Castle of Black Iron

The national banquet of Taixia Country combined both eastern style and western style. The first half of the national banquet was orientalism when the crown prince gifted the banquet and all the others extended thanks to him. Sitting in the banquet hall decently, they enjoyed the top delicacies and the performance of beauties. The second half of the national banquet followed western style. After dinner, they would take a short rest and communication before entering the rear courtroom to enjoy the ball and free exchange.

Zhang Tie wondered who formulated the style of national banquets. He felt it was pretty interesting. Additionally, the top officials, the crown prince, ambassadors and imperial households could make private exchanges, trades, even mate in the second half of the national banquet…

Such a national banquet was a stage on which Taixia Country showed its leadership among humans, the hunting ground for humanity and desires and the abyss for vanity. Behind the curtain of such a national banquet, a decision of the crown prince and the trade between the moguls would lead to the wars between agents and the rise or fall of the imperial households of small countries in subcontinents. Someone’s eyesight and hint could also determine whom would many female attendants sleep with tonight.

There were many lounges for VIPs in the front courtroom of Anyan Palace, where male and female guests could fix their make-up or dress up after dinner. Bai Suxian and the other 5 wives and concubines of Zhang Tie were fixing their make-up. Zhang Tie had just come out of the lounge and was waiting for them to go to the rear courtroom together. At this moment, a waiter of the crown prince came over here and invited Zhang Tie into the lounge exclusive to the crown prince.

After Zhang Tie entered the room, he found 4 people inside the room——the crown prince, Meng Shidao, Yu Lianqing and military secretary of Taixia Country who looked black with heavy eyebrows in Xiezhi crown and Class I official uniform. As one of the top 9 chancellors of Taixia Country, the last one was in charge of the military system of Taixia Country.

The crown prince didn’t look good. Not until he watched Zhang Tie enter the room did he force a bitter smile.

No sooner did Zhang Tie see them than he knew that the crown prince was going to lose his temper although he didn’t just now.

“General Mushen, Pu felt so sorry about you. I’m inquiring these chancellors about what happened just now. I swear to give you a satisfied answer!” The crown prince told Zhang Tie before taking in a deep breath.

“Pu” was how the crown prince called himself on official occasions, which was similar to Guaren and Zhen which emperors usually called themselves.

“Thanks, crown prince!” Zhang Tie respected the crown prince very much in front of two of the top three powers of Taixia Country; instead of calling him ‘Brother Changying’. “It doesn’t matter if I was wronged, but it’s really not good for Taixia Country to have cunning people who look loyal to the country such as Fang Keyan to occupy a place in the imperial palace!”

After hearing how Zhang Tie described Fang Keyan, Meng Shidao, Yu Lianqing and military secretary exchanged a glance with each other silently.

“Fang Keyan is indeed abhorrent. As the minister of imperial financial and living affairs ministry, Fang Keyan has been in Xuanyuan Hill for many years. He’s not Prime Minister Meng’s student. He had an ulterior motive to find you trouble in Anyan Palace…” Crown prince said with a hateful look as he struck the table forcefully, causing a loud sound “Pah”. Through his words, he had implied that this event had nothing to do with the Gobbling Party.

“The contradiction between the forebear of Huaiyuan and Prime Minister Meng was caused by different political ideologies. I also believe that Prime Minister Meng wouldn’t use such a despicable method!” Zhang Tie said calmly as he threw a glance at Prime Minister Meng.

“Lord Huaiyuan has a good successor!” Meng Shidao said with a deep sigh as he looked at Zhang Tie seriously.

“Thanks, prime minister. I only live up to my consciousness. If I offended you before, please forgive me. The contradiction between the Gobbling Party and Huaiyuan Palace should be limited to the imperial court. It’s a domestic competition. However, our country is facing the invasion of demons. We shall forget about the former contradictions for the time being. Honestly, I disagree with the path that the prime minister pursues and the ideology of the Gobbling Party. However, I don’t care about that. It’s a large world and a large country. There are tens of thousands of sects in Taixia Country, each has its own pursuit. There’re also tens of hundreds of human churches and more than one idols. It’s acceptable that the Gobbling Party possesses a different opinion than me. In my eyes, the Gobbling Party is as same as the other sects and churches. It has nothing to do with me. My belief is that if people don’t offend me, I won’t offend them; if people offend me, I will offend them for sure!” Zhang Tie said decisively. The crown prince was moved by Zhang Tie’s words as he had not imagined that Zhang Tie could respect him so much.

