Castle of Black Iron

In order to prevent demons from arousing catastrophe in Taixia Country with puppet worms, strictest food and water source control measures and selective examination about the physical health of ma.s.s personnel had been carried out in each household, each town, each city, each prefecture, each province, even each military region across Taixia Country 3 years ago. 

Each pa.s.s of the city"s running water pipe network was strictly defended by people from the source to the water outlets. The water sources of cities were actually even under the strict control of the military of Taixia Country. A drop of water would be tested five times before entering a citizen"s home in the city. Additionally, the government of Taixia Country promoted the water source distribution system. Even though those cities could be available to running water, the government of Taixia Country still suggested people to use water separately. For instance, all the eligible families could make a well in their own courtyard, from where they could get their daily water. Otherwise, they could use stream water or spring water which was close to their homes. 

Recently, the government on different levels was looking for people to make wells everywhere across the country. Many public wells were made in each street, each community, each village, each city. Each well was guarded by people around the clock so that people could get water separately and safely. In this way, even though demons wanted to add puppet worms" eggs in water sources, they could only impact very few people.

Even ordinary families had started to pay attention to water safety, not to mention major clans. Starting from the tragedy in Heavenly Cold City dozens of years ago, capable major clans in Taixia Country had already paid attention to the prevention of the risks brought by puppet worms. 

Besides water sources, grains and food circulation across Taixia Country were also under strict control.

The circulation of all the preliminary agricultural products was free. However, all the processed ready-to-eat food must stay in the prefectures where they were produced.

It was such strictly controlled among the people, not to mention that in the military. All the food that soldiers ate every day was tested many times. 

With these arrangements, Zhang Tie believed that Taixia Country was able to control demon disasters in a small area even if there was another demon disaster aroused by puppet worms.

The ultimate goal for Lion Fortress to enter Earth-Elements Realm from Force Province was to monitor the abnormal actions of the demon army in Earth-Elements Realm and prevent the army of demon knights from reappearing in Force Province. 

The army of demon knights was not horrible. They were just seeking death, no matter how many demon knights were there. What Zhang Tie was worried about the most was that the army of demon knights separated and spread across the country. He was afraid that these demon knights would break into the hinterland of Taixia Country, burning, killing and destroying there aggressively. And then, even though these demon knights could be wiped out, Taixia Country would also suffer great losses in the end.

...

The Taixia Country had been ready to cope with various emergencies; however, what was more fatal was that all the precautions appeared to be useless now. 

...

"What is the trump card of demons?!"

This question always lingered in Zhang Tie"s mind and was hard to catch like a spirit in dark fog. 

Among the train of thoughts, Meng s.h.i.+dao and the Gobbling Party suddenly occurred to Zhang Tie, causing him to pause temporarily.

Zhang Tie and Zuoqiu Mingyue had already reached an agreement that they would drive demons into the Earth-Elements Realm when they dealt with Meng s.h.i.+dao and the Gobbling Party. It was not the right moment for them to do that. Tang Ling the chief minister of the Interior had been weakening the influence of the Gobbling Party and disarming the Gobbling Party step by step over these years. The backbones of the Gobbling Party had gradually left the hub of Xuanyuan Hill. Meng s.h.i.+dao"s influence in Taixia Country was gradually weakening. Local forces of the Gobbling Party were also under control. When humans were fighting demons, they should never allow the Gobbling Party to arouse big trouble in Taixia Country...

Zhang Tie then didn"t think about Meng s.h.i.+dao and the Gobbling Party anymore.

...

Even though Zhang Tie had already started to form his immortal chakra, he was still a human. He was not as almighty as legendary G.o.ds, who could always have everything in control and reckon accurately.

...

After thinking for a few more minutes in vain, Zhang Tie directly stood up and left for the cultivation room.

After entering his backroom, Zhang Tie instantly disappeared and entered Castle of Black Iron.

The lobby of the palace tree was empty. n.o.body was there. The small tree remained unchanged. However, a water pool appeared not far from the small tree. That immortal stone was in the water pool. Nine Heavens Immortal Spring was pouring out of the immortal stone and flowing in the water pool below the immortal stone. Everything was as same as what Zhang Tie had seen in the Heavens of Light. 

Zhang Tie ran his spiritual energy as he sensed that h.e.l.ler was making experiments in the species lab upstairs. A"Gan, Edward and those women of Yin-Yang Sect were not here.

h.e.l.ler knew that Zhang Tie had returned as he stopped what he was doing.

"h.e.l.ler, you don"t have to go downstairs. I"m heading for the Mountain Ruins..."

"Okay!"

"Where are the others?"

