Castle of Black Iron

Zhang Tie was completely immersed in his own world in the rune instrument manufacturing skill promotion region of the tower of time.

In the wilderness, Zhang Tie started to practice what he had learned from the fundamental skills of craftsman apprentice in the wilderness.

Zhang Tie had never done that before which was both familiar and strange for him. In the outside world, Zhang Tie would never feel free to fiddle with these things which looked naive and time-consuming. However, in the tower of time, Zhang Tie had enough time to do that. Additionally, his principal target in the tower was to promote to an immortal craftsman, which was the key step for him to make his dream come true.

Zhang Tie completely took what he was doing as an amusement. The entire rune instrument manufacturing skill promotion region was like an exclusive amusement region for Zhang Tie.

After making that simplest brick kiln, Zhang Tie didn’t stop.

After sharpening the edge of that stone on a rock alongside the brook, Zhang Tie fetched two more rotten timbers and some small wooden clubs.

After having those wooden clubs roll down a piece of flat rock, Zhang Tie could easily choose the best one for making fire. After that, he sharpened one end of the wooden club a bit using that sharp-edged stone and made the first tool for making fire.

Although this link sounded simple, the simplest way to choose the best fire-making wooden club and to ensure that the angle of the sharp end of the wooden club could maintain the biggest friction heat coefficient when being drilled couldn’t be learned from books.

After doing all these, Zhang Tie broke a dried and rotten wood by a piece of stone and ground them into wood bits. After that, he went to the bank of the brook and picked two brown stones. After rubbing them with each other, he saw sparkles. Therefore, he was sure that the two pieces of stones contained a high content of sulfur. He then rubbed a part of one piece of stone into pieces and put some particles of the stone into the concaved part of a rotten wood plus some wood bits. After that, Zhang Tie started to drill the wood for fire using a wooden club.

Those particles of the stone which contained a high content of sulfur could increase the friction force between the wooden club and the dried wood so that those wood bits could be lit at a faster speed.

If he used his battle qi or ability as a knight, Zhang Tie could easily make all these; however, by doing all these with the ability of a common craftsman apprentice, he could gain different achievements and pleasures.

Only after a few minutes, the wooden base had started to smoke while those fine wood bits started to turn red and burn up. Zhang Tie then added more fine wood bits and woods on it. After a short while, the fire had flared up.

After moving the fire into the brick kiln, Zhang Tie added some woods inside. After having the blaze under control, Zhang Tie ran to the bank of the brook and dug another big pit where he started to make mud once again.

The content of water was an important factor in making mud. If too much water was used, the mud would be too diluted and could barely be shaped; if too less water was used, the mud would not be too glutinous and would easily crack up when heated. Besides, in the process of making mud, the mud should be sticky in a balanced and fine way. No single particle or bubble was allowed. Most importantly, also the last step, he should fix the size of the bricks according to the property of the mud. The size of a brick was in correspondence with the property of mud, which determined the degree of fire-resistance and durability of the refractory bricks. If the size of bricks couldn’t match the property of the mud, the bricks would face problems. Although it seemed to be a coarse job, it also contained fine knowledge.

After making mud well, Zhang Tie fetched some wood blocks and two pieces of stones as he made a simple manual brick making tool using them. After stabbing this tool into the well-made mud, Zhang Tie moved some mud out of there. After that, he spread it over the flat stone and made a relatively regular rectangular mud brick.

When he was making mud, he kept making tens of thousands of bricks.

When the former mud bricks were dry, Zhang Tie placed those bricks into the kiln and started to bake them.

Whatsoever, Zhang Tie would not feel hungry or thirsty inside the tower of time; therofore, he was just preoccupied in it and almost forgot about time…

After baking bricks, he built the first coke oven using the first batch of well-baked refractory bricks.

After building the coke oven, Zhang Tie went for coal and used coal as coke.

Zhang Tie kept working as follows:

Baking bricks; making coke; making a simple blower device; digging iron ores by simple tools; building a smelting furnace using the well-made refractory bricks and glutinous soil; putting in coke and iron ores…

When Zhang Tie saw red liquefied iron flowing out of the smelting furnace, he almost dropped tears. It was really not easy for one to start an undertaking from scratch.

