Castle of Black Iron

Chapter 322: To be a Castle Lord

Chapter 322: To be a Castle Lord

Translator: WQL Editor: KLKL

After leaving the training field, Zhang Tie felt pretty good. Knowing that he had something to deal with, Gu Caidie and the other martial girls bade farewell to Zhang Tie before they left too.

Zhang Tie’s performance in the test passage had justified that he could pass the test on fundamental movements successfully. Zhang Tie didn’t need to come here in the future.

According to Ma Aiyun and the other martial girls, the course of fundamental movements was the most difficult one among all the compulsory courses. Most of the people in Breaking-Heavens Department had passed the test on fundamental movements in half a year to 1 year. They had not expected that Zhang Tie could pass it in just a bit over 2 months. Although this was not the fastest, it could only be achieved by a minority of people in the Breaking-Heavens Department.

"Who’s the fastest one to pass the test on fundamental movements?" Zhang Tie asked Ma Aiyun while the latter looked at Lan Yunxi with a smile. Zhang Tie then understood.

Outside the training field, they separated from each other.

"Martial sisters, your vials of medicament will arrive in 1 week. Don’t forget to come for me by then!"

"We might not get enough money by then!" Gu Caidie explained, "We might not take too much from you at the beginning".

In Breaking-Heavens Department, as each one had to submit 30 gold coins as the monthly fee, most of the girls could not save much; therefore, although they intended to do this business, they felt bashful about that.

"No problem, you can take away the medicament first and sell them before paying me back!" Zhang Tie put it generously.

"That’s great!"

"You can take 200 vials of medicament first. If you can not sell all of them, you can return them back to me. Just have a try. If this works, we can stick to this way in the future; if not, just take it as a joke!"

Gu Caiyun then exchanged glances with the other girls as they were all moved by Zhang Tie’s words. They knew that although Zhang Tie was careless and shameless sometimes, he was very considerate. Now that Zhang Tie had presented such a condition for them, he had obviously considered their situation quite well. He almost pushed a great opportunity in front of them.

The girls were very reserved. They were not good at expressing their own emotions, especially when there were strangers present. After deeply gazing at Zhang Tie with a thank-you, the girls then left.

Lan Yunxi’s 4th uncle didn’t talk. Seeing that Zhang Tie had sold 200 vials of medicament in such a short while, he realized that Zhang Tie had truly mastered the method of producing large-scale all-purpose medicaments.

After the girls left, Lan Yunxi’s 4th uncle put it straightforwardly to Zhang Tie about his status and his purpose.

Zhang Taibai—Lan Yunxi’s 4th uncle, a younger brother of Zhang Taixuan, the Count Long Wind, a director of Long Wind Business Group, such a status really shocked Zhang Tie.

"You mean Long Wind Business Group wants to cooperate with me?" Zhang Tie glanced at this 50 year-old man who looked noble and privileged. It was really out of his imagination that all-purpose medicament could attract the attention of such a great organization.

"Hmm, as all-purpose medicament has many applications. If you could realize mass production, we can cooperate. But if you could only produce a few, I’m afraid that you would not meet the demands of Long Wind Business Group!" Zhang Taibai smiled.

Of course, Zhang Tie knew this. For such a great organization, whose clients were great powers and countries, even thousands or tens of thousands of vials of all-purpose medicament definitely could not meet its basic demands. A business of only tens of thousands of gold coins was not worth the travel of a director of Long Wind Business Group at all.

"Wuh? If I can realize mass production, I wonder how Long Wind Business Group will cooperate with me?" When talking, they wandered around the Breaking-Heavens Department, where it was tranquil and full of warbles and the fragrance of flowers, which made the atmosphere most suitable.

While Zhang Taibai headed with Lan Yunxi and Zhang Tie, his bodyguards were following them at a distance.

Feeling Zhang Tie’s eyes glancing over her stealthily, Lan Yunxi had to pretend that nothing had happened, as she didn’t want her 4th uncle to know about that "special" thing between her and Zhang Tie.

"I heard you are using a secret recipe to produce the all-purpose medicament? If you wish, the Long Wind Business Group is prepared to purchase your secret recipe!" Zhang Taibai put it straightly, "The price won’t disappoint you!"

