Castle of Black Iron

After buying 59 female slaves, Zhang Tie’s following trip in Paradise Lost was smooth. Only after visiting Paradise Lost for half an hour, Zhang Tie spent another 15000 gold coins.

This time, he bought a small, square spear matrix composed of 100 LV 2 slave soldiers.

It was a standard spear matrix, which was more powerful than the spear matrix Zhang Tie had been part of when he was at school.

In Paradise Lost, if you had money, you could buy all sorts of people, including fighting force.

Although LV 2 fighters could only be cannon fodder in battle fields, Zhang Tie didn’t mean to send them to battlefields; instead, he only wanted them to defend his castle on Hidden Dragon Island. Therefore, even though they had poor fighting force, they could frighten average people; what was more important, there was no mole among them.

Previously, Zhang Tie planned to employ people from Long Wind Business Group to defend his castle on Hidden Dragon Island; however, after what happened several days ago, Zhang Tie changed his mind. As at least 80 people were needed to defend the castle, Zhang Tie didn’t want anyone who could leak information to the public at any given time and set him up at a critical moment.

After meeting Zhang Taibai’s wife, Zhang Tie had been too scared about Long Wind Business Group; since then, he had constantly been concerned about being screwed over and betrayed. Therefore, Zhang Tie decided to only use his own followers from now on.

Zhang Tie didn’t believe that those people could predict what he was going to do and had arranged their moles among these slaves.

This batch of soldiers were all from the spirits clan. For the other clans, a LV 2 soldier is only worth 120 gold coins; however, spirits soldiers had good physical strength and robust figures. What was more, they were loyal to their owners. They were born to be infantryman; therefore, they were 30 gold coins more expensive than LV 2 soldiers of other clans.

Through this trade, Zhang Tie came to understand more about the prices of the soldiers and warriors of other levels.

In Stars Viewing City, a LV 1 slave soldier was worth about 80 gold coins; a LV 2 slave soldier was worth about 120 gold coins; a LV 3 slave soldier was worth 170 gold coins; a LV 4 slave soldier was worth 260 gold coins; a LV 5 slave soldier was worth 400 gold coins and a LV 6 slave soldier was worth 600 gold coins.

For those soldiers below LV 6, as long as you could afford, those businessmen could easily prepare a division for you.

LV 6 was the highest one could get a slave soldier relatively cheaply as a LV 7 slave would be worth 1100 gold coins, a LV 8 would be worth 3500 gold coins. For LV 9 slaves, if you were lucky, you could get one at the cost of above 10000 gold coins. Actually, you could only see LV 9 slaves at high-end auctions.

Slaves above LV 10 could be rarely seen in slave trade centers. Davinci said he saw one before; although that LV 10 guy was a slave, he was a clan warrior cultivated by a big figure. As nobody would sell a LV 10 powerful fighter and few LV 10 powerful fighters were still slaves.

Those spirits soldiers were all at about 20 years old; they had definitely accepted more military skills training than Zhang Tie had learned in school in Blackhot City. After being bought, those spirits soldiers then knelt down at once and swore to be loyal to Zhang Tie with the solemn promise of their ancestors.

Glancing over more than 100 pairs of eyes, Zhang Tie made an appointment with all the LV 2 spirits soldiers at once.

”As long as you are loyal to me and complete your tasks seriously, I swear here in the name of my ancestors, anyone among you, once reaches LV 6, could gain freedom; additionally, I will gift him 200 gold coins as my thanks for his service over the past years!”

Noticing their faces turning blush and their gleaming eyes, Zhang Tie knew that he had reached his target. Like what Donder said — it’s easy to win popular support, as long as you give the people what they want.

What would a LV 2 slave soldier long for most? Freedom and gold coins. With the two items, they would have everything else. You don’t need to talk about philosophy, dreams, or relationships with them at all.

”Do you mean that?” A two meter tall slave soldier suddenly stood up as he asked with his eyes opened as big as copper bells.

”Of course I mean it. You will soon witness my power to fulfill this promise!” Zhang Tie then stared at this giant man, ”What’s your name?”

”I’m Lenox!”

”Well, as you are brave enough to ask such a question on behalf of everybody else, I appoint you as the head of this matrix; but you need to bear it in mind, this is the first time and the last time for you to doubt my words. If you ask such foolish question once again, I will chop off your head, am I clear?”

