Castle of Black Iron
Castle of Black Iron - Chapter 1963: A Long, Hard Trip

Li Yunji, the president of the Supreme Court, knew that Jinwu Palace and Iron Dragon Sect were tricky. He was stirring up hornets’ nest for someone else. After Black Face Cheng suddenly came out and turned the contradiction between the Supreme Court and Iron-Dragon Sect into that between the Supreme Court and Northeast Military Region through threat and argument, Li Yunji had left Youzhou Province by airboat for Xuanyuan Hill as fast as he could.

Given the current situation, if he didn’t subdue Cheng Honglie, he would not carry out the following plan.

He soon contacted the one who assigned him to Youzhou Province and received a decisive response——Now that Cheng Honglie is so stupid that he wants to bound himself to Jinwu Palace till death, we could only clean up the weeds to beat the rabbits. After cutting off Jinwu Palace’s wing in Northeast Military Region by controlling Cheng Honglie, we will continue to carry out plan A. By then, we will deal with Jinwu Palace easily.

When they left Youzhou Province by airboat, those imperial officers who came there with Li Yunji had already started to write memorials to impeach Cheng Honglie’s presumptuous deeds and ignorance of laws. Their memorials reached the censorate in Xuanyuan Hill earlier than their airboat through remote-sensing crystals and started to whip up public opinion in Xuanyuan Hill which served as a preparation to arrest Cheng Honglie.

Li Yunji knew that Jinwu Palace would never do anything but wait for death. Therefore, when he boarded the airboat, he instantly ordered all the local courts on the way to assign their forces to escort him and those imperial officers in case of any accident. However, he could never imagine that the accident happened so fast. When they just entered the territory of Gaozhou Province on the second day, they had met an accident.

The day had just broken. When Li Yunji was sitting on his bed and cultivating, legs crossed, he felt that the airboat suddenly decelerated. Before he asked about the reason, he had heard a loud “boom”. In an instant, he had been tossed in the air with great shock.

Thankfully, he was a shadow knight. When he was tossed in the air, he instantly floated in the air in case of hitting anything. Meanwhile, he changed his face greatly as he found that their airboat was descending rapidly.

Li Yunji rushed out of his room immediately. He then saw an imperial officer lying on the floor with a fist-sized lump on his head, who was groaning and couldn’t pick himself up anymore.

These imperial officers were not knights. Most of them were scholars. Very few of them could surpass LV 9. Therefore, as for them, the great shock felt like that their vehicle was suddenly crashed by another car on the road. Many people among them didn’t feel good about it.

“What happened…”

“What happened…”

“What happened just now…”

At this moment, all the hatch doors on both sides of the corridor were opened from inside as many imperial officers who looked untidy looked around with great panic and asked each other about it, heads bleeding.

Li Yunji ignored these imperial censors’ responses; instead, he rushed into the command module of the airboat at the greatest speed and roared, “What happened?”

“Lord! We… crashed another airboat just now!” the captain reported to Li Yuni with a gloomy look, “The main body and flight system of the airboat have already been damaged and couldn’t work anymore. The airboat is descending in emergency…”

“How could our airboat crash another airboat when we’re flying according to the regular route in the air?” Li Yunji asked him.

Airboats compiled a set of complex flight rules. To put it simply, airboats in different directions were on different altitudes. Even though airboats in the same direction complied with established avoidance and intersection rules. Therefore, airboats could barely crash in the air, less than two times per decade. However, it happened right in front of Li Yunji.

“We don’t know. Just now, we found that the airboat was flying towards us from our flank on the same altitude. It invaded our route. We sent a signal to let them avoid; however, they ignored it. When we’re going to crash them, we hurriedly decelerated to avoid them; pitifully, we still crashed them…”

Due to the visual angle in the command module, they couldn’t see the overall look of the airboat which crashed theirs. Therefore, after hearing the captain’s explanation, Li Yunji directly flew out of the airboat with some knights of local court through an exit beside the command module in fury so as to check the situation.

The two airboats were crashing above the wilderness and woods in the territory of Gaozhou Province. The airboat that crashed the airboat of the Supreme Court was also slowly descending at thousands of meters high in the air. The two airboats’ hulks were both damaged to a certain degree. The section between the middle part and the stern of the airboat of the Supreme Court was distorted and damaged. Maybe the water pipes inside the airboat had already been damaged; because water being stockpiled was flowing out of the airboat constantly.

The other airboat was also damaged and distorted from the flank to the middle at its bow. However, it didn’t look as bad as that of the Supreme Court.

At the sight of the other airboat, Li Yunji’s face instantly turned gloomy; because that airboat was not common. Given its grey color and pattern, it was a purple-cloud airboat which belonged to the military of Taixia Country. Given the mark on the airboat, it belonged to the God’s Will Army, one of the top four armies in Taixia Country.

That airboat of God’s Will Army had already parked on the ground.

Li Yunji and the powerhouses of the local court then flew over there. At that moment, the hatch door of the airboat was opened as a major of God’s Will Army in outfit walked out of there. Watching those knights flying towards him, the major didn’t look fearless at all; instead, with his hands on hips, he stood on the ground, looked up and reproached them. “Audacious! Who’re you? Which sect do you come from? How dare you block my way? How dare you disturb military affairs by damaging God’s Will Army’s airboat?”

Li Yunji was so furious that his nose was almost crooked.

“Audacious! This is Lord Li Yunji, the president of the Supreme Court. Why did you crash Lord Li’s vehicle?” A knight beside Li Yunji hurriedly condemned with fury.

“Don’t cheat me with a lord in Xuanyuan Hill. This father doesn’t know Lord Li; neither did I meet him before. Don’t think that you can pretend to be members of the Supreme Court in official uniform. Who’s Lord Li, show me your official badge!” That major urged with a fearless look.

