Castle of Black Iron
Castle of Black Iron - Chapter 1994: Heroic Sacrifice

When Zhang Tie arrived at Xuanyuan hill, he found that the entire city had been covered with blood and battle flames…

The flames that rushed into the sky from Xuanyuan hill brightened the entire city. It was full of battle qi smokes and tornadoes in the night sky within 6,000 miles. The most tragic scene facing humans and Taixia Country in the 3rd holy war was undergoing.

Over one night, the country’s land sunk; the heavens and the earth were toppled over and numerous cities deteriorated into purgatories.

…

The battle planes of Zodiac Guards were hovering above Xuanyuan Hill. Those air cavalries were attacking demon knights tirelessly and desperately in vain. The inflammable bolts that were fired by battle planes left battle flames in the sky, which implied the final moments of air cavalries at the risk of their lives.

However, although inflammable bolts could threaten enemies under knights, they were absolutely as weak as toys as for demon knights.

Demon knights could pass those battle flames in the sky safe and sound. Additionally, they could shatter a battle plane and cause it to fall to the ground with a casual strike.

Even so, those air cavalries were still rushing towards those demon knights. All the air cavalries were implementing their responsibilities to safeguard the air zone of Xuanyuan Hill. Like how moths flew towards the flames, although they knew that they would die, they would still carry all before one; instead of retreating.

Those Hua knights in Xuanyuan Hill were also fighting at the risk of their own lives.

…

There were countless demon knights. Almost each Taixia knight was being besieged by many times more demon knights. As a result, Hua knights’ battle qi smokes and tornadoes were disappearing constantly.

“Go to hell…” An earth knight of Zodiac Guards penetrated through a demon knight’s heart with his long sword. Meanwhile, his body was penetrated through by two more demon knights’ palms. However, before the other two demon knights pulled out their palms, all the earth elements around the earth human knight suddenly poured out of the Elements Realm in a weird pattern. He was detonating himself. As a result, the earth human knight and the three demon knights were killed by the violent explosion and strong impact wave.

…

An airboat was hit down. The impact wave of the hundreds of meters long airboat instantly crushed half of a small town outside Xuanyuan Hill where flames were springing up to the heaven…

…

Many teams of demon knights were flying in Xuanyuan Hill and attacking savagely. None of the high-rise buildings across Xuanyuan hill were complete. It was filled with battle flames, collapsed bildings and rumblings of demon knights’ battle qi. Millions of Hua people in Xuanyuan Hill were being slaughtered by demons wantonly, regardless of gender and age.

The No. 1 human city had already become the purgatory.

…

Zhang Tie had already killed over 1,000 demons at the bank of Weishui River, Gobbling Province all the way to Xuanyuan Hill. What he saw on the way almost caused his eye corners to crack with fury——The entire Gobbling Province had been in ruins. At least 1 million demon knights were ravaging in Taixia Country. At this moment, demon knights fully displayed their evil nature; despite being knights…

Boom, Zhang Tie shattered a heavenly demon knight into pieces with one punch. It was full of invisible sword winds in the nihility within tens of thousands of meters. All the demon knights approaching this region would be shattered. Zhang Tie darted straight to the air zone of Emperor Xuanyuan’s royal city in Xuanyuan Hill.

The no-fly zone above Xuanyuan Hill had long been invalid. The entire city was in a mess and was filled with cries and screams. The Goldenwater river had already turned red. All the Zodiac bridges cross Goldenwater River had been broken. When those people escaped to the bank of Goldenwater River, they were slaughtered by demon knights batch after batch, causing blood and flesh to fly in all directions and filling the Goldenwater River with incomplete corpses and limbs…

Zhang Tie punched all the demon knights on his way into a blood mist and rushed straight towards Xuanyuan Emperor’s royal palace.

The former brilliant royal palace had long become ruins. Additionally, a 10,000 m deeper pit appeared on the ground of the royal palace. Far-ancient morality stele was floating in the air above the royal palace. Hundreds even thousands of demon knights were pouring out of the far-ancient morality stele and rushing towards all directions in an overwhelming manner.

At the entrance of the hole of the far-ancient morality stele, a heart was jumping in the nihility while giving out red light. Meanwhile, wisps of black qi were coming out of the far-ancient morality stele and injecting into that heart. The heart’s red light gradually became stronger and jumped at a greater frequency. Additionally, other organs started to grow out around the heart.

