Castle of Black Iron

Major Franca stared at Zhang Tie with a look of disbelief. Over the past year, he had made great progress. He thought that he could have easily defeated Zhang Tie. He had not imagined that he was done for the moment the teenager attacked him.

At this moment, Major Franca could not sense any pain at all. Instead, he only felt dumb and cold due to his gradually weakening qi and vitality, like when a balloon was deflated by someone. He then lowered his head and stared at the arm that penetrated through his chest before looking at Zhang Tie’s sarcastic expression.

"I’ve not imagined...that you...could improve so fast!"

Soon after muttering this sentence, plasma started to pour out of Major Franca’s mouth.

Zhang Tie drew back his hand rapidly as he threw the ball of scrap iron onto the ground. After that, he gazed into the wolf eyes of Major Franca. "In Blapei you should have realized that you have no advantage over me in response time!"

"Don’t...I?"

After muttering this, Major Franca fell down.

At the same time, Zhang Tie charged at Abyan.

Abyan was just watching him quietly without any sort of flurried look. When Zhang Tie pounced at him, he simply stomped on the ground. Almost at the same time, a wall of seven centimeters wide steel bars fell down from the ceiling of the room, keeping Zhang Tie several meters away from him. Abyan instantly slid downward into a cave that appeared on the floor and disappeared at once.

Zhang Tie had not imagined that Abyan would have such a layout in his room. When Zhang Tie was dodging away from the barrier, Abyan had already disappeared in front of him. Zhang Tie was almost driven mad.

"Ah...open..." Zhang Tie roared as he tightly held two steel bars and started to pull them open, causing cracks on the bricks that held them. Gradually, the two steel bars became bent and allowed Zhang Tie to slip through. At the sight of that six or seven square meter cave on the floor, Zhang Tie instantly jumped inside.

The cave was inclined downward. The stones inside had been polished and they were very smooth. It looked like an underground tunnel. Zhang Tie kept sliding downward. After over ten meters, he heard a sound above his head. Raising his head, he found the entrance of the cave was blocked. Zhang Tie’s heart instantly raced as he became alert. During the process, he grabbed the smooth walls of the tunnel using his dark tearer so as to control his speed and balance in case of an emergency.

Even though he was trying to control his speed, Zhang Tie still slid down at a very high speed. When he was about 100 meters away from the exit, Zhang Tie caught sight of some light. He then pushed off the wall with his hand to accelerate at once, flashing out of the tunnel immediately.

The moment he landed, Zhang Tie had rolled forward on the ground to an alert posture.

At the sight of the scene, Zhang Tie was greatly stunned.

This underground space was like a theater. The entire space was as bright as daytime. It was covered with high mirrors everywhere. The mirrors formed a maze. However, Abyan’s reflection appeared in each mirror at each angle. He was watching Zhang Tie calmly.

’This is a lighting and shadow maze according to the principles of optics. Abyan didn’t know that I was going to come here, therefore he didn’t prepare this for me, but for himself. How abnormal he must be for setting hundreds of mirrors in such a hidden place.’

Zhang Tie looked around and was confused about Abyan’s whereabouts.

"Zhang Tie. I’ve heard of your name for a long time, but this my first time seeing you here. It seems that you want to kill me?" In the mirrors Abyan opened his mouth as calmly as before.

"Right. I’m here to chop off your head today!" Zhang Tie slightly frowned. Abyan’s voice drifted from everywhere, making him fail to locate him. ’It seems that Abyan has set a special acoustical transmission system here.’

Now that he could not find Abyan for a short while, Zhang Tie didn’t wait there anymore. Instead, he chose the simplest and most efficient way to force Abyan to show himself. He moved in front of a mirror and punched it, breaking the expensive crystal mirror into pieces.

After another punch, he broke another mirror...

After the third punch, he broke one more mirror...

After a few seconds, seven or eight Abyans disappeared.

"May you tell me why you want to kill me?" Master Abyan in the mirrors still looked very calm.

"To get revenge!" Zhang Tie replied as he kept breaking mirrors one after another.

"Is it because of the dead girls in Blackhot City?" Abyan forced a smile.

"How do you know of the relationship between me and them?" Zhang Tie stopped.

"I didn’t know about that before. However, I found out after the arrival of Franca. Therefore, I employed those girls as my assistants. I wanted to gain some information from them. Both Franca and I are very curious about you. We want to know your secret."

Zhang Tie had not imagined that their deaths were related to himself. Tightly clenching his fist, Zhang Tie radiated a furious killing intent from all over his body.

"What secret do I have?"

"You have too many secrets. You can form Iron-Blood Hidden Strength in a short time. You can defend blue frost. You can achieve fast improvements in your physical strength and fighting strength. You might even have formed Iron-Blood Battle Qi after only a bit longer than one year. Your body is priceless in my eyes!" Saying this, Master Abyan’s greedy eyes almost blazed as he licked his lips.

"F*ck, if you want to know my secret, just do that to me. Why did you make so many innocent people involved?" Zhang Tie became completely furious. His battle-qi totem rolled densely as he accelerated his movement by more than ten times in a split second, breaking dozens of mirrors at once, causing constant cracking sounds.

"What silly people! You still know nothing about your secrets even now. Do you think that I could only get your secrets through you? You’re wrong. As you were the first and only boyfriend in the lives of those girls, I could also discover your secret through those girls!" Saying this calmly, Abyan watched Zhang Tie, who was driven extremely mad, with a jeering smile. "I see a very powerful vital source in you which has new-born features. Even if you didn’t come for me, I would have come for you. I’ve not imagined that you could send yourself here!"

"Go die!" After destroying the majority of those mirrors, Zhang Tie finally found the optical principles of the maze. He deduced which one was the true figure of Abyan. Therefore, he charged at Abyan and punched at him at once.

When his fist was close to Abyan, Zhang Tie saw that Abyan’s eyes turned completely dark and disappeared like the black background on the stage.

Abyan opened his mouth and shrilled like how a siren cried, causing all the mirrors to explode into pieces. Zhang Tie felt like he was being hit by hundreds of kilograms of iron hammers at once. With a humming sound in his head, his ears, nostrils and eyes started to bleed. At the same time, Zhang Tie was sent flying back in the air.

’That’s powerful, that’s too powerful. Abyan is too powerful to be a human. Right, he is not a human at all...’

After falling on the ground, Zhang Tie spat out blood as he struggled to get up. He then watched Abyan with an amazed look.

At this moment, Abyan was twisting his body weirdly while his orange robe swelled, broke and exploded into pieces.

With a "tsla" sound, his robe was completely ripped apart while a crocodile-tail like thing appeared from his back. Although he still looked like a man, his skull and brow ridge started to bulge as his face and neck were gradually covered with greenish scales. His hands transformed into monster’s claws with sharp fingernails. Additionally, his shoes were broken as his feet started to change completely.

At the same time, a long tongue stretched out of his mouth like that of a poisonous snake. After quivering in the air twice, it was drawn back at once, causing a "hugh" sound.

"De...mon..." Zhang Tie stammered like he was being pressed by a 100 kilogram object.

"Wrong. We’re shadow demons, the rarest species of demons. Please don’t confuse us with common demons!" Abyan’s voice became muffled like something was in his throat, causing an exotic resonance.