Castle of Black Iron

”After leaving the capital of Jinyun Country, we moved to Stars Viewing City. The slave trade was very prosperous over there. After buying some slaves, especially some female slaves, some rich people would have some special demands, such as they would like to grant some strange official status to their female slaves. Our embassy could meet their demands. Benefited from them, we could live well for a few days!” Philip sighed as his eyes were filled with infinite desire for that period.

”Strange status? What kind of status can you provide for those female slaves?” Zhang Tie asked out of curiosity.

”As long as they have money, they could let their female slaves be official citizens of Holy Golden Orchid Empire. Besides, they could buy some imperial positions for those female slaves, positions which meant nothing but gave them some reputation, such as palace consultant, palace musician, secretary of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, military officer of the art troupe of the imperial army, etc!” Philip replied, ”Among these positions, the most popular one was the status sacred, holy goddess of the School of Fraternity which was founded by our emperor!”

’F*ck!’ Zhang Tie understood it at once. For some nouveau riches, of course, they bought beautiful female slaves to f*ck them; for some of them, making love with beautiful female slaves felt different compared to making love with female slaves with some exotic status; they wanted to experience something different.

”You make your living from this?”

”That’s it. This is the only way that all the embassies of Holy Golden Orchid Empire could make money. What else could we sell except for the status of citizen and those official positions? After selling the position of foreign secretary, our emperor even sold out the positions of ambassadors in all the embassies!” Nicolay frowned his forehead gloomily, ”I spent over 100,000 gold coins to buy this official position. Whereas, the only task for all the embassies of Holy Golden Orchid Empire in other countries is to spread the theory about light and love proposed by our emperor. Anyone could be a citizen of Holy Golden Orchid Empire as long as their hearts are full of love and light!”

Zhang Tie was struck speechless by that. There were truly populations and religions in this world that were bound up in terms of pure theories, values, or standards of conduct; for instance, the Jews, who were as well known as Chinese for their excellent business acumen before the Catastrophe. There was a old saying in the Jews’ Sacred Codes about themselves: ’Anyone who gives up worshipping idols is a Jew.’ There was another example, in Buddhism, which was the largest religion in the world before the Catastrophe, buddhists were defined as those who could insist on the four truths [1] of their belief.

Zhang Tie learned the above knowledge from the course ”General History of Human Race” when he was in Hidden Dragon Palace. Those were all examples of the diversity greater population in terms of values and standards of conduct before the Catastrophe; however, Zhang Tie had not imagined that in a chaotic world like Black Iron Age, someone also wanted to unite people by an empty talk like ”light and love”.

A bizarre emperor builds a strange country with weird standards.

This was Zhang Tie’s feeling at that moment.

”If you could live well in Stars Viewing City, why are you so pitiful now?”

”When the emperor knew that some embassies were helping some slaves gain the status of citizens and various other positions so as to satisfy someone’s weird and abnormal requests, he had delivered an order to forbid embassies to gain the status of citizen for slaves. The emperor even said slave should not exist in a country full of light and love!” Nicolay explained while his eyes were full of tears, ”My god, but I’d only got half of my investment back by that point!”

Zhang Tie sighed. Heiger VII was really worth his own novel. But Zhang Tie didn’t plan to dig for further information about him then.

”I’m applying to join Holy Golden Orchid Empire. What forms do I need? Hurry up!”

The moment they heard Zhang Tie’s request, Nicolay and Philip exchanged glances with each other as they became busy at once.

”Philip, call Piaster in. Let him prepare to take a photo for this gentleman along with the metal fingerprint collector. As this gentleman doesn’t have much time, I will prepare the citizenship confirmation procedure for this gentleman!”

”Yes sir! Mr. Ambassador!” Philip hurriedly ran out of the office and shouted loudly, ”Piaster, you lazybones, go get your machine prepared, we have a guest!”

...

Zhang Tie thought that alleged the citizenship confirmation procedures would be very sophisticated; he couldn’t have imagined that it was as simple as a joke.

Nicolay took out of a book of ”Sacred Codes” from his desk and asked Zhang Tie put his hand on it. After that, Nicolay asked Zhang Tie in a very solemn way, ”Do you have light and love in your heart?”

Having been told what to say, Zhang Tie answered, ”Yes, I do!” Then the whole confirmation procedure was finished. Zhang Tie was really stunned by this.

After that, Zhang Tie took a photo and left the fingerprint of his right thumb on a metal mold in a confined room. Piaster was a first secretary of the embassy. However, his work was nothing different than those workers in the workshops.

Zhang Tie then left the name of his current alias: Fei Yuao (费雨傲).

After receiving 12 gold coins from Zhang Tie, Nicolay told Zhang Tie jubilantly that it would take him only 10 minutes to get his ID certificate as the citizen of Holy Golden Orchid Empire.

