Castle of Black Iron

As expected, Snade didn’t let Zhang Tie down.

Just by searching Snade’s coat a bit, Zhang Tie found the heavy purse that he had been dreaming about all day. Pulling it out of Snade’s coat, he shook the purse twice. Hearing the sharp sound of the clashing of the coins, the pores all over Zhang Tie’s body seemed to have expanded.

The sound was so beautiful that Zhang Tie felt it was the most pleasant sound that he has ever heard. Compared to the sound of the clashes between the gold coins, even the elegant songs of the church choirs became as boring as the quacking of ducks.

“Huala! Huala!” [1] Zhang Tie moved the purse close to his ear and shook it. Hearing the clashes of the gold coins, Zhang Tie became excited all over, both physically and mentally.

“Huala! Huala!” With two more shakes, Zhang Tie realized that what had happened yesterday was worth it.

“Huala! Huala!” With another two shakes, Zhang Tie seemed to see Miss Daina’s smile…

“Huala! Huala!” With two more shakes, the whole world became alive…

With the purse in hand, Zhang Tie looked like a slow-witted guy. As he shook the purse closely by his ear, a foolish grin crept onto his face. With two more shakes, he made another foolish smile. He kept repeating that boring game for 5 or 6 minutes before he finally burst out into laughter.

Let me see the surprise inside the purse!

Opening the purse, Zhang Tie squatted on the ground and poured out all the coins from the purse. “Huala!” With one sound of clashing coins, all the coins were poured onto the ground. Seeing those silver and golden rays reflected on the coins, Zhang Tie was so excited that he almost passed out. With a quivering hand, Zhang Tie picked up a gold coin and carefully took a look at it. On the front of the gold coin was a huge locomotive releasing smoke, while the back of the coin showed the symbol of the Andaman Alliance, the 17 Star Rings. This coin was issued by the Andaman Alliance and was called the “Locomotive” Gold Coin by the commoners. Ever since Zhang Tie was born, he had never touched a single gold coin, let alone owning one. Weighing the gold coin by hand, Zhang Tie was brimming with happiness.

Zhang Tie became more energetic as he continued to search through Snade’s body. This time, he found a leather bag that was secured close to Snade’s waist. Removing its cover, Zhang Tie moved closer and took a whiff, only to smell a strange, medicinal scent. Inside the bag were various colorful vials. Unfortunately, the vials were not labeled, thus based on his current capabilities, Zhang Tie naturally didn’t know what was inside. Thinking for a while, Zhang Tie put them back inside the leather bag and placed the bag back into Snade’s coat. He was not interested in what was inside the vials, as those things had to be destroyed.

Besides the gold coins and the leather bag, Zhang Tie found nothing else on Snade’s body; however, he was already very pleased with what he had found.

After searching over Snade, Zhang Tie went for Huck. There was also a purse inside Huck’s coat. Seeing the purse that was as heavy as Snade’s, Zhang Tie soon felt blood rushing to his head. After pouring out all the money from Huck and Snade’s purses, Zhang Tie took in two deep breaths. He then continued to search Huck’s body. This time, he found another leather bag with four vials of medicine used to heal wounds inside. Those medicines were produced by the Continental Pharmacists Union and were packed with their packaging and symbol. These medicines were also sold in Donder’s grocery store. Opening one vial, Zhang Tie smelt it and tasted it a bit. It was of high quality. Zhang Tie found no fake substances inside. It was really difficult to buy a vial of this kind of medicine in the market, especially in the shops neighboring the railway station. As taro powder was neither harmful to humans nor easily noticed by commoners, vendors usually mixed taro powder into real medicine along with additional fake substances that would compose 5 to 20 percent of the medicine. Zhang Tie learned the means that were always adopted by cunning businessmen from Donder’s grocery store.

Besides the purses, the medicine bags, and the portable equipment, nothing else was found on the two dead bodies.

After searching their dead bodies, Zhang Tie started to search through their luggage. When he was looking for clothes inside Snade’s luggage last night, he had already roughly searched through it and had found nothing that stood out, thus Zhang Tie mainly searched through Huck’s luggage. Opening it, he surprisingly saw a palm-sized box. The instant he saw the box, Zhang Tie became excited because that box was specifically used to store crystals that were of Level 3 or higher. Opening the box, he found two white and translucent double-headed pyramid-based crystals that were almost Level 4 lying inside the box. Feeling his spirit rising, Zhang Tie picked up the two pyramid-based crystals and looked at the two pyramids inside. He then burst out into laughter as each of the crystals was much better than the Level 3 pyramid-based crystals being treasured as top quality pyramids in Donder’s grocery store. These two crystals were worth at least 10 gold coins.

