Castle of Black Iron

Over these years, due to the holy war, the prices of commodities, especially grains had risen. In Golden Light City, a steam bun would cost 2 copper coins and 5 hao 1 . 1 kg’s fine beef would cost about 1 silver coin and 20 copper coins; a 100 sq m house in Yanghe Prefecture would cost about 200 gold coins. If a common family of four could make 40-50 gold coins a year, they would live well in Golden Light City.

All of Zhang Tie’s family members were once commoners. Although Zhang Tie’s two elders sisters-in-law had better living conditions since they were young, they also knew the concept of ”frugality”. Therefore, when Zhang Tie mentioned that he had won over 200 million gold coins in a bet, he shocked everybody at present.

Although Zhang Tie’s dad racked his mind, he could still not imagine how much was over 200 million gold coins. Zhang Yang remembered that Zhang Tie had mentioned that he made a pile by setting a trap in Ewentra Archipelago through remote-sensing crystals; however, he had not imagined that Zhang Tie made over 200 million gold coins.

When his family members became dumbfounded and didn’t know what to say, Zhang Tie’s mom pushed open the hatch door and entered the command module cheerily, followed by two female servants, who were pushing a dining trolley. The command module was filled with fragrance at once.

”Come on, I’ve just cooked the eight-treasures porridge 2 , it could nourish your body in winter!” Zhang Tie’s mom said with a big smile.

Zhang Tie’s mom treated cooking dinner for her family members as an enjoyment which could not be deprived by anyone else.

This airship was a private, luxurious one which was modified by a fury-level airship. It was also matched with a kitchen and a dining hall. Therefore, during these days, as long as the whole family went out by airship, Zhang Tie’s mom would be the boss in the kitchen.

Seeing the porridge, they all put aside the previous topic and went to eat it. If anyone dared to violate Zhang Tie’s mom’s intention, it was nothing different than doing a crime. Even though Zhang family’s kids had learned to flatter their grandma. However, when their grandma had the food prepared, they would instantly swarm up and cram the food into their mouth. The one who ate more would gain more favor from grandma.

”What were you talking about?”

Zhang Tie’s mother asked them as he watched her grandsons eating eight-treasures porridge with a smile.

After exchanging a glance with each other, Zhang Yang told their mom what Zhang Tie said just now.

”Duang...” Zhang Tie’s mother dropped her spoon when she heard ”over 200 million gold coins”.

”Grandma, grandma, you dropped your spoon. I will change one for you!” Zhang Shiyu wisely picked up that spoon; closely after that, she ran towards the dining trolley and brought back a new one.

”Guoguo, have you done anything bad in Waii Sub-continent?”

After hearing Zhang Tie’s mother’s words, Zhang Tie was almost chocked by the porridge...

”Mom, you’re thinking too much. How could I be that bad? Although I’ve won it through gambling, each gold coin is legal. Golden Roc Bank even has a record of that. The other elders of Huaiyuan Palace also know about that.” Zhang Tie explained to his mom after patting his chest.

”No way, how could you make so much?” Zhang Tie’s mom continued out of concern.

”Your son is a knight. Mom, you don’t know everything in the world of knights. Some knights could make over 100 million gold coins only by writing an article. It’s nothing strange for your son to make some money by betting with others!”

”Some knights could make over 100 million gold coins by writing an article? Are you kidding me?” Zhang Tie’s dad asked as he thought Zhang Tie was bragging.

When he recalled that article ”The Comparative Analysis on the Battle Strength of Knights between Seven Major Sects in Taixia Country” in the Mountain of Brightness, Zhang Tie let out a sigh, ”I’m telling the truth. It takes one knight 10,000 gold coins to read the article for one time. If over 10,000 knights read it, won’t the writer win 100 million gold coins? One word for 1,000 gold coins is not excessive at all!”

After hearing Zhang Tie’s reply, Zhang Tie’s parents finally realized that Zhang Tie was not bragging.

However, after knowing that Zhang Tie was going to buy over 100,000 square miles of land in Youzhou Province, the whole family was greatly shocked. Actually, they were more excited than being shocked. Even Linda, Beverly and Fiona blushed due to the excitement.

