Castle of Black Iron

Zhang Tie had not eaten supper with his family members for three years. His parents were very happy. The kids were running around the table, making a very boisterous atmosphere. No matter what, those elder sisters-in-law were at least kind with each other superficially. Therefore, they all had a happy meal.

After supper, Zhang Tie’s eldest sister-in-law asked Zhang Tie about the current situation of Blackhot City. After hearing that Blackhot City had been deserted by Norman Empire due to demons disaster and all the residents had moved out of the city, she was shocked very much.

Even his dad and mom sighed for that.

When the eldest sister-in-law asked Zhang Tie about the situation in Blackhot city, the other two sisters-in-law only sat aside and listened to their talk. Eldest sister-in-law looked as same as before while the 2nd and the 3rd elder sisters-in-law smiled. Zhang Tie could sense the subtle relationship between three women.

The eldest sister-in-law’s family background was very common. Her parents opened a tailor’s store. The 2nd and the 3rd wives of Zhang Yang both originated from rich and powerful clans. Zhang Tie’s 2nd elder sister-in-law came from an influential clan of Jinhai City, which ran a big ocean fishing company. Because they had business dealings with Jinwu Corporation, Lu Shiyun married Zhang Yang through the introduction of their family members.

Although the eldest sister-in-law and the 3rd elder sister-in-law shared the same surname Wang, their families were completely different from each other. The 3rd elder sister-in-law came from Shude Palace of Wang Clan, one of the 6 top clans in Jinyun Country. Although she was not very noble in Wang Clan, she belonged to the direct line of descent of Wang Clan. Since she was young, she had received a good education and had a broad vision. Her father and brothers were all working as officers in Tianxi City, where the awarded prefecture of Wang Clan belonged to.

In such a case, Zhang Tie’s eldest sister-in-law had a sense of crisis. She needed to seek for a chance to consolidate her position in Zhang Yang’s family. Zhang Tie could understand it. Besides, he even coordinated with her very well. Zhang Tie always respected this very virtuous eldest sister-in-law who had been following his elder brother since in Blackhot City.

After chatting with each other for a while, as it was too late, Zhang Yang asked his wives and kids to go to bed first. Zhang Tie’s parents knew that Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang had a lot to talk with each other after having separated for a couple of years. Therefore, they went to bed too.

Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang then came to Zhang Yang’s study room from the parlor.

After entering Zhang Yang’s study room, at the sight of the thick carpet and the rows of books on the book shelves, Zhang Tie nodded inside, "That’s what a home should look like."

Zhang Tie casually threw himself onto the cozy sofa. Zhang Yang made two cups of tea and sat on Zhang Tie side as he passed one cup to Zhang Tie.

The special, dense fragrance and the glazed liquid in the tea cup were familiar to Zhang Tie, which reminded Zhang Tie of many things at once.

"Top Wild Spring from Eastern Continent!"

"You know that?" Zhang Yang glanced at Zhang Tie with an amazing look before letting out a sigh, "It seems that you lived well in the outside these years!"

"I drunk it once in the clan senior’s room!" Zhang Tie smiled. He then added two cubes of sugar from the sugar cup into the tea cup and slightly stirred up.

"It’s my first time to see the best drinking method of top Wild Spring! I will also have a try!" watching Zhang Tie’s movement, Zhang Yang burst out into laughter as he also added two cubes of sugar into the tea cup. Zhang Tie also burst out into laughter. He finally could enjoy adding sugar into top Wild Spring tea water at home after 4 years.

What was progress? This was progress! The small cup of tea water indicated the power and social position of Zhang Clan.

"I know you have a lot of questions to ask. Go ahead. I will talk after you..." after drinking a mouth of sweet Wild Spring tea water, Zhang Tie’s elder brother smacked his lip as he watched Zhang Tie.

"Where are those people that I brought here from Blackhot City?"

"After being told that you were not back together with them, I dispatched some powerhouses to pick you up in Blackhot City. When they arrived, they heard the news that Master Abyan was assassinated. His castle disappeared. Nobody knew what happened. Even you were lost. Closely after that, the holy war broke out. Those people waited for you in Huaiyuan Prefecture for one year. They were not used to living here; mainly because of language problem. Finally, many of them thought you were dead or could not stay in Huaiyuan Prefecture after encountering some accident; therefore, I sent them away from Waii Sub-Continent!"

"Where were they?"

"Eastern Continent!"

After being told that those guys of God Blessing Association and those girls of Rose Association had gone to Eastern Continent, Zhang Tie finally let out a sigh inside. "That’s good. They could at least live a steady life. Perhaps some of them thought that they would not see me again. I could only seek for a chance to explain it to them.

Zhang Tie knew that when he would see those girls of Rose Association in the future, most of them would have their own families. The absurd experience between him and them would come to an end.

