Castle of Black Iron

On the top of the cabinet was a pile of golden checks which were placed in the clips of the cabinet.

Zhang Tie took out a gold checks clip and found each gold check was worth 1000 gold coins; there were thirty gold checks in each clip.

’I’m rich.’ Zhang Tie finally knew why some people liked to rob. Because this was a really fast way to make money; additionally, there were always surprises waiting for you.

On the top layer of the cabinet, there were eight gold checks clips, which included five clips of gold checks worth 1000 gold coins, making a subtotal of 150,000 gold coins. There were two clips of gold checks worth 5000 gold coins, making a subtotal of 210,000 gold coins, and a clip of gold checks worth 10000 gold coins, making a subtotal 260,000 gold coins. The overall value of all the gold checks was 620,000 gold coins.

It was Zhang Tie’s first time seeing so many gold checks in clips. The fund provided by Long Wind Business Group to build his castle on Yunju Mountain didn’t go through Zhang Tie at all.

Being extremely excited, Zhang Tie moved all the gold check clips into Castle of Black Iron.

On the second layer of the cabinet were a large number of bonds and stock certificates. Zhang Tie took them out and found those bonds were three year investment bonds delivered by Long Wind Bank in Huaiyuan Prefecture with an annual interest of 5.8%. Those bonds almost occupied the greater part of the second layer of the cabinet.

Zhang Tie didn’t count how many bonds there were as he directly moved all of them into Castle of Black Iron.

The five piles of stock certificates were non-tangible stock purchase certificates of various business groups, companies and industrial groups publicly offered by Yiyang Securities Exchange Center. Zhang Tie skimmed them over and found the issuers of the stock certificates were all industries and groups under the name of Zhang Clan of Huaiyuan Palace, such as Deep Sea Fisheries, Yiyang Harbor, Huaiyuan Machinery Company, and Airship Navigation Company.

As it was Zhang Tie’s first time seeing bonds, he didn’t know about their value and how to turn them into cash; he estimated that since they were placed here, they would be at least worth 100,000 gold coins.

Without any hesitation, Zhang Tie swept them all into Castle of Black Iron too.

On the third layer of the cabinet was a nice box made of gold. Considering the material of the box, Zhang Tie realized the value of the item inside it. He then opened it and found a palm-sized porcelain vessel inside. The most attractive part on the vessel was an abstract symbol composed of some triangles being connected with each other.

Zhang Tie didn’t know what this symbol meant when he was in Blackhot City; however, after staying in Huaiyuan Palace for a long time, Zhang Tie knew what it referred to — dangerous Chemical and Biological Weapon before the Catastrophe. Whereas, in this age, after a slight change, it had become a warning of universal poisonous materials.

The item in this vessel was definitely a poison. From the back of the vessel, Zhang Tie got its name — Poison of Black Sand.

Although Zhang Tie had not heard about this poison, he still put it in the Castle of Black Iron under the excuse that everything had its value, a locust also had meat.

At the bottom of the cabinet was an eccentric device composed of crystal and metal. After looking at that device carefully, Zhang Tie recognized its function. This was a crystal-driven remote sensing communication equipment, which was very expensive. It was the transmitter in this age. The only difference between this equipment and transmitter before Catastrophe was that this device could only realize remote-sensing communication through twin mirror crystals.

Although this item was very expensive, it was useless for Zhang Tie. Firstly, he didn’t know how to use it; secondly, he didn’t need this at all. This item might be used as a communication tool between the Zhen Clan Mansion and the home of the Zhen Clan in Heavens Cold City.

Zhang Tie intended to throw this item into the Pool of Chaos so as to allow Castle of Black Iron to grow one more special mineral; however, after thinking for a short while, Zhang Tie gave up this idea. He just let it lie there.

...

When he left that hidden room, Zhang Tie really felt full. What a worthwhile journey!

Those bonds and stock certificates might be the property of Zhen Clan Mansion after so many years’ accumulation in investment and business. Zhang Tie didn’t know about their value; however, the total value of the gold checks was more than 600,000 gold coins, which was an astronomical figure in any place.

’It’s an unrivaled enjoyment to turn the enemy’s property into my own,’ Zhang Tie sighed with feeling, ’It’s not due to how many items can you plunder, but how cool it feels when you trample on your enemy and plunder them at your will.

Such a cool feeling was like making love, as it would make you feel like an immortal being. You would feel a part of your body, or even your whole body, burning with fire.

After returning to the study room, Zhang Tie didn’t move the bookcase back; instead, he kept it exposed so that everybody could see the secrets in this room.

Zhang Tie then passed by the bloody conference room and went downstairs to the first floor.

There were some warehouses and basements on the first floor which Zhang Tie would never let go. At this moment, Zhang Tie had realized that plundering an enemy’s property was incredibly enjoyable.

Zhang Tie visited the warehouses on the first floor at first with the help of force and keys.

All the items in the warehouses were sealed in crates. The moment he entered there, Zhang Tie had already smelt a fragrance.

