Castle of Black Iron

”Clan contribution points are used to measure the family members’ contribution to the Zhang clan’s undertakings. To put it simply, you can regard clan contribution points as a special currency that could be circulated among the Zhang clan’s subsidiaries and the Zhang families of Huaiyuan Palace.

When you make a contribution to a clan undertaking, you will gain clan contribution points. You can exchange these points for corresponding clan resources, which are only open to clan members. Generally, you can’t even buy them with gold coins on the outside!” The personnel of the Clansmen Pavilion briefly answered Zhang Tie’s questions.

”Can I exchange contribution points for secret fighting skills” This was what Zhang Tie was most interested in.

”Of course, this is just a single usage of clan contribution points. As you have arrived at Huaiyuan Palace for the first time, you might not know the importance of clan contribution points. You will know soon enough.”

”How can I gain points then?”

”I can’t explain it to you in one word. There are strict rules and regulations on achieving contribution points. For example, I am serving the clan as a member of the Clansmen Pavilion. Besides a daily salary, I can also gain three contribution points monthly! Those women who could give birth to kids after marrying Zhang clan could gain an eight gold coins’ subsidiary and 15 clan contribution points for each kid!”

Women can gain clan contribution points and a gold coins’ subsidiary by having children? Zhang Tie finally understood how the clan developed over 200,000 direct bloodline descendants in only hundreds of years.

”I wonder if there is anything else?” Thinking of his parents that were still in Jinhai City, Zhang Tie couldn’t wait to go back.

”There’s another thing that I have to inform you of. Since you have not come in contact with the clan’s orthodox education before and always stayed out of the clan system; the clan has not provided any help for you in your earlier life, even if you’ve come back to Zhang clan, you still have great freedom!”

”What do you mean?”

”It means that the Zhang clan and you are on equal footing with rights and obligations. Across Huaiyuan Prefecture, most of the members of the Zhang clan at your age were practicing everywhere after graduation. When serving the clan, they are also learning to improve their own talents and abilities. Those young men who have awakened ancestral bloodlines have all gathered in the Hidden Dragon Palace of the Zhang clan due to the regulations. However, you are free to choose whether you enter or not!”

Huaiyuan Palace was the official name of the Zhang clan to the public while Hidden Dragon Palace was an agency of the Zhang clan, which was like the Clansmen Pavilion. Given the name, people would know the property of the agency, Hidden Dragon Palace.

”Do people entering the Hidden Dragon Palace need to strictly follow the clan’s orders and lose many personal freedoms?” Zhang Tie asked.

”Yes, those gathering in the Hiden Dragon Palace are all elites of the Zhang clan. Hidden Dragon Palace is almost like a military agency, in which, you will lose many personal freedoms and will have to carry out many dangerous assignments that average people at your age could not accomplish. The casualty rate of clan members who enter the Hidden Dragon Palace to cultivate themselves is 20%, namely, only 8 out of 10 people entering this place come out alive.”

When the Clansmen Pavilion personnel said this, Zhang Tie’s elder brother looked at Zhang Tie twice with concern, being afraid that Zhang Tie would promise to enter Hidden Dragon Palace.

”What benefits are there in Hidden Dragon Palace?” Zhang Tie casually asked.

The Clansmen Pavillion personnel smiled as he nodded. He seemed to be very satisfied with Zhang Tie’s response after hearing his words——He didn’t shake his head, instead, he calmly answered the question, ”In Hidden Dragon Palace, you will get the most opportunities to gain clan contribution points, where, you could enjoy numerous quality resources of the clan and learn various secret clan knowledge and fighting skills. In the Hidden Dragon Palace, you can also broaden your horizons. Those who could come out of Hidden Dragon Palace alive would basically become talents and elites of the Zhang clan who would assume great responsibilities alone!”

Zhang Tie smiled, ”I choose to join the Hidden Dragon Palace of the Zhang clan.”

Hearing Zhang Tie’s reply, Zhang Yang instantly stood up from his chair to object as he wanted to say something. However, after looking at that personnel of Clansmen Pavilion, he suppressed his desire.

”The headquarters of Hidden Dragon Palace is located on Hidden Dragon Island. If you want to go there, you can go to register next Monday, namely December 5th. If you don’t arrive there on time, it will be assumed that you’ve given up.”

”What certification do I need to take”

”None needed, you only need to take this plate over there.”

...

When Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang left the building of Clansmen Pavilion, Zhang Yang who had always remained silent couldn’t stand it as he started to ask Zhang Tie, ”Do you know how much mom and dad worried about you when you were in Iron-Blood Camp? They were really afraid of you being in danger. This time, you could’ve obviously chosen to not join the Hidden Dragon Palace, why did you choose to join?”

Zhang Tie watched Zhang Yang seriously, ”Elder brother, if the holy war between humans and demons break out in the future, in which way do you think it’ll be easier for us to survive? Would it be by the power of our family or by the power of Huaiyuan Palace? For our family, you and I could neither get rid of Huaiyuan Palace’s clan system nor collapse in at the same time. If I join the Hidden Dragon Palace, it would be for the best as we could respond to any situation!” Zhang Tie patted his elder brother’s shoulder, ”Don’t worry elder brother, since I was alright in Iron-blood Camp, I’ll also be alright in Hidden Dragon Palace!”