Waving his head, Zhang Tie forced a smile. "What a special day! It seems that all the familiar female came to bid farewell to me for the bygones today, including Miss Daina and those girls of Rose Association. My elder brother has increasingly more wives; however, I don’t even have one. I’m afraid that I might not have a chance to see those girls of Rose Association anymore. I could only hope for them to live a happy life after leaving this continent."

Watching Zhang Tie’s bitter smile, Zhang Yang also smiled, "Hoho, easy; actually, besides Miss Daina who stayed here for his younger brother’s treatment, three women are still staying in Huaiyuan Prefecture who said that they would wait for you to come back."

"Three?" Zhang Tie blinked his eyes as he felt something strange.

"Hmm, Linda, Beverly and Fiona. When I went to pick you up, I planned to take all of them; but considering our parents’ feelings, I didn’t notice them. You can give them a surprise!"

"Where are they?"

"Right in Yiyang City. They learnt Chinese very fast. They even opened a clothing store which has a good business. They are living together and looking after each other. I’ve already sent Beverly and Fiona’s family members to the Eastern Continent and have people help them settle down there." after saying this, Zhang Yang even patted Zhang Tie’s shoulders, "Hmm, these women are not bad!"

Zhang Tie drew in a deep breath as he controlled his impulsion to find them. After that, Zhang Tie asked another question, "What about other people. Are they used to the language of Eastern Continent? I’m afraid that many of them couldn’t speak Chinese. Is it okay to have them sent to Eastern Continent?"

Zhang Yang replied with a smile, "The size of the Eastern Continent is thousands times that of Waii Sub-Continent. Although it is predominated by Chinese, on the border of Eastern Continent, there are also some agglomerations of minorities who speak Hebrew. Each minority would have millions of people. Therefore, they would not have problem in communication over there."

After hearing Zhang Yang’s words, Zhang Tie found that besides reading a travel note written by a foreigner about Eastern Continent when in Blackhot City, he knew very little about Eastern Continent. Therefore, he felt a bit shameful about that.

"How’s Eastern Continent?" can you talk with me about that, elder brother. To be shameful, as a Chinese, I only know a bit about that continent." Zhang Tie asked.

"Fine. I started to know about Eastern Continent in business these years as I touched more and more people over there. Let me talk with you about that!" Zhang Yang slightly raised his head with a gleaming look, "There’s only one country predominated by Chinese in the entire Eastern Continent, which is called Taixia. The country is very prosperous. It has numerous Chinese people and vacant territory. It has 9 divine provinces, 36 upper provinces, 72 greater provinces and numerous medium- and small-sized provinces and prefectures. It’s the most prosperous land of human civilization, the ruling center of Taixia and the sacred land of Chinese. It’s called Xuanyuan Hill. It was said that Xuanyuan Hill was the sacred item of the far-ancient Chinese and the jewelry that Chinese excavated from the underground world after the Catastrophe."

"Argh? Isn’t Xuanyuan Hill a place? Then why was it excavated from the underground world?"

"Xuanyuan Hill is both a place and is excavated from the underground world. I’ve not seen it. However, I was told that Xuanyuan Hill was a huge mysterious cube, whose length, width and height was about 100 km respectively. Its greater part is still buried underground!"

Zhang Tie became dumbfounded, "What about the Eastern Continent now? Are they still fighting?"

"The flames of war have not reached the Eastern Continent. If it reached the center of human civilization, Waii Sub-Continent had long been burned into ashes by demons. We would not be sitting and drinking tea here anymore."

Zhang Tie nodded. "Although the Waii Sub-Continent has been covered with flames of war, given its geographical position and its power on the human side, it is just the beginning of the holy war."

However, this had already brought Zhang Tie a great stress. He became a bit worried about the future; especially after witnessing the power of demon corps, Zhang Tie was clear that Waii Sub-Continent could not stand too long in this holy war. It was already 3 years since the beginning of the holy war; however, 1/4 of the territory of Waii Sub-Continent had collapsed. Numerous people had been killed. All the countries on the Waii Sub-Continetn were ruined. Who knew what it would be here after 10 years. Zhang Tie was even not sure if humans could sustain 10 years here.

Zhang Tie then told Zhang Yang what he had witnessed in Selnes Theater of Operations and his judgment about the holy war. After that, he watched his elder brother seriously, "If our foundation could not be established here in the future, Waii Sub-Continent would completely collapse sooner or later. Therefore, from now on, elder brother, I hope you to prepare for moving our home to Eastern Continent as soon as possible. We need to take our parents, my elder sisters-in-law and the kids away from here. We have to lose some money for the future of our family!"

"Of course, I know. I’ve already started to prepare for this a couple of years ago. We have made more than 10 million gold coins by selling all-purpose medicament these years. Plus other incomes, we can restart our business wherever we go!"