Whenever the heart beat, it was like beating a huge drum throbbing in the sky, causing the entire ground across the royal palace to rock.

Zhang Tie didn’t know what was that heart. However, at the sight of it from afar, Zhang Tie had sensed the terrifying qi on that heart.

Meng Shidao, who was already a half-human and half-demon, was standing in the sky above the royal palace and calmly watching Zhang Tie who was rushing towards him, a brilliant rare sword in hand.

When Zhang Tie killed thousands of demon knights and in an overwhelming way and arrived at 20,000 m away from the royal palace, Meng Shidao instantly slashed towards Zhang Tie with his brilliant long sword.

The long sword didn’t carry any sword qi; neither was it sharp. However, when Meng Shidao launched a strike, Zhang Tie instantly felt a terrifying sword qi coming to his side.

It was not a usual sword qi. When it appeared, Zhang Tie immediately felt a fatal threat.

Even though Zhang Tie was capable, he was unable to avoid it at this moment. In an emergency, Zhang Tie roared as Infinite Immortal Prison instantly appeared in his hand. Almost at the same time, Zhang Tie brandished his huge ‘stick’ towards the sword qi…

Bang…

The sky was full of rumblings. Closely after that, the violent sword qi crushed all the streets and buildings within 60 square miles. Some sword qi absolutely ignored Zhang Tie’s protective battle qi. After penetrating through his protective qi, they instantly left dozens of fine wounds on his skin. One wound was even on his face. Additionally, Zhang Tie was sent flying over 1,000 m away before coming to a stop. In an instant, Zhang Tie’s face turned gloomy.

This slash could even kill an immortal emperor.

Anyone else would have been split up by the slash.

Meng Shidao’s power had already been greater than any other immortal emperors that Zhang Tie had ever met in Motian Realm. What was more terrifying was his sword.

After sending Zhang Tie flying away with one slash, Meng Shidao took an appreciative look at that long sword. After that, he flicked the blade of the sword and said with a smile, “What an immortal item in the royal household. This Xuanyuan Sword is indeed powerful. If those who cultivate Xuanyuan God Sutra use it, they could at least release 5 times greater power…”

Zhang Tie was sure that Meng Shidao was not a demon; however, given his look, Zhang Tie knew that Meng Shidao had been demonized. Like that Zhang Tie absorbed the energy of a shadow demon by a mistake and turned into a shadow demon, a human could also be demonized after absorbing the energy of a powerful demon. According to Zhang Tie’s conjecture, Meng Shidao was demonized by the far-ancient morality stele behind him.

Watching the hole in the middle of the far-ancient morality stele where demon knights were pouring out like a flood and flying towards all directions and that heart which was gradually growing out of a terrifying demon’s body with the injection of black qi, Zhang Tie closed his eyes. After a short while, he opened his eyes calmly.

“You’ve already been a premier and have supreme power, being close to Emperor Xuanyuan, why do you do this?”

“Premier? So what?” Meng Shidao watched Zhang Tie, as calm as he was in the Nine Heavens Palace. If not that his face was covered with black scales and looked a bit terrifying, Meng Shidao was still decent and handsome. “Even though a premier must follow a person’s order and look up at someone else. Even though I could promote to a sage-level knight, when I reach the end of my longevity, I would also turn into white bones and die. Now that others could stand at the peak of humans, couldn’t I, Meng Shidao, do that too? Now that there’s a way of being immortal, why not pursue it?”

“Therefore, you’re willing to join demons and destroy the whole country?”

“As for me, there’re only two kinds of power, strong and weak. Power couldn’t be divided into righteousness and evil. The heaven is not merciful; it just takes everything as a lifeless sacrifice; sages are not merciful; they just take civilians as nothing. In this world, what millions died might Caesar be great? Now that the hundreds of millions of people could do that for someone else, why not they do it for me?” Meng Shidao watched Zhang Tie as he continued with a smile, “Take you as an example, you’ve made remarkable meritorious deeds to humans. Nobody could match you on that. However, even though you’re the regent of Taixia Country and are faithful to the royal households, the royal households of Taixia Country also stay alert about you. Did anyone of the royal households tell you anything about the immortal item Xuanyuan Sword and those secrets about Xuanyuan Sword which are hidden in the royal palace? Have they ever shown it to you? Did anyone tell you that the Xuanyuan God Sutra was with Xuanyuan Sword? Can you guarantee that those royal princes might not deal with you with Xuanyuan Sword one day? Maybe when someone among them promotes to a sage-level knight with Xuanyuan God Sutra, the royal households would deal with you. If you say demons should be killed, all the humans should be killed too because everyone had a demon in their heart…”

“Where’s Xuanyuan Zhu?”

