Castle of Black Iron

Even if sending messages was expensive, Zhang Tie’s family members still kept him up to date on all happenings within the family through remote communications.

Thirty years ago, Zhang Tie’s father, Zhang Ping, was just an average member of the Zhang clan of Huaiyuan Palace in Jinhai City. Zhang Ping was simply an unknown youth amongst the young talents of the Zhang clan in Jinhai City, let alone across Huaiyuan Palace. He was a commoners in all aspects.

Zhang Ping’s father, also Zhang Tie’s grandfather, managed a large-scale shipyard in Jinhai City. Therefore, his family was rich and pretty reputable in Jinhai City. Zhang Ping’s mother, also Zhang Tie’s grandmother, was just the 4th wife. Zhang Tie’s father wasn’t even the eldest son, but the 3rd son of the 4th wife. Additionally, Zhang Tie’s grandmother passed away early on. Zhang Tie’s father became less influential. Although Zhang Ping didn’t have to worry about living, in a big family with fierce competition, if you lost the concern of an important elder, sometimes you might have to face dangers one would never face before.

Zhang Ping’s father was born with a mild temperament. Although his family conditions were not bad, he was average and he possessed no special talents. If he was born in an average household, he might able to live as he wished. However, he was born in a major power like the Huaiyuan Palace. Therefore, it became Zhang Ping’s illusion to live as he wished.

For people like Zhang Tie’s father, even though he was average, he was still a descendant of the Zhang clan of Huaiyuan Palace, which meant that he was doomed to be involved in various matters.

That year, Zhang Ping was forced to get married. He was selected by the Clansman Pavilion of Huaiyuan Palace. Together with the other 7 male descendants of Zhang clan, he would marry into and live with the bride’s family, another big clan in Jinyun Country.

In this day and age, amongst big clans, especially big Chinese clans in countries like Jinyun Country which was under the control of some big Chinese clans, connections through marriage became extremely common yet very important.

It was common because in this age, besides connecting with big Chinese clans through marrying daughters, marrying sons was also commonly seen. For Zhang clan of Huaiyuan Palace, each year, many male and female youths with other family names would marry in. Meanwhile, many female and male youths with the family name of Zhang would marry into other big clans.

These connections through marriage were very important because it was closely related to how many people among the descendants of Zhang family would awaken their ancestral bloodlines——a great, unique talent of Chinese people. Generally speaking, the descendants of people who had awakened their ancestral bloodlines would also have a very high probability of awakening their ancestral bloodlines. Even other ancestral bloodlines that their forefathers hadn’t awoken the possibility of being awakened. The more descendants of a Chinese clan that could awaken an ancestral bloodline, the greater the clan would become.

Count Changfeng Zhang Huaiyuan, the founder of Huiayuan Palace of the Zhang clan had awakened a very powerful ancestral bloodline. Therefore, even though the direct line of descendants of Zhang clan were average, they still had the blood of Count Huaiyuan. If they could carry on the family line, they would be very useful.

Any big clan could not be sustained without fresh blood. Therefore, connections between big clans of the equal social position by marriage had also became the important occurrences in order to maintain the vitality of clans and absorb the the bloodline capabilities of other clans.

It was more like bloodline exchange between big clans.

Those who could connect with Zhang clan of Huaiyuan Palace through marriage were also powerful clans in Jinyun Country.

During this process, those male youths being married in other clans basically met the following requirements: first, they had not awakened the ancestral bloodline as the direct descendant of the clan and had no special talent nor position in the clan; second, they were healthy; third, they looked good and were well-behaved.

Each year, men coming of age among clans who could meet the above three conditions would marry into other clans through drawing lots. This had almost become the tradition of each clan, not being exclusive to Zhang clan.

Unfortunately, Zhang Tie’s father met the above conditions when he came of age and was selected through the drawing of lots. Therefore, he was going to marry in another clan on behalf of Zhang clan in a glorious way.

However, Zhang Ping didn’t wish to allow this to come to pass as he had already fallen in love with a Chinese girl in Jinhai City. Although the girl was born into an average family, she was diligent, kind and good at making rice brew. The first time they saw each other, they fell in love and pledged to marry each other with parental permission. At that time, the two of them had already agreed to get married in one year. However, hearing the result of drawing lots, Zhang Ping immediately fell into abyss.