"It’s too good if you think that way, elder brother. As long as we are alive, we can make ten more times, even 100 times more!"

"I find you are much more confident than before!"

"Haha, no kidding, elder brother. You’ve doubled the population of our family these years. After two decades, when those kids have babies, our family would be great!" Zhang Tie joked.

Zhang Yang glared at Zhang Tie, "Don’t talk nonsense. If not dad and mom worried about you, I wouldn’t have so many kids! Have you seen that our mom didn’t smile until being surrounded by those kids? She was transferring her attention; otherwise, the moment she thought about you, she would drop tears silently!"

Zhang Tie finally knew why his elder brother gave birth to babies so crazily these years.

"This is an accident. I promise this will not happen again!" Zhang Tie explained with a bashful look.

After picking himself up, Zhang Yang took out of a silver box from a drawer and put it in front of Zhang Tie.

"What’s this?" Zhang Tie asked.

"Take a look at it!"

Zhang Tie opened it and saw two fluorescent diamond crystal columns being wrapped with a rune metal structure. Each of them were in the size of three fingers in a bundle. They looked like an hourglass, "Argh, twin mirror crystals..."

"Since you disappeared, I’ve started to prepare this item. Later on, I got one set from Eastern Continent through Long Wind Corporation. This set is of top quality among long-distance communication equipment. It’s very small. Although being rare, it’s not sophisticated in use. You should take this and learn how to use it when you are free. Later on, no matter how far you will walk, you can be in touch with me at any time. Give me a message when you’re free for the sake of mom’s concern!"

This item could only be available for regimental commander even in Norman Empire’s Army. It was really out of Zhang Tie’s imagination that his elder brother could fetch one for him. Zhang Tie was not used to luxurious items. However, this time, as long as he could contact with his family members using it, Zhang Tie felt very worthwhile to have it.

Taking up one of them, Zhang Tie found it was linked with a firm metal chain for the sake of convenience. Zhang Tie took a look at it before wearing it over his neck. Zhang Yang wore the other one over his own neck.

"How much does this pair of item cost?"

"This pair of small top-quality item costs more than 300,000 gold coins. They could only be bought from Eastern Continent!" Zhang Yang then took out a brochure from the box and handed it to Zhang Tie, "Here’s the user manual of this device. Take a look at it. We’d better make a set of key information or code so as to identify our real status when in communication!"

In the following 10 minutes, the two brothers solved this problem through a careful negotiation.

With the means that they could use to communicate with each other in the future, both Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang let out a deep sigh.

"I remember there was a communication device called mobile among numerous long-distance communication means before the Catastrophe. It only costed a bit more than 10 silver coins to have a mobile. But that mobile could not match my necklace which costs 200,000 gold coins.’ Zhang Tie thought.

"Oh, elder brother, what’s your level now?"

"I’m just LV 6. I don’t have a good talent like you. Additionally, I put most of my efforts on business these years; therefore, I didn’t spend too much time on cultivation. When money will not work, this home has to rely on you!" Zhang Yang told Zhang Tie seriously.

If the holy war didn’t break out, Zhang Yang, as a LV 6 fighter, could serve as a small military officer in the city guards of Blackhot City. If so, he could already make his family members proud and satisfied. However, at this moment, an average LV 6 fighter who had not even awakened his ancestral bloodline was far away from showing off his talent and making others reassured.

Zhang Tie knew that his elder brother must have another more powerful and more respectable status besides being a rich businessman so that Zhang family could tide over difficulties even if Zhang Tie was dead. Their family required a double shelter.

This was the main reason for Zhang Tie to come back to Huaiyuan Prefecture this time.

"Elder brother. As you have gifted me a long-distance crystal; turn around and guess what I will gift you!" Zhang Tie joked.

"Haha, don’t joke with me. If you have something, I must have seen it!" Zhang Yang thought that Zhang Tie was kidding him like what he always did in the childhood.

"I will perform a magic. Turn around. Elder brother. Let me keep a bit mystery!"

Watching Zhang Tie’s serious look, Zhang Yang then turned around as he warned Zhang Tie, "I tell you, younger brother. Don’t scare me with a toad or snake like what you usually did. We’re adults now, don’t play such a naive game anymore!"

After hearing that, Zhang Tie grinned. After his elder brother turned around, Zhang Tie used some spiritual energy and moved out a crystal red fruit which was much smaller than an apple out of Castle of Black Iron——Fruit of Plunder! That was a reward from the small tree after Zhang Tie killed Abyan.

Zhang Tie held the fruit which was a bit bigger than a plum. A mysterious luster seemed flowing in the fruit, which was eye-catching.