During this period, Philip presented Zhang Tie with a service list which looked like a menu in a hotel as he and Nicolay stood on Zhang Tie’s two sides respectively and started to introduce the other services that the embassy could provide to Zhang Tie.

At this moment, Fei Yuao was only an average citizen of Holy Golden Orchid Empire; however, as long as Zhang Tie wanted, he could have a very privileged official position at once. Even if Zhang Tie wanted to be a military officer, he could freely choose any of position from ensign to admiral of the fleet.

The status of ensign was the cheapest as it only required 10 gold coins. As long as Zhang Tie submitted 10 gold coins, he would gain a military officer certificate and two sets of ceremonial dresses of military officers officially issued and allocated by the imperial army headquarter of Holy Golden Orchid Empire. But, that would take one week.

”The price of the navy marshal of Holy Golden Orchid Empire is 300,000 gold coins. With this position, besides the above official ID certificate and other marshals’ reliance, you could also gain a mace made of pure gold and have the chance to lunch with Heigner VII. In Holy Golden Orchid Empire, with this status, you would be able to enter many places where are limited to upper class talents. Additionally, the military department of the empire would engage you as a lifetime counselor of the military department of the empire and the honorary president of the navy university...briefly, you would enjoy many benefits with this status!”

Philip kept talking about the benefits of having various official positions in Holy Golden Orchid Empire while Zhang Tie became confused, ”Isn’t Holy Golden Orchid Empire a land-locked country? What does it establish navy for?”

”There’s no regulation on forbidding the establishment of a navy in a land-locked country. No matter what, the navy department is usually a sub-department of the military department of the empire. Except for salary, fleet, and sailors, they could enjoy equal treatment like those of real military officers!” Philip explained in a smart way.

Zhang Tie then understood it. Because there was no navy in Holy Golden Orchid Empire, they set up a navy department to sell relevant official positions. In this way, they wouldn’t shoulder any responsibility for that. Perhaps, there were truly some nouveau riche fools who liked the feeling of being military officers and big figures.

Following that, Philip introduced a great number of titles of imperial palace counselors of Holy Golden Orchid Empire. Noticing that Zhang Tie was not interested in those fake status, Philip hurriedly turned over 2 pages.

”How about this? It would only take you 600 gold coins a year to be authorized to use the badge of golden orchid of the imperial household of the empire and enjoy the royal naming right of the empire. These are successful cases. Take this as an example, after being named as the royal oak club of Holy Golden Orchid Empire, this business group avoided a robbery...”

”Additionally, after being crowned as the royal club of Holy Golden Orchid Empire, this club’s trading volume surged by one hundred percent...”

Zhang Tie shook his head as he thought this naming right was a bit useful; however, he didn’t need this status at the present. If back in Blackhot City, those nouveau riche fools in Blackhot City would definitely be mad for royal clubs or fighting clubs of Holy Golden Orchid Empire.

After that, Philip introduced some other items, such as with only 1 gold coin, one could buy several square kilometers’ remote land, the right to exploit or reclaim wasteland out of the territory of the empire. But Zhang Tie kept shaking his head.

”Sorry, if you’ve finished my ID certificate, please bring it to me. I’m not interested in the other items here. No more sales pitches, please!” Zhang Tie said calmly.

”One more, one more. I bet you will like it!” Seemingly not feel that Zhang Tie would leave here with only 10-odd gold coins, Philip almost exclaimed, ”As long as you are a man, you will definitely be interested in this. As long as you submit 200 gold coins, you will be qualified to attend a grand meeting in Aulis next year when you might have a chance to win the favor of Princess Pandora and become her husband!”

”What? What’s the name of the princess?” Zhang Tie was dumbfounded as the name Pandora instantly reminded Zhang Tie of those warm memories. Zhang Tie thought the princess must be another girl with the same name.

”Your Highness princess called Pandora. She’s just 16 years old this year. It’s told that she learned outside when she was young. She came back to Aulis last year. Princess Pandora is the only daughter of Heiger VII and the first heir to the throne of the empire. When she becomes the queen in the future, there would be one more prince in the empire.”

16 years old; learned outside when she was young; came back to Aulis last year. These pieces of message made Zhang Tie’s heart pound.

”Do you have a photo of Princess Pandora?”

Nicolay pulled open the sketcher as he took out of a photo and gave it to Zhang Tie, ”According to the order from the Foreign Affairs Ministry of the empire, 1 month later, when Princess Pandora is 17 years old, we will publish an ad on a whole page of the each mainstream newspaper of Jinyun Country for Princess Pandora’s husband-selective grand meeting!”