“He’s dead!” Meng Shidao answered straightforwardly, “Your daughter wanted to block me; therefore, she was killed too. After this catastrophe, all the humans in the future would take me as their ancestor and emperor. But now all of you must die…”

After hearing Meng Shidao’s words, Zhang Tie closed his eyes as bloody tears rolled down his eye corners.

Before the two drops of bloody tears dropped off his face, Zhang Tie had poked his fingers into his eyes and dug out his eyes. After that, two daggers appeared in his hand. Zhang Tie then stabbed them into his ears. After making himself deaf, Zhang Tie pricked two daggers into his heart and lower abdomen respectively…

Zhang Tie was bloody all over from foot to head…

Meanwhile, a light&shade of battle god Xing Tian who was taller and more powerful than that before appeared behind Zhang Tie; many substitute runes flew out of Zhang Tie’s central forehead——one…two…three…seven…eight…nine…

Nine substitute runes flew out of Zhang Tie’s central forehead.

It was Zhang Tie’s most powerful trump card that he had never exposed to the public. At this moment, Zhang Tie exposed them all without demur.

A matrix and nine substitutes roared at the same time.

“Go to hell…”

A few substitutes rushed towards Meng Shidao; the rest substitutes were responsible for killing those demon knights. His matrix rushed towards that heart which was jumping in the middle of the far-ancient morality stele, Infinite Immortal Prison in hand.

In an instant, the entire Xuanyuan Hill was experiencing drastic changes within 6,000 miles.

All the substitutes of Zhang Tie’s manifested their virtual images of king roc at the same time.

In an instant, the exit of the hole in the middle of far-ancient morality stele was filled with black fog. A pair of familiar, terrifying and huge scarlet eyes with golden pupils appeared in the black fog and stared at Zhang Tie. Closely after that, the entire far-ancient morality stele flew towards Zhang Tie’s matrix in an overwhelming manner like Mount Tai…

Zhang Tie’s matrix instantly darted towards the far-ancient morality stele without any fear, leaving a streak of light and a flame.

Bang…

The heavens and the earth rocked at the same time. The land cracked as the entire royal city in Xuanyuan Hill disappeared.

In this collision, the far-ancient morality stele just rocked once; however, the small frame of Zhang Tie’s matrix was hit into the crust of earth immediately. However, in the blink of an eye, a streak of light and a huge pagoda rushed out of the crust towards the overwhelming far-ancient morality stele again like an undying bird…

The far-ancient morality stele hit that streak of light again…

In the collisions, a pathetic song drifted out of that streak of light…

Spikes in hand, soldiers in rhino hide fought with sabers and swords on chariots.

Flags blotting out the sun; enemies were like dark clouds; bolts clashed, brave fighters fought in the frontline bravely.

Enemies are encroaching our battlefield and treading on our troops; the horse on the left of the chariot died; the horse on the right was hurt.

The two wheels were buried; the four horses were trapped. Jade hammers in hand, we beat battle drums.

The heaven became dark; the deities were driven mad. Die! Die! Your corpses spread over the wild.

After launching a punitive expedition, you don’t come back. You keep marching on! The plain was vast in the long way.

Brandishing Long swords; opening powerful bolts, we never change our mind until death.

You’re always brave; you’re always aggressive; you’re always strong-willed. No one could violate the country.

You die; however, your spirits remain forever! Your souls are the heroes!

In the last sonorous line, that streak of light became extremely strong and brightly lit the entire city as Zhang Tie rushed towards the far-ancient morality stele for the last time.

Bang…

That streak of light dispersed in the night sky like a meteor or firefly. Meanwhile, all the rest substitutes broke apart…

Watching that streak of light disappear, a thunder hawk which had just arrived at Xuanyuan Hill in terms of a golden streak of light looked up at the sky and wailed like how the cuckoo dripped off blood through its mouth 1 . Closely after that, it rushed towards the mountain-like far-ancient morality stele and dispersed in terms of light…