Castle of Black Iron

Those who surrounded Zhang Tie were all older than him and between the ages of 18 and 20. In black uniforms, they looked pretty cool. Additionally, as they usually did sports, they all had very hot figures. Of course, if he wasn’t being glared at by them, Zhang Tie would really enjoy being surrounded by so many women.

”Are you that mean, shameless, lecherous, and sinister Zhang Tie?”

’F*ck, is that a greeting?’ Zhang Tie carefully looked at them as he really could not remember whether there was any relation between him and them. However, they looked like they’d caught a person, who owed them several hundred coins, wandering around in a brothel.

”I’m sorry, you’ve got the wrong person, I’m not the person that you want!”

After saying this, Zhang Tie immediately walked away.

Seeing Zhang Tie walking away, they obviously became stunned as they had not imagined that Zhang Tie would deny his identity. Not until Zhang Tie had walked several steps away did those women realize what had happened and surrounded Zhang Tie once again with contemptuous looks.

”Are you are man or not? Don’t you dare to admit your status?”

”That’s it, how could such a person enter the Hidden Dragon Palace?”

”Dare you say that you are not Zhang Tie‽”

The women then started to mock Zhang Tie.

”As for whether I’m a man, the most qualified one to answer this is my woman. You’re not my women, therefore, you are not qualified to ask that question!” With arms crossed, Zhang Tie remained smiling, ”You’re right, I’m Zhang Tie. It’s just a common name as many people are given this name. But I don’t know about that mean, shameless, lecherous, and sinister Zhang Tie you mentioned. You must have found the wrong person. If you are looking for the fair, handsome, kind, and generous Zhang Tie, here I am!”

”Humph...” A women replied with a cold harrumph, ”Truly as said by those sisters in Zhixing Department, you are eloquent. No crap. We are looking for you!”

”Why are you looking for me, senior sisters?”

”Do you know the rules for newbies when they enter Breaking-Heavens Department?”

”What rules?” Zhang Tie asked even though he already knew.

”Okay, I will tell you. We found you today to notify you that we have applied to be your training guides on two compulsory subjects for fighters, namely the basic moving skills and shield defense skills. When you have enough clan donation points and want to learn the two compulsory subjects, we will spare some time to guide you well!” One of them said as she emphasized the word ”guide”, indicating a malicious intention.

”I’m afraid that you have not even skimmed over your curriculum. You will know it when you see it. Humph, don’t beg us for forgiveness then. Let’s go...” Another one of them glared at Zhang Tie before making a cold harrumph and turning her head. Closely following her, the other proud women then turned around and left.

Twiddling his mustache with his hand, Zhang Tie watched their faintly twisting and rhythmic butts and finally understood a fact. He didn’t know when, but his ”good reputation” as the ”Public Enemy of Female Students” in Zhixing Department seemed to have spread to the Breaking-Heavens Department, as they had already found him trouble on the first day when he came here to register.

After knowing that he could easily form Iron-Blood Battle Qi, those LV 7 little girls still dared to find him trouble. It meant that they must have something to back their confidence. There might be something eccentric and mysterious in the two compulsory fighting courses.

’Never mind. Just wait. This father doesn’t believe that those little girls could queue up to bite me! If they truly have stirred me up, I will fiercely whip their butts.’

After glaring at their swaying butts, Zhang Tie forcefully swallowed his saliva and returned to his room in the Songtao Pavilion.

This time, when he came back, there was already a magazine-like book on the top of the message box which was installed on his door. Zhang Tie took a look at it and noticed a line of big words on the cover of it: ”A Brief Introduction on the Arrangement of the Compulsory Courses in the Breaking-Heavens Department of Hidden Dragon Palace and Elective Courses”.

In the following hour, Zhang Tie was studying this book during which time he started to have a deeper understanding on the Breaking-Heavens Department.

With the exception of special situations, newbies had to meet the following conditions before officially leaving the Breaking-Heavens Department.

Condition 1: One should reach at least LV 9 and ignite 34 surge points on one’s spine.

— This was the lowest requirement.

Condition 2: Males have to reach 20 years old and undergo the capping ceremony. Females have to reach 20 years old and undergo gyerye.

— This was the lowest requirement on age.

Condition 3: One should pass all the compulsory courses and subjects in Breaking-Heavens Department.

— This was the lowest requirement on ability.

The first two requirements were easy for Zhang Tie to meet; however, the last requirement really dumbfounded him. He finally understood why the people in the Breaking-Heavens Department were so busy all day long. Take his cousin for example, besides being busy making money, Zhang Su was also busy earning clan donation points.