In the photo, Pandora’s hair and pupils were still. Being different from before, she was wearing a delicate and elegant princess crown and a brilliant set of blue palace dress while her hands were crossed and put before her lower abdomen elegantly. Besides, she was holding a nice-looking gold-made cane.

Compared to that emaciated look in Blackhot City, Pandora in the photo looked more balanced while her face radiated a wisp of brilliant and healthy light, making her beautiful, elegant and deep-thinking.

At the sight of this photo, everybody would consider her as a princess.

Zhang Tie then fixed his eyes on the fourth finger of her right hand which was holding a cane and obscurely saw a black-sealed ring on it.

Thinking that scene when he put on this ring for Pandora at the railway station when he left Blackhot City, Zhang Tie instantly dropped off tears...

At the sight of Zhang Tie dropping off tears with his eyes fixed on the photo, Nicolay and Philip were really stunned.

”I’m sorry. It’s my first time to see such a beautiful princess!” Zhang Tie returned the photo to Nicolay, ”You mean Pandora is going to select her husband next year?”

”Yes, on her 18th birthday! Any single man who can afford to spend 200 gold coins can go there to have a try!”

”Count me in!” Zhang Tie put his hand in his coat and threw a bag of gold coins onto Nicolay’s desk.

...

Over 10 minutes later, with the ID certificate of ”Fei Yuao”, Zhang Tie left the Embassy. Outside the gate, he called a taxi and soon disappeared in the street.

Every 3 months, the Holy Golden Orchid Empire’s embassy in Jinyun Country would have the photos, names and fingerprints of the persons who had joined the emperor registered in the administration of Huaiyuan Prefecture. However, Zhang Tie was not afraid of that; because he was wearing a mask. Nobody across Waii Sub-Continent would know about his true face except for Donder.

Half an hour later, Zhang Tie settled down in a middle-class hotel at the intersection between a boisterous business district and a red-light district in Jinhai City.

The rent of the hotel was 6 silver coins a day. There was a club under the hotel while on the roof of the hotel was a legal gambling house where were crowded with numerous people all day long.

Twenty minutes after entering the hotel, Zhang Tie changed into another set of clothes, took off his mask, and left the hotel.

Nobody cared about how Zhang Tie had entered; similarly, nobody cared about how he left.

After leaving the hotel, Zhang Tie circled around the area twice. He then walked into a boisterous region of a business district where he called a taxi and drove him to that rich men’s villa area in the Longman Avenue of Jinhai City.

That was where Zhang Tie’s family members lived.

Zhang Tie then rang the doorbell of the No. 76 on the Longman Avenue. After a short while, a small window opened and a 40-odd, tough man appeared in the window. At the sight of Zhang Tie, he slightly frowned his forehead.

”Whom are you looking for?”

Zhang Tie didn’t know him; but he might be able to guess the man’s status after his elder brother was attacked.

”I’m Zhang Tie. I was living here. Zhang Yang is my elder brother!” Zhang Tie answered calmly.

Hearing this answer, that man was pretty shocked. He then glanced over Zhang Tie carefully and spoke politely, ”Please wait a second...”

In less than 30 seconds, with a series of hurried footsteps, the gate was opened while Zhang Tie’s mom’s haggard face appeared in front of Zhang Tie at once.

”Mom!”

”Guoguo, is that you?” Zhang Tie’s mom was so excited that she instantly hugged Zhang Tie, ”Shouldn’t you be in Hidden Dragon Island? How did you come back? Your eldest uncle was worrying about you last night, your elder brother...” Speaking of Zhang Tie’s elder brother, his mom’s eyes instantly turned wet while tears kept dropping off.

”Mom, it’s okay. I’m safe. I already know what happened to my elder brother. Let’s talk about it later!” Zhang Tie patted her mom’s back to comfort her before accompanying her into the courtyard.

There was one more ladder, a small wooden horse and some toys on the grassland of the courtyard. Seeing them, Zhang Tie took a deep breath.

Although looking calm, Zhang Tie had long developed a powerful killing intent inside and was extremely furious.

On the same day Zhang Tie was attacked, Zhang Yang was assaulted. If not some emergencies which made the attackers abort their plan, Zhang Yang might have been dead. Even so, Zhang Yang was still injured.

Those who assaulted Zhang Yang in Jinhai City were the same batch of people as those who attempted to assassinate Zhang Tie. When their plan failed, Zhang Tie was told that they committed a suicide as same as the LV 10 guy — releasing the terrifying poison in their metal teeth and turning themselves into a pond of blood, leaving nothing else.

No matter how great the background of the Zhen Clan of Heavens Cold City was and what tricks they designed in Huaiyuan Palace, Zhang Tie had determined to sweep off Zhen Clan from Heavens Cold City.

Zhang Tie realized that his biggest advantage was that Zhen Clan of Heavens Cold City didn’t know that he had discovered their secret.