Castle of Black Iron

Like what had happened the first time, the Leakless Fruit’s fire-dragon-shaped energy polished the burning point on his rear end. Zhang Tie felt that that burning point was suddenly radiating stronger purple light while the purple swirl was gradually becoming larger than before.

Later on, without any obstacles, when the purple light reached its maximum, another ‘boom’ resounded in Zhang Tie’s mind. The purple light ball exploded and became a light purple rain. After a transient darkness and silence, a dim flame appeared on the burning point on his rear end. After that, the flame gradually enlarged, constantly transferring its light and heat to the surrounding darkness and coldness, making Zhang Tie comfortable all over.

When the first burning point on his rear end was lit, Zhang Tie felt like he had suddenly opened a huge iron lock that weighed several hundred kilograms. Previously, the huge iron lock hung on his rear end. Today, after suddenly opening that heavy lock and taking it away, Zhang Tie instantly felt relaxed.

This moment was anticipated for a long time. He felt relaxed by unloading such a heavy burden. He felt so light that he could almost fly in the air.

This feeling was pretty cool!

As backbones were connected in a line, so were those burning points on the backbones. Almost the moment the burning point was lit on the rear end, Zhang Tie felt that the second burning point on the first bone of his backbone above his rear end started to be connected with that burning point he’d just ignited. The Leakless Fruit, which had just started to exert its effect on his body, immediately charged at that second burning point above his rear end like a gundog or a huge boa who had found its target.

Then, the second burning point above Zhang Tie’s rear end started to radiate light...

More than 20 minutes had passed, during which Zhang Tie’s body slightly shook twice. When this Leakless Fruit was fully consumed, Zhang Tie had not only lit the burning point on his rear end, but also had been successfully promoted to a LV 2 warrior. Even the second burning point above that one on his rear end started to radiate bright orange light.

Sitting under the Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree, Zhang Tie finally opened his eyes full of pleasure. Picking himself up from the ground under the small tree, Zhang Tie slightly moved his limbs. Accompanied by crispy sounds arisen from bones was a sense full of energy from both inside and outside, causing Zhang Tie so much excitement that he even shouted out loudly.

Captain Kerlin said that when the burning points on one’s backbones were lit, Strength of Qi, Strength of Blood, Strength of Vein, Strength of Channel, Strength of Bone, Strength of Marrow and Strength of God within one’s body would gradually come into being. Afterwards, one would gradually experience that sense of relaxation full of strength. Now, Zhang Tie finally understood why Glaze’s physique was so much greater than the others’ when he was a LV 2 warrior.

After slightly moving his limbs, Zhang Tie started to run in the spacious field of Castle of Black Iron. He kept running to familiarise himself with this new-born energy in his body.

He learned it at school that after one burning point on your backbone was lit, you should run and move for half an hour to adapt to this new-born energy within your body as fast as possible. Teachers called this ‘commissioning’. This was akin to the situation where after new machines like steam engines left factory, you were advised to operate them several times so that the gears and oil cylinders could fully polish each other. This was beneficial to its successful continued operating.

At the beginning, Zhang Tie didn’t run too fast. However, after running for a while, he felt his bones and muscles were undergoing slight adjustments, accompanied by that gradually obvious relaxation and increasing strength. Therefore, Zhang Tie in time quickened his pace in Castle of Black Iron.

The perimeter of the land in Castle of Black Iron was about 3000 m. It was the first time for Zhang Tie to find running interesting. After alighting the burning point on his rear end, he felt like he had lost a heavy lock that held his strength which now kept flowing out like a delicate gurgling spring through his body. That spring seemed to be under his feet, making him feel so agile.

After running one lap, Zhang Tie increased his pace a bit. Within the Castle of Black Iron, he kept running fast, like a child who had just learned how to run.

In Castle of Black Iron, many sparse green patches could already be seen. The cornstalks of the niblets that Zhang Tie had sowed before had already grown higher than 1 m, while the corncobs looked pretty well. Additionally, the stems and leaves of soybeans, sweet tomatoes, turnips, and pumpkins could also be seen.

