Castle of Black Iron

Since midnight, it had been raining heavily. The wind whipped through the pine woods outside the Songtao Pavilion, making a horrible sound.

The following morning, Zhang Tie got up early. After walking out of the Songtao Pavilion, he found the wind and rain was even heavier than it had been yesterday. The bean-sized rain drops that landed on him were quite painful. Some pine trees in the Breaking Heaven Department were broken while most of them were bent over by heavy wind and fiercely resisting the strong storm.

He had seen the omen of this storm last night; however, Zhang Tie had not imagined it could be that heavy.

After eating breakfast, Zhang Tie put on a raincoat and quickly arrived at the Long Wind Pearl Field.

The waves on the pearl field looked extremely fierce. When the huge waves, greater than 10 m in height, lashed onto the reefs and the precipice on the seaside, they caused loud sounds. The whole world seemed to be shaking from the fury of the sea.

Arriving at the seaside, Zhang Tie felt that he was almost blown away by the heavy storm like a kite. The sprays caused by the huge waves under the castle of the Long Wind Pearl Field drifted dozens of meters high in the air and fell onto Zhang Tie’s face; the rain tasted weirdly fishy.

The moment he entered the castle, Zhang Tie saw senior Chen.

”Come on in, it’s raining heavily outside!” Standing outside the door of a room on the first floor of the castle, senior Chen waved his hand towards Zhang Tie. Zhang Tie then hurriedly walked towards him.

When Zhang Tie was near the door, senior Chen glanced over Zhang Tie. Zhang Tie then patted a place under the raincoat as he nodded towards senior Chen. Senior Chen then revealed a big smile as he pulled Zhang Tie in.

The moment they entered the room, the other guys in the room instantly cast their glances at Zhang Tie.

Zhang Tie was also familiar with the other guys as they were all yakshas in the sea of Long Wind Pearl Field. The youngest one among them was over 40 years old while the eldest one was over 60.

”These old buddies are suffering the same trouble as me. They are all troubled by rheumatism and arthritis at such an age. Especially yakshas in the sea like me, as we have to stay in the water all the year round, once the cold qi enters our body, we’ll have to suffer from diseases when it becomes wet outside! These buddies have not slept well last night.” Senior Chen explained to Zhang Tie, ”These senior buddies heard that the solution you brew was marvelous, they are especially eager to give it a try!”

”No problem!” Zhang Tie nodded, ”But I’ve not taken too much today, besides the bottle for you, I’ve only got one additional bottle!”

”No problem, I will share my bottle with buddies and see whether it truly has an effect!” Senior Chen generously said.

After hanging up his raincoat, Zhang Tie took out his kettle and the flagon. Senior Chen then found several cups and made 100 ml of that solution for each one according to the content that he drunk yesterday.

Zhang Tie’s aluminum military kettle was just enough for five people’s cups.

When he poured it out, all the others in the room had surrounded him. Watching the golden and pale green luster of the solution which had a stronger smell than water, they all widened their eyes.

”Argh, how could it smell so good!”

Not only the luster which made them excited, when they smelt the fragrance of that solution, they instantly felt cool all over and dripping saliva out of their mouths.

The moment senior Chen filled the cups, the others had carefully taken the cups and couldn’t wait to bottom up the solution. After that, they sat quietly in the room and tried to sense the feeling of that solution spreading across their body.

They all took this thing as a medicine; however, it tasted much better than all the other medicines that they had tried. Therefore, they were all shocked about it.

Senior Chen also had a cup. After that, senior Chen even cleaned his cup with fresh water before drinking the fresh water.

”The wind and waves are too heavy today. They can’t pick pearls today; so, we can have a day off!”

When they were waiting for the effect of the solution, senior Chen told Zhang Tie.

”What about my clan contribution points today?” Zhang Tie asked out of curiosity.

”Of course, you’ll still earn them!”

Zhang Tie finally let out a sigh. As long as he stayed here for several more weeks, he would be able to get enough clan contribution points for all the compulsory courses that he needed to learn. Each compulsory course required 70 clan contribution points.

— Fundamental movements, fundamental swordsmanship, shield defense skill, preliminary archery, flying skill and horsemanship. The six courses required 420 clan contribution points in total. As he could gain 60 clan contribution points a week here, he planned to work 2 months, namely 9 weeks here for 540 clan contribution points so as to finish these fundamental compulsory courses.　

Zhang Tie had not forgotten those weird movements of Zhang Qingguo.

Zhang Lin, Zhu Wenqiang and Yang Yuankang also arrived at this moment. When they caught sight of that empty kettle, they became a bit disappointed. However, looking at the others who were waiting for the effect of the solution, they became curious too.

Yesterday, as only senior Chen drunk that solution, it was uncertain whether it was the effect of the solution that relieved senior Chen’s disease. However, this time, the other 5 people drank the solution. If the effect reappeared on them, it would be great.

As it was storming heavily outside, they had nothing to do inside. They then started to brag and chat in the room to kill time.

One hour soon passed...

”Argh, I seem feel warm inside. It starts to spread across my body...” A yaksha in the sea shouted.

”I feel it too. It was aching just now. But it’s relieving now!”

