as he squinted at Zhang Tie from afar. His eyelight kept changing that nobody knew what he was thinking about. As for Zuoqiu Mingyue, he had got a great question in mind although the former two battles aroused his concern. Even though he knew Zhang Tie, he could still sense Zhang Tie’s abnormal performance today. He knew that Zhang Tie was definitely not interested in worldly objects such as element crystals and silver secret items. ‘Zhang Tie might have his own plan.’ Zuoqiu Mingyue muttered.

“5 pieces of silver secret items?” Zhang Tie replied with a sneer. Even though he found that Sagus had already fallen into his trap, he still couldn’t reveal his jubilant mood; instead, he should pretend to behave in a more alert and meticulous way, “Do you think I’m slow-witted or what? How about giving you 10 pieces of silver secret items for a duel between a shadow demon knight in its 9 change realm and a heavenly human knight?”

“Besides 5 pieces of silver secret items, you will have 100 tons of abyss iron, 100 tons of mithril, 100 tons of dark crystals, 100 tons of air floating gold, 100 tons of eternal stones, 1 ton of dragon-scale gemstones, 1 ton of colorful gemstones, 100 dragon-soul grasses, 100 fruits of cross-world flowers…” Sagus added calmly in an alluring tone, “Do you know cross-world flower’s fruit? It’s even more precious than silver secret items for humans. After taking one cross-world flower’s fruit, a human woman would remain young forever. What do you feel?”

Abyss iron, mithril, dark crystal and air floating gold were all extremely precious materials for making instruments and weapons. Air floating gold was the key material for making airboat. In Taixia Country, a provincial governor’s airboat would consume fewer than 5 tons of air floating gold; eternal stones, dragon-scale gemstones and colorful gemstones were all top-notch hermetic materials; dragon-soul grass could extend one’s life expectancy and be used to make precious medicaments; cross-world flower’s fruit was pursued by all the women out of their mind. The latter two items were both world-renowned specalties in the underground world.

Before Zhang Tie replied, those knights in Xuanyuan Fortress had been drooling as they panted; especially those female knights who even wished that they could fight the shadow demon knight in its 9 change realm on behalf of Zhang Tie.

“Commander-in-chief. His Majesty is looking for cross-world flower’s fruits everywhere for his wives. There’re only 3 cross-world flower’s fruits and too few dragon-soul grasses in the imperial warehouse. All the dignitaries in the imperial palace are hankering for them. If Zhang Tie agrees, hopefully, commander-in-chief could persuade him to sell some of them to His Majesty…” Ning Taisheng told Zuoqiu Mingyue through secret means as his eyes flickered.

“Even if Zhang Tie agrees, as he gets these items at the risk of his life, he’s entitled to make decisions himself. If Elder Ning has a demand, you could negotiate it with Zhang Tie. If Zhang Tie fought to death, I will hand these compensations to his family members completely. If anyone dare grab and plunder them by cajolery and coersion, you would be my enemy as you trample on the cordial hearts of the whopping population of Taixia Country, whether knights or common soldiers, and I will kill you…” Zuoqiu Mingyue replied as he threw a distant glance at Ning Taisheng.

Ning Taisheng’s face turned stiff as he forced a smile silently.

Zhang Tie didn’t pay heed to air floating gold and dragon-scale gemstones; however, when Sagus mentioned dragon-soul grasses and cross-world flowers’ fruits, Zhang Tie had already given concession to it from inside. ‘I could give dragon-soul grasses to my parents; as for the cross-world flowers’ fruits, they could be saved for my wives.’

Sagus believed that these items couldn’t improve knights’ battle strength in a short period. Actually, many among them were not useful for knights. Of course, it could pay them without demur; especially the fruits of cross-world flowers, which might be precious for humans though, but were almost useless for demons. Could it be useful for increasing odds of winning in battle, increasing one’s battle strength or edible by having females remain young forever? Of course not. What demons could understand least was human females attention to their own looks. Actually, Sagus prepared these cross-world flowers’ fruits for “human traitors” instead of their own kind…

“I could accept them but the 5 pieces of silver secret items are too few, how about 10…” Zhang Tie still pretended to be hesitant although he had already agreed inside. If he could get some more from demons, of course, he would not let go such a rare chance.

“Only 5!” Sagus insisted.