"They"re building an immortal palace at the foot of the mountain!"

Zhang Tie then turned around and walked out of the lobby of the palace quietly. After that, he rushed into the sky...

...

Castle of Black Iron had changed greatly.

Its land covered hundreds of millions of square miles, which looked vast just like a small subcontinent being girdled with an ocean. There were also many isles as large as pearls in the ocean. After combining Mountain Ruins, the air zone of Castle of Black Iron instantly increased by dozens of times. Those air-floating mountains were floating in the sky like isles. All the air-floating mountains in Mountain Ruins in Motian Realm had become decorations in the sky of Castle of Black Iron. In the highest place of the sky, it was the remaining core of Buzhou Mountain.

At this moment, some new cities appeared at the foot of the immortal mountain. When Zhang Tie left Motian Realm, he traveled across those cities which were under the control of demons and teleported all the 10 million-odd people there into Castle of Black Iron. Therefore, the current population in Castle of Black Iron was many times greater than that before.

After mastering the force of realm, Zhang Tie could teleport people into Castle of Black Iron easily. As long as he covered a city with his realm, he could teleport a lot of people into Castle of Black Iron with the force of realm. 

At this moment, those women of Yin-Yang Sect were in those cities at the foot of the mountain. They were their leaders.

Those women appeared to be too depressed in Motian Realm and they had to behave meticulously over there. Therefore, when they found they could display their capacities in the vast s.p.a.ce of Castle of Black Iron, they all became such pa.s.sionate as they started to have apprentices for the further development of Yin-Yang Sect.

In front of those women who pursued their undertakings, even Zhang Tie was forgotten.

...

Only after a short while, Zhang Tie had entered an air-floating mountain which was as high as tens of thousands of meters deep in Mountain Ruins.

There was a maze-like time-honored mountain cave inside the air-floating mountain. After moving quite a while inside, Zhang Tie deeply entered the mountain cave. 

It was pitch-dark all over in the mountain cave. However, there was a cyan 2 m higher light curtain that loomed like a portal. Zhang Tie instantly penetrated through it and came to a strange s.p.a.ce. 

It was a colossal s.p.a.ce being similar to the secret places of major clans that contained many time towers. There were 36 towers of time in this s.p.a.ce, no matter large or small. These time towers were divided into three kinds given their sizes; each kind containing 12 towers of time. The three kinds of time towers could allow him to cultivate in for 20 years, 10 years and 5 years respectively.

35 towers of time in this secret place were still freezing. Only a small time tower was already available a few days ago. Zhang Tie could cultivate five years inside...

This secret place once belonged to demons in Motian Realm. Almost none of the humans in Motian Realm knew that demons had such a secret place here. However, after Castle of Black Iron combined Mountain Ruins, all the secrets in Mountain Ruins had been exposed to Zhang Tie; all the secret places in Mountain Ruins had been exposed to Zhang Tie. Therefore, Zhang Tie instantly became the person who understood Mountain Ruins the most in the two worlds closely after h.e.l.ler. Of course, this secret place which was once occupied by demons became Zhang Tie"s rear garden.

Castle of Black Iron had just combined Mountain Ruins. Most of these towers of time were still freezing as they had just been used by demons.

Two years ago, Zhang Tie used a time tower in another secret place in Mountain Ruins. He stayed inside for 10 years, during which period, he reached the 3-change realm of his immortal chakra. Now it was enough for Zhang Tie to reach the 5-change realm of his immortal chakra.

When Zhang Tie reached the front of that time tower, he directly entered it and started his cultivation.

When problems couldn"t be solved with intelligence and mindset and he didn"t know demons" trump card, the best solution for Zhang Tie to respond to unknown crises was to strength his battle force and make him more powerful.

...

When Zhang Tie was thinking about demons" trump card on the bank of Weishui River, the entire Gobbling Province, the nestle of Gobbling Party became boisterous; because Opening Stele Festival would kick off on April 17, namely two days later.

Opening Stele Festival was not a traditional festival in Taixia Country. It was actually a festival exclusive to the Gobbling Party. Many years ago, the far-ancient morality stele was discovered on the same day. 

In order to celebrate the discovery of the far-ancient morality stele, Gobbling Party would hold grand campaign on the same day annually across Gobbling Province. Gradually, this campaign developed into the Opening Stele Festival of the Gobbling Party in Gobbling Province. 

In recent years, with the return of Zhang Tie in an unrivaled manner and the dismission of Meng s.h.i.+dao as the premier, the influence of Gobbling Party in Taixia Country had already weakened; however, in Gobbling Province, Gobbling Party was still the leading force even though a new provincial governor had taken office...