After opening the crates, Zhang Tie saw piles of tea leaves. At the sight of these tea leaves, Zhang Tie burst out laughing. ’These items must be transported from the Eastern Continent. These tea leaves are definitely more expensive than gold in Blackhot City. It’s really out my imagination that Zhen Clan of Heavens Cold City are in this line of worth.’

Looking at those crates of tea leaves, Zhang Tie started the space teleportation function of the Castle of Black Iron. The moment he touched any crate, the crate would be transferred into the Castle of Black Iron in a split second. Zhang Tie’s efficiency was even many times higher than that of ten skilled carriers. It only took Zhang Tie a few minutes to move away all the 200-odd crates of tea leaves in one warehouse.

Besides tea leaves, Zhang Tie saw some dyes, shark hides, and many mechanical parts in other warehouses. As Zhang Tie was not interested in these items, he didn’t waste his time on them.

After cleaning up the warehouses on the first floor, Zhang Tie came to the basement of the Mansion.

The entrance of the basement was beside the lobby on the first floor. After entering the basement, Zhang Tie saw so many weapons. He then realized that the basement was where the Clan members practiced their fighting skills and placed their weapons. All the weapons here were from the weapon manufacturers under the affiliation of Huaiyuan Palace. There were various weapons here including sabers, swords, and bows, each of which was very well manufactured.

At the sight of them, Zhang Tie instantly transferred all the crates into the Castle of Black Iron without even counting them.

He took away more than fifty crates of weapons produced by Huaiyuan Palace.

Besides weapons, there were also crates of high class wine, which, similarly to tea leaves, were transported here from the Western Continent through ocean trade with symbols on the crates.

Zhang Tie teleported all the 100-odd crates of wine into the Castle of Black Iron without any hesitation.

After sweeping the basement, Zhang Tie found that nothing valuable was left and he was finally satisfied.

After exiting the basement, Zhang Tie fetched a piece of cloth and bound it onto an iron stick. After that, Zhang Tie found a barrel of dye. With the two items, Zhang Tie left the main building of the mansion.

It was already late into the night.

The four walls of the courtyard outside the main building of the mansion were snowwhite. Zhang Tie came to one wall; he then opened the barrel of dye and put his iron stick into it. After that, he left lines of scrawls on the wall.

— Zhen Clan of Heavens Cold City colluded with demons; they deserved to die!

— Idiots of Huaiyuan Palace. Zhen’s woman married Zhang Taibai! How come you are still confused? What a tragedy!

He then left his name below the two lines — Law Executer in the Dark.

Previously, Zhang Tie planned to write those words only once; however, after painting one wall, he couldn’t help but write on the other three walls. As a result, everyone could see them clearly.

After painting the inner walls, he was still excited; seeing nobody on the streets, he silently moved to the outside of the mansion and wrote a dazzling word "Dead". After that, he scrawled the above words " Zhen Clan of Heavens Cold City colluded with demons; they deserved to die!" all over the exterior walls.

After doing all of this, Zhang Tie dropped his tools and disappeared into the night...

Zhang Tie knew that Stars Viewing City would be a mess the next morning.

Zhang Tie didn’t care about the outcome of his deed. As a trivial figure, he could only do what he needed to do on the premise of surviving, as he’d done in Blackhot City. For what the Zhang Clan would face and what the Zhen Clan would do, Zhang Tie didn’t care. An eye for an eye! Zhang felt not regretful about doing that.

Several minutes later, Zhang Tie flew off the external wall like a huge bird and returned to his own chartered room in the hotel as agile as a cat. Noticing that nobody had been there, Zhang Tie changed his clothes and put away his face mask. He then drank a cup of alcohol and walked out of there.

When he left his chartered room, Zhang Tie glanced at his watch — 02:17 am.

...

"Sir, are you leaving? Plus the alcohol for your favorite car, your bill is 1 gold coin and 67 silver coins in total!"

’Your favorite car.’ Hearing that, Zhang Tie’s hair quivered all over. It was as awkward as someone saying ’your favorite shoes’ or ’your favorite clothes’ to him.

Feeling pretty good, Zhang Tie slightly grinned as he took out two gold coins and threw them to the waiter, saying, "Keep the change!"

...

At 5:11 am, Zhang Tie returned to Jinhai City...

At a bit past 6:00 am, when the sun was about to rise, Zhang Tie walked out of the underground hidden room in Jinwu Castle. He then returned to his own bedroom, throwing himself onto the bed and fell asleep at once...

When Zhang Tie fell asleep, numerous big figures in Huaiyuan Palace were really startled by the same news.

The event was exposed an hour earlier than Zhang Tie had predicted. Before dawn, a bin man on the road outside the Zhen Clan Mansion of Heavens Cold City was stunned by the word "Dead" and those "slogans" on the external walls. In a few minutes, the armored vehicles of the Hurricane Army in Stars Viewing City arrived and surrounded the whole mansion...