Castle of Black Iron

Bagdad looked outstanding among the crowd because of his height. Besides him, Zhang Tie also caught sight of Barley, Hista, Leit, and Doug. With the exception of Sharwin, all the other members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood had gathered here.

There were more than 30 people circling the door of his house, making it noisy over there. Besides the members of the Brotherhood and the group of Gods Bliss Association, Zhang Tie also saw Captain Kerlin and Mr. Zerom along with the other two teachers of the Temporary Supervision Committee. As for the other people, some of them were onlookers while the rest were loudly shouting.

After taking in that scene, Zhang Tie knew that the event of when he had broken Zuhair’s neck in the canteen of Wild Wolf Castle had finally broken out after a few days’ development.

Judging by how much time had passed since everyone returned to now, the duel was about to start. Zuhair’s family would have had enough time after receiving the notice of their boy’s death to figure out Zhang Tie’s background, and most likely, prepare well to start a duel with him.

A bunch of people were surrounding the house. Someone wanted to rush inside, but Zhang Tie’s elder brother forcefully held them back with an excuse that Zhang Tie was not home. However, there were still someone who didn’t believe that and tried to use force to enter the house to find him.

A person jumped at Zhang Tie’s elder brother, shouting out loudly, ”Call Zhang Tie out. He killed my younger brother. Now, according to the rules of the Norman Empire, I would like to challenge him to a duel. Don’t be as timid as a rabbit!”

”Come out, come out, call the killer out! If Zhang Tie doesn’t come out, we will go in!”

Many people started to clamor.

”Zhang Tie is definitely not at home. Wait a moment, don’t be impulsive...” Barley tried to reason with the crowd.

Several teachers of the Temporary Supervision Committee in the survival training stood a bit farther away with neutral stances. They didn’t take sides with either of the two parties. According to the rules of the Norman Empire, their role now was only act as witnesses of a fair duel between Zuhair’s family members and Zhang Tie. This was also one of the aftermath tasks of survival training.

”Zhang Tie must have hidden himself. He wants to escape from the duel. Let’s rush inside to catch him!” someone started to loudly shout from the crowd, inciting others to break through.

”Who dare to come in, this father will slay him here!” Zhang Tie’s elder brother roared, immediately pulling out the long sword on his waist and pointing it at those who wanted to rush into the house.

Seeing Zhang Tie’s elder brother pulling out his long sword, the one who was jumping up in the crowd did not hesitate to pull out his own long sword too. At the same time, the sounds of ’ceng’, ’ceng’, ’ceng’ could be heard everywhere. Many people had already pulled out their long swords, bringing a dense smell of iron in the air. Seeing this, some onlookers hurriedly ran away.

”Who said I was hiding?”

At the most dangerous moment, Zhang Tie’s voice could be heard. Everybody turned their heads to see him slowly walk towards them on the sidewalk.

At the sight of him, his elder brother looked a bit worried, while the eyes of the members of the Brotherhood were filled with concern. In contrast, the inciters’ eyes were filled with pleasure at his misfortune.

The crowd separated, allowing Zhang Tie to calmly walk through.

”You’re Zhang Tie?”

At the sight of Zhang Tie, that person who had been in confrontation with his elder brother turned back and ferociously glared at him.

Judging from that person’s face, which was a bit similar to Zuhair’s, Zhang Tie guessed who that person was.

”You’re Zuhair’s elder brother?”

”Right, was it you who killed Zuhair in the survival training?”

”Right, he deserved to die, so I killed him!” Zhang Tie calmly admitted it.

Hearing that, the person walked towards Zhang Tie, a long sword in his hand...

At that moment, a hand stopped him. Zerom had moved to stand between the two.

”It is your right to start a duel with Zhang Tie; Zhang Tie cannot refuse it. However, the duel has to proceed with fairness. Private killing in revenge is definitely forbidden, unless you want to be a murderer who is wanted across the Norman Empire. ”

That person then stopped and glared at Zhang Tie with a death-filled look before forcefully returning his long sword into the sheath on his waist.

During this period, Zhang Tie greeted the surrounding friends and relatives with a smile, including Captain Kerlin and the teachers of the Temporary Supervision Committee. His careless look made the guys who were casting furious glare at him gnash their teeth.