“If so, I’ve got a request. One of the 5 silver secret items should be heavy…’

“The heavy the better?”

“Yes, I found I have no proper weapon. I need a heavy weapon. If you couldn’t meet this requirement, let’s call it an end then…”

Sagus threw a glance at the Dragon Devouring in Zhang Tie’s hand as it flickered its eyes under the mask. After that, a silver secret item appeared in his hand.

It was the true object of a silver secret item in its hand—a dozens of meters high golden ape. Even though being over 60 miles away, Zhang Tie could still feel the strong waves of earth element and water element on the huge ape.

The huge ape thumped its chest and roared in Sagus’ hand as it wanted to escape away from Sagus’ grasp, but how could a silver secret item get out of the control of a sage-level knight? As Sagus ran its spiritual energy, the golden ape gradually turned into a huge metal rod which gave out golden light. The flowing runes over the metal stick gave out subtle light like ripples, amid which was the virtual image of a golden huge ape. The two ends of the rod were a bit thicker than that in the middle. Being shrouded in a bizarre dragon-shaped grain, it was full of exotically aesthetic feeling.

“I gained this silver secret item from the Earth Elements Realm. It weighs 18.8 tons. For now, I’ve not found the proper person to use it among demon knights…”

Demon knights didn’t like sticks as it lacked lethality. Additionally, this silver secret item was so heavy that average black iron knights, earth knights, even shadow knights couldn’t play with it. As for heavenly knights, as each heavenly knight had already formed their own battle style and used to their own secret sauces, they would not pick a strange, heavy weapon which didn’t seem to have a great lethality. Therefore, nobody had taken this silver secret item away from Sagus; even Sagus itself didn’t use it.

Zhang Tie was using a sword; additionally, he had just awakened a powerful ancestral bloodline concerning the sword. Of course, it was not benevolent for Sagus to give Zhang Tie such a silver secret item.

As for a knight who had a deep cultivation base in some weapon, if Zhang Tie changed an improper weapon at this time; especially a weapon that couldn’t be used by commoners, it was usually not good for him.

Rod was barely used even in Taixia Country. Among over 100,000 human knights around Xuanyuan Fortress, nobody used rod as a weapon. As for most knights, rod didn’t have a great lethality. Its lethality could be imagined when a commoner fought the other ‘rod-holding’ commoner by sword or saber. In addition, people who used such a weapon looked like an idiot. Moreover, there were only a few battle skills of rods, most of them were low-level. By contrast, spikes were better. Besides carrying the feature of rod, spear also had a great lethality and more battle skills. Therefore, fewer than 1 out of 10,000 knights would use rod.

Sagus thought that he had set a trap for Zhang Tie; however, he didn’t know that Zhang Tie’s heart had been racing as he felt thirsty when he caught sight of this silver secret item. Zhang Tie himself had not imagined that his casual words could bring him such a great weapon.

On the surface, he was still not anxious; instead, after being hesitant for a few seconds, he gritted his teeth as he determined to tell Sagus, “Well, that’s the deal…”

…

Sagus assigned an shadow iron-armored demon knight who was in its 9 change realm. Like how the former two demon knights did, when this one was 1,000 m away from Zhang Tie, it threw a piece of space-teleportation equipment which contained those items to Zhang Tie. After catching it and checking those items inside it, Zhang Tie gave it to the shadow human knight assigned by Zuoqiu Mingyue.

The shadow human knight gave the space-teleportation equipment to Zuoqiu Mingyue. After taking it, Zuoqiu Mingyue looked inside; however, he didn’t see the silver secret item of the golden huge ape.

‘What does this mean?’

Zuoqiu Mingyue’s heart pounded as he looked at Zhang Tie with sparkling eye light…

…

When Zuoqiu Mingyue took that space-teleportation equipment, the battle had already broken out…

The shadow iron-armored demon knight’s morale was so high that the moment it launched a strike, its earth-shaking battle qi had broken the void and flown towards Zhang Tie like a surging flood from all directions as if it was going to shatter Zhang Tie in a split second…

Zhang Tie kept flying backward at a high speed as his “shield” swam and roared around him to withstand the demon knight’s strike.

Under the gaze of over 200,000 knights, Zhang Tie spared his right hand. Closely after that, a water-element crystal appeared in his right hand…

‘Is he absorbing element crystals…’ All the onlookers raised their eyebrows…