Zhang Tie revealed a smile. If it was before, he would definitely have been moved by this proposal. Previously, he only wanted to get essential-energy reiki yeast, which had reproductive ability. However, after knowing the value of the all-purpose medicament, of course, he would never do such a stupid thing by killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

"I don’t intent to sell the secret recipe!" Zhang Tie took it seriously as he didn’t make any compromise to Zhang Taibai’s status and the relationship between Zhang Taibai and Lan Yunxi.

This time, Zhang Tie’s shred and crisp attitude caught Lan Yunxi’s attention, who stared at him with amazement, ’This guy is decisive when he’s not being shameless.’ Lan Yunxi mumbled inside.

"No more consideration?" Zhang Tie’s direct attitude shocked Zhang Taibai a bit. Zhang Tie had refused him even without asking the price. ’This answer indicates that he either doesn’t like money or has a trump card.’ Zhang Taibai thought for a second. However, considering Zhang Tie’s age and his behavior in the Breaking-Heavens Department recently, it would never be the first reason.

"How about taking a look at the place where I produce the all-purpose medicament?" Zhang Tie didn’t answer Zhang Taibai’s question directly. Instead, he proposed a suggestion which Zhang Taibai would never refuse. Zhang Taibai’s main purpose was to figure out Zhang Tie’s ability to produce all-purpose medicament. If Zhang Tie was really capable of mass-production of all-purpose medicament, Zhang Tie’s value had to be appraised once again.

Lan Yunxi was also curious about where Zhang Tie produced the all-purpose medicament, so she didn’t refuse this proposal either.

They soon arrived at the Poria Cocos Park.

When the girls were here, they didn’t know Zhang Tie was producing all-purpose medicament here. Therefore, strictly, it was Zhang Tie’s first time guiding people to visit his "plant" for producing all-purpose medicament.

Previously Zhang Taibai and Lan Yunxi thought that Zhang Tie would guide them to the lab. It was really beyond their imagination that Zhang Tie would guide them to a warehouse in the Poria Cocos Park.

Because it was daytime, with light casting through ground glass and metal protective nets in the windows on one side of the warehouse, the entire warehouse felt clean and refreshing.

At the beginning, Zhang Taibai and Lan Yunxi didn’t connect the 100 huge, tidily arranged terrines with Zhang Tie’s all-purpose medicament. However, they looked around and saw nothing else but those terrines. Then they became startled.

Is that all-purpose medicament in these terrines? Not only Lan Yunxi, even Zhang Taibai was stunned. Even Zhang Taibai had not seen such a shocking scene before.

"Is...the all-purpose medicament in these terrines?" After realizing that, Zhang Taibai asked Zhang Tie, still full of doubts.

"Hmm, not now, you have to wait 2 months longer!" said Zhang Tie calmly, revealing a smile.

Zhang Taibai took a deep breath as he stared at Zhang Tie with gleaming eyes. He looked so serious. "Can I have a look?"

"As you will!"

Zhang Taibai then casually walked in front of a huge terrine and opened its lid. In a split second, a refreshing fragrance had drifted throughout the warehouse. The moment he smelt it, he became spirited. Although the super enzyme had not been fermented well, it had already started to give off its unique fragrance.

After observing the solution in one terrine, Zhang Taibai moved to another and started to check inside seriously once again.

Noticing that Zhang Taibai had been attracted by those terrines, Lan Yunxi felt it unimaginable. Zhang Tie took a look around and found that there were only 3 people in the entire warehouse. Zhang Taibai’s 2 bodyguards didn’t follow them in. Instead, they were guarding outside the gate of the Poria Cocos Park. Therefore, Zhang Tie silently stretched out his hand and held Lan Yunxi’s delicate hand.

The moment Lan Yunxi realized her hand was held by Zhang Tie, her face blushed at once. She attempted to shake off Zhang Tie’s hand stealthily, and yet she couldn’t. Therefore, she could only wait for Zhang Tie bashfully and told him by mouthing sliently—"B*stard, let go of me!"

Zhang Tie smiled pleasantly as he continued to firmly hold Lan Yunxi’s hand. Lan Yunxi’s hand was delicate, a bit icy and fragrant. Zhang Tie just did as he pleased and kept holding her hand in this way. As his beloved girl was right in front of him, if he was not even brave enough to hold her hand, how could he marry her?

Zhang Tie was feeling pleasant too early.

As Lan Yunxi stomped directly onto his feet.

"Argh..." Zhang Tie shrieked, while Lan Yunxi hurriedly shook her hand out of his.

