Castle of Black Iron

When Zhang Tie woke up for the second time, he had recovered his spiritual and physical strength much more. Although he still felt weak, at least the feeling that his head was pressed into cotton had disappeared. Additionally, his limbs could move too. He had recovered his senses all over.

Furthermore, Zhang Tie found that he was lying on a spacious and comfortable bed in a soft gown; instead of being immersed in a crystal blood pool.

The moment Zhang Tie opened his eyes, he had seen the vermilion windows, jade roof, imperial lanterns and golden hooks and sniffed a looming, refreshing fragrance in the room.

Brilliant sunlight burst through windows as Zhang Tie heard twitters of birds outside windows.

It was so precious and nice for Zhang Tie who had experienced “death” to see warm sunlight, hear twitters of birds, sniff the refreshing fragrance and recover his senses. Zhang Tie couldn’t stand to take a deep breath.

‘It’s so nice to be alive!’

“Ahh, husband, you’re awake…”

Yan Feiqing just sat on the bedside with eyes closed. The moment Zhang Tie opened his eyes, she sensed it right away.

In a one-piece longuette and a noble, elegant and tall bun, Yan Feiqing looked decent, beautiful and charming with thin rouge over her face.

Zhang Tie struggled to get up. Yan Feiqing hurriedly knelt on the bedside by one knee as she supported Zhang Tie by one hand and put a pillow against Zhang Tie’s waist so that Zhang Tie could sit up against the head of the bed. Yan Feiqing then sat beside Zhang Tie, putting her arm around Zhang Tie and having his upper body lean against her.

“Husband, how do you feel now?”

“Hmm…much better…” Zhang Tie sat up with a higher spirit.

The brilliant sunlight and twitters of birds told Zhang Tie that he didn’t need to fight demons at the bank of Weishui River anymore. He wondered how long had he been in a coma.

“Qing’er, what time is it now…”

“It’s March!”

After hearing Zhang Tie calling her “Qing’er”, Yan Feiqing revealed a smile as her voice turned tender too.

Zhang Tie became stunned for a second. ‘Does it mean that I’ve been in a coma for almost 100 days?’

“I’ve been in a coma for almost 100 days?”

“Precisely 96 days. Husband, you woke up yesterday for the first time. It’s the 2nd time for you to wake up…”

“I’m in Xuanyuan Hill?”

“Yes!”

“Why?”

“Husband, you were severely injured that day. It was Zuoqiu Mingyue who assigned people to send you to Xuanyuan Hill for medical treatment by airboat. I escorted you all the way here…”

“What happened that day? How am I still alive…”

“Husband, do you really not remember what happened?” Yan Feiqing watched Zhang Tie with a bizarre expression.

“I really don’t remember it…” Zhang Tie replied with a bitter smile, “When that black, weird ball broke through all the obstacles and touched my protective battle qi, I thought I was destined to die and disappear both physically and spiritually. I had already closed my eyes at that moment. As for what happened in the following, I had no impression about it…”

“That’s impossible. Husband, do you know how valiant you were at that moment…”

As Yan Feiqing described it, Zhang Tie gradually opened his mouth. Even though Zhang Tie himself had not imagined that he could create a chance for survival at that critical moment when he thought that he was destined to die.

In many cases, people could make physical responses using their instincts. For instance, when a father who was carrying a baby suddenly slipped down on the road, he would tighten his arms so as to protect his child with his own body as a buffering effect. That was an instinctive response of a parent at a critical moment. Here was another example, when one was suddenly touched by a spine, he or she would jump away at once. Such an instinctive response wouldn’t go through one’s mind; it was a natural response that everyone could own in a split second and was the accurate response that one could make in many emergencies.

Even knights had similar responses.

When the thunder of nirvana touched Zhang Tie’s protective battle qi, Yan Feiqing saw a virtual image shooting out of Zhang Tie’s forehead as fast as a lightning bolt and striking the thunder of nirvana, detonating it right away. At the same time, Zhang Tie seemed to have awakened an ancestral bloodline as he flew backward at a super high speed in the impact wave caused by the explosion of the thunder of nirvana. He left the most destructive region of the thunder of nirvana. Although being severely injured, he finally survived the Abyss King’s special skill.

In Yan Feiqing’s eyes, it was Zhang Tie’s instinctive response in that case.

Zhang Tie had not imagined that it was his instinct that saved him in the split second.

Anyone would have a limit in their mind, even sage-level knights. At that critical moment, Zhang Tie could at most lead the energy carried by that black, weird ball into Castle of Black Iron. He didn’t even have time to think about which trump card to use.

“The thunder of nirvana? You mean the black energy is the thunder of nirvana?” Zhang Tie asked as it was his first time to hear this term.

