Castle of Black Iron Chapter 597: Breaking Through the Bottleneck (I)

Chapter 597: Breaking Through the Bottleneck (I)
Translator: WQL Editor: EbonyFrost
In the following months, although Zhang Tie didn't participate in the battles in the Misty Moon Woods, he had heard about the allied human forces' method and the progress of the warfare over there.
What Zhang Tie hadn't imagined was that the measure adopted by allied human forces to deal with demons' plot would be so simple. They dispatched a corps of fewer than 100,000 people into the Misty Moon Woods. The corps was the well-known Jungle's Leopard Corps from Barl, the country of the jungle.
This corps was the most powerful corps-level jungle combat troop in Selnes Theater of Operations. They could play a great role in the Misty Moon Woods.
It was said that this corps could fight for over 1 year in the jungle without any supplies.
Zhang Tie even started to doubt that the task might be specially prepared by the human alliance command for this jungle leopard corps.
Although the jungle leopard corps entered the Misty Moon Woods, they didn't enter the underground space. Only one female entered the underground space. She was a voodoo pharmacist, the rarest advanced profession among pharmacists.
It was so rare that Zhang Tie even didn't hear about it before. They excelled at refining various poisons and killing people in various secret methods as the darkest existence among pharmacists. If common pharmacists could serve as doctors par- time, voodoo pharmacists were totally aiming at destroying lives.
After the voodoo pharmacist left the underground space, that demonized puppets corps of Senel Clan had to leave the underground space too.
Because the only water source of the underground space had been contaminated by the severe poison released by the voodoo pharmacist. There were also various fatal poisons in those closed underground tunnels which had been excavated by human captives. Even demonized puppets could not stand that, not to mention human captives.
In the words of the "Holy War News", that voodoo pharmacist turned the entire underground space into a "huge poisonous vat", including those underground tunnels which were excavated by the demonized puppets corps. In the next decade, demons would not organize the same thing again.
The underground space was in a special environment. Even the largest water source was an underground lake. Additionally, the air flow condition was poor over there. Although there were great differences between the underground space and that above ground on many aspects, it was really great to destroy the demons' plot with only one person's strength.
Compared to what meritorious deed Zhang Tie had made, this was also a very exciting and inspiring achievement. Therefore, the human alliance command delivered the second order of commendation to her and rewarded the voodoo pharmacist with the honor "Selnes Snake".
Although commoners disliked snakes, voodoo pharmacists really regarded any honor with word snake as a reward.
Additionally, besides being very mysterious, that voodoo pharmacist was a woman called Tirsyris.
A woman obtained an honor in Selnes Theater of Operations and aborted the plot of a demonized puppets corps. This aroused shock across the theater of operations at once. Many people started to match her contributions with that of Zhang Tie.
With one more hero, the others' confidence rocketed once again. They seemed to be seeing the twilight of victory. However, for Zhang Tie, the tough battle had just begun.
Since June, with the arrival of the long-term rainy forest of summer in Selnes, Zhang Tie's responsibilities became heavier. In July, August and September, the times that Zhang Tie executed tasks by glider and the period that he lasted in the air refreshed the entire Selnes Theatre of Operations.
In the same period, the confrontations and battles between wing demon troops and human airship troops grew fiercer across the Selnes Theater of Operations.
During the three months, human airship troops lost over 1400 airships, whereas, human airship troops also broke through demons' air defense line many times and seized the opportunity to make a large-scale air strike towards the northern regions under the rule of demons, which caused a severe blow to some demonized puppets corps.
In July, under a delicate plan, Lan Yunxi's airship troop abruptly entered the airspace of the collapsed Titanic Duchy and raided Erie, a major city in the south of Titanic Douchy under the rule of demons. As a result, the entire city was destroyed along with a large batch of military materials being stored in Erie by the demons' corps in the frontline. Additionally, a demonized puppets corps in Erie suffered casualties numbering at least 200,000.
Since the confrontation between allied human forces and demons in Selnes Theatre of Operations, this was a rare overwhelming triumph of human airship troop and the first time for a human troop to destroy a city under the rule of demons. The successful air strike being named "Double-Arc Move" by Lan Yunxi also made her one of the most brilliant generals across the Selnes Theatre of Operations.
Both parties had made triumphs in the air and on the ground in the three months.
Zhang Tie mainly executed his tasks in the sky. Over the past three months, Zhang Tie found the wing demons became more difficult to deal with. He was gradually losing his advantage in fighting wing demons by glider in the sky.
Now, he could rarely meet a wing demon in the sky or directly met a troop of wing demons. After killing a common wing demon, he would soon become the target of LV 11 wing demons in the troop of wing demons and be chased by them.
Zhang Tie met the latter situation once. It was very risky. In order to dodge from that LV 11 wing demon, he directly dove into a big river with the glider.
This was because a LV 11 wing demons' fighting strength and speed had made Zhang Tie's javelins ineffective.
That time, Zhang Tie was injured. Additionally, he lost a glider. Thankfully, he returned to the Crystal Battle Fortress. After returning to the Crystal Battle Fortress, Zhang Tie made a serious analysis about this battle and finally reached a conclusion, 'It seems to be tricky in the air from now on.'
Zhang Tie knew that his events and name must have been known by the management of demonized puppets corps. Additionally, wing demons had already worked out the method to deal with him based on his ability——average LV 9 and LV 10 wing demons would descend at the sight of him and escape along the direction of the air flow based on their agility in the air. They could soon dodge his attacks and hunt in this way. However, high-level wing demons, at the sight of him would immediately rush forward to kill him.
In such a situation, although Zhang Tie increased his frequency to execute tasks, he could hunt fewer and fewer wing demons over three months. From the beginning of July to the end of September, Zhang Tie hunted less than 10 wing demons in total. However, he almost lost his life many times in the air.
As the number of wing demons that he could hunt decreased sharply, the fruit of source of wing demons that Zhang Tie had desired for a long time still wasn't ripe. Therefore, his military exploits on the Military Exploits Rankings remained unchanged. At the same time, the military exploits of the other elites from six clans started to rocket, causing a fiercer competition on the Military Exploits Rankings in Crystal Battle Fortress.
This was the upper limit that a LV 9 fighter could reach. Like the border between stratosphere and troposphere, it separated two worlds. Zhang Tie felt that he had already reached the bottleneck. Only those above LV 10 could enter the world above this ceiling.
If he didn't break through this ceiling, Zhang Tie knew that he could hardly change such a situation. He would still be chased by LV 11 wing demons in the sky. Those b*stards of Three-eye Association could still casually arrange some killers in the illegal demon hunters market so that he dared not wander in the market casually. This was an urgent survival crisis caused by a low level of power.
Because of this bottleneck and survival crisis, Zhang Tie started to cultivate harder. As long as he was free, he would enter cultivation. He dared not waste any time.
When Zhang Tie proceeded to the first step of the "King Roc Sutra"——planting a golden seed in the Shrine, he constantly strengthened and consolidated his fighting strength and basic fighting skills in all aspects.
In the three months, Zhang Tie obtained 11 iron-body fruits after being beaten by his crew members crazily. Benefiting from those iron-body fruits, Zhang Tie felt that his bones were growing more compact and harder. Additionally, his muscle fibers were growing stronger and more resilient, which could provide a greater explosive force and bear greater resistance. Even his innards had become more stable while being filled with vigorous and agile vitality. Zhang Tie gradually felt that there was an invisible, powerful protective film over those organs.
What was more unimaginable was that Zhang Tie's skin had become better as it looked as shiny as jade, which looked very pleasant and noble.