Zhang Taibai turned round from behind the pile of terrines, "What happened?"

They both pretended nothing had happened.

"Argh...I just remembered suddenly that 2 terrines had been well fermented. You can have a try. This thing tastes not bad!" Zhang Tie covered that painful expression with a forced smile.

Lan Yunxi couldn’t help but snigger. Only Zhang Tie could pick up the hint of pleasure in her smile. "Now that junior brother Zhang Tie mentions it, we will have a try then!" she said.

"Fine, wait a minute please; I will go get some cups!" When turning round, Zhang Tie slightly gritted his teeth towards Lan Yunxi while she rolled her eyes towards him...

Zhang Tie had soon fetched some cups. He came directly to the 2 terrines that he had filled with the well-fermented super enzyme. The moment he opened one of them, the special and refreshing fragrance in the warehouse instantly increased more than 10 times.

Zhang Tie lifted two bamboo dippers out of the terrine and filled them into 2 big cups, each of which contained 300 to 400 millilitres. Zhang Tie got one cup for himself too.

"Have a try, it tastes good!" Zhang Tie gave one cup to Zhang Taibai and Lan Yunxi respectively.

Actually, Zhang Taibai and Lan Yunxi had not tasted all-purpose medicament before. With only a sniff, they both felt very comfortable. Without any hesitation, Zhang Taibai took a mouthful of it. His eyes gleamed. He then had another mouthful of it.

"Martial sister, have a try. Super enzyme is a top beauty product. It could beautify your skin and delay aging. As you are so beautiful, you have to maintain yourself well. Your husband would like that!" Zhang Tie pretended to be serious.

"Yunxi, have a try, it really tastes special!" Zhang Taibai also suggested.

Lan Yunxi also knew that a filthy mouth could not utter any decent language. After glaring at Zhang Tie, she didn’t couldn’t help but have a sip. In a split second, Lan Yunxi’s furrowed eyebrows stretched out. She had not imagined that a villain like Zhang Tie could produce such a yummy enzyme. This might be the best drink that she had drunk since she was born.

Zhang Taibai bottomed up and licked his lips. He then looked at Zhang Tie. Zhang Tie then got another cup for him while reminding him, "You might be drunk if you drink too much. Take care of it!"

"Have you been drunk?"

"Once, but it also feels very comfortable when you’re drunk. When you wake up, you will feel fully energetic and as strong as a tiger!"

After having another two mouthfuls of it, Zhang Taibai watched Zhang Tie seriously as he sighed, "I finally know why you would not transfer the secret knowledge. Because nobody would see a gold mine for only a few gold coins. How much all-purpose medicament do you have in the warehouse?"

"About 11-12 tons!" Zhang Tie seriously answered, "They could be filled into more than 110,000 vials of all-purpose medicament!"

"Do you know their value?"

"Previously I didn’t know, but now I know a bit!" Zhang Tie smiled as he pointed at those terrines and said in a calm way, "2 months later, their market price would vary from 600,000 to 1 million gold coins!"

Hearing Zhang Tie’s words, even Lan Yunxi couldn’t stand but glance at Zhang Tie. Born in such a great clan, of course she knew more about the value and power of gold coins. 600,000 gold coins was not a small amount of money anywhere. It could even heavily armed infantry. The status of the first place on the Hidden Dragon Wealth List was only more than 200,000 gold coins.

"How much could you produce? Do you have difficulty in production?"

Hearing this question, Zhang Tie, who had long prepared for this question, didn’t tell him all the truth. Actually, Zhang Tie could produce as much as possible without any obstacle. In another word, "With sufficient raw materials, namely various fruits, I could probably produce 400-600 tons. As it will consume a lot of energy and physical strength, this amount has reached my physical limit. The two terrines of all-purpose medicament were catalyzed in a special way. I only have these two well fermented..."

"You can catalyze them as you will?"

"Theoretically, I can catalyze a few super enzymes first, but I will never do that again as this catalysis almost drove me mad and heavily destroyed my reiki!" Zhang Tie said in a frightening way, which looked like he truly had "catalyzed" the two terrines of all-purpose medicament.

Actually, "catalysis" is b*llshit. Even if he had Castle of Black Iron, Zhang Tie would not be able to shorten the fermenting time of essential-energy reiki yeast. He said this to stop this from happening again.

