Castle of Black Iron

“Ahem…ahem…” Zuoqiu Mingyue pretended to cough twice at the critical moment. Closely after that, Ning Taisheng hid his battle qi. After throwing a glance at Zhang Tie and Ning Taisheng, Zuoqiu Mingyue opened his mouth calmly, “Stop arguing. All the air cavalries that fought to death yesterday were martyrs of Taixia Country. We have to comfort and compensate their family members accordingly and reward them with the glory that they deserved. It’s great and courageous for fighters to sacrifice themselves for our country. We should pity them. As human lives are not as trivial as straws, we should love our fighters like how we love our sons. We couldn’t encourage our fighters to die or sacrifice themselves with the enemy on the battlefield. However, Hua people are always full of heroes. Since ancient times, there have been so many heroes. In each holy war, a great number of heroes would build the halos of Hua people and write the history of Hua people at the cost of their own blood and lives. It’s a heroic deed for fighters to kill demons at the cost of their lives. We should not denounce that. If we issue an order to forbid fighters to do that, we might not gain the prospective effect; besides, even the morale of the troops would be declined…”

Zuoqiu Mingyue said while all the heavenly knights at present nodded.

“I agree with us, commander-in-chief…”

“Elder Ning and General Mushen are both pillars of the army. Although you have different angles of view and concerns, to be honest, you’re both concerned about Taixia Country and Hua people selflessly. Don’t hurt the harmony because of it…”

“Yes, yes, if you hurt the harmony because of it, demons would laugh at you…”

All the other heavenly knights started to persuade them. Ning Taisheng then threw a cold glance at Zhang Tie before turning around quietly.

Now that Zuoqiu Mingyue had expressed his opinion, Zhang Tie didn’t speak anymore either, though he still felt a bit bitter inside.

Zuoqiu Mingyue’s attitude looked neutral. Although he faintly warned Ning Taisheng to not say anything that might decline the morale of the army, he actually didn’t agree with Zhang Tie’s words; instead, he preferred Ning Taisheng’s opinion. All the other 6 heavenly knights’ opinion was approximate to that of Zuoqiu Mingyue. Of course, Ning Taisheng was not wrong. As heavenly knights were at the top of the pyramid in Taixia Country, they could overlook all the living beings in the world and talk about life or death with laughter. The fury of heavenly knights would cause bloodstream. In their eyes, those ordinary lives might be as trivial as ants and birds and were not even qualified to be their pieces. From the angle of view of a heavenly knight, it was the cost-effective advantage for Taixia Country to consume the advantageous corps of demons at the cost of some people and gold coins, which were purely figures. Perhaps 100 corps’ loss might faintly influence the mood of a heavenly knight, these heavenly knights would not even blink their eyes about the loss of those air cavalries in air combat; instead, they felt that Zhang Tie was too compassionate.

It was an economical trade for consuming wing demons using air cavalries. Of course, the more the better. Ning Taisheng’s words were straightforward and acrid. However, it was almost what all the other moguls thought about in the theater of operations. However, as the other moguls were generals, they wouldn’t put it so straightforwardly. As Taixia Country’s commander-in-chief and Military God, Zuoqiu Mingyue had already experienced two holy wars. Compassionate people could never be generals. Zuoqiu Mingyue would never hesitate in such a case.

In the final analysis, neither Zhang Tie nor Ning Taisheng was wrong. They just had different ideologies. As for Zhang Tie, even though he was in a high position in the theater of operations, he still couldn’t view these things from the angle of view of those heavenly knights by treating fresh lives as figures for exchanging with demon fighters. Zhang Tie remembered that the eldest brother that he had not ever seen fought to death on the battlefield. Although many years had passed, this event was always a scar in the hearts of his parents. Even now, his father would still always sigh with emotions and his mom would weep, “How good it would be if our eldest son was still alive…” in the deep night in their bedroom.

In the eyes of those heavenly knights, a group of simple figures might only be combat that involved tens of thousands of people; however, they actually involved the life or death situation and endless lament of tens of thousands of ordinary families.

‘Perhaps I’m really as compassionate as women and not proper to be a general on the battlefield’ Zhang Tie mocked himself.

After such a short quarrel, although Zhang Tie still accompanied Zuoqiu Mingyue to inspect the battlefield, he remained silent in the whole process unless being asked by Zuoqiu Mingyue.

After finishing the inspection, all the 7 heavenly knights returned to their own battlefortress. Zhang Tie also wanted to leave. However, he was stopped by Zuoqiu Mingyue, who said he had something to negotiate with Zhang Tie. Therefore, the two people returned to Zuoqiu Mingyue’s office in Xuanyuan Fortress.

After one day, a new desk had been moved inside. Given the environment of the office, it didn’t seem that Zuoqiu Mingyue had lost his temper yesterday here.

Like yesterday, after Zhang Tie entered the office, Zuoqiu Mingyue had told his subordinate to leave. Since Zuoqiu Mingyue fixed the marital relationship between his female junior and Zhang Tie’s elder brother, he had been treating Zhang Tie much more kindly in private as he looked at Zhang Tie like watching a junior of his own family.