Saying this, Zhang Tie’s killing intent instantly covered the matrix of more than 100 LV 2 spirits soldiers. Feeling this, everybody became shocked and frightened. At this moment, everybody felt that as long as Zhang Tie liked, he could easily kill them all.

Under the sharp gaze of Zhang Tie, Lenox felt cold sweat all over his back. Although being robust in figure, the fighter didn’t even to look straight into Zhang Tie’s eyes; instead, he lowered his head in awe, ”Yes, sir!”

After this transaction, Zhang Tie left Paradise Lost with Davinci. In 24 hours, Paradise Lost would send these soldiers in Zhang Tie’s castle on Hidden Dragon Island.

Although that castle was not completed yet, the completed section would be able to house the slaves.

Any customer purchasing more than 5 slaves in Paradise Lost could enjoy a free door-to-door delivery. As Zhang Tie bought 100 LV 2 spirits soldiers, Paradise Lost gifted him 100 long spears as the weapons for those soldiers.

Zhang Tie entered Paradise Lost with the papernote of 20000 gold coins; however, when he walked out of Paradise Lost, he only had less than 1000 gold coins left; instead, he got 100 LV 2 spirits soldiers and 59 female slaves from Varner Empire.

This was Zhang Tie first private force. Zhang Tie even appointed 2 heads for them.

The head of the spirits soldiers was Lenox while the head of those female slaves was Sonia — that girl who was almost separated from her younger sister. Because of Zhang Tie, a tragedy between the sisters was avoided; what if he hadn’t been there? Therefore, Zhang Tie believed that Sonia would do her job well so as to gain his appreciation.

Although he spent too much this time, he felt so cool.

...

”Mr. Zhang, do you really want to take a look at the cheapest slave trade center? That place is dirty and disorderly. Slaves there are almost dead!” Davinci tried to persuade Zhang Tie once again.

”No crap!” Zhang Tie then got on the vehicle. After inserting in the key and rotating it to unlock the steering and the pedal ignition device, Zhang Tie stepped on the ignition pedal before it sprung back up; however, the engine didn’t respond.

Zhang Tie then stepped down on it eight consecutive times before the car started to slightly shake and the familiar sound of the engine drifted. Then, the engine was ignited. This turbine steam-driven, thermal recollected, external combustion engine was featured by mechanical ignition and alcohol combustion, which could shorten the ignition process to a little over ten seconds.

When Zhang Tie ignitied the Faerie Dragon T9, Davinci took a look around the car before opened the side door and meticulously sat in with an emotional sigh, ”It’s really a good car!”

Zhang Tie then gazed at the dash board of the car. Half a minute later, when the hand of steam pressure pointed at 2900 psi, Zhang Tie pushed down the hand brake and shifted in reverse; meanwhile, he stepped the accelerator and backed his car out of the parking space smoothly.

”Which way am I heading?”

Davinci sighed, ”Keep forward and turn right at the second turning...”

The sports car then instantly dashed out...

...

In less than 10 minutes, Zhang Tie had already arrived at that slave trade center under the guidance of Davinci. This was really like an animal trade center outside Blackhot City. It was in a wood outside the city.

Compared to Paradise Lost, this place was in alignment with Zhang Tie’s imagination — disorderly, dirty, and noisy. Under the hot sun, this place was full of weird smells that made people feel like vomiting. Besides, there were all sorts of complaints, bargaining voices, and wails.

In dirty and shabby clothes, the slaves were like animals as they were gathered in a cramped space surrounded by steel pipes and iron wires. They were looking at the surrounding people with dumb and despairing looks.

There were some extremely rough platforms which were only 1 m higher than the ground. The platforms were covered with a broken water-proof tarpaulin, on which naked female slaves were exposed and forced to display their own bodies, including their private places for auctioning themselves.

The moment Zhang Tie arrived here, he had seen a baldheaded tough guy forcefully pat a woman’s butt and yelled loudly, ”9 gold coins? Anyone higher? This woman has not given birth to a baby; she’s only 40-odd years old. Except for that scald on her face, she has a nice figure; she’s definitely docile; after turning off the light at night, she could still make you happy. Any one higher? The minimal added price each time is only 10 silver coins...”

”10 gold coins!” Zhang Tie roared...