Castle of Black Iron

”One...”

Zhang Tie opened his mouth without any mood.

”Ah, it’s my fault, it’s my fault...”

That middle-aged man’s face turned pale.

”Two...”

”I didn’t know you were a military officer of the Norman Empire...”

The man started to ooze cold sweat.

”Three...”

”I just wanted to give you a lesson. I didn’t want to kill you, ah...” that man cried out.

”Four...”

”I didn’t mean it...”

He became soft all over.

”Five...”

”I will never think about Linda any more! That woman is yours, she’s yours! You can do whatever you want...”

The man’s mind entered a confused state.

”Six...”

”Linda owes me 187 gold coins. I won’t ask her for any of it any more... I won’t want it any more. Here’s the contract between us...”

The man pulled out a paper from the inside of his coat and put it before Zhang Tie in his quivering hand...

”Seven...”

Zhang Tie’s voice remained unchanged at all.

”I’m just an average businessman. Forgive me please...”

Fart and pee were almost scared out of the man...

”Eight...”

Zhang Tie raised his shiny long saber...

”It’s my fault... it’s really my fault...”

The man was in such despair that he started to weep...

”Nine...”

Zhang Tie raised his long saber high, readying himself to slash down to kill this guy. He would never feel reluctant in killing someone who had been exclaiming to attack an officer of the Norman Empire and beat him to death. If he did that, he would not have any trouble at all. When that person shouted to beat Zhang Tie to death, all the others’ lives had come in possession of Zhang Tie.

”...I have three kids to feed at home, I’m sorry for them...”

By now, the man’s face was covered with nasal mucus and saliva. At the last moment, he just sat down on the ground, losing all hope and started to mumble whatever came to his mind.

Hearing this, Zhang Tie slightly lowered his saber, then raised it up again, intending to slash down. However, after thinking for a while, he let out a sigh. He then put down his saber again. Given this guy’s age, his three kids might be at a young age. For some reason, the moment he heard this guy caring about his kids at home at the critical moment of life or death, he grew soft-hearted and stopped his slash.

After throwing the saber to the soldier beside him, Zhang Tie grabbed the contract from Mr. Beise’s hand and glanced at it twice. The alleged contract was just a delivery contract between that guy and a distillery which was signed several months ago. In Blapei, these kind of contracts could often be seen. Since Blapei’s beer was sold to the whole former Andaman Alliance, many dealers had similar agreements with distilleries on delivering: how much beer, at what price, in which period, and how to deal with it if one party could not fulfill this agreement.

After a single glance at the contract Zhang Tie understood what was happening. Obviously, this time, the distillery didn’t fulfill the agreement. This agreement was signed before the Norman Empire and Sun Dynasty encountered the former Andaman Alliance, and the the delivery should have been fulfilled two weeks ago. The price of beer on the contract was also calculated based on the market price before the war.

Previously, there was no problem with this contract. However, after the war broke out, the market price of grains soared while the cost of beer brewed with wheat had risen more than once. If they continued to delivery goods based on the contracted price, the distillers would need a lot of money to fulfill this contract. The liquidated damages were 187 gold coins, which was twice the contracted trading volume of beer. This was not a small amount of money for a small distillery.

Did this man then use the debt which was due to force that woman on the third floor to be his mattress? Zhang Tie immediately understood what had happened. That distillery might have been opened by that woman’s family members.

Zhang Tie then threw the contract to the man. ”Remember what you said just now. Eat this contract, then I will forgive you!”

Hearing Zhang Tie’s words, that man hurriedly tore the contract and put it into his mouth before forcefully chewing on it. He then directly swallowed it. Finally, he opened his mouth and let Zhang Tie check it.

Zhang Tie then left this man alive before looking around at all the other ruffians of Blapei. When one of them had his head chopped off, all the others had become so scared that they almost lost their minds. Seeing Zhang Tie coming towards them, they all quivered like screening rice chaff.

Zhang Tie then glanced at the weapons left by these craps on the ground. He then pointed at one iron rod and casually stared at one of those guys on the ground being trampled by soldiers.

”You have one minute to break others’ legs using this iron rod. If you can do that, I will not chop off your head!” After saying this, Zhang Tie ordered two soldiers standing on two sides of this guy, ”You check the time. From this moment if he cannot do it in one minute, you will chop off his head!”

”Ah...”

At Zhang Tie’s words, that guy became stunned for a second before screaming like a lunatic and jumping up from the ground. Without any hesitation, he hefted up that iron rod and started to knock at his partners’ legs.

