Castle of Black Iron

At dawn, a cavalry squad who all wore light uniforms covered by a black cloak arrived at Wild Wolf Castle. The sudden arrival of the clattering hoofs broke the tranquility at dawn and surprised a flock of birds, causing them fly away. The overnight howls and curses of Samira, who had already been put behind the bars of an underground cell in the Wild Wolf Castle, would soon become desperate weeps!

……

While dreaming, Zhang Tie slept very well last night and even had a foolish smile on his face. As for the bonfire party last night, it made Zhang Tie very happy. In that night party, he had hugged two beauties with huge breasts and walked here and there to show off. He had even kissed and touched the two beauties at his will and let them fight for his favor. What he had done had truly stimulated the other animals, causing their eyes to turn green, and had even caused Miss Qili’s eyes to turn red. To do such a deed in such a manner, in truth, it was motherf*cking cool! Zhang Tie thought that he had never been so cool since he was born.

Through last night’s party, Zhang Tie was able to understand three things, or rather, three truths.

The first truth was that beauty was the source of happiness.

The second truth was that the main driving force behind a man’s will to improve his strength and abilities was to possess more sources of happiness. Zhang Tie remembered that a teacher once said that before the Catastrophe, a famous human psychologist attributed the basic driving force of human society to human’s sexual impulses. At that time, Zhang Tie couldn’t understand what that meant, but after what happened last night, he finally realized that it was truly a damn wise opinion. Over a single night, Zhang Tie felt that he started to desire more in his future. He had more opinions and more desires than before, and although Zhang Tie also felt that he longed for the future even more than before, after what happened last night, he realized that he could long for it even more. For example, he realized that Iron-Body Fruit might accelerate its speed to become ripe...

As for the third truth, Zhang Tie realized that he was still a commoner and a mortal. While the Castle of Black Iron and that small tree had neither made him greater, more honorable, nor more tasteful, he had not been able to live without being vulgar. When a beauty showed him her adoration, he would always feel excited inwardly as he hugged her waist. At that moment, both his vanity and his naughty d*ck would expand a lot from the excitement. All these showed that he was still as vulgar as before.

……

As usual, Zhang Tie’s biological clock woke him up at a bit past 6:00 am.

Waking up, Zhang Tie felt highly spirited and full of vitality. After putting on that set of mining clothes, Zhang Tie slipped out of the tree hollow. For the second half of last night, it was Doug’s turn to be on duty. Doug was currently hugging the machine bow as he squatted in the small pit of the tree with eyes half closed. Seeing Zhang Tie getting up so early, Doug, who had been familiar with Zhang Tie’s style, grinned and passed his machine bow to Zhang Tie before yawning and returning to his hole to sleep. Zhang Tie then hugged that machine bow and squatted in the tree pit to start his first homework—visualizing an abacus and practicing mental arithmetic using the abacus. Aside from improving the prowess of one’s mental calculations, it could also improve one’s spiritual energy. Currently, this secret was only known by Zhang Tie. If Donder had not told him to not casually impart how to use an abacus to others, Zhang Tie would have long been practicing it together with the other guys of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood.

After Zhang Tie practiced for more than an hour, Barley also got up, followed by the other guys. Seeing all the other members having gotten up, Zhang Tie ended his cultivation. After simply cleaning himself, he casually gnawed on a small piece of dried meat before carrying his mining basket and starting a new day of work.

On the way to his mining cave, Zhang Tie was highly spirited, as another Leakless Fruit would be ripe today. After eating this fruit, the burning point on his rear end would be ignited and he himself would also be officially promoted to a LV 2 warrior. After that, he would definitely be an elite among all the students attending this survival training. Starting from the burning point on one’s rear end, each additional ignited burning point would obviously help improve one’s physical qualities, especially strength. According to Captain Kerlin, this was because Strength of Blood, Strength of Channel, Strength of Vein, Strength of Bone, and Strength of Marrow were gradually activated in addition to the Strength of Qi.

Zhang Tie estimated that after the ignition of the Shrine Burning Point, his strength was only a bit lower than Glaze’s. This trivial difference laid in Glaze’s physique, but if he truly fought with Glaze, then Zhang Tie felt that he would not necessarily be defeated by Glaze. Although Glaze held the advantage in strength, he could not match Zhang Tie’s speed and battle experience. Zhang Tie refused to believe that Glaze would also have a Trouble-Reappearance Fruit to eat, in which he could experience life and death situation seven to eight times in that mysterious space.