Zhang family’s feeling was like how a common family felt when they bought a super mansion which covered tens of thousands of square meters without having to pay by installment.

”Why do we buy such a mountanious area? Why not choose the plain area instead?” Zhang Tie’s mom asked.

Zhang Yang replied, ”Mom, I’ve had people surveyed this region. Besides being mountainous, this region doesn’t lack water resource. Additionally, this region is abundant in fruits and medicines. Right in the land and mountain forest below us, there are over 70 fruits and over 1,000 medicines. I’ve negotiated with Zhang Tie. If we build a city here, Jinwu Business Group could pick raw materials from here so as to expand the production scale of all-purpose medicament rapidly. We will not have to worry about the supply of raw materials anymore.”

”I mean, we can choose the mountainous area as the production base of Jinwu Business Group. We don’t need to build the entire city on the plain. As a Class D city that covers 70 square miles is not large, half of it could be built on plain while the other half of it could be built on mountains. After the city is built, we can settle down with the best urban scenery and the best environment. Isn’t it good?” Zhang Tie added, ”When these kids grow up, they can also build their own cities on the surrounding land!”

The beautiful blueprint that Zhang Tie depicted for his family made all the women’s eyes turn bright.

”How could you find such proper places so easily?” Zhang Tie’s mom discouraged Zhang Tie although she was happy inside.

”Wow, deer are taking bath; deer are taking bath, and monkeys, monkeys are taking bath too...” Those kids had returned to the imaging device after swallowing up their eight-treasures porridge when the adults were chatting over there. Closely after Zhang Chengting, all the other kids exclaimed.

”It’s winter, how could deer and monkeys take bath?” Zhang Yang smiled.

”Dad, it’s real. You can take a look over here.” Zhang Chengze told Zhang Yang.

The whole family then swarmed up and looked down by the imaging device...

It was a towering mountain peak below the airship, which was extremely magnificent. There was a deep and serene valley below the mountain peak. The mountain peak had been covered with snow. However, the valley was still surrounded with red blossoms and green willows, which looked pretty exotic. How amazing it was!

There was mist rolling in the valley, below which was a large area of warm spring. A lot of monkeys were immersing themselves in the warm spring cheerily; some of them were even holding wild berries. They just lay there like rich men on vacation. The herd of over 20 deer also entered the warm spring one after another and started to take a bath.

This mountain range and valley stretched over 7 miles and covered about 30 square miles. It was pretty nice and magnificent. Being abundant in water and grasses, they were surrounded by plain. Looking down at it from the airship, they found that it looked like a shoe-shaped gold ingot, the very kind of gold ingot that Zhang Tie’s eldest grandma delivered to Zhang juniors at her birthday.

”Where are we?” Zhang Yang asked.

The captain hurriedly took out a map and pointed at a pale grey region which had not been precisely surveyed and drawn before replying, ”Our airship is here. This region has not been developed yet. Few people come here during normal times. Therefore, it’s not drawn precisely on the map!”

The captain was pointing at a place over 350 miles away from Golden Light City. Even the nearest railway and highway were over 300 miles away. Therefore, very few people would visit here. Even if there was, they would barely come here by airship.

”It’s the God’s will!” Zhang Tie let out a deep sigh as he drew a circle around the pale grey region which covered over 150,000 square miles on the map before pointing at that region with his pen forcefully and saying, ”I like this region!”

...

After a few hours, the family finally returned to their mansion in Golden Light City by airship before dusk. The airship just landed in the airship port in the backyard of the Zhang’s mansion.

”I will have someone register it in the urban area of Youzhou Province tomorrow!”

”Hmm, good. I will have Golden Roc Bank...” Zhang Tie suddenly stopped as he saw some familiar guys on the path in front of him. Those guys also noticed him with tears in eyes.

Beside them was Runo whom Zhang Tie had dispatched to Youzhou Province.

Before Zhang Tie figured out how could Runo bring them back so quickly, those guys had rushed towards him while waving their arms.

”Bighead...”

The horny fat shouted...

After hearing such a strange yet familiar nickname, Zhang Tie felt as if two decades had passed...