“From today on, I have my word in front of the crown prince and two chancellors——the Gobbling Party would never enter Northeast Military Region. All the disciples of the Gobbling Party inside the Northeast Military Region would retreat in 3 months!” Meng Shidao said in a muffled voice as a light flashed across his eyes.

After exchanging a glance with each other, Zhang Tie and Meng Shidao stretched out their hands and clapped in front of the other 3 people.

“That’s great!” Crown prince couldn’t help but spring up out of excitement as he watched Zhang Tie clap with Meng Shidao, and said, “The generous and righteous deed of the prime minister and General Mushen could become the model of all the other officials. We should have a drink to celebrate it…”

Previously, the crown prince felt pretty bad. Watching Zhang Tie and Meng Shidao promise to not violate each other by clapping against each other, he felt pretty good at once. Neither was Emperor Xuanyuan able to fetch Immortal Sea King nor eliminate the contradiction between Huaiyuan Palace and the Gobbling Party. However, the crown prince did it today. Therefore, he was in high and vigorous spirits.

Without Fang Keyan, this national banquet would be perfect. Therefore, the crown prince felt that Fang Keyan was like a thorn in his heart. The more he thought about Fang Keyan, the worse he would feel.

Zhang Tie thought this “thorn” was targeting him; however, the crown prince believed that the humble minister of imperial financial and living affairs was just a sword in other’s hand, which finally targeted him. If Zhang Tie lost his temper, left the banquet, or broke out a conflict with Meng Shidao due to this event, this national banquet would become a laughingstock in Xuanyuan Hill. In someone’s eyes, the crown prince would be the main character of this laughingstock, which was what the crown prince couldn’t tolerate.

“Deal with the case of Fang Keyan together with that of Han Zhengfang and the other remnants of Heavens Reaching Church…” Crown prince told the grand justice, which determined the fate of Fang Keyan.

“Yes!” Grand justice received the order as he lowered his body. Closely after that, he couldn’t help but ask Zhang Tie, “Elder Mushen, I wonder from where did you get the secret letter of Heavens Reaching Empire?”

“The secret letter is the resolution that the emperor and the prime minister of Heavens Reaching Empire have made to gain the recipe of fiery oil at any cost. You can see the imperial seal of Heavens Reaching Empire and the annotations of the relevant people on it. It’s definitely real. What was more, there’s one line on the secret letter: Although our church has suffered a heavy loss after the chaos in Xuanyuan Hill, we still have sparkles. We shall contact our informers in Xuanyuan Hill and have them gain the recipe of fiery oil from Xuanyuan Hill.”

Zhang Tie didn’t know the relationship between Fang Keyan and Heavens Reaching Church. Probably there was no relationship between them at all. However, now that Fang Keyan had found him trouble in the public, Zhang Tie’s secret letter could kill him for sure no matter whether Fang Keyan was a member of Heavens Reaching Church or not.

Without this secret letter, Fang Keyan would have offended him by having a quarrel with him in the worst scenario. Additionally, Fang Keyan was “righteous”. Even though the crown prince felt unpleasant, he couldn’t punish Fang Keyan severely. Even the engineering minister just stopped him orally. Whereas, with this secret letter in hand, everything became different.

Fang Keyan could only regret about his bad luck. He was over smart as he didn’t know that Zhang Tie had such a secret letter. Therefore, he got big trouble.

‘Hundreds of millions of commoners of Taixia Country in the Western Theater of Operations have died in the frontline. Couldn’t such a man with artful speech and flashy manners be sentenced to death? Go to hell…’ thought Zhang Tie.

“I encountered a knight of Heavens Reaching Church in the wilderness of Western Theater of Operations. After killing him, I discovered this secret letter from his portable space-teleportation equipment…” Zhang Tie explained calmly, causing grand justice speechless.

That secret letter actually came from Yinzhou City. Zhang Tie acquired it from a night raid. If Zhang Tie didn’t expose the truth, nobody would know it.

After a short negotiation in fewer than 10 minutes, the minister of imperial financial and living affairs had been destined to die; the relationship between Huaiyuan Palace and the Gobbling Party also entered a new stage.

Zhang Tie then left the room pleasantly.

…

After everybody left that room, the crown prince looked up and squinted at a mural painting of many galloping horses. With sparkling eyes, he slowly pursed his lips, revealing explicit lines at his mouth corners.

A middle-aged literatus in green robe had already stood behind the crown prince relaxedly, with a jade-bone feathered fan in hand.