Additionally, based on the speed that the leakless fruit would help him ignite his burning points, Zhang Tie estimated that he could ignite two more burning points before the end of the survival training. No matter what, with his recent cultivation speed, Zhang Tie felt that he would soon catch up with Glaze. Glaze would not be ahead of him for much longer; within a short period, he would completely surpass Glaze in all aspects.

What would a man whose strength is gradually increasing obtain? Heh heh… Of course, more and more sources of happiness. Thinking of those two enchanting vixens, Alice and Beverly, and their huge boobs, Zhang Tie grinned. Last night, he couldn’t help but do many “terrible and disgusting” things to those two girls in his mind. After what had happened last night, Zhang Tie found that he actually had a strong sense of possessiveness when it came to women, especially beautiful women. Although his desire had not reached levels of insanity, it was still pretty strong. If he spoke out his desires, he would definitely be constantly cursed at by those apologists and hypocrites both in writing and verbally.

Zhang Tie felt that his ideal life was to lay on a bed covered in money as he was surrounded by many beautiful virgins and young married women that had already drawn close to him last night!

‘Come on!’ Zhang Tie encouraged himself as he picked up the pace...

……

However, before he had reached the mining cave, Zhang Tie was intercepted by an on-duty student who was attending the survival training. As the officials of Blackhot City’s Ministry of Internal Affairs had already arrived at Wild Wolf Castle this morning, they asked Zhang Tie to go there to cooperate with their investigation since, after all, Zhang Tie was the person who was directly related to that incident.

... “You’re saying that you felt someone drop something inside your mining basket, which was when Jagla had silently thrown that purse into your mining basket?” Within a dark room, Zhang Tie was cooperating with the investigation of some guys in black cloaks. As the investigation proceeded, several strange guys were standing in the corridor outside the room, allowing no one to move close by or gossip. Compared to the how the Temporary Supervision Committee interrogated Zhang Tie yesterday, these guys from Blackhot City’s Ministry of Internal Affairs were more meticulous.

“Yes, my senses are quite sharp, so I noticed it when he threw it into my mining basket, especially because my mining basket was empty. They might not think that I could notice that, but I was able to!”

“Where’s your mining basket? Did you bring it?”

“Yes, it’s outside in the corridor...”

Hearing Zhang Tie’s words, they asked Zhang Tie to bring in his mining basket. One of them then weighed it on his hand as he showed his suspicion towards Zhang Tie. “Was there a mining hoe and a torch inside the mining basket when you were in the square yesterday?”

“Yes!”

“With these items inside along with the weight of the mining basket, in total, they would weigh up to more than 10 kg. You were able to sense it when someone silently put the purse inside?” The interrogators felt amazed as they fixed their eyes on Zhang Tie’s expression.

“Yes!” Zhang Tie calmly replied.

“Where’s that purse then?”

“When I was escaping to the mining cave, in order to avoid being framed by them, I had thrown it away. Later on, I had returned to search for it, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find it!” Zhang Tie told a reasonable lie. At that time, not only was it pitch black inside that mining cave, but there were also many people who had rushed into it. Zhang Tie doesn’t believe that these guys would investigate each and every student in an attempt to find out who had picked up the purse. Unless they were an idiot, if someone picked up the purse, no one would hand it in; if it were Zhang Tie, he would never hand it in either. Thus, it would be next to impossible to find that purse.

After interrogating Zhang Tie about the details, they drew close to each other and whispered amongst themselves before one of them said to Zhang Tie, “What you have told us is almost consistent with what we have learned about yesterday’s event, but I have another question. How did you ascertain that they were trying to set you up the moment you heard someone loudly shout that his purse was gone and urged others to capture the thief?”

“If someone throws something into your mining basket when passing by you before loudly shouting that his item is gone, then that’s definitely a trap. In such an event, unless one was an idiot, who would stay to be framed?” Zhang Tie stared at the interrogators with eyes wide opened, making them a bit embarrassed.

“Well, take you mining basket. You may leave now!”

Carrying his mining basket once again, one guy accompanied Zhang Tie to the door. The moment they arrived at the door, Zhang Tie suddenly turned his head and looked at that interrogator. “I feel that there is something new in my mining basket!” Stopping his footsteps, Zhang Tie put down his mining basket and opened its cover. Unknowing when a purse had been placed inside, Zhang Tie took out the purse and handed it to the guy who was pretending to accompany him to the door. “Can I leave now?”

That guy looked back to the other interrogators while they slightly nodded. “We just wanted to test your senses. You didn’t tell a lie. You may leave now!”

Zhang Tie carried his mining basket once again and left the room.

……

After Zhang Tie left, the interrogators closed the door and whispered to each other once again.

“Is there any problems with this brat named Zhang Tie?”

“No problem. Last night, we investigated his records. His family background is clean. His father and mother are average people, and he has two elder brothers, one who had died for Blackhot City and the other is still serving in the city guard army of Blackhot City. He is 15 years old and has not left Blackhot City since he was born...”

“Then, Samira’s going to have some bad luck!”

“No one asked him to set up an average student in such a despicable manner. For such a huge problem, we, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, are not here to clean his butt!”

“We all know that Samira might not be a mole of the Norman Empire!”

“That isn’t the most important thing. The most important thing is the fact that at least one to two thousand people here believe that Samira is a mole of the Norman Empire. After they return to Blackhot City, they will definitely spread this news everywhere, consequently causing more and more people to believe that Samira is a mole of the Norman Empire!”

“Samira is really an idiot. He can’t even deal with a normal student. I am really confused as to how such an idiot could gain the favor of Master Abyan!”

“This student named Zhang Tie is too cunning!”

“Chinese guys are always cunning...”

“Report the truth to the superiors. Let the big figures decide Samira’s fate. We have done what we should do!”

“That’s for the best. We still don’t know whether Blackhot City and the Andaman Alliance will be included in the new map of Norman Empire. We’d better not work too hard during this period...” One guy heaved a deep sigh.

……

Zhang Tie didn’t care about what had happened in the room after he left. For him, the result had already made him happy. Samira wanted to destroy his reputation and his bright future by framing him, but instead, it was his reputation that had been irreparably damaged. He did not care about Samira’s life or death. Even if Samira was punished with death, Zhang Tie would not feel any guilt towards him, as he thought that Samira deserved it.

After walking around Wild Wolf Castle for a while, Zhang Tie descended the mountain and arrived at that mining cave where he used to work. Surprisingly, compared to the usual calm scene, at this moment, the mouth of the mining cave was brimming with at least fifty to sixty people despite it being early in the morning. They all carried their mining baskets and gathered at the mouth of the mining cave. At the sight of the boisterous scene, Zhang Tie was greatly shocked.

Why did so many people come here to mine today?

At the sight of Zhang Tie, that group of noisy people immediately became quiet. After exchanging glances, they then fixed their eyes onto Zhang Tie’s face, causing Zhang Tie’s heart to pound. ‘Are they Alice and Beverly’s pursuers? Are they blocking the entrance to beat me up? No, it doesn’t seem that way! Even though they are here to beat me up, they don’t have to be miners. Do they want to enter the mining cave together with me before beating me up?’

Zhang Tie racked his mind. Unexpectedly, a person whom he was acquainted with suddenly pushed out from that group of people.

“Since the others are reluctant to say it, I will say it!” as he said this, Wood walked towards Zhang Tie. Generously patting Zhang Tie on the shoulder, Wood said, “Brother, we all know about your secret...” Hearing Wood’s words, Zhang Tie’s expression immediately changed, as he mistook that his Castle of Black Iron had been exposed to the public.

“My secret? What secret?” Zhang Tie pretended to be calm.

“Hahaha, brother, no need to continue pretending...” Wood burst out into laughter. “We all already know that digging in the mines is a great cultivation method and a mysterious knowledge among the Chinese in the East, right?”

Seeing Zhang Tie’s eyes immediately widened, Wood felt happy inwardly, yet he pretended to be solemn. “We are all here to follow you. Do you agree with it? We all know that mysterious knowledge and cultivation methods are very precious, so no one would give up an opportunity to learn it. Since we are classmates, if you feel reluctant to teach us, you can just say something to enlighten us. If you can do that, then we will appreciate it a lot!”

……

Seeing the horny students’ eyes filled with desire, Zhang Tie immediately thought about hundreds of ideas.