Castle of Black Iron

The special envoy assigned by the pope of Sacred Light Empire was called Astor. Although he was just a chief pastor, his title as the clerk of pope clearly indicated that he was the henchman of the pope. Astor came to the Sacred Iceland Kingdom to negotiate with Zhang Tie about how to diffuse the conflicts between the two countries as the plenipotentiary of Sacred Light Empire.

Golden Roc Bank had spoken volumes for the identity of a special envoy to the Sacred Iceland Kingdom before his arrival.

Astor arrived at Ice and Snow Wilderness by an airboat of Golden Roc Bank on April 19th. Zhang Tie received him in a pavilion of the garden of Summer Palace on the second day.

According to diplomatic customs, after coming to Saint Petersburg, Astor met Elder Gulas who was responsible for diplomatic affairs, the Cardinal Elders Committee and Queen O’Laura consecutively. After releasing those merchant ships and businessmen of Sacred Iceland Kingdom which were intercepted and detained by Western Continent and compensating for that, Astor was received by Zhang Tie in the garden of Summer Palace.

At his 50s, Astor looked a bit fat with a kind smile. If not that religious robe and the faint knight’s wave and qi, this man was like a common boss of a bar.

All the big figures must be handsome, ugly, abnormal or have some strange hobbies or exceptional temperaments. These contents were all plots in novels and stories. Zhang Tie also thought so when in Blackhot City; however, as his experience grew rich, Zhang Tie gradually found that it was far-stretched. Although those big figures had distinctive temperaments and impressed people deeply, Zhang Tie found that over 80% of big figures above knight level didn’t look much different than commoners.

Zhang Tie himself was not outstanding.

So was Astor. Now that he could become the henchman of the pope of Sacred Light Empire, how could he be average?

At the sight of Astor, Zhang Tie was not cheated by Astor’s smile; instead, he told himself to be vigilant inside.

“Your Majesty, this is Astor the personal secretary of the pope and a chief pastor of Sacred Light Empire!” Astor put his right hand on his chest sincerely as he bowed towards Zhang Tie sincerely.

“I’m not the tsar anymore. You can call me Zhang Tie or Qianji Hermit, please take a seat!” Zhang Tie told Astor politely.

The two people then sat down in the pavilion. There were a pond and a garden in the surroundings. It was April, the best season in Ice and Snow Wilderness and Gozidari Plain. It would be the traditional flowers picking festival of Slavs in Ice and Snow Wilderness after a few days. At this moment, the garden of Summer Palace had been covered with various fresh flowers such as rose, herb trinity, marigold and iris. Swarms of bees and butterflies were flying across the garden. Sitting in the pavilion and smelling the fragrance of flowers, they became reassured at once.

“The secular imperial crown is eye-catching and could be easily put down. However, the imperial crown of one’s belief is invisible and immortal!” Astor said as he came to Zhang Tie’s front and sat down on the opposite of Zhang Tie’s seat; at the same time, he started to look Zhang Tie up and down decently.

Zhang Tie’s young look and his great fame among humans made Astor curious.

Zhang Tie revealed a smile as he said, “You’re right. Invisible things are always more valuable than visible things!”

“It’s not my words, it’s our pope’s proverb!”

“If so, we have a common habit. Your pope and I always pay more attention to invisible things than visible things…”

Zhang Tie faintly expressed his sincerity for compromise. No matter what the others said, Zhang Tie was clear that there was no real heavenly knight or semi-sage knight in the Sacred Iceland Kingdom. He might be advantageous for one or two times; however, Sacred Light Empire had a much deeper background than the Sacred Iceland Kingdom. Additionally, the pope of the Sacred Light Empire was a real heavenly knight. The Sacred Iceland Kingdom couldn’t maintain its long-term advantageous position in the wrestle with Sacred Light Empire. Now that the opponent would like to compromise, Zhang Tie would seize this opportunity for sure.

As Zhang Tie had a good card for the time being, he would make the greatest profit for Sacred Iceland Kingdom while diffusing the threat from Sacred Light Empire. Otherwise, even if they returned to Taixia Country, they would not be reassured as Sacred Light Empire would always cast greedy eyes on Ice and Snow Wilderness. In this case, they didn’t need to be deadlocked. If Zhang Tie was too soft; the opposite would engulf Sacred Iceland Kingdom completely; if he was too hard, those crazy guys who had been brainwashed by Sacred Light Church could do anything. The best way was to inflict heavy losses on the opponent and save the opponent’s face at the same time.