At the sight of the liquefied iron, Zhang Tie hurriedly led the liquefied iron into a simply baked sand mold which was made of glutinous soil and sand from the brook.

Zhang Tie made over 30 molds in total. After pouring liquefied iron into these molds, Zhang Tie got the first batch of iron tools only after having the liquefied iron to cool down in the molds and simply dealing with them. With this batch of iron tools, Zhang Tie could raise his productive efficiency by many times and do a lot of things. Later on, Zhang Tie could produce steel in this wilderness through various methods that he had grasped such as bloomery steelmaking method, steel frying method, perfusing steelmaking method, raw and cooked steelmaking method, crucible steelmaking method, converter steelmaking method, open-hearth steelmaking method, one-step steelmaking method and runes steelmaking method…

With steel, he would make more tools easily such as a steam engine…

This process was fundamental for craftsman apprentice which was the preliminary step for rune instrument manufacturing masters.

After trying it from scratch, Zhang Tie indeed gained a lot.

After those molds cooled down, Zhang Tie dealt with over 30 iron tools using the sands and rocks alongside the brook. Watching these iron tools, Zhang Tie finally let out a deep sigh satisfactorily.

After picking a complex iron chisel that was used to process wood, Zhang Tie flipped it, causing a melodious metallic sound. Zhang Tie then nodded. The quality of iron varied due to its maker. Although Zhang Tie’s iron making equipment was the simplest, he used the skill of steel frying method as he lowered the content of carbon in pig iron to a certain degree. Therefore, although these tools were ironwares, their quality was absolutely much better than ordinary iron tools. Actually, they looked more like steelwares.

‘After coming out of here, I would not be doubted by people anymore after exposing my identity as a rune instrument manufacturing master to the public.’

Zhang Tie thought as he put down the tool satisfactorily. Previously, if he revealed his identity as a rune instrument manufacturing master, he might be doubted and treated as a weirdo. From then on, he would not worry about that. ‘My skills as rune instrument manufacturing master come from the tower of time. I don’t know about plundering fruits at all. I will see who can say no to me. The fact that I could meet another tower of time only indicates that I have great moral standing. Goodness will always have a good reward, admire me or not…’

“Hahahaha…” Zhang Tie burst out into laughter. After that, he stroked his face as he muttered, “I wonder whether that woman has healed her wound or not? I should at least show my solicitude to her. It seems that I’ve been in this region for 15 days…”

In the blink of an eye, Zhang Tie had stayed in the rune instrument manufacturing skill promotion region for 15 days, during which period, Zhang Tie made his first batch of iron tools from scratch. Not until then did he feel a bit fatigued.

Even knights had to sleep in the tower of time; otherwise, it would violate the universal laws of the existence of living beings. Although Zhang Tie was energetic, he would also feel fatigued.

After cleansing his face, Zhang Tie exited the huge crystal Mongolian yurt.

The moment he walked out of the crystal Mongolian yurt, he had moved his eyes onto that high platform.

Yan Feiqing was not cultivating there; otherwise, he would sense evident elements response over there. Therefore, Zhang Tie walked towards her crystal bed.

Soon after he made a detour around that cultivation platform, Zhang Tie had already caught sight of Yan Feiqing…

Zhang Tie was startled so much that he instantly accelerated more than 100 times and arrived at the bedside in the blink of an eye.

Yan Feiqing was not sitting on the bed; instead, she was lying there with eyes closed and messy hair. There was a puddle of blood on the bed, which was flowing out of Yan Feiqing’s left wrist. Additionally, Yan Feiqing was holding her bun by her right hand. The wound on her left wrist might be caused by Yan Feiqing herself. Zhang Tie wondered why this woman would try to commit suicide in this way…

Zhang Tie hurriedly checked it. There was still fresh blood on her bun; additionally, her wound was still gurgling blood. All these indicated that Yan Feiqing had just tried to commit suicide…

Zhang Tie instantly tore off one sleeve and split it into strips. Closely after that, he started to dress the wound of Yan Feiqing.