”Zhang Tie, in the survival training, based on the rules of barbarous survival training of the Norman Empire, you killed Zuhair in public, so you should face any request for a duel from anyone of Zuhair’s blood-tied relatives within three generations. You cannot refuse it. I have to warn you that in the duel, like how when you killed Zuhair, Zuhair’s family members will not assume any responsibility if they kill you!” Zerom warned Zhang Tie once more with a solemn expression.

”Thanks for you warning, Mr. Zerom. I accept the request for a duel from Zuhair’s family at any time and any place!” he calmly said, his expression not changing at all. Since the day he had killed Zuhair, he was waiting for today.

Zhang Tie’s calm made even Mr. Zerom and Captain Kerlin, who had been staring at him, a bit startled. With the exception of Zhang Tie’s elder brother, nobody at the present, including Zerom and Captain Kerlin, knew that Zhang Tie had encountered many things since he returned home two days ago. Now, he was not the same boy of before.

”According to the dueling rules of the Norman Empire, long-ranged weapons like bows and arrows, javelins, hidden weapons, and crossbow bolts, as well as pets, riding, and poisonous substances are prohibited. Each dueler can only bring two weapons at most. I have to warn you of this in advance; it was especially requested by Zuhair’s family members!” a teacher standing nearby warned Zhang Tie once again.

”I know!”

Zhang Tie nodded.

”Now that you’ve agreed, here is the duel certificate. You two sign on it. According to the laws of the Norman Empire, the duel will start seven days after the signing of this certificate. It will be held at your school, the Seventh National Male Middle School. You two have one week to prepare for it. During the period, according to laws of the Norman Empire, if either of you runs away from this duel, he will become a wanted man across the whole Norman Empire. After being caught, the one that had escaped would be lowered to become a guilty slave while his family members’ status would also be degraded. ”

After saying this, the teacher pulled out a drafted duel certificate from his pocket and let Zhang Tie and Zuhair’s elder brother sign on it.

After a ferocious glare at Zhang Tie, Zuhair’s elder brother took the pencil and signed his name without any hesitation.

When Zhang Tie took the pen, his elder brother rushed and shouted loudly, ”I will participate in this duel on behalf of my younger brother!”

”No, this duel can only be accepted by Zhang Tie himself. No one else can represent him!”

With a shake of his head, Captain Kerlin stretched out his arm to stop Zhang Yang who was driven to a bout of impulsiveness.

”Bighead..!” the members of the Brotherhood started to shout in unison.

Zhang Tie just smiled at them, who cared about his well-being, before signing his name on the duel certificate without any hesitation. When he did so, he learned that Zuhair’s elder brother was named Sodor.

After Zhang Tie signed his name, Sodor burst out laughing. Glaring at Zhang Tie, he sniggered, ”Brat, you’ve seven days left, pray for yourself. Seven days later, I’ll break your bones before chopping off your head to make you pay for Zuhair!”

”Idiot!”

Zhang Tie showed the whites of his eyes, not caring about the man before him at all.

’What’s Sodor’s level, LV 4, LV5, or LV 6? Ma Long in the dark cell looked much more powerful than him. I don’t need to worry about the duel with him at all!’

After achieving their goal here, Sodor and his men left. They were no longer afraid that Zhang Tie would escape anymore. If he ran now, they would be even happier as a guilty slave and the family that contained a guilty slave would suffer a lot.

As Sodor and his men left, Captain Kerlin and the other teachers who had witnessed and arranged the signing of the duel also left in case of gossip.

When Captain Kerlin was about to leave, Zhang Tie called him, ”Captain Kerlin!”

”I’m not captain anymore, call me Instructor Kerlin!”

The one-eyed man forced out a helpless smile. The City Guard had already ceased to exist except in name. The one-eyed man felt shamed by letting others call him captain anymore. The appellation that he liked before sounded a bit jarring now.

”Thank you!”

Zhang Tie sincerely bowed in front of the one-eyed man. If this person hadn’t presented him the book of Iron-Blood Fist skill, although alive, Zhang Tie would have never been set up this well.

Scratching his head, the one-eyed man asked, ”What for?”

”Do you remember what you told me on that night when I was recuperating in the Wild Wolf Castle? Because of a couple reasons, I’ve become that one in a hundred now!”

Zhang Tie believed that the one-eyed man could understand what he was talking about.

As expected, upon hearing Zhang Tie’s words, the one-eyed man became stunned for awhile before widely opening his eyes and staring at Zhang Tie, like having seen a ghost.