After hearing Zhang Tie’s words, Astor’s eyes turned bright. Actually, Astor’s mission was not easy. As for Sacred Light Empire, Sacred Iceland Kingdom was just a tiny sesame. Ockham the jerk halos pastor of the eastern parish of Sacred Light Empire and his subordinates created so many troubles only for such a tiny sesame. Finally, they ruined the reputation of the entire Sacred Light Empire; additionally, the pope might offend a heavenly knight or a semi-sage knight. Of course, the pope was irritated by what they did.

“In Sacred Light Empire, the halos pastors in each major parish had pretty great rights. They could make decisions on many issues. The expedition towards the Sacred Iceland Kingdom is not out of the original intention of the pope. It’s definitely a pitiful mistake. Even our pope is very furious about this outcome!”

“I also believe in the foresight of the pope of Sacred Light Empire. I don’t think he wants this fuss…” Zhang Tie said with a smile too.

Astor’s words were true. The power of the expeditionary fleet of Sacred Light Empire indeed came from the eastern parish under the leadership of Ockham. Because the Sacred Iceland Kingdom was too small, such an expedition would almost not fail. Even if the pope knew it, he would absolutely acquiesce in the action of the eastern parish. However, the pope didn’t wish to see it if this action failed.

“Ockham should be fully responsible for this event…”

“I also think so!”

“Sacred Light Empire will compensate for Ockham’s mistake; however, our pope wants to know whether Ockham is still alive or not. If he’s still alive, could Sacred Iceland Kingdom give him back to us?” Astor said while looking straight into Zhang Tie’s eyes.

To confirm whether there was a heavenly knight on the back of Sacred Iceland Kingdom and bring Ockham back if he was still alive was one of Astor’s missions.

Zhang Tie had long prepared for this question.

Zhang Tie shook his head as he said calmly, “I don’t know whether Ockham is still alive or not. That day, Ockham displayed a powerful ability in crisis. He escaped away in a speed of about 8 times the speed of sound in the air towards the northwest of Ice and Snow Wilderness. He moved so fast that even heavenly knight couldn’t catch up with him…”

After hearing Zhang Tie’s words, Astor’s eyes turned bright at once. Ockham grasped the secret method of life halos. Therefore, he could escape away from Saint Petersburg at such a high speed. Pope said that Ockham’s flight speed was 8 times the speed of sound in the air. Only a couple of people in Sacret Light Empire knew this secret. Now that Zhang Tie said that Ockham could fly at such a high speed, he was definitely not telling a lie. Additionally, there must be a heavenly knight on the back of Sacred Iceland Kingdom; otherwise, Ockham wouldn’t fly at such a high speed.

After escaping away from Saint Petersburg using his life halos, Ockham had not contacted the pope yet. Nobody knew whether he was alive or not. If not being severely injured by the heavenly knight, Ockham would never use this secret method. The northwest of Ice and Snow Wilderness was a vast, unpopulated ice-capped land, which was far away from the sphere of influence of Sacred Iceland Kingdom. Therefore, it tallied with Ockham’s thought in that case.

“I wonder about the heavenly knight on the back of Sacred Iceland Kingdom…” Astor asked carefully.

“He’s a friend of mine. We got acquainted with each other in Earth-elements Realm. We’re good friends despite the great difference in age. He’s not famous and likes to be alone. He’s entering a secluded cultivation somewhere in Ice and Snow Wilderness…” Zhang Tie said solemnly as if it was true.

After analyzing all the information that he received, Astor stretched out his hand while a scroll suddenly appeared in his hand. He put the scroll onto the desk and pushed it in front of Zhang Tie as he said sincerely, “This is a bit sincerity of our pope. His Majesty hopes that this gift could express that Sacred Light Empire is not ambitious about the territory of Sacred Iceland Kingdom and diffuse the misunderstanding between the Sacred Iceland Kingdom and Sacred Light Empire…”

Zhang Tie opened the scroll and found that it was a map. The name of the map was the Fadillan Province of Sacret Light Empire, which was a piece of land in the southwest corner of the Western Continent. It was far away from Sacred Light Empire. Fadillan Province neighbored a country called Federation of Barbarians in the northeast. and another powerful Rhesa Republic on the Western Continent in the northwest. In the south of this piece of land, it was a coastline. On the map, this piece of land covered over 6 million square miles, which was almost half of that of Sacred Iceland Kingdom. However, it was definitely larger than that of Zhang Tie’s Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory although it couldn’t match that of Sacred Light Empire and Western Continent.

Zhang Tie looked up at Astor.

“This is an enclave that Sacred Light Empire acquired dozens of years ago. It’s far away from Sacred Light Empire. Although being not large, it belongs to you from now on, Qianji Hermit…”

After watching Astor for a few seconds seriously, Zhang Tie revealed a smile. Closely after that, he put away the scroll as he stretched out his hand and said, “As it’s in the holy war, all the human countries could seek for peace commonly. Let the bygones be bygones…”

“Pah…” Astor clapped with a big smile.