“Who do you think has the greatest military exploits in resisting demons in the Western Theater of Operations?” The moment Zuoqiu Mingyue entered the office, he had turned around and asked Zhang Tie while gazing at the latter. However, evidently, Zuoqiu Mingyue didn’t mean to have Zhang Tie answer this question. Before Zhang Tie opened his mouth, Zuoqiu Mingyue had continued, “Do you think it’s you? No. Is it me? No. Only one person has the greatest military exploits, namely, the crown prince, who’s ruling the country in Xuanyuan Hill. Am I clear?”

Zuoqiu Mingyue’s reply was acrid and impressive, shocking Zhang Tie’s mind.

Zhang Tie lowered his head and became silent for a few seconds before nodding slowly, “Thanks, commander-in-chief, I see!”

“Hmm, you’d better see!” Zuoqiu Mingyue nodded too as he slowly sighed, “People are not different than grasses and woods. How could we have no emotions? However, in such a chaotic world, the higher our position is, the less soft-hearted we should be. If one person’s life could save ten people, in my opinion, it would be valuable and must die. You’re so soft-hearted that you don’t even look like a knight who has experienced life or death situations. In peaceful days, it’s okay; however, in the holy war when so many evil forces behave unscrupulously in the world, your mercy would be your biggest shortcoming. As long as your enemy take advantage of your shortcoming, they might kill you…”

Zhang Tie revealed a bitter smile, “I might not be as merciless as commander-in-chief and the other generals for the rest of my life!”

Waving his hand, Zuoqiu Mingyue said, “Alright. You don’t have to eliminate your original intention. Perhaps you will see through it at my age. You’ve already done what you could. You’re impeccable. However, after the battle yesterday, you’ve already become sore in demon’s eyes. The demon general has been determined to kill you. It has already ordered two shadow knights to kill you in the fight. I’m talking to you about it!”

“Glad to hear commander-in-chief’s instruction.” Zhang Tie’s face turned solemn. As it was concerning his life, Zhang Tie would not treat it casually.

“From today on, you’re forbidden to fight demon knights on the battlefield without my consent. As you’re too eye-catching, if you joined combat once again, you would bring dangers. Even heavenly demon knights might be assigned to kill you. You have to be alive. If you were killed by demons, it would be a great loss for the entire Xuanyuan Fortress. The rear end of the Western Theater of Operations might also be in troubles. As for you, being alive is equal to making military exploits…”

“Being alive is equal to making military exploits.” Zhang Tie became dumbfounded as he had not imagined that Zuoqiu Mingyue could say that and that he could reach this step on the battlefield. What an “auspicious” treatment!

“Yes, like what I said, if one person’s life could save 10 people. I prefer that person to die. Similarly, if one person could help hundreds of millions of people live better, I would guarantee his safety. Therefore, you’d better stay on my side lately. As you’re the secretary of commander-in-chief, others would not make idle talk about it…”

Zuoqiu Mingyue, as a sage-level knight, kept a close eye on Zhang Tie so that demons wouldn’t have a chance to kill him.

Zhang Tie became hesitant as he had to consider Zuoqiu Mingyue’s words well. However, Zhang Tie always felt unwilling staying on Zuoqiu Mingyue’s side and thought that he could still do something…

Only after thinking about it for a few seconds, Zhang Tie’s eye light had turned resolute, “Commander-in-chief, I want to join air cavalry corps.”

“What…” Zuoqiu Mingyue almost thought that he had misheard it.

“All the flight and battle skills that the current air cavalries have mastered are based on my conclusion in Selnes Theater of Operations. These skills are partial to individual air combat experience. After seeing the battle between air cavalries and wing demons yesterday, I found that the coordinated air combat tactics of air cavalry troops in the air could be further improved when they fight the troop of wing demons. Therefore, I want to join air cavalry troop as an ordinary air cavalry and further improve the air cavalry troop’s coordinated tactics in the air. I expect for your approval, commander-in-chief!”

“As an ordinary air cavalry…” Zuoqiu Mingyue became hesitant.

“I have body changing immortal bloodline. I only need to change the face. Additionally, I would fight wing demons below knight level. No demons above earth knights would be aimed at me especially. No matter what, it’s always good for me to do something for the theater of operations rather than staying on your side, commander-in-chief…”

Zuoqiu Mingyue knew that it was another choice that Zhang Tie had made when he couldn’t prevent something. Zhang Tie still didn’t make a compromise; instead, he still exerted his utmost effort to do something. If Zhang Tie couldn’t prevent those air cavalries from perishing together with wing demons after running out of their incendiary bolts, he wanted them to kill some more wing demons before they ran out of their ammo so as to reduce casualties.

What a stubborn guy!

Watching Zhang Tie’s young and eager face, Zuoqiu Mingyue suddenly sighed with emotions inside as a piece of purple crystal appeared in his hand. Zuoqiu Mingyue directly handed it to Zhang Tie as he said, “It’s a secret book of swordsmanship that I got by accident when I was young. It’s already useless for me now. Therefore, I gift it to you. As you’ve just got the gnosis of sword song, you could verify your sword song with the contents in this book. It might be useful to you…”

After taking it, Zhang Tie injected his spiritual energy inside it. A sword light instantly flashed in Zhang Tie’s mind. Closely after that, the chaos was split open while some words gradually appeared in Zhang Tie’s consciousness——Big Sword Sutra …