Castle of Black Iron

"We are arriving at Xuanyuan Hill?"

Standing on the deck, Zhang Tie and Bai Suxian were looking at the ground below through the crystal grilles.

It was a boundless vast lake downside there, even in the distance.

Under the sunshine, the lake was shimmering while waterweeds were wavering inside. Reeds and wetland almost reached the sky in the far. On the location where reeds and wetland were close to the land, there was a large area of woods and undulating mountain ranges. Numerous aquatic birds were flying and gathering in flocks over the lake. The flock of white swans that had just flown over the airboat immediately dove towards the lake. At the same time, tens of thousands of wild ducks suddenly flew off, which looked pretty splendid...

The wings and most of the feathers on the back of wild ducks looked bright green, shiny and vigorous under the sunshine. When those wild ducks flew off the lake, it looked like a green cloud.

There were so many aquatic birds over there.

An exotic brilliance flashed across Zhang Tie’s eyes when Zhang Tie watched these aquatic birds.

Bai Suxian didn’t notice the bizarre brilliance in Zhang Tie’s eyes. She just pulled Zhang Tie’s arm out of excitement as she pointed at this lake and introduced it to Zhang Tie, "This is Heavenly Qin Lake in the northernmost part of Xuanyuan Hill. In the other directions of Xuanyuan Hill, there are another 2 crisscrossed lakes. Heavenly Qin Lake is medium in size. If the airboat could fly at a bit higher speed, we will be able to see Xuanyuan Hill in less than 1 hour after flying another 500-odd mile over Heavenly Qin Lake."

Because Zhang Tie had recovered his composure and become completely relaxed in the "slow" living state, even though he could see Xuanyuan Hill from 500 miles away with his lotus-flower eyes on the airboat, Zhang Tie didn’t use that ability. Zhang Tie didn’t care whether he could see Xuanyuan Hill a few minutes earlier or later. In many cases, if he relied on his ability too much, he would lack too many fun and surprises. If he watched Xuanyuan Hill in advance, he would feel bored when he arrived there. Therefore, Zhang Tie was not anxious about that.

Touching his bald head, Zhang Tie asked Bai Suxian, "You mean there’re two lakes beside Xuanyuan Hill?"

"Hmm, the other two lakes are called Fair-sounding Lake and Fairy Lake respectively!"

"The Fairy is playing a fair-sounding music by heavenly qin. They’re easily remembered. If so, Gold and Power Market should be in front of us!"

"Hmm, we will see it after passing Heavenly Qin Lake!"

"Hahaha, speed up; I cannot wait to take a look at it..." Zhang Tie burst out into laughter as he waved his hand and shouted towards his disciples in a secret way, "Are you ready? We’re arriving at Xuanyuan Hill!"

...

In the following couple of minutes, the movable metal protective plates above the two swimming pools slowly slid over and covered the space above the two swimming pools, only revealing a row of non-opaque portholes. Additionally, the water in the swimming pools had been sucked into the inside of the airboat. After that, the swimming pools were covered with solid metal decks once again. Everybody returned to their cabins to change clothes cheerily, including Liu Xing and the other 6 black-armored fighters.

Iron-Dragon Airboat also sped up and approached Xuanyuan Hill. On the way, they could see more and more airboats and airships as well as over 100 knights in the sky. Besides, Zhang Tie could see large cruises and ships on Heavenly Qin Lake.

Zhang Tie sensed a bizarre qi blowing over.

1 hour later, when Zhang Tie saw Xuanyuan Hill, a prosperous dreamlike painting scroll entered his eyesight.

Zhang Tie had seen the world; however, when he caught sight of this city which was called the city of cities, the lighthouse of humans and the capital of countries, he was still deeply shocked.

Class A cities were pretty large and prosperous in Taixia Country; however, the prosperity of Xuanyuan Hill completely subverted Zhang Tie’s imagination about the scale of a city.

Zhang Tie didn’t know how large Xuanyuan Hill was. Standing on the airboat, he could not see its border. There were various styles of buildings here.

It was unimaginably prosperous in Xuanyuan Hill in this age.

Under the guidance of the ground lamp signals, Iron-Dragon Airboat slowly approached an airport, which contained thousands of airboats in different sizes. Additionally, airboats were flying off and landing there constantly.

Zhang Tie had seen an airport which contained thousands of airships; however, thousands of airboats were as shocking as a fleet.

It was just on the periphery of Xuanyuan Hill.

After being stunned for a short while, Zhang Tie suddenly realized that there wasn’t any airboat or knight in the front air territory except for white clouds. He then turned around and asked Bai Suxian.

Bai Suxian threw a glance at him with a smile, "This is a no-fly zone like that of Lion Fortress. However, this no-fly zone is stricter than that of Lion Fortress. In the air territory of Xuanyuan Hill, neither airboats nor knights could fly. Only birds, sage-level knights and airships that are driven by floating air sacs could still fly above Xuanyuan Hill. Although this kind of airship could fly over there, they have to land at the airport over 130 miles away from Xuanyuan Hill, from where passengers could enter Xuanyuan Hill by ground traffic tools. All the airships within 60 miles around Xuanyuan Hill will be shot down. By contrast, airboats could enter the periphery of Xuanyuan Hill. But If they entered the no-fly zone of Xuanyuan Hill, they would fall off!"

"Even heavenly knight could not fly here?"

"If you see anyone flying in the no-fly zone, he must be a sage-level knight. Only sage-level human knight could enjoy such a privilege to fly above Xuanyuan Hill. As for others, even the top three chancellors have to go to the imperial court by ground traffic tools!"

"How large is Xuanyuan Hill?"

Bai Suxian threw a glance at Zhang Tie with a smile before replying, "The radius of the no-fly zone above Xuanyuan Hill is 380 miles. It’s Xuanyuan Hill below the no-fly zone."

"436670 square miles!" Zhang Tie immediately worked out the area of Xuanyuan Hill with the powerful calculating ability of mental arithmetic by abacus.

This was the core region of human civilization which covered over 600,000 square miles. It was almost as large as Zhang Tie’s Fire Dragon Bounty Territory...

’F*ck!’