Hearing Zhang Tie’s words, Zhang Taibai nodded. With the ability to produce at least 400 tons of all-purpose medicament, Zhang Tie was qualified to cooperate with Long Wind Business Group. It’s a worthwhile travel, Zhang Tie is truly able to produce all-purpose medicament on a large scale.

"I think we can talk further about cooperation now!" Zhang Taibai smiled.

"I’m able to produce all-purpose medicament on a large scale while Long Wind Business Group has existing channels and markets, we have both the opponent’s demands. If the conditions are suitable, I would be pleased to collaborate with Long Wind Business Group!" Zhang Tie expressed his intention in a kind way.

"We need to confirm the quality of your mass-production of all-purpose medicament. As for the first purchase, we might not order too much, only 20,000 vials!"

"No problem, you can get your products in 2 months. 6 gold coins per vial. You can return them once you find any problem with them!" Zhang Tie was very confident.

"If there’s no problem with the 20,000 vials and your ability for mass-production of all-purpose medicament is verified, we will order much more in the future."

"How much?"

"At least 2 million vials a year!" Zhang Taibai pointed at Zhang Tie’s warehouse, "This site is too small and could not meet the demands of Long Wind Business Group! On the premise of maintaining the quality of all-purpose medicament, we hope that your manufacturing scale could be expanded. Considering its multiple effects, in the end, the market demand of this medicament would be an astronomical figure. Therefore, we need to prepare for mass production in advance!"

Zhang Tie smiled, "Why not build a base for producing all-purpose medicament on the Hidden Dragon Island?"

"Okay, the production base will be prepared by the Long Wind Business Group. It will be built on the Hidden Dragon Island. We will cooperate on the mass production. Long Wind Business Group will be responsible for selling the medicament, but we need to have shares!" Zhang Taibai’s eyes radiated shrewd light.

"I will build the production base by myself and I will not transfer the shares. Although Long Wind Business Group can be a main dealer, you are not exclusive. I can have at most 4 main dealers. But I will not provide Long Wind Business Group with less than 2 million vials of all-purpose medicament. My supply price to you will not be higher than those to other main dealers!"

Zhang Taibai gazed at Zhang Tie with a frown. He had not imagined that Zhang Tie was that shrewd. He was not like a 16 to 17 year-old teenager at all. Instead, he was more like an experienced businessman, who cared too much on key problems and reacted so fast.

After thinking for a while, Zhang Taibai said, "A safe and highly efficient production base requires much money. Now that we’ve determined to cooperate with each other, we need to build the production base right now. Otherwise, the supply would not catch up and would cause the loss of so many opportunities!"

"Right, you can loan me the money. I will take the payment of medicament as the mortgage. I will use your loan and entrust you to build the production base for me. But I have the right of say, that’s my medicament!" Zhang Tie pretended to be very serious. Compared to the Long Wind Business Group’s concern about the quality of the mass production of all-purpose medicament, Zhang Tie was full of confidence and felt nothing to be concerned about.

"If you don’t like that, you can wait for a while; when I sell out this batch of products, I will have money to build the production base myself. But it will take me several more months! We can talk about the cooperation by then. Given the reputation of Long Wind Business Group, the conditions that we have reached will remain unchanged!"

"You really don’t want to transfer the shares of the production base?"

"Will Huaiyuan Palace transfer its shares of the plant where they produce crossbows and rune equipment?" Hearing this, Zhang Tie refuted at once.

’How could an emperor allow his opponents to sleep beside him?[1]’ Zhang Tie would definitely master the full right of mass production of all-purpose medicament. Nobody else was allowed to interrupt. He didn’t want to listen to others’ orders on distributing medicament. Especially for powerful cooperators like Long Wind Business Group, if they were responsible for the production and sale of all-purpose medicament, he would lose his real control over it! If Donder knew that Zhang Tie was satisfied with only a few gold coins by being a senior employee of others when he could produce all-purpose medicament by himself, he would definitely jump from the ground and slap him sharply. In terms of tactics, he definitely could not defeat Long Wind Business Group. Therefore, Zhang Tie didn’t spare any chances for them at the beginning.

Although stockpiling goods before sale was not a shrewd pattern, it worked at least for rare commodities!