After considering it for a while, Zhang Yang finally nodded, ”If so, you’d better not mention this at home in case of our parents’ concerns. You can tell them about this before you leave home two days later.”

”Fine.” Zhang Tie nodded as he looked at the two sides of the road, ”How do we go back home, by train?”

”There’s something more convenient than the train!” Zhang Yang wove his hands towards one side of the road. Soon after that, Zhang Tie saw a green car driving from afar and parked in front of them. Zhang Yang told Zhang Tie to get in the car which really startled Zhang Tie as he had not imagined that the car would directly park after being greeted like the carriages in Blapei and Blackhot City.

”Where are you going? The driver in uniform asked the two people in the back seats of the car.

”Jinhai City!”

”Jinhai City is 240 km away from Yiyang City. It will take you 3 hours to get there and 3 more hours for me to come back to Yiyang City, you need to pay 12 silver coins!”

”No problem!” Zhang Yang directly gave the money to the driver.

After receiving the silver coins, the driver immediately drove away.

”What kind of car it is?” Sitting inside, Zhang Tie asked Zhang Yang out of curiosity.

”A rental car, it’s convenient, right?”

Zhang Tie nodded as he thought that this was really a prosperous land. Even cars could be rented…

”Knowing that you’re going back tonight, mom even made your favorite food for you!”

Zhang Tie felt like crying, ”Fine, let’s go back then!”

...

Less than 10 minutes after Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang left the Clansmen Pavilion, all the elders who were sitting in the Shrine of Huaiyuan Palace——the forbidden land of Zhang clan had known of Zhang Tie’s choice.

”I wouldn’t have imagined that this kid’s mentality was not bad. As he chose to enter the Hidden Dragon Palace, he has the potential to be an elite!” One of the elders opened his mouth as he slightly nodded.

”According to the intelligence of clan, this brat was also a powerhouse in the Iron-Blood Camp of Norman Empire. He has even been awarded the Iron-Blood Medal in the Iron-Blood Camp. He must have killed numerous people on the battlefield!” Another elder said, ”Although the opponents were all common soldiers of Sun Dynasty, he’s still not an average person. He has the potential to be an elite!”

”But he’s too lecherous. This brat slept with over 80 girls of the Rose Association within one week. That’s too cock-and-bull. Thankfully, he didn’t make them pregnant, otherwise, it would bring a great trouble to the Clansmen Pavilion!”

”That’s trivial. No one can say they weren’t romantic in their youth.” Another elder smiled, ”Hoho, if he’s energetic and has awakened an ancestral bloodline, in the worst case scenario, we can gift him some more concubines, letting him make some contributions to extend the clan’s bloodline.”

”Great!” The other elders touched their snow-white beards as they seriously nodded.

If Zhang Tie knew that he would be a breeding machine in the eyes of the elders of Huaiyuan Palace in the worst case scenario, he wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

”It seems that his father, Zhang Ping, is suffering some light punishment this time. If he was set free, someone might imitate him in the future!” Some elder seemed to still be worrying about his father’s affair.

”Zhang Ping pretended to be dead as he escaped with a girl. Although this violates the clan regulations, it’s not as severe as being harmful to the other people or being unforgivable. Its impact is trivial. Even if we put him into the prison for 100 years, will it benefit the clan? There were also exceptions of which punishments were reduced by performing meritorious deeds. We deal with this affair not especially for the sake of him. As we’ve deeply learned about the secrets of Mental Arithmetic by Abacus in these days, we all know that this method is very effective in increasing the cultivation of spiritual energy and is of great benefit to the development of the clan. If someone imitated Zhang Ping by pretending to be dead and escaping with a girl from a destined marriage, as long as he could present the item of the same value as Mental Arithmetic by Abacus, it’s reasonable to even exempt from his crime. If there are some more people like Zhang Ping, our Huaiyuan Palace will definitely be more prosperous!” The one who said this was the sixth uncle of Zhang Ping who had brought Zhang Tie’s family back from Blackhot City. Sixth uncle was the head of Clansmen Pavilion, which was also one branch of Jinhai City of Huaiyuan Palace.

”As all the elders have made the decision. Let’s call it an end. Don’t mention it from now on!” another elder looked at the two elders who had spoken just now and genially relieved the atmosphere, ”Two elders’ intentions are all for the sake of the long-term development of Zhang clan. At this critical moment, we should make the sustainability and growth of the clan our largest priority!”

Hearing this elder’s words, the two previous elders looked at each other and nodded.

”Recently, there was a number of abnormal turmoil in the Waii Sub-continent. Therefore, we should prepare for the incoming war as soon as possible…”

”Before each holy war, the demons’ puppets amongst humans would raise turmoil so as to eliminate the people’s overall strength to the largest extent by increasing their mutual suspicion and breaking their unity. This time, many more people would be the sacrifice of demons before the holy war arrives, alas…” Another elder sighed.