Castle of Black Iron

Five days passed quickly. Although Zhang Tie's wound after the circumcision had not recovered yet, and he had only changed fresh dressing for his wound only once, his holiday would soon be over.

The last few days, the good news was that Zhang Tie's untamed thing was not that sensitive any more. It had become accustomed to the contact with his underwear and pants.

The bad news was that Zhang Tie found out that he had become famous among the animals of Blackhot City. In the eyes of many people who didn't understand him, Zhang Tie seemed to be an evil and terrifying thug, a homicidal maniac who could break his classmate's neck in front of over one thousand people in the canteen of the Wild Wolf Castle.

Those people didn't care about what Zuhair and Glaze had done to him, they just spread what he had done to Zuhair in all schools across Blackhot City.

On the first day when Blackhot City was included into the territory of the Norman Empire, Zhang Tie had already utilized the game rules of the Norman Empire's barbarous training to kill his own classmate in front of the public. Such an impression would not be good in the eyes of the gossipers.

Besides, there was gossip that the disappeared Glaze was also killed by Zhang Tie. Although they had gotten it right, Zhang Tie didn't plan to admit to it, just leaving them to guess. No matter what, he would not lose even a hair.

On the evening of the day when Donder left, after sending Pandora, Alice, and Beverly back home respectively, on the way back, Zhang Tie considered how to tell what he had experienced today to his family members.

When he came back home, he found his elder sister-in-law had went to bed as she was pregnant and had easily fallen asleep. Zhang Tie then called his parents and his elder brother and explained why Donder had presented him with the apartment building and the amount of gold coins to him.

Seeing Zhang Tie pull out a purse which contained 400 'locomotive' gold coins, the other three people of Zhang family were shocked for quite a while.

"You mean that Donder gave you this money?" Zhang Tie's dad asked Zhang Tie with eyes wide open.

"Yea, and a six-story apartment building in Avenue Monet. That building was bought by Donder several years ago. He was always living there. Today he transferred it to me. The formalities had been dealt with. Donder said this was a trivial compensation for my gift of 'Mental Arithmetic by Abacus', which helped him render great meritorious service to his super great organization.

"He was ears and eyes of that organization in Blackhot City. As he was now dispatched back as a part of the compensation that his organization awarded him with, he then left these items to me!" Zhang Tie honestly explained, putting his hands on his knees.

After hearing Zhang Tie's explanation, his parents and elder brother became silent. Although Zhang Yang knew that 'Mental Arithmetic by Abacus' could improve one's spiritual energy was a very precious mysterious knowledge, he had not imagined that this book could play such a great role.

Through Donder, everybody learned the value of 'Mental Arithmetic by Abacus', which was simply a beginner's book for everybody to practice their spiritual energy, greatly lowering the threshold for them to cultivate and improve their spiritual energy. It could even help many people who could not cultivate or improve their spiritual energy any more to improve their spiritual energy once again. It was a book of great value that could not be underestimated.

"What else did he leave or say to you besides these things?"

After being silent for several seconds, his dad stared at Zhang Tie in an unprecedentedly solemn way.

"He said that the secret of 'Mental Arithmetic by Abacus' should not be revealed to anyone else besides our family members in case of bringing disaster to our family. Oh, he also gave me one card that I could use to contact him if I came to the Eastern Continent in the future!"

Saying this, Zhang Tie took out that resin card with many irregular small holes on it. He was still confused about how to use this name card.

His dad took a careful look at it after taking it into his hands. His frown then slowly disappeared. Finally, he became completely relaxed and let out a long sigh before nodding to Zhang Tie's mom.

"Dad, you know this item? What's it used for?" Zhang Tie asked, looking at his dad's changing expression.

"This is a name card!"

His dad smiled.

"A name card?"

Not only Zhang Tie, even Zhang Yang who was gazing at that strange card became startled. He took that card from his dad's hand and carefully observed it for quite a while. Zhang Yang couldn't find even one word on it. How could this be a name card?

Both brothers became suspicious.

"Of course. This is the most advanced name card, which is not for people, but for large-scale steam-driven calculators. The round holes on this card are a machine language that can only be identified by a large-scale crystal steam-driven calculator. This is an ID card that is used in long-distance remote communications requiring decoding by Xuan Yuan-6 steam-driven calculator in Eastern Continent.

"If you insert this card into any long-distance crystal remote communication equipment in any city of the Eastern Continent, you will be able to contact Donder..."

His dad took back the card from Zhang Yang's hand, carefully checking it even with a yearning expression.

Large-scale steam-driven calculator? It was Zhang Tie's turn to be dumbfounded. This thing was too advanced so he'd only heard about it at school. Even the teacher who had introduced it to them hadn't seen it before.

According to the teacher's comment, steam-driven calculator was based on steam-driven difference engine, which was used two generations of calculation inventions ago. The steam-driven calculator was the greatest machine that humanity had created so far.

Zhang Tie knew that a difference engine was a machine that could carry out sophisticated difference calculations and was invented by mathematician Babbage during the first industrial revolution before the Catastrophe. The mathematician gained his inspiration from a steam-driven jacquard engine, inventing the steam-driven difference engine, which could calculate through movements of gears. Sadly, after it was invented, the difference engine didn't catch too many people's attention. Due to some unknown reasons, it was then refrigerated by people.