Zhang Taibai watched Zhang Tie expressionlessly while Zhang Tie looked straight into his eyes without any cowardice. They then stared at each other for half a minute in the warehouse in this way. Zhang Taibai’s qi became stronger. Even Lan Yunxi on the side could feel the repressive, intense atmosphere in the warehouse. Zhang Tie’s performance at this moment was totally different than how he was in Lan Yunxi’s eyes before. Comparing Zhang Tie’s shrewd, experienced and powerful look in front of her 4th uncle to the shameless guy in front of her, Lan Yunxi felt a strange feeling surging her heart.

"All-purpose medicament is a gold mine. Too many people would have a peep inside. Without the help of Long Wind Business Group, are you sure you can maintain the gold mine?" Zhang Taibai asked calmly after a long while.

"Right now because of this, for the sake of Huaiyuan Palace’s Zhang clan and the long-term cooperation between us, I don’t agree with Long Wind Business Group having its shares! I don’t like suffering a loss or letting others interfere with my personal affairs!"

Zhang Taibai understood Zhang Tie’s words at once. He then considered, ’The outcome that Zhang Tie is concerned about might also happen. The more profitable the business is, the more dangerous it would be. Zhang clan is an interesting community, under which, each one has his or her own pursuit for interest.’

"Besides me and my children, I swear that nobody else would be able to master the secret knowledge of all-purpose medicament in this world!"

Hearing Zhang Tie’s second sentence, Zhang Taibai fixed his eyes on Zhang Tie for over 10 seconds. Zhang Taibai then suddenly smiled, "Now that you are sticking to it, as you will, you will be responsible for the production base. I will have someone here to talk about the details on the cooperation. Are you selling this?"

"Yes!"

"That’s fine!" Zhang Taibai nodded as he suddenly shouted loudly, "Ada!"

A bodyguard of Zhang Taibai suddenly appeared at the gate of the warehouse like a spirit. Zhang Taibai pointed at that huge terrine which Zhang Tie had opened and ordered, "Take it away!" That person walked over and instantly grabbed away the huge 100 kilogram terrine.

Zhang Tie was stunned, "What...what are you doing?"

Zhang Taibai looked at Zhang Tie in a dignified way as he put his hand onto Zhang Tie’s shoulder, "You told me you were selling this, no kidding in business."

"But..."

"But what..."Zhang Taibai pulled out a gold ticket and patted it onto Zhang Tie’s hand, "I bought this terrine!" After saying that, before Zhang Tie made any response, he told his bodyguard, "Ada, hurry up, carry it onto the airship..."

Hearing his words, Ada disappeared from the warehouse like a spirit once again, of course, together with that huge 100 kilogram terrine.

Watching that gold ticket of 20,000 gold coins, Zhang Tie felt like crying as he had not imagined that Lan Yunxi’s 4th uncle could play this trick. But his generosity really shocked Zhang Tie as he spent 20,000 gold coins simply like how Zhang Tie spent 2 gold coins. He didn’t even blink his eyes by doing that. ’F*ck, it’s 20,000 gold coins, 20,000 gold coins...Argh’

...

Rich big figures all seemed to be very busy all day. After leaving Zhang Tie’s Poria Cocos Park, Zhang Taibai left by his airship. The moment Zhang Taibai’s airship left, Lan Yunxi didn’t dare to stay 1 more second in front of a lecherous guy like Zhang Tie. Without even sparing Zhang Tie a chance to utter a word, she immediately jumped onto the treetop and disappeared from Zhang Tie’s vision in the blink of an eye.

Seeing off Lan Yunxi’s shadow, Zhang Tie became so depressed.

Long Wind Business Group’s work efficiency was seen in the same afternoon. Only several hours after Zhang Taibai left, Long Wind Business Group had assigned a team to build the production base on the Hidden Dragon Island.

When the director of the team spread out a number of building maps for the production base in front of Zhang Tie, Zhang Tie became dumbfounded as those maps were castle’s blue prints which had powerful defense abilities...

’I’m going to be a castle lord?’ Now Zhang Tie became hyper...

[1] AD. 960, Zhao Kuangyin, the first emperor of Song Dynasty applied special tactics to destroy Jingzhou, Hunan, Houshu (Chengdu today) respectively. AD. 974, he summoned Li Yu, the last emperor of South Tang Dynasty to Bianjing (Kaifeng city, Henan Province today). Li Yu was concerned that he would be detained there; therefore, he dispatched Xu Xuan there to sue for peace. The first emperor of Song Dynasty put it straight, "How could I allow my opponent sleep well on my bed?" From then on, this allusion was used to express that one’s sphere of influence or interests should not be violated by others.