When he prepared to dress the wound, he cleaned the blood stains and found that there was more than one wound on her left wrist. Zhang Tie then knew that it was definitely not her first time to try committing suicide these days.

‘Is she crazy?’ Zhang Tie wondered.

Yan Feiqing was cold all over. Strangely, the moment Zhang Tie took her hand and touched her body, Yan Feiqing’s body had started to turn as hot as a kettle of boiling water…

When Zhang Tie helped her bind up her wound, Yan Feiqing, being in a coma, uttered a low groan. Closely after that, she opened her eyes. When she saw Zhang Tie tearing off his sleeve and helping her bind up her wound, she roared with quivering and faint voice, “Piss…piss…off…” while a struggling eye light flashed across her face unconsciously.

“Ahh, my lady, don’t do that. Even if I know that you and that dead guy outside there have any emotional collisions, you don’t need to do that. Don’t choose to die here for love. As we’re alone here, if you really died here, the others would doubt that it’s me who killed you. I can’t stand a woman seeking for death in front of me…” Zhang Tie said as he kept bindng up her wounds while lowering his head. Honestly, as Zhang Tie had a self-healing body, he did not excel in dealing with wounds; especially that there was more than 1 wound on her wrist. “As you’ve not healed your wounds, if you need any help, just let me know. No matter what, I will always be a good man here. By the way, I’ve got some vials of medicaments…”

“Let…let go of my hand…don’t touch me…” Yan Feiqing’s face had turned red only after a few seconds while panting. At the same time, she wanted to draw her hand out of Zhang Tie’s grasp. However, even being a shadow knight, she still couldn’t match Zhang Tie in strength. Zhang Tie just held her wrist steadily and kept binding up her wounds.

“Don’t move. It will be okay soon. I’m not used to that. Yi, why are you turning so warm? You were cold just now…”

Zhang Tie just felt that Yan Feiqing’s current state and voice were a bit strange; however, he didn’t think about it too much.

At this moment, Yan Feiqing slapped towards Zhang Tie’s shoulder by another hand. Zhang Tie had not imagined that this woman could attack him in this case. As they were close to each other, he directly fell down…

Due to her wounds, her palm couldn’t be as powerful as that of a shadow knight. Plus Zhang Tie’s great strike-resistant ability, he only felt a bit pain; instead of being injured.

As Zhang Tie was holding her wrist by one hand, he directly drew Yan Feiqing off the crystal bed. With the inertia of her palm, Yan Feiqing directly rolled into Zhang Tie’s chest…

Before feeling any pain, Zhang Tie had felt soft in his chest while Yan Feiqing’s face almost touched his. At the same time, he tightly held a plump, soft thing coincidentally while supporting Yan Feiqing’s waist by another hand…

Zhang Tie was almost driven mad. However, after feeling the plump and soft thing, he clenched it habitually. That was absolutely a conditioned reflex that Zhang Tie had formed when he stayed with his wives.

The moment Zhang Tie moved, he had heard a pant. He was so scared that he immediately loosened his grip. At the same time, he apologized, “Ahh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it…”

Zhang Tie wanted to turn around and explain it to Yan Feiqing. Coincidentally, Yan Feiqing was also turning around her face. As a result, their lips encountered in the air…

Nose to nose, eyes to eyes and mouth to mouth…

Zhang Tie widely opened his eyes in a daze as if he had been struck by a lightning bolt…

‘I’m dead; I’m dead. I’ve touched her before and now kissed her. Will this woman kill me?’

When he thought about Yan Feiqing’s stubborn temperament and her comment about him when she saw him for the first time, Zhang Tie’s heart kept pounding as he just prayed for Yan Feiqing to not lose her temper; otherwise, it would be a tough way to go in this tower.

Whereas, Zhang Tie didn’t know that this kiss was the last match that would ignite a powder cask.

When Zhang Tie was dumbfounded and thought that Yan Feiqing was going to kill him, Yan Feiqing moved. In a split second, she had embraced Zhang Tie tightly as she started to kiss him forcefully…