Of course, Li Yunji would not show him the official badge as he didn’t need to argue with and prove his identity to a major of God’s Will Army. When a knight on Li Yunji’s side showed his portable ID card of the Supreme Court to the major, the major finally believed in their identities to a certain degree. Even so, he still argued verbally. “In order to prevent demons and the b*stards of Heavens-Reaching Church from launching a sneak attack towards us, yesterday God’s Will Army has already declared to carry out temporary air control in Gaozhou Province starting from this morning. We’re going to transport military materials to the frontline from Gaozhou Province. How dare the airboat of the Supreme Court ignore the military decree and break in the military control air zone? I will definitely report it to my superior. You must take responsibility for all these!”

It was a typical military tactic of using a low-quality horse to deal with a high-quality horse. Despite being one of the 9 ministers of Taixia Country, he had no right to deal with the top four armies. As for the major, it was useless for Li Yunji to kill him; instead, it would bring him big trouble. Of course, it would be beneath his dignity to quarrel with the major.

Therefore, Li Yunji’s face turned gloomy at once. Eyes beaming, he left one sentence to a knight subordinate beside him secretly. Closely after that, he turned around and returned to his airboat, leaving his subordinates to deal with it.

After returning to the airboat of the Supreme Court, Li Yunji called the captain of the airboat.

“Could it continue to fly or not?”

“Lord, it could continue to fly; however, its speed would be at most 1/10 of that before. Additionally, we’ve lost too much water. Therefore, water consumption must be fixed!”

“Can you fix it?”

“We can; but not here. At least in Class A cities. Additionally, it will take us at least half a month to fix it!”

Li Yunji clenched his teeth as he waved his hand and let the captain leave. After that, he contacted the Gaozhou Provincial Court with remote-sensing crystal and asked them to assign an airboat to take over him. However, according to the reply from Gaozhou Provincial Court, they didn’t have any airboat available for the time being. All the airboats of Gaozhou Provincial Court have been taken over for use by the Gaozhou Provincial Governor yesterday. They must coordinate with God’s Will Army to transport important military materials to the frontline. Actually, all the airboats of local courts across the Northeast Military Region had almost been taken over for use by the Headquarters of Northeast Military Region or Gaozhou Provincial Governor’s Mansion last night or this morning…

In the end, Gaozhou Provincial Court even asked Li Yunji with concern, “Lord Li, do you need us to dispatch an airship for you?’

‘Airship? Sh*t airship…’

If he really took an airship to Xuanyuan Hill from here, it would take him years; instead of days to come back.

Li Yunji smashed the desk in front of him with fury with one slap.

However, some major sects and clans in the Northeast Military Region had relationships with the Supreme Court more or less. Some major sects and clans would even present bountiful gifts to the Supreme Court in Xuanyuan Hill annually. Take Mo Clan of Fraternity Palace in Mozhou Province as an instance, Mo Clan’s machinery was delicate. Some products of Mo Clan were very suitable to the criminal hunters in local courts across Northeast Military Region. The Supreme court would purchase a lot of products from Mo Clan annually. Therefore, both parties always maintained a nice relationship.

Li Yunji had his assistant contact the Supreme Court in Xuanyuan Hill. After that, he let the Supreme Court contact Mo Clan and ask Mo Clan to dispatch an airboat here to pick him.

However, Mo Clan’s response was… no response…

After a few hours’ hard work, the Supreme Court finally found an available airboat nearby for Lord Li. However, that airboat was in Quzhou Province. Given the 40,000-odd miles distance between Quzhou Province and Gaozhou Province, it would take that airboat at least 2 days to arrive here…

As one of nine ministers in Taixia Country, Lord Li was isolated in the territory of Taixia Country. He could even barely find an airboat available.

Everyone on the airboat of the Supreme Court felt bone-chilling when they knew their predicament. Even those imperial officers didn’t clamor anymore.

Just now, Yuan Hua, the most dignified one among the imperial censors was directly tossed in the air and hit the ceiling. One of his legs was broken…

Soon after leaving Youzhou Province for one day, they had met these tricky affairs, not to mention that on the way back to Youzhou Province from Xuanyuan Hill.

…

After staying in the wilderness of Gaozhou Province for 2 days, the rescue airboat finally arrived at Li Yunji’s side from Quzhou Provincial Court.

In the 2 days, two elders of Heavens Fortune Sect also arrived at Iron-Dragon Sect with 300 knights. So did knights of Demon-Killing Valley.

On one side, it was Heavens Fortune Sect and Demon-Killing Valley; on the other side, it was Taiyi Fantasy Sect, Heavens Holding Pavilion and Qionglou Pavilion. As a result, the atmosphere in Youzhou Province became more and more intense.

…

After boarding the airboat from Quzhou Provincial Court and starting to leave for Xuanyuan Hill, Li Yunji felt a bit better. However, this good mood only lasted a few hours.

At night, when Li Yunji returned to his berth cabin and was going to bed, he discovered something beneath his pillow. He reached out his hand and took out an envelope. There was no word on the envelope. However, he could sense a letter inside it.

Li Yunji opened the envelope and took out the letter. There was only one short paragraph on the letter——

Taixia Country is troubled with demons. Even Royal Prince Chang Ying was assassinated in Jinzhou Province which was close to Xuanyuan Hill for the sake of national affairs. It’s a long trip from Youzhou Province to Xuanyuan Hill. Lord Li, as a major official in Taixia Country, take care of yourself. Bon Voyage!

Watching the simple lines, the president of the Supreme Court, also the minister of justice, slowly quivered his hands with fear…