Almost no man would like marrying into another clan. Therefore, the process of drawing lots was totally open and fair; the result also became the authoritative order of the clan that nobody could resist. In the early years, even the grandson of an elder of the Huaiyuan Palace could not avoid being selected through drawing lots. He could only leave Huaiyuan Palace with tears in his eyes. let alone Zhang Ping.

As Huaiyuan Palace had very strict family regulations, in front of such a fact, Zhang Tie’s father had no chance to struggle or resist.

Having been average for so long, Zhang Ping struggled in front of the decision of Zhang clan and made the bravest decision in his life——eloping with Zhang Tie’s mother. Before elopement, in order to escape from Huaiyuan Palace’s arrest, Zhang Ping even faked his own death.

Zhang Ping succeeded. Nobody could have imagined that Zhang Ping who was always average before could do this.

Zhang Ping then eloped with Zhang Tie’s mother and settled in Blackhot City, which was over 10,000 km away from Huaiyuan Palace. Although they suffered a hard life, they were still happy.

They could have lived on like this except for the accident in which Zhang Tie had awakened his ancestral blood tie during the period that he attended survival training. What Zhang Tie awakened was ”precise throw”. One the day he ignited his rear end burning point and activated his Strength of Qi and Strength of Blood, Zhang Tie’s situation had been sensed by the blood-soul crystal of Zhang clan. Zhang clan searched for him for a long time yet didn’t find him on the pedigree of Zhang clan, the Family Elders Association of Zhang clan were infuriated and delivered the order to figure it out. Finally, with the help of the huge family machine of Huaiyuan Palace, the fact of Zhang Ping’s false death was figured out. Through some secret channels and clan relationships, Huaiyuan Palace found Zhang Tie’s household in Blackhot City.

This time, Zhang Ping really committed a felony.

He refused Zhang clan’s order and failed to fulfill his responsibility as a descendant of the Zhang clan. Then, he eloped with a girl by making a false death scene to cheat the Clansman Pavilion of Zhang clan. Although he would not be punished with death, he would suffer an extremely heavy punishment.

After being directly taken away by the elders of Clansman Pavilion from the Blackhot City, the moment Zhang Ping arrived at the territory of Zhang clan, he was immediately taken away by the law-enforcement team of Zhang clan and beaten in the prison of Zhang clan. Thankfully, Zhang Tie’s mother, Zhang Yang and Zhang Tie’s elder sister-in-law were safe and sound.

Right then, Golden Roc Bank brought Zhang Tie’s message to Zhang Tie’s family members.

After receiving Zhang Tie’s news, Zhang Yang hurriedly went to see the elders of the Clansman Pavilion of Zhang clan and would like to exonerate Zhang Tie’s father in the secret of ”mental arithmetic by abacus” that Zhang Tie had discovered. When Zhang Yang sent a message to Zhang Tie in Huaiyuan Palace, Zhang Ping was still in the prison as the elders of Zhang clan were still arguing about Zhang Yang’s position.

At this moment, Zhang Tie’s family were really experiencing hardships in Huaiyuan Palace.

——Dad is in a great trouble now. Huaiyuan Palace had strict, unwavering family regulations. Two uncles have helped us to settle down in Jinhai City and looked after us a lot. Because we haven’t gotten your news and father was taken away by others, your mother has been sick and bed ridden. She even called your name in her sleep.

Wishing you a fast return!

By the end of the letter, Zhang Tie burst out tears. He couldn’t wait to fly to Huaiyuan Palace to stay with his family and save his father from prison.

Zhang Tie thought that nobody was wrong on the elopement between his mother and father. It was just a matter of stance. Zhang Tie unconditionally supported and cared about his own parents. But he also knew that big clans always had strict family regulations. What his dad had done truly had violated the family regulations. It would not be possible for the Huaiyuan Palace to just ignore it. Such actions would risk the stability of the clan and prevent its continued longevity. What was the most important for Zhang Tie now was to leave here at once and stay with his family. If he stayed with his family, nothing could not be overcome.