From the seeds that had been gifted by Grandma Teresa, the hygrophila polysperma seeds grew best as they had already formed several green carpets in Castle of Black Iron. Seeds like those of morning glory, olive, ligustrum obtusifolium, photinia frase, honey pear, walnuts, and other kinds of plants that Zhang Tie had collected during the survival training were also growing very well.

Even the tender sprouts of pine seeds that Zhang Tie had sowed several days ago had already drilled out as high as the thickness of one’s index finger. The entire Castle of Black Iron was gradually becoming a world full of vitality. At the same time, the aura value points in Castle of Black Iron also surged along with the growth of these plants.

After running for more than 20 minutes, Zhang Tie gradually adapted to the new strength. After a short rest, he started to practice ‘Lying Tiger Move’, a basic skill of Iron-Blood Fist, by lying on the ground like a tiger.

This time, Zhang Tie exerted all of his effort as he gritted his teeth and kept that position until each muscle on his body started to quiver, and he could no longer hold on. He estimated that this time he had lasted for about 17-20 minutes—a great improvement compared to before. An increase of persistent time when using ‘Lying Tiger Move’ indicated that his strength and endurance had also improved a lot after lighting the burning point on his rear end.

After practicing, Zhang Tie stood up. Merely after half a minute’s rest, the ‘Lying Tiger Move’ had already started to show its mysterious effect. Each time after he practiced it, he would feel as energetic as a tiger, including this time. This was how strange the ‘Lying Tiger Move’ was.

Before learning Iron-Blood Fist, Zhang Tie had never imagined that only by sticking to such a simple move could he gain such an amazing effect. As he had heard that the Iron-Blood Fist was passed from Oriental Continent, Zhang Tie started longing for that mysterious place.

Soon after finishing his practice of ‘Lying Tiger Move’, Zhang Tie started to practice 36 free hand moves of Iron-Blood Fist in Castle of Black Iron. After reaching LV 2, his moves looked much more similar to the descriptions on the book.

After his spiritual energy had increased by seven times, Zhang Tie found that his memory had also greatly improved, since he found out that he could completely remember the contents on the after only skimming through them once. Therefore, Zhang Tie left the book to Barley and the other members of the Brotherhood as he set off for a loner’s survival training.

After practicing the 36 free hand moves of Iron-Blood Fist Skill, Zhang Tie felt that he had completed the ‘commissioning’ and was already familiar with the new-born strength in his body.

At the sight of the lances that he had brought and put under the tree, Zhang Tie thought up an idea. Walking over there, he held a lance in his hand. Soon he felt the strange feeling once again. This time, Zhang Tie tried his best to extend the strange cone-shaped throwing point as far as possible. Right now, that throwing point reached 30-40 m away. Compared to the 30-40 steps of a LV 1 warrior, this distance indicated that Zhang Tie had already improved a lot after reaching LV 2.

With a sound of ‘Sou’, before Zhang Tie’s body had even moved, the lance had already been thrown out and precisely nailed into the location marked by the cone-shaped throwing point, 1 feet into the ground.

“Hahaha...”

Zhang Tie burst out laughing. Walking over there, he pulled that lance out of the ground, cleaned it, and put it back into the capsule. After that, he put the capsule on his back, putting the long sword on his waist, and arranged his package.

Afterwards, he looked at the mysterious small tree in centre of Castle of Black Iron once again. This time, two fruits were already hanging from the tree’s limbs; one was a Leakless Fruit that had already grown for four days, the other was a ripe Iron-Body Fruit. As for the Iron-Body Fruit, Zhang Tie had stimulated it to ripen using a certain method.

A couple of days ago, when he was still at the tree base, Zhang Tie made a drumstick-like thing using a log, some dried grass, and a rabbit hide that he had exchanged from others. Everyday, he would request Pandora to hit him using that drumstick. With the exception of head, face, and key parts of his body, Zhang Tie had truly been ferociously hit many times all over.