Zhang Tie was highly spirited and felt like exclaiming towards the sky.

Trembling, Zhang Tie counted the coins. In total, Huck and Snade had contributed 48 gold coins, 79 silver coins, and 34 copper coins to him, which, although was nothing to some people, was a large amount of money for Zhang Tie. This money was almost equivalent to 4 or 5 years worth of his dad’s salary.

In addition to the money, he had also received four vials of high-quality medicines that were great for healing wounds, with only half of a vial among the four having been used. Moreover, Zhang Tie also got two top-quality Level 3 pyramid-based crystals. In total, the vials of medicine and the pyramid-based crystals were worth about 18 gold coins.

“I’m rich! I’m really rich this time!” Zhang Tie was so high spirited that his face almost cramped.

Although the two leather bags that contained the medicine were valuable, they had obvious signs of having been used, as there were scratches on them. If the wear and tear on the leather bags were noticed by people who were familiar with Huck and Snade, then they would inevitably realize that it belonged to them, thus Zhang Tie intended to throw the two leather bags away.

After pouring out the items in the sundry box, Zhang Tie carefully stored the gold coins, the medicine, and the pyramid-based crystals in the sundry box. He then returned and began to drag Huck’s body towards the Pool of Chaos, which was the best place to eliminate the evidence.

The Pool of Chaos was about 200m away from Zhang Tie. Considering Huck weighed over 150 kg, Zhang Tie gave up dragging his feet after 50 steps. Seeing that line on the soil plowed by Huck’s dead body, Zhang Tie wiped the sweat from his forehead and changed his posture. He held up Huck’s body and let it sit straight up on the ground before squatting against Huck’s back and placing his two arms under the body’s armpits. He then half lifted him and dragged him away. This was much easier than his previous attempt.

When faced with danger, people could actually burst out with great potential. Zhang Tie found it really difficult to drag away this body that weighed over 150 kg. In particular, how was he able to carry this body into the Castle of Black Iron last night when he was so weak? Zhang Tie himself had started to be proud of what he had done.

Hugging and dragging the body in such a way, Zhang Tie would inevitably cause friction between his arm and Huck’s armpits. As a result, 50m away, Zhang Tie’s felt a completely different feeling from the upper right arm and his upper left arm; his upper right arm that rubbed on the left armpit of Huck’s body was softer. Something seemed to be padding the area under Huck’s left armpit, giving off a smooth feeling when Zhang Tie dragged the body.

Could there be something hidden inside? Zhang Tie put down Huck’s body and searched the area around his armpits carefully. Finally, Zhang Tie found something closely hidden by Huck’s left armpit under his inner armor. He found a trivial opening on his clothes that could never be found without a careful inspection. Zhang Tie then undid Huck’s coat and stretched his hand into that opening. Touching a piece of smooth cloth, Zhang Tie then pulled it out directly from that small mysterious bag.

“Wooh, it’s a red silk cloth! Motherf*cker, it must be very expensive! What’s the purpose of carrying a piece of red cloth? To drive away evil like what Chinese people always did?” Zhang Tie doubted at the first sight of the piece of red cloth.

Afterwards, unfolding the piece of red silk cloth, Zhang Tie realized that it was a mask that was similar to those used by the executioners who executed criminals. A man’s head could be properly covered under this mask. In addition, two holes on the cloth were left for eyes and some strange floral grains were embroidered on the forehead of the face mask. There was also a black and terrifying skull between the strange floral grains.

Motherf*cker! What the hell! I’ve never seen such an ugly mask. The instant Zhang Tie intended to throw away this red mask, a thought flashed in his mind…

……

A terrifying red mask like that of an executioner’s… Black skull on the mask… Killing numerous people in bloody ways…

Zhang Tie’s face instantly turned pale. Glancing at this mask which symbolized death and blood in his hand, a few words came to Zhang Tie’s mind instantly—Red-scarf Burglar…

Sh*t! The 15-year juvenile was frightened. Feeling weak, he sat on the ground helplessly…

[1] Apparently, this is the sound that coins make when they clash.