Finally, the one-eyed man took a deep breath to recover his composure. ”Perhaps this was the best decision that I’ve made in my life. I’ll be expecting to see your performance seven days later!”

After saying this, he glanced at Zhang Tie again before leaving. Most of the onlookers already left by now.

This left only the members of the Brotherhood outside Zhang Tie’s house.

As soon as they heard that Sodor was here to request a duel with Zhang Tie, Barley and the other members of the Brotherhood had rushed over. In the past two days, the news that Zhang Tie had killed Zuhair spread like wildfire. It went not only through their school, but others, too. The event became the biggest news among the students that had attended this survival training in Blackhot City.

The Brotherhood always kept an eye on how this event was developing. Previously, they had set to gather tomorrow, but unexpectedly, Sodor, the elder brother of Zuhair, had decided to find Zhang Tie trouble today. In case their friend might suffer a big loss when he met Sodor, they hurriedly followed the mass here to boost their companion’s morale.

Knowing that Zhang Tie had something to explain to his family members, Barley and the other members of the Brotherhood also left after warning Zhang Tie to be careful.

But before Barley could leave, Zhang Tie had pulled him close to whisper something in his ear. Upon hearing the words, Barley popped out his eyes.

Zhang Tie had told him two things: first, he was already LV 4 now and had formed Iron-Blood hidden strength; second, he was a second lieutenant of No. 39 Division of Iron-Horn Army of the Norman Empire.

...

Even after leaving the Zhang house several hundreds meters behind, Barley still felt his head humming. At the same time, his legs felt soft, like stepping onto cotton. While Hista and Bagdad were concerned and discussed the duel in seven days, only Leit found that Barley was a bit absent-minded.

On a path with fewer people, Leit asked, ”Barley, what did Bighead tell you just now. You don’t look good.”

Woken up by Leit, Barley shook his head before looking around and realizing that they were already far away from Zhang’s family.

”It’s not convenient to talk about it just now. Bighead told me two things, he wanted me to tell you not to worry about his duel!”

”What?”

Everybody curiously stared at Barley .

Barley made a hand gesture for the four people move closer to him. Afterwards, he repeated the two things that Zhang Tie had told him which made all the other animals dumbfounded...

...

The moment Zhang Tie returned home, he saw his mom’s worrisome look. Without any hesitation, he directly knelt down in front of her when he entered the house.

”Mom, sorry, you son made you worried once again...”

Previously, as Sodor and his men were shouting outside the door by requesting a duel with Zhang Tie, his mom had heard them all, including how Zhang Tie had killed Zuhair in the survival training. Touching Zhang Tie’s face and seeing him kneeling down in front of her, his mom immediately burst into tears.

Although he had described the survival training life as simple and interesting as living in the suburbs, nobody knew how much bitterness and how many dangers he had experienced. What happened today broke the white lie that Zhang Tie had fabricated before his dad and mom, exposing the troubles that he had experienced in the survival training to them.

”Tell me how you’ve suffered a lot and encountered many dangers in this survival training, even almost losing your life! Mom knows your temperament. If not being forced to that degree, you would never kill anyone!”

Zhang Tie nodded and tears slipped down his cheeks. ”They didn’t want me to come back alive. I didn’t want to be set up or see mom cry holding my ash case everyday. So I killed him. Will you forgive me, mom?”

”It’s all my fault, I couldn’t even protect my own younger brother, leaving you to be bullied by others...” Zhang Yang’s tears also fell down his face, and he knelt down in front of mom. ”Mom, just condemn me!”

”I will not condemn either of you. Zhang Tie, well done...” Touching her sons’ faces, their mom also started crying as she spoke in a tone as hard as iron and steel. ”Remember, from today on, no matter who wants to kill you brothers, even if the emperor, kill them all! Your dad and I are very satisfied with you two. As long as you two can survive, your dad and I will feel like we’ve not lived in vain. If there’s something wrong with you brothers’ lives, your dad and I will not feel like living on either.

”So if you meet something that endangers your lives, don’t care about your dad and I, just look after yourselves and live on well. This is what we would like to see most. Remember, you’re from Zhang family, and you are Chinese. We Chinese is one most honorable human race, and the reincarnation of the Heaven’s Dao. As a big family, Zhang is an honorable family name. We Chinese Zhang prefer to fight to death instead of kneeling down to seek for survival, in the sky or under the ground. Nobody can bully our Zhang family in this world...”