In the second industrial revolution before the Catastrophe, electricity-driven computers that calculated by transistors instead of gears with the same calculating function were invented. Therefore, the steam-based difference engine was completely forgotten.

Closely followed by the invention of the computer came the Catastrophe. After it, those still alive realized that if they wanted to survive for longer, they had to own a calculating tool which could calculate faster and more precisely than human brains. Therefore, the steam-based difference engine that had been refrigerated for over 10,00 years was discovered again.

Among the previous 17 cities of the entire Andaman Alliance, there was only Kalur, the city of machine, who could use steam-based difference engines. There were only two steam-based difference engines across the Andaman Alliance. One was put in Kalur, serving as the most powerful calculating core that supported the manufacturing industry across Kalur, while the smaller one was put in the Andaman City, the capital of the Andaman Alliance. It was said that it was used by the Andaman Alliance to manage its huge family business.

Between steam-driven calculator and steam-driven difference engine, there was a steam-driven analytic engine, which was a much more powerful machine based on steam-driven difference engine. Accordingly, steam-driven calculator was more powerful than a steam-driven analytic engine. It was the representative of the greatest manufacturing capability of human beings. Across the entire Blackson Human Clan Corridor, not only large-scale steam-driven calculator, even a large-scale steam-driven analytic engine could not be produced.

"Dad, how do you know so much about it?"

Zhang Tie stared at his dad with doubt. This card was not even seen by Zhang Tie's teachers at school. How could his dad explain its usage so clearly? Besides, his dad looked too strange. Why did he let out a deep sigh after seeing the card when he looked worried about Donder's status before!

"Hmm... hmm... your dad has heard about it from others before!"

Zhang Tie felt that his dad was really not good at telling a lie. At such an age, when he was telling a lie, he would always scratch his head, which was known to all the other members of Zhang family.

Zhang Tie looked at him with doubt once again. The moment he wanted to open his mouth, his mom interrupted him.

"Guoguo, what do you plan to do with that apartment building and that money left by Donder?"

Mom's words directly caught Zhang Tie's attention.

"Needless to say, of course, I will hand them all to you too, letting you to be renters and enjoy it for the rest of your lives..." Saying this, Zhang Tie immediately became highly spirited. "As my elder brother is going to get married, he and my elder sister-in-law should have a new residence. Even if I live in another residence in the apartment building, there are still 9 residences in the apartment building, which could bring you over 10 gold coins a month. This income is much higher than dad's salary.

"The rice brew business at home is lacking, while my elder sister-in-law is going to give birth to a baby for our family, so this apartment building is very necessary. As for the money, I will give it to my elder brother. Since he is going to retire from the military service, with that amount of money, he can do some business, which would be much better than working for other people!"

In order to not worry his dad and much too much, Zhang Tie didn't talk about the incoming holy war. The moment Zhang Yang opened his mouth, he caught sight of Zhang Tie's shake of the head. Due to the tacit agreement between the two brothers in the past decade, Zhang Yang immediately shut up as he knew that Zhang Tie would tell him something alone later.

After thinking for a while, his dad and mom exchanged glances with each other, then nodded.

"The apartment building is yours, we will look after it for you, since I'm afraid that you won't have enough time to deal with it. As your dad and me have been used to living here for the past dozens of years, we don't want to move anymore. If you want, you can move there. If you have a residence to stay in Blackhot City instead of having to rent outside, your dad and me are reassured..."

His mom revealed a benign smile. "As for this money, I will put it away for you. When your elder brother needs it in the future, I'll give it to him as a loan from you!"

Knowing his dad and mom's intention, Zhang Tie didn't say anything. However, he insisted to give the rents to them as part of his filial piety. In the end, they nodded and agreed to take one third of the rents, leaving the rest to Zhang Tie himself.

Everybody then became satisfied with the distribution of the wealth.

After his dad and mom went to bed, Zhang Tie silently pulled Zhang Yang aside and whispered to him about the incoming third holy war. Hearing this news, Zhang Yang's face immediately twitched as he finally understood why the Blackhot City and Andaman Alliance became chaotic in the past two months.

"Elder brother, I will leave the 400 gold coins to you. This is a critical moment for you and me to pass through the incoming difficulties. We don't need to discuss how to distribute it anymore. I have little time left at home as I have to serve in the Iron-Blood Camp; the City Guard of Blackhot City will soon be revoked, the Iron-Horn Army only considers to keep several military officers. Adviser Vessie told me that the rest of the military staff as well as the soldiers will have to retire.

The Iron-Horn Army will recruit and train a new batch of soldiers their own way. So you'ill surely have to retire in a few days. After that, you can use the money to get a business and gradually mediate relationships for our family. You should seek for a path for our family to survive in the Chinese nations in the south; otherwise, if anything urgent really happens, although we two can directly escape, how about our dad, mom, elder sister-in-law and that incoming baby?

"So we should prepare for what's coming as early as possible. Elder brother, as long as you can find a path for our family out of here, we can move our dad, mom, elder sister-in-law and the incoming baby first..."

The brothers' hands tightly clasped each other, and Zhang Yang gloomily nodded.

...

Time flew past, and it was time for Zhang Tie to register in the Iron-Blood Camp of No. 39 Division...