Among the continual sounds of breaking bones and miserable screams, all the other ruffians had their legs broken. That person truly completely his mission in one minute. However, the fear of those ruffians towards Zhang Tie and the soldiers of the Norman Empire had already become animosity. They all stared at him with flaring eyes. The survival law of ruffians was very simple. As they wanted to find Zhang Tie trouble, they found him trouble due to his lack of any background. Therefore, they should owe their bad luck to Mr. Beise, but facing their partner’s betrayal, all them started to swear...

”Pah... Bilis, you bastard, we’re really cheated by you...”

”...Don’t fall in our hands from now on...”

”Ah... you bastard, you really broke my knee...”

”...I will kill you...”

Zhang Tie then glanced at them with an icy expression. From then on, these ruffians became as uncooperative as a plate of sparse sand. The guy called Bilis was also over. If he didn’t want to be thrust with something to death by others, he’d better bury his name and hide far away in an alien area. If he still wanted to stay in Blapei, he would soon become a corpse thrown into a dark ditch. Otherwise, if he was smart enough, he had another choice...

He did not know since when, but Zhang Tie perceived that he could use tactics. Perhaps, this was the alleged growth.

”Take away your partner’s corpse and clean up here. You’re not allowed to leave even half a drop of blood before Mr. Green’s house. Then, you can roll out of here!”

...

In the next ten minutes, after arranging the corpse who had its head chopped off, all the other ruffians including Mr. Beise left as if they’d lost heir souls, except for one who had his head lowered, not even daring to look at Zhang Tie. From all the people, Bilis was the only guy who was safe and sound. Before all the other ruffians left, they cast dagger-like eyes towards him, which really made him tremble.

When Bilis was going to leave, not knowing what to do next, Zhang Tie glanced at him. Whether he lived or not, it depended on his choice tonight.

...

”Brothers, thanks for solving such trivial trouble!”

After those bastards left, Zhang Tie extended his appreciation to those soldiers that had followed him here.

”It’s our honor to solve such a little thing for an officer who has gained an Iron-Blood Medal! Sir, what you have done in the battlefield can reduce a lot of casualties of brothers like us.”

A first class sergeant and all the other soldiers then gave a military salute to Zhang Tie.

On Zhang Tie’s military officer’s certificate were the records of his retirement due to his wounds, and the honors in the Iron-Blood Camp. Each soldier of the Norman Empire clearly knew the extremely low possibility for an officer of the Iron-Blood Camp gaining an Iron-Blood Medal in a battlefield. They knew that Zhang Tie might have killed more officers of the Sun Dynasty than there was of them.

After reading the records on Zhang Tie’s retirement and what honors he had gained, those soldiers paid more tribute to him. This explained how a tiger still looked ferocious although sick. Any soldier who had won the Iron-Blood Medal could gain respect in any place across the Norman Empire, let alone in the army.

After seeing them off, Zhang Tie returned to his residence on the fourth floor. When he walked upstairs, the couple on the second floor immediately turned off their lamps. Zhang Tie guessed that they must be too flustered as they toppled over something on the ground and caused some noise. Hearing no footsteps from the inside of their residence, Zhang Tie knew that they were probably holding their breath and waiting for him to go upstairs before dealing with the broken item.

Shaking his head, Zhang Tie forced a smile. Because he had killed so many people today, he didn’t want to kill anyone else. He had been too merciful to those bastards by only killing one of them. Although for him it was too soft, this kind of event might be too bloody for average people. Zhang Tie knew that he had changed a lot compared to himself several months ago. If it was back then, facing this affair, he might respond similarly to the young couple on the second floor.

Returning to his residence, Zhang Tie took a bath, ate a fruit, and cultivated his spiritual energy.

The Fruit of Redemption today helped him recover 1.2% more. However, he only had three binding chains left. These items which could save his life, Zhang Tie certainly could not ignore them. He then hurriedly consumed his spiritual energy to process two more binding chains, using that god rune in his mind sea. After that, he slightly recovered his composure. No matter what, five binding chains were more powerful than three.

Finally, after processing the binding chains, Zhang Tie cultivated ”Mental Arithmetic by Abacus” for more than an hour to slightly recover his spiritual energy before sinking in to sleep.

Previously, ”Mental Arithmetic by Abacus” was very effective in recovering his spiritual energy, but after his spiritual energy had surged dozens of times, that recovery effect was becoming increasing more trivial, however, it was better than nothing at all.

The next morning, after he got up and cleaned himself, Zhang Tie went downstairs to see someone already waiting for him outside Mr. and Mrs. Green house—Bilis.