"It’s okay, elder brother. The magic is over. You can turn around!" Zhang Tie told Zhang Yang calmly.

Zhang Yang turned around and caught sight of that crystal fruit which radiated a mysterious splendor. He became stunned at once. Closely after that, he grinned, "Ho, you’ve hidden something with you. Is this your gift? It looks beautiful. Is it made of crystal?"

"This fruit is eatable; I especially brought it here for you, elder brother!"

"Eatable? It’s a fruit? What a strange fruit! It’s my first time to see such a fruit. Did you find it in the wild? Is it poisonous?" Zhang Yang joked as he held it and looked at it with a calm look.

"Elder brother. Can you promise me two things before eating it. Firstly, don’t ask me where did I get this fruit. I don’t want to lie to you. It’s very complex. It’s not a good thing if you know it. Let’s take it as my secret. Secondly, don’t tell anyone else that you’ve eaten this fruit!" Zhang Tie watched Zhang Yang with a solemn look.

"Ha, that sounds serious. Well, I promise you. I will not ask where did you get it or tell anyone else about this, even your elder sisters-in-law, how about that?" Zhang Yang still remained very relaxed.

Zhang Tie nodded very seriously.

"Then, let me taste it?"

"You’d better engulf it, including all of its juice!"

Zhang Yang replied with a smile as he didn’t doubt that Zhang Tie gave him something bad to eat. Therefore, he engulfed it at once. After chewing it for a while, he swallowed it directly.

"Hmm, it tastes a bit weird..." Zhang Yang smacked his lips, "It’s a bit similar too..."

Before Zhang Yang finished his words, he had widely opened his eyes as he started to quiver all over. Right then, he felt numerous knowledge surged in his mind. Like he knew all of them, they became clear all of a sudden, including names of herbal medicines and plants, features and drug properties of animals, manufacturing methods of weird liquids and powders, familiar operating processes, genes sequences, formulas, manufacturing methods of medicament and pills, treatment of diseases and assessment criteria of pharmacists...

Zhang Yang panted and rolled up his eyes as his eyelids quivered. He cramped once and remained in this state for about an hour before he gradually recovered his composure...

He watched Zhang Tie, then his hands with a shocking look. Then, he muttered in an unimaginable and quivering tone, "Argh...what’s wrong with me...I now...feel...I’m already an orange-robe pharmacist. I know so many knowledge, I’ve learnt manufacturing methods of so many medicament at once..."

Zhang Tie took a deep breath, "Elder brother, you’re indeed an orange-robe pharmacist now. You’ve already grasped all the knowledge that should be mastered by an orange-robe pharmacist. With this status, you will be able to protect our home now..."

"That fruit..." Zhang Yang widely opened his eyes and gazed at Zhang Tie. It seemed that he had understood something at once. Zhang Yang felt that all the surprises that he had accumulated since he was born could not match 1/100 of his current surprise.

Zhang Tie slightly nodded.

Zhang Yang was too shocked to utter a word. He wanted to ask where did Zhang Tie get that fruit; however, he stopped at once as he remembered what he had promised to Zhang Tie.

The room became quiet for 3 minutes before Zhang Yang recovered his breath. As he was intense, his voice became a bit trembling and hoarse, "After a few days...I will complete the authentication of herbal medicine apprentice in the Pharmacists Trade Union. This will not arouse others’ attention..."

"Hmm, pass the authentication of herbal medicine apprentice first; before leaving here, you’d better promote to knapsack herbal medicine master. After that, you should complete the the authentication of orange-robe pharmacist within 10 years. You’re already a top talent in others’ eyes if you could make that in 10 years. It’s not good if you promote too fast!" Zhang Tie explained calmly.

...

2 hours later, when it was later than 11 pm in the midnight, Zhang Tie stood in front of a door on the 3rd floor of an apartment building in a safe high-end community and consecutively pressed the doorbell for three times.

"Fiona, go take a look who’s that..." a familiar, tender voice drifted out of the door.

"Argh, who knows..." with a sound caused by slippers moving on the floor, Zhang Tie heard, "That’s too boring. We’ve been tired for the entire day. I’ve not cooked well my strawberry jam yet..."

Hearing the footsteps drawing nearer, Zhang Tie moved one step back. He then laid out his clothes and revealed a smile in front of the peephole on the door.

After a few seconds, the peephole was opened from inside, closely after a crashing sound caused by a plate falling on the floor.

"Argh, Fiona, what’s wrong?" Linda’s voice drifted from the inside of the room as she walked towards the door.

The door was opened. Fiona in pajamas burst out into tears. She immediately thew herself into Zhang Tie’s chest as she hugged Zhang Tie tightly. When Linda caught sight of Zhang Tie, she also became stunned at once. Covering his mouth with hand, she didn’t believe what she saw as her tears also poured out at once.

...