”Argh, me too. Before drinking that, my two shoulders felt being pinched by pliers. But not they are becoming relaxed...”

”My knees are also recovering. That’s too marvelous, just like what senior Chen said!”

The room started to be boisterous as the yakshas all cast their glances towards the flagon of senior Chen.

Zhu Wenqiang, Zhang Lin, and Yang Yuankang then stared at Zhang Tie with shocked expressions. It turned out Zhang Tie’s solution could really relieve diseases, it was even pretty effective. If they had not seen it with their own eyes, they would never have believed it. How could a small cup of solution relieve the diseases that they had suffered many years?

What the hell? The same thing could cure diseases for someone and make the others feel energetic. How could it be that marvelous? Zhu Wenqiang, Zhang Lin, and Yang Yuankang looked at Zhang Tie in a new light.

”Senior Chen, come on, give me some more!” A 50 year-old yaksha urged with a bashful expression.

Hearing his request, senior Chen instantly pulled his flagon back in fear of being stolen, ”No more, most of Zhang Tie’s solution has been drunk by all of you; this is mine!”

After exchanging glances with each other, the yakshas then focused their eyes onto Zhang Tie.

Zhang Tie then stretched out his hands, ”I only brought this today!”

”Do you have more?”

”I have some more in my room, but not too much!”

”Can... can you sell some to us?” That yaksha previously wanted Zhang Tie to gift some to them, yet he felt bashful to ask for that for free, therefore, he expressed his intention to buy it.

”Haha, I’ve met these old buddies many times. Don’t talk about money, it would harm our friendship. Each of you can fetch a bottle, I will gift a bottle to each of you!”

Having not expected that his solution had such a great potential in the market by being that effective in curing diseases, Zhang Tie became really thrilled inside. After working as an assistant in Donder’s grocery store, Zhang Tie knew what public praise meant. He needed them to advertise for his solution, therefore, he became generous.

”Zhang Tie...can you...” Zhu Wenqiang scratched his head with a bashful expression.

”Hehe, I live in the Xuan No. 7 room of Songtao Pavilion. When I come back, you can take your bottles and go to find me there. I will gift one bottle to each of you three too!” Zhang said generously.

Zhu Wenqiang, Zhang Lin and Yang Yuankang all revealed a big smile. Zhang Tie’s solution really deeply impressed them.

Right then, the girls from Zhixing Department arrived.

Previously, Zhang Tie arrived earlier than them and stayed in the sea all day round; therefore, these girls had no chance to see him in the Pearl Field at all. They didn’t know that Zhang Tie was a yaksha in the sea either.

Today, when they came to the Pearl Field, the girls were told that they might face danger if they dove in the sea today due to the heavy storm. Therefore, they didn’t need to pick up pearls today. They then planned to take a rest in the castle and take shelter from rain before returning. They had not expected to encounter Zhang Tie here. After having not seen Zhang Tie for 2 months, the girls were even slightly shocked at the sight of Zhang Tie.

With a bad temper, the moment Du Yuhan caught sight of Zhang Tie’s smile, she instantly raised her eyebrows and asked straightforwardly, ”What are you here for?”

”Hehe, I’m here to have a look at you. It’s almost been 2 months, the interest of the debt that you owe me almost becomes 18 gold coins. Plus the cost, each of you owe me almost 108 gold coins. I want to see when you will pay up!” Zhang Tie made a grimace as he started a joke with those girls.

The moment they heard the debt, those girls all looked bitter. The 108 gold coins was simply a huge amount of money for those girls who had only just started to attempt to make money for themselves. Additionally, the interest of these huge amount of money will rise 10% per month. Many of them could not even pay off the interest per month.

”We will pay off the debt...” Liu Shasha replied in a fragile voice.

”It’s okay if you cannot pay off the debt. As long as you can accomplish the designated tasks, you can also deduct half of you debt!” Zhang Tie moved his ”evil” eyes onto Liu Shasha.

The moment she recalled the ”disgusting task” that should be accomplished by mouth, Liu Shasha’s face suddenly turned pale. She didn’t even dare to look at Zhang Tie; instead, she looked like a flurried rabbit who hurriedly hid behind another girl.

Not until this moment did those girls who had bet with Zhang Tie know what it meant by lifting a stone and dropping it onto one’s feet. At the beginning, they forced Zhang Tie to sign the agreement with them as they thought they could deal with this jerk in this way. However, they had never expected that they were dealt with by this douchebag.

After teasing these little girls, Zhang Tie burst out laughter as he returned to the room where senior Chen and the other buddies stayed. As yakshas in the sea, if they wanted to gain the clan contribution points, even though they didn’t need to dive in the sea, they had to stay in the castle on duty in case of emergencies.

Those girls seemed having not realized why Zhang Tie acted that way in the castle of the Long Wind Pearl Field.

After 10 minutes, while Zhang Tie was cracking melon seeds in the room and listening to funny stories of the other yakshas, a girl rushed in with a panicked, pale face.

”Du Yuhan was rolled away by the waves...”

Hearing the words, Zhang Tie instantly sprung up and dashed outside like a wind...