“Mr. Fang, which one do you think schemed this event, the 3rd brother or the 9th brother…” Crown prince asked distantly as he gazed at the mural painting without turning around.

“We couldn’t figure it out at all. Fang Keyan is not a knight. Even if the memory-reading secret method is adopted, the supreme court still couldn’t get any trail of it because his memory about that event might have been erased by taking secret medicine and corresponding secret method. Similar events have happened in the imperial court. Now that Fang Keyan dares risk to offend Your Majesty, he must have made well preparations about it. The opponent is throwing a sprat to catch a herring. Nevertheless, they have not imagined that Zhang Tie has the secret letter of the remnant of Heavens Reaching Church…”

“Alas, could we really not find the culprit?” Crown prince let out a sigh, “As long as pu doesn’t ascend to the throne, someone would always find me trouble and expect to replace me!”

“Actually, it’s not important who’s behind this event. What’s important is that the crown prince could break his hand in Xuanyuan Hill in the public to frighten others. From then on, fewer people would dare play tricks in front of Your Majesty. Even if they dared, they would have to consider the result of Fang Keyan. How could people’s plan defeat God’s plan? Zhang Tie is indeed the lucky star of Your Majesty!” The middle-aged literatus in green clothes said calmly.

The crown prince finally turned around as he looked straight into the literatus’ eyes and asked, “Mr. Fang, do you think whether Zhang Tie could be loyal to me or not?”

“Your Majesty, I’ve told you about that before. Given what Zhang Tie have done before, he’s only concerned about affection and righteousness!” The literatus in green robe watched the crown prince with calm, wise and sparkling eyes as he added, “This person treasures affection and righteousness most. As long as Your Majesty could associate with him in the name of friendship and righteousness, he would stand on your side even if he’s not loyal to Your Majesty. His assistance to you would be much greater than that of a sage-level knight…”

“Could he be loyal to me?” Crown prince continued to ask Mr. Fang with a bit of hope.

“Your Majesty, you will rule the whole world in the future and reach the apex of humans. No need to pay attention to the loss of one talent. You should be generous like what an unrivaled Hua emperor should be. Do you really think that Emperor Xuanyuan couldn’t force Immortal Sea King to go to the imperial court…” The literatus in green robe said. When he found that the crown prince was considering about it, he continued,

“Additionally, what Your Majesty would like to exchange for Zhang Tie’s loyalty? Given wealth, Zhang Tie has already been rich enough due to the profits of Zhang family’s fiery oil and all-purpose medicament. He would be the richest person in the world in a few years. Given secret cultivation methods, Zhang Tie has been a divine dominator. I feel his power as a divine dominator is even above that of Immortal Sea King. He’s also famous for grasping a lot of secret methods. Even if Your Majesty gives him Xuanyuan God Sutra, you might not improve his battle strength. Zhang Tie gave up the throne in Ice and Snow Wilderness and returned to Taixia Country only to be the husband of those foreign women and the father of a group of kids. After he was declared innocent by the supreme court, he refused to be the head of Huaiyuan Palace and only became a clan elder. He rarely cares about the affairs in Huaiyuan Palace. Although he has made great meritorious services in the Western Theater of Operations, he refused to be the marshal of air cavalries of Taixia Country recommended by Commander-in-Chief Zuoqiu; instead, he only became a guerrilla general. At the critical moment, he could step forward bravely regardless of his own life and vanity. Very few ambitious people could abandon chances to make further progress constantly, except for Zhang Tie. Therefore, Zhang Tie’s not an ambitious person as he has no liking for power and social status. He’s a real virtuous man! He’s qualified to have gentle light. Zhang Tie cares most about the feelings of his familiar ones and does not feel regretful about it. It’s the good luck of Hua people, especially Your Majesty to have such a virtuous divine dominator. Your Majesty, you should treasure him…”

“Thanks, Mr. Fang. I see!” Crown prince slowly let out a sigh. After being hesitant for a few seconds, he continued, “I’ve considered about one thing for a long time; however, I couldn’t make a decision about it. As Zhang Tie has not fully recovered, it’s inconvenient for me to negotiate with him in case he feels I’m in hurry for profits and kick down the ladder too fast. Take this national banquet as an instance, so many people would like to approach Zhang Tie with their eyes closely on fiery oil. As fiery oil is even more important than all-purpose medicament, if it’s fully under control of Zhang family, I’m afraid…”

“Your Majesty, do you really feel that fiery oil is completely under control of Zhang family?” The literatus in green robe asked with a smile as he said calmly, “Your Majesty, you could get as much fiery oil as you want if you go for Lord Guangnan and the head of Heavenly Fortune Sect. Two years later, more major sects would be able to produce fiery oil. How could you say it’s under control of only one family? As it’s too eye-catching, even if Zhang family would like to manage it alone, I’m afraid that Zhang Tie would not agree with it. Given this point, we could see that Zhang Mushen is pretty wise——when he doesn’t intend to compete with others, nobody else could defeat him!”

