Castle of Black Iron
Castle of Black Iron - Chapter 1789: The Mind Test

Thieves always had a guilty conscience. It was a truth that lasted for an eternity.

Before Zhang Tie became a knight, even before he became a real fighter, he had heard a story from his mother which was popular among Hua people for long. It was about how an ancient Hua official painted ink on the deity’s image so as to catch a thief. Despite being simple, that story had been widely spread among Hua people.

In a dark room, an official painted the deity’s image with ink. After that, he told a lot of suspects that the deity image was pretty effective. As long as the suspects entered the room one after another and put their hands on the deity’s image, that deity’s image would tell him which one was the real thief.

Those innocent ones would put their hands on the deity’s image without any concern. By contrast, the one who was guilty dared not put his hand on the deity’s image in fear that the deity’s image knew his secret. Finally, the official called everyone out and let them open their hands in front of him. The one whose hands had no ink was the thief for sure.

Of course, the so-called Dragon Emperor Liquid didn’t go against Heavenly Soul Incense. Zhang Tie was telling a lie. However, the others didn’t know about that. Nor did they know that Zhang Tie had been considering long for this arrangement.

Zhang Tie had already had people produce Dragon Emperor Medicament before Dark Emperor Immortal Palace was exposed to the public. After paying a visit to the whole production process of Dragon Emperor Medicament, all the elders and presidents of Dragon Emperor Immortal Palace had already deeply believed in the effect of Dragon Emperor Liquid. The moles of Dark Emperor Immortal Palace would never imagine that Zhang Tie especially fabricated “Dragon Emperor Liquid” for unveiling them. Due to the large span of the logical relationship between time, place, figures and events, very few people could associate with these factors.

Those under the control of Golden-Soul Rune Virus must have smelt Heavenly Soul Incense, which was the necessity for Golden-Soul Rune Virus to recognize their owners.

Common lackeys and average immortal generals of Dark Emperor Immortal Palace might not know the relationship between Heavenly Soul Incense and Golden-Soul Rune Virus. However, all the 7 elders of Dragon Emperor Immortal Palace were semi-sage level knights. If some of them were really lackeys of Dark Emperor Immortal Palace, they must serve as the same position as Qian Changqing in Dark Emperor Immortal Palace. If His Majesty wanted to control Dragon Emperor Immortal Palace through some of them, the moles must have used Golden-Soul Rune Virus to control his subordinates and expand his influence in Dragon Emperor Immortal Palace.

As for Dark Emperor Immortal Palace, Dragon Emperor Immortal Palace must be more important than Yin-Yang Sect. Now that Qian Changqing the grand justice of Cyan Dragon Palace could acquire Golden-Soul Rune Virus to control the members of Yin-Yang Sect, undoubtedly, the moles of Dark Emperor Immortal Palace in Dragon Emperor Immortal Palace could also acquire more Golden-Soul Rune Virus.

Therefore, the moles must know what was Heavenly Soul Incense and that they had smelt Heavenly Soul Incense.

On this occasion, the moles didn’t have enough time to consider Zhang Tie’s intention watching the others drinking “Dragon Emperor Liquid”. What would you do if you were the mole of Dark Emperor Immortal Palace?

The answer was——pretend to drink it!

When “Dragon Emperor Liquid” entered his mouth, he wrapped it using his battle qi and sent it into his intestines and stomach as if he had already drunk it. However, he didn’t absorb even a drop of it in case of leaking the fact that he had touched Heavenly Soul Incense. As long as he could leave here, he would spit it out, take a pee or whatever else.

As for an immortal general, it was not difficult to make it at all.

However, those people didn’t know that Zhang Tie could clearly see the entire process by his lotus flower eyes. Additionally, Zhang Tie could even absolutely sense the situation of Dragon Emperor Liquid in their bodies as it contained the yeast liquid that had mutated for the second time.

Zhang Tie had planned the details of each step. Zhang Tie intended to discover the moles of Dark Emperor Immortal Palace by this trap. It was a mental test on humanity. Nobody else could escape.

In the room, after drinking up one glass of Dragon Emperor Liquid, Zhang Tie watched the rest of the people with a smile.

Their responses were within Zhang Tie’s expectation in a split second. Soon after they drank up a glass of Dragon Emperor Liquid, their real identities had been exposed to Zhang Tie.

Luo Yunshang, Hou Moyuan, Wang Laisheng, Long Jiutian and Ying Gucheng frankly drank up their glass of Dragon Emperor Liquid. The other two instantly wrapped Dragon Emperor Liquid with battle qi the moment it entered their mouth. Closely after that, they let Dragon Emperor Liquid slide into their stomach. They were Xia Yangming and Shi Zhongyu.