Huaiyuan Palace had also sent a message to Zhang Tie——An airship of the Changfeng Business Group under the affiliation of Huaiyuan Palace would arrive at Kalur in 9 days. After it arrived at Kalur, Zhang Tie could return to the Huaiyuan Palace on it.

Before the airship arrived at Kalur, Zhang Tie estimated that he had enough time to go back to Blackhot City to bid farewell to his friends. This time, Zhang Tie didn’t know when he would have a chance to come back to Blackhot City in the future.

The third holy war between humans and demons would soon start, which was gradually beginning to show on many different fronts. Zhang Tie didn’t know what would happen in a few years or even tomorrow.

Zhang Tie’s premonition was right. When the chaotic world arrived, nobody could tell him what would happen tomorrow. The golden uangs that he had bought in the auction should have arrived at Kalur City on the next morning; yet, they didn’t. On the same day, many people heard a more shocking news than that the Norman Empire and the Sun Dynasty waging war towards the former Andaman Alliance several months ago.

——The whole clan of an elder of the Alchemists Association in Carol Commonwealth of the Blackson Human Clan Corridor which was consisted of 1876 people was culled over night. All the clan members had been killed.

The clan of this elder of Alchemists Association was the only one which mastered the skills necessary to breed golden uangs and other mutated animals which could be used to produce important medicament. Its disappearance was a disaster to all the alchemists. Without the key raw materials, alchemists across the Blackson Human Clan Corridor would not able to produce some marvelous medicament, including low-level recovery medicament, medium recovery medicament and advanced recovery medicament and some other medicament that could be used to increase personal strength.

It required an extremely amazing strength to exterminate such a clan with so many powerhouses over night. Even the an entire division of an army could not do this over night. However, what was strange was that the killers didn’t leave any mark, it was like they simply evaporated into nothing. The elder’s clan along with its breeding farms in Carol Commonwealth were directly burned into ashes. The killer’s methods was really terrifying.

Since the second holy war between human beings and demons, there had been no elder of Alchemists Association being killed for over 200 years. What was more, this elder’s entire clan was eradicated. This was like throwing a bomb into water that already had ripples. Its effect was evident. Even Zhang Tie who was far away in Kalur City also became the victim of this event. As a result, Zhang Tie’s Fruit of Redemption based on golden uangs became history.

Hearing this news, all the alchemists in Kalur City became dumbfounded.

The Kalor Commonwealth and the Alchemists Association were infuriated. Two orders for arrest with the highest reward amount of 500,000 gold coins respectively spread over the entire Blackson Human Clan Corridor in one day.

”Is this the prelude of a chaotic world?” Zhang Tie was truly shocked.

On the same day, with the help of the Golden Roc Bank, Zhang Tie stepped onto the train heading for Blackhot City from Kalur City.

7 days later, Zhang Tie returned to Kalur safely. Before he came back from Blackhot City, he even went to Blapei. After leaving Blapei, Zhang Tie went to the base of the Iron-Blood Camp of No. 39 Division. When he left the Iron-Blood Camp, Colonel Reinhardt and Major Guderian even drove Zhang Tie to the Kalur City where they bade each other farewell.

”Hopefully, we will have a chance to see each other again!” Major Guderian tightly hugged Zhang Tie.

”Hopefully, we’ll be alive to see you next time!” Zhang Tie took out a caddy from his pocket and gave it to Guderian, ”If there’s a chance, give this to the Freo’s family for me!”

Guderian opened the caddy. It was Zhang Tie’s Iron-Blood Medal. Major Guderian nodded as he solemnly took it.

Zhang Tie then tightly hugged with Reinhardt.

”Come on, boy, I feel you might able to form Iron-Blood battle qi!”

”It’s not a possibility, it’ll happen!” Zhang Tie smiled, ”I can tell you for sure that when we meet each other next time, you will not defeat me!”

Reinhardt then burst out laughing loudly...

...

On the 2nd day since Zhang Tie returned to Kalur City, the airship of Changfeng Business Group had arrived. It carried many expensive commodities, tea leaves and silk from the Eastern Continent to trade with some business groups in Kalur City.

On a morning with chilly wind, Zhang Tie boarded the airship for the first time. Then, the airship rose into the air and flew away along the wind...

Zhang Tie, who was going back to Huaiyuan Palace was almost a LV 5 warrior.