“Yes, nirvana is one of the most terrifying secret items in the world. Some think it’s a silver secret item; some think it’s even more senior than silver secret items. The thunder of nirvana made its debut in the last holy war. It’s not strange that you don’t know what it is, because those who know its existence are at least heavenly knights. The thunder of nirvana carries a destructive power. As long as one was aimed by it, even sage-level knights probably would be harmed, not to mention a heavenly knight. You’re the first one who survived the thunder of nirvana. What’s that virtual image that shot out of your forehead at that moment? How could it detonate the thunder of nirvana…” Yan Feiqing finally asked Zhang Tie out of curiosity.

As Yan Feiqing had lived with Zhang Tie for almost 60 years in the tower of time, she could ask this question. However, it was a taboo for commoners to ask about it.

After hearing Yan Feiqing’s question, Zhang Tie became stunned.

‘What’s that virtual image that shot out of my forehead as fast as a lightning bolt? Was that a binding chain? No, how could a binding chain detonate that thunder of nirvana? What else could it be?’

Zhang Tie then looked inside with eyes closed as he found it was void and disordered inside his body. His entire body was severely injured, including his guts and meridians, the void in his qi sea and his mind sea. Bizarre strength was constantly devouring his spiritual energy and battle qi in the void of his qi sea and mind sea like a black hole in the universe. This explained why he felt weak now.

Thankfully, the portal that led to Castle of Black Iron, the All-spirits Tower and those immortal rune skills in his mind sea were still available.

Only after throwing a glance at his mind sea, Zhang Tie had known what was that virtual image that shot out of his forehead at the critical moment.

It was another Zhang Tie, the master-level mirror body separation rune that detonated the thunder of nirvana when it left his forehead.

In that case, if Zhang Tie’s “duplicate” failed to detonate the thunder of nirvana, as long as that master-level immortal rune flew out of Zhang Tie’s forehead, another Zhang Tie would appear in front of the public closely after that.

‘At that time, because my “duplicate” had not fully manifested from its immortal rune, even though Yan Feiqing could only see a virtual image flying out of his forehead which then detonated the thunder of nirvana. It meant that I’ve not exposed my special skill of body separation yet.’

‘Although I couldn’t return to Castle of Black Iron after being aimed by the thunder of nirvana, as my master-level mirror body separation rune carried my full energy, qi and blood, it made the thunder of nirvana mistake that “duplicate” as me and detonate it in advance as a result.’

After thinking through this point, Zhang Tie felt lucky. At the same time, he had oozed sweat all over his forehead.

In that case, even though Zhang Tie was extremely smart, he couldn’t realize that his master-level mirror body separation skill was the conqueror of the thunder of nirvana.

It was Zhang Tie’s instinct that saved him. Actually, even Zhang Tie didn’t know that his master-level mirror body separation skill could detonate the thunder of nirvana in advance even using his instinct. However, being threatened by death, Zhang Tie used his instinct to block that dangerous thunder of nirvana by one thing or a substitute that was under his control, sparing a chance for him to survive. Therefore, Zhang Tie used his instinct to release his substitute at that moment.

At the same time, Zhang Tie used his instinct to activate an ancestral bloodline automatically so that he could escape away from the central explosion zone of thunder nirvana as fast as possible.

The new ancestral bloodline being activated was “Driving Wind”, precisely “Lietsi ¹ ‘s Driving Wind”!

Besides increasing Zhang Tie’s flight speed in air, this ancestral bloodline could also enable Zhang Tie to move like a sail being pushed by “external forces” such as fine air flows and waves in the air. The greater strength the air flow carried, the faster would Zhang Tie fly…

This ancestral bloodline was most effective in saving people from explosions. Because the impact waves and changing air flows caused by the explosion would drive Zhang Tie away before the explosion destroyed Zhang Tie. After activating this ancestral bloodline, Zhang Tie could gain a super high speed to escape away from the most dangerous region, which was far greater than the maximal speed that he could acquire as a divine dominator.

The ancestral bloodline “Lietse’s Driving Wind” consumed 2,877 bloodline energy points.

‘Is that worthwile? That’s too worthwhile! It saved my life!’

Zhang Tie felt lucky once again. He didn’t use all the bloodline energy points to activate a single powerful bloodline, because he realized that the so-called ancestral bloodlines were just different tools. Although a single tool was composed of many levels, it was not right to say a tool was greater than the others. As long as a tool was used in the right place, the tool would be great. Therefore, Zhang Tie preferred to keep those bloodline energy points available rather than spending a great sum of bloodline energy points in some rare, expensive tools. At a critical moment, he could buy any bloodline that he needed so as to maximize the value of those bloodline energy points…

The fact proved that Zhang Tie was right.

…