After finding the moles, Zhang Tie immediately understood the layout of that “His Majesty”. ‘Xia Yangming ruled Supervision Department of Dragon Emperor Immortal Palace; Shi Zhongyu ruled Immortal Generals Department. After subduing the two key figures, it was equal to getting the two major departments of Dragon Emperor Immortal Palace indirectly. Given the rights of Supervision Department and Immortal Generals Department, the greater part of Dragon Emperor Immortal Palace would be under control of Dark Emperor Immortal Palace. By contrast, Earth-Treasures Department, Heavenly Craftsmanship Department and Military Department were not as important as the two major departments.’

‘Additionally, Xia Yangming and Shi Zhongyu are the most powerful ones among the 7 elders, who might promote to sage-level knights earlier than the others. Only Long Jiutian and Ying Gucheng could reluctantly fight them. If I didn’t come here, according to the appointment among the 7 elders that the one who could promote to a sage-level knight first would rule Dragon Emperor Immortal Palace, the two people would probably control Dragon Emperor Immortal Palace. If that His Majesty gave them a bit favor, Dragon Emperor Immortal Palace would become the host of Dark Emperor Immortal Palace unconsciously. ‘

What a good plan! What a good plan!

Accordingly, Tang Shenghou the one who was recommended to be the new president of Immortal Generals Department by Shi Zhongyu and Huo Xianlai the one who was recommended to be the new president of Supervision Department by Xia Yangming also used the same means——they just pretended to drink up Dragon Emperor Liquid. This proved Zhang Tie’s judgment.

As Zhang Tie paid special attention to the actions of the elders, Zhang Tie even found that Xia Yangming and Shi Zhongyu exchanged a glance with each other secretly before drinking up Dragon Emperor Liquid. Additionally, Xia Yangming even warned Huo Xianlai secretly——Don’t drink it!

Such a secret voice-transmission skill was nothing different than shouting loudly in front of Zhang Tie. ‘F*ck, he’s too blatant!’

In a split second, Zhang Tie had identified the enemies.

Therefore, Zhang Tie revealed a bigger smile.

After drinking up Dragon Emperor Liquid, the elders had different thoughts and looks.

“Your Majesty, it’s not proper for us to produce Dragon Emperor Medicament only in Cloudriver Valley. As long as something happens here, we have to stop production. It’s too dangerous for us to put all the eggs in one basket!” Luo Yunshang said as she watched Zhang Tie with a serious look, “Many places within 60 miles around Dragon Emperor City are similar to Cloudriver Valley in environment and topography. As long as we renovate those places slightly, we would make them alternative production bases of Dragon Emperor Medicament. Even if something happens here, we won’t become flurried!”

“Good idea. Elder Luo is right!” Wang Laisheng, Long Jiutian and Ying Gucheng nodded as they replied in unison.

“I also think so!” Zhang Tie nodded. Closely after that, he looked at Guan Mingjun and the president of Heavenly Craftsmanship, saying, “You two and Yukun will be responsible for this. Will Earth-Treasures Department complain of being hard up this time?”

“If you need money or element crystals for producing Dragon Emperor Medicament, you could get as much as possible!” President Guan who usually complained of being hard up in front of Zhang Tie finally became generous this time.

Zhang Tie burst into laughter…

“Now that Dragon Emperor Liquid is the key of Dragon Emperor Medicament, we have to keep a close eye on it. But I’m afraid that we will run out of Dragon Emperor Liquid soon. What will we do then?” Xia Yangming said seriously too.

“Hmm, Elder Xia’s concern is plausible…” Shi Zhongyu nodded on one side.

Zhang Tie might think that the two elders were concerned about Dragon Emperor Immortal Palace if it were before. However, after identifying their real identities, Zhang Tie realized that they were just checking out the origin of Dragon Emperor Liquid. As long as they knew the origin of Dragon Emperor Liquid, of course, they could get Dragon Emperor Medicament as much as possible.

“Hmm, as the old man gave Dragon Emperor Liquid to me, I’m afraid that only the old man knows the details of Dragon Emperor Liquid. I’ve got some inventory, but not too much. After using it up, I will contact the old man and ask for some more Dragon Emperor Liquid from him!” Zhang Tie fabricated as he attributed Dragon Emperor Liquid to the old man. He didn’t want to be the target for all in Motian Realm.

After hearing Zhang Tie’s words, Xia Yangming and Shi Zhongyu exchanged a glance with each other as they remained silent.

“Have you prepared the 50,000 vials of Dragon Emperor Medicament?” Zhang Tie asked Hong Yukun.

“Yes, I have!”

“Elders and presidents, please come with me to enjoy the drill of Dragon Teeth Army. By the way, we will gift some Dragon Emperor Medicament to them. I’ve not watched the drill of Dragon Teeth Army since it was founded, choosing a day is not as good as hitting a day. Let’s do it today…” Zhang Tie waved his hand as he confirmed the next itinerary.

As Dragon Teeth Army’s camp was in Dragon Emperor City not far away from here and it was reasonable for them to follow Zhang Tie’s arrangement, none of the elders and presidents had any objection…