Damn, it turned out that all the compulsory courses and subjects had tuition fees of gold coins and clan donation points. Additionally, so many cultural courses were included in those compulsory subjects besides pure cultivation.

At the sight of those compulsory cultural courses, Zhang Tie instantly became even more dumbfounded.

”General History of Human Beings” — Compulsory Course — Payment: 10 gold coins.

”A Study on the Two Holy Wars Between Human Beings and Demons” — Compulsory Course —

Payment: 20 gold coins and 20 clan donation points.

”A Study on the Political Systems in the Countries across the Waii Sub-Continent” — Compulsory Course — Payment: 15 gold coins and 5 clan donation points.

”General Introduction on the Human Culture of Continents” — Compulsory Course — Payment: 10 gold coins.

”Geography” — Compulsory Course — Payment: 10 gold coins.

”The Science on the Inside of Earth” — Compulsory Course — Payment: 20 gold coins and 20 clan donation points.

”War Geography” — Compulsory Course — Payment: 10 gold coins.

”An Exploration on the Technical Development in Different Industries in the Black Iron Age” —

Compulsory Course — Payment: 10 gold coins and 5 clan donation points.

”The Great Brilliant Charter” — Compulsory Course — Payment: 1 gold coin.

”Practice on Business Group Management and Trade” — Compulsory Course — Payment: 100 gold coins and 100 clan donation points.

”Clan System and The Wealth of Nations” — Compulsory Course — Payment: 5 gold coins.

”Military Strategies” — Compulsory Course — Payment: 50 gold coins and 50 clan donation points.

”How to be a Qualified Battlefield Commander” — Compulsory Course — Payment: 30 gold coins and 30 clan donation points.

”Survival Skills in Extreme Environments” — Compulsory Course — Payment: 15 gold coins and 15 clan donation points.

”Music” — Compulsory Course — Payment: 10 gold coins.

...

Those cultural subjects were basically all the high-end knowledge that Zhang Tie hadn’t touched before, which covered history, politics, geography, culture, and military. There were 20 cultural subjects in total. After taking a serious look, Zhang Tie realized that with the exception of Hebrew that he had already learned, he would need learn all the other cultural courses.

However, for commoners, too much money was required to learn all these courses. If he referred to the previous income of his family in Blackhot City, his whole family might not be able to pay for those courses even after 30 years of work, if the clan donation points were not included.

In a contrast, the expense of those compulsory cultivation courses was even more amazing. However, there were only a few cultivation courses, namely: basic moving steps, basic swordsmanship, shield defense skills, preliminary archery, flying skills, and horsemanship.

Advanced cultivation courses were not included in compulsory courses, but in elective courses. Reading them, Zhang Tie’s eyes radiated a gleaming light. As he turned each page, he would forcefully swallow his saliva.

31 battle qi ranging from middle-class battle qi to high-end battle qi were available.

17 swordsmanship were available.

9 marksmanship were available.

56 palm skills, fist skills, and finger skills were available.

8 leg skills were available.

4 secret methods that could be used to improve spiritual energy were available.

3 secret methods on polishing surge points by spiritual energy were available.

Over 100 kinds of secret knowledge, fighting skills, eccentric weapons, and even poisoning skills were available.

Some of the elective courses made Zhang Tie more stunned — advanced courses on professions like alchemy, rune manufacturing, tricks master, beast training, fengshui architecture and tactical deployment master.

The elective courses on alchemy progressed from herbal apprentice, knapsack pharmacist and bottle suspending alchemist, which were also the 3 stages to be an alchemist.

The elective courses on rune manufacturing progressed from craftsman apprentice, craftsman to copper hammer craftsman, which were also the 3 stages to be a rune manufacturer.

The elective courses of all the other professions all included the first 2 to 4 stages of them. Of course, one had to pay a lot for these courses. It would take one 2000 gold coins and 1000 clan donation points to choose the craftsman apprentice; the 1st stage to be a rune manufacturer. This was a huge amount of money.

At this moment, Zhang Tie was once again shocked by the great power and background of the Zhang clan of Huaiyuan Palace.

The whole Hidden Dragon Palace was like the clan elites school of the Zhang clan, where the Zhang clan could cultivate some special professions. What a great power!

Scanning this curriculum, Zhang Tie recalled those women who applied to be his ”training guides”. He then smiled and knew that he would be busy in the Breaking-Heavens Department from then on...