…

After Astor left the garden of Summer Palace for less than half an hour, Zhang Tie had gained the information about this “gift” from Golden Roc Bank. The predecessor of Fadillan Province was Fadillan Empire on the Western Continent. Since Sacred Light Empire let Fadillan Empire “voluntarily merge into” Sacred Light Empire in various means and made the imperial households of Fadillan Empire have no offsprings 6 decades ago, this enclave had become Fadillan Province of Sacred Light Empire.

However, this piece of land was always in troubles over the past 60 years. The dignitaries of the former Fadillan Empire constantly opposed with the secret support of the Federation of Barbarians and Rhesa Republic. As a result, pastors and chief pastors of Sacred Light Church were always assassinated here. Even so, Sacred Light Empire still tried its best to maintain its ruling in this piece of land for the sake of face. That was to say, Sacred Light Empire had not completely ruled this piece of land. With this opportunity, Sacred Light Empire used this piece of land to pacify the conflict between Sacred Light Empire and Sacred Iceland Kingdom.

Zhang Tie didn’t care about the intention of Sacred Light Empire. In Zhang Tie’s opinion, this piece of land could work as his springboard and base to enter the Western Continent. What was more, over 600 square miles’ land was not small? Although it lagged behind Western Continent economically, it was still much more prosperous than Ice and Snow Wilderness.

Zhang Tie really made a big fortune this time.

Being different than the fact that Ice and Snow Wilderness belonged to so many Slavic tribes. Zhang Tie gained this piece of land from Sacred Light with his own ability. He didn’t use any force of Sacred Iceland Kingdom. Sacred Light Empire also expressed that they would send this gift of Zhang Tie; instead of Sacred Iceland Kingdom. Of course, this piece of land belonged to Zhang Tie’s personal property.

Zhang Tie didn’t care about the current situation facing Fadillan Province and whether he could rule this piece of land effectively. Now that Sacred Light Empire had gifted him this piece of land, legally, Zhang Tie and his descendants would be the owners of this new piece of land. Nobody could replace them. As long as he wanted it, he could take over this piece of land in a justifiable way whenever he wanted.

On the same evening, Zhang Tie had called in all of his lovers and kids in Ice and Snow Wilderness. Like holding a family party, he showed that map and the corresponding certificates left by the special envoy of Sacred Light Empire to those kids as he told them, “Andre is your eldest brother; therefore, I leave Sacred Iceland Kingdom to Andre. When you grow up, if you want any land, this piece of land on the Western Continent belongs to you. It depends on you how much could you take. If you couldn’t even safeguard what I left to you, stop thinking about others. Just live your steady and leisure lives!”

Alexander and the other kids couldn’t fully understand Zhang Tie’s words. However, Zhang Tie’s women exchanged a glance with each other as they nodded. Zhang Tie had too many kids, as the moms of these kids, they should consider about the future of his own kid.

…

After becoming reconciled with Sacred Light Empire, Zhang Tie stayed in Saint Petersburg for 1 more month.

Although those women and kids would still come back after returning to Taixia Country, they should make a long-term plan. They had a lot of things to deal with in Ice and Snow Wilderness and Ewentra Archipelago. They should take some people away. It would take them about 1 month to deal with all the things.

On May 9th, at Zhang Tie’s request, Gold and Power Law directly drove a heavenly cloud-class airboat to the Summer Palace of Saint Petersburg. When the airboat arrived, all the people across the Summer Palace were gathering in the square and watching the huge airboat to slowly decline.

The heavenly cloud-class airboat was customized by Gold and Power Law for Zhang Tie. Given its speculations, it was on the same class with that of the military commanders and the elders of the top 7 sects in Taixia Country. The airboat that Zhang Tie won from Taiyi Fantasy Sect was also a heavenly cloud-class airboat, which could rank top in luxury and specifications.

Of course, this airboat aroused a shock in Saint Petersburg once again. Few people across Ice and Snow Wilderness had seen such a huge airboat, not to mention taking a ride in it. Not only Zhang Tie’s lovers and kids, but even the members of the Cardinal Elders Committee also visited it.

This airboat was Zhang Tie’s new Iron-Dragon Airboat.

After the iron-dragon airboat arrived at Ice and Snow Wilderness for 1 week, Zhang Tie left for Taixia Country with his lovers, kids and the other relevant personnel…

During the month when Zhang Tie was in Ice and Snow Wilderness, the severest crisis since the beginning of the holy war broke out in Taixia Country…