Great pains finally led to the ripe Iron-Body Fruit. When he entered Castle of Black Iron just now, Zhang Tie had already noticed it. Previously, he planned to engulf that ripe Iron-Body Fruit along with the Leakless Fruit; however, he was unsure whether he would also suffer from a stomachache several hours after he eating it like last time. If it was the same, it would be inconvenient. Therefore, he decided to wait temporarily. When he found his new base in the evening, he would eat the Iron-Body Fruit.

No matter what, it belonged to him. It would never fly away during those few hours.

Thinking about his, Zhang Tie showed a smile. After locking that strange arch door in his mind, in a few seconds, he disappeared from Castle of Black Iron

……

Two minutes later, Zhang Tie drilled out of an entrance of a mountain cave, the greater part of which had been covered by vines. With the hot sun in the sky, he narrowed his eyes to glance over the surroundings. Giggling, he jumped off the two meter high mountain cave and fell to the ground. Afterwards, he went deeper into the Wild Wolf Valley.

This mountain cave was about 5-6 km away from the tree base. As it was too far away from the Wild Wolf Castle, few people would make it their base. Thus, this mountain cave seemed not to have been lived in. When Zhang Tie had passed by it earlier today, he had slightly looked around before deciding to take the final step towards being a LV 2 warrior here.

When he left the mountain cave, people near the Wild Wolf Castle more than 10 km away were still discussing about how a LV 1 warrior would like to accomplish a loner’s survival training. They could never imagine that Zhang Tie, who had left the tree base five or six hours ago, had already become a LV 2 warrior. What was more, this LV 2 warrior had even mastered a mysterious talent that could not be explained even by him...

After leaving the mountain cave, Zhang Tie started to wander around the Wild Wolf Valley, a stream nearby the tree base. He felt that the two wild wolves were also in the Wild Wolf Valley, and it was the right time for them to deal with their resentment.

……

Almost at the same moment when Zhang Tie had walked out of the mountain cave, several white-bearded old men who were sitting in meditation in a magnificent palace in a mysterious land near the sea more than 20,000 km away to the south of Blackhot City opened their eyes at the same time.

The magnificent palace where the elders sat in meditation showed a time-honored and vigorous atmosphere. Huge pillars and dome beams as high as dozens of meters and as thick as several meters could be seen everywhere. These huge pillars and dome beams were not decorated.

The ground in the palace was paved with a kind of strange dark stones. Four over three meter high gold and violet tripods were put in the four corners of the palace. Whale oil filled those gold and violet tripods which after being lit would lighten up the palace.

Under the flames, two powerful words ‘Huaiyuan Palace’ written on a huge horizontal board on the topmost place belittled the whole palace. Under the two words were a 20-m high metal statue. The metal figure was holding a 10-m high large bow and looking far away. It was set to shoot an arrow whose head was pointing at the central axis of the palace, namely the entrance.

The entire statue looked unprecedentedly brave. For people entering the palace, the moment they caught sight of it, they would be shocked both inwardly and outwardly and feel an impulsion to kneel down under the long bow.

In front of the feet of the huge figure, rows of temporary memorial tablets were placed, each row lower than the previous one. In total, there were more than 10,000 memorial tablets in more than 20 rows erected under the feet of the huge statue.

There was an altar beneath these tablets, in the center of which was a one meter high black yet translucent crystal without any impurities in it. If Zhang Tie was here and caught a sight of that huge black crystal, he would definitely be amazed.

At this moment, what was happening on the huge black crystal caused all the elders sitting around it to open their eyes.

A fist-sized blood ball seemed to be rolling over in the huge black crystal. The blood ball radiated bright red lights which kept rolling together with tadpole-like runes. In time, the runes finally gathered and rolled to the top of the black crystal, aiming to turn into a pattern.

“It seems that another young apprentice in our clan has awakened an ancestral bloodline...”

All the elders were looking at that scene with smiles. At their age, it had already become their biggest interest to enjoy such scenes. For a group of elders, nothing could be happier than to see their posterity grow up.