“What about the future…”

The literatus in green robe slightly wove his feathered fan as he said, “Zhang Tie’s 14 kids have arrived at Xuanyuan Hill. He has 17 kids now, 3 of them are in Heavenly Fortune Sect. They’re very clever and were born to have a leakless body. They would grow mature in a few years. The 3 boys are destined to promote to knights at about 20. All the other 14 kids are about 6-7 years old. 12 of them are sons; 2 are daughters. I remember that Your Majesty also has a lot of sons and daughters, most of whom are as young as Zhang Tie’s kids. More kids among the imperial households are as young as Zhang Tie’s kids. Your Majesty, you don’t need to worry about the future at all. The profit of fiery oil might only be your domestic affairs in the future…”

After being silent for a couple of seconds, the crown prince instantly thought it through as he burst into laughter, “Mr. Fang’s words really enlightened me…”

“Your Majesty, you could use fiery oil to stabilize the foundation of Taixia Country and strengthen the overall strength of the country so as to defend demons. Additionally, you could use it to manage the other continents and subcontinents, which would be the rich assets for Your Majesty to ascend to the throne of Hua emperor in the future…”

“How to manage it?”

“Zhang Tie’s elder brother Zhang Yang manages Jinwu Business Group. He’s able, young and enterprising. After Han Zhengfang’s real identity was exposed, Gold and Power Law declined greatly and was repelled by all the other major sects of Taixia Country. Now, the leadership of Gold and Power Law has been transferred to Your Majesty. You could entrust Zhang Yang with an important post in Gold and Power Law and the imperial court. By then, given the brotherhood between Zhang Yang and Zhang Tie, Your Majesty could use either of them as you wish. You could use fiery oil to manage the other continents and subcontinents with the help of Zhang Tie. Even if you don’t control fiery oil, you could still gain benefits from it…” The literatus in green robe said seriously.

Crown prince let out a sigh with feeling, “It’s really Changying’s good luck to gain the assistance of Mr. Fang!”

The literatus in green robe then slightly lowered his body towards the crown prince as he said, “The sky is unlimited for birds to fly at ease as the ocean is boundless for fish to leap at will. It’s also Qingming’s good luck to serve Your Majesty!”

The crown prince burst into laughter out of ambition…

…

After Zhang Tie left the crown prince’s room, he found his wives had already left the lounge and entered the ball in the rear courtroom of Anyan Palace. Zhang Tie smiled as he shook his head and entered the rear courtroom.

Before he entered the rear courtroom of Anyan Palace, the euphonious sound of violin had drifted into his ears. After passing the corridor, Zhang Tie felt bright in front at once.

The rear courtroom of Anyan Palace was completely different than that of the front courtroom——Fountain spraying water drops, beautiful royal Hua courtyard, pagoda-shaped crystal lamps, snow-white tablecloth, pastries and drinks on tables, shuttling waiters, beauties of different races and those gentlemen who were talking with each other.

When Zhang Tie entered the ball and was looking for his wives, a slightly fat guy in swallowtail rapidly passed by a waiter and two groups of people and took the preoccupancy. Like a boxer, he dexterously passed by some guys who were approaching Zhang Tie and appeared in front of Zhang Tie with a big smile.

“Hi, Your Excellency Zhang Tie. Firstly, please allow me to extend my sincere thanks to your brilliant meritorious services above the bank of Weishui River!” This man in swallowtail slightly bowed towards Zhang Tie elegantly. Before straightening up his body, he started to introduce himself, “Secondly, please allow me to introduce myself to you. I’m Mayers, the plenipotentiary diplomatic ambassador of Rhesa Republic in Xuanyuan Hill…”

Zhang Tie looked at this “guinea pig” as he revealed a smile and stretched out his hand to greet him like how westerners usually did, “It’s my pleasure to meet you, Mr. Mayers. My teachers Zerom and Captain Kerlin have mentioned to me about you!”