Under their smiles and loving gazes, only after the time it takes for a person to inhale a couple times did the pattern gathered by those rolling red runes finally become a red lance and stopped changing.

“That’s not bad...” A senior nodded with a smile. “Although what he has awakened is not one of the most powerful bloodlines among our Zhang ancestral bloodline, if he can apply this ‘precise throwing’ bloodline pretty well, he can also gain unexpected achievements...”

Saying this, that senior seriously gazed at the lance which was composed of numerous red runes before nodding once again. “That’s not bad, he’s only 15 years old, has just lit the burning point on his rear end, and triggered his Strength of Qi and Strength of Blood, causing the Blood-Soul Crystal to sense his situation. Although he lit his burning points a bit slowly, he has not awakened this bloodline too late. All in all, he was average and can be shaped. Brother Mu An, what do you think?”

“Of course my younger brother Mu En’s words are right...” Another senior laughed out loudly, filled with pride. “Our ancestor Duke Huaiyuan was a descendant of Zhang clan’s direct line in the Oriental Continent. Of course his bloodline would be good enough. Let’s bring this brat here to check his mentality. If there are no problems with him, we will let this brat enter the Huaiyuan Palace to worship our ancestors. If we make an effort to cultivate him, he might be able to make great contributions in the future!”

“Fine!”

Other elders nodded, smiling. Then, that senior who had posed the suggestion took out of a jade clip and tenderly flicked it, causing a clear sound to reverberate through the palace.

Before the sound caused by the flicking of the jade clip disappeared, a person came out of nowhere and knelt down in front of the cattail hassocks where the elders were sitting.

“Zhang Shun greets elders, what can I do for you?”

“A 15-year-old apprentice in our clan has lit the burning point on his rear end. The Blood-Soul Crystal sensed that he had already awakened an ancestral bloodline. This is a happy event for Huaiyuan Palace. Go and bring him here. We will have a look at him...” that senior who had flicked on the jade clip calmly ordered.

“Got it...” Standing up, that man crossed his fists and leveled them above his head. Still half-bowed, he exited the palace.

In the magnificent palace, all the elders stared at that gradually disappearing red lance in the Blood-Soul Crystal before closing their eyes one by one.

……

Barely two hours later, that man who had exited came back again and piously knelt down in front of the old men like before.

“Respected elders, across Huaiyuan Palace’s 8 cities, there are 1761 apprentices at the age of 15 in the family tree of Zhang’s clan, including the nine people who were exiled far away. Recently there were 23 people who had lit the burning point on their rear end. However, after investigation, it was seen that nobody among them has awakened their ancestral bloodline!”

Zhang Shun’s reply drifted through the palace, causing the elders to open their eyes once again. After exchanging glances, they found a wisp of amazement and anger in each others’ eyes when they heard that a direct descendent of Duke Huaiyuan neither lived in cities of Huaiyuan Palace nor was recorded in the family tree of Zhang’s clan. That shouldn’t be true!

Even the names of children of criminals being punished or sentenced to a death penalty due to great crimes would still be recorded on the family tree by Clan Shrine. For those people’s family tree, there were even exclusive archives in the Clan Shrine, which were named as Criminal Record. It was strictly managed that even marriage, funeral ceremony, and delivery would be exclusively recorded by people in Clan Shrine.

However, a direct descendent of Duke Huaiyuan could not be found on the family tree! That would make them a great laughing stock. The human line was the root of the clan line. If anything happened to the human line, it would be very serious. As a palace of four tripods which represented the stable development of Huaiyuan Palace, hearing the report, the elders of Huaiyuan Palace naturally became infuriated as they felt like they were being slapped by others.

“Check it, check it out...”

An angry order reverberated in the palace. As a result, an invisible heavy wind seemed to blow over the entire magnificent palace, causing the flames in the four huge tripods to waver and flicker like a burning match that was about to be snuffed out by an invisible hand every now and then...

Zhang Tie didn’t know that the moment he had lit the burning point on